Special Event: All Elite Wrestling: Double Or Nothing 2022

May 29, 2022 9:26 AM

Las Vegas is All Elite! This card is stacked with ELEVEN matches, every title being defended and even some behind-the-scenes work/shoot shenanigans.

-AEW World Championship -- "Hangman" Adam Page (c) vs. CM Punk
-MJF vs. Wardlow
-Adam Cole vs. Samoa Joe (Men's Owen Hart Cup Finals)
-The Hardys vs. The Young Bucks
-AEW Tag Team Championship -- Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus (c) vs. Team Taz vs. Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland
-House of Black vs. Death Triangle (6-man tag)
-Jericho Appreciation Society vs. Blackpool Combat Club, Eddie Kingston, Santana & Ortiz (Anarchy in the Arena)
-AEW Women's World Championship -- Thunder Rosa (c) vs. Serena Deeb
-AEW TBS Championship -- Jade Cargill (c) vs. Anna Jay
-Hookhausen (Hook and Dannhausen) vs. Tony Nese & Mark Sterling
-Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. vs. Ruby Soho (Women's Owen Hart Cup Finals)

posted by The Pluto Gangsta (13 comments total)

I will be in the audience for this tonight!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:39 AM on May 29, 2022 [3 favorites]

Good on you, man! I'll be watching it from one of the theaters in NYC that's doing live event premieres.

By the way, just to give context, the "behind-the-scenes work/shoot shenanigans" I'm referring to are that MJF apparently no-showed fan events yesterday and booked a plane ticket out of Vegas, apparently refusing to job to Wardlow unless he gets a new contract immediately.

Dave Meltzer seems to believe that this isn't a work, that MJF is legitimately trying to use his leverage to get more money with or without a contract extension.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:14 AM on May 29, 2022

Also, this Eddie Kingston promo is amazing and should be remembered up there with CANE DEWEY.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 12:26 PM on May 29, 2022

Dave Meltzer seems to believe that this isn't a work, that MJF is legitimately trying to use his leverage to get more money with or without a contract extension.

Allegedly, MJF’s bone of contention is that he had one of the bigger contracts when AEW started, but it has since paled in comparison to the money that TK threw at multiple WWE guys as soon as Vince cut them loose.
posted by Etrigan at 3:27 PM on May 29, 2022

Man, I don’t know how you make it sound like you didn’t get “I drink to drown my demons, but they know how to swim” from a T-shirt shop in Atlantic City, but bah gawd he did it.
posted by Etrigan at 3:59 PM on May 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I don’t think they showed it on the broadcast but Sterling did a hilarious job walking away from the ring like Hook beat him stupid.

Also, there’s a masked cameraman who is WAY to jacked to be a cameraman ringside. I think he bears watching.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 5:01 PM on May 29, 2022

MJF coming in with nuclear heat. There’s a kid two rows in front of me super invested in MJF getting his comeuppance; he’s having a great night.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 5:18 PM on May 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

The percentage of the crowd that took Ana’s music as cue to head to the bathrooms was frustrating but they got into it by the end of the match.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 5:59 PM on May 29, 2022

And the Julia Hart penny has finally dropped.

Julia Blackhart maybe?

I love it when competent storytelling comes together.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:43 PM on May 29, 2022

It is impossible to overstate how into the Anarchy match the audience was. It was buck wild and difficult to know where to look because crazy shit was happening everywhere.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:36 PM on May 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Was the crowd really split 50/50 for the Hangman/Punk match, or was that just an artifact of the commentary and the PPV audio?

By the way, if anyone is looking to pre-game the next big AEW show and living in the NYC area, I can confirm the seats at the Regal Essex are comfy enough for a 5 hour show and they have electric recliner buttons.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:09 AM on May 30, 2022

I’d say it was 60/40 in Punk’s favor. I was cheering for Hangman even though I think Punk winning was the right thing for everyone.

I think Hangman has better matches at this stage in his career but Punk winning sets up better storylines for both men.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:08 AM on May 30, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was cheering for Hangman even though I think Punk winning was the right thing for everyone.

I'm unhappy about 3/5 of the AEW World Champions being former WWE guys. It's ameliorated somewhat by all three of them having actively left WWE rather than getting fired, and they're doing better with the other belts (Women's: 0/5, TNT: 3/6, TBS: 0/1, Tag: 1/6), but it still feels... mid.
posted by Etrigan at 11:09 AM on May 30, 2022