The other day, I reviewed the Buy In, and now it's time to take a look at the main show of AEW's inaugural pay-per-view, Double or Nothing. As I mentioned in that post, I watched every episode of Being the Elite from the announcement of AEW's origin, plus the Road To videos produced by Cody Rhodes, and it was a pretty fun experience. I particularly recommend the Road To series if you want a good picture of the build to this show, none of them are over 10 minutes in length and all feature top of the line production value, plus detailed descriptions of some of the rules and stipulations for certain matches. The BTE episodes were more hit or miss for me, as though some of the skits, especially those involving MJF, were great, many felt like pure filler. I particularly hated everything to do with Joey Ryan, who is just a scumbag in general, but he also has no involvement in this show or AEW, so it's all pointless anyway. Because so much of the build to Double or Nothing was done without a weekly TV show in place, it was a bit weaker than what you might see out of say, WWE or Impact Wrestling, but the big moments still all hit for me. The pick of the bunch was Cody's promo on brother Dustin in advance of their match, about 4 minutes of the younger Rhodes going through their shared history and expressing his desire to dismantle wrestling's past to bring about it's future. This was one of the best promos I've ever seen, and while a few clips can be found in the pay-per-view broadcast, I highly recommend you watch it in it's entirety if you haven't already. I'll go through more of my thoughts on the build to certain matches as I get to them, but it's time to launch right into this. Are you ready for All Elite Wrestling? Let's go!
- We're live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada for AEW's debut. The name and setting are an obvious play on words, as the members of the Elite risk it all with their foray into wrestling management following the success of All In the previous year. Behind the commentary desk sit Jim Ross, Excalibur and Alex Marvez, and if you did read my Buy In review, you already know my thoughts on Marvez. JR and Excalibur are essentially a two-man team for this one, barely letting Marvez get a word in, which was the right decision in fairness. The stage set-up for this show is nothing fancy, a pretty normal look for AEW but with some extra poker chips alongside the ramp, they'll be important later.
- Our opening contest is nothing but action, as So Cal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels) take on Strong Hearts (CIMA, T-Hawk and El Lindaman). All of these guys have tons of experience, either working in America or Japan, so there are no nerves or stage fright to be found, they're all ready for this. Sky in particular looks like a million bucks in this one, using his fluid athleticism to stay one step ahead of the brutal and efficient Japanese workers. Daniels and Kazarian are less impressive in what they can do on offense, but can still bump well and hold the match together, it's never a bad thing to have two of the most experienced workers on the US independent scene under contract. The former Addiction/Bad Influence get the win with the Best Meltzer ever, which does have enough moving parts to look impressive but is mostly just a spike piledriver.
- For the first time in AEW's short history, we have women's action, as Nyla Rose, Kylie Rae and Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D, face off, but they're not alone. Brandi Rhodes, who booked this match as a way to showcase the best female talent under contract, decides to up the ante by adding Awesome Kong, who gets a massive pop as a surprise entrant. I'll have plenty of time to dissect the AEW women's division in the multitude of reviews to come, but this match wasn't a terrible start for the fledgling division. It's very sloppy, especially when Kong and Rose are involved, and that forces Baker and Rae, neither of whom has tons of experience under their belt, to do most of the heavy lifting. Britt gets the win with a kneecap brainbuster, a booking decision I'm not thrilled with. Kylie has a much more interesting character and some serious babyface fire, and though Baker would develop a character over time, she's done little to impress to this point. Again, in the end, it works out, as Britt sticks around and Kylie doesn't, but I think it counts as a slight negative for this show.
- The Best Friends, Trent Beretta and Chuck Taylor, were initially booked to appear in the Casino Battle Royale, but threatened Matt and Nick Jackson's family with potential kidnapping and murder to earn a main show match against Angelico and Jack Evans. It's a shame that's all Trent and Chuck were given to do during the build, because I love their wacky chemistry and this match was pretty damn good, albeit heatless. I do also like the team of Angelico and Evans, with the former's innovative submissions and the latter's flips are really fun to watch. Best Friends win with the Strong Zero, but the most interesting part of this match comes after the bell. Trent and Chuck want to hug it out, but the Dark Order make their debut to wipe everyone out instead. This is not a great debut in the slightest, as the crowd and commentators are mostly just confused as to the identity of these masked weirdos, but more is certainly to come in this group's future.
- The only match on the pay-per-view card to not receive any build is the following Joshi six woman tag team encounter, as Hikaru Shida, Riho and Ryo Mizunami team up to face the legendary Aja Kong, Emi Sakura and Yuka Sakazaki. I'm assuming this match is taking place because PAC vs Adam Page was cancelled, and honestly, I think it may have been an improvement. After the disappointment of the fatal four way earlier in the night, we needed to see what women's wrestling truly had to offer, and these six gave it their all. Aja Kong is excellent here, despite being many years past her prime, her casual brutality against Riho was one of the highlights of the night. I also loved the war between Hikaru Shida and her mentor Emi Sakura, with the protege eventually scoring the win after dodging Kong's spinning backfist. Unfortunately, there was a bad ring bell botch right before the finish that distracted the crowd and led to little reaction for the actual ending, but oh well.
- A lot of what we've seen thus far was exciting but lacking in emotional investment, which is more than made up for in the following bout, as Cody and Dustin Rhodes face off. This is story-telling perfection, as Cody play the brash and determined younger brother, while Dustin represents one of the last outlaws of the old guard in a new, more sanitized age of professional wrestling, desperate for one last shot at glory. These two are absolute pros and religiously stick to their characters throughout this epic clash, as the audience is taken right along for the ride. After some early mind games, Cody outsmarts his older brother, ramming him into an exposed turnbuckle, which is Dustin's cue to blade, and that cut quickly transforms to a gushing geyser of blood. It's definitely bordering on sickening at times, but the red stuff really adds to this match, as Excalibur and JR do a great job making you empathize with poor Dustin, stumbling around the ring and seemingly just ready to be put out of his misery. But then the elder Rhodes reminds you of just how dangerous he is, catching a lackadaisical Cody with a Code Red to an ear-splitting roar from the Vegas faithful. It looks like Dustin can pull off the impossible, as he connects with a gorgeous superplex and the Final Cut, but Cody kicks out at the last possible moment. They do go a bit overboard with the Cross Rhodes kickouts at this point, that was unnecessary, there was already plenty of drama, but the finish is perfect. Cody goes that one step further than his brother, nailing the Din's Fire before a second Cross Rhodes finally puts Old Yeller down. After the match, Cody says he needs his brother back for a match against the Young Bucks at Fight for the Fallen, and the two embrace to a standing ovation, bringing Excalibur to tears, which was really sweet. As great as this moment was, it did feel a little weird for Cody to see the error of his ways so quickly. I suppose the explanation they're going with is after beating his brother, he discovered that that wasn't what he actually wanted, but it feels like he should have had some time to figure that out first, which I imagine he would have if Dynamite existed at this time. Still, that does nothing to affect my enjoyment of this match and the post-match angle, which was immeasurable. This slots easily onto my list of favorite wrestling matches ever, a perfect story and an intense, emotional and heart-rending brawl that every fan needs to see.
- After that, I think everyone could use an opportunity to mentally reset, which is the perfect time for the big reveal of the new AEW World title. Here to present it is Bret Hart, a big surprise and a wonderful choice by the new company, how are definitely associating themselves with the right sort of legends between him and Diamond Dallas Page, two of my most respected performers. Unfortunately, Bret's promo isn't great, he was never great on the mic and his physical condition had continued to deteriorate since his stroke, but AEW accounted for that too, bringing out MJF to do what he does best, dunking on Bret and Adam Page. After Friedman is chased off by Jungle Boy and Jimmy Havoc, Bret shows off the new hardware, which is gorgeous, no breaking news bulletin required there for those that have seen it.
- Only one championship match was booked for this card, as AEW hadn't established their own belts yet, so the Young Bucks went to Mexico to capture the AAA tag team titles, and put them on the line here against former champions the Lucha Brothers. This match features tons of action and some breath-taking spots, mostly from Fenix and Penta. My biggest knock on this one is the abandonment of the early story being told, as Nick and Matt Jackson come out flat, rusty after taking time off to let Matt heal from an old back injury. I was interested to see how the champions would overcome that particular hurdle, especially since they used the element of surprise to capture the belts rather than winning straight up, but that plot point is quickly forgotten. I will say that though a lot of the big moves throughout the match are no-sold, Matt did do a good job selling the arm after Penta tried to break it, using his good arm to set up the Meltzer Driver to retain the straps. These types of matches can be fun to watch but difficult to write about, as the action moves too fast to really register anything.
- Main event time, a rematch of the Wrestle Kingdom 12 classic between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, taking place just over a year later. You may not know this, but I actually reviewed that match and show back in January of 2018, which you can find here. The rematch didn't quite live up to the original, but it was still an enjoyable way to end the night. Jericho does some great heel work, stealing a camera during a brawl outside the ring and busting Kenny's nose open with some strikes, which are extra powerful in kayfabe thanks to his training regime. The blood fires Omega up, who hits a big dive onto Jericho on the outside, going into a table that Chris was holding as well. Omega ups the ante by hitting a springboard stomp on the table, driving it into Jericho's ribs. Y2J counters a top rope dive with a Codebreaker, and counters the One Winged Angel with a DDT, though they botch the spot the first time and choose to re-do it. A second Codebreaker connects, and Jericho turns Omega's lights out with his new finisher, the Judas Effect, to get his win back. After the match, Jericho demands a "thank you" from Omega and the crowd for being the driving force behind the formation and success of AEW, when his promo is rudely interrupted by the debuting Jon Moxley! Fresh off the miserable ending to his WWE run, the former Dean Ambrose is a new man on this night, hitting double arm DDTs on everyone in sight with the kind of swagger that he hadn't possessed in years. In a wise booking decision, Omega is the only one to fight back against Moxley, showing his unrelenting resolve, as they brawl into the crowd and onto the stack of poker chips. Here, Moxley finally stands tall, hitting a DDT onto the props, before tossing Omega through part of the stage to a massive pop, giving us an already iconic imagine as he celebrates on top of the chips. This was a fantastic debut to cement Jon Moxley as a major player in AEW from Day 1, and a great incentive to give fans a reason to come back.
10/10
Double or Nothing 2019 was not a perfect show, with some repetitive matches, a slightly underwhelming main event and a lack of stakes for most of the action. Despite that, I'm giving it a perfect score, if only because it was AEW's debut, though even if this was produced by a more established company, it would still score highly. The first appearance of Jon Moxley and the war between Cody and Dustin Rhodes will likely have their spots in wrestling mythology, although the entire night was entertaining, with the four hours feeling like just one to me. It's very, very rare for a new promotion to stick the landing this well, and the company deserves to be lauded for it. If everything else I review from AEW is even close to this good, it's going to be a one heck of a ride.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: Fyter Fest 2019, a parody of the infamous Fyre Festival in a failed attempt by Kenny Omega to prove himself as executive vice president. Plus, the AEW debut of Jon Moxley, and a Buy In headlined by Michael Nakazawa.
- Henry
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