“Full Gear” ended Saturday with a dizzying array of talent doing things at such a breakneck pace that I still don’t quite know what happened.
In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Orange Cassidy thanks to the help of Wheeler Yuta, who simply ran in and took out Cassidy, allowing Moxley to win. It was a good main event, although there were better matches on the show. If you pictured this game in your head, you knew how it would turn out and you knew what the outcome would be. There were no frills, just lots of blood and a scary looking back rake.
Then came the end of the show. Try to absorb it all.
Moxley continued to attack Cassidy with, of all things, disinfectant until Hangman Page saved him. Why? Who knows. This was a distraction for Christian Cage, who came out and put Moxley in an attempt to get his title shot. However, Jay White came out and attacked Cage. The Death Riders then attacked White as they made their way out. White grabbed a chair and stormed to the back, where the Deathriders were getting closer and closer to their truck. But then the truck was run over by a car that was actually driven by Darby Allin. Deathriders stole a car and left the arena as the show ended as Allin used his skateboard to further destroy their car.
Do you have all of this? NO? I don't blame you.
Full Gear, a show with ups and downs that left the audience struggling to respond to anything, ended with a lot of questions but not many answers. Cage, a heel, is still teasing his would-be Money in the Bank contract match. Hangman Page and Moxley had a staredown. Jay White wants a title shot in my opinion. And Darby Allin, who was just crushed last Wednesday, wants Moxley too. It feels like several months of Moxley challengers have been crammed into a ten-minute segment that leaves people more confused than excited about what comes next. This all probably would have been better if the storylines were a little more cohesive and better planned, and that's what best sums up Full Gear as a whole.
There were at least some good games, two great ones in fact.
Bobby Lashley defeated Swerve Strickland in a simple but effective match that saw Lashley decisively defeat the AEW Champion. Lashley should have won as he needed a big win in his PPV debut. However, at this point I don't know that Strickland lost. Given the Hurt Syndicate's attack on Prince Nana, the feud is probably not over yet, and I can see this continuing until the end of the year.
Konosuke Takeshita and Ricochet It was a great match where they did some cool things, but I expected more from both of them and the crowd just didn't care. At least Ricochet did a really cool space flying tiger drop. It's kind of amazing that this wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be because I can't remember the last Takeshita match that didn't impress me, but here we are.
I liked it Daniel Garcia wins the TNT title from Jack Perry I felt like it was a long time coming for Garcia, who they struggled with for most of the year. He ended up winning a major title in a pretty good match. Garcia has been well booked since his return last month and now he feels like someone special that you can finally get behind. The opening video with Garcia's mother beforehand was also a nice touch.
On paper you would think that Champagne celebrationlive on pay-per-view, would lead to the return of Toni Storm. That wasn't the case. Instead, Mariah May turned on Mina Shirakawa because, well, I guess she's just mean. Mina saw it coming, became angry, and attacked May, slamming her through a table off the entrance ramp. Okay, so why the hell was this on the pay-per-view if it wasn't supposed to be Storm's return? We're just delaying the inevitable, but I think with the Grand Slam Australia still a long way off, they're just biding their time and a feud with Mina will kill some time.
Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher I played a damn good match, definitely the best match of the night. Ospreay is on track to win Most Outstanding Wrestler this year and Fletcher should be in the running for Most Improved because while he's always been good, he's really shown that this year he can be something, and this match proved that he should be a player moving forward. And now that AEW has given him the big win, they need to make sure he continues to play a big role in the future. If they drop this now, it's on them.
Jay White and Hangman Page had a good match, but I thought their match at WrestleDream was much better. They decided to do something different and the audience just wasn't that into it. Not bad at all, but I also found it difficult to get involved with it. I think based on the main event perspective they will be involved in the world title scene and I don't think it's over between the two yet.
Mercedes Mone and Kris Statlander had the first great game of the evening. I've been skeptical about both of them lately because of their booking, but they put in an amazing performance on Saturday. I thought Statlander had no chance of winning with the header, and in the end I believed it could actually happen. They're already heavily predicting a breakup between Kamille and Mone (it wasn't even that long ago, was it?), so I wouldn't be surprised if they considered that for World's End.
MJF and Roderick Strong were finebut the audience was dead most of the time, which was a theme for many games on this show. I just don't like the storyline between MJF, Strong, Kyle O'Reilly and Adam Cole. After Cole returned as a face, things were already going downhill, and they've struggled to get it going ever since. I understand that they are moving the MJF/Cole match to next month, but if they don't have a story that really works, I hope that's the end of that story because it will make everyone get along less.
The opening tag match was just there. The crowd was more interested in booing Max Caster, who was clearly teasing a breakup with Anthony Bowens. Probably the best thing at this point. There's not much more to say other than that it feels like a division that needs something, because even though Private Party's title reign is still new, the division feels like it's just moving forward without a clear direction.
