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NXT Takeover: In Your House: Every Match Ranked

NXT Takeover had been and gone yet again and…well it wasn’t the best Takeover ever, was it? Admittedly, even a sub-par Takeover is still a damn good show, but I don’t think I’ll be alone in calling it the worst Takeover of the past few years. I feel Takeovers are the kind of shows that depend on a crowd for a lot of their heat, more so than other shows. There are a couple of matches that I’ll discuss in just a moment, where I think the performances were noticeably lesser than they usually would be in front of a full live audience.

That said, there was still plenty to enjoy, including what might be my favourite WWE match of the year so far. Let’s break it down, shall we?

6 – Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart def. Candice LaRae & Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

This match didn’t feel like a Takeover match in the slightest.

As I said in my predictions, unless it’s a fight between factions and 6-person tag match isn’t something that should be featured on a PPV (or equivalent). It just doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. It’s good that these women got a chance to show their stuff, but given how many people were involved, everyone was fighting to be seen. NXT touted that their women’s division was “the deepest in the world” several times last night, a valid claim, but it’s entirely pointless if they don’t work out a good way to feature it on their biggest shows. Takeovers have always been about the biggest feuds, and most important matches and NXT needs to start building to more than one big women’s match for each show.

The action in the match was alright, but I didn’t think it was anything overly exciting. I liked how big of a role Shotzi Blackheart got to play in the match. With her being the newest star in the match, I was happy to see her getting show her stuff notably more than anyone else involved. Nox and Kai, unfortunately, feel like they’ve lost the heat from their feud a bit now. Whenever they were together in the ring, the intensity that I felt during their initial feud was seemingly gone. That might just be a factor of all the women involved with the match, so I hope it comes back when this splits into singles’ feuds again.

5 – Adam Cole(c) def. Velveteen Dream
(NXT Championship)
(Backlot Brawl)

It’s official, NXT just doesn’t understand what made all the other on-location matches great.

First thing’s first, the look of this match was absolutely horrible. The way they’d rigged up the lighting with the car headlights and massive spotlights meant that every shot they were in it was much too bright, with glare on the lenses making it hard to follow what was going on. Then, whenever they went outside of those lights, it was way too dark, so it was still hard to follow the action. This wasn’t helped by the hyperactive camerawork. Nevermind the fact that they cut to a different shot roughly every five seconds, but every shot was ridiculously shaky and even out of focus at some points during the match. I can understand what they were going for with the chaotic nature of the match, but it just made it difficult to watch.

Even if there wasn’t a problem with the cameras, I didn’t care much for the action. It was your standard WWE ‘hardcore’ match, which meant a lot of slowly meandering around the place, occasionally stopping to hit each other with something. Dream didn’t feel like he was playing the same character tonight either. I don’t mind him adding a more intense facet to things, but Dream is a character with a VERY distinct style, and it didn’t feel like he stayed true to it last night.

As much as I harped on about how Dream had to win in my predictions, I don’t think Cole retaining is the end of the world. It’s undeniable how amazing of a champion Cole has been, my only worry is that we’re very close to running out of challengers. I assume that Dexter Lumis is next in line for a title shot, given his involvement in this match, so I imagine he’ll be the one to finally slay the king, but if he doesn’t, then we could be at risk of this getting stale.

4 – Keith Lee(c) vs Johnny Gargano
(North American Championship)

This is the match that I think suffered the most from now crowd.

Gargano is the type of character that draws a great deal of the drama and story of his matches from the crowd. This regularly makes for some excellent matches, but now he’s taken his character in a new direction, and one of the critical tools in his arsenal is suddenly gone. I don’t think Gargano suited the slower, more methodical heelish style very well at all. Especially when he’s going up against a guy like Keith Lee, I don’t have any interest in seeing him ‘wear down’ a limb. I wouldn’t call the match boring at any point; however, it didn’t feel like it ever kicked into a higher gear that makes Takeover matches amazing.

There were a couple of points in the match where it looked like things were about to ramp up and get great, but they never did in the end. I praise Gargano for experimenting with his style, but this was a match where he was undoubtedly the underdog. I think the match could’ve worked a lot better if Gargano had started off by manoeuvring circles around Lee, only for Lee to have to try and slow Gargano down or match-pace with him. That way Gargano could’ve continued to wrestle his more fast-paced, exciting style without screwing up the face/heel story the match was trying to tell.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Even though I don’t think Gargano was at his best last night, he was still very good and was able to play off of Lee’s swagger and style to significant effect. I think he showed signs of the effective heel character he could become if he goes down the route Seth Rollins did in 2014/15. I’m not entirely sure where his character goes from this point, but I remain optimistic that Gargano can learn from this match and create something great for next time.

3 – Finn Balor def. Damian Priest

Balor has seemed so much more comfortable since coming back to NXT. I’ve not loved his promos where he’s been talking like someone who read the Wrestling Observer once and thinks they know it all, but in the ring, he appears to be back in his element.

This match didn’t blow me away, but it was definitely an enjoyable bout. The styles of these two meshed well, and I think they had some really nice chemistry. The element of the steel stairs constantly being a factor in the match was a nice way to tell a simple story and it helped break up the big sections where Priest would be slowly picking Balor apart. Balor was able to switch back to a face style while maintaining the more hard-hitting feel he gained since arriving back in NXT. It feels like Balor is really relishing in the freedom the black & gold brand has given him.

This didn’t feel like the star-making match I feel like it was designed as for Priest though. I do think he came away from this with his stock in NXT raised, but not nearly as much as it should’ve been. I’d be curious to know what the explanation is behind having Balor winning. I guess we’ll see if it was worth it depending on what he does next, but I still think this should’ve gone to Priest. Looking good in defeat absolutely helps him build himself up, but looking good in victory would’ve done it so much more.

2 – Karrion Kross def. Tommaso Ciampa

This is what a star-making performance is supposed to look like.

This wasn’t a long one, but it didn’t need to be. It had a job to do, so it got in, did it and got out, sometimes that’s all you need. It got a bit of everything in there too. The opening had lots of intensity to it as both men fought for control and one Kross got a handle on things, you got the feeling that it was just a matter of time until Ciampa was finished. I hope they find a way to play on this a bit more in the coming months because there’s the potential for a really good story of Ciampa having to look inwards to see how he was so quickly dispatched of by Kross.

It wasn’t just a glorified squash match though, because there were a couple of fun back-and-forth sections. Ciampa’s last comeback spot especially got my blood pumping with how freakishly fast he seemed to be able to execute something. These arguably helped Kross look even better than if it was a straight-up squash match because now it feels like his victory was more hard-fought than it otherwise would’ve been. It wasn’t as easy as all his other wins so far, he actually had to work for it. More importantly, we saw that when he does attempt to work for it, very few will be able to stand in his way.

This was a great way to establish a new feature player in the men’s division, and right now, it feels like a championship reign for Kross is very much a matter of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’.

1 – Io Shirai def. Charlotte Flair(c) & Rhea Ripley
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Match of the year, I’ll call that right now. I loved this match.

As I touched on in my predictions, all three women here have a firm grasp of their characters and exactly what their motivations are going into this match. There was so much heat going into this thing, and they absolutely made use of all of it. Contrary to how I thought the match would go, all three women were involved in pretty much all of the action. There were very few moments where one woman petered out of the ring but even when they did, it wasn’t for very long. It meant that the pace of this one could move at a fever-pitch from start to finish, which is the kind of match that I absolutely love.

All of the dynamics between the women got played upon here. I really got the sense that Rhea was just out for revenge on Charlotte and paid much less mind to Io, which eventually cost her the title. Charlotte, meanwhile, was at her heelish best, doing everything in her power to get Io and Rhea to fight each other and anytime there was an opening for Charlotte to get the advantage, she pounced right on it. Then you had Io who was fighting desperately and viciously the whole way through. She gave the impression of someone who didn’t care who she was fighting, she was going to do everything she could to get the title.

There were so many fantastic moments that to list them all would do a disservice to this incredible match. My personal favourite moment was when Charlotte and Rhea decided they were just going to spend two minutes absolutely wailing on each other with some really stiff looking punches and kicks. At first, I genuinely thought that tempers were flaring between the two women, but it eventually became clear that they were trying something different to tell the story of how much they hated each other; it definitely worked.

In the end, the night belonged to Io Shirai though and I’m thrilled that things turned out this way. I initially thought she didn’t have a place in this story, but she instead became a vital part of it, and now she’s finally got the championship. Hopefully, Charlotte sticks around in NXT long enough to have a one on one rematch at the next Takeover because that will undoubtedly be another top-tier match. Even if she doesn’t, the NXT women’s division has so many spectacular wrestlers in it right now, that I don’t think Io will be hard-pressed to find good challengers anytime soon.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this review. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this time on Saturday, where the wrestling just doesn’t stop! As I’ll be giving you my predictions for Backlash.

NXT Takeover: In Your House: Predictions & Analysis

AEW has shot their shot, now it’s time for NXT to fire back. This should be a loaded one.

Like always, looking at the card for this Takeover has me very excited. I honestly think that NXT had suffered significantly more than Raw, Smackdown or AEW since we’ve been forced into empty arena shows. So much of NXT relies on the performers at Full Sail feeding off one of the most dedicated crowds in modern wrestling and it feels like everyone’s performance has been lacking something since the fans were forced out. Of course, this is happening all across wrestling right now, but for some reason, the issue really stands out to me when I watch NXT.

That said, all of these matches have ‘match of the year’ potential as far as I’m concerned, so I sincerely hope this show blows me away like almost every Takeover from the past few years has.

Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart vs Candice LaRae & Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

I mean, it’s good that the women’s division is finally getting more representation on Takeovers than just the one title match but…was this really the best way to go about it? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining match but, unless it’s a fight between duelling factions, 6-person tag matches always feel really unimportant.

As for the competitors, I like them, but I can’t see how this will do much in benefitting any of their stories. I know the Yim vs LaRae feud is still pretty fresh right now, and I would’ve preferred a one on one match between these two rather than a fairly pointless match that just gets everybody involved for no real reason. Nox and Kai remain firmly opposed, but after their match in January, the shine has come off the apple somewhat in regards to their feuds, and I don’t really fancy seeing it again. Blackheart, on the other hand, is a wrestler that I can’t get enough of, so more of her, please.

As for picking a winner, it’s pretty tricky purely because it’s such an unimportant match. It’s not like anything significant will be gained for the victors. It probably won’t even be mentioned on Wednesday. I’m going with Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart, purely to balance out the face/heel wins that I’ve predicted throughout the other matches.

Finn Balor vs Damian Priest

While it’s impossible to deny that Finn Balor has been given a fantastic new lease on life since joining NXT, he seems to have ended up floating around without a purpose more than I’d have hoped. Until a few weeks ago, Balor had basically no role on the show. While I’m happy that he was finally given a solid storyline in the form of searching for his attacker, I’m not sure this match will do anything to help his position in NXT long-term.

Damian Priest, on the other hand, can pretty much only gain from having this match. He’s been teasing a slow and steady rise to the top for about 6-8 months now and just being a part of a big match with Balor should give him some form of a boost, even if it isn’t the biggest. I’m not sure what kind of match these two will produce either. I’ve always found Balor’s style hard to define, it’s a bit hard-hitting, but also quite technical and there’s a lot of high-flying stuff in there too. Meanwhile, Priest focuses more on the quick but brutal style of offence that people like Aleister Black use to great effect, so as long as these two guys click in the ring, we should be in for a treat.

As for a winner, I think it’s got to be Damian Priest. Unless there are plans for Balor to chase the NXT title anytime soon, then I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from Balor winning. Priest is still an up-and-comer with all the potential in the world to be a star and NXT are usually good at valuing their fresher stars over the established guys on the brand. Speaking of…

Tommaso Ciampa vs Karrion Kross

If you need any indication as to how much NXT are investing in Kross, just watch his entrance. It’s a veritable rock-opera that takes the mystique and cool factor of Aleister Black’s entrance and turns it up as high as it can possibly go. Like most people who show up in NXT, I know basically nothing about any of Kross’ previous work, but I’ve heard only good things, so I’m excited to see what he can do in his first big match.

Looking at Ciampa, his return has been pretty underwhelming all things considered. WarGames was a fantastic standout performance for him, but then he lost Cole in his big title match. That was fine, as it led to the final payoff (hopefully) to the Gargano/Ciampa series which was…actually quite boring. I know this divided opinion somewhat, and it was by no means an awful match, but it didn’t bring the excitement out of me like all of their previous encounters had.

I don’t think that’s going to change following this feud with Kross either. He’s said several times that he never wants to leave NXT (and will basically quit wrestling if anyone forces him to) so the only thing left for him to do for the foreseeable future is put over the younger guys. It will undoubtedly help NXT has a whole, that much is undeniable, but I think it could cause people to lose interest in Ciampa pretty quickly.

If I hadn’t already made it clear, I’m confident that Karrion Kross is going to walk away from this one as the winner. Unless someone unexpected costs Kross the match, then I see absolutely no value in Ciampa winning this one.

Keith Lee(c) vs Johnny Gargano
(North American Championship)

So Gargano vs Ciampa also gave us the brand new heel Gargano. Something that would’ve been awesome if it had happened a couple of years ago but now…eh. The promos he’s been cutting with LaRae have been alright. What he’s actually been saying has been good enough, although the presentation of it is a bit weird. The main problem I have with it is that he doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything unique as a heel. When he was skirting the line between the two early last year, it was incredibly compelling, but now it just feels like he’s doing heel things for generic heel reasons. Keith Lee, meanwhile, is still the greatest human ever. Everything about him is just absolutely lovable, and nothing will ever make me stop rooting for the guy.

These two have very different in-ring styles, but I think it they’ll mesh well in this match. Gargano’s style is one that I don’t think needs to be altered all that much now he’s a heel, it’ll still make for a fantastic match where he’s able to look like an arsehole the entire time. Conversely, Lee’s power and agility will work wonders against Gargano’s frantic style, so I think this is going to be an exciting match to watch.

This is probably the one I’m struggling the most with in terms of picking a winner. After beating Ciampa and taking his character in a new direction, it would make sense for Gargano to get the belt and do something interesting with it. However, Keith Lee is still wildly popular, and I don’t think we’re even close to seeing everything he can do with the title. It’s a tough call, but I’m leaning more towards Keith Lee retaining. As much as I think Gargano could benefit from holding the title, I don’t think it’s in any way essential, especially considering he’s already won it once before. Plus, I really like Keith Lee, you guys.

Adam Cole(c) vs Velveteen Dream
(NXT Championship)
(Backlot Brawl)

When it comes to feuds that have suffered thanks to the pandemic, I really think this one does it. Everything was primed and ready for Dream to take the title from Cole at Tampa Bay, it would’ve felt like a proper culmination of the story. Then, the real world intervened, and that match was put on hold. So now, the NXT creative team had to scramble to put together another two month’s worth of story to get us here. The promos have been pretty good, which is to be expected given who’s involved, but the elements like the first match ending in a DQ have been uninspired and hurt the story in the long run.

In regards to what this match will be like, I’m not optimistic if I’m being honest. Were we going to get a straight wrestling match then I’d be anticipating a match of the year, but it’s not. I’ve tried my best to avoid any spoilers, but from what I’ve heard, it’s going to be an arena with cars. I’m not sure if there’s going to be an actual ring in there, or if it’s going to be more like an Iron Circle match (I hope it’s the former). For the most part, these pre-taped matches have been awesome, but NXT has produced the only one I didn’t like so far (Gargano vs Ciampa), so I’m a bit worried my opinion of this one will come out similar.

Velveteen Dream has undoubtedly got to win this. I think Cole has been a spectacular champion, but his time is over now. Not only has he already beaten almost every face NXT has to offer, but this just feels like Dream’s time. I felt it when the Tampa Bay show was still a thing, and NXT isn’t the kind of place to change all of their plans on a whim. With the added stipulation that Dream will never get another shot at the title if he loses too, there’s nothing to be gained from him losing. The only possibility is if he’s joining Raw or Smackdown soon, but that would be a colossal mistake on WWE’s part. I desperately hope he gets to have a stellar run with the NXT title first.

Charlotte Flair(c) vs Rhea Ripley vs Io Shirai
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Now, this is something I can really get excited about.

I mentioned it in my Wrestlemania review, but Ripley vs Charlotte is easily my favourite pure-wrestling match of the year so far. Their chemistry in the ring is outstanding. Both women have such a firm grasp on their characters that it made for a brilliant watch. So this match looks to top the efforts of the Wrestlemania match by throwing in an element of chaos known as Io Shirai.

While Shayna Baszler was running strong over the NXT women’s division, Shirai felt like she had her legs cut out from under her. She was a brutal heel wrestler in a division that was already dominated by one of the best heel wrestlers in the business, so she felt somewhat out of place. Now, she has more of a chance to shine. While it’s true that she still has to contend with a strong heel champion, they’re distinctly different types of heels. Charlotte is the stuck-up “I’m superior to you” kind of heel, while Shirai is the “I’m going to try and kill you” kind of heel. All three of these characters are so perfectly conflicting, and it’s created some strong heat going into this match.

I imagine we’re going to get a little bit of everything in this match. It’s a triple threat, so it’s sure to have plenty of fast-paced action, but there’s also going to be room for slower, technical-based moments. I imagine Ripley and Charlotte will pick up right where they left off at Wrestlemania, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what Charlotte and Shirai can do together when given a proper platform to show their stuff.

I’m reasonably confident in picking Charlotte Flair to retain the title in this one. I think the end-goal of this feud will be for Ripley to get the title back, getting a huge win over Charlotte and making her even more of a star than she was before, but I think that has to happen in a one-on-one match. To solidify Charlotte’s reign as champion, she has to get a strong-looking win here, probably by pinning/submitting Io Shirai. As much as I’m not happy about Io being sacrificed to help boost the Flair/Ripley storyline, I think the eventual payoff will be worth it.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you think is going to happen, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Finally, make sure to come back here on Monday, where I’ll be giving my review!

Every Episode of Doctor Who Series 7 (2012 & 2013) Ranked (Part 2)

If they could split the whole series into two parts, why can’t I split this article into two parts? Anyway, welcome back to my review of Doctor Who Series 7! After looking through the worst of what this series had to offer (mostly Clara), we now get to have a healthy dose of positivity as I just cover the best.

If you haven’t read part 1, then I suggest you check it out here. Now, let’s get on with the review!

9 – Asylum of the Daleks

This is an episode that people often point to when insulting Moffat’s representation of the Daleks, and I can’t say I entirely disagree. Having the Daleks call on The Doctor to solve a problem because they’re too scared to do it themselves seems incredibly counter-productive. That said, I think the justification given for it would’ve made some level of sense…had the “mad” Daleks actually been represented in a way that made them seem any different to regular Daleks. That was my biggest issue with this episode, a lot of time was put into telling us that these were “insane” Daleks that are so much worse than regular ones, but when the time came to show us that, they didn’t seem very different to anything we’ve already seen. Oswin being the lone exception, which is a great jumping-off point to talk about that.

Personally, I think this was a brilliant idea. Given that Jenna Coleman had already been announced as the new companion at the time this episode first aired, it was a genius idea to get a buzz going surrounding her character. The episode sticks to its guns as well, it plays off of what the audience already knows and makes us believe that she actually might join the TARDIS team in that episode right up until it’s ready to reveal the twist. Unlike a companion such as Astrid, who we knew was never going to stick around for more than one episode, the way the story surrounding Oswin is told leans all the way into what we’ve come to expect from the show.

Everything else surrounding the episode is quite enjoyable too. While I’m not a fan of the Pond’s divorce, it technically happened in a web series, not this episode, so I’m going to let it go. Plus, their reunion here actually makes for some sweet moments, including one of my favourite subtle moments ever in the show. That being when Amy tells The Doctor “You can’t fix this like you fix your bowtie”, then later on in the episode when The Doctor fixes Amy & Rory’s relationship, there’s a brief shot of him fixing his bowtie. That’s some Edgar Wright level stuff right there.

It does lean into the humour a bit heavily, but unlike in other comedic episodes this series, most of the jokes are actually funny, so it works to this episode’s benefit, rather than its downfall. The line “Don’t be fair to the Daleks when they’re firing me at a planet” always gets a chuckle out of me and I love that Rory – who has never encountered the Daleks before – thinks the ball things in their lower-half are eggs, that’s prime Rory right there.

The only major issue I have with the episode is that the plot is quite weak. The goal of the episode is pretty vaguely defined and most of the time is spent just standing around discussing other plot-threads that aren’t related to the task at hand. There also isn’t much of a sense of danger throughout, I know they’re surrounded by Daleks the whole time, but every encounter is dealt with so quickly, that it may as well have not even happened. The final twist of Oswin wiping The Doctor from the Dalek’s database would be an interesting one if it was ever actually used for anything noteworthy. Instead, it gets reversed quickly after barely being mentioned it may as well have just bin an out-right retcon.

Asylum of the Daleks doesn’t really do much in terms of treating The Doctor’s greatest villains like any real threat. Still, the majority of the other factors in the episode hit the mark to create something that I had a decent amount of fun with and is quite rewatchable.

8 – Cold War

When bringing a monster from the classic series of Doctor Who back, it’s always hard to tell whether it will actually be a worthwhile endeavour. While looking back on old Doctor Who episodes and seeing the abysmal costumes & special effects is fun from a modern perspective. It’s when those same effects appear in a modern episode, surrounded by all the high(ish) quality looking stuff, it can fall a bit flat. The Ice Warriors are one that suffers from that problem, I think. Their costumes are incredibly clunky and clearly made out of a very cheap plastic that seems to have patterns carved into it with about the same quality as you’d expect from a mid-range action figure.

So, when faced with bringing them into a modern setting, the team at Doctor Who had to figure out a way around it and I think they did a surprisingly decent job. The team working on the episode seemed to be very careful with any shot that involved the suit of armour, making sure that it didn’t show too much detail at once, to avoid that cheap look. IN addition to this, the relatively dark lighting of the setting allowed for plenty of opportunities to obscure specific details when necessary, to ensure that the new Ice Warrior looks more imposing than dumb.

They also worked to include new aspects of the monster’s lore. Something which doesn’t always work, but went ok in this example. Once the Ice Warrior leaves his armour, the whole tone of the episode shifts to one of a creeping panic, and I think it really nails the feeling of tension amongst it all. The entire episode up until this point, The Doctor has been talking at length about how honour-based the Ice Warriors are. Meaning that when he describes the desperation of the Warrior leaving their armour, it has a lot more weight than if it hadn’t been brought up until then like so many other episodes do with twists like this.

The process and eventual resolution of the episode is very well-executed and tense too. The Doctor finds himself in yet another situation of being surrounded by people who want to fight, but he has to find a way to convince them otherwise. It’s these moments of diving into another being’s nature and finding the best way to convince them of his own perspective that is when The Doctor is arguably at their best. This episode sees Smith’s performance abandon many of the more goofy-traits he’s adopted and focus on being serious.

It’s not a perfect episode though, hence why it’s not higher up on the list. A lot of the reasoning behind the Ice Warrior’s actions aren’t entirely clear to me, especially towards the end where he suddenly does a 180 and decides not to blow up the world. The episode was slowly building towards that point, but I feel like it only got about halfway there before jumping forward a bunch of steps to the end. Also, Clara is once again quite the non-factor. She has a tense scene where she’s forced to come face-to-face with the alien, but it doesn’t really do much for her character. It’s a scene that does wonders for the tension of the overall episode, but when it comes to giving Clara a landmark experience in her adventures with The Doctor, it doesn’t really hit that point.

Ultimately, Cold War is a good episode, but not an especially memorable one. It did a fair job of bringing back the Ice Warriors and was scattered with several cool or exciting scenes. Just for whatever reason, it failed to make any kind of lasting impact on me.

7 – Journey to the Center of the TARDIS

The TARDIS has always been an interesting and mysterious subject in Doctor Who, and I like that. Much like The Doctor’s real name, I don’t think we should ever know too much about the TARDIS. Partly because if you establish too many rules, then a lot of things in the show will stop making sense, but also because it should be a device beyond our understanding. This is a machine that can exist at every point in space and time simultaneously, there shouldn’t be any possible explanation for how it works that a human could understand.

So, with that said, you’d think that I’d dislike this episode for shedding away some of that mystery right? Well, actually no.

The thing is, as much as this is an episode where we literally explore the TARDIS, we don’t actually learn anything new about it that hadn’t already been referenced in previous episodes. There had been several jokes about the library and the swimming pool running through the past couple of series, and although we’ve never seen things like the Eye of Harmony before, we’ve known they exist. Instead, this episode more serves to get a better idea of the character of the TARDIS.

I know that was done last season too in The Doctor’s Wife, but with that, it was deliberately given a human personality, when that isn’t realistic. The TARDIS that we fly with every episode isn’t a human and given that there has been some sort of conflict between Clara and the TARDIS brewing in this series, I think it’s important to understand a bit about how it feels. We get a decent chunk of that here, as it does things like getting rid of doors to prevent people from stealing its stuff, or merely looping the corridors when people threaten to blow the walls down. Even something as simple as a “snarl” to scare people off of its damaged engine room fills this machine with a greater sense of character and life than it ever had before.

As for the plot, it’s not overly compelling. The whole idea that the TARDIS would have its defences lowered just because it’s in a mode that makes it easier for humans to fly seems like a bizarre design choice. Then again, if that’s what’s needed to make the episode happen, then alright, I’ll bite. The secondary characters aren’t overly appealing. One has your classic ‘jerk for the sake of a jerk’ attitude that I couldn’t care less for, regardless of what dramatic redemption arc the episode tries to throw at him towards the end. The other two secondary characters are just plot devices for the main secondary character’s story, and as such, they don’t get anything noteworthy to them.

I’m also not a big fan of the solution to the episode. The “it actually never happened because time travel” solution isn’t a clever or interesting one at the best of times, but this episode is determined to have it both ways. It wants to have the original timeline aborted, so everyone involved forgets the events of the episode. However, it also wants all of the character development it did to have still happened. This means we get a scene where the two brothers have apparently reforged their relationship…except the events that caused them to do that never happened. It’s not a situation where you can be selective about what your characters do and don’t remember, either all of it happened, or none of it did.

Like most episodes in this series, it’s flawed, but I still found a decent amount of stuff to enjoy about it.

6 – The Power of Three

Ok, first thing’s first, let’s all agree that the episode should’ve been called “Cubed”. Yes, I know the whole point is “the power of three” referring to The Doctor, Amy and Rory, but I think it would’ve been better as a nice little twist at the end, instead of being blasted right out in front of you from the start.

If there was ever an episode that was crying out for two parts it was this one because I think it absolutely could’ve done with a bunch of extra time, even an additional 10-15 minutes would’ve helped boost this episode to the top spots on this list. Instead, it had several points that felt very rushed.

First thing’s first, the mystery in this episode is absolutely brilliant. As we’ve seen with Chibnall’s writing since taking over had head-writer, he knows how to set up a good mystery, and that is on full display here. The idea that millions of these cubes could just appear out of nowhere and no-one on Earth would’ve seen the moment they did so is a bit unbelievable, but I’m willing to roll with it. Immediately, the episode gives us this tangible thing that we know is going to somehow be vital to the episode, except we have absolutely no idea how or even what that is.

Watching the TARDIS team try to solve the mystery opens the door for so many different possibilities, and the episode does a good job of playing on all of them. First of all, there’s The Doctor trying to live a normal life. This whole sequence was a bit silly, but I think it was a good idea to break up the relatively slow pace of the episode with a nice bit of fast-paced humour. I found it quite amusing to see The Doctor doing tonnes of household chores, including doing a mathematically impossible number of kick-ups, in just an hour. After his abysmal outing in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, this is where Brian finally gets a chance to shine as a character. He’s got this complete and total dedication to his task of watching the cubes that I can’t help but root for him as he adorably takes it SUPER seriously; documenting the complete lack of anything the cubes are doing, on the hour, every hour.

The episode also does an excellent job of transitioning in and out of the comedy, injecting a few serious scenes of the cubes doing stuff in between the comedic moments, before transitioning out of it entirely as we head into the scenes at UNIT. I loved the sequence were the cubes suddenly started doing just about any random thing you can think of, it only served to add to the mystery surrounding them, and it led to some pretty funny moments in there too.

The other big point this episode touches on is the impact on the Ponds’ lives that travelling with The Doctor has on them. This is a big part of why I think this episode needed more time because it was squashed in between all of the cube stuff that it very rarely had any time to breathe and ended up feeling quite forced since this was the final episode before the Ponds’ departure.

Speaking of rushed, once the cubes open, the episode falls apart a little bit. There are some genuinely exciting scenes, like The Doctor having one of his hearts fail and also the way the team go to the hospital to discover where Brian had been taken. Then, they get onto the spaceship and confront the Shakri, and the whole thing falls apart. There’s a conversation where absolutely everything gets explained, then The Doctor quite literally just waves his magic wand (sonic screwdriver), and everything’s fine. There’s not even anything in the way to try and stop him from doing so, the ship just has an AI that gets deactivated, and that’s it, suddenly everything’s fine again.

If this episode were a two-parter, I would’ve had part one end with the opening of the cubes and then spend all of part two attempting to take down the threat that they posed. Having The Doctor just waltz into the thing and immediately solve it without having to overcome any kind of obstacle was extraordinarily disappointing and left me feels deflated at the end of what had been a really good episode up until that point. (Also, making it two parts meant you could’ve called part one “Cubed” and part two “The Power of Three” and I wouldn’t have had to have that ramble at the start of this piece.)

5 – The Rings of Akhaten

Giving a companion their first outing in the TARDIS can often be quite a daunting task because there are a few ways that you could go with it. You could make it character-based, like The Fires of Pompeii or The Beast Below. That allows us to get a much better sense of this new character than in the series opener. You could make it absolutely nothing like The Shakespear Code. Or finally, you could roll out all of the costumes you happened to have in the studio, build a weirdly convoluted set and blast us with everything weird and wonderful about Doctor Who. The Rings of Akhaten does the last one.

Much like The End of the World from, Series 1 (I’m pretty sure it even reuses a couple of those costumes), this episode is entirely focused on seeing the broader universe from Clara’s Earthly perspective. It’s one of those episodes that I’ll recommend to people who want a good idea of what the show is all about because it really has a bit of everything. There’s humour, there are aliens, there’s character, and there’s even an epic speech. The only real problem is that shoving all this stuff in means that some elements don’t play out quite as good as they could’ve. Although that’s not a massive issue in this episode.

One of the concepts I wish got played up a bit more is the idea of an economy based on sentimental value. I know it features pretty heavily when taking down the monster, but how would an economy based on that actually work day-to-day? Surely if you’re continually having to pay for goods and giving up sentimental items, you’ll pretty quickly run out of things you’re sentimental about. Even the people who take the items aren’t gaining anything. They can’t use those items to pay for stuff because to them, it has no sentimental value. Right? I don’t know, it’s a nice idea and fits thematically with the episode, but it also feels dumb. So take your pick, I guess.

I liked the way the episode used The Doctor investigating Clara’s life as a way to give us some context that we’ll need later on in the episode. In hindsight, it feels a little forced, but I still think it works. Speaking of, we may as well discuss the climax of the episode, because it’s a bit weirdly paced.

First thing’s first, The Doctor’s speech is fantastic. One of the all-time great speeches in Doctor Who without a shadow of a doubt. It’s brought down a peg only by the fact that it somehow doesn’t win the day. Seriously, how was it NOT the resolution to the episode? Everything about it from the music, to the pacing to the words themselves, said it should absolutely be what saves the day. Yet somehow it doesn’t. This isn’t the only time Doctor Who uses this twist, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. This was one of the times where it didn’t. I understand that this allowed Clara to get her heroic moment, but it felt so unnecessary and totally sucked the air out of the episode. Not to mention, Clara is going to get PLENTY (I’d go as far as to say too many) hero moments during her time in the TARDIS. However, as a standalone scene, it is a very well-written moment and is one of the few times during her time on the show where I actually thought Clara felt like a person.

The pacing of the finale aside, this was a solid episode. It gave me hope for Clara’s direction as a character (more on how that turned out next time), and it told a solid, self-contained story. Plus the speech.

4 – A Town Called Mercy

HOW did it take this long for Doctor Who to do a western? It would’ve been one of the first ideas on my list. Sci-fi and Western are two genres that just feel so perfect together, and this episode is proof of that.

A trope that I’ve noticed a lot of throughout Moffat’s reign is there will be some sort of narration or story that we’re told at the beginning of the episode. It’s designed to sound like the story is describing The Doctor, only for it to turn out that they were actually describing the main villain of the episode. It’s a bit of a weird trope, but the way it keeps coming up makes me feel like Moffat’s trying to make a point about something…or he’s just not all that great at establishing villains and needs the audience to be told what a badass they are, rather than just showing us…you take your pick.

One of the big things I love about this episode is how light on action it is. I know that doesn’t sound like a compliment, but stay with me. For one thing, Doctor Who is a show that’s always thrived on its conversations rather than it’s fight scenes. Secondly, it plays perfectly into how westerns work. If you watch most of the classic westerns, they’re a lot of people standing around and discussing the plot. There’s the occasional shoot-out to break things up (which we also get here), but the driving force of things is the interactions of the characters. It leads to scenarios where, when guns are finally drawn, there’s so much more weight to the scene because of everything that went into it. There’s a reason Mexican Standoffs are a staple of the genre, minutes of slow build for a quick and satisfying payoff.

This episode does the exact same thing. We get a small chase sequence in the middle, and the climax has a mix of the two, but what carries the episode is the main characters talking and trying to understand one another. This isn’t just to solve the mystery either, we get some proper understanding of the characters involved here. We feel that anger that The Doctor feels when he realised Jex has lied because we’d spent such a huge chunk of the episode investing in the lies he presented us. These conversations peak and trough in intensity, giving us charged scenes where The Doctor puts Jex on blast for lying, all the way down to a prolonged and tense scene on the boundary, as The Doctor decides whether or not to throw Jex out.

The resolution to the episode plays well off of these established characters too. Someone who’s done horrible things like we’re told Jex has can never truly be redeemed, but I certainly felt sympathetic for him when he made the sacrifice play. I also liked the Gunslinger becoming a person to protect the town once The Doctor leaves, although I think it would’ve hit home a bit better if we had a deeper understanding of his mentality.

To put it simply, I thought this one was a lot of fun. It blended the classic moments of westerns with Doctor Who’s identity well. It played a slower pace that absolutely worked gave us substantial investment in the key characters. This investment meant that they could carry the episode, allowing characters like Amy and Rory (who are usually the protagonists) to take a back seat to the action for a change.

3 – The Time of The Doctor

I’ll harp on about this until the day I die, but this episode should’ve been called ‘The Twelfth Night’ to have some nice symmetry between this and The Eleventh Hour.

I’m aware that this an episode regarded mainly by the fanbase as not being all that great, but I’m going to, yet again, be a contrarian and say I really like it. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but to be fair, there are only two episodes of Doctor Who that I would say are perfect.

Right out of the gate, this is a funny episode. I don’t care what you say, Matt Smith suddenly and unexpectedly pulling his hair off to Clara’s horror will always get a laugh out of me, and nothing you say will change that. The bit with the telepathic clothes is a bit weird, the joke runs out of steam pretty quick, but it’s still a silly concept that I can get behind. I also think we get the opportunity to see all sides of Smith’s Doctor in this episode. I’ve spoken before about how I never liked how cartoonish of a character he became. There is a bit of that scattered in here, what dominates the episode is the more calm, collected and just straight-up badass version of Smith’s Doctor we saw early on in his run.

We saw a return of the weird Dalek conversion thing that we got in Assylum, which wasn’t great, but apart from that, I enjoyed the return of all the villains. I know many of them had become pretty overused by this point, but this is a regeneration episode, I don’t mind an extended trip down memory lane. The thread between Clara and The Doctor is a bit weird, and the fact that he keeps sending her away feels more like an excuse for us to follow The Doctor through 900 years of his life without actually having to live it out. I’m not suggesting we should’ve actually followed The Doctor for all that time, of course, I just think it could’ve been achieved a lot nicer through a method other than The Doctor constantly breaking Clara’s heart.

Then there’s the element of The Doctor’s regeneration itself. I think it was quite nicely done. Firstly, the fact that they actually addressed the things that they could’ve easily ignored (namely the War Doctor and Tennant regenerating twice) is appreciated, and the way they got The Doctor new lives was quite graceful and made sense. Even if Chibnall did later cause it to make no sense whatsoever, but that’s not the fault of this episode. The scene in which it happened was slightly over the top and rather manic, but MAN I loved it. I know it was cheesy and kind of dumb, but the way it’s built up to with the music and the growing intensity of The Doctor’s speech makes it work for me.

The one criticism I’ve seen levelled at this episode which I absolutely do not understand is that his regeneration speech was too long-winded and self-aggrandising. I don’t understand this for two reasons, one is that Tennant’s regeneration sequence went on for WAY longer and everyone loves that. Two is that it’s an awesome speech. Yes, some of the things he said didn’t quite make sense in the context of the show, but overall Moffat just knows how to write a good speech and how to make it feel amazing visually. The build-up of the music is just perfect, the line “I will always remember when The Doctor was me” works so well for Smith’s sentimental character and Amy giving us one last goodbye to top it all off was just plain beautiful. Then once it was over, the regeneration happened quick as a flash and we’re on to new adventures. I love it.

2 – The Angels Take Manhattan

I watched this episode when it first aired in 2012, and part of my soul is still crying about the ending.

This was far from the best outing the Weeping Angels have ever seen, and I think a lot of the aura surrounding them had disappeared by this point, but I still found them to be compelling villains. What carried this episode was the mystery surrounding what’s going on in New York and the character drama between the protagonists, so all was needed was a monster who could stand around and be threatening; not talk. The angels fit perfectly into that role.

Speaking of the mystery, it’s played in quite an interesting way. The thing is, from the very first scene, we know the angels are behind everything (the title of the episode gives it away). This meant that instead of the ‘who’ the mystery aspect of the episode focuses entirely on the ‘how’. It’s a trick that doesn’t always work, but this episode manages it. There were a few moments where the characters were working out stuff the audience had already been told, and I did want them to just ‘get on with it’ at a couple of points, but they were few and far between.

The character drama varies in how much it hits its mark. On one side of things, you have the melodrama between The Doctor and River, which doesn’t work at all. The Doctor isn’t a character that lends himself to relationship drama, and any attempt at it comes off as dull. The justification given as to why everyone’s suddenly annoyed at The Doctor makes no sense to me at all, and it’s totally forgotten about 5 minutes later, so what was the point in having it?

Speaking of things that don’t land. The concept of ‘time can’t be rewritten once you’ve read about it’, which just doesn’t make any sense to me. I know it was only introduced so that the grave at the end would carry much more weight (which it absolutely did), but what aspect of a future event being read about make it destined to always happen? We’ve seen plenty of pieces of writing being changed to align with the new future in this show. If this was a brand new show that hadn’t already had its laws fleshed out over and over again, then maybe it would work, but this is an aspect that goes against just about everything previous writers (including Moffat himself) have created.

Alas…now we must get to the heartbreak that makes this episode so amazing. Amy and Rory’s exit from the show. Amy & Rory had been The Doctor’s main companions for two and a half by this point, not to mention the only companions The Eleventh Doctor had ever had until then. I loved them both as characters, so they deserved the best of exits, and that’s precisely what they got. The best part is, they even got to dangle the fake-out in front of us before snatching it away.

The leap off of the roof was an excellent scene. We snapped from the fast pace of the chase around the hotel to this quiet and cold scene, where Rory has to make the choice to throw himself to his inevitable doom. Then Amy comes and joins him. It’s all done in such a way that it feels so unbelievably tense, it plays it up like something is about to come along and magically save them, but it doesn’t. They sacrifice themselves to stop the paradox, which gives them one final moment heroism before everything turns out to be ok, and they survive.

Then it happens for real.

Could I bitch about how it doesn’t make any sense that the angel survive? I could, but I don’t care, because everything else about this scene was perfect. Rory’s disappearance happens so suddenly that you don’t have any time to process it before Amy is faced with doing the same. Usually, I’d say that was a bad thing, but it’s exactly what this scene needed to ramp the emotions from zero to a hundred in seconds. Then, Amy makes her final choice. The choice between continuing to travel with The Doctor or living a life with Rory. What makes it so great is that the scene doesn’t try to push that aspect of it too hard, it gives its audience the credit to realise that for themselves. That’s something I wish Moffat did a lot more often in his writing instead of explaining everything all the time.

The sense of raw tragedy at that moment when Amy looks away from the angel and says goodbye is so overwhelming. Everything from the look on The Doctor’s face, to River’s acceptance that it’s for the best, to the fact that it genuinely wasn’t The Doctor’s fault that it happened this way. The episode isn’t done tugging on your heartstrings though, it still has one more ace up its sleeve in the last page of the book The Doctor was reading at the beginning of the episode. Up until this point, I was a bit teary but was keeping it together, but the scene where The Doctor runs back through the pack to retrieve the last page of the book was the moment that opened the flood gates, and I cried for that whole scene.

It’s without a doubt the best companion exit that the show has ever done, and that aspect alone dragged it up about 3 places on this list to the number 2 slot. I know it has areas that need touching up, but any piece of fiction that can bring that level of emotion out of me deserves all the praise in the world.

1 – The Day of The Doctor

It’s the most feel-good episode of Doctor Who ever and was an absolutely fantastic celebration for the show’s 50th anniversary. I’m going to break this down one thing at a time because there’s SO MUCH in here.

First up, John Hurt, what a performance. While I can’t deny I’ll always be a little bit sad Ecclestone didn’t come back to play this part, I certainly can’t complain about the man they got to take his place. The idea that The Doctor would’ve had a whole extra life during the Time War that he’s kept hidden all these years makes so much sense, I love it. What makes it even better is the characterisation of this Doctor, John Hurt’s look and voice is the perfect fit for a battle-hardened but war-weary old man who is just desperate for a way to end the violence. The scenes where Hurt’s Doctor is discussing what he’s going to do with The Moment feel so weighty and tragic in their own way, it was a masterful performance.

Speaking of The Moment, it was a brilliantly written aspect of the episode. It doesn’t get much explaining, and that’s precisely how it should be, it gives it this aura of being beyond our understanding. We just accept the fact that it can break the time lock of the Time War and show The Doctor his future selves because why wouldn’t it be able to do that? It poses these questions to the audience to make us rethink this event that we’ve already justified in our minds countless times. We’ve always taken The Doctor’s destruction of Gallifrey for granted, believing it was justified because that’s what The Doctor believes. The Moment is there as this unbiased source asking those hard questions. Even something as simple as “how many children are there on Gallifrey?” is enough to turn the whole situation on its head.

Then there’s the fun stuff. Smith and Tennant were an acting duo seemingly made for each other. Their portrayals of The Doctor had a lot of similarities, but this was a scene that did everything it could to show us their key differences with brilliantly comedic results. The jokes they throw at each other are ever so slightly different enough so that they don’t just feel like the exact same person, which encapsulates just about everything great about The Doctor as a character. Even when Hurt’s Doctor shows up, his style of comedy meshes with the other’s to significant effect. The whole scene in the forest is easily one of the funniest, most enjoyable scenes in the show’s history.

Around about the halfway mark of the episode is when things start to get epic. The Doctors’ entrance into the black archive is over-the-top in just the right way. Maybe I’d shout it down under other circumstances, but this is the 50th anniversary, it’s an all-out celebration of the show and – by extension – The Doctor himself, so I say let him have a cheesy, yet epic entrance. The scene following this, where Tennant and Smith sort out the squabble between the humans and the Zygons always gets me pumped with how heroic it makes The Doctor appear.

What’s extra genius about it is how it serves the much greater purpose of getting Hurt’s Doctor to understand the amazing person he’ll become once he’s ended the Time War. It even presents the counter-argument to the ‘but he’ll kill all the children’ argument. Even in the face of Clara directly telling Hurt’s Doctor that he’ll regret it every day for the rest of his life and he’d do anything to change it, Hurt’s Doctor just very calmly says “how many lives has his regret saved?” It makes you imagine a universe where The Doctor never went through that trauma of losing everything he’d ever cared for and didn’t use that motivation to become the incredible hero we just saw avert a war with ease.

THEN we get the ultimate hero moment for The Doctor. It’s big, bombastic and an absolute blast to watch as The Doctor plainly explains how he’s going to end the Time War and save Gallifrey. Without witness and without reward, he calls quite literally all of his experience and knowledge in the form of all his previous selves (and one future-self). He rights the biggest wrong he’s ever committed. It removes the horrible cloud of slaughter that has followed The Doctor through the whole of modern series and presents him as the purest good in all of the universe.

This episode is such a joy to watch over and over. It’s got laughs, it’s got emotion, and it’s got an incredible pay off to long-standing storylines. Even Tom Baker showed up and put on a fantastic performance. I honestly can’t think of a better way they could’ve celebrated the 50th anniversary of what I believe to be the greatest television programme ever produced.

So there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read through all of that. Please let me know what you thought of these episodes, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back here this time next week, as I’ll be covering NXT Takeover: In Your House!

AEW Double or Nothing 2020: Every Match Ranked

Double or Nothing and the first full year of AEW shows is in the bag! All-in-all, I thought it was a pretty good show.

It definitely wasn’t the best show AEW has put out so far though, and there were a few matches on this card that didn’t live up to my expectations, but there was also a hell of a lot to enjoy. Even the matches that I’m about to say I didn’t like still have some sort of redeeming quality to them that made it an enjoyable watch. This show didn’t give us any kind of paradigm-shifting swerves or story developments. Still, a lot of the stories going into it progressed or concluded satisfyingly, and the excitement for what we’ve got in front of us going forward is pretty high.

Also, entirely unrelated, but following my predictions article, I only managed to pick the outcome of TWO out of NINE matches correctly. Which, even by my standards, is abysmal.

Still, let’s rank these matches.

9 – Dustin Rhodes def. Shawn Spears

Welp, there goes Shawn Spears being treated like a threatening heel.

I really don’t understand the point of this one. I get it on the level that it’s a little bit of comedy to break up the show a bit, but at the cost of a guy like Spears? Really? Throughout this whole show, it became evident that this PPV was designed to be a big happy celebration of AEW’s first year. Although apparently part of that process was taking any credibility Spears had built up as a heel to this point and tearing it to the ground.

I know that anyone can be built back up with the right booking, but it’s going to take him a while to live down being the guy who had his bare ass spanked by the former Goldust while wearing underwear with Tully Blanchard’s face on the front. The real kicker here was that I didn’t even think it was funny, it was very much not my the style of the comedy that I enjoy.

8 – Kris Statlander def. Penelope Ford

This was a match that had the unfortunate distinction of being changed with very little notice. So, while it may not be the fault of the competitors necessarily, the fact that they didn’t really get a chance to prepare for each other in this one showed.

I’m still not buying into Statlander after this. I just don’t understand her gimmick. It seems like a nice kind of quirky, but it doesn’t exactly have anything tangible other than commentary making a bunch of space/sci-fi jokes whenever she’s in the ring. Nothing about her performance screams “alien” to me. The nose-boop is the closest it gets, but that’s not exactly the most exciting of gimmick moves.

Other than that, there was a lack of chemistry between the two of them. The action was fine for the most part, but there were a couple of awkward moments where neither woman seemed quite sure what to do, although admittedly, they were fleeting. Ultimately, I don’t think this should’ve made the card. This was an almost 4-hour show, and while I understand why Baker’s involvement would justify a PPV match, once she was gone, this should’ve been bumped to Dynamite to save us some time here.

7 – Best Friends def. Private Party
(Winner becomes #1 contender for AEW Tag Team Championships)
(Buy-in)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but pre-show matches always feel like they have lesser energy than matches on the main show. That’s really what I felt this match was lacking: energy. Despite all of the cool looking flips and dives, the whole match felt a bit drained for excitement and drama.

The lack of a face/heel dynamic in this one seemed to be one of the key sticking points that made this suffer. It’s not always required – Omega & Page vs The Bucks from Revolution proved that – but given that there was basically no story going into this one, a face/heel dynamic was the only thing that would’ve given me some form of investment in the action. They tried a bunch of the classic tag match spots: the crawling for the hot-tag, the one team dominating a large portion of the match and keeping the other guy away from his corner. They all fell flat though because I had no reason to root for either team over the other. I’m not saying one team had to be a heel team, but there have been plenty of cases in the past in face vs face matches where one team has heeled it up slightly more than usual for the sake of making a compelling story.

Still, there was stuff to like about this match. A lot of the flashy offence was fun to watch, even if it lacked substance and I think the right team won. It definitely wasn’t a match that I hated by any stretch of the imagination and sure blows most WWE pre-show matches out of the water, but there was a lot that put me off about it.

6 – Cody def. Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)

This was a good match…however it was also a bit of a disappointment if you ask me.

First, the good stuff, mostly the middle section of the match. From about the 8-minute mark all the way through to roughly the 20-minute mark was great. There was clearly a lot of chemistry between these two, and they paced the story of the match really well throughout this section. I think Archer did a great job of showing off his pure power in the ring and showed that he does a really good job of things in a competitive match as well as glorified squashes. As cheesy as it was, I also enjoyed Cody pulling out all the classic NWA/WCW moves for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

My problems with this match come at the start and the end. It really struggled to get going in my view. It was abnormally slow, and it didn’t feel like it needed to be. I understand there’s value to be had in the heel slowly beating down the face in the opening of the match. However, the intensity going into this match felt really high, and I think the opening should’ve been something a bit more firey before we lulled into the beatdown phase of the match.

Then there’s the finish. Which just didn’t work. If the stuff with Anderson, Tyson and Roberts had happened a few minutes out from the finish, then it probably would’ve worked a lot better. The problem was that it happened immediately before the finish and it totally sucked the wind out of the action and killed the pace right before the most climactic moment of the whole thing. It just felt like a lame excuse to tease Tyson getting physically involved in the match when in reality there was absolutely no value in him being there.

I also think the wrong man won. I’m not going to rail on Cody “booking himself as champion” because he’s taken plenty of high-profile losses over the last year and has proved he’s a team player. I’m sure he’ll have lots of great matches that help elevate some younger guys. The problem comes from the broader picture in AEW. Lance Archer could’ve been an absolutely dominant heel champion, which would’ve done wonders for him and built him up as a legitimate main eventer; something AEW isn’t doing at all right now. What I think is going to be the biggest issue, though, is the fact that all four champions in AEW right now are faces. That isn’t good. There’s only so many heels to go around, and I think a lot of the stories in this next PPV cycle are going to feel quite similar because the dynamics are all the same.

Cody having the title isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think a monster heel as champion would’ve been much more beneficial to AEW’s product at large; both in the long and short terms.

Oh, and the TNT Championship looks…ok, I guess. It’s not the kind of belt I wanted to see. It’s flawed, but I don’t hate it, and I think it will grow on me over time.

5 – Brian Cage won the Casino Ladder Match
(Winner gets a future AEW World Title Match)

This match ended up being a bit of a mixed bag if you ask me. I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way first because I think there’s more good to talk about.

The format of the match was alright, if slightly flawed. It suffers a lot from the same problem as the Elimination Chamber, where the time between new entrants feels a lot like the wrestlers currently in the match are just killing time until the next guy comes in and gets to do his 30 seconds of moves upon entering. Very little of note happened in the opening segment, and even a big spot like Allin leaping off of a ladder on a skateboard felt less impactful because we were all waiting for the timer to tick down in the corner. There was also a lot of interference in it. Best Friends, Marko Stunt, Penelope Ford and Jimmy Havoc all got involved at some point, despite none of them being a competitor in the match. That isn’t a bad thing on its own, but when you’ve already got nine wrestlers to play around with, adding a bunch more is incredibly unnecessary.

Now, the good, which was basically the whole match once the final entrant got in. At that point, the match became your usual multi-man ladder match affair, and it was really entertaining. The segment with everyone taking down Cage was terrific, and the way they all worked together to take him out of commission for a while was slightly comedic in just the right way. Orange Cassidy was a ray of sunshine like he always is and the last-minute change of Joey Janella definitely did a good job of making sure he wasn’t forgotten in amongst everything.

Looking at Brian Cage winning, I really don’t know what to think about it, purely because I don’t know anything about Brian Cage. People seem excited about him appearing, which is a good sign, but I’ve never seen any of his work, so I’m in no position to make a judgement on it. What I can say, is that it’s undoubtedly a good way to solidify a star on their debut.

4 – Jon Moxley(c) def. Brodie Lee
(AEW World Championship)

This wasn’t quite the match I expected from there two, but it was definitely one that I enjoyed.

I loved the fire from both guys right out of the gate. The build to this match had been excellent, and they definitely capitalised on that here. I found the fact that the Dark Order was nowhere to be seen a little odd, I would’ve at least liked to see Lee make a point of telling them not to get involved or something like that. Still, these two have worked together plenty of times in the past that their chemistry here made that clear. This felt like two guys who had always had to hold back when they worked together in the past, but now they can totally let loose.

I’m always surprised at how Moxley can play to the typical face style of wrestling while maintaining his badass persona because he does a great job of it. There was just the right balance between getting beaten up and tearing the house down from him that it made him even more of a compelling babyface than I’ve seen in the past. Lee meanwhile got to show his full range as a wrestler, busting out a bunch of brutal manoeuvres, while treating us with the occasional fast flurry of offence.

I think the finish left a bit to be desired, although it did an ok job at making Brodie Lee look good in defeat. A quick note on the kickout at one…can we please stop using it so much? I used to love it as a scarce tool used to put over someone’s resiliency and will to win, but over the past year, it’s become overused and boring, including twice on this very show. The Paradigm Shift through the stage was an unexpected spot and shows the differences in AEW and WWE’s booking philosophies. I guarantee you that in WWE, the referee would’ve called for the bell the moment they went through the stage, and we would’ve had a last man standing match three weeks later at the next PPV. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one, and I believe the right man won.

3 – Matt Hardy & The Elite def. The Inner Circle
(Stadium Stampede)

In my predictions, I theorised that this match would be similar to WWE’s recent forays into pre-taped and out-there matches and…I was half right.

At the start, I had a bit of trouble getting into it (although, the charge to start off was terrific). I think the stuff that happened in and around the wrestling ring that they’d set up in the middle of the field (for some reason) was wholly unnecessary compared to what followed it. I would’ve liked to see that opening section cut and just get straight to the whacky stuff. Not that it wasn’t good, it’s just that it didn’t fit the kind of match this ended up as. It also added 5 extra minutes onto a match that, honestly, started to drag a bit by the end.

Everything from the moment Hangman Page came out on the horse was absolute gold though. The image of Page showing up in a bandana riding a goddamn horse is just one the coolest sights I’ve ever seen in wrestling, and I hope that horse becomes a recurring character going forwards because it sure got over with me. The leap off of the goalposts was a good visual, and the section up in the stands where Matt Hardy appeared as all the different versions of himself was really funny.

My personal favourite section was the barfight between Page, Hager and later, Omega. The way they had did the classic “talk at the bar” thing before as they started fighting was a great joke, and it only got better when they started busting out pool cues before Page started matrix dodging all around the pool table. I like the touch of Omega being the one to come to Page’s aid, and they actually seemed to work really well together. I was expecting to do a bit more of the teasing for their tension, but I actually think this could work to that story’s benefit in the long run.

The final 5-10 minutes or so were where things started to drag a little bit for me. There were still some good bits in there. One of the Jacksons Northern Lights Suplexing Sammy all the way across the pitch (with some well-timed edits) was funny, and Jericho challenging the 2-count and demanding VAR was a genius joke, as wrestlers are always claiming “that was three!” I think it was more a victim of time than anything else. The show had already been running for three and a half hours by this point, and as much as I was enjoying the match, I was also hoping it would be wrapping up soon so I could go to bed.

Guevara’s last stand was a good way to build-up to the finish, and the One-Winged Angel off the stands felt like a big enough spot to be the exclamation point on the match. Overall, I’d say WWE’s pre-taped matches have been better than this, but this match was definitely a great one.

2 – MJF def. Jungle Boy

From the weird and whacky world of pre-taped matches to what was just a plain-old wrestling match. A damned good one too.

I really didn’t think this would be the way this match would go. I thought we were in for an all-out war between The Jurassic Express and Wardlow, but I’m pleased that they decided to play it as a straight wrestling match. MJF has already proved to be one of the best heels in the business right now, but I’d be lying if I said his character didn’t rely on his big matches having interference and underhanded tactics for him to score a victory. Needless to say, this match shut my mouth about that.

MJF is already extremely over as a character, so this match was focused around making sure he’s over as a wrestler too, and it totally worked. The fast pace of Jungle Boy was the perfect foil for MJF here, and the match was exciting right out of the gate as MJF did all he could to avoid getting caught up in Jungle Boy’s opening flurry. Once MJF took control of the match, things slowed down, but not too much. It didn’t devolve into 10 minutes of rest holds and body slams (like a certain other heel in a certain other company I keep comparing MJF to). Instead, it became a much more calculated game of chess between the two competitors, as MJF carefully worked around Jungle Boy to break him down as Jungle Boy took every opportunity he could for a comeback.

It’s such a basic wrestling formula, but this should be proof that the basics work just as well as innovative storytelling strategies. MJF threw in the occasional heelish thing to ensure the fans didn’t start cheering for him, but at the end of the day, MJF won this match because he was the better wrestler and nothing less. It’s these kinds of matches which add that all-important credibility to MJF as a wrestler, as well as a character, that will make his eventual world title match (and probable victory) feel all the more compelling.

1 – Hikaru Shida def. Nyla Rose(c)
(AEW Women’s World Championship)
(No Holds Barred)

I know. I KNOW. It was a slow-paced, weapons-based match. I hate those, right? Well, yes, but this one felt different.

For one thing, the video package that preceded the match did a fantastic job of building up a basically non-existent story and made Shida seem like the most deserving babyface on the planet. Admittedly, I already had a bit of a soft spot for her before, but this built her up even further.

The thing about this match being slow is that it was slow with a purpose. You take a look at a match like Orton vs Edge at Wrestlemania (which I hated), and you’ll see that it’s just slow for the sake of being slow. All the decelerated pace does is extend the match length and force the commentators to fill for time between the occasional big spot. Compare that to this match, and you realise that almost every moment of it had substance, which meant that the pace didn’t really make a difference to my enjoyment of it. There was no waiting around for over a minute while one wrestler sets up a spot. There was no lounging about doing a shitty job of selling. It was all meaningful movement and meaningful content.

The kendo stick being a critical factor that kept coming back throughout the match was some brilliant storytelling. The opening sequence with it, where both women wrestled for control over it, only for it to eventually be discarded was a tense way to start things off, and it just kept going from there. As they wrestled around ringside, I felt the impact of every spot because there was meaningful movement leading up to it. Towards the close of the match, where the kendo stick came back into the mix, it felt like the whole thing had come full-circle.

What I also enjoyed was that the closer we got to the finish, the weapons became less and less the focus of the action. The table spot was the last noteworthy weapons spot in the match, and it was perfect. It made every spot throughout the match feel like it had a purpose, and I felt the weight of it as Shida hit her finish for the win.

I know that I said in my predictions that I think Rose should win, but the title change was a delightful surprise. I know I bitched about all the champions being faces earlier on in the article, but I really like Shida as a wrestler, and I’m happy that she’s the champion, so suck it. Not to mention, the women’s division is pretty heavy on the heels right now, so I’m excited to see what Shida does with the belt.

And that’s your lot! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this review. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back this time on Saturday, where I’ll be releasing the second part of my Doctor Who Series 7 rankings!

AEW Double or Nothing 2020: Predictions & Analysis

That’s right! I’m finally covering one of these shows.

In truth, I’ve been trying to watch more of AEW ever since the start of the year, but going into Revolution in February, I didn’t feel like I knew enough about many of the characters and the storylines going in. So I decided not to make predictions as I’d lack anything worthwhile to say. However, since Wrestlemania season I’ve dived back in and have done my best to follow the goings-on with Dynamite every week. Today I’m going to see how much I’ve learnt as I predict the outcomes for every match on Double or Nothing.

Private Party vs Best Friends
(#1 Contender’s Match for the AEW Tag Team Championship)
(Buy-In)

After making waves in the early days of AEW, it feels like Private Party have cooled down a lot since then. They got their upset victory over the Young Bucks in the tag team title tournament (which was great), but since then I can’t quite pick out anything particularly special that they’ve done. Best Friends, on the other hand, have seen themselves treated to quite the prominent role on a week-to-week basis, mostly thanks to their affiliation with Orange Cassidy.

Naturally, this match is almost certainly going to rock. I’ve always loved tag team wrestling, and AEW has really made a point of letting their tag teams run absolutely free and do incredible things. Even though this is on the pre-show, I don’t think that will lessen its quality in the slightest. I’m expecting lots of fun, fast-paced action and one or two hundred over-the-top dives that make the whole thing an absolute blast to watch.

As for a winner, I’m kind of torn. On the one hand, Private Party has felt like they’re just one match away from breaking through as a permanent fixture of the AEW tag team division and a match against Omega & Page would absolutely be that match for them, win or lose. Then you look at Best Friends and realise that if they’re not going to be challenging for the titles, then what else is there for them to do? With the Dark Order out of action for the foreseeable future, there really isn’t anything else for them to be involved with other than being Orange Cassidy’s backup. It’s a tough call, but I’m going to go with Private Party as I think they have more to gain from a match against the champions.

Dustin Rhodes vs Shawn Spears

Spears is a slightly curious case in AEW, as I’m not entirely sure what his role his compared to all the other wrestlers in the company. He came in with a head of steam and had a tremendous high-profile feud with Cody which he, unfortunately, came out on the losing end of, but he’s not really done much of note in the 6-8 months since then. The thing with Tully Blanchard looking to bring someone else into their faction seemed to have promise, but the pandemic killed those plans dead, and Spears has just been largely forgotten about since then. Lance Archer coming in and taking his spot as a top monster heel didn’t help things either.

Then we have Dustin Rhodes, who is putting arguably the best pure-wrestling work of his career right now. He has a clearly defined role in the company and does it very well. He’s a wrestler with a decent amount of credibility thanks to his longevity and has been consistently using it to help make new stars. Do I think these two will be able to put on a good match? Probably yes, although I doubt it’s going to be a match that we’re all shouting about come Sunday morning.

The winner of this one is a pretty easy pick for me. I don’t see any reason Shawn Spears shouldn’t win. He’s just come off of yet another loss to Cody in the TNT Championship tournament, and it’s not like Dustin has anything to gain from a win here. I just hope AEW can find a proper place on the card for Spears soon. Otherwise, things are going to start to look very similar to his time in WWE.

Britt Baker vs Kris Statlander

I’ll be honest, I don’t quite ‘get’ Kris Statlander yet. The whole alien thing is going a bit over my head at the moment, I don’t really see much difference in her performance or behaviour than any other woman. It feels like it needs to be more noticeably ‘out there’ to actually work; something along the lines of what Velveteen Dream is doing. In addition, I’ve yet to see her put on a match that puts her in line with the rest of the AEW Women’s Division. So hopefully, this will be that match.

Britt Baker meanwhile, has absolutely hit her stride in recent months. In the build-up to AEW’s debut show, it seemed like Baker was going to be the woman they pushed to the top right out of the gate, but instead, they held back and found something interesting to do with her character first. The role model idea is a great one to run with and fist in perfectly with her existing elements as a dentist. I know people are drawing parallels in Bayley’s current character in WWE. However, I think Baker has taken it in a very different direction, focusing more on being a brutal heel, rather than a schoolyard bully, which is what Bayley is doing.

Thankfully, I think this is a much easier pick than the previous match as I have very little doubt that Brit Baker is walking away victorious on this one. Statlander already had her title shot at Revolution, and I don’t see her getting a rematch anytime soon. Regardless of that, AEW has clearly decided that now is the time to get behind Baker as a dominant force in the women’s division.

MJF vs Jungle Boy

MJF is just the best. He’s everything that WWE likes to think Baron Corbin is. He’s smarmy, he’s a jerk, he’s in your face and can draw genuine heel heat from just about any situation. His performance is incredible, and the way he’s grown that bravado since beating Cody is absolute perfection. Jungle Boy and the Jurassic Express are also some great characters. Admittedly, I haven’t been quite as behind them as everyone else seems to be, but I still enjoy any and all of their matches.

I’m going to cut right to the chase here, MJF is winning this thing, no question. Jungle Boy is great, and I’m sure there’s a future in AEW for him someday, but MJF is the hot property in the men’s division right now, and nothing is going to stop him. The match will probably be a good one, I can see Jungle Boy getting the advantage with some quick action early on, only for MJF to try and recalculate and slow things down. There will almost certainly be some form of collision between Luchasaurus and Wardlow, and I have no doubt MJF will do something underhanded to get the win.

I don’t know how far a match with the champion is in MJF’s future, but I can almost guarantee that it’s some point before the end of the year. So this is the perfect place to continue to build him up.

Darby Allin vs Colt Cabana vs Orange Cassidy vs Rey Fenix vs Scorpio Sky vs Kip Sabian vs Frankie Kazarian vs Luchasaurus vs ???
(Casino Ladder Match)
(Winner gets an AEW World Championship Match in the future)

I’m starting to feel like WWE have hoarded all of the worthwhile gimmick match ideas. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure this will still be an entertaining match, mostly due to the people involved, but the format seems somewhat convoluted. It puts me in mind of when WCW would come up with over-complicated gimmick matches just for the sake of it.

This one’s sort of a Royal Rumble and Money in the Bank hybrid, where competitors have to climb a ladder to retrieve a casino chip which grants them a future opportunity at the AEW World title. The catch is that only two people start in the ring at once, with more competitors entering as the match goes on. Which means that it’s technically possible that one of the first two people could win the match before the other competitors even get a chance to enter…which seems dumb to me.

Still, it’s a multi-man gimmick match, so let’s run through each participant’s chances.

Colt Cabana – While I know that he’s a guy who’s been around forever in the indie scene, I don’t actually know all that much about Colt Cabana. I’m not as well versed on indie wrestling as I should be and Cabana is one of those names that I’ve heard all over the place, but never actually seen all that much of. Since coming to AEW, he’s not done all that much of note, he can undoubtedly wrestle in serious situations when needed, but he seems to be more of a comedy guy than anything else. It doesn’t seem like AEW have any interest in building him up to the main event, so I don’t think he’ll be winning this one.

Kip Sabian – Sabian is a guy will all the potential in the world right now, but I don’t think AEW are looking to capitalise on that potential just yet. The main event scene in AEW is one that’s very crowded with all the factions and top guys being signed from all over, and it doesn’t feel like Sabian has a place amongst them at this time. He’s not had enough high-profile wins over guys on his level yet to be considered for a title shot if you ask me, so I think he’ll come up short on Saturday.

Luchasaurus – As I mentioned earlier with Jungle Boy, I’m enjoying the gimmick of the Jurassic Express, even if they seem a bit too gimmicky for my liking. Luchasaurus is by far the standout of the group though, and I think he’s got all the makings of a mega-star given the right circumstances. Much the same as with Kip Sabian though, I don’t see him getting into the main event any time this year. It’s for the same reason too, it’s a really crowded scene, and I don’t see a place for some like Lucharsaurus until some more room has been made at the top.

Rey Fenix – Another competitor I sadly know very little about, unfortunately. I really enjoyed the lengthy feud that The Lucha Brothers had with The Young Bucks last year, but there was very little in there to do with character and almost entirely to do with how many flips they could do. As such, I’m unfamiliar with Fenix as a singles wrestler and don’t have much reason to expect him to win. The only justification I could think of for Fenix winning this is because of how The Lucha Brothers aren’t doing anything right now. I don’t know if that’s because Pentagon can’t travel thanks to the pandemic or just booking, but it’s still the fact of the matter.

Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian – Lumping these two together because they’re a part of the same faction and this is the time that I have to confess…I don’t really care for SCU very much. Don’t get me wrong, as wrestlers they’re great, and Scorpio Sky has all the potential in the world to be AEW’s top guy in a couple of years. However, their gimmick goes right over my head. I watched their segments on Being The Elite, and while the joke was funny at first it got old really fast, and now it just seems like they’re holding onto it for no real reason other than it pops a crowd. I think it’s possible that Sky could win this, but I don’t think it’s likely.

Orange Cassidy – I know that saying this could get me in a lot of hot water with Jim Cornette and the fun police, but I really like Orange Cassidy. His style of comedy wrestling is something that I’ve never seen before, and it’s absolutely fantastic. Not only that, but he’s proven in matches like his Revolution bout with Pac that he can definitely make it work in a dramatic and ‘proper’ wrestling match. Do I think he’s got the AEW title in his future? I’d say the jury’s still out on that one, but I certainly think he’ll be getting a title shot at some point over the next few years. As for Saturday, I don’t see it happening. Cassidy getting a title shot would only work with a heel champion and (spoilers) I don’t think we’re going to have one of those for a while yet.

??? – AEW has decided to keep us in the dark as to who the final participant in the match could be, which means they have a pretty damn good chance of winning the thing. As for who it could be, I honestly have no idea. The 90-day no-compete on the recently release WWE wrestlers is still active, so it can’t be any of them. I’ve seen a few people throw around Sting as a potential candidate, which I guess is possible, but quite the stretch. I think MJF or even Wardlow is reasonably likely, especially if MJF vs Jungle Boy goes on earlier in the night, which it probably will. What I think is most likely though, is that it will be one of AEW’s younger stars that haven’t quite gotten the spotlight they should’ve yet…or Sammy Guevara, that’s a possibility too. I can’t really give you a reliable name as to who I think this will be, but I think their chances of walking away victorious are quite high.

Darby Allin – It’s gotta be Darby, right? Ever since he had his match against Cody at Fight for the Fallen last year, Darby Allin has been waiting to breakthrough as a main event star. I had him pegged as one of the top contenders for the TNT Championship, but this is a good substitute. He’s got everything AEW needs in a top guy. He’s young, he’s athletic, he’s got a definite character and the crowd love him. A match against Moxley would be a perfect way to raise his stock to that of a main-eventer in the company, even though I don’t think he has a chance in hell of winning the title during that match. Much like with Private Party, I think there’s the most to be gained from Allin winning this thing, so he’s my pick.

The Inner Circle vs Matt Hardy & The Elite
(Stadium Stampede)

Again, what’s a Stadium Stampede match? Who knows? Who cares? I’m sure it’ll be fun, though. Given that Matt Hardy’s involved, I imagine it’ll involve a lot of pre-taped and ‘cinematic’ stuff like that of what we’ve seen from WWE recently. Although I think they’re probably going to mix it in with standard wrestling stuff too, around the stadium and such like.

Speaking of Matt Hardy, I’ve loved his work since joining AEW. I know a lot of people wanted him to be The Exalted One, but I much prefer the way things have turned out. The star of this feud has undoubtedly been Jericho though. His promos that he’s cut against Hardy, The Elite and Vanguard One, in particular, have been amazing. They’ve been comedic in just the right way so that it doesn’t take away from the intensity of the match being promoted. Hardy’s gimmick is an inherently ridiculous one, so trying to play to it entirely straight would never have worked, and it’s clear Jericho understood that and helped to create an enjoyable and unique build.

I’m quite torn on a winner though. On the one hand, this is Matt Hardy’s PPV debut, and Omega & Page are the tag champs, so they probably shouldn’t be losing a big match like this. On the other hand, The Inner Circle have been loosing A LOT recently. Guevara has lost just about every high-profile match he’s been in since joining the faction, Hager is coming off of a loss against Moxley, as is Jericho. I’m going to go with The Inner Circle. I think a single match between Hardy and Jericho could easily be built from this match. Meanwhile, Omega & Page are going to be defending their tag titles in what will undoubtedly be a fantastic match, so I don’t think they have much to fear from taking a loss here.

Nyla Rose(c) vs Hikaru Shida
(AEW Women’s Championship)
(No Holds Barred)

If I had to level one major criticism against AEW in its debut year, it would be the handling of its women’s championship. While I love Riho as a wrestler, the fact that she was barely ever on TV while the champion was a catastrophic move that severely harmed my interest in the title. Even though the few title defences she had were generally great matches. Thankfully, since resting on Nyla Rose’s shoulders, the belt has seen a lot more prominence week-to-week, but not as much as it should have.

It’s evident here, as there’s minimal story behind this title match. Hikaru Shida got the title shot purely because she’s been winning a decent amount as of late and that’s really it. I know several of the men’s title feuds have started because of that, but with the men’s division, they make match early on in the build cycle and then form a story around it. Instead, this title match was only made official last week, and realistically, there’s only been one week of build between the two women. I have a vague idea of both of their characters – I know who I should cheer and who I should boo – but I don’t know why. I have no concept of any character motivations other than “X wants the championship”.

I’m also not entirely sure what the match is going to be like. I know that both Rose and Shida are good wrestlers, but I’ve yet to actually see a performance from either of them that makes me sit-up and put them on the level with the best women’s wrestlers in the world. Hopefully, this will be the match that convinces me, though.

I’m pretty confident in picking Nyla Rose to win this one. She’s been at the forefront of the women’s division even before she was champion and given how relatively short of a time she’s been champion so far, I don’t see AEW taking the title off of her just yet. In addition, I think the best way to build the women’s championship up as a title to one that people care about is to give Rose a long and prestigious reign, where she has a whole bunch of strong and entertaining title defences.

Cody vs Lance Archer
(TNT Championship)

Not counting the two men who have been AEW World Champion so far, I think Cody has easily been the best member of the AEW roster for this initial year. I know there’s some criticism to be had about him pushing himself so hard when he plays a large part in the booking of the shows, but I don’t mind at all because he absolutely justifies his high position on the card with every high-profile match he has. Cody’s stories are almost always the most well-written on any given show, and they always lead to some standout matches. I don’t think this match is an exception to that statement either.

The entire tournament for the brand new TNT Championship has been fantastic. Week after week there were great matches as the tournament progressed and it means that this new title already has a whole heap of prestige going into the match to crown the inaugural champion. It was also paced very well so that we knew finals a few weeks out from the show and there was time to build some story and tension between Cody and Archer too. Jake Robert’s initial promo to Cody where he claimed he was just coming for Cody’s slice of the pie was amazing, and the chemistry he’s had with Archer had been fantastic.

Roberts was always a great heel promo, but he’s proven over the past month that he hasn’t lost a step. He says horrible and uncomfortable things, and it works so perfectly to confer all of that heat onto Archer, who has been a total monster every time he’s stepped in the ring. This is one of the things AEW has been very good at because I had absolutely no idea who Lance Archer was before he signed with AEW, but in the space of a month and a half, I’m totally invested in him as a wrestler.

What I know for sure here is that Lance Archer needs to win this match and have a totally dominant reign with the TNT Championship. Not only will with make the title an extremely prestigious prize for whoever is challenging him, but it will cement Archer as an unstoppable force in the company. If this title reign goes well for Archer, I could absolutely see him claiming the world title for his own before 2021 is finished.

Jon Moxley(c) vs Brodie Lee
(AEW World Championship)

What a difference a year makes…

I don’t think many people would disagree with me when I said that, since leaving WWE, Moxley has been one of the hottest wrestlers on the planet. Going on a tear in New Japan Pro Wrestling and winning their US title was just the first step in Moxley reinventing himself to show everyone that what they saw of him in WWE was just a taster for the amazing stuff he can really do when he’s let loose. He came into AEW with a head of steam and put on a great match with Kenny Omega at Full Gear and has flourished creatively, showing every interesting facet of his character. I thought the match where he won the title from Jericho at Revolution was brilliant and has kicked off a title reign that has so far been really enjoyable.

Brodie Lee is a very similar story, although since he only left WWE very recently, we’re yet to see the full potential of what he can really do. His character work since revealing himself as The Dark Order’s Exalted One has been really enjoyable. The skits that were definitely not poking fun at Vince McMahon (wink, nudge) were fun and didn’t overstay their welcome either. Once it was time for Lee to get down to business and build a story with Moxley, he did a great job of it. It can be hard for heels to seem credible in the face of Moxley’s heated attitude, but Lee decided to formulate a character that is almost the perfect opposite of Moxley. He’s calm, collected and authoritarian, every word he says is dripping with this inherent heelish hypocrisy that just boils my blood and makes me want to see Moxley get his hands of him.

I really think this is going to be the match of the night and maybe even a match of the year contender for AEW. Moxley has already proven himself as a top-level wrestler, and we’ve seen enough glimpses of what Lee can really do during his WWE run that I have all the faith in the world that he’s going to put on a stellar performance here. While I think it’s possible they could hot-shot the belt over to Brodie Lee, I think keeping it on Jon Moxley is the right call for now. He’s only just won the title, and I don’t think it would be overly exciting TV if we went straight back to a heel faction on top of the company. Brodie Lee should look fantastic in defeat here, and he will absolutely come away from the match looking like a credible top heel for AEW, even if he loses.

So there you have it! Those are my predictions for AEW Double or Nothing. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, please let me know what you think will happen, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this time on Sunday, where I’ll be giving you my review of the show!

6 – Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart def. Candice LaRae & Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

5 – Adam Cole(c) def. Velveteen Dream (NXT Championship) (Backlot Brawl)

4 – Keith Lee(c) vs Johnny Gargano (North American Championship)