AEW Booms and Duds: The Elite reunite!

Boom: Adam “Hangman” Page and Young Bucks return with a bang

I was surprised to see this was Hardy’s first singles match in AEW, and I applaud AEW for holding off this long. He’s done so much in so little time being involved in promo segments and tag matches that it slipped my mind he hadn’t had a singles match yet.

I was also surprised when the match started with about 18 minutes left in the show. Granted, the match lasted about 12, but maybe due to the presence of Guevara, Hardy seemed to do just fine in their 12-minute match.

Hardy looked to be well-conditioned and lacking any ring rust. Guevara did Guevara things in being smarmy, arrogant, skilled, and a hellacious bump taker. The two times he was spiked by the Twist of Fate looked just as nasty as when he was hit with the move while donning a neck brace.

(His counter into a handstand, however, would have been more impressive had Mustafa Ali not done the same in his feud with Randy Orton in late 2018/early 2019.)

I also like hearing from Guevara discussing why he wants a piece of Hardy: “Where do you want me to f***ing start?! HE TRIED TO KILL ME WITH A GOLF CART!” I would definitely want revenge on someone for running me over with a golf cart and causing such a whiplash effect; then again, I’d probably be dead.

I do have one concern in that Guevara seems to be eating a lot of clean pins. As the youngest and least prominent member of Inner Circle, it makes sense that he’s their fall guy. He’s also young enough to where all these losses might become distant memories in even a year’s time. It could also lay the foundation for him to leave Inner Circle and embark on a singles babyface run. Still, it is a bit concerning.

We all knew some kind of brawl was coming (I mean, there were five minutes left in the show). I don’t think many of us expected both the Young Bucks and Page to return. Page looked like he was shot out of a cannon as he sprinted the entire length of the field to join the fracas. The Bucks looked kind of cool whooping people while wearing masks…until they took them off.

Granted, it’s probably hard to breathe while you’re engaged in a miniature version of the Stadium Stampede.

Page was fantastic. He ran in to help his fellow members of The Elite, but also didn’t forget the issues and tension he had with the other members before the pandemic; we don’t really know how he feels about the addition of Hardy to the team.

What we do know is Page’s personality is one of showing up, doing your job, and going home, so it was no surprise that once Inner Circle started retreating, Page walked away from The Elite and into the tunnel, much to the dismay of his tag partner Omega who was calling for Page to join them.

I’m not sure what to make of Omega taking the beating from Inner Circle and then not doing much else. Yes, he was outnumbered, but it was also his only appearance on the go-home show before a PPV. I guess we’ll find out more based on his showing Saturday night.

I lied; I do have another concern. How often do we see AEW end a go-home show for a PPV with an all-out brawl of some sort? It’s not as glaring with only four PPVs a year, but it’s become a troubling pattern. There is more than one way to book the closing segment of a go-home show.

I wouldn’t have minded if the Anderson-Roberts segment main evented, which would have further sold just how high-stakes the TNT Championship will be at Double or Nothing.

It’s a nitpick, but it’s also fact. Luckily, we have at least three months until the next PPV, so I’m optimistic.

Are you excited for Double or Nothing? It’s completely reasonable if you’re not considering the build was truncated by the pandemic. However, I do think AEW has done about as fine job as they could in building the card with available talent and garnering interest through good storytelling. In any case, I hope you all enjoy Double or Nothing on Saturday night! See you next week!