Full Gear (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on November 7, 2020 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida. It was the second event in the Full Gear chronology.

Nine matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Eddie Kingston in a "I quit" match to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Darby Allin defeated Cody Rhodes to win the AEW TNT Championship, and Kenny Omega defeated "Hangman" Adam Page in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match.




Singles Match for the NWA World Women's Championship
Serena Deeb (c) def. Allysin Kay by submission



Not a bad opener, almost thought that they weren't going to give the ladies time to get this in. Not a bad match to start things off with, but it felt like Kay and Deeb's styles weren't clicking at various points of the match. Deeb retains though and that's all what matters right?

Thunder Rosa stares down with Serena Deeb post-match. I saw a lot of reporters and podcasters that were quick to shoot down those rumors/reports about Rosa taking time off to train for her next MMA fight and I wouldn't be so quick to rule that out. She's still got two more fights left on her current MMA contract, but who says that she doesn't want to get this quick rematch out of the way before she starts training for said fight? Deeb could then have more bragging rights if she does retain but leave the door open for Rosa to come back with renewed vigor after the MMA bout. Look at how AEW promoted the hell out of Jake Hager's battle scars from his recent MMA victory on Dynamite. I'm sure NWA would love to get that kind of exposure for Thunder Rosa after her next fight. For those that aren't aware, NWA did an EXCELLENT video package chronicling Thunder Rosa's training up to her first fight. That would be great stuff on Dynamite if they keep this working relationship with NWA alive.

As for Allisyn Kay, she announced that she was a free agent and appears on this PPV in less than the span of a week. I think it's safe to assume that this was a tryout of sorts for AEW. They could use more seasoned women like Kay on their roster, especially those who are TV ready. I wouldn't see any harm in bringing her in full-time. 




AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match
Winner receives a future AEW World Championship match.
Kenny Omega def. "Hangman" Adam Page


The Cleaner came out to play tonight and was all business. At the end of the day though, it was another losing effort for Page in another big match opportunity. I will say this much - Adam Page did have Omega's number in terms of scouting his signatures, but when it was all said and done, he still fell victim to the One Winged Angel. Page ALMOST didn't get his head tucked down in time before he hit the canvas. That was scary to watch. Other than that, I was shocked to see them start off this show. I thought this was a great match to start off with right out of the gate. 

I don't shit on Kenny Omega as much as a lot of other wrestling critics do, but at the same time, I don't dick-ride him like Dave Meltzer and his followers do. I respect the guy's work from his tenure in New Japan, but Omega has diluted himself over the past year to bring himself down to the rest of the roster's level. One year later and the only thing that selflessness has done is lower his own stock. This was one of those rare occasions where Kenny Omega should have been selfless in terms of protecting his own star power and market value, especially being one of the last highly sought after free agents after leaving New Japan. We saw glimpses of his former glory here in terms of his performance. I hope people would quit sleeping on Adam Page too as he's got a lot of potential to be a top draw for this company too if he would distance himself from the BTE boys and establish his own identity - not one as the loner (read: pathetic and cowardly as how he's been portrayed for the last few months) drunk/alcoholic either. 

IMPACT Wrestling EVP Don Callis joined this match on commentary too. Could we see a working relationship between AEW and IMPACT? That would be interesting for sure.







Singles Match
Orange Cassidy def. John Silver



That Spinning Release Torture Rack should've been Silver's finish IMHO. I did get a good laugh at Silver ripping off Cassidy's pockets and acting like he was eating them. This match was pretty much what we've all come to expect out of an Orange Cassidy match. He got his silly shit in then got serious with his high spots. IMO this gimmick has ran its course. That being said, I didn't agree with the finish. If Silver is as over among the BTE crowd as people claim he is, then they should've given him a win here against Cassidy. Orange Cassidy can afford a loss with the Best Friends' laundry list of enemies on that roster running interference.

Silver's more impressive than I would've given him credit for as part of that awful Dark Order faction/gimmick though.





Singles Match for the AEW TNT Championship
Darby Allin def. Cody Rhodes (c) (with Arn Anderson)



I love this filter for the Darby/Cody package. Cody is in color while Darby's in black/white. Yes during the introductions they called him Cody RHODES.

This match was essentially the same as the last few Cody versus Darby matches but the finishing sequence was rather odd. It was even stranger that they wouldn't even show a replay either so I'm guessing a ref botch calling it prematurely. The narrative for this match had Cody working Darby's arm so he couldn't use it but the funny thing about that is that I was laughing that has nothing to do with how effective the Coffin Drop is. You could cut off both of his arms and Darby could hit that thing to the same amount of effectiveness. That being said, Darby didn't even beat Cody with the Coffin Drop, but with a goddamn roll-up instead. I thought it was pretty fucked up that the kid couldn't even get the win against Cody clean for the title. 

Team Taz attacks both men post-match, but Will Hobbs saves Darby from getting his arm smashed into a car door. I'll say this much though... If they are staying the course on turning Cody Rhodes heel, then they are definitely milking this for the perfect opportunity. 


Team Taz left Darby Allin for dead after that beatdown. Didn't even give him a chance to soak in that title win. 



After it was all said and done, I was just glad that Darby FINALLY got his win against Cody one year later, but the finish here seemed a little anti-climatic. I hope that's not the end of this story because where else is Cody going to go? He can't challenge for the World Championship and of course he's going to want his rematch. They gave him his rematch against Brodie Lee so fast when he came back calling for that, so I wouldn't be surprised if Cody ends up being the first three time Television Champion in 2021. At this stage, Cody Rhodes doesn't need that championship. It should be reserved for the young lions on that roster looking to rise to the next level. 





Singles Match for the AEW Women's World Championship
Hikaru Shida (c) def. Nyla Rose (with Vickie Guerrero)



Shida hurt her knee early on after Nyla blocked her signature Running Knee so that played into the match - but not much as Shida was pulling off power move after power move using her base/grounded strength to toss Nyla around back to back across this match. I swear I get pissed every time Nyla does that diving knee drop off the top rope to a rope hung opponent and people kick out of that shit. That should be her fucking finish.

I'm sure that I've mentioned it before but Shida's facials during these matches range from comical to downright awful. She looks like she's taking a shit more than she's in any pain from anything that her opponent is doing to her. 

Shida hit about 3-4 knees to Nyla in the end to retain, regardless of her "ailing" knee. I got a kick out of the fact that she's still rocking that Final Fantasy VII Remake Tifa cosplay ring gear. I was like "Gurl, it's time to give that shit a rest already."


New gear? That looks like the same shit she's wearing EVERY goddamn week to me. Someone should have tagged that image with the caption, "WRONG HOLE!" to describe her facials at points in this match. I found myself laughing hysterically at her facials more than being caught up in any sense of "drama" or potential danger that she was in. 

It seems like Nyla and Vickie are falling out post-match. If so, that's stupid when AEW barely gave them screen time after pairing them up. You know's bad when even Tony Khan had to address these criticisms during the post-show conference call. I know I'm not complaining about how well they have been promoting and working with NWA to showcase their NWA Women's Champion on their programming, but damn, it's making the AEW Women's Championship look like a complete afterthought. 








Tag Team Match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) def. FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (c)
  • Had The Young Bucks lost, they would have never challenged for the AEW World Tag Team Championship again.
  • Tully Blanchard was barred from ringside.



It was your typical high profile tag team match in AEW - or rather in mainstream wrestling. I know most people will attempt to credit the Young Bucks having great match psychology during the opening portion of this match, but I hate to burst those bubbles, but let's see that from the Bucks when they aren't in the ring with FTR leading the direction of the match early on. To their credit, they took things slow and slowly built towards a crescendo, or rather multiple crescendos, as this match had a ton of peaks and valleys. There were a ton of excellent spots/sequences that would make for great finishes, but here they are transition spots or near-falls. FTR went on and on about "no flips just fists" for years now, but that proved to be their downfall at the end of the day. One of them went for the Bucks' Springboard 450 Splash, missed and ate a Super Kick from the ailing ankle of Matt Jackson for the win. Great action here, but I felt AEW shit the bed on the build completely and gave the finish away with that stipulation which was completely unnecessary.

The match itself lived up to the hype, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's any truth to these reports going about FTR's frustrations in this company. To say that AEW has so many high-profile tag team signed, but the only ones at the top of the mountain are the Young Bucks, FTR, and the Best Friends, tells you right there that these people don't know what the hell that they are doing booking wise. It blows my mind week-to-week trying to make sense why some of these tag teams are barely featured (if at all PERIOD) on Dynamite or have been regulated to performing on AEW Dark exclusively. Out of all of the tag teams that this company have signed, not mention the crapfest that was the build to this match, you're telling me that we couldn't have had a simply awesome build to this dream match? Instead, we got the Bucks acting like prima donna dicks (yet they are the babyfaces going into this match), whining and complaining week to week, only to press an injury (not a shoot either as apparently one of the Bucks has been dealing with it for quite some time now) to gain sympathy. What kind of ass-backwards booking is this? FTR barely got any mic time to promote this thing in the least. I know they aren't the best talkers from their WWE days, but they should have been given screen time to get something out there to drive the point home of this dream match. FTR left WWE to make this dream match a reality. For crying out loud, is it too much to ask for a coherent, spectacular build for this match?

I said it before and I'll say it again on here. I wish FTR did NOT come to this company. In my own selfishness, I wanted to see FTR do a run in the NWA before the global pandemic hit everything like a ton of bricks. Hell, I still have FTR versus The North over in IMPACT Wrestling  on my wishlist too. 







The Elite Deletion Match
Matt Hardy def. Sammy Guevara


Matt goes FULL Broken Hardy for this again. It was pretty much typically what you can expect from these Broken Universe matches if you've seen them in IMPACT. Craziness at the Hardy Compound with cameos galore, including Gangrel (WTF) and The Hurricane/Shane Helms. Santana & Ortiz and Private Party join in at some point too. There was even a cameo from Queen Rebecca and Senor Benjamin in the end.

I'm sure that I wasn't the only one to notice that Matt Hardy was really taking it easy in this match in terms of bumps. Even the spear out of the ring and through to the two tables during the finish looked like it was shot from multiple cuts spliced together to hide that they used a crash pad for safety. I thought it was in a little bit of bad taste to parody the near-fatal bump Matt Hardy took onto the concrete floor of the last PPV with Sammy Guevara taking it instead with a puddle of (clearly artificial) blood pooled behind his head. 

Out of all of the Broken Universe cinematic matches, I can't necessary say that this was my favorite one, but I can't say that this was the worst one either. My favorite one is still Tag Team Apocalypto back in IMPACT Wrestling while WWE drastically dropped the ball with this thing with the "Woken" Matt Hardy stuff. What hurt this "match" the most though is the fact that we have seen MULTIPLE cinematic matches throughout this year during this pandemic era of mainstream professional wrestling and it's not special anymore when Matt Hardy originally cooked up this concept. 








Singles Match
MJF (with Wardlow) def. Chris Jericho
Since MJF won, he and Wardlow are allowed to join The Inner Circle.


This was easily the worst thing on the card all night - for me at least. It wasn't because of the match quality - it was the fact that this match just seemed to drag on aimlessly until the finish. At this point in the show, we're closing in on midnight on a Saturday night on nearly FIVE hours on a goddamn PPV (including the Buy In preshow). Even WWE aren't clocking shows this long anymore. I get it though, AEW only does 4 PPVs a year and they are trying to give their fans their money's worth at $49.99, but still, you're asking a LOT of people on a Saturday night.

This was your run of the mill Jericho match in AEW, but MJF pulled a trick out of the late Eddie Guerrero's playbook to fool Ref Aubrey into thinking Jericho used the baseball bat (Floyd) to roll him up for the win. Meh at that finish. I couldn't care less either way as I don't see a benefit from MJF being part of the Inner Circle or not. Please point to me any benefit that anyone NOT named Chris Jericho has had in that group over the past year.

MJF was on fire in his feud with Moxley and now he's down to doing show-toons with Jericho. Sure, a win over Jericho is impressive on his resume but does it really mean much when Jericho already lost to Orange Cassidy SEVERAL times over the past few months?





"I quit" Match for the AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley (c) defeated Eddie Kingston


Moxley's post-WWE matches have only stood out to me when he was over in New Japan with a roster of workers who can compliment that hard-hitting brawler style that he's shooting for. This isn't a knock against American wrestlers in general, but most people stateside aren't going to work that style and it's a bad look to even try to when you obviously can't. Moxley himself isn't even necessarily great at it, hence why he masks his shortcomings with the assortment of hardcore stupidity that he sprinkles into almost all of these matches. 

Shout out to Eddie Kingston rocking the Misawa colors during this title match and congratulations to him headlining his first PPV main event for a major wrestling promotion. Let's hope that this isn't the first and only time we see him in this position. 

While I love that Eddie Kingston is getting this career resurgence of sorts here in AEW as a lot of people are seeing him for the first time on big platform. I thought he was great on the mic in IMPACT Wrestling - despite the fact that we've had a few choice words for each other on Twitter in the past for some of my criticisms back then. I thought he was a shout out talker on NWA Powerrr last year as well. He's always had the gift of gab; there's no doubting that. I'm just happy that he's got the attention of a lot more people - inside and outside of AEW. 

That being said though, he's a lot like Moxley, where his in-ring style isn't for everyone - me included. 
Moxley and Kingston were brawling at first but this match quickly devolved into a hardcore match like almost ALL of these Moxley matches have turned into. Not really a knock, but it's getting very redundant at this point. Like I said before, I wasn't really a big fan of Moxley matches when he was in WWE as Dean Ambrose and I still not too fond of him in this company either. They did have some interesting hardcore spots, including some rubbing alcohol after a bump into the thumbtacks. That was VERY creative there, even though I wouldn't be surprised if that was mere water in that bottle instead of rubbing alcohol, especially if they have to use that same ring again Wednesday night for Dynamite. Then again... Moxley and Kingston are so crazy, gangsta, or whatever you want to call it, that they really did use actual 90% proof rubbing alcohol. Seriously, how much does that go for nowadays during this pandemic?

The ending saw Moxley wrap his arm in barbwire and put on a seated choke on Kingston. Kingston did NOT say I QUIT, but the referee called it anyway to name Moxley the winner. Very strange finish to me. 

I was told on Twitter after the fact that Kingston did mutter the words to quit, just the cameras didn't catch the audio. I thought they would have had the referee with a microphone on his outfit that would have at least caught that, but oh well. I guess Kingston won't have another excuse to explain his shortcoming this time. 

Walking away from this match, I don't understand why so many people were shocked that Kingston didn't put Moxley away. I wasn't in the least. Kingston ended up being the replacement for Lance Archer, who was pegged to get a rematch against Moxley at this PPV before coming in contact with someone who had COVID-19, so he was pulled off the shows that were building to this PPV. This caused Tony Khan to pull an audible with Kingston in his place. All of that being said, I didn't think that they weren't going to take the title off of Moxley before we get the rubber match between Moxley and Kenny Omega. 

Speaking of which, Kenny Omega came out afterwards to stare down with Moxley to close the show and tease the match for the title next. I'm all for this as long as it's not another deathmatch like the last match between them was last year. 



Afterthoughts:



This was a solid show from start to finish. This show definitely made up for the debacle that was All Out roughly two months ago. More importantly, I'm glad no one got hurt this time around either. 
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