AEW: 3 biggest winners from Full Gear

AEW’s first pay-per-view since their premiere on network television was a resounding success. Regardless of how you felt after the show went home, you knew you watched something special.

First off, if you haven’t watched AEW Full Gear already, go do that right now. Like, right now. Secondly, save this post for later. It’s chock-full of interesting things you want to read.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, this is the wrestling I left at my parents house all those years ago. The wrestling I unfortunately lost with the advent of the Ruthless Aggression and the PG era. Full Gear did a fantastic job hitting so many nostalgia notes and the same could be said with AEW programming in general.

As Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley were left bloodied, battered and bruised, my mind couldn’t help but try to process what I had just seen. Fatherhood eventually caught up with me and my eyes could no longer stay open, but I’m fairly certain the little hamster in my head wearing a Cactus Jack t-shirt was still marking out like crazy.

Arguably one of the most gruesome extreme matches on a mainstream pay-per-view since the ECW or Attitude era, Full Gear also served as the perfect character development platform for some of All Elite Wrestling’s brightest stars.

Here are three wrestlers who benefited the most from this riveting affair.

3. MJF

It’s safe to say we all saw this coming the moment MJF saw the agony his ‘best friend’ was in as Chris Jericho was wrenching Cody’s body into the excruciating ‘Lion Tamer’ and looked at the towel in his hand.

He would eventually throw in that towel, effectively preventing his mentor from ever challenging for the AEW World Title again. While we’re almost certain the All Elite brass will find a way to revert this somehow, it’s still enough to build up an angle leading into the next pay-per-view.

After apologizing and expressing he had made a mistake, Friedman proceeded to kick Cody between the legs and turn on his friend.

In my opinion, this benefits the ‘Salt of the Earth’ tremendously.

No longer does he have to pretend he’s a good guy trapped in a heel’s body, and all that does is open up endless possibilities for MJF to follow in the footsteps of ultra-bad guy Chris Jericho–even potentially joining Le Champion’s Inner Circle stable in the process.

Obviously, they have set up the inevitable MJF versus Cody match for the next pay-per-view. That said, some of us think Maxwell’s betrayal might have happened too soon.

Most importantly, this busts open another level to MJF’s microphone ability. Yes, there’s definitely more we haven’t seen. A degree to his egomania which felt slightly tucked away in the recesses of his mind because of his allegiance to the babyface Rhodes family.