9 Match Star Ratings For AEW Double Or Nothing 2020
3. Nyla Rose Vs. Hikaru Shida - AEW Women's Championship Match
Not quite on the level of AEW's best Women's match - that was Nyla Rose's title win over Riho in February - Rose and Hikaru Shida entered an astonishing shift of hard graft in a noble bid to reach its level.
With no proper crowd, little buzz and a bad stigma - AEW's women's division has ranged from amateur hour to, at best, unexpected triumph - Rose and Shida willed a cracking, PPV-calibre championship match into existence. Rose bullied Shida and wrecked her through a poker table in a great control sequence that maximised her best qualities. Rose is a better performer than she is a wrestler - she's tremendous at getting her character over as a former thespian - and she squared up to Billy Gunn in a moment that put her over as an indiscriminate badass. Shida carried the emotive working weight of the match, selling the anguish over every failed knee strike that she had to rely on her spirit to get right at the finish.
Bespoke pay-per-view sets don't just look gorgeous; they create a platform on which to further stories, and here, in a phenomenal spot rich in visual poetry, Shida launched herself from one poker chip to another, smashing Nyla's face in as it toppled, to symbolise the vast the size of the challenge she faced.
This was an artful and brutal pro wrestling match with the right title change, the gravity of which was sold excellently.
Star Rating: ★★★¾