The event was originally scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. The venue, however, canceled all events up through May 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AEW moved the event to the Jacksonville Jaguars complex in Jacksonville, Florida, with most matches taking place at Daily's Place—an amphitheater adjacent to TIAA Bank Field—while the main event match took place in the stadium itself, subsequently being the first AEW event to take place in a stadium. It was also the first AEW PPV produced during the pandemic.
On February 5, 2020, AEW announced that Double or Nothing would be returning to the same venue on Saturday, May 23 of that year, establishing Double or Nothing as both an annual Memorial Day weekend event, as well as their marquee domestic event.[9][10] According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Double or Nothing sold around 6,000 tickets on its first day of sale.[11] Double or Nothing is considered as being one of AEW's "Big Four" PPVs, which includes All Out, Full Gear, and Revolution, their four biggest domestic shows produced quarterly.[12]
On May 22, the day before Double or Nothing, TNT aired a one-hour television special previewing the event called Countdown to Double or Nothing, averaging 344,000 viewers.[13][14][15]
Like all other professional wrestling promotions and sporting events in general, the event was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. On April 8, the MGM Grand Garden Arena announced that they had canceled all events up through May 31 due to the pandemic.[16]Nevada had been in a state of emergency since March 12, banning all public gatherings indefinitely. In response, AEW announced that Double or Nothing would still proceed as planned but from an undisclosed location, which was later revealed to be from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida, as well as the adjacent TIAA Bank Field stadium for the main event match. The announcement also confirmed that a third Double or Nothing event would emanate from the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 29, 2021. In addition to offering refunds, tickets purchased for 2020's show would be valid for the following year's event.[1] However, the 2021 event, which was pushed back a day to May 30, was also moved to Daily's Place due to the ongoing pandemic with all original tickets being refunded.[17][18]
The concept of the Stadium Stampede match was brought about because of the pandemic and it was pre-recorded as a cinematic match before the event's live broadcast. AEW wrestler Chris Jericho said that filming took nearly 12 hours to complete; filming began in the evening of May 22 and concluded early morning of May 23. Jericho said it was similar to filming a movie.[19]
On March 30, 2020, AEW announced a new title, the AEW TNT Championship, with the inaugural champion to be determined by an eight-man, single-elimination tournament. The tournament began on the April 8 episode of Dynamite with the final scheduled for Double or Nothing.[21] In the semifinals on the April 29 episode, Cody and Lance Archer defeated Darby Allin and Dustin Rhodes, respectively, setting up the inaugural championship match.[22] It was announced on the May 13 episode that former professional boxer Mike Tyson would present the championship to the winner.[23][24]
During the May 6 episode of Dynamite, a nine-man ladder match titled the Casino Ladder Match was scheduled for Double or Nothing with the winner receiving a future AEW World Championship match.[25] The rules of the match were revealed the following week. Two wrestlers begin the match and every 90 seconds, another participant enters. The winner is the one who retrieves the casino chip suspended above the ring; the match can be won before all participants have entered. Darby Allin, Colt Cabana, Orange Cassidy, Rey Fénix, Scorpio Sky, Kip Sabian, Frankie Kazarian, and Luchasaurus were confirmed for the match with the final participant to be announced during the match at Double or Nothing.[23] After Fénix suffered an injury on the May 20 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that Joey Janela would take his place.[26]
During the aforementioned women's four-way match, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. attacked Kris Statlander outside the ring and applied the Lockjaw on her, which allowed Hikaru Shida to score the pin over Penelope Ford. Despite the match being over, Baker continued to apply the submission on Statlander. Afterwards, a match between Baker and Statlander was scheduled for Double or Nothing.[23] Due to an injury Baker suffered on the May 20 episode of Dynamite, it was announced that Ford would face Statlander instead.[27][28]
On the May 20 episode of Dynamite, Shawn Spears, annoyed by not having a match for Double or Nothing, demanded a match against Dustin Rhodes. A match between the two was set for Double or Nothing.[29]
On The Buy In pre-show, a match was contested between Best Friends (Trent and Chuck Taylor) and Private Party (Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy), with the winners becoming the number one contenders for the AEW World Tag Team Championship. Best Friends performed "Strong Zero" on Quen to win the match.[30]
Preliminary matches
Brian Cage made his AEW debut at Double or Nothing as the mystery participant of the Casino Ladder Match, which he won
The event opened with a nine-man Casino Ladder Match between Colt Cabana, Darby Allin, Joey Janela, Frankie Kazarian, Kip Sabian, Orange Cassidy, Luchasaurus, Scorpio Sky, and a mystery competitor. The rules of the match were that two wrestlers would start the match and every two minutes, a new participant would enter the ring. The objective was to retrieve a giant poker chip hanging above the ring by ascending a ladder to win the match; the match could be won before all participants had entered. Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian started the match. Kip Sabian (accompanied by Penelope Ford and Jimmy Havoc) entered next. Darby Allin was the fourth entrant. Orange Cassidy was the next entrant. The sixth participant was Colt Cabana. Next, Joey Janela entered. The eighth entrant was Luchasaurus. The final participant was revealed to be Brian Cage (accompanied by Taz), making his AEW debut. Cage incapacitated everyone in the ring and later retrieved the poker chip, winning the match and earning a future AEW World Championship match.[30]
The second match was a singles match between MJF and Jungle Boy. MJF emerged victorious after pinning Jungle Boy with a roll-up while holding his tights, giving him extra leverage.[30]
Next, Cody (accompanied by Arn Anderson) and Lance Archer (accompanied by Jake Roberts) competed in the tournament final to crown the inaugural AEW TNT Champion. The winner would be presented the title belt by former boxer Mike Tyson. After interference, both Anderson and Roberts were ejected by the referee. In the end, Cody performed two cutters on Archer to win the match and championship. Afterwards, Tyson handed him the championship and celebrated his victory.[30]
Afterwards, Dustin Rhodes (accompanied by Brandi Rhodes) competed against Shawn Spears. Rhodes performed a "Final Reckoning" suplex on Spears for the victory.[30]
In the following match, Nyla Rose defended the AEW Women's World Championship against Hikaru Shida in a No Disqualification, No Countout match. Shida hit Rose with a kendo stick and then performed a running knee to win the match and championship.[30]
Main event
In the first of two main events, Jon Moxley defended the AEW World Championship against Mr. Brodie Lee. Late in the match, Moxley performed a "Paradigm Shift" through the stage. After they recovered, Moxley forced Lee to pass out to a chokehold, giving the win to Moxley by technical submission to retain the championship.[30]
Second main event
The post event was a Stadium Stampede match between The Elite (Adam Page, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) and "Broken" Matt Hardy and The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Santana and Ortiz). The match was contested from TIAA Bank Field. After fighting throughout the stadium, Omega performed a "One Winged Angel" electric chair driver on Guevara from the stadium seats onto a platform below to win the match for his team.[30]
Aftermath
During the post-event media scrum, AEW president Tony Khan announced that Brian Cage, the winner of the Casino Ladder Match, would receive his AEW World Championship match against Jon Moxley at Fyter Fest, a special episode of Dynamite.[31]
On the following episode of Dynamite, new TNT Champion Cody stated that he would be holding a weekly open challenge for the title. A battle royal was held that night to determine Cody's first challenger for the following week, which was won by Jungle Boy.[32] Cody defeated Jungle Boy to retain the championship on the following week's episode of Dynamite.[33]
Reception
Double or Nothing received generally positive reviews. Jason Powell of Pro Wrestling Dot Net called it a "fun empty venue show", with particular praise being given to the Stadium Stampede match.[30]CBSSports.com's Brent Brookhouse stated that AEW had "delivered a show that was entertaining top-to-bottom", with the main event being "one of the wildest matches of the year". He gave the Stadium Stampede match an "A−" grade, while the AEW World Championship and AEW Women's World Championship matches both received a "B" grade, and the inaugural AEW TNT Championship match was assigned a "C" grade.[34]
For Slam! Sports, a subsection of Canadian Online Explorer, Nick Tylwalk wrote that the Stadium Stampede main event took "entertainment to a new level" and rated the event an overall score 8 out of 10, with the main event match itself receiving 10 out of 10. The Moxley-Lee match was given 9 out of 10, the Rose-Shida match was designated an 8 out of 10 and the Cody-Archer match was allocated a 6 out of 10.[35]
Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated also liked the event and described the Stadium Stampede match as "uniquely distinct" and "unlike anything ever before on display in wrestling." Barrasso also commented that it was "awfully quick" for Lance Archer to lose to Cody due to being "new to [the] company". Despite this, "even in defeat, Archer looked tremendous, presenting himself as a monster". Barrasso's other takeaways from the event were that Hikura Shida "showed off further dimensions of her wrestling ability" during "her breakout performance" against Nyla Rose and MJF-Jungle Boy was "laid out well", with praise given to both competitors' performances.[36]
The first half of the TNT Championship Tournament bracket was announced on the March 31, 2020, episode of Dark,[43] with the second half revealed on the following night's Dynamite.[44] The tournament began on the April 8 episode of Dynamite and concluded at Double or Nothing on May 23.[45]
^The event was held without a paying audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, though a few AEW wrestlers and staff members appeared in the crowd.
