Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our universally celebrated loved/hated format! Things had gotten a little stale around these parts after we covered three consecutive (though admittedly relevant) late 2000s WWE shows centered around John Cena victories. This time around, however, we are breaking the seal on something we've had access to since the beginning of the year but haven't utilized yet: the AEW streaming library on HBO Max.
Yes, it's finally time to review an old AEW show, and with Double or Nothing 2025 coming up this weekend, what better old show to review than the very first AEW PPV: Double or Nothing 2019, exactly six years ago? It's a fascinating show to look back on the Dark Order debuts as a legitimately menacing presence (or at least that was the idea), the Young Bucks wrestle two current WWE stars for a championship WWE currently owns, and Alex Marvez is on commentary for all of it. More famously, Cody Rhodes engages in five-star blood-spattered drama with his brother Dustin, KennyOmega main events with fellow Winnipegger Chris Jericho in the days before AEW had a world title, and current AEW World Champion Jon Moxley appears inAEW for the very first time. We're going to talk about all those things in this column, which means we won't be getting to a whole lot of other stuff, but if you've never seen this show or it's been a while, it's absolutely worth a watch as a snapshot of All Elite Wrestling as it was in theverybeginning.
With that in mind, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about AEW Double or Nothing 2019!
During the opening match between SCU and STRONGHEARTS, I spotted someone in the crowd and thought "oh yeah, they didn't join AEW until a few months later." That someone was none other than Mr. TonySchiavone, the voice of many people's childhoods, a man who has called some of the biggest moments in modern wrestling history, but for some reason he looked a little bit angry. I don't know whether that's just what he looked like on this particular night, but he genuinely looked like he was staring daggers at someone just off to the side of the camera, and I like to think he was staring at the commentary desk and thinking to himself "you're butchering this commentary aren't you?"
Well you would be half-right, Mr. Schiavone, because the commentary for AEW Double or Nothing 2019 is one of the things that really did not age well. The three-man booth of Jim Ross, Excalibur, and Alex Marvez did not work for me, despite the fact that two of the three are very good at what they do. If you couldn't guess who those two are, let's get it out of the way: I'm sure he's a lovely man, but Alex Marvez stank up the booth so bad at times I genuinely had to mute the TV out of sheer embarrassment. The show ended with Jon Moxley shocking the world and making his debut, and all Marvez had to say was "woooooaaaaaahhhhhh" in the same tone I say it in when one of my friends tells a joke that crosses a line.
Bland as hell, didn't even know what he was on about half of the time, he even got the date wrong for when the All Out tickets went on sale and Ross looked like he wanted Jerry Lawler back. Speaking of Ross, he put in a shift, especially in the big matches which, even now, have become his specialty. He hadn't quite reached his grumpy "what the bloody hell is going on here" phase of commentary and he genuinely sounded excited to be there for the most part. The only times he looked like he was going to fall asleep was when the camera was on him and he was literally trying to direct the show from the booth because no one knew what to do or say. A pro's pro.
Then there's Excalibur. Not his best night and honestly that's partly down to the fact that he was still in PWG mode for this show, making references that Ross was like "...what?" However, he brought a genuine energy that the other two couldn't, but the energy of someone who doesn't actually know when to calm down. I've ranted enough about the half terrible/half messy commentary for now, so I'll leave with my favorite call of the night: JR calling Jack Evans "an angry [pause for what seemed like an eternity] wasp."
Written by Sam Palmer
When the crowd are chanting "who are you?" when you make your debut, you're going to be in for a rough night.
So for a show like this, a little bit of context is needed. The Super Smash Bros had been fan favorites on the independent scene for many years, with Player Uno and Stupefied being one of the most beloved duos in places like PWG, but they felt the need for a change when they were brought into AEW. Evil Uno and Stu Grayson had been going by those names for a little while, but it was when they officially joined AEW where The Dark Order was officially born, and oh dear.
After a very good tag team match between The Hybrid 2 and Best Friends, the lights went out and when they came back up, Uno, Grayson, and all of their nameless, faceless followers swarmed the four men who had just put on a very good match to a reception that could only be described as "abysmal." Uno and Grayson really did try and get their heat back by doing some of their bigger moves, but it was no use because the expectations for the reveal was high, and they were just let down massively. The fans being let down wasn't Uno and Grayson's fault, they were put out in front of the right audience as the 2019 AEW crowd was the perfect group to debut some old PWG favorites with a new gimmick, but as time would tell with The Dark Order, they wouldn't reach their final form until many, many months later.
That is arguably the main problem going back and watching this show, it's the ultimate "teething problem" show. The ultimate "growing pains" show. Technical difficulties, botched counts, and camera cuts that would make Kevin Dunn excited at times, but the biggest pain, the biggest problem out of the entire show was the debut of The Dark Order. The problem was that no one knew them, and the pain was having to sit through them try and gain some heat. However, if only they knew what was in store for them just under a year later.
Written bySam Palmer
This is the first time I've fully watched anything from AEW's 2019; in years prior, I got my AEW news and saw all the cool highlights mostly on Twitter, so, in less than 2-minute videos. I had never fully watched Cody Rhodes versus Dustin Rhodes until today and wow, if you have never seen it, I think it's must-see viewing for anyone getting into AEW who is already the slightest bit familiar with wrestling and the Rhodes family.The video package that aired before the match didn't give too much information on any overarching feud between the pair, but I did really like Cody's line about "The Natural versus the Nightmare" being "marketable" and Dustin saying that AEW isn't a new career arch for him, he's had 30 years in the business and his legacy is intact.
I was familiar with the throne-smashing opening of this match (how could any wrestling fan on Twitter at the time NOT be?), but actually seeing it, I have to say it wasn't my favorite thing about this match that I really loved, but it also didn't take away from anything by the end of it.I do have to say that Cody's costume here looked more like Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast" or if George Washington wrestled than the American Nightmare, so I'm glad he figured that whole look out in the years to follow.
Since Dustin wrestled mostly on "Collision" rather than "Dynamite" I haven't seen him work for awhile, but when the bell rang, I was shocked at how well he could go against a younger Cody, being 50 years old himself at the time. Commentary also explained that Dustin hadn't been in the year for nearly a year, which was surprising. The pair had a good back-and-forth bout, then Dustin infamously cracked opened his forehead on the exposed middle turnbuckle. Dustin was in a full crimson mask to the point I'm going to start thinking of this match whenever I hear that term moving forward. It may sound gross, but the blood aided to some pretty incredible (yet still brutal) images throughout the match.Before Cody was completely covered in his brother's blood, there was a handprinted drug across his "Dream" tattoo on his chest, which looked some kind of symbolic. There was also a shot where Dustin was laying on the mat, and the camera caught his blood literally pouring out of his head, something I haven't seen since Eddie Guerrero back in 2004.
The younger Rhodes walks away with the victory, in a match that had a little bit of everything, from throne-smashing, to a bare butt, to an impressive trading of Cross Rhodes on a gruesomely bloody ring canvas. I just started to go back and watch the beginnings of AEW, but this seems like a defining moment in its history, despite Cody moving on to WWE. It was an excellent match between two brothers and the emotion between them just made it even more special.
Written by DaisyRuth
It probably won't be happening again any time soon but the series between the Lucha Brothers and the Young Bucks over the years should stand the test of time to say that, when it wants to, AEW can stage some very good tag team wrestling. Part of the story that can't be manufactured between the two teams is the fact that, especially at the time of Double or Nothing, they were arguably the two best brother duos in the world. They had faced off before in PWG and AAA, the latter of which with the Bucks winning the AAA tag titles from the Lucha Brothers.
But this was the first time they were renewing acquaintance in AEW, the first of four times just counting the traditional tag matches, and it set the benchmark for the way tag team wrestling was going to be presented going forward. It's certainly lost its way, but for the time and the next few years it became evident that these two were going to be the teams driving things forward. And for a time, they were.
The Lucha Brothers and the Young Bucks set in motion a trilogy that would continue to provide something different with each installment, the second being a ladder match and two years later within a Steel Cage. Yet the original holds something the others don't, the moment the lightning was let out of the bottle, that a rematch was never going to top. It would be great to see the modern product find some of this magic for the tag team division.
Written by Max Everett
The main event of the very first AEW event came between arguably their two biggest stars, Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho, with an opportunity to become the inaugural World Champion on the line. Now Double or Nothing had the unenviable task of presenting what exactly AEW was going to be, and it was probably the correct decision to run the rematch to the seemingly impossible bout at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Furthermore, the subsequent programs to come out of this bout, with the eventual debut of Jon Moxley and Jericho's inaugural title reign definitely yielded some great moments. But one can't help with the benefit of hindsight to ponder whether Omega should have been the one to come out with the win.
Putting it simply, there is a strong chance that AEW wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Omega; he became the biggest name wrestling outside of WWE, with his popularity as the leader of Bullet Club and The Elite laying the foundations for All In 2018 to become possible that event serving as the proof-of-concept before The Elite co-founded AEW with Tony Khan. It really does feel like the correct decision would have been to further embrace that and make "The Cleaner" the face of the company going forward. Sure, it is worth noting that Jericho had a fairly enjoyable reign and especially at the time attached a large name value to the fresh title. But the moment that Jericho went over Omega and "Hangman" Page in the same year to get to the title, it just felt like a piece of the original All Elite feeling had died. Omega versus Jericho feels like a microcosm of AEW's booking strategy, putting its novel acquisition of an established veteran over the opportunity to establish something truly different. Six years on, maybe it is fair to say Omega was the original victim of the Jericho Vortex.
Written by Max Everett
Along with this inaugural pay-per-view came the crowning of the inaugural AEW World Champion and an explosive debut that followed.
In the AEW Double or Nothing main event, Chris Jericho bested Kenny Omega to become the company's first ever world champion. His coronation, however, was derailed by the shocking arrival of Jon Moxley, formerly known as Dean Ambrose in WWE. Less than a month before the PPV, Moxley exited WWE after feeling unhappy with his creative direction, which was controlled by Vince McMahon at the time. Moxley's WWE contract officially expired on April 30, 2019. The following day, the former WWE Champion teased the return of the Jon Moxley name through a cinematic vignette, though his next destination was unclear. Thanks to the closed lips of a select few, Moxley later made his destination very clear when he emerged through the Las Vegas crowd and laid out Jericho and the referee with a Paradigm Shift (fka Dirty Deeds). Moxley then began brawling with Omega into the crowd and eventually onto the entrance ramp, where the former sent the latter crashing through the stage.
Nowadays, returns and surprises of any sort are often spoiled, with reports of them spreading across the internet like wildfire. In this case, however, Moxley's AEW arrival was a genuine shock, something rarely experienced in the modern era. Furthermore, it ignited the build to an exciting, first-ever feud with Kenny Omega and his eventual AEW World Championship victory over Jericho at AEW Revolution. If nothing else, Moxley's debut served as an opportunity for him to play his music his own way, which in turn brought him back to a state of happiness. And honestly, how could I, or any of us, hate that?
Written by Ella Jay
