The Secret Weapon AEW Holds Over WWE

Dustin Rhodes Ricky Havlik
AEW (Ricky Havlik)

The Best Friends Vs. Angélico and Jack Evans delivered the sort of soaring high-flying action tethered on 205 Live. The joshi six-woman tag team ripper was particularly effective in expanding the boundaries of the show; incorporating kawaii charm, killer neck-first action and badass last stand psychology, the match was both off-kilter comedy delight and the most brutal of serious business.

Cody Vs. Dustin Rhodes was as timelessly brilliant as the old-school dynamic promised—just a palpably emotional bloodbath worked by a new megastar and an old master. Both unbearable and so compelling the molten crowd had to bear it, it appealed to even the most staunch of curmudgeons—those fans, perhaps, so averse to modern wrestling that they stopped watching it altogether.

The Young Bucks Vs. The Lucha Brothers delivered on the state-of-the-art super-work that is the Elite’s calling card in a match that also boasted the richest of psychology. Matt and Nick Jackson revealed the interior lives of their rusty onscreen characters in a dramatic spectacle loaded with nuance.

The main event wasn’t the most spectacular Kenny Omega match, but it set a convincing tone of pure blood feud hatred, nonetheless. The immersion aspect and the legitimacy allowed fans to suspend disbelief.; for 23 minutes and 50 seconds, the two offscreen friends performed as if they despised one another in the sort of deeply personal match sorely missing from wrestling in 2019. And, when Kenny Omega does present the best version of himself, AEW fans will encounter the very best pro wrestling performer among the most critically-acclaimed generation of all-time.

AEW Double Or Nothing was a love letter to every subset of the wrestling fandom, and, gauging by the coverage and the buzz, every subset of the wrestling fandom was seduced.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!