I realize I’m a little late, but I made this reaction article late on purpose. Dynamite is on a different night this week again and I wanted to give you some AEW content on a Wednesday. With that being said, the show on Sunday was great overall, but I felt like it was too much content to take in. It was great to see the fans back at full capacity, but 10 full matches are a lot to remember. There is no reason for them to put on 4-hour shows. I think every match hit their mark in what they intended to accomplish, but that isn’t to say that every match was great. Most of the matches were indeed above average, but I think there was a lot of room to improve in some areas. I think most critics were just coming off of the high of having a full capacity crowd reaction to the spots. The show was very predictable. I got every pick right except the Casino Battle Royale and when you think about that match, it was pretty predictable as well. That isn’t a bad thing though. Also, before I jump in any further, Mark Henry is All Elite! That was a big shock to me. I didn’t expect him to leave WWE at all, but I think he will be great for AEW. With all of that being said, here are the results to Sunday’s action and my reaction to it all.

- Women’s Singles Match: NWA Women’s World Championship

Serena Deeb (C) over Riho

For the Buy-In portion, this match was great. There was a lot of great action and it gave us a chance to see both of these ladies in action. It feels like it has been a long time since these two have been in the ring and hopefully we see them some for coming up. I didn’t think Riho would win due to the fact that she isn’t on the NWA roster, but they gave us every inclination that she may actually win. She didn’t, but I like the fact that they had enough respect for them to have a 14-minute match. We’ll see what happens next with these two, but a great match to get the main action going.

GRADE: 8.6/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Hangman Adam Page over Brian Cage

This match started the show and what a match it was. This set up both competitors with future stories and did an excellent job to keep winning fans over. Page gets the win legitimately and it is likely that he will be Omega’s next big opponent and Cage loses, but due to the fact that he waved off his Team Taz cohorts. Cage wanted to win legitimately, but Team Taz didn’t think he could do it. They have been teasing the idea that Cage is on his way out since Revolution and this appears to be the nail in the coffin. Cage will likely be feuding with someone from Team

Taz coming up and I think he could possibly be the guy to take down Miro, when that time comes.

GRADE: 9.2/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match: AEW World Tag Team Championship

The Young Bucks (C) over Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston

This had a lot of action during it, but do you remember the ending of it? Because I don’t. I can’t tell you how the Bucks retained the belts and honestly, I couldn’t tell you at the end of the show on Sunday night how the match ended. All I could focus on was the fact that they were breaking the rules right in front of the ref for the majority of the match. AEW has an awesome tag team division, but garbage like this discredits the whole division. If they announce that it will be a tornado tag match, I have no problem with whatever they do, but at this point, they are just blatantly ignoring rules and passing it off as edgy. I really only see this in the matches involving the EVPs too, which makes me feel like the EVPs feel entitled to certain privileges. I don’t think that is the case, but it certainly comes off that way. Spots for the sake of doing spots is nothing more than a circus act and honestly, I’m convinced that this is the extent of The Young Bucks act, because despite being great performers, they haven’t shown me otherwise. I don’t feel anything in their matches other than watching a couple guys doing a trapeze act and that is a problem. Bucks fans can roast me or whatever, but that is the way I feel in the 2 years that I have seen them. This match had a lot of action, but no substance whatsoever.

GRADE: 7.7/10

- Casino Battle Royale

WINNER: Jungle Boy

Battle Royal matches are so difficult to grade because all it pertains to is having a lot of competitors in the ring trying to throw each other out. What they did here was good though. Jungle Boy coming out on top was an interesting move and I’m anxious to see him competing for the belt soon. My prediction of Nick Aldis wasn’t even a possibility, but Lio Rush was surprise entry. I didn’t expect to see him, but he looked to be in his natural element. It will be interesting to see what they have planned for him coming up, because he is an exciting performer. Jungle Boy throwing out Christian Cage was huge. I had a good feeling whoever was going to win would throw out Cage and that was the case. Good for Jungle Boy.

GRADE: 8.0/10

- Men’s Singles Match

Cody Rhodes over Anthony Ogogo

This was the worst match of the night. Not that it was terrible, it just wasn’t great. It came into the PPV has the worst storyline probably and the payoff wasn’t good. Much like the AEW Tag Title match, I can’t tell you how this match ended. If I can’t tell you how the match ended, it wasn’t a good match. They did what they needed to accomplish here with the result, but that was it. Rhodes remained the better performer and Ogogo kinda made a name for himself. There’s nothing else to say here.

GRADE: 7.0/10

- Men’s Singles Match: TNT Championship

Miro (C) over Lance Archer

I really enjoyed this match. It was the shortest of the night and said all it needed to say. Miro is showing what an asset he can be to AEW and is thriving as TNT Champion. Archer is no slouch and for Miro to win as decisively as he did was a good thing for him. Archer losing by KO also is ideal because you don’t want him tapping out or taking a pinfall loss. This match didn’t need to be a 5-star match and it wasn’t that. It was a good, hard-hitting contest between two of the biggest and baddest that AEW has to offer.

GRADE: 8.5/10

- Women’s Singles Match: AEW Women’s World Championship

Dr. Britt Baker DMD over Hikaru Shida (C)

Shida’s reign is over and we’re now in the DMD era of AEW. This match was everything it needed to be and more. This was an excellent match that made sense and wasn’t overdone. It lasted a little over 17 minutes and I feel like that is the perfect match time for this scenario. Shida faced and defended the belt against practically every female competitor in AEW and it would have been difficult to prolong her reign any longer. Baker has a ton of potential suitors for the belt and I’m excited to see what is next in the women’s division.

GRADE: 9.4/10

- Men’s Tag Team Match

Sting and Darby Allin over Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page

All eyes were going to be on Sting and he didn’t disappoint. For a man to move like that at 62 years old is remarkable. I can’t believe how well he performed. A tag match is the perfect way to put him back in action where he doesn’t have to be relied upon and still be the focal point. Also, I want to mention how insane Ethan Page throwing Darby Allin into the crowd from the ring was. It was insane! I had no idea that he had that kind of strength. Nevertheless, this wasn’t going to be match of the night and it wasn’t, but it wasn’t far off. I loved everything about this match.

GRADE: 9.3/10

- Three-Way Match: AEW World Championship

Kenny Omega (C) over Orange Cassidy and Pac

They gave us every reason to believe the impossible could be possible with this match and that is all that they needed to do here. I said before the match started that I, along with many fans would lose their mind if Orange Cassidy won the AEW belt in this match. We all knew that wasn’t going to be the case, but they gave us every reason to believe that it was possible. Despite being the odd man out, Pac quietly carried the match to greatness. I can’t say if it would’ve better without him, but it added another dynamic to a match with a lot of potential to begin with. I can’t say that I’m a big fan of Omega’s reign, because I have gone on record to say that this is the worst AEW Championship reign in the company, but I have to say, everything in this match was done the right way. And my closing thought will be that Orange Cassidy needs to be AEW World Champion at some point. The fans have totally bought into the idea and it needs to happen.

GRADE: 9.8/10

- Stadium Stampede Match

The Inner Circle over The Pinnacle

This match was just overdone. It was more than it had to be. It was longer than it had to be and it felt like it was taped even though it apparently wasn’t. Making it a point that fans were going to be at full capacity and not fully utilizing them in the main event was a bad idea no matter how you paint it. Some of us from The Sports Chief were watching it together and they’re mostly casual wrestling fans and they were ready for the show to be long over by this point in the night. It was just too much content and for casual fans, it is even worse. I didn’t think there was a way to successfully break up The Inner Circle at this particular moment in time and it didn’t make sense for The Pinnacle to win, especially considering they won the Bloods and Guts match. The coolest part of the match was the spot with Urban Meyer and Charlie Strong. People who aren’t football fans wouldn’t have a clue who they are, but football fans got a kick out of them getting involved. The part where they were in the “club” setting was stupid. We couldn’t see the action well and it felt forced. This was laid out like a cinematic match and it shouldn’t have been that way. Oh well. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what the main event should’ve been.

GRADE: 8.1/10

Yacs

AEW Double or Nothing (2021) Results and Reaction