Last night, from the Garden Arena at the historic MGM Grand in Las Vegas Nevada, All Elite Wrestling finally kicked off, after months of anticipation with their premier event: Double or Nothing.
Kicking off with hour long pre-show The Buy In on ITV4, the fans were first treated to the Casino Battle Royal, 21 guys vying for a spot in the first ever AEW World Title match. A frenetic and chaotic few minutes followed, with big moments for the man formerly known as Tye Dillinger in WWE as the Perfect 10, as well as hardcore spots between the likes of death match legend Jimmy Havoc and ECW’s Tommy Dreamer. This wasn’t going to be a 6* Tokyo Dome classic, but it wasn’t meant to be. It was crazy good fun, and by the time Hangman Page (the surprise 21st entrant following the high profile cancellation of his match with Pac on the main card) finally eliminated MJF, the fans were rabid for more.
Britains own Kip Sabian was up next, in a high flying and fast pace cruisers contest with former AAA Cruiserweight champion Sammy Guevara. Some frankly insane spots - including a shooting star press onto a prone Sabian hanging over the crowd barrier - would follow before the Norfolk boy would hit his Deathly Hallows finisher for the win, sending us into the main card hot. For those keeping score at home, this also means Kip was the first person to ever win a singles match in AEW, so when that trivia question comes up in a few years there’s your answer.
An excellent six man tag would start the show proper with SCU taking on the Strong Hearts from OWE. Again this was high paced, with all 6 men working their butts off to bring spot after spot before finally SCU would leave with the big victory.
Going into the evenings event Tony Khan and the other AEW execs had promised plenty of surprises, and the first of them was just around the corner. As the 3 competitors in the women’s triple threat waited for the bell to ring Brandi Rhodes would suddenly appear on the stage, in full gear, saying that she had thought about it, and while a triple threat would be great, it was lacking something. In the biggest swerve of the night - everyone in attendance assumed she was about to insert herself - she then said simply that great wasn’t good enough. This match needed to be AWESOME. And with that Awesome Kong’s music hit, and the roof came off the Garden. The commentary did a really good job of selling the swerve, asking amongst themselves what was happening, and if Brandi was about to insert herself, so the moment the shock comes it really lands.
The most dominant force in the last decade of American women’s wrestling, Kong marched to the ring and the KONG KONG KONG chants reigned down.
The four women quickly went to work on another - allow me to say for me the stand out was Kylie Ray. I didnt know her going in, but she seems to be the purest babyface character I can remember. Cheering and smiling, completely unironically. She feels like NXT Bayley - and anyone who knows me knows that’s a compliment from where I’m sat. Her workrate was excellent, and her character work even better, so I can’t wait to see more of her.
As the match drew on, the two big women in the match, Kong and Nyla Rose took each other out as Nyla speared Kong through the ring steps, and Britt Baker was able to capitalise and get the 3 count of Kylie.
Next up was for me the one real mis-step of the night. A 6 women tag match which would pit legend Aja Kong, Yuka Sakazaki and Emi Sakura against Hikaru Shida, Riho Abe and Ryo Mizunami was unfortunately let down by a couple of pretty egregious botches here. Chiefly among them, as the match was reaching its climax the ref counted a 2 count on a pinball but for some reason the timekeeper rang the bell. The 6 women (and the ref) did their best to salvage the situation, with the ref waving off the call immediately, but the fans noticed and the “You F**ked up” chants would ring out. A few seconds later the other team would pick up a 3 count and send the match home.
It was at that moment made clear that the mistake would have led the wrong team to win, which is why it had been so imperative to call off the decision, but it completely took the fans out of the match.
On a lesser show this could have been a death knell, the crowd lost, but thankfully they needn’t have worried because next up was - for my money - the match of the night. AEW founder and EVP Cody Rhodes would take on his brother Dustin in a match the pair had wanted to have for many years.
It had been well publicised during their time in WWE that both Goldust and Cody were lobbying for a Wrestlemania match between the brothers, but in the end Vince McMahon’s company had decided the match was not worthy of PPV and blew it off in a TV match.
With something to prove then, both men went out clearly ready to give it their all. Before the match even got going the fans were on their feet, with Dusty chants - celebrating their father the late great Dusty Rhodes - calling through. The story of this match was one of two men who knew each other so well. Constantly reversing moves and stealing eachothers movesets they were working the crowd into a frenzy early.
Brandi would make herself a presence again - here spearing Dustin while the ref’s back was turned, but when he turned back he quickly worked out what had happened, leading to her ejection.
When she refused to go, DDP of all people came out, and forcibly removed her from the arena, leaving just the two men to go to war.
Soon after the camera found Dustin’s face and it was covered in blood (ostensibly from a hard turnbuckle spot just before the ejection) and this would change the complexion of the match. It became a hard hitting brawl, with Dustin fighting on and on even when it felt like the match might have to be stopped. Cody hit Cross Rhodes, but Dustin kicked out, getting back up and hitting Cody with a Cross Rhodes of his own for the closest near fall of the night so far.
Eventually Cody would hit a disaster kick and a final CR for the win, but this wasn’t the end of the emotion. With Dustin sat broken, crying and covered in his own blood in the ring, the fans began a loud and respectful Thank You Dustin chant. This felt like the retirement moment which had long been teased. The brothers had their match. Dustin had nothing left to prove.
But as the chant reached its crescendo Cody got back in the ring, saying that he wouldn’t let Dustin retire just yet.
At the next AEW event Cody was signed in a tag match with the Young Bucks, with a partner of Cody’s choosing.
He said he didnt need a partner. He didnt need a friend. He needed his big brother. As the two embraced, their war finally done and their reconciliation complete, I burst into tears.
This was such fantastic storytelling. There had been rumours of a Cody heel turn for the end of the match, but this redemption story was so much stronger, and it leaves us moving into the next phase of AEW at Fyter Fest next month.
It almost goes without saying given the competitors, that the final two matches - Young Bucks Vs Pentagon and Fenix, and a main event of Chris Jericho Vs Kenny Omega were also both great, but for my money Cody Vs Dustin was THE match we will be talking about moving forward as the defining match in the promotion so far.
Indeed it was one of the very best matches from a pure storyline perspective which I can remember seeing this year. Absolute magic, and it shows why pro wrestling can be the best entertainment source in the world
At the end of this match was another of my minor blips on the evening (it actually happened after most of the matches, but it felt most blatant here), as they went to show some highlights. On other wrestling shows this might have been a 15 moment, recapping 1 or 2 spots. I feel like the production strategy here was to recap like a good minute or two of the match, showing every major moment. It was just too much. We just saw the match, we don’t need it again in a digestible form. Its a tiny teething issue on a brand new promotion though, so I give them plenty of leeway here that this can improve in an instant.
After the aforementioned main event, with Chris Jericho standing victorious in the ring though, heeling it up demanding a thank you from the crowd, well, then came the headline you’ll inevitably be reading coming out of the show.
A roar came through the crowd. Starting in a corner of the arena and slowly spreading across the screen as the news clearly spread like wildfire. Sauntering through the crowd came the man many had theorised would be AEW bound, but who I don’t think many ever really expected to see, certainly here tonight
Jon Moxley had come to AEW. You hear about the roof metaphorically blowing off a building well with this pop the roof must have reached half way to space. Meeting Jericho in the ring with a Dirty Deeds DDT, and then one from the ref, the unhinged Moxley turned his attentions to Kenny Omega.
Tired and broken from his battle with Jericho it looked like Mox might get the best of him too, but as he went for a third Dirty Deeds, Kenny managed to push him out of the ring to the floor, and the pair would battle into the rabid crowd.
As they eventually reached the stage, both would climb up on a set of giant poker chips which made up the set, before Moxley would finally drop Omega with the Dirty deeds. Even this wasn’t enough though as he would pick up Omega and perform a HUGE standing Death Valley Driver, dropping Kenny probably 10-15 feet to the stage floor below, standing victorious, and sending the crowd home ecstatic.
For a debut show you couldn’t ask for a better conclusion.
The purpose of the final shot of any PPV is to make you want to come back next time, and I think you’d struggle to find anyone who saw the conclusion of last nights show and isnt immediately All In (if you’ll excuse the pun) on whatever comes next.
Taking everything into account, this was an exceptional debut. There were a few very minor teething issues from a technical standpoint (all easily fixable), and the end to the womens six man was a real shame as its the closest we came to a genuine sour point on the night, but otherwise this was outstanding.
Bring on what’s next. If they can keep up anything like this pace, it’s going to be special. Really, really special.
