Full Gear 2020

Full Gear was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). It took place on November 7, 2020 at Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, except the Elite Deletion Match, that took place one week earlier and was taped on The Hardy Compound in Cameron, North Carolina. It was the second event in the Full Gear chronology.
Nine matches were contested at the event, including one on The Buy In pre-show. In the main event, Jon Moxley defeated Eddie Kingston in a "I quit" match to retain the AEW World Championship. In other prominent matches, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship, Hikaru Shida defeated Nyla Rose to retain the AEW Women's World Championship, Darby Allin defeated Cody Rhodes to win the AEW TNT Championship, and Kenny Omega defeated "Hangman" Adam Page in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match.
==Production==
===Background===
During All Out on September 5, 2020, All Elite Wrestling (AEW) announced that their next pay-per-view would be Full Gear, thus establishing Full Gear as an annual event for AEW. On November 6, the day before Full Gear, TNT aired a one-hour television special previewing the event called Countdown to Full Gear, averaging 245,000 viewers.
===Storylines===
Full Gear featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Storylines were produced on AEW's weekly shows Dynamite and Dark and The Young Bucks' YouTube series Being The Elite.
On the September 23 episode of Dynamite, Jon Moxley retained the AEW World Championship over Eddie Kingston by making him pass out to a chokehold. On the October 14 episode, Kingston attacked Moxley after the latter's match with Lance Archer, proclaiming that he had never tapped out. The following week, Moxley was scheduled to defend the title against Kingston in an "I quit" match at Full Gear.
On the September 30 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that there would be an eight-man single-elimination tournament culminating at Full Gear with the winner receiving a future AEW World Championship match. Jungle Boy, Rey Fenix, Kenny Omega, Wardlow, Colt Cabana, Adam Page, Joey Janela, and Penta El Zero M were announced as participants. The tournament occurred over the following month with former tag team partners Omega and Page advancing to the final at Full Gear.
A four-way tag team match was scheduled for the October 14 episode of Dynamite, with the winning team challenging FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) for the AEW World Tag Team Championship at Full Gear. The four teams were picked at random, and were Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen), Alex Reynolds and John Silver of The Dark Order, The Butcher and The Blade, and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). The match was won by The Young Bucks.< In a promo on the October 28 episode, The Young Bucks said that if they did not win at Full Gear, they would never challenge for the title again.
After Cody wrestled Orange Cassidy to a time limit draw and retained the TNT Championship on the October 14 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that Darby Allin would challenge for the title at Full Gear. Before Full Gear, Cody had a title rematch with Cassidy in a lumberjack match on the October 28 Dynamite, which Cody won, keeping him as the defending champion against Allin.
After Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara in a Broken Rules match at All Out, Hardy took time off until he was cleared to return, due to an injury sustained during the match. He reunited with Private Party (Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) as their manager, but was attacked backstage before their match on the September 16 episode of Dynamite. The attacker was later revealed as Guevara and "The Elite Deletion" match was announced, which will take place at The Hardy Compound in Cameron, North Carolina.
On July 15, at Fight for the Fallen, Nyla Rose revealed Vickie Guerrero as her manager. After Rose's match on the October 13 episode of Dark, the duo known as "The Vicious Vixens", challenged Hikaru Shida to an AEW Women's World Championship match. On the October 28 episode of Dynamite, Shida accepted the challenge and the match was officially announced.
MJF, who originally wanted to join Chris Jericho's stable The Inner Circle on November 13, 2019, looked to join a stable after unsuccessfully challenging for Jon Moxley's AEW World Championship at All Out. MJF invited Jericho to "Le Dinner Debonair", a steak dinner where they performed "Me and My Shadow", during which Jericho announced that The Inner Circle would hold a Town Hall meeting to decide whether MJF should join the group. After several questions from Eric Bischoff and others, Jericho brought up that MJF has never beaten him and would give him a match at Full Gear, allowing MJF to join the group if he wins.
==Event==
===The Buy-In===
On The Buy-In pre-show, a match was contested between Allysin Kay and the NWA World Women's Champion Serena Deeb for the NWA World Women's Championship. Deeb retained the title after submitting Kay with the "Serenity Lock". After the match, Deeb was confronted by the former women's champion Thunder Rosa.
===Preliminary matches===
The actual pay-per-view opened with the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament final match between "Hangman" Adam Page and Kenny Omega, with the winner receiving a future match for the AEW World Championship. Omega performed "One Winged Angel" on Page to win the match.
Next, John Silver faced Orange Cassidy. In the end, Cassidy performed "Beach Break" on Silver to win the match.
After that, Cody (accompanied by Arn Anderson) defended the AEW TNT Championship against Darby Allin. In the end, as both wrestlers tried to roll-up each other to a cover, Allin pinned Cody with a roll-up to win the title.
In the fourth match, Hikaru Shida defended the AEW Women's World Championship against Nyla Rose (accompanied by Vickie Guerrero). Shida retained the title, when she pinned Rose after multiple knee strikes.
Next, FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) defended the AEW World Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). If The Young Bucks lost, they would never be able to challenge for the title again. In the end, Matt Jackson performed a "Superkick" on Cash Wheeler to win the match and the championship.
After that, Matt Hardy faced Sammy Guevara in The Elite Deletion match, which took place in Hardy's Compound. During the match, Gangrel and Hurricane Helms made a surprise appearance, with Gangrel helping Guevara and Helms helping Hardy. In the end, Hardy pinned Guevara after a chair shot to the head to win the match.
In the penultimate match, Chris Jericho faced MJF (accompanied by Wardlow) in a match if MJF would win, he would be allowed to join The Inner Circle. In the end, MJF rolled up Jericho to win the match, thus, joined The Inner Circle afterwards. By extension, Wardlow joined The Inner Ciricle as well.
===Main event===
In the main event, Jon Moxley defended the AEW World Championship against Eddie Kingston in an "I quit" match. In the end, Moxley choked Kingston with barbed wire, which made Kingston say "I quit", thus Moxley retained the title.
==Reception==
Full Gear had a socially-distanced attendance of just over 1,000 people and a $60,000 gate, believed to be the second biggest wrestling crowd since the COVID-19 pandemic began and biggest gate, with approximately 100,000 pay-per-view buys. The event was universally acclaimed by critics and fans, with many calling it the best PPV of 2020, and many praising The Young Bucks–FTR match, which Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter gave 5.25 stars, the fifth AEW match to be rated 5 stars or more by Meltzer, and the third AEW match to break the 5 star rating system. His ratings for the other matches include: 2.5 for Deeb–Kay, 4.5 for Omega–Page, 3.5 for Cassidy–Silver, 4.25 for Allin–Rhodes, 3.25 for Shida–Rose, 3.5 for MJF–Jericho, and 4.25 for Moxley–Kingston. There was no rating for Hardy–Guevara because it was a cinematic match.
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated said the event "surpassed expectations", Omega–Page was "outrageously good", Allin–Rhodes was the "biggest moment of Allin’s career", The Young Bucks–FTR "had a match of the night performance", and Moxley–Kingston was "not for the weak-hearted". Chris Bengel of CBSSports.com said the event "didn't disappoint", the storytelling for MJF–Jericho was "phenomenal", The Young Bucks–FTR was "arguably one of the best matches in quite some time", and Moxley–Kingston was "entertaining". Joseph Staszewski of New York Post said AEW "hit a ton of high notes" at the event, Hardy–Guevara "had its fun moments", The Young Bucks–FTR "delivered a love letter to tag team wrestling in their long-awaited dream match that lived up to all the hype", and Moxley–Kingston was "brutal and at times uncomfortable".
==Aftermath==
On the following episode of Dynamite, it was announced that Jon Moxley would defend the AEW World Championship against Kenny Omega on the December 2 episode, titled AEW Winter Is Coming.
==Results==
;
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*The Buy In Pre Show: Serena Deeb (c) defeated Allysin Kay to retain the NWA World Women's Championship (10:25)
*Kenny Omega defeated Hangman Page in the AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament Final Match (16:25)
*Orange Cassidy defeated John Silver (9:40)
*Darby Allin defeated Cody (w/ Arn Anderson) (c) to win the AEW TNT Championship (17:00)
*Hikaru Shida (c) defeated Nyla Rose (w/ Vickie Guerrero) to retain the AEW Women's World Championship (14:10)
*The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) defeated FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (w/ Tully Blanchard) (c) to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship (28:35)
*Matt Hardy defeated Sammy Guevara in The Elite Deletion Match (19:39)
*MJF defeated Chris Jericho. As a result, MJF can join The Inner Circle (16:10)
*Jon Moxley (c) defeated Eddie Kingston in an "I Quit" match to retain the AEW World Championship (17:35)
===AEW World Championship Eliminator Tournament===
==Other on-screen talent==
;Commentators
*Jim Ross
*Excalibur
*Tony Schiavone	
;Ring announcer
*Justin Roberts
;Referees
*Aubrey Edwards
*Bryce Remsburg
*Paul Turner
*Rick Knox
==External links==
* The Buy In Pre Show Results
* Full Gear Results
Category:All Elite Wrestling events
Category:2020 pay-per-view events
Category:All Elite Wrestling pay-per-view events
Category:Events with I Quit matches