Full Gear (2021)
The 2021 Full Gear was the third annual Full Gear professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on November 13, 2021, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event aired on traditional PPV outlets, as well as on B/R Live in North America and FITE TV internationally. Ten matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, "Hangman" Adam Page defeated Kenny Omega to win the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, CM Punk defeated Eddie  Kingston, Bryan Danielson defeated Miro by technical submission in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match, and in the opening bout, MJF defeated Darby Allin. The event also saw the AEW debut of Jay Lethal. This event marked the final PPV appearance of Cody Rhodes, who founded AEW in 2019 and left the company three months later. The event was highly praised by fans and critics, with praise being particularly focused on the main event match between Page and Omega. Production. Background. Full Gear is a pay-per-view (PPV) held annually around Veterans Day by All Elite Wrestling  (AEW) since 2019. It is one of AEW's "Big Four" PPVs, which includes Double or Nothing, All Out, and Revolution, their four biggest shows produced quarterly. The 2021 event was the third event in the Full Gear chronology. It was originally scheduled to be held on November 6, 2021, at the Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri. However, during All Out on September 5, it was announced that the event would instead take place on November 13, but with no reference to a location. It was reported that the event was pushed back a week to avoid competition with  UFC 268 and the Canelo Álvarez vs. Caleb Plant boxing match. On September 27, it was announced that the event had been relocated to the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Storylines. Full Gear featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly television programs, "Dynamite" and "Rampage", the supplementary online streaming shows, "Dark" and "", and The Young Bucks' YouTube series "Being The Elite". In October  2018, prior to the formation of AEW, Adam Page joined his friends Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), forming a group known as The Elite. In January 2020, Page and Omega won the AEW World Tag Team Championship, but lost it later that year. Signs of dissent occurred during this title reign, and after more months of tension within the group, Page was removed from The Elite by The Young Bucks on the August 27, 2020, episode of "Dynamite", after Page had prevented them from winning a match. At the 2020 Full Gear event on  November 7, Page faced Omega in the finals of a tournament to determine the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, with Omega winning. Omega would later go on to win the championship. Nearly a year later, on the October 6, 2021, episode of "Dynamite", Page, won the Casino Ladder Match to become the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, still held by Omega. On October 16, the championship match was scheduled for Full Gear. On October 8, AEW announced the return of the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament; an eight-man single-elimination tournament culminating at  Full Gear with the winner receiving a future AEW World Championship match. On the October 16 episode of "Dynamite", Bryan Danielson, Orange Cassidy, Preston "10" Vance, Lance Archer, Jon Moxley, Eddie Kingston, Dustin Rhodes, and Powerhouse Hobbs were revealed as the participants. However, on November 2, Moxley was removed from the tournament after he entered a rehabilitation program for alcohol addiction, and was replaced by Miro. After losing to Bryan Danielson on the October 29 episode of "Rampage", an enraged Eddie Kingston confronted CM Punk while he was being interviewed backstage. On the following episode of "Rampage", Kingston stated that  although Punk had used to be a "hero" of his, he accused him of becoming "two-faced" and "narcissistic", with Punk responding that Kingston was a "bum". Kingston challenged Punk to a match at Full Gear, which was later confirmed. Reception. Full Gear received widespread critical acclaim from critics. Writing for "Sports Illustrated", Justin Barrasso enjoyed the event and thought there was "a lot to like". Barrasso thought the MJF-Darby Allin opening match was "phenomenal" and the "match of the night". Barrasso also wrote that the Page-Omega main event was "captivating", the CM Punk-Kingston match was "short  but dramatic", and the Lucha Brothers-FTR tag team championship match was "outstanding". Brent Brookhouse of "CBSSports.com" thought Full Gear was "incredible" and considered it to be "one of the best events in the young history of the promotion". The main event match was "fantastic", MJF-Allin was a "thriller", Lucha Brothers-FTR was "great", Danielson-Miro was "really good", and CM Punk-Kingston was "a wonderfully told story". He gave minor criticism to the Pac-Rhodes vs. Black-Andrade tag team match, which "wasn't up to the standards of the rest of the show", and The Inner Circle -American Top Team match, which was a "difficult match to rate". Sports journalist Dave Meltzer for the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" assigned star ratings to the event, with the main event receiving a 5 rating, making it the tenth AEW match to be rated 5 stars or more by Meltzer, and the fifth to surpass his 5 star rating scale. The falls count anywhere match between Christian Cage and Jurassic Express and The Superkliq was also rated 5 stars, making Full Gear the only AEW event to feature more than one match to attain 5 star rating from Meltzer. Elsewhere on  the card, MJF-Allin, CM Punk-Kingston, and Danielson-Miro all received a 4 star rating. The lowest rated match of the night was Baker-Conti, which was allocated 3 stars. Brandon Thurston of "Wrestlenomics" approximated that Full Gear had received 145,000 pay-per-view buys and had sold 10,442 tickets, generating an estimated $4 million of revenue in total.