The show that started it all. All Elite Wrestling Double or Nothing produced its fifth edition this past Sunday. It still feels like yesterday that we watched Cody and Dustin tear each other apart and Jon Moxley make his surprise debut. Double or Nothing has been the show with the most ups and downs over the years. Last year was the crowning of AEW World Champion CM Punk, but remember the whole MJF debacle? Remember the whole American Top Team story with the debuting Paige VanZant? The year before that was Omega, Orange Cassidy, and PAC, but also Cody Rhodes and Anthony Ogogo.
Double or Nothing is AEW’s marquee event; their “Wrestlemania.” It also usually has high ups and low downs. 2023’s edition followed that theme to a tee.
Let’s talk about it!
21-Man Blackjack Battle Royal
The show started with the Battle Royal, and rightfully so! This match was a blast from start to finish. Like previous AEW Royals and Royales (I looked it up…what’s the difference?), they are difficult to give a match grade. That being said, this Blackjack Battle Royal might be the best version of Royal or Royale that AEW has ever created.
(Okay seriously why does AEW use both words?!)
The whole match was high energy and constant motion. A lot of these matches get bogged down and boring, but not this one. It helped when the entire Luchador roster of AEW worked together, which was smart. Another smart thing was having half of the contestants outside of the ring to start the match. Additionally, Swerve and Brian Cage waited on the rampway for their moment to strike. Everything about this was booked to perfection.
There were a ton of stories in this match: the aforementioned Lucha teamwork, Juice/Switchblade/Starks, and Swerve/Keith Lee all received their fair share of focus. Most importantly though, the match revolved around Orange Cassidy, and rightfully so. The AEW International Champion was hanging on for dear life throughout the whole match. Chuck Taylor and Trent Baretta even sacrificed themselves to save Cassidy. Best Friends indeed!!!
The Final Four ended up being Big Bill, Penta, Swerve, and Orange Cassidy, but Swerve and Cassidy stole the show in the waning moments of the match. Both guys almost fell out of the ring twenty times before Cassidy got the unthinkable win. Amazing stuff from one of the best champions AEW has ever seen.
We need to start talking about this AEW International Championship reign as an All-Time great.
Unsanctioned Match: Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho
Things died down a little bit with the Unsanctioned match between Adam Cole and Chris Jericho. Sabu was the “special enforcer,” whatever that means. It apparently meant sword-fighting Jericho with a chair, jumping through a table, and being ceremoniously escorted out of the match. That’s everything Sabu did. This was just the first weird thing with this match.
Another weird thing was the energy from the crowd, also known as nothing. The explosion of craziness at the beginning led to a bloated and sluggish match afterward. It wasn’t a bad match at all, but the crowd was not feeling it, and that led to a negative feeling overall. The story and action were good, in all honesty. Everything about this was just uneven.
Like how Britt Baker came down and hit Jericho with a kendo stick three times, which triggered Saraya to appear, and then Britt chased the Outcast away. That was the entire interaction.
The ending of the match felt off as well. Cole chained himself to Jericho, which was cool. He then hit back-to-back Boom knees, but one had the chain wrapped around his knee. That was also cool. Apparently, this wasn’t enough for Bay Bay, as he went full MMA mount and blasted Jericho in the face until he passed out and the referee stopped the match. This was an interesting way to end an Unsanctioned match but felt unnecessary after two Boom knees. The match wasn’t bad, but it fell flat.
3/5
AEW Tag Team Championship: FTR (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal (Mark Briscoe Special Guest Referee)
The first half of Double or Nothing was pure pandemonium. Up next was the AEW Tag Team Championships, which followed the craziness of the last match, but was actually fun. Some might replace “fun” with “overbooked,” though. Those people are wrong! This match was pure sports entertainment.
Jeff Jarrett doesn’t get enough credit for the vitriol he receives. All the veteran does is go out there, have solid matches, and be a pest. He does exactly what he should! He’s solid in every aspect of the game. He and Lethal awesomely controlled FTR for a good portion of this match. We got the strut, the stroke, and a figure four to boot. So good.
Most importantly, this match revolved around what the special guest referee, Mark Briscoe, was going to do. Would he call it down the middle? He inevitably did, but was on the receiving end of a guitar shot, which led to a wild sequence of interference. Karen Jarrett hit Aubrey Edwards, who was saving Mark Briscoe, with another guitar. Then Double J hit Dax Harwood with the belts, but Dax kicked out of a slow count from a revived Briscoe. This led to Jarrett assaulting Mark Briscoe, which allowed FTR to hit the Shatter Machine for the victory.
Okay, yes, this was a lot of craziness, but did it not make sense? It was “overbooked,” but not stupidly booked. Of course Karen, Dutt, and Satnam would try to get involved. This was a blast and thoroughly hit the “good” sports entertainment mark.
3.75/5
- Alex Marvez was backstage with Ricky Starks, who got immediately attacked by Bullet Club Gold. In a surprising turn of events, FTR made the save after returning backstage.
- Jericho was then backstage somewhere yelling about losing to Adam Cole. He and Saraya challenged Cole and Britt Baker to a mixed tag match. Cool.
AEW TNT Championship Ladder Match: Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage
Up next was the TNT Championship match between Wardlow and Christian Cage. This was a fun match with a good pace that told a really cool story…until the end. It also provided one of the best memes in a while, as evidenced by the picture above.
The match revolved around the massive ladder experience difference between Cage and Wardlow. Ladder matches and its variants wouldn’t have become as popular as they are today without the influence of Christian, and Wardlow’s lone ladder match was a victory in the Face of the Revolution in 2022. Quite the discrepancy of experience.
It was a good match. They were using the ladders like any madman in a ladder match should, letting the ladders break falls and whatnot. It was surprising that someone with such a vast neck injury as Christian would be crashing down onto a metal ladder so many times. They both put their bodies on the line!
The ending of the match unfortunately was the prickly thorn in an otherwise good match. It all started after a ladder broke when Wardlow tried jumping onto it. Then, both Luchasaurus and Arn Anderson inserted themselves, which led to a wonky interaction where Arn bit Luchasaurus’s thumb and blood poured out in a comical fashion. Wardlow then hit a towering swanton from what seemed like the rafters onto Luchasaurus.
Where was Christian Cage during all of this? Hanging out beside the ring waiting to make that hilarious meme, apparently. He could fill a mountain with stories about his various Ladder and TLC matches but forgot about the belt while everyone else busy on the other side of the ring.
Good match! Bad ending…
3.25/5
AEW Women’s Championship: Jaime Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm
ANNNDDDD NEWWWW
Everything in these reviews tries to be positive, even when I dislike a match, promo, or booking decision. There is always something good in everything, despite the overall feeling. That being said, there’s not much positivity to be had with this match. Yes, reports stated that Jaime Hayter went into Double or Nothing injured. Her resiliency to perform despite a legitimate injury was commendable, but the execution of the match was not the best.
Hayter was attacked backstage by the Outcasts before the match even started. This led to everyone wondering where she was during her entrance music. She was led to the ring by Saraya and Ruby Soho towards Toni Storm to continue the beatdown. How many women in that locker room have been attacked by the Outcasts, again? Britt and Shida did come out during the match, but too little too late!
There were Outcasts shenanigans, which made AEW referee Paul Turner look dumb for not stopping them from interfering. The match ended quickly as Hayter looked to purposefully run into the metal turnbuckle and was hit with the Storm Zero for the loss. Toni Storm is the AEW Women’s champion once again. This time without the interim status.
That’s the best part about this match. We get to see Toni Storm as champion once again.
2/5
Open House Rules Trios Championship: House of Black (c) vs. The Acclaimed
Double or Nothing cranked up the intensity from here on out with this Trios match between The House of Black and The Acclaimed. AEW intended for this to be an Open Challenge, but we all knew The Acclaimed were accepting. This was a great match with wonderful psychology.
The entire match revolved around Anthony Bowens and his injured knee history. Professional wrestling and limb work have walked hand in hand for decades, and it’s still one of the best stories when done correctly. The Acclaimed were doing their normal joking around while fighting. Malakai was not having it as he caught Bowens attempting a Scissor Me Timbers with a Knee Bar. This led to some amazing isolation and knee work as Daddy Ass and Max Caster were frustrated beyond belief on the apron.
That frustration boiled over as Billy Gunn finally got a hot tag and ran roughshod over the Trios champions, except it didn’t last long. Billy hit two Fame Assers, taunted Buddy Matthews with a “Suck it,” and then received a swift back heel kick from Malakai Black. What was once called “Black Mass” is now called “The End.” Good quality name change.
3.5/5
TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Taya Valkyrie
Up next was the TBS Championship between 59-0 Jade Cargill and Taya Valkyrie. This match was awesome from start to finish, was Jade’s best match of her career, and the best singles match of the entire evening. Taya was a fantastic competitor that could match Jade’s strengths. They had great chemistry too with a simple story of who could thump the other harder.
The lone criticism would be that it should have been longer. These two had the potential for one of the best AEW Women’s matches ever. Jade barely kicked out of Taya’s Road to Valhalla and hit the Jaded right after that. Just one minuscule complaint that didn’t take from anything else they did at Double or Nothing. This was an awesome match.
4/5
Maybe they cut it short because Jade’s night was not done! After the match, Smart Mark Sterling that Jade still wanted to continue her TBS Open Challenge. This was a bad call because it was answered by the biggest surprise of the evening.
TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Kris Statlander
Kris Statlander made her triumphant return to answer Jade’s challenge and won her first title in AEW. No rating for this one. It’s so good to see Statlander back and healthy again. She was sorely missed.
ANDDD NEWWWWW!!!!
AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin
Coming into this match, the Four Pillars story got a lot of grief. MJF felt like the only main event star of the four. We can’t say that anymore because all four guys killed this match. It was perfectly paced but still had great action. There were crazy moves and slow character moments. This match, quite easily, grabbed the match of the night.
Most multi-man matches hit the gas pedal until the final bell rings, but not this one. There was a lot of story to be told here. It all started with everyone ganging up on MJF, which was no surprise. One of the coolest sequences of the whole match was when they all took turns hitting their mentor’s moves — Scorpion Deathlock, Codebreaker, Killswitch, and Cross Rhodes. The story beat that played a theme throughout was that darn headlock takeover again.
Darby was determined to beat MJF with the headlock takeover. He used it multiple times, but couldn’t get it done. Unfortunately for Darby, MJF lucked out every step of the way. The champ wouldn’t be denied. This led to the ending of MJF setting the AEW belt on top of Jack Perry as Darby Allin hit the Coffin Drop. MJF then used that headlock takeover to pin Darby Allin.
Perfection.
5/5
Match of the Night
Anarchy in the Arena
Anarchy in the Arena. A crazy name for a crazy match loaded with five tons of crazy. Last year’s set an expectation of greatness and this year’s hit it out of the ballpark. We had literal explosive action, blood everywhere, and all the melodrama you could ask for.
There were an incredible amount of noteworthy spots in this match. Moxley broke out a poker chip covered in barbed wire. Claudio hit a piledriver onto Matt Jackson in a truckbed in the parking lot. Oh yeah, the most insane one…Matt Jackson superkicked Jon Moxley with a shoe that exploded. I’m still trying to piece together how that even worked. Matt was rewarded with the same foot going into thumbtacks, so that’s fun. The creativity here was off the charts.
But there were also awesome story bits. The entire match revolved around this kind of match being in the Blackpool Combat Club’s wheelhouse. They were like sharks in the water around every corner, dominating the Elite in every aspect. Hangman pulled his eye patch off to reveal a healed eye, and him and Kenny fighting together like old times were awesome to see, but the BCC had control and asserted their dominance.
The ending took the cake too. Omega was about to hit the One Winged Angel on Wheeler Yuta when Don Callis stepped in. This caused a masked Konosuke Takeshita to surprise everyone and hit the running knee on Omega. Yuta took advantage and used the screwdriver and a seatbelt pin to claim victory for the BCC. Wheeler Yuta pinned Kenny Omega. An incredible main event.
4.75/5
Double or Nothing Overall
What an amazing double main event! Those last two matches really hammered home an up-and-down PPV. Lots of stuff was good, some stuff wasn’t good, and the last two matches were elite. In the end, how you finish is the most important part.
Verdict: 4.25/5