Overall, Full Gear was a great pay-per-view. I was there at the show live, so my perspective is strictly from what I witnessed at the event minus the commentary.
For me, the best match goes to the AEW World Championship bout. Granted, I wasn’t too surprised at the result, as Chris Jericho should’ve retained the belt and Cody doesn’t need it at the moment. MJF showing his true colors was well executed, though not surprising.
The moment Cody announced the “I can never challenge for the World title again” stipulation, I instantly knew that this was the perfect time for MJF to turn on him. The 23-year-old is a star and I look forward to the build-up between him and Rhodes.
Honorable mentions go to Santana & Ortiz vs. The Young Bucks. The match wasn’t as fast or crazy as I wanted it to be, but these two tag teams still put on a very good match. PAC vs. Adam "Hangman" Page was a pretty damn good bout as well.
All in all, there wasn’t a bad match on the card, though I hope that AEW does a better job of building up their undercard for the next pay-per-view.
Going into the final week, Full Gear only had four matches, and that’s unacceptable, especially when the company is charging $50 for the pay-per-view. Major League Wrestling’s Saturday Night Superfight was a fantastic show not only for the match quality, but because of the care that each match received, which helped me get invested in the characters as well. And that show was 20 bucks! Seriously, check out the MLW show if you can.
I liked the story for the AEW Women’s title match, but I wish it was built up longer than three days. The promotion needs to start building strong heels for Riho as well. AEW is still finding their footing so I’m not going to go crazy and bash them, but it’s time to give some women a chance to showcase their personalities and develop some secondary feuds.
Despite the Janela/Spears match, the AEW World Tag Team title match, and the AEW Women’s title match being last minute, they were all still enjoyable, though the fan investment was notable in the arena, especially during the Janela/ Spears match.
Now, let’s talk Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega. Was that match too violent?
For me, no. However, my taste in entertainment tends to be Grindhouse/Tarantino/Scorsese or mostly Rated R films, so I think it’s safe to assume that my taste in media is a bit darker than others. I often compare films to wrestling because I view both in a similar matter. Just like movies or television, wrestling is an art that has a story with a beginning, middle, and end.
Entertainment is subjective, so I understand why people didn’t like this. A friend that I went to the show with wasn’t a fan of the Lights Out match and I completely understood from his perspective. He felt that the match was just about violence, and honestly, it was.
While I wasn’t bothered by the violence, I did feel that it was unnecessary. This wasn’t some blood feud between Moxley and Omega, thus both guys wanting to torture each other didn’t really make sense.
Moxley wanted to hurt Omega because he was the company’s “Golden Boy”, which isn’t a strong enough reason for the violence we saw on Saturday. Why does Moxley truly hate Kenny Omega? Is he jealous that the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion is very popular amongst the fans? Is he angry with Omega for stealing his girlfriend back in high school?
Moxley expressed that he wanted to beat the top guy and was pissed that this match won’t count on AEW’s win/loss record; however, the former WWE superstar’s hatred isn’t really personal with Omega, as he simply wants to prove that he’s better than one of the top guys in the company.
Had you changed Moxley’s opponent to Adam “Hangman” Page or Cody Rhodes, then the story wouldn’t be any different since Moxley never gave a specific reasoning for his dislike of Omega.
For Omega, his anger towards Moxley is more understandable, but again, the amount of violence still wasn’t justified. Not counting anything prior to AEW, we’ve seen Omega as this fun-loving competitor throughout the company; So, it’s a bit jarring to see him suddenly torturing Moxley with glass and barbed wires.
I feel that a great opportunity for a strong story was missed here. The story of Omega going to the darker side to fight John Moxley could’ve been a great one, but that clearly wasn’t what both men wanted to go for. Like I said previously, Omega has a good reason to hurt Jon Moxley; however, torturing a man is arguably worst than a simple beatdown.
The match was solid, and I didn’t hate it, but since it was more spectacle than story, I didn’t care for it either. This isn’t a match that should be on every pay-per-view. I personally feel that these types of bouts should be saved for blood feuds.
All in all, the show was a great end for AEW in 2019. I do look forward to seeing what happens on AEW Dynamite this Wednesday. There are still some things that the company needs to improve upon, but nothing major enough to kill my excitement for the brand right now.