Double or Nothing VII - 5/25/2025

[Dolfan in NYC]

It's Springtime and AEW is doing lots of fun things, like... a tournament! And... another tournament!   Plus the Death Riders & Friends show too.   Hopefully it's building to another Greatest PPV Ever~!

Live from (oh yuck) Glendale, Arizona, it's Double or Nothing!

THE CARD~

FOR THE AEW WOMEN'S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - Timeless Toni Storm (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa

FOR THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - The Hurt Syndicate (Lashley / Benjamin, c) vs. The Sons of Texas (Rhodes / Guevara)

FINALS OF THE MEN'S OWEN HART CUP - Will Ospreay vs. "Hangman" Adam Page

FINALS OF THE WOMEN'S OWEN HART CUP - Mercedes Mone vs. Jaime Hayter

ANARCHY IN THE ARENA

STRETCHER MATCH - Mark Briscoe vs. Ricochet

FTR (Gun / Bald) vs. Nigel McGuinness & Daniel Garcia

 

---

* - OH Cup winners will receive a World Championship match at All In 2025

[Log]

Eh, never mind.

Edited May 1 by Log

[stuntmanc]

I would get this PPV on Hangman v Ospreay alone.  I'm really looking forward to this one.

[The Natural]

6 hours ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

It's Springtime and AEW is doing lots of fun things, like... a tournament! And... another tournament!   Plus the Death Riders & Friends show too.   Hopefully it's building to another Greatest PPV Ever~!

Live from (oh yuck) Glendale, Arizona, it's Double or Nothing!

THE CARD~

FINALS OF THE MEN'S OWEN HART CUP - Will Ospreay vs. "Hangman" Adam Page

FINALS OF THE WOMEN'S OWEN HART CUP - Mercedes Mone vs. Jaime Hayter

 

 

---

* - OH Cup winners will receive a World Championship match at All In 2025

These two matches plus Anarchy in the Arena will mean I'll buy AEW Double or Nothing 2025. It's the five year anniversary of the first ever AEW show, AEW Double or Nothing 2019. Most looking forward to Mercedes Mone vs. Jamie Hayter, that should be great. Hoping Hangman Adam Page beats Will Ospreay but I already expect disappointment there.

Edited May 2 by The Natural

[The Natural]

The Natural's best match from each Double or Nothing show:

Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes. Double or Nothing 2019. *****.

Stadium Stampede. Double or Nothing 2020.

The Young Bucks vs. Jon Moxley/Eddie Kingston. Double or Nothing 2021.

Anarchy in the Arena. Double or Nothing 2022. *****.

Anarchy in the Arena. Double or Nothing 2023.

Mercedes Mone vs. Willow Nightingale. Double or Nothing 2024.

[Fighting a man with a perm]

18 hours ago, The Natural said:

These two matches plus Anarchy in the Arena will mean I'll buy AEW Double or Nothing 2025. It's the five year anniversary of the first ever AEW show, AEW Double or Nothing 2019. Most looking forward to Mercedes Mone vs. Jamie Hayter, that should be great. Hoping Hangman Adam Page beats Will Ospreay but I already expect disappointment there.

I don't think you will be. I feel we're building towards Hangman defeating Mox, with Swerve coming to Page's aid to combat Death Riders to end the beef between himself and Hanger.

[Technico Support]

1 hour ago, Fighting a man with a perm said:

I feel we're building towards Hangman defeating Mox, with Swerve coming to Page's aid to combat Death Riders to end the beef between himself and Hanger.

This would be worlds better than putting it on Ospreay.  There's no story there.  Hangman is an original and is the heart of AEW. 

[Craig H]

I like Ospreay and all, but yeah, this ain't his time or moment. Hangman has been the most compelling character in all of AEW for about forever. Swerve comes close to being the ideal guy to dethrone Jon, but the best guy is Hangman. I'm biased though because Hanger is probably my favorite dude and thing in all of wrestling.

[Dolfan in NYC]

A fun story would be this match goes to a draw.  Both men get title shots at All In ala Mania X.

Ospreay loses his match mid-show semi-clean. But Hangman finally ends the Mox reign of terror to end the show.  

Ospreay murders him dead on the following Dynamite, turns heel and that's your All Out main. 

[SovietShooter]

Why can't Hangman beat Mox at All In, and then Ospreay beat Hangman at Forbidden Door?

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

1 hour ago, SovietShooter said:

Why can't Hangman beat Mox at All In, and then Ospreay beat Hangman at Forbidden Door?

Because two title switches in just over a month won’t go over well with the core audience. 

[Craig H]

With the state of NJPW, and despite whatever partnership they have with CMLL, I don’t even know what Forbidden Door is any more. Forbidden Door was originally about Dream matches and cross promotional stuff. Outside of an Omega/Kidd rematch, I can’t think of any cross promotional match I’m dying to see. But I guess you have to keep watering the garden until stuff grows again.

[Just Adam Bay Bay]

2 hours ago, Craig H said:

With the state of NJPW, and despite whatever partnership they have with CMLL, I don’t even know what Forbidden Door is any more. Forbidden Door was originally about Dream matches and cross promotional stuff. Outside of an Omega/Kidd rematch, I can’t think of any cross promotional match I’m dying to see. But I guess you have to keep watering the garden until stuff grows again.

I know Goto was hinting at facing Shibata but I can’t see that being a huge draw if that’s the IWGP title match. Personally I’d suggest ZSJ vs Ospreay if they get the belt onto ZSJ before then, or if Will wins the AEW World Title. Shingo will obviously put on a show with whoever they book him against. Did he ever have a one on one against Kenny in NJPW? I’d say David Finlay will get something high profile too. Maybe against Mox or even Bullet Club vs The Deathriders. 

[SovietShooter]

Don't forget Okada. If they want to give ZSJ a big win in the UK against an AEW guy, Okada fits the bill to a tee. Especially if he just dropped a loss to Kenny at All In.

[Casey]

Hangman hasn't been the main character of AEW since his story was completed at Full Gear 2021 - fight me.

[Craig H]

You have the opinions of a Texas book burner.

[stuntmanc]

i'd expect nothing less than that from the poster who always manages to be there to defend Punk when someone mentions his name, yet will tell others to touch grass.

[Kevin Wilson]

Don't take the bait friends, he knows what he is doing.

But to answer the question seriously - even though Adam Page hasn't been the primary focus of the promotion much of the last three years as the focus has been on Danielson's story and then the Death Riders (with the exception being the Swerve/Page series of matches), I would argue he is the "heart" of the promotion. He is a great character and a talented wrestler that the crowd always reacts to. He does the most with every bit of screen time he gets and is entwined in several different storylines, he can appear weekly on Dynamite but no one ever complains about him being on "too much" as his presence is always compelling TV. He's the most interesting character on AEW on the men's side and they literally at any moment can cook him back up to be the world champion and the fans would love it. I think he's the most captivating wrestler they currently have on the men's side and is on the cusp of being the true face of the promotion if they decide to go in that direction.

[Casey]

7 hours ago, stuntmanc said:

i'd expect nothing less than that from the poster who always manages to be there to defend Punk when someone mentions his name, yet will tell others to touch grass.

This has nothing to do with Punk, lmao. Hangman was the main character from 2019 to 2021, his story was literally the biggest and most consistent story in the company. Since it ended, other stories and people have moved to the forefront. I don’t disagree that he’s the heart of AEW, I’d put a few others in that group as well, but what I said wasn’t an insult to Hangman or some shit.

Not surprised you took the bait, though.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I thought they might have Ospreay go over Mox because he is so over right now and 'Forbidden Door' is in England so he'd main event that show as champion. 

But the more I think about it,  I'd rather see Hangman conquer Mox and Ospreay could maybe face someone like ZSJ at FD? 

[Kevin Wilson]

6 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I thought they might have Ospreay go over Mox because he is so over right now and 'Forbidden Door' is in England so he'd main event that show as champion. 

But the more I think about it,  I'd rather see Hangman conquer Mox and Ospreay could maybe face someone like ZSJ at FD? 

That's my hope of what they do but I don't know if that is the plan. I really really like Ospreay *ducks tomatoes* but I don't think right now he needs a title to do what he does. He's the five star match guy, you can put him on the co-main of any PPV against just about anyone and he is going to do this thing. But I don't think currently he has the character/presentation to be the champion or top guy. Doesn't mean he can't down the road, I'm just looking at right now. Page on top doing more storyline/emotion based storytelling with Ospreay/Fletcher/Takeshita/Omega killing it underneath sounds like a winning formula to me and one that can carry them for six to nine months.

[Technico Support]

2 hours ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I thought they might have Ospreay go over Mox because he is so over right now and 'Forbidden Door' is in England so he'd main event that show as champion. 

But the more I think about it,  I'd rather see Hangman conquer Mox and Ospreay could maybe face someone like ZSJ at FD? 

 

2 hours ago, Kevin Wilson said:

That's my hope of what they do but I don't know if that is the plan. I really really like Ospreay *ducks tomatoes* but I don't think right now he needs a title to do what he does. He's the five star match guy, you can put him on the co-main of any PPV against just about anyone and he is going to do this thing. But I don't think currently he has the character/presentation to be the champion or top guy. Doesn't mean he can't down the road, I'm just looking at right now. Page on top doing more storyline/emotion based storytelling with Ospreay/Fletcher/Takeshita/Omega killing it underneath sounds like a winning formula to me and one that can carry them for six to nine months.

Yeah, Ospreay riding in to vanquish the Death Riders makes no sense.  He has had no ties to this storyline; he's been mostly in a program with Callis' group.  He also has far lesser ties to AEW than Hangman does.  Hangman's story of failure, then success, then failure again, then losing his soul, then getting it all back, should end with him winning the belt to defend AEW against the Death Riders.  That's a hero's journey.  Not "hot act best wrestler in the world that we recently hired from someplace else strolls in for the win."

I said it before, but this is like Tony Stark being the one to end Phase One and defeat Thanos.  Ospreay winning is like someone who wasn't in a single Marvel movie, like Beta Ray Bill, Captain Britain, Alpha Flight, or whoever showing up in the final reel of Endgame and saving the day.

Edited May 5 by Technico Support

[Zimbra]

If they were interested in logically tying Ospreay to the DR stuff they could reference the segment he did with Daniel Garcia early on in the angle where he promised to take on the Death Riders once he got the Callis Family out of his hair, but I'll go out on a very sturdy limb and guess that they have completely forgotten about that already. 

[NoFistsJustFlips]

Idk. My take on this is a bit different than everyone else. Partially because I don't actually see a story being told. Mox is just spewing generic things without some long term Hangman vs Omega style subtle long term booking towards a conclusion. 

To me you put the top title on the most over guy. Ospreay is the most over guy in my opinion. In that sense him vanquishing the Deathriders is as acceptable as Austin vanquishing DX or Hogan vanquishing Iron Shiek or Cena vanquishing JBL or any number of random title changes to crown your ace.

There isn't some grand Mox vs Hangman feud simmering in the background. Theres no Mox feud at all. It's just him rambling. And any over baby face beating him works for the non-story in place here.

[dorfus malorfus]

It would be funny if at All In Danielson returns, wins the Casino Gauntlet, then cashes in during the main event to regain the title from Moxley and literally nobody is elevated/nothing is progressed at the end of this very unpopular year-long storyline.