Tag: aew double or nothing

AEW bringing Double or Nothing to new location this May

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Though Double or Nothing has traditionally been held in Las Vegas, AEW is bringing the pay-per-view to a new location this year.

It was announced today that Double or Nothing 2025 will emanate live from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, May 25. Aside from 2020 and 2021 when the show had to be moved due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is the first time Double or Nothing has taken place outside of Las Vegas. The PPV debuted in 2019 as AEW’s inaugural event.

The PPV is still happening on Memorial Day weekend, the usual date for Double or Nothing.

Tony Khan told the Arizona Republic that the Phoenix-area fans have been incredible for AEW — and he’s been looking forward to bringing them a PPV event.

“We put on the best pay-per-view events in the wrestling business,” Khan said. “The fans in the Phoenix area have been so incredible for AEW. We’ve done several shows around Phoenix and we’ve had great support from the fans.

“I had said after an amazing AEW event in Phoenix in the past that we would bring these great fans a pay-per-view event, because they deserve it.”

A ticket pre-sale for Double or Nothing begins this Friday (February 21) with tickets then going on sale to the general public next Monday (February 24). The PPV announcement was made in advance of AEW coming to Phoenix for a live Dynamite episode and Collision taping tonight.

Las Vegas is hosting WWE WrestleMania 41 this April, which may have factored into AEW’s decision to move Double or Nothing to a new location for 2025.

Here’s a look at the updated AEW PPV calendar:

  • Revolution: Sunday, March 9 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California
  • Dynasty: Sunday, April 6 at Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • Double or Nothing: Sunday, May 25 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona
  • All In: Saturday, July 12 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas
  • Forbidden Door: Sunday, August 24 in London, England (venue to be announced)

JNPO wrestling year in review series: Bad cage jumps, flamethrowers & restaurant fights

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: AEW

Josh Nason’s Punch-Out nears the halfway mark in my annual 12-part pro wrestling year in review series with a stop in May featuring returning guest Andrew Thompson of Post Wrestling.

Andrew & I go deep (two hours and 30 minutes~!) into happenings like:

  • AEW Double or Nothing which saw the use of flamethrowers, an unfortunate landing off a barbed wire cage jump by Adam Copeland, the return of MJF and the in-ring debut of Mercedes Mone
  • Two international WWE PLEs
  • Some moving and shaking with big WWE contracts
  • Lots of early AEW TV rights headlines and rumors, and WWE TV developments
  • Marigold’s debut show
  • The surprise NXT debut of Ethan Page…and lots more in WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and the wrestling world.

Click here to listen

Here’s the rest of the series:

Live gate number revealed for AEW Double or Nothing

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: AEW

The live gate number for May’s AEW Double or Nothing from Las Vegas saw a sharp decline from last year’s event according to new data.

Pollstar data (via Wrestlenomics) showed the May 26th pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena drew $582,204 at the gate on 9099 paid tickets. The prior year saw the same show from the T-Mobile Arena bring in $964,349 on 10,478 paid.

The same publication noted that the Saturday go-home Collision in the same venue drew a $112,298 gate on 3944 paid tickets.

The show was headlined by an Anarchy in the Arena match in addition to Mercedes Mone’s AEW in-ring debut, and AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. Christian Cage.

It was AEW’s third pay-per-view of the year and the second-highest PPV gate as March’s Revolution in Greensboro, North Carolina, brought in more than $1 million in ticket revenue on 15,837 paid tickets. April’s Dynasty in St. Louis, Missouri, did $401,373 in gate revenue on 6287 paid tickets.

AEW will return to PPV this Sunday for their third-ever Forbidden Door, emanating from the UBS Arena on Long Island, New York for the first time. As of Tuesday evening, WrestleTix estimated nearly 9100 tickets are out for the event with roughly 1100 remaining to be sold.

Wrestling Weekly: Becky Lynch takes a break, MJF returns, and WWE’s crowded World title picture

Posted on by Victor Sosa

Image: WWE

It’s time for a new edition of Wrestling Weekly featuring myself and the one-and-only Les Thatcher.

Today, we take a look at the crowded World Heavyweight title picture on WWE Raw, the departure of Becky Lynch (for now anyway), a big week for NXT, and yes, MJF’s return to AEW and all the Double or Nothing fallout.

Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!

Click here to listen (sub needed)

Estimated AEW Double or Nothing PPV buys slightly down from prior year

Posted on by Josh Nason

Nearly a week after the pay-per-view happened, there is a preliminary number for the total number of buys for last Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing.

In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported the total estimated buys are in the 133,000 range, noting reporting on numbers is a little slow due to Memorial Day weekend.

He stated that as of now, TV buys were up 9.5% from April’s Dynasty PPV with streaming numbers up in the U.S. and about the same internationally, adding that while the TV numbers are “way down” from last year’s Double or Nothing, the streaming numbers are making up for it.

If the show ends in that range, it will be down from last year which did in the 140,000 range. Last year’s show also didn’t have Dynasty the month prior.

The gate at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena was just under $800,000 on 7500 paid attendance (9000 total). That is down from last year’s show at the T-Mobile Arena in the same city which had a gate nearing $900,000 based on 9000 paid (10,500 total).

Figure Four Daily: Lance Storm and Bryan talk Double or Nothing, future of television

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm is back with tons to talk about including the latest on his nasal issues and what is next, a look at AEW Double or Nothing, Jordynne Grace to NXT, some thoughts on the future of television, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!

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Injury update on Darby Allin following AEW Anarchy in the Arena match

Posted on by Josh Nason

An MRI showed that Darby Allin did not suffer a broken nose during Sunday’s Anarchy in the Arena match at AEW Double or Nothing as some had feared.

Our Bryan Alvarez revealed the news during last night’s Wrestling Observer Radio, saying that while Allin’s nose did get “messed up” during the match, the MRI alleviated concern about a possible break. Alvarez said Allin got a “clean bill of health.”

Allin shared a picture of his face the next day on social media, seen above. He wore a protective mask adorned with tacks during the match as he was recently struck in the face by a bus.

Allin, FTR and Bryan Danielson fell in defeat to The Elite (Jack Perry, Young Bucks & Kazuchika Okada) in the night’s main event. The violent affair featured a flamethrower, an exploding chair, tables, sneakers with tacks in the bottom, and Allin hanging feet-first upside down for several minutes from a winch among the craziness.

Alvarez opined that Allin must have been in excruciating pain when he was hanging upside down with all the blood rushing to his head. He also noted that Allin doesn’t appear to be all the way recovered from a broken foot as he said Allin was sprinting down to the ring for Sunday’s match and then slowed down as if he realized he needed to.

The night also saw Adam Copeland sustain a broken tibia in his barbed wire steel cage match with Malakai Black when he landed nearly feet-first after diving off the top of the cage onto a prone Black laid out on a table.

Adam Copeland suffered broken tibia at AEW Double or Nothing

Posted on by Ian Carey

Adam Copeland is injured.

The 50-year-old jumped off the top of a steel cage and landed feet first during his match with Malakai Black at AEW Double or Nothing on Sunday. He posted a video to social media on Tuesday revealing he suffered a broken tibia that will require surgery.

“I’ve been feeling really good lately, been having so much fun in the ring and I got cocky, is I guess what it really comes down,” Copeland says in the video.

“My brain forgets what my body always seems to remember, a little late, is that I’m 50 and I need to make better choices,” he continued. “So, my body pulled the emergency break on me the other night and I ended up fracturing my tibia, which is going to require surgery, don’t know the time frame on that yet.”

Copeland continued to say he hopes to find out more next week regarding how long he’ll be out of action.

Copeland’s decision to jump off the cage on Sunday was addressed during the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio by our own Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez.

“He decided to jump off and land on his feet and that was a long way down, and he landed on his feet and it looked like he paid for it. It’s just one of those things, nobody should be jumping off a cage and landing on their feet, I don’t care how old you are.”

Meltzer also brought up that it was a particularly high cage they were using at Double or Nothing and a lower cage might not have been as bad.

“It was like he got up there and when he came down it was almost like, ‘I’m not sure what I’m going to do’ and that was, I think, the kiss of death,” Meltzer said. “Instead of splashing he decided that he would do this elbow but he didn’t want to do the full elbow and that’s what the problem was. If he had done the full elbow, he could have hurt his hip still, though.”

Wrestling Observer Radio: AEW injury updates, RAW report, how strong are WWE stars?

Posted on by Bryan Alvarez

Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with all the injury updates from Double or Nothing, Tony Khan’s mixed tag title idea, other scrum notes, the RAW report from Monday with fallout from King of the Ring, more Vegas weekend thoughts, WHO IS STRONG IN WWE, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!

Timestamps:
Start: Death of David Rodriguez
4:24: Updates on Double or Nothing injuries
8:41: Double or Nothing press conference notes
21:51: Giulia to undergo surgery for broken wrist
23:48: More AEW Double or Nothing, WWE King & Queen of the Ring thoughts
29:20: WWE Raw recap, lineups for the week

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Swerve Strickland explains Floyd Mayweather AEW Double or Nothing appearance

Posted on by Joseph Currier

After retaining the AEW World Championship at Double or Nothing, Swerve Strickland celebrated with a special guest.

Strickland defeated Christian Cage in the semi-main event of Sunday’s pay-per-view in Las Vegas. When the match ended, Strickland brought his title belt over to the crowd and shared a moment with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather. Brian “Q” Quinn from the show “Impractical Jokers” was also sitting in the front row.

At the post-show media scrum, Strickland explained that, for the past couple of years, he’s been trying to get Mayweather to come when AEW is in Las Vegas. Mayweather finally agreed to attend this time.

“Floyd has been a friend of ours. My man [rapper] Flash Garments over here, he gets a free pass every time he comes to All Elite Wrestling. Because, once again, we’re here to grow this company. We’re here to bring something to All Elite Wrestling, not just take. We want to give — like, if we got opportunities, if we have connections, we’re going to bring them here every single time. And we want to blow this place up and we want to be the catalyst of it,” Strickland said.

“So that’s how Floyd came through. We’ve actually been talking to Floyd for like two years now. His whole family, trying to have him come through every time we’re in Vegas. Finally, he was like, ‘All right, this is the day. We’re pulling up.’ So he pulled up, made it to the match. We pulled out a banger in front of him. He’s like, ‘I’m in, I’m in.’ We might have Money Team invested in this whole thing.”

Strickland said that, as World Champion, he’s focused both on his personal growth and growing AEW as a promotion. He wants to be an inspiration to everyone watching.

Mayweather has competed in pro wrestling once before, defeating Big Show in a no holds barred match at WWE WrestleMania 24 in 2008.

The Elite defeat Team AEW at Double or Nothing Anarchy in the Arena match

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: JJ Williams

In a wild brawl, The Elite defeated Team AEW in the Anarchy in the Arena headliner of Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing.

The end came when Jack Perry hit a running knee strike on a bloodied Bryan Danielson, who had already been hit with a Kazuchika Okada Rainmaker and a Young Bucks’ EVP trigger, to get the pin and win.

Perry’s legs had been lit on fire earlier in the match by Allin’s flamethrower after Perry grabbed Tony Khan from the gorilla position and brought him out to the ramp.

The match started at just after midnight Eastern which is traditionally when AEW pay-per-views wrap up, lasting until 12:32 AM Eastern. The match featured a little bit of everything on a card that had already featured a barbed wire steel cage match in addition to an FTW rules match earlier on the show.

Some of the notable highlights and spots included:

  • Darby Allin, wearing a protective mask that also had tacks sticking out of it, hoisted up by a winch legs first, leaving him prone to a Bucks’ superkick to the face courtesy of their new Reebok Pumps with thumbtacks on the bottom. Allin remained upside down for minutes on end, leading to fans chanting “Please help Darby.”
  • Matthew Jackson hitting Dax Harwood with an exploding chair, followed by a superkick to Cash Wheeler. That led to a thumbtack-adorned sleeve put on by Okada who used it on Wheeler. Okada then pulled out a shoebox with the aforementioned Pumps with tacks on the bottom.
  • Danielson using one of the Pumps against both Bucks with Nicholas getting superkicked by Matthew accidentally, busting him open.
  • Allin and Perry brawling into the loading dock area earlier in the match where Allin dunked Perry in a tank full of water. As a play on Allin recently being hit by a bus, Perry later drove a small bus painted black with ‘Scapegoat’ on it through pallets and other junk with the announce team speculating he ran over Allin. The camera focused on the driver’s seat and that Perry had knocked himself out on the steering wheel.
  • After powerbombing Allin through a collection of chairs, the Bucks brought him up to their entrance and sent him down through the elevator-style hole they come up through.
  • Nicholas Jackson jumped off one of the entrances with a senton atomico through Wheeler who was on a table while Okada elbow-dropped Dax Harwood through a table off the stage.

Team AEW came out early during Perry’s intro to get things started. When Allin’s music began, the majority of the song played when Matthew Jackson requested they play their music instead. Danielson then requested they play the greatest song in the history of wrestling and Europe’s “The Final Countdown” began playing for several minutes until Jackson asked for it stop because it cost $200,000 every time it played. That led to fans to chant “we want music.”

This was the third Anarchy in the Arena match, dating back to 2022.

Mercedes Mone wins TBS title at Double or Nothing in AEW debut match

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Mercedes Mone is the new TBS Champion.

Mone defeated Willow Nightingale at Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view in Las Vegas in her in-ring debut for the promotion, winning the TBS Championship.

In her first match in over a year, Mone pinned Nightingale after hitting her Mone Maker finisher to capture the TBS title in her first AEW contest.

Earlier in the bout, Nightingale had Mone pinned after a doctor bomb, but Nightingale’s seconds Kris Statlander and Stokely Hathaway distracted the referee, buying Mone extra seconds to kick out.

The distraction from Statlander and Hathaway played into the post-match, as Hathaway berated Nightingale for losing the bout. Statlander shoved Hathaway down, then teased leaving with Nightingale. As Nightingale and Statlander made their way to the ramp, Statlander completed her turn on Nightingale by laying out the former TBS Champion with a discus lariat, then posing with Hathaway.

For Mone, the match marks her return to the ring after suffering a career-threatening ankle injury in an NJPW bout against Nightingale on May 21, 2023.

Mone made her first AEW appearance at Dynamite: Big Business in March, with the company announcing her signing and unveiling the free agent in her hometown of Boston.

Gangrel aids Adam Copeland in barbed wire cage match at AEW Double or Nothing

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: Bryan Rose

Just when TNT Champion Adam Copeland appeared to be down and out at Double or Nothing, former Brood-mate Gangrel made his AEW return Sunday to play a role in Copeland leaving Las Vegas with his title.

Malakai Black’s House of Black teammates Brody King and Buddy Matthews came out during Copeland and Black’s barbed wire cage match to help Black. As the three men had wrapped Copeland in barbed wire and were ready to finish him off, the lights went out and began to flicker red.

King went over to a spot in the ring and was sprayed by something which turned out to be Gangrel. He then emerged through the mat and sprayed Matthews in the face as well. He punched Black and then delivered Impaler DDTs to both Matthews and King to take them out, leaving a window open for Copeland to spear Black.

Gangrel has made two appearances in AEW before, once in Matt Hardy’s Elite Deletion match at 2020’s Full Gear and again on a May 2022 Rampage, accompanying the Young Bucks to the ring when they were in a feud with the Hardys.

Copeland came out to Slayer’s “South of Heaven” with a modified entrance, complete with a Brood graphic.

The match itself was a violent spectacle that involved chairs and tables in addition to the barbed wire. At one point, Copeland wrapped Black in barbed wire on a table and then went to the top of the cage, leaping off with an elbow drop. However, Copeland’s legs went straight down into the mat. While he was able to work the rest of the match, he was noticeably favoring his left leg walking out with Gangrel at the match’s end.

The finish of the match came when Copeland had a crossface on Black while his head was wrapped with barbed wire, causing the bloodied Black to pass out.

Copeland’s reign started in March with Sunday’s win as the sixth of his second run with the title.

Juice Robinson returns from injury at AEW Double or Nothing

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Juice Robinson has returned to All Elite Wrestling.

Robinson made his return during Sunday’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view in Las Vegas, aiding his Bang Bang Gang teammates in defeating Death Triangle in a match for the Unified World Trios Championships.

As Death Triangle’s PAC prepared to hit a Black Arrow to Jay White, Robinson returned to crotch PAC on the top rope, allowing White to hit a Blade Runner on PAC as The Bang Bang Gang retained their titles Sunday.

Robinson has been out of action since last November with what was reported at the time as a back injury that may require surgery. He was written out of storylines with an angle on the November 17, 2023 Rampage, with his last match taking place on November 1, 2023.

The Bang Bang Gang’s run as Unified Trios Champions continues after they joined the ROH Six-Man Tag Team and AEW Trios titles at last month’s Dynasty pay-per-view Zero Hour.

Our ongoing live coverage of Sunday’s AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view from Las Vegas, Nevada is here.

Will Ospreay wins International title at AEW Double or Nothing

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: JJ Williams

Just a few months after embarking on his first run on a full-time AEW contract, Will Ospreay can call himself a champion after winning the International title at Sunday’s Double or Nothing.

Ospreay defeated Roderick Strong in the main card opener, ending Strong’s 85-day run that began at March’s Revolution with his win over Orange Cassidy. Ospreay earned the shot with a win in a Casino gauntlet match in April.

Ospreay picked up the victory Sunday after countering an End of Heartache attempt by landing on his feet followed by a Hidden Blade and Storm Breaker for the pin and title. It’s his first title run anywhere since his IWGP U.S. title reign came to an end last November in NJPW.

As has been the case since April’s Dynasty, Ospreay was hesitant to use his Tiger Driver ’91, even with Don Callis doing everything in his power to get him to do it.

Strong had just one title defense in his near-three month run.

There was one scary spot early in the match where Ospreay landed on his head as Matt Taven & Mike Bennett hit a Doomsday Device on the outside of the ring. He was fine and able to continue in the match.