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This week's AEW Dynamite was the go-home show for AEW Double or Nothing and took place in Los Vegas. It was also the celebratory show for the three year anniversary of AEW as the company officially launched at Double or Nothing in 2019.
This week's article looks at:
- MJF and Shawn Spears lack of appropriate offence.
- Private Party's gung-ho offence in the face of superior opponents.
- FTR's close shave.
- Baker and Storm's missed opportunity.
- Samoa Joe's Suzuki-esque performance.
Spears Fails to Take Advantage
Shawn Spears (and MJF) may have had 57% of the total offence but the fact that only 6 of their 24 attacks (21 strikes, 2 grapples and a quick 2s eye rake) were classified as big offence; 2 grapples plus 4 strikedowns (2 with weapons), really cost them.
This makes sense as a story beat; they were enjoying just getting the blows in on Wardlow. They never expected Wardlow to see MJF neutralised or break out of his handcuffs.
Private Party Throw Caution to the Wind
Private Party's inability to land much offence on Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston led to them hitting 6 dives in only 7 and a half minutes. Moxley and Kingston's lion's share of the offence meant that Private Party were only able to achieve 4 big offensive hits that were not dives; all 4 were strikedowns.
FTR Let Off the Hook?
With Roppongi Vice achieving 60% of the total offence and 65% of the big offence, FTR have reason to feel unnerved by their good fortune in still holding the ROH Tag Team Championships. Trent and Romero outdid them in every offensive metric before United Empire got involved; Roppongi Vice's 15 strikedowns being a particular feature of their dominance in this match.
Storm in a Teacup or Criticism Well-deserved?
This match has been widely criticised. Is this fair or is it hyper-vigilance in relation to a much maligned division? The numbers suggest that this match was a whole lot of nothing. Reliant on submissions and lacking much in the way of excitement except a few Storm-suplexes.
Not only did this match get less time than the men's equivalent that followed it but the in-ring numbers are notably less.
Striking Power vs Submission Prowess
Samoa Joe took a leaf out of the Puroresu stalwart playbook as he focussed on striking to attempt to over-whelm his younger opponent. O'Reilly played a more varied game ceding the striking advantage to Joe (note his strikedown percentage!), as his submission game also forced Joe to prove his counter-wrestling ability.
Thank you for reading, and follow our coverage of AEW Double or Nothing here on the website, on Twitter @PWMusings and on TikTok @PWMusings.