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With their most stacked pay-per-view lineup to date, AEW Full Gear 2020 had high expectations to lived up to. The second annual edition took place at Daily's Place in front of its largest crowd since the pandemic began. On Saturday night, All Elite Wrestling delivered on its lofty standards for major shows and then some.
The card featuring five title matches, endings for bitter feuds, and dream matches gave the fans a memorable night. The AEW World Championship "I Quit" Match where Jon Moxley defended his title against his former friend, Eddie Kingston, headlined Full Gear 2020. In the long-anticipated first-time matchup, FTR defended the AEW World tag team titles against Young Bucks.
Kenny Omega met his former tag team partner, "Hangman" Adam Page, in the World title Eliminator Finals. Additionally, Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin and MJF vs. Chris Jericho made Full Gear a must-see event.
In this article, we will give star ratings for every match on the AEW Full Gear 2020 card. Please comment down below with your thoughts on every match.
AEW Full Gear 2020 Buy-In: Serena Deebs vs. Allysin Kay for the NWA Women's World Championship
In a last-minute addition to the Full Gear card, Serena Deeb defended her newly-won NWA Women's World Championship against Allysin Kay. This contest came after Kay officially announced her release from NWA, so this served as a showcase for her. The former NWA Women's World Champion showed all the experience she has gained in a competitive match.
The champion, Deeb, is well versed and tenured herself. She showed great prowess and technical ability in this Full Gear bout. The two ladies had decent chemistry and created a solid and well-worked battle for the gold. In the end, Serena Deeb applied her Serenity Lock for the submission victory.
Post-match, former NWA Women's Champion Thunder Rosa made her presence known and showed Deeb that she was still after the gold. AEW has shown a better effort in building interest in the NWA women's division than they have on their own with this Full Gear Buy-In contest and post-match.
Star Rating: ***
AEW Full Gear 2020: Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page in the AEW World title Eliminator Tournament Finals
This is how you start things off with a bang. The opener at Full Gear 2020 was the AEW World title Eliminator Finals between former Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Page. It was a nice touch by All Elite Wrestling having IMPACT Wrestling VP Don Callis on commentary. The long time Omega supporter added a lot of context to this encounter.
The two men put on a terrific "anything you can do, I can do better" type of sprint. This had non stop action and was filled with high impact offense throughout. Omega showed his incredible athleticism with a stunning leap over the guardrail into a moonsault on Page as well as a tope con hilo. Page showed off his hard-hitting arsenal with chops, stiff forearms, and spine-tingling powerbombs.
This was a NJPW G1-style battle that never let up for the 17 minutes it went on. While the match got a significant amount of time, it still left you wanting more by the end. It was Kenny Omega who pulled out the win by countering the Buckshot Lariat with two V-Triggers, followed by the One Winged Angel to become the No. 1 contender for the AEW World title at Full Gear 2020.
The post-match with Omega not looking at Hangman Page while Page looking dejected was a perfect touch to what was an excellent encounter that set the bar high for the rest of AEW Full Gear 2020.
Star Rating: ****1/2
AEW Full Gear 2020: Orange Cassidy vs. John Silver
To follow the Full Gear opener, AEW chose Orange Cassidy facing John Silver of The Dark Order. These two comedy wrestlers showed their unique humor to start with Silver countering the lazy antics of Cassidy by ripping his pockets off and eating them. They followed that with both men showing distinct skills in the ring.
In particular, Silver used this bout to really show off his vast strength with unique offense including an one-arm gorilla press slam. Jim Ross on commentary could not hold back his enthusiasm in being impressed with The Dark Order member after this Full Gear match. His smart mix of humor and strength elevated his status in this contest.
In the conclusion, Cassidy overcame the power of Silver and nailed him with the Orange Punch. He followed with his Beach Break finisher for the victory. Cassidy got the win, but it was John Silver who walked away with quite a bit of momentum after his first major opportunity on pay-per-view here at AEW Full Gear 2020.
Star Rating: ***1/2
AEW Full Gear 2020: Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin for the AEW TNT Championship
The third contest on the Full Gear 2020 main show was Cody Rhodes defending the AEW TNT Championship against Darby Allin. The introduction by Justin Roberts calling Cody by his last name was a nice moment to begin. This marked the fourth meeting in the promotion between these two men. Cody Rhodes held a 2-0-1 record against Allin and seemed to take his challenger lightly throughout this match.
Cody Rhodes dominated this title defense by working over the arm of Allin with a hammerlock submission. The sound work made this a grounded and story-based TNT Championship match to stand out among other bouts on the Full Gear card. Rhodes showed off his overconfidence on a few occasions to the frustration of his coach, Arn Anderson.
This came back to haunt him after Rhodes hit an avalanche Cross Rhodes in the highlight spot of this Full Gear encounter, which he got a two count on when Allin's arm was under the ropes. We got some nice callbacks to past meetings between the two including Allin hitting the Coffin Drop and turning around for the pin after being caught with a rollup in this last contest.
In the end, a rollup exchange went Darby Allin's way as he got the 1-2-3 and won the AEW TNT Championship here at Full Gear. After the match, Cody Rhodes showed respect and handed Allin the gold. This had great storytelling and was a well-paced title match. It led to a dramatic ending with Darby Allin finally getting his biggest victory yet.
Star Rating: ****
AEW Full Gear 2020: Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose for the AEW Women's World Championship
Our second women's bout of the evening was Hikaru Shida defending the AEW Women's World Championship against Nyla Rose. Heading into Full Gear, these two ladies had not received much attention on Dynamite to build this defense. However, they came out and worked hard to kick things off nicely.
The match featured a focused attack by Rose on Shida's knee after her manager Vickie Guerrero nailed the champion with a kendo stick. Shida fought from underneath and made a decent comeback. Rose looked for victory after a powerbomb, but she pulled the champ up at two to nail her own finisher. Shida avoided and hit an avalanche Falcon Arrow in a highlight to this Full Gear battle.
Shida got vengeance for Rose's cockiness by lifting her up at two and looked for her running knee finisher, but Vickie Guerrero got involved again. This led to some sloppiness towards the finish to the contest. Shida nailed a series of knees to the skull to retain the title here at Full Gear. The mistimed interference and ending to the encounter that took away from an otherwise solid contest from the ladies.
Star Rating: **1/2
AEW Full Gear 2020: FTR vs. Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team Championships
The next contest at Full Gear 2020 was the long-anticipated first-time encounter between FTR and The Young Bucks for the AEW Tag Team Championships. After a lackluster build, expectations was somewhat in the middle for this contest. However, fans were in store for a truly remarking battle in this one.
This became a battle of ideologies with FTR representing hard-hitting and ground-based tag team psychology, while The Young Bucks were all about flash and high-risk offense. Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler continuously attacked the injured ankle of Matt Jackson. That relentless focus led to Harwood overzealously hitting his hand on the ring post, giving the Bucks a weakness to exploit.
Fans witnessed a beautiful love letter to tag team wrestling with tributes to The Hart Foundation, Hardy Boyz, and The Dudleys throughout this Full Gear contest. The stellar double teams, non-stop action, and expert selling by both teams led to a finishing sequence that brought this to another level.
With Harwood and Nick Jackson down, Wheeler nailed Matt Jackson with a superkick and looked to tag in his partner. However, with Harwood not there, Wheeler went against their "Fists, No Flips" mantra and pulled out a springboard 450 splash. He missed and Matt Jackson followed with a Superkick to give Young Bucks the win and AEW tag team titles.
This was an amazing match that produced some of the best tag team wrestling of the year at AEW Full Gear 2020. The contest was a truly fantastic display that lived up to all the hype
Star Rating: ****3/4
AEW Full Gear 2020: Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara in an Elite Deletion Match
After a bonafide Match of the Year candidate, the Full Gear event needed a change of pace. It came in the form of the Elite Deletion Match from the Hardy Compound between Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara. This was a funny yet violent spectacle that took advantage of the brilliant creativity of Matt Hardy.
We saw golf carts, monster trucks, fireworks, lakes, and TLC on display in this battle. Inner Circle's Santana and Ortiz interfered on Guevara's part, while Private Party got involved to even the odds for Hardy. Fans also got the treat of fun cameos from The Hurricane and Gangrel.
Things turned to extreme violence when Hardy and Guevara entered the Dome of Deletion, which finally ended with Hardy slamming Guevara's head on the concrete in a callback to All Out. Hardy then used a chair to slam into Guevara's face and hit the Conchairto to win. Matt Hardy deleted Sammy Guevara and celebrated with his family and Private Party.
This was a unique cinematic style battle that stood out on this Full Gear card. It served as a decent buffer and palate cleanser following the fantastic FTR vs. Young Bucks encounter.
Star Rating: ***
AEW Full Gear 2020: Chris Jericho vs. MJF (if MJF wins, he joins The Inner Circle)
Our semi-main event for AEW Full Gear was Chris Jericho meeting MJF with the added stipulation of MJF joining Inner Circle with a win. Maxwell Jacob Friedman came out looking like a star taking a page out of Jericho's playbook with the light-up robe.
Although both men were the two biggest rulebreakers in AEW, MJF allowed Chris Jericho to play the babyface here by playing to the crowd. Jericho showed off his still superior agility by pulling out the Lionsault and avalanche frankensteiner in this contest. MJF was in rare form trying his best to get heat from the crowd in attendance. Everything they did hit the right tone for the match.
In the end, MJF tried to use the Dynamite Diamond Ring, but Jericho countered looking to use a bat. However, MJF pulled an Eddie Guerrero pretending he got hit with the bat. With Jericho distracted by the referee, MJF used this to get a rollup with a hand filled with tights to gain his acceptance into The Inner Circle.
This was a solid bout with both men doing what they need to with their position on the Full Gear card.
Star Rating: ***
AEW Full Gear 2020: Jon Moxley vs. Eddie Kingston in an "I Quit" Match for the AEW World Championship
The main event of Full Gear 2020 was Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Eddie Kingston in an "I Quit" Match. The superb buildup with all-time great promos set expectations high for this contest. Both men came in extremely motivated to deliver a memorable main event and deliver they did.
Moxley and Kingston created a grueling showcase of their upbringings in the business in a truly ugly affair that was hard to watch at times. There were chairs, tables, thumbtacks, and barbwire bats involved in this Full Gear main event. The two men absolutely brutalized one another to the point of making one another say "I Quit".
In the conclusion, Jon Moxley wrapped a piece of barbwire around his arm and locked on the Bulldog Choke to make Kingston cry and whipper out an "I Quit" to give the champion the win. This was a balls to the wall, physically intense closer to the Full Gear card. Kingston lost absolutely nothing in what was the biggest match of his career. This main event was a fitting end to a magical night for AEW.
Star Rating: ****
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