Some Thoughts on AEW Double or Nothing 2023
Although the last two or three Dynamites before Double or Nothing 2023 were mostly a return to form, the section of weekly AEW television following Revolution 2023 was much weaker than usual. This run of up and down shows led to a PPV event that was good when it probably should have been great.
Double or Nothing Buy-In
Hardy Party versus Ethan Page and the Gunns
The pre-show was not very good and consisted of pointless WWE-style talking head shenanigans plus Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, and Hook against Ethan Page and the Gunns. Hook rules but the Hardy's are pretty shot. Not much to see here. I would love a return to having three or four fun matches on AEW pre-shows.
Double or Nothing
21-man Blackjack Battle Royal
Orange Cassidy defending his title in a battle royal turned out to be pretty good! The story line of Orange being a fighting champion and slowly being worn down by each title defense has been a real highlight of AEW the last while. Glad that the match came down to Orange and Swerve Strickland who will face each other in a singles match on the June 7th Dynamite.
Adam Cole versus Chris Jericho in an unsanctioned match
This one started pretty well with Sabu as the guest enforcer, but quickly became very boring and stayed that way. Ending didn't work at all either. Next!
FTR versus Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal
The video from the chicken farm was my favourite part of the build for this match. As for the match itself, it started very slow but heated up eventually. Somewhat expected that at one point I would be made to bite on Jarrett / Lethal scoring a pin, but that didn't end up happening.
Wardlow versus Christian Cage in a ladder match
I was nervous about this one coming in, but it definitely exceeded expectations. There were ladders and Armed Anderson was there. Fun times!
Jamie Hayter versus Toni Storm
More of an angle than a match due to Hayter's injury. Hoping Jamie is healthy in time for the Wembley show.
House of Black versus The Acclaimed
A good match. However, The Acclaimed not picking a rule (as one does in Open House Rules matches) felt weird.
Jade Cargill versus Taya Valkyrie
Jade and Taya had one of the better matches of Jade's career so far. Jade's hubris finally catching up with her and Statlander winning the TBS belt was awesome as well.
MJF versus Sammy Guevara versus Darby Allin versus Jack Perry
Amazing match that lived up to the hype. Unfortunate that the build to get here was messy, but the match itself was as great as you'd expect.
Blackpool Combat Club versus The Elite in Anarchy in the Arena
A match that constantly had cool stuff happening. Just as I like it. Super hot ending as well.
The last two matches were by far the best parts of the show. Show as a whole was not up to the usual (very high) AEW standard, but I have high hopes for Forbidden Door 2023. Looking forward to being there live in Toronto! Wembley Stadium on August 27 should be a sight to see as well (though I will not be at that one live).
Thanks for reading!
This work by Thomas Lloyd is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
RSS feed: https://blog.grappling.ca/feed/
If you have comments / questions send an email to thomas.lloyd@hey.com
You can also contact me on Mastodon where my account is @thmslld@fosstodon.org