CM Punk is your new AEW World Champion, MJF was buried in his match with Wardlow, and
plenty of debuts in AEW too! Here’s my review of AEW Double or Nothing, in about 10 minutes.
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So let’s get this out of the way to start with: AEW PPVs are too long. I don’t care
how great the wrestling is, over 5 hours of wrestling is too long.
The Buy-In was essentially just comedy. An appearance from The Acclaimed and The Ass
Boys, and the match of Hookhausen vs Tony Nese & Mark Sterling, which was about what
you would expect. A bit of fun, nothing too fancy, but a nice, light hearted way to open
the show, with Hook getting another victory, though allowing Danhausen to get the actual
pin on Mark Sterling. I’ve said before that I don’t really get
Danhausen, which I know is illegal on the internet, and I do still stand by that, but
everyone clearly really likes this act, and it’s super duper over wherever they go,
so full steam ahead on Hookhausen. The main show kicked off with MJF vs Wardlow,
and let me tell you, after all the speculation early in the day, with MJF potentially no-showing
the event, this was the perfect choice to open the show. MJF entered first, re-enacting
a plane in the ring, before Wardlow was brought out with his entourage of security.
The match itself though, kind of left more questions than answers regarding MJF. Wardlow
absolutely squashed him, hitting 10 powerbombs after MJF tried and failed to use the diamond
ring which was played up for laughs. Wardlow could have won after 5 powerbombs, but took
his foot off the pin at 2 and did 5 more. MJF was then stretchered out afterwards, featuring
this great image of an oxygen mask being put over MJF’s eyes.
There’s a word to describe this that might be overused in the wrestling community, but
this was a burial. The injury angle was clearly designed to write MJF off our screens, at
least for a while, so…is he done with AEW? Is this all just part of the larger story
of MJF’s frustrations with AEW? Is all of this one elaborate work and this is all just
playing into it? I have no idea, but the one thing I did take from this opener is that
Wardlow is an absolute megastar and should absolutely be pushed into either TNT or World
title contention before long. Having Wardlow revisit his feud against CM Punk, a match
that he could have won before were it not for MJF interference, would be very interesting
now Punk has the title. I think Wardlow being put over in defeat against Punk there could
do him wonders. Up next was The Young Bucks vs The Hardys,
which was the first proper technical match on this card after the Buy-In comedy match
and the opening match that was more of an angle than a match.
This had the dream billing attached to it, but I thought this never really quite reached
that level. The Bucks are known for their incredible speed and ingenuity in the ring,
but because they were in the ring with The Hardys who aren’t quite as fast as they
once were, the pace was brought right down, and maybe there was a lack of chemistry or
someone was having an off day or something, but something just didn’t quick click for
me in this match. It was fine, a decent match, with a solid conclusion of The Hardys hitting
their finishers for the win after The Bucks failed to put them away with the Hardys finishers,
their cockiness getting the better of them. The TBS title was on the line next, in the
match that had the least build heading into it. This match wasn’t fantastic, and the
pace wasn’t great either. Again I’m not sure whether it was miscommunications, or
a lack of chemistry, or someone having an off day, but Jade Cargill and Anna Jay didn’t
quite gel. Mark Sterling was back with a crutch that he slid into the ring, but Jay was the
one to use it on Cargill for a nearfall. Cargill then powered out of a Queenslayer and managed
to hit Jaded for the win after a distraction from newly debuting Stokeley Hathaway, the
former Malcolm Bivens in WWE. I am all for Hathaway managing Jade Cargill, I think they’re
a perfect fit. But there was one more debut to come, as in
a post-match beatdown, Kris Statlander came down to make the save and had a staredown
with Cargill and Red Velvet, and she was then joined by Athena, the former Ember Moon in
WWE. She is a very welcome addition to the women’s division, and I’m very much looking
forward to seeing what she can do. It was a fairly slow start to Double or Nothing,
but the pace ramped up pretty quickly with the debuts, leading into the next match.
This trios match was so much fun. House of Black are a perfect unit, and I love all of
their individual dynamics in the group, and paired with another incredibly quick paced
trio in Death Triangle, this was a recipe for success, and success it was. Non-stop
action the whole way through, amazing spot after amazing spot. It looked like PAC was
about to get the win with the Black Arrow, but Julia Hart finally appeared in the ring,
spat black mist into PAC’s eyes and joined the House of Black. It was a long time coming
for that storyline payoff, which was almost certainly delayed, much like this match, due
to Fenix’s injury, but I’m glad it’s happened now.
Samoa Joe took on Adam Cole in the first of the two Owen Hart finals in a fun match. There
was nothing super spectacular, it was just two very good wrestlers having a very good
wrestling match. Adam Cole won surprisingly clean, mostly, with only just a little Bobby
Fish interference thrown in. No Satnam Singh, Jay Lethal or Sonjay Dutt to speak of, which
is good. I think they would have detracted from the match. Cole hit the Boom and pinned
Joe straight up, becoming the first winner. I should have known he was going to win, he
was wearing pink. Immediately after came the next final: Britt
Baker vs Ruby Soho, with the video package playing up the fact that Soho’s entire AEW
career so far has been her getting close and never following through. So in this match,
she came close and didn’t follow through. Nice. This match was actually really good,
and very much picked up towards the end, with lots of counters to finishers, and a…Sharpshooter?
Are you sure? Huh. Alright. But it wasn’t enough for Soho as Baker managed to counter
a victory roll into her own pin for the win. I should have known she was going to win,
she was wearing pink. The title belts were presented to them by
Martha Hart, which was really lovely, and the belts look fantastic. The power couple
take the belts, and we’ll have to see how that impacts their trajectories going forward
in AEW, and whether those belts can be defended, or if they’ll only be defendable next year
or something. After this was the mixed trios match, where
everyone was a heel except Kazarian. Sammy & Tay really leaned into the heel side of
things in this match, with Kazarian even turning his back on them during the match as well.
Paige Van Zant had her in-ring debut here, and I don’t think it’s a hot take to say
she is not TV ready. I think she has potential, but her timing and signalling of spots was
not there yet at all. Most of the wrestling was done by Page and Sky though, so that’s
ok. The big spot of the match was Guevara superkicking
Conti by accident, which led to some big distractions and Sky got the win on Kazarian. And now the
feud is done, thank god. We need a hard reset for the TNT title, and it seems to be going
that way as Dante Martin stepped up to challenge Sky later in the night.
Up next was a match that probably didn’t need to be on this card, god it was so long,
Darby vs Kyle O’Reilly, and this was a brilliant match, because both of them are brilliant
wrestlers. This was a hard hitting and very technical affair, and featured such wonderful
spots as: Darby’s suicide dive being countered into a front chancery, Kyle O’Reilly putting
the chain around Darby’s neck into his mouth and then lifting him up with it until it snapped,
and O’Reilly hitting 3 PKs and a diving knee drop to get the victory, which to be
honest, I did not see coming. I thought it would be a simple case of Darby getting the
win to avenge Sting’s injury, feelgood moment. But Kyle won, which was great. I love Kyle.
And then it was the Women’s World Title match.
This was a fantastic, technical match, which even garnered a ‘women’s wrestling’
chant from the crowd. It’s such a shame it came at this point in the show though,
because the crowd were insanely tired, and I don’t blame them. There is zero downtime
in these PPVs, it goes from match to match to match and there are a lot of matches. But
regardless though, both these women put on a showcase, and were brilliant.
So many counters, wrestling fundamentals, mat wrestling, chain wrestling, it had it
all, and concluded with Rosa hitting the Fire Thunder Driver for the win to retain her belt.
I would not be opposed to AEW running this back somewhere down the line because I want
more of it. And then, everything went insane.
As Justin Roberts announced before the match, s*** hit the fan. Jericho Appreciation Society
came out in their best Backstreet Boys cosplay, the faces came out through the crowd to Moxley’s
music, and the brawl began, and the music played, and the brawl continued, and the music
played, and everyone paired off to do their own things and it was cutting back and forth
and back and forth and there was blood and chairs and tables and ladders and forks and
mustard and the backstage area and oh my god this match was absolute insanity.
This was complete nonsense, in the best way, but somehow still managed to have an emotional
end to it. In my new favourite visual in all of wrestling, Eddie Kingston came down to
the ring with a can of gasoline and poured it all over Chris Jericho. In this economy?
What a heel. The problem was, was that Danielson was seconds
away from winning and had Jericho in the LeBell Lock as Kingston doused Jericho. Danielson
didn’t take kindly to that and the two began brawling, allowing Jericho and Hager to come
back into it. Jericho locked in the Walls of Jericho on Danielson while Hager choked
out him out with the ring rope and Danielson passed out for the Jericho Appreciation Society
win. This was bananas and I kind of loved it.
The pace was maintained in the Tag Title triple threat, which was just a bunch of fun. A bunch
of lads hitting a bunch of moves in a bunch of ways. The hoss boys got to do their hoss-off
with Keith Lee, Powerhouse Hobbs and Luchasaurus getting time together, but once more, the
champions hit Thoracic Express and retained their belts, after some Christian interference
saved them from being cheated out of the belts. This was great, but seriously, FTR need a
title shot before long. And finally, the main event. The crowd were
completely split through this whole match, 50/50 between Punk and Hangman, at times booing
or cheering one more than the other. This match started strong, ended strong, had a
strong middle, and was bloody wonderful. It was physical, technical, and while botchy
in places, they covered for the botches well into the flow of the match. Apart from CM
Punk trying the Buckshot Lariat twice, and failing twice. Maybe should have left it at
the first one Punk. But after a long old while and some fantastic
action and nearfalls, like when Hangman hit the GTS on Punk, there was a ref bump, and
Hangman looked over at the title in the corner of the ring. He could use it, and he went
to, but he stopped himself, and he deliberated. And he deliberated. And he deliberated. And
he decided not to, throwing the title away, going for one more Buckshot, which got countered
into a GTS, 1, 2, 3, CM Punk is your new AEW World Champion.
Punk crying in the ring after he won the title nearly got me. What a love story to professional
wrestling, what a comeback after we never thought we’d see him back again. I love
Hangman, but I am so happy Punk is champion, for Punk more than anything. This was an amazing
end to a good PPV. The MJF/Wardlow match, or angle, started off
the show strong, and while there was the occasional very good to great match peppered in between,
it didn’t really pick up again until the final 3 matches. I’ll say it again: these
shows are too long, and having this much wrestling, while a lot of it was very good, drags a show
down when it’s not reaching the high highs of other matches on your show.
Double or Nothing 2022 is a ⅘, but will go down as a classic PPV because of that ending
main event, and the MJF vs Wardlow opener for historical significance.
Now check out some more videos, such as Oli’s breaking reactions to CM Punk winning the
title.