Chair Shots With Killem Faulkner: Double Or Nothing Go-Home Dynamite

On January 4, 1999, Tony Schiavone famously quipped “that’ll put some butts in the seats” in response to the spoiler that Mick Foley would win the WWF Championship on Raw that night. Over 20 years later, on May 24, 2023, Schiavone was once again in the broadcast booth as AEW made its final push to put some butts in seats for its Double or Nothing pay-per-view. And although Mrs. Foley’s baby boy was nowhere to be seen, the show did promise three title matches, a big contract signing, and a check-in with the world champ and all three of his challengers. Did the company provide a compelling sales pitch for its big Memorial Day Weekend show, or would 1999 Schiavone have been justified in directing his sarcasm at how effective this show would be?

Best Match of the Night

*sigh* I really wish I had better news for you here. I’ve been critical of the build to Double or Nothing pretty much ever since Revolution – there have been a few highlights along the way, but it’s mostly been a lot of underwhelming talk and few compelling developments. I have no doubt the pay-per-view itself will be great, but I don’t feel like any of the rivalries that will form the basis for the matches on that show have been maximized despite plenty of time to develop them. I’ve pointed out several times that it seems like the Four Pillars match was introduced too early without enough material to keep the storyline hot for the better part of two months and involved too much talking for a company that built its reputation on pro wrestling over sports entertainment. Chris Jericho referencing the attack on Adam Cole’s girlfriend Britt Baker only served as a reminder that their feud hasn’t really escalated in the last month. Orange Cassidy is defending his International Championship in my favorite kind of match, a battle royale, because there’s no single challenger who has been established as worthy of a pay-per-view title match. So expecting this week’s go-home show to fix all of those problems (and more, I could go on but I won’t) was definitely unrealistic, but it still managed to underwhelm. The opener between Orange Cassidy and Kyle Fletcher was great, of course, but the finish was a bit of a letdown. Sure, I understand the storyline reasoning behind having Cassidy win by a cheap rollup – they’re pushing the “OC is basically running on fumes at this point” narrative after he’s been consistently defending his title week after week for the last six months or so – but that doesn’t make it any more enjoyable. The main event between the Blackpool Combat Club and the Lucha Brothers was also excellent with a somewhat better finish – the Young Bucks holding back Claudio Castagnoli as Penta and Rey Fenix hit the Fear Factor on Wheeler Yuta wasn’t ideal, but at least the winners hit their finisher to win the match. I even liked the trios match between the House of Black and three randos who had no chance (with all due respect) because the House Party rules always add an interesting flavor to the match and the unique presentation made it stand out from the rest of the card. But that’s it from an in-ring perspective for this week. I really have nothing else to say about the wrestling on this show – it was fine, but nothing must-watch. I guess if I had to put them in order, I would put the trios match as the lower runner-up, the International Championship match as the top runner-up, and the main event as the best, but that hardly matters when everything is just okay and none of it really made me more excited for the pay-per-view on Sunday.

Best Moment of the Night

Again, there was very little to write home about this week. I genuinely hope most of the people who bought tickets to this show also got tickets to Double or Nothing because otherwise they didn’t really get their money’s worth. Jungle Boy Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara cut decent promos, MJF was great on the mic as usual, and Darby Allin got the last word on this rivalry ahead of the pay-per-view, but given how much talk there already has been in this feud, there’s really no reason anyone would be more excited for the Four Pillars match as a result of these segments unless they’ve literally skipped the last month or more of Dynamite. Adam Cole and Chris Jericho had a decent contract signing as well, but the introduction of Sabu, who is going to be Cole’s backup alongside Roderick Strong to help neutralize the Jericho Appreciation Society, completely overshadowed the rest of the segment with its sheer absurdity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s cool that Sabu is getting a moment in wrestling in the year 2023, but I seriously question introducing him in this way. If the segment had ended with Jericho cockily reminding Cole of the JAS’s numbers advantage with Cole responding along the lines of “I’ve got an ace up my sleeve” (gambling pun intended because the pay-per-view is in Las Vegas, you see) and leaving it at that, I feel like the reveal of Sabu would have been much more fun on Sunday night rather than knowing who it’ll be in advance. I’m sure lots of people would be expecting the return of reDRagon, so the sheer absurdity of Vegas native Sabu would have been an exciting surprise if we hadn’t been told in advance. Knowing who it is at this point doesn’t really make me any more excited for the unsanctioned match – presumably Sabu will huck some chairs at the JAS as he did to Matt Menard during this segment, but I can only hope he won’t overshadow the match too much. I get that a contract signing with the promise of no physicality might seem kind of dry, but I don’t think giving away the identity of Cole’s backup was necessarily the juice this segment needed.

Worst Matches/Moments of the Night

Tony Khan completed his unnecessarily drawn out three-week Collision announcement this week while telling us what we already knew, that the first episode will be held in the United Center in Chicago. If you’re close enough to Chi-town to attend live (which I am – fingers crossed I can snag tickets), this was probably exciting news, but otherwise it’s pretty irrelevant where the show will be held. Absolutely nothing was revealed about the roster, what we should expect from the show, whether it will have separate titles from Dynamite, or anything else that might have been interesting to know. (The TNT Championship will probably move over, considering Dynamite is on TBS now, but I don’t know about the International Championship or the tag/trios titles, for instance. Hopefully they will resist the urge to add a second world title.) I suspect that information will come out in the next few weeks, but then why was this week’s announcement designated as something special?

Parting Shots

• Hey, did you remember that Taya Valkyrie and TBS Champion Jade Cargill are feuding? AEW sure did, as they threw Valkyrie in a random match with Lady Frost this week to remind us that the title will be defended at Double or Nothing. Considering the storyline of “Taya can use her finisher this time” was about as well established as, well, the storyline about her not being able to use her finisher in the first match (which is to say, barely established at all) I’m not sure what’s supposed to be different this time around, but at least the TBS Championship is going to be represented on the card.
• A video package showed Willow Nightingale defeating Mercedes Moné to win the NJPW Strong Women’s Championship – might we see a rematch between the two at Forbidden Door? (I know she was injured during the match, but we don’t know how serious it is at this point.) And then Mercedes can become All Elite as she was rumored to after leaving WWE in the first place? (I know she signed some sort of extension with New Japan recently, but we don’t know for how long.) Please, Tony Khan? I’ll stop making fun of your pointlessly overhyped and overlong announcements, I promise. Just give me this.
• It’s time for Double or Nothing predictions! I’m going to make them in order of confidence from least to most – I always try to figure out roughly how important the matches are or when I think they’ll appear on the card, but I really have no idea other than the main event so I figured I’d switch things up a little.
  • For my least confident pick, I know a battle royale isn’t an ideal spot for a title change, so Orange Cassidy may well retain despite his mounting (kayfabe) injuries, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say either Miro or someone representing New Japan will win the title here. I’ll make Miro my official prediction but if I had to guess on someone from New Japan, either Will Ospreay or Tomohiro Ishii would be logical choices.
  • Jamie Hayter retains the Women’s World Championship against Toni Storm – unless Hayter is legitimately injured, I think it makes more sense for her to retain here, but Storm has been on quite a run and her stable of heels aren’t above outright cheating to get what they want.
  • Wardlow retains the TNT Championship against Christian Cage – I’m really 50/50 on this match because it seems way too soon for the Wardaddy to lose his title and yet he’s been booked to lose the title over and over in situations where he arguably should retain, and Captain Charisma is certainly not above cheating to win despite doing absolutely nothing to earn this title shot in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised, though I would be disappointed, if Christian pulled off the upset to justify the head-scratching decision to put him in this match instead of Luchasaurus.
  • Adam Cole defeats Chris Jericho in an unsanctioned match – this should be an easy choice because Jericho doesn’t need the win and Cole could easily be in line for a world title shot soon, but the stipulation does lend itself to the JAS getting involved to screw over Cole unless he really does have some extra backup besides Sabu.
  • The Elite defeat the Blackpool Combat Club – again, this should be a slam dunk because Adam Page just re-joined Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks, but Anarchy in the Arena is more tailored to the heels winning as we saw in the stipulation’s first incarnation.
  • FTR retain the AEW Tag Team Championships against Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett – unless Mark Briscoe turns heel, which I sincerely doubt considering his brother Jay’s passing is still pretty fresh in wrestling fans’ minds, I don’t see Dax and Cash losing, but then again I can’t say for certain AEW wouldn’t put the titles on Lethal and Jarrett despite nobody wanting them around.
  • MJF retains the AEW World Championship – Jack Perry could turn heel and win, or Darby Allin could overcome the odds, but this seems like such an obvious choice. Maybe Darby hits the Coffin Drop or Sammy hits the GTH or an absurd flying maneuver only for MJF to take them out with the Dynamite Diamond ring (which is legal in a four-way, don’t forget) to steal the pin and retain. Whatever the case, it will almost certainly not be a clean title defense, but I would be very surprised if we got a new champ coming out of Double or Nothing.
  • Jade Cargill retains the TBS Championship against Taya Valkyrie – the story just has not been there. At all. Jade is going to lose eventually, and Taya wouldn’t have been the worst choice to dethrone her if she had been booked better since debuting, but there’s no justification for a title change here. The best we can probably hope for is some new contender staking her claim after a hard-fought title defense for the champ.
• I think those are the only matches that are officially confirmed at this point – we haven’t heard anything about Billy Gunn and the Acclaimed getting a title shot against the House of Black so maybe their battle royale win was just symbolic and not actually a #1 contendership. (I’m okay with that as I don’t think Caster and Bowens need to eat a loss like that, but it is disappointing that they won’t be on the show at all. Also, how are you going to have a show in Vegas without a “house rules” match?) We’ll almost certainly get another match or two on the buy-in show.

That’s it for another week – I’m a fan of AEW overall so it brings me no joy to report that the entire build to Double or Nothing has underwhelmed and that this week’s show wasn’t amazing in particular, but I am hopeful that the pay-per-view will be good and everyone involved will be freed up for something more interesting going forward. (We probably won’t have a complete picture of what to expect until after Forbidden Door, but I’m sure there will be some hints over the next month or so.) Thanks for joining me once again, enjoy the pay-per-view (or at least the long weekend) and I hope to see you all back here next week for more Chair Shots!