AEW president Tony Khan made the bold claim last year that the 2020 installment of Double or Nothing “kicked the crap out of” WWE’s WrestleMania 36. At the time he stated, “There have been such highs and lows in this pandemic. Trying to do great things. To come back do Double or Nothing, I thought Double or Nothing was the bastion of ingenuity. To sit back and it’s like, ‘Okay, with what we have, how can a great pay-per-view?’ I thought, and I’m sorry I’ll just honest — we were both operating during the pandemic, I tested everybody coming in, this might by the pull-out quote of this press conference but I’m going to say it. I thought Double or Nothing kicked the crap out of WrestleMania.
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“It was a much better pay-per-view,” he continued. “We were both operating under difficult circumstances. I think ours, we were fortunate it was a little bit later in the pandemic. We had implemented testing and were doing testing at that time. But when we did Double or Nothing, we were still the only ones doing testing, a good testing plan at that point.”
Khan was on Pardon My Take this week and once again brought up that subject, saying Double or Nothing 2021 surpassed WrestleMania 37. AEW’s event was highlighted by Kenny Omega defeating Orange Cassidy & PAC along with the Stadium Stampede between The Inner Circle and The Pinnacle. Meanwhile, WrestleMania saw Roman Reigns stacking both Edge and Daniel Bryan while Bianca Belair beat Sasha Banks for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
“Double or Nothing, last year and this year, in my opinion, was a better show [than WrestleMania],” Khan said (h/t Cageside Seats). “And I liked this year’s WrestleMania a lot better than last year’s, ’cause they had some fans this year and everyone there worked their ass off both years. This year…they did a two night show and it was a good show. I thought Double or Nothing this year was outstanding, and it was the best wrestling show of the year so far. And last year, Double or Nothing in the pandemic, it kicked the shit out of WrestleMania last year. The pandemic version last year? Not even close. Double or Nothing, much better show.”
