Welcome to our coverage of AEW Full Gear from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.
We will be holding a LIVE Watch Along with Wai Ting, Davie Portman & Braden Herrington beginning at 8 pm Eastern on the upNXT YouTube channel. Immediately after the pay-per-view, they will be streaming the Full Gear POST Show with a full review of the card.
RESULTS
*AEW Championship, I Quit Match: Jon Moxley (champion) def. Eddie Kingston in 18:58
*If MJF wins, he can join The Inner Circle: MJF def. Chris Jericho in 16:14
*Elite Deletion: Matt Hardy def. Sammy Guevara in 19:39
*AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks def. FTR (champions) in 28:46
*AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (champion) def. Nyla Rose in 14:12
*TNT Championship: Darby Allin def. Cody (champion) in 16:50
*Orange Cassidy def. John Silver in 9:40
*World Title Eliminator Tournament Finals: Kenny Omega def. Hangman Page in 16:26
*NWA Women’s Championship: Serena Deeb (champion) def. Allysin Kay in 10:24 (Buy-In)
The Buy-In began with Excalibur and Tony Schiavone previewing the card. Today is Schiavone’s 63rd birthday.
MJF was interviewed backstage and said he was “razor-sharp” to those that think he’s soft. When he beats Chris Jericho, he will be part of the greatest faction and have all the gold he wants. Wardlow was asked a question and MJF answered for him.
SERENA DEEB VS ALLYSIN KAY FOR THE NWA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Excalibur explained Kay is a freelancer yet challenging for the championship of the organization she just departed.
Each was attempting to gain control of the other’s wrist. Deeb caught Kay with a dragon screw leg whip. Deeb attempted the Serenity Lock (Tequila Sunrise) and Kay immediately grabbed the robe.
Kay slapped Deeb, who responded with her own slap. Deeb hit a backstabber and attempted an Octopus stretch. Kay hit a tree slam and worked on Deeb’s neck.
Kay attempted the AK-47 and Deeb rolled to the floor after being spun off the shoulders. Deeb caught Kay with a dragon screw between the ropes and used the Serenity Lock to submit Kay.
WINNER: Serena Deeb in 10:24 to retain the NWA’s Women Championship
It was very good technically with Deeb focusing on the knee and it played into the finish with the dragon screw and Serenity Lock. Kay would be a fine addition to the AEW women’s roster.
After the match, Thunder Rosa came out and confronted Deeb indicating a rematch at a later date.
Eddie Kingston’s family was interviewed about Kingston’s chances tonight. The Bunny took exception to the question. Kingston said nothing is more important than the AEW championship, even making Moxley quit. He said this is the only company that matters. This was another stellar segment with Kingston.
Jim Ross came out to end the Buy-In and said there were “approximately 1,000 fans in attendance”.
Don Callis is introduced by the announcers as the Impact Wrestling EVP and is here to call the opening match between Kenny Omega and Hangman Page.
KENNY OMEGA VS HANGMAN PAGE IN THE FINALS OF THE WORLD TITLE ELIMINATOR TOURNAMENT
Omega offered his hand when the match started and Page didn’t shake it.
The two traded chops including Page using an Ishii-style chop to the throat. On the floor, Page repeatedly threw Omega into the guardrail. On the last Irish whip, Omega leaped to the railing and hit a moonsault.
Omega slipped on You Can’t Escape and favored his knee as he recovered. Minutes later, Omega hit the Terminator dive to Page on the floor. The announcers focused on the slip and focusing on Omega’s potential knee injury.
Page went for the Buckshot Lariat and was met with a V-Trigger as he ascended from the apron. Page caught Omega with a pop-up powerbomb on the ramp and another inside the ring for two.
Omega hit a Tiger Driver ’98 for his first near fall of the match.
Page absorbed a Snap Dragon suplex, fired back with a lariat, and hit Deadeye for a big near fall. Omega ducked the Buckshot Lariat and hit two V-Triggers, he lifted for the One-Winged Angel, Page fought it but succumbed to the move and was defeated.
WINNER: Kenny Omega at 16:26
Excellent opening match and these two gelled to a tee. It was a great back-and-forth style of match with the two working it as ex-partners aware of the other’s tricks, plus a decisive finish that sets up a major match with Omega challenging for the AEW championship.
Ross thanked Don Callis and said he’s doing a great job in IMPACT.
ORANGE CASSIDY VS JOHN “4” SILVER
Silver came out accompanied by Dark Order (minus Brodie Lee).
Cassidy upset Silver putting his hands in his pockets and doing the weak kicks. Silver tore Cassidy’s pockets off and started to eat them.
Silver blocked a spinning DDT and Silver dead-lifted Cassidy into a brainbuster. On his next attempt, Cassidy hit the spinning DDT for a two-count.
Silver executed a one-arm military press, that looked super impressive. Cassidy hit a Michinoku Driver for a two-count. Cassidy countered and hit Stundog Millionaire, and Silver hit the Spin Doctor for a two-count.
Silver attempted to hit Brodie Lee’s discus lariat, missed, and was caught with the Orange Punch and Beach Break as Cassidy won the match.
WINNER: Orange Cassidy at 9:40
This would have torn down the house with a full arena. It was two guys going all out with impressive offense and one-upping each other. In the end, Silver failed when he tried to emulate Lee and it backfired. This was a super-fun match. They emphasized Cassidy’s pay-per-view record with another win.
CODY VS DARBY ALLIN FOR THE TNT CHAMPIONSHIP
It’s their fourth match with Cody holding two wins and a time limit draw. Allin arrived and smashed the windshield of a car with his skateboard.
Cody came out with the Nightmare Family, including Billy & Austin Gunn and Lee Johnson.
Mike Chioda is the referee.
Justin Roberts introduced Cody including the “Rhodes” name. So, you can throw out Cody’s answer he gave on the call this past week about not using it for wrestling purposes.
Allin finishes a standing switch and angered Cody by slapping the back of his head. Cody retreated to the floor and returned where he lifted and dumped Allin onto the ramp.
Cody attacks Allin’s left arm. He catches Allin coming off the ropes and Cody applies the Rings of Saturn damaging the previously injured arm until Allin reaches the rope. Arn gets upset when Cody gloats by doing push-ups. Cody’s offense was focused on the arm and had a wide range of attacks.
Cody missed a moonsault off the top, Allin hit a Code Red for a two-count. His offense is so quick and crisp.
They fought on the top and Cody hit a Cross Rhodes off the top turnbuckle and Allin had his arm under the rope to stop the count. Allin used his good arm for a choke as Cody climbed the turnbuckle and fell with Allin on his back to escape the choke. Arn yelled at Allin to “stay down” on the floor but he broke the count.
Cody is frustrated and comes off the rope with a Disaster Kick that’s caught and into the Last Supper for a two-count. Allin hit the Coffin Drop and Cody kicked out.
Allin countered the Cross Rhodes, they went for a series of roll-up attempts and Allin caught him.
WINNER: Darby Allin at 16:50 to win the TNT championship
This match was excellent from the get-go and told a fantastic story. Allin was fantastic as the undersized babyface and Cody was tremendous as the cocky champion that took Allin lightly.
This has been a fantastic show, thus far.
Cody got on his knee and presented the title to Allin. Arn Anderson is upset.
Taz came out and is sick of the tears. He told their “bitch asses” to leave and go to the back. It was a distraction as Brian Cage and Ricky Starks attacked Allin and Cody. Arn Anderson was knocked down on the floor before they entered the ring. Cage and Starks both grabbed the TNT title and then, Taz took it.
Cage took Allin and threw him into a set-piece on the floor. Then, went to Allin’s car and went to slam the door on his arm until Will Hobbs chased them off with a chair and saved Allin.
Dasha Gonzalez interviewed Dustin Rhodes and QT Marshall. Marshall said Allie infiltrated the Nightmare Family and Rhodes said of the successful women to come through this sport, Allie isn’t one of them. This Wednesday’s match against The Butcher & The Blade will be a Bunkhouse Match and they are coming for blood.
They had added a match between Tay Conti and Red Velvet for Dynamite this week, along with the Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix rematch.
HIKARU SHIDA VS NYLA ROSE FOR THE AEW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Shida came out of the gate catching Rose and swarming her with an attack.
Shida tried to leap off the chair and was stopped with a lariat. When Rose wanted to grab the chair, Aubrey Edwards admonished her. With Edwards distracted, Vickie Guerrero hit Shida in the knee with a kendo stick.
Rose wrapped the injured knee around the ring frame. Rose targeted the knee when they returned to the ring. Shida broke free and attempted the Tamashii, which was blocked.
Shida was draped on top when Rose came off the top turnbuckle landing on the knee. Rose hit a powerbomb but lifted Shida at the count of two. Rose hit a weak-looking Tamashii.
The Beast Bomb was countered with a back body drop from Shida. Shida hit a Falcon Arrow off the top, and this time, Shida lifted Rose at the count of two. Shida smiled and ran the ropes where Vickie didn’t get a full hold but was supposed to trip her.
Edwards took the kendo stick away from Guerrero, Shida threw Rose into Guerrero and ran Rose into the barricade. Shida couldn’t quite get her up for the Falcon Arrow, then hit the Tamashii and Rose kicked out. This part was not very crisp, and they seemed to be off.
Shida hit repeated knee strikes to the face before finally getting the cover.
WINNER: Hikaru Shida at 14:12 to retain the AEW Women’s Championship
The match could have been tightened up a bit more, especially over the final few minutes where they appeared to be off. The match was building nicely and felt like they missed the peak and kept going and going, so the finish was not as climactic as hope for. It was still a good match, but I wouldn’t rate it much higher than that. They had the disadvantage of being a relatively cold program and following some hot matches on this card.
Guerrero screamed at Rose after the loss, she slapped Rose and stormed off while Rose just stood there and took it.
FTR VS THE YOUNG BUCKS FOR THE AEW TAG TITLES
FTR came out in team jackets with “Greatest Tag Team of All-Time” written on them, they looked pretty nice.
The announcers went over Matt Jackson’s injured ankle, which be the focus of the match.
The Bucks had the early advantage and they attacked Dax Harwood’s right hand after he punched and hit the post, which is bleeding and had to be taped by Dr. Samson. Matt did a moonsault off the top, landed on his feet and his leg buckled forcing him to roll to the floor to tend to it.
FTR cuts off the ring and goes to work on Matt and his injury. Cash Wheeler fought with Nick Jackson on the apron, Harwood knocked Nick to the floor to eliminate the tag for Matt.
Matt fought for his life to escape FTR, including hitting Wheeler with a wild back body drop to the floor and a DDT to Harwood before tagging Nick, who made the most spectacular comeback, which was a thing of beauty.
Matt returned and his knee gave out attempting a buckle bomb. FTR hit a Steinerizer to Matt with Wheeler diving to take Nick off the apron to the floor.
The Buck regained control and hit a 3-D, a Twist of Fate, and a Swanton Bomb on Harwood as an ode to the Dudley Boyz and Hardys.
Wheeler clipped Matt’s ankle from the floor. Matt nearly caught Harwood with a crucifix for a big near fall. Harwood throws punches with the bad hand and he’s hurt after delivering them.
Wheeler and Harwood hit the old Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano finisher on Matt.
Matt applied the sharpshooter on Harwood, who grabbed the rope and Nick superkicked the hand off the rope and applied his own sharpshooter to Wheeler on the ramp. Matt has to release the hold because of his bad leg.
Matt snapped the fingers of Harwood, they hit the BTE Trigger and it appeared over when Wheeler broke the cover. Matt brought a chair into the ring and they explain how stupid this would be as the Bucks would lose. It was a distraction to grab Harwood in place for the Meltzer Driver, but Wheeler took Nick and powerbombed him through a table. FTR hit the Mind Breaker on Matt and Matt was too close and got his foot on the rope.
They removed Matt’s boot and applied an Inverted figure-four. Wheeler flew to the floor missing Nick, who climbed up and hit a 450 splash on Harwood to break the submission.
Wheeler gave Matt the finger, superkicked him, and then missed a springboard 450 splash and Matt caught him with the superkick and pinned Wheeler.
WINNERS: The Young Bucks at 28:46 to win the AEW tag titles
For all the issues in the build-up, the match was phenomenal and had tons of layers to it.
The central theme was Matt’s injured ankle and overcoming the injury against a team that thrives off isolating body parts and cutting off the ring to eliminate Nick as much as possible.
It has the ups and downs of that drama coupled with several sequences as a tribute to other tag teams and the match hit its zenith in the final ten minutes with several excellent near falls, that never felt like overkill.
The ending was so great as Wheeler got too cocky and the one time a member of FTR tried a high-flying move, they blew it and it cost them the match and titles.
It was an excellent match.
Kenny Omega came out and hugged the Young Bucks. While they celebrate, you could see Hangman Page watching from the entrance but he never came down to the ring.
MATT HARDY VS SAMMY GUEVERA IN THE ELITE DELETION MATCH
We head to Cameron, North Carolina where Guevara has driven in his custom golf cart. Neo 1 detects Guevara and a hologram of Hardy welcomes him to the Hardy Compound and his “demise” and drives up in a monster truck that crushes the golf cart that he calls a “squash job”.
The bell rings when Guevara emerges with a trash can and moonsaults off the monster truck. They fought into the forest and by a water fountain and eventually, to a ring in the woods and it turned into a hardcore match.
Hardy powerbombed Guevara through a table when Santana & Ortiz appeared and attacked Hardy. Private Party is contacted by a walkie-talkie and finally, show up to help.
Hardy starts shooting fireworks as everyone covers up. There was way too much going on and it felt like Hardy playing the “greatest hits” of past cinematic presentations he was part of.
Meanwhile, Private Party and Santana & Ortiz were actually trying to have a good match.
Guevera was covered in mud allowing Hardy to make a “mud show” reference. A masked man showed up with The Hurricane held hostage and revealed himself to be Gangrel. Hardy freed Helms, who was tossed into the Lake of Reincarnation by Guevara.
Helms returned as Gregory Helms to interview Guevara and tossed him back into the lake.
Hardy and Guevara were locked inside the Dome of Deletion. Guevera undid the bottom rope of the ring inside the dome and choked Hardy while they had ominous music playing underneath.
Hardy was placed on a table, Guevara climbed a ladder inside the ring and hit a Swanton but Hardy kicked out. Hardy hit a Twist of Fate and they did the spot where Hardy speared Guevara off the apron through a table on the floor (playing off the All Out spot).
Then, Hardy drilled him in the face with the edge of the chair playing off the other injury during their program. Finally, Hardy hit a conchairto on the concrete floor and he pinned Guevara.
WINNER: Matt Hardy at 19:39
Hardy opened the door to the dome and told Private Party to “take out the trash” as they placed Guevara into the garbage bin and in the back of a pick-up truck that Senor Benjamin drove off with as Reby Hardy played the piano. This felt like, at minimum, an extended break for Guevara.
While this was the best format for these two to work in, I found this to be way too long so late in the show with two big matches still to come. They tried to make this more serious towards the latter half where the idea is Hardy has snapped and Guevara has driven him to have this killer instinct. I thought this could have been a lot shorter and unless you have an incredibly fresh approach, the cinematic matches have largely run their course as we have seen every conceivable idea and they’ve been done to death in 2020.
Lance Archer and Jake Roberts are in an alleyway and are sick of having nothing to do. Archer has destroyed his training partners and Jake must feed Archer, and he wants people. Someone must step up. Archer said their time of slaughter is coming and he’s throwing boulders inside a glass house regardless of whether you are “elite” or in a “family”.
MJF VS CHRIS JERICHO
The entrance for Jericho was really great with so many people singing “Judas” compared to usual. The entire audience was cheering for Jericho and booing MJF before the bell rang.
They fought on the floor where Jericho took the camera from the operator and gave MJF the finger. Jericho missed the Judas Effect and his elbow hit the post allowing MJF to attack it.
Jericho poked him in the eyes and hit the lionsault. He hit the punches on the turnbuckle and followed with a Frankensteiner on MJF.
MJF goes back to the injured arm and wrenches on it and started taunting Jericho. Jericho tried to fight with jabs since his right arm is hurt and he’s an orthodox striker. MJF applies the Salt of the Earth Fujiwara armbar and Jericho rolls out and applies the Walls of Jericho, which MJF escaped.
MJF hit a codebreaker with Jericho in the ropes and the Heat Seeker for a two-count. Jericho came back and caught MJF with the codebreaker for a two-count. The Judas Effect was caught as MJF applied the Salt of the Earth to the injured arm and Jericho reached the rope.
Wardlow ran down to pass the diamond ring to MJF, Jericho ducked, and Jake Hager passed the baseball bat behind Edwards’ back, MJF went down without being hit and Edwards caught Jericho. MJF caught Jericho with a roll-up for the win.
WINNER: MJF at 16:14
This match was much more about the storyline it sets in motion as the starting off point rather than a blow-off. The finish was what it needed to be where Jericho has a gripe and MJF can claim he warned Jericho he would do “anything” to win as they play faux best friends until the eventual split.
Jericho shook hands with MJF and welcome him and Wardlow to the Inner Circle.
The next pay-per-view is Revolution and will take place on Saturday, February 27th.
Dasha Gonzalez interviewed Orange Cassidy and Best Friends and Cassidy had no thoughts on his win. They were approached by Miro, Kip Sabian, and Penelope Ford. Sabian wants an apology from Cassidy after Ford was almost hurt last week on Dynamite. Cassidy doesn’t respond to the slap and leaves with Best Friends.
JON MOXLEY VS EDDIE KINGSTON IN AN I QUIT MATCH FOR THE AEW CHAMPIONSHIP
Kingston wore a Tracy Smothers shirt to the ring and had previously said he was dedicating this match to the late performer. He was also wearing Mitsuharu Misawa’s colors of green and white.
They immediately started to brawl and went to the floor where Moxley threw a chair at his face and threatens to break Kingston’s fingers.
Excalibur spoke about the influence that Smothers and Larry Sweeney had on Kingston.
Moxley is bleeding from the side of the eye as he grabs a barbed wire baseball bat and uses it on Kingston inside the ring. Both men were bleeding by the seven-minute mark.
Kingston wrapped a piece of barbed wire around his fist to punch Moxley and hit a spinning back fist with the barbed wire connecting. Kingston applied a kimura and Moxley bit Kingston to escape.
Kingston brought a bag of thumbtacks and dumped them onto the mat. This culminated with Kingston hitting a uranage to Moxley onto the tacks.
Kingston brought in a bottle of rubbing alcohol from Dr. Samson’s medical equipment. He poured the alcohol on Moxley’s wounds and applied the bulldog choke, he goes for a kick that misses and Moxley applies a choke and then hits a piledriver before going to his own bulldog choke and hits a Paradigm Shift.
Moxley wraps the barbed around his forearm as Kingston gives him the finger, he applies the bulldog choke with the barbed wire forcing Kingston to quit.
WINNER: Jon Moxley at 18:58 to retain the AEW Championship
Tremendous main event and hit the level of violence you need this type of match to convey.
Kingston was shattered as he held his hands to his face after quitting and crying after realizing he lost.
It was an excellent brawl and the weapons were spaced out for maximum value with the main ones being the tacks and the barbed wire with a perfect ending using the bulldog choke.
They also noted that Kenny Omega is next in line, so you leave this show knowing the direction.
Moxley helped Kingston to his feet and Kingston refused his help and left the ring.
Omega walked out and indicated he doesn’t want any part of the weapons and will meet him at a later date before exiting.
This was an excellent show and one of the best AEW has ever produced.
