Heydorn's Brass Ring Ratings - AEW Full Gear 2024
By: Zack Heydorn
The 2024 edition of AEW Full Gear on PPV provided AEW fans with what they’ve come to expect from the company on PPV - strong matches, lots of action, and some fun, albeit ridiculous, crowd chants.
If that’s your thing, this show was undoubtedly a thumbs up for you. If it’s not your thing, well, then you’ve probably got some issues with the event — like I do.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the show and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. Period.
Private Party vs. Kings of the Black Throne vs. The Outrunners vs. The Acclaimed - AEW World Tag Team Championships
The idea here was to start Full Gear off with a hot tag team match with tons of action. This tried hard to accomplish that goal, but didn’t quite make it. Sure, it had it’s moments here and there, but the audience was flat for an AEW PPV opener and it felt as if the championships themselves took a backseat to other nonsense like the Outrunners schtick and The Acclaimed being on the path to a break up. Private Party looked like the leaders of the division, but that’s more likely because the division itself has fallen to their level.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
MJF vs. Roderick Strong
The worst match on the show. The action between Strong and MJF was fine, but the crowd had absolutely no interest in what happened. Zilch. Adam Cole running out at the end to save Roddy from an MJF attack only to get berated for that by Kyle O’Reilly adds more dumb confusion to an already dumb and dead storyline.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - O 1/4
Mercedes Mone vs. Kris Statlander - TBS Championship
An excellent match. Mone’s best in AEW and Statlander’s best ever. The two women had strong chemistry and the result was fun, creative, and unique counter wrestling. This was action packed and although Mone won, they were able to create doubt around that inevitability at various points in the match. Mone needed this and she delivered.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
Jay White vs. Adam Page
A solid match, but a level below Mone vs. Statlander. White and Page played off their history, but the flat crowd detracted from the overall story. Page isn’t hated enough as a new heel and White isn’t liked enough as a new babyface to make what they wanted to happen work.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher
Tremendous match. All state of the art action from two state of the art wrestlers in AEW. They clearly have chemistry and trust in other as well. The piledriver on the stairs probably should have ended things, but the perfect brainbuster onto the turnbuckle was a reasonable reason for it not to from a match construction perspective. Fletcher getting a clean W is a signal that Tony Khan is in the Kyle Fletcher business now. You don’t job out Will Ospreay that way unless you are. Fletcher continuing to have momentum from a booking and presentation perspective needs to be a priority moving forward.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 3/4
Jack Perry vs. Daniel Garcia - TNT Championship
Ouch. So, AEW did the Mariah May Championship Celebration after Ospreay vs. Fletcher, but asking this match to follow that even with a buffer was a fool’s errand. I’m not sure what match on the card could have, but this one didn’t. Perry was a cold champion and Garcia was a cold challenger. The result was a cold match that the audience wasn’t all that invested in. Some good spots here and there, but overall, this didn’t land.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Ricochet - AEW International Championship
Fine, but underwhelming because of circumstances around the show. This had a lot of action throughout it that the crowd had already sat through for two plus hours. Nothing stood out, except for the clean Takeshita finish over Ricochet. This was smart. Yeah, Ricochet lands pretty much where he was in WWE, but Takeshita is the clear priority. Good to see AEW recognize that and put in a good faith effort to keep him strong.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Bobby Lashley vs. Swerve Strickland
It took a while to get going, but once it did? Fantastic. Lashley and Swerve did some vicious stuff to one an other, but it didn’t seem out of bounds or too much for where things were in the feud. Making Lashley look strong had to be the goal here. At the very least, they accomplished that.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO
Jon Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy - AEW World Championship
A good main event. The crowd was on Cassidy’s side throughout and bit on the near falls for him when they needed to. Moxley was ruthless and vicious. That helped give the match added drama and intensity. Cassidy was sympathetic, which shined Moxley up as a heel even brighter than he did on his own. Without a lot of drama regarding who would win this, it delivered as an entertaining main event. As for the post-match stuff, that’s where I’m buying a vowel. Is Adam Page joining Moxley? Jay White is in line for a title match perhaps, but so is Darby Allin since he of course almost murdered three guys with his car in the parking lot. Way too much jammed into two minutes. All of that could have been done on Dynamite.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/4
What did you think of AEW Full Gear 2024? Let us know in the comments!
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