AEW Double or Nothing 2021

Two years after AEW's first event, we have what is shaping up to be another of their biggest shows ever and has a fantastic bell to bell lineup. Jake and Archer cut a promo on Archer getting a TNT Title shot tonight - he'll make him see fear and Lance cuts  cool light bulb promo about everybody dying. Tremendous Britt video package and Deeb vs. Riho is up for the NWA women's world title, with Serena getting a huge DEEB DEEB DEEB chant. She works heel here and how can you not against Riho?

Serena snaps her neck against the bottom rope and Serena knee snaps her off a Romero special and nose gouges her. Serena works her over in the rope and SHE HAS UNTIL 5, REF. DOUBLE FOOT STOMP OFF THE TOP HITS FOR RIHO! 619! DIVING STOMP TO THE APRON, but Serena moves! Dragon screw in the rope! Twist and shout for 2! DOUBLE DRAGON SCREW off the top and a powerbomb stock gets 2! Riho counters Detox and GETS A SNAPDRAGON! Riho gets a shotgun knee, but Serena gets a rolling half-crab. 

Riho gets the rope, but eats an inverted dragon screw! Riho gets a rolling clutch for 2! Serenity Lock after knee smashes and that's it! Riho taps out. THIS RULED! A fan fest video shows everyone having fun, being personable with fans, and really made AEW not only out to be major league - but to be a fun place to go for the whole family. Smart move!

AEW Dynamite 5-19-21

 

Christian Cage is out to start the show against Matt Sydal and they start off with a headlock before a long back and forth tie-up before a Cage baseball slide. Cage plants a knee on the back for a camel clutch and goes for a Bret backbreaker, but Sydal headscissors out of it. A second-rope meteora is maybe a thing you don't do close to your '40s - especially seeing how Savage moved in his mid-'40s. Christian's spear is countered into a yoshi tonic for 2.999999 before Sydal gets the grounded cobra clutch. Froggy body misses and a second rope moonsault is avoided from Sydal leading to the spear for 2.9. Killswitch is met with a jumping knee! Standing swanton is met with knees and a killswitch ends it - this was a lot of fun. Kind of like something they'd have had on ECW in 2009, only a step slower.

Starks distracts them so Team Taz can beat them up. Miro faces Archer at the PPV and we get an old-school runthrough of Pillman Jr who says that his father is the thing that made him not want to get in the ring. The Bucks gave him hope and Garrison said that the Bucks let him run their table and they need a reality check. Mox and Eddie say they'll take out the rapper and his like friend and Kingston isn't about the superkick party because they don't do superkicks. Caster gets a great line in about Mox's girl hitting him up for some oral sessions - which is his best line and he gets an ass-whooping for that one. Mox and King have the X version of "Wild Thing", which works shockingly well for Mox.

Kingston gets a sloppy suplex and has that "fuck..." face. Mox gets a hot tag and runs wild with a snap German and king kong lariat! RNC to Bowens on the apron so he just drops him! Mox goes for a TORNADO DEATH RIDER, but Bowens saves. Caster gets a crossbody and a tag for a powerplex from Bowens for 2. Bowens gets the chain  and the ref gets on him, but Caster has the boom box and eats it! WHEELBARROW DEATH RIDER ends it! 

Marvez meets with Deano and Jericho, who won't give them the scoop on the Stadium Stampede match and Dean laments Jericho having a few more holds than him. Sky and Page talk about Sting and Sky says that TIME happened. Page brags about helping take the title from Darby and he'll help take everything else from him too. STING arrives and they take out Page and Sky. Deathlock to Sky and Sky taps! Well, Sting showed Sky that he isn't the old man he said - so that was good. This feud is not quite clicking though. Dark Order cut them off from an escape so they run through the crowd. 

MJF buries Jericho for his lame lines while brandishing a knife before Dax cuts a better promo in terms of passion than MJF ever has and Spears beats up the guy giving them their drinks. Shida faces Rebel and beats her knee up to kingdom come. Shida uses a glove, but Britt distracts and crutches Shida. Toss suplex gets 2 for Rebel. Sitout knee breaker and a stretch muffler ends it for Shida. CURB STOMP ON THE BELT FROM BRITT! Kenny and Don tell the Best Friends to leave OC and they show him his KO and says they need him as the mascot - not the champion. Don says that he has to protect the talent from themselves - and offers to take him out of the match, but he'll still get to have a singles match down the line when he's healthier. 

Don tells him to sleep on it - or maybe not, rest, they printed out a second one. Ortiz cuts a nice, intense promos and then Hager said...stuff...Sammy says he'll SSP on the Pinnacle and Jericho says the Pinnacle has their heads up each others' asses so they can't hear very well. Jericho pulling from the reality of almost bonking his head off the fall is great stuff - this feud needed SOMETHING to ground it in reality and evoking his family worked. ON MAY 30, HELL IS COMING FOR THE PINNACLE!  Jade meets with Tony before Mark Sterling arrives. Mark Sterling wanting to make Team Jade so he works for her is great stuff.

Red Velvet is out to her banger of a theme to face Serena Deeb for the NWA Women's Title. Serena starts off hot but Velvet avoids the Detox, but eats a twist and shout for 2. Velvet gets a backstabber and avoids an apron neckbreaker and gets an apron moonsault press. Dynamite is on Friday next week and Velvet gets 2 off a corkscrew. Sloppy counters on ground cradles get 2 for Velvet. CHOKESLAM BY VELVET!? MOONSAULT MEETS THE KNEES OF DEEB! STACK POWERBOMB GETS 2 FOR SERENA! Tequila Sunrise/Serenity Lock by Serena! Velvet escapes, so she locks it on again AFTER SMASHING HER KNEE INTO THE MAT BEFOREHAND. This ruled!

Gunn's out and he's the son of a son and a son of a Gunn. He gets a shotgun dropkick and Ex talks about Ogogo being 78% blind in the left eye. THE LEFT HOOK TO THE RIBS hits and he's down and hurt, but the second one hits the other side and he's done, guv'nah. BUT HE WILL KEEP FIGHTING, so Ogogo hits ONE MORE SHOT with a pop-up punch and it's over. THIS WAS PERFECT!

Kaz and CD are backstage with Marvez and CD leaves and Kaz says that CD is on his path, but he knows where his path is. Miro's out and the belt looks great on him. He thanks Jesus for giving him STRENGTH, POWER AND MORE AGGRESSION SO HE CAN DESTROY EVERYONE. THAT'S HIS TALENT! Lance says that Cody and him fought for that title a year ago and a year ago, Miro was busy having a day for himself. IT'LL BE A MONSTERFIGHT! He's going to make him his BULGARIAN BITCH! If Roberts goes after him, he'll kill him and everyone dies - but Lance will go before he does. Good stuff - also Miro defends on a live Dynamite on Friday against Dante Martin. JANELA FACES ADAM PAGE in an ALL-IN REMATCH! Shida gets a 1 year celebration as well.

 

Blonds are out to face the Bucks, who are dressed even more insanely than usual and they give Nakazawa their goofy headgear so he can mark out. Okay - him as a fake idol stan is great. DOUBLE TEAM ROPEWALK DOUBLE STOMP AND SPLASH! Tony talks about how Dark Side helped out Brian Jr.. Big dive to the floor by Griff and an Air Pillman gets 2. Sunset flip into a sharpshooter by Matt. AEROSOL TO PILLMAN thanks to a Cutler distraction. JULIA HART POINTS OUT THAT MATT HAS THE CAN! MATT GETS ANOTHER CAN AND SPRAYS HER! 

Sharpshooter gets the tapout after more cold spray and cheating, but WILD THING IS HERE! WE GOT US A BRAWL! DOUBLE RNC GETS A PASSOUT - so that will make a great close call for the PPV. Fantastic show overall - tremendous night for babyfaces here. KINGSTON AND MOX STEAL THE BUCKS DIOR JORDANS! And they get a TAG TITLE SHOT AT Double or Nothing! Great night to build up the PPV.

AEW Dynamite 5-12-21 Moxley vs. Nagata IWGP US Title Match

For the first time since his American excursion ended over 20 years ago, Yuji Nagata is set to hit TNT. We've also got SCU vs. the Bucks in what could be SCU's last match ever and Miro vs. Darby that should be a massacre. Nagata comes out with Ren Narita while Mox is out TO "WILD THING" and he and Nagata start off with hard forearms and then stiff kicks from Nagata. Corner knee and an avalance exploder from Nagata! Mox gets an elbow barrage and an RNC, BUT NAGATA GETS THE WHITES OF THE EYES ARMBAR! Mox gets the ropes! FOREARMS APLENTY! Muay Thai knees by Mox and the Paradigm Shift ends it! What a fun war. They kneel at one another and meet head-first before Mox raises his hands up - what a great final giant US match for Nagata.

Cody's out and says that the two-party system is outdated and he's proud to be an American. He says Ogogo is here based on visa and he has freedom of speech thanks to America. He didn't come here to live THE ENGLISH DREAM did he!?  He talks about the horrors of segregation and now in 2021, his wife will give birth to a beautiful girl. Cody finding a way to make this promo about his unborn child - Dusty is looking down proudly. Cody's revamped theme would be better in a dome setting - doesn't work outdoors.

SCU promo on the Bucks selling out while Kaz has either an AC/DC shirt on or a BAD INFLUENCE shirt. Daniels' singlet top looks so much better with some iconography on it. Baseball slide sends Daniels into the barricade. Celebrity Rehab to Matt and a BME is avoided by Matt shoving CD off the ropes to the floor. CD gets posted and gigs a gusher! Kaz gets 2 off a northern lights. RANA COUNTERED INTO A STYLES CLASH BY KAZ FOR 2! Tombstone and a PK get 2 when CD saves! ANGEL'S WINGS HITS! CD tags in and fades around a bit before a big spear and punch combo by Matt! I'MSORRYILOVEYOU Superkick gets 2! BME slips up once, BUT HE GETS IT ON TAKE 2 AND GETS 2! COLD SPRAY TO THE EYES, which Don says is to stop the bleeding and a BTE trigger ends it. THIS RULED!

Don as the modern-day Heenan as both a manager and commentator is fantastic. Mox and Kingston destroy the Elite's locker room. So uh...that's just it for SCU? No post-match or anything? Yikes - vintage TNA there. Christian says he wants a shot in the Casino battle royal and he'll win it and get a shot before Matt Sydal comes in and says he'll face Christian next week - and it'll be hall of fame-worthy! Christian's AEW run is basically his WWE ECW run with some of the same cast, no stakes, and over a decade later. How weird. Love SYDAL dunking on Christian here and being right. OC's out with his buddies and THE BASTARD is here. 

PAC DESTROYS THE SHADES before a post-job before PIP. Pac barricade shots him hard after the break. PAC just stomps around and goes up for the Black Arrow, but OC rolls out for a thumbs up!. PAC murders him with a Liger bomb for 2! Aubrey teases a ref stoppage and it's a double count-out after Kenny takes out PAC. Don and Kenny celebrate their pre-emptive victory at DoN as he will now have to face both men in a three way dance as per TONY KHAN! Kenny tells Don to make sure they go through the heel tunnel.

"THIS IS WHERE WE SIT IN A CIRCLE AND PRAISE THE LORD!" That's an odd way to say it's where Doc Gallows has his circle jerks. The Bucks tell the Varsity Blonds to face them next week and IT'S TIME FOR THE MOST SELFLESS CHRISTIAN MEN IN WRESTLING DO SOMETHING SELFISH - they want them at Double or Nothing for the tag titles! Page talks about losing - and it took three and a half guys and a belt shot for him to lose. Cage didn't beat him - Taz did calling the shots, and he knows that Cage isn't the kind of guy who is satisfied with a win like that. He wants him one on one with no bullshit at DoN.

 Pinnacle is out and MJF has a crown and AEW brags about being #1 on cable - which they should do. MJF brags about being the new demo God and we get another amazing Tully promo on Turner. Tully gives them all nice watches and says that when they look at it, they'll remember it as a present from Tully Blanchard and it was about being THE PINNACLE of this business. Inner Circle shows up in a Bubbly Buggy! They douse the heels in bubbly and Jericho wants a rematch and MJF says yes - IN STADIUM STAMPEDE and if the Inner Circle loses, they're done.

JR does a sit-down interview with Britt Baker. I love that in-canon, Britt only got involved because Forbes wanted shots of the champion - and she'll win it in three weeks. SHE IS THE PULSE OF THE DIVISION. THUNDER! ROSA! is out for a squash against Jasmine Allure. Thunder Rosa is so "it" for the babyface side right now - it's going to be fantastic when we get another match between them for the title. Fire Thunder Driver ends it. Deeb defends the title next week against Red Velvet. Bucks vs. the Blonds is up for the titles, and Ogogo face Austin Gunn OF THE NIGHTMARE FACTORY. Brian Cage vs. Adam Page is up for the PPV too. Jade on Elevation is recapped with Mark Sterling and she says she's listening - but she does her own business and SHE'S THAT BITCH.

We get a Darby video about his life and upbringing. He goes to his old rundown skatepark because it keeps him grounded. He says Miro bitched about glass ceilings, but he hasn't done shit since he came to AEW. He's been playing video games and was someone's best man - he didn't buy it. I love that in-canon, Miro wasted his time by losing sight of what he truly wanted. MIRO LOOKS SO GREAT HERE and then beats the shit out of Darby before the bell. 

MASSIVE ass-whooping before Darby lets the ref start it and Miro superkicks him for 2. SHOTGUN DROPKICK but Miro just shrugs it off. Post powerslam is met with a backslide by Darby and a CANNONBALL TOPE! STANDING COFFIN DROP, but Miro catches him for a German on the floor! Sting gets chop-blocked by Sky after a distraction by Ethan Page. WHAT A GUTWRENCH! Jesus. Kinda liking the idea of Page and Sky vs. Sting and Darby. Darby gets an S grip sleeper AND TAKES HIM TO THE FLOOR WITH IT! Miro goes for the belt and Darby BLOCKS THE NOSE AND MIRO CHUCKS HIM INTO THE BARRICADE AND WALL! And he just makes a sick thud. Yikes! 

Miro tears the tape off and ice breaker elbows the shoulder! Standing diamond dust and a small package gets 2! I love the usage of the prior coffin drop>German to build to the second one being countered. WAISTLOCK GAME OVER AND DARBY IS OUT! Ref stoppage! Sky and Page beat down Sting, the Dark Order runs down to save him AND THEN JAKE AND LANCE ARE OUT to staredown Miro. Now for story-developing purposes, I get having 8 billion people show up to close the show - but GODDAMN does that take the edge off how great this finish was to get Miro over.

AEW Dynamite 5/5/21 - BLOOD AND GUTS

 

What a night this is going to be - we've got the return of War Games in a new form alongside QT vs. Cody, with a World Title match announcement set up for the PPV as well. Nakazawa is out and Callis says he's on the list of all-time greats - and since Kenny isn't here, he'll be able to do it just fine on his own! Mox and Kingston come out, and Omega jumps them with the belt. Kingston eats a 2 on 1 attack, but Mox saves from a double suplex with some nice punches. Black Hole Slam to Omega leads to a tope by Mox! Big corner knee by Mox and then a knee to the gut of MT gets 2. Omega hits the Finlay roll, but a moonsault misses and we get some tags. Mox stomps a mudhole in MT and piledrives him for 2.9 thanks to Omega. HIGH/LOW LARIAT ENDS IT!

Bucks are out in super-douche getups to jump them alongside the Good Brothers and THE PERSONAL CAMERAMAN Brandon Cutler.  OWA to Kingston! Shida vs. Britt is made for Double or Nothing - yay for Britt! Cody and QT start off with a brawl and then Cody goes for his belt - but QT HAS ONE AND WHIPS HIM! DEADLIFT GERMAN BY QT! QT goes for Arn but ARN SLUGS HIM! Cody chops away in PIP. Heel ass reveal for a big DDT from Cody. Moonsault block gets 2!

QT hits Cross Rhodes for 2.9! QT almost loses him on a deadlift buckle bomb but gets it. BACK AND FORTH ON A TOMBSTONE and Cody hits it for 2.9! QT eats Cross Rhodes for 2.9! QT flips him off and Cody gets a figure four and taps out! Cody gets the win with the intent to take him out - which he'd promised to NOT do for the exhibition. Good-ish match, but it never quite got out of first gear. BOLO SHOT FROM OGOGO takes out Cody! Ogogo vs. Cody is going to be fantastic one day. Scorpio Sky quotes Jim Carrey's Riddler to mock Sting and Page says that he left a dent in Darby's head and he has a plate in his arm due to him. Darby coffin drops onto Page off a ladder! DARBY GETS THROWN DOWN THE STEPS. Jesus this dude's nuts.

Britt's out to face Julia Hart, WHO IS NOT FROM CALGARY. Britt's D-M-D bit is amazing. Slingblade and a big forearm shot from Britt. Air raid crash hits, but she pulls her up at one for the Lockjaw! Technique by Taz on the Killswitch and frog splash - he FAILED DUE TO FOOTWORK TWICE and then won and then AGAINST HOBBS, he got tossed around! He puts over Cage as the man who beat the number one ranked guy in the company. TREMENDOUS stuff here. 

Four way tag match is up and Caster has an incredible rap with lines about Dark Side of the Ring, slapping Stossel and taking the belts from the Young Cucks. Good stuff with SCU and the Acclaimed before we get the run into the dinosaur spots. Daniels...hits a flatliner on Luchasaurus and THE BEST MELTZER HITS and wins it! SCU faces the Bucks for the titles next week! Pac and Orange Cassidy face off next week and the winner faces Omega at Double or Nothing! Omega puts over PAC pinning him and tapping him before - so he knocks OC completely and OC comes out! We get a lot of banter and they mock OC for his Raybans. DARK SIDE OF THE RING AD! MIRO warns the roster and says that next week, he will face Darby for the TNT Title! If Darby can't show up healthy or not, he'll take him out. 

"The war begins..." - love it! The Match Beyond is now "the All Out Assault" and "submit or surrender" remains. Dax is out as God intended in the Arn role against Sammy. DOUBLE A SPINEBUSTER BY DAX, but there are no pins! Chopsaplenty and Dax is already beaten red! Sammy's arm is sliced up and he talks shit to MJF before Dax gets an outside-in lariat! Cody cutter to Dax and SPEARS HAS A CHAIR! DAX IS SLICED UP. Damn! BIG CHAIRSHOT TO SAMMY! This match has already redeemed Spears' last shitty year and a half. Tremendous usage of him so far.

ORTIZ RUNS IN WITH A CHAIR AND SLUGS AWAY AT DAX! And it's a white padded chair and now it's covered in blood! SPANISH FLY. Jesus this rules! WHEELER DARTS IN AND SPRINGBOARD-ISHES OFF ONE RING ROPE TO SAVE DAX! Nasty mid-ring bump to Ortiz! Santana's in and runs wild...via PIP. Wardlow tosses fuckers around in PIP and then Hager runs wild on Spears and taps him with an ankle lock - but it doesn't count. Hager and Wardlow slug it out and MJF is in to MASSIVE "asshole" chants. We get an ad break after a group brawl.

After the break, FTR has exposed the boards. SPIKE PILEDRIVER ON THE BOARDS! SAMMY GOES VAN TERMINATOR ON SPEARS IN THE CORNER! MJF is sliced up and he looks  scared to death before getting a fork to the face! Wardlow chucks Sammy up and double-legs Hager BUT LAX GOES STREET and bats the knee and chairshots him. ONE MORE BREAK. Jesus. PIP features Jericho knocking Tully down with the cage door before a top of the cage showdown with MJF. This is almost setup fully on the ad break - but luckily, they wait until after the break to have Jericho join him.

WALLS ON THE TOP OF THE CAGE! MJF nutshots him and the Fujiwara is on!

MJF threatens to toss Jericho off the top of the cage unless they surrender. SAMMY SURRENDERS FOR JERICHO! MJF tosses him off the top of the cage into the...steel-covered padding! The story of this is great - but the live angle exposed the stunt. Using the replay angle would have been better - so this is a fine learning experience for the future. It should be a PPV-only match to prevent the pacing issues caused by ads, or if you do it on TV, do it with no ads and just be more careful with camera angle placement. They SLAYED IT for so much of the show live when it came to production and just flubbed that up.