8 AEW Double Or Nothing Impulse Reactions
Do you want the truth or something beautiful?
All Elite Wrestling achieved a lot with Double Or Nothing, but in attempting to fuse many of the industry's great traditions with contemporary classics, it inadvertently managed to deliver neither of the extremes in the show's own title.
It was far from Nothing. Jon Moxley's show-closing surprise debut for the group brought proceedings to a pulsating conclusion, not least as Jim Ross finally found his groove at the very end with a "Moxley and Omega" call to rival some of his finest Attitude Era soundbites. The Young Bucks are everything they've always claimed to be. Hangman Page is a megastar in waiting. Cody reaches his fanbase even when his histrionics cause some to reach for the sick bag.
But was it twice as good as September 2018's ALL IN? The juicy "Double"? In a word, no. In a few more, no, but not for the want of trying.
Just about all of it was good, some of it was great and flashes were absolutely excellent. Subjectively somewhere between the best card of the year and a solid show depending on your take (and, for that matter, the articles you may read on this very site), Double Or Nothing was a strange pay-per-view that occasionally tiptoed towards wonderful before stumbling over a minor production gaffe or match flub.
Consider the reality kind, and broadly positive; "Room for improvement", one show deep, is no mean feat, as far as feedback goes. And far better to be optimistic that they can, than pessimistic that they never will.
8. SoCal Uncensored Vs. Strong Hearts
Opening the show with an exhilarating six-man that mirrored the instantly iconic Barely Legal Michinoku Pro match more so than the Joshi scramble kater in the card, SCU gave the audience their first bout of fan service with firecracker victory over CIMA's Strong Hearts group.
Set to take on Kenny Omega at the company's Fight For The Fallen supershow in July, CIMA brought T-Hawk and El Lindaman to help him make a big impression on countless new eyes that may have been engaging in the promotion and possibly even the six men involved in the march for the very first time.
Not unlike several of the matches on the card, the action lacked a prevailing narrative strand to cling onto, but it didn't stop each man going b*lls out with the boy-poppers ahead of the Being The Elite favourites wrapping things up around the 14-minute mark.
The lack of some of OVE's acrobatic unknowns was a minor knock on the card after press conference promises from The Young Bucks, but the Strong Hearts side were rightly positioned as equals to the massively-over Christopher Daniels, Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian trifecta. The contest was, subsequently very very good, if not exactly different from the elite norm.