11 Ups & 3 Downs From AEW Double Or Nothing 2022

Downs...

3. The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys

Wrestling each other for the seventh time in a regular two-on-two setting, The Hardys and Young Bucks faced off here for the first time since April 2017, when they obliterated each other in a Ring of Honor ladder match.

Time hasn't exactly been kind to Matt and Jeff Hardy since then. Visibly slower and clunkier than at any other stage in their long, gruelling careers, their increased wear and tear has been evident in their AEW work to date. Those ravages wait for nobody.

The Bucks fed The Hardys with superior athleticism and endless, arena-filling taunting for long periods, though the match was derailed when Jeff appeared to suffer a knock. Marooned in the corner for too long a period to classify as effective selling, he looked wobbly for minutes after leaping from the top rope with a loose boot, meaning his elder brother had to face both Bucks alone.

Jeff returned, diving from the apron to the floor in his comeback spot, but cohesion was hard to come by. The big, popping spots planned prior to the unfortunate hold-up came, but awkwardly. Then, watching the younger Hardy eat the mat from his Swanton Bomb felt more uncomfortable than dramatic.

Finding his sea legs as the bout entered its final act, Jeff sandwiched Matt Jackson on the ring steps with another Swanton. In the ring, his elder sibling almost put Nick away with a Twist of Fate. The Hardys did find their second wind - and won. Jeff pinned Nick with a Swanton.

For a match that looked close to coming completely off the rails towards the middle, this was pulled back together by the end. Not that this makes watching Jeff setting his declining body up for increasingly dangerous spots easier to take, though.