Wow, perhaps Im dumb, but the esc and motor seem more than fine. Only thing is the battery is getting way hot. Try a 2s lipo and see how that works out for you. The 7700 is going to require some pretty high current that those nimh aren't providing, thus cooking your battsery. The ESC and motor seem really cool to me considering the gearing and the battery. If you really do want to keep using that battery, then yeah, try gearing it down some more. I'm surprised at everybody's responses. Keep your start power to high, disable punch control, and set motor timing to the lowest setting, you should be golden.