10 Ups & 2 Downs From AEW Double Or Nothing 2021

1. The Best Of Stadium Stampede

Underneath a long match that was silly without trying to be comedic, much of it worked and the finish made for an unforgettable feel-good moment. They only remember the finish, apparently, and 5,000-strong went apesh*t singing Judas in a reverie over a year in the making.

Shawn Spears looked a bit lame in his chairs room, trying to act twisted or haunted or whatever, but he was unreal working Sammy Guevara. Guevara was the more dazzling of the two in sequences designed to babyface him all the way over, but Spears deserves immense credit for his sense of timing and positioning, especially since he was working in such unusual surrounds. Guevara running up walls brought the exhilaration where MJF and Chris Jericho brought the relief. MJF is excellent at slapstick, and showed ass at the expense of his forehead across a series of quality visual gags that never undermined the intensity of the fight.

The transition into the live element was really, really well done. It was as if AEW had returned to a live crowd for a second time, and after conspiring to bottle that feeling and sell it, MJF took two wicked bumps that will never be confused for cardboard gimmicky. He ate sh*t and the fans went ballistic. As a symbolic we're-back! gesture, it just about worked, even though we were back four hours before this. The pop was sure as sh*t loud enough.

This was Sammy Guevara's night, and it's a shame that wrestling discourse is what it is because, while the quality and even the point of the match will divide opinion, the commitment to pushing Sammy over the course of several months was crystallised to awesome effect here.