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Welcome to my ongoing blog for AEW Double or Nothing. A big THANK YOU to Anthony Pires for doing the PBP as I am not feeling so hot tonight. Thus, I expect this will not be as crazily detailed as usual.
For all the talk that ticket sales were slow for this, the venue looks pretty full.
I've heard t-shirts at the T-Mobile Arena are $50 bucks tonight.
No, CM Punk is not there.
The Buy In felt like a WWE Kickoff Show. It was fine but wasn't necessary if you knew the storylines. I liked the announcers being at ringside as it felt fresh.
The first bout with The Hardys & Hook vs. Ethan Page & The Guns was solid. They went far longer than I expected. Hook got a great reaction and should probably be used more prominently going forward. Jeff Hardy's sequence where he twisted his knee or ankle going for a Twist of Fate and then fell off the ropes took me out of the match and really concerned me. If he was working that, it was great as a way to get sympathy, but it was a legitimate issue, man, that's scary. Beyond that, this was solid. The Gunns are pretty underrated as heels, which is funny since they are former Tag Champions. The Hardys won Ethan Page's contract so I hope this leads to some modern day equivalent of Jimmy Garvin working as David Von Erich's ranch hand for the day.
The Blackjack Battle Royal was won by Orange Cassidy, who retained his AEW International title. The first half was pretty routine but they picked up steam for the final competitors. One weird thing was watching Swerve Strickland take a stunner from Cassidy, then hitting a dropkick on OC after bouncing into the ropes, then going down stunned from the stunner. I liked the finish a lot. They were battling on the apron and OC nearly went off but came back to drill Swerve, who was hanging off the ropes. Cassidy psyched up as if he was going for a big Orange Punch, then went back into slacker mode and kicked his hand off the ropes, because it was easier. This was one of the better AEW Battle Royals has done in some time.
Next up was Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho. SABUUUU came out with Cole. He and Jericho clashed with chairs. Sabu legdropped Matt Menard through a table. He, Strong and the JAS brawled to the back, leaving Cole and Jericho to fight one on one. Lots of brawling and spots with chairs early. It was solid. Jericho slammed a fire extinguisher on Cole. Britt Baker got involved, which led to Saraya running out. Jericho used cuffs on Cole's hand but Cole fought back and was able to handcuff Jericho to him. Cole uses a chain to hit the BOOM knee strike and begins beating the hell out of Jericho with big strikes, even using a chain. He wasn't responding or fighting back so the referee stopped it. This was the right finish, absolutely as they needed to MAKE Cole and not make it Jericho goes 50/50. He needed to be sacrificed here. The crowd seemed pretty surprised for the finish live.
Seeing Sabu was a nice treat and they presented him in a way that made him look like a credible looking legend. As someone who always appreciated Sabu's work in a major way, I liked seeing that.
The crowd is nowhere near as hot as a traditional AEW crowd is thus far, that's for sure. I wonder how much of that is that they didn't have as many fans traveling in.
Impact Tag Team title time! Big FTR chants in Vegas. The crowd is waking up? Mark Briscoe is the referee. Jarrett and Lethal came down with everyone. It was all FTR early. Briscoe caught Jarrett and Lethal trying to do the old Midnight Express fake clap tag. Wheeler was sent to the floor and worked over. Sonjay got caught trying to interfere and was tossed. The referee was bumped and Sonjay tried to prevent Aubrey Edwards from hitting the ring, so she shoved him down, only to be EL KABONG'ed by Karen Jarrett. The challengers get several nears falls and Double J complaints about the count. FTR nails the Shatter Machine and retain the titles. This was very fun bell to bell. Jarrett may be one of the best workers in the world right now when it comes to getting a reaction and knowing all the tricks to get the audience's reaction. If you like the old Memphis Wrestling shenanigans, this was a great 21st century approximation of it. Everyone involved were pitch perfect in their roles here.
Bullet Club Gold attacked Ricky Starks. FTR made the save. I guess we know who the next Tag Challengers are.
Chris Jericho & Saraya vs. Britt Baker & Adam Cole Wednesday. Not a fan of that personally. I think Jericho needed to disappear for a bit after the loss to emphasize Cole's moment.
AEW Ladder Match for the TNT title. Wardlow tried to put Christian Cage through a table but Cage escaped. They battled. Wardlow placed Cage across a ladder but Cage evaded him and tripped Wardlow, who was crotched on the ladder. Luchasaurus got involved and chokeslammed Wardlow. Arn Anderson got involved but was grabbed by Saurus. He bit Saurus' thumb in order to escape in an awkward way. Saurus' thumb was bleeding. This was weird. Wardlow naile Saurus and placed him on a table outside. He nailed a swanton to the floor off a big ladder, which looked spectacular and scary at the same time. This seemed really similar to the tag bout with the twists and turns all over the place. Lots of run ins and interference tonight. It feels very WCW-esque at times. Cage tried to climb the ladder but Arn shoved him towards Wardlow, who caught and powerbombed him then went to the top and retrieved the belt. This got a BIG reaction, so if they did all this to get Wardlow back on track, it worked for tonight. Entertaining for sure but the show's theme seems to be chaos thus far.
AEW Women's title is next - Jamie Hayter vs. Toni Storm. This was more an angle than a traditional PPV bout. Hayter had been attacked - again - by The Outcasts and didn't cme out to her theme music when it played. She was beaten down and she barely made it to the ring. Hikaru Shida tried to help but was taken out. Storm got the win. Hayter has been dealing with a back issue, so this was the way they worked around it to the best of their ability. Storm's work has been strong lately so she's a good choice but it really sucks that Hayter worked herself into a very deserved title run and this cut it short.
They really need a strong bell to bell kickass match after all the interference, twists, gimmick matches and angles in my opinion, especially since they lost Storm vs. Hayter having the chance to fill that role. We will see if we get that.
More thoughts on Page 2.
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