wrestling review

Before we get directly to the article, just two quick things and that’s first, for whoever’s reading this pre-post, sorry that you have to read this article in Comic Sans. Yes, you have the option to change it to Times New Roman the moment you see it.

The second thing, it relates to wrestling. As I write this early on May 20th before the show actually happened for this article, Shad Gaspard, who was a wrestler for WWE with former wrestler JTG in a team known as Cryme Tyme has unfortunately died on May 17th at Venice Beach, saving his son from some rough waves and unfortunately, a riptide took him away, and he died from it. His body washed ashore today, and it was confirmed that it indeed was him.

My thoughts and condolences go to the friends and family of Shad, the former employees who worked with him and JTG, and rest his soul for his sudden and untimely passing away, and putting his family first in such a situation. He was 39 years old

R.I.P. Shad Gaspard

1981-2020

It’s now 6:30 on Sunday morning as I write this and I’ve watched the show, and unfortunately, we lost another one, this time, because of cyberbullying. Hana Kimura, a Japanese wrestler who wrestled for women’s wrestling company Stardom, and wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling, took her own life and was confirmed dead yesterday, on the day of the show. She made two final posts before she took her own life, and she was only 22 years old, four months before her 23rd birthday. As you know, we here at All Ages Of Geek are here to spread positivity, to fandoms and geek culture where there has been notorious amounts of toxicity, and that’s been the goal here since the beginning. And to know that someone who is literally only two and a half years older than me, took her life because of the cyberbullying, just sends chills down my spine on how messed up people can be. Wrestling has been known to have the most toxic fanbases to exist, but this has unfortunately taken it too far, as no wrestler, at 22 should take their own lives because of what some person, or some people say on the internet. So just like how Kat dives into an anime and/or internet series that have notorious fanbases for both the good and the bad, I’ll be making the same stance with giving you guys a PayPerView wrestling review, whether it be AEW, WWE, NJPW, ROH or MLW, I will give you guys a wrestling PayPerView review in the notorious wrestling fan base, and this incident that has happened, paints wrestling fans like me, in a bad light.

My thoughts and condolences to the friends, family and co-workers, past and present, and the fans who have been affected by the untimely passing of Hana.

R.I.P. Hana Kimura

1997-2020

As I now sip on some coffee for the early afternoon, man, what a freaking show it was last night. It was a mixture of fun, entertainment, hardcore, straight-up wrestling, and a lot of holy shit moments to boot. As you guys know, WrestleMania 36 was supposed to be the only wrestling review I planned on doing, but because WWE decided to up their creativity and their booking (for the most part) for Money In the Bank, AEW went Double or Nothing [pun very much intended] with this show, and they sure as hell won the double on this. Not only that but when this article goes up, it’ll be one whole year since the first Double or Nothing event that kick-started the company into the position it is in today.

Like I did with Money In the Bank, the main event is gonna be talked more than the other matches, but that’s because there’s a whole lot to talk about with the main event, and believe me when I tell you, there’s gonna be A LOT to talk about with the main event of this show.

With that being said, get your casino chips, bet on black, catch 21, and saddle up for some cowboy shit, because it’s time to review the second iteration of AEW Double or Nothing.

Match 1: Private Party vs The Best Friends

In our AEW Buy In match, which is basically their pre-show, we get Isiah Kassidy and Marq Quen of Private Party against Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta of The Best Friends. Now, this match is actually for being the #1 tag team on AEW, and it’ll give them an opportunity on taking on the AEW Tag Team Champions. This match gets off the ground pretty well, but there are some moments where Private Party weren’t doing too well, there were a few sloppy moments, but that could be attributed to ring rust as they haven’t wrestled much during the pandemic, but kudos to Private Party for making a tribute to Shad and Cryme Tyme hitting the G9. Overall, this match ends with The Best Friends going over in 15 minutes with a decent outing making them the current #1 Tag Team on AEW.

Match 2: Casino Ladder Match

So this match was pretty bonkers to start the entire show. So the winner of this match, with a large casino chip hanging from the rafters you need to get, gets a title shot at the AEW World Championship. Our contestants are Frankie Kazarian, Scorpio Sky, Kip Sabian (w/ Penelope Ford and Jimmy Havoc), Colt Cabana, Orange Cassidy, Darby Allin, Luchasaurus, Joey Janella and a mystery person, due to Rey Fénix getting injured on the go-home show of AEW Wednesday Night Dynamite.

This match was total chaos from beginning to end, with some crazy insane spots, to some of the more funny stuff you’ll see, although there was one hoaky as hell spot, where Marko Stunt, who’s like 5’2, “chokeslammed” Orange Cassidy, and I was like “okay, that’s a bit too much even for me.” Ultimately, Brian Cage was the last entrant of the match and he cleared house at first, got taken down, then cleared house again and became the winner of the ladder match in 28:30, which means he now has a shot at the AEW World Championship.

Match 3: Maxwell Jacob Friedman (MJF) vs Jungle Boy

Fun fact before I get into talking about this match, but I actually got heeled on by MJF back in December for the MLW tapings for the Opera Cup. Long story short, the street team that I’m part of, got a chance to talk to Low Ki, and while talking to him, MJF just yoinked my fedora off my head and threw it on the ground, and did the Flair strut away. I thought one of the guys of the street team was taking the piss outta me for a sec, and then I realized it was MJF, and I can’t even get mad because he’s a heel, and damn it, he does it pretty well.

Now for the match, it was a really good match from start to finish. It felt like an old school wrestling match, with some new school elements to it. Also throughout the match, I was wondering where Wardlow was, since he’s usually at ringside with MJF, but he was literally nowhere to be found. Fun fact as well, Jungle Boy is the son of the late actor, Luke Perry. Ultimately, MJF gets the win with a pinning predicament to get the cleanest win I’ve ever seen him get in 17:20. I honestly never thought I’d see an MJF match where he wins as clean as he did, but man, it was cleaner than I expected.

Match 4: Cody Rhodes vs Lance Archer for the inaugural AEW TNT Championship

Before we get into the match, firstly, Iron Mike Tyson is on AEW on this show. Second, that belt, Jesus Christ, it’s a massive no from me. Now Tony Schiavone, one of the commentators, and the maker of the belt have since confirmed that the belt is not complete yet because of the entire pandemic that has happened, which is totally understandable. I do wonder how the belt is gonna look post-pandemic, but right now, that belt doesn’t look too good, it looks kinda rough, but at least we got the idea on how it’s gonna look.

Now for the match, it was, once again, a pretty solid match. Cody before this, and really for the past year, has had a lot of high profile losses, even one where he can’t compete for the AEW World Championship, due to losing to Chris Jericho where he lost and can’t compete for the championship at all. Or at least I think so. This really felt like a match that Cody needed to win, or else it’ll feel like he’s constantly losing these high profile matches over and over again, which already happened a lot in WWE with Braun Strowman. Arn Anderson, who’s with Cody, crotched Lance when he was on the top rope, which prompted a ref to come out and ask Mike if it was true, which he said yes and Arn was thrown out, but to make it even, Jake “The Snake” Roberts was also thrown out, but it seemed like he wasn’t havin’ it, and neither was Mike Tyson, as Jake was coming down the ramp with a burlap sack, assumingly with a snake in it, Tyson takes his shirt off and confronts Jake, prompting him to flee away. Ultimately, Cody does get the win with two Cross Rhodes to Lance to become the first-ever AEW TNT Champion in 22 minutes.

Match 5: Kris Statlander vs Penelope Ford

It was a pretty standard match. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D was supposed to be in this match, but she injured her knee, Ford took her place and I had no idea about the story behind the match, so it was kinda eh for me. Plus, I just do not get the whole “from the Andromeda Galaxy” gimmick Statlander has, it just seems both very unbelievable and unrealistic, it just keeps throwing me off every time I hear it. Statlander gets the win in 5:30.

Match 6: Shaun Spears vs Dustin Rhodes

This was more nothing than a match, but it was admittedly entertaining to watch. Long story short, people thought Dustin was retired because he got his ass handed to him during the TNT Championship tournament, but he showed up, kicked Shaun’s ass, pretty literally too, and won the match in 3:20.

Match 7: Nyla Rose (c) vs Hikaru Shida in a No DQ Match for the AEW Women’s World Championship

This match was a hell of a match from these two ladies. Nyla Rose has been a pretty dominant champion throughout her reign as champion, and this was a hell of a way for her to go out in a blaze of glory. The brutality and the animosity, along with the feeling of Hikaru really wanting this win and doing everything she can to win this championship, it was all there without a doubt, and both of these ladies did a hell of a job in this match. The match ends with Hikaru making one final swing with a Kendo Stick to Nyla’s head, breaking said stick from impact, and knocking her out with the running knee, to win the match to become the new AEW Women’s World Champion in 16:40.

Match 8: Jon Moxley (c) vs Brodie Lee for the AEW World Championship

This match, I was a little bit nervous about it. The last match that these two had were in CZW and unfortunately, the match wasn’t well received at all. Luckily, this match was very well received.

This was more of a straight up fight than a match, and man did they fight. It was pretty much the second of three massive brawls in this entire show to happen, and they went all out with this. The biggest spot in the entire match is when Moxley hits Lee with a Paradigm Shift through the stage, which prompts all the refs and the medics to check up on both of them, and while Moxley was fine, Brodie was busted open and bleeding right around his hairline. Moxley hits another Paradigm Shift, and Brodie kicks out at one, and just keeps going at Brodie. He hits a second Paradigm Shift and gets a two count, which Moxley turns into a bulldog chokehold into a sleeper, which Brodie passes out and Moxley retains his championship in 15:30, this was a hell of a match.

Match 9: Stadium Stampede Match

Folks, I must tell you now that you’re gonna want to watch this match, and grab some popcorn, juice and snacks, because this is gonna be a long dissection of this match, possibly a lot longer than the Money In the Bank dissection.

This match is happening inside the empty TIAA Bank Stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play at, and this match has a ring right in the middle of the 50 yard line, and on opposite ends, on the right side you have The Inner Circle, which consists of Jake Hager (formally known as Jack Swagger in WWE), Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz, and Lé Champión, Chris Jericho, while on the other end, is Broken Matt Hardy and The Elite, which consists of Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson) and… where’s Hangman Adam Page?

Too late, the match is underway and both teams start charging at each other to the 50 yard line into a big ol’ brawl. After a few minutes, we now see Hangman Page on a horse, and he then chases after Sammy, which Sammy ultimately outruns the horse and Page. There’s some action in the ring, but eventually everything disperses since there’s so much going on in this entire match. The Young Bucks are brawling with Sammy and Jericho, and Matt did a massive moonsault off the goal post, only for a two count, and the action spills into the stands. Santana does the Irish whip to Kenny, and goes into the stadium, and it’s a nice little nod to WWF No Mercy for the N64. Adam is still finding Sammy, but tells the horse to stay, as he literally goes to the bar to have some drinks. Nice.

So our next chunk of the fight, it’s Santana and Ortiz as they brawl with Omega and Matt Hardy. Omega puts a barricade on this set of cocktail tables, only for him to be put on it, and both Santana and Ortiz hit him with a massive powerbomb through the barricade and they cut away in a perfect timing, because Ortiz looked like he fell after the move was hit. Ultimately it was a two count as Matt Hardy broke up the count and he takes on the both of them at the same time into a pool that’s in the stadium. How many stadiums in the U.S, Baseball or American Football have pools? I’m curious. Funny little tidbit, but as Santana is going in on Matt, Ortiz is saying he can’t swim. The pool is about three and a half feet of water, and I couldn’t help but laugh at that. He eventually gets in and they both try to drown him, and surprisingly, the water was filled with water from the lake of reincarnation and Broken Matt Hardy became Hardy Boyz Matt Hardy for a blink and you miss it moment. Then the screen changes to MATTer of Fact which I cringed but laughed at, because it meant that we got V1 Matt Hardy which even though it was before my time, and I hadn’t really watched a Matt Hardy match in his V1 gimmick, it was still pretty cool to watch nonetheless. Santana and Ortiz seemingly drowns him, but Broken Matt Hardy is back AGAIN, pulls them both back in the pool and Ortiz is the first out, struggling to get out of three feet of water might I add, and Ortiz is put on a table, Santana charges and gets flipped into Ortiz right through the table. Excalibur on commentary makes a nice nod to Metallica by saying “For Whom the Bell Tolls” after the backdrop, a nice reference. But literally right after Matt puts Ortiz under the bell the Jaguars ring after every touchdown, rings it, and Ortiz just sells the absolute hell out of this to the point where I was laughing hysterically. He was basically having a standing seizure from the bell, and then Matt sat him down on a wheelchair, and duct taped him to the chair, and he’s still convulsing. Matt and Santana keep brawling, with Matt putting Santana in the packaged ice box and locking it up with a lone broom, and that is the end of this chunk, and the end of Santana and Ortiz.

We now see Jake Hager looking for Page, he sees his horse and goes into the bar where we see Page sipping on a glass of triple whiskey. Matt if you’re reading this, you can judge me if that’s an actual thing, that’s what the commentators said and I’m going by what they said it is. Page pours Jake a glass, and we have a full on whiskey fueled bar room brawl between the two. It gets pretty intense and Jake gets the upper hand and slams Page onto the pool table, then puts Page on the counter of the bar, and just drags him from end to end like an from an old western movie. Just classic stuff. Jake does a gut-wrench powerbomb through the table for a two count, and here comes Kenny Omega for the save of his tag partner. They absolutely batter him with four bottles full of alcohol, and Omega knees him, and Page uses Omega as leverage to use the Buckshot Lariat on Jake, taking him out of the match. Page pours out a cup of milk and Omega a whiskey, which looking at it now, it’s a bottle of Jack, but I bet because licensing, they had to cover it up, and Page drinks the whiskey and Omega gets the milk.

We go back to the field where Sammy and Matt Jackson are having a scuffle and at the endpoint of the field, Matt does a northern lights suplex. And another. And another. And another. We’ll get back to them later on. Meanwhile Nick and Chris Jericho are having a fight. Matt is still suplexing Sammy and now they’re at the 50 yard line. Nick and Chris are still fighting, and after Nick gets a good distance from Jericho, he’s just consistently launching footballs to him. 100% completion as well since all his throws have made contact. Jericho takes Nick out for a bit and we see Jackson DeVille challenging Jericho, and he’s having none of it, as Jericho hits DeVille with a Judas Effect, just leveling him. Matt is STILL going, and he’s close to a touchdown. And now Chris Jericho is the wicked witch of Canada as he puts a cone on his head. We’ve all been gnome’d. Nick superkicks him and they’re back to brawling, with Jericho pulling out his baseball bat, Floyd to take out Matt, but only for a two count. I’m not joking when I say this, but Jericho challenges referee Aubrey Edwards two count and they go to the replay booth, and it’s obvious it’s a two count and a frustrated Chris Jericho just says “you’re a shitty referee” and Aubrey says “it was two.” As you can tell, I’m having a blast writing this. TOUCHDOWN from Matt Jackson as he literally suplexed Sammy from end to end and spiked Sammy’s head into the ground, but while celebrating, the ref threw a flag for excessive celebration and unsportsmanlike conduct. Matt’s rebuttal? Superkicks him, no reply. I wish I was joking, this is all actually happening. Nick and Chris are still brawling and Matt comes in to save Nick, and puts Jericho on the table, and Nick runs from the top of the seating section, to the railing, and does a massive splash to Jericho, taking him out for the rest of the match as well. Page walks out with a line marker, probably drunk and lines Jericho. Just, yes.

We reach the final chunk of this Shakespearean match as Sammy gets woken up by the field sprinklers. And then, we see Matt Hardy and Omega in a golf cart, reminiscent of when they ran over Sammy with one a few weeks prior on Dynamite. Time for round 2! Sammy just books it and does the Lambeau Leap over the walls and just starts throwing everything to hold back the entire team, as he’s the last man standing now. He gets on a platform making his final stand and while he tried to choke out Matt Hardy, Vanguard 1, who was destroyed, came back as the new and improved, NEO 1. The match reaches its ultimate ending as Omega sets Sammy up on his shoulders in an electric chair, Matt Hardy is screaming “DELETE!” and we see the biggest One Winged Angel onto a wooden frame with a crash pad below, which was a 10+ foot drop, pins Sammy, and The Elite with Matt Hardy wins the match, in one of the greatest 30+ minute matches I’ve ever seen.

Double or Nothing 2020. What a fantastic show. Only two matches on the card were pretty meh, but everything else was good or great, to the mastodonian ending of the Stadium Stampede Match. Brian Zane of Wrestling With Wregret gave the Stadium Stampede Match 6/5 stars and I’d agree, it was that damn good. Overall, this is a must watch show, hands down. Wrestlemania was pretty good for what it was, and Money In the Bank was the most entertaining PayPerView WWE had put out in a while, and I wondered how AEW would pull this off, but they blew Money In the Bank out the water. I have to recommend watching this show to the highest degree and give AEW Double or Nothing 2020 a five star rating. A fantastic show from beginning to end, entertaining as hell and an absolute must watch for the Stadium Stampede Match, as it will be a PayPerView etched into the annals of wrestling history.

AEW Double or Nothing 2020 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐