2 hours Ago By Mike Chiari
Daniel Garcia defeated Jack Perry at AEW Full Gear on Saturday night to win the TNT Championship. After a plan to get Garcia disqualified failed, Perry took advantage of a distracted referee and landed a low blow, with many believing that would be the end for Garcia—until he kicked out at two. Garcia stunned Perry with a piledriver before locking him in the Dragon Tamer and pulling him away from the ropes.
Writhing in pain, Perry ultimately tapped out, leading to a massive pop from the crowd as the title changed hands. The build toward Perry vs. Garcia began last month at WrestleDream after Perry beat Katsuyori Shibata to retain the TNT title, as Garcia confronted Perry and indicated that he was targeting his championship.
Just a few days earlier, Garcia returned from a month-long hiatus to announce he had re-signed with AEW and was aiming to become a champion for the first time. However, Garcia's appearance at WrestleDream was interrupted by the returning MJF, who had a stare-down with Garcia, allowing Perry to hit him from behind with the TNT Championship belt. MJF had beaten Garcia in a match at All Out back in September, but Garcia put him on the shelf with a piledriver after the bout, which explained why MJF was out for revenge.
While the issues between MJF and Garcia are likely far from over, Adam Cole also returned at WrestleDream to go after MJF, paving the way for Garcia to instead focus on Perry and the TNT title. Perry was pulled from AEW programming for several months after All In 2023, seemingly in response to his involvement in a backstage altercation with CM Punk. He finally returned to the fold in April, aligning himself with The Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada.
It wasn't long before he won his first major singles title in AEW, winning a six-person ladder match for the vacant TNT Championship at Forbidden Door in June. In the months that followed, Perry had successful title defenses against the likes of Darby Allin, Lio Rush, Minoru Suzuki and Shibata. That helped give him the second-longest TNT title reign in AEW history.
Due to Saturday's loss, however, Perry fell short of surpassing Allin as the longest-reigning TNT champion of all time, and Garcia now has a chance to establish himself as one of AEW's top stars with the TNT title in tow. Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below.
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