On Saturday, November 23rd, AEW returned to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ for its big event, “Full Gear.” The show was headlined by a massive match that saw Jon Moxley put his AEW World Championship on the line against arguably one of AEW’s biggest homegrown stars, Orange Cassidy.
We also Bobby Lashley make his debut as he challenged a former AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland, Jack Perry put his TNT Championship on the line against Daniel Garcia, MJF squared off with Roderick Strong, and so much more. So, what were the top three moments of the show?
3. Bobby Lashley is victorious in his AEW debut
In one of the biggest matches of the night, we saw Bobby Lashley officially make his AEW in-ring debut as he went one-on-one with the former AEW World Champion, Swerve Strickland. This was one of the more anticipated matches of the night that fans were buzzing about, especially since it was Lashley’s first post-WWE match.
Accompanied by Shelton Benjamin and MVP, Lashley looked like a million bucks tonight. He had a very formidable opponent in front of him though in Swerve Strickland. Strickland always finds a way to win in big matches, so even though Lashley had the weight advantage, you can never count out Swerve.
A cool spot we saw in this match was Swerve hitting the double foot stomp on Lashley through the announce table at ringside. This was a very hard-fought match but ultimately it would be won by Lashley via the hurt lock. This was a great showing by Lashley in his new home, and The Hurt Syndicate has a lot of potential in AEW.
2. Daniel Garcia becomes the new TNT Champion
One of the night’s big marquee matches saw Jack Perry put his TNT Championship on the line against Daniel Garcia. This match was between two of AEW’s best young guns and spoiler alert, it delivered on every front. Both of these men have rightful claims to being some of the pillars of AEW, and it’s very easy to see why.
This match was great. Garcia and Perry went to war for the chance to call themselves the rightful AEW TNT Champion. We saw Perry try to get in the head of Garcia by dumping garbage on him, and asking him to use the TNT Championship belt. Garcia kept his composure and took the fight to Perry.
Ultimately, Garcia forces Perry to tap out with a brutal submission hold to win the TNT Championship. This wasn’t really a shocking moment as a lot of people know Garcia is in line for a nice push, but this was a very well-deserved moment. Garcia is now the new face of TNT.
1. Jon Moxley retains the AEW World Championship/Chaos reigns supreme
In the main event of the night, we saw Jon Moxley put his AEW World Championship on the line against Orange Cassidy. This has been a brand new, and much more dangerous version of Jon Moxley. Moxley, and his new group of the death riders have been running rampant on AEW, but Orange Cassidy looked to take AEW back in this match.
This match was a hard-hitting war between two of AEW’s best. Cassidy was fired up and went right after Moxley in the beginning. It didn’t take long though for the blood to spill out of Cassidy as Moxley went to work on the much smaller opponent. Cassidy almost had the match won after he hit Moxley over the head with a briefcase.
Unfortunately for Cassidy, Wheeler Yuta would hit him with the psycho knee and this allowed for Moxley to hit the death rider to win the match and retain his championship. After the match, Moxley and Yuta continued to tease Orange Cassidy. This drew out Hangman Adam Page who took out Yuta with a steel chair and faced off with Moxley.
With Moxley’s back turned to the entranceway, Christian Cage came down and hit him with his finisher. Just as Cage was going to cash in, Jay White came out and hit Cage with his finisher. This led to the death riders coming in to attack White and leave the arena together. As they approached the parking lot, a car crashed into their truck, which was driven by Darby Allin.
Overall, this was a chaotic ending to a decent show. This was far from AEW’s strongest pay-per-view, but nonetheless it was still a very good show. Chaos reigned supreme at the end, which has been AEW’s moniker for the past few months now, so it was fitting. Overall, decent show.
