"Despite occupying the same promotion for many different years, this will only be the second PPV match where Chris Jericho faces Matt Hardy (Royal Rumbles excluded)..."
May 23, 2020
With a hindered build-up due to travel restrictions, diminished availability of talents, and general uncertainty, AEW Double or Nothing has shaped enough rather well under the circumstances. Three title matches, a stadium-wide cluster-eff, a ladder scrum, and a few other grudge matches are scheduled for what will be AEW's first-ever pay-per-view of the "pandemic" era, and the third overall among the modern-day Big Two.
In all, nine matches are scheduled for Double or Nothing, with Jon Moxley defending the AEW World title against Brodie Lee, The Elite partnering with Matt Hardy to battle Chris Jericho's Inner Circle inside an empty TIAA Bank Field, and Cody Rhodes vying to become the first-ever AEW TNT champion, battling Lance Archer in a tournament final. It's hard to gauge what's to be made of this event, though to be fair, we said the same thing a year ago as well. But that was for a brand new entity, and not an established brand holding a PPV without a standard crowd.
In any event, the second-annual AEW Double or Nothing has a chance to be memorable. Ahead of the broadcast, here are a few interesting stats and tidbits to know.
With a hindered build-up due to travel restrictions, diminished availability of talents, and general uncertainty, AEW Double or Nothing has shaped enough rather well under the circumstances. Three title matches, a stadium-wide cluster-eff, a ladder scrum, and a few other grudge matches are scheduled for what will be AEW's first-ever pay-per-view of the "pandemic" era, and the third overall among the modern-day Big Two.
In all, nine matches are scheduled for Double or Nothing, with Jon Moxley defending the AEW World title against Brodie Lee, The Elite partnering with Matt Hardy to battle Chris Jericho's Inner Circle inside an empty TIAA Bank Field, and Cody Rhodes vying to become the first-ever AEW TNT champion, battling Lance Archer in a tournament final. It's hard to gauge what's to be made of this event, though to be fair, we said the same thing a year ago as well. But that was for a brand new entity, and not an established brand holding a PPV without a standard crowd.
In any event, the second-annual AEW Double or Nothing has a chance to be memorable. Ahead of the broadcast, here are a few interesting stats and tidbits to know.
As it currently stands, 35 individuals are scheduled to wrestle at Double or Nothing. Excluding the Casino Ladder Match mystery entrant (and assuming Britt Baker is still wrestling), that's 34 known individuals taking part in some kind of match on Saturday.
Of those 34, a whopping 25 of them wrestled at last year's Double or Nothing. The exceptions: Jon Moxley (debuted at the end), then-WWE talents Matt Hardy and Brodie Lee, then-IMPACT'ers Santana and Ortiz, plus Jake Hager, Colt Cabana, Kris Statlander, and Darby Allin.
Lance Archer has been presented as unstoppable since entering AEW, undefeated so far as he competes with Cody Rhodes to become the first AEW TNT champion. After long stints with New Japan over the past decade, an American promotion's finally doing right by the "Murderhawk Monster".
In fact, this will mark Archer's first match on pay-per-view for an American-based promotion since December 2008, when he competed in a multi-man "Feast or Fired" match at TNA Final Resolution. Archer never even had an official PPV bout during his brief WWE stint in 2009-10.
Love the role or hate it, the former Luke Harper is finally something other than a follower. Brodie Lee challenges for the AEW World Heavyweight title against Jon Moxley, a match that, in itself, ends a curious three-year streak for "The Exalted One".
The title bout marks Brodie Lee's first pay-per-view singles match since May 21, 2017, when he wrestled on-off again partner Erick Rowan at that year's Backlash. Since then, it was a bludgeoning-we-will-go for Brodie, until he set his GPS for Jacksonville.
We've seen Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Harper before - not just in the "speeding car" match in 2015, but in the various encounters between The Shield and The Wyatt Family. In particular, their heralded clash at the 2014 Elimination Chamber captured fans' imaginations.
The Jon Moxley vs. Brodie Lee match caps off an interesting eight-month run, actually. At the 2019 Clash of Champions, Roman Reigns faced Erick Rowan. At Hell in a Cell and Crown Jewel, it was Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt. Now we get Ambrose vs. Harper. Coincidence?
The "Stadium Stampede" has potential to be absolutely insane, with many months of Inner Circle and Elite tensions finally coming to a head. What's equally insane is how this is actually a rare pay-per-view match that pits Chris Jericho against Matt Hardy.
Despite occupying the same promotion for many different years, this will only be the second PPV match where Jericho faces Hardy (Royal Rumbles excluded). The first was a Tag Team Turmoil match at Judgment Day 2001, one that the two didn't even square off with each other in.
