I really thought Full Gear 2021 was an excellent show all around, so it was tough to find anything to hate about it. One thing that did irk me, however, was the finish to the AEW World Tag Team Championship match, pitting the champs, the Lucha Brothers, against FTR. While I’m not necessarily a big fan of Dax Hardwood and Cash Wheeler, I thought they worked really well with Rey Fenix and Penta here. The ending, however, didn’t scream “AEW” to me, especially back in the earlier days of the company when they were trying to really differentiate themselves from WWE, and I was honestly kind of surprised by it.

Before the Full Gear match, the Lucha Bros lost their AAA World Tag Team Championships to FTR, after the men challenged them, working behind masks as Las Super Ranas, after Andrade El Idolo introduced them on an episode of “Dynamite.” The Las Super Ranas gimmick came into play at the end of this match, and I was glad I had looked up what was going on around this time, as I had yet to get into AEW fully back in 2021. I really would have been confused when Wheeler pulled out a mask at the end.

The match, which featured a lot of tribute to Eddie Guerrero around the anniversary of his passing, which I really appreciated, was fast-paced and hard-hitting, and I love watching Fenix and Penta work together. Wheeler tied Penta’s mask to the bottom rope at one point, which made sense as a heel tactic, and at another, he held up the AAA tag team belt for Fenix to run right for Harwood to attempt to get the pin after a Brainbuster. In the end, it was Wheeler to attempt to disguise himself with the mask to switch places with his legal teammate who was worn out, which to me, seemed really hokey and silly. Sure, Wheeler and Hardwood look similar, but not that similar, as Wheeler has identifiable tattoos. You’d think veteran referee Rick Knox would be smart enough not to fall for it. The Lucha Bros still ended up getting the victory, but, they pinned the illegal man.

The rest of the show was excellent, from the Falls Count Anywhere match, to the CM Punk versus Samoa Joe slugfest, so the finish of this match was what stuck out to me as not-so-great on this pay-per-view. Of course, the finish played further into the storyline of FTR versus the Lucha Bros to keep things going on later episodes of “Dynamite,” but when you’re just chosing this show to watch for fun and haven’t seen any of the other story around it, it doesn’t work well.

Written by Daisy Ruth