Three things AEW got right at Double or Nothing 2021

While these things tend to depend on each fan’s point of view, few of them would be hard-pressed to find a 2021 wrestling supercard as good as All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view.

While the show featured plenty of moments to nitpick and question, there were many more areas to praise the company for, so much so that it’s hard to widdle the list down to three choices. In the interest of brevity, though, that’s what this piece will attempt to do.

These are the three things that AEW got right at Double or Nothing 2021.

Sting brings his working boots for his tag match with Darby Allin against Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page.

Heading into his first traditional match in nearly five years, the expectations for what Sting could do in this environment at 62 years old were fairly low, even after his acclaimed performance in a cinematic match at Revolution in February. If the former WCW Champion came out and performed the greatest hits — Stinger Splash, Scorpion Death Lock, Scorpion Death Drop — while the other three handled the meat of the match, fans would’ve been content with that.

Well, to be fair, that was mostly what we got here, with Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky mostly working over Darby Allin for the heat and Allin fighting from underneath as only he can (including a spot where Page hurled Allin over the guardrail and into the crowd), but make no mistake, Sting came into this match ready to put in some work.

Yes, we got the signature offense that the crowd lapped up like a thirsty dog at a water bowl in mid-July, but fans also saw “The Icon” take a vertical suplex on the entrance ramp before popping right back up, deliver a crossbody onto Sky and Page, and execute a Code Red onto Sky. Yes, you read that correctly, STING HIT A CODE RED IN A PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING MATCH IN 2021!

Other matches on the show sped past this one quality-wise, but it was still fun to watch. Allin took another step toward stardom. Page and Sky were great foils here, even in defeat. And, of course, the Stinger showed that there’s still a bit of fuel floating around in that tank of his.

Britt Baker’s ascent to the top of the women’s division is complete

If you watched Friday’s episode of AEW: Dynamite, it became clear that Britt Baker needed to win the AEW Women’s World Championship from Hikaru Shida at Double or Nothing. Hearing the reactions as the two women made their entrance during the PPV cemented that sentiment even further. It’s no knock on Shida, who excelled as the ace of the women’s division for over a year and earned the respect of the audience, but the fans were ready for this.

The match itself fell short of the hype a bit, as both ladies struggled to get on the same page for most of the bout, but the action picked up well during the closing moments, and the accelerated pace crescendoed with Baker applying the Lockjaw, which forced Shida to tap out.

This was the culmination of a fascinating journey for Baker, who was earmarked as the women’s division’s lead babyface when she signed with the promotion in 2019, but floundered a bit when her white meat protagonist schtick didn’t connect as strongly as anticipated with the audience, which prompted a pivot to this heel act that ultimately propelled her to the spot that seemed preordained for her from the outset.

It will be interesting to see if she continues to get cheered and if that will eventually force Tony Khan to flip her back over to the face side sooner than later. Fortunately, she’ll have a host of quality fan-favorite opponents — a rematch with Shida at some point, Kris Statlander, Big Swole, Thunder Rosa, Tay Conti, Red Velvet, Riho — who will mitigate some of those rosy for “The Doctor”.

Jungle Boy wins the Casino Battle Royal

Going into the Casino Battle Royal, Christian Cage seemed like the obvious favorite to win the marathon match and challenge for the AEW World Championship. It made sense: Cage confronted AEW World Champion Kenny Omega on Christian’s Dynamite debut and intimated that he planned to pursue the World Title.

As this match progressed, however, it became clear who actually had to win this match: Jungle Boy. The man who makes up one-third of Jurassic Express with Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt arguably received the warmest reception in a match that featured the likes of Cage, Colt Cabana, Max Caster (and his pre-match freestyle), Dustin Rhodes, Penta El Zero Miedo, and the debuting Lio Rush. To be clear, the fans liked and respected Cage and those other babyfaces, but they were INTO Jungle Boy, going as far as to even hum along to his theme music.

Ultimately, it came down to Cage — the veteran — and Jungle Boy — the ascending youngster — and if you didn’t realize that these fans wanted nothing more than to see Jungle Boy win by this point, then you should invest in some peroxide to clear the wax from your ears.

Fortunately, the fans got what they wanted, as Jungle Boy used his agility — including a spot where he swung around the ring post to stave off elimination — to chuck Christian out of the ring and earn a title shot against Omega.

This title shot represents another test to evaluate Jungle Boy’s viability as a main event attraction, and if recent history is any indication, he’ll pass this one without much problem.