AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Las Vegas

DEONNA PURRAZZO vs. THUNDER ROSA (10:15): This was a good show and pretty entertaining. There wasn't a match of the year contender or anything, and the show was way too long at 4.5 hours, but it was a lot of fun. These first two matches were on the pre-show. Since coming back, Thunder Rosa has looked good, so it kind of baffles me why she lost here. Purrazzo has been a dud so far, plus she's fat. That might sound cruel, but her job is to be an athlete on TV, at least get in shape. There wasn't much to this but the Vegas crowd was super hot tonight which helped every match. They decided to go back to the smaller MGM Grand this year for Double or Nothing because they had a small crowd at the bigger arena last year. It looked like they filled about 70% of the place up. The big negative about AEW these days is that the ratings have fallen since last year and the crowds at the shows are small. Wrestling is usually cyclical, so I figure eventually things will change. The problem of course is if they don't change for years then the company goes out of business. *

THE ACCLAIMED & BILLY GUNN vs. CAGE OF AGONY (BRIAN CAGE, BISHOP KAUN & TOA LIONA) (11:41): I'm pretty sick of The Acclaimed. Even Max Castor's raps aren't funny or creative anymore. Match was forgettable. *

WILL OSPREAY vs. RODERICK STRONG (17:57): While this was a good match, I thought it would be better because Ospreay was in it. The one problem was that either Ospreay was legit shook up early or he was just selling the injury so he didn't do much for the first ten minutes. While the ref was distracted, The Kingdom put Ospreay on Mike Bennett's shoulders and Matt Taven jumped through the ropes onto Ospreay. Ospreay fall right on his forehead. Maybe he was injured there. So then it was kind of a beat down for awhile until Ospreay finally started doing all of his awesome moves. Ospreay won the International title here. **1/2

ADAM COLE/MJF: Adam Cole came out to talk...and then MJF returned for the first time this year. MJF kicked Cole in the balls and then gave him a brain buster. So I guess that giant feud they set up at the end of 2023 is already over? MJF got on the mic and said that he signed a new AEW deal "for life." Okay. MJF was better as a heel, so it's kind of a shame he's a good guy now. Still, he's the best wrestler in the world on the mic, so it's good he's finally back. Cole hasn't wrestled since last September, so it'd be nice when he finally gets back in the ring, too. And where the hell is Britt Baker? She's been MIA since last Fall. So has Jamie Hayter. Where are these people? I know they're not paralyzed. It'd be nice if this company, like, gave updates on these wrestlers.

BANG BANG GANG (THE GUNN'S & JAY WHITE) vs. DEATH TRIANGLE (PAC & THE LUCHA BROTHERS) (12:18): There's way too many titles in AEW. 7 titles were defended on this show. And Tony Khan hinted at creating a new, mixed tag team title. They do realize that eventually winning a title becomes meaningless, right? The Bang Bang Gang retained the 6-man tag titles here. Or whatever it's called. Death Triangle looked awesome as usual. Maybe they should do Ospreay vs. PAC at Wembley? Now that Swerve/Ospreay seems to be off that show. **1/2

TONI STORM vs. SEREENA DEEB (15:38): The crowds everywhere love Toni Storm. Who knew her stupid gimmick would actually get over? Match was fine but not great or anything. They really need to push Mariah May to the moon. She's the fucking star. May wanted to throw in the towel during this match at one point but Luther stopped her. May vs. Toni at Wembley would be great. **

ORANGE CASSIDY vs. TRENT BERETTA (13:55): I don't really think Beretta as a heel is working. The reason? I don't care about ever seeing him wrestle. Match was okay. I watched this show 2 days ago and already forget half of what happened. That's not a good thing. **

CHRIS JERICHO vs. HOOK vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA (12:45): Jericho's new gimmick, The Learning Tree, is kind of amusing and funny. I'm already kind of sick of it, though. Jericho has the FTW belt now so this was a hardcore match. Jericho had a bag of dice that he dropped into the ring. They broke a table. They used Singapore Canes. Match was entertaining but nothing fantastic. **1/2

JON MOXLEY vs. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (17:24): Moxley is, shockingly, the IWGP champion. He's not even in New Japan. The big Dominion main event next week is Moxley vs. Evil for the title...which tells you about how bad NJPW is these days. If Takeshita won this match then he would get an IWGP title. Considering Takeshita lost...why didn't they just make this match for the title? The strange aspect about this match was that Takeshita beat the shit out of Moxley for, like, 90% of this match. I guess they wanted to protect him? I mean...he still lost. This actually turned into a really good, hard hitting match. ***

ADAM COPELAND vs. MALAKAI BLACK "BARBED WIRE STEEL CAGE MATCH" (20:11): I think this was the best match of the night, mostly because of the spectacle. AEW hasn't done a barbed wire match since July 2022 when they did that Jericho/Kingston "Barbed Wire Everywhere" match on Dynamite. The only other barbed wire match they did was that Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match with the botched ending. They do use barbed wire in other matches...a lot. They had a barbed wire board in a random Willow vs. Skye Blue match on Rampage a month or so ago. The cage had barbed wire on the top and in the corners. They also had a 2x4 barbed wire stick. The big move came when Copeland wrapped Malaki in barbed wire on a table then climbed to the top of a cage and did an elbow drop through the table. Copeland landed on his feet, though, which was a mistake, because he broke and/or injured his leg and had to relinquish the TNT title this week. Malakai Black was a bloody mess in this match. And Malakai is rarely in singles matches. Why is that, anyway? The two also ended up outside the cage and the other House of Black members came out to beat up Copeland. Really wild, bloody, crazy match. ***

MERCEDES MONE vs. WILLOW NIGHTINGALE (18:04): Because this was Mercedes first match, the expectations were super high. The match was okay, nothing special. I suppose Mercedes has to get more ring time in to look as good as she once was. Mercedes won the TBS title, which was obvious. She's actually wrestling the CMLL star, Stephanie Vaquer, at Forbidden Door next month, which should be an all time classic. After the match, Kris Statlander turned on Willow. Not sure that's a good idea to turn Statlander heel. **1/2

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. CHRISTIAN CAGE (24:45): The first half of this match was boring but by the end it turned into a pretty entertaining match. They did a bunch of interference early until everyone got banned and sent to the back. Swerve did a cool spot where they both hit the ropes and Swerve did a running kick to the head in mid-air. I don't really think anyone thought Christian was going to win the title. What did surprise me was they announced that it'll be Will Ospreay vs. Swerve for the title at Forbidden Door. I think everyone expected Ospreay to win the title at Wembley. I suppose they could do a screw job to have Ospreay lose at Forbidden Door. I doubt they'd have Ospreay lose clean. And that match is between two AEW wrestlers. I thought the whole purpose of Forbidden Door was to have wrestlers from different companies fight each other? **1/2

THE ELITE (JACK PERRY, KAZUCHIKA OKADA & THE YOUNG BUCKS) vs. FTR, BRYAN DANIELSON & DARBY ALLIN (29:55): There were some really great, unique, creative spots in this match. A lot of this was plodding, though, and just guys fake punching each other while walking around the crowd. Early on they had "Final Countdown" playing during the match which was pretty cool and the crowd loved it. The big spot was Darby setting Jack Perry on fire after shooting him with a flame thrower. Yes, that really happened. Yes, it was a pretty cool spot. Darby had brought out a flame thrower on Dynamite so we were all wondering how it was going to be used in this match. When Darby tried to drown Jack Perry in an ice bath backstage, I immediately figured it out. Jack Perry had to look "wet" because he'd be glazed in fire proof goo later on. Only Jack Perry's feet and ankles were on fire...and The Young Bucks quickly doused him with a fire extinguisher. It was still cool, though. Before that, Jack Perry was walking backstage and saw Tony Khan sitting at the monitor. Perry grabbed Tony Khan and dragged him into the arena which had me laughing. Darby saved Khan with the fire spot. There was another spot where Jack Perry crashed a bus through a pile of trash and into a trailer. The announcers said Darby was in the pile of trash or something. One of the Young Bucks did a Swanton Bomb off the stage through one of the FTR guys on a table. Last year they did an exploding shoe superkick gimmick. Tonight they did an exploding chair gimmick. Matt Jackson hit Dax with the chair on the head and it exploded. That was awesome. Okada looked pretty lost doing hardcore stuff. He did put on an arm band with thumbtacks to deliver a Rainmaker. Darby was also wearing a mask with thumbtacks on it. The Elite tied Darby's feet and hung him upside down at one point. Then they put on sneakers with thumbtacks to give him a super kick while he was hanging in the ring. The crowd chanted, "Please help Darby!" because he was hanging for a long time while everyone else was wrestling around him. Jack Perry pinned Danielson. This match was pretty exhausting. But it was creative as hell. Good show. I enjoyed it. ***