There probably wasn’t a single person over the age of 11 who was fooled by Full Gear’s teased bait-and-switch angle, where AEW bafflingly suggested that Adam Cole, who is out of action with a legitimate injury, might be defending the AEW World Championship against Jay White in Full Gear’s main event in some new and demented twist on the Freebird Rule. There was never a question that MJF would return to enter the match injured (this one not legitimate) and never a question after that of MJF beating White and retaining the title. That’s just not how the story of MJF’s title reign was ever going to end. But AEW painted themselves into a corner with the injury angle, and it’s suddenly hard to see how they’re going to recover from it.

The problem isn’t just that White looks like he doesn’t belong anywhere near world title contention after failing to beat a battered and injured champion, even with help from The Gunns. His stock has dropped, perhaps irreparably, but the other part of the problem is that MJF’s stock has now risen to potentially untenable heights. Are we expected to believe, after MJF survived that match, that he’s now going to lose in his second defense against Samoa Joe? Who can plausibly defeat him? What ridiculous set of circumstances would have to occur to create the conditions for an MJF title loss? The answer to that last question is still very likely “Cole turns on him,” but that means we’re all just waiting for Cole to get back while AEW has Maxwell Jacob Hogan overcoming comically large obstacle after comically large obstacle (pretty sure the original plan was to also have him defeat antisemitism in this feud) to the point that there’s no drama. It was a problem in the White match, and it will be a problem going forward.

Jay White winning the title, on the other hand, would have been a legitimate shock, but one that didn’t hurt MJF in any way given the context. You could argue that the MJF/Cole story barely requires a championship anymore, and if it does, you always could have had MJF win it back later. But if this was the story they wanted to tell, AEW would have been much better off giving White the victory and thus preserving his credibility, creating an unexpected and memorable moment, and letting the viewers see what happens to “Your Scumbag” MJF without that title around his waist. Instead, we continue to play the “when is Cole coming back” waiting game.

Bottom line: If you’re going to book this angle, White has to win. Anything else is a step backward. And if you didn’t want White as your champion, you shouldn’t have booked this angle.

Grade: F