2 things that went wrong at AEW Double or Nothing 2022

Like most All Elite Wrestling (AEW) pay-per-views, Double or Nothing 2022 made you thankful that the young promotion only schedules four of these shows per year (five this year thanks to the cross-promotional Forbidden Door event in June).

For one thing, limiting the PPV number to four gives AEW room to build its matches with a level of attention and care that’s almost impossible when that total expands to, say, 12 (of course, whether or not AEW maximizes this advantage is another matter, but it does a solid job for the most part).

Also…these PPVs tend to run quite long, and Double or Nothing continued that trend, but the runtime isn’t the only thing to quibble with…

These are two things that went wrong at AEW Double or Nothing 2022.

Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. wins the women’s Owen Hart Invitational Tournament

There’s no denying Dr. Britt Baker’s status as one of AEW’s centerpiece attractions, let alone the biggest star in the women’s division. As such, the company should make protecting her top star aura a top priority, particularly to boost the effect of a loss to a burgeoning star.

Those efforts to keep Baker strong, however, will mean little if AEW doesn’t transfer that equity over to other wrestlers, and the promotion missed a real chance to capitalize on such a transaction with Ruby Soho.

The two delivered in the ring — not quite matching their effort at Arthur Ashe Stadium last year, but still good — but booking Baker to win seemed like a misstep. It’s understandable that AEW wanted to give the former AEW Women’s World Champion a bounce-back win following her loss to Thunder Rosa, and yes, we all get wanting the visual of Baker and Adam Cole with the Owen Cup, but this was a win that Soho needed more.

Going forward, the promotion needs to be careful with both women. Through a combination of her stagnated work and the rest of the division catching up to Baker (or even lapping her in some respects), fans have grown tired of how much AEW focuses on the grappling dentist (doing things like inviting Ben Roethlisberger to AEW and wearing a Johnny Depp t-shirt haven’t endeared her to those fans, either). If things go too far, fans may outright turn on her.

With Soho, AEW has to realize where the fine line is if their goal is to pile up the pivotal losses in order to make her eventual big win all the more cathartic. These stories have certainly worked in the past (see: Tetsuya Naito), but all it takes is one loss too many for fans to completely give up on her.

Jurassic Express retains the AEW World Tag Team Championship

To be clear, Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus), Team Taz (Ricky Starks and “Powerhouse” Hobbs) and the team of Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee put together a tremendous three-way tag team match for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. That said, this was probably a good time to book a title change.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Jurassic Express is unfit to be champions or anything, but given how hot Starks & Hobbs and Strickland & Lee have been over the last few weeks, keeping the titles on JE elicited a “meh” reaction.

Perhaps the plan is to move the belts onto FTR, as booking them to beat the current champs after a months-long reign would make the win feel more meaningful. If so, that’s a decision that AEW needs to make sooner rather than later.