AEW Double Or Nothing 2023 discussion

[Hannibal Scorch]

We knew they would have to have a disappointing PPV at some point, and this was it, and yet still a 7 out of 10. I don’t know why people are getting pissy about Jamie/Toni. Jamie is pretty banged up and needs some recouping before Wembley and Toni finally gets an official title run. 
 

Thought the Casino battle royal was probably their best, with a cracking ending. Wardlow and Christian was better than expected. Cole/Jericho was a waste of time after a semi good build. Loved Jade’s 2 matches and I’m glad Statlander got the rub, well deserved.

The double main events both delivered for me as well. So be a good, not great show. Uneven 

[Mr.Showtime]

20 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

I don’t know why people are getting pissy about Jamie/Toni. Jamie is pretty banged up and needs some recouping before Wembley and Toni finally gets an official title run.

I'm all for short match, or a screwjob-type title switch when the situation requires it, but it was really sloppy because they messed up the pre-match attack, with Hayter having to keep her arm up against the steel steps and telling them to hit it again, and then at the end of the match throwing herself into the exposed turnbuckle.

[FUM]

I feel like you could easily have built the story of each man doing their mentors finish throughout the match without making the Scorpion Death Drop and Cross Rhodes look like throwaway moves. Commentary is the pits too, zero reaction that Jungle Boy had just kicked out of a Cross Rhodes.

I fully accept I’m not an entire AEW convert, I turn up for the big games and dip in and out of Dynamite so that sort of spot probably isn’t aimed at the likes of me who enjoys something that tells a bit more of a story than “here’s our mentors moves, isn’t this cool?”

I hadn’t seen Keith Lee for ages, that man seems to have aged a lot. Does he still have his health issues as he’s not looking great at all unfortunately?

I do enjoy the AEW PPV’s for the most part despite this negativity but I actually fell asleep through a large portion of the show, just due to watching it live not the standard, so don’t have much other comments at the moment.

[69MeDon]

Probably the worst AEW PPV of all time, only saved by the two main events. The rest of the show (with the exception of the battle royale) was just not very good. Not helped by that weird crowd and JR being totally shit the whole night until Tony came out to save us.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

'And the crowd goes mild!'

 

Cracking main event though. The advert for Fight Forever actively put me off the game.

Oh. And was that singer in blackface? I didn't have my glasses on.

[Supremo]

36 minutes ago, 69MeDon said:

Not helped by that weird crowd and JR being totally shit the whole night until Tony came out to save us.

I’m desperate to know what happened to make JR reach his final form and randomly scream, “HEY! STUPID!” at someone.

I think it was during the brawl at the start of the Cole vs. Jericho match. Jim completely lost his rag at someone and spent the rest of the night in a sulk. Excalibur referenced something later on, talking about how the new desk at ringside resulted in their ankles getting crushed, so maybe it was that. Either way, I genuinely think that’s when the energy of this show went off the rails, with it never truly recovering until the Four Pillars decided to go balls to the wall. Just a weird, awkward atmosphere, where everything felt off and nothing clicked. Bizarre.

Exploding Superkick though! Spectacular. For a company that normally screws up whenever they use props, they absolutely nailed that.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Supremo

[Joe Blog]

12 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

Oh. And was that singer in blackface? I didn't have my glasses on.

I thought that but on closer inspection it seemed to be a half face mask, he did have the lower half of his face painted black as well though. 

[pol_pot_rick]

Orange Cassidy just said he wants to wrestle ZSJ at the press conference, so let’s get to work manifesting that.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

26 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I’m desperate to know what happened to make JR reach his final form and randomly scream, “HEY! STUPID!” at someone.

I think it was during the brawl at the start of the Cole vs. Jericho match. Jim completely lost his rag at someone and spent the rest of the night in a sulk. Excalibur referenced something later on, talking about how the new desk at ringside resulted in their ankles getting crushed, so maybe it was that. Either way, I genuinely think that’s when the energy of this show went off the rails, with it never truly recovering until the Four Pillars decided to go balls to the wall. Just a weird, awkward atmosphere, where everything felt off and nothing clicked. Bizarre.

Exploding Superkick though! Spectacular. For a company that normally screws up whenever they use props, they absolutely nailed that.

He is just dragging everything down now. Just bin him off commentary and have him do interviews or a 'JR's Weekly roundup' type thing and feature stuff from other promotions so that when randoms pop up we have an idea of their history. 

[sukhy]

I don't get Adam Cole, I don't enjoy any of his matches, why is he being given 20+ minutes on ppv, when guys like Swerve, Penta, Fenix, Jay White, Starks etc are in a battle royal?

[DavidB6937]

4 minutes ago, sukhy said:

I don't get Adam Cole, I don't enjoy any of his matches, why is he being given 20+ minutes on ppv, when guys like Swerve, Penta, Fenix, Jay White, Starks etc are in a battle royal?

He's consistently over wherever he goes. And he's a focal point with Britt of their reality stuff. And he's generally a nice guy who has a good range beyond wrestling too with the video games etc. So yeah I can see why they get behind him.

[69MeDon]

This is a great shot but I'm confused by the spot. Was it that the disconnected wire from the leaf blower somehow caused his boot to explode while delivering a superkick? Because that is not how electricity works.

[69MeDon]

21 minutes ago, Big'Olympic_Hero'Pete said:

He is just dragging everything down now. Just bin him off commentary and have him do interviews or a 'JR's Weekly roundup' type thing and feature stuff from other promotions so that when randoms pop up we have an idea of their history. 

Apologies for the double post but a big issue with JR is not just that *he* is bad at this now, it's that when he is on the desk - at least on a live show - instead of Tony, he fucks up the whole commentary team dynamic, speaking over people and rattling off lines from a mid-2000s WWE video game that sometimes have only the smallest relation to the actual match going on. You can hear the frustration of Taz and Excalibur all the time when JR is there.

[gmoney]

15 hours ago, El Mistique said:

Looks like Wheeler Yuta will be taking the fall and getting the hoof from the BCC based on the Dynamite main event and Danielsons comments about not cover both shoulders and giving him a talking to after the match. He has never felt like a good fit for them. 
 

Cold take! 

I actually really enjoyed this overall. Aside from the atrocious Cole v Jericho and the two women's matches (urgh wasting Jade's loss on Statlander. I convinced myself Jordynne Grace was coming out) everything on the main show was good to great. I really enjoyed the FTR match, and the last two were belters, even if the four pillars match and build probably did more harm than good overall. 

JR truly was terrible though. My favourite worst bit was him thinking Sabu was the guest referee, even though he came to the ring with Cole. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by gmoney

[GlennCullen]

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

I’m desperate to know what happened to make JR reach his final form and randomly scream, “HEY! STUPID!” at someone.

I think it was during the brawl at the start of the Cole vs. Jericho match. Jim completely lost his rag at someone and spent the rest of the night in a sulk. Excalibur referenced something later on, talking about how the new desk at ringside resulted in their ankles getting crushed, so maybe it was that. Either way, I genuinely think that’s when the energy of this show went off the rails, with it never truly recovering until the Four Pillars decided to go balls to the wall. Just a weird, awkward atmosphere, where everything felt off and nothing clicked. Bizarre.

Exploding Superkick though! Spectacular. For a company that normally screws up whenever they use props, they absolutely nailed that.

Taz mentioned a memo in the main, so I'm guessing the talent were told that the table was moving to ringside and to leave it the fuck alone, and then seemingly every single wrestler on the show ignored it as the commentators got more and more mardy.

In JR's case, his ankle is legitimately fucked up, so probably justified if their legs were taking the brunt of it.

Four Pillars match over delivered, and the main was absolute carnage! Show savers for sure. Rumours of Danielson being fucked weren't alleviated by that main, he played it safe as houses throughout.