The essential event of AEW Full Gear 2025 saw Samoa Joe challenge Hangman Adam Page for the AEW Men’s World Championship inside a steel cage. It was a wild and bloody affair that saw The Opps and Hook help “The Samoan Submission Machine” turn out to be the brand new AEW Men’s World Champion.
Following a brief feeling-out process, Joe was the primary to taste the steel and was busted open within the early going. Page continued to regulate the bout with a Moonsault but Joe powered out at one, and though Joe tried to get back into things with a series of shoes, it was Page who used his own boot as a weapon by repeatedly striking Joe in the pinnacle. Joe was in a position to fight through the blood loss with some chops, and used Page’s momentum against him by throwing the champion into the steel to get his blood flowing.
Joe then used much more strikes to maintain Page near the steel, raking Page’s face against the cage wall. The challenger continued the assault by delivering a fast Powerslam after which some more strikes, but Page absorbed them and began fighting back, flipping out of a German Suplex and throwing Joe back into the cage wall before delivering a Suplex of his own. Each men would try to lock within the Coquina Clutch to no avail, but Joe would spike Page with an STO within the corner before exposing the highest turnbuckle ring. Page avoided tasting the steel and started biting Joe’s head before hitting a Sunset Flip Powerbomb.
Just as Page went to hit the Deadeye, Katsuyori Shibata tried to climb within the cage with Page’s title belt but was taken out of things by Eddie Kingston. As that happened, referee Paul Turner was crushed by accident, meaning he missed the Deadeye that will have ended the match. This also prompted the arrival of Powerhouse Hobbs who ripped the chain off the locked door and attempted to assist Joe, but he proved no match for the champion.
Page would hit the Buckshot Lariat on Joe, however the referee was still down. Hook would arrive to try to get up the referee, but this was all a part of the plan as Hook knocked Page out with the title belt, revealing that he had been a part of The Opps all the time. Joe would hoist Page up, hit the Muscle Buster on the title belt and secure a shocking victory to turn out to be the AEW Men’s World Champion for the second time.