AEW FULL GEAR

Newark, New Jersey

ANNA JAY vs. DEONNA PURRAZZO (7:22): This was a good show, although there was no match of the year contender. The show was a little strange because there were no gimmick matches and it seemed like the heels won the majority of the matches to make the show feel like evil was taking over. The pre-show kicked off with this totally pointless and forgettable match. Anna Jay faced Mariah May for the championship in two main events on Collision in recent weeks. She lost those matches but won here, in a match before 7 PM on the pre-show when barely anyone was in their seats. Kind of strange to see her being pushed as a main event star and then immediately put into the first pre-show match. Deonna Purrazzo has been a total bust, so beating her isn't helping Anna Jay gain much. Match was bad. 1/2*

BUDDY MATTHEWS vs. DANTE MARTIN vs. KOMANDER vs. THE BEAST MORTOS (10:35): This was a good match, something you'd typically see on Rampage. We got glimpses of what would have happened if AEW actually pushed Buddy Matthews as a singles star when they signed him. Oh, well. That ship seems to have sailed. He could have been battling in PPV main events for the championship. They decided not to do that for whatever reason. There was a lot of action in this match, including Komander's awesome rope-walk into a flip to ringside on everyone. ***

BIG BOOM AJ vs. QT MARSHALL (11:44): AJ and his son are stars on Tik Tok and Youtube. That's why this match happened, and also why this got some of the biggest crowd reactions all night. They do a gimmick called "The Costco Guys" that's super over with 12 year old boys. When AJ's son speared QT, the place went ape shit. It was entertaining. **1/2

PRIVATE PARTY vs. KINGS OF THE BLACK THRONE (MALAKAI BLACK & BRODY KING) vs. THE ACCLAIMED vs. THE OUTRUNNERS (13:29): This opened the show...and then there were 8 straight singles matches. Private Party just won the tag titles on Dynamite from The Bucks, so I figured they'd retain. Match was entertaining. The Kings of the Black Throne seemed to destroy everyone for most of the match and get most of the fan's cheers. The Outrunners are still wildly popular with fans, too, for whatever weird reason (80's nostalgia, I guess?). The Acclaimed is doing a storyline where Max Castor is slowly turning heel. I really doubt anyone wants to see Max Castor as a singles, heel wrestler, but whatever. **1/2

MJF vs. RODERICK STRONG (13:35): They seemed to be setting up an Adam Cole vs. MJF match on this show, so who the fuck knows why it ended up being Roderick Strong vs. MJF. Cole came out after the match to chase MJF away, so maybe they just wanted to continue that feud. MJF has been off TV for the last month because he was filming Happy Gilmore 2. He definitely would be great playing a smarmy, evil, snot-nosed rich guy douche. I bet he's great in it. This match was decent. Strong always wrestles like he thinks it's real and delivers brutal, painful, hard-hitting moves non-stop. MJF was funny on the mic before the match. This just felt like a TV match, though. **

MERCEDES MONE vs. KRIS STATLANDER (19:23): This match was fantastic, and we finally saw the great Mercedes we've been wanting to see since she signed with AEW. I think these two just gel together. They both delivered devastating moves back and forth throughout with a ton of kick outs. Mone retained her TBS title. ***1/2

JAY WHITE vs. 'HANGMAN' ADAM PAGE (19:52): The second half of the match was really good. The crowd in Newark was actually pretty good all night, getting into pretty much all of the matches. White won the same way he won last time he wrestled Page. Page went for the Buckshot Lariat but White reversed it into his Blade Runner finisher. The weird thing was...these two just wrestled at the last PPV and the ending was the same. Deja vu. Considering the fans still seem to really like 'Hangman,' maybe they should make him a baby face again. There's way too many heels in this company. ***

KYLE FLETCHER vs. WILL OSPREAY (24:13): This was the longest match on the show. It was also perhaps the best. Afterwards, I was wondering if Ospreay is going to go on a 3 month vacation or something because he got destroyed and pinned clean. They've been pushing Fletcher, so it makes sense to give him a big win. Where will this go, though? He's a heel so he's not going to wrestle Moxley for the title. The only good guy with a title is Daniel Garcia. If you beat Ospreay clean, though, you should be in the main event picture, not wrestling Garcia for the secondary title. The big move in this match that made the crowd gasp in shock was when Fletcher gave Ospreay a piledriver onto the ring steps. To do this, though, Fletcher had to jump from the apron onto the steps while holding Ospreay. It was fucking sick. And the whole match was big, brutal moves. My only qualm was that Fletcher pretty much had most of the offense and it really wasn't a great, back-and-forth, NJPW-style classic by the end, it was just a one-sided destruction. ***1/2

MARIAH MAY & MINA SHIRAKAWA: This was a champagne celebration. Mariah attempted to hit Mina over the head with a champagne bottle for no reason but Mina caught it. Then they both went through two tables by the entrance. Eh, they'll probably have a good match. I like Mariah but her title reign has been kind of dull. 

DANIEL GARCIA vs. JACK PERRY (18:16): Garcia just re-signed with AEW, so it wasn't a big surprise that he won the TNT title here. Match was okay but nothing spectacular. Perry put Garcia through the ring bell table and then emptied a garbage can on him. Garcia ended up getting Perry to tap out. **

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. RICOCHET (19:12): This match was good but kind of ended up turning out how the Ospreay/Fletcher one did. It was one-sided and a beat-down and Takeshita won to retain his International title. I would have rather seen more of a back-and-forth match at the end than a destruction. I kind of doubt they'll do it, but they really need to make Takeshita or Ospreay the AEW champ so we can finally have consistent, awesome, 4-star PPV main events. Has Moxley ever been in a 4 star match? **1/2

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. SWERVE STRICKLAND (13:22): This was another beat-down, destruction, and clean pin by a heel. This PPV was like The Empire Strikes Back or something. They did some cool spots in this, though. Swerve ran and jumped off the ring steps and gave Lashley a foot stomp through the announce table. Lashley gave Swerve a spear through the guardrail that broke. Lashley won with The Hurt Lock submission. I guess since Lashley is new and a supposed "monster" you didn't want to beat him. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (19:21): The big problem with this as the main event was that you knew Moxley wasn't losing. They just started this new Death Riders rule AEW storyline back in September and Moxley just won the title at the last PPV...so nobody thought it would all be over so soon with Orange winning. Cassidy was bleeding, so we finally got some blood on the show. Usually these PPV's have a ladder or cage or hardcore match but this one didn't. There was interference by Marina and PAC and Claudio. Ishii, Rocky Romero, and Kyle O'Reilly ran out to make the save. Orange Cassidy did a thousand Orange Punches in this match to no avail. At one point, Cassidy hit Moxley with the briefcase (the evil heel group holds the title in a briefcase for no real reason) when the ref wasn't looking and the crowd was shocked when it only it only resulted in a 2 count. After Moxley won, the AEW writing staff decided to go balls-to-the-wall. Wheeler Yuta poured a bottle of chemicals on Orange Cassidy's face and in his mouth. 'Hangman' came out with a chair and hit Wheeler then stared down Mox. Christian Cage came out and hit Moxley with his title contract (which is in a steel case). Jay White ran out to chase Christian out and thwart him from cashing in his title contract. Moxley and his crew were escaping outside when Darby Allin crashed his car into Moxley's car. Mox and his crew decided to steal a car and left. The show ended with a bloody Darby standing on Mox's destroyed SUV. Um...okay. This was all...too much. It also didn't make much sense. So is Darby wrestling Moxley or is Jay White next? Maybe a four way with Christian as well? I guess it was all entertaining in one sense. The whole Death Riders storyline, which is basically similar to Roman Reigns and The Bloodline taking over and also the N.W.O. taking over WCW, is actually kind of dull. The point is to build up a savior to finally dethrone Moxley and stand triumphant. Hopefully they don't drag this out for 3 years like they did with Cody finally beating Roman for the title. **1/2