June 3, 2024 Observer Newsletter: AEW Double or Nothing & WWE King and Queen of the Ring reviews

By Dave Meltzer
Published: 31 May 2024, 04:59

Image: AEW

AEW’s Double or Nothing show was a night of excesses. Most liked the show a lot, but it was far from the blow away shows that the company’s previous two PPV shows were.

It did go too long and there were so many gimmicks, returns, stunts, weapons and so much outside interference that nobody could possibly remember all of it. It was simply a show of too much.

The wrestling was as usual, very strong. This was not like the prior two shows, which were all-time great ones. This one was viewed positively by the vast majority, but there were obvious qualms and there was very fair negativity to aspects of it. A lot depended on what one thought of the main event, which was the epitome of excesses and creativity. If you like both, you likely loved the match. If you are someone who thinks somebody whose arm was Pillmanized the night before shouldn’t be back so soon or should lose the next day, or that setting someone on fire should be a finish and injury angle, you would be likely to hate things on the show, particularly the main event.

To me, it’s not my cup of tea but there were a ton of impressive things, the live crowd loved it and the work and effort was out of this world. Anarchy in the Arena came from Stadium Stampede, which was a match designed to give people wacky entertainment during COVID and was fantastic in that sense on that day–not that it didn’t have its critics for all the same reasons. This was more of a serious company threatening issue so from a storyline aspect, the wackiness and craziness felt different. Like a lot of the most extreme matches in AEW history, the feeling was more liked it than didn’t, but many didn’t like it.