Since the start of 2026, it is safe to say AEW has been on the best run of shows since 2021 as the promotion marches into the Louis Armstrong Arena in Flushing, Queens, New York, for AEW Double or Nothing. The show is scheduled for May 24, with Kazuchika Okada vs. Konosuke Takeshita being the first match announced for the pay-per-view. As of May 7, FTR vs. Christian Cage and Adam Copeland for the AEW World Tag Team Titles in an “I Quit” match with Cage and Copeland’s tag team career on the line and Ricochet challenged Chris Jericho to a Stadium Stampede.
The two not officially announced for the show are Maxwell Jacob Friedman, or simply MJF, and Will Ospreay, though there have been teases for who their opponents could be.
The Assassin, The Rider, and The Injury
For Ospreay, he’s found himself peculiar bedfellows with Jon Moxley and the Death Riders. It was only weeks ago Ospreay was gunning for Moxley at the cost of his own surgically-repaired neck, failing to defeat Moxley at AEW Dynasty for the Continental Championship.
Ospreay would end up losing a match to the Don Callis Family’s Mark Davis via doctor stoppage due to the damage Ospreay suffered to his neck. This didn’t stop Davis from pulling Ospreay back into the ring to do more damage when the Death Riders surround the ring, forcing Davis and Callis to back off. The Death Riders would carry Ospreay to the back where Moxley extended an olive branch and offered to train Ospreay, making him into the “ultimate weapon.”
Ospreay would take him up on this offer, though this didn’t sit well with The Opps and Samoa Joe, who had battled the Death Riders alongside Ospreay in the past. Joe would offer his hand to Ospreay, asking him to leave the Death Riders and train with The Opps. However, if he didn’t, Joe also made it clear he would be coming for Ospreay, suggesting the two are set to collide at Double or Nothing.
The Plight of MJF
MJF, on the other hand, has been spiraling since losing the AEW Men’s World Championship in a shocking loss to Darby Allin. MJF has been demanding a rematch for weeks, which Darby has refused multiple times and instead given title shots to people he believes have earned it and deserve it. Allin would battle Tommaso Ciampa and Brody King in his first two defenses, both of which were praised by fans and media as incredible main events for AEW Dynamite.
MJF’s own cries for a rematch went largely ignored and instead found himself in a TNT Title match against the champion, Kevin Knight, after Knight goaded MJF into the match. The two would go back-and-forth for most of the match until MJF distracted the referee by threatening to hit Knight with it, forcing the referee to rip it away. MJF quickly went for his Dynamite Diamond ring to punch Knight in the head with it, but Knight caught MJF with a low-blow before he could use the ring and cradled MJF to win and retain his title.
In order for MJF to get his rematch, Allin made it clear MJF also had to put something on the line. MJF attempted to play this off by first offering his scarf, then his Dynamite Diamond ring, and finally a million dollars. Allin refused, instead demanding MJF put up his hair if he wanted to get a title shot and seemingly confirmed fan theories MJF had gotten hair implants in Turkey. Allin added that MJF doesn’t show up for the contract signing on the next Dynamite, he can’t challenge for the title again.
The Invisible Mirror at Play
This is where the brilliance of AEW’s recent booking shines through as they have, without many fans realizing it, told very similar stories.
Ospreay and MJF are two wrestlers at a crossroads in their AEW careers. Both are at stages where, for very different reasons mind you, they have to adapt as wrestlers if they wish to stay atop AEW for the foreseeable future.
Ospreay has been slowly realizing he can’t be the same wrestler he was before the neck surgery and in order to adapt, he’s accepted help from his most hated enemy in Jon Moxley. MJF, on the other hand, is getting his comeuppance after years of cheating, short-cuts, and gaming the system to stay within the orbit of the AEW Men’s World Title.
The only difference is the stage both wrestlers are in these stories. As mentioned previously, Ospreay has already accepted he needs to change if he wants to succeed and has taken the steps to do so. He accepted Moxley’s olive branch and its already paying off as AEW’s lead doctor said “whatever training” Ospreay was doing was working and he could be cleared to wrestle by the next AEW Dynamite.
MJF, meanwhile, is still spiraling as he hasn’t accepted his old tricks are now hurting him instead of helping him.
Even the result of the expected-men’s world title match at Double or Nothing has been cast into doubt with Allin demanding MJF put his hair on the line. Fans speculated MJF may use the same stipulation ‘Hangman’ Adam Page did for AEW Revolution and say if he lost, he wouldn’t challenge for the title ever again. While it made narrative sense, other fans argued it made the outcome of the match too obvious and using it again so close to AEW Revolution was overkill. With MJF’s hair possibly on the line, there’s now an air of doubt around MJF walking out a three-time AEW Men’s World Champion.
Losing his hair could be the thing that gives MJF the same realization Ospreay came to – he needs to change. He has been pulling from the same box of tricks since AEW was founded in 2019, so it would figure that the rest of the locker room eventually got wise to MJF’s tactics and started to get one over on the self-described “Salt of the Earth.”
Whatever may come at Double or Nothing and beyond, it speaks to AEW’s attention to detail with its booking in 2026 to be able to tell the same story while dressing them so differently that many fans don’t realize this. It doesn’t mean anything is guaranteed because it is still professional wrestling, injuries could happen or personal issues behind the scene may force changes no one planned for. Even if it does, there is no denying the good work AEW has done to this point and the stage being set for the promotion’s biggest show of the year in August.
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