10 Ups & 1 Down From AEW Full Gear 2021

2. Dan Lambert Gets His (Even If It Takes A While)

ATT Inner Circle
AEW

It really didn't need to go 20 minutes.

The live crowd ate it up, so there's that, but this sort of duration is only ever required by master craftsmen with an intricate story to tell. This wasn't an intricate story. It was a daft plunder f*ck-about that built towards a comedy midcard heel getting his comeuppance. It was uneven and shoddy at times, but presenting barely-trained MMA guys in a context that is clunky in itself really wasn't the disaster it should have been. Elements of the Minneapolis Street Fight were massively entertaining and it was helped immeasurably as a wrestling match that Santana and Ortiz were on such tremendous form. This was their best performance of 2019.

It was so fun and knowingly dumb that it was almost impervious to what little was actually bad. Yes, Junior Dos Santos botched his timing really badly on one occasion, but the fans didn't really care. This was a match in which a toaster was used as a weapon, amongst countless others. It was held to a certain standard. The weapons ranged from silly to painful, the set-piece stunts from nostalgic to deranged. It was almost deliberately uneven in order to engineer a sense of lively, broad chaos.

Once and never again-type stuff that raised more smiles than looks at the stopwatch.

Just.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!