On Sunday, All Elite Wrestling held their third annual Double or Nothing pay-per-view event at Daily’s Place and TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. The event was AEW’s first event at full capacity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the return of a sold-out crowd AEW put on what might have been their best event yet.

At the Buy-In, Serena Deeb and Riho had a great opening bout for the NWA World Women’s Championship. The match was intense, and the crowd’s volume and activity was a sign of things to come for the rest of the show. Deeb won over the crowd with some big moves and pulled off a successful title defense. Throughout the Buy-In preshow, the commentary team continued to build hype for the event, and at 8 p.m. EST, the main card got underway.

The main show was opened by Brian Cage vs. “Hangman” Adam Page. Cage’s cyborg-esque entrance attire looked like it was bought at Party City, but this match was one of the night’s best nonetheless. It had great back-and-forth action, with highlights like Cage tossing Hangman from the top turnbuckle with a super F5. When Team Taz tried to run in to assist Cage, he rejected their help, but their distraction led to Cage walking into a Buckshot lariat that got the fans on their feet. After Hangman’s victory, Cage and Team Taz continued their bickering, as Cage walked out on Hook and Ricky Starks. Cage’s eventual turn is being built up really well so far.

Next up was the Young Bucks vs. Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. A brawl around the arena prefaced the match, as Moxley and Kingston attacked the Young Bucks just as fans began to throw streamers into the ring. When the bell actually rang, the Young Bucks took control for most of the match, with much of Moxley and Kingston’s offense coming after “hot tag” moments. 

A run-in from the Good Brothers was thwarted by Kingston’s foresight and Frankie Kazarian making the save, but the Young Bucks were still too much for the heavy-handed duo. They hit four consecutive BTE-Triggers on Moxley to put him down for the win. I’m glad they went overkill to get the pin on Moxley, as he should remain one of the company’s most protected acts.

The Casino Battle Royale followed up the tag match, and AEW’s slight tweak to the entrances of the competitors made all the difference to separate this from previous iterations of the Casino Battle Royale. Now, all competitors get their own music played and enter separately, instead of five walking out together whenever their card was called. The entire premise of the match, with contestants drawing cards and there being a “joker” entrant, still feels like a stretch, but it’s easy enough to ignore when the match itself is well-executed.

This match advanced a few different stories: the Dark Order vs. the Hardy Family Office, the Nightmare Family vs. the Factory and Christian Cage vs. Powerhouse Hobbs. The HFO built a numbers advantage throughout the match, with Matt Hardy and Isiah Kassidy entering together and surviving long enough to be joined by Marq Quen. Lio Rush’s debut as the joker entrant got the crowd going, and despite a few missteps in the ring, Rush still came off like a star. 

After Cage and Jungle Boy worked together to dispose of Private Party, Hardy’s elimination came soon after, and his interactions with long-time friend Cage felt special. As the final two, Cage seemed to be the likely winner, but with the capacity crowd behind him all the way, Jungle Boy pulled off the upset with a great closing sequence. Pulling the trigger on Jungle Boy here is the right move, as he is far too big of a star to be relegated to weekly AEW Dark matches. His win felt like a genuinely great moment.

Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo was next on the card, and this match is where I felt the show began to drag slightly. Ogogo is very inexperienced, but he showed flashes throughout this match. Rhodes did a great job of making Ogogo look great, consistently selling his punches. It was a special moment for Rhodes as he donned the nickname of his father Dusty, “The American Dream,” but the match itself was just about average. Ogogo’s punches need to continue to be protected because without them there isn’t too much to his game just yet.

Next was Miro vs. Lance Archer for the TNT Championship. This match was probably the most underwhelming of the show, but it also suffered from being placed in the part of the card where fatigue is likely to set in with fans after such a hot opening stretch. Miro throwing Jake Roberts’ snake down the ramp was great, and Miro retaining the title was undoubtedly the right decision because he’s the most popular he’s been since his debut in AEW.

Britt Baker and Hikaru Shida battled next for the AEW Women’s World Championship. The fans were behind both competitors, as chants for both dueled early in the match. The match felt a bit slow at times and it didn’t have the energy that a match of this magnitude could have had, but Baker’s title win was special in spite. The crowd erupted for her win, and Baker’s support from the fans should drive whatever she does next.

Up next, Sting returned to the ring for his first legitimate, non-cinematic match since 2015, as he teamed up with Darby Allin to take on Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page, who appear to now be billed as the “Men of the Year.” Sting was the highlight of this, as expected, and his performance lived up to the hype. His no-selling of a suplex on the ramp from Sky and his dive onto Sky and Page were perfectly executed, and while his attempt at a Code Red left a little to be desired it was still a great moment. The finish with Sting hitting his Scorpion Death Drop out of nowhere was great, and this match pulled the show out of the short slump that it had hit.

The first of two co-main events was up next, as Kenny Omega defended the AEW World Championship against Orange Cassidy and Pac. Omega draping himself in four title belts in his entrance is still a legendary look. The match had a hot opening sequence, and after slowing down for a short period mid-match, it picked back up for the second half. There were plenty of highlights, as the three traded huge spots for a large chunk of the contest. Omega pulled off the funniest ref bump of all time when he couldn’t get Pac to release Cassidy from the Brutalizer, so Omega simply took out referee Bryce Remsburg. 

The strength of this match was how all three competitors were factors in it for almost the entire time. Unlike other three-way matches where it will often feel like rotating one-on-one matchups, this one never truly felt that way, as none of the three sat out for too long at any point. Omega’s parade of title belts to smash against Pac’s face was a great idea, and Cassidy’s close-calls where he almost became champion had fans jumping out of their seats. Omega retaining the belt was a questionable decision with how over Cassidy is, but hopefully, this match elevates Omega’s title reign and his work remains at this caliber going forward. 

After wrestling legend Mark Henry was announced to be joining AEW as an analyst, it was finally time for the second-ever Stadium Stampede match. A half-cinematic, half-live version, this match put to bed all doubts that the stipulation could be pulled off for a second time. It was a wild match that featured a pickup truck, a bonfire, pocket sand, Tully Blanchard in a sleeveless t-shirt, a motorcycle club and Urban Meyer. Each pairing that split off into their own corner of the arena made their parts of the match unique, similar to how last year’s iteration of the match was laid out.

Chris Jericho and MJF’s backstage brawl that opened the cinematic portion of the match was instantly entertaining, with creative usage of everyday objects as weapons and cameo appearances from Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Urban Meyer and assistant head coach Charlie Strong. Jake Hager and Wardlow beat the crap out of each other for their segments, while Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears implemented some comedy into their stuff, including Spears being chased down twice: first by the Inner Circle’s affiliated motorcycle club, for some reason, and then by Guevara who ran him down with a golf cart, a great moment calling back to Guevara’s own golf cart run-ins of 2020. 

Proud ‘n Powerful brawled with FTR in the stadium’s bar area, and with Blanchard serving essentially as a sixth member of the Pinnacle, Santana and Ortiz had to bring their own backup in the form of their former manager Konnan, who was first seen as the bar’s DJ before he got involved in the action. Eventually, the brawl between Guevara and Spears spilled into Daily’s Place, where the match came to an end in front of the audience. Ending the match live was definitely the right decision, as AEW knew they should take full advantage of having a full-capacity crowd. 

The only weakness of the match in my eyes was the lack of an ending with the brawl between Proud ‘n Powerful and FTR, as FTR was nowhere to be found after the match while PnP came down to the ring as soon as the bell rang. That issue aside, this match definitely exceeded my expectations, and it did a good job of recreating the things that made last year’s version so successful. While I expected the Pinnacle to take the win here, the two teams being 1-1 against each other should lead to a rubber match to end the feud. Also, the decision to let Guevara secure the win for his team was well-made, as he has been essential to much of the Inner Circle’s turmoil over the past year. The win felt like a moment of redemption for Guevara, and having him snag the win in the show’s main event is a testament to how much stock AEW has put in him.

The show ended with the Inner Circle celebrating as the crowd belted the lyrics to “Judas”, a heartwarming moment reminding everyone of how important the live crowd is to the atmosphere of a show. The loud, active fans are what AEW has been missing greatly since they were forced into running shows without a crowd, and Double or Nothing was elevated by the crowd’s participation. While there was a three-match stretch that underwhelmed, nothing on this show was below average, and its highs were some of the best AEW’s had yet. This might be the best the product has been since before the pandemic, and as full crowds become a more regular occurrence, things should only trend upwards for AEW this year.