AEW Full Gear premiered on November 9, 2019 from Baltimore, Maryland. The lead-up on Dynamite has been really fierce and fiery these last few weeks, and the pre-show was heavy with packages to continue that hype. Let’s dive right in to All Elite’s final PPV of the year and see how it all paid off.
Pre-show: Britt Baker vs. Bea Priestley
Taz is on commentary for this match, and he mentions that Britt has been sick this weekend. This feud has been going since Bea concussed Britt at Fight For The Fallen. The two were very ambitious in their offense, but something about them didn’t click together. Bea has a good heel presence, and they told the story of her going after Baker’s back throughout the match, limiting her offense. At times it was nice and at times it was extremely sloppy. Darby Allin is shown watching in the crowd, and you have to wonder if a future Bea pearing is in the works. Baker wins with her mandible claw stretch. After the match, Awesome Kong and Brandi come out, and Kong beats up Priestley. Kong takes out a knife (yes, a knife on live PPV), and thankfully only cuts a lock of Bea’s hair. They’ve been trying to make Kong/Brandi seem like crazy bullies in their last few promos, so this fits the mold.
Young Bucks vs. Proud And Powerful
After a really good package, this tag division match opens up the main show. The two teams start hot, and then settle in with some good technical work. This Young Bucks match stands out more than most in recent memory, because it centered around Santana and Ortiz working over Nick Jackson’s leg. In spurts, Nick went on kick-flurries and forgot to sell, but for the most part, he stayed in sell-mode. P&P are the best brawlers in the division, and they got into it with the Rock & Roll Express, who were sitting in the front row. Proud and Powerful get the win in a long (but good) match with a Street Sweeper on Nick.
After the match, Sammy Guevara comes down to continue the assault. The Rock & Roll Express jump the rails for the save, as Ricky Morton hits a (heavily assisted) Canadian Destroyer and a tope to the outside. Regardless of help, that’s extremely impressive for a legend of his age. Between this show and NWA Power, the R&R are getting more ring-time now than they have in years.
Adam Page vs. Pac
These two seem to have good chemistry in their second AEW match (and third overall). Page takes a really good beating, and Pac has a way of making extraordinary aerial offense seem very easy. Page hits a suplex on the apron and a moonsault to the outside, before Pac counters with a brainbuster onto an unfolded chair. The latter scratched up Page’s back pretty good. This was another match that felt 5 minutes too long, but was full of great action. Page gets the win with the Deadeye. As surprised as I was to see Pac lose clean here, Page needed a big statement win to stay relevant at the top of the card.
Shawn Spears vs. Joey Janela
It’s really nice to have Spears back on PPV, even if it’s an undercard feud. Janela gets a lot of flack for not being toned and not being as technical in the ring as some others, but those things really fit the “Bad Boy” character. The Baltimore crowd was on a bit of a come-down after the last two matches, but both guys tried to keep it hot with offense. Spears hits a suplex onto the apron, and a sidewalk slam onto the turnbuckles. Janela does a really nice job selling in this match. Spears wins with the death valley driver. AEW has done a great job putting the right people over on this show, as Spears really needed a PPV win.
Kip Sabian cuts a pretty good heel promo backstage. He’s newly heel, and he says he tried to find his people in Evans and Angelico. He’s smooth and charismatic as he’s talking down to the interviewer. He says he found someone else that he has great chemistry with, and brings in Penelope Ford, who kisses his cheek. This brings out the best in Sabian, and finds a way to use two people who had been treading water in AEW. They show Janela looking on, and Ford (Janela’s former girlfriend) says “why be bad, when you can be superbad?” This looks like a promising new midcard feud.
Tag Team Title Three-Way: SCU vs. The Lucha Bros vs. Private Party
This was, as expected, a car-wreck of the most entertaining variety. These six athletes kept the action hot and heavy, as has been the norm for the AEW tag team division thus far. Like with a few of the other matches on this show, it started off a bit sloppy and then reigned in by the end. The series of dives to the outside was breathtaking, especially Fenix’s double-springboard corkscrew. Private Party gets close to the Gin And Juice, but SCU hits the SCU Later to retain their titles. After the match, the Lucha Bros attack SCU. So Private Party was just added to this match a week ago so that they could take the pin and the SCU/Lucha Bros feud could go on. Chris Daniels returns in Pentagon garb to fend off the heels.
Women’s Title: Riho vs. Emi Sakura
The crowd is pretty quiet for this one, as they haven’t been given much in the way of characters or storyline arcs to get behind in this build-up. But they do love Riho, so they eventually choose her and boo her mentor, Sakura. This match is strike-centric, and the ladies are laying them in pretty solid. Sakura hits a nice rolling surfboard on the smaller Riho, before they go into a very fast moving roll-up sequence. Riho gets the win with a ‘round the world roll-up into a folding pin. This match was fine, but they really need a pure heel to challenge Riho next and bring some layers to her character and fire her up.
AEW World Championship: Chris Jericho vs. Cody
Both guys get big entrances, long introductions, and managers (Hager with Jericho, MJF with Cody) to make this match feel massively important. This is the point where this show took a turn to feel truly elite (pardon the pun). They introduce three judges who will score the match in case it goes to an hour time limit. The judges are Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, and the Great Muta. They start with some nice feeling-out stuff early, not wanting to make any openings for their opponent. Early on, Cody misses a dive to the outside and smacks his head on the elevated ramp. There’s a massive gash over his eye that’s bleeding quite a bit. You have to think that if it was most other wrestlers, that the match may have been stopped. But for the Executive Vice President on a PPV World Title match, he wasn’t going to let that happen. Jericho works over the cut, and it keeps re-opening. Jericho mocks Cody’s mother in the front row, and she uses some language at him that I can’t type here. Cody uses springboards well in this match, and then Hager gets ejected for interference. Both men trade some of their signature moves and kick out. Normally I loathe kicking out big moves, but this match was worthy of the false finishes. Jericho applies the Liontamer a second time as blood leaks out of Cody’s head. As Jericho wrenches back, MJF throws in the towel to submit for Cody.
After the match, Cody is furious as having lost without giving up. MJF begged for forgiveness, saying he was trying to save his friend. Then MJF turned on Cody with a low-blow. I don’t know if you can really call it a heel turn though, as MJF has been a heel from day one in this weird suck-up storyline. This was telegraphed from a mile away, but the participants were so good in it, that it still landed nicely. This match was excellent. Good pacing, good false finishes, and great psychology. Cody and Jericho are two of the best in the game right now, and now MJF (the best natural heel) will get a main event level program that he’s deserved all year. The top of AEW’s cards are stacked.
Lights Out Match: Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley
These two started out with an instant brawl, as they should have. For a match that started this hot, you wouldn’t expect it to go nearly 39 minutes, but it did. It would be tough to recap all the spots here, yet they’re so grandiose, it would be a disservice to both men if I didn’t. Moxley used his barbed wire bat, while Omega worked with the barbed wire broom, opening up multiple wounds on Moxley’s back. They did backdrops and suplexes on shards of glass, and tried to hang each other with a large metal chain. They head up the ramp, and Omega calls to The Elite to “bring it out”. After resisting, they bring out a gigantic bed of barbed wire, which Moxley suplexed Omega onto. Omega countered by hitting a V-Trigger through a giant glass Full Gear sign. Moxley starts cutting away at the mat ties and exposes the ring mats to reveal planks of wood (ala Gargano/Ciampa from NXT or Bully Ray/Sting from Impact). Moxley hits an elevated Paradigm Shift on the wood for the win. This was the closest thing to an American Death Match I’ve ever seen. These two threw out all the brutality they could, but it also fit inside the context of their feud. At times athletic, at times terrifying, this had all the grit and nostalgia of ECW and FMW. In kayfabe though, it’s a shame that this match is all for nothing, as it doesn’t count towards AEW’s records.
Overall, this was a home-run show. While it wasn’t at the consistency level of a Double or Nothing or an All Out, the big matches REALLY delivered. This show can still serve from cutting a half hour off its length, trimming 3-6 minutes off of nearly every match. But they got a new heel wrestler over (Sabian), got a heel turn into a hot new angle (MJF), had a fun undercard, and two blow-away main events (for entirely different reasons). On a show with such great storytelling as Jericho/Cody and crazy brutality as Moxley/Omega, you can’t look at that as anything other than a major win for AEW.
