Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s review of AEW FullGear 2026, the show that had everything from the former New Day in a Texas Death match to MJF returning to attack the world champion. We'll tackle both those things here in the column tonight, as well as Anarchy in the Arena, the crowning of new women's tag team champions, and more!If you missed the show, please feel free to catch up via our AEW Full Gear 2026 live blog, which contains all the objective information you need to know about everything that went down Saturday night plus some subjective information as well, along with social media clips and your comments! It's fun times, go check it out. If you're interested in what the broader WINC crew thought of tonight's show in the desert or at least the matches and developments that interested us the most stick right here, this is the place to be. Here are three things we hated and three things we loved about AEW FullGear 2026!
Let me preface this by saying that I do not hate Wrathlander or the Brawling Birds. What I hated was several things, beginning with the lack of build. Jamie Hayter's injury forced this match to be postponed. Not only was it booted from WrestleDream, it took place after the two teams were on the same side of Blood & Guts. They explained that by saying they had a common goal, which is fine, I guess. There was barely any build and no, shoving each other in Blood & Guts doesn't count.The match placement wasn't great as it followed the incredible Texas Death Match. Tony Khan often places women's matches after big matches like that. The fans need time to catch their breath and come back down. That often leads to a tired crowd, who don't really care what's happening. The women did the best they could in that spot.I didn't like the title change here. There was a lot of anticipation of the Birds winning at All In, mainly because it was in front of their hometown crowd. They held the titles just 76 days. Again, Hayter's injuries hampered their run, which is part of the reason I expected them to retain. The Birds also beat an undefeated team only to lose them in their second title defense. And their first title defense was against the team they beat.Khan hasn't done enough to build up the tag titles and there aren't enough teams. That means a lot of the same teams face each other over and over, or they have repeated five minute squashes against indie wrestlers thrown together for a beatdown. When you look at the men's division and the women's, there is a glaring difference. Yes, the division is only a year old and it will take time to build. There's also the factor of some excellent teams coming in. They literally just signed another men's tag team tonight.Can we sign some women's tag teams? Can we build up that title too?Written by Samantha Schipman
Considering how much stuff happened at AEW Full Gear 2026, and the fact that the show was obscenely long, you would be forgiven in thinking that the AEW World Tag Team Championship match happened on a different show. However, The Young Bucks vs. Mark Davis and Jake Doyle not only took place at Full Gear, but it was one of the best matches on the show and one of the best Young Bucks matches we've seen in some time.Don't get me wrong, the match against Kyle Fletcher and Kevin Knight was fun, but it was a match to switch your brain off to because it was impressive move after impressive move done solely to be that. This match on the other hand was fantastic, and is once again proof that the most reliable and trusted formula in wrestling is a David vs. Goliath story. The babyfaces need to overcome the Goliath heels, which is difficult when those heels are two of the most impressive big men in wrestling today.The Young Bucks are naturally better as heels, but they really tapped into a strong babyface role here that saw them try and use their wits and experience to get the better of the challengers. Davis and Doyle are strong, very strong in fact, but they have so much momentum behind a lot of the moves they do that one slip up can cause the entire tone of the match to change. So much speed in two beefy lads like that can lead to mistakes, and that's where Matt and Nick Jackson thrived here.Even their own mistakes Matt was selling his lower back brilliantly here, and Nick having the common sense to help his brother out in setting up the Meltzer Driver on Davis. They knew they were up against it and used the quick tags to keep the two behemoths a step behind what they were planning. As mentioned, Matt had a great performance, but so did Nick as they both made Davis and Doyle look devastating in how they executed their moves.Now we can shift our attention to the next set of challengers, the Motor City Machine Guns, a team who have a long history with The Young Bucks. I'm sure that match will be great whenever it happens, but I genuinely think it will be tough to beat what Matt and Nick did with Davis and Doyle. Definitely worth a rewatch when you get the chance, not just because it happened early on during a very long show, but because it's an expertly told story told over the course of 20 minutes that made everyone involved look like superstars.Written by Sam Palmer
If there's one thing AEW is always going to be known for, it's giving fans the most bang for their buck when it comes to their pay-per-views. I'm well aware that I am always one to complain about the length of the shows, but what worked against the company tonight (in addition to its runtime) was the fact they put on two big, bloody, chaotic stipulation matches that felt like they overshadowed other bouts on the card.The third match of the night was the AEW Trios World Championship Texas Death match, and after New Level and Swerve Strickland recaptured the gold in a lengthy gorefest, which is in contender for match of the year for me, the next few matches fell really flat. I hate to say it, but it almost felt like the AEW Women's Tag Team Championships were switched up from the Brawling Birds to Wrathlander just to have something of substance happen immediately following Texas Death.While I loved the fact Ilja Dragunov won his first championship in AEW in a solid match against Tommaso Ciampa, I just couldn't get excited for it, as I felt like I was still recovering from the trios match. The crowd also wasn't too into that match until the very end, which was disappointing.Of course you have to have the Death Riders on the show named after Pac, following his tragic passing, even if they did take the loss. I'm just not sure if AITA was the right way to get them on the show. I'm not invested in their feud with The Cut or their partnership with the Conglomeration. Whereas Texas Death felt personal and had an excellent story behind it to justify the brutality, the AITA match didn't have that. It was just chaotic fun, which is usually fine, if that's the only major stipulation on a show.It could be best described as a "party match" or something along those lines. There was a lot of dancing on the outside of the ring to DMX to basically kick things off, which was fun, but as the match went on, it felt like it was dragging. There were way too many people involved, which did make it feel much different than Texas Death, but it was overall just way too much for the night.All other Anarchy in the Arena matches have been held at AEW Double or Nothing, which is probably where they should always be booked. Between the two big bouts, on top of all the title matches, it felt like everything was competing with itself tonight, and it made the event feel exhausting without much breathing room or time to recover.Written byDaisyRuth
It was always going to be the case that the Trios Texas Deathmatch tonight was going to be violent. It was more than likely going to be the case that it was good. But what one might not have expected was the volume at which both those things would be achieved.It wouldn't do the match any justice to just list off what was done, because this match went beyond just what was happening in and outside the ring. There was a level of hatred in Swerve Strickland that no one, not even Hangman Page, try as he did, could match.There was an unshackled extreme creativity from the New Level, a team that quite literally couldn't do 90% of what they did this time last year. It was 40 minutes of two teams emptying the tank, and their blood vessels, in a way that ensured each man felt like a star in their own right.Page and Strickland's exchanges were highly anticipated and well worth the wait as they came dueling with staplers, Strickland literally drinking Page's blood and using it to mist him in the face. That is, of course, a little gross. But at this point, Strickland is a horror villain capable of going subterranean to ensure he gets the win. He wanted this stipulation and he went out there to prove why.After years of seeing the New Level wearing unicorn horns and Austin Creed playing Francesca the trombone, in this match they were made unicorns with skewers to the scalp and brought a barbed wire wrapped Francesca into the fold. Kofi took light tubes to the head. That's an insane sentence to write. And all of that chaos was encased in a fight that felt worthy of the vitriol that had been building in recent weeks.When all was said and done it went back to what this story always has been, Page and Strickland, on their own with each of their teammates down. Page never wanted this match. Strickland did. Strickland ensured that everyone else did too. He got what he wanted in having the match, he got what he wanted when it was Page left the last man standing, and he got what he wanted when he kicked him back down to the mat to recapture the titles.The villain had dragged the hero into waters he knew he wasn't going to be able to swim. And the question coming out of this is how Page deals with the fact he was right all along, and it made zero difference.Written by Max Everett
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate when AEW runs back any iteration of the "Real World Champion" storyline, a la CM Punk in 2023. I don't like another star carrying around "their" version of the AEW World Championship, and with MJF's return tonight, that's once again what we're getting. I know that's what he was doing before taking a hiatus following his Casino Gauntlet match loss at AEW All In London, but I was hoping when he came back, that portion of his story would be dropped.MJF was one of only two surprise returns/debuts on the show tonight, though we may very well find out in the coming days that travel issues following the crazy ground stop across the United States on Friday may have prevented a talent or two from showing up. Maybe I'm too clued in to all the reports, but I expected MJF to return tonight to take out AEW World Champion Will Ospreay following his match with Kyle Fletcher, so I wasn't too surprised by it, or enthusiastic about it after 1 a.m. The fact he showed up in a stereotypical black hoodie and mask to reveal the "Big Beautiful Belt" and stomp on Ospreay's real title wasn't interesting to me.I like MJF and he's an excellent heel, but this wasn't the most exciting way for the show to go off the air. I don't want to hear him constantly go on about being the "REAL" world champion.Earlier in the night, we also got the debut of the Kasper Brothers, the former Julius and Brutus Creed in WWE. I certainly didn't expect to see them in AEW, and while a surprise, I'm not entirely sure how they fit in with the likes of the Motor City Machine Guns, the Young Bucks, and FTR. It may not make much sense, but I feel like their debut would have meant more amongst a few others on the night, like a Kairi or a Sheamus, on a show, where we could say, "Wow, look at talent X, Y, and Z who showed up!" Just saying, "Oh, the former Creed Brothers are here" isn't too exciting.Tonight was a big pay-per-view for excellent in-ring work, as well as two major stipulation matches. Maybe I'm too accustomed to big, fun surprises on major AEW PPVs, since I don't get that on WWE shows. I expected too much in the debut/return department tonight, and I'll be interested to learn if travel woes impacted any plans for the night.Written byDaisyRuth
The main event between Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher was always going to be great. It's Ospreay. It's Fletcher. They are two of the best wrestlers in the world with a story very akin to Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi.They were brothers in all but blood; Ospreay took Fletcher under his wing and there can be no argument that he is a large reason why Fletcher is in the position he's in. But that's where the resentment began. Because Fletcher has all the makings of being as good as, if not better, than Ospreay. He feels he has surpassed him and no longer has to look up to Ospreay, and that is what tonight was about. This was their Duel on Mustafar.Now, I had felt those parallels coming into tonight. This was, by no means, the first battle between them. But what truly cemented it, personally, was the closing stretch. While Ospreay had the high ground, looking down at him, Fletcher screaming with what he had left in his lungs: "I f***ing hate you!"It was raw and emotional and all of the superlatives one could throw at such an arch-rivalry. And it felt like the end. It felt like, having seen this movie before, Ospreay was just going to end it and walk away leaving his fallen apprentice in a mess of his own making.But this isn't a movie. This is professional wrestling, where the script can paint someone a villain while the crowd has other ideas. Fletcher was the villain. Ospreay was the hero. But Fletcher was the one fans wanted to win the title.Here was where the match started to feel more like Fletcher's version of Kenny Omega versus Kazuchika Okada at Dominion 2017. The crowd wanted him to win and this match saw an unofficial double turn as a result boos when Ospreay kicked out, rampant cheers when Fletcher did the same. Ospreay started to work like the heel in response.And as it felt like the end, my heart stopped as Fletcher ducked the Hidden Blade and backslid Ospreay. It jolted with each count, and it kicked back into action when Ospreay kicked out. I legitimately thought he'd done it for a moment, and when wrestling can reach out of the screen and make me tangibly feelsomething, it's special.I proceeded to go nuts when Fletcher kicked out again, and I really wanted him to kick out of the Tiger Driver in the end. He didn't. But that only means he'll come back again, and just like Dominion 2018 rolled round for Omega, it feels like next year will be theyear.Written by Max Everett
