Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston face to face before their PPV match

The go-home episode saw a final face to face confrontation between Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston as tensions ride high before their AEW World Championship confrontation at Full Gear. How much did tempers flare? Let’s find out.

MJF & Wardlow vs Sammy Guevara & Ortiz

Despite this being a heel vs heel encounter, this match had a really intriguing concept going in with the tensions mounting between the Inner Circle members and their potential new recruits.

MJF and Guevara teased an early confrontation but both men tagged out to their partners. Ortiz was isolated by the might of Wardlow and the villainous antics of MJF, the later of which taunted Guevara at every opportunity.

A hot tag finally allowed Guevara into the ring and he was truly the star of the show here. He looked sensational taking the fight to both his opponents with a flurry of high-flying offence.

After some more brawling between the teams, Guevara and MJF faced off solo and had a fantastic sequence that ended with the GTH from Guevara. However, the subsequent pin was broken up by Wardlow.

Guevara would argue with a man dressed as Serpentico by ringside who responded by lobbing a chair at Guevara’s head. To no one’s surprise, it turned out to be Matt Hardy in disguise. This left Ortiz alone and left to succumb to the Salt of the Earth from MJF.

After the match, MJF dove at Jericho, who was on the commentary desk all night, and had to be pulled away by Aubrey Kate, Hager and Wardlow.

This was a great opening match that did wonders to put over Guevara, it feels like prepping for a potential face run for Guevara after MJF wreaks havoc on the Inner Circle. Guevara proved in this match he is fully ready for a face run.

Trent w/ Orange Cassidy vs Miro w/ Penelope Ford

Before Justin Roberts could announce Trent, Miro stole the mic and berated Trent’s mum for not teaching Trent any manners.

An incensed Trent charged at Miro to attack him but Miro’s power overcame as he caught Trent mid offence and tossed him over his shoulder.

During the break, as Cassidy was distracted by Ford, Dark Order came to the ring and blindsided Cassidy. This is grounding for a match between Cassidy and Silver set for Full Gear.

The pair continued to trade hefty blows as Trent tried to compete with the power of Miro.

Despite being able to spike Miro with a spinning DDT and knee strike, Miro still kicked out. A follow up saw Trent slip on a springboard attempt and take a superkick from Miro followed by a camel clutch forcing Trent to concede.

After the match, Best Friends brawled with Sabian and Miro with Best Friends coming out on top thanks to the aid from Cassidy.

This was Miro’s best showing so far and they covered for the slip by Trent beautifully making it seem like it was all part of the action. An entertaining match between two big guys with Miro looking dominant.

FTW demand to be noticed

Taz came down to the ring with Ricky Starks and Brian Cage and complained that Tony Khan wouldn’t speak to him as his crew weren’t competing at Full Gear. The group pointed out Cage’s high ranking and the lack of Starks ranking despite his win record.

Taz singled out Cody suggesting FTW have their eyes on the TNT Championship and promised an FTW appearance at Full Gear. Cage and Starks are both great athletes that could do well with some programmes that will utilise them.

Private Party w/ Matt Hardy vs the Young Bucks

Before the match began, Guevara ran to the ring and hit Hardy with the Twist of Fate before scarpering backstage.

The two teams began performing an acrobatic showcase of duelling, high-flying tag team action.

Matt Jackson was nursing his ankle at every opportunity. This seems to be setting up consequences from the attack by FTR a few weeks ago but rumours suggest that Matt’s injury is legitimate to some extent.

The Bucks took the majority of the offence during the match as they isolated Marq Quen. An impressive standing double head scissors allowed Isiah Kassidy the hot tag who cleaned house and took out both his opponents with a corkscrew dive to the outside.

Private Party took advantage of Matt’s knee injury to try and eek the win but the Bucks could not be stopped as a surprise superkick to Quen knocked him loopy and allowed the Bucks to hit the BTE trigger for the win.

After the match, FTR attacked the Bucks and looked to damage Matt’s ankle further. They were stopped in their tracks by Hangman Page who was followed behind by Kenny Omega.

Omega and Page stared each other down in the ring and exchanged words as they prepared to face each other at Full Gear.

Including Page and Omega in this post-match angle only served to demonstrate how much weaker the AEW Tag Team Championship feud is compared to the Omega/Page confrontation. Page and Omega have had a steady long-term build that has baked in a lot of subtext and interesting potential developments.

With the Bucks and FTR, I’m not convinced. I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel. Should I feel bad that Bucks are being attacked by FTR? They’ve been assaulting innocent staff members for the past month so it doesn’t feel undeserved. At Full Gear, it will essentially be heels vs heels and without additional intrigue, as is the case with the MJF vs Jericho match, who am I supposed to be rooting for?

This feud should be simple in execution with two of the best teams in the world looking to prove who is the best. Instead, we have something that feels both under-booked and over-booked at the same time. The dual heel turns with the ankle-breaking angle is messy and muddies the integrity of the rivalry, yet the feud also feels like it’s been rushed forward to meet the Full Gear deadline rather than waiting to build more anticipation.

What should have been a dream match is now becoming one of my least anticipated matches set for Full Gear.

Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley face to face

Kingston was a raw nerve as he came nose to nose with Moxley and promised to destroy him. He promised to lay the championship on his mother’s lap to show her the reason she didn’t have grandchildren was his drive for the gold.

Moxley responded with remorse for what Kingston has become. He spoke about the promise he made to Kingston’s mother to protect him and that he’s been forced to break it.

He claimed Kingston was scared that after all, he’d fought for 18 years, he was going to lose their match.

Kingston left screaming that this was real and Moxley would have to kill him.

These two were absolutely blazing at each other in the best way. It was so unique and different from what we see in traditional wrestling promos, it felt raw and immediate. I was excited for this match anyway but this moved things up to a fever pitch. It really demonstrates the power that can come from allowing wrestlers to express themselves in their own way and not bottleneck their promos into cookie-cutter dialogue.

Return of the PAC

PAC returned in a scary promo as he spoke of how over the time of his isolation, he was only getting better and more obsessed. He capped off the video by stating that he sees everything.

This was pretty blood-curdling and I can’t wait to see the Bastard back on AEW Dynamite.

Red Velvet w/ Brandi Rhodes vs Nyla Rose w/ Vickie Guerrero

Despite a strong opening rally, Rose quickly took back control with a hefty decapitation clothesline. Rose stopped a second rally attempt from Velvet with a Beast Bomb but picked up her opponent before the three-count. Rose hit Velvet with Hikaru Shida’s running knee finisher to put Velvet away.

After the match, Guerrero got on the mic and confronted Shida saying Khan made the AEW Women’s Champion accept Rose’s challenge. She promised Rose would break Shida and force her to give the title to Rose before doing an oddly offensive Japanese impression.

Shida went to grab Guerrero but Rose stopped her as the pair brawled before being torn apart. A bit late in the game but at least, we’ve got some additional fire to this feud. I’ll take what I can get at this point.

Jon Silver, Colt Cabana & Ten vs Cody, Austin Gunn & Billy Gunn

With the Gunn Club freshly inducted into the Nightmare Family, they were set to aid Cody in his fight against the Dark Order.

Cody and Austin were doing a good job of keeping Silver in his place before Silver scarpered to his corner before he had to face Billy.

Cabana faced down Billy and looked to hit the Flying Apple but got caught by into a side slam. A tag to Ten saw his power stop the Nightmare Family in their tracks and the Dark Order began to isolate Austin.

After the break, Austin managed the hot tag to Billy who cleaned house and hit the Famouser onto Ten but the follow-up pin was stopped by Silver.

A huge springboard from Cody saw him take out Cabana on the outside and managed to catch Silver afterwards to toss him into the crowd.

Back in the ring, Billy managed a tag to Austin who hit Cabana with the Cross Rhodes before hitting the Quick Draw on Ten and taking the win for his team.

After the match, the Dark Order swarmed the ring before Orange Cassidy ran to the ring and took out Silver, sending the group packing. Cody then got on the mic and addressed Allin who was solemnly sat watching the match in the rafters.

Cody said Allin thinks the network doesn’t want him as their TNT Champion but said that was false. He talked about how he vouched for Allin and got him his job in AEW but told Allin he can’t win the Ace belt if he’s not the Ace.

I question having your go-home main-event put over a relative nobody on his TV debut but provided they do something with Austin Gunn it may be impactful. The Cody promo afterwards made up for it with his fiery passion resonating through the screen.

However, the promo solidified a point that came across during this show that a huge number of angles for Full Gear feel like they’re barely surviving on last-minute heat. Cody has been busy with everyone but Allin for weeks, FTR and Bucks is a rushed mess, the women’s division is unfortunately as light on build as it always seems to be and even Moxley and Kingston’s feud has lacked the time to breathe it deserved.

These are odd times with plans likely changing frequently, but AEW will need to make sure they can keep their eyes focused on consistent builds to feuds and not get distracted by new hires or the need to promote short marquee TV matchups and gimmicks over long term storytelling.

The matches set for Full Gear are:

  • The Buy In – NWA Women’s World Championship match: Serena Deeb (c) vs. Allysin Kay
  • Orange Cassidy vs Jon Silver
  • Elite Deletion Match: Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara
  • Chris Jericho vs MJF
  • AEW Women’s World Championship match: Hikaru Shida (c) vs Nyla Rose
  • AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament Final: Kenny Omega vs Hangman Adam Page
  • TNT Championship match: Cody (c) vs Darby Allin
  • AEW Tag Team Championship match: FTR (c) vs The Young Bucks
  • AEW World Championship – I Quit Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs Eddie Kingston

All pictures and videos provided by AEW

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