13 Match Star Ratings For AEW Full Gear 2022
9. Death Triangle Vs. The Elite - AEW World Trios Title Match
It should be impossible to sustain the level of excitement that the Elite did over 20 minutes. For virtually every other wrestler, it is.
A special match before the bell even rang, the Elite's new entrance is a sign that they are ready to embrace the big time of broad storytelling - but the stunning match result indicates that they're going to do populism in their own way. The exchanges between Kenny Omega and PAC were positively nostalgic at this point, but still somehow futuristic all these years later. The early battle also formed the crux of the story.
PAC knows that Omega has his number. He always did, and so PAC slunk away, allowing the Young Bucks and the Lucha Bros. to resume the greatest tag team programme of the century. Somehow, it remains deliriously inventive. Nick Jackson flattened everybody by dropping Penta El Zero Miedo to the floor with a hurricanrana from the top rope - and Penta isn't even the brother with whom he has the most chemistry. How do the Elite continue to do this?
The twists in this lung-bursting sprint, which was somehow also a marathon, were spellbinding in a completely distinct way. Again. They wrong-foot a delirious, deafening crowd every single time. They are geniuses at structuring a match to elicit gasps and shrieks at every last turn. It should feel more contrived than it does, but even something like the triple Tombstone spot was so elegantly laid out. The sense of timing and positioning was masterful.
Everything circled back to Omega and PAC.
After dropping Omega directly on his head with his wicked, whipped German suplex - these men are too rapid and explosive for their own good, since the momentum caused them to overdo it - PAC pleaded with Fénix to deploy the ring hammer. He refused. This felt like the finish, since that's when the hammer usually appears, but it wouldn't be a blow-away awesome Elite match if there wasn't another peak. After yet more pulsating action, PAC again pleaded with Fénix. He's done and lost this before; he knows that the Elite are the superior unit when they're at their most confident and united, and he knows what he's doing.
In a sensational twist, Fénix reluctantly agreed, drilled Omega in the face, and rolled through the One-Winged Angel to retain. PAC was immense here. He was overjoyed with his mate, and in doing so had never put the Trios titles over more.
Seminal moment, outrageously great match even by their standards.
Star Rating: ★★★★¾