AEW Full Gear 2020
** The Buy-In **
Video Packages - All great, they made me want to watch some of the matches that I had little interest in.
NWA World Women's Championship Match
Good match, but nothing special, it wasn't a match that would convince me to buy the show, but it was a match that would get me to pay more attention to whatever Serena does in the future, I thought she looked amazing. I've been a fan of Serena since her Straightedge Society run, but I never thought she was an amazing wrestler. More than a decade later, I thought she looked fantastic, I love her style. AK-47 however, the more I see of her, the less I like her wrestling. I used to love the Midwest Militia AK, even Impact's Sienna, but I wasn't a fan of her here, she looked slow.
Post-match - Thunder Rosa came out and challenged Deeb to a rematch. No issue here, I liked it, it's crazy that Corgan is booking a better women's feud on AEW than AEW is doing.
Kingston's Family Promo - Questions were ok, but the answers by Allie, Penta, and Fenix were pretty generic and bad.
Mox vs Kingston Video Package - Awesome. Kingston's promo on the rails was fantastic.
** Main Show **
AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Final Match
They had a total New Japan match with the pacing.
Comedy match, it was the shortest match of the night, clocking close to 10 minutes. Not much of a story, other than Silver ripping off Cassidy's pants so he couldn't put his hands in his pockets. It was nicely wrestled, it was a bunch of spots, Silver was great, and at the end, Silver went for Mr. Brodie Lee's discus forearm, but Cassidy countered into his finishers and won.
AEW TNT Title Match
Right from the entrances, Cody was a total cocky jock that needed to get his face punched. Darby came in alone to the ring, and that showoff Cody has his big entrance and about 700 people with him. From here on, I just wanted Darby to win no matter what.
Cody worked a total heel side, he wasn't cheating or anything, but he was being overly cocky, disrespectful, and a bit too confident for his own well being. He did dominate Darby for most of the match, but he just wasn't able to put him down, and when he had a good chance at doing so, his overconfidence would kick in and he'd start wasting time or failing to capitalize, and as a result, in an exchange of roll ups, Darby managed to get the upset win. While they did talk a lot about Cody being bigger since coming back, I thought the match was a slight disservice to Darby, who pretty much won by a fluke because Cody wouldn't take things seriously.
Match was mostly spots, only relevant one I think was the top rope CrossRhodes really.
Post-match - Anderson is visibly upset that Cody lost for not taking the match seriously. Taz comes out and berates both Darby and Cody, Cage and Starks came out and jumped them. They beat their shit until Will Hobbs came out for the save. The only relevant here was the little tease of dissension between Cage and Starks as they both eyed the TNT Championship.
Natural Nightmares Interview - They have a match against the Butcher and the Blade on Dynamite. QT was bad, and while great, Dustin was overly enthusiastic about a match with B&B. Dude was cutting a blood feud promo on an opening match.
AEW Women's World Title Match
I thought this was pretty bad, there were some glimpses of good, but they would quickly do something that looked bad. Let's start with the match plan, I liked how they got into Shida's leg getting worked and the actual work on it, but then towards the middle, they started to do the whole Nyla stops her own pin for more punishment, which is ok because her plan got screwed, but later on, Shida does the same thing, and instead of succeeding in the plan to punish Nyla more and get the win, her plan was ALSO screwed!
Nyla as great at taking bumps against the guardrail, that was the best thing about the match, but beyond that, Shida's running attacks looked weak, her attempts to do power moves on Nyla looked more scary than impressive. At the end, Shida won with Tamashii and knee strikes about 6 minutes later than it should have ended.
Second, Vicky Guerrero. Completely aside from my thoughts of her as a person, she is a complete detriment to both Nyla Rose, and the match. For one, she's not a good talker, Nyla is far better at cutting promos, so she doesn't need Guerrero. Also, Guerrero can't pull a spot at all, she failed to trip Shida, she can't take a bump, and her presence isn't even someone that Shida wouldn't attack to at least have her shield Nyla at times. She was the worst parts of this match.
Post-match - Guerrero shits on Nyla for losing and Nyla doesn't do anything. I don't know what you can do with Nyla right now, but a babyface turn seems to be the worst of the ideas.
AEW World Tag Team Title Match
Easily the best match of the night, and arguably one of the better matches I've seen this year from a US promotion, it reminded me of the better Young Bucks matches they were having in New Japan before leaving the promotion. Story coming in was that Matt Jackson has an injured ankle (which at this point I think it's either a work, or is not that badly injured), and so FTR worked on that part; however, early in the match, Harwood's hand also got injured, and in so, in return, the Bucks worked over his hand.
First half of the match was just your babyface in peril run with Matt being the one cut off obviously, and I finally got to see the methodical-cut-the-ring-in-half greatest that people raved about FTR, I thought they did a good job at so. After the hot tag spot, it really became a battle to finish each other off, to take each other out as much as possible, trading momentum, but neither could pull it off. FTR did Steiners spots, while Bucks did Rock n Roll Express and Hardyz spots, but nothing worked. It was a clash of styles with good underlying psychology.
The finish, which I guess was great for people that have followed the FTR since their corporation days, the whole No Flips shit, was that at the very end, Wilder, having the match won, decided to go for flips, a Springboard 450 of all things, and he crashed and burned and Matt Jackson took advantage of the moment and won. I thought it was unnecessary at this point, but I do see how it will give FTR an opening that if they get their return match, they will be more focused and not fall for shit like that and reclaim the titles since they pretty much had this match won already if not for Wilder trying to show off.
Post-match - Kenny Omega came to the ring to celebrate with the Bucks, and over in the shadows of the entrance ramp, a now friendless Adam Page watched on, wanting to join in, but reluctant to do it.
Elite Deletion Match
It was an attempt to recreate the greatness of the Final Deletion, and while it was enjoyably, it wasn't that amazing at all. This in a way felt more like a fight in a front yard than a match, or a supernatural encounter. There were a lot of callbacks to the Final Deletion, with the dilapidated boat and the fireworks and the lake of reincarnation, there were also a couple of callbacks to every way that Guevara has shoot injured Hardy this year.
We got cameos by Santana, Ortiz, Private Party (who ended up just having their own separate match), Hurricane Helms, Gangrel, Señor Benjamin, Reby Sky, and NEO1. I personally enjoyed Gangrel, I need more vampires in my wrestling.
The one thing that I don't really know how I feel about it was that we had commentary throughout the match, which meant that there had to be cameras there for commentary to see, and I do guess that Tony Khan has said that he tries to avoid phantom cameras, but idk if a cinematic match is one to really force your hand at. In addition, you could really tell that old man JR thought this was dumb, while Excalibur and Tony really sold it.
Anyway, this is gonna be one of those things that people either loved or hate, so I don't take anyone's opinion on it that hard. It's a total cup of tea situation.
Archer and Snake Promos - Great stuff, Archer is awesome. Archer said he's coming for Kingston and the Family.
If MJF wins, he joins The Inner Circle
I think I'm gonna all in the minority here, but I thought this was totally boring. I expected a ton of shenanigans, heel tricks, interference, ref bumps, and what not, and all they gave me was a straight wrestling match with a couple of heel tricks here and there, a babyface Jericho that I just can't fucking eat up at this stage of his career and real world stupidness. I FUCKING HATE that people sing his song when he comes out.
Match saw an MJF that kept stealing Jericho's moves and working the arm towards the Salt of the Earth. As the match went on and he couldn't seal the deal, MJF asked for the ring from WARDLOW, but Jericho got his bat from Hager, and so MJF went for the Eddie Guerrero spot, and with that distraction, MJF rolled up Jericho for the win. Aside from the finish, I thought this was underwelming.
Post-match - Jericho welcomed MJF and WARDLOW to the TIC and seemed happy about it. WARDLOW and Hager kept eyeing each other.
Best Friends Interview - Nothingness, Miro, Sabian, and Ford interrupted, and OC, like a total babyface, simply apologized to Ford. No fucking tricks or Cena apologizing by putting you down, he just straight up said sorry and that's how a babyface should act.
AEW World Title I Quit Match
This was really chaotic, and that was both the best and worst thing about this match. This felt like a total fight in the sense that it wasn't spot after spot, or working the limb, or lock ups into momentum trading. This was two dudes that came in with no other plan than beating the shit out of each other with whatever they could find.
It was so chaotic, especially Eddie, that I loved how he kept coming and going to see what he could attack with and sometimes he'd change his mind and go for something, it felt real; HOWEVER, because of that much going around, it meant that Mox had to sell for longer stretches and I wasn't a fan of that, because the spots that Mox took were not, in my opinion, spots that would stop you from getting up. Eddie took the chair bump that would keep you down, but tacks and alcohol, you can totally get up from that. All and all, this was the last match I saw yesterday after 7+ hours of wrestling in a day and while I can appreciate what they did and acknowledge the quality, I needed more from the pacing.
Lastly, the finish saw Mox submit Kingston with the same Bulldog Choke, except with barbwire. A lot of people saying that they didn't hear Kingston say I Quit. I did, it was low, but it was there, and I do have to mention that I liked that the match wasn't a constant interview by the referee on whether the wrestler would quit or not. This is how I like my I Quit Matches, low key asking, no microphones on the referee. The one and only thing that I would have done would had been for Kingston to apologize to his mother right before quitting.
Kingston one day is gonna make a great babyface.
Post-match - It took forever, but Moxley tried to be friendly with Kingston, who was just devastated and left. Omega came out and just teased Mox, but he didn't even get inside the ring.
Good show, but not the best AEW PPV of the year, and surely, not close to a show of the year contender. It was really up and down, the best was great, the bad was terrible, and weirdly enough, it was positioned to feel like a rollercoaster.
Video Packages - All great, they made me want to watch some of the matches that I had little interest in.
NWA World Women's Championship Match
Serena Deeb (C) vs Allysin Kay - 6.5/10
Good match, but nothing special, it wasn't a match that would convince me to buy the show, but it was a match that would get me to pay more attention to whatever Serena does in the future, I thought she looked amazing. I've been a fan of Serena since her Straightedge Society run, but I never thought she was an amazing wrestler. More than a decade later, I thought she looked fantastic, I love her style. AK-47 however, the more I see of her, the less I like her wrestling. I used to love the Midwest Militia AK, even Impact's Sienna, but I wasn't a fan of her here, she looked slow.
Post-match - Thunder Rosa came out and challenged Deeb to a rematch. No issue here, I liked it, it's crazy that Corgan is booking a better women's feud on AEW than AEW is doing.
Kingston's Family Promo - Questions were ok, but the answers by Allie, Penta, and Fenix were pretty generic and bad.
Mox vs Kingston Video Package - Awesome. Kingston's promo on the rails was fantastic.
** Main Show **
AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Final Match
Kenny Omega vs. Adam Page - 8.5/10
They had a total New Japan match with the pacing.
Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver - 6.5/10
Comedy match, it was the shortest match of the night, clocking close to 10 minutes. Not much of a story, other than Silver ripping off Cassidy's pants so he couldn't put his hands in his pockets. It was nicely wrestled, it was a bunch of spots, Silver was great, and at the end, Silver went for Mr. Brodie Lee's discus forearm, but Cassidy countered into his finishers and won.
AEW TNT Title Match
Cody (C) w/Arn Anderson vs. Darby Allin - 7/10
Right from the entrances, Cody was a total cocky jock that needed to get his face punched. Darby came in alone to the ring, and that showoff Cody has his big entrance and about 700 people with him. From here on, I just wanted Darby to win no matter what.
Cody worked a total heel side, he wasn't cheating or anything, but he was being overly cocky, disrespectful, and a bit too confident for his own well being. He did dominate Darby for most of the match, but he just wasn't able to put him down, and when he had a good chance at doing so, his overconfidence would kick in and he'd start wasting time or failing to capitalize, and as a result, in an exchange of roll ups, Darby managed to get the upset win. While they did talk a lot about Cody being bigger since coming back, I thought the match was a slight disservice to Darby, who pretty much won by a fluke because Cody wouldn't take things seriously.
Match was mostly spots, only relevant one I think was the top rope CrossRhodes really.
Post-match - Anderson is visibly upset that Cody lost for not taking the match seriously. Taz comes out and berates both Darby and Cody, Cage and Starks came out and jumped them. They beat their shit until Will Hobbs came out for the save. The only relevant here was the little tease of dissension between Cage and Starks as they both eyed the TNT Championship.
Natural Nightmares Interview - They have a match against the Butcher and the Blade on Dynamite. QT was bad, and while great, Dustin was overly enthusiastic about a match with B&B. Dude was cutting a blood feud promo on an opening match.
AEW Women's World Title Match
Hikaru Shida (C) vs. Nyla Rose w/Vickie Guerrero - 4/10
I thought this was pretty bad, there were some glimpses of good, but they would quickly do something that looked bad. Let's start with the match plan, I liked how they got into Shida's leg getting worked and the actual work on it, but then towards the middle, they started to do the whole Nyla stops her own pin for more punishment, which is ok because her plan got screwed, but later on, Shida does the same thing, and instead of succeeding in the plan to punish Nyla more and get the win, her plan was ALSO screwed!
Nyla as great at taking bumps against the guardrail, that was the best thing about the match, but beyond that, Shida's running attacks looked weak, her attempts to do power moves on Nyla looked more scary than impressive. At the end, Shida won with Tamashii and knee strikes about 6 minutes later than it should have ended.
Second, Vicky Guerrero. Completely aside from my thoughts of her as a person, she is a complete detriment to both Nyla Rose, and the match. For one, she's not a good talker, Nyla is far better at cutting promos, so she doesn't need Guerrero. Also, Guerrero can't pull a spot at all, she failed to trip Shida, she can't take a bump, and her presence isn't even someone that Shida wouldn't attack to at least have her shield Nyla at times. She was the worst parts of this match.
Post-match - Guerrero shits on Nyla for losing and Nyla doesn't do anything. I don't know what you can do with Nyla right now, but a babyface turn seems to be the worst of the ideas.
AEW World Tag Team Title Match
FTR (C) w/Tully Blanchard vs. The Young Bucks - 9.5/10
Easily the best match of the night, and arguably one of the better matches I've seen this year from a US promotion, it reminded me of the better Young Bucks matches they were having in New Japan before leaving the promotion. Story coming in was that Matt Jackson has an injured ankle (which at this point I think it's either a work, or is not that badly injured), and so FTR worked on that part; however, early in the match, Harwood's hand also got injured, and in so, in return, the Bucks worked over his hand.
First half of the match was just your babyface in peril run with Matt being the one cut off obviously, and I finally got to see the methodical-cut-the-ring-in-half greatest that people raved about FTR, I thought they did a good job at so. After the hot tag spot, it really became a battle to finish each other off, to take each other out as much as possible, trading momentum, but neither could pull it off. FTR did Steiners spots, while Bucks did Rock n Roll Express and Hardyz spots, but nothing worked. It was a clash of styles with good underlying psychology.
The finish, which I guess was great for people that have followed the FTR since their corporation days, the whole No Flips shit, was that at the very end, Wilder, having the match won, decided to go for flips, a Springboard 450 of all things, and he crashed and burned and Matt Jackson took advantage of the moment and won. I thought it was unnecessary at this point, but I do see how it will give FTR an opening that if they get their return match, they will be more focused and not fall for shit like that and reclaim the titles since they pretty much had this match won already if not for Wilder trying to show off.
Post-match - Kenny Omega came to the ring to celebrate with the Bucks, and over in the shadows of the entrance ramp, a now friendless Adam Page watched on, wanting to join in, but reluctant to do it.
Elite Deletion Match
Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara - Good for what it was.
It was an attempt to recreate the greatness of the Final Deletion, and while it was enjoyably, it wasn't that amazing at all. This in a way felt more like a fight in a front yard than a match, or a supernatural encounter. There were a lot of callbacks to the Final Deletion, with the dilapidated boat and the fireworks and the lake of reincarnation, there were also a couple of callbacks to every way that Guevara has shoot injured Hardy this year.
We got cameos by Santana, Ortiz, Private Party (who ended up just having their own separate match), Hurricane Helms, Gangrel, Señor Benjamin, Reby Sky, and NEO1. I personally enjoyed Gangrel, I need more vampires in my wrestling.
The one thing that I don't really know how I feel about it was that we had commentary throughout the match, which meant that there had to be cameras there for commentary to see, and I do guess that Tony Khan has said that he tries to avoid phantom cameras, but idk if a cinematic match is one to really force your hand at. In addition, you could really tell that old man JR thought this was dumb, while Excalibur and Tony really sold it.
Anyway, this is gonna be one of those things that people either loved or hate, so I don't take anyone's opinion on it that hard. It's a total cup of tea situation.
Archer and Snake Promos - Great stuff, Archer is awesome. Archer said he's coming for Kingston and the Family.
If MJF wins, he joins The Inner Circle
Chris Jericho w/Jake Hager vs. MJF w/WARDLOW - 6/10
I think I'm gonna all in the minority here, but I thought this was totally boring. I expected a ton of shenanigans, heel tricks, interference, ref bumps, and what not, and all they gave me was a straight wrestling match with a couple of heel tricks here and there, a babyface Jericho that I just can't fucking eat up at this stage of his career and real world stupidness. I FUCKING HATE that people sing his song when he comes out.
Match saw an MJF that kept stealing Jericho's moves and working the arm towards the Salt of the Earth. As the match went on and he couldn't seal the deal, MJF asked for the ring from WARDLOW, but Jericho got his bat from Hager, and so MJF went for the Eddie Guerrero spot, and with that distraction, MJF rolled up Jericho for the win. Aside from the finish, I thought this was underwelming.
Post-match - Jericho welcomed MJF and WARDLOW to the TIC and seemed happy about it. WARDLOW and Hager kept eyeing each other.
Best Friends Interview - Nothingness, Miro, Sabian, and Ford interrupted, and OC, like a total babyface, simply apologized to Ford. No fucking tricks or Cena apologizing by putting you down, he just straight up said sorry and that's how a babyface should act.
AEW World Title I Quit Match
Jon Moxley (c) vs. Eddie Kingston - 7.5/10
This was really chaotic, and that was both the best and worst thing about this match. This felt like a total fight in the sense that it wasn't spot after spot, or working the limb, or lock ups into momentum trading. This was two dudes that came in with no other plan than beating the shit out of each other with whatever they could find.
It was so chaotic, especially Eddie, that I loved how he kept coming and going to see what he could attack with and sometimes he'd change his mind and go for something, it felt real; HOWEVER, because of that much going around, it meant that Mox had to sell for longer stretches and I wasn't a fan of that, because the spots that Mox took were not, in my opinion, spots that would stop you from getting up. Eddie took the chair bump that would keep you down, but tacks and alcohol, you can totally get up from that. All and all, this was the last match I saw yesterday after 7+ hours of wrestling in a day and while I can appreciate what they did and acknowledge the quality, I needed more from the pacing.
Lastly, the finish saw Mox submit Kingston with the same Bulldog Choke, except with barbwire. A lot of people saying that they didn't hear Kingston say I Quit. I did, it was low, but it was there, and I do have to mention that I liked that the match wasn't a constant interview by the referee on whether the wrestler would quit or not. This is how I like my I Quit Matches, low key asking, no microphones on the referee. The one and only thing that I would have done would had been for Kingston to apologize to his mother right before quitting.
Kingston one day is gonna make a great babyface.
Post-match - It took forever, but Moxley tried to be friendly with Kingston, who was just devastated and left. Omega came out and just teased Mox, but he didn't even get inside the ring.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, but not the best AEW PPV of the year, and surely, not close to a show of the year contender. It was really up and down, the best was great, the bad was terrible, and weirdly enough, it was positioned to feel like a rollercoaster.