AEW Double or Nothing 2021 Post Examination
Jacksonville, Florida—Daily’s Place
May 30, 2021
Hangman (photo courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
“Hangman” Adam Page def. Brian Cage
Where in the Hell is Cage? Good lord, what a performance here. The idea that Brian Cage is such a robotic stiff that never shows facial expressions and thus shouldn’t be on television is absurd. Hopefully, he gets to be rejuvenated and be the major star he has the potential to be with the resurrected ROH. The one flaw with Cage’s work, and perhaps this is just me, and somewhat difficult to describe, but with a moveset of almost entirely should-be finishers, it almost does him no favors that he can’t win matches with the moves that he does use, and can kill the credibility of the match if his competitor is able kick-out of these insane powerbomb combinations.
Hot opener with a crowd that wanted to see Hangman get to the main event. Which, you could have argued they could have ran that before his surprising upset loss to Cage on Dynamite weeks previously. ★★★★1/4
Young Bucks def. Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston
This had Triple H/Shawn Michaels 2004 vibes of trying to be an epic and going past the point where a finish could have been creatively satisfying earlier. Funny how that formula was perfectly fine at Revolution 2020 vs. Hangman Page and Kenny Omega, here, it was as if the Bucks were still adjusting to their fresh heel turn. The allowance of much maligned goof referee, Rick Knox, to allow so much double-teaming from the Bucks, goes beyond them heeling it up and made this match feel off and more like a Texas tornado rules match when it wasn’t supposed to be, thus hurting the heat building for a hot tag. Eddie Kingston was a wonderful babyface here, starting off a strong 2021 campaign. ★★★
Jungle Boy Won the Casino Battle Royal
I dunno man, watching a battle royal in hindsight only exposes the contrivances and the persistent napping in and out of the ring. Christian and Powerhouse Hobbs were especially egregious in their nappy-poos and disappearances from the relative start. Lio Rush was the Joker before retiring for the first time (how fucking bizarre is that statement in looking back only a year!). Jungle Boy and Christian did a wonderful job towards the end, saving the match with innovative near-eliminations. They have great chemistry and will have greater matches once Christian finally turns on Jungle Boy. ★★
Cody Rhodes def. Anthony Ogogo
Here’s where the goodwill for Cody evaporated. What a star Ogogo was made into! (Side note, but wrestlers doing the gimmick of a former boxer always seem doomed. Every fan is conditioned to think worked punches are already one of the most major suspensions of disbelief you agree to if you watch wrestling. So having a boxer gimmick where we’re supposed to think his punches are “real” sandwiched between matches were punches aren’t real, only hurts that wrestler’s credibility. Especially if during his match, the boxing wrestler has the opportunity to, or is punching, thus making it really corny when all of a sudden they lay down the goon hand for the haymaker.
Boring match, and what made it worse, was that it didn’t really make sense for Ogogo to go over, either, as he clearly wasn’t ready. But you didn’t want to see Cody win either because the pattern had already been set in motion where every Cody storyline felt like it was being constructed out of the same material that only did anything for Cody. Thus starting the cycle where you just wished Cody wasn’t on TV with that iteration of his character with his try-hard demeanor that never was not habitually rammed down our throats. ★
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (photo courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
Miro def. Lance Archer
How much do you miss Miro? If he returned to AEW by crushing Sammy Gurvera he would get a “Stone Cold” Steve Austin level pop, no question.
Brutal hoss fight, both men went move for move and kept each other looking like killers. Funny(?) moment in Jake “The Snake” Roberts coming out with a snake and Miro intercepting it, rattling the bag and throwing “the snake” to the entrance. A great and dumb, cheap gag. . ★★★
Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. def. Hikaru Shida
If there’s one thing AEW did perfectly in 2021 was to know when to pull the trigger on a title change—(Baker here, Lucha Bros in All Out and Hangman in Full Gear).
Sloppy match in hindsight; Indian lock, rollups, dives, falcon arrow and top rope action were a little off. Great false finish with the curb stomp on the women’s belt, before a few more aborted comebacks of Shida and interference by Rebel wasn’t enough to stop Britt from having her big moment. The match quality itself in hindsight was in the 2 star range, but the emotion was 4, split the difference and call it 3. Plus, it was moving to see Tony Schiavone, a man unfairly maligned by having his credibility shot by trying to put over WCW nonsense, finally looked so happy and proud to share the win with Britt. ★★★
Kenny Omega (photo courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
Sting and Darby Allin def. Men of the Year
What a perfect pair Sting and Darby are. Especially thinking that Darby is a bad influence on Sting and make him to dives and crazy bumps. It’s never not incredible to think of where he is now compared to where he was in his run with WWE. Gigantic pop of Sting taking his shirt off before doing a huge crossbody. Sting and Darby put on better matches that aged better in 2021, this felt too long in retrospect a year later. ★★
Kenny Omega def. PAC and Orange Cassidy
Knowing what we know about Kenny Omega’s vertigo, it’s incredible to watch him performing as if nothing was wrong. You can’t help but watch his performance through that lens, seeing moments when he seemed wobbly or a bit off, not that he missed spots, but just seeing him get his bearings.
This very well could have been Hangman here, having him lose to Kenny before redeeming himself after fighting his way back up to being the number one contender. Instead, we got a rare interference finish where Kenny broke up a PAC and Orange Cassidy main event by attacking them both, which felt a little flat, even if, that was the plan going in the whole time.
AEW does three ways so sparingly so they seem fresh and organic and isn’t just the typical formula of essentially a 1 on 1 match with one guy napping on the outside to break up a 2 count after a finisher is hit. The story of this match was Kenny and PAC having a competitive match, building off their storied series from 2019, with Orange Cassidy being the pest that got in the way with some surprise offense of his own.
I was weary of Orange Cassidy main eventing at the time and thought that would hurt the credibility of the main event/title, what with him having a mimosa match before this PPV. But then Orange Cassidy went and did something great like blocking a top-rope dragon suplex by strenuously placing his hands in his pockets to remind you to get the fuck over yourself and enjoy the show. Match of the night. ★★★★ 1/2
The Inner Circle def. The Pinnacle
I never liked cinematic wrestling and this match only reminds me of the pandemic, something I never want to fucking think about again once we’re officially out of this. I enjoyed the first Stadium Stampede, and this one had it’s moments, but it was never going to surpass the complete sheer lunacy of the first one.
Also, as an Ohio State fan, it’s like taking some crazy psychedelics to see Urban Meyer as the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, when he was inarguably with no hyperbole the worst NFL head coach of all time, being portrayed here as someone putting extra hours into coaching whilst having normal human relations with his coaching staff. What the fuck. That’s nuttier than Matt Hardy in the first Stadium Stampede being dunked in the water to become Matt Hardy Version 2.0.
Post Examination:
It’s incredible to think how distant this time period seemed only a year ago. America was just going back to public gathering again without masks, and AEW itself would be almost an entirely different company in terms of their roster and overall feel in only a few months. This show was certainly a last of its era, and the last before the overall quality of their PPVs was significantly increased as ex NXT talent and WWE castaways joined to bolster the match quality.
The Inner Circle (photo courtesy of allelitewrestling.com)
