Two title matches serve as the backbone of the show, with Jon Moxley defending the AEW championship against Eddie Kingston as well as the Young Bucks challenging FTR for the tag titles. The card also includes Kenny Omega–Hangman Page, women’s champion Hikaru Shida against Nyla Rose, Cody Rhodes–Darby Allin for the TNT championship, and Chris Jericho–MJF.

Taking place in front of a limited crowd at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Full Gear has the added pressure of delivering after September’s All Out show missed the high mark AEW has set for its pay-per-views. AEW president Tony Khan, who is also the senior vice president of football administration and technology for the Jacksonville Jaguars, is optimistic that the promotion will put forth a signature show on Saturday.

Khan spoke with Sports Illustrated, discussing the build to Saturday’s card, a stricter policy on in-match bumps, and the potential of a working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling.

What excites you most about the Full Gear card?

It’s the best card we’ve presented, top to bottom. Every match is really strong, and every match has potential to steal the show.

Shifting away from storyline and the in-ring product, how do you assess your COVID-19 policy and its implementation over the course of the pandemic?

I’m proud of the COVID testing policy we implemented. We shut down the company entirely in the beginning of April and took that next month to develop a robust COVID testing protocol. That has served us very well. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve maintained an amazing percentage of negatives, and I’m really proud of how hard our people have worked and put in the effort to distance and isolate in between shows to make this possible. Robust testing has allowed the Dynamite franchise and pay-per-view franchise to remain strong, and we’re doing it safely.

We have seen COVID-19 outbreaks at some indie shows, which is tough because part of AEW’s charm is that talent still has the potential to work indie shows. Moving forward, will you still allow talent to work indie dates?

I implemented a policy where people were only supposed to work indie shows when certain conditions were met. There have been times when people did not take that seriously, so I have tightened up the restrictions. I’ll still allow it under certain conditions, but people need to look me in the eye and say that the conditions are being met. Our talent and their opponent need to be tested before the show, and there also needs to be a good reason why the match is important.

This is important for everyone’s safety, as well as important for our show. I’ve been flexible in the past because I thought it was good for the talent to have the opportunity to earn, as well as great for the fans and the indies as a whole. We also don’t run every night of the week, so it allows for talent to get extra reps, too. So we have a policy, and I’ll be enforcing it strictly.

You obviously need everyone to follow the guidelines, but it does mean a lot for independent promotions to feature AEW stars.

I am not going to end it, but we are taking a closer look at it. More so now than ever, people need to come to me directly about this. I am going to be strict about what people can and can’t do, but I won’t say you won’t see people make special appearances on independent shows because I think there is a lot of merit to that.

Continue reading Justin Barrasso’s full Q & A with Tony Khan at the link below:

https://www.si.com/wrestling/2020/11/06/aew-full-gear-preview-tony-khan