AEW Double or Nothing took place last night and offered up tonne of great action, a load of shocks and surprises and a title change.
Lets to get to the action.
First off we got we got an update on Britt Baker‘s injury from the AEW doctor who said the patient was worse than the injury and she will be appearing on AEW Dynamite to provide us with a timescale for recovery.
The first action of the of the night for the women was Penelope Ford vs Kris Statlander.
At the bell the two competitors lockup, Statlander hits an arm drag, a leg sweep and cartwheels around the frustrated Ford.
Ford gets her own back and stops a nose boop by biting Statlander’s finger.
Statlander hits Ford with a forearm who then evades another strike by holding onto the ropes. Statlander goes after her but gets distracted by Sabian before falling victim to a draping DDT from Ford for first two-count of the match.
Ford chops and kicks to ground Statlander followed by a stiff kick to the back and into a headlock.
Statlander powers out and lays in chops of her own. Tosses Ford outside and flies with a vicious suicide dive to take out both Ford and Sabian.
Back in the ring, Ford hits Statlander with nice hook kick for another two-count.
Statlander hits a big side kick followed by German suplex. Whip into turnbuckle, elbow, running knee into a spinning package driver for a close two-count.
Ford hits back with a nice backwards DDT for the two-count. Ford would frustrate Statlander with slaps to the head to makes swing wildly. Ford would matrix evade into a stunner followed by a clothesline but Statlnader would dodge with the kip-up to smash Ford with a clothesline.
Ford would hit a hurricanrana, then attempt a springboard cutter but Statlander would catch her and rive her into the mat before picking her up for the Big Bang Theory for the win.
A good, fun back and forth match. Ford looked comfortable and performed really well in her first PPV match. Statlander picked up a much needed win and edges ever closer to that top spot in the women’s rankings.
Tribute to Hana Kimura before the AEW Women’s Championship match with some great words from Exalibur.
Onto the AEW Women’s World Championship match between Nyla Rose and Hikaru Shida.
An excellent video package played that really put over both competitors, and added emphasis to match.
Shida entered the ring looking fierce and focused while Nyla arrived with strong and scary carrying Shida’s kendo stick.
The action was fast and fierce from the start. Shida hits a running dropkick. Rose swings the stick but Shida evades and kicks it out of her hand.
Shida strikes Rose with it but Rose blocks and traps it. and hits a clothesline floor the challenger.
Nyla would smash Shida with the stick before picking her up for a big body slam for the first two-count of the match.
Shida would recover and hit a high knee as the action would spill to the outside. Shida would position Rose and hit the draping running knee lift.
Rose launched Shida into the barricade to regain control and hoist Shida over her head to slam her through a poker table at ringside.
Rose would choke and attack Shida with a chair before throwing her back into the ring.
A big side slam and big body splash would result in a two-count. Nyla would go for the Beastbomb would Shida would break free with a hurricanrana and hit Rose with a running knee into the ropes.
A suplex attempt by Shida would backfire and Rose would regain control with a clothesline to the outside.
Shida would counter an Irish whip and hit a flying cross body and the hit Rose with yet another fierce running knee strike to the back of the head.
The action will go into the “crowd” at ringside and Shida would hippos Nyla into a stack of novelty sized casino chips. Shida would back up way into the stands before charging full force into Nyla with a flying knee strike sending Rose into another oversized casino chip.
Shida would retrieve her kendo stick and take it Nyla with a number of strikes before hitting a suplex onto the kendo stick. Another fierce knee strike for another two-count.
Shida windmilled Nyla with strikes before attempting a running strike but suffers a huge power slam for her troubles.
Rose drapes Shida across the ropes for the devastating top rope knee drop.
Nyla would get a table from beneath the ring and set it up in the corner. They would jockey for position before Nyla would hoist up Shida and powerbomb her through the table for a two-count.
Nyle then hits a Death Valley Driver, a kendo stick attack, before climbing to the top rope. Shida would throw the stick at Rose and climb up to deliver a devastating avalanche flacon arrow to which Nyla amazingly kicks out of.
A brutal elbow strike and running knee gets only a two-count. Enough is enough and Shida viciously wraps the kendo stick around Nyla’s head with an almighty crack.
Another brutal knee strike for the 1,2,3. And we have a new AEW Women’s Champion! Let the Shida-era commence.
A bitter, brutal and highly enjoyable battle that ushered in a new day for the AEW women’s division. A surprising, yet well-timed result and an exciting and progressive way forward. Shida is the right champion for AEW and has been for a long time. Let’s hope this decision elevates the women’s division to higher prominence.
Lets to get the winners and losers.
Winner: Hikaru Shida
Shida performed gallantly with a whole lot of heart on what must have been an extremely difficult day for her after the passing of Hana Kimura.
Shida battled through emotional turmoil and a hell of a lot of hard-hitting offence from Nyla Rose to become the new AEW Women’s Champion.
The emotion on show after her victory just proves how much this means to her. Shida has fully committed to AEW, by packing her life in Japan and moving to Florida and to that sacrifice pay off is amazing to see.
Shida is genuine, legit and one of the only women on the roster to really connect with the fans. With Shida holding the title we now have a champion that will appear week in and week out that will add meaning and emphasis to a division that is crying out for just that.
Shida also wore Final Fantasy VII inspired ring gear based on badass brawler, Tifa. Absolute winner.
Loser: Nyla Rose
Rose performed very well in the match and looked every bit the dominant monster that she has been in lead to winning the title and as champion.
Unfortunately her title run wasn’t able to get going because the pandemic put a stop to proceedings. There was still a lot more they could’ve done with a Nyla Rose title run.
But Nyla has been in this position before. She lost to Riho to crown the first AEW Women’s Champion and was able to recover and climb her way back up to the top of the division.
The loss in a no disqualification, no count-out match allows her to remain strong as it took a tonne of force and brutality to get her down for the pinfall.
So just a she has had to do before, Nyla must fight her way back into title contention.
Final Thoughts
A good to great showing from everyone involved. The results were logical and made sense. As stated previously Shida is the right champion for AEW to take the women’s divison to the next level.
What did you make of the show and the title change? Let us know in the comments below and as always stay tuned to Diva Dirt for all of your AEW news, reviews and updates.
