AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

 Jacksonville

SERENA DEEB vs. RIHO (14:05): I remember reviewing AEW's first PPV, Double or Nothing, and mentioning that it was a great show mostly because of the "crowd for the ages." Well at least for half of this PPV, this was once again a crowd for the ages. The reason is that this was the first AEW show with a full house since the pandemic started. And this loud, raucous crowd definitely sounded like they'd been cooped up in the house for a year. Some noted that this match was the best pre-show match they'd ever seen and pretty much everyone raved about it. It was mostly a basic match but the crowd was so loud and it was such a party atmosphere that it elevated this match. Deeb retained the NWA women's title...and no, I have no idea why the NWA champion is on this show. Riho was in Japan during most of the pandemic so it was nice to see her back because the crowds love her and she's super entertaining to watch. **1/2 (out of ****)

ADAM PAGE vs. BRIAN CAGE (12:00): This was two guys just beating the shit out of each other, which is a good thing. When Taz's crew came out to help Cage win he waved them off but ended up losing. I'm guessing Cage will turn into a good guy and feud with Taz's stable. Unfortunately, when Taz's stable comes on TV I want to change the channel. I think one flaw with AEW is that there are way too many groups. **1/2

THE YOUNG BUCKS vs. JON MOXLEY & EDDIE KINGSTON (21:00): This was fantastic. Of course it was, though, because the Bucks always deliver on PPV. The insane crowd definitely helped. The Bucks are heels now, so they did a bunch of heel things like use a hairspray can to spray Moxley in the eyes. The Bucks also did a bunch of other wrestler's moves like Hogan's leg drop and Roman Reign's "ooh-ahh" spear. By the end of this, the Bucks just destroyed Moxley and Kingston. They gave them multiple face kicks and finally did four double knees to the head on Moxley for the win. This was super entertaining and wild and a hell of a lot of fun. ***1/2

CASINO BATTLE ROYALE (JUNGLE BOY) (23:30): The boisterous crowd peaked when Jungle Boy won this battle royale. It was more or less a typical battle royale; entertaining, mostly forgettable. Lio Rush was the surprise entrant here, and he looked amazing and the crowd ate up everything he did. The final two were Christian and Jungle Boy. The crowd reached a fever pitch during this and popped like they'd just won the lottery when Jungle Boy won. Jungle Boy stood on the second rope to bask in the adoration and Marko Stunt ran out and hugged him and it was awesome. **1/2

CODY RHODES vs. ANTHONY OGOGO (10:55): It was kind of obvious that the party atmosphere would diminish and the crowd would get tired. These AEW PPV's are long, at four hours, and so the crowd was quiet during this match. It didn't help that this was a bore. Anthony Ogogo was apparently a boxer in the Olympics. I'm not sure why he never went pro. He hasn't wrestled much, so he didn't exactly blow the doors off the place. Cody won. Yawn. 1/2*

MIRO vs. LANCE ARCHER (9:50): This definitely did remind me of a Lance Archer G1 match, as the Wrestling Observer reviewer noted. It was two big guys slugging it out and delivering back and forth power moves. Miro won with his submission hold to retain the TNT title. They might have to change that name, as come next year Dynamite is moving to TBS. **1/2

BRITT BAKER vs. HIKARU SHIDA (17:20): The crowd got back into the show big time to root on Britt Baker late in this match. This was just an okay match, as neither is all that exciting in the ring for whatever reason. The last few minutes were great, though, as the crowd cheered everything Baker did and roared with approval when Shida tapped out to her mouth claw submission. Baker won the title and when she was walking to the back, Tony Schiavone left the announce table and walked over and gave her a hug and whispered something in her ear. That was such a touching moment. You can tell a company is doing something right when you well up with tears of joy when someone wins a title. **

DARBY ALLIN & STING vs. ETHAN PAGE & SCORPIO SKY (12:30): The crowd was also very loud when Sting did anything in this match. Shockingly, Sting even did a stage dive off the poker chips onto Page and Sky. That was insane. Sting is in his 60's. So while there wasn't really much to this match, hearing the crowd pop for Sting and Sting doing all of his trademark moves was fun to see. **1/2

KENNY OMEGA vs. PAC vs. ORANGE CASSIDY (27:00): Early on I was like, man, I thought this match would be better. But by the end of this, when all three were just back and forth delivering devastating maneuvers to one another and every near fall got massive gasps from the audience, this turned into a phenomenal match. I would have rather seen a Pac/Omega singles match...but the reason they shoehorned Cassidy into this match is because he's a crowd favorite and they knew with a full house it would be better with him in it. There were so many great near falls in this match. And the last ten minutes were just non-stop, crazy action. The big problem with this match is that they really played out Omega being a heel. Don Callis pulled the ref out of the ring when Cassidy was about to win. Omega knocked out the ref. Omega hit PAC with all of his belts when the ref was out. After Cassidy almost won, Omega reversed it and pinned him with a quick small package. So the end was a bit anticlimactic...but this match was awesome and by far the best AEW championship PPV match so far. ***1/2

THE INNER CIRCLE vs. THE PINNACLE "STADIUM STAMPEDE" (31:30): When they announced that this match was going to be another Stadium Stampede match...I was a little surprised. The whole reason they did this last year is because Double or Nothing had zero fans in the building and they needed something special to close the show. Why would they go and have a match in an empty football arena when they have a packed crowd in Daily's Place? Well my fears were right. The match didn't really work, although they did go to Daily's Place at the end and Samy Guevera pinned Shawn Spears in the ring in Daily's Place. There were some entertaining things in this match, but most of it was kind of boring. When MJF and Jericho were brawling in the football offices, they came across new Jacksonville Jaguars coach Urban Meyer. He handed Jericho a laptop to hit MJF with. Then, when Jericho threw MJF through a table, Urban Meyer said, "Holy shit." That was amusing. FTR and Ortiz and Santana battled in a backstage club where Konan was the DJ. Wardlow and Jake Hager brawled backstage in a kitchen area and meat freezer. Samy and Spears battled in a room filled with chairs. Spears ran for his life from motorcycles and a golf cart. The Inner Circle also made their entrance by repelling down the scoreboard. They mostly didn't even fight on the football field, it was mainly backstage stuff. Eventually, Jericho and MJF ended up in the upper deck of Daily's Place where Jericho put a bloody MJF through a table. Samy and Spears wrestled in the ring at Daily's Place for awhile until Samy pinned him and The Inner Circle won. Then the IC got in the ring and the whole crowd sang Jericho's theme song together and it was a great way to end the show. ** 

WRESTLEMANIA BACKLASH

Tampa

SHEAMUS vs. RICOCHET (7:10): A couple years ago, Ricochet faced Will Ospreay in the NJPW Super Jr.'s tournament. The match was basically just a bunch of gymnastic flips and was awesome to some of us and shockingly obtuse to some old school fans. I was thinking of that match because those were two exciting up and comers and everyone was talking about them and you thought they'd end up huge, popular stars eventually. Will Ospreay is the New Japan champion and just had the match of the year in the main event of Dontakau night 2 against Shingo Takagi. It was a 45 minute epic and Ospreay is pretty much undoubtedly the best wrestler in the world. So what happened to the other dude that was in that memorable BOSJ match? Well...Ricochet is losing to Sheamus on the pre-show of a random WWE PPV. It's kind of sad, really, because Ricochet was just as good as Ospreay on the night back then. The WWE hasn't done anything with Ricochet. Why they haven't is one of the world's great mysteries. Another sad fact is that Ricochet is still exciting and still does most of his high flying acrobatics. Ospreay of course learned over the years to add to his arsenal by competing with the world's best and given the opportunities to thrive and grow and learn. This was actually a good match, although forgotten, forgettable. I'll never forgive the WWE for chewing up and spitting out Ricochet like he's day old meat. **1/2

RHEA RIPLEY vs. CHARLOTTE FLAIR vs. ASUKA (15:20): Charlotte wasn't at Wrestlemania. She was taken off TV supposedly because a doctor thought she was pregnant (she wasn't). Then she might have had the corona virus. I think she was just sidelined because her husband (Andrade) asked for his WWE release and got it and they wanted to secretly punish her. Either way, she's back. Not wrestling at Wrestlemania probably isn't a big deal for her because she's one of the few WWE wrestlers that make over a million bucks a year. With Flair gone they gave Rhea Ripley the title at 'Mania. Rhea Ripley has the look of a star (she's tall, menacing, fierce) but she's a dull wrestler and it's kind of hard to tell if she's supposed to be a heel or a face. They seemed to make this a three way so Charlotte could lose without getting pinned. That ended up not really making sense since on RAW the next night, Asuka pinned Charlotte in a singles match. Baffling! But that's par for the course in the WWE. Nothing ultimately makes sense. Did I mention yet that this show had a match with zombies? Jesus, that should have been the first thing I wrote about this show. This was a good match but fairly pedestrian. The show was actually a pretty good one, at least for WWE standards. Charlotte did her top rope moonsault. Ripley pinned Asuka. Typical fare. **1/2

REY MYSTERIO & DOMINIK MYSTERIO vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & ROBERT ROODE (17:00):

This match only went 17 minutes but it felt like it went 30. That's never a good thing. Dominik was beat up backstage earlier in the show so Rey went out to do the match himself. Of course a crippled, hobbling Dominik came out eventually and they ended up winning the tag titles. The early part of this match when just Rey was there was exciting. Then by the end there was some drama...but in between this just seemed to go on for ages and ages. Rey Mysterio has to be the last of the Monday Night War wrestlers still around and wrestling, isn't he? It's shocking since he's still actually a really good wrestler. I remember he faced Psychosis in ECW and they were body slamming each other on cars in the ECW Arena parking lot back in the mid 90's. How old is this dude? Like 50? **

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. THE MIZ "ZOMBIE LUMBERJACK MATCH" (7:00): Well this match will go down in the history books as one of the stupidest things the WWE has ever done. And that's saying something. This was a lumberjack match...but the lumberjacks were zombies. They didn't even mention this before the PPV. The reason they did this was to promote the Netflix zombie movie that has Dave Batista in it, Army of the Dead. The huge problem is that they did the match like the zombies were actually real zombies. So when The Miz lost, the zombies came in and attacked him, presumably eating him and killing him. So he's dead. Or a zombie. Who in the WWE thought that this was a good idea? Yes, we know wrestling is fake, but there's a limit. The WWE seems to forget this by burning The Fiend to death, having Braun Strowman be tossed off a building to his death, Sami Zayn crushed to death in a trash compactor. It's ridiculous. How can you take anything serious when zombies are killing off wrestlers who just show up the next night perfectly fine? They might have been able to salvage this if they played it off as a joke and the announcers had a good time with it. Maybe. But they played it off as it being a serious match with real zombies. What the fuck? I can't believe I actually watch this shit. -No Stars-

BIANCA BELAIR vs. BAYLEY (16:05): I mentioned that I didn't think Bianca Belair was that good of a wrestler...and then she had a great match with Sasha at 'Mania. Sasha is awesome, though, so that probably helped. This match was a bore. Bayley as a heel has never worked. Eh. *

BOBBY LASHLEY vs. BRAUN STROWMAN vs. DREW McINTYRE (14:15): This match was fantastic. It was all big moves, all action. They broke the announce table. Lashley retained the title by pinning Braun. ***

ROMAN REIGNS vs. CESARO (27:35): This match was exactly what I've always wanted from a WWE PPV main event and never get. A championship match. No gimmicks. No ref bumps. No outside interference. A long match. Near falls. Drama. Why do they never do this? Because it was great. The only thing that could have made this better is if Cesaro won and there were fans in the building to cheer his win. After Vince told 'Stone Cold' on that podcast that Cesaro just doesn't have "it"...the boy is finally wrestling for the title. It's kind of crazy that this happened. After Vince said that a few years ago, I'm surprised Cesaro didn't quit. Cesaro has always been one of the WWE's better wrestlers, it's just too bad it took them this long to realize that. Remember that great Sami Zayn/Cesaro match on the first NXT Takeover show? That was 7 or 8 years ago and was probably the last time Cesaro was in a big singles match and given the time to breath and show his strengths. The best thing they did was to give Cesaro multiple moments of near-winning which heightened the drama. It seems like most Roman Reigns matches these days use the Brock Lesnar playbook: beatdown, short failed comeback by loser babyface, more beatdown and victory. But this match was more 50/50, which was great. After the match, Jey Uso came out to beat up Cesaro which ruined everything the match had achieved. So at least for one night, the WWE delivered a NJPW-esque main event. Which was shocking...and spectacular. ***