AEW Double or Nothing 2023 - May 28th, 2023
T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada
Double or Nothing is considered to be All Elite Wrestling's (AEW) marquee event, having first been held in 2019, which was AEW's first ever event and first ever pay-per-view produced. It is held annually during the Memorial Day weekend and is one of AEW's "Big Four" pay-per-views, which also includes ALL OUT, Full Gear and Revolution, their four biggest shows produced quarterly. The events name is in reference to its Las Vegas theme and the show has traditionally been held in the Las Vegas area in Paradise, Nevada. Exceptions to this occurred in 2020 and 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic which put restrictions on where pro-wrestling promotions could hold events.
On March 5th, 2023, during the AEW Revolution 2023 Zero Hour pre-show, it was announced that the fifth Double or Nothing event would be taking place on May 28th at the T-Mobile Arena, marking the second Double or Nothing held here, after the previous year's event was held there. It also was announced that during Double or Nothing week, both AEW Dynamite and AEW Rampage would air LIVE episodes from the nearby MGM Grand Garden Arena - the location of the inaugural Double or Nothing - on May 24th and May 26th, respectively. However, due to a TNT broadcast scheduling conflict, Rampage will instead air on tape delay as a special Saturday Night Rampage on May 27th, with the event being taped immediately after the live broadcast of Dynamite. Tickets went on sale for all the events on March 17th.
On April 19th episode of AEW Dynamite, a Four Pillars Tournament was announced, with the winner challenging MJF for the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing. The participants of the tournament were revealed as Sammy Guevara, Jungle Boy and Darby Allin - these three plus MJF have long been regarded as the "four pillars" of AEW. Guevara defeated Jungle Boy by countout with assistance by MJF in the semi-final match, while Allin received a bye to the final. The following week in the final, Guevara would again win with assistance by MJF, this time defeating Darby via disqualification, however, Tony Khan stated that the singles match between MJF and Guevara at Double or Nothing would only go ahead if they could beat Jungle Boy and Darby Allin in a tag team match; if Jungle Boy and Darby won, the World Championship match at Double or Nothing would be a four-way match between MJF, Guevara, Jungle Boy and Darby. On the May 3rd episode of Dynamite, Jungle Boy and Allin won.
In October 2022, "Hangman" Adam Page began a rivalry with Jon Moxley of the Blackpool Combat Club. This culminated in a Texas Death Match at AEW Revolution 2022 that Page won. Page thought he was done with Moxley until Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli attacked Page's friends John Silver and Alex Reynolds of Dark Order, prompting Page to come to their aid, with BCC turning heel. BCC (Moxley, Castagnoli, Bryan Danielson and Wheeler Yuta) then defeated Page and the Dark Order (Evil Uno and Stu Grayson). Throughout that episode, the teams fought throughout the backstage area until Page as left alone until his former friends-turned-enemies The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson)) got involved. While The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick) wanted to mend things with Page, Omega was still hesitant until the May 17th episode of Dynamite, when Page officially rejoined The Elite with Omega's approval. The Elite then challenged BCC (Moxley, Castagnoli, Danielson and Yuta) to an Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing, which was accepted.
On the May 17th episode of Dynamite, Orange Cassidy said that anyone who wanted to challenge him for the AEW International Championship could talk to AEW President Tony Khan to try and get a match as he would defend the title against anyone. It was later revealed that several wrestlers tried talking to Khan, and it was decided that Cassidy would defend the International Championship in a 21-man Blackjack Battle Royale at Double or Nothing.
On the March 15th episode of Dynamite, Taya Valkyrie made her AEW debut and began going after Jade Cargill and her AEW TBS Championship. The two had a match for the title on the April 26th episode of Dynamite in which Valkyrie was banned from using her finisher; Cargill won the match. A frustrated Valkyrie put her hands on referee Aubrey Edwards and was subsequently suspended. On the May 19th episode of Rampage, Cargill held an open challenge for her title. After defeating two challengers back-to-back, Valkyrie then made her return from suspension and attacked Cargill. She subsequently challenged Cargill for the TBS Championship at Double or Nothing, which was made official.
At Full Gear 2022 in November, Jamie Hayter defeated Toni Storm to become the interim AEW Women's World Champion; she subsequently became the official champion after Thunder Rosa relinquished the lineal championship due to injury. In the weeks to come, Storm turned heel and allied with Saraya and Ruby Soho, dubbing themselves The Outcasts as they were not AEW originals. After several more weeks of feuding, on the May 17th episode of Dynamite, Storm challenged Hayter to a match at Double or Nothing for the AEW Women's World Championship. That same episode, it was reported that Hayter was injured, but Tony Khan said that despite not being medically cleared, Hayter still wanted to do the match so the match would proceed as planned.
After winning his third AEW TNT Championship on the April 19th episode of Dynamite, Wardlow was confronted by Christian Cage and Luchasaurus. Cage subsequently made his intentions clear that he wanted the TNT Championship. After weeks of feuding, on the May 17th episode of Dynamite, Wardlow challenged Cage to a match at Double or Nothing. Cage and Luchasaurus attacked Wardlow, putting him through a ladder, and Cage accepted, with the match scheduled as a ladder match.
After a long absence due to injury, Adam Cole made his return in early 2023 with his first match scheduled for the March 29th episode of Dynamite. A week prior, he delivered a promo, questioning who his first opponent would be, only to be interrupted by the Jericho Appreciation Society's (JAS) Daniel Garcia, which led to Cole challenging Garcia to be his first opponent since his return. The following week, Cole defeated Garcia, celebrating with his partner Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. following the match. The celebration was interrupted by JAS leader Chris Jericho, who entered ringside and helped stablemate Garcia to the back. On the April 12th episode, Cole interrupted Jericho's celebration with Garcia after he had defeated Keith Lee, helping his former rival Lee to the back. The following week, Cole and Jericho met in the ring attempting to talk out their problems, however, this led to a brawl and brutal assault on Cole and Baker. Cole's outnumbered feud with the JAS eventually led to the AEW debut of Roderick Strong, a former teammate of Cole's in WWE NXT. After more feuding, an unsanctioned match between Cole and Jericho was scheduled for Double or Nothing, with Extreme Championship Wrestling alumnus Sabu named the special guest enforcer.
Pre Show Match:
- 6-Man Tag Team Match: The Hardy Party (Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy) and HOOK def. Ethan Page and The Gunns (Austin Gunn and Colten Gunn)*
- 21-Man Blackjack Battle Royale for AEW International Championship: Orange Cassidy (c) won by last eliminating Swerve Strickland**
- Unsanctioned Match with Sabu as Special Guest Enforcer: Adam Cole def. Chris Jericho by referee stoppage
- AEW World Tag Team Championship with Special Guest Referee Mark Briscoe: FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) (c) def. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal to retain the titles
- Ladder Match for AEW TNT Championship: Wardlow (c) def. Christian Cage to retain the title
- Open House Rules Trios Match for AEW World Trios Championship: The House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King and Buddy Matthews) (c) def. The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens and Max Caster) and Billy Gunn to retain the titles***
- AEW TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) def. Taya Valkyrie to retain the title
- AEW TBS Championship: Kris Statlander def. Jade Cargill (c) to win the title (Statlander won an impromptu match, ending Cargill's 508 day title reign)
- Four Pillars Four-Way for AEW World Championship: MJF (c) def. Jungle Boy, Darby Allin and Sammy Guevara to retain the title
- Anarchy in the Arena: The Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta) def. The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) and "Hangman" Adam Page)
| First Round Dynamite (April 19) | Finals Dynamite (April 26) | ||||||||
| Sammy Guevara | Countout | ||||||||
| Jungle Boy | 11:30 | ||||||||
| Sammy Guevara | DQ | ||||||||
| Darby Allin | 11:55 | ||||||||
| Darby Allin | |||||||||
| BYE | |||||||||
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep your comments directed about All Elite Wrestling and/or Ring of Honor Wrestling and the contents of the posting. Other comments will be deleted! Trolling and hate messages will be deleted and user will be banned from commenting on future postings.