AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2022 [Review]: Viva Las Anarchy!

The Buy-In: Tony Nese/Mark Sterling vs. Hookhausen – Exactly as you’d expect or want–“Smart” Mark Sterling in a silver and yellow Power Ranger outfit. Ha, I kid, this was a fun warm-up for the soon-to-be-lava-hot crowd with Hook tossing the Baddie lawyer around while Danhausen gets the flamboyant three. Very evil, very quick. – 3/5

-Maxwell Jacob Friedman vs. Wardlow – MJF shot himself into a work, Brother! There’s no way to review this match as a wrestling match: it needed to be the “end” of MJF. Ya’ll can go crazy with your theories but this won’t be the last time we see Max in All Elite. As wild as MJF’s heat was in T-Mobile, Wardlow’s rise to super babyface should be nothing to take lightly. Dude’s over, as those ten — count ’em TEN! TEN! TEN! — powerbombs can attest. – n/a/5

The Hardys vs. Young Bucks – As rough as The Hardys looked in this match, especially a seemingly smoked-out Jeff (who still went on to take some wild dives and swantons), this match’s still greatISH quality is a testament to the legend of the Young Bucks. Matt and Nick have been carrying tag teams for years, or at least adjusting to the style of their opponents. Incredible heelwork on their end, too. Jeff just got to AEW and already needs a break. – 3.5-3.75/5

TBS Title: Jade Cargill vs. Anna Jay – Jade is getting better; Anna is a solid hand. This title match, despite the interference and some sloppiness, overachieved. I enjoyed it! Stokely Hathaway makes his AEW debut as Jade’s new manager (Sterling maintains his lawyer duties), and Athena (read: Ember Moon!!) ran in to confront Jade and the Baddies, alongside Anna and Kris Statlander. Sounds like a fun 6-woman tag is on the way, maybe even this Wednesday. – 3/5

House Of Black vs. Death Triangle – Great, great, great! Spots, spots, spots. Mostly incredible, as you’d expect from 6 of the most gifted wrestlers in the business. Dark Pentagon looked as good as he ever has in AEW. This one also had an interesting finish that finally needed to happen for young Julia Hart. – 4/5

Men’s Owen Hart Foundation Final: Samoa Joe vs. Adam Cole – A really sound wrestling match that probably didn’t need to be on the card, but rather as a super-hyped main event on Dynamite this week. It just never went into 2nd gear, nevermind 3rd. I typically don’t mind interference from the Undisputed Elite, but I really wish Fish hadn’t been involved in a tournament decider. And Cole winning also tipped off the winner of the next match… – 3.25/5

Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Finals: Britt Baker vs. Ruby Soho – Rancid were the big stars here. In a nice treat for the fans, the longtime punk band performed “Ruby Soho” in full. The match itself was good, but, again, woulda been better off as a Rampage main event. Horrible sharpshooter, which has been overdone in this tourney–as you’d expect with any tourney with the title Hart in it. Next up was the Martha Hart-led Owen Hart Cup Trophy — and belts! — presentation, which I would’ve preferred to see on the show itself rather than the matches. – 3.25/5

Sammy Guevara/Frankie Kazarian/Tay Conti vs. Men Of The Year/Paige VanZant – Another match I would’ve preferred to see on Dynamite or Rampage, especially for PVZ’s first official match. The mixed 6-person tag definitely had its moments and a super fun finish, but Sammy & Tay never really got the heat AEW wanted and I think fans were just resting for the bigger stuff at this point. PVZ was green as all hell, definitely no Bad Bunny or WrestleMania debut Rhonda Rousey, but she did look good on some select moves. While I wouldn’t give up on her yet, this wasn’t the place to begin. – 3/5

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Darby Allin – Added to the card by TK who bought another hour of PPV for the Martha segment, this was a great surprise. I guess Khan was worried about going head-to-head with Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals (Boston vs. Miami), but isn’t this a Pay-Per-View? As a Celtics fan, I shut my phone off for 12 hours following the game (a victory for the C’s, by the way!) and watched the DoN replay. I don’t see wrestling fans being conflicted here; if anything, they’ll use multiple screens (laptops, tablets, phones) to watch both. – 3.75/5

Women’s Title: Serena Deeb vs. Thunder Rosa – This will forever go down as the most underrated match of the night, simply due to the length of the show and the position these two ladies were put in. Oh, and the build has been kinda shit. That said, they put on a hell of a technical clinic. It’s definitely the type of match you’ve got to watch again, if you watched it live on PPV. – 3.5-3.75/5

Anarchy in the Arena: Jericho Appreciation Society vs. Blackpool Combat Club/Santana/Ortiz/Eddie Kingston – This was.. amazing. I don’t know what it was, maybe a “Vegas Street Fight” type brawl all over the arena. Actually, it was a live version of a Stadium Stampede, with all 10 men fighting and kicking the crap out of each other all over the arena and the crowd went absolutely insane. I, at home, did too. While this didn’t have the premediated stunts of the SS, the live wild spots in this were enough; the brawling was so fun and off-the-cuff that it should remind many of the “Attitude Era” or “Ruthless Aggression” type stuff we used to get from WWE. Oh, those were the days. Thank you Jericho, Mox and DB for bringing it back. To top it off, they played Moxley’s entrance song for a 1/3rd of the match until Chris ripped apart the sound data. Brilliant. – 4.5/5

Tag Team Titles: Jurassic Express vs. Team Taz vs. Keith Lee/Swerve Strickland – The late stage momentum continues with another fantastic match. My new fav tag team has to be Swerve in Their Glory or whatever, but damn all 9 dudes here rocked it. Each team has a very special cruiserweight/superweight (think The JeriShow or Team Hell No) dynamic and they absolutely made the most use of it. Swerve’s springboard moonsault off Lee’s chest is just the best. As much fun as this was, I think it’s time we get J.E. vs FTR. Do it! – 4.25/5

AEW World Title: CM Punk vs. Hangman Page – Some slight miscommunications aside, this was a great match and it had super heat. People loved Punk and/or Page or hated Punk and/or Page. It was really something to hear. Throughout the contest both men sold the left knee, hobbling around and slipping on spots (such as Punk’s “Buckshot Lariat” x2), which looked like Botchamania; but if you consider the selling, a lot of their stuff looked more like a struggle than a mistake. That’s just how damned good Punk and Page both are. Adam Page has the absolute best facials in the business (the ol’ wrasslin’ term for facial reactions, you pervs), and his determined looks and will he/won’t he go heel ponderings were classic. As a storytelling match, this was a classic; as a wrestling match it was almost great; and, together, it def kept the crowd roaring well past the 5.5-hour mark. New champ, well deserved, and definitely feels like the right move heading into the next pair of big shows. – 4.25-4.5/5

Matches = 3.75/5 (if you don’t count the buy-in and MJF squashes!)
Entertainment = 4.25/5 (if you’re OK with long shows!)

Overall = 4/5 Whiskeys.

Fuck, this was a long show. But AEW Double Or Nothing 2022 was a damned good one. Heck, if you took away the two Owen Hart tournament finals and the mixed 6-person tag, this would go down as one of the best PPV’s in AEW’s 3-year history. That said, it was still an awesome show and somehow kept the ultra hot Vegas crowd going nutty for nearly 6-hours. Can’t wait to attend Dynamite at the Forum on Wednesday!

-Travis Moody