9 Match Star Ratings For AEW Full Gear 2020
4. FTR Vs. The Young Bucks - World Tag Team Championship Match
In a small complaint that didn't matter at all by the finish, the dream match took a while to heat up. It was jittery for a while there. At one point, Dax Hardwood and Cash Wheeler seemed to get in each other's way doing something as simple as wrapping Matt Jackson's leg around the post.
A special mention must be made to Excalibur here. It's no exaggeration to state that his all-timer of a commentary performance added the elusive quarter-star to this instant classic. The big moment in the match was mistimed - Wheeler was a little slow threatening the swipe, and it felt like Matt Jackson took the hard landing on his bum ankle for no reason - but Excalibur covered for the beat.
Wheeler atoned by performing like a maniac. He speared Nick Jackson off the apron in a positively awesome spot that worked to put the Bucks over. He had to kill the guy. He couldn't just sweep his leg. Nick devised the absolute perfect spot to account for Matt's last stand. He took a brutal powerbomb through the timekeeper's table. Dax played sh*t-out-of-luck bully to perfection by injuring his hand and flailing it wildly in desperation. Matt Jackson was on another level entirely.
All four men were incredible here in what was as much a story of tag team wrestling itself as it was a battle between the two greatest practitioners of the genre. This was not a hollow and contrived series of tribute spots; this was a story of FTR slowly conceding that the genre has in fact evolved. The moves borrowed from the '80s didn't work; they only scored narrow near-falls in what was - like the art itself has become - a graduating hailstorm of action.
After a small moment of (deliberate) confusion, Wheeler convinced Harwood to Meet him in the Middle. And, in the end, with their own arsenal exhausted, Wheeler betrayed his code to put over the Bucks by attempting a springboard 450. He failed. The Bucks won, and on the strength of that reaction, they were right to wait as long as they did before strapping up. But they didn't bury the past.
Matt borrowed from Arn Anderson to get back on offence in a marvellous spot that told its own story: all of this great. Rejoice in all of it.
Ultimately, on the strength of an out-of-this-world selling performance, Matt Jackson made 1,000 distanced outdoor fans sound like 10,000 packed into a major indoor arena. After months and months of great if bittersweet wrestling, this felt like a return to the old normal when it peaked. That crowd was pulled all the way into this story, and so was I. The words call an audible call an audible screamed silently in my mind throughout the unbearable drama of the last 15 minutes, in fear of FTR winning. A real, red-hot wrestling crowd were desperate for the Bucks to overcome. They were begging, and it was loud, and it was impossible, but it was happening, at last. Real wrestling. Not the very best of a bad situation.
Real, seminal, live pro wrestling in 2020.
Star Rating: ★★★★★