The road to AEW All In has begun.
At Sunday’s Double or Nothing, Hangman Page defeated Will Ospreay in a classic main event in Phoenix to not only win this year’s men’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament but earn a title match against Jon Moxley in Texas. The two traded nearfalls, finishers, and everything else in between until one final buckshot lariat scored the win for Hangman.
Prior to the main event, I thought it could go either way. I have thought for a long time that Ospreay should be the face of the company simply because he’s one of the best wrestlers on Earth. But once Hangman won, I thought his win made all the sense in the world. He’s been the one constant throughout these last six years of AEW programming and has spent the last couple of years tormenting himself; an aimless, guideless mess.
And finally, with this win, he’s found purpose again.
In his press conference interview, Hangman said for the first time in quite a while, he has something to look forward to. All of these years of angst and confusion will finally lead to this one moment against Moxley. All that’s left is to beat the AEW Champion. Will he do it? Some argue that Darby Allin could be the one that knocks off Moxley once he returns from his Mt. Everest climb but I think a lot of people would be upset if Hangman doesn’t score the win in Texas.
The women’s Owen Hart Foundation tournament saw Mercedes Mone defeat Jamie Hayter in an excellent match to add another title to her collection.
She will now face Toni Storm, who was successful in her title defense against Mina Shirakawa. This has been building for a while and it’s obvious why Mone has been TBS Champion — they wanted to keep her and Storm separate until it was time to do the big match. It’s certainly time to do it now as it’s the biggest match AEW can do in the women’s division. The harder part is deciding who wins.
Double or Nothing was a great show. AEW’s pacing problems are still evident and it probably would have been a better show with a couple of matches being cut. Still, I can’t complain too much about a show like this.
The rest of the card:
- Anarchy in the Arena was about what you would expect: a wild & crazy brawl that was easily the best match of the show. How can you go wrong with a bunch of brawling and crazy spots while Drowning Pool’s Bodies plays six or seven times? Sheer anarchy throughout including every weapon you can think of, brawling all throughout the arena (the multiple cameras showcasing the mayhem is always a fun touch), all ending with Kenny Omega and Swerve Strickland getting their revenge over the Young Bucks. There’s always a fun party match on every AEW show as of late, but this is THE party match to end all party matches.
- The six-man tag team match that had to follow Anarchy in the Arena was wrestled very well and I give everyone involved an A for effort. But, they just couldn’t follow something as chaotic as the previous match. Tomohiro Ishii, Brody King, and Hiroshi Tanahashi came out for the save and took out all members of the Don Callis Family after the match so I think we’re beginning the build to Forbidden Door, unless they want to pretend Tanahashi didn’t promote his final match in the US last month at NJPW’s Windy City Riot.
- Storm defeated Shirakawa in a match I thought was just fine and perfectly alright. It was more to cement Storm’s status as champion heading into July. I’m happy that the two kissed and made up after the match as a sign of good friendship which everyone in the crowd very loudly cheered for.
- Kazuchika Okada retained the Continental title, defeating “Speedball” Mike Bailey who I have to give a shout-out for wearing super cool Balatro gear. This was very good, one of Okada’s better matches so far in AEW, and it’s mostly because of Bailey. If it wasn’t for Ospreay, Bailey would be an early contender for Most Outstanding Wrestler as every time I’ve seen him he’s given it his all, and is very much flourishing in AEW. All this will inevitably lead to what they teased months ago: Okada vs. Omega in a match that hopefully unifies their two titles for good.
- The Hurt Syndicate defeated Sammy Gueveara and Dustin Rhodes to retain their AEW Tag Team titles in another good match. The aim of this match was to see if MJF would turn on The Hurt Business. Despite a bunch of teases, he didn’t. I think the goal now is to wait and see if, not when, MJF ends up turning on them.
- Ricochet emerged victorious over Mark Briscoe in a stretcher match. Aside from the Anarchy in the Arena, this was the blood match you see on every AEW show. They are not banning the blade anytime soon, obviously. Ricochet is on the rise so it makes sense for him to win. At the same time, I feel like Briscoe is much more than just someone that loses to everyone all the time. The good news is that he’s so over and so good at what he does, he can be in that role and everyone will still love him no matter what. He is a national treasure.
- FTR defeated Nigel McGuinness and Daniel Garcia. This was a good match and the right guys won as AEW is clearly building to a Adam Copeland return that will lead to the All In match. Dax and Cash are very good in this heel role and I am glad that Stokely Hathaway has finally found the perfect spot for himself as their manager, it’s long overdue. Nigel looked good and moved well. I think he’s in a prime spot as well, serving as an announcer but coming out every now and then to wrestle.
