It’s been a rather eventful couple of months for AEW since their last Pay-Per-View. Their arrangements with Impact & NJPW have clearly boosted all companies involved. Impact especially feels like it’s hotter than ever right now, and you’ve got to give AEW some credit for that.
As much as it’s all been pretty cool, I haven’t been keeping up with Dynamite on a week-to-week basis as much as I would’ve liked recently. In fact, I’ve watched more episodes of NXT UK over the past month than Dynamite. That said, I’ve done my best to catch up with all the goings-on and make my predictions for Double or Nothing, which looks to be a brilliant show!
Serena Deeb(c) vs Riho
(NWA World Women’s Championship)
(Buy-In)
AEW’s women’s division is slowly improving. Not enough to get more than one match on a Pay-Per-View, but one step at a time, I guess.
I don’t think there’s a great deal to be said about this match. Both women are fantastic wrestlers who will no doubt be involved in the title scene sooner rather than later, but for now, they’ve just got to have matches to stick in our minds.
I’ll go with Serena Deeb to retain. As great as Riho is, the NWA Women’s title doesn’t seem like a good fit for her, and with NWA running their own shows again, I doubt they’d want the title to change hands on an AEW pre-show.
Hangman Adam Page vs Brian Cage
Page’s trajectory continues to be an interesting one. I still think he’s on track to eventually be the person to dethrone Omega as champion, but he’s definitely taking the long road to get there.
Cage is a great competitor, and I’m glad AEW are still finding good spots for him. He’s one of those people that I feel could fade from TV at any moment without anyone really noticing. That sounded like more of an insult than I meant it to be, but the point still stands. His win over Page was a surprising upset, as I did not expect Page to be taking any major losses this year, but it worked out well in terms of this story.
Page should hopefully come into this one with a lot of fire in this one, and the story can play with the mistakes he made in their first match together. I think Hangman Adam Page is going to get his win back here. As I’ve said, he needs to be on an upward trajectory now, and while another loss to Cage wouldn’t be the worst thing, a win seems like a better outcome.
Cody Rhodes vs Antony Ogogo
Sod this. Sod this so much.
I know the whole feud hasn’t been about the “yay America” thing, but its presence has really overwhelmed the feud. The whole schtick feels so outdated by this point, and I don’t see what this feud has to gain from it. Rhodes is an expert at creating emotional matches while facing down bigger opponents, playing on that would’ve been easy to create a compelling story.
I get it, the pro-USA stuff does good for the live crowds, but this is a company with an international audience. At best, people in non-USA countries have no reason to care, and at worst, they feel directly alienated because they’re being told that their country is the bad country. It doesn’t matter what country it is; I think the overall negative reception to Cody’s recent promos should be proof enough that it just doesn’t work anymore.
If this were WWE, I wouldn’t think twice about the pro-America person getting the win, but I’d like to think AEW would be more willing to take the risk of having Ogogo win. That said, now Cody’s using Dusty’s “American Dream” moniker, I don’t see him losing. Cody Rhodes winning will be a nice moment for the live crowd at the very least.
Sting & Darby Allin vs Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page
I can’t help but feel like this partnership with Sting is why Allin lost the TNT title. Not to say his run with Sting hasn’t been good, I just think he should’ve been given more of a chance to flourish on his own as a singles competitor with the title. He still defended it plenty, but it always felt secondary to whatever he was doing with Sting.
On top of that, is this really the best use of Sting? Sure, putting him in a singles match might be a terrible idea this late in his career, but what is anyone getting out of Sting feuding with Sky & Page, two (admittedly great) mid-card talents who have little to do with each other? It’s nice that the two of them are getting featured on Pay-Per-View, but losing to Sting & Allin can’t be a good look, right?
Or maybe they’ll win? It’d certainly be a nice surprise if they did. I’d originally considered picking Sky & Page for the reasons I said above. There’s nothing to gain from them losing, so surely they should win? Then I thought about it some more and realised Allin’s coming off a big loss to Miro, so he should probably get some heat back, and this is Sting’s first match in front of a full live crowd since his AEW debut, so it’ll probably be Sting & Darby Allin with the win.
Casino Battle Royale
(Winner Gets A Future AEW World Championship Match)
It’s battle royale time!
I’m not too convinced the Casino Battle Royale is that great of a format. It’s more interesting than a straight-up battle royal, I’ll admit. However, with the entrants coming in groups of five, it makes everyone feel less indistinguishable and like they all get less of a chance to shine, other than the Joker. All-in-all, it just feels like a kinda cheap Royal Rumble, which is such a top-tier piece of booking perfection, it’s better to not even try and replicate it.
Looking at the lineup we’ve got set out before us, I can’t see many viable contenders for the win. Matt Hardy is a possibility, that would make a nice dynamic with Omega. You should never count Penta out of the running. There’s a possibility Andrade shows up to put a spanner in things, but picking someone who’s not even in the match is generally a poor decision for predictions.
In the end, I’m going to go with who everyone else seems to be going with, and that’s Christian Cage. His story with Omega would likely be really good and would parallel Edge’s Wrestlemania story too (probably ending in the same crushing loss).
The Pinnacle vs The Inner Circle
(Stadium Stampede)
(If The Inner Circle Lose, They Must Disband)
What a crazy couple of month’s it’s been. At the start of the year, everyone was picking all kinds of crazy directions the Jericho/MJF story could go in. Would MJF depose Jericho as the group’s leader? Would the tension between Sammy & MJF tear the group apart? As always, MJF went with option C and tore the whole thing to shreds, starting a brand new faction that has been looking very strong ever since its formation.
I didn’t expect to see another Stadium Stampede match, but given the success of the first one, I don’t blame them for trying. It’ll be interesting to see how this will mesh with the live crowd. As entertaining as it is, I doubt they’ll have them staring at a screen for half an hour. Whatever happens, my expectations are high.
Picking a winner is a bit difficult. The Pinnacle got the win at Blood & Guts, so it wouldn’t hurt them to take a loss in this one. However, the stipulation of The Inner Circle breaking up if they lose has pushed me the other way. The Inner Circle has been around almost since the very beginning of AEW, we’ve seen all of those guys in the same formula for almost two years now. I think it’s probably time for everyone to move on. I know they have, for the most part, been great, but everyone involved is more than ready to break out on their own.
It’s a tough call because I could easily see this being a feel-good face victory, but I’m going with The Pinnacle.
Miro(c) vs Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)
Wow. I mean, we all had a feeling that his partnership with Kip Sabian was holding Miro back, but who knew he’d rise so quickly after ditching him?
Miro’s TNT title win was one of those decisions that seemed shocking and unusual in the moment but actually makes a lot of sense the more I thought about it. Allin was too busy dealing with Sting to bother with that title, so let’s get it away from him and do something more interesting with it, like a big ol’ hoss fight.
Lance Archer is an incredible talent. Whenever he’s on-screen, his whole performance sets the atmosphere on fire, and I love that. Jake Roberts is the ultimate mouthpiece for the guy, and amazingly, he works as both a heel and face. When it comes to the meshing of in-ring styles, I think Archer will have no trouble clicking with Miro for a heavy-hitting encounter.
I’m a little conflicted on the winner, though. Normal wrestling logic would dictate that Miro should retain since he’s only just won the title. However, I have a sneaking suspicion that Miro’s title win might just be to get the belt on Archer without having to do a face vs face fight. It would be a shame, but I’d also have no complaints as I love Archer right now. You could even create a scenario where the two trade the belt once or twice just so Miro isn’t left in the dust. It’s a risky pick, but I’m going with Lance Archer to get the title.
The Young Bucks(c) vs Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston
(AEW World Tag Team Championships)
The Young Bucks’ trajectory as of late has been interesting. All the weird non-drama of what may or may not be going on backstage aside, their heel turn has been weirdly understated. They aligned themselves with Omega, which isn’t even remotely a surprise, but given Omega was already doing really well with Gallows & Anderson, they felt a bit like secondary henchmen, which they never should.
Still, this feud with Moxley & Kingston has been pretty good on the whole. Moxley & Kingston have felt like kindred spirits ever since they first started feuding. Their chemistry and history was clear from the moment they appeared on screen together. Putting them in as a tag team is the perfect use of both men now Moxley is out of the title scene. It’s true that, if this were WWE, I’d criticise such a decision, but the difference is that I know AEW treats their tag division with some respect.
I could honestly see this one going either way. It may just be me, but it still feels like The Young Bucks have only just won the titles, even though they’ve held them for over 6 months, so I’m apprehensive to say they’ll lose. Then again, Moxley & Kingston are a really hot tag team at the moment, and a run with the titles would be a fantastic use of both men, so…flip a coin, I guess?
When in doubt, pick the champs to retain, so that’s what I’m doing. The Young Bucks win.
Hikaru Shida(c) vs Britt Baker
(AEW Women’s World Championship)
At last, we reach the point that the AEW Women’s Division feels like it’s been inexorably sliding towards since AEW’s announcement.
That makes it sound like I think it’s a bad decision, but in actuality, I think Britt Baker as women’s champion is the very best option for the company. She’s been far and away the best character in the division since its inception and is one hell of a wrestler with some brilliant matches under her belt. Her Lights Out match with Thunder Rosa shot her popularity into the stratosphere too.
Shida’s title reign has been a bumpy one. When given the chance to shine, it has been one of the best parts of AEW programming, as her matches with Nyla Rose will attest. The problem is those opportunities have come few and far between. Thankfully, the women’s division is getting more expansive and treated better in AEW. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s absolutely heading in the right direction, and Britt Baker as champion is what it needs to get to where we all want it to be.
In case I hadn’t already made it obvious, I’m picking Britt Baker to win the title. It just has to happen.
Kenny Omega(c) vs Orange Cassidy vs Pac
(AEW World Championship)
AEW has this amazing talent for giving us unexpected but brilliant world title feuds.
I did not see Orange Cassidy getting anywhere near the world title scene for a while. As great as he is, I’m not sure if people would’ve bought him in a singles feud for the title just yet. However, they went about it perfectly and carefully crafted a feud that has got him over as a main eventer better than any singles match could’ve.
First of all, him & Pac put on a great number 1 contender’s match on Dynamite. Putting Pac in the feud two gives things a great dynamic, as it allows Cassidy to be more of an exclamation point on the match than anything else. Pac vs Cassidy last year was easily one of Cassidy’s best ever matches, so pulling in that opponent specifically was a great choice.
That said, Kenny Omega is not losing that title anytime soon. His run as the belt collector with the AAA & Impact titles has been one of the most exciting stories in wrestling of late, and there’s no way he’s losing the AEW title before he loses both of the other titles first. That said, this match will put Cassidy in the position of the credible main-eventer he should be, which is all I think anyone really wanted out of this feud. So good job.
The Strong Style Smark 