The Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey is the host for the latest edition of AEW’s annual Full Gear pay-per-view extravaganza. Well over 10,000 fans are in attendance, and in typical fashion, those fans are already loud and rowdy before the main show gets underway.
There are nine matches on the card, with five total championships on the line. As always, my hopes and expectations are high for an AEW pay-per-view, so I’m ready to have some fun.
Let’s do this.
They did it again, folks. The Trios Match for the CMLL World Trios Titles (champions Mistico, Neon, and Mascara Dorada defending against Konosuke Takeshita, Kazuchika Okada, and Hechicero) from the pre-show has carried over to the main show, and the match is happening as Full Gear officially begins.
You’d think I would’ve learned my lesson after what happened last month at WrestleDream, but once again, I wasn’t watching the pre-show here. I have no idea how long this match has been going on.
Commentary mentioned that Mistico suffered an injury earlier on, so he wasn’t out there as the show went on the air. Neither was Okada, who arrived to the arena in his McLaren during the middle of the match, hilariously stepping out of the car in his full wrestling gear. Okada makes his way to the ring, joined soon thereafter by Mistico, who is making his heroic return. Okay then.
The drama between Okada and Takeshita continues. They’re arguing left and right, and just now, Okada went to hit Rainmaker, only to accidentally hit Takeshita with it. Of course, Okada had a huge smile on his face after he did it. Protect that man at all costs.
After a few minutes of action, Mistico gets Hechicero to tap out, and the champions retain their titles. Again, I didn’t catch the pre-show, so whatever action took place there was missed. Because of that, I won’t grade the match, but it was a fun few minutes that I got to watch, filled with plenty of high flying action and the aforementioned Don Callis Family drama.
Darby Allin vs Pac
After a WrestleDream event that saw zero such matches, we’re about to get a straight up singles match on AEW pay-per-view with no titles on the line and no stipulations attached.
The story early on is what Darby went through just ten days ago at Blood & Guts. Excalibur mentions that Darby suffered second-degree burns in multiple places, as well as “injuries,” because of what he went through in the match. Now he gets to step in the ring with a complete psychopath that is looking to hurt him even more.
Pac played to the crowd for some heel heat, and you could literally hear one singular child yelling “BOOOO” and nothing else. Ouch. Pac takes it out on Darby by pressing him over his head on the ring apron, and then slamming him down at ringside. Again… ouch.
Pac takes all of Darby’s gauze off, and then starts violently rubbing at his burns, running his fingernails over them. This leads the crowd to chant “you sick fuck,” and I think I have to agree.
Now we’re getting “you can’t kill him” chants. Please don’t challenge Pac, folks. He’ll give it a shot.
This has been a weird crowd so far. They’ve had a couple chants, and they pop for the big spots, but otherwise, they’re pretty quiet. I don’t know if they’re just waiting for Darby’s latest near-death experience, but I expected more. As soon as I finish that sentence, we get a “this is awesome” chant.
Darby locks Pac in the Scorpion Deathlock, but Pac is frantically motioning for someone. Suddenly, Wheeler Yuta appears at ringside, and he distracts everyone just long enough for Pac to grab Sting’s baseball bat and hit Darby with it. One, two, three, and Pac picks up the victory.
It was a fun match that told a simple, yet effective, story. Darby is battered, bruised, and burned, but he continues fighting back, no matter what. Pac, on the other hand, is more than happy to deliver as much pain and suffering as Darby wants to deal with. 3.5 Stars
Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron vs Julia Hart & Skye Blue vs “Timeless” Toni Storm & Mina Shirakawa vs Megan Bayne & Marina Shafir – Four-Way Match where the winning team chooses the stipulation for their semifinal match in the AEW Women’s Tag Team Title tournament
That was a lot to type.
This match features a whopping TWO tag teams that feature the partners dancing together during their entrance. That isn’t an important fact, but it’s a fact nonetheless.
The crowd’s lack of noise has carried over here, as well. After a few minutes, they finally did come to life, though. What did it take? Willow getting tagged in. The crowd loves them some Willow. Makes sense, but especially so here, as she was born and raised about 20 miles away from the venue.
There is a very small group of fans that keep chanting “we want Toni” during the match. I’ve heard them on four or five different occasions so far, but it’s very clearly no more than four or five guys doing the chant. That’s what I mean about how quiet this crowd has been. I shouldn’t be able to hear a chant that small, let alone hearing it again and again.
Toni gets a Small Package on Harley to pick up the pin and the win. Toni and Mina will now get to pick the stipulation for their match against Bayne and Shafir in the Women’s Tag Team Title Tournament. This was a good match, although it never came close to approaching the next level. All eight women worked hard, and they all had a chance to shine at some point, but this isn’t anything you’ll remember moving forward. 3 Stars
Brodido vs FTR – AEW Tag Team Title Match
I hope I’m not jinxing it, but the crowd seemed louder for the entrances here. FTR got some good heel heat, while the crowd went wild for Brodido.
I love the clash of styles that we’re getting here. The champions alone are so different, but pairing them with FTR, who are almost polar opposites of Brody and Bandido, should make for some exciting stuff.
As the crowd chants about Stokely Hathaway not having any hoes (poor guy), Nigel McGuinness hilariously says that he hears there are plenty of them in New Jersey. There’s a couple seconds of silence on commentary after he says that, followed by a chuckle from Nigel himself, so I can only imagine that Tony Schiavone and Excalibur are losing their minds right now.
This has been very well put together so far. If you want power offense, Brody has had multiple chances to look like a monster. You want lighting quick offense? Bandido has flown all over the place. Do you prefer some old school technical tag work? FTR has you covered in spades. It’s back and forth, forth and back, and everyone is looking great already.
We’re witnessing something special. No surprise, considering who is involved. We’ve reached the part of the match where both teams are dropping bombs, hitting their opponents with everything they’ve got, only for it not to be enough to get the win. There have been approximately 1,153 2.999 counts in the last few minutes. The latest one has brought the crowd to their feet, and they’re giving a loud standing ovation.
It didn’t last long, though. With Brody at ringside after taking a Spike Piledriver on the ring apron, Bandido eats a Shatter Machine, and we have brand new AEW Tag Team Champions. FTR are three-time champions, tying The Young Bucks for the most reigns in company history. No other tag team has even won the titles twice.
Great, great stuff here. I loved every second of it, and even though I’m sad to see Brodido lose the titles, there’s definitely more that can happen with them in the future if that’s the direction that AEW wants to go in. 4.5 Stars
Casino Gauntlet Match for the AEW National Title
No, AEW didn’t need another title. Yes, AEW has another title.
As revealed on television recently, Bobby Lashley is the first entrant, while Shelton Benjamin is the second entrant. That means we’re getting a singles match between the two to start things off here, with an unknown number of competitors at random intervals still to come.
Ricochet is the next entrant, and he has a microphone for his entrance. Why do I have to suffer? Ricochet distracts Lashley and Shelton, allowing for Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun to enter the ring and attack Lashley and Shelton while Ricochet attacks MVP at ringside.
Like a fucking moron, Ricochet doesn’t go for the pin on either of his fallen opponents, instead choosing to breakdance in the ring. Real criminal mastermind, that guy. He could’ve ended the match early, but now, he has to just stand there in the ring like a dumbass while Claudio Castagnoli makes his way to the ring as the next entrant. Ricochet attempts a suicide dive, but Claudio nearly removes his head from his shoulders with a European Uppercut as Ricochet flies through the ropes. This just makes Ricochet, Kaun, and Liona look even dumber, especially now that AEW refs and officials have removed Kaun and Liona from ringside.
Daniel Garcia is the next entrant, and Ricochet is now beside himself. Welp. They’re really painting Ricochet out as the goof here, which only means one thing… he’s going to end up winning the match.
As the two Death Rider members beat the hell out of Ricochet, Orange Cassidy comes out as the next competitor.
OC goes to pin Ricochet, and Claudio grabs him by the back of his pants, lifting him in the air and holding him there with one hand. Claudio is an absolute freak of nature. I still remember getting a t-shirt thrown at me by Claudio during an episode of Raw where I sat in the front row. He fired the shirt from the opposite side of the ring, through the ropes, across the ringside area, over the guardrail, and it hit me square in the face. It felt like I got hit with a basketball to the nose, and it hurt for a few minutes.
Wheeler Yuta is the next entrant, and the Death Riders are looking dominant. Lashley and Shelton still haven’t been seen since they were attacked earlier.
Kevin Knight is next up, and he hits the ring with the energy of one hundred suns.
Roderick Strong is the next entrant, and he goes right after the Death Riders.
Mark Davis of The Don Callis Family is out next, and these random intervals are killing me. As soon as I get a thought in my head to type out, the countdown begins for the next entrant to come out.
Hey, I see Bobby Lashley! He’s still selling the attack, and he’s face-down near the announce table, but he is still there. I don’t know where Shelton is, though.
“Speedball” Mike Bailey is out next, and things have gotten pretty hectic.
Matt Menard is out next, and Daniel Garcia looks like he’s seen a ghost. For what? Nobody should react with fear when Matt Menard comes out. Disgust, yes. Fear, no.
I’m a huge college football fan. Hearing a wrestling title referred to as a “National Championship” is not sitting well with me. If anyone other than the Miami Hurricanes is winning the National Championship, I don’t want to hear about it.
Claudio and Mark Davis are about to have a showdown, but they’re joined by… Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin, who have returned to the ring.
Betcha by golly wow, I called it. Ricochet pins Kevin Knight to become the very first AEW National Champion. I don’t rate these types of matches, but there was a ton going on. Some of it was really good, and some of it was not as good, but there was always something taking place. No major returns or debuts for surprise entrants, which will upset some people, I’m sure.
Kyle O’Reilly vs Jon Moxley – No Holds Barred Match
Moxley’s entrance marks the fifth time we’ve heard the Death Riders entrance music so far on this show. If Mox wins here, we’ll probably hear it again, but thankfully, there aren’t any other matches on the show involving the group, so hopefully that’s it. Even if you like the song, that’s entirely too many times to hear one song on a single wrestling show.
Mox and KOR go back and forth with submission attempts, but it seems like Marina Shafir doesn’t think Mox is going to win that battle, because she hands a fork to Mox. That fork is then driven repeatedly into the forehead of O’Reilly, who comes up a bloody mess.
Mox, who always looks for new ways to gross people out, digs the fork into the nipple of KOR, seemingly trying to remove it from his body. My guy… what is wrong with you?!? Word to Gaylord Focker, I’m not really sure if KOR needs his nipples, but still… what is wrong with you?!?
After being sent into the turnbuckle, it appears that Moxley is now busted open, as well.
This match needed more blood. Thankfully, Kyle O’Reilly agrees, and he jams the fork into Moxley’s forehead repeatedly, and you can see the blood flowing from the wounds.
KOR gets a chain-assisted Ankle Lock on Mox, and Mox taps! Again! O’Reilly with one of the biggest wins of his entire career, and Mox has now tapped to him twice in the span of ten days. The match started off as more of a technical bout, and then devolved into the type of violence and gore you expect from Jon Moxley matches. 3.5 Stars. There wasn’t enough “meat” in between the violent spots for my liking, preventing me from rating it any higher.
Kyle Fletcher vs Mark Briscoe – No Disqualification Match for the AEW TNT Title (Briscoe must join the Don Callis Family if he loses)
Off-topic, but man, Bryan Danielson is absolutely fantastic on commentary. His mind for the business is so strong, and he does a perfect job of doing what a Color Commentator is supposed to do… explain WHY a wrestler is doing what they’re doing at any given time. Throw in his unique sense of humor, and you have constant entertainment in one form or another.
Oh, hey, more blood. Fletcher throws a ladder at Mark’s head like a javelin, and Mark comes up bleeding from the forehead. Mark has now been put through multiple ladders, as well. The ladders are clearly of the cheaper variety than the ones usually used in WWE, but they’re still ladders, and it can’t feel good to land on them.
Blood is leaking out of Briscoe’s head like a faucet, pooling on the mat below. If a Briscoe was bleeding in a match, you know it was going to be a gusher.
Now, Fletcher’s face is a bloody mess after having a ladder dropkicked into his skull. It might have behooved AEW to put some space between this match and the KOR vs Mox match, but hey, what do I know? To be fair, though, this is more of a “normal” match that just so happens to have two men bleeding, compared to the previous match, which was just trying to pack in as much violence as they could in 20 minutes.
I spoke too soon. It’s thumbtack time. Fletcher grabs a bucket and dumps a ton of tacks out on the mat. This isn’t going to go well.
Briscoe is the first to feel the tacks, taking a Superkick to the face after Fletcher put a handful of tacks in Mark’s mouth. Seconds later, though, Briscoe puts Fletcher on the tacks, and now, we have a table covered in barbed wire. Oh, boy.
Screwdriver to the forehead draws more blood from Briscoe, and Fletcher puts the icing on the cake by licking the end of the screwdriver clean and actually swallowing the blood.
Razor’s Edge through the barbed wire table, and then a Jay Driller, is enough to get the win for Mark Briscoe. We have a brand new AEW TNT Champion. That was certainly something. As I said, it was more of a “regular” match than the previous one, and it was less violent overall, but at the same time, I think this one went on too long. I’ll give it 3.75 Stars, because I do think it was better than O’Reilly vs Moxley, but I think those extra several minutes prevented it from reaching a higher score. Now, hopefully we can avoid the bloody spots for at least the rest of the show.
Kenny Omega & Jurassic Express vs The Young Bucks & Josh Alexander – $1,000,000 Trios Match
Why stop at a million? Let’s just keep going. The Bucks should lose here, then convince Tony Khan to make a match for two million. Then they should lose that and convince Tony Khan to make a match for five million. Eventually, they could get a match for 158 trillion and finally win, only to go broke again a few weeks later, restarting the entire cycle.
The Bucks clearly aren’t as broke as they claim to be. They keep wrestling in new gear and new sneakers. THE LIES.
If there’s one thing AEW truly excels at, it’s Trios matches. There are so many trios in the company, both of the regular and one-time varieties, and the matches feature ten bouts worth of spots with frantic pacing from start to finish. So far, this match has been no different.
Some will say it’s just selling, and others will say it’s the toll that the sport has taken on his 42-year-old body, but Kenny Omega is really working at a slower pace here. He’s a bit gimpy, and he’s moving slower than we know he’s capable of.
I don’t know how it happened, but Josh Alexander has come up with a bloody forehead, too. Bryan Danielson mentions it on commentary, and he says he doesn’t know how it happened, either, so it seems like something that happened on accident at some point.
After a final sequence that went at least 400 miles an hour, the Bucks hit Jack Perry with a BTE Trigger, and it gets the win for their team. The Young Bucks are rich once again.
After the match, Don Callis leads the Bucks away from the ring while the rest of the Don Callis Family attacks Kenny Omega. After a minute or two of deliberation, the Bucks throw their bags of money down on the stage and run back to the ring. Matt and Nick take the Callis Family out, then shake hands with Jurassic Express. Omega gets back to his feet and sees that it was the Bucks who saved him. The Bucks offer their hands for a handshake, but Omega slaps their hands away, only to bring them in for a hug instead. A face turn for the Bucks is official.
Unfortunately for the Bucks, Don Callis is in possession of their money, so… the saga continues, I guess. In a nice touch, the Bucks, Jurassic Express, and Omega get to the stage, and the Bucks go to walk through the “heel entrance” as they’ve done for so long, only to have it pointed out to them that they’re on the wrong side. They have a laugh, and they walk through the “face entrance” with Perry, Omega, and Luchasaurus.
While the match wasn’t a Match Of The Year candidate like some of the Trios bouts that the company delivers, it was still lots of fun, with plenty of things to enjoy. 4 Stars
Kris Statlander vs Mercedes Moné – AEW Women’s Title Match
It’s really funny that Mercedes keeps winning random titles from promotions around the world, causing her to need more and more men to participate in her entrances and hold the 129 belts she has.
LOL @ the fan holding a “One Trick Poné” sign in the front row. That’s pretty good. Kudos to that young lady.
Early on, the story being told here is an arm injury for Stat, which has slowed this match down to a near halt. This type of pacing is so different than what we usually get in AEW, so it really stands out when we see it.
Polite applause for Mercedes after she delivers her own take on Eddie Guerrero’s Three Amigos suplexes, instead hitting FOURTEEN consecutive suplexes, one for each title she owns and another for the title she’s trying to win here. That was impressive, but especially so when you consider Stat has Mercedes outweighed by something in the vicinity of 50 pounds.
The crowd is back to being quiet again. Lots of polite, respectable applause for big spots, but not much else. It’s the usual case for AEW pay-per-views where the crowd is red hot for a few matches in a row, only to tire themselves out and require a break for a match or two. Considering there’s only one match left on the card, AEW had better hope the break only lasts for one match.
After a very hard-fought match, Kris Statlander has won the match, successfully retaining her AEW Women’s Title. The pace was very slow at times, but that was really enjoyable. Mercedes really took the fight to the much bigger and stronger Stat, and the champion looked heroic for continuing to fight back, eventually getting the win. It wasn’t the type of match I was expecting it to be, but it was still something I really dug. It was cool to see the scenario where the larger champion is the “underdog” against the smaller challenger. 4 Stars
“Hangman” Adam Page vs Samoa Joe – Steel Cage Match for the AEW World Title
Main event time. Joe is making his entrance at one minute shy of the four-hour mark, making this yet another AEW pay-per-view that didn’t need to run so long. It’s only a nine match main show, but did nearly every match need to reach or exceed 20 minutes? You could’ve cut time from four or five different matches, or removed a couple altogether, for a better viewing experience.
We’re maybe two or three minutes in, and Samoa Joe is bloodied up after being driven into the steel. He is a complete mess, with blood pouring out of him.
A couple minutes later, Hangman is also bleeding after he took a turn tasting the steel. Here we go again.
Katsuyori Shibata makes his way to ringside, grabs the AEW World Title belt, then begins to scale the cage. He is interrupted by Eddie Kingston, who comes out to almost zero reaction (ouch), pulling him down. As Kingston and Shibata brawl, the ref is taken out. Powerhouse Hobbs comes out, literally rips the lock off of the cage door, then enters the cage. Hook is now out, trying to wake the ref up to make a count for Hangman, but it’s a SWERVE~! Hook grabs the AEW World Title, and he hits Hangman with it. It’s enough for Joe to get the pin and the win, and we have a brand new AEW World Champion. Wow. That was… not great. They both started bleeding right away, and it pretty much slowed the match to a stop. Joe has been pouring blood from the top of his head for at least 15 minutes now, so it makes sense that he isn’t exactly running all over the place, but there just wasn’t much to the match at all. I don’t know the exact time, but I think it ended up being the shortest match of the entire show. Lots of wasted potential here. 2.5 Stars
After the match, The Opps are celebrating in the ring when the lights in the arena go out. Suddenly, the spotlight shines on the stage, where Prince Nana is standing. He brings out the returning Swerve Strickland, who makes his way to the ring and singlehandedly takes out the entire Opps Dojo as The Opps members make their way up the ramp. Hangman finally gets back to his feet and he stands tall next to Swerve as we go off the air.
It is often said that a main event can make or break an entire show. You could have a really bad show, but if the main event is great, that’s what fans will remember. At the same time, a really good show can almost be derailed by a poor main event. I’m not sure if the main event here was bad enough to derail the entire show, but it was certainly enough to be remembered as something that was disappointing on so many levels. It’s yet another instance of a face making a Steel Cage stipulation to keep out a heel wrestler’s cronies, only for those heel cronies to find their way inside of the cage and cause all sorts of havoc and destruction. Now Hangman looks like a dope, on top of losing his title.
But hey, Swerve is back! Joe is back on top again!
Overall, I’m still giving the show a recommendation if you haven’t already watched it. The main event wasn’t good, but it also wasn’t bad. Mostly just a disappointment of major proportions. The rest of the show was good-to-great, with something for almost everyone to enjoy.
