MJF Overcomes Massive Odds to Retain AEW World Title at Full Gear

MJF overcomes an injury and interference to get back his AEW World Title at Full Gear

By Matthew Aguilar

The main event of AEW: Full Gear had a still-injured Adam Cole standing in for MJF, who was hurt earlier in the night and taken to the hospital. MJF returned in an ambulance in time for the match, but he was bandaged around his leg and quad and clearly hurt. White would taunt MJF and Cole throughout the match and kept attacking the hurt leg of MJF. Cole would try and help MJF multiple times, but they would almost backfire every time. Luckily Cole did get one attempt to land by giving MJF his ring, and he would use it to knock out the interfering Gunns and White while the referee wasn't looking. It was enough to get him the win and reunite him with his Title, so the era of MJF will continue, which Samoa Joe is quite happy about.

Early on in the match, it was all Jay White, who just tortured MJF by attacking his leg over and over. White kept taunting Cole as well, throwing things at him and threatening to punch him. Despite MJF's injury, the Champ kept getting up and hitting White with surprise offense, including a damaging mule kick out of nowhere. At one point MJF finally got some momentum and threw White outside of the ring towards the announce table. MJF threw White on the table and it shattered without much effort. Then MJF went up top and came down with a high elbow drop on White's ribs, and it was straight onto the floor since the table had already been shattered.

MJF got White into the ring before the count, but White targeted the hurt leg of MJF once again, slamming it against the ropes. Then White tied up MJF in the ropes and delivered a chop to the chest before going up top and trying to tear off the bandage around MJF's leg. MJF got up though and threw White off before he could finish the job and then he got to his feet. Unfortunately, White hit the leg again and knocked MJF down before slamming MJF to the mat off the top rope into a cover, but MJF kicked out.

White delivered some chops to the Champ but MJF wasn't backing down. The two stars exchanged slams and MJF then ate a suplex. White set up for the finisher but MJF reversed and rolled White up. White countered and then MJF countered again. MJF then hit the tombstone pile driver on White but couldn't cover due to the pain in his leg. MJF kept the momentum going though, setting White up for a Heatseeker, but White countered and threw him to the mat.

MJF then ran full speed at White and jumped over the rope to hit a cutter onto the floor, and both men were down. MJF then pulled White into the ring to break the count and then pinned White but the challenger kicked out. MJF pulled his knee pad and sleeve down to get some life back in the leg, but he wasn't able to put any weight on it after multiple tries. MJF told the doctor to go away and slammed the mat.

White went right at the leg and knee with dragon screws, and then White went for the submission and spit at Cole. The submission was locked in, and Cole had a towel in his hand to throw in for MJF. MJF was screaming at him not to, and White kept the move locked in. MJF got close to the bottom rope to break it and then he tried to reverse the hold, and he finally did. The pressure was on Jay White now, and while he did get free, Cole had his Title to hit White. Then White caught it and hit MJF with the Title without the referee seeing it. White tried to pin MJF, but MJF kicked out.

White then tried to pull the leg of MJF but he backed into the referee and it knocked him out. MJF had new energy and Cole tried to hand him the ring. White then put the ring on in front of Cole and taunted him. White kissed the ring and went to punch MJF with it but got hit by MJF with a massive low blow. MJF put the ring on and hit the Gunns with the ring. MJF dodged the blade runner and hit White with the ring, getting rid of it before the referee saw him. MJF then got the pin and the win. Cole got in the ring to celebrate with his friend, and MJF got his Title back.

AEW Full Gear 2023 Results

  • AEW World Championship: MJF (c) def. Jay White
  • AEW TBS Championship: Julia Hart def. Kris Statlander and Skye Blue
  • Texas Death Match: Swerve Strickland def. "Hangman" Adam Page
  • Will Ospreay signs with AEW
  • Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho def. Young Bucks
  • AEW World Tag Team Championships – Ladder Match: Ricky Starks and Big Bill (c) def. La Facción Ingobernable vs. FTR vs. Kings of the Black Throne
  • AEW Women's Championship: "Timeless" Toni Storm def. Hikaru Shida (c)
  • AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) def. Jon Moxley
  • Sting, Darby Allin and Adam Copeland def. Christian Cage, Luchasaurus and Nick Wayne
  • Zero Hour – ROH Tag Team Championships: MJF and Samoa Joe (c) def. The Gunns
  • Zero Hour – ROH World Championship: Eddie Kingston (c) def. Jay Lethal
  • Zero Hour: Claudio Castagnoli def. Buddy Matthews

What did you think of the match? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

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