52 years old, 52 flipping years old. That is how old Adam Copeland and Christian Cage are. And the only reason I bring this up, because you can go on the internet these days. Look at, oh my gosh, there's so on. Who gives a fluff man when you're able to go out there and do a performance like this? Also FTR, man. I told you, one of the best tag teams ever. That is what I'm just going to say throughout this episode of ups and downs for AW double or nothing. You don't have to like Squib, man, who must have explained in there, and maybe I'll drop one in later too. But if you enjoy the product the AW puts out there, I think this is one of the best pay reviews they have ever done. And sure there are a few things you can probably say, well, why do we do this and why do we do that?

But I just think sometimes you've got to do a moonwalk and say to yourself, that was some good damn wrestling. Also, hello, my friends. I am Simon Lerner, the positive board idiot on the internet who also wrestles himself. But now, because there is so much to talk about, let's just get into it and up those downs. But yes, the first match was Christian Cage and Adam Copeland taken on FTR. Talk about all the provisos here. It was a street fight, it was an I quit match. And of course, if Edging Christian, excuse me, but I'm going to make that mistake anyway, so I may as well throw it out there. Did lose. They would never be able to tag again. Quite clearly, everybody in this had decided. we are starting the show, we've got to go out there and just deliver an explosion. This was absolutely excellent. Early on, Christian started to bite people and why wouldn't you do that? And yes, for the I quit stipulation. We would get a microphone and stick it into people's faces. Some people don't like this. I do. I think it's very funny. And some of the quips that everybody in this came up with made me laugh out loud. And also barbed wire got introduced so fast. I was looking around like, wait, who put the barbed wire there? I mean, surely if you were an AW producer, the last thing you want to do is see people getting smashed with barbed wire, that's exactly what they did. But also getting tables, ladders, chairs and all this kind of stuff, and yes, Stokely Hathaway was going to get involved, which was going to tie in later. And at one point, FTR tried to sort of break Christian's hand, like with the cinder block, but he got away, then they kind of crushed it a bit. And when he was asked, oh, hello there, my friend,, do you quit? He said, I, I, I,

banged your mother. Now, that doesn't make any sense. It is two plus two eggs potato,

but boy, howdy I howled. This is why I love this nonsense. Christian then took a shout-out machine after he and Merck some more when also had been destroyed on the outside through a flipping table,

came back and speared everyone. And this is when you have to shout out this crowd. Oh my gosh, New York City quite clearly had injected their cheering drugs. They treated every single thing on this paper view like it was the most important thing that ever seen in their lives. You know what? I just have to give them an up. The work in the ring was phenomenal too, but when you have this kind of noise, it just puts it over the top. Of course, you always knew what was going to happen here, but it did make sense. As soon as Stokeler-Hathaway was going to use Christian Cates stole and watch out, came Beth Phoenix. And we've not seen her since what, all in last year, with this does make sense because FTR tried to murder her on that show.

She was going to get her revenge. Now, listen, at one point, after she beat up Stoke, Dax threw her into Stim with the still steps. I was like, oh my gosh, it's absolutely horrific. When the following happened, once again, I could not believe it. Because we were meant to think that Cash Wheeler was going to spear Beth Phoenix to a table when Dax decided, you know what, why don't I set this table on fire?

It's a perfect normal thing to do. Why wouldn't you do that? But just as Cash was going to, obviously Beth got out the way and Cash Wheeler speared Stokely Hathaway through a flaming table. I just logged off into the distance. It sounds like it's match one. My friends, it's match one. My back's actually got even more crazy after this

because he started to thread Adam Copeland. If you don't quit, you'll never see your kids again, which surely has to be a crime where, quite rightly, Beth Phoenix whacked him right in the penis. I mean, I think she was allowed to do that. It also led to the finish because essentially Dax got put in a scorpion death lock and a cross face. That's right. Christian and Cage, or Christian and Adam, I should say, applied both their moves. But because he wouldn't give up, Beth went and got Spike that horrific barbed wire back thing. Midgegill, or not even barbed wire, flipping spikes coming out of it, hence the name. and Adam Copeland got this and he squished it into Dax's face, when quite rightly he did give up. I mean, if he hadn't have done, I would have thought he was a sociopath or an insane person. Nobody should have to go through it. But it also meant for the first time in however long, Adam Copeland and Christian Cage are the tag team champions. There was this massive celebration.

Everybody was happy, which is the point of professional wrestling. It's meant to make you feel warm and fuzzy in your tum-tum. I am just going to give this an up. And really, you can give it whatever kind of up you do want. It was just so damn good. It could not have been even better. If you do want to talk about 2026 and opening matches on paperviews, this one

has got to be in the discussion. Also, I flippin' love everybody in this. They just care, man, and they make you feel, once again, that's the point. When Tony Carr knew exactly what to do, because a good way to structure a card is to send something out that's completely different, but it is going to elicit the same kind of response.

So it was a car to take it on to Keshhta for the international title. I mean, it's one of the best matches of the year. And sure, it's fair criticism to say that we took a long while to get here. I think kids were born and became 25 year olds in the time it did take. But once again, who gives the damn? It's one of those matches that even though Akada lost, the case she is your brand new champion, which is phenomenal. Nobody gives an absolute crap here because the way you watch wrestling in 2026, kind of just like clap like a seal, because you can't quite believe these two guys can be so talented.

Besides once again made this such a big deal because they were going crazy. And this uppercut that Oada hit, so that that Akada hit made such a horrific noise, when really it just became, well, I'm going to hit you and you're going to hit me, that I'm going to reverse you, that I'm going to engage this drive, then all of a sudden I'm going to whip around your back and drop you on the floor. They just didn't stop. And actually, Don Callis was the only person that got involved here,

because after Akada had Merked Takeda with this rainmaker, and he was on the mats, he was going to drop him on his head. Donned Kats was like, no, no, you're both my boys. I can't handle that. So Takesh was like, all right, I'll do it. He braced Busted Okada on the floor, and flipping Don Calas had a meltdown.

DeKesra also went for the running knee, but he got tombstoneed instead, and even when he hit,

the least devastating move in all the sports entertainment, the blue thunderbomb. Like it didn't work, it didn't get the pin, but everything was just delivered so exquisitely. Can't even say that word. There was only a few people on this planet that would have been able to pull this off, and it's lucky for AW, the two of them were right in the ring.

There's also this great part two where Carda did get hit with the raging knee and he kicked out at one. And listen, that happened a few times throughout this show, but somehow it just worked mostly because the crowd did lose their mind. And after they've done like 42,700 other the moves where like how are you so so smooth? You're smoother than my bald head. Takesha did get the raging fire and he pinned a carter for the one, two, three. Honestly, because this match had been so good and because it got a mega reaction, it kind of felt like you were part of something seismic. I'm saying this stupid room, but I'm like, I can't believe we've done this. What was I talking about?

The after match was awesome as well, because do not forget this was Callis Family versus Callis Family. So out came the Callis family and we kind of hinted, oh my gosh, maybe that they finally are going to get to Kester out of the group when we also got a surprise. because Carl Fletcher returned, and let's not forget he's been injured for ages.

He hugged the Kester and he scared everybody else away with his terrifying laser eyes or something. And just as they were celebrating, of course, he murked his former friend. He dropped him in his head to Kestra as Lester-Don Callis family. Carl Fletcher remains a heel. And they're probably going to have a feud for that championship and

who could get mad at that, especially because when he didn't go to pick up that title, Akada went to pick it up as well and him and Carl Fletcher were looking at each other. So Dong Towers should be happy because the next time you get to a foward occasion, you are absolutely going to have less mouths to feed. So in terms of a piece of business, which is what the nerds say, I just thought this was absolutely incredible. What didn't it had? We finally moved on the Don Callis family to a place we've all wanted for a while. The match was next level. You probably won't see something like this again for a while. And you have Carfletcher returning, remaining a heel and just having so many pathways going forward. It doesn't just get it up. It's a golden up. Once again, in terms of a nice little package, the wars delivered to your face. Well, my nose, my ears and my eyes were pretty damn satisfied. It was in the own hard tournament next. Me and Shurukawa taken on Athena, which also made sense because it's a tournament, even if you've never watched wrestling before, you know what a tournament is, and if you didn't, somebody would be able to explain this to you so you can be like, I can invest in somebody here and I try and support them all the way to the finish. It was also a very hard hitting good match. Some bits were a bit wibbly wobbly, but how many times I have to say wrestling can be better when that does happen. It's meant to be a

simulated fight. Athena also booted Mina into the LED boards at one point, so she was having a terrible time, although she did miss the O-face, which when Sir a car was like, well, that's fine, I'm going to get the seatbelt pin, which is essentially the least devastating move. No, the most devastating move in all of sports entertainment surprise roll-up, but she only got a one-two-oh. She also tried for a figure four, and as we are talking accidentally about

least devastating moves, we threw this in last week too. I think the figure four should be upgraded to that level. I mean, it never beats anybody, even with flipping Rick Flair. She did go for the Glamour driver, which turned out to be a terrible mistake because Athena just rocked her with a tombstone.

She went to the top and she hit the O face for the one, two, three. And listen, Athena could make it all the way to the final. She is pretty damn good. But once again, in terms of watching this pay-per-view, I was like, okay, with three matches in, there's been no let up whatsoever. It's just bam, bam, bam, thank you, ma'am. and every single one has given me something in a specific way.

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