Not everything about the initial six weeks of AEW Dynamite has gone to perfection. The promotion has dealt with standard growing pains, suffering through occasional production botches and timing issues, while some stories peaked at the wrong time, or didn't get enough development to attract attention from the audience. But AEW hasn't had to be perfect to be a success, and make no doubt that by this time in the tale, they already were. WWE's gambit of trying to limit the new company's growth by directly opposing them with NXT on the same national time slot has already come up empty, with NXT rapidly falling behind in both total viewership and the key 18-49 demo. Dynamite has established itself as a celebration of wrestling, providing a rowdy atmosphere every Wednesday night, learning from the past while innovating for the future, and most of all, providing a coherent and entertaining professional wrestling product that thousands would gladly pay to see on a weekly basis. AEW hasn't re-invented the wheel, and it's clear that they never needed to to offer WWE significant competition. Heading into Full Gear, the company was prepared to put a bow on the rivalry that had defined the past six months of their main event scene, as Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley would finally clash in what promised to be an uncomfortable and riveting show closer. There were other reasons to check out this offering; Cody putting his ability to challenge for the AEW World Championship on the line certainly upped the ante on his match with Chris Jericho, while the two tag matches were likely to be thrilling, but make no mistake, Omega and Moxley carry this card. Both had already demonstrated their violent tendencies in separate "Lights Out" matches against Joey Janela, and both were promising even more carnage in the main event. Now it's time for them to deliver, and take AEW to a whole new level of wrestling barbarism.
- Full Gear 2019 comes to you from the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, which we've seen previously on this blog as the host of King of the Ring 1994 and No Mercy 2003 in the WWE. Jim Ross and Excalibur are on the call.
- I normally cover The Buy In to AEW pay-per-views in a separate post, but Full Gear's free first hour didn't feature enough content to feel like that was deserved, as a majority of it was video packages that were replayed on the actual event. There was only one match, the showdown between Britt Baker and Bea Priestley, and it was a bit of a disappointment given how much time AEW had invested in building hype for it. Baker is an awkward in-ring performer on her best day, and this was nowhere close to her best, as almost all of her offensive repertoire looked awkward, clunky, and totally unconvincing. Priestley was better, viciously punishing Baker with stiff back work, shuttin down Baker's comeback with two crisp suplexes, a German and a capture variety, before taking flight with a daring dropkick to Baker on the apron. Baker's push isn't about to stop here, though, as she fights back with a scary Canadian Destroyer, before battling to apply the Lockjaw, which Bea did escape once with a hair pull, eventually forcing a tap. Priestley's bad night continues as Awesome Kong, under the order of Brandi Rhodes, flattens Bea with an Implant Buster, and cuts off a chunk of Bea's hair to wear in her belt as some form of trophy. The Rhodes/Kong alliance already appears to be floundering, as the live crowd sits on their hands through most of this beatdown, an awful sign given how much the company had already invested into making this a prominent aspect of the division.
- Our opening contest is a "big ticket item", as it's the Young Bucks squaring off with Proud n' Powerful in the first of two battles between The Elite and The Inner Circle. Both teams kick the night off right, with an entertaining little tussle that put Ortiz and Santana over strong, allowing them a massive spotlight to showcase their in-ring personas. The two Puerto Ricans are in control for much of this contest, and wreck absolute chaos at every opportunity. I loved the sequence of them working for a tag early on, growing more and more agitated as referee Rick Knox thwarted their shenanigans, and their interesting three-way submission spot and crippling of Nick Jackson's leg showed off their technical expertise. Nick's battered leg causes yet another setback for the Bucks, as he crashes off the top rope attempting the Meltzer Driver, and from there, Ortiz and Santana are in the driver's seat. Nick goes on a last-ditch effort to save the match with his array of kicks, but the Street Sweeper finishes him off. Afterward, the on-going tension between the two Inner Circle goons and The Rock n' Roll Express, who were seated at ringside, turns into a crowd-pleasing spot for Ricky Morton, as the vets save Matt and Nick from a beatdown, and Morton spikes Santana with a Canadian Destroyer before diving onto Ortiz. For their part, the Bucks weren't quite on their A-game here, as Matt thrilled the crowd with his Locomotion Northern Lights suplex routine and pulled off an electric counter of the Street Sweeper, while Nick's selling of the leg was spotty, and the two didn't combine for much interesting offense.
- It was a bit involving "Hangman" Adam Page on Being The Elite that gave birth to the name of this event, as he looked to drop weight to not be embarrassed by PAC while both men were in their revealing gear, so it only makes sense that the conflict between the two should culminate on this night, with Page getting the confidence-building win. The two worked at a deliberate pace, and while it did slow a little too much at times, the match crescendoed exactly when it needed to. Page's power almost overwhelms PAC, but "The Bastard" is clever enough to hang in it, putting Page on his heels with a vicious Brainbuster through a chair, before later countering Dead Eye into the Brutalizer. But Page has brains of his own, as PAC's sly mule kick is blocked, and Page then victimizes the smaller man with a discus lariat and connects with Dead Eye to finally get that monkey off his back.
- Shawn Spears and Joey Janela are definitely underrated as characters, but unfortunately, they don't do enough in the ring to make a straight-up wrestling match between the two on pay-per-view a success. Janela's ridiculous bumping was worthy of respect at the very least, "The Bad Boy" is powerslammed on the floor and takes a nasty tumble off the apron. Janela's is also willing to let his hair take the kind of punishment the rest of his body does, as Spears savagely ties Janela's locks up in the corner, forcing Janela to lose several strands of hair pulling himself free. Janela makes a brief comeback, landing a stiff lariat to the back of Spears' head, but his demise is orchestrated by Tully Blanchard, who causes several distractions, and even gets physically involved, combining with Spears for a Spike Piledriver on the outside (the finishing move Tully and Arn Anderson used to employ). Spears polishes off the leftovers with a running Death Valley Driver, building him back up after the loss to Cody at All Out.
- Of all people, Kip Sabian is given mic time on this show, as he's interviewed backstage by Goldenboy, putting over his new alliance with The Hybrid2, before Penelope Ford, his shoot and now kayfabe girlfriend, gives him a kiss on the cheek, and he promises to bring sex appeal to AEW. Alright, that's a fairly lofty goal but I won't doubt the man.
- It's time for a tag team cluster, as SCU defend the AEW tag gold against the Lucha Brothers and Private Party in a match that was only assembled on the go-home episode of Dynamite. As I anticipated going in, it's certainly a wild ride at points, but lacks any sort of connective tissue to add drama to the moves. Rey Fenix turns in a tremendous performance, nailing every kick and soaring through the skies as only he can, adding multiple jumps onto a tornado dive to the floor and a crossbody to Scorpio Sky, increasing the difficulty of each move but executing them flawlessly. Fenix is almost broken in half after that crossbody, as Sky and Kazarian get revenge for the assault on Christopher Daniels, with Kaz given an extra boost by Sky for a top rope DDT that connected with insane precision. SCU continue to be booked strong, as Kaz kicks out of Marq Quen's Shooting Star Press, before the two wily vets stop the Gin and Juice, securing their title defense with SCU Later. Fenix and Penta are furious about this setback, and quickly jump the champs after the bell, but Penta is confronted by an imposter in his gear, who enters after the lights are turned out. Penta brah brah breaks out the STO takedown and the Angel's Wings, revealing the inevitable as it's Christopher Daniels under the mask, returning after a month-long hiatus to sell Penta's attack on Dynamite. SCU are now at full force, and it appears that the Lucha Brothers might need to forge a new alliance...
- The development of the AEW women's division has been frustrating thus far, but the company does things right on this night at least, pitting champion Riho against her mentor, Emi Sakura, and giving the audience a reason to care with an emotional video package detailing the deep history the two share. Excalibur mentions the two have shared the same ring over 200 times in their respective careers, so it's no surprise that they've worked out an engaging formula that's designed to impress. The first moments of the contest were electric, as both go back and forth at a million miles a minute, before settling down by trading their trademark offense. Sakura punishes her smaller opponent by tossing herself into Riho with multiple crossbodies and big splashes, while also bending the champion in half with vicious backbreakers and a crisp backdrop driver. Riho has to fight to survive and land whatever she can, mostly stomps, and she displays a knack for dramatic timing, just getting her foot to the bottom rope to escape being pinned late in the match. Both pick up the pace for the finish, trading pinfall attempts in a blur of motion, before Riho outmaneuvers her trainer with a gorgeous leg-scissors takedown into a high stack cover that gets the three count. I haven't been sold on Riho as the figurehead of this division previously, but this definitely enhanced her reputation in my eyes, check it out if you haven't already.
- Full Gear truly steps up it's game from this point forward, as the heavy hitters are out for the AEW World Championship match, with judges Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, and The Great Muta observing this clash between champion Chris Jericho and challenger Cody Rhodes. Obviously, given Jericho's physical limitations and Cody's soulful style, this was never going to be a barnburner, but the crowd in Baltimore love it nonetheless, completely investing in the journey both men take us down in these 30 minutes. Cody battles through a heaping of obstacles, from a cut above his eye (suffered on an ill-fated dive onto the elevated entrance ramp), to a rib injury that Jericho routinely exploits, to the chicanery of Jake Hager, who intervenes on Jericho's behalf multiple times before Aubrey Edwards ejects him. Hager's exit kicks this match into high gear, as narrow near falls pile up, with Jericho landing a belt shot, Cody countering a Judas Effect into a Cross Rhodes, and Jericho snatching Cody in mid-air for a Codebreaker. Cody, already a bloody mess after an effective blade job, has welts opened up on his back courtesy of Jericho's weight belt, but he fights on, perhaps a little too well, I thought he seemed way too fresh during the finishing stretch, invalidating a major part of this ferocious battle. Even after a time spent in the Walls of Jericho, Cody still gets another near fall, rolling Jericho up after a spat between Edwards and the champion, and even the extra torque Jericho puts on the Liontamer doesn't get Cody to tap. Instead, MJF throws in the towel on his friend's behalf, a clever concept for a match finish that didn't go over well in Baltimore, as the crowd turned on Friedman and rallied for Cody to batter him. That can't have been the desired reaction for that moment, but at least the heat MJF garnered for surrendering Cody's chance to ever challenge for AEW's top prize plays well into his actual betrayal, as MJF embraces the villain role that he was always meant to play, dropping Cody with a low blow. Friedman was brilliant here, owning the camera with a sinister grin, before sauntering out of the ring, riling up one fan enough to throw a drink at him. Outside of my slight annoyances with Cody's selling, I loved the ham-fisted drama and earnest, emotional storytelling this match brought to the table. This was by far the most WWE-ized match on the card, but with a properly detestable heel and a beloved babyface in front of a molten hot crowd, it easily blew anything Vince has produced in the last few years out of the water.
- Main event time, as Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega deliver the glorious wrestling violence they had promised, and then some, in their "Lights Out" match. Look, I know this match kicked up some controversy with how graphic it got at times, but this was a heck of a war, and one of those matches that you just have to see, if only because you can. These two men held absolutely nothing back, gouging each other with barbed wire, tearing each other's skin to bits with shards of glass (a callback to the glass table that Moxley put Omega through on the first episode of Dynamite), and breaking out mouse traps and chains and tables to be slammed on or cut with. It's a gruesome viewing experience, but I expected nothing less, and for however horrifying it got, they never lost me, my eyes were glued to the screen for almost 40 freaking minutes, that is talent right there. Both men punctuate their war with two huge spots in the final chapter, as Moxley suplexes Omega onto a barbed wire-encrusted webbed structure, and then Omega sends Moxley and himself crashing through a plexiglass covered stagelight with a V-Trigger. Somehow, both men can still walk, and return to the ring for one final stand. Moxley cuts away the mat and padding to expose the hard pinewood underneath, which generates a sickening thud as Omega's head bounces off of it when he misses a Phoenix Splash. That Omega had enough left in his system to pull of that move is a ridiculous feat all to itself, the man is a monster. The miss is Omega's doom, as Moxley knocks Omega down a few IQ points with an elevated Paradigm Shift onto the planks, finally securing his well-earned victory. Moxley continues to curse out the world when a camera gets within earshot of him, which was great improv on his part, as with the eyes of the wrestling world upon him, Moxley leaves no doubt that this is just the beginning. I felt exhausted by the ending of this match in a way that wrestling rarely makes me feel, this could've clocked in at many hours in length and I wouldn't have been shocked. If you love hardcore/deathmatch wrestling, this is obviously a must-watch, and stands up well to the Triple H/Cactus Jack wars of early 2000, my favorite matches in this particular genre.
9/10
Full Gear had it's flaws, with a main event that divided opinion, a few matches that didn't quite cook, and some occasional lapses in selling that undercut otherwise fantastic stories. But I thought AEW absolutely stuck the landing, with the final three matches all over-delivering, and I certainly got my money's worth in terms of action, this was a purchase that was worth every cent.
UPDATE: Turns out, I completely forgot to talk about commentary on virtually this entire review, which I was intentionally saving for the end, but it ended up just getting right past me, I guess. Tony Schiavone wasn't behind the desk for this show, as he was busy calling a Georgia Bulldogs game, and don't get me wrong, I do love Tony, but man, JR and Excalibur absolutely flourished without him. It's not hyperbole when I say that this was one of my favorite nights of commentary ever, Ross and Excalibur were phenomenal, a perfect blend of JR's trademark charm and quotable one-liners, and Excalibur's insight and quick wit. The best aspect of their performance was how much they focused on getting the characters and the action over, for three and a half hours, it's almost like nothing existed in the outside world, just this show and these matches. It was wonderfully immersive and made everything featured click perfectly, major props to both.
- Henry
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