AEW’s Full Gear 2025 is in the books and the 13-match card featured some highs and lows for the company. From title wins and defences to returns, double crosses and unexpected pivots, AEW’s Full Gear show had plenty of good things going for it. In contrast to those positive points, there were some missteps that leave questions as to what the general plan is for the company as we head into World’s End next month and beyond into 2026.
Miss — AEW National Championship and the Casino Gauntlet
This isn’t so much a gripe with Ricochet winning the championship. I think that’s a solid choice for an inaugural champion considering he has done some decent character work over the last year. This has been a complement to his typical in-ring work. I more so question the need for another championship after consolidating the Continental and International titles earlier this year. Hands up all who didn’t audibly groan at the announcement?
A new championship in and of itself isn’t the worst idea in the world, but AEW has a track record of needlessly announcing new championships at moments you can argue it’s not necessary. For example, conceptually what’s the difference between a continental championship (presumably mostly representing the U.S.) and the National title which is essentially an United States championship akin to WWE and WCW’s, NJPW’s defunct title, and NWA’s National championship. What void does this fill in a landscape where you have a world title, unified title, and the TNT title? That’s if we exclude ROH titles which can also be featured on AEW TV. It’s up to AEW and Ricochet how they actually define this championship in practice, but on the surface I’m very skeptical of the need for it.
The battle royale itself was below AEW’s mutli-man match standard, and I don’t think leaving fans in the dark as to who the participants were so close to the show was the wisest move. It’s a matter of investment and willingness to want to watch the match, and that’s a difficult ask when the only announced wresters are Shelton Benjamin and Bobby Lashley. They did make it work toward Ricochet winning, but the match still feels like it fell short of the drama we typically see from an AEW battle royale.
Hit — Kyle Fletcher and Mark Briscoe deliver on brutal TNT title clash
With Briscoe’s pride on the line, he and Fletcher delivered in their violent championship match that would have seen Briscoe join Don Callis had he lost. I think that provision alone justifies the stipulation and violence. The build paid off the road to this point, and the payoff — for as long as his reign lasts — is a warranted and justified title switch. Additionally I don’t think Fletcher is hurt by this loss in the slightest because he worked his ass off to put Briscoe away; both subjected themselves to brutal tack spots, tables, ladders, and anything that wasn’t otherwise bolted down. As much as anyone might want to hate the concept, this match was simply a matter of someone’s “health bar” depleting first. It just so happened to be Fletcher after the thumbtack-J-Driller spot.
I think you can do this match again in time, but I’m not sure where you go after this with how violent it was. It felt like the payoff for the feud and less so like they would still be at each other’s throats on Wednesday. I think Fletcher is still not ready for a world title run, and I think Briscoe deserves some time to run as TNT champion before the next contender wrests it away from him. For that reason I think they end the feud for now, with Fletcher being a solid candidate for a deep run in the Continental Classic. You can even include Briscoe which would give Fletcher the opportunity to get his win back “clean” without championship stakes.
Miss — Execution of Young Bucks face turn and realignment with Kenny Omega
This has become such a garbled mess.
To recap, the Young Bucks became pathological dicks and perennial assclowns, sided with Omega’s chief rival, helped put him on the shelf, nurtured a relationship with Jack Perry who they then discarded, and then proceeded to feud with him and the returning Luchasaurus. Combined with a loose alignment with Don Callis, this led to last night’s trios match that saw them win and pin Perry to win a cool cash prize, which they then decided was inconsequential after a year of vapid, frivolous money-chasing non-sense (because “Mo money, mo problems”) and decided to then become best friends again.
Reports indicate they sat around a campfire and belted out “We are the champions” after the pay-per-view.
The Elite reuniting is a trope at this point, and the execution here was arguably the worst it’s been. There was some build in the weeks leading up to Full Gear that made it seem like the Bucks were second guessing themselves to foreshadow the face turn against Callis. The result at a minimum puts them back in the trios division to likely keep Omega as fresh as possible, and additionally away from the tag titles a) because I think Jurassic Express needs that spot more right now, and b) No one wants another Bucks-FTR title clash yet. On its own merits it makes sense, but it’s also a turn everyone could see coming which detracts from the impact.
Hit — FTR become 3-time AEW tag team champions
Throughout the year FTR has been central to the tag team ranks and has helped return the division to prominence by working with a number of other teams throughout 2025 to help raise the ceiling for the tag team roster. To date they have worked with at least 16 different teams across multiple events, including a number of matches against teams like Brodido, JetSpeed, Bang Bang Gang, O’Reilly and Roderick Strong.
The move puts them back on top of a division that has many credible threats that would be suitable follow-up champions when the time comes to dethrone FTR. Dax and Cash have proven themselves to be adaptable and able to work with many different types of teams. The division is simply at its best when FTR or the Bucks are at the top, and typically when they are another good, young team gets a positive rub and push forward.
I think this move gives the division stability and a solid working team on top that can work with other tandems throughout the roster. FTR’s return to the top follows reigns by the Bucks, Private Party (who has been absent all year), Hurt Syndicate and Brodido, and I think what’s next likely sees some solid matches against the roster hopefully before putting over a team like Jurassic Express, Jetspeed or the Outrunners. However…
Miss — Cope and Cage’s eventual tag title challenge
Most likely they will be dropping the tag titles to these two to close out that feud. It’s the logical cap to their 2025. That possibility is definitely the kind of thing Tony Khan would book for two legends, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best thing for the division. It will be a great moment if it happens, but where that leaves the tag division is another matter. I don’t necessarily see this prospect as a positive.
Hit – Kyle O’Reilly taps out Mox again
This has become near meme-able over the last few weeks, but KOR defeated Moxley again at Full Gear. In doing so he further exposed Mox’s achilles heel (the submission game). This is one of KOR’s biggest wins of his career and it comes at the expense of someone who is a multi-time AEW champion and the foundation of what the company represents. This was another brutal encounter on the show that saw both men bleeding from their pores before Mox succumbed and tapped out once again. Hopefully this propels O’Reilly into a solid singles push that is in my opinion beyond overdue.
As for Moxley, it’s becoming very clear that Mox can’t live up to his own standard anymore and I think it’s only a matter of time before the Death Riders turn on him. That can mean a simple beatdown, it can mean a callback to when they excommunicated Bryan Danielson from the group with a plastic bag, etc. As leader of the group his continual failure puts him in the unenviable position where he is being shut up more than he is putting up, and I think any one of Claudio, Wheeler Yuta, PAC or Marina Shafir would be willing to knock him off his pedestal.
Hilariously, if the objective of his year has been to push the roster to reach their full potential, it would be the ultimate move to demonstrate that the Deathriders don’t need him and they’ve surpassed their reliance on him. I think a world exists where he can stay in the group, but we’re at a juncture where consecutive submission losses to O’Reilly have put Mox in a bad position within his own narrative, and considering the monotony of the story, has been mired in at varying points, that’s not a bad thing.
Hit — Mone loses another world title match
Having Mone lose another women’s world title match was the right move for AEW and its roster. The strength of having her around is that she doesn’t need the championship to validate herself, and that has allowed characters like Toni Storm to develop and bloom, for upstarts like Mariah May/Blake Monroe to take the division and make it a reflection of their characters, and for longtimers like Kris Statlander to get an overdue run at the top of AEW’s women’s division.
If Mone were to secure the AEW women’s world title right now it would just become another trophy in her expanding belt collection, and that straight away devalues it. It serves her more than the company and the title, and so for as long as she is belt collecting, Mone should not be anywhere near the championship. That’s especially highlighted by this being her second failed attempt in four months. This isn’t to say that Mone should never be champion, but right now, as it was when Toni Storm defeated her, keeping the belt on Stat was the right move.
Miss — Samoa Joe defeats Hangman for AEW title
This feels too soon, but judgment should also be reserved for what comes next in the story.
This second Hangman reign was marginally shorter than his first run, and much like his first reign, when you look back at his second run both feel like the type of reign that burns fast and flames out. Joe taking the belt isn’t the same as when Page lost to CM Punk. That doesn’t detract from my thought that it feels too soon, but also that he was once again a very active champion too quick to defend his claim to the title.
Joe is a deserving champion, and what can make this presumptive “miss” more even-keeled depends on how this shakes out between — say — now and Revolution. Given how the show ended it’s hard to say definitively that Page will end up with the championship to begin his third reign sooner than later, so what matters is dependent on answers to questions such as how Joe’s second reign will be defined, how that will shape AEW television, and how the Opps with the newly rejoined Hook fill the void left by the Deathriders at the top of the card once Mox lost the championship. Further to that, how Page and those around him contrast Samoa Joe and his teammates.
On the surface I would have preferred Page to continue his reign a little longer, but I think there are factors that can offset that shortcoming and turn what I currently see as a shock and a choice I don’t totally agree with into something more constructive for AEW in the new year.
Hit — Swerve Strickland returns
Following Hook’s double cross and his rejoining the Opps alongside new champion Samoa Joe, the subsequent beatdown of Page led to his old rival Swerve Strickland returning to close the show. Although they did go through the obvious motions to make it appear Swerve was coming down to further beat on Page, Swerve turning to beat up all of Joe’s no-named lackeys injected some energy into a segment where if you outright disagreed with the move and were still processing it, Swerve’s arrival gave it a shot in the arm.
The main event scene has been barren since the summer. With Will Ospreay and Swerve both out at the same time, Adam Cole out indefinitely, other key players like Mox, Allin, Okada and Omega are occupied elsewhere, and with MJF away filming, Page has been left to carry the load. Perhaps that’s the value in Joe stealing the championship, and now with Swerve returning to help Page as equals that will further bridge the company between now and when its key personnel have returned. And with someone like Swerve who is so unique, his return does give the main event an adrenaline shot. While I’m lukewarm to the switch, having Page and Swerve both chasing Joe is a solid stop gap until the roster returns to full strength.
