World title change, heel turn & former champion’s surprise return close AEW Full Gear
In a dizzying sequence that closed Saturday’s AEW Full Gear, AEW has a new men’s World Champion in Samoa Joe, a new heel in Hook, and the return of Swerve Strickland from injury.
Joe won his second World title by defeating Hangman Page in a steel cage match in the night’s main event. That was aided by Hook who rejoined The Opps and hit Page with the World title belt which set up a Joe muscle buster that finished Page off to end a bloodbath between the two — the third-such match on the PPV.
Hook’s entrance was preceded by Katsuyori Shibata attempting to interfere only to be taken out by Eddie Kingston. Powerhouse Hobbs then got in the cage which brought out Hook and the aforementioned turn, reuniting him with the team that he was part of before he went out of action with a concussion.
As Joe was celebrating in the ring with a gang of Opps dojo members, the lights went out and an image of Page’s burning house played on the video wall. New music started playing, Prince Nana appeared, and then did Strickland who has been out of action since August’s Forbidden Door after getting knee surgery to deal with an old injury.
Joe, still pouring blood out of his head, offered up Page to Strickland as a sacrifice only to have Strickland go after him and take out the various dojo members one-by-one. Page eventually came to, joined Strickland, and the two stared down Joe and The Opps as they left up the ramp.
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Joe and Strickland have history as Strickland’s first World title run began at April 2024’s Dynasty when he defeated Joe for the gold. Strickland and Page also have their extended history, but made peace with each other this summer.
The loss ends Page’s second title run at 133 days which began at July’s All In Texas when he defeated Jon Moxley followed by five successful title defenses before Saturday.
The show ended at 12:30 AM Eastern.
Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.