8 Match Star Ratings For AEW Full Gear
1. Jon Moxley Vs. Kenny Omega - Lights Out Match
The garbage cans that were first thrown into the ring felt positively quaint, at first.
Quaint is absolutely the last word anybody will ever use to describe this macabre spectacle of (something adjacent to) a professional wrestling match.
The action was white hot and relentless from the jump; the opening crowd-wide brawl, catalysed by a sensational spot of vaulting athleticism on the part of Omega, was the perfect, breathless fusion of their character dynamic. Back in the ring, this settled into a d*ck-waving plunder brawl, as much as the word "settled" can be used to describe something so unsettling. The work here was tremendous as the drama built: Omega's rapid counter game worked wonderfully in the context of suspense-fuelled death match story beats, and Moxley's camera work was superb. As was his unbelievable physicality.
The reaction was interesting; at various points, the Baltimore crowd were reduced into a hush that can best be described as both reverent and disgusted. As a spectacle, this put it over far more than a series of "Holy sh*t!" chants ever could; the action was so committed to its violence that fans could only fail to reconcile the gravity of it all. This was astonishingly brutal. Preposterously brutal, to some.
Overkill, or the only way this could have gone?
For your writer's money, this was a phenomenal bit of business: Moxley looked like a star and killer, and Omega, in missing his old Golden Lover's finish, is lost, once more, on this new character arc.
Star Rating: ★★★★¾