AEW Full Gear 2019: 5 Things that shouldn't happen at the PPV

The Full Gear pay-per-view event this weekend will be the first big event since AEW started their weekly TV show. That ostensibly makes it the most important show in the history of the company. Unlike WWE, who has TV rights deals and other sources of money that make up the vast majority of their revenue, AEW relies on the support of the fans.

The company needs fans buying tickets for their live events and they need people paying to see their pay-per-views (whether they turn out to be monthly or less often). Because of that, those in charge of AEW must be extremely careful about how they go about putting this show together.

Bold decisions must be made, but at the same time, the show must have some simple, conservative results and occurrences. Most, if not all, matches should end with a clear and decisive winner and loser in order to preserve the integrity of the win-loss rating system that has been put in place.

AEW also can't afford to put on a boring show in terms of big moments. Great matches are important, especially on events that you're asking people to pay to watch, but great matches with zero surprises (especially on their very first pay-per-view offering) may leave people with a sense of disappointment at the end of the night.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article belong to the writer and doesn't necessarily represent Sportskeeda's stand.

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#5 Young Bucks defeating Santana & Ortiz

Santana & Ortiz have a huge opportunity at Full Gear.

Santana and Ortiz were a big get for AEW. Their debut at All Out and subsequent appearances on Dynamite as part of Chris Jericho's The Inner Circle stable have made them very important figures in AEW, but their biggest test comes at Full Gear when they take on one of the top teams in the world. The Young Bucks, according to AEW's social media, are No. 3 in the top 5 rankings for the promotion's tag teams, and Santana & Ortiz are behind the curve due to their very recent entry into the company.

They only have one tag match under their belt, which they did win, while the Young Bucks have wrestled in five tag matches, with three wins and two losses. Chris Jericho, the leader of The Inner Circle, is undefeated, and his team needs to follow suit. A win by Santana & Ortiz puts them at 2-0 and evens the Bucks out at 3-3. With a win at Full Gear, their stock rises and they become an immediate threat in the tag division.

Records aside, the victory that Santana & Ortiz hold in 2-on-2 tag matches is against an enhancement team. John Silver and Alex Reynolds are great independent wrestlers, but they regularly appear on WWE television (and now AEW) as a pair of guys to lose to the stars.

Those are the only guys Santana & Ortiz have defeated. If they lose to the Young Bucks in their first big test, it is a big blow not only to the Inner Circle group, but to the new tag team as well. The Young Bucks are stars. They have nothing to lose. Santana & Ortiz can recover, especially since they have Jericho at their side, but a big victory over The Young Bucks will instantly make them stars in the eyes of fans who are unfamiliar with them.

#4 SCU Retaining the AEW World Tag Titles

SCU is the first-ever AEW World Tag Champs and they might lose in their first defense

AEW crowned their first World Tag Team Champions a few weeks ago on Dynamite. SCU won a star-studded tag team tournament, finally defeating the Lucha Brothers in the final, earning themselves the right to be called the first tag champions.

Due to the bad blood that the two teams have had since the very first episode of Dynamite and the injury they caused to SCU's elder statesman Christopher Daniels, the Lucha Brothers are getting a rematch on PPV. In the interest of fairness and sporting competition, the two teams who lost to the Lucha Bros and SCU in the semi-finals of the tournament (Private Party and The Dark Order respectively) were given a chance to be the third team in the first-ever World Tag Team Championship defense. They faced off and Private Party won the match, earning a spot as the third team in the historic Triple Threat match.

The other reason the Lucha Brothers have their tag title shot is that they're listed as the No.1 contenders in the rankings. As it turns out, with victories over both The Young Bucks and The Dark Order, Private Party are ranked No. 2 (the tag champs are at the top and are thus not part of the rankings).

Private Party already shocked the world once by taking out The Young Bucks in the opening round of the tag title tournment, and they should do it again at Full Gear. SCU and The Lucha Bros will be focused on each other due to their ever-deepening rivalry, and that could make them take Private Party lightly.

The young, flashy tag team are capable of amazing things, and one of them could be becoming the first team to have wins over The Young Bucks, SCU and The Lucha Brothers. That's huge.

The biggest reason SCU should lose their titles is because it adds some credibility to the sports-centric presentation. On any given Sunday, as they say in football (Saturday in this case), any team can beat any other team. Private Party can be the best team on this night.

#3 Moxley vs. Omega closing the show

Moxley and Omega will finally square off at Full Gear.

After months of anticipation and a match canceled at the very last minute, Jon Moxey and Kenny Omega, two of the biggest stars on the AEW roster will finally meet at the Full Gear PPV. Speculation has abounded that the "Lights Out" match may be closing the event on Saturday night.

It makes sense, as the nature of this type of match is that there are no rules and while AEW is allowing it to happen in their ring and on their PPV event, the result will also have no bearing on the win-loss system. This is a match to settle a months-long grudge between the two stars, and it appears that a match like this is the only way to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

That's fine, but it shouldn't be the last thing shown on the pay-per-view event. AEW already closed one (low level) PPV with an unsanctioned match that saw Moxley defeat Joey Janela in a crazy match that didn't add to or detract from either man's win-loss record. It happened again on an episode of the AEW Dark series on YouTube, where Kenny also defeated Janela in a match that did not affect the company's standings/ranking system.

Moxley vs. Omega will be the third unsanctioned match in a four-month time period. All three matches make perfect sense: Moxley and Janela are crazy and wanted to go insane without any restrictions on their first big event together. Kenny wanted to show Moxley and everyone else that he could do that kind of match as well as anyone, so he took on and defeated, just like Moxley, Joey Janela in an unsanctioned match.

Now it's down to Moxley and Omega. Historically, "Lights Out" matches mean that they happen after the proper event is over. The lights in the arena are often turned off to symbolically mark the end of the sanctioned event, and when they come back on, it's an anything-goes battlefield. Even though that's traditional, and even fits in with the way things were usually done during time when Cody's dad was most famous, that doesn't mean it should close this particular show.

Cody announced on Dynamite that he was putting himself on the line in a very big way -- if he didn't beat Chris Jericho, he would never challenge for the AEW World Title ever again. That's a huge deal. It's the match that needs to close the show, not a match that, in the end, is essentially meaningless.

Having Cody versus Jericho as the "main event" and then putting something on afterwards isn't the way to go. Later on down the road? Sure. But not for the first title defense on PPV, and not with a gigantic part of the founder of the company's career on the line.

#2 Cody winning the AEW Championship

Cody has a lot riding on winning the AEW World Championship at Full Gear.

After the amazing and emotional promo cut by Cody on the final episode of Dynamite before Full Gear, everybody seems to be all in (no pun intended) on Cody defeating Chris Jericho to win the World Title.

Even people who weren't sold on Cody or thought giving one of the highest executives the World Title was WCW-levels of stupid appear to want him to be the champion after hearing what he had to say.

As great as it was, it becomes even greater if Cody fails to win the championship. The words from Cody's mouth were genuine, heart-felt, passionate, and truthful. They echoed everything any naysayer has ever said about the man and threw it direcly into their faces. And that wasn't even the point. Cody said what he said, and announced what he announced because he still feels like, even after 14-years of proving himself, he still has a long way to go to be taken are seriously as he truly can be seen.

And that's why he needs to lose. The Elite can defeat The Inner Circle later on (in some sort of WarGames style match, if Cody's "match beyond" comment means anything), but right now, the Inner Circle stays on top. Santana & Ortiz beat The Young Bucks. Jericho beats Cody, and the last member of the Elite, Kenny Omega, even though he is taking on a man who is a part of his own circle and nobody else's, will lose as well. It won't be the night of The Elite.

Even more importantly, it's not only a gesture. Cody losing in his first World Title shot is fine, but it's just a nice gesture, because everyone knows he'll win it some time down the line. If Cody doesn't win it at Full Gear, however, that's no longer the case. If he loses to Chris Jericho and is never allowed to challenge for the AEW World Championship again, it's a statement. A definitive statement. A definitive statement that Cody and AEW need to make.

#1 World Title outcome being determined by the judges' decision

Jericho and Cody will go to war at Full Gear.

Putting aside the fact that Chris Jericho probably shouldn't be having 60-minute matches in 2019, the choice to stipulate that there won't be time limit draws for World Championship matches is a bold, and very important decision. It sets a precedent. If they have the first match with a decision that could end with the scorecards of three judges actually end just that way, it's such a heavy-handed and poorly thought-out idea. You want the people to know that the judges are important. You want the people to know that having winners and losers is important. But you don't want to start the Dynamite-era of PPV events by immediately going to that well.

Cody has said that if he doesn't beat Jericho to win the World Title, he will never again challenge for the belt. While it would be very effective -- very heartbreaking -- to see Cody lose his chance at ever becoming AEW World Champion not because he was defeated by pinfall or submission, but because three judges decided that Jericho won the match, it just isn't the way to go. If this was the third or fourth title match with the onus on the wrestlers to win within the allotted time limit or forfeit their fate to a trio of judges, it would be one thing.

In fact, it would probably be an amazing way for Cody to lose his chance forever. The precedent would have been set that it's a possibility and that they are serious about bringing judges in to make very meaningful decisions, but not that the judges being there means that they are definitely going to be the deciding factor.

That's exactly why you don't make the judges decide. In fact, it would be smart to go a very long time before going to a judges' decision. A year or longer, really. Create a number of title matches that make people think that the wrestlers very well may go to the time limit, but don't make it happen. And please, don't make it happen the very first time the stipulation is in place. Let the winner win and let the loser lose.