AEW Double Or Nothing 2026 Review

Before the addition of All In(nit)/Y’All In, Tony Khan is on record saying that he felt Double Or Nothing was the biggest pay-per-view event on the AEW calendar.

We already know what AEW presents on pay-per-view. There’s going to be a ton of in-ring action over the nine announced main card matches. There are five titles on the line tonight, plus a Stadium Stampede and three Owen Hart Cup quarterfinal matches.

If I have a concern, it’s the fact that tomorrow is Memorial Day in the United States. That means almost the entire country is off of school and work, and Tony Khan knows this… so I’m worried that it means we’ll be getting a 19-hour show, with no worries that fans need to go to bed early. The “normal” AEW pay-per-view would come to an end after midnight Eastern Standard Time, so let’s see when this one ends.

Louis Armstrong Stadium in Queens, New York is the host venue, and the place looks great on camera. WrestleTix is reporting that the show is completely sold out, with 14,292 fans in the building. This is not only one of the biggest live gates in AEW history, but is one of the largest live gates for a non-WWE show in the United States in wrestling history.

It’s time to do this. Let’s have some fun.

FTR vs Adam Copeland & Christian Cage – “I Quit” Match for the AEW Tag Team Titles (If Copeland and Cage lose, they can never team up again.)

No matter how many times I see it, it never stops being cool to witness these live crowds singing along to the entrance themes of people like Adam Copeland, Randy Orton, and so on. You can tell how much it means to the wrestlers, too, which is nice.

It’s no surprise that this crowd is red hot to start things off. They popped huge for the entrances of both Copeland and Cage, and they showered FTR with huge amounts of heel heat. All AEW pay-per-views start with red hot crowds, but the non-stop action wears them down eventually. Will this show be paced differently? Probably not.

A strand of barbed wire is wrapped around the middle rope, and Dax is sent crashing into it. Christian does his patented pose, where he stands on the back of his opponent. After Christian steps down, Copeland comes crashing in with a splash across Dax’s back. Dax isn’t bleeding, but there are definitely red marks across his chest.

Copeland lifts a ring apron to look for plunder beneath the ring, and a monitor is shown airing the match. Who is that for? The screen is pointed away from the center of the ring, and it’s covered by the ring apron, meaning nobody can see it at any point, so it’s not like someone is under the ring watching the monitor and waiting for their spot to interfere.

Christian takes a pair of pliers to Dax’s nose, trying to rip it off. He then takes the pliers and tries to remove Cash Wheeler’s testicles. For Dax’s sake, I guess it’s good that it wasn’t the other way around.

FTR with a Spike Piledriver to Copeland atop the Spanish announce table! Copeland was already bleeding after having a chair wrapped around his face and being sent into the ring post, but now his neck is a mess.

After Christian has his hand placed inside of a cinder block, which is then smashed repeatedly with a steel chair, he is asked if he quits. His response? “I… I… I banged your mother!” It gets a huge pop. Christian can’t stop being Christian, no matter the situation.

Big Stoke interferes by punching Copeland in the face, and his celebration gets interrupted by the return of Beth Copeland. Beth beats Stoke around for a few seconds before Dax sends her crashing into the ring steps. Welp. That was quick.

Dax gets a table set up at ringside and pours lighter fluid all over it. He sets the table on fire as Stoke holds Beth up on the apron for Cash to hit with a Spear. At the last second, Beth moves out of the way, and Cash Spears Stoke, sending both men crashing through the flaming table. It gets a “you deserve it” chant.

Dax is wrapped in a Sharpshooter by Christian while Copeland locks him in a Crossface at the same time. It isn’t enough, though, and Beth gets the spiked bat, Spike, and hands it to her husband. With Dax still locked in the Sharpshooter, Copeland drives the spikes into Dax’s forehead. No blood, and you could see the “spikes” shaking and wiggling, but it was still a cool visual. Dax quits! We have brand new AEW Tag Team Champions, and Beth is overcome with emotion at ringside, openly crying as she celebrates.

The match was a lot of fun. It wasn’t a classic or anything, and the lack of blood was very noticeable in a company that loves to have bloody battles as often as possible, but I was still entertained from start to finish, and so was the live crowd. 3.5 Stars

Kazuchika Okada vs Konosuke Takeshita – AEW International Title Match

The only other time these two have faced each other in singles competition was at World’s End five months ago, and I gave that match 4.25 Stars, even though it was hurt tremendously by Tony Khan’s fetish for making his Referees look as stupid as possible at all times. In my review for that one, I said that the match was put together in such a way that clearly had both men saving things for an inevitable rematch. Well… it’s time for that rematch. I have high, high hopes for this, even though Rick Knox is the Referee here, and he might be the dumbest of all the AEW striped shirts.

LOL @ the crowd chanting “fuck Don Callis” and causing Don to remove his headset at the announce table and hold his hands up in pure shock, even though he has received that chant at least once at every show he’s been at for months and months and months now.

LOL again @ Callis saying that all parents treat their kids differently and saying that all parents have a favorite child, before then saying that he doesn’t do that and loves all of his kids equally. What a guy.

These two are so evenly matched. It’s amazing to watch them work. The crowd is appreciative, too, giving them the first “this is awesome” chant of the night after both men are down following a mini-flurry of “Fighting Spirit” offense on each other.

After a Rainmaker on the ring apron and a DDT on the floor, Okada goes to lift Takeshita up and hit him with a Tombstone Piledriver on the floor. Callis jumps up from the announce table and pleads with Okada not to do it. He doesn’t want his “assets” to get injured. Okada eventually agrees, but it costs him, as Takeshita gets back and hits him with a Brainbuster on the floor. Callis, who just sat back down, immediately pops back up again and yells at Takeshita, who seems to be saying that he isn’t going to listen to Callis anymore, and the crowd is just dying to see Takeshita rock Don’s shit. It doesn’t happen yet, though.

Back and forth. Forth and back. These two are countering and reversing so much of each other’s offense.

As soon as I type that, Takeshita counters a Rainmaker with a Rainmaker of his own, but then Okada counters a Power Drive Knee with a dropkick, but Takeshita lands the PDK… for a one-count!

This seems to anger Takeshita, who gets Okada and hits him with Raging Fire for the pin and the win. We have a brand new International Champion after a beautiful match.

As Takeshita celebrates, Rocky Romero and Mark Davis get in the ring. It looks like we’re about to get a four-on-one attack of Takeshita, but the music of Kyle Fletcher interrupts things, and Fletcher makes his return to the company. Fletcher goes face-to-face with Okada before Callis backs the troops away. They all leave the ring as Fletcher hugs Takeshita… before dropping the new champion with a clothesline. We get a great close-up camera shot of the fallen Takeshita reaching for the man he thought was his friend. Don Callis is smiling as Fletcher lays Takeshita out with a Brain Buster and then hitting Takeshita in the face with the International Title belt. Looks like Takeshita vs Fletcher is going to be one of the key feuds moving forward. Works for me.

4.5 Stars

Mina Shirakawa vs Athena – Women’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

The RoH Women’s Title isn’t on the line here.

In the early moments here, the crowd is certainly not as animated as they were for the first hour of the show. Has the cooldown begun early? More than likely, it’s probably just because this match doesn’t carry anywhere near the amount of heat as the previous two matches did. This probably should’ve taken place on Dynamite or Collision, if we’re being honest.

Mina is spending too much time playing to the crowd. It has already cost her a couple times here, and we’re something like five minutes in. Not exactly Hall Of Fame strategy, especially over an opponent that has been the RoH Women’s Champion since December 2022 and someone who has already defeated Mina during her epic title reign.

O-Face gets the pin and the win for Athena, and nobody is surprised. The match wasn’t necessarily bad, but there wasn’t enough to it. Mina gets some offense, poses, loses the momentum to Athena… lather, rinse, repeat. It didn’t last long (if it went ten minutes, it was just barely so), and again, probably should’ve taken place on television instead of on pay-per-view. Athena moves on in the Owen Cup to face the winner of an upcoming match between Skye Blue and Sareee. 2.75 Stars

Jon Moxley vs Kyle O’Reilly – No Time Limit Match for the AEW Continental Title

Our first two title matches of the night saw new champions crowned. Will we go three-for-three? It would be considered a pretty decently sized upset if KOR wins the title here, but I don’t think you could call it “shocking” or anything like that.

Jim Ross joins the commentary team for this one. A few minutes in, and it seems like he doesn’t know who Kyle O’Reilly is. He keeps referring to Moxley by name, but he has had to call Kyle “kid” or “this kid” on multiple occasions, even to the point that Nigel McGuinness had to quickly say “Kyle O’Reilly” after one of the instances. Yikes. I’m sure the online discourse over that will be subtle and nuanced after JR recently revealed that his doctors are monitoring him for Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

Slow pace to this one so far, but not in a bad way. They’re combining some nice technical work with stiff strikes, trying to wear each other down. With the No Time Limit stipulation, the pacing makes you wonder if we’re going with a decent amount of time here.

There is steam visibly coming off of Moxley’s head, and it also looks like you can see KOR’s breath at times. They’re both on fire!

After a good amount of physicality, Mox gets KOR to tap out. In another moment that will get talked about online, Jim Ross declares that we have a new champion, even though it was Moxley retaining his title. Not the Hall Of Famer’s best match call.

Again, it was a very slow paced, physical battle with the expected outcome. O’Reilly looked really good in defeat, though. He’s still a lot better than many people give him credit for. 3.75 Stars

Will Ospreay vs Samoa Joe – Men’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

It’s rare to see first-time-ever matches these days, but that’s what we’re getting here. Not only have Ospreay and Joe never faced each other in singles competition before, but they’ve never faced each other in any sort of match before. The only time they’ve shared a ring was as teammates in a ten-man tag match at Grand Slam Mexico last June.

We’re starting this one off in the opposite fashion as Mox vs KOR, with Ospreay going a mile-a-minute in the opening moments.

Tons of physicality here. They’re hitting each other with some stiff shots like they’re looking for a BlueChew sponsorship.

Ospreay goes for an Oscutter, but Joe simply walks away, causing Ospreay to crash and burn on the mat. That spot never gets old. Never. It has been going on for multiple decades, and it still gets a pop, no matter who he does it to. He’s a heel going up against one of the most popular faces in the company, and the spot still got a big pop.

Not only did Ospreay just hit Joe with a Styles Clash, but he did it after holding Joe up for quite a long time while getting it fully set up. That was an impressive feat of power.

I love the back-and-forth here. Not just in offense, but in pacing, too. Ospreay wants to turn this into a sprint, but Joe is working hard to grind things to a halt.

Joe goes for a Muscle Buster, but Ospreay slips out and then hits back-to-back Hidden Blades to get the win. That was a really fun match. It was another match with a truly unsurprising outcome, but their journey to that obvious ending was entertaining as hell. 4 Stars. Joe can still “go,” and Ospreay is trying to prove he can still be the best wrestler alive after his serious neck injury. Ospreay will face the winner of an upcoming Jack Perry vs Mark Davis match in the semifinals of the Owen Cup.

Bandido vs Swerve Strickland – Men’s Owen Hart Cup Quarterfinal Match

We have ourselves another battle of wills in an attempt to control the pace. Swerve is really trying to slow things down and hurt Bandido, but Bandido is looking to fly all over the building.

I’m a little surprised that the crowd’s noise level has died down for this one. Yes, this is around the time on every AEW pay-per-view when the crowd tires themselves out, but I figured that the combination of competitors here would’ve brought out more of a reaction.

Bandido powers Swerve up on his shoulders, to the point that Swerve is literally standing up straight on him, and Swerve hits a House Call from this position. That looked incredible, and might be something we see on highlight reels for a while. Wow.

Speaking of things that look incredible, Bandido’s new version of the 21 Plex where his opponent is on their stomach on the mat makes an already badass move look even better. Good Lord.

Bandido looks to hit the normal 21 Plex, but Swerve counters it with a Vertebreaker and follows it up with a House Call to pick up the pin and the win. Another really fun match. Both men put in a lot of work here. 4 Stars. Swerve moves on to face the winner of Brody King vs Claudio Castagnoli, but that means we won’t be getting Bandido vs Brody with a spot in the Owen Cup Finals on the line, and that disappoints me a bit.

Thekla vs Jamie Hayter vs Hikaru Shida vs Kris Statlander – Four-Way Match for the AEW Women’s World Title

The current AEW Women’s World Champion defends her title against three former AEW Women’s World Champions.

Sure enough, the crowd is pretty quiet here. They picked up towards the end of the previous match, but they’re back to near silence here. Yet another AEW pay-per-view where the live crowd just wears themselves out after being so hyped up for anything over the span of a couple hours.

Stat and Hayter are using their size and strength advantages so far. Shida is using her speed advantage. Thekla is using her insanity advantage. Everybody wins. I like that they’re all getting to shine a bit.

Even though Stat and Shida have been teaming up recently, Shida still hit Stat with a knee, even though it could’ve been unintentional. Because wrestlers need to be idiots in matches like this, Stat is upset with Shida, asking how Shida could do this to her. Perhaps because she’s trying to become the Women’s World Champion? I don’t know… just a hunch.

Thekla takes advantage of the drama between Stat and Shida to get the pin and the win, retaining her title. Decent enough match, even if it was ultimately nothing too memorable. 3.25 Stars

Chris Jericho, Bobby Lashley, Shelton Benjamin, Kenny Omega, Jack Perry & The Young Bucks vs Ricochet, Toa Liona, Bishop Kaun, Andrade El Idolo, Mark Davis, Clark Connors & David Finlay – Stadium Stampede Match

There isn’t a chance in hell that I’ll be able to keep track of everything that happens here. These matches are impossible to follow 100% to begin with, but now, we’re getting a 14-man match instead of the usual ten-man. I feel sorry for you suckers that have to do play-by-play for this, and that goes for everyone from wrestling columnists to the likes of Excalibur.

Shoutout to Toa Liona, who is wearing the Nike Air Griffey Max 1 “Freshwater” sneakers, fitting the baseball theme for this match. Those are some of my favorite sneakers from back in the day.

Right at the start, things have already broken down. We’re already using quad camera shots with everything that is going on. Ricochet, Liona, and Kaun are all wrestling in full baseball uniforms. Omega, Perry, Lashley, and Shelton are wrestling in dress clothes like they’re all going out for steak dinners. Jericho is wrestling in full suit-and-tie attire. There’s a beach ball that has bounced into the ringside area from somewhere in the crowd. There’s so much going on.

Toa Liona just had Jack Perry, Nick Jackson, and Matt Jackson stacked up on his shoulders, and he marched around with them before sending them all crashing down with a Samoan Drop.

We’ve gone several minutes without the action leaving the ringside area. That might be a record for Stadium Stampede or Anarchy In The Arena matches.

With his wifebeater, camoflauge pants, and Timberland boots combination, David Finlay looks like he’s starring in “Honey, I Shrunk The Braun Strowman” out there.

Hey, we’ve made our way backstage with some action!

In a nice throwback, Lashley is met backstage by Lio Rush, who used to manage him at one point. The new Lio character creeps him out a bit, but Lio jumps on Toa Liona’s back. Cameras cut back to the ring where we see huge chunks of the crowd paying more attention to a beach ball floating around than the match itself.

LOL @ Andrade doing his spot where he poses for a selfie with planted women in the front row, only for Luchasaurus to appear out of nowhere in a blonde wig to try and join the picture.

There are AT LEAST 20 different people at all different parts of the arena wearing bright pink hoodies, reminiscent of what we see Darby Allin wearing. No matter what direction the cameras point, you can see bright pink in the crowd.

The backstage fight spills into catering, where Andrade accidentally hits Satnam Singh, who ends up with a face completely covered in food. The big man isn’t happy about it, and he calls for a food fight, causing a bunch of random AEW names to start throwing food all over the room.

Clark Connors is placed inside of a shopping cart, then has a trash can put over his head. He gets pushed down the ramp and ends up eating a Superkick for his troubles.

Backstage, Ricochet finds a tennis racket and hits Jericho with it. On commentary, Taz says he’s never seen a tennis racket used in wrestling before. Jim Cornette is going to have a fit. Luther appears out of nowhere with a comically large tennis racket and hands it to Jericho to use as a weapon.

We’re leaning a lot more into the comedy spots than real violence so far. It’s not like Stadium Stampede matches are known for being completely serious, but I was expecting more violence. For Pete’s sake, nobody is even bleeding yet!

Out in the parking lot, Mark Davis walks up to a golf cart before hearing a horn honking. He turns around to see Jack Perry’s school bus barreling at him. The bus crashes into the golf cart and a nearby car. We don’t see Davis, but commentary is implying that the bus either ran him over or crushed him up between the vehicles.

A minute or two later, with cameras focused on Shelton and Toa fighting, we see Mark Davis on the other side of the ring. Either he’s superhuman or he didn’t actually get murdered by Jack Perry just now.

Kaun saves Ricochet from an attack by the entire face squad, but he gets rewarded for his effort by taking a seven-way Superkick while on his knees, and then a Lionsault from Jericho. Jericho pins him to win the match for his team.

If you were looking for something bloody and violent, this wasn’t what you wanted. It was pure chaos from start-to-finish, but there’s no blood, and all of the weapons used were more along the lines of “regular” wrestling plunder. Lots of entertaining spots, whether they were comedic or not. It wasn’t something that everyone will enjoy, but I enjoyed it. 4 Stars

After the match, Jericho sets a table up at ringside and points to the sky. Paying tribute to the late Sabu, Jericho jumps off of the ring steps and puts himself through the table like Sabu used to do in celebration of some of his big victories.

Darby Allin vs MJF – Luchas de Apuestas Title vs Hair Match for the AEW World Title

Main event time.

Man… the combination of Darby’s very small stature and the size of the AEW World Title belt makes him look like a child carrying around his father’s replica title. The belt looks HUGE as he holds it.

The opening bell is heard at the 3:41 mark of the show, so unless this is going to be an all-time long match, we’re getting a relatively normal length pay-per-view.

The match almost ends in tragedy seconds in. Darby goes for a suicide dive to the outside, but the combination of him hitting the ropes and MJF swatting him out of the way causes Darby to come within a degree or two from landing directly on top of his head. That looked gnarly. Seriously, that was REALLY close to the end of the match and maybe the end of Darby Allin altogether.

Loud, dueling chants of “let’s go, Darby” and “M-J-F” right now. Darby has the advantage in crowd noise, but it’s probably 60-40 at this point.

Darby goes to stand on the ring post and hit a Coffin Drop on Max, who is on the ring apron, but Max moves and Darby splats hard. MJF then follows that up by hitting Darby with a Package Piledriver on top of the ring steps that were placed on their side. We’re only a handful of minutes in, but the damage that Darby has taken already is plentiful.

For someone who was Sting’s emo son for multiple years, you’d think Darby would’ve learned how to put the Scorpion Deathlock on better, but no, it looks like absolute dog shit when he does it. It certainly doesn’t help that he’s so small and struggles to physically wrap his opponents up and turn them over, either.

Darby goes for another suicide dive, but MJF pulls the cameraman in the way, and Darby comes crashing into my office on the shot. A replay from another camera shows that Darby didn’t connect with the cameraman at all, but he’s still selling it by being carried out by the medical team. What a trooper. Meanwhile, Darby took yet another large splat at ringside. Where’s his medical assistance?!?

Darby places MJF atop a table on the stage that was there to hold the clippers that would shave MJF’s head if he loses the match. He then climbs the scaffolding set, and the announcers say that he’s 20 feet in the air. He lands a Coffin Drop, but he also comes up bleeding heavily from the back of his head. They haven’t shown the replay yet, but Excalibur and Taz think he hit his head on the platform the table was on after landing the Coffin Drop. The entire back of Darby’s skull is covered in blood.

Darby goes for another Scorpion Deathlock, but he passes out while he’s holding the move. Referee Bryce Remsburg basically hits the pause button on the match and checks on Darby.

Darby gets up and eventually goes for another Coffin Drop, but MJF gets up and hits the ropes, crotching Darby on the top turnbuckle. MJF climbs up and lays Darby out with an Avalanche Tombstone Piledriver. He then does his headlock takeover, floating over for the pin, and we have a brand new AEW World Champion. MJF is a three-time World Champion, breaking a four-way tie in AEW history, and placing him just one reign behind Jon Moxley for the most reigns in the title’s history.

After the match, Darby is strapped to a stretcher, and MJF stands on top of him to celebrate. Kevin Knight runs out to make the save and chases MJF off. Knight climbs the turnbuckles to talk trash to MJF, who is standing on the stage. “Jet” then turns heel by jumping off the top and landing a UFO Splash on Darby in a booking decision that nobody asked for. MJF smiles and claps as the medical team checks on Darby. Okay then.

The match was pretty solid, but it wasn’t enough to reach “great” status. Too many sloppy spots from Darby… either by design to sell his body being worn down from his string of title defenses, or actual sloppy moments… prevented this from reaching that point. It was still an exciting match, though. 3.5 Stars. I am glad that Darby’s reign is over, though. It never should’ve happened in the first place, but hey, now he can say he’s a former World Champion.

Business has picked up again now that MJF has the title, though. Well, other than with the Kevin Knight and Darby Allin feud, which is… something. Didn’t Knight say that he wanted Darby to win so that he could get a World Title rematch? Does he think he’s just going to get an easy title shot against MJF now? This doesn’t make sense.

Overall, this was a really good show. It wasn’t the all-time classic that I’m seeing some people call it on Twitter (you tribalism dorks on both sides need to stop with your garbage hot takes that crown everything as super duper amazing), but it was definitely an entertaining show that presented a little bit of something for almost every type of wrestling fan.

Thank you for taking the time to read my work. I’ll be right back here tomorrow with my usual weekly column. Until then… be good to each other.