This weekend’s Double or Nothing event is more than just another event for AEW. The promotion will be celebrating their five year anniversary at the place that started it all for them back in 2019.
Just as it will be for this weekend’s show, the MGM Grand Garden Arena played host to AEW’s first major event. It was an event that changed the landscape of professional wrestling as AEW quickly became a status quo disruptor and an alternative for many fans.
During today’s Double or Nothing media call AEW head honcho Tony Khan explained to Slam Wrestling why this weekend and the anniversary means so much to him and everyone at AEW.
“It’s crazy to think back to five years ago! When we finished the event it was such a great feeling because we knew we were starting something special in wrestling!…We’ve come so far and done so many great things! When we had the original Double or Nothing I had a dream and I think all of us had a dream that someday we would run a major stadium event and build it up. We did that! I’m really proud of that and what we were able to accomplish!” Khan told Slam Wrestling.
The main event of the first Double or Nothing back in 2019 was Kenny Omega versus Chris Jericho. Courtesy: AEW.
Khan is amazed at the success AEW has had in just five year’s time.
“I think that we’ll continue to do great things! We’ve set a lot of milestones in pro wrestling for a company that didn’t even exist five years ago. It has been an amazing run! We’ve expanded our partnerships all over the world, the shows are on in over 150 countries now!…We’ve successfully expanded the event calendar now this year where we’ve got nine events on the calendar after producing eight last year. I think it’s really, really amazing what we’ve done over these five years!” he said.
Khan also delved into some other subjects and issues during the call:
Mark Henry’s contract status: “I really like Mark. We have to look at that internally I think as far as the contract dates but I think Mark’s a great person. I really personally like him. He’s a great media personality as well as being a great wrestler and a great philanthropist. I have a ton of respect for Mark. He’s been great for AEW and I have a lot of respect for him in and out of the ring.”
Serena Deeb’s comeback: “It’s a really, really inspirational story to see Serena return to the ring. She went through challenges outside of the ring that she’s talked about. She had some medical obstacles to get through to make her return to get this match with Toni Storm. I think it’s amazing what Serena has achieved and it is going to be a great Women’s World Championship match when she takes on Toni Storm this Sunday at Double or Nothing.”
Serena Deeb at The Big Event fan fest on Saturday, March 16, 2024, at the Suffolk Credit Union Arena in Brentwood, NY. Photo by George Tahinos, Slam Wrestling. https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
“Serena has been involved in some of the very best matches in AEW. I expect that this will be another great match. Tony Storm is a great champion and they have very different styles of fighting…I have a ton of respect for both wrestlers. I think Tony Storm’s a great champion and Serena Deeb is a great challenger. She (Serena) has been through a lot to get to this point in her career. She’s an inspiration to a lot of people.”
Mercedes Mone’s first AEW match: “Mercedes Monet is one of the biggest stars of all time. She’s been a great champion all over the world. I think she very deserving of an opportunity to come in to AEW and challenge for this championship. Willow Nightingale is a fighting champion…She’s going to be now taking on one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. There’s a lot of history between Willow and Mercedes…It has been one year since their prior match and one year since Mercedes has stepped into a wrestling ring. Mone is one of the biggest names, one of the most charismatic stars and one of the most recognizable faces in the sport. This match is an important chapter…I can see a lot of chemistry between the two. I believe that this match is really important to both of them.”
On becoming a character on AEW television: “I’ve really tried to limit the amount of appearances that I personally have made over the past five years…It’s really important to me that the focus of the show is on the wrestlers and the wrestling. I think even when there’s a story, like the struggle for control of the company and the power in the office, I think it’s still important to feature it in the context of the wrestling show and with the wrestlers. So, even in the thing last night I think I appeared at most two seconds on show and that’s how it should be. You don’t need to see a ton of me. It should be about the wrestlers.”
Swerve Strickland defending the AEW World Championship against Christian at Double or Nothing: “Christian Cage is one of the best signings we’ve ever made in AEW. All the hype around the signing was very justified because he’s one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. He’s done the best work of his career in AEW. Now he’s challenging Swerve Strickland for that AEW World Championship. It’s a huge match! It is Swerve’s first ever defence on a pay-per-view and it may be his only defence because the man he is wrestling is one of the all-time greats. I think it’s a really interesting match and the rivalry that they’ve built up on television has been captivating. They had history going back to last year, they were partners at Wembley Stadium and their partnership was ill-fated…I think that rivalry has heated up and just gotten personal…Cage loves bringing people’s families into these situations and playing those mind games and Swerve Strickland is also a master of the mind games. I really, really have so much respect for both those men.”
What he has learned about himself and the wrestling industry in five years: “I think we all learn every day. I think there’s been a lot of great opportunities and moments. There are countless things that if I could have the ability to go back and change times, I would do and not only in AEW, but in football and in life. There are so many things where I look back and feel like if any of us had the ability to reverse time we could do everything. It’s a corny expression but hindsight is 20-20. It’s true. At the same time, I know that I have spent a lot of time learning and trying to soak up wrestling history long before we launched AEW. I learned and studied wrestling history because it was important to me to study things that had happened and try to learn from them….We are to some extent some of the opportunities we are given and choices we make. I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of great opportunities and tried to make the best choices I could. I’m very happy with where we’ve ended up with all of it. When you make as many decisions as I do as a decision-maker there’s countless decisions that you could do over and look at how they would have, how they would have turned out. I think all you can do is try to do something different in the future but sometimes those opportunities don’t come up again. You just have to wait and see if you ever get a chance like that again, or the next time you get an opportunity that even resembles that, that you do the right thing as you learned from what happened in the past. In this business, you make so many swings a week and I think you learn from the pitches you swing at and you’d get to keep swinging, taking shots….It’s a lot of fun that we get to do this every day.
AEW Double or Nothing 2024 Card
- Roderick Strong (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW International Championship
- “Timeless” Toni Storm (c) vs. Serena Deeb for the AEW Women’s World Championship
- Adam Copeland (c) vs. Malakai Black for the AEW TNT Championship
- Jon Moxley vs. Konosuke Takeshita, IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Eliminator Match
- Trent Beretta vs. Orange Cassidy
- Chris Jericho (c) vs. HOOK vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the FTW Championship
- Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Mone for the AEW TBS Championship
- The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry) vs. Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin and FTR in an Anarchy in the Arena Match
- Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Christian Cage for the AEW World Championship
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TOP PHOTO: Tony Khan on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. Photo by George Tahinos, https://georgetahinos.smugmug.com
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