Full Gear 2020 begins with Kenny Omega vs. "Hangman" Adam Page in a match to determine who will challenge next for the AEW World Championship. Omega's introduction and entrance is ridiculous and over-the-top and featured two dancing "sweepers." The story coming into this was that Omega had regained his focus and was "returning" to the level and character of his NJPW peak after spending the previous year in the tag scene. As expected, there's some terrific moments in this - Omega's bumping into the outside rail, Page clotheslining Omega with such force that Kenny did a backflip bump on the apron, Omega's trademark tope con hilo, a stiff pop-up powerbomb on the ramp from Hangman, Omega hitting a Tiger Driver 98' - but also some things that Kenny Omega's critics would undoubtedly point to as cringe-inducing, overdramatic, and overtly choreographed. There's not much of a story to the match apart from neither guy getting to hit their biggest finishers despite repeated attempts with Omega finally getting the win with a hard-earned One Winged Angel. I thought this was a very good match and, if you're not a fan of long-winded epics, one of the more "digestible" Omega matches that I've seen. They clearly left some things on the table, but I appreciate the relative restraint they showed as the opening match on a lengthy PPV. (3.5/5)
John Silver of the Dark Order took on Orange Cassidy in the next match. Its weird to watch John Silver and the rest of the Dark Order working as "serious" heels when I've always known them for their comedy. Its also a little weird to see Cassidy come out to a loud, rocking instrumental song and not either of his more well-known entrance themes. Anyway, Cassidy does a bunch of shtick to start things off and Silver plays the straight man, getting super irritated. Silver tears off the pockets from Cassidy's jeans in a fun moment, but then shows considerable power by launching Cassidy across the ring a few times. Cassidy rallies and attempts a tornado DDT but Silver counters it into a suplex in another impressive feat of strength. After some good whips into the corner by Silver, Cassidy rallies and ends up hitting his tornado DDT for 2. Cassidy goes to the top but gets cut off and Silver ends up bringing him to the mat with a single-hand guerrilla press. Silver doesn't capitalize on it, though, as Cassidy uses his quickness to spin out of a Torture Rack and hit a hurricanrana. Silver hits Cassidy with some big kicks to the chest, but ends up eating a Slum Dog Millionaire. Cassidy can't get the Orange Punch and Silver hits his Spin Doctor! Cassidy kicks out at 2, though. Silver looks to hit a big lariat but Cassidy avoids it and hits the Orange Punch and then a Beach Break to get the W. Watching this match makes me wonder why Silver isn't being utilized more these days as, unless he's gotten considerably worse over the past 5 years, he showed great timing and was a surprisingly great smarmy, arrogant heel (a role I'd never seen him in before). (3/5)
The TNT Championship was on the line next as Cody Rhodes defended the title against Darby Allin. I wasn't a week-to-week viewer of AEW when this show happened, though I was aware that Allin had come up short on his previous challenges and that this was the big story coming into the match. I'm also not aware of when Cody started getting "hate" from the IWC, but this seems like it could've been the origin of that because he works this 100% as a heel, oozing cockiness and arrogance from his elaborate entrance all the way through the match. He drops the heel act when the match ends by showing respect to Allin, but I can see the argument that the yo-yoing in his character is not only confusing, but shows how much Cody as a heel in AEW would've worked. His targeted focus on Allin's arm is particularly vicious at times, going beyond what a babyface might usually do against another babyface. Cody mocks Darby by flexing his muscles early on and doing push-ups later on, going way further into heel territory than even Bret Hart would go when he occasionally played "tweener" in the 90s. Of course, Rhodes' attack is sold brilliantly by Darby Allin, one of the best bumpers and sellers of the modern era. One of the biggest gripes with this match online is the somewhat weak finish. I found it a bit underwhelming but not egregious. (3/5)
The AEW Women's Championship was on the line in the next match as Nyla Rose challenged Shida. These two had a better match at Double or Nothing a few months before this and even that match was just "good" and benefitted from the amount of weapon spots they could do (as it was fought under No DQ/No CO rules). Nyla Rose isn't consider a great worker - and she isn't one - but she's far from the worst and is much smoother and quicker than some of the other "monster" women we've seen over the years. That being said, her offense doesn't look as devastating as Awesome Kong's or even, as unsafe as she may be, Nia Jax. Hikaru Shida is an excellent worker but not the flashiest or most awe-inspiring. This match felt a bit too long and showed in the final few minutes as both women looked spent and some of the moves just didn't "hit" and looked sloppy. I guess that can be explained as them selling the exhaustion of that match, but, as a viewer, I felt a bit exhausted too. (2/5)
A dream match followed as FTR defending their AEW World Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks. This has a monster rating on Cagematch currently (9.08), but I wasn't quite as high on it. You knew this was going to be worked like an epic. I didn't like how much extra "gaga" they added in the build-up, specifically FTR injuring Matt Jackson's ankle and the Bucks also adding an unnecessary (and, considering the Cody angle from less than a year prior) and repetitive stipulation that if they lost, they could never challenge for the titles again. This match didn't need that melodrama, though, to be fair, Matt Jackson did do a great job of selling the damaged ankle from beginning to end and FTR got to look like vicious heels by targeting their attack on it. I thought this match started a bit slow and even uncharacteristically sloppy with the ref being out of position at one point and Matt allowing his brother to get beaten up 2-on-1 for no reason (as the ref wasn't close enough to really stop him). Later on, JR noted that the ref also didn't break-up a submission despite Dax Harwood reaching the ropes and Schiavone had to explain that the rope break involved an "illegal assist" (something I don't think I've ever seen enforced or really heard of). Aside from those nitpicky things, the work throughout this match was excellent. I loved The Bucks working on Dax's hand, which looks like it was split open hardway and was bleeding heavily. I loved the callbacks to each team's idols - the Hart Foundation, the Hardys, the double headscissors-into-the-grounded-punches of the Rock n' Roll Express. I thought the finish would've been more effective had we not just seen a match built around a similar concept of the heels getting overly cocky and deciding to add insult to injury rather than go for a would-be successful pinfall. Overall, a really, really good match, but not on my all-timers list. Maybe with a live crowd? (3.5/5)
The "Elite Deletion" match was next - Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara. I really wanted to enjoy this match because I was a fan of Matt Hardy's "cinematic universe" matches. Unfortunately, this one goes way too long, isn't silly enough, and needlessly forces Private Party/Ortiz & Santana action into it. I liked the goofiness of the opening 2-3 minutes with the golf cart getting crushed by the monster truck. I liked the inclusion of Gangrel and Shane "Hurricane" Helms later on. Everything else was just meh. This show did not need a single minute more actual wrestling after the FTR/Bucks match and they really missed an opportunity to do something vastly different as a palate cleanser before the next contest. The finish was also a little hard to watch considering that, because it was clearly "staged" for the safety of the participants, it still harkened back to the very uncomfortable Hardy/Guevara match from some months prior (which featured Hardy clearly getting a nasty concussion by taking a ridiculous bump onto a concrete floor). I'll give it some half-points for the things I liked, but this was not "fun" the way these sorts of matches should be. (1.5/5)
MJF vs. Chris Jericho was next. The story leading up to this match was that MJF needed to defeat Jericho to earn his way into the Inner Circle. This made it somewhat of a heel/heel dynamic, though Jericho was a bit of a tweener just based on his name. Jericho sets the pace for this match and while I can understand wanting to do something different and more "deliberate" than the FTR/Bucks match or the opener, the match doesn't pick up when it should. The story they seemed to be going for was that Jericho, the veteran, had the upperhand and full control for most of the match but that MJF was hanging with him and, eventually, outsmarted him using the same sort of heel tactics that Jericho was the "master" of. On paper, it makes sense, but in practice, it resulted in a rather dull match that didn't highlight either guy's strengths at this point in their careers (MJF's heat-generating heel shtick and Jericho's craftiness despite physical limitations). The Jericho/Cassidy match from the previous PPV was much, much better. (2/5)
Main event time - Eddie Kingston challenging Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship in an "I Quit" Match. I found this a touch underwhelming and a bit "all over the place" with random hardcore spots being delivered but not a real escalation of violence or logical sequence. Even as Kingston used barbwire and thumbtacks, Moxley never really seemed like he was close to saying I Quit, partially because Kingston's attack was so strike-based and didn't lend itself to making someone actually voice their submission. The story of Kingston willing to go to extreme lengths to defeat Moxley and have his moment in the sun just didn't really come through as we'd seen much, much more hardcore spots in previous AEW main events, this match being a victim of the way hardcore wrestling is constantly upping the ante of brutality. Moxley's eventual win was also not built-up sufficiently on an emotional level. The post-match activity and Moxley's shouting before he applied the barbwire-assisted Bulldog Choke seemed to be pointing to him showing some guilt in having to apply such a violent hold to secure victory, but at no other point did Moxley show much restraint or hint to any self-doubt in terms of how far he was willing to go to win the match. They seemingly wanted to tell a story with the awesome subtle details of a classic AJPW match (hence Kingston's Misawa-inspired gear), but forgot that those subtle details were achieved through much more patient storytelling than a match like this needs to work. Forget Misawa, this needed to be a Terry Funk bloodbath and, while it delivered the gore, it didn't deliver the emotion to make it truly great. (3/5)
Full Gear 2020 is a bit of a mixed bag and it shows in its Kwang Score of 2.69-out-of-5. One could argue that the show peaks in its opening contest as Hangman and Omega put on an excellent match that leaves one craving a rematch. The Silver/Cassidy match is a somewhat unexpected treat considering that, on paper, it sounds more like a "TV match." Cody/Allin was too odd a story for me to recommend it, with Cody working as a heel but not going all the way with it. The FTR/Young Bucks match delivered and everything else after it was just so-so, ranging from pretty bad (the Women's Championship match and the Hardy/Guevara Cinematic match) to good-not-great (the main event).
FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote In Hand
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