AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

 

Las Vegas

THE HARDY'S & HOOK vs. ETHAN PAGE & THE GUNNS (15:10): This was the pre-show match. This went way too long. This was also the first match Jeff Hardy has been in since his return. He looked like he twisted his ankle at one point, because he hurt it then stupidly tried to climb up on the top rope to do a move and he awkwardly slipped off and almost landed on his head. That was scary. He did finish the match but didn't do his Swanton Bomb finisher. Hook got the win with a tap out. Remember when Hook was super over and super popular? Well they haven't really done much with him since then. He should, like, evolve, right? I really hope The Hardy's retire soon, because watching them wrestle these days is just sad. *

BLACKJACK BATTLE ROYAL (ORANGE CASSIDY) (22:25): There were like a hundred wrestlers in this match. It was for the International Title, which used to be called the All Atlantic title. I have no idea why they changed it. Cassidy retained. Kommander did his awesome rope walk into a flip dive to the floor. Considering you lose when you fall to the floor...does this make sense? They said he didn't "enter" the match yet but isn't being on the top rope entering the match? The Lucha Brothers got a lot of spots in this match. Ricky Starks, Juice Robinson, and Jay White were also beating each other up and eliminating each other. Big Bill got pushed big for unknown reasons. The final had Swerve Strickland and Orange Cassidy left and those two tore the house down. The final few minutes with those two were awesome. **1/2

ADAM COLE vs. CHRIS JERICHO "UNSANCTIONED MATCH" (17:00): This was a dud. Not a surprise, since Jericho is too old and slow to be in singles matches anymore. Basically this was a no rules match. Jericho was hitting Cole with a Singapore cane when Britt Baker came out and started hitting Jericho with a Singapore cane of her own. That got a huge pop. Cole and Jericho sprayed each other with a fire extinguisher. The end had Jericho bring a chain into the match and Cole ended up hitting him in the head with the chain. Eventually, Cole kept punching Jericho in the head so the ref stopped it. Kind of a lame ending. This was just boring. *

FTR vs. JEFF JARRETT & JAY LETHAL (20:00): You can tell that Sonjay Dutt is one of AEW's writers, because the matches he's involved in always have way too much going on in them. In this one, we had Mark Briscoe, who was the special referee, get inadvertently hit with a guitar. Aubrey, the new ref, ran down to the ring but was hit with a guitar over the head by Karen Jarrett. This all felt like it was written by Vince Russo. Although, if it was it probably would have been a Guitar on a Pole match. FTR retained the tag titles. If this had been just a standard wrestling match it probably would have been kind of dull, so at least all the craziness and House of Torture-esque interference made it entertaining. **1/2

WARDLOW vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE "LADDER MATCH" (17:10): I'm not sure why they didn't just have Luchasaurus face Wardlow for the title here. I guess because Christian is famous for being in ladder matches and hasn't been in one in AEW yet. The big spot was when Wardlow put Luchasaurus on two tables and then did a Swanton Bomb off a Big Dog ladder onto him. That was insane. Jeff Hardy made that move famous twenty years plus years ago and it's wild to see a big dude like Wardlow do it. The other memorable moment came when Wardlow tried to jump from the top rope onto the ladder and climb it but he's too fucking big and the ladder cracked and him and Christian fell awkwardly off it. The big spot made the match. And is Luchasaurus never going to wrestle again? He hasn't wrestled a match since he lost to Jungle Boy in that cage match in March. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. JAMIE HAYTER (3:05): Jamie Hayter must be injured. How else to explain her losing the title in 3 minutes? The Outcasts constantly interfered in his match, even beating up Hayter before she even came out of the curtain. They sprayed her in the face with paint when the ref wasn't looking. Britt Baker did come out to help to no avail. Hayter beat Storm for the title last November. Kind of weird to go back to Storm as champ so soon unless Hayter really is injured. I was also thinking this could be a way for Britt to beat Storm for the title at the big Wembley show in August considering Britt should be in a big match on that show. Either way, this wasn't really much of a match. *1/2

THE HOUSE OF BLACK vs. THE ACCLAIMED & BILLY GUNN (15:30): This was an unannounced match. You know there's trouble in the booking department when that happens. I think this will be happening a lot more now that AEW has a new, 2 hour, weekly show debuting in a few weeks. CM Punk is going to be the star of that show as well, although he hasn't been announced yet. Tony Khan apparently is the head booker and is now going to have to book 5 hours of weekly wrestling plus his PPV's and Ring of Honor shows. So expect more of these unannounced, out of the blue matches. The crowds still love The Acclaimed. I enjoy Max Castor's raps, but in the ring they're kind of mediocre. The House of Black usually works better with high flying or hard hitting wrestlers, not wrestlers like The Acclaimed. This wasn't terrible, but there were long stretches where Bowens was just getting beaten down and waiting and waiting and waiting to give a hot tag. Billy Gunn obviously got pinned. **

JADE CARGILL vs. TAYA VALKYRIE (8:50)/ KRIS STATLANDER vs. JADE CARGILL (0:48): The crowd was sitting on their hands and waiting for this to be over when finally they popped when Taya delivered her finisher and got a 2.5 count. They both have the same finisher. That's strange. Jade eventually won in a sloppy, awful match. Jade had a cool entrance where she did some dance moves with a few dancers and a female rapper sang. Jade definitely looks impressive but she's terrible in the ring and hasn't improved a lick. After Jade won, Mark Sterling, her manager, announced an open challenge and anyone from the back could come out for a match. I was thinking of who would be a big surprise and could only think of Mercedes Mone, but she's injured. Statlander came out. She got a big pop. She's been injured forever and won the TBS title by giving Jade her first loss. That was cool. They even shot confetti into the ring. Jade sucks in the ring, so I'm glad she lost the title. Neither match was great but Statlander winning was awesome. **

MJF vs. SAMMY GUEVARA vs. DARBY ALLIN vs. 'JUNGLE BOY' JACK PERRY (27:50): This was definitely the best match on the show. This show wasn't one of AEW's best shows, but it was typical in that it was very entertaining. There wasn't one match-of-the-year, great match on this show, though this came close. The problem was that this had no drama or emotion, it was just a 30 minute spot fest. After the 20th Canadian Destroyer, I was kind of wondering if they knew how to do anything else. The big spot was when Sammy grabbed Darby and did a Spanish Fly from the top rope down onto MJF and Jack Perry on the floor. That was insane. They all did a bunch of crazy moves except for MJF, who doesn't fly. The end had Darby giving a Coffin Drop onto Sammy but MJF laid his belt on Sammy and Darby landed on the belt. Then MJF did a head lock takeover on Darby and pinned him. This echoes how MJF beat Darby at Double or Nothing 2020. This was a wild match and pretty similar to that PAC vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Omega title match a few years ago. Those three are obvious better, all around wrestlers than these 4, though. This was fun and creative, but I think these young guys still need to focus more on the drama and emotion that an epic, title match deserves instead of just delivering crazy high spots that get old after you keep doing them non stop. ***

THE BLACKPOOL COMBAT CLUB vs. THE ELITE "ANARCHY IN THE ARENA" (27:00): This was a good match and pretty much the same as last year's Anarcy in the Arena match. The two best spots featured Matt Jackson. Claudio had given him a pile driver in the bed of a pickup truck outside the building. Eventually Matt made his return to the arena and came into the ring and kicked Jon Moxley in the head but Matt had an exploding charge on his sneaker and it exploded on Moxley's face. That was cool, and had me thinking of Onita. After Moxley put thumbtacks onto the ring, TBCC took off Matt's sneaker and sock and dropped him feet first onto the thumbtacks. That was a crazy spot. They also put thumbtacks in Nick's mouth then Claudio gave him an uppercut. They also all brawled around the building. Claudio did a Giant Swing on Nick out on the concourse then threw him head first into a trash can. Moxley and Omega both slammed each other onto barbed wire on a big poker chip by the entrance. There weren't a lot of moves or wrestling in this match, which is kind of a shame since Omega and The Young Bucks are three of the most exciting wrestlers in the business. The one disappointment of this show and AEW in general lately is that Omega has been tied into these multi-man matches and hasn't been in a lot of singles matches. The last AEW PPV Omega singles match was when he lost the title to 'Hangman' and that was two and a half years ago. The ending came when a masked man came into the ring to help TBCC. It turned out to be Takeshita, who I guess is a heel now. Yuta pinned Omega, which was kind of a shock. This presumably sets up The Elite & somebody (hopefully Kota Ibushi) vs. Takeshita and TBCC in a Blood & Guts match. That would be the greatest match in the history of the world, right? And we never got that Blood & Guts match with The Elite. It was set up. It was supposed to take place in March of 2020 in Newark. And we all know what happened in March of 2020. So we'll hopefully finally get that match, 3 years too late. The pandemic is finally over! ***