By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
AEW Full Gear Hits
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher: Fletcher going over clean was perfect. They told a great story of Ospreay being wounded coming into the match and having that exploited by Fletcher. Ospreay shouldn’t take too many losses, but he elevated Fletcher and now has a loss to avenge. The in-ring action was terrific and this was my favorite match the night.
Mercedes Mone vs. Kris Statlander for the TBS Championship: Mone really needed this strong outing. It doesn’t solve any of the ongoing issues with her performances on the mic or the go away heat she’s generated, but it stopped the bleeding for one night while also reminding fans of just how good she can be in the ring.
Bobby Lashley vs. Swerve Strickland: Ballsy booking with former WWE star Lashley beating former AEW World Champion in clean and decisive fashion. Much like Ospreay, the loss gives Swerve a mountain to climb while also reestablishing Lashley as the same badass character he was in WWE.
Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy for the AEW World Championship: All of the clean finishes on the undercard led to a rare cheap finish in an AEW pay-per-view main event. They worked a good match beforehand, starting with Cassidy dominating Moxley early by hitting him with three Orange Punches. I don’t want to see cheap finishes in all of Moxley’s main event matches going forward, but it was fine in this case as they continue to establish The Death Riders faction. The post match scene was overstuffed with too many players and swerved as a weak conclusion to a pay-per-view.
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Ricochet for the AEW International Championship: This match had a couple of things working against it. The match was placed at a point in the night when the live crowds tend to fade temporarily due to the match-filled pre-shows. It was also late on a show that saw wrestlers kick out of damn near everything, so it took a lot to make fans actually buy into any near fall. Ultimately, this was a good match and it was great to see Takeshita get a clean win over Ricochet.
Jay White vs. Hangman Page: The build to this match just didn’t click, but the actual match stood out from the rest of the show due to the story of both wrestlers working through injuries. White going over felt like the right move simply because he needs the win more. Colin McGuire wrote about Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay both taking high profile losses on this show in his blog earlier today. I’ll take it a step further by adding Hangman Page and Darby Allin to the list of top AEW wrestlers who took clean losses within the last week. It’s great that the top talent in AEW are willing to help elevate others, but AEW has be judicious when it comes to having its top wrestlers dropping matches or these wrestlers will run the risk of losing their top star status.
AEW Full Gear Misses
MJF vs. Roderick Strong: They made the mistake of teasing viewers with the more attractive MJF vs. Adam Cole match only to go with a match that felt like it belonged on one of the weekly television shows. I’m all for MJF finding success in Hollywood. But if he’s going to wrestle infrequently, his matches need to be bigger than this one felt. Does anyone actually care about Kyle O’Reilly yelling at Cole afterward or any of the never ending drama involving the Undisputed Kingdom?
Jack Perry vs. Daniel Garcia for the TNT Title: This was a Hit from a match quality standpoint. But Will Pruett made an excellent point in our same night audio review for Dot Net Members when he said this should have been a television main event. Garcia’s title win was fine in the moment, but it wasn’t a big talking point coming out of the show. It would have packed more of a punch had this same match aired at the end of Dynamite along with the confetti treatment for the title change.
Private Party vs. The Acclaimed vs. Kings of the Black Throne vs. The Outrunners in a four-way for the AEW Tag Team Titles: Was there a good reason for not just going with Private Party vs. The Acclaimed when they felt like the only teams that really mattered in terms of how the match was laid out? All three of the matches listed in the Miss section felt like they would have been better off or simply belonged on one of the weekly television shows. A great case can be made for AEW pulling back on the length of their pay-per-view events and only showcasing their best material, but it feels like a waste of time because it’s hard to imagine Tony Khan ever coming to the realization that more isn’t always better.
Mariah May and Mina Shirakawa’s champagne celebration: I’m all for AEW doing brief non-match segments on their pay-per-views to give fans a breather from all of the in-ring action. Unfortunately, this was just a lousy segment.
I’d say Cole-O’Reilly stuff is like watching paint dry, but drying paint isnt annoying in addition to boring.
In WWE terms:If you add Waller to a Punk segment, Waller is elevated. If you add Tozawa to a Punk segment, the segment is brought down.
Get Taven, Bennett, and esp O’Reilly off of Dynamite asap
Take a look at what Bubba said about the Ospreay-Flecther match. I 100% agree and I am more than done with non-stop spot fests, particularly long ones with top stars.