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Double or Nothing 2025
Stretcher Match
Mark Briscoe versus Ricochet
The first time Mark Briscoe and Ricochet crossed paths in AEW was at All In London 2024 when Ricochet made his debut in the Casino Gauntlet match. Neither man would win (Christian Cage pinned Kyle O’Reilly with help from Killshot creating the Instashot, one of the worst ideas AEW has had in the past year. The Instashot thankfully seems dead and buried) but also neither man would meet again in the ring for the rest of 2024.
Instead, it would be the lure of the $400,000 Prize match that pitted Mark Briscoe across the ring from Ricochet. Briscoe’s team, featuring Kevin Knight, Speedball Mike Bailey, and Will Ospreay would defeat Ricochet’s team including CRU and Beast Mortos.
Ricochet and Briscoe would meet on Dynamite for a singles match on April 23 in the kind of match you see advertised and think, “Well Ricochet is going to probably win that. He’s the pushed wrestler. Mark Briscoe was just one in a bunch in the four hundred K match.”
Opening Dynamite with a great match, Mark Briscoe would defeat Ricochet clean in the middle of the ring.
Sometimes that’s all you really need for a story. Wrestler A beats Wrestler B. Wrestler B is angry about it. Briscoe beating Ricochet really helped Mark Briscoe, which unfortunately AEW spent up immediately by the next week having Mark Briscoe get pinned by Kazuchika Okada thanks to Ricochet knocking Mark Briscoe off the top.
The focus was at least on Mark Briscoe in the loss. Briscoe would team with Bailey again along with Swerve Strickland to take on the Young Bucks and Ricochet. Wow, Ricochet sure seems to fit The Elite well! This time, the focus would be on Matt Jackson rolling up Swerve Strickland to build up the Anarchy in the Arena.
Even so, the real point of it is all about Ricochet getting heel heat and angering everyone despite him taking that singles loss to Mark Briscoe. Ricochet spent time bullying Zach Gowen and stealing his prosthetic leg, which was all to get everyone hating Ric before Mark Briscoe came out for a post-match save.
All this has built up to a stretcher match, which Mark Briscoe said he chose just to be creative. All Elite Wrestling has never tried a stretcher match, though Kevin Steen did face Mike Bennett at Final Battle 2013 in a Stretcher match.
I feel like they don’t do it like this since the match essentially fell apart and they just made it a knockout match.
Eric Young faced Kurt Angle in a stretcher match at Hardcore Justice 2015 in TNA Wrestling. This was more the traditional idea. It’s very similar to a casket match or ambulance match but instead of having to close them in something, you have to put them on the gurney and then strap them down. Only then does the match end.
My only worry here is that Ricochet has been on an absolute tear lately as one of the most exciting wrestlers in AEW week after week. He’s doing phenomenal in his current role. Mark Briscoe is basically the heart and soul of AEW since Eddie Kingston went down to injury and he too is consistent every night. This match has a tendency to be… very boring. Watching someone attempt to strap a wrestler down, they tussle, then go to doing other spots.
I really hope they find a way to make this match exciting and it isn’t Tony Khan spinning a gimmick wheel. They know the ways it doesn’t work. They have to find a way to make it work. There was a stretcher match back in 1996 in Extreme Championship Wrestling that was exciting. It was Rob Van Dam versus Sabu. I wonder if that’s what Tony Khan was thinking about.
