AEW Double Or Nothing 2023 discussion

[LaGoosh]

Coming up this Sunday, current card:

- AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Jungle Boy vs. Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara
- AEW Women’s World Championship: Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm
- AEW World Tag Team Championship: FTR (c) vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett with Mark Briscoe as special guest referee
- TNT Championship: Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage in a ladder match
- TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie
- AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) to defend in a Blackjack Battle Royale
- Anarchy in the Arena: Kenny Omega, Young Bucks, & Hangman Page vs. Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta
- Chris Jericho vs. Adam Cole in an unsanctioned match

I'm assuming one or two more matches to be announced. House of Black vs The Acclaimed, Swerve vs Keith Lee and a jay White/Ricky Starks rematch are all potentials.

I'm really looking forward to this. Unlike the past few PPVs where they threw almost all the matches together in the last 2 weeks before the show I'd say the majority of the matches here have pretty decent stories going in. The four way title match and Anarchy in the Arena have MOTY potential. The tag match is going to be ridiculously fun with all kinds of shenanigans. The only thing I don't like about the card is that it's on a Sunday, bring back the Saturday PPVs!

[David]

I'm thinking that MJF somehow escapes from the match with his title intact. I don't see them putting the title on any of the three others in the match, unless they're planning a short-lived real swerve of a title run for someone. None of them have looked particularly strong coming into this either.

[Chris B]

19 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

The only thing I don't like about the card is that it's on a Sunday, bring back the Saturday PPVs!

It's a bank holiday though, so that's something.

[JLM]

Yeah I love a Saturday PPV too. At least on this occasion it's a bank holiday weekend through. 

World title match will be very strong strong but the build has been hit and miss for me. Some great video packages, some mixed bag promos and an inconsistent direction for Sammy Guevara. Darby has come out of it the best of the three challengers by some distance, but surely there's no way Max loses here. It will do the AEW thing of still being a banger despite a patchy build though. 

Cole and Jericho is not a feud I was excited about, but Cole has shown great fire and the falls count anywhere match with Jericho and Roddy was infinitely better than I thought it would be.  I'm confident they'll use whatever bells and whistles needed to make this good, credit to all involved for getting me on board with this. 

Tag titles match will be a riot. Echo everyone's love on here for Jarrett/Dutt/Satnam and their antics. The farm skit and the segment on last week's Dynamite were both fantastic. This will be so much fun. 

Hayter and Storm will be a good match but Hayter deserves more. The Outcasts are getting a little bit more over and Ruby/Storm are improving as heels, but I still think Hayter is wasted here. She is so good and so over and they have not put together the stories or opponents to pay it off. 

Intrigued by the ladder match. Christian and Jungle Boy had a cracking match with Christian doing very very little. He is definitely crafty enough for this to over deliver, especially with Luchasaurus and the ladder as shortcuts they can use. . Wardlow's decline since the MJF feud has been very sad to watch, hopefully the nuclear heat Christian has as a heel will benefit the big man. 

Curious about Taya vs Jade. My dream would still be for a returning Statlander to dethrone Jade. Doesn't help that this feud has had two separate interest death sentences applied to it. It was built on Rampage and it has had Mark Sterling bullshit involved. I like Taya but not sure if she can carry Jade to anything substantial here. Guess she doesn't need to and it'll be short. Not sure her hitting Jaded on Jade should have been done on Rampage with nobody watching, or if it should have happened at all before the match as it's one of the main hooks. I'm not convinced the build has been worthy of ending the streak, but Taya will look like quite a mug if she loses. Maybe she can lose, go to Collision and then enter a tournament for a new championship that is honestly totes just as good as Jade's and she can pretend winning it in a tournament is just as good as ending a 60+ win streak. 

OC Battle Royal will be a belter. Orange Cassidy simply cannot miss at the moment and I am very curious to see how this is put together, who is involved and how he survives it. This is my second most anticipated thing on the show after the real main event... 

Elite vs BCC. This will be outstanding. The build has been phenomenal. The story is there, the emotional investment is there, everyone involved is capable of doing the maddest shit necessary. 5 stars and it hasn't happened yet. Oh my yes 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2023 by JLM

[BomberPat]

It's one of those cards that's not the strongest on paper, but that I think - hope - should really deliver, and hopefully bring some surprises. As much as AEW is a bit bogged down with the CM Punk nonsense, they have a lot to crow about at the moment between a new TV show, the video game finally getting a release date, and Wembley coming up, and this is an opportunity to ride some of that momentum, and hopefully either build or reveal something for those - an announcement for Wembley, a match confirmed for Collision, or an announcement of something hitherto unconfirmed in the game, along with a good PPV, should create some buzz.

It's a strange show in that there's two matches - the tag title and TNT title matches - where the people doing the best work are the heels who are the kind of character who are designed to be nuisances and then lose when it counts, but they're all so good at it that I'd rather see them win. 

[LaGoosh]

37 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

It's a strange show in that there's two matches - the tag title and TNT title matches - where the people doing the best work are the heels who are the kind of character who are designed to be nuisances and then lose when it counts, but they're all so good at it that I'd rather see them win. 

I'd be happy with a Christian Cage win. The continuing attempts to reheat the ice cold Wardlow are going nowhere. They need to move him on to something else. Christian can have a nice little reign and use it to put over Ricky Starks, Bandido or someone similar. 

[Supremo]

Bang up for this show. Great card, and bar that one week where the Pillar thing turned to shit, this is probably the best pay per view build in years. Numerous hot programs are peaking right on schedule.

In regards to Wardlow, can anyone think of any historical examples of babyfaces cooling off, then successfully re-heating without the need of a heel turn? Whilst I appreciate the work they’ve put it into him these last few months, I can’t help but think they’d be better off drawing a line under the whole thing and making him a heel destroyer. Honestly, at this point, I wouldn’t be against him teaming up with MJF again!

Remember this guy? Money.

Can Arn Anderson take a Powerbomb?

Edited May 23, 2023 by Supremo

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Stick Wardlow with someone like Lance Archer or Brian Cage and you have a helluva powerful heel tag team. Give them a decent mouthpiece too to do their talking and could see a decent fued for a while.

 

Can see Miro making an appearance in the TNT match too

[kidzero]

Orange Cassidy to loose the belt I love the guy but he's beaten every lower midcarder. And the belt needs a new champ I allways thought they took it of pac to soon anyway ..as for Jamie Hayter I think they should have done more with her she hasn't really done much since she won the belt which is a shame because she a great performer

[Nick James]

40 minutes ago, kidzero said:

 ..as for Jamie Hayter I think they should have done more with her she hasn't really done much since she won the belt which is a shame because she a great performer

This is a problem that seems to happen a lot for AEW. They build someone up phenomenally, to the point the crowd are screaming for them to win a title, then they win it and then nothing happens or they have a flat reign. You cannot knock the build, they know how to build a challenger brilliantly, but its maintaining it thats the struggle. Other than OC, I cant think of anyone else who has maintained their appeal (maybe the wrong word) after winning the title. I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me how wrong I am and it is probably all subjective, but for me off the top of my head, there has been Wardlow, MJF (Currently, there's time yet), Hayter, Hangman, Jade*, Hobbs and others. 

*Little different for Jade maybe as shes lost a lot of steam by just doing the same thing over and over for what seems like forever to the point that I think whoever beats her, won't get the rub that they could have had a few months ago. 

EDIT: Also, I'm all for Wardlow linking back up with MJF, just a great double act. 

Edited May 23, 2023 by Nick James

[Infinity Land]

9 minutes ago, Nick James said:

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to tell me how wrong I am and it is probably all subjective, but for me off the top of my head, there has been Wardlow, MJF (Currently, there's time yet), Hayter, Hangman, Jade*, Hobbs and others.

Other than OC. Mox's first title reign. Darby's 1st TNT and maybe even the 2nd sprint.  Strangely I'd say both Interim World title reigns from Mox and Toni Storm where they just let them defend the titles on repeat. Kenny might not have clocked up a back catalogue of matches but as a gimmick kept it together.

Which leaves the vast majority floundering (Scorpio/Thunder Rosa/Sammy) or unfulfilled potential (Miro, Hobbs, Wardlow, Samoa Joe, FTR, Acclaimed).

In Jamie's case she's had a mix bag of being a fighting champion and stayed over, but bogged down playing 2nd fiddle with Britt & the Outcasts. Going into this PPV it hasn't helped getting injured over a month ago, and i've seen speculation she might have to miss the show.

[Accident Prone]

I'm sure the PPV will be great, in the same way that all AEW PPVs tend to offer more positives than negatives, but this is the least interested I've been in an AEW PPV in a long, long while.

The build to the World title match has been a mix of the incredibly weak and the incredibly weird. "WWE Lite" gets thrown around a lot, but a lot of the segments that built to this match just felt like off-cuts from a generic RAW template. Hell, a 4-way world title match headlining a PPV is very WWE Lite, and WWE Lite is exactly what I don't want from AEW.

What's worse is that Darby has to put in an all-time performance here and come off like a fucking star, otherwise he has ransacked his persona by acting like a dweeb for nothing. I'm sure the match will deliver, but will it deliver more than a straight-up Darby vs MJF match? My head and heart says no.

My interest in Jamie vs Toni is even lower, as this Outcasts vs Originals feud has been so incredibly lacklustre. I cannot believe that they built a women's division that was really finding it's footing only to bring in fucking Paige to tank the fucker. And all after Jamie got over organically. A massive shame but I hope the crowd lifts this one up.

The FTR/Jarrett Appreciate Society was not exactly what I expected from an FTR babyface tag title run, and here they are facing a meme team as their first PPV tag title defence. I'm sure JJ will be whacky, and Mark will do his schtick, and it'll be light-hearted entertainment to lift the spirits, but it peaked last week with Singh flying off the stage. And I cannot be arsed with Karen Jarrett either. Fucking hell, Karen Jarrett. This has the potential to be the worse AEW PPV tag title match since the company's inception, which isn't saying that it won't be fun, but there used to be a certain gold standard with those belts. Can't say I've seen that much this year.

Despite some cracking promos from Christian, I can't say the quick build to this ladder match is filling me with much excitement. Man, what a disappointment Wardlow has been. As a ladder match connoisseur I'm sure I'll find something to enjoy but it's all very slapdash.

And, despite Adam Cole's return being hyped for weeks, and what an incredible return it was, his feud with Chris Jericho has also felt slapdash and haphazard despite feeling like it's been going on for fucking ages. I just cannot be arsed with this, so thank fuck they've added the NO DQ stip as Adam Cole excels at the plunder.

Jade vs Taya? Christ alive. As if the first one wasn't bad enough. Kris can't come soon enough.

As for the Blackjack battle royal, I've really had enough of these. Feels like every 4-6 weeks there's some rumble gimmick going on. And instead of a big PPV one on one match for OC, who's busted his ass with consistently good matches to elevate the International title, we get another fucking rumble.

Anarchy In The Arena is THE selling point for this PPV. At least for me. The stories, matches and build have been really good, and we all knew where it was going and we were chomping on the bit for it to finally happen, and it fucking did, we got Adam Page back and it was fantastic. I'm game for this, and it makes me wish that the rest of the card had this kind of care crafted into it.

So yeah, I'm down on this. Not down enough to not watch as I still have to make all those hours of Dynamite seem worth it, and AEW hasn't fired off a dud PPV yet, so I'll be going into this with the lowest of expectations. I hope they find their groove again for the big summer run, and this PPV might be the start of that.

[Jazzy G]

Is the 4 way going to be the main event or will it be this unsanctioned match between Jericho & Cole so they can do all the shenanigans with pulling the ring mat up and bumping on the exposed wood etc?

[LaGoosh]

10 hours ago, Accident Prone said:

What's worse is that Darby has to put in an all-time performance here and come off like a fucking star, otherwise he has ransacked his persona by acting like a dweeb for nothing. I'm sure the match will deliver, but will it deliver more than a straight-up Darby vs MJF match? My head and heart says no

I think this is a very good point. The 4 way feels like an excellent match for a Fight For The Fallen, Fyter Fest or Winter Is Coming, but Darby vs MJF in a singles feels like a genuine top line feud for the World title. Despite all the Four Pillars talk, Sammy and Jungle Boy will never be main event level talents while Darby and MJF at their best are already there. A singles feud would have been much better. 

[Rob247]

According to wikipedia theres going to be a six man tag between The Hardy Party (Matt, Jeff and Isiah Kassidy) vs The Gunns and Ethan Page.

if the Hardy party win, Matt hardy owns Ethan Page's contract