AEW Full Gear: 3 matches we’re most excited for after go-home Dynamite

AEW Full Gear is almost here, and there is a ton of wrestling to be looking forward to

AEW has perfected the art of building a pay-per-view. It certainly helps that they only hold four events a year, but those events always end up feeling like larger-than-life cards. The culminations of dream booking, long-term storytelling, and a roster so deep and talented that it is likely the best roster in wrestling history.

September’s All Out pay-per-view will go down as not only one of the best wrestling shows of all time but a huge turning point in how mainstream publications and casual fans viewed and talked about the modern wrestling landscape.

The build to All Out was inspired and brilliant and was instrumental in getting eyes on the event and allowing it to have the effect it had. All Out may be remembered long-term for the debuts of Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole, but without the hard work done to get fans invested in the show, All Out would not be nearly as pivotal as it was.

So it means something that AEW Full Gear’s build has been significantly stronger than the build to All Out.

CM Punk and Eddie Kingston’s promos and conflict naturally forming. The Lucha Brothers defending the honor of Lucha Libre against FTR. MJF being unable to break Darby Allin despite being able to break everyone else. Cody Rhodes’ will-he-won’t-he relationship with a heel turn and Malakai Black who wants to drag him to that place. Everything has been brilliant and Full Gear is going to be an amazing show because of it.

Narrowing this list down to just three matches is nearly impossible and some matches are going to get left off the list that deserves to be on it. As funny as it would be to include every single match on the card for Saturday’s show below, we have to narrow it down. So we are picking the matches that have just that extra something that elevates them above the rest of the card.

Honorable mentions: SuperKliq vs. Jurassic Express/Christian Cage, Bryan Danielson vs. Miro, Britt Baker DMD vs. Tay Conti, Cody/PAC vs. Malakai Black/Andrade El Idolo, Lucha Brothers vs. FTR.

AEW Full Gear matches we’re most excited for

3. Eddie Kingston vs. CM Punk

Despite being built in a matter of two weeks, CM Punk and Eddie Kingston have already shown that when they clash on Saturday, it will be can’t-miss. This is peak CM Punk. This is peak Eddie Kingston. This is the brilliance of AEW.

The match should be electric, as both men are extremely emotional wrestlers. Kingston has shown several times within the last few months that he can put on a five-star match with the right opponent. Punk can absolutely be that opponent for Kingston, especially if he brings back a bit of the grit he had during his heel run towards the end of the “Summer of Punk”.

CM Punk is the obvious winner in this match, allowing him to continue inching closer to the title picture and a dream match with Kenny Omega. However, the type of beating these two will hand each other will allow Kingston to stay strong and put him in an ideal position to hold water until Jon Moxley returns.

2. MJF vs. Darby Allin

The future of AEW is in safe hands, and this match will make that abundantly clear.

Two future AEW World Champions meet in this match and put on a compelling piece of in-ring storytelling on par with that which the wrestling greats have created. MJF is going to continue to try and get inside Darby Allin’s head, while Allin will try to stay composed. Will Allin break? What will MJF do to break him? What roles will Sting and Wardlow have?

The build to this match has been enthralling as well. MJF has never cut a promo that does not deserve praise, while Darby Allin’s quiet and stoic attitude makes him the perfect anti-thesis to MJF. They represent completely different lifestyles, personalities, and even aesthetics, and that will forever make them incapable of co-existing.

The winner of this match thrusts themselves towards the top of the title picture, and that makes this match hard to predict. If Omega retains, Darby is the best option since Omega can put him over in a promo but then cheat to beat him and protect Allin’s credibility. If Hangman wins, MJF has to win and give Hangman a dastardly foe to overcome and prove his toughness.

Speaking of the World Title…

1. Kenny Omega vs. ‘Hangman’ Adam Page – AEW World Championship Match

Could it have been anything else?

Kenny Omega, the best bout machine, a god among men. The man who wrestled a match so good that wrestling changed forever. A man who once filled up his car at a gas station in North Carolina. The one-winged angel. The Cleaner. The Best In the World.

And the man whose shadow Adam Page has lived in for two years.

If this were the only match on the card, the show would still be worth the price of admission. The emotions are unbelievably high. The stakes are high, with the AEW World Championship on the line. There is not a single fan not invested, and there it is unlikely there will be a single dry eye when it is all said and done.

Has the cowboy done enough and is it his time now? Is Omega too fast, too smart, too experienced?

Is Omega still just better than Page?

The story has been set up for so long that there is nothing left to do but sit back and just enjoy the art that these two will make.