Former IMPACT World Champion Brian Cage debuts for AEW!
The Women’s title changes hands!
And the main event sees quite possibly the craziest major promotion match ever.
And that’s saying something, as Money in the Bank was only two weeks ago.
I’m Oli Davis and this is AEW Double or Nothing 2020 in about 10 minutes.
The buy-in pre-show started with Private Party vs Best Friends - with the really smart promotional
tactic of having the wrestling card as part of the set.
It’s a playing card, which sounds like the match card.
It was really nice to see Private Party back in AEW, as some of their offence is ridiculously
smooth - but their inexperience showed at times, with quite a few mistimed spots and
botches.
But their tribute to the recently passed Shad Gaspard with Cryme Time’s G9 finisher was
very sweet.
Best Friends won, further positioning themselves for a tag title shot.
Excalibur then said Taz had to go see a man about a horse as the commentary teams switched
round.
Which wasn’t just foreshadowing for what Taz would do next… but also for a man with
a horse.
The main show opened on a video tribute to first responders, and also a remembrance graphic
for Shad Gaspard.
2020 is an even bigger heel than MJF.
And then went straight into the Casino Ladder Match which isn’t just a Don’t Call It
Money in the Bank ladder match.
It’s also a don’t call it a Royal Rumble Money in the Bank ladder match - with entrants
coming out every two minutes, to climb the ladder and get the chip that gives you a future
AEW World Championship shot.
This was an incredibly fun match - switching between borderline uncomfortable hardcore
spots like Darby Allin crashing through a ladder off a bigger ladder with a skateboard
(proving that having a slightly smaller thing underneath the bigger thing isn’t always
going to save you, Rey Mysterio), to Orange Cassidy hitting devastating superkicks.
This all built to the final mystery entrant, who like I predicted, was under the management
of submission and suplex expert Taz - presumably to enter a feud with Darby Allin, who has
turned down Taz’s offers to help in recent weeks - as former IMPACT World Heavyweight
Champion and human action figure Brian Cage made his debut for AEW!
One of the hottest free agents in all of wrestling, but we all kind of forgot about him because
there’s free agents everywhere now.
Immediately establishing Cage as a main event tier threat, he dominated until everyone had
to team up against him - trapping him underneath ladders, chairs, and even one of the giant
prop casino chips; onto which Joey Janela hit a death valley driver on Orange Cassidy.
This just seemed to power up Cage, who shook off the wreckage to enter an excellent strike
exchange with Luchasaurus, take out Allin under Taz’s instructions, and unhook the
chip for a world title shot - a brilliant way to immediately establish a new main eventer
and title contender in AEW, enhanced significantly by packaging him with Taz.
In a glimpse into AEW’s main event future several years from now, MJF took on Jungle
Boy next in a good match that turned awesome for the final third - with their own excellent
strike exchange of Code Red into Superkick into Reverse-Rana on the ring apron!
That’s the hardest part of the ring.
For MJF to sneak a pin to win.
I’m so excited for this feud to run through the very DNA of AEW for years to come.
Genuine AEW fan Iron Mike Tyson came out next - sadly not on the segway hoverboard - to
present the inaugural TNT Championship to the winner of Lance Archer vs Cody Rhodes.
This match had a brilliant structure, starting with Archer immediately hitting his Blackout
finisher, requiring Cody to repeatedly try to rally back, onto to be swatted down again
by the Muderhawk - each time reminding you that all that impressive babyface comeback
is only a slight inconvenience to Archer.
They wove in their respective managers too, with Cody hitting a DDT in front of Jake,
and then Lance doing a spinebuster in front of Arn.
Rhodes even referenced someone who wasn’t there, hitting a Stinger Splash in the corner.
Sting to AEW confirmed.
Cody ended up winning - which is awesome, as that’s what I predicted - but the finish
wasn’t as 100% successful as everything else on the card.
Arn had been ejected from ringside, so Tyson had to stop Jake using his snake - which was
enough to distract Lance into two back-to-back CrossRhodes to lose.
It felt a tad contrived for what had been an excellently booked match up until then.
Kris Statlander beat Britt Baker’s replacement Penelope Ford in 5 minutes.
This was a fun, short match.
It’s just a shame Baker had to be taken out due to injury.
And then Dustin Rhodes beat Shawn Spears in 3 minutes, after Dustin stripped Spears down
to his Tully Blanchard-embroided underpants.
Where are they on AEW Shop, I must have them!
I really like Shawn, and he does everything he’s given really well.
But he’s almost given too much.
He’s a serious threat one week with Blanchard, he’s a comedy gambler the next, then he’s
looking for a tag partner, then he’s a fake news reader.
It’s past time for him to settle on one gimmick.
All Out was announced for September 5th.
Hopefully.
And a rest in peace graphic was shown for Hana Kimura before the women’s title match
between Nyle Rose and Hikaru Shida.
I don’t know if Kimura’s tragic passing just the previous night played into who went
over here, where her and Shida both wrestled for Stardom, as everyone - apart from me!
- was predicting Nyla to retain.
She’d only just won the belt in February, and hadn’t done much since.
But the two put on a terrific match, trying to go through every gambling themed prop at
ringside, before Shida hit a huge Falcon Arrow off the top rope and then her running knee
to become the new champion.
Which I was overjoyed for!
Shida was over at first sight for me.
She’s been my favourite women’s wrestler in AEW since she debuted, and I can’t wait
to see her head up the division.
The penultimate match of the night saw Brodie Lee take on Jon Moxley for the AEW championship,
who - any other night - put on an excellent, main event worthy title fight.
It’s just that most night’s don’t then have a Stadium Stampede.
They match started fast with a huge dive from Brodie outside, and didn’t let up, with
them brawling around the ring exchanging big move after big move.
But it was the finish that really elevated not just the match, but both men too, in my
favourite spot of the night.
Yes, even more than Matt Hardy cycling through previous gimmicks.
Mox hit a Paradigm Shift on Lee through the stage - Taz and Bam Bam Bigelow style - which
Brodie emerged from crazed with his forehead covered in blood.
Mox then hit another Paradigm Shift in the middle of the ring, for Brodie to kick out
at one.
Another, Brodie kicked out at two.
And Mox only won when Lee passed out in a choke.
This was an amazing finish, getting over Lee’s Exalted One gimmick more than ever despite
him losing.
How can the main event top that?
With Hangman Page riding in on a horse.
The Stadium Stampede match between the Inner Circle and the Elite was genuinely unlike
anything I’ve ever seen before in wrestling.
It was the best, zaniest parts of Omega’s beloved DDT promotion on both steroids and
acid - somehow mixing crazy comedy spots, like Chris Jericho hitting Jacksonville’s
Jaxson de Ville mascot with a Judas Elbow (it’s Judas Effective), and Matt Hardy ringing
a giant bell with Ortiz’s head inside - with genuine comic book badassery.
Sure, there were a lot of high spots - and I’m talking Rob Van Dam level high - but
they were all linked to character and story, meaning every punch and Northern Lights Suplex
had all the weight of months and months of blood feud context behind them.
The best and most complimentary comparison I can think of doesn’t in fact come from
the world of wrestling, but from the MCU, in the airport fight scene in Captain America:
Civil War.
One of the most cathartic, funny, exhilarating, emotional movie sequences I’ve ever seen
- because it’s not just fantastic in its individual moments, it’s unparalleled in
how everything that’s come before it enhances each spot.
There are too many standout bits to mention.
This was 34 minutes of all killer, no filler.
Page chased Sammy down while riding a horse.
Kenny and Matt chased Sammy down on a golf buggy again.
Santana and Ortiz drowned Hardy in a pool, each time bringing him up as a different gimmick
Lake of Reincarnation style.
Yet the funniest bit was Ortiz panicking that he can’t swim in 3 feet of water.
Matt Jackson hitting a whole football field’s length worth of Northern Lights suplexes,
and - my favourite - Jake Hager joining Hangman Page at the bar for a drink before starting
their own brawl.
After every other Inner Circle member had been incapacitated, Omega won by jumping off
the stands with Sammy in a One Winged Angel.
For the Elite to close the show standing together, Hangman Page and all.
What did you think of AEW Double or Nothing?
Let me know in the comments down below, because I’ll be replying to people WHILE RIDING
AROUND ON A HORSE!
It’s been a rough week for the wrestling business.
Hell, it’s been a rough two months for the wrestling business.
It’s been a rough time for everyone.
So AEW did what wrestling is meant to do.
Make you forget all the bad.
Provide a fantastical escape of superheroes fighting supervillains.
Make you laugh, cry, gasp in shock, and cheer in jubilation.
The only thing that would’ve made this better is being able to watch it in person with Luke,
Laurie, Randy, Adam and Pete - but I’m not going to blame AEW for that.
AEW Double or Nothing, quite easily, is a five out of five show.
What are the 10 best wrestling matches in All Elite Wrestling?
Click the video on the right to find out Adam Blampied’s picks!
And following the passing of Shad Gaspard, the wrestling industry has sadly experienced
another tragic death with 22 year old Hana Kimura.
Click the video beneath that to learn more.
And make WrestleTalk.com your homepage for all the latest wrestling news.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.