Five Questions: The aftermath of Double or Nothing

Maxwell Jacob Friedman made his triumphant return on Sunday night at Double or Nothing. He immediately kicked Adam Cole in the balls, to a rousing ovation. In the next match, PAC was one of many wrestlers to have a hand printed chest, red and bruised, from constant chops to the chest. Someone bit someone during the show, because it’s AEW. Later that night, Adam Copeland and Malakai Black raked each other’s faces with barbed wire.

But hitting someone in the throat? That is a bridge too far. You have crossed the line if you attack the throat.

That’s what I learned while listening to the commentary during the Orange Cassidy versus Trent match on Double or Nothing. It’s one of my questions about pro wrestling this week.

Is there a sacred code in pro wrestling to avoid the throat?

There are many dastardly and evil characters in AEW. Trent’s actions and the accompanying shock from the announcers desk was meant to position Trent with the nastiest of the bunch.

He’s losing his feud to Orange Cassidy 0-2 and hasn’t won a big match as a heel. But he went for the throat, literally, as in punched him in the throat. So I guess we are supposed to believe that Trent’s bad guy bona fides have be fully established.

Readers will know that I don’t spend a lot of stress or energy on booking. But having the heel insist on a straight up wrestling match would seem to lead to the obvious outcome where the heel then cheats, thereby subverting the terms he set in the first place.

On Sunday, Trent lost clean to Orange Cassidy on a pinning predicament. He’s done, he told Renee on his way out. Maybe he’s joining the Don Callis family. Maybe there’s something else ahead. I’m open minded. I’m also confused about the way they have taken the air out of his turn almost immediately.

I’m just glad Trent established that he will hit someone in the throat, otherwise we might not take him seriously as a heel.

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Are we headed for the International Championship glory days?

Think back on Orange Cassidy’s run as the International Champion. I looked forward to the opening segment of Dynamite pretty much every week, because there was a good chance that it would start with Cassidy tearing the house down with another title defense.

Cody Rhodes did it for a while in the COVID days with the TNT Championship. Darby Allin delivered time and time again, often in the main event slot. Now we’ve got Will Ospreay with the International Championship after his victory over Roderick Strong on Sunday night.

With all due respect to the previous TNT and TBS and International champions in AEW, Ospreay can take the whole workhorse champion spot to another level. He might not be in on a schedule to defend that belt every week, but I assume this means we are headed for a good number of Ospreay matches on TV.

To quote my sign-off to many a mundane work messages: that sounds great to me.

Is it hard to tie someone up with barbed wire?

Adam Copeland and Malakai Black were surrounded by barbed wire. It lined the top of the cage. It was wrapped around poles and a baseball bat. It ended up on one of the turnbuckles.

There were also strands of barbed wire available for side projects. As noted, this included some raking of the head and threats to rake the eyes. It included fashioning the barbed wire into a crown and necklace. And it included Copeland trying to tie Malakai to a table, using the barbed wire like a rope.

That proved to be quite tricky. Barbed wire serves many functions, especially in the creative hands of pro wrestlers. But “rope” does not appear to be one of them.

This was a violent and bloody match, a true spectacle. The entrances were great, the miniature angle with the House of Black was fun, and the inevitable Gangrel cameo was outstanding. One thing that was not outstanding: the news that Copeland broke his leg.

Can we establish some ground rules to prolong the glory days for Adam Copeland and Christian Cage? Should we start with “no jumping off the top of the cage?”

Nia Jax and Braun Strowman: are we doing this again?

Stephanie McMahon opened one of the nights of Wrestlemania with a speech. Triple H fired up the crowd at the beginning of the first episode of Monday Night Raw after ‘Mania. The theme was the same: it was the start of a new era in WWE.

We heard it from the people at the top of the company. We heard it from the announcers. We heard it from the new champion and face of the company, Cody Rhodes. We were hit over the head with it, left with no doubt: it is a new era.

Now, just about two months later, and this week’s Raw included the images of Nia Jax, freshly crowned as the new Queen of the Ring, and Braun Strowman, now dubbed the “Monster of All Monsters” and chasing people around. WWE just loves angles that involve Braun Strowman chasing people.

I’m not here to put these two down or say that people shouldn’t enjoy their work. I’m just observing that some parts of the new era feel an awful lot like the old era.

Does Darby Allin have more lives than a cat?

Such was the claim from the announcer’s desk during the Anarchy in the Arena match this past Sunday at Double or Nothing. I believe it was specifically a reference to Jack Perry’s attempt to run him over with a box truck, only to see Darby emerge a few moments later unscathed and wielding a flame thrower.

There are many versions of the ultra-durable baby face who takes a huge beating and avoids defeat because of his or her toughness. Darby puts a unique twist on things, though, with the way he rag dolls around and self-imposes his pain with absurdly dangerous stunts. Those moves often involve jumping or falling from high places and ending up on his feet, so maybe there’s something to the whole cat comparison.

I have more questions about Darby. Where did he get a flame thrower? Where did he get a mask for this broken nose that had thumb tacks sticking out of it? Were either or both of those things DIY projects? Where does he get his huge boots? Are his bones made of rubber?

Darby represents AEW in so many ways. The Elite came out on top Sunday, but methinks we are headed for a heated feud between Darby and Jack Perry in which the former continues to stand up for the company in the face of those dastardly Elite fellas.

That’s it for today’s questions. What did I miss? What are you wondering about in the fallout from two big shows this past weekend?

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