All Elite Wrestling’s Full Gear pay-per-view is in the books and from an overall perspective, it wasn’t anything too over-the-top, but maybe that viewpoint is skewed by the fact that the Blood and Guts matches were less than two weeks ago. At the same time, there were some newsworthy happenings during the broadcast that could give an indication of the direction of the organization ahead of 2026. In many ways, this show made the same format flaws seen on most All Elite PPVs. Tony Khan, being the matchmaker that he is rather than a booker, gave a blanket 20-minutes to most of the key matches on the card without seemingly any thought as to if those bouts should’ve had or needed that amount of time. Along the same lines, the pattern telegraphed and thus hinder the attempt to build drama throughout the night. It got to the point that there were a lot of near falls, but not necessarily many false finishes because it was obvious that it wasn’t even remotely possible that a pin fall attempt might actually be the conclusion of the contest unless the match was near the 20-minute mark. A booker knows how to tailor the amount of time given to a segment based on the nature of the match and the storyline. Tony Khan simply didn’t do that here and it undoubtedly affected the pace of the event. I know I’ve said this many times, but I will continue to note that not every card needs to be four and a half or five hours. More wrestling isn’t automatically better wrestling, and in this case, it only led to a tedious viewing experience at certain points of the show. Of course, the potential sale of Warner Brothers Discovery looms in the background as it could have a direct impact on the status of the company on the Turner networks, depending on what, if any, organization buys the company. As of this writing, Comcast, Netflix and Paramount are all reported to have made offers to WBD, and all three of those options have some type of current agreement with the TKO corporation.
Similar to the previous pay-per-view, Full Gear kicked off with the continuation of a bout from the pre-show, which is fine since it provides something unique for the All Elite presentation. That being said, the CMLL trios tag belts being defended on this show meant absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, and that notion was underscored by the way the segment was booked. The narrative, as it should’ve been, was the dissension between the Don Callis family. The problem is, this is a match that could’ve been booked for television and accomplished the same goal, which matters when a show runs as long as this broadcast. Maybe I’m wrong, but I still think that AEW is missing the boat on the chance to truly utilize their lucha stars in the biggest way possible. Too often, Tony Khan takes the smart mark approach to his product, which is one of the major flaws of the national organization, and there isn’t nearly enough of an explanation of the lucha libre background. As far back as 1997 in WCW, there were simple video packages that explained the fundamental aspects of lucha libre, as well as Mike Tenay’s tremendous work as an announcer on Nitro to emphasize the importance of lucha libre in Mexico. Tony Khan appears to think that since he reads The Wrestling Observer that everyone is aware of these luchadors with very little or no exposure in the United States. Does anyone really know who Neon is? Does the national audience know anything about Mascara Dorada? Their talent isn’t in doubt, that’s not the point, the much bigger aspect is that for them to be assets to the company, they have to be showcased as stars, not just random high spot guys wearing masks. They retained the trios belts alongside Mistico, which made this segment even more suitable for television, not the pay-per-view.
Pac vs. Darby Allin was fine for what it was, but similar to a few other bouts on the card, this was tame compared to what happened at Blood and Guts less than two weeks ago, which is another prime example as to why the cage matches should’ve been booked for Full Gear instead. Pac’s new look makes him appear rather generic, but he’s still juiced to the gills so maybe his attire is moot. Darby Allin took some ridiculous bumps, including a power slam to the floor and going through the turnbuckles to bounce off of the ring post. Those bumps aren’t nearly as brutal, considering that he took a slam off of the set through a flaming table last week, but I digress. Pac got the victory, which was somewhat puzzling unless he’s going to be a regular on AEW programming again.
The women’s four way tag match was sloppy and pointless, as the winning team gets to pick the stipulation for the semi-final match of the women’s tag team tournament. Toni Storm and Mina Shirakawa won, but this is another bout that should’ve been on television instead of PPV. If I had to guess, I’d say that the only reason this was booked was to shoehorn as many wrestlers on the card as possible.
FTR beat Brody King and Bandido to win the tag team titles, and this was a segment that justified the 20 minutes that it was given. You could make the argument that there was a a degree of overkill with the amount of moves to get to the finish, but overall this was a great match that represented the positives about the AEW brand. It was fast-paced, hard-hitting, and had peaks and valleys that built a level of drama toward the finish. While the Ring Of Honor world title is merely a prop, this AEW tag title run has given Bandido a firm role and a direction that makes him a commodity alongside Brody King. This was a throw together team that organically worked so despite dropping the belts, they should continue as a duo in the division. Everything that FTR does is crisp and smooth, with this bout as an example of why they are probably still the best in-ring tag team in the business. That said, with the Young Bucks face turn later in the night, hopefully this wasn’t a booking decision made just to position FTR as transitional champions to lose the belts to The Bucks. Despite what could be a fresh chapter for Matt and Nick Jackson, I’d still say that the audience wants to see less, not more of The Young Bucks on AEW programming.
Ricochet won the gauntlet to win the national title, which is completely pointless. There’s absolutely no reason for All Elite to add yet another title to the organization. This does nothing for Ricochet as a character, and the notion of a national champion when there was already an international and continental champion is just silly. Furthermore, this segment was almost 25 minutes, and if the contest had been cut from the card entirely, it probably would’ve provided a better overall viewing experience.
Kyle O’Reilly defeated Jon Moxley in a no hold barred match, a lazy way to book another hardcore bout on the card. If this would’ve been kept a physical, technical bout to emphasize the brutal strikes or submissions, they could’ve had something that stood out from the homogenized formula of gimmick matches, but they resorted to using the fork and blood within the first few minutes. In a vacuum, this was solid for what it was, but taking into context not only the entire product, but just this broadcast alone, it was just repetitive use of blood as a substitute for compelling storytelling on the show. O’Reilly is a tremendous athlete, but what’s the basis for a blood feud with Moxley? Did the feud or lack thereof really justify this type of match? More specifically, they did the exact same spot where Moxley got stabbed in the head with the fork as he did during the match with Adam Page at All In a few months ago so it’s not nearly as impactful now. O’Reilly got the win via submission, but I’m not sure what that translates to because there’s logically not anywhere else for the feud to go from here so it remains to be seen if it will actually boost his status in the company.
As far as a retread, the same thing can be said for the Mark Briscoe vs.Kyle Fletcher bout. These two had a very good gimmick match, but when it’s put on this card, specifically in this match order, it means significantly less as far as its impact to make the participants bigger stars. The audience just saw blood minutes before this so it means nothing after that. It’s disappointing that Briscoe bled buckets for minimal reaction and minimal effectiveness. Give them credit for all the risks that they took, and on a different card, it might’ve been a highlight of the night, as it proved that Fletcher is a versatile performer, but since it was booked on this card in this order, that’s not really the narrative of the segment. They somewhat telegraphed the finish, as it was obvious that the pin wasn’t going to happen until the barbed wire table was used. Briscoe won the TNT championship, and hopefully, he will get a chance to truly showcase himself, as he was a lot more to offer than what he’s been booked for in AEW.
The trios match was a dazzling spot fest, albeit a carbon copy of matches that we’ve seen before. The bigger story than the high spots or the fact that The Jurassic Express and Kenny Omega won, was that The Young Bucks turned baby face after the match. As mentioned earlier, I’m not sure the audience cares what The Bucks do at this point, or if there’s really a demand for them to be featured more on the program, especially after the attempt to lean into the criticism with the heel EVPs run fell flat. This might be too harsh, but the reality is that the “stain” of a lot of the backstage chaos from a few years ago, including what prompted the biggest star to leave the company, is still on The Young Bucks. It will be interesting to see if the audience buys them as baby faces going forward.
I was surprised that Kris Statlander retained the TBS championship against Mercedes Mone, and it was a solid bout, but at this point of the show when it was after midnight, another 25-minute match just made the match tedious. There were a few flat points, simply because it’s almost unavoidable after the four-hour mark. Aside from that, I have no idea where Mone goes from here since it’s not as though her quest to collect belts has boosted the numbers.
The cage match was fine except that there was even more blood that became completely repetitive. Samoa Joe will be a legend when he hangs up his boots, and he bled buckets to try to make this a worthy main event, but the whole thing was just unnecessary. At 12:15 AM, there wasn’t anything that Adam Page or Joe were going to be able to do to make a difference. I understand that Hook was on the injured list for a while, but taking into consideration that he wasn’t booked for anything too important before that, I’m not sure the heel turn truly means anything in the bigger picture. The return of Swerve Strickland adds more depth to the roster, but that aspect is almost moot when AEW continues to be such a slapstick product.
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Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
