Double or Nothing.
It seems like just yesterday that All Elite Wrestling was officially unveiled to the world, changing professional wrestling forever with a series of ripple effects that saw true competition return to the industry, a new generation of stars rise to prominence and international implications that continue to shock and awe the world over.
This Sunday, AEW returns to where it all began, Sin City for the 2023 presentation of Double or Nothing, which will be available for international FITE fans across the globe. Some of the most important fights in AEW history will emanate from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, potentially changing not just the lives of AEW's competitors but the entire fabric of All Elite Wrestling itself.
Chief among the main event attractions is the AEW World Heavyweight Championship battle as the four pillars of AEW, men who have stood tall as they battled their way from the undercard of All Elite Wrestling's earliest events, rising to become synonymous with the greatness FITE fans have come to expect from a promotion that truly rages against the machine.
AEW World Champion MJF has the most to lose this Sunday. Having reigned over AEW during the most tumultuous time period of its existence, Maxwell Jacob Friedman has molded the World Championship scene into his own image, turning back challengers over and over in the most controversial ways possible. This Sunday, he faces his past in multiple ways. In Sammy Guevara, MJF comes face to face with his former associate in The Inner Circle. In Jungle Boy, MJF once again goes toe to toe with one of his most celebrated foes in AEW. In Darby Allin, MJF finds himself against his direct opposite - someone who has fought and willed his way to the top of AEW, but unlike MJF, has endeared himself to fans all over the world.
This clash very much represents the spirit of why AEW was founded to begin with - it is the story of four with boundless talents who have blazed their own unique path in professional wrestling, empowered by AEW. Inspired by the creative freedom and fighting spirit that pervades the promotion, MJF's scheming, Darby Allin's risk-taking, Sammy Guevara's arrogance and Jungle Boy's valorous skills are all tethered together by one major factor - their drive to be the best professional wrestler in the world. This Sunday, all their paths converge in one squared circle for the ultimate AEW dream battle. Only one man will rise from the chaos as the World Heavyweight Champion - leading the AEW battalion into Toronto for Forbidden Door, London for All In and beyond!
Of course, this being Las Vegas, perhaps Chris Jericho is taking the biggest gamble of all, entering into an Unsanctioned Match against a furious Adam Cole. Since Cole has returned to action in AEW, Jericho has made it his personal mission to try and make the lives of both Cole and Dr. Britt Baker miserable. This led to Roderick Strong's arrival in AEW and a recent Falls Count Anywhere war on Dynamite saw AEW+ subscribers witness one of Jericho's biggest losses to date.
Undaunted, Jericho is seeking revenge and an attempt to take Cole out once and for all. With every weapon and every form of combat legal, Cole and Jericho will go to war and take their rivalry to the extreme. Sin City may have never been more aptly named as after this Sunday, it will be forever intertwined with what is surely going to be an emotionally charged, bloody, chaotic brawl that will encapsulate the sheer hatred that binds these two generational competitors.
AEW World Tag Team Champions FTR will take to the ring to once again prove their supremacy when they battle former World Champions Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal, who will be led to the ring by the incomparable Sonjay Dutt. Jarrett and Lethal have schemed their way into outsmarting and assaulting Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler for weeks, igniting their ire as the champions want to avenge themselves and humiliate the challengers at the same time. Mark Briscoe, one of the greatest tag team competitors of this era, will serve as the special guest referee, but can he keep the chaos at bay with these angry competitors facing off, plus the likes of Dutt, Karen Jarrett and Satnum Singh at ringside? FITE fans across the globe will witness one of the most insane tag team events in AEW history this Sunday!
In recent months, the AEW Women's division has been engulfed by the war between AEW Originals and the Outcasts. This Sunday at Double or Nothing live on FITE internationally, it all comes to a head as former friends turned hated enemies once again face off with the Women's World Championship hanging in the balance. Toni Storm has morphed into one of the most wretched personalities in AEW, spitting in the face of all that is holy alongside Ruby Soho and Paige. She seeks to regain the Championship this Sunday from Jamie Hayter, who has fought tooth and nail to make her way across the globe and rise into prominence as the World Champion. In doing so, Hayter earned the respect and admiration of FITE fans across the globe for doing things her way and never compromising. Storm, green with envy, quickly showed her true colors within and has been obsessed since with tearing down the walls of AEW. This Sunday, the championship and everything that every women's competitor in AEW has fought to build and preserve stands on the precipice of disaster - and only a Hayter can rescue it. FITE International fans will see a tremendous battle for the very soul of the Women's division escalate and explode before their very eyes this Sunday evening.
If there are two factions who represent the duality of what it means to be a proud AEW competitor, it is The Elite and The Blackpool Combat Club. One faction helped give birth to the movement that brought AEW into existence. The other helped cement the fighting spirit in Ring of Honor and beyond that helped set the stage for The Elite to exist.
From the very beginning of AEW, these sides were at odds. It was Jon Moxley who attacked Kenny Omega at the end of the first Double or Nothing event in Las Vegas. That act of blasphemy was never forgotten and in recent months, the bad blood once again boiled over like an exploding volcano, giving way to the ultimate AEW Showdown - Anarchy in the Arena!
This Sunday, with Hangman Adam Page once again united alongside Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, they charge into an unrelenting, violent battle against Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Ring of Honor World Champion Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta, seeking to prove their supremacy as the most powerful collection of combatants in AEW history. This out of control battle in the past has included everything from barbed wire to gas cans to tables and chairs and beyond with only one rule - victory by any means possible. This Sunday for FITE international fans, a line will be drawn in the sand and the losers may indeed be buried in the Las Vegas desert.
Equally insane, but on a much different level, will be AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy pressing his luck and hoping for no Whammies as he rolls the dice and enters the Blackjack Battle Royal, a 21-competitor affair that will see Cassidy place his Championship on the line. With the odds certainly stacked against the champion, Cassidy may have engineered his own demise as champion - or has he become the architect of his greatest victory? We will all see what the fates unveil for Cassidy and the other Blackjack Battle Royal competitors as they all seek a true championship victory when the final competitor is eliminated.
AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill seeks to end the intrusion of internationally renowned star Taya Valkyrie this Sunday at Double or Nothing as well. The thus-far undefeated Cargill has racked up countless victories with Jaded, only to see Valkyrie shock the world with her AEW arrival, using her own version of the move, Road to Valhalla, to mount her own impressive series of wins. No matter how hard Jade's attorney Smart Mark Sterling has attempted to ward off Taya legally, the Valkyrie has risen like a phoenix and now the two superstars will face off to determine who is the true queen of the ring for all of TBS and beyond before FITE international fans across the globe.
Wardlow is enjoying his latest reign as the TNT Champion but will enter a truly dangerous playground in Las Vegas this Sunday at Double or Nothing. Since regaining the championship from Powerhouse Hobbs, Wardlow has been under fire at the hands of the legendary Christian Cage and his Luchasaurus. Cage, seeking his first AEW Championship, has challenged Wardlow to a ladder match, a realm that Cage is not only familiar with, but one that he helped perfect and revolutionize during professional wrestling's insane Monday Night War era in the late 1990s. If there is a master of disaster for professional wrestling, it is Cage. It will take all of Wardlow's sheer power and youthful exuberance to overcome the veteran master of mayhem.
AEW Double or Nothing 2023 this Sunday will also feature the return of Matt and Jeff Hardy teaming on a milestone AEW event as they and Isaiah Kassidy take on the challenge of The Gunns and Ethan Page. After months of being trapped in servitude to Page, Matt Hardy seeks vengeance. Should his team emerge victorious, he will now control Page's contract as he deems fit. This six man tag team battle will see all of the anguish and heartache that has infiltrated The Hardys' lives over the last year burst out, perhaps at the expense of not just Page but the Gunns themselves.
AEW Double or Nothing has long been a celebration of everything great about AEW and what it brings to professional wrestling, but this year, it looks to be an emotional powder keg with a timer set to explode in ways that are impossible to truly predict. As AEW Collision comes ever closer to existence, AEW Dynamite continues to change the landscape of professional wrestling television and endless major events are set as tentpole moments across this summer and fall, Double or Nothing promises one thing:
This will be the moment where FITE fans can trace the insanity of 2023 and beyond back to. The battles, the victories, the losses, the championship reigns and the insane roller coaster ride that comes with them, emotionally and spiritually, commences with Double or Nothing this Sunday, live exclusively for FITE international fans.
Place your bets now.
Mike Johnson is the lead reporter for PWInsider.com and has been writing about professional wrestling since 1996. He can be found on Twitter @MikePWInsider and MikeJohnsonWrites.com.
