00:00The most insane anarchy in the arena match of all time, New Japan's Hiroshi Tanahashi
00:06appears on the show, Mercedes-Mode and Hangman Adam Page win their Owen Hart tournament,
00:11and more.
00:12I'm Luke Owen, welcome to the WrestleTalk News, and this is my review of AEW Double
00:16or Nothing 2025.
00:18Support WrestleTalk!
00:21But we kick off with something a little bit different, because AEW ran a big pay-per-view
00:25in 2025, so you know what that means, WWE counter-programmed it to try and hurt their pay-per-view buys.
00:31The WWE show in question was the tremendously fun NXT battleground, which saw Sol Rooka retain
00:37her Women's North American Championship over Kalani Jordan in a very good opener, the
00:41Soul Snatcher continues to rule, and Josh Briggs teamed with Luke's current favourite tag team
00:45Hank and Tank to beat the Culling with an Inamora return.
00:48Stax beat Tony D'Angelo in a surprisingly very good match, which also saw the return of
00:53Crucifino, but the match of the night has to go to the brilliant bout between Stephanie
00:57Vaqueur and Jordan Grace for the NXT Women's Championship.
01:01The action was superb, and saw a near-forward the legit everyone in the building bought as
01:06the finish from the SVB, but it was a spiral tap from Vaqueur that finally put Grace away.
01:12NXT actually did a really good job of making you believe that Miles Bourne could beat Oba
01:16Femi for the NXT Championship, but the retention was fairly a foregone conclusion.
01:20However, the main event did see a surprise victor as Trick Williams became the first ever WWE
01:26contracted wrestler to win the TNA Championship, as he beat Joe Hendry in the main event via
01:31shenanigans.
01:32Yes, you heard that right, NXT's Trick Williams is the new TNA World Champion, which sets up
01:38a very fun story of the invading WWE heel being the promotion's top title holder.
01:45So what did you make of NXT Battlegrounds, let me know in the comments down below.
01:48But over in AEW world now, and All Elite Wrestling celebrated six years on PPV with a stonking
01:54show that can be ranked among their very best ever.
01:58The buy-in opened with a surprise, as Harley Cameron and Anna J beat Megan Bain and Penelope
02:02Ford, which felt like AEW putting in some building blocks for a women's tag title scene, like
02:07we need more belts, and your party match of the night saw Bandido, Commander, Hologram
02:11and AR Fox defeat Roppongi, Vice and Crew in an all killer, no filler action match.
02:16It was a much better use of the buy-in, with only two matches to get you hyped for the main
02:19PPV rather than four.
02:21It also meant the Double or Nothing, despite its four hour length, never felt like it dragged.
02:26Especially when you open with the brilliance of Mercedes-Monnaie beating Jamie Hayter to
02:30win the women's side of the Owen Hart tournament to earn a shot at the AEW Women's Championship
02:35at All In Texas, spoilers, it will be Toni Storm, more on that later.
02:40Monet worked over haters back for a lot of the match, including three consecutive backstabbers
02:44leading into a statement maker, but Jamie made her comeback with a sliding hate array that
02:48the crowd totally bought as the finish.
02:50Well, either that, or they just really wanted to see Jamie win, and Mercedes not win.
02:56Which was bad news for this crowd, as Mercedes did indeed pick up the win with a small package
03:00which also sort of doubled to the DDT at the same time.
03:03Monet winning really does make sense, as you do want to put on your biggest title match
03:07that you can for your biggest show of the year.
03:09And Monet winning with a small package is a good bit of wrestling storytelling, given
03:13Toni Storm's big package.
03:15After the commentary team gave some well wishes to Jim Ross, commentator Nigel McGuinness
03:19teamed up with Daniel Garcia to take on FTR.
03:22It's always wonderful to see Nigel in the ring, given that we all sort of believed it would
03:26never happen again, and he did everything that he needed to do in this match to put over
03:31Dax and Cash.
03:32The finish ruled as FTR laid out Nigel with the Shadow Machine on the outside, and Dax
03:36had Garcia in the sharpshooter while Cash held the ring from anyone else who tried to
03:41help Danny.
03:42He dived into daddy magic, he kicked a recovering Nigel from the apron, so the referee called
03:47for the submission.
03:48It made FTR look ruthless and like a United unit who cannot be stopped.
03:53Ricochet beat Mark Briscoe in a stretcher match that was a lot of fun if a little corny for
03:57my tastes, and the Hurt Syndicate retained their tag titles over the Sons of Texas.
04:01This was one of those matches where the result was never in question, but the involvement
04:05of MJF certainly had some question marks hanging over it.
04:09He tried on multiple occasions to cheat because, as he put it at one point, this was taking
04:14too long, but Bobby and MVP stopped him as that's not how they operate.
04:18They instead did what they do best.
04:21They hurt Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara to win.
04:23This also featured Luke Owen's Sign of the Night, which goes to this person's The
04:27Turd Syndicate sign.
04:29That is superb work.
04:31Kazuchika Okada beat Speedball Mike Bailey to retain his Continental Championship with
04:35a brilliant finish that saw Okada hit a dropkick to Bailey as he was doing his Shooting Star
04:39knee drop in midair and then hit a Rainmaker for the win.
04:43Timeless Tony Storm beat Mina Shirakawa in a match that was as much about hard hitting as
04:47it was about showboating.
04:48Mina targeted Tony's knee to apply the figure 4, which built to a really good tease of a tap-out
04:52spot.
04:53Storm couldn't even run to do her hip attack, but eventually almost powered her way through
04:57one so she could hit one in the corner.
04:59And following a brilliant big slash small package reversal sequence, which had been built up
05:02on TV over the last few weeks, Tony Storm hit Storm Zero for the win.
05:06This was a great match and set a stage for a massive match between Tony Storm and the undefeated
05:12Mousseney's Monet at All In Texas.
05:15And speaking of massive matches, I don't even know where to begin with the 2025 Anarchy
05:22in the Arena.
05:24Following Dynasty, where it looked like the post-pandemic double or nothing brawl tradition
05:27was rearing its head again, I have to admit I was not enthused.
05:31I like the match type, don't get me wrong, but I was more interested in Omega and Swerve
05:35teaming up to take on the Bucks and the Ops taking out Deathriders.
05:39So stopping that for one month to do a gimmick match because it's that time of year just
05:44felt like a formality to extend out the stories.
05:47But then they did this match, and I'm very happy to say that my unenthusiasm was misplaced.
05:53This isn't a formality, this is f***ing insanity.
05:57Kenny Omega, Swerve Strickland, the Ops and Willow Nightingale teamed up to take on Death
06:00Riders and the Young Bucks, and while everyone made cool entrances, Swerve out on the Hunt
06:05dressed as Predator, Kenny out as Captain North America, it was the Bucks who stole the
06:09show with an Abe Lincoln parody speech that I'm really only aware of because I've seen
06:14Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
06:16And because their entrance was last, their historical music played over the start of the match, not
06:22really feeling these sorts of vibes, Kenny and Swerve asked was something that was a bit
06:25more fight worthy.
06:27So the production team obliged by playing the Pointer Sisters I'm so excited, with their
06:31tongue placed firmly in their cheek as a knowing wink to the online brigade who did not like
06:36that that was Dynamite's theme at the start of the year.
06:38And while that was very fun, Kenny wanted something a lot more thematic.
06:43So we partied like it was 2001 as they brawled to Drowning Pool's bodies.
06:48And the bodies did, indeed, hit the floor.
06:51Though I must correct Mr. Mega as he said that this was alternative rock.
06:55But this was no alternative rock good sir.
06:58This is the greatest musical achievement of the 1990s.
07:01This was New Freakin' Metal!
07:04Right, so this was so bonkers that AEW had to have four cameras on screen at the same time
07:09to try and keep up.
07:10Bodies, which was played about four or five times, was stopped when Claudio swung Swerve
07:14into a speaker system.
07:16Willow ended up chained to the ring post by her bloody ear.
07:19Nick did a swanton bomb off the stage to Hobbs through a table.
07:22Swerve came out on a forklift to help powerhouse Hobbs.
07:25It was just madness.
07:27Let me try this one.
07:28Nick made Kenny spring off the top rope by his midsection so he flipped into a powerbomb
07:33through a table by Matthew on the outside.
07:36It was, to put it mildly, anarchy.
07:39Deathriders took over things, we got a sequence of chokes and dives, Willow teamed with Hobbs
07:44to spear and spinebuster a bunch of dudes, then everyone just started staple gunning
07:48each other.
07:49Matt stapled Hobbs, but it had no effect, so Swerve got the staple gun, I was like I'll
07:52show you how it's done, he stapled Mox in the neck, Claudio in the head and Matt in
07:56the dick.
07:57Then Marina stapled Swerve Strickland right in the tongue.
08:00And if you thought it was a gimmick, Swerve showed the staple in his tongue after the match.
08:06Willow hit a double spear, Omega hit Shafir with a Snapdragon, Bucks
08:09gave everyone, including referee Rick Knox, a superkick party.
08:13Willow and Swerve did the TK driver to Matt, Cook made his return dressed as Kenny from
08:17South Park, Omega got an EVB trigger with thumbtacks in his mouth, Gabe Kidd ran down
08:22to beat up the good guys, Bloody Mark Brisco ran down to even the odds, and the babyfaces
08:29locked the Deathriders in an ambulance, while Omega hit a one-winged angel to Nicholas off
08:34the stage, threw a table that had actual explosives in it, and Swerve hit the Swerve stomp with
08:39thumbtack trainers to get the win.
08:42Bonkers, in all the best kinds of ways.
08:45So much carnage, and so much fun.
08:47My hat that everyone has enjoyed the return of must be taken off to everyone involved.
08:52On Dynamite, Will Ospreay said he wasn't afraid to follow that madness, and he didn't need
08:55to, as the Don Callis family beat Paragon via a Brain Buster by Kyle Fletcher to Kyle O'Reilly.
09:00It was a nice build for a TNT program, and the baddies jumped the goodies after the match
09:04with Roppongi Bites getting involved, but the faces were aided by Brody King Tom Iro Ishii,
09:09and a surprise appearance by New Japan President Hiroshi Tanahashi.
09:12And it brought us to the main event, and boy howdy, did AEW make this feel like the biggest
09:19deal.
09:20One of the benefits of the world title not being defended on the show meant the stakes
09:24for this match felt so much higher.
09:26This wasn't just about winning the Owen, it wasn't just about getting a title shot
09:31at the biggest AEW show of the year.
09:33This was also about which man was going to step up and save all elite wrestling.
09:39Would it be Will Ospreay, the shiny new toy who has always been pegged as the future of
09:44this company, or will it be the day one cowboy looking for redemption?
09:50This was a brilliant match, worked between two of the very best, and even when the announcers
09:53table broke early, they never lost the crowd who were on the edge of their seats the entire
09:58time, including a sensational bit of drama as Hangman Page set up for the buckshot and
10:03Will told him to go for it because he's going to hit him with the hidden blade first.
10:07It was the shootout that Ospreay wanted on Dynamite, and Will was just a second too late
10:12as Page hit the buckshot for an awesome nearfall, but on the second draw it was Will that hit
10:17the hidden blade out of nowhere for a nearfall of his own.
10:20There were lovely tributes to Christopher Daniels and AJ Styles, as well as Kenny Omega and Swerve
10:24Strickland, but it was a final buckshot lariat that got Hangman Adam Page the win.
10:30Six years ago he won the casino gauntlet to get a shot at the world title.
10:33And was unsuccessful.
10:35Can he right that wrong now, when it matters the most to the company, and to him personally?
10:41Double or Nothing was a brilliant show.
10:43From start to finish, the show did not put a foot wrong, and I cannot wait for All in
10:48Texas.
10:49And you can join me in that excitement as this Thursday sees the return of my reviews of
10:54AEW Dynamite in about five minutes.
10:57I would like to thank each and every one of you for your feedback.
11:00But in the meantime check out our predictions for Money in the Bank in three words or less
11:03slash fewer by clicking the video on screen right now.
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