Your eyes do not deceive. It’s a PPV Musings on a recent AEW Pay-Per-View event.
In all honesty, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. While it’s no secret that I haven’t been a fan of the general creative direction that AEW has been going on in recent months, I’d be lying if I said that there were some efforts made in trying to steer the ship right. And also, regardless of my feelings on the current AEW product, watching Double Or Nothing has become something of a tradition going back to the very first event back in 2019. If nothing else, I’d like to keep that tradition going similar to how some friends I know, who largely gave up on wrestling years ago, will still make a point to watch Wrestlemania every year… though some couldn’t keep up with the two-night Buy One Get One free set-up, but that’s okay.
With that having been said, I’d be lying if I said that this year’s Double Or Nothing event felt like a complete afterthought. What was once one of their big tentpole events has basically become the equivalent of a B-level PPV event as we gear up for All In from Texas in July. This year’s Double Or Nothing is a bit of a milestone, as it is the first event since the 2022 edition NOT to emanate from the traditional home of Las Vegas – which just hosted the 5-night Buy One, Get One free extravaganza known as Wrestlemania 41 headlined by Cold Manipulator Punk, but rather from Glensdale, Arizona… who once hosted a hockey team here.
Still, there was some fun stuff to look forward to here and also… well, let’s not jump ahead here and instead dive into this one… off the deep end, Mr. Scott.
For what’s it worth, this show took me a couple days to get through. First day viewing was right before Anarchy took place. Second day was Anarchy. And one more day to pick up on the rest of the show. I’m way past the point of watching nine-hour PPVs on Sunday nights, so I’m going to get the replay and watch the show in chunks at my own leisure. For your convenience, I’m getting this out of the way so that I don’t have to point out when I’m doing breaks.
Mercedes Mone defeated Jamie Hayter to win the Owen Hart Tournament and earn a title shot against Timeless Toni… which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise considering the uber super push this woman has been getting. Admittedly, I was kinda hoping for Hayter to take this one and try to get that All In moment she missed out on last year due to injury, but I guess we have to ride the Mone train a little while longer. Oh well, at least the match was an entertaining enough opener. Mercedes as a character is dull, but she can still hold her own.
Fuck The Revival defeated Nigel McGuiness (who’s come out of retirement for this match) and Daniel Garcia via submission to Garcia by one of the FTR guys, who taunts Garcia to tap, but he passed out instead. Fuck The Revival mouths off on Schiavone to continue whatever thing they have going on because Jim Ross isn’t available due to cancer-related issues. (Get well soon, Jim.) The match was perfectly acceptable wrestling and Nigel looked fine for someone who hasn’t wrestled full-time in years.
Ricochet defeated Jay Briscoe via multiple scissor stabbings in a Stretcher match, where the goal is to put your opponent on a stretcher and stretch him to the ambulance. Never let it be said that I can’t appreciate a good old-fashioned garbage brawl and this was as entertaining as any old-school WWF hardcore match that didn’t go beyond the confines of the arena. Jay Briscoe continues to be a treasure that keeps eating Ls while Ricochet is perfectly cast as the annoying little shit geek heel… I could have done without the scissors. You’re not Sid, Ric, and you will never be Sid.
AEW Tag-Team Champions Hurt Syndicate (Bobby Lashley and Shelton Benjamin) defeated ROH Tag-Team Champions Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara to retain their titles; the ROH titles were not on the line, which probably gave away the fact that there wasn’t going to be a title change here. On the other hand, though, it’s hard to imagine this hot team in Lashley and Benjamin dropping the titles to a team that barely appears on ROH “television” most of the time, much less on AEW proper.
Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Speedball Mike Bailey to retain the title. The story of Okada in AEW is sort of similar to that of Shinsuke Nakamura in WWE, in that you sign a talent who was considered the best thing in Japanese wrestling and everything he’s done since being signed has been less than stellar… or at the very least, far below what has been hyped about this guy. It’s clear that Okada is just taking it easy and enjoying the paycheck, so you’re not getting the full Okada experience here. That said, the backend of the match was where things started to pick up and Okada realized that, “Hey, this Speedball guy isn’t just a goofy name. He’s actually really good.” So I enjoyed the latter part of the match when things picked up. The rest of it was… merely okay… which is fine for a Okada payday.
AEW Women’s Champion Timeless Toni defeated Mina Shirakawa to retain the title… and then after the match, they kiss and make up. Good for them. Nice to know there are no hard feelings between casual lesbian lovers after a hard-fought wrestling match. Mind you, there’s a part of me that would’ve liked to have seen Mina win it and take it to Mercedes… but that would probably derail the Mone train and that doesn’t work for Mercedes; lest she cries foul and walks out again like she did her previous employer… but I digress. The match itself was fine. It wasn’t a bloody affair or anything like that. It was just the usual public display of family-friendly rough sex… search your feelings, folks. You know this to be true.
“Ah shit. Get on your feet. This is Anarchy In The Arena.” Justin Roberts earned his pay for the year with that intro… with that said…
Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, and a bunch of other people defeated the Death Riders (Jon Moxley, Claudio, and a bunch of other people) in Anarchy In The Arena. A bunch of shit happens, a bunch of people run in to add to the anarchy, and Kenny gives Marina a suplex… not quite “Suplex City, Bitch” but it’s a huge step for a company that normally doesn’t dabble in intergender stuff. To try and convey this sort of madness in a few words is impossible, but needless to say, this is the sort of thing where you pretty much have to turn off your brain and embrace the absolute absurdity of this whole deal. For what it’s worth, the finish was nice and sensible; Swerve stomps one of the Bucks with a thumbtack-laden shoe while Kenny explodes another Buck through the table for the finish. It’s not like one of the previous years where one guy was set on fire, only to come back and win the match with a fucking knee or something. If you’re not making me question things with this stupidity, I can go along with it and even enjoy it. This did not make me question things and therefore, I had fun with it. Why is this so difficult a concept to understand?
The Don Callis Family (that Takeshita guy, Josh Alexander, and some other guy) defeated the Undisputed Paragon of Something or Other (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) in the designated piss break match… which is probably not being fair because the match itself was fine and after the match, the Family beats down the Undisputed people before more guys run in for the save… but let’s be honest; these guys are sandwiched between anarchy and anything involving Will Ospreay. Someone had to be the buffer and these guys drew the short straw. Fortunately, I stopped watching after Anarchy and picked up on the rest of the show the next day, so I didn’t have the fatigue setting in like I probably would have if I were one-shotting this thing, which I didn’t.
Hangman Adam Page defeated Will Ospreay to win the Owen Hart Tournament and earn a title shot against Jon Moxley (who, by the way, is your reigning AEW World Champion who presently carries the belt in a briefcase because… reasons.) Page and Ospreay shake hands in a form of respect. This is Match Of The Year for me. Ospreay is an incredible talent and Hangman was able to keep up, showing how much he has grown over the years as a talent. While I’m sure that some people would’ve liked to have seen Ospreay win this one – and I wouldn’t have been opposed to that because Ospreay really does deserve a World title run for all the heavy lifting he’s done – to me, Hangman being the one to win this and hopefully be the guy to dethrone Moxley at All In was the right decision. Hangman has been on a road to redemption after burning down poor Swerve’s house (and not suffering any consequences for it – welcome to wrestling) and him being the AEW Original to take down the Death Riders is probably the way to go. Quite frankly, Hangman needs this more than Ospreay does; if only to wipe the stench of his first title reign that was largely uneventful until it ended… rather poorly.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said before? Double Or Nothing 2025 is the token AEW show; lots of great to excellent wrestling matches, some bloody debacles, and way too fucking long. For what it’s worth, I feel like I’ve got my money’s worth and I’m anxiously looking forward to All In a lot more than I was before given the World title picture… but once again, this was a show that I had to watch in chunks. If I’ve had to watch this live in one sitting, I might have been far more saltier. But no, I enjoyed this show tremendously in chunks. They just need to manage time better… but I know they won’t.
So now AEW has a bit of a conundrum for next year because if rumors are to be believed, WWE may be hosting Wrestlemania 42 in Las Vegas… which means that Allegiant Stadium could very well be the Trump Plaza of TKO. Curious to see where we go, but for now, we’ve got All In to look forward… or rather, YOU have All In to look forward to; I’ve got a bunch of Bash At The Beaches lined up for June and then in July, I’m rewatching some old WCW PPVs that I did musings on years ago and chances are I won’t be touching on All In until long after Summerslam hits.
Either way, it’s going to be a fun ride that’ll hopefully produce some fun reads.
dtm666 