17/11/23 – Kia Forum, Los Angeles, CA
Commentary – Tony Schiavone, Nigel McGuiness, Kevin Kelly.
Tony Schivone starts the show with an in ring interview with Christian Cage who is accompanied to ring by Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne.
Christian guaranteed he will retire Sting and it will be his last match at Full Gear, he questioned Sting being an icon and said he has been stealing a paycheck for the last 15 years.
Christian asked Tony if Ric Flair will be at ring side? Tony confirmed he would. Christian compared Flair to the crypt keeper from the Tales From The Crypt horror series and said if Flair got in his business it will be a come to Jesus moment for him.
Christian addressed Adam Copeland and said that his wife Beth should take the girls and keep them up late to watch the match, he guaranteed he was going to break his Adam’s neck.
Christian with another great promo here, he continues to be the best thing on AEW programming.
Lexi interviews Big Bill and Ricky Starks.
Big Bill seems to have grown in confidence every week since winning the tag titles with Starks. He talks with swagger and seems very comfortable in his current role.
Starks said he talked to Tony Kahn and he has had their match at Full Gear made into a Ladder match.
Singles Match
Miro vs Daniel Garcia
Garcia made this mistake of dancing at Miros wife CJ Perry last week, so this match stemmed out of the Garcia vs Andrade who Miro also has an issue with.
Garcia was out muscled in this one, he tried a few moves but always got flung around by the powerful Miro.
Garcia tried to take out Miro’s legs to gain an advantage which seemed to be working. He tried to get Miro on his back by running off the ropes and hitting Miro with his knees, he went to the well too many times and got kicked in the face.
Garcia fought back and nailed a back suplex on Miro, he was going to do his dance but was interrupted by Matt Menard.
Garcia had Miro in a leg lock submission but managed to get out of the hold. Both men got to their feet, Miro hit a sidekick that put Garcia back to the floor, Miro locked in the Camel clutch submission and tapped Garcia out.
Lexi backstage interview with Andrade and CJ Perry. CJ Perry said that she spoke to Tony Kahn and got Andrade in the Continental Classic Tournament and negotiated more money for Andrade.
Andrade seemed surprised, CJ whispered in his ear and he agreed with her judgement.
Tag Team Match
Kings Of The Black Throne (Alastair Black, Brodie King) vs The Boys
The Boys were already in the ring after The Kings came to the ring, this was The Kings first match and they will be challenging for the Tag Titles at Full Gear which hasn’t had much build.
The Kings destroyed The Boys in quick fashion in this get over match. A short package of Julia Heart played after the match with her feud with Kris Statlander and Skye Blue.
No. 1 Contenders match for the AEW TNT Title
Trent Beretta vs Brian Cage with Prince Nana vs Kommander vs Penta El Zero Meido
Brian Cage was kind of the odd man out in this one with 3 guys who are known high flyers although Cage has been known to do the odd spot here and there.
The three smaller guys found themselves working together to take Cage down. Penta took Cage out of the match by diving over the top rope to the outside and knocking Cage over like a bowling pin, meanwhile in the ring Beretta reversed Kommander’s move into his Strike Zero finisher and picked up the win to face Christian Cage on Rampage.
Lexi Backstage with Don Callis and Powerhouse Hobbs. Callis and Hobbs were bragging about taking Paul Wight out by slamming him on a car on Dynamite. They warned Wight to stay away.
Singles Match
Wardlow vs Evan Daniels
Another squash match for Wardlow who Powerbombed the crap out of this poor kid.
Singles Match
Dax Harwood vs Rush
Big Bill and Ricky Starks join the Commentary team. Rush and Dax chopped the hell out of each other in this one. They took it to the outside with Dax getting thrown end to end of all four corners of the safety rail.
Back in the ring it was more big chops on each man with Dax now having a bloodied chest from the punishment.
Rush has such a mean steak in his attack, he showboated in this match and looked pleased with himself for making Dax bleed.
Rush tried to superplex Dax several times but was chopped off the top by Dax, Rush was persistent and eventually superplexed Dax.
Both men began to chop each other again to the point where both collapsed to the ground from the onslaught.
Rush confronted Ricky Starks at the commentary booth and pushed his face, Starks remained calm.
Rush was about to nail Dax with his finisher but got speared by Starks making this one a no contest.
After the bell, all those involved in the match at Full Gear being House of Black, FTR, Big Bill, LFI brawled all over the ring and outside.
Lexi backstage interview with Action Andretti. The Kingdom and Roderick Strong interrupted the interview with Strong proclaiming that Andretti will be his next victim.
Singles Match
Buddy Matthews vs Wheeler Yuta
I haven’t seen Buddy Matthews a hell of a lot on AEW programming as of late.
Matthews was so jacked and it made Yuta look small and scrawny to the point where it seemed a little unrealistic.
Buddy threw Yuta off the ring apron onto to the announcers table were Yuta scraped to get back in the ring.
Yuta made a comeback with multiple forearms which Buddy took but couldn’t knock him down.
I feel Buddy took way too much offense in this match. The crowd were chanting “Yuta Sucks” There is something with the way Yuta is presented that unlikable, it’s almost like he trying too hard to be a tough guy.
Finally Buddy hit the curb stomp on Yuta and picked up the win, im glad he did, I feel he needed this.
Buddy grabbed a steel chair to perhaps inflict more damage on Yuta but was stopped by Claudio Castagnoli who ran to the ring to aid his black pool combat club member.
Claudio challenged Buddy to a match at Full Gear which was accepted with a nod.
A package showing the feud between Jon Moxley and Orange Cassidy was next hyping their match at Full Gear.
Tag Team Match
Ruby Soho and Saraya “The Outcasts” vs Kris Statlander and Hikuru Shida
I can’t help but feel Saraya’s stock has significantly dropped as of late, after winning the Women’s Title at Wembley Stadium to quickly losing it after to Shida, she hasn’t had anything really to do on AEW programming.
I didn’t really understand the purpose of this match, none of these women are feuding or having a match in any form at tomorrow nights Full Gear PPV.
Angelo Parker was seen ringside watching the match cheering on Soho as well as Julia Heart looking at the match backstage.
This match was competitive and hard hitting but it just went on way too long and with no stakes it felt drawn out.
We got some story at the end with Angelo Parker on the outside helping Soho, Saraya looked at this disapprovingly, Statlander clotheslined Angelo Parker to the ground, Saraya got a Katana Kick from Shida as she turned around and got pinned.
I said Saraya’s stock has dropped and this eating another win like this isn’t doing her any good.
MJF sit down interview with Tony Schiavone.
MJF says he is going to whatever it takes to retain both of his titles tomorrow night at Full Gear.
He fancies his odds of beating Jay White at Full Gear.
Apart from Rampage being directly after this broadcast, this was the go home show and if you were on the fence about ordering the PPV I don’t think there was much here to sway you if you were undecided, especially the “Main Event” which did nothing to build the Full Gear PPV.
