I’m at a weird place with AEW right now and Saturday's Full Gear exemplified that.
On one hand, the wrestling on this show was great. There were a lot of great matches, so I can’t call this a bad show. It was good! But throughout the show, there were a number of things that kept reminding me of WWE. Not bad WWE or good WWE — just WWE. And frankly, when I watch other wrestling, I don’t want to be reminded of WWE.
Take the show-long storyline of The Gunns attacking MJF after retaining the ROH Tag Team titles with Samoa Joe on the pre-show, injuring his leg. Adam Cole made a surprise appearance during that match and could only watch as The Gunns Pillmanized MJF’s leg. MJF begged Cole not to let them take his title as he was put in an ambulance. This ended up being a weird storyline in which Tony Khan, who must not care about the health of his performers, agreed to put Cole (who is recovering from ankle surgery) in the main event against Jay White for the title.
Of course, this did not happen. This entire angle was set up so MJF, channeling "Stone Cold" Steve Austin from the 1998 Raw is War era, couuld drive back to the arena in an ambulance and wrestle as the vulnerable babyface with the bad leg. And like Austin/Hogan/Cena/Reigns, he overcame the odds and defeated White in what ended up being a very good match.
I feel like I’m all over the place on this show and this match, but I also feel like that a lot with AEW lately. The match quality is above WWE most weeks, but I’m struggling to get into the stories in between the matches. It seems the only reason they did this storyline, which really did nothing but confuse people, was because they thought nobody thought White had a shot at winning the title. That kind of brings the question as to why White was put in the position in the first place to headline a pay-per-view.
Again, I feel weird about being so dour on the main event. It was good and people were into it, so is there really anything to complain about? The answer is yes because they spent a show-long storyline about MJF possibly not wrestling a match that was built for weeks, just to do it anyway. It's weird and doesn't feel like something AEW would do even a year ago.
Anyway, here are my thoughts on the rest of the card:
The Young Bucks lost their AEW Tag Team title match to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, aka the Golden Jets. This had a hard time following the Texas Death Match, but this also ended up being really good. Based on the finish, I wonder if the Bucks are going to end up joining the Don Callis family or if it's just a tease to eventually get them all back together. It seems weird to do another Elite split so soon as it wasn't that long ago they did the big reunion.Boy, that Texas Death Match was kind of violent! Just about very violent thing you can do in a match took place here. Glass, barbed wire, staples, blood — it was a brutal, brutal match and was an absolute spectacle in a way that was completely different from the ladder match. I thought the finish, which involved Brian Cage interfering, was so unneeded and took the match down a notch. Both companies are way too over reliant on interference to the point that Tony Khan is promising no interference in the Continental Classic tournament. You know you are in 2023 pro wrestling when you have to promise no interference. Still, whoever watches this match will probably remember it for a long time and I think it was the match of the night, despite the finish. I was kind of surprised Page lost two in a row to Swerve. so where does he go from here?Julia Hart won the TBS Championship in a match I thought overdelivered. This ended up being good, especially toward the end with some great near falls. I thought this was better than the Women's title match, in fact. I think the spooky thing is too gimmicky but I can’t complain too much about this.The ladder match for the AEW Tag Team titles was great. I got annoyed when this stipulation was announced at the last minute on Friday because a) it was last minute and b) I’ve had my fill of ladder matches, a stipulation that feels like its been done to death. But I give lot of credit for this match being great due to Brody King, who took some amazing bumps including a piledriver on one of the ladders. Everyone worked hard here and this ended up being really good.Toni Storm regained the AEW Women’s title in a match that just too cute in some spots, if that makes any sense. There was good wrestling, but it was pretty campy between all the butler spots and the shoe spots and the plate spots. I kind of don’t want this on AEW TV, yet I am seeing more of it and will see more as the weeks go by.Orange Cassidy surprisingly retained the International title against Jon Moxley. I assumed a title change was happening here as Moxley was never actually supposed to lose the International title, but maybe this was the story all along. This ended up being a very good and hard-hitting match just as you’d expect between these two.The six-man that opened the main show had Adam Copeland, Darby Allin and Sting defeat Christian Cage, Nick Wayne and Luchasaurus in what ended up being a fine match. I think the biggest bump of the match, naturally, came from Allin taking a scary-looking bump to the floor after being thrown by Luchasaurus. This is all setting up an eventual Copeland vs. Cage singles match, maybe next month at Worlds End?
The pre-show matches:
MJF and Samoa Joe retaining the ROH Tag Team titles was fine. The surprise appearance of Cole in the end got a pop, but the distraction finish felt right out of WWE. A lot of AEW things have been feeling right out of WWE as of late. Much more of a storyline to establish Cole was there and The Gunns injuring MJF, setting up the story of the night.I liked Claudio Castagnoli vs. Buddy Matthews while it lasted in a real good hard hitting match. Matthews is underrated as a singles wrestler.Eddie Kingston defeated Jay Lethal to retain the ROH World title in the open of the pre-show. This was fine. The Jarrett crew’s act is fine in limited doses. Ortiz is friends with Kingston now. Isn’t it funny Mike Santana won that match on Rampage a few weeks ago and has vanished from TV while Ortiz has been on every week?
And that is Full Gear. AEW will move forward with another pay-per-view next month with Worlds End so we’ll see where AEW pivots between the Continental Classic tournament that begins on Wednesday and where we’ll go with MJF, who I think may face Samoa Joe on that PPV…or perhaps that match will be next week. Who knows with AEW?