Yes, I saw Double Or Nothing… and yes, I also saw last night’s Dynamite. The latter gets musings tomorrow while the former… is what you’re reading right now. A bunch of folks had a get together on Monday that included a repeat viewing of Double Or Nothing, which is how I got to watch the show. Admittedly, there were moments where I had to step out for a bit, so I didn’t catch the whole show, but I did catch enough of it to say that I enjoyed most of what I saw. And also, it wasn’t as much of a drag as I’ve heard Wrestlemania was, which confirmed my decision to avoid that show.
Yes, there are the usual problems. Egregriously long runtimes and too many wrestling matches to remember – though in fairness, if TOO MUCH WRESTLING on your WRESTLING SHOW ends up being your biggest problem, that’s not necessarily a bad thing, now is it?
So, here we are… the eighth annual Double Or Nothing PPV event now airing from Queens, New York rather than Jacksonville or Las Vegas or some other rich place. Honestly, I appreciate AEW going to other places for their PPVs rather than sticking with the old standbys of diminishing returns. They need to get it through their skulls that they are not New Japan, they are never booking WrestleKingdom, and they can never do what that show does in making the Tokyo Dome a permanent home for any one event. Hopefully next year, we can stop making Wembley a thing and book next year’s All In someplace else… perhaps Saud… wait, never mind, bad idea.
Anyway, on witht the show.
Cope And Cage defeated AEW Tag Team Champions Fuck The Revival in an I Quit match that saw Cope and Cage lock FTR Guy in a combination sharpshooter/crossface combination with Beth Phoenix Copeland threatening to hit FTR Guy in the face with a spiked bat to convince him to quit, thus rewarding the former Edge & (just) Christian the titles. I am usually down on Cope matches in the latter point of his career because his matches tend to drag for the sake of telling a story that could be told in half the time, but sometimes, there’s a Cope match that lands the right notes and this was it. This was a long established tag team that has been teaming for years fighting their most hated rivals in a blood feud that would forced them to break up and retire if they had lost. Christian got a couple funny moments in there where he was beckoned to quit and he instead told FTR to go fuck themselves and also that he banged their moms. The violence was a bit goofy and the lack of blood made this almost a cartoon, but so what? This was a great no-holds-barred fight between a legendary team that can still bring it and arguably one of the best tag teams in the business today.
There is the question of whether it was a smart idea to have this be the opening match rather than any other match with lesser stakes – I don’t think anyone would have minded one of the Owens open this up considering none of those matches had their endings in doubt. Personally, I was fine with this being the open. Give it enough distance from the later Stampede match and also, not leave ourselves open to the possibility of Cope and Cage’s final match as a team being followed by the other crazy shit that’s coming up later. And while some would complain about the older Cope & Cage going over the younger FTR, in this case, I don’t mind it. And really, FTR’s old enough to main event Wrestlemania, so I don’t know what the big deal is in that regard. If it were a younger team that they were building for the future, it’d be one thing. But FTR isn’t a young team. They’ve been around forever by TV stands. They can take a hit or two every once in a while; it’s what you do with them afterwards that matters more.
That Takeshita person defeated that Okada person to win the WCW International World Championship or whatever it’s called these days to win the title. So hot was the crowd for this match that there was already a Holy Shit chant before either man actually touched each other. Not sure if that’s a sign of AEW’s starmaking prowess – something that has been a valid criticism at times – but in terms of raising Takeshita’s stock considerably to the point where he’s seen as an equal to the former pride of New Japan, they must have done something right. Anyway, Takeshita does what he does to win, which makes Don Callis upset for some reason… I’d imagine if Okada was doing what he does to win, he’d get a pass because he’s fucking Okada. So after the match, which was excellent, the rest of Don Callis’ extended family chastise Takeshita before we get the return of Dave Meltzer’s new favorite wrestler KYLE FLETCHER returns and teases a babyface turn before he whacks Takeshita and reaffirms his allegiance to Callis. Well, that turn earned twenty stars in the Observer newsletter.
ROH Women’s Champion Athena (after two years, she’s still champion… I don’t know whether that speaks to her value or the lack of depth in ROH’s women roster that they haven’t found a suitable usurper) defeated Mina Shirakawa to advance in the Owen tournament. Hey, you know what? I’m not going to complain with the result; Athena was the obvious choice here and there was no chance of Mina winning. Also, nice to see the former Ember Moon get some shine on AEW programming that actually matters. That said, though, after two really hot matches, this felt like a bit of a cooldown and that’s being a bit unfair since it was still a great match between two talented women… but it’s a great match with a foregone conclusion, so…
Continental Champion Jon Moxley defeated Kyle O’Reilly via submission to retain the title and then both shake hands. Amazingly, they advertised this as a no time limit match, but still managed to end it under twenty minutes. Jim Ross took over commentary duties for this match, noted the lack of interference, and then someone pointed out to me that interference runs were illegal in these continental matches. Some mixed opinions on this one, but I thought this was a fine match. Started off slow, but picked up , with a nice closing submission sequence before the fall and a stark reminder that when put in a position to put on a classic wrestling match, Jon Moxley can pull back on the more extreme aspects of his offense and deliver the goods. This almost reminds me of the Mox of old, when AEW was but a newborn company and he was the defacto cornerstone of the promotion. I’d like to see more of this Mox moving forward if you don’t mind.
Jim Ross was gone afterwards… and Schiavone stuck around for the rest of the show. Nice gesture to give JR a bit of a shine, but it’s a reminder that we’re old and the people we watched as younglings are also old. Best keep him healthy for All In and wishing him all the best.
Will Ospreay defeated Samoa Joe to advance in the Owen tournament and yes, I have a feeling the eventual winner of this tourney is never in doubt, but goddamn, what a fun match this was. Ospreay gets noped by Joe (of course), but yeah, hell of a match.
Swerve Strickland defeated ROH Champion Bandito to advance in the Owen Tournament. Another match that started off a bit slow, but picked up towards the end. Not much to say here; it was fine.
AEW Women’s Champion Thekla defeated Kris Statlander, Hikaru Shida, and Jamie Hayter in a four-way to retain the title. At one point, Stat tried to pin Thekla and Shida broke the pin… and apparently that’s a heel turn, even though it’s supposed to be every woman for herself and don’t tell me Stat wouldn’t have done the same if Shida was going for the pin. Haven’t been a fan of four-ways as of late because they’re almost always spotfests, but I thought this was a good showing. I don’t think there was any chance of Thekla losing the title here, but there was enough doubt here that you could wonder if maybe… just maybe… that’s the one criticism I have towards most of these matches.
JERICHO, Kenny Omega, The Bucks, and The Hurt People defeated Ricochet and his gang of geeks in Stadium Stampede, where they did a combination of backstage bits along with some live arena action. Yeah, this is the obligatory party match to end all party matches. AEW has done a couple of these in the past and they’ve always been fun times. This was no exception. Does it have the best wrestling? No, not really. Does it make any kind of sense at times? No. Does it take itself too seriously? Oh, dear lord, no.
But was I entertained by it all?
Yes.
That’s all that mattered.
Also, nice touch with JERICHO’s tribute to Sabu with the table after the match. Almost brought a tear to Taz’s eye.
MJF defeated AEW World Champion Darby Allin to win the title and also save himself from a haircut. Apparently, he had hair plugs installed and that sort of gave away the result. There’s committing to the bit and then there’s wasteful spending. This played out about as much as you expected to; Darby pulling out all the crazy spots and stuff, MJF holding his own and taking advantage of little mistakes and openings… Darby did a bad landing at one point that ended up causing the back of his head or something to bleed; something that must have happened on a fluke because AEW had been careful not to spill the crimson liquid on this show (Commissions and all that jazz.) They worked that into the match where Darby passes out during a Scorpion spot, giving MJF the final opening he needed to win the match and the title. Hats off to Darby; he’s had a hell of a ride as AEW Champion and I was happy to tag along for the past few weeks, but we all knew it was going to end sooner or later and the man went out on his goddamned sword. And now MJF is a 3-time champion; no doubt keeping the belt warm until All In.
And then Kevin Knight comes out and attacks Darby as he’s being stretchered out, so that’s a heel turn. They did a very smart thing in holding this off until AFTER the match because then him costing Darby the match would have been lame. We knew Darby was losing this one, but we don’t need to make it even more obvious.
Far for me to heap endless praise on a show, but I thought that this year’s Double Or Nothing was probably the best PPV I’ve seen this year and I doubt that I’m going to see a better show. I’m sure All In will be something of a big deal, but this was loads of fun, the matches were stupid fun and excellent at best and merely very good at worst. From a certain point of view, this ran a little long in the tooth, but considering it’s one of their tentpole events and not one of the minor shows, I’d give it a pass and at the very least, the show FELT like a very big deal and not something that they need to tell us is a big deal.
I have not seen Wrestlemania this year… but little chance that show was better than what AEW had to offer on this night. And yeah, AEW these past few years has been shaky, but I really feel like they finally got around to finding their groove. The television has been engaging and slowly winning me over with its angles, the matches have been consistently fun, there was never a point where I wanted to tune or take a break, and that run culminated with an excellent PPV that I have no problem declaring the best PPV of the year. Is there a possibility that it might be usurped? Maybe. Do I think it’s going to happen? Probably not.
Tomorrow is the last Dynamite musings before we bring this run to a close. It’ll also be the last wrestling-related post before the June moratorium hits. Once July rolls around, I might do a recap post of sorts to cover anything significant that might have happened, but until then… Double Or Nothing 2026 is a show that is well worth your time and money… and is, indeed, better than nothing.
Way the fuck better than nothing.
dtm666 