AEW Double or Nothing 2021
** The BUY IN **
NWA Women's Championship Match
This being the first match that both women have had in front of people, plus this being the first match that a big crowd has watched in months in the US, they were surely going to start with a lot of noise and with love for everyone, so Deeb immediately established herself as the heel of the two, by slapping Riho after being offered a hand shake.
From there on, Deeb worked on Riho's back, later on her legs. Riho made a comeback and started going after the chest, building to her foot stomp arsenal, but as she start doing them, her knee keeps hurting more and more, and while she manages to survive most of Deeb's attacks, with counters or blocks, Deeb keeps going for Dragon Screws and taps her out with the Serenity Lock after smashing her knee on the mat over and over. Great pre-show match.
We got the first "This is awesome" chant here and I already miss empty arena shows.
Young Bucks vs Mox/Kingston Video Package - Awesome. Loved the promos from Mox and Kingston, but also loved that the Bucks didn't lie at all, that's been the Bucks forever.
** Main Show **
Good pop for Page, dude is still over. Really good match, but it took a a while to hook me in (no pun intended). This was for the most part a back and forward, big guy versus lesser big guy, so they did some spots with Cage overpowering Page and slamming him left and right, and it was all going good until Cage got cocky and went for a Buckshot, but failed the landing and in that one second stumble, Page got him
Not only for rejecting Hook and Starks's help, but because he threw away the title, I think Cage is close to being done with Team Taz.
AEW Tag Team Championship Match
I understand Ross and Schiavone not knowing that the Bucks haven't changed, but Excalibur should know better that this has always been the Bucks, they just have more money. Nick Jackson has gone full Michael Hayes.
Really good match, but I thought it went longer than it needed to be, it started really strong, and it ended really strong, but there was a lot in the middle with the Good Brothers and Moxley getting juice that I thought were unnecessary for the sake of the match. Match was mostly building Mox as the babyface in peril after being busted open, build to the Kingston comeback, and into some really good stuff towards the end. Finish saw the Bucks win with 5 BTE Triggers.
Prior to the match, they announced that QT Marshall was replaced by Aaron Solow due to injury, as well as The Blade, being replaced by Serpentico.
Match was kinda meh, the participants this year were kinda underwhelming. A lot of tag teams in a single's battle royale for my liking, especially since there is a tag team BR in the promotion too. I don't mind when they come out separately and happened to get together in the ring, but the Varsity Blondes straight up came out together. This whole thing was saved by the final two, Christian and Jungle Jack had a great exchange that made Jungle Jack look strong as the winner.
Aside from having some people that are feuding facing each other, there were really no relevant spots other than Comoroto taking out Rhodes with a cow bell shot.
The Joker surprise was Lio Rush, who is a good addition to the roster. While he is the proper level of stardom for this type of match, I think people will be underwhelmed because, well, it's just Lio Rush.
Animals on AEW - AEW can't help themselves, can they ever stop having animals on shows? This was followed by some 'Merica doing 'Merica things. And of course, they follow the 'Merica propaganda with...
I may had been as good as it could get, but I did think that because Cody is so one dimensional, it didn't allow to tell the story that should had been told. This should had been a match with a technical Cody trying to take out Ogogo's arm, while managing to dodge most of the punches; instead, what we got was Cody jerking himself in front of a mirror, taking all of Ogogo's punches, surviving them, not working on a single thing, and winning the match with a vertebreaker of all things. This idea that Cody turned the match into a 'wrestling' match was bullshit, turning into a 'wrestling' match would had seen Cody dissecting a limb. He turned it into some Sports Entertainment crap.
Ogogo is still green and growing, and shouldn't have won, especially in a properly layed out match, but QT Marshall, more than Ogogo, NEEDED that win. But Cody gotta Cody because it's 'Merica day.
Was it really that much to ask that Cody worked the arm all match and won by submission?
TNT Championship Match
Prior to the match, we were told that Jake Roberts had been taken out by Miro the day before, and thus wasn't out there with Archer to begin the match.
I really liked the idea of the match, they tried to have a hoss fight, but there was waay to much selling for the amount of time they got. Two beasts their size shouldn't get laid out so quickly, even when it comes by a similar sized beast. They need to watch some Dylan James vs Yuji Okabayashi if they wanna have a hoss fight.
Match ended by referee decision when Miro got a rear naked choke on Archer.
ALL OUT Announcement - They're going back to Chicago on Labor Day Weekend.
AEW Women's Championship Match
Arguably the best match of the night so far. This was heated and it followed good back and forward action, with smart focus by both wrestlers. There hasn't been much limb focus in most of tonight's matches, so seeing Shida and Baker have a certain move they were working towards too was refreshing. Shida chased the TAMASHII while also trying to go after Baker's legs for a submission; on the other hand, Baker chased the Lockjaw throughout the match, eventually locking it in for the submission win.
The title change was quite predictable, but there was a point the match made me wonder, right after Rebel had been kicked out from ringside and Shida got a couple of strong near falls.
There was a spot where Rebel accidentally hit Baker with her crutch, right in front of the referee. I think a lot of people will complain about this, but given that it was Rebel on Baker, I think that referee discretion is a valid reason for the lack of DQ. I thought the finish with the title belt was way worse in terms of referee not making sure he wasn't looking.
First minutes into the match, even before the bell was rung, all four men brawled outside the ring, setting up some spots for Sting to show that he was healthy enough for the match, taking a suplex on the ramp, doing a plancha off the stage, and a couple more spots. From that point on, this match the 'You Still Got It" match.
The match itself was pretty basic, it was a heat on Allin, Sting hot tag cycle until the finish with Sting getting a Scorpion Death Drop on Sky for the win. Beyond that, there was nothing here, just a bunch of Darby bumps and Sting showing "He Still Had It".
It's kinda dumb that in tag matches, if Allin is taken out outside the ring, an Australian tag is not legal if the partner is eligible to continue.
Nostalgia!!!
AEW World Championship Match
AEW fucked up and made their multi-person matches into no DQs and count outs and to a single fall, it adds a lot of near fall drama, but I just prefer eliminations.
People singing to Jericho's shitty music, but not to Pixie's Where is my mind rubs me the wrong way. Omega came out wearing all his championships, Impact, TNA, AAA, and AEW Championships.
Good match, but it had way to many unnecessary low blows and belt shots. The action was great, everyone had their part and style and seeing the mix was great. The pacing of the match good for the most part, there were a couple of points where it felt like nothing was happening, but all three men are great at what they do, and so they kept bringing you back.
The match eventually led to a lot of shenanigans to give both PAC and OC near falls, but Omega kept getting saved by either Callis, or the referee getting taken out, or such. It was all legal, but it was all unnecessary, as were all the belt shots from Omega and the low blows from OC, and that's when the match felt it had overstayed it's welcome. Not because it had gone long, but because you only needed one of those spots for the finish. And for that matter, the finish was just a Crucifix pin reversal, super anticlimactic.
Omega has better title matches on Impact and AAA, than AEW.
Full Gear Announcement - Taking place in St. Louis on November 6.
Rampage Announcement - Tony Schianove announced that Mark Henry as the new coach and analyst for the new Rampage show. 5 second debut for Henry before being sent to the back.
Stadium Stampede
TIC made their entrance via rappelling, that looks impressive, but in reality, really slow when you're trained and accustomed to it. MJF made his entrance in a limo, while the rest entered in FTR's truck.
This is a weird situation with this match, I thought it was better than the first Stampede match, but given that it wasn't as unique anymore, I had a point of reference for many things, I don't feel it makes the perfect 10 that I gave the previous match, which had the benefit of being a new thing.
The match was far better organized this time around, they didn't waste a lot of time around the field, they had a couple of spots and took it straight to the back. There were 4 natural pair ups and there was no reason to mix them up anymore. Jericho and MJF fought around some office with some people who I think sport fans will care for, I didn't. The Hager vs WARDLOW stuff was awesome, it felt like a real brawl, it was violent. The FTR vs LAX stuff was a bar brawl, with a really violent nature to it, they were using a lot of weapons, that you would 100% see in a shoot bar fight, from flails to just breaking beer bottles on each other, a lot of chaos in this club area of the stadium. Konnan and Tully got cameos. And finally, Spears and Guevara, who had a great fight, my second favorite, among a lot of hardware, kinda like a warehouse area of the stadium where they store all the chairs and stuff.
They kinda went back and forward with certain brawls, but the whole thing really revolved around Jericho vs MJF, and Guevara vs Spears, with the latter being the most important, as this whole thing worked as Guevara's big redemption song, with him being the one that lost last year's Stadium, being the one that had been MJF's biggest rival throughout last year, and him being the one that gave up at B&G, it was now him that kept fighting to the end, bringing the match to the ring with Spear, making a comeback from some hellish chair shots, and getting the win with a 630 splash.
Coming in to this match, I was wondering how they would do this match with a live crowd, and I think they did it as smartly as they could, having the match start in the stadium, and then work backwards into the venue, to end the match there, but still have the whole stadium set up to make us believe that things would be more like last year's.
Post-match - The rest of TIC joined up with Guevara in the ring and celebrated together, and for the first time in a long time, Jericho was able to get his ego struck by a bunch of fans singing his song.
Good show overall, even if I was close to calling it a one match show. It had a couple of lows right there in the middle when AEW tried to be 'patriotic' and get some nostalgia crap in. I did think that this show needed some cliffhangers or surprises, as the show ended, I didn't find myself in a "can't wait" situation for the fallout Dynamite episode.
NWA Women's Championship Match
Serena Deeb (C) vs Riho - 7.5/10
This being the first match that both women have had in front of people, plus this being the first match that a big crowd has watched in months in the US, they were surely going to start with a lot of noise and with love for everyone, so Deeb immediately established herself as the heel of the two, by slapping Riho after being offered a hand shake.
From there on, Deeb worked on Riho's back, later on her legs. Riho made a comeback and started going after the chest, building to her foot stomp arsenal, but as she start doing them, her knee keeps hurting more and more, and while she manages to survive most of Deeb's attacks, with counters or blocks, Deeb keeps going for Dragon Screws and taps her out with the Serenity Lock after smashing her knee on the mat over and over. Great pre-show match.
We got the first "This is awesome" chant here and I already miss empty arena shows.
Young Bucks vs Mox/Kingston Video Package - Awesome. Loved the promos from Mox and Kingston, but also loved that the Bucks didn't lie at all, that's been the Bucks forever.
** Main Show **
Brian Cage vs "Hangman" Adam Page - 7/10
Good pop for Page, dude is still over. Really good match, but it took a a while to hook me in (no pun intended). This was for the most part a back and forward, big guy versus lesser big guy, so they did some spots with Cage overpowering Page and slamming him left and right, and it was all going good until Cage got cocky and went for a Buckshot, but failed the landing and in that one second stumble, Page got him
Not only for rejecting Hook and Starks's help, but because he threw away the title, I think Cage is close to being done with Team Taz.
AEW Tag Team Championship Match
The Young Bucks (C) (w/Brandon Cutler) vs Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston - 7.5/10
I understand Ross and Schiavone not knowing that the Bucks haven't changed, but Excalibur should know better that this has always been the Bucks, they just have more money. Nick Jackson has gone full Michael Hayes.
Really good match, but I thought it went longer than it needed to be, it started really strong, and it ended really strong, but there was a lot in the middle with the Good Brothers and Moxley getting juice that I thought were unnecessary for the sake of the match. Match was mostly building Mox as the babyface in peril after being busted open, build to the Kingston comeback, and into some really good stuff towards the end. Finish saw the Bucks win with 5 BTE Triggers.
Casino Royale Match - 4.5/10
Prior to the match, they announced that QT Marshall was replaced by Aaron Solow due to injury, as well as The Blade, being replaced by Serpentico.
Match was kinda meh, the participants this year were kinda underwhelming. A lot of tag teams in a single's battle royale for my liking, especially since there is a tag team BR in the promotion too. I don't mind when they come out separately and happened to get together in the ring, but the Varsity Blondes straight up came out together. This whole thing was saved by the final two, Christian and Jungle Jack had a great exchange that made Jungle Jack look strong as the winner.
Aside from having some people that are feuding facing each other, there were really no relevant spots other than Comoroto taking out Rhodes with a cow bell shot.
The Joker surprise was Lio Rush, who is a good addition to the roster. While he is the proper level of stardom for this type of match, I think people will be underwhelmed because, well, it's just Lio Rush.
Animals on AEW - AEW can't help themselves, can they ever stop having animals on shows? This was followed by some 'Merica doing 'Merica things. And of course, they follow the 'Merica propaganda with...
Anthony Ogogo (w/QT Marshall) vs Cody Rhodes (w/Arn Anderson) - 4/10
I may had been as good as it could get, but I did think that because Cody is so one dimensional, it didn't allow to tell the story that should had been told. This should had been a match with a technical Cody trying to take out Ogogo's arm, while managing to dodge most of the punches; instead, what we got was Cody jerking himself in front of a mirror, taking all of Ogogo's punches, surviving them, not working on a single thing, and winning the match with a vertebreaker of all things. This idea that Cody turned the match into a 'wrestling' match was bullshit, turning into a 'wrestling' match would had seen Cody dissecting a limb. He turned it into some Sports Entertainment crap.
Ogogo is still green and growing, and shouldn't have won, especially in a properly layed out match, but QT Marshall, more than Ogogo, NEEDED that win. But Cody gotta Cody because it's 'Merica day.
Was it really that much to ask that Cody worked the arm all match and won by submission?
TNT Championship Match
Miro (C) vs "Murderhawk" Lance Archer - 7/10
Prior to the match, we were told that Jake Roberts had been taken out by Miro the day before, and thus wasn't out there with Archer to begin the match.
I really liked the idea of the match, they tried to have a hoss fight, but there was waay to much selling for the amount of time they got. Two beasts their size shouldn't get laid out so quickly, even when it comes by a similar sized beast. They need to watch some Dylan James vs Yuji Okabayashi if they wanna have a hoss fight.
Match ended by referee decision when Miro got a rear naked choke on Archer.
ALL OUT Announcement - They're going back to Chicago on Labor Day Weekend.
AEW Women's Championship Match
Hikaru Shida (C) vs Britt Baker D.M.D. (w/Rebel) - 7.5/10
Arguably the best match of the night so far. This was heated and it followed good back and forward action, with smart focus by both wrestlers. There hasn't been much limb focus in most of tonight's matches, so seeing Shida and Baker have a certain move they were working towards too was refreshing. Shida chased the TAMASHII while also trying to go after Baker's legs for a submission; on the other hand, Baker chased the Lockjaw throughout the match, eventually locking it in for the submission win.
The title change was quite predictable, but there was a point the match made me wonder, right after Rebel had been kicked out from ringside and Shida got a couple of strong near falls.
There was a spot where Rebel accidentally hit Baker with her crutch, right in front of the referee. I think a lot of people will complain about this, but given that it was Rebel on Baker, I think that referee discretion is a valid reason for the lack of DQ. I thought the finish with the title belt was way worse in terms of referee not making sure he wasn't looking.
Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky vs Sting & Darby Allin - 5/10
First minutes into the match, even before the bell was rung, all four men brawled outside the ring, setting up some spots for Sting to show that he was healthy enough for the match, taking a suplex on the ramp, doing a plancha off the stage, and a couple more spots. From that point on, this match the 'You Still Got It" match.
The match itself was pretty basic, it was a heat on Allin, Sting hot tag cycle until the finish with Sting getting a Scorpion Death Drop on Sky for the win. Beyond that, there was nothing here, just a bunch of Darby bumps and Sting showing "He Still Had It".
It's kinda dumb that in tag matches, if Allin is taken out outside the ring, an Australian tag is not legal if the partner is eligible to continue.
Nostalgia!!!
AEW World Championship Match
Kenny Omega (C) (w/Don Callis) vs Orange Cassidy (w/The Best Friends) vs "The Bastard" PAC - 8/10
AEW fucked up and made their multi-person matches into no DQs and count outs and to a single fall, it adds a lot of near fall drama, but I just prefer eliminations.
People singing to Jericho's shitty music, but not to Pixie's Where is my mind rubs me the wrong way. Omega came out wearing all his championships, Impact, TNA, AAA, and AEW Championships.
Good match, but it had way to many unnecessary low blows and belt shots. The action was great, everyone had their part and style and seeing the mix was great. The pacing of the match good for the most part, there were a couple of points where it felt like nothing was happening, but all three men are great at what they do, and so they kept bringing you back.
The match eventually led to a lot of shenanigans to give both PAC and OC near falls, but Omega kept getting saved by either Callis, or the referee getting taken out, or such. It was all legal, but it was all unnecessary, as were all the belt shots from Omega and the low blows from OC, and that's when the match felt it had overstayed it's welcome. Not because it had gone long, but because you only needed one of those spots for the finish. And for that matter, the finish was just a Crucifix pin reversal, super anticlimactic.
Omega has better title matches on Impact and AAA, than AEW.
Full Gear Announcement - Taking place in St. Louis on November 6.
Rampage Announcement - Tony Schianove announced that Mark Henry as the new coach and analyst for the new Rampage show. 5 second debut for Henry before being sent to the back.
Stadium Stampede
The Pinnacle (MJF, Shawn Spears, Dax Hardwood, Cash Wheeler, & WARDLOW) (w/Tully Blanchard) The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Santana, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara, & Jake Hager) - 9.5/10
TIC made their entrance via rappelling, that looks impressive, but in reality, really slow when you're trained and accustomed to it. MJF made his entrance in a limo, while the rest entered in FTR's truck.
This is a weird situation with this match, I thought it was better than the first Stampede match, but given that it wasn't as unique anymore, I had a point of reference for many things, I don't feel it makes the perfect 10 that I gave the previous match, which had the benefit of being a new thing.
The match was far better organized this time around, they didn't waste a lot of time around the field, they had a couple of spots and took it straight to the back. There were 4 natural pair ups and there was no reason to mix them up anymore. Jericho and MJF fought around some office with some people who I think sport fans will care for, I didn't. The Hager vs WARDLOW stuff was awesome, it felt like a real brawl, it was violent. The FTR vs LAX stuff was a bar brawl, with a really violent nature to it, they were using a lot of weapons, that you would 100% see in a shoot bar fight, from flails to just breaking beer bottles on each other, a lot of chaos in this club area of the stadium. Konnan and Tully got cameos. And finally, Spears and Guevara, who had a great fight, my second favorite, among a lot of hardware, kinda like a warehouse area of the stadium where they store all the chairs and stuff.
They kinda went back and forward with certain brawls, but the whole thing really revolved around Jericho vs MJF, and Guevara vs Spears, with the latter being the most important, as this whole thing worked as Guevara's big redemption song, with him being the one that lost last year's Stadium, being the one that had been MJF's biggest rival throughout last year, and him being the one that gave up at B&G, it was now him that kept fighting to the end, bringing the match to the ring with Spear, making a comeback from some hellish chair shots, and getting the win with a 630 splash.
Coming in to this match, I was wondering how they would do this match with a live crowd, and I think they did it as smartly as they could, having the match start in the stadium, and then work backwards into the venue, to end the match there, but still have the whole stadium set up to make us believe that things would be more like last year's.
Post-match - The rest of TIC joined up with Guevara in the ring and celebrated together, and for the first time in a long time, Jericho was able to get his ego struck by a bunch of fans singing his song.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show overall, even if I was close to calling it a one match show. It had a couple of lows right there in the middle when AEW tried to be 'patriotic' and get some nostalgia crap in. I did think that this show needed some cliffhangers or surprises, as the show ended, I didn't find myself in a "can't wait" situation for the fallout Dynamite episode.