3 Mistakes Tony Khan must avoid making ahead of AEW Full Gear 2025

Last month in St. Louis, Missouri, AEW hosted this year's edition of WrestleDream. Now, the Tony Khan-led company is merely weeks away from presenting the 2025 iteration of Full Gear at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.The upcoming pay-per-view is scheduled to feature some of the company's top stars, including Hangman Page, Samoa Joe, Kris Statlander, Mercedes Mone, FTR, and Brodido, with other names likely waiting to be announced for the card. Although the promotion's weekly television ratings have been struggling lately, its pay-per-view output has consistently impressed viewers. Tony Khan needs to keep this momentum going for Full Gear - as such, let us look at three mistakes he should avoid en route to the event.#1. Tony Khan should avoid booking an overly long cardAll Elite Wrestling brands itself as the company where "the best wrestle". In marked contrast to its primary rival, WWE, AEW is known for prioritizing in-ring action and storytelling over the gratuitous use of video packages, vignettes, and on-screen non-wrestling segments. As such, while the sports entertainment juggernaut often stages "PLEs" comprising only five or six matches, All Elite Wrestling PPVs almost always feature a greater number of bouts, and consequently run much longer.Consider AEW's biggest event of the year, All In: Texas, which had nine matches on the main card, similar to Forbidden Door 2025. All Out: Toronto and last month's WrestleDream both featured ten matches for their main shows. These figures, it should be noted, do not include bouts from the pre-shows the company hosts ahead of these pay-per-views. While hardcore fans rarely complain about the amount of action All Elite Wrestling broadcasts, a relatively shorter card could allow all of its matches to flow better and improve the overall pacing of the shows.Only four matches have been officially announced so far for Full Gear. It may be argued that Tony Khan should consider adding no more than four or five more bouts to the PPV. This could allow each matchup on the card to be properly fleshed out without tiring out the audience.#2. Tony Khan must elevate the Women's Blood and Guts match to the same level as the men'sJamie Hayter battled and defeated Julia Hart in the main event of the September 27 episode of AEW Collision. After the bout, the latter's Sisters of Sin teammate Skye Blue joined Julia in ambushing the former AEW Women's Champion until Queen Aminata arrived to make the save. As Thekla joined Hart and Blue outside the ring, Hayter alluded to The Triangle of Madness running roughshod over the women's roster over the past few months. Determined to squash the heel group for good, Jamie challenged the faction and its allies to face her and her own team in the first-ever Women's Blood and Guts match.Although the official date for the bout was soon revealed, it took AEW weeks to announce the official lineups for the violent double steel cage match. In fact, the participants for the Women's Blood and Guts were finally named a few hours ago, days after Darby Allin and The Conglomeration had laid out their own challenge to the Death Riders to face off in the men's version of the match on Fright Night Dynamite. While this delay may have been due to adjustments TK had to make because of Penelope Ford's injury, some fans have criticized the company for not adequately promoting the inaugural women's Blood and Guts.Official match graphic for the Women's Blood and Guts match [Image Credits: Tony Khan's X profile]Some viewers have even argued that AEW could have skipped a Blood and Guts match for the men's division this year, as it will be debuting the women's version next month in Greensboro, NC, to especially highlight the latter. However, since both matches are now officially set to take place, Tony Khan needs to make sure the women's matchup is hyped and built up with the same level of TV exposure that he usually affords his male performers.#3. Tony Khan must improve the build for Hangman Page vs. Samoa Joe II for the AEW ChampionshipAfter Adam Page retained his Men's World Title against Samoa Joe at WrestleDream 2025, the latter seemingly acknowledged the champion in a gesture of sportsmanship, only to immediately turn on The Cowboy alongside his trios partners Katsuyori Shibata and Powerhouse Hobbs. The Samoan Submission Machine viciously attacked Page and made it clear afterwards that he was still gunning for his World Championship.The Hangman did not take long to respond to Joe's betrayal and vowed to ruin the latter's life. This past Wednesday on Fright Night Dynamite, The Destroyer defeated Hook, Ricochet, and Bobby Lashley in a four-way contender's match for the Men's World Title, earning a shot at Page's strap at Full Gear 2025. The night did not end well for Joe, however, as he was blindsided by the "Main Character" of All Elite Wrestling, who took out The Opps and Joe in a Tony Schiavone disguise.There is no doubt that Hangman and Joe will put on another hard-hitting classic for their upcoming rematch at Full Gear. However, fans have been clamoring for their rivalry to hit the next level, possibly due to the likely odds of Page retaining the AEW World Championship against The Samoan Submission Specialist this month. This could be achieved by booking a massive arena-wide brawl between the champion and the challenger or by having Page face Shibata and Hobbs in separate singles matches.Official match graphic for Hangman Page vs Samoa Joe at Full Gear [Image Credits: AEW's X profile]Both Hangman and Joe are world-class performers, and the intensity of their feud could certainly reach new heights if they are given the right angles and material to work with.