MJF is your new AEW World Champion, Jamie Hayter is your new AEW Interim Women’s World
Champion, and The Elite are NOT your new AEW World Trios Champions!
It’s time for my review of AEW Full Gear 2022 in about 10 minutes, and boy howdy this
show sure was noteworthy, for many reasons, almost all of them positive.
Firstly, I just wanted to note how different the vibe was for this show than it has been
for a lot of AEW programming as of late.
I know that’s a really hard thing to quantify or explain, but genuinely watching it just
felt like it was a big time show, and it managed to recapture some of the old, pre-Brawl Out
AEW feeling once again.
Looking back on All Out now, the fallout from it was a pretty dark time for AEW, but I’m
hoping that this show will be the show that kickstarted the comeback to form for the company.
There were three Zero Hour matches on this show, the first being Chaos with a Very Evil,
Very Mysterious tag team partner vs The Factory, which really was a way to get Evil Danhausen
on our screens.
I quite enjoyed the reveal, and the more serious side of him combined with the flurry of offense
he got when he returned was a nice breath of fresh air for Danhausen, who has changed
up the character before it got stale, which is nice to see wrestlers being ahead of the
curve.
The second was Ricky Starks vs Brian Cage in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament,
which Starks won in a fine enough match with Starks fighting back from behind.
And the third was Eddie Kingston vs Jun Akiyama, which was a very fun bout of stiff striking
and no selling, and it was lovely.
Kingston got the win with the spinning backfist, and was very emotional throughout and after
the match, where he then improvised a promo to make people buy the PPV, because he’s
the best.
The main show kicked off with Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs Luchasaurus in a Steel Cage, which
was a banger of an opener.
This was designed to be Jungle Boy’s real arrival as a singles star, the statement maker,
and I think it achieved that goal.
He bled early on, which only aided in the underdog story of Luchasaurus’ offense.
Christian Cage attempted to get involved when he opened the cage door, allowing Luchasaurus
to get weaponry such as a couple of chairs and a table before the door was shut again.
I’m not a huge fan of the cage being opened as I feel it can really undermine the point
of being locked inside the cage, but I’m glad it was at least quickly resolved and
the rest of the match took place in the ring.
After some stellar nearfalls, Jungle Boy managed to win by hitting an Elbow Drop off the top
of the cage through a table and got Luchasaurus to tap in the Snare Trap for the win.
This was a great way to kick off the show, kept people energized throughout, and reminded
people that this duo in AEW’s history in particular were beacons of joy and positivity.
Right after that we had Death Triangle vs The Elite and hot damn guys, let us breathe.
The Elite made their return after All Out, and boy did they make an entrance, complete
with Carry On My Wayward Son to accompany their now complete babyface turn.
And make no mistake, they were full on babyfaces here.
They felt reinvigorated, and perhaps the extra 3 months off for Kenny in particular was actually
a blessing in disguise for his niggling injuries, and the action in this match was super fast
paced and incredibly enjoyable, again managing to remind AEW fans that these two trios were
six of the more prominent wrestlers that made AEW the hottest North American wrestling product
in 2021.
In what I would consider a pretty shocking result though, Death Triangle held on to the
belts, with character work making up the reason.
PAC tried to tempt Fenix to use the ring bell hammer earlier in the match, but Fenix refused,
until much later on, when again, PAC tried to convince Fenix to use it, this time after
they were on the ropes and it seemed like they were going to lose.
Kenny got Fenix up for the One Winged Angel but Fenix used the hammer and rolled up Kenny
to retain.
I think this was actually a wonderful decision.
It continues the story Death Triangle had going, doesn’t immediately make them feel
like an afterthought once The Elite came back to town, and might put to rest some concerns
fans had about Death Triangle just being placeholder champions.
To top it off they then announced they were doing a Best of 7 series with Death Triangle
vs Elite which could potentially stretch into January if need be and hot diggity dog I am
not opposed to this at all.
Jade Cargill then successfully defended her TBS Belt against Nyla Rose in a decent little
match, which picked up the pace towards the end with the pair stealing each others’
finishers.
But of course Rose eventually succumbed to Cargill’s Jaded as per usual.
Up next was the 4-Way for the Ring of Honor Championship with Chris Jericho defending
the belt against Claudio Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Sammy Guevara.
I really enjoyed this match, primarily for the story beats it told, with Danielson and
Claudio working together initially before turning on each other, Guevara and Jericho
working together initially before turning on each other, and a great bit where it looked
like Guevara made amends with Jericho, only to hit him with the GTH and a Shooting Star
Press for a nearfall, which was pretty slick.
Jericho retained with a Judas Effect on Claudio, but it was a fun affair regardless.
Saraya had her return match against Britt Baker next, which was alright.
She mentioned herself that she was shaking off the ring rust, and you could tell a little
bit as there seemed to be a couple of miscommunications and awkward bits, but overall it was still
decent enough.
Saraya got the win with two Rampaiges, or Ramsarayaes I guess now, and it was lovely
to see her wrestling again.
Welcome back Saraya.
Wardlow defended his TNT Belt against Samoa Joe and Powerhouse Hobbs next, which was a
bunch of big lads doing big lad things.
There seemed to be a touch of nerves or something with a couple of the spots in the match, but
overall this was also pretty fun.
The finish of this match was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be, but with different
people.
Wardlow managed to hit some Powerbombs onto Hobbs, but Joe took out Wardlow and choked
out Hobbs for the win to become double champ.
I thought it was going to be Hobbs taking advantage of Wardlow attacking Joe, telling
the story of Wardlow losing the belt because of his hyperfixation on Joe, but this is still
an interesting choice for sure.
Samoa Joe as TNT Champ is not something I’m going to complain about, and I’m curious
to see what happens with his reign as the Wardlow stuff doesn’t feel over with, but
also I don’t know how much mileage it has honestly.
Sting and Darby Allin had a tag match, so you know that means it’s going to be the
most wildly entertaining sports entertainment match on the card, and it was.
Lethal and Jarrett played their parts well but honestly the standout of this match was
Satnam Singh, who caught Darby Allin doing a Coffin Drop from like 25 feet up off the
stage, it was wild.
He also did an awesome looking chokeslam to Sting, but he was taken down by a combination
Coffin Drop & Scorpion Death Drop by the babyfaces.
Darby Allin got the win on Lethal after Sting countered a Lethal Injection into a Scorpion
Death Drop.
Silly, stupid, fun.
Toni Storm defended her Interim belt against Jamie Hayter next in a match where the crowd
absolutely wanted to see Hayter walk out as champ and boo’d anything that indicated
Storm might win on principle.
This was a great match in terms of action, with the pair really getting to showcase their
wrestling ability, which if you haven’t been keeping track, is quite a lot.
There were nearfalls, Rebel got involved and Hayter got a nearfall, Baker stomped Storm
onto the belt and Hayter got a nearfall, then Baker got involved again and Hayter got a
nearfall, then Baker started taking off the turnbuckle pad, which of course meant that
she was going to unintentionally cost Hayter the match…except she didn’t.
Hayter knocked Baker off the turnbuckle, but then Storm was the one who hit the exposed
turnbuckle, with Hayter hitting the ripcord clothesline to become new Interim Women’s
Champion.
I am so, so glad AEW made this choice, they really listened to the fans, and it feels
vindicating to think that Hayter got organically over just because she’s really good, and
they pulled the trigger while she was hot.
It’s these sorts of decisions that will help recover the goodwill for the company
that has kind of been chipped away at over the past couple of years.
I’m not a huge fan of how overbooked this was, with Rebel and Baker and all the interference,
but I’m super happy with the result so…can’t be too mad I guess.
Speaking of acts that got organically over, The Acclaimed defended their tag belts against
Swerve in our Glory, where we had the second instance in the night of a heel wrestler trying
to convince their babyface partner to use a foreign object in a match.
But it worked both times, and we had different outcomes, so it’s fine.
Swerve went full heel in this one, trying to use the pliers on Max Caster, but Billy
Gunn came out to make the save, so instead Swerve tried to make Keith Lee use the pliers,
but he refused, throwing them aside and walking out of the match entirely, leaving Swerve
to fend for himself, which he didn’t, with The Acclaimed retaining.
This was also some nice character development, and you know I’m all about that.
Keith Lee vs Swerve Strickland sounds really tasty to me though, so gimme more of that
please.
And now we can have FTR go after The Acclaimed and the tag belts…right?
And then it was time for the main event.
MJF vs Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship.
MJF was the babyface…mostly, in this match, with him playing up the babyface pops he was
getting, having an injury spot and working from behind, and Moxley playing the heel,
flipping off the crowd, working down MJF the whole time with a smile on his face.
I thought the action itself was mostly fine, nothing too special to write home about, apart
from the one time where Moxley piledrived MJF through a table on the outside and hit
a top rope Paradigm Shift for an awesome nearfall, but yknow, that’s minor details.
The psychology was great though, and it all led to the dramatic climax.
The referee was of course knocked down, and MJF went to use the Diamond Ring, but stopped
when William Regal came out and told him not to.
He threw the ring away, but walked into Mox, and then there was another ref bump.
Mox choked out MJF, MJF tapped, but the ref was still out.
Regal barked at Mox to rouse the referee, but in the moment he moved away to get him,
Regal slid MJF the brass knucks.
He clocked Mox with the knucks, and 1, 2, 3, MJF is your new AEW World Champion.
This is yet another case of ‘the fans can see where the story is going, and that’s
ok’.
Not every fan had seen this turn coming of course, but I’d seen it as a popular theory
online, and yet again this feels like a reward to those fans who cared enough to speculate
and fantasy book.
It’s vindication and reward for getting involved, and that’s something that honestly
AEW has been lacking lately.
The pairing of MJF and Regal sounds incredibly juicy and I for one am really looking forward
to their segments to see what happens next.
I personally was really invested in the MJF babyface turn and seeing what it would do
to MJF to win the title ‘the right way’ only to then realise it doesn’t make him
feel better, but that’s just me.
This is still a very fun outcome, and a very, very well-told story.
The only casualty here really is the Blackpool Combat Club, which seems to have lost all
steam from when they first formed, which is a real shame as for me it had the potential
to be one of my favourite factions in AEW history, if not wrestling history, but alas.
We’ll see how they recover from this when Dynamite rolls around.
Regardless, this was a hugely noteworthy show, for the title changes that happened, the title
changes that didn’t happen, heel turns, tag teams breaking up, it had it all going
on.
I was entertained from start to end, and while I will still say there are too many matches
on this card and not enough breathing room between them, it doesn’t matter as much
when there’s this caliber of wrestling without a misstep in the whole show.
Full Gear 2022 is an easy 5/5.
Also shoutout to this guy who had a Support WrestleTalk sign.
You’re awesome.