Hiroshi Tanahashi Appears At AEW Double Or Nothing After Don Callis Family Victory
"Double or Nothing" was a matter of pride for Paragon. Current TNT Champion Adam Cole stepped into the ring with his brothers Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong to teach a lesson to The Don Callis family's Konosuke Takeshita, Kyle Fletcher, and Josh Alexander in the second half of Sunday's festivities, and while The Don Callis family walked out with the victory, Paragon found some post-match aid from a friendly overseas face.
Fletcher and Cole were set to start the match, but "The Protostar" quickly tagged in powerhouse Konosuke Takeshita to wear down the TNT Champion. Takeshita wore Cole down with some stiff strikes, but Cole leveled the Japanese star with a fierce neckbreaker. O'Reilly stepped into the fray, and went strike for strike with Takeshita until Alexander was tagged in. Strong was next to enter the fight, and Fletcher finally made his in-ring appearance to help Alexander overwhelm the Paragon member.
Strong took most of the Don Callis Family's abuse, even taking a kick from Callis himself. Chaos erupted as Cole entered the fight to level Takeshita with a Superkick before isolating Alexander. O'Reilly and Cole made short work of Fletcher and Alexander, but the Don Callis Family fought back by isolating the TNT Champion for a Triple Powerbomb.
The match degraded into anarchy as all teams began fighting, completely disregarding the match's legal competitors. With all parties pushing, no man was able to secure a finisher attempt, much less a pin cover. Things only ended after Takeshita interrupted O'Reilly's Guillotine attempt with a resounding elbow, which allowed for the previously choked-out Fletcher to connect with a Brain Buster for the win.
Paragon received backup, courtesy of NJPW.
The Don Callis family issued an all-out assault onto Paragon after the bell, with family members Lance Archer and Trent Baretta getting their hands in the mix. Paragon found allies in Brodie King and Tomohiro Ishii, but the Don Callis Family crumbled once the president of NJPW, Hiroshi Tanahashi, made his presence known to aid Paragon's numbers game. The segment ended with Cole landing The Boom on Fletcher, surrounded by his new allies.
As AEW's commentary team pointed out, AEW and NJPW's "Forbidden Door" event is scheduled for August 24 in London. Whether Tanahashi's presence at Double or Nothing was a hint to the Forbidden Door card, however, remains to be seen.