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Double or Nothing (2022) Review

Review

AEWs annual PPV event continued to showcase my favorite genre of entertainment at its best — professional wrestling. This years event was in Las Vegas, only the second time the event was in front of fans in its four year history. CM Punk, who returned to professional wrestling in 2021 capped off a night of challenging moments. If you have some spare cash and want to watch some fun wrestling, I would buy this PPV.  


Undercard

There were a few matches on this card that could’ve been on Dynamite. I was not into all of the undercard matches, some of these matches like Darby vs O’Reilly could have been on AEWs Wednesday Night Dynamite program or their TNT show Friday Night Rampage. Double or Nothing was the first time I have felt that All Elite Wrestling could benefit from having short video clips to explain why certain matches are happening. There is an assumption that fans watch Dynamite and Rampage, and many people don’t make time for that. Excalibur tried to explain why people are wrestling, but that storytelling doesn’t work for every match. 

I enjoyed the Hardy’s versus the Young Bucks, it was a fun, quick match — their mythical ladder match gets mentioned often as one of the best ever, but most casual wrestling fans (including myself) have never seen it. The mixed trios match was a great (and overdue) transition away from the American Top Team storyline with Sammy Guervara & Tay Conti. Jade Cargill proved once again that she is one of the top stars in wrestling, the new addition of a manager did seem to be shoehorned into the finish of the segment, but hopefully it doesn’t take away from the mythos they’ve built around Jade over the last year. 

Owen Hart Tournament Finals

Adam Cole and Britt Baker reigned as the winners of the tournament. It was a great moment. Dr. Hart, did a excellent job presenting the awards for the completion of the tournament. Cole and Baker winning the tournaments made me feel like the point of the the tournament was to have good, fun wrestling and not be the “star making” moment some fans wanted it to be. Personally, I wanted Ruby Soho and Kyle O’Reilly to win. The honor of the legacy of Owen Hart is much more important than winners and losers. 

Main Events

Anarchy in the Arena is the craziest brawl I’ve seen ever. It is a better match than Stadium Stampede II and it is potentially better than some of the fatal four ways and six mans I have seen in the past. Having the entrance music continue to play through a huge section of the match added to the chaos. Despite the fight on an elevator, a merchandise stand getting destroyed, several table bumps, a fight with mustard and all of the brawling through the arena, I was surprised how focused the match was. I do not believe this feud is over between JAS, BCC and Kingston-Santana-Ortiz. 

I don’t like AEWs tag team triple threat rules. I prefer tornado tag teams when there are multiple teams in the match. Personally, I wanted to see Swerve and Keith Lee walk away with the win. n a match where the odds favored a person of color walking out as champion, I am disappointed in the outcome. I expected a title change during the show, but Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus added a huge win to their defense record. Now, I think they’ll keep the belts for a tad bit longer. Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus will probably lose the championships during the summer.


CM Punk has begun another Summer of Punk. I am excited to see a childhood hero work at the top of his game once again. I was able to witness his return to pro-wrestling live, less than a year ago. Now he is the Top Dawg in AEW, it’s a well deserved position to be in. I wonder what’s next from Adam Page. I expected Page to retain until the middle of the PPV, but the promotional opportunities for CM Punk going into two shows in Los Angeles outweigh the rewards of having an relatively unknown wrestler come into the largest entertainment market in the world.
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