50 Worst Wrestling Moments Of The 2020s (So Far)

18. The AEW Full Gear 2023 Show-Long Storyline

The build to the AEW World title match at Full Gear 2023 was really poor.

MJF was set to defend against Jay White, leader of Bullet Club Gold - naming that faction one better than nWo Silver was quite the self-own, incidentally.

Jay had stolen MJF’s belt, which is never a good angle. As is tradition, a wrestler fought a rival’s stablemate ahead of the big PPV encounter. Juice Robinson played the role of an antisemite for a throwaway, predictable TV match. AEW, still reeling from CM Punk’s dramatic exit, was getting very desperate.

MJF was still buddy-buddy with Adam Cole, who had shattered his ankle so badly that he would require a dead person’s bone in massively complex reconstructive surgery. This is important.

On the pre-show, MJF, pulling double-duty, successfully defended the ROH World Tag Team titles alongside Samoa Joe, filling in for the injured Cole. Cole, to reiterate, was injured. Full Gear took place on November 18, 2023. Cole would not return to in-ring action until October 30, 2024. MJF and Joe defeated the Gunns, who attacked MJF with a chair in the post-match. MJF, with his knee badly hurt in the storyline, was rushed away in an ambulance. He was ruled out of the match by the medical team in the pre-show cliffhanger.

Cole, who was injured in real-life, volunteered to take his place. Cole, who would require a dead person’s bone in massively complex reconstructive surgery, was apparently cleared by medical to proceed. He was considerably more injured than MJF. Cole, who didn’t know that MJF would make his miraculous return and defend the title after all, was willing to fight on one leg to defend his friend.

Cole, who was injured, was secretly plotting with Roderick Strong to turn on MJF all along. Cole wasn’t even his friend!

It’s easy and lazy, to compare any illogical development in wrestling to Vince Russo’s creative.

But this was Vince Russo’s creative.