AEW Double or Nothing 2026 Discussion

[BomberPat]

In-ring, that was as good a show as AEW have ever put on.

I saw a lot of people asking what Mick Foley had to offer in 2026, and that pre-show promo is exactly what I hoped for from him - what he does well is that kind of fired up pep talk babyface promo that cuts through all the silly bollocks and reminds you that, even if it's all daft and fake and pretend, there are reasons why wrestlers should care about winning matches. But now I question where they go from here with him, as "pep talk to Darby Allin" and "confrontation with MJF" are really the two things you want to tick off on an AEW Mick Foley run, and what's left after that? I hope him and Renee aren't a permanent pre-show fixture, as RJ City and Jeff Jarrett are better in that role than Mick - having him do it this time around made sense to justify him being there to set up the angle, but it's diminishing turns if he's just a talking head every show moving forward.

Okada vs Takeshita was absolutely fantastic. Takeshita is one of the best in the world right now, with so much additional potential given that he's still only 30, and while I know Okada hasn't always been well-liked in this parish, it should be studied just how well he has managed to adapt to being a brilliant US TV wrestler in his second (or third?) language. That they managed to make this feel like a huge, hot match despite AEW inexplicably letting the rivalry come off the boil for months and only picking it back up because Kyle Fletcher got hurt, is a testament to the abilities of everyone involved, and to how invested the audience still were in both men, but even risking losing that heat was an inexcusable and utterly avoidable unforced error. I like that the aftermath positions Takeshita against Kyle Fletcher so that the Okada story is pretty much done, though I hope it's the beginning of the end for the Don Callis Family as Takeshita works his way through all of them and ultimately ends up back in the mix with the Elite. I would have liked to have seen Takeshita more emphatically turn on Don himself, rather than just arguing with him and then really giving Don Callis the agency over whether he's in the group or not - Takeshita should be the one making it 100% clear that he's done with them and standing alone as a babyface; there's always time to pick that up on Dynamite, I guess.

Samoa Joe vs Will Ospreay was maybe the most I've enjoyed either man in a long time; Joe's best match in a while, and one of Will's best too. It helps that they worked Joe's match more than Will's, and that fit with the Death Riders story Will's doing more than what he has been doing, which is wrestling exactly the same while commentary tell us that he's a transformed man. I still think that story is bollocks in both concept and execution, though, and that "what are the Death Riders this week?" remains one of the things that drags my enjoyment of AEW down - there were babyfaces against The Opps in a pre-show tag, then Moxley's a heel against Kyle O'Reilly, and then the very next match Jon Moxley is the guy coaching the babyface to be better and escape his anxieties. Every now and then I bring this up and someone argues that Jon Moxley is a Tweener, but there's no such thing. There's heels and babyfaces, and wrestling is better when who those people are remains consistent week to week, never mind match to match. I always complain about the agenting on AEW shows, but I find it very funny that the only thing Ospreay seems to have picked up from the Death Riders as a super special secret technique is that he does a Cross Armbreaker now, only he didn't win with it, and other people did it on the same show and they didn't win with it either.

Stadium Stampede dragged in places but was mostly a lot of ridiculous fun playing to most people's strengths. Jericho looked like shit but he wasn't in it much. I could do without babyfaces trying to commit vehicular homicide because somebody beat them in a wrestling match, the worst kind of Attitude Era stunt show bollocks, and one of many things Bret Hart was right about - I don't want to see stunts with cars on my wrestling show, and certainly not entrusting those stunts to be performed by wrestlers. This match did make me think that, assuming we're probably getting a Cage & Cope/FTR/Young Bucks TLC match at All In, they could do a lot worse than just bunging the Hurt Syndicate in there as well to add some beef, and to have more bodies around ringside setting things up so it doesn't crawl to a halt while somebody rearranges the furniture. Speaking of rearranging the furniture, there was a point in this match where Rick Knox was helping one of the Bucks set up a table - there's a hundred fucking people in this match, why is the ref doing that?!

Only real downpoint for me was the main event. It was good, but I could not care less about MJF as World Champion. Darby has been killing it as champion, and I don't think they've got everything out of that run yet, and MJF was far more interesting as an increasingly desperate challenger than he was as the cookie-cutter arrogant heel champ. Looking at an MJF title reign and the potential challengers, there's nothing there that makes me excited, nothing that makes me think it will be any different to the last time around. Worse still, it's a fantastic pay-per-view full of really good matches, and daft stuff like the Stadium Stampede to remind you how much fun wrestling can be, that ends on a big downer. AEW should be a babyface feelgood company, but the last time they closed a pay-per-view with a good guy winning was in October. We're not quite back in "Death Rider heat segment closes every show" territory, but we're dangerously close to it.

And it's a triple-header of downers this time, as not only is it MJF winning, it's also MJF avoid getting his head shaved, and it's Kevin Knight turning on Darby, so it's not like you even get the moment of catharsis of the crowd applauding Darby as he's helped to the back. Sometimes you need heat, sometimes the bad guys need to win, but I don't think this was it. Now the genie is in the bottle in terms of bringing MJF's hair into things, they're going to have to revisit that stipulation one day, and sooner rather than later. Stipulations exist for heels to weasel out of them, but I don't think you can have a stadium full of people chanting "bald" and getting under a heel's skin about losing their hair and not deliver on that without people starting to lose faith in what they expect to see from your shows. 

I still think the match at Wembley should be Omega/Ospreay for the World Title. I hope that this isn't them aiming for MJF/Ospreay. My biggest criticism of MJF has always been that he does ten things when he could focus on one. He did that the last time he feuded with Ospreay; that was a story that could have been about the difference between them, one the babyface who will take risks to win and to wow the crowd and the other a heel who takes every shortcut coming, it could have been the absolute simplest story of the privileged heel against the working class babyface in front of the face's hometown (by wrestling standards crowd), or it could have been a US vs. UK deal, and in one promo MJF tried to make it all of those things, while also bringing up Ospreay's family, and while Will was still working the Tiger Driver '91 angle, so instead of being a focused effort at telling one of those stories it ultimately never really achieved any of them, and it left nothing on the table for a rematch because they'd already tried to do absolutely everything at once. So there's nowhere to go in doing that match again. It will be a rehash, and one I'm not interested in seeing at all.

I think giving Wembley a match that feels like a massive settling of a years long rivalry, their first big singles match taking place in Japan, the second in Omega's home country, and now the rubber match in Ospreay's - that's a much bigger match to me for that show than Ospreay vs. MJF 2. It's one of those matches where baby vs baby feels bigger than face vs heel. To get there, I still think they'll have Omega win the belt at the rumoured Canada PPV, and I'm sure him fighting MJF again will be great, there's a built-in story for a rematch there, and  they can sell it as Omega's last shot at the World Title. Maybe even make it explicitly his last shot, have him agree to the same "if you lose, you never get another shot" stipulation that Hangman did, potentially building something between him and Hangman whenever Page returns. But I think they've missed a trick by, assuming Darby isn't needing to take time off or anything like that, not running Omega vs. Darby for the title in Canada. It's a first-time ever match between two AEW originals, and the story of Kenny trying to win his last World Title in his home country, with his own body breaking down on him just as Darby's is through his title reign, is probably the only way they could have had someone beat Darby without it feeling like a heelish act. That's far more appealing to me than another go-around of MJF as champion.

[Merzbow]

I was thinking the only way that MJF would have gotten his head shaved was if he was due to film a movie role that asked for it, it's no secret he's trying to get in to Hollywood more.

[Doog]

I know we're still a couple of months away, but judging how little Omega did at the PPV,  my overriding feeling is he's fucked and that's why theyre going to do MJF v Ospreay for All In.

I'm unsure whether Omega will have it in him to have two big PPV matches in the next couple of months to win the belt anf then face Ospreay, and as we know, I imagine he wont want to do things by halves.

Edited May 26 by Doog

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

But now I question where they go from here with him, as "pep talk to Darby Allin" and "confrontation with MJF" are really the two things you want to tick off on an AEW Mick Foley run, and what's left after that? I hope him and Renee aren't a permanent pre-show fixture, as RJ City and Jeff Jarrett are better in that role than Mick - having him do it this time around made sense to justify him being there to set up the angle, but it's diminishing turns if he's just a talking head every show moving forward.

I’d have to think Foley would be worth his weight in gold purely for the support he could give behind the scenes from a promo perspective. Someone like Harley Cameron could really benefit from working with him to give her a bit more dimension in the promos she delivers. I’d say the same about Willow Nightingale, and I’d go as far as to say he might be a good candidate to be her version of what Sting was to Darby.

Even outside of that, he’s a very good commentator - AEW has really started to benefit from having the rotation of announcers that it does. Add him to the mix, and you have even more of that. 

I think they’ll get good use out of him. 

[Merzbow]

27 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Even outside of that, he’s a very good commentator - AEW has really started to benefit from having the rotation of announcers that it does. Add him to the mix, and you have even more of that. 

Definitely have him in that Taz/Nigel spot every now and then, although, I'd like to hear him and Taz bounce off eachother.

[LaGoosh]

Foley is one of the best promos of all time and he proved that again on his very first night in. I'm sure they can get loads out of him both backstage and on screen. 

If nothing else it'll highlight that AEW is a place that respects wrestling legends rather than has them gathering dust or turning them into weird one joke machines.

[Supremo]

Harley Cameron performing ventriloquism with Mr. Socko, please.

[HarmonicGenerator]

1 minute ago, Supremo said:

Harley Cameron performing ventriloquism with a clean, pristine and not-stuffed-down-the-tights-first Mr. Socko, please.

Just adding some clarifications there

[BomberPat]

I don't really want to see Foley on commentary unless someone else is being phased out, to be honest - Tony Schiavone is getting a big long in the tooth, and has fallen into his old habits of claiming things are the biggest and best ever or something he's never seen before, but there's still few better when it comes to expressing genuine joy and excitement over what he's watching, and I wouldn't want to lose Taz from the booth, nor can I see Foley doing a better job than Nigel or Bryan on a semi-regular basis. 

It's finding the balance of him feeling genuinely additive - and he showed that he can more than deliver on that front in a one-off - and part of AEW, and not just an old bloke hanging about for a paycheque. There were some points on the pre-show where he stumbled over his words or lost his train of thought, and whether that was someone in his earpiece or the million head injuries taking their toll, I don't know, but one of the problems inherent in being a great promo guy who can no longer wrestle is that you get entrusted with stuff like commentary or authority figure roles where instead of being able to talk off the cuff to get yourself over, you're now expected to communicate a ton of information about other people's stories. I know Foley has talked in the past about struggling with that during his last GM run with WWE. 

I think he's absolutely a good addition to the roster, in terms of credibility and name value, in terms of what he can offer as a promo, and, if they care to, he could be a good PR win for AEW as the less right-wing alternative given he's a guy who left WWE over their association with Donald Trump. But it's likely a lack of imagination on my part more than a failing of AEW's that I am struggling to think of a good use of Mick as a regular part of the show - a recurring guest, absolutely, but if the plan is for him to appear week-to-week, how many "do it for the weirdoes" promos has he got in him?

[LaGoosh]

Yeah Foley definitely shouldn't be there week to week. I'd be very surprised if that was the case.

You could have some fun with Foley putting together a team against a heel squad. Team Foley vs Team MJF or something of the sort.

[The King of Old School]

3 hours ago, Doog said:

I know we're still a couple of months away, but judging how little Omega did at the PPV,  my overriding feeling is he's fucked and that's why theyre going to do MJF v Ospreay for All In.

I thought the same to be honest.

Omega/Ospreay is the match, but I too think they are going down the route of MJF/Ospreay for Wembley.

[LaGoosh]

It's a tricky one because creatively I'm not really fully on board with an MJF title run or Wembley main event but business wise his title run has led to an increase in live event attendance, ratings, media interest and PPV buys so I can see why they're sticking with him as the main guy.

[Chris B]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

I don't really want to see Foley on commentary unless someone else is being phased out, to be honest - Tony Schiavone is getting a big long in the tooth, and has fallen into his old habits of claiming things are the biggest and best ever or something he's never seen before, but there's still few better when it comes to expressing genuine joy and excitement over what he's watching, and I wouldn't want to lose Taz from the booth, nor can I see Foley doing a better job than Nigel or Bryan on a semi-regular basis. 

On top of that, they're at the point where they really need to add a woman commentator if a space becomes available. I'd rather someone like Veda Scott.

[The King Of Swing]

Another highlight was Shelton Benjamin giving the crowd a cheeky look, before doing a dive like it's still the late 2000's. 

50 FUCKING YEARS OLDS. 

Also he should be contractually obligated to wrestle in a suit.