AEW Full Gear 2026 is a booking nightmare waiting to happen

The championship bottleneck

AEW is heading into Full Gear 2026 with a massive problem that Tony Khan refuses to address. The world title picture is clogged with four different people holding legitimate claims to the belt. Swerve Strickland is currently acting like he owns the place, but Will Ospreay and MJF are breathing down his neck. If the main event ends up being anything other than a triple threat, the company is leaving money on the table.

We saw this same issue during the 2022 build to Full Gear when the booking felt like a frantic scramble to satisfy everyone's ego. Putting the strap on a transitional champion just to set up a bigger match at Revolution is a tired trope. The fans aren't stupid. They know when they are being fed a placeholder feud while the real story is saved for later.

The tag team division is on life support

The tag division has fallen off a cliff since the Young Bucks stopped focusing on the actual wrestling. Seeing them defend the titles against some random pairing of mid-carders on a pay-per-view is insulting. We need a proper feud with stakes, not just another exhibition match with zero heat. If they don't elevate a team like The Infantry or re-establish a stable like House of Black soon, the tag titles will become a glorified prop.

History shows us that promotions die when their tag team roots wither. Look at the mid-2000s WWE era when the division was essentially a bathroom break. AEW built its brand on the back of tag wrestling, yet here we are in 2026 watching the belts lose their prestige month by month.

The Women's Division needs a reset

The rumored Mariah May versus Jamie Hayter match is the only thing keeping the women's card afloat. Everything else looks like filler designed to kill time. We are tired of seeing multi-woman matches that have no logical reason to exist other than to get everyone on the card. Unless they give these women twenty minutes to actually tell a story, this show is going to feel disjointed.

A twenty-minute iron man match or a submission-only contest could save the show from mediocrity. The talent is there, but the creative vision is stagnant. If Hayter doesn't walk out as the champion, the crowd in Prudential Center will likely turn on the finish just like they did during the 2024 cycle.

Final verdict

Full Gear 2026 is shaping up to be a four-hour marathon that relies too heavily on nostalgia. The card needs to be trimmed by two matches to ensure the main events get the time they deserve. If the production team pushes for a bloated runtime, expect the live crowd to be dead by the time the final bell rings.

My prediction for the main event is a twenty-eight minute slugfest that ends in a schmoz. It is a classic AEW move to avoid a clean finish in the biggest matches of the year. Tony Khan needs to decide if he wants to be a booker or a promoter because right now he is failing at both.