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Welcome to my live, ongoing AEW Double or Nothing 2024 blog, sponsored by our great friends at RingsideCollectibles.com, who have a ton of AEW and WWE action figures on sale right now as part of their Memorial Day Sale!
Anarchy in the Arena will close out the show.
Team AEW attacked the Elite during the ring entrances. They brawled a Darby's music kept playing. Matt Jackson called for the music to stop and had their music played. Danielson demanded that sh** be turned off and called for The Final Countdown. Vegas popped. I did too. They all brawled as I thought of this:
Dax and Matt Jackson brawled in the hallway as everyone battled in the arena. Darby hit a Coffin Drop down from one level to another as Europe sang "Final Countdown." Nice timing!
We had four cameras following all the chaos. This looked FUN. Matt Jackson demanded the song be stopped because they were over budget. Tony Schiavone snarked, "When did that start?"
Darby and Perry brawled in the back. The crowd chanted AEW. They then chanted they wanted music. If they hit Natural Born Killaz right now, I'd lose it.
I bet you a year ago Okada never thought this is what he'd be doing.
Perry and Allin battled outside. Perry got dunked in a tub of ice water. Perry nailed him with a pipe.
Back in the ring, everyone else battled. The Bucks accidentally nailed Okada. Whoops! That set up Danielson to go for a dive but Okada nailed him with a chair.
Outside, Jack Perry gunned it with a van that had SCAPEGOAT painted on it. He slammed it into a pile of garbage and pallets with the idea Darby was under the pile. They showed Perry was out cold in the front seat with the idea he KO'd himself.
The Bucks were shocked in the ring. FTR nailed them with a Powerplex. Danielson was out on the floor bleeding. Okada attacked FTR. He teased the Rainmaker but flipped off the crowd. Wheeler bit his finger. Okada nailed a dropkick and a tombstone
They showed a beat down Darby returning to the ring. He challenged Okada. Okada absorbed some blows and stomped at the broken ankle. Allin was down but shocked him with a Code Red. Allin teased a dive but the Bucksl grabbed him and powerbombed him across a group of chairs. They dragged Darby to the entrance and put him on the elevator used to raise people up to the stage. Allin descended below. I'm guessing that's not the end of Allin.
Matt Jackson tossed Danielson into one of the giant poker chips for the stage. They hit the TK Driver on the chip. Cash Wheeler was hit with a back suplex onto a chip, Dax was worked over as well. Cash fought back and went backstage to grab a table. Okada and Matt Jackson overwhelm him. The crowd chanted for Fire!
Okada put Dax through a table with an elbow. Matt Jackson hit a flip dive off the entrance through a table.
Backstage, Jack Perry grabbed Tony Khan and attacked him.
Darby emerged with a flame thrower. Oh No. Perry dragged Tony on stage and threw him down. Are they going to roast Tony???? No, instead Allin torched Perry, who was obviously gelled up like a stuntman and went up in flames. He flailed around until the Bucks shot him with fire extinguishers putting him out and blinding Darby as well. Yeah, that was nuts and probably (as in absolutely) too much, even if they obviously did it with a stunt team. Perry has done social media videos in the past doing that same stunt, FYI but this was insane to see playing out before our eyes live.
The Bucks dragged Darby to the ring and beat him. If someone fricaseed my friend, I'd beat the sh** out of them, too.
Nick missed a 450 splash through a trash can. The Elite triple-teamed Darby as the announcers said Perry was being treated on stage. The Elite called for something to be lowered. They tied Darby's legs to it as they kept FTR from helping.
Will Sting appear to make the save?
Dax finally hit the ring. FTR hit the Shatter Machine on Matt but Okada broke up the pinfall.
Dax went for a powerbomb on Okada but Matt hit him with a chair that exploded on contact. WTF!
Okada put a thumbtack-laden armband on and nailed a Rainmaker with it.
Okada pulled out Young Bucks Reeboks and gave them to the Bucks. They hung Allin upside down in the air and then hit him with a double superkick with those sneakers, which had thumbtacks. Well, they can't pin Darby if he's up there.
Danielson returned but was superkicked as well. He fought back and had one of the sneakers and drilled Matt with it. He nailed kick after kick to the chest of the Bucks. He began stomping everyone. He charged Jackson and hit the running knee with a chair but Okada broke up the pinfall. Okada hit the Rainmaker.
The crowd chanted "Please help Darby" who was still hanging in the air.
Danielson went to check on him but Perry nailed a running knee to the side of the head and pinned Danielson.
Well, that was insane.
Can we please, for the love of God, never try to match, much less surpass that fire spot, anywhere in professional wrestling? It's not the first time something like that has been done (WCW did it in the Sting vs. Vampiro feud) but I'd like to see it be the last time anyone does it anywhere but on a movie set. There's too much of a chance for error in a live pro wrestling setting - and I'm speaking as someone who lived through an ECW fire incident I thought was going to be the death of THAT company when it happened - and later had to testify in that civil trial. Respect to the insanity of those involved, but can we never go anywhere near that level of insanity again? It's not worth that risk, no matter who is involved and no matter what the promotion is. I can respect the insanity involved, but hope that no one ever attempts this again.
The show clocked at 6 hours with the Zero Hour broadcast - and now they have a media scrum? It's too long, much too long.
I thought there was a lot of hard work on the show and they certainly delivered Anarchy....that's for sure. Whether that was a good thing depends on what you want in your pro wrestling.
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