AEW Double or Nothing 2024 is coming up this Sunday, and you know what that means! Let’s run down everything you need to know about this weekend’s pay-per-view.
Who is scheduled for the card? How interesting does the show seem? What’s going to happen with all the matches?
Here is a full preview of AEW Double or Nothing 2024.
Date: Sunday, May 26, 2024
Start Time: 6:30 p.m. ET (Zero Hour pre-show), 8 p.m. ET (main show)
Location: MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
(as currently advertised; card is always subject to change)
Temperature Scale = Scorching > Hot > Lukewarm > Temperate > Chilly > Cold > Freezing
Heat Index is my assessment of how interesting the segment is, including how excited I am for the match and how intriguing the feud has been. The hotter, the better. Scorching translates to not being able to wait to see it, while Freezing means I couldn’t possibly care less and think it will be awful.
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Swerve Strickland wins.
Thoughts: I’m glad Swerve is champion, and I’m a big fan of Christian. But I’d be lying if I said this felt like a top-of-the-line “biggest show of the year” type match. Now, that’s not to say I’m crapping on it. Rather, I would DEFINITELY be booking Swerve against a solid challenger he can beat as his first defense. I very well could have decided on Christian myself if I were in Tony Khan’s shoes, even. But when it’s a foregone conclusion Strickland will retain and the feud’s been fine, but nothing amazing, I think Lukewarm is the best way to grade it. That’s just me, though. You might be Scorching, and that’s cool. I’m a big fan of The Mogul Embassy breaking away from Swerve ahead of this, by the way, as that puts him in an even more vulnerable spot. Thumbs up.
Heat Index = Scorching
Prediction: The Elite wins.
Thoughts: I hope I’m not wrong in this prediction, but I feel like this is just Phase One of a much bigger story. At the very least, this needs to go on to a Blood & Guts match down the line. But this should be some nWo versus WCW type stuff. I want to see title changes between the Elite and AEW sides. Let’s see more people brought into the fold. It’s weird that Eddie Kingston had to be replaced immediately in this story, and that filling in for him is the just-recently-injured-twice Darby Allin, of all people. But Allin is absolutely a Team AEW guy through and through, and we know that he’s going to selflessly ignore his body and do some wild stuff in this match. Naturally, I hope everyone stays safe, but this is always a dangerous match and that makes it one of the best each year. I’m SO down for the chaos we’re about to see.
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Mercedes Mone wins.
Thoughts: I’ve made no reservations in my opinion that Mercedes has been massively underwhelming since joining AEW. Frankly, I’m not even that surprised. I’ve always thought she was overrated on the mic (very good at times, but not an “all-time best ever” beating out Stone Cold on lists and such) and that her real positive was in the ring, which we haven’t seen yet. Finally, we will here, and I’m a fan of Willow, but I don’t have a lot of faith this is going to be some amazing Match of the Year candidate. There are extremely passionate fans who are going gaga over this and I’m one of those thinking more so that it’s a shame Willow has to drop her title so quickly, but maybe, it’ll all be worth it in the long run.
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Will Ospreay wins.
Thoughts: There’s no way this match doesn’t rock. Ospreay is arguably the best in-ring performer going right now. Strong has always been one of the best hands between the ropes. There’s no real story here worth getting gripped by, but sometimes, that’s okay. AEW does tend to lean on that “the match will be great, so shut up about the lack of story” trope too much, but I’m fine with it in this case. Ospreay definitely captures the title. This could be a MOTY candidate.
Heat Index = Cold
Prediction: Toni Storm wins.
Thoughts: There’s no way Deeb is winning this belt. That just means we’re back to the same cycle of me not really caring about this Storm reign that I’ve been talking about for what feels like 3 years now, dating back to the feuds before she started this gimmick. It all feels like I’m just watching reruns of something I didn’t even love the first 10 times around. At this point, I’m fully expecting I won’t be interested in the AEW Women’s World Championship scene until a new champion is crowned and fresh people are in the mix. Until then, copy and paste my usual “meh, moving on” type approach. The match will be fine. Nobody will lose sleep over it or gush over it a year from now.
Heat Index = Hot
Prediction: Adam Copeland wins.
Thoughts: When in doubt, throw some hardware in to spice something up. A barbed wire steel cage, you say? Cool. Count me in. I don’t think Copeland is dropping the title here, but I could be wrong. It would at least surprise me if Black were the one to win the belt next, as I expect him to leave AEW whenever his contract is up. In the meantime, this should just be a fun contest that is hopefully placed at an earlier point in the show so it doesn’t get positioned too close to Anarchy in the Arena. I’d probably put it on maybe fourth to break up the monotony of other normal singles bouts. This is going to be much better than what we could’ve gotten if these two had been feuding in WWE, that’s for sure.
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Jon Moxley wins.
Thoughts: I’m pretty much a total outsider when it comes to New Japan Pro Wrestling. The bits and pieces I see are few and far between, and I have no real insight into their booking strategies and historical track records. With that being prefaced, I know Moxley is set to defend the title against Evil coming up at Dominion. Therefore, they didn’t have much of a reason for him to put the belt on the line here. An Eliminator bout makes more sense, as if Moxley loses, Takeshita can get a shot either after Dominion on Dynamite or maybe at Forbidden Door. But wouldn’t it make even more sense for Mox to fight a New Japan or CMLL guy, rather than another AEW guy? I keep going back and forth on this. On Smark Out Moment, you’ll see I tend to lean toward Takeshita, but as of writing this more recent article, I’m going with Moxley, unless the plan is to take care of the Takeshita match on television to kill time before Forbidden Door. My guess is Takeshita isn’t winning the belt even if he wins this match here, and your next IWGP title-holder will be someone like Zack Sabre Jr. or just giving it back to Tetsuya Naito.
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Trent Beretta wins.
Thoughts: Cassidy beat Beretta in their previous match. Unless Tony Khan plans on just having OC win again and put this feud to bed, Trent pretty much has to win. Considering the Don Callis Family element of it, I’m more inclined to believe he’ll get involved and cost Orange the fight, leading to Beretta joining that faction to make up for Powerhouse Hobbs being out of action and Will Ospreay not really fitting that group anymore. This feud will continue mostly on Dynamite, but we could see a tag team match at Forbidden Door with Cassidy and blank against Trent and blank to incorporate some CMLL and New Japan talent.
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Chris Jericho wins.
Thoughts: On paper, this sounds like it could be a Hot for me. However, I do feel like it’ll be one of those things where it feels more like part 2 of a story that might not necessarily be Empire Strikes Back style, but more just “wait until the third part really ends this in a good way.” By that, I mean that I think Hook and Shibata will have their uneasy alliance tested, it’ll get in the way of either of them succeeding, and Jericho’s wisdom will triumph. He’ll retain by exploiting this and it’ll come back around to Hook or someone else needing one more chance in a singles bout to beat him. It still has a lot of potential, though.
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: The Bang Bang Gang retains.
Thoughts: Death Triangle is a great trio to challenge for these titles. It’s a shame there’s absolutely no chance they’ll win them. These belts were just unified. To go straight to new champion after that would be extremely shocking. But the match itself should be fun, even if it ends up being one of the more forgettable matches that falls into that category of “AEW has too many similar matches on too big of a pay-per-view and they can’t all stand out” that tends to happen for every event. I’m sure in a bubble, the segment will be great.
Heat Index = Hot
Thoughts: In typical fashion, I think that this is somewhat overloaded and I expect to hear more matches announced on top of all that. For my personal preferences, I’d rather see 2 shorter events with less jam-packed than to put it all in one shot. But to other people, the more, the better. Most of the fights set to happen here have a lot of potential, so I think it’ll be a usual great AEW event that I get a little tired of during it, but can objectively look back on and say nearly all of it delivered.
What do you think is going to happen at AEW Double or Nothing? Which matches are you most excited to see? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!