FTR Beat Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal to Retain AEW Tag Titles at Double or Nothing 2023

In their first televised title defense since beating The Gunn Club for the AEW World Tag Team Championships in April, FTR defeated Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal with Mark Briscoe as the special guest referee at Double or Nothing on Sunday to retain the titles.

FTR scored the win by pinning Jarrett with the Big Rig, though there was a lot that happened before the finish.

As has become customary with Jarrett during his AEW run, there were high-level shenanigans going on in a way that made the match even more fun and dramatic.

Briscoe got taken out at one point when Jarrett inadvertently hit him with a guitar while aiming for Dax Harwood, which kickstarted a number of incidents that included Aubrey Edwards being laid out with a guitar shot from Karen Jarrett.

During the months of December and January, FTR's future with All Elite Wrestling was up in the air, and as a result, they did their fair share of losing.

In addition to failing to beat The Acclaimed for the AEW World Tag Team Championships, FTR dropped the ROH tag team titles to the Briscoe Brothers, the AAA Tag Team Championships to Dragon Lee and Dralistico, and the IWGP world tag team titles to Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi.

After about three months off AEW programming, Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler returned in late March to confront Austin and Colten Gunn. That led to a title match that stipulated FTR would have to leave the company if they lost.

FTR won to become two-time AEW tag champs, thus confirming that they had signed a new contract with the promotion.

In the wake of that victory, FTR became involved in a rivalry with Jarrett and Lethal, who established themselves as arguably AEW's top heel tag team against all odds.

Jarrett and Lethal first teamed up last summer when they lost to Ric Flair and Andrade El Idolo in The Nature Boy's final match. Jarrett later signed with AEW and reunited with Lethal.

They enjoyed some success and had two title matches against The Acclaimed in which they fell short, but it wasn't long before they got back into the title scene.

In the weeks prior to Double or Nothing, Jarrett and Lethal revealed an ace up their sleeve in the form of Jarrett's wife, Karen.

Once a key figure in Impact Wrestling, she made her AEW debut by distracting FTR and allowing Jeff and Lethal to get the better of them during an altercation.

Despite Karen getting involved in the rivalry, FTR managed to retain at Double or Nothing and once again deny Jarrett and Lethal a title reign.

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