AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2020

AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2020

Casino Ladder Match

This felt dead for the entire duration of it. Extremely lengthy too which didn't do it any favors. Solid AEW debut for Cage I guess, but not a good match at all. *

Jungle Boy vs. MJF

This match felt kind of all over the place? It had a very basic heel vs. babyface dynamic, with some good stuff like MJF faking that injury early on & going after Jungle Boy's arm throughout, but it also felt like a shitty generic indy match at the same time. No selling Destroyers & chops galore like its Kobashi vs Sasaki or something. Dragged like a motherfucker too -- I guess they went like 20 minutes, but it sure felt like 40. If it indeed was 20 minutes, that's 10 too many for the material the two had here, in my honest opinion. *1/4

Cody vs. Lance Archer

I was a little disappointed in Archer's tournament match vs. Dustin, but this one delivered THE GOOD STUFF in spades. Arched looked like a true monster throughout with his heavy blows & easy throwing-around of Cody. Him shutting down Cody's attempts at mustering up a comeback were great as well, and on the topic of Cody's comebacks, I do think that his eventual big one would've had so much more juice behind it had there been a crowd. Still good though. I was ready to call this a flat-out great match all around, but the stuff w/ Arn, Jake & Iron Mike towards the end didn't go well with the flow of the match, and kinda stopped its momentum for a bit. It was still really damn good though. Extremely good showcase for Archer & a very good underdog performance by Cody. ***3/4

Hikaru Shida vs. Nyla Rose

Good match! Really liked Shida's performance; she was fiery throughout with her work, and I in particular really dug all of those different knee attacks she utilized. The whole deal w/ the kendo stick being in the center of the match was solid stuff too & created for some fun moments. ***1/4

Jon Moxley vs. Mr. Brodie Lee

This was badass as hell. Felt & looked like a true pro-wrestling fight between two guys who don't like each other very much. Brodie was just so great brutalizing Moxley with his superb looking offense, and Mox himself also brought the goods with his vicious offensive arsenal. The finishing stretch has to be one of my favorite scenes of 2020 with Brodie kicking out of those Paradigm Shifts, and Mox going into a killer mode because of it, totally destroying MISTER Brodie by relentlessly targeting that cut on his head & slapping in that tight choke for the W. ****

Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara & Santana vs. Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Matt Hardy, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson

Hangman arriving & chasing Sammy with a horse, the whole LAX vs. Matt bit, the bar brawl between Hager & Hangman + Omega, Jericho killing that mascot w/ the Judas Effect, Jericho's epic fight vs. Aubrey, Matt's Northern Suplex rampage on Sammy, Rick Knox eating a Superkick like it's the good ol' days in Reseda, Matt & Kenny chasing Sammy w/ that golf cart AGAIN, that amazing finish w/ that big One Winged Angel. This was an absolute spectacle & a blast. When it comes to these "special presentation" (I struggle to call this a cinematic match tbh) matches that have happened recently, this was on a level above. This has been a truly tragic & sad week for pro-wrestling, but this was an amazing, smile-inducing way to end it. And for that I salute The Elite, Matt Hardy, The Inner Circle & AEW as a whole. ONE OF MY FAVORITE THINGS OF THE YEAR