9 Match Star Ratings For AEW Double Or Nothing 2020
"Big Bicep Tony" flexes his creative muscle.
Fate - to which an invitation was extended by running events amid this crisis - seemed to lick its lips on the Dynamite go-home show.
Plagued by botches and injuries, this, twinned with atypically wonky booking, didn't pump the blood ahead of a pay-per-view AEW otherwise did a stellar job of building under the circumstances.
Though the core issue between Cody and Lance Archer was diluted in recent weeks, with managerial subplots and celebrity cameos, that AEW built a such a big-time sporting grudge match in an Atlanta gym is testament to some incredible booking. Less successful was Brodie Lee's challenge of Jon Moxley's AEW World Title.
Tony Khan has an affectionate nickname amongst those who rate his work, one that references his key inspiration, but this programme put the mid in Mid-South Tony. MJF was on fabulous individual form ahead of his midcard clash with Jungle Boy, but it was the collaboration behind Stadium Stampede that really sold this show.
The Street Fight that built towards it was a tremendous hybrid of comedy and wrestling, in that the laughs complemented and did not detract from the action. It was perfect fare for this heightened new reality, and it was but the mouth: we saw a tantalising glimpse into the belly of the beast with that fantastic shot of the Jaguars stadium with the Inner Circle posed in front of it. We've never seen a bigger canvas on which to create a comedy wrestling masterpiece.
Did AEW paint one...?
9. BUY-IN: Best Friends Vs. Private Party
Private Party continued their regression, unfortunately, in a decent match marred by blown spots. They didn't look like the same team that worked the same opponents to such thrilling, eye-catching effect at Fyter Fest last year.
The thing about a Private Party botch is that it is really glaring. Their style requires a certain willingness to suspend disbelief that goes beyond that which is usually expected; the set-ups to the double team moves, the silly string in particular, take a long while. When they aren't executed well, as it wasn't here, that Michael Scott GIF face intensifies. It feels almost like a punishment for investing. All that wait for that, and all that. It's deflating, when the peppy sugar rush thrill of the act is meant to achieve the precise opposite of that feeling. At times - as when Trent countered a double team with a pair of backdrop suplexes - the sequence was so choppy that it was difficult to tell if he had improvised or if it just looked like it went awry.
There's still immense potential to the team; Marq Quen showed his performer's instincts by thieving Trent's sacred headband in an improved spot, and they are absurdly rich in creativity and athleticism. And even when they're plagued with timing issues, they are still equipped to get the heart racing: Quen barely has to generate momentum to execute his tope con hilo, and Isiah Kassidy timed his convoluted deception spots very well in his shine.
It was an exciting enough - if flawed - exhibition.
Star Rating: ★★¾