The D'Amore Drop: AEW Double or Nothing was the best wrestling show of 2025, but ...

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5 days ago

Few wrestlers in the world could've pulled off the kind of match Will Ospreay and Hangman Adam Page did at AEW Double or Nothing 2025. ()
The D'Amore Drop is a weekly guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D'Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D'Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.
AEW put on the best wrestling show of 2025 with their Double or Nothing event this past Sunday in Glendale, Arizona. AEW's tagline is 'Where the Best Wrestle,' and Tony Khan has a roster of world-class talent who take that mantra as an absolute promise on every pay-per-view event.
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I mean every word of this: Only a handful of wrestlers — ever — could have put on the match that Will Ospreay and Hangman Adam Page did last Sunday. It was breathtaking, a roller-coaster that left you almost emotionally exhausted.
Nevertheless, I stand behind the concern I expressed last week: I think Double or Nothing was the time to pull the trigger on Will Ospreay. Hangman vs. Moxley for the AEW Title is going to be awesome, but I don't understand why this isn't Ospreay's time.
And I mean 'I don't understand' — because Tony Khan and his creative team will know a great deal about their plans for Will, their title, and their long-term vision that I simply don't. I'm going to wait and see how this plays out and give these talented people time and space to tell the stories they believe are the best stories they can tell.
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Hangman challenging for — and potentially winning — another AEW World Title in his home state of Texas will be a great moment. Obviously, any promoter would much rather have 'too many' potential world champions than too few, and it'll be interesting to see how AEW picks its way through this 'good problem.'
AEW's Anarchy in the Arena match — with the nonstop chaos and playing rock music on a loop — has joined Hell in a Cell, War Games, the Royal Rumble and, I would humbly suggest, Ultimate X, as one of the industry's top-tier gimmick matches.
Anarchy has done for falls-count-anywhere brawls what War Games and Hell in a Cell did for cage matches — and what the Royal Rumble did for battle royals. It took a staple gimmick and elevated it to something unique and truly spectacular.
WWE's NXT Battleground PLE went head-to-head with AEW's pay-per-view on Sunday and also featured some awesome action and minor milestones for the industry.
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I continue to be proud of Jordynne Grace, who had an absolute barnburner with mega-star-in-the-making Stephanie Vaquer. Jordynne didn't get the NXT belt this time, but she continues to adapt to the WWE style and is paying her dues with some great performances.
And then … a WWE PLE was headlined by the TNA World Champion, Joe Hendry, against Trick Williams.
As someone who was at TNA for two long stints, including the iconic AJ Styles era, I got chills running up and down my forearms when I heard AJ's voice introduce the TNA World Title match on WWE programming. AJ Styles is TNA Wrestling — and him doing the voiceover just hit so right.
I get that TNA fans are upset that Joe got beaten by an NXT/WWE talent. Let's talk about Joe first.
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We're not even in June, and Joe Hendry has gotten the biggest reaction at the Royal Rumble, the biggest pop at WrestleMania, and now headlined a WWE-branded PLE. All of this heading into contract negotiations! Someone is going to pay Joe Hendry A LOT of money very soon, so don't feel bad for Joe.
Don't feel bad for TNA, either. NXT does many times the viewers that TNA does on AXS TV. That exposure is critical to TNA.
Now the key is how often the TNA title and this story is featured going forward on NXT — and how much Trick shows up on TNA programming.
Obviously, there are parallels to what we did between TNA and AEW in 2020, with Kenny Omega coming to TNA to begin a year-long crossover storyline. Kenny gave TNA its biggest viewing figures and buyrates in many, many years, along with some incredible matches despite being almost unable to walk backstage. But this NXT/TNA crossover is much deeper and is doing even more for the TNA brand.
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To me, it looks like Santana is getting prepped to be the new face of TNA when Joe inevitably moves on. I think we'll see Santana get 'revenge' for TNA fans and bring the belt back home. BUT — that should happen at TNA's Slammiversary event on July 20, in Santanta's home of New York, and not in the match scheduled for next week.
All of that will give his title win a huge boost. That's smart booking. TNA fans obviously don't want Joe to go, and I'm not sure anyone — not even Santana — wouldn't get booed for beating Joe Hendry.
TNA is coming out of this just fine.
Speaking of Kenny Omega's TNA Title run, we used Christian Cage as the transitional champion to get the belt from Kenny to TNA's new top babyface, Josh Alexander.
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For a minute, it looked like that talent was going to be Penta, who already had a short-lived run as TNA champ some years before. But then Christian — my old roommate and a TNA legend — came into the picture, and that made more sense as an emotional return as TNA Champion.
I get asked online, so I guess I should say here that, of course, it is bittersweet seeing TNA do all these great things with WWE.
Ultimately, in wrestling and in life, being happy and positive is a choice you make. I am proud of what we did: Turning around the dead, lifeless corpse of a company called IMPACT Wrestling and bringing it back to a vibrant — dare I say, important — part of the wrestling universe.
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You focus on your wins. I felt very strongly that, as good as the product had gotten, we would never have gotten enough fans to take a chance on IMPACT Wrestling.
Myself and a few others believed 'Come back to TNA — it's great again' was a far more compelling pitch to fans.
I was also convinced that pretending TNA was a 50/50 rival to WWE, or even AEW, did nothing positive for us.
On Sunday night, we were proven right yet again.
I saw a clip online of a reporter using code words to suggest to Becky Lynch (and by implication, others like Charlotte Flair) that she should step aside from her spot atop the WWE women's division.
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No one would dream of saying that to 40-somethings like CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton and Jey Uso (who turns 40 in three months). All of them — male and female — are doing incredible work.
Good for Becky for shutting that down.
Becky Lynch isn't here for your bull. (Michael Marques/WWE via Getty Images)
(WWE via Getty Images)
My passion project (aside from this column, of course!) Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling keeps continues to exceed my expectations. Just seven months on from our inaugural show, we are on our way to another sellout with over 1,800 tickets flying out the door already for our July 5 event in Montreal, MLP: Resurrection.
We are looking at five consecutive sellouts — and in real arenas with historic significance. We've locked down real sponsorships with legit Canadian companies, like The PoP Shoppe and ShipNerd, and we've had overtures from major streaming/broadcast platforms. I am skating the borders of 'cringe' here, but I'm blown away by everyone's support.
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To get you ready for PCO's triumphant return to the 'House of Pain' in Montreal, check out his recent MLP match below.
Bronson Reed was revealed to be the fourth man in the Seth Rollins/Paul Heyman/Bron Breakker heel faction. (What are we calling these guys? 'The Dangerous Coalition'? 'The Revolutionaries'?)
Great choice. Who'd ever pick a fight with Seth Rollins now that he has Bron Breakker and Bronson watching his back?
I signed Bronson to TNA in late 2021 after he was cut from WWE. He's a massive man, a massive talent, and a good guy. If TNA could have afforded him, I'd have loved to keep him in TNA. But as it was, WWE realized its mistake and brought him back just 13 months later.
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He'll kill it in this new role with Seth and Heyman.
Younger fans seem to have found Jesse Ventura's commentary at WWE Saturday Night's Main Event jarring.
Kids, Jesse is a true heel commentator — and in that role, he'll contradict himself, refuse to give credit to your heroes, and bend over backward to talk up the villains.
Jesse's performance has some shortcomings — like talking over the ring announcer — but he is the best ever in that role. And to be honest, I think wrestling needs more truly heel commentators.
AEW's resident lunatic daredevil Darby Allin has completed his climb to the top of Mount Everest and is on his way home. I love that Tony Khan understands his talent shouldn't have to live in a wrestling bubble and should have goals outside the ring.
But … climbing Everest??
I'm just thankful someone was there to talk Darby out of doing a Coffin Drop from the summit — because we all damn well know the thought occurred to him.