It’s been five years since AEW’s inaugural PPV/outing, Double or Nothing, so let’s look at what Sextuple or Nothing has to offer us this year.
Yup, fifth year, sixth PPV. That’s how anniversaries work, folks. [glares at WWE for wrongfully touting 40 years of WrestleMania]
But AEW’s not coming alone this time. Hell’s coming with it! And by “hell,” I mean the stifling heat of the Jeddah Super Dome where WWE is running King and Queen of the Ring on Saturday. This isn’t the first time these two giants have accidentally touched tips. 2022’s All Out and Clash at the Castle springs to mind. There may have been another instance but I’m too busy typing this to google it. Anyhow, because we’ve got a jam-packed jelly roll this weekend, we’ll look at WWE’s show too, offer up some winner winner chickpea dinner predictions. Have a grand old time.
Double or Nothing is back in MGM’s Grand Garden Arena after two hot years in the T-Mobile Arena. Grand Garden can’t hold as many people as T-Mobile but it’s not that big of a difference to pontificate about. They could be back there because it’s the 5th anniversary and that’s where the first DoN was. I don’t ever write about TV ratings or ticket sales, which seems to be the bread and butter for most promotional tribalism, so I’ll just nestle into my mind palace of memories and recall how awesome being at the first Double or Nothing was. What a time it was to be a wrestling fan. So glorious. So free. Triple H hadn’t even been pushed out of NXT yet.
Okay, so here’s the big fat card for Double or Nothing. There might be other matches added before Sunday but just let it be known that I don’t give a f*********k about the Bang Bang Gang.
Roderick Strong vs. Will Ospreay
This will be a killer match and Ospreay will absolutely take that International Championship. Especially after getting trounced on Dynamite.
Winner: Will Ospreay
Opposite Momentum Pick: Will Ospreay
"Timeless" Toni Storm (c) vs. Serena Deeb
Once again, like when Jade was TBS Champion, the actual Women's World Championship program feels like the also-ran. But that might be because our perception of the TBS Championship might be wrong. We assume it’s the mid-card belt. The stepping stone to the Women’s World Championship. But we’ve never gotten any clarification on the matter. We’ve just projected our own expectations onto the belt based on how wrestling’s always worked. This is a long way of saying there’s no way Deeb is winning this one.
Winner: Toni Storm
Opposite Momentum Pick: Toni Storm
Adam Copeland vs. Malakai Black
I appreciate that Copeland not only knows that his time left as an in-ring competitor is limited but that he’s also participating in the most violent, career-shortening matches possible. We all contain multitudes and paradoxes and the whatnot. In a perfect world, Black would take this since he’s in dire need of singles gold. And the Opposite Momentum wind actually seems to be blowing that way based on the Dynamite bloodbath. But the storytelling here might run even deeper, and longer. Cope didn’t get the chance to run his evil heel faction in WWE because Cody got hurt and they needed a babyface. Is House of Black his way back into Judgment Day mode? This is a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match by the way so expect faces to be smushed against jagged things. Like when I try to make out with Cenobites.
Winner: Adam Copeland
Opposite Momentum Pick: Malakai Black
Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita
This is a deal where if Takeshita wins he gets a shot at Mox’s IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. So expect him to win. Also he got knocked out by Mox on Dynamite.
Winner: Konosuke Takeshita
Opposite Momentum Pick: Konosuke Takeshita
Trent Beretta vs. Orange Cassidy
I feel like Orange Cassidy wrestles on every Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision. An argument can be made that AEW’s run his specialness into the dirt but honestly I’m just worried for him. I can’t remember the last time I saw him without being mummified in kinesiology tape. Eh. Whatever...to quote the man himself. From Best Friends to worst enemies, it’s a good old fashioned grudge match. That we already watched once on Dynamite. I’m going with Trent here just to be sassy, though OM definitely notices that Cassidy took the pinfall on Dynamite.
Winner: Trent Beretta
Opposite Momentum Pick: Orange Cassidy
Chris Jericho vs. Hook vs. Katsuyori Shibata
I’m not interested in this at all though ratings apparently still favor any and all Jericho segments and feuds. Making things worse is the fact that Jericho knows how much everyone resents him and he fully expected those “please retire” style chants at Dynasty. Which makes being a snotty mark less fun. Jericho will probably retain, just so we can keep chanting bulls*** at him.
Also, from an OM standpoint, Jericho found out he was in a Triple Threat so that counts in his favor. As does Big Bill.
Winner: Chris Jericho
Opposite Momentum Pick: Chris Jericho
Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Moné
More eyes will be on this match that any other of the night. It has to deliver or else AEW really shot themselves in the foot (which Darby Allin calls Tuesday) by not having Moné wrestle for months. All signs, and OM overlords, point to Moné sealing the deal here but, as I wrote about last week, I would love it if she lost and then this feud continued all summer. Because Willow is spectacular.
Winner: Mercedes Moné
Opposite Momentum Pick: Mercedes Moné
The Elite (Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry, Matthew Jackson, and Nicholas Jackson) vs. Team AEW (Bryan Danielson, Cash Wheeler, Dax Harwood, and Darby Allin)
The Double or Nothing tradition returns for its third go round as this year the “Match Made for TV” features the punchable ding dongs vs. a ragtag crew of heroes (with Darby replacing a broken-legged Eddie Kingston). I was there for the first one and in 2022 and I was absolutely incapable of witnessing anything important happening. Every time I looked at one pair of brawlers something amazing occurred elsewhere. Whoever is blessed enough with the ability to follow an Anarchy in the Arena brawl in person, I salute you. You are the last of the finest.
Winner: The Elite
Opposite Momentum Pick: The Elite
Swerve Strickland vs. Christian Cage
Just to clear this up, I’d be all for Cage becoming World Champ. I think he brings the (captain) charisma, match quality, gimmick, and heelitude to pull it off. And considering the DDT he took on top of the car on Dynamite, OM thinks he can actually take this one. But he won’t. Swerve is too new of a champ to drop it this quick. But I also fear for Swerve. He got hot as a heel and now he’s in danger, just a tiny bit, of doing too much of a 180 as a babyface. I hope he retains the anti-heel qualities he had that got him over in the first place. Going from home invader to “I’m doing this for my daughter” is a heck of an alignment whiplash. IF Cage manages to win this then it’s because there might be value in watching a babyface Swerve chase the title again.
Winner: Swerve Strickland
Opposite Momentum Pick: Christian Cage
My original plan was to also do a big preview for King and Queen of the Ring but some breaking news just rolled in. Yes, this is a living, breathing column that zigs and zags on the fly. So I’ll just say that it’s gotta be Gunther becoming King, no? He’ll face Orton at the PPV and Orton’s injured leg will come into play (there is always room for an RKO outta nowhere though, right?)
And it will be Lyra vs. Nia, yes? And that can go either way. There could be a big underdog upset or they could finally give Nia a big win and accolade that she seems overdue for. Other than that, Sami will win, Cody will win, and goddammit f***ing Liv Morgan BETTER win. I swear, if she doesn't I’ll become even more insufferable. Which doesn’t seem possible but David Hume once said that nothing can be unexpected. Or, in other words, it’s wrong to presuppose that the future will resemble the past. But also he was a huge nerd, so…
The big news, though, is that SummerSlam is now a two-night event. Well, not now…soon. Okay not soon. In 2026.
This felt inevitable in many ways, considering how SummerSlam had started to be booked in stadiums and was being propped up as a second WrestleMania. I will say, of course, that “What if wrestling was on every night of the week and never ever stopped?” feels like a Black Mirror episode. A very bad episode, sure, but there is a dystopian tinge to this news. Like, a sort of late-stage capitalism hum about it. A background radiation of an all-consuming forest fire. It’s nowhere near as damning as running Premium Live Events in Saudi Arabia twice a year but it certainly doesn’t feel ideal.
Two things immediately take the edge off this development. One is that we're all going to huff and puff about it for a few days and then just move on to the next s**ty exhibit in the outrage annex. The other is that we’re in the Paul Era and that provides an emotional safety net, of sorts. Oh, how wonderful it is to blanket ourselves in the faint praise battle cry of “things aren’t so bad anymore!”
Plus, we don’t have to deal with this for two years and our species, or in the very least democracy, might not even be around then. It might seem morbid to find solace in impermanence but the alternative is carrying everything, every global ill, within our hearts. Our brains weren’t meant to know this much. And it’s not like they’re spending two-nights in Cleveland, where SummerSlam is this year. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. Who happens to be David Hume.
Question: Do we think this means WrestleMania won't be in America in 2026? Like, they'll finally do England? Oh god, it's gonna be Jeddah, isn't it?
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