MJF Defeats Jay White to Retain AEW Championship at Full Gear 2023

MJF defeated Jay White at Full Gear on Saturday night to retain the AEW World Championship.

In the wake of MJF beating Samoa Joe on the Grand Slam edition of Dynamite to retain the AEW world title, he entered into a rivalry with White and Bullet Club Gold.

After MJF and White had a promo battle on the Sept. 27 episode of Dynamite, a group of people led by someone wearing a devil mask attacked White to close the show.

Since it was the same devil mask MJF had worn in the past, White and his stablemates accused of MJF of being responsible for the attack, and White stole the AEW World Championship belt in retaliation.

Shortly thereafter, the challenge was officially laid down for Full Gear and MJF accepted, making it the first match announced for the pay-per-view card.

MJF found himself in a difficult spot in his rivalry with White and Bullet Club Gold since his close friend and tag team partner, Adam Cole, was out of action with an ankle injury and wasn't able to lend a helping hand.

Also, MJF was proverbially burning the candle at both ends by defending the AEW world title, as well as the ROH World Tag Team Championships on his own while Cole was on the shelf.

MJF has traditionally wrestled sparingly during his time in AEW, but over the past couple of months he has wrestled more than ever, which created that storyline narrative that MJF was perhaps fatigued entering Full Gear.

Prior to the pay-per-view, MJF surpassed Kenny Omega's record for the longest AEW world title reign of all time at 346 days, and he was one day away from reaching the one-year mark since he won the title at last year's Full Gear on Nov. 19, 2022.

By retaining the championship against White, MJF ensured that he will hit the one-year mark, and thus established himself as arguably the greatest AEW world champ of all time.

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