AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING

Louis Armstrong Stadium, Queens, New York

DIVINE DOMINION (LENA KROSS & MEGAN BAYNE) vs. VIVA VAN & ZAYDA (4:45): Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer said that this was the best AEW PPV ever. Well...of course he thought that because he never watches the pre-show matches on these PPV's. The big deal on the pre-show was that Mick Foley was one of the co-hosts and it was his first time in AEW. This first match was mostly a squash. The Divine Dominion are the women's tag team champions. It seems like since that tournament to crown brand new women's tag team champs finished, there haven't been many women's tag teams around lately. The only intriguing aspect of this match was that Christopher Daniels was the manager of this unknown tag team that lost. That baffled me. 1/2*

DEATH RIDERS (CLAUDIO CASTAGNOLI, DANIEL GARCIA & WHEELER YUTA) vs. THE OPPS (ANTHONY BOWENS, HOOK & KATSUYORI SHIBATA) (10:32): I'm over the Death Riders. I feel like that group has passed its' prime. It also doesn't seem to have helped either Claudio, Garcia or Wheeler in terms of getting pushed or adding popularity, at least lately. The Opps is another story: why is Bowens in this evil heel group? That's defying logic. And what happened to his partner? He disappeared. The match was fine but nothing special. **

BOOM & DOOM (BIG BOOM AJ & QT MARSHALL) & THE CONGLOMERATION (MARK BRISCOE, ORANGE CASSIDY & RODERICK STRONG) vs. SHANE TAYLOR PROMOTIONS (ANTHONY OGOGO, CARLIE BRAVO, LEE MORIARTY, SHANE TAYLOR & SHAWN DEAN) (6:31): Are these Costco guys still a thing online? I know those stars on Youtube don't last forever, right? Or do they? Well, they were back in a match on a pre-show again. The only memorable part of this match was that QT slipped off the ropes and fell to the floor and had to be helped to the back. **

ADAM COPELAND & CHRISTIAN CAGE vs. FTR (CASH WHEELER & DAX HARWOOD) "I QUIT MATCH" (19:34): This was the PPV opener and it had a flaming table spot. Good luck following that, rest of the show! The funniest thing about that flaming table spot was that the NYC commission didn't let AEW do blood or brawling in the crowd...but they were allowed to light a table on fire and have Cash tackle Stokely through it from the ring (he was trying to tackle Beth Phoenix, but she moved). There was also barbed wire, Edge's 2x4 with nails, and a pair of plyers used. They got Dax to quit by using the 2x4 with nails on his head while he was in a sharpshooter. Edge & Christian won the tag titles for the first time in AEW. I'm thinking they're going to do a ladder match for the title at Wembley against The Young Bucks. Great match. This match, and this show, was helped by the fantastic live crowd. The building, which is the 2nd biggest stadium at the U.S. Open tournament, also looked great on TV. I was in this stadium once, but it was before they remodeled it and added a roof. The only reason they didn't have this show at the bigger tennis stadium was because they're doing work on it (and they've done a few Grand Slam Dynamite shows at Arthur Ashe Stadium before). This was an excellent match to open the PPV. It had a hot crowd, violence, Beth Phoenix showing up, & a title change. Good stuff. ***

KONOSUKE TAKESHITA vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (19:01): This was the best match on the show. The reason: this was the Okada of old. We haven't really seen a great Okada match in AEW. I figured it's because he's old, the glory days are gone. Well, Okada pulled a rabbit out of a hat because this felt like a classic, Okada NJPW match of old. There was the drama, the near-falls, the crowd on their feet going nuts. This was great. Takeshita won the International Title, or whatever the hell it's called (AEW has too many belts). After the match, Kyle Fletcher returned from injury only to turn on Takeshita and beat him up. Takeshita is out of the Don Callis family. ***1/2

ATHENA vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA (10:46): This was probably the only match that the crowd didn't really get into. That's not a shocker, as Athena is a ROH champ and barely ever on Dynamite or Collision. Mina just loses all the time. This was the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. Match was pretty dull. *

JON MOXLEY vs. KYLE O'REILLY (18:44): These two had a 20 minute draw on Dynamite...so I wasn't exactly clamoring to see it again. Kyle made a big stink about this match not having a time limit and then they ended it under 20 minutes anyway. Match was decent, though I don't think it was anything particularly fantastic or anything. Moxley retained the Continental Classic title or whatever the hell it's called. Kyle tapped out. **1/2

WILL OSPREAY vs. SAMOA JOE (13:52): This was the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. Everyone expects Ospreay to win this tournament and then win the title at Wembley. This match was good and hard hitting. It was short, though. The crowd was into both guys even though Joe is supposed to be the dastardly heel. ***

SWERVE STRICKLAND vs. BANDIDO (15:15): Really good match. This was super creative. They did a bunch of interesting spots in this. Strickland jumped onto Bandido's shoulders to give him a kick to the head. Bandido did a reverse Hurricanrana on Swerve to the floor from the ring apron. The hot Queens crowd was going nuts for some of these unique maneuvers and reversals. This was also the first round of the Owen Hart tournament. ***1/2

THEKLA vs. HIKARU SHIDA vs. JAMIE HAYTER vs. KRIS STATLANDER (13:59): There haven't been too many great women's title matches in AEW history. This one was helped by it being a 4 way, meaning it was mostly all action. Thekla retained her title. The two biggest names in the division, Mercedes Mone and Toni Storm, haven't been around lately for some reason (injury?). That kind of leaves the Owen Hart winner and the champ going into Wembley wide open. **1/2

JACK PERRY, JERICHO, THE ELITE (KENNY OMEGA & THE YOUNG BUCKS) & THE HURT SYNDICATE (BOBBY LASHLEY & SHELTON BENJAMIN) vs. THE DON CALLIS FAMILY (ANDRADE EL IDOLO & MARK DAVIS), THE DEMAND (BISHOP KAUN, RICOCHET & TOA LIONA) & THE DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DAVID FINLAY) "STADIUM STAMPEDE" (31:10): This was a typical Stampede match even though they weren't allowed to have blood or brawl in the crowd. They did brawl backstage and outside the stadium. At one point, Jack Perry drove his bus into a golf cart that Mark Davis had been in before running out of the way. They brawled backstage in the cafeteria where Satnam Singh got involved. Lio Rush helped Bobby Lashley backstage (Lio Rush was Bobby's manager in WWE for a bit). They broke a bunch of tables at ringside. The most amusing part was when Andrade went ringside to take a picture with some pretty girls (this is his new gimmick), Luchasaurus was there in a blonde wig. The only thing lacking here was they didn't leave a song playing during the match which they did last year. This was very entertaining as these always are. ***

MJF vs. DARBY ALLIN (24:01): Darby beat MJF to win the title on the Dynamite right after Dynasty. Darby then defended the title every single week on Dynamite and Collision, beating PAC, Sammy Guevara, Kevin Knight, Speedball, Takeshita, Ciampa, and Brody King. Every one of those matches was great. The PAC match was great because it took place at the indoor golf course arena, so they were throwing each other into the sand traps. That match also had Darby being thrown off the balcony through four stacked tables. The Sammy Guevara match was great because Sammy did a Swanton Bomb off the top of a ladder onto Darby through a table, plus Sammy did a flip off the top rope through a table. This match's highlight had Darby climbing the scaffolding by the entrance to do a Coffin Drop down onto MJF on a table. Darby hit the back of his head on the table and was bleeding (so much for no blood on the show). The stip in this match was that MJF would be shaved bald if he lost. MJF ended up winning the title. Darby's 39 day reign was not the shortest men's title reign. Moxley had an 11 day reign and CM Punk had a 3 day reign. This match was good. It was pretty much just the same as all of the other Darby matches. I do think his title run was unique and made the TV shows this last month very exciting. I think his reign will be one that's talked about forever, actually. Was it a fitting end? Eh. MJF just had the title. This show was excellent, though. It was a typical, long AEW show (5 hours and 9 minutes if you include the pre-show) but didn't drag like most of the others do. It just felt like banger after banger and this hot crowd was one of the best ever. The building had a great look to it as well. Just an all-around great show. ***