Posting this on a Tuesday rather than the usual Wednesday just to get it out of the way and since it was done, there’s no real reason to keep it in the backburner when there’s other stuff coming up.
So, for those who didn’t catch the last Dynamite musings, I’ve decided to skip out on this year’s Double Or Nothing. Current TV isn’t doing it for me, the card itself isn’t getting me excited, and the nWo tribute act that the Elite is playing out… it might be working for some people, but it’s not working for me, brother.
So instead of this year’s show, we’re looking at last year’s show, which I only got around to watching recently. And once July hits, there’ll be weekly musings of all the PPVs I missed this past year. After that… who knows? Maybe I’ll do some TNA stuff until Summerslam hits. But that is then… this is now… or rather this is also then… but the other way…
Never mind… let’s just dive in and see if I missed out on anything by skipping this show last year.
International Champion Orange Cassidy retains the title in a 21-man battle royal that was… a 21-man Casino Battle Royal, but with a title on the line instead of a title shot. This is virtually every battle royal that you’ve seen take place in AEW, so the only good thing I will say about this match is that they didn’t make the dumb move in having Orange lose the title here. He just hung on to it until he’d lose it to Roderick Strong so that the guy can kill whatever goodwill was built here.
Adam Cole defeated Chris Jericho in a total clusterfuck of a hardcore match that was billed as unsanctioned. I kinda wish that I had not watched this match.
AEW Tag Team Champions Fuck The Revival defeated Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal in a perfectly acceptable tag match to retain the titles.
TNT Champion Wardlow… I forgot that Wardlow was TNT Champion once upon a time… so he retains the title in a ladder match over Christian Cage that had one run-in too many.
Toni Storm, who is not yet “timeless” at this point, defeated AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter in a really short match to win the title for the second time, which was a record at the time. Apparently, Hayter was really hurt and couldn’t do a full match, so this was the best they could do. Storm would drop the title to Saraya before eventually going timeless and winning the title back.
AEW World Trios Champions The House of Black defeated The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass to retain the titles. It was fine… stuff happened and it was fine… but yes, Billy Gunn being a champion in 2023… well, Sting would have him beat this year, so maybe I should stop.
TBS Champion Jade Cargill defeated Taya Valkyrie in a perfectly acceptable match to retain the title. Her manager, the lawyer guy, lays down an open challenge to anyone wanting a shot at Jade, which brings out Kris Statlander – back from injury, if I recall – and pretty much decimated Jade in less than a minute to win the title. Well, it was bound to happen, sooner or later. Jade would challenge Kris for the title in a rematch in what ended up being her last match before she made the jump to WWE.
AEW World Champion MJF defeated Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and Jungle Jack Perry Boy in a Four Pillars Four Way match to retain the title. Of the four men featured in this match, only Jack Perry is still on television while the rest are nursing injuries. This played second fiddle to the Anarchy In The Arena match between the Elite and the Blackpool Combat Club, which was probably the best thing that they could’ve done because there was no way you were going to follow chaos with a regular match and expect the crowd to be excited about. That said, this was a tremendous match, with each wrestler getting a chance to showcase their stuff and just having a bunch of cool spots before the dastardly MJF escaped with his title secured… and watching me is making me miss the old MJF, not the one that got neutered with comedy gimmicks from Bay-Bay guy.
Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio, Wheeler Yuta, Bryan Danielson) defeated The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Bucks, and Hangman Page) in an Anarchy In The Arena match, which is just a big ol’ hardcore brawl around the arena that’s supposed to replay the craziness of the Stadium Stampede match that took place a couple years back. And while I wouldn’t go so far to say that this go.
Yeah, so I will safely say that this show was pretty much a lame-duck show until Statlander came along, which left the title match and the Anarchy match to save the show and they did just that. Skip everything until the Jade match and you’ll find a solid back end with a couple excellent matches. As a whole… meh.
dtm666 