6 Positive statements from AEW’s Double or Nothing

It all started when wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer doubted that wrestling promotion, Ring of Honor, could hold an event with over 10,000 fans watching at once.

This led to a one-off independent pay-per-view ‘All In’, led by Cody Rhodes and real life brothers, Nick and Matt Jackson, also known as The Young Bucks.

Whilst there were many great matches on the pay-per-view, the bigger success came from the fact that a wrestling promotion outside of the WWE could generate such a huge live audience.

From this one pay-per-view, it led to the same people create a new wrestling promotion, All Elite Wrestling, with the backing of billionaire Shahid Khan and his son Tony Khan.

In their short history, they’ve gone from strength to strength recruiting the likes of Chris Jericho, the Lucha Brothers, and Kenny Omega.

However, four months in and even though there was excitement and rumours about the promotion having a weekly show that could contend with the WWE, there was nothing officially confirmed to the rest of the world.

Nevertheless, a few weeks before AEW’s inaugural pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, the television deal was announced and everything has changed.

Double or Nothing was one of the biggest talking points in wrestling this year but it needed to deliver on the night to make a strong statement that AEW is here to stay.

Not only did they deliver on the night, but they made some positive statements that means the new promotion could genuinely contend with the WWE.

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#6 Accepting wrestlers and championships from different wrestling promotions

The Young Bucks defended the AAA World Tag Team Championships at Double or Nothing.

Even though the WWE United Kingdom Championship has been defended outside of a WWE ring before, (as Mark Andrews fought Tyler Bate back in January 2017 on an episode of ‘Progress Wrestling’), the fact remains that due to the plethora of active Championships in the WWE, with the 24/7 title having just been added, the United Kingdom Championship is considered one of the less desired titles.

A large part of this is that, outside of NXT UK shows, it is not often seen represented or defended elsewhere in the WWE.

In stark contrast, at AEW’s inaugural pay-per-view, Double or Nothing, not only did it feature wrestlers who still have contracts with other wrestling promotions, but also featured Championships too.

In the penultimate match of the night, The Young Bucks successfully defended their AAA World Tag Team Championships against the Lucha Brothers, Pentagon Jr and Fenix, who are currently contracted to a number of other promotions, including Impact Wrestling.

This is a positive step is for two reasons. Firstly, it shows that wrestlers have more flexibility joining AEW without having to permanently leave their current promotion as there were other wrestlers on the pay-per-view who still wrestled for other wrestling promotions.

The second positive behind this particular match was that AEW had no qualms recognising other wrestling companies by promoting one of their Championships.

This means that if AEW has advertised other promotions, then a favour can easily be returned if AEW are looking to borrow a few wrestlers for a short period of time.

#5 A completely different audience

AEW will be targeting a slightly older audience.

It is no secret that over the past ten years WWE programming has moved to a PG rating with the intention of appealing to both the younger and older fans.

Whilst a clear argument can be made a PG-rated show is bringing in the biggest audience possible, it could actually be detrimental to WWE’s viewing figures. This is purely based on the fact that WWE could be sacrificing its more established fans for the sake of pulling in the younger audience.

Whilst the pay-per-views on the WWE possibly require a higher age rating, the reality remains that the WWE Superstars and creative team are not as edgy as they were back then, and would almost be impossible to see half of the stuff that was allowed during the Attitude era.

At Double or Nothing, AEW clearly showed the world that when they said the rating was TV-14, they meant it.

Some of the non-PG things that happened on the night included Joey Janela having a lit cigarette placed on his forehead, Tommy Dreamer getting stapled in the head with a staple gun, and Chris Jericho sticking up his middle finger to the audience.

Nothing of this calibre would be seen in the WWE of today and is a siren song for a new audience who are looking for that little bit more when tuning in to wrestling.

#4 Good storytelling can lead to lower card wrestlers being the talking point

A very emotional match done through good storytelling.

When Cody announced he would be fighting at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view with a mystery opponent, there were a number of endless possibilities as to who it would be.

However, when it was confirmed he would fight his brother, Dustin Rhodes (aka Goldust), it was somewhat of an underwhelming reveal to wrestling fans all over the world.

This wasn’t because Dustin Rhodes isn’t an accomplished wrestler, as three WWE Intercontinental Championship reigns and three WWE Tag Team Championship reigns show.

It was due to the fact that he hadn’t accomplished much lately, with his last Championship coming back in 2013 (coincidentally a Tag Team Championship with Cody), and his last pay-per-view in a singles match being back in 2010.

It seemed evident that Dustin Rhodes career was slowly coming to an end, so this match, on the surface, seemed pointless.

However, even though the 50-year-old veteran may not have been as quick as he once was, a very commendable performance with blood continually streaming from his head for most of the match led to the very emotional conclusion that Cody didn't want his brother to retire but instead wanted his tag team partner back.

This match showed that a Championship doesn’t need to be on the line to generate a good storyline.

Even though the storyline building up to this match was somewhat contrived, the match showed that no matter what stage a wrestler’s career may be at, they can still be the biggest talking point of the night (even if they didn’t win).

This is a refreshing change from the WWE, where the biggest storylines seem to continually focus on the same wrestlers.

More to the point, if a lower card wrestler who had no real relevance in wrestling for several years becomes a talking point, this could easily lead to other underutilised wrestlers in other companies wanting to potentially join AEW.

#3 A diverse representation of wrestlers

Nyla Rose made history at AEW.

If AEW proved one thing hosting Double or Nothing, it was that they have a diverse range of wrestlers representing all walks of life.

Dustin Thomas, an amputee wrestler, competed in the Casino Battle Royale, and delivered a 619 to Joey Janela before eliminating Shawn Spears (formerly Tye Dillinger from WWE) from the match.

Even though the WWE had Zach Gowen back in 2003, his short tenure consisted primarily of him getting continually humiliated, including being asked to join Vince McMahon’s ‘Kiss My Ass Club’.

Asides from Thomas representing what people with disabilities are capable of, Nyla Rose also made history by becoming the first transgender woman to sign for a major wrestling promotion.

The match was originally scheduled as a triple threat match with Britt Baker and Kylie Rae, before Brandi Rhodes added Awesome Kong to the match.

Even though Nyla Rose never won the match, the fact that she had the opportunity to become part of the event is a victory in itself.

If AEW continues to positively promote a diverse representation of wrestlers then it proves that the brand can be for anyone and everyone, meaning from a logical perspective, it could easily attract a bigger fan base.

#2 Signing of Jon Moxley

AEW made a huge signing with Jon Moxley.

When Chris Jericho announced to the world that he will be joining AEW at the start of this year, the immediate question was which other global superstars could potentially join a brand new wrestling promotion?

A month later, Kenny Omega, largely considered one of the best wrestlers in the world at this moment, joined his fellow Bullet Club members by also becoming an Executive Vice President.

As the roster continued to grow in the upcoming months with established superstars, there was nothing to show that any current WWE wrestlers were willing to make the jump to AEW. This all changed at Double or Nothing.

Whilst it was no secret that Jon Moxley (aka Dean Ambrose in the WWE) wouldn’t be re-signing with the WWE after WrestleMania 35, there was no confirmation of where he was going to go.

If you take into account that Moxley was also starring in the upcoming film, Cagefighter, the chances of Moxley joining AEW when he did looked improbable. So when he did show up at the end of a match between Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega, it was significantly more special.

Unlike Pac (formerly Neville from WWE), Shawn Spears (Tye Dillinger), and Dustin Rhodes (Goldust), Moxley was a Triple Crown Champion in the WWE, capturing the WWE Championship back in June 2016, and holding the Intercontinental Championship as recent as this January.

If big global superstars like Moxley are willing to not re-sign with the biggest wrestling company in the world so that they can join a rival company, it can potentially cause a domino effect for other unhappy wrestlers that may believe the grass could be greener on the other side.

#1 An anti-authoritarian wrestler

Moxley has all the attributes to being an anti-authoritarian figure for the company.

One of the primary reasons that the WWE’s Attitude Era is arguably the best era the WWE has ever had is primarily due to having so many anti-authoritarian wrestlers notably The Rock, D-Generation X, and most importantly, Stone Cold Steve Austin.

It was evident throughout his ongoing feud with Vince McMahon that this was a representation of an employee who was unhappy with their bosses and seeking vengeance however they can.

Some of Stone Cold’s key highlights include attacking Vince in a hospital with a bedpan, pouring cement in his convertible and giving the Chairman and others a beer bath with a hose.

In today’s PG-era WWE, a wrestler like that simply wouldn’t be allowed to do such outlandish things on a weekly basis.

Whilst there have been some wrestlers who are currently defying authority such as Roman Reigns gate-crashing Raw before the Wildcard rule was put into place and The Miz attacking Shane McMahon (due to what happened with The Miz’s father), it’s still considerably tamer than what the WWE Universe has seen in the past.

However, throughout the PG-Era, one of the few people that have managed to successfully portray themselves as anti-authoritarian was The Shield, who ended up feuding with another stable called ‘The Authority’. One of these three members that were in The Shield has now found his way to AEW.

Moxley’s debut consisted of gate-crashing AEW, attacking a referee, Chris Jericho and then throwing Kenny Omega off a set all in the space of five minutes.

With a TV-14 rating for AEW combined with the unpredictability of Jon Moxley’s persona, there is a lot of potential excitement for wrestling fans that anything could happen in the future.