5 Ups & 5 Downs From AEW Double Or Nothing 2023
3. Jamie Hayter vs. Toni Storm
...didn't happen in the way it was promoted, as AEW tried a little bit to have its cake and eat it too in a way that made the experience of fan favourite Hayter losing her title feel more like a cheat code than a transgression.
It was after Wednesday's Dynamite/Rampage tapings that there were reports discussing the Champion's possible injuries, and though the angle here - The Outcasts cheat and cheat and cheat again - attempted to frame it as a work, it was the sort of thing the company wouldn't have done with the men's Championship and flew too close to deception rather than creative guile.
More's the pity - what little we got of the physicality was predictably great, but then that felt just as difficult to parse. Hayter did quite a bit for somebody that couldn't do anything, and deserves isolating for praise in that respect. Storm will make a great champion once again, but once again her reign has started under something of a cloud.