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Last night was All Elite Wrestling's last chance to sell fans on its first pay-per-view since coming to TV, Full Gear in Baltimore this Saturday. The major angles moved along nicely, although some matches for the upcoming pay per view felt like they were put together at the last minute.
It's hard to grade any particular winners or losers from last night's show, because AEW has so far done a great job of getting all of its talents over. So what aspects of the show did the most to build to Full Gear? Which might have undercut the go-home show's effectiveness?
Trent vs. Pac - B
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This was a solid match to start the show off, with Trent showing what he was capable of as a singles competitor. It also allowed Pac to further establish his heel credentials during his confrontation with Orange Cassidy, who is by a sheer twist of fate one of the most over people in AEW. Pac's pump kick to Cassidy was received with huge jeers.
The only problem here was that there was little doubt that Pac was going to win this match en route to his match at Full Gear. It seems that Trent is destined to remain part of the tag team division, which isn't an insult at all, given how seriously AEW has taken it up to this point.
Pac's promo after his victory, where he belittled Page for saying his "naughty little word" last week, did a good job building the confrontation up. It was questionable why Page took part in the main event confronting members of the Inner Circle instead of Pac, but on short notice, the rematch between the two of them at Full Gear has been built up nicely.
Cody's Announcement - A
We were told that Cody was going to make a "career-changing" announcement on last night's Dynamite, and he didn't disappoint us. After pointing out the history of active competitors in management positions, he said that he would learn from the mistakes of the past. As such, if he failed to capture the AEW Championship from Chris Jericho on Saturday, he would never compete for it again.
Cody said he didn't view this as an impediment, because he was going to show the "carny succubus" Jericho how wrong he was about his generation and would capture the title.
As Cody's final push to Full Gear, this did everything it needed to do, and raised the stakes of their match even further.
Private Party vs. The Dark Order - A
As many expected, the Lucha Bros will face SCU again for the tag team titles at Full Gear - but with a twist. There was a match to determine the bronze medal winner of the tag team tournament between Private Party and the Dark Order, the two semifinalist teams. The winner would advance to Full Gear and make it a triple threat tag team match.
It was an explosive match and much to the delight of the crowd, Private Party won. It was the right call. They're the fastest rising tag team in the company, so giving them a spot on pay per view was a smart move.
I suspect that they're going to take the pin on Saturday, but it's still going to be a fantastic match, and Private Party is better off no matter what happens.
Riho and Shanna vs. Emi Sakura and Jamie Hayter - B-
This gif perfectly encapsulates Riho's strengths as champion. She's a fantastic babyface and made this match come alive from a slow start. The match exceeded expectations and provided some thrills. For the second week in a row, Shanna shined. Already, she's one of the best in the AEW women's division, which suddenly looks much stronger than it did just a few weeks ago.
The ending was the major problem here. Riho was announced just last night to be defending her title at Full Gear against her old mentor, Emi Sakura. To build that dynamic, the match ended with the two trading pins, with pupil coming out on the losing end.
Riho will certainly retain, so this felt like it was just done to build up Sakura as a credible threat. Unfortunately, it brings to mind WWE 50/50 style booking, where the champions take non-title losses on TV all the time, winning on pay per view but undercutting their effectiveness anyway. AEW didn't dedicate any time to building up Riho's opponent at Full Gear over several weeks, so this was the best they could muster.
It's weak booking and hopefully, the company won't put itself in this position again.
Chris Jericho's video package - A
In response to Cody's seriousness, Chris Jericho released a video package that was nothing but a mockery of their upcoming title match. The only thing he had on his mind was what kind of champagne he and the Inner Circle were going to drink on the day of the match.
After all, he's 48 years young, the youngest AEW Champion on record.
The arrogance on display in contrast to Cody putting everything on the line polarized the title match at Full Gear even further, acting as the cherry on top of the build.
Brandi Rhodes video package - F
Last week was spooky at least. This week's package was just strange. Brandi Rhodes continued to promote her alliance with Awesome Kong, but her words about being accused of having her spot only because of Cody ring closer to home than she would have liked.
With the women's division shaping up, there's truly not much that Brandi can add to it, given her earlier performances in the summer. Let's just hope that she won't be in title contention anytime soon.
Shawn Spears vs. Brandon Cutler - D
With this being the go-home show to Full Gear, this truthfully felt like a waste of valuable air time. Joey Janela's run-in after the match was the most important thing, and he will have a confrontation with Spears at Full Gear, but none of this was built upon Dynamite. Like the women's title match, it came out of the blue.
Let's hope that AEW doesn't copy WWE in bloating their pay per views, which has been the case so far. This match doesn't feel like it needs to take place at Full Gear and can instead take place on next week's Dynamite.
Main event chaos - A+
This was everything it needed to be. Chris Jericho got a win to keep himself strong heading into Full Gear. Cody came out to attack Jericho afterward, along with MJF. The entire Inner Circle brawled with the elite and Jon Moxley took no one's side, attacking Kenny Omega and the Inner Circle alike.
The battle lines were drawn. Dynamite ended in chaos, fading to black during the brawl itself.
It was everything a final push toward a pay per view was supposed to be, leaving us wanting more instead of having some trope where one wrestler "stands tall" on the go-home show.
