AEW Full Gear Results and Reaction
It was a great showing last night in Baltimore and we now have some added fuel to some storylines and some are just getting started. The matches that were the most anticipated were the best of the night, but that is not to say that the other matches weren’t good, because they were. Every match on the card was solid. The next PPV event isn’t confirmed, but Chris Jericho’s wrestling cruise is coming up in a couple months, so that may be the next big event for AEW. I guess we’ll find out more later in the week, but last night was really good and here is my reaction to all of it.
- Women’s Singles Match
Britt Baker over Bea Priestley
AEW
This was a great Buy-In match and it went just as expected. Baker is seen as the top underdog in the women’s division and even though fans have been critical of her in-ring actions, she is proving to me that she belongs in the discussion of top women of AEW. It still is, for the most part, a warmup process for a lot of competitors in the company to get used to the grind of a weekly program and I think Baker will only continue to get better. I also heard that she wrestled with the Flu, which adds to her credibility in my book. Priestley is a great competitor also and could be seen as one of the top heels in the company in the near future. It was an interesting twist for Awesome Kong and Brandi Rhodes to appear after the match and I guess we’ll see what they’re going to be up to pretty soon.
GRADE: 8.3/10
- Men’s Tag Team Match
Santana and Ortiz over The Young Bucks
This match could’ve gone either way, but I was interested to see how crazy they would get in the opening match. I wasn’t really wowed by anything they did, but it was a solid showing from all involved. It was actually a lot more of an old school match than I was expecting, but that was perfectly fine. I thought the match went on a little longer than it should’ve, but not by a large amount. The coolest part of the match was at the end when The Rock and Roll Express came out and attacked Ortiz and Santana. Proud n Powerful did a great job of selling throughout the match as well and the Bucks sold their in-ring injuries wonderfully. I think we’ll see a lot more of these two teams for a long time.
GRADE: 8.8/10
- Men’s Singles Match
Hangman Page over Pac
I really liked this match going into the show and these two did a really good job. I personally liked it better than the previous match and it looks like Hangman is going to be in consideration for the title again. In the earlier PPV matches, I’ll admit that I wasn’t the biggest fan of Hangman, but I’m starting to really like what he brings to the table. He is getting more comfortable in each match and the ones that he has had matches with are elevating him to new heights. I thought Pac would take the win, but I’m interested to see if this match has any title implications.
GRADE: 9/10
- Men’s Singles Match
Shawn Spears over Joey Janela
B/R LIVE
This match was fairly predictable and the goal of the match was to give Spears a big show win moving forward. They were successful in that and they managed to make Spears look like a strong force here. The match wasn’t awesome, but it really wasn’t necessary. They made the most of a poorly built match and there really isn’t anything else to take away from it. The fans really like Janela and that should prove to be an asset for the “Bad Boy” moving forward.
GRADE: 8.1/10
- Men’s Three-Way Tag Team Match: AEW World Tag Team Championship
SoCal Uncensored (C) over The Lucha Brothers and Private Party
I was kinda disappointed with this contest. I expected a really good match, but it was just a little underwhelming to me. Not to say that there weren’t great moves and a solid amount of action, but I thought the match ran a little short compared to other matches. I predicted a title change here, but I didn’t really expect one to happen. It is clear that the tag team division is strong in AEW, but I personally thought that this was one of the worst matches of the night. That sounds like a slight, but in a show as good as this one, it really isn’t. Having Christopher Daniels show up after the match as a Pentagon Jr. look-alike was entertaining, and I guess we’ll see him back in action now.
GRADE: 7.9/10
- Women’s Singles Match: AEW Women’s World Championship
Riho (C) over Emi Sakura
AEW
These two put on a really solid showing and Riho retaining here wasn’t a shock and there honestly wasn’t any doubt that she would drop the title. I’m glad they had the angle of teacher vs. student in the contest, because it added an element that I never knew about and I’m pretty sure a lot of people never knew about. I don’t know who will contend next for the title, but I’m anxious to see what happens next.
GRADE: 8.6/10
- Men’s Singles Match: AEW World Championship
Chris Jericho (C) over Cody (Referee Stoppage)
Before the stoppage, the match was really, really good. After the stoppage, the actions that carried out will be iconic. Cody took a nasty dive to the ramp, head first. I thought it was just a blade job, but after seeing the laceration close up, it clearly wasn’t. He received 8 stitches and it looks like he’ll probably be out of action for a little while. Jake Hager was in Jericho’s corner and MJF was in Cody’s corner to even the score. Early on, I thought that the match was favoring Jericho too much for it not to swing in the favor of Cody sooner or later. Cody got his shots in, but this was clearly Jericho’s match to lose. The stare down between Jericho and Dean Malenko was cool to see and Cody’s mom getting some shots in on Jericho was super entertaining. Hager was thrown out of the outside area and Jericho hit Rhodes with the title belt. From this moment forward, it was anyone’s match. After a solid back and forth, the momentum was starting to swing back in Jericho’s way and he had the Liontamer locked in on two separate occasions. MJF threw in the towel for Jericho and stopped the match for Cody. Jericho retained and Cody can no longer compete in a title match, for now anyway. MJF pleaded for forgiveness for a little while, but then hit Cody with a low blow kick, thus creating a masterful heel turn. MJF has the potential to be one of the best heels in all of wrestling and this moment was likely the beginning of something wonderful. We’ll find out more on Wednesday, but what a moment.
GRADE: 9.6/10
- Lights Out Match
Jon Moxley over Kenny Omega *Match of the Night*
Moxley taking the win here was the right call and it would’ve been weird not having him win in this match style. The match wasn’t a win/loss ordeal, so this doesn’t help or hurt either competitor in the technical sense, but I think it did elevate Moxley’s ability to show what he can do in a big match situation. I’ll be the first to admit that hardcore matches aren’t really by cup of tea, but I do respect what these competitors do while in these types of matches. The amount of torture that Moxley and Omega endured was insane and it just goes to show how diverse Omega is. I’m pretty convinced that Omega is incapable of having below an above-average match and Moxley was on a mission to prove to the world what he is capable of. Keeping him in a box over the last few years and all of the aggression that has been suppressed is finally coming out. And as much torture as it was for each wrestler, it clearly was torturous on Moxley’s wife based on her tweet below. This match clearly didn’t count against their records and I don’t know if this match has title implications, but I’d say either one of these guys could be next in line.
B/R Live
GRADE: 9.8/10
Yacs