All Elite Wrestling is set to kick off its first pay-per-view event since AEW Dynamite debuted on TNT this past October with the highly-anticipated Full Gear. Like with most AEW PPV events, the Full Gear card is stacked to the ceiling, showcasing AEW's top talent in a variety of matches as all the promotion's earliest feuds are coming to a head.
AEW Full Gear will air live from the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, Maryland, with all of the promotion's titles on the line. Those who want to watch the event live can order the AEW Full Gear PPV for $49.99 from B/R Live by clicking here. The action starts at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific, with the free to watch Full Gear Buy-In pre-show starting at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific.
Here is the AEW Full Gear card. Follow along with us live as we update this post with the winners and losers of the night, along with recaps and reviews for every match.
1. Britt Baker vs. Bea Priestley
Background: Bea Priestley and Britt Baker met in the ring back at the AEW Fight for the Fallen event, in a match where Baker suffered a concussion when Priestly kicked her in the head. The two stars of AEW's women's division have been at each other's throats since then, eliminating one another from the Casino Battle Royale at the All Out pay-per-view. Now their rivalry will come to a head during the Full Gear Buy-In, which can be viewed by anyone for free on YouTube and B/R Live.
Winner: Britt Baker. Baker apparently had the flu going into this match, which may explain the sort of sluggishness that permeated throughout the whole thing. Priestley's stomps to Baker looked really bad, and there was a superplex attempt from Baker where her lower back hit the mat before anything else, which couldn't have felt good. Despite these issues, this was still one of the better Baker matches in AEW so far. She picked up the victory with her Lockjaw submission move, with Priestley tapping out immediately. They're doing a good job of getting that move over.
Grade: C+
After the match, Brandi Rhodes came down to the ring with Awesome Kong. Baker was already gone, but Kong attacked Priestley with a spinning back fist and the Implant Buster. She then cut off a chunk of Priestley's hair using a curved knife (someone really should have tried to stop what was potentially attempted murder) and added it to her belt of hair. This new dark turn with this duo sort of came out of nowhere, but Kong looked great and it will be interesting to see where it goes, if nothing else.
2. Proud -N- Powerful vs. The Young Bucks
Background: The team of Santana and Ortiz, aka Proud -N- Powerful, made their shocking debut at All Out by attacking The Young Bucks. The team then aligned themselves with Chris Jericho, joining his villainous Inner Circle faction to stand against The Elite. Proud -N- Powerful have continued to fight alongside Jericho against The Elite, challenging The Young Bucks to a match at Full Gear. Proud -N- Powerful took things too far, though, when they brutalized The Young Bucks' idols, The Rock 'n Roll Express, who were meant to present the AEW World Tag Team Championships to the winners of that tournament.
Winners: Proud -N- Powerful. The showdown between the two teams at the beginning of this match was a little sloppy, and there were a few times where Santana and Ortiz seemed to be awkwardly out of position. Ortiz's antics may also be a detriment to the match, as his selling is a little cartoonish and conflicted with the otherwise serious tone of the match. Some things to note here real quick, the ramp goes all the way to the ring like Baltimore WCW PPVs back in the day, and they enforced tag team wrestling rules for the first time. There was a funny moment where referee Rick Knox refused to call a tag to a foot, which may or may not be a nod to Jim Cornette's complaints on his podcast. They ruined this later when Knox allowed a hand to foot tag.
The story of this match was Nick Jackson's injured leg, which played a direct role in many of the spots. His injured leg kept him from doing many of the signature Young Bucks spots and moves, which cost them the match in the end. Their Meltzer Driver attempt was thwarted by Nick's injured leg, for example, and overall it was a very well-done, classic wrestling story mixed with new-school wrestling spots. After the match, The Rock 'n' Roll Express got some revenge on Santana and Ortiz, which included Ricky Morton hitting a Canadian Destroyer and suicide dive.
Grade: A-
3. Hangman Page vs. Pac
Background: Hangman Page was meant to fight Pac back at AEW Double or Nothing, but Pac dropped out of the show at the last minute. The two then finally had their match on an episode of AEW Dynamite, which was won by Pac. Pac's increasingly antagonistic behavior hasn't earned him many friends in the AEW locker room, and he suffered a rare loss in a tag team match against Page and Kenny Omega after he was abandoned by his partner Jon Moxley. Pac has continued to draw the ire of AEW locker room, hitting people in the back of the head with steel chairs and the like, so Page will be wanting to put him in his place at Full Gear.
Winner: "Hangman" Adam Page. The crowd really did not care about this match, which is a shame because both competitors gave it their all and then some. Everything looked smooth and executed perfectly, with some vicious spots thrown in like a brainbuster on a steel chair. Pac countering the Dead Eye into the Brutalizer was one of the highlights of the match, with Page having to collapse into the ropes just to escape. Giving Page the victory over Pac was a bit surprising, especially since the crowd seems to have cooled on Page compared to other members of the AEW roster. Regardless, this match lived up to the high standards one expects from Pac, and it was one of Page's better AEW matches to date as well.
Grade: A-
4. Shawn Spears w/ Tully Blanchard vs. Joey Janela
Background: After Shawn Spears lost to Cody at AEW All Out, his momentum has stalled. Even with the legendary Four Horsemen member Tully Blanchard at his side, Spears has failed to generate much buzz, which may explain his vicious attack on Joey Janela on a recent episode of AEW Dark. Spears and Blanchard targeted Janela for unknown reasons backstage, yanking on his tongue with a pair of pliers. Janela will be looking to get his revenge at Full Gear, though whether or not pliers will be involved is hard to say.
Winner: Shawn Spears. Not sure anyone was expecting much from this match. Crowd was dead and didn't care when Janela tried to kill himself with every bump. There was some creative spots, like Spears tying Janela's hair to the turnbuckle with the tag rope, but otherwise this match was pretty bland until the finish. With referee Earl Hebner distracted, Spears did a devastating piledriver to Janela on the floor, with an added assist from Tully. Spears then finished Janela off in the ring to get the victory.
Grade: C+
5. AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: The Lucha Bros. vs. SCU (c) vs. Private Party
Background: The AEW World Tag Team Championship tournament has dominated AEW Dynamite in recent weeks, putting a spotlight on the promotion's best tag teams. The young team of Private Party had a breakout performance by defeating The Young Bucks in the tournament, and then recently beat The Dark Order to advance to the Full Gear PPV title match. Meanwhile, The Lucha Bros. eliminated Christopher Daniels from the tournament when Pentagon Jr. gave him a brutal Package Piledriver on the steel ramp, forcing fellow SCU member Scorpio Sky to take his place. To the surprise of everyone, Sky and his partner Frankie Kazarian pulled an upset victory over The Lucha Bros. in the tournament finals, but they will have to prove their worth by defending their gold in a Three Way Match at Full Gear.
Winners: SCU. This thing was really sloppy for the first half of it, but then things started picking up when Ray Fenix hit his dives. Fenix's flurry of offense was followed by one spot after another, with the match coming to an end in a deflated way when Kaz and Sky hit the SCULater on Private Party. Kaz also looked like he landed on his head when trying for another hurracanrana over the top rope, which would be the second time in the same week.
Grade: B
After the match, the Lucha Bros. started attacking everyone, leading to a predictable return by Christopher Daniels, who was originally dressed as Pentagon Jr. This "surprise" could be seen from a mile away, though it does have some interesting implications for the World Tag Team title picture, as Daniels was originally meant to compete in the tournament with Kazarian instead of Sky.
6. AEW Women's World Championship Match: Riho (c) vs. Emi Sakura
Background: Riho shocked the wrestling world when she defeated the imposing Nyla Rose to become the first-ever AEW World's Champion. Riho has continued to pick up victories since then, successfully defending her title against Britt Baker. However, Riho has also been pinned, losing a recent tag match against her trainer and former mentor Emi Sakura. Now it's teacher vs. student at Full Gear, with Riho's title on the line.
Winner: Riho. Poor JR. He forgot Emi Sakura's last name at one point and just said the name "Emi" about 15 times in a row before giving up and swearing. In any case, this was the best Riho match to date. But the pattern of people putting on their best AEW match yet and the crowd not really caring continued with this bout. Sakura and Riho beat the crap out of each other with some spots, with Riho spamming foot stomps and Sakura breaking her in half with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. The finish came after lightning-fast pinning counters, though the ref Bryce Remsberg looked as though he botched another pinfall like we saw on Dynamite this past week when he didn't bring his hand down for three after Pac hit the Black Arrow.
Grade: B+
7. AEW World Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) w/ Jake Hager vs. Cody w/ MJF
Background: Chris Jericho defeated Hangman Page to become the first-ever AEW World Champion at Double or Nothing, and he has since successfully defended his title against Darby Allin...with some help from Jack Hager. Jericho's Inner Circle declared war on The Elite on the first episode of AEW Dynamite, coming into direct conflict with #1 contender Cody on multiple occasions. Their feud has seen brawls throughout arenas, and a vicious attack on Cody's brother Dustin, who had his head smashed into a car and his arm slammed in a car door. Cody has promised that the battle between The Inner Circle and The Elite will continue in a "match beyond," but the fight between himself and Jericho will have finality to it. Since Cody is both management and a wrestler, he wants to avoid being criticized in the same way Triple H has, and has announced that if he can't win the AEW World Championship at Full Gear, he will never wrestle for the title again.
Winner: Chris Jericho. This match started off slow, but it had some really great moments, including a face-off between Jericho and one of the judges, Dean Malenko, calling back to their classic WCW rivalry. Things then picked up when Cody missed a suicide dive onto the steel ramp and got busted open the hard way. The pace was still slow, but the crowd was a lot more fired up, and Cody's legitimate injury made every single move done to him from that point on have a lot more umpth to it. Cody's mom got involved by slapping Jericho, and Hager was kicked out after attacking Cody and MJF. There were some nice false finishes, and there were even a couple of times where it seemed like Cody might actually win it. The finish came with Jericho converting the Walls of Jericho into the Liontamer, and then spicing it up by stomping on Cody's head. MJF threw in the towel, allowing Jericho to win the match. Afterwards, the long-awaited MJF heel turn finally happened. When Cody regained consciousness he forgave MJF for throwing in the towel, but MJF responded by kicking Cody in the groin.
Grade: A+
8. Lights Out Match: Jon Moxley vs. Kenny Omega
Background: Jon Moxley jumped ship from WWE to AEW at Double or Nothing and immediately turned his sights on Kenny Omega, one of the promotion's biggest stars. Moxley has continued to attack Omega at every opportunity, going as far as to smash him through a glass coffee table on the first-ever episode of AEW Dynamite. Omega, to his credit, has dipped his toe in Moxley's ultra-violent wrestling style, winning a brutal match against Joey Janela on an episode of AEW Dark and coming up with his own hardcore weapon - a broom wrapped in barbed-wire. Moxley and Omega will now fight each other in a Lights Out Match, which means that it won't impact their win/loss records as the match isn't officially sanctioned by AEW.
Winner: Jon Moxley. This match definitely wasn't for everybody, but for fans of deathmatch style wrestling, these two definitely delivered and then some. We saw barbed wire spots, mouse trap spots, a missed Phoenix Splash onto the exposed wood of the ring, Moxley forced to crawl through broken glass...This level of violence has rarely been seen in mainstream wrestling, and it's clear by the reactions online that not everyone was a fan. However, in terms of hardcore mainstream wrestling matches, this is probably going to down as a classic and still be talked about years from now.
Grade: A+