AEW Full Gear 2022 Match Ratings and Commentary
(Credit: AEW)
Here’s our thoughts on another classic Full Gear, this year’s edition from New Jersey. Curious how we rank matches? We’ve got a rubric for that.
AEW Full Gear 2022 - 11/19/2022
Jungleboy def. Luchasauras: ★★★
Death Triangle def. The Elite to retain the AEW World Trios Championship: ★★★★3/4
Jade Cargill def. Nyla Rose to retain the AEW TBS Championship: ★
Chris Jericho def. Bryan Danielson and Claudio Castagnoli and Sammy Guevara to retain the ROH World Championship: ★★★
Saraya def. Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D.: ★★
Samoa Joe def. Wardlow and Powerhouse Hobbs to win the AEW TNT Championship: ★★
Sting and Darby Allin def. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal: ★
Jamie Hayter def. Toni Storm to win the Interim AEW Women’s World Championship: ★★★★
The Acclaimed def. Swerve In Our Glory to retain the AEW World Tag Team Championships: ★★
MJF def. Jon Moxley to win the AEW World Championship: ★★★
Jack Perry (Credit: AEW)
Show Highlight—
Death Triangle vs. The Elite. Your tastes may vary but undeniably one of the best trios matches ever, a 1A to the 1B of The Elite’s classic against Will Ospreay and Aussie Open this year. As we mentioned on the podcast, couldn’t possibly describe what the fuck they were doing in terms of the acrobatics, but the story of PAC not respecting The Elite nor fearing them gave this match a purpose. PAC was unwilling to lose to them, and the hammer storyline, which I thought of as ornamental flair only to give him something to do for a while, paid off brilliantly here. Fenix was reticent to use it, but after getting trapped in Omega’s one wing angel, the most protected finish in the business, he had no choice but to use it to survive. An absolute masterpiece and a MOTY contender. Every wrestler made the most of their minutes and got to get their shit in and look fantastic. Speaking of looking fantastic, it’s great to see Kenny looking incredible and seemingly as fully healed as someone could be. And hey, extra bonus—no Alex Abrahantes!
What Worked—
Eddie Kingston. Eddie had an emotional win over one of his heroes and hyped the show like only he can. What an effortlessly lovable wrestler! God, the waterworks that’ll erupt out of the fanbase when he wins the belt. One day…
Show pacing. Every match felt like it got enough time, it was all killer no filler (even if the matches weren’t classics in-ring, they were still entertaining and brought value or were the right booking decision to include them), and while yes, it was a long show, don’t be a shitty fan and be pissy you’re paying for a fast-moving, exciting 4 hours of PPV wrestling.
The set. It wasn’t Backlash 2000 or some crazy contraption, but it was a nice change of pace from their routine set-up.
Christian’s Cagey Cage antics. Only he could milk tugging the key out of the referee’s pocket like that. Of course the ref had to keep the key on an impossibly long contraption like a dopey bit from an Ernest movie or some shit. Amazing.
Marina Shafir. It’s a total Vince-y idea of her cosplaying on major shows, but it’ll get her over. Shafir looked like a player in a Max Fischer directed production of Dangerous Minds.
Saraya. It wasn’t a classic match but she pulled her own weight and looked safe doing it. It wasn’t the sad legend trudging through a pay day that we’ve seen too many times before.
Jamie Hayter wins AEW Women’s Championship. For the promotion, it had to be a difficult couple of months leading up to this moment. The audience could point to what was wrong with the division, and they all wanted it to be better, but didn’t have a solution outside of their favorites winning matches, and nor did they have faith that the company had the ability to fix its problems. The perfect performer came right at the right time when the trigger needed to be pulled on a new heir. Hayter is credible and is fully capable of making the belt mean something. Also helped that this match was arguably in the top 5 best matches in the division.
MJF wins the AEW World Championship. There was no bullshit or embarrassments coming in or out of this PPV, the focus was all centered on not if MJF would win, but how. Was it the finish everyone wanted, executed to their individual preference? Maybe not, but there were enough red herrings and sprinklings of possibilities that nobody should feel cheated by the results. Personally, I would have wanted Max to be a babyface. The company needs the most over guy and the number one guy that the audience respects the most to be someone to cheer for. That being said, if MJF feels as an artist—and let’s not kid ourselves, MJF is a motherfucking artiste—he can do more as a heel, I’m sure he's got enough creative ideas in mind to stay inspired as a bad guy. The 1998 Rock route worked for Dwayne!
What Didn’t Work—
DraftKings ads. Those commercials with 2.0 are kinda Peacock’s Bobby Lashley’s bio vid equivalent. Make a new one with Eddie or Renee or Danhausen and Orange Cassidy.
JAS vs. BCC. Now at this point, there has to be no good reason to keep this feud percolating, right? Right?!? For the love of God, no no no—stop!!!
The Acclaimed vs. Swerve In Our Glory. Magic happened that one time, and while you can’t fault AEW for running it back to see if there would be more inspired moments, this felt like a bit of a disappointment in-ring. It won’t hurt The Acclaimed a bit, though, and Keith Lee and Swerve looked perfectly fine coming out of this as they did coming in with this dissolution to their partnership.
Show Cringe—
Sting and Darby vs. Jarrett and Lethal. As discussed on our podcast, the internet went out during this match live. Two days later when I had the chance to watch it again, the BR app went sideways, then the stream itself stalled when I tried to cue it to this match later. This worked for the live crowd with Sting’s big dive, but watching it so removed from the moment, it made no sense of why they were tagging in a no-dq match. I had the sound off for this match (more with watching it as it wasn’t intended to its determine) and I had no clue if it was just the worst officiated match or just a weirdly agented match. Whatever.
Sting’s an attraction, the damn crow makeup must have the fountain of youth in it, but there's no good reason why FTR couldn’t have had a meaningful program when they are on the best year workrate-wise of any tag team in the history of wrestling, especially when they need to anchor a ROH PPV in just a few weeks. You’re practically begging them to seriously consider the inevitable offer from Hunter.
Hayter (Credit: AEW)
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