[2020-05-23-AEW-Double Or Nothing] Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara & Jake Hager & Santana & Ortiz vs The Young Bucks & Hangman Page & Kenny Omega & Matt Hardy (Stadium Stampede)

[ShittyLittleBoots]

The Elite and Matt Hardy take on the Inner Circle in a ten man Stadium Stampede match

Hangman arriving & chasing Sammy with a horse, the whole LAX vs. Matt bit, the bar brawl between Hager & Hangman + Omega, Jericho killing that mascot w/ the Judas Effect, Jericho's epic fight vs. Aubrey, Matt's Northern Suplex rampage on Sammy, Rick Knox eating a Superkick like it's the good ol' days in Reseda, Matt & Kenny chasing Sammy w/ that golf cart AGAIN, that amazing finish w/ that big One Winged Angel. This was an absolute spectacle & a blast. When it comes to these "special presentation" (I struggle to call this a cinematic match tbh) matches that have happened recently, this was on a level above. This has been a truly tragic & sad week for pro-wrestling, but this was an amazing, smile-inducing way to end it. And for that I salute The Elite, Matt Hardy, The Inner Circle & AEW as a whole.

I don't wanna give it a star rating, but it's one of my favorite things that I've seen this year.

[Makai Club #1]

Given Kenny's history in DDT, I would imagine that there are some minor influences involved in the makings of this match. With AEW's twist on it and less comedy albeit still fairly tongue in cheek. There were some great call backs to previous matches in the build. Guevara being chased, once again, by the golf cart driven by Hardy and Kenny was awesome. Guevara parkoring his way into the stands was great, too. I dug the Hangman Page stuff. I generally prefer him when he can do stuff like this and not actually wrestle "traditional" matches. Him riding on a horse was a great visual as well as the gag with the drinking in a bar. That stuff got a laugh out of me. Somethings didn't hit though like the Northern lights suplexes, etc. The brawling was fine. Typical plunder spots spread out in a building. The magic in this match was what it all build up to. Good match ***3/4

[brockobama]

Even more so than the bad acting that seems to hamper all of them to some degree or another, my biggest complaint about these 'cinematic' or 'special presentation' pandemic matches is their length. Between the comedy of the final few minutes and the Hager/Page bar room brawl there's plenty of good stuff here but it feels like such a small percentage of what is otherwise an aimless 35 minute crowd brawl with no crowd. Save for that bar room stuff--which itself is walking a fine line between being exciting and blatantly choreographed--the action is never impactful or emphatic, even when these guys are leaping off the stands and crashing through tables. The way this whole thing was presented didn't help, with the production emphasizing just how much empty space and dead air there is in an arena without any fans, something the rest of the PPV had actually done a good job of hiding. I liked many of the goofs here and thought Ortiz in particular shined in this setting but taken as a whole this was no better than any of the hammy, unengaging shit WWE's been doing of late. You could lop twenty minutes off this thing and lose nothing of value.

[MikeCampbell]

This was entertaining for a bit, and there were some parts where it looked believable that both teams wanted to rip the other's head off. But, that's about it. And, whomever came up the idea of Ortis and Santana trying to drown Matt, right after Shad's passing, deserves a kick in the balls.