By Michael Heilman
All Elite Wrestling presented its third pay-per-view of the year “Full Gear” from the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD. The event featured eight matches, including the highly anticipated matches of Chris Jericho, who put the AEW World championship on the line against Cody Rhodes and Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega in an unsanctioned “Lights Out Match.”
Full match results:
Buy In: Britt Baker defeated Bea Priestley by submission. Bea Priestley is the current Stardom World champion. Priestley’s work ethic is so good that she can make any wrestler look good in the ring. Britt Baker had one of her best matches since joining AEW. Baker submitted Priestley with the Lockjaw. After the match, Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes came out with Kong attacking Bea Priestley and cutting off some of her hair and putting her hair in Awesome Kong’s pocket.
Main Card:
Santana and Ortiz defeated The Young Bucks. This was good technical wrestling at its finest. Both teams used high spots and grappling moves like the Boston Crab, Gory Special, and Camel Clutch. Nick Jackson sold his knee injury, and this led to Santana and Ortiz to hit their finisher move called the Street Sweeper for the win. After the match, Sammy Guevara came down to celebrate the victory and help to attack the Young Bucks. This led to Hall of Fame wrestlers The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express to get involved with Ricky Morton by hitting a Canadian Destroyer on Santana.
“Hangman” Adam Page defeated PAC. This match was physical from the start. There were plenty of high flying segments, including one segment where a chair was used by PAC to hit a brainbuster on Page. Page then used the top rope to hit a fallaway slam. Page countered a reverse German suplex from PAC and reversed it into a powerbomb on PAC. Page hit his submission on PAC called Dead Eye for the win.
Sean Spears defeated Joey Janela. This match had very little storyline but still was a very entertaining match. Spears at one point used the rope to tie Janela’s hair. Janela undid the rope; however, some of his hair remained entwined. Then Spears and manager Tully Blanchard recreated the spike piledriver that Blanchard and Arn Anderson used to do back in the day. Spears hit the C-4 Death Valley driver to beat Janela.
SoCal Uncensored defeated Private Party and Lucha Brothers to retain the AEW Tag Team Championship. There were lots of high-flying segments from all of these teams. Rey Fenix was the star in this match. The finish of the match saw SCU hit their finisher called SCU later on Private Party member Isiah Kassidy for the win. After the match, Lucha Brothers attacked SoCal Uncensored, leading to the return of Christopher Daniels.
Riho defeated Emi Sakura to retain the AEW Women’s championship. AEW had an excellent video package showing photos and videos of Emi Sakura training Riho throughout the years and wrestling each other in Japan. This was a competitive match as Riho used her knees and stomps while Sakura hit a vicious cross body on Riho. Riho was able to roll up Sakura for the win.
Chris Jericho defeated Cody Rhodes by technical submission after MJF threw in the towel to end the match to retain the AEW World Heavyweight championship. Early in the match, Cody Rhodes clotheslined Jericho out of the ring. Cody then attempted a suicide dive, but Jericho moved out of the way, and Cody landed on the steel entrance ramp causing Cody to suffer a massive cut on his forehead above his right eye. Once both men were back in the ring, Jericho continued to attack Rhodes’s head and ribs. The interesting part of this match was Cody’s mom getting involved slapping Jericho in the face outside of the ring. Near the end of the match, Jericho locked in his Liontamer finisher, Cody kept fighting back, but Jericho kicked Cody on the head several times. While Cody did not give up, MJF threw in the towel, giving Jericho the win. After the match, MJF cried to Cody, apologizing to him while Cody was pissed. Finally, MJF turned on Cody by kicking him in the balls.
Looking ahead, I think it will be revealed on AEW Dynamite that MJF is a member of Inner Circle. Even though the stipulation was if Cody didn’t win, he can’t challenge for the AEW title again. Cody never gave up, and I think the judges of the match Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, and The Great Muta will allow Cody one more shot at the title down the road. In my opinion, the storyline between Inner Circle and The Elite will continue. MJF could potentially be a new member of Inner Circle, which opens up a spot for The Elite, and it could be the long-awaited debut of Marty Scrull.
Jon Moxley defeated Kenny Omega. If you like hardcore wrestling at its finest, this match was for you. Both Omega and Moxley got their wrestling careers started at CZW, a wrestling company that is based in Philadelphia, PA. During an episode of AEW Dynamite, Moxley said that the people would see violence like they haven’t seen in 20 years. Moxley and Omega tore the house down. There were all kinds of weapons being used in this match from a barbed wire baseball bat, trash cans, barbed wire broom, broken glass, tables, a table full of mouse traps, chains, a massive bed of barbed wire, and dissembling of the ring exposing the boards underneath. These men also went through the Full Gear sign and Omega hitting Moxley with the light that was part of the Full Gear sign. Moxley hit his finisher called the Paradigm Shift on Omega for the win.
Full Gear was a top-notch pay-per-view event to close out the pay-per-view schedule for 2019 and the first in the Dynamite era. AEW have been consistently putting on great matches with great storytelling and keeping promises to the fans. When wrestlers say they are going to do something, they do it. The crowd was engaged throughout the show and played a huge part in some of the matches taking place.
AEW listens to the fans; they save the big matches for the big shows. Every show feels big, and that is something that hasn’t been done for a long time. If AEW can continue to deliver week after week with great storylines and great matches, they will gain new fans heading into the new year. If you haven’t seen Full Gear yet, go out of your way to watch this event.
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