On Saturday night, All Elite Wrestling descended on the Prudential Center in Newark for the company’s annual Full Gear event. This was the third time, and the second consecutive year, that AEW held the event in the Garden State, suggesting this could become an annual event at The Rock.
This year’s edition of Full Gear featured a few surprises, as some of the predicted winners did not materialize. As is tradition for the promotion, surprises occurred and the fans even got a return at the end of the show. Let’s get to a few details from the show.
Match Of The Night: AEW Tag Team Title Match
In arguably the match of the night, FTR defeated Brodido to become three-time tag team champions in a match that was back and forth throughout.
Since Brodido became a tag team early during the summer, the team has garnered increasing support en route to a tag team title win in June. FTR, who have been on a run of their own with manager Stokely Hathaway, earned the right for the title shot, and the feud grew leading into Saturday’s match.
There was some doubt about the quality of the Brodido team, as it still seemed they were thrown together, but even in the loss, both men showed they had gelled as a team over the last few months, and that was on display on Saturday. However, they were unable to overcome FTR, who tied the record for the most tag team title reigns in company history.
AEW has what many say is the deepest tag team division in the world, so many teams will be looking to step up to Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler. There are many different directions where the company can go regarding their next opponents, just please, no more FTR vs. Young Bucks matches.
Moment of the Night: Mark Briscoe Winning The TNT Championship
Primarily a tag team wrestler in his career with his brother Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe has adjusted to singles wrestling after the tragic death of Jay three years ago. Briscoe faced Kyle Fletcher in what would be their sixth meeting, where Fletcher held a 3-2 edge.
In a No DQ match with the added stipulation that if Briscoe lost, he would join the Don Callis Family, Briscoe pulled out all the stops (and everything from under the ring) to win the TNT Championship in a brutal, bloody match.
The win proved to be a full-circle moment, considering Turner television executives did not want the Briscoes on AEW programming after past offensive remarks from Jay came to light. Winning this particular championship means that the formerly undesired star is now the face of Turner Networks.
“When my brother passed, the first thing that popped in my head was I’m never going to be able to wrestle again. I don’t ever want to wrestle again,” said Briscoe during the post-show media scrum. “And it was a very short amount of time and I was like, ‘What are you talking about? No, that’s not how we do this. We’re not quitting, we aint quitters.’ And of course I didn’t. I felt him. He was like keep on keeping on brother, make us proud. And tonight is quite a validation. I just appreciate y’all so much.”
Quick Slams
- Ricchohet won the inaugural AEW National Championship in a gauntlet Match. This title will be defended in different organizations around the world as Riccohet will be a traveling champion, similar to how the NWA Champion was years back, visiting different territories to take on other challengers.
- Samoa Joe won the AEW Championship for the second time after defeating Hangman Adam Page inside a Steel Cage. The story of the match was Hook rejoining The Opps faction and hitting Page with the title to set up Joe’s victory. The bigger story of the match was the post-match action, as Swerve Strickland returned after months out due to injury and became an immediate opponent for Samoa Joe.
- Kris Statlander finally slayed the dragon and defeated Mercedes Mone to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship and deny Mone her 14th title. Statlander came into the match 0-2 against Mone and was an underdog, despite being the champion.
While it was not announced, it could be inferred that Full Gear could return to New Jersey, as AEW CEO Tony Khan is once again holding big shows in specific venues regularly. The show continues to be a hit, drawing over 10,000 fans, and although it was a long night, there were not many instances when the crowd felt out of the action. Once again, AEW delivered in the Garden State.
