Double or Nothing VII - 5/25/2025

[SovietShooter]

Admittedly, I do not pay attention to every corner of the wrestling world like I used to, but I like to think I kinda keep up with some things outside of what I regularly watch.

I wasn't familiar with Thekla at all up until recently when there was talk of her leaving Stardom for AEW.  I know AEW acknowledges things in the greater world, but I cannot imagine they would just have Thekla just waltz in and get title shots or a big feud. Even Bayne, who had a much bigger reputation coming in, worked a series of squashes and was built up before she got a title match.

Maybe I'm wrong, but if the spider teaser graphic is for her, there needs to be a bit more to it if they're going to debut her as a major player.

[The Green Meanie]

25 minutes ago, SovietShooter said:

Maybe I'm wrong, but if the spider teaser graphic is for her, there needs to be a bit more to it if they're going to debut her as a major player.

I took it as the complete opposite. It makes it seem like this person might be a big deal due to how much effort they're putting into hiding the spider and such.

[The Natural]

Hoping Eddie Kingston returns here after 12 months out with a serious injury. I've missed Eddie Kingston.

Wouldn't be surprised if Jack Perry comes back. Can't stand him. 

Edited May 25, 2025 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Predictions:

Omega/Strickland/Joe/Shibata/Hobbs/Nightingale vs. Moxley/Castagnoli/Yuta/Shafir/Jacksons.

Mone vs. Hayter.

Ospreay vs. Page.

Storm vs. Shirakawa.

Okada vs. Bailey.

FTR vs. McGuinness/Garcia.

Lashley/Benjamin vs. Rhodes/Guevara.

Ricochet vs. Briscoe.

Takeshita/Fletcher/Alexander vs. Cole/Strong/O'Reilly.

Went back and forth on Anarchy in the Arena, Mone vs. Hayter and Ospreay vs. Page.

[StevieNippz]

17 hours ago, The Green Meanie said:

TIL that Scorpio Sky was a TNT Champion. Then I learned that I had completely forgotten about his reign.

I was in the building when he won it and I forgot about it. Apparently he had two reigns with it, too!

[Sex Machine Gun]

I just hope everyone has fun.

(please make me jump out of my seat Eddie)

[Casey]

Well, fuck.

[The Natural]

Great show but too long. Think this was the longest AEW PPV ever, four and a half hours.

Edited May 26, 2025 by The Natural

[The Natural]

Best Anarchy in the Arena match since the original, I'd say.

[Niners Fan in CT]

This was a top 3 AEW PPV in my book.  3 legit MOTYCs and other great matches as well.  It was long but the crowd stayed red hot most of the night and I think the couple cool down matches they had were probably necessary given everything else that was packed into the event. 

[Craig H]

I fucking love Hangman so much.

Pro wrestling fucking rules. I’m spent from that main event.

[COLETTI]

Give a raise to whomever was in the production truck directing for the main event - absolutely added to the stellar fucking match with those long unbroken shots. 

Fuck yeah AEW rules the motherfucking WORLD. 

[The Natural]

12 hours ago, The Natural said:

Predictions:

Omega/Strickland/Joe/Shibata/Hobbs/Nightingale vs. Moxley/Castagnoli/Yuta/Shafir/Jacksons.

Mone vs. Hayter.

Ospreay vs. Page.

Storm vs. Shirakawa.

Okada vs. Bailey.

FTR vs. McGuinness/Garcia.

Lashley/Benjamin vs. Rhodes/Guevara.

Ricochet vs. Briscoe.

Takeshita/Fletcher/Alexander vs. Cole/Strong/O'Reilly.

Went back and forth on Anarchy in the Arena, Mone vs. Hayter and Ospreay vs. Page.

The one time I need Will Ospreay. Damnit, Bruv Boy!

Edited May 26, 2025 by The Natural

[EVA]

Just when you thought the New Jack gimmick for AITA was played out, the arena started levitating when “Bodies” hit.

[The Natural]

It'll cost a bomb but we need some Metallica in AITA. For Whom The Bell Tolls comes straight to mind.

[The Natural]

I can see Timeless Toni Storm vs. Mercedes Mone for both the AEW Women's World Championship and AEW TBS Championship.

[Casey]

When are they gonna play Closer by Nine Inch Nails during a Mina Shirakawa match is the real question.

I'll settle myself down, Caseynetico.

[Casey]

TK is talking about DVDVR right now on the scrum

[Niners Fan in CT]

Well if TK is reading this,  you did good coach.  You did good.  How great was that crowd tonight.  They were on fire and they were rewarded with a special card. 

[Curt McGirt]

If they're gonna get Metallica they might as well just have them play. 

ANYWAY. 

This was a blast and I really needed it after a totally stressed, fucked day. 

Spoiler

- Mone/Hayter was pretty garbage: loose, sloppy, overly complicated, overlong. I was actually trying to be nice and give it a break until it started dragging. And of course, guess who won? I will say their selling was both pretty good, but they were wrestling like twins. 

- FTR are really good in heel formation because they have such a deep bag of cheapshit tricks to pull out, and have such personality as scuzzballs poking their finger in your eye for the fun of it. It's way better than Best Tag Team Face Workrate FTR. This went way too long too though and poor Nigel looks to have gotten hurt again, his pec or something, he was crawling on the floor for quite awhile besides getting led out. 

- What the fuck can you even say about Chicken vs. Ricochet?! Briscoe may be my favorite wrestler in the world right now, certainly my favorite babyface. I can't believe he cut himself deep enough to where when he went for the table elbow you could see blood falling out of his head like someone had just taken a palm-full and tossed at the floor, and at the same time held everything together, was stiff, hyped, funny, engaging, and in place for every single thing in a match involving two ambulances, two pairs of scissors, a fire extinguisher, several chairs, a table, a crutch, a bucket full of cleaning products, and a stretcher. We got Sabu and Cactus Jack shout-outs and Ricochet holding up his end as King Prick #1. At one point he just RAN AWAY and it was beautiful. Million billion stars. 

- In our first cool-off segment of the evening we have Sons of Texas vs. the Hurt Syndicate. Thankfully Dustin did not get too destroyed, though he ate a spear through the barricade; unfortunately Sammy did not get destroyed enough, though he ate a frickin' DOMINATOR~! The MJF thing continues to simmer; it's funny how far down the card he seems to be now, to where the Syndicate feel dragged down by him. Dustin and Shelton are only eight years apart in age, btw. 

- Okada/Bailey was really good at giving you exactly what you expected but making you bite on all the parts it wanted you to. There were many times I thought "okay, he finally clinched it" but nooooo the rug gets pulled out -- and yet you don't feel cheated. That's hard to do. It helps that Bailey will kick you right in the fucking head. He should've won here, but Okada is one of those guys that Coach Tony probably has a secret idol that he prays to in a room filled with incense and candles somewhere. 

- Taz or somebody said that Toni and Mina are not just wrestlers but entertainers, and man did this underline that. This is one of the most totally entertaining wrestling matches I've seen in years, where everything just clicks, where I can dig into it analytically with "well that is really good legwork, damn Toni sells good, they worked Luther in perfectly there" or just sit back and say "THIS IS THE SHIT." It was worth transcribing that interview. I need to watch it again. Badly. And fuck all you homophobes, love for the win! 

- The word I had in mind for the Anarchy match was "loony". And then I just extrapolated and thought, Looney Tunes. This thing was the longest, most violent comedy match of all time. It was an enormous Roadrunner or Speedy Gonzales cartoon -- or really, Itchy and Scratchy. There is too much cool and funny shit to list. "I'm So Excited" coming over the speakers had me DYING over here. Million billion ZILLION stars. 

- Cooldown Pt. 2 was the next one, who all of us in the Discord had completely forgotten about. Poor guys. I took a run to the head for most of this but it was another great example of Fletcher dying to get over a match, this one with absolutely no consequence at all in the grand scheme of things. I mean he got his ass kicked, won the match, participated in a beatdown then stayed in the ring and got laid out so everyone could get their heat back and it looked awesome. The lack of self-servance and generocity as a worker is something that I find highly appealing. Tanahashi comes out and is bowlegged as a cowboy, and should be no threat to anyone, unfortunately. 

- Woof... Hangman/Ospreay was one of the best Kenta Kobashi matches ever. Obviously a total bomb-thrower that went way too long and had so many false finishes and fakeouts and builds and builds and drops and builds and drops and builds and if you don't like that kind of match you'll hate it, but it was done really well, especially the pacing. There is one specific moment they could have ended the match RIGHT. THERE. and it would have been a total classic, but they just had to go five more minutes. You can't always get what you want. 

Much love to our benefactor and the Discord peanut gallery for MST3King everything alongside each other. Seriously, y'all are the best. 

[Hail Sabin]

Hell of a Show! I had a feeling it was going to 12:30 since they like to run Double or Nothing long since it's their anniversary show. 

[Cobra Commander]

2 hours ago, The Natural said:

It'll cost a bomb but we need some Metallica in AITA. For Whom The Bell Tolls comes straight to mind.

“And Justice For All” would be my pick

[Craig H]

TK, yeah, to echo Niners, if you're still reading this, if anyone on your staff reads this, thank you, thank you, thank you. Up until 6 years ago I was basically nearly down to just NJPW. AEW hasn't always been perfect, but man, it sure is a lot of fucking fun and it has delivered some very emotional moments. Not only that, but man, thank you for giving credit to Dean and the folks here who have kept this place running for all of us knuckleheads who went from being young and stupid and fighting and talking shit to now just old and crotchety and just too fucking lazy and tired to bother talking shit.

I was howling watching Toni Storm break during the scrum and for looking completely unhinged with her makeup and asking for Luther to bring her the meth.

Hanger came out and didn't stay long but showed some very real emotion while couching things in kayfabe. I'm glad he's where he's at.

This PPV was such a fucking blast and so much fun. I honestly think the thing I liked the least was the DCF vs Paragon. And then, for a brief moment motherfuckin Brody comes out with Ishii, I get nearly jumping out of my seat...and then their third guy was Tanahashi and the joy just got sucked right out of me. Aside from that, stellar fucking show.

Finish the job, Hangman.

[hammerva]

Hangman has to be beat Moxley at All In.  this isnt one of those BS he can afford to lose because it makes the rematch sweeter Cody and Reigns thing.  If this scenario happens then the whole thing with waiting for Darby was a waste of time and this reign that should have died 4 months ago was actually just a Reigns rip off

Edited May 26, 2025 by hammerva

[Niners Fan in CT]

Anarchy in the Arena has had some crazy moments over the years but I thought this had the most cohesive layout of all of them.  It was magic from beginning to end.  Swerve,  Kenny,  Willow,  Hobbs,  they all had some incredible sequences that were true to character and all of them looked like a million bucks coming out of this.  Hobbs looked like a fucking monster. Kenny looked like the ace he is.  Swerve looked dangerous and unhinged. Willow looked like she could really tear apart the Bucks and them if she got pushed too far.  For such a giant personality,  Willow is so awesome when she has to turn to violence. This was beyond 5 stars.

And Surprise surprise the same guy trying to saying Mercedes/Hayter was "garbage" and meanwhile the entire world is showering the match with praise.  It gets tiresome reading the pure hate because the person you wanted to win,  didn't lol. Those two put on an absolute banger,  same with Toni/Mina and definitely Ospreay and Hangman. Their finishing sequence was so great. 

Probably the underrated match of the evening would have to go to Ricochet and Briscoe. That match had no business being such an entertaining and bloody brawl with so much action packed into it, I certainly didn't have super high expectations for it and they killed it out there. 

Edited May 26, 2025 by Niners Fan in CT