3 things that went right at AEW Double or Nothing 2022

It’s a good thing that All Elite Wrestling (AEW) ran this year’s Double or Nothing on Memorial Day weekend because that’s the only justification for airing a FOUR-HOUR pay-per-view (five if you include the Buy-In). That this crowd maintained its enthusiasm for the main event after sitting through all those matches is a testament to their dedication and excitement for this product.

Of course, it did help that the show was pretty good. Yes, there were plenty of things to question booking-wise — and we’ll definitely get to that — but it’s hard to quibble with the PPV’s overall match quality.

With so much good to discuss from Double or Nothing, let’s focus on the main positives.

These are three things that went right at Double or Nothing 2022.

CM Punk wins the AEW World Championship

There are a lot of fans who either wanted to see “Hangman” Adam Page retain the AEW World Championship or believed that he should have retained the title, and it’s hard to argue against those opinions.

After all, the 30-year-old had carried himself more than admirably as champion, producing great promos and classic matches with the likes of Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole. While his reign may not have hit the lofty heights that some hoped for, his 197-day ride at the top of the AEW mountain has cemented him as one of the company’s tentpole stars.

Page would’ve gained more from beating Punk at Double or Nothing, but that doesn’t invalidate the decision to put the world title on Punk. Setting aside the match’s excellence regardless of the outcome, moving the title onto Punk works from a “strike while the iron is hot” perspective.

Yes, Punk is having great matches now (he’s possibly having the best run of his career), but at 43 years old, there’s no guarantee that this renaissance would last another one or two years. So, it’s best to maximize what you have in your biggest name star,

Besides, we all know this leads to what we really want: Eddie Kingston winning the AEW World Title.

Anarchy in the Arena

Most of us expected a big brawl between the Jericho Appreciation Society, the Blackpool Combat Club’s Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson, Eddie Kingston, Santana, and Ortiz, but no one anticipated what we got at Double or Nothing. To call this a “wild brawl” feels like the understatement of the decade; these 10 guys spent nearly 23 minutes trying to maim one another, with “Wild Thing” serving as the fitting soundtrack for the first five.

This match checked all the “garbage match” boxes before finding another checklist to check those same boxes again, punctuated by Eddie Kingston dousing Chris Jericho in gasoline in preparation for lighting him on fire.

Everything that happened afterward — Danielson keeping Kingston from setting Jericho ablaze, the two of them fighting over this and reigniting their hatred for one another, and Danielson’s fiery run at the end before succumbing to the Lion Tamer and a rope choke — set the stage for the weeks of repair and reconciliation that needs to happen with the babyfaces and the inevitable Blood and Guts match we’re getting.

Stokely Hathaway is now managing Jade Cargill and the Baddies, Athena debuts, and Kris Statlander emerges as a TBS Title challenger

The rematch between Jade Cargill and Anna Jay for the TBS Championship was fine; they didn’t eclipse what they did on Rampage a few months back, but they worked hard and they didn’t overstay their welcome.

However, the takeaways from this one weren’t Cargill retaining, which was a foregone conclusion, decent nearfalls aside. Instead, we’ll look to Stokely Hathaway (aka Malcolm Bivens) and Athena debuting to fulfill that requirement, as well as Kris Statlander staring down Cargill after the match.

For Hathaway, he is the ideal hype man for Cargill, as he is more than talented enough to put Cargill, Red Velvet, and Kiera Hogan over without overshadowing them on the mic. As good as “Smart” Mark Sterling was in the role, Hathaway is a clear upgrade (plus, Sterling can now focus solely on Tony Nese).

Needless to say, bringing the former Ember Moon in as a potential opponent for Cargill makes all the sense in the world. As a babyface, she’s a good foil for the TBS Champ, and putting Cargill in the ring with her will further hasten the steady progress she’s made in the ring.

As for Statlander, this is the culmination of the steady momentum she’s picked up since retooling her gimmick a few weeks back. She’s cutting the best promos of her career and has taken a jump workrate-wise, so it wouldn’t surprise anyone if she were the one to blemish Cargill’s spotless record.