As I don’t believe in the 5,000 word overwrought reviews of pay per views let’s just do the bullet points of the good, bad and ugly of AEW Full Gear 2022 (and AEW in general).

The Good

AEW has as great a crew of wrestlers as any promotion in the history of wrestling. They have so much talent they can’t even find a spot for all of them on any one show. And unlike WWE who has a lot of the same wrestlers for over a decade they aren’t stale.

Their Pay Per Views including this one- are quite good always with several very good/excellent matches.
Among the main show’s standouts:
“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry vs Luchasaurus – Steel Cage Match,
Death Triangle (Pac, Rey Fenix & Penta El Zero Miedo) vs The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) – Six-Man Tag Match for the AEW Trios Titles
Chris Jericho vs Claudio Castagnoli vs Sammy Guevara vs Bryan Danielson – Four-Way Match for the ROH World Title
Jon Moxley vs MJF – AEW World Title Match

Their fan base is emotionally invested, love the characters, and buy into the angles. They want to spend their money on AEW tickets and gimmicks- none of which are cheap.

MJF and The Acclaimed are on fire as far as fan support goes. They’re the hottest acts in the business. While they haven’t had a ton of great matches and neither of their matches on this show would qualify as great either, they have the fans in the palm of their hands.

You just gotta love Eddie Kingston. There are superior wrestlers in the world, but man, this guy is passionate and from the heart. Glad he finally got his break with AEW.

The Bad (or Not So Good)

AEW really doesn’t need a 5-hour show, a zillion people outside the ring, way too many screw job finishes and endless furniture and weapons ala ECW. You have great WRESTLERS- just let them wrestle with one person beating the other clean in the middle of the ring. The rest becomes a distraction.

There’s way too many 3, 4, 5, zillion man matches. It just becomes a spotfest. One on one or a tradition tag team for a belt just means more.

The women’s division doesn’t touch WWE’s. All 3 women’s matches last night were “just ok.” Not that they were bad- they just weren’t special.

Putting on two of the best matches first and second and then having Jade Cargill in the death slot following makes zero sense. A card should build, not be uneven like a balloon deflating with excellent bouts followed by mediocre ones.

The Ugly

Jon Moxley deserved better than to be turned on by the fans. The guy always gives 110% and puts on a good show and dealt with recent personal issues. He’s the last guy that deserves disrespect. For them to literally curse him shows a lack of class.

There was nothing on this very good but not great card that warranted $500 plus ringside tickets. There wasn’t a single match I’d qualify as great or classic although there were several very, very good ones as I pointed out above. Once obscene ticket prices become the norm, you run the risk of wrestling becoming- like football or NBA- for the elite. Knicks tickets are $100-3k. Guess what? A lot of people stopped going because they can’t afford it. Wrestling shouldn’t go that route. Let’s not literally make the fans in attendance “ALL Elite.”

Ultimately, I always enjoy AEW. While it’s not a perfect product, it blows away the generally vanilla WWE fare. They had a million-dollar gate last night- for those who doubt they’re the real thing, they just aren’t paying attention.

I talk AEW on the Wrestling & Everything Coast to Coast podcast here: https://youtu.be/n0qnX1NBcW0

Check out my latest piece on the great John Tolos: https://prowrestlingstories.com/pro-wrestling-stories/john-tolos/?fbclid=IwAR2ujj9HQvukmJquxxIG3ixv5HSx_rp4G-RprmHvUeLCF8uH4_umFiYphSI

— Evan Ginzburg