DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 is just four days away, and everyone from the locker room to the fans is pumped up for that fifth anniversary celebration, but before we get to May 26th, we've got DYNAMITE debuting at the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield, CA!
It's a positively loaded night with AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland fighting Nick Wayne, Bryan Danielson battling the 7-Foot Satnam Singh, Kyle O'Reilly facing Malakai Black, and the FTW Contender's Series Three Way pitting Bryan Keith, HOOK, and Katsuyori Shibata against one another! If that was all there was on tap, the night would be pretty full, but there's plenty more including IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley scheduled to be in the building while his DON '24 opponent Konosuke Takeshita faces Matt Sydal, as well as AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm teaming up with Mariah May to face The Outcasts of Harley Cameron and Saraya! But wait, there's more: the Unified World Trios Champions will be in the house, we've got a TBS Championship bout preview on tap, as well as a tag team match where Orange Cassidy and Will Ospreay will square up with AEW International Champion Roderick Strong and Trent Beretta!
There's one final stop on the path to DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 though, and that's an all-new COLLISION live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena just twenty-four hours before the pay-per-view extravaganza begins! So to get prepared for it all, visit the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our various social media platforms, for highlights from previous episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as the latest edition of the CONTROL CENTER!
HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED...
AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. Nick Wayne
2/26/22 – Swerve Strickland and Nick Wayne locked horns for the first time at DEFY 50; Swerve was victorious
4/8/23 – Nick Wayne defeated Swerve Strickland at their THE REALEST event, this time for the DEFY World Title
7/12/23 – Swerve Strickland defeats Nick Wayne in the latter's AEW debut match
8/2/23 – Swerve Strickland and his Mogul Affiliates brutally attack Nick Wayne in his home
8/23/23 – Darby Allin & Nick Wayne avenge that assault by beathing Swerve & AR Fox in a tag team match
In short, that is the history of Nick Wayne and Swerve Strickland, but there are so many finer details that can easily make one question who is on the right side of this situation. That assault Swerve, AR Fox, and Prince Nana perpetrated on Nick Wayne may have pushed Darby Allin into battle against The Mogul Affiliates, but then Darby's decision to forgive AR Fox for his part in that bloody assault is essentially what pushed Nick to Christian Cage.
Swerve's relentless comments about Nick's father Buddy Wayne ignited a fire under the young man before Christian Cage got his hooks into “The Prodigy”, but they've also lingered in Nick's brain long after aligning himself with this Patriarchy and taking on Christian Cage as his surrogate father. So much of who Nick Wayne has become has its roots in what happened with Swerve Strickland a year ago, so its certainly not a coincidence that Wayne chose to crack a picture of Swerve's family across his skull.
Perhaps that's why this match is taking place on Wednesday; if Nick Wayne can't avenge his birth father for all that was said about him a year ago, he can at least stand for his new dad Christian Cage ahead of The Patriarch's AEW World Championship fight with Swerve at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024. So perhaps this is the chickens coming home to roost, Swerve's karma for all the wrongdoings he perpetrated en route to his AEW World Championship victory, perhaps that what The Mogul Embassy assaulting him was two weeks ago, and perhaps that's what Nick Wayne drawing Swerve's blood last week was all about. After all, Swerve has never claimed to be a perfect man, in fact he knows he's done some down right awful things to get where he is today, but it feels as if there's a large part of him that wants to be a better man now, a better representative for his daughter, and to make up for what was done wrong.
That being said, he may understand where Nick Wayne is coming from, but he isn't about to let anyone assault him the way Nick and Killswitch did following the Brian Cage match without facing some repercussions. Swerve Strickland is going to be out for blood on Wednesday night, but is that the point? Ever since Christian Cage was announced as the DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 challenger by Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, Swerve has been under a relentless assault from all sides. Cage and The Patriarchy dropped him the night the match was announced, Brian Cage and The Gates of Agony dropped him through a table, and now add Nick Wayne ripping open Strickland's skull with broken glass, plus the fights with Kyle Fletcher and Claudio Castagnoli, and one can't help but wonder if the whole point of all this is to push Swerve to his breaking point before he even sets foot into the ring on Sunday night?
ONE-ON-ONE...
Matt Sydal vs. Konosuke Takeshita
On Sunday night at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, Konosuke Takeshita is set for a fight against IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley with aims at a future title bout via Eliminator Match. In the three and a half years since All Elite Wrestling's first Eliminator Match saw AEW World Champion Kenny Omega defeat Joey Janela, there have only been two occasions where the incumbent champion has lost, and in both instances the match was a World Tag Team Title Eliminator contest.
Takeshita himself has lost twice in Eliminator matches, once to Jon Moxley and once to MJF, but that's Sunday night, it's neither here nor there in regards to DYNAMITE. What is important for Wednesday night is being prepared to face a veteran as well-traveled as Matt Sydal for the very first time in singles competition. Now the two have danced in multi-man affairs before, in fact Takeshita's third match in AEW back on the 4/19/21 edition of DARK: ELEVATION was as part of a Trios victory over a Sydal-led team, but that being said, his second AEW match was a multi-man loss to a team that included Matt Sydal during the 4/9/21 HOUSE ALWAYS WINS event. The only other engagment between these two athletes took place last December on RAMPAGE when Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs dominated Sydal and Christopher Daniels in tag team competition, but now these two have an opportunity to to prove dominance over the other in singles action!
Given that Sydal is not scheduled for anything on Sunday, he is fighting with nothing to lose and everything to gain while Takeshita, given the high stakes of his DoN '24 match, has a whole lot at stake stepping into the ring on Wednesday. The risk for injury, the risk of losing momentum so close to earning an IWGP World Heavyweight Title fight, it all has to be in the back of Takeshita's mind as he heads towards the ring in Bakersfield, but one wild thing that will certainly be living rent free in Takeshita's mind on Wednesday is...
JON MOXLEY COMES TO BAKERSFIELD!
TAG TEAM CONTEST...
AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm & Mariah May vs.
The Outcasts (Harley Cameron & Saraya)
Saraya and Harley Cameron made a choice several weeks ago to single out Mariah May for really no good reason. Mariah hadn't so much as crossed paths with The Outcasts at that point, her only sin against Saraya and Harley being her association with AEW Women's World Champion Toni Storm, a mortal one though given the past relationship between “The Timeless One” and Saraya. Harley dubbed her “Tiny Storm”, and even though Mariah handed Cameron a loss in her first-ever DYNAMITE match, that didn't stop The Outcasts from running off at the mouth. Even the beating Toni Storm handed to Harley herself didn't stop it, and now we've got The Outcasts challenging Mariah May and “Timeless” Toni Storm to a tag team match this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE!
This bout will mark the first time Saraya has competed inside the ring in over three months, as well as the first time Harley Cameron and she have competed as a tag team, so it will be quite interesting to see how the duo functions together once the bell rings. The way they interact and feed off one another backstage shows they're clearly cut from similar cloth, but will that be the case inside the ring? As for the champion and her child, well, the woman who will be challenging for the AEW Women's World Championship at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 has already asked the most important question:
STRIKE HARDER...
Malakai Black vs. Kyle O'Reilly
It was inevitable that The House of Black would come calling for Kyle O'Reilly given his involvement in their Adam Copeland situation, and though there have been rather tense moments between Cope and Kyle even before their epic TNT Championship clash, “The Violent Artist” has stuck true to his promise of having Cope's back.
For better or worse, that mean Kyle is in for a striking battle this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE when he steps into the ring with Malakai Black for their first one-on-one meeting in All Elite Wrestling, and just the second of their entire careers. Their first was a lifetime ago, seven years that may as well be seven hundred for all that has changed in their personal lives and in their careers, so the result of that fight is quite inconsequential to today.
What is of consequence is the influence that The House of Black has seemingly had on Adam Copeland, how their actions have directly led to the Barbed Wire Cage Match taking place between Malakai and Cope on Sunday, and the added stipulation that will force “The Rated R Superstar” to bend the knee to The House if he loses. In the midst of all that, Kyle O'Reilly has stepped up as Cope's ally, in spite of the TNT Champion questioning if Kyle only did it to get that shot at the title on May 11th, but after what happened last Wednesday night to Kyle when he chose to help out Cope once again, it's safe to say his interest in this runs deeper than just a championship match.
Can Kyle turn the tide back against The House of Black as Malakai Black prepares to step into that Barbed Wire Steel Cage? Can he avenge the assault perpetrated on him in Everett last week?
FTW CONTENDER'S SERIES ELIMINATOR FINAL...
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bryan Keith vs. Hook
On Saturday night's COLLISION, six men entered into the FTW Contender's Series in hopes of earning their way towards facing Chris Jericho for the FTW Championship. Two of those individuals had a vested interest in facing Jericho that goes beyond just the title while the other four's primary concern was the FTW Championship itself. It all began with former 2-Time FTW Champion HOOK defeating Johnny TV to advance to this Three Way Elimination contest on Wednesday night, and continued with former ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata topping the highly decorated Rocky “Azucar” Romero in ther first-ever singles contest, and concluded with “The Bounty Hunger” Bryan Keith finishing off The Iron Savage's Boulder in under two minutes.
So thus the stage is set for DYNAMITE's Eliminator bout to determine which man will move on to a FTW Championship bout with “The Learning Tree” Chris Jericho at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024! We know Jericho will join the commentary team for this bout, but will that be all he does? Or does this man have some plan to sway the outcome of the match? Where Chris Jericho goes, his mighty Redwood Big Bill is sure to be close by, so will that factor into this fight as well? Or will Shibata, HOOK, and Bryan Keith be allowed to fight it out amongst themselves to see who really wants this more? We know HOOK and Shibata want to fight Jericho, possibly more than they want the FTW Championship, while Bryan Keith wants to win his first title since signing on to All Elite Wrestling, so the question need be asked which line of focus will yield victory and who will try to burn down “The Learning Tree” this Sunday night?
TAG TEAM GRUDGE MATCH
AEW International Champion Roderick Strong & Trent Beretta vs.
Orange Cassidy & Will Ospreay
Worlds are colliding in this tag team grudge match set for Wednesday night in Bakersfield! AEW International Champion Roderick Strong and Will Ospreay have been set for a title fight at DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 since “The Aerial Assassin” first won the Casino Gauntlet match in Jacksonville. Since then the two have engaged in a war of words revealing some deep-seated animosity stemming back to their shared time in Ring of Honor, as well as prior to that in the UK's SWE (Southside Wrestling Entertainment) and PROGRESS promotions. Though they never fought under the ROH banner, it seems that Strong talked plenty of trash on Ospreay at that time, perhaps talk motivated by the two victories Ospreay held over Roddy in their two singles matches.
As for Trent Beretta and Orange Cassidy, theirs has been less a war of words and more about action. It started with Beretta kneeing the former 2-Time International Champion in the face after their tag team loss to The Young Bucks in April, continued on with Trent ending the career of Chuck Taylor in their RAMPAGE Parking Lot Fight, and culminated in Cassidy defeating Trent in their singles match two weeks ago. Yet that was not the culmination, in fact after Beretta lost the match he made the situation even worse by assaulting Cassidy after the fight, and it being (of all people) Don Callis who kind of saved the situation from continuing to escalate.
It's utterly bizarre to even think of Don Callis being the one to quell a violent situation but that's where this strange road has led us all, just as it has led Trent and OC back to a fight with one another on Sunday night. Add in the fact that Roderick Strong was the one who dethroned Orange Cassidy as International Champion at REVOLUTION 2024 back in February, that Trent/Ospreay/OC have their own history from fights between CHAOS and The United Empire the last couple years, not to mention the IWGP United States Title fight at FORBIDDEN DOOR 2022, and this is one combustible tag team match taking place Wednesday night on DYNAMITE!
SINGLES MATCH...
“The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson vs. Satnam Singh (w/Sonjay Dutt)
After Bryan Danielson, Cash Wheeler, and Dax Harwood defeated The Righteous and Lance Archer on COLLISION, the losing end of that bout elected to assault FTR after the fall. With Danielson out of it on the floor, the former 2-Time AEW World Tag Champions had no assistance in the three-on-two attack until Daniel Garcia hit the ring to lend a hand. Unfortunately the battering means FTR won't be able to make DYNAMITE, which also has to leave Danielson and Darby Allin questioning if they'll be cleared to fight in Anarchy in the Arena? Then again, given how The Elite are clearly abusing their power as EVPs, will Bryan Danielson even make it to Las Vegas?
That's right, in a match that no one could've seen coming, Sonjay Dutt has reached an agreement with The Elite for Satnam Singh to fight “The American Dragon” this Wednesday night on DYNAMITE! This will be the first televised singles match for Satnam Singh, and only his second since joining All Elite Wrestling, and he couldn't have taken on a bigger challenge than facing Bryan Danielson. Satnam may have a massive size advantage over Danielson, but Bryan has proven time and again throughout his career that he will trade blows with anyone and do what is needed to bring down a larger opponent down to his knees, just look at his battle with Lance Archer back on April 3rd.
It's a concern to see Bryan taking this fight so close to Anarchy in the Arena, but a more worrying thought is that perhaps this isn't about winning for Satnam and Sonjay Dutt, perhaps this is about injuring Dragon, making sure he's unable to make it to DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024, or at the very least coming into Anarchy at far less than 100%! What a way for Bryan to celebrate a birthday...
BANG BANG GANG IN THE HOUSE!
When Lexy Nair interviewed “The Bastard” PAC on COLLISION, he told The Bang Bang Gang to make him care, to “make me feel something, make me feel anything boys...make me care, try harder, make me care.” Cleary the Unified World Trios Champions took those words to heart because it was shortly after that Jay White and The Gunns emerged onto the COLLISION stage with PAC a crumbled heap at their feet, choosing pain as the option for what “The Bastard” would feel that night.
Well we now know that Jay White, Austin Gunn, and Colten Gunn will be on-hand this Wednesday night in Bakersfield, CA, no doubt with plenty of thoughts and words to share with the AEW faithful: so the question has to be asked: where will “The Bastard” PAC be?
All Elite Wrestling arrives in Bakersfield, CA this Wednesday night for the last DYNAMITE before DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2024 (https://www.allelitewrestling.com/aewonppv) drops live on PPV this Sunday night May 26th!
But before we get to DOUBLE OR NOTHING's fifth anniversary, there's one more stop on the road and that's Saturday night's COLLISION live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena! With just twenty-four hours to go before AEW's marquee event, there's not telling what will go down as the athletes of All Elite Wrestling prepare for their pay-per-view fights! Fans can get ready for the action by visiting the official AEW YouTube channel, as well as our assorted social media platforms, for highlights from previous episodes of DYNAMITE, RAMPAGE, and COLLISION, as well as the latest edition of the CONTROL CENTER!