Full Gear was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on November 9, 2019, at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.
Eight matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega in an unsanctioned Lights Out match. In other prominent matches, Chris Jericho retained the AEW World Championship against Cody after Cody's cornerman MJF threw in the towel, thereby preventing Cody from ever challenging for the title again, Riho retained the AEW Women's World Championship against Emi Sakura, and SoCal Uncensored (Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) defeated Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. and Rey Fenix) and Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) in a three-way tag team match to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championship.
Results:
The Buy In (Pre-Show)
Dr. Britt Baker DMD def. Bea Priestley; Awesome Kong (w/ Brandi Rhodes) attacks Bea post-match
I mentioned this to a few friends that I was messaging back and forth with at the start of the show, but Britt Baker came across really heel in that promo to Bea. I get that she's "pissed off" from that attack a few months ago, but why react to it now after the fact. It seems like they are telling her story out of order since debuting on Dynamite. She should have feuded with Bea after that initial attack and the one during the battle royal that cost her the initial shot at the AEW Women's Championship, but for some reason, she was able to bypass losing the opportunity to get a title shot to be one of Riho's first challengers anyway. That ends up being a losing effort followed by her being heavily promoted in hometown the week following that loss. Wouldn't that fanfare and promotion have done wonders for Britt Baker's character prior to challenging Riho?
A better match than what Britt has been capable of up to this point, but that's not saying much. I still don't know what the hell to make of this new direction for Brandi Rhodes and Awesome Kong cutting off pieces of girls' hair to wear like some hunting pelt. It just comes off as really fucking odd to me.
Main Card
Proud & Powerful (Santana & Ortiz) def. The Young Bucks
A great opener for this PPV. I was surprised that there was a lot more controlled chaos in this tag match than the one later in this show as both teams followed the tag rules (for the most part) instead of doing like they do on Dynamite most weeks and just throw caution to the wind with tags everywhere left and right. I can't praise this tag team match enough on this show. The right team went over and the match got over hot from bell to bell. You couldn't ask for anything more from this match. I just want to offer a word of caution for the Inner Circle that they are coming off more tweener than heel in most cases outside of Jericho (it's not his fault that his stuff is so good that people are popping for it), Sammy Guevara, and Jake Hager.
Case in point? Santana & Ortiz are coming off more goofy than heelish in my eyes, especially after Santana's comical sell to that Super Kick.
Adam Page def. PAC
Weren't we "denied" this match a few months ago due to some misunderstanding and they ended up having it at a non-AEW event instead? In either case, I have to confess that this was the first match that I fell asleep to during the live broadcast. I wasn't expecting this match to go this long. After that goof/referee botch on Dynamite from this past Wednesday, I thought they were going to give PAC another convincing victory, but nope. Then again, I can understand why they didn't have PAC go over as Adam Page's win/loss record is looking like shit so far to say that he's supposed to be one of the young stars that they are building up. I don't think they have to push him to the moon but they have to be careful about beating Page into powder to the point where people don't give a flying fuck about him too (i.e. Dolph Ziggler case in point). PAC had a cool winning streak from singles competition going at this point and I don't feel like it was a great idea to end it so fast. They didn't have to establish his "streak" on the level of Samoa Joe's in Impact Wrestling, but it would have been a great sidebar note. Right now, it seems like the only one who has a good win/loss standing is Chris Jericho with 6 wins and 0 losses from singles and tag team competition.
Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard) def. Joey Janela
I can't help but wonder if Tully Blanchard is wasting his talents in Shawn Spears' corner from the little that AEW has done with him. The former Tye Dillinger isn't doing much better than his WWE tenure either in terms of wins and losses. There were some interesting spots here, but I couldn't help but shake my head that it took an assisted Jumping Piledriver on the floor for Spears to beat Joey Janela. Then again, Kenny Omega had to have a mock-New Japan tier match to beat him on television a while back and even on AEW Dark with the "furniture" involved. I honestly don't see what's the big fascination with Janela but whatever at this point.
I guess Penelope Ford didn't either to say that she's moved on to accompanying Kip Sabian's act now.
Triple Threat Match for the AEW Tag Team Championship - SCU (c) def. The Lucha Bros. and Private Party to retain
Kazarian and Daniels had to be the ones putting this match together as this match reminded me exactly like those old triangle X-Division tag team matches from Impact Wrestling's early years, especially during the World X Cup tournaments. I'm not saying that's a bad thing either as this was another fun tag team match, but I can't say it was my favorite of the night. AEW has to be careful like I feared during their time in Impact Wrestling of having the Lucha Bros. being overexposed from their constant array of crazy matches to the point that audiences aren't surprised by what they are capable of. I know I shouldn't worry too much about that as those two have a wealth of talent to offer as singles stars too, but I don't want to see this team split up anytime soon.
Can't say I was too crazy about Christopher Daniels returning to his "Fallen Angel" gimmick, but then again, my best friend pops more for that gimmick more than I do. I am curious though... Are the Lucha Bros. going to bring in a third member to counter Daniels if they are going to continue feuding with SCU?
AEW Women's Championship Match - Riho (c) def. Emi Sakura to retain
Going into this PPV, I didn't give a flying fuck about this match in the least but by the end of this match they won me over. This match was preluded with a great video package to hype this up, offering a bit of background on both Riho and Emi Sakura as student and teacher with Kenny Omega offering a few words. I have said it both on social media and on my recent This Month in Wrestling - October 2019 write-up that AEW's women's division is a tough sell, especially when they do little to make you care about the women in their division. From my understanding from reading a few threads on Reddit, Riho versus Emi Sakura is supposed to be a joshi wrestling fan's wet dream, but the appeal to a casual fan has been lost here in AEW from little attention given to this feud. Much like the Shawn Spears match earlier on this show, this match was given about two weeks (if that) to set up for this PPV and casuals are supposed to care? We're going into a month into the debut of Dynamite and AEW is still in this mindset of assuming that everyone is familiar with the wealth of "indie darlings" that they have signed.
I want to get to know everyone that they have under their roster but shoehorning them into a ton of matches without rhyme or reason isn't going to do anything to make me care about them more than I did previously. I have had some of you tell me that they are "attempting" to do some character development on AEW Dark when the initial selling point of that show on YouTube was essentially featuring dark matches that didn't make air on AEW Dynamite. That's where the promo where Britt Baker called out Bea Priestley for her match that aired on this show came from.
AEW World Championship Match - Chris Jericho (c) w/ Jake Hager def. Cody w/ MJF to retain via MJF throwning in the towel; MJF goes heel during post-match fallout
Normally, I hate these slower bouts but it worked out for the slow burn that they had for this match's narrative. They took their time and told a story instead of just spot, spot, spot, high spot, near-fall, near-fall, spot, roll-up/weak finish. I laughed when I realized Jericho was gassed early into this match when he's always making fun of Brock Lesnar on social media. That dude's face was redder than Lesnar's within the first 5-10 minutes of this match and they barely got going.
I cringed for Cody busting himself open over the eye with that missed dive. That could have been a LOT worse if he had hit one of corners going down. Thank goodness it wasn't worse than it was. That being said, the Rhodes family aren't strangers to working with blood running down their faces so that was a nice contribution to the drama and suspense of this match. I was anxious to see where they were going with this match as Jericho's appearing on NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom card in January. I don't know if AEW and NJPW have mended the fences between them but I don't know how they would feel about their champion showing up in New Japan and losing. Then again, they still have a few weeks of TV leading up to that show, so they could take that title off Jericho in the meantime, even though that would be a sin at this point. Jericho and Cody are easily the hottest acts that they have in that company with Jericho doing the best work of his entire career in that company in that role. Going into this show, I could have seen them going either way with Cody winning the title or Jericho retaining. In either scenario, MJF turning on Cody would have been paramount and worked in both narratives.
MJF's heel turn was telegraphed for weeks now and it wasn't a bad thing. You can have predicability in wrestling angles as long as it makes sense (i.e. "logical" reasoning - even though a lot of people hate to use the word "logic" in regard to professional wrestling) and benefits to the overall narrative. I couldn't believe that so many people thought the fan throwing his drink at MJF was real when the cameras panned over and got a clear shot of the guy. Not even WCW made it look that obvious when Eric Bischoff had his plants in the crowd throwing trash at the nWo when Hulk Hogan made his infamous heel turn to align himself with that faction.
Unsanctioned, Lights Out Match - Jon Moxley def. Kenny Omega
A win here doesn't affect Moxley's AEW win/loss records, so it does nothing to his current standing towards the AEW World Championship. That being said, let's talk about this match though. I have seen people say it was too violent and others regard it as one of the best matches this year. I have to leen on the opinion that I thought they did a little too much here, but I didn't think it was too violent. This was tame in comparison to some of the deathmatches in Japan or even that "Hell of War" match between Killshot (Shane Strictland/Isiah "Swerve" Scott) and Dante Fox (AR Fox) from Ultima Lucha Tres in Lucha Underground. I get that AEW want to offer stuff that WWE doesn't provide to their fanbase, but at the same time, you don't have to go the "garbage wrestling" route. That is essentially what this was. They brought out all of the furniture, garbage, and heaven knows what else into the equation here as if it was one of the older WWE video games with hacks enabled for maximum weapons allowed. I will give Moxley and Omega major props for creativity in regard of a lot of spots in this match, but my biggest knock against this match was that they could have taken off at quarter of these spots or the time given here and still won the people over with what they presented here. I was a fan of the exposed floor boards spot back when Impact Wrestling was doing it (Bully Ray vs. Sting immediately comes to mind along with that LAX vs. the OGs match in recent memory...), but goddamn I had to cringe at Kenny Omega doing a Phoenix Splash and smacking his forehead on that exposed wood. I know that wasn't a fun bump to take at all - much like 98% of the stuff that they were putting themselves through here. I was going to throw a fit if he was going to kick out of another series of finishers after that too. It was already absurd that they were still kicking out of finishers at this point.
On a side note, I heard a few podcasters ask if this wasn't the blow off to this feud then what would Moxley and Omega do for a rematch. That's easy. They would just nuke the ring and kick out at two. (Laughs) Okay, okay. I'll stop.
Closing Thoughts
I want to start off with a disclaimer. AEW's diehards, aka these "marks" (I'm a mark too so don't throw it back at me like I'm going to get offended as I'll think of it as a compliment) who can't take criticism about their beloved product need to chill the fuck down. I have seen a wealth of constructive criticism, even from Jim Cornette on occasion, to help better AEW as a whole instead of flat out shitting on it. I found it ironic that the same AEW diehards that I spoke to about my gripes about the show being too long were the ones who told me that the pre-show/Buy In was a complete waste of time and "doesn't count" to the length of the PPV. Since when? It counts with WWE shows and everything else. It's still part of the goddamn show. It's not stand alone like Sunday Night Heat. That being said though? I thought the promotional packages and hype videos on the Buy In were some of the best promotional work AEW has done to date. Why can't we have more of these videos instead of matches that go through commercial breaks? It's not even a knock on their weekly product when I say that these promotional packages were stellar work, but they need stuff like this to keep new and existing viewers hooked. Those videos sold me more onto the undercard of this show than anything else that they have done in the build-up to this PPV that's for show, with the exception of Cody and Jericho's promos and vignettes on the go-home episode of Dynamite. I really want them to do more of that stuff on Dynamite to distance themselves away from their "competition" on Wednesday nights from NXT instead of match after match after match with little to no in-ring promos or vignettes to break them up. Anyone with two fully functioning eyes can see that AEW has some stellar athletes but I would like to know more about them as individuals and that doesn't mean having to invest time into watching all of the episodes of Being The Elite on YouTube either. That's like insisting that I watch Xavier Woods' UpUpDownDown channel to understand the New Day's gimmick. Is too much to ask for more character development time for the roster members who aren't in Cody and Jericho's respective factions?
While I thought this was a solid show from start to finish, I didn't feel like it didn't justify being roughly five hours. During the live show, I nodded off at least four different times and kept waking up going, "This shit is STILL going on?" in regard of match times. Not every match needs to be 15-30 minutes, especially for the folks on the undercard. That Spears/Janela match should have been 5-8 minutes tops. PAC/Page didn't need to go a full broadway either. Someone in that company needs to sit their roster down and tell them that not everyone is getting 15-30 minute broadway like it's the damn main event at WrestleMania or fucking Wrestle Kingdom match. I could cut them some slack on the time when they didn't have a weekly television show to promote their stuff, but we're a month into Dynamite now. They should have a grip on this by now. Watching that show from 7PM to roughly a quarter to midnight made me feel like I wasted my entire Saturday watching that show. Even NXT TakeOver knows to end their events between 10-11PM. AEW has a weekly television deal on a major cable network. There's no need to circle jerk themselves by using an entire five hour broadcast when they have two-hours to fill on Wednesday nights. Save something to look forward down the road. I don't understand with this mindset in most of their matches where the talents are performing as if they aren't going to get another chance to compete again. With as shallow as the depth of the AEW roster is right now (in terms of people that they have been using on TV repeatedly for the past month), you would think that they would be rotating more of names out of the pool of talents they have signed prior instead of limiting them to dark matches on AEW Dark.
AEW should give themselves a pat on the back. They had a successful and more importantly a very entertaining initial PPV outing after their first monthly build following their debut on TNT. The opening act jitters are over, now it's time to show what else you got up your sleeves to keep the people hooked for the long haul.
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