AEW Full Gear 2025 Discussion

[Supremo]

Watching the main event, it wasn’t as disheartening as reading the spoiler.

The Hook heel turn was actually quite satisfying in that daft Attitude Era way, it hopefully draws a line under this weird Eddie Kingston run, and there’s no denying that Samoa Joe looked fucking incredible holding the belt, pints of blood pouring down his face.

Fuck me though. Imagine that Swerve return only it was Hangman standing tall. There was a fantastic false finish in there, where Hangman pulls Joe into the exposed buckle, with the door being open allowing him to hit the Buckshot. Imagine he hits that, wins clean, and then the exact same presentation interrupts him. The house burning down on the big screen. Hangman’s next challenger, his pro-wrestling soul mate, the man who helped him win the belt, finally returning. The continuation of the greatest story in company history, now for the belt. It was right there.

I reckon Tony bottled it listening to everyone moaning about how boring the shows had been. Don’t listen to us, Tony! We’re idiots! I wanted a change, but not that change! I wanted the Mogul Cowboys, but not like that!

I still believe in the Hangman. Assuming the Attitude Era is Tony Khan’s current binge of choice, all will be forgiven if they bounce the belt back on TV, like Stone Cold and Kane trading it in the Summer of 1998.

Edited November 25, 2025 by Supremo

[Infinity Land]

23 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

my guess is that Eddie is still working through problems with his knee, and can't work at the level we'd all like to see him at. But there's got to be something more to it than that, because it doesn't explain why they never let him talk either.

He's about to turn 44 and taking select bookings for one last year of indies. He was talking outright retirement because of this injury. This may well be his NJ Dad era. 

[Supremo]

Eddie Kingston wins the belt from Samoa 
Joe just before he calls it a career, then we get back to the Hangman/Swerve Cinematic Universe.

Acceptable.

[BomberPat]

something I found interesting, but that didn't really get brought up by commentary at all as far as I can recall, is that the cage was completely snug to the ring - that should have prevented Hangman from being able to hit the Buckshot Lariat, but it was Hobbs opening the door that gave him the space to do it. It wouldn't have changed anything, but it would have been a nice wrinkle to the story to have that be a bit more explicitly part of the match layout.

[Infinity Land]

32 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Eddie Kingston wins the belt from Samoa 
Joe just before he calls it a career, then we get back to the Hangman/Swerve Cinematic Universe.

Acceptable.

I want a Eddie Kingston & Kenny Omega styles clash tag run. Since they're both preoccupied with not being able to perform like did in their prime. 

[Supremo]

New fear unlocked; with the way Tony Khan oftentimes books symmetrically (for example, Statlander vs. Mercedes happening at both Full Gear 2024 and 2025), he’s put the belt on Samoa Joe so he can revisit Samoa Joe vs. MJF at World’s End.

How do you defeat a dozen The Opps Dojo baddies? A gaggle of Devils, of course!

[Infinity Land]

9 hours ago, Chris B said:

Thing is, I think this worked with Orange Cassidy because it was out of character for him, and he also wasn't expected to be carrying the show. If Hangman spent dozens of matches facing the likes of Lee Johnson, Jake Hager, QT Marshall, Trent Severn, Trent Beretta, Kip Sabian, Jay Lethal, Lee Moriarty, etc, I don't think that we'd be going 'all time main event reign, that'. Hell, he was up against Powerhouse Hobbs, Shibata and Joe, and he was seen as treading water. On paper, that's a decent feud and storyline - it didn't land, but I think it was worth a shot.

OC isn't the only one that's had a storyline that worked well like that. Mox's first (pandemic era monster hunter) & third title reigns (MJF's lording over with his cash-in chip) where he clocked up formal defenses and eliminators were quite good. Darby had a sprint run of 4-5 TNT title defenses in a month before dropping the belt back to Joe. Toni Storm before she was Timeless and her last run clocked up a lot of matches. A fighting champion can work. It's certainly better than sitting on the sidelines for a month watching every member of the Dark Order get crushed by Danielson.

The bit about Joe being a decent feud on paper. It certainly could have been. Say night of All Out Fletcher loses. The DCF start beating down Hangman. The Opps clear house only for Joe to turn on Hangman. Your new WrestleDream main event. Something like that. Remember how it actually happened? Two weeks before Wrestledream after a match Hangman didn't hand Joe his Trios title with enough respect. 

 

[RedTwoster]

14 hours ago, Supremo said:

New fear unlocked; with the way Tony Khan oftentimes books symmetrically (for example, Statlander vs. Mercedes happening at both Full Gear 2024 and 2025), he’s put the belt on Samoa Joe so he can revisit Samoa Joe vs. MJF at World’s End.

How do you defeat a dozen The Opps Dojo baddies? A gaggle of Devils, of course!

I actually think you might be on to something here.

According to Bryan Alvarez, Joe winning the title here had been the plan for a while, and they have an idea for where this is going. 

What you’re suggesting seems frightfully plausible.

[Tennessee Moltisanti]

No Bandido in the C2 but that is a phenomenal field. Mox to end up with 0 points after getting tapped out in every match?

[Chris B]

Finished the show last night and thought it was one of the stronger ones. Really easy watch from start to finish. Yes, the finish in the main was an odd choice, but the match was excellent and Hangman got multiple visual pins, and the focus was on him at the end sharing with Swerve, despite the title change. He's still the man.

In terms of what happens now, I'll tell you what I wouldn't mind seeing - not least because it would be new. Samoa Joe to have a short title reign, and ending up feuding with/losing to Orange Cassidy. That feels like a match and moment I'd actually really like to see. That'd also open up Orange/MJF, which is a pretty fresh pairing. And that'd lead comfortably to an MJF/Ospreay All In match.

[BomberPat]

yeah, MJF is back any day now, and still has his magic contract because they did a bullshit retcon to say he never cashed it against Hangman, despite the crux of that entire angle being him getting goaded into cashing it in and Hangman not granting him a title match without one, yet somehow saying "nah, I didn't mean it" didn't invalidate the match. 

I hope MJF has got all of his worst instincts out of his system while he's been off, but every other time he's returned he's come back worse, so I'm not optimistic. I haven't missed him, and I've enjoyed the shows not grinding to a halt for his Codyverse-style antics every week. As god-awful as the Devil stuff was, I don't think there's been a bigger waste of time taking up such a disproportionate amount of TV time in AEW's history as the MJF/Hurt Syndicate "story".

On Bandido not being in the Continental Classic, I'm choosing to view that optimistically as a sign that they're going to stick with Brodido as a featured tag team act rather than splitting them now they're not champions. 

Apparently the announcement show for the C2 line-up actually addressed that if anyone interferes, they are "at risk of being banned from AEW". They need to have it actually happen sometime to show the consequences, and I think doing it in one of the Death Riders' matches is the right time - they always interfere in each other's matches, and what better time for it to backfire on them than now, when everything is falling apart for them? 

Maddening that it sounds like they're splitting the Unified belt back into two titles, a month after introducing a new singles title that they have yet to really establish a purpose for. Mental. Hopefully they're smart enough to not actually do that.

[The King of Old School]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

 

 

 

Maddening that it sounds like they're splitting the Unified belt back into two titles, a month after introducing a new singles title that they have yet to really establish a purpose for. Mental. Hopefully they're smart enough to not actually do that.

They wont be.

By 2030 every singles wrestler in AEW will be holding a title of some sort.