Thoughts On Double Or Nothing

[Bob-O]

This is usually the sort of thing I ramble about in the reviews. My original intention was to review this show, but holy crap... I don't know how you guys do it. I don't have the attention span to set my opinions in stone like that in a way I'd be willing to defend. But I do have opinions! Lots of them! This being AEW's first official outing, I thought I'd share a few...

Presentation
I liked the two tunnels of the stage. Kind of a throwback to Face and Heel Locker Rooms, and I dig it. Bret Hart probably doesn't, as I understand he tried walking up the middle and fell down on his way out, but I do. It's kind of hard to gauge everything as a whole because we don't know what their weekly tv is going to look like, so it's hard to say how "special" this felt as a ppv, but for a stand alone show it worked. I don't think anyone's really expecting them to start out with LED rigs and synchronized music, but I feel like they maybe could have done a little more with what they had. Their setup reminded me a lot of what NJPW uses, but New Japan knows how to make an entrance feel special... and while they tried a few times, I didn't get those goosebumps tonight. Given the people involved, I'm sure they'll figure it out.

Lighting is a debate to be had that boils down to preference really. I strongly prefer NXT's "Lights Out" approach to matches vs Raw/Smackdown's ALL THE LIGHTS VERY BRIGHT approach. I prefer both of those to the dim colored lights AEW put on their crowd. I'm pretty sure that's what TNA used to do, but when I noticed it tonight it gave me a bad throwback to something I couldn't put my finger on.

I LOVE a simple presentation, and they did do it right here. Two cameras and I think they had a drone flying around. Footage was crisp and the floating camera was where he needed to be at the right times. What I ABSOLUTELY LOVED was the announcers being set far back, and those between match clips with the ring behind them... gave a great feel to the show. Seeing the Lucha Bros exit the ring in the background gave this the perfect live feel.

Jim Ross was the best I've heard in a while, that helps too. I don't think he's found his comfort zone, that wasn't "Good Ol J.R." but he called the matches as he saw them, and I don't think he botched any names... so... I'll call it a win. After listening to his NJPW commentary I was surprised AEW made him an offer.

The Action
I liked the flow of the card. Some might critique Omega/Jericho following Lucha Bros/Bucks, but I think it was the only thing that possibly could. The openers felt like openers, and the card built up nicely. I know it's a "different strokes for different folks" thing, but I did feel like every match on this card went 5 to 10 minutes longer than it needed to. It feels silly to say, because we're constantly bitching about WWE cutting things short, but there's GOT to be a happy medium somewhere, yeah? I think 10-15 minutes is plenty of time to do anything that isn't the main event, even on a ppv, unless it's a HUGE undercard feud. But, I'm weird.

I will take back ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I've said negatively about Sasha Banks. Sasha could absolutely be the face of that division, as the ladies didn't impress me at all. I'll always have a spot in my heart for Awesome Kong, but they were either having an off night, or people don't understand how good the girls in WWE and TNA are, but I'm going to complain about WWE's girls much less from now on. Beyond that mess, I thought the show brought a nice showcase of talent and what we can expect moving forward, Dustin and Cody was GREAT and showed us why they wanted to do it their way, Bucks/Lucha Bros was the spotfest we were all expecting, and I'd be in line to argue with anyone who said Omega/Jericho underdelivered - then we got the nice post match surprise to keep us watching.


Overall, I think they delivered. Obviously a work in progress, but a solid show. ~Maybe~ not a $50 show... but it was good.

[cero2k]

Presentation
I don't think anyone's really expecting them to start out with LED rigs and synchronized music, but I feel like they maybe could have done a little more with what they had.

All about their presentation will eventually tell us how much they'll work to better themselves. It's their very first show in history, even ALL IN doesn't count because that was ROH's production. But now they'll have time to watch their own show and learn from their mistakes and work from there on.

Jim Ross was the best I've heard in a while, that helps too. I don't think he's found his comfort zone, that wasn't "Good Ol J.R." but he called the matches as he saw them, and I don't think he botched any names... so... I'll call it a win. After listening to his NJPW commentary I was surprised AEW made him an offer.

NJPW made the mistake of hoping that JR could still be the play-by-play AND know the storylines of the shows that he wasn't watching, AAANND carry Josh Barnett. Here, JR was the color commentator pretty much, he just needed to sit there, look pretty, and say memorable things. Marvez is the one that I thought needs to work on his shit, he had bad timing, he came off misinformed, and he has a terrible look.

[Bob-O]

All about their presentation will eventually tell us how much they'll work to better themselves. It's their very first show in history, even ALL IN doesn't count because that was ROH's production. But now they'll have time to watch their own show and learn from their mistakes and work from there on.

Absolutely, I don't doubt that. I think BRM said it in his review, but they kind of shoehorned themselves into a Vegas Theme, which I don't think was a good idea for a first show. Like when WWE gets out the phone booths and english bobby costumes every time they're in England... dude, who are you catering to? Nobody cares where you are, people care that it's your first show, don't detract from THAT energy! To me it looked like 3 people had 3 very different ideas and they all met in the middle. The more elaborate entrances would have worked better on a bigger stage, despite having room to work with it looked a little cramped to me and I would have traded the poker chips for a bigger stage. No doubt they made it work, and I'm excited to see what they do in Chicago - just my worthless $0.02.

Marvez is the one that I thought needs to work on his shit, he had bad timing, he came off misinformed, and he has a terrible look.

Yeah... who is he? He struck me as a radio-guy that's never been on TV...

[Big Red Machine]

All about their presentation will eventually tell us how much they'll work to better themselves. It's their very first show in history, even ALL IN doesn't count because that was ROH's production. But now they'll have time to watch their own show and learn from their mistakes and work from there on.

Absolutely, I don't doubt that. I think BRM said it in his review, but they kind of shoehorned themselves into a Vegas Theme, which I don't think was a good idea for a first show. Like when WWE gets out the phone booths and english bobby costumes every time they're in England... dude, who are you catering to? Nobody cares where you are, people care that it's your first show, don't detract from THAT energy! To me it looked like 3 people had 3 very different ideas and they all met in the middle. The more elaborate entrances would have worked better on a bigger stage, despite having room to work with it looked a little cramped to me and I would have traded the poker chips for a bigger stage. No doubt they made it work, and I'm excited to see what they do in Chicago - just my worthless $0.02.

I was actually giving them a pass on it because they had already established the theme and because the only thing they had that qualified as a garish set-dressing actually served a real purpose for the show. This is how stage-dressing should be done, as opposed to the overkill that WWE is obsessed with.

Marvez is the one that I thought needs to work on his shit, he had bad timing, he came off misinformed, and he has a terrible look.

Yeah... who is he? He struck me as a radio-guy that's never been on TV...

I know that he at least used to be a reporter for some big newspaper (Miami Herald, I think) that covered wrestling/boxing/MMA. I'm not sure if he's ever done announcing before.

[cero2k]

Absolutely, I don't doubt that. I think BRM said it in his review, but they kind of shoehorned themselves into a Vegas Theme, which I don't think was a good idea for a first show. Like when WWE gets out the phone booths and english bobby costumes every time they're in England... dude, who are you catering to? Nobody cares where you are, people care that it's your first show, don't detract from THAT energy! To me it looked like 3 people had 3 very different ideas and they all met in the middle. The more elaborate entrances would have worked better on a bigger stage, despite having room to work with it looked a little cramped to me and I would have traded the poker chips for a bigger stage. No doubt they made it work, and I'm excited to see what they do in Chicago - just my worthless $0.02.

i liked the chips thing, I like when big shows have themed stages, and i'm pretty tired of just hiding everything with huge led screens like every promotion is doing right now. I also like the two entrances thing, i know it's totally 2007 TNA, but it just always made sense to me that competitors should have different locker rooms and passages to the ring.

[Big Red Machine]

Absolutely, I don't doubt that. I think BRM said it in his review, but they kind of shoehorned themselves into a Vegas Theme, which I don't think was a good idea for a first show. Like when WWE gets out the phone booths and english bobby costumes every time they're in England... dude, who are you catering to? Nobody cares where you are, people care that it's your first show, don't detract from THAT energy! To me it looked like 3 people had 3 very different ideas and they all met in the middle. The more elaborate entrances would have worked better on a bigger stage, despite having room to work with it looked a little cramped to me and I would have traded the poker chips for a bigger stage. No doubt they made it work, and I'm excited to see what they do in Chicago - just my worthless $0.02.

i liked the chips thing, I like when big shows have themed stages, and i'm pretty tired of just hiding everything with huge led screens like every promotion is doing right now. I also like the two entrances thing, i know it's totally 2007 TNA, but it just always made sense to me that competitors should have different locker rooms and passages to the ring.

I'm fine with the two stages so long as they don't specifically say "this is the babyface one and this is the heel one" which I think TNA sometimes did. It's a decent idea to explain a lack of backstage attacks, but I think it's fine so long as you don't make the regimenting so obvious.

[cero2k]

I'm fine with the two stages so long as they don't specifically say "this is the babyface one and this is the heel one" which I think TNA sometimes did. It's a decent idea to explain a lack of backstage attacks, but I think it's fine so long as you don't make the regimenting so obvious.

i don't think anyone has ever explained that, it's just something that you'll notice if you pay attention who comes out from where

[Big Red Machine]

I'm fine with the two stages so long as they don't specifically say "this is the babyface one and this is the heel one" which I think TNA sometimes did. It's a decent idea to explain a lack of backstage attacks, but I think it's fine so long as you don't make the regimenting so obvious.

i don't think anyone has ever explained that, it's just something that you'll notice if you pay attention who comes out from where

I thought someone noted it at some point in TNA. Either way, I don't even think you need a babyface one and a heel one (I'd even find it a little strange that things just randomly happen to work out that way). Just a second one to explain why hated rivals don't start fighting at Gorilla Position.