For anyone wondering why it’s taken me this long to post musings on this show, it’s because it’s taken me this long to WATCH said show.
Double Or Nothing 2024 is a near-five hour sloth. I’ve heard good things, but the one takeaway was “it’s too damn long.” And when I heard the runtime for this thing, I said, “No thanks. Not for me.” And even when my buddy loaned me his DVD recording of the show to watch some time afterwards, I simply didn’t have the stomach to sit through that entire show. Even on a card built on great wrestling, there comes a point where you can only watch so much before it becomes an afterthought. And that’s probably the big takeaway with this show. See it in one shot and by the end of the show, you’re mostly clockwatching. Watch it in bits and pieces and you can start to appreciate the individual pieces.
That was my approach with this show; watch a match or two a day and get back to the rest another time. That way, I have a greater appreciation for the quality of the matches and such, whereas even splitting it in a couple days worth of viewing, something would’ve been off. So bare in mind when reading this that I’m watching this show in bits and pieces because that’s the only way I could digest this thing. Trying to do this in one shot… eh, I don’t have that in me anymore, regardless of the actual quality.
DAY 1
Wills Ospreay defeated International Champion Roderick Strong to win the title. He’d hold on to the belt for a couple months before dropping it to Takeshita. Your typical Will Ospreay match that is either one of the greatest matches of all time or one with a lot of flips and no psychology. I’m somewhere in the middle; good enough match to keep me entertained, but not enough to sell me on the hype.
Adam Cole comes out for a promo talking about his Devil mask gimmick, because that was a thing that we needed to bring back. This, of course, brings us a backstage video of various MJF outfits and memorabilia before we get the return of the man himself, sporting a very 2002 HHH-esque demin jacket get-up. This segment reminded me that MJF was a babyface once upon a time before they turned him back heel. Adam Cole would apparently take more time off after this before coming back as a babyface and continuing his feud with the heel MJF… even though Cole was supposed to be the heel in this thing. Even in trying to go back and make sense of this convoluted storyline that people claim make sense, this makes no sense. Not only that, but considering that Adam Cole was the one who stabbed MJF in the back rather than the other way around, I have a hard time trying to feel sorry or show support for this guy who’s an even bigger scumbag than MJF. Point being, this story is a complete and utter waste of both men’s talents, which could have gone elsewhere.
Unified Trios Champions Jay White and The Ass Boys (along with their eleventy billion belts) defeated The Death Triangle (PAC and the Lucha Bros) with outside assistance from the returning ROCK HARD Juice Robinson to retain the titles. Those trios belts wouldn’t stay unified for long. Perfectly fine trios match and this is where I tune out for the day.
DAY 2
AEW Women’s Champion Timeless Toni Storm defeated Serena Deeb to retain the title. There was a point where Storm’s blond assistant, Mariah May, teased throwing in the towel, but Dr. Luther stopped her. This was a fine match, indeed – another one in the Timeless Toni catalogue thanks to a worthwhile dance partner in Deeb, who probably deserves better than what’s she’s getting and… well, for those who need a jump ahead, Mariah would turn on Storm and beat her for the title at All In… and then Toni would come back pretending that she’s just signed with AEW or something. There’s a long game somewhere, but that’s for another time. I’d be much happier seeing Serena Deeb have something to do other than do a couple spot wins before jobbing to the champ. That seems to be a trend in AEW.
Orange Cassidy (wearing a BLACK T-Shirt) defeated Trent Baretta in a “straight wrestling match” with a straight wrestling finish: the Roll Up. Trent then storms off and falls off the face of the Earth afterwards because I don’t know what happened to that guy. Orange is still around. The match is fine. Gotta run.
DAY 3
FTW Champion Chris Jericho defeated HOOK and Shibata to retain the title. The only thing worth noting is Jericho pulling out a bag of dice to play the role of thumbtacks… and I’m pretty sure those things hurt just as badly if not more despite not being puncture-prone. Other than that… yeah, this was a lame match. Finish came with a masked man coming to help Jericho win and it’s some other job guy joining the Jericho Job Squad. I was never a fan of this Jericho run and revisiting it… well, didn’t change my not like this run, so that didn’t work.
Yeah, this match soured me quite a bit. Calling it a day.
Oh yeah, Jericho would drop the FTW title back to Hook, who would then retire it and return it to Taz (all the best on recovery, by the way.) Jericho, however, would beat Mark Briscoe to win his second ROH championship (his ninth overall World title.) Well, at least he got paid.
DAY 4
IWGP World Champion Jon Moxley defeated Takeshita in a non-title World Title Eliminator match. So, TK wanted this to be a title match, but New Japan said no, so they made this a Title Eliminator match, which means nothing in AEW other than the challenger is all but doomed to lose. They tried to give Mox an handicap by having his arm be injured beforehand, but at the end of the day, it’s a one-armed Mox going up against a guy people know is not going to win… which makes me wonder why they even bothered with the match to begin with. You didn’t want to beat Mox in a nothing match, but you needed to give this Takeshita guy a big win… and instead, you did this. This is why people have an issue with AEW booking these days.
TNT Champion Adam Copeland defeated Malakai Black in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage match to retain the title… and then a couple days later, he would be stripped of the title due to suffering an injury that requires surgery, likely from that aborted jump off the cage where he landed on his feet rather than just splash Malakai on the ground, which I’d imagine would be safer than trying to land on your feet in your 50s. Let me tell you folks; I have leg issues and I’m in my 40s. That’s not something you want to mess with. Anyway, in somewhat happier news, Gangrel popped up and made an appearance, dumped a couple house goons with Impaler DDTs, and got a big reaction from the crowd. Hey, I like me some Gangrel, one of those gimmick characters I could get behind because he was simple (he’s a vampire, comes out of fire pits, drinks blood from a goblet to spit out in a cool visual), and I dig vampires.
I’m not going to lie. I actually enjoyed this match more than I thought I would. I only wish Copeland hadn’t done that needless leap off the cage. Then he wouldn’t have been injured, they wouldn’t have stripped him of the title, and we wouldn’t have Jack Perry cosplaying as a main event heel that nobody buys as a genuine threat.
DAY 5
Mercedes Mone defeated TBS Champion Willow Nightingale to win the title in a match that was pretty much a foregone conclusion, but it was a hell of a match if nothing else. As much as I knock Mone’s promo work leading up to the match beforehand, when it comes to her ring work, she hadn’t missed a beat. And Willow is such a likeable person with her own special charisma. Mercedes’ early AEW stuff has been hit and miss (mostly miss) and it wasn’t until her match with Statlander that she finally found her stride. Willow, on the other hand, is always solid in more ways than one… make of that what you will; I am not responsible for any dirty thoughts that pop in what you supposedly call brain matter.
And in the turn Stevie Wonder saw coming, Stokely and Statlander turn on Willow and leave her for geek. Not for dead, but for GEEK.
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland defeated Christian Cage to retain the title. It was fine. Nothing really special or substantial. At least Cage got paid.
DAY 6
The nWo Elite (Matthew, Nicholas, Okada, and Jack Perry) defeated Team AEW (Bryan Danielson, Fuck The Revival, and Darby Allin) in Anarchy In The Arena match. So you know how people would make fun of these sort of hardcore, anything go matches by saying you’d have all these crazy, outlandish things happen to the wrestlers – falling off a high rise through a bunch of tables, – and then the thing that finishes the match is a simple knee to the face? Well, this is that match personified. As though someone took what was clearly a joke and presented as an actual piece of work.
A friend of mine told me to watch the main event in a vacuum. Watch the rest of the show first and then save this for another time so you can properly digest this whole deal. That way, you’d get a greater appreciation for the little things and not fall into the trap of watching this thing after a long-ass card. Well, I did that and even in that case, I felt this dragged on for far too long and this was only 30 minutes. I mean, I know that at some point, I teased getting this show if someone got set on fire… and that indeed did happen, but when I finally got around to watching this thing… yeah, listen, you set someone on fire and then they come back to win the match… yeah, you’re thankful that they’re okay, but then you wonder… well, that’s fucking stupid.
There are bits I like; the beginning where everyone is trying to get the audio guys to play their music before we get a couple minutes worth of Final Countdown that gets shut down because “we’re on a budget” while the common viewer goes “since when.”
The ridiculousness comes when Jack Perry – moments ago having been TORCHED ALIVED – comes in to strike Danielson with a knee to the face to score the winning pinfall. And listen, I like Anarchy In The Arena usually and I’d be lying if I told you I hated this because I didn’t. Yes, a lot of it is stretching the believability a bit, it is every bit a parody of a brutal blood feud or whatever they were going for here, but sometimes, you just have to embrace the absurd. However, this went on for way too fucking goddamned long and by the time we got to the torch spot, I figured that would be a good note to end it on… except they kept going… and when the actual finish came and went, it was the most out-of-nowhere, underwhelming thing that they ever booked… but hey, we got fodder for a future PPV main event between Perry and Danielson. (Spoiler: Perry lost… though a part of me wouldn’t have been surprised if he had been booked to win because… fuck, I don’t know.)
By the way, Sting’s last appearance on AEW PPV as an active wrestler was him letting everyone know that they only had ten seconds before the PPV went on the air… but this… THIS… needed more time.
You know, I had gone back and watched Double Or Nothing 2019 – the very first AEW show – and that show still holds up. That show is a far cry from the current product. I know that AEW has its detractors and insist that people are coming around to the fact that AEW always had horrible booking, but honestly, I could go back and watch some of the older AEW shows – even the ones during the pandemic where the only audience were a handful of wrestlers at ringside pretending to be an adoring audience – and those shows will still hold up because I cared about the stories and the characters involved. Cut to five years later and… yeah, a lot of the wrestling is still pretty good and that’s always something AEW will have going for it, but you can get good wrestling anywhere these days and you need something more.
Jack Perry as the next big heel and the Young Bucks as dickhead EVPs was not the big deal AEW made this out to be. It didn’t make me want to look forward to future shows. Outside of a handful of Dynamites, I haven’t watched much of the AEW product. I never even bothered with All In, despite the show ending with Bryan Danielson FINALLY winning a fucking AEW championship. I just didn’t care about any of the angles. Now to AEW’s credit, they did pivot away from the Bucks and Perry cosplaying as Outsiders and Hogan… only to replace that void with the former Blackpool Combat Club – now known as the Death Riders – and I’m not sure that’s any better than the other thing. I usually like what Mox does; he cuts some smooth promos and his work – when it isn’t just straight-up gar-bitch wrestling, makes for some fun brawls. But I have not been on board with this Death Rider stuff.
But that’s another story for another time.
Double Or Nothing 2024… like I said, the wrestling was good and there were some fun stuff here and there… but I definitely made the right call in waiting for the replay and watching it in parts. Trying to sit through this long ass show in one sitting on a Sunday Night… thanks, but no thanks. No buys.
And that concludes the PPV Musings for 2024. I’ll be giving this a rest for a few weeks before firing these up again in late-January, but to give you an idea of what we’re going to touch on… well, it’s a Royal Rumble that turned out to be a fumble… and that event “celebrates” its 20th anniversary. So we’re going to revisit that and… yeah, that’s going to be fun. Please look forward to it.
dtm666 