Various: AEW Full Gear 2021 Location Revealed, More on Ric Flair Fallout, Tetsuya Naito Injury

AEW Full Gear 2021 Reportedly Taking Place in Minnesota

As noted before, AEW recently changed the date of this year’s Full Gear 2021 event from its originally planned date of November 6th to a new date of November 13th due to sports-related competition issues. Besides the date change, AEW is currently rumored to be moving the event from its originally planned location of St. Louis, Missouri to a new location in Minnesota.

Fightful Select reported that their sources within AEW stated that the company is currently planning to hold this year’s Full Gear event in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was reported that the host venue for this upcoming event is currently not known.

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More on Ric Flair Fallout from Dark Side of the Ring’s Plane Ride From Hell Episode

This past Thursday’s episode of Dark Side of the Ring featured the infamous WWF “Plane Ride from Hell” incident from May of 2002. Following the episode, both Tommy Dreamer and Ric Flair dealt with serious backlash over their actions with Flair’s controversy revolving around his sexual harassment incident during the flight. Among the backlash towards Flair included CarShield pausing their ad campaign featuring Flair, WWE removing Flair from their “Now, Then, Forever” intro signature, and NBC pulling an episode of WWE Story Time that featured Flair talking about exposing himself to flight attendants.

In regards to WWE, PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the company recently pulled all of their Flair-related merchandise from their online store.

Johnson also reported that Scout Comics recently removed all references to Flair at their booth for next month’s New York ComicCon event. Flair had been scheduled to make an appearance for the launch of a new comic book during the event.

In regards to CarShield, the company recently resumed their ad campaign featuring Flair with one ad airing during this past Monday’s episode of WWE RAW.

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Tetsuya Naito Suffers Injury, Pulled from NJPW’s G1 Climax 2021 Tournament

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that they have pulled Tetsuya Naito from the remainder of their on-going G1 Climax 2021 tournament due to him recently suffering a serious injury.

NJPW stated that Naito suffered a serious MCL injury to his left knee during his match against Zack Sabre Jr. this past Saturday. As a result of his injury, NJPW also stated that Naito has forfeited all of his remaining tournament matches and all of his opponents to be awarded an automatic two points each.

Official press release:

During his G1 Climax 31 opening match on September 18 in Osaka, Tetsuya Naito suffered an injury to his left knee.

Damage was incurred to his left meniscus and MCL. Naito is unable to compete on the remainder of the G1 Climax tour, and does not currently have a timetable for return. All his remaining tournament matches will be counted as losses via forfeit, with opponents gaining an automatic two points.

Naito’s remaining opponents will instead be competing in special singles matches, with card changes outlined below.

We apologise to fans who were looking forward to seeing Naito wrestle. We appreciate your understanding and support, and wish Naito the best in his recovery.

September 23: G1 Climax 31 Night 3, Ota-ku
3rd Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Tanga Loa
1st Match: Yuji Nagata vs Tanga Loa

September 26: G1 Climax 31 Night 5, Kobe
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Shingo Takagi
2nd Match: Yuji Nagata vs Shingo Takagi

September 30: G1 Climax 31 Night 7, Korakuen Hall
4th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Yujiro Takahashi
1st Match: BUSHI vs Yujiro Takahashi

October 3: G1 Climax 31 Night 9, Nagoya
4th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Toru Yano
2nd Match: BUSHI vs Toru Yano

October 7: G1 Climax 31 Night 11, Hiroshima
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs KENTA
2nd Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs KENTA

October 9: G1 Climax 31 Night 13, Osaka
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Tomohiro Ishii
2nd Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs Tomohiro Ishii

October 13: G1 Climax 31 Night 15, Sendai
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi
2nd Match: Satoshi Kojima vs Kota Ibushi

October 18: G1 Climax Night 17, Yokohama
 Tetsuya Naito vs Great-O-Khan
Satoshi Kojima vs Great-O-Khan