AEW Full Gear 2020

It took me a couple weeks to do a write-up, but here we are. Full Gear thoughts.

I don't normally do the pre-show on these musings, but I did catch the Buy In show, which featured NWA Women's Champion Serena Deeb defeating Allison Kay in a pretty good match to retain the title. And then former champ Thunder Rosa comes out to tease a rematch of sorts. I've heard complaints that this was "downgraded" to the pre-show rather than get a slot on the PPV, but I didn't have an issue with it; more people will be watching that Buy-In show on Youtube and elsewhere (since it's free) and I'm sure Billy Corgan appreciates the extra exposure NWA's been getting.

On to the main show... the usual commentary crew (JR, Tony, Excalibur), is joined by the Golden Announcer himself, DON CALLIS. Don Callis is also an executive at Impact Wrestling and probably the only major mainstream exposure TNA is getting all year on a major platform.

Kenny Omega defeated Hangman Adam Page to become the number one contender. Gotta be honest; when Callis was introduced as a guest commentator for this match, it removed all doubt that Kenny was winning this one because there is no way that they'd have ol' Cyrus in the house and have Kenny lose. That having been said, this was a tremendous match.

Orange Cassidy defeated John "Fucking" Silver in an entertaining enough match that saw Silver RIP ORANGE'S POCKETS OFF HIS PANTS. What a bastard. I liked this more than I thought I would, probably because Silver is getting to show off a little more personality here. Silver has been one of the more entertaining aspects of the BTE show and the fact he's getting showcased a little more here is a good thing because more people need to see this guy at his element. Did he need to win? No, that time will come down the road.

Darby Allin defeated TNT Champion CODY Rhodes... yes, he has a last name again... via roll-up to win the TNT championship. Good back-and-forth story between the favorite Darby and the rugged champion Cody. In hindsight, probably would've meant more if Cody's two reigns as champion was uninterrupted or if Darby had been the one to dethrone Brodie Lee during his run, but either way, the guy got a much needed big win and he got it. And then Team Taz came along and beat both guys up, with a picture of Brian Cage and Ricky Starks teasing a tug of war with the TNT belt. Curious about that one.

AEW Women's Champion Hikaru Shida defeated Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) to retain the title. Wasn't feeling this one, which is funny because I remember them having a much better match months ago and this wasn't quite up to that level. Probably explains why this felt a little long in the tooth. Still a fine enough match for what it's worth, but not quite up to the level of everything else up to that point. Even the NWA Womens match was a little better than this.

The Young Bucks defeated AEW Tag-Team Champions Fuck The Revival to win the titles.

Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara in an ELITE DELETION match. Basically, if you've seen FINAL DELETION in TNA, you know what to expect going into this one. Commentary in this match threw me off a bit and actually detracted from the shenanigans, particularly when Jim Ross is burying this stuff out in the open. There's some nice cameos from Gangrel and Hurricane, the latter serving to pay off an old years-old angle. As someone who was never the biggest fan of this FINAL DELETION style of stuff, I can appreciate Matt being able to pull off one of these matches in each of the three major promotions... yes, TNA was once considered a "major" promotion and for folks who enjoy this type of stuff, this definitely seems up there. And while some will question the end result, I agree with Matt coming out on top. He's the hero of this story and Sammy is the guy who's wronged him. Why wouldn't I want the hero to come out on top and get his revenge at the end of the story? Sammy's day will come soon enough.

That said, enough with this feud. I am done.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman defeated Chris Jericho via tribute to Eddie Guerrero (pretending to be knocked out while Jericho is holding a bat to fool the ref into thinking Le Champion killed poor MJF with the bat). You know what? They tried and that's the most charitable thing I could say, but it's not exactly either man's best match. Jericho seems a bit slower; somewhat fitting for the newest member of NXT's key 50+ demo.

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley defeated Eddie Kingston in an I Quit match to retain the title. A brutal no-holds-barred contest with lots of weapon and hardcore violence. I enjoyed the match, but I also recognize that this style of wrestling is not everyone's cup of tea, so there you go.

And that was Full Gear 2020... an all-around wonderful show with some great matches and even some of the weaker stuff was still pretty solid stuff. Probably AEW's best PPV up to this point. Go watch it.