PHOENIX — Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena, the former home of the Arizona Coyotes, will house a massive event from All Elite Wrestling (AEW) on Sunday.
The event, All Elite Wrestling: Double or Nothing, is one of a handful of pay-per-view (PPV) shows AEW will hold this year.
AEW has been to the Valley in the past, holding shows at the PHX Arena and Arizona’s Financial Theatre, but those were for tapings and live broadcasts of its television programming.
Double or Nothing is one of AEW’s staple events. In fact, it was AEW’s inaugural show all the way back in May 2019.
Tickets are still available at AEWTix.com for the 5 p.m. event.
What’s unique about upcoming AEW event at Glendale’s Desert Diamond Arena?
The importance of the PPV show is that AEW’s weekly television programming will build its storylines over the course of weeks, months and sometimes even years for matches that will happen at that show.
Viewers will see the highest of stakes featuring the best of the best. One of the performers will be Will Ospreay, who is widely recognized as one of the best wrestling performers in the world. He rose to prominence as an international star in his native England and then Japan before joining AEW in November 2023.
Ospreay, who still resides in England, is incredibly connected to his family and maintains that by flying between the two countries on a weekly basis.
“Fly Tuesday, land Tuesday night, don’t really sleep, wrestle Wednesday, fly Thursday, land Friday. … sprint, cycle, repeat every single week,” Ospreay told KTAR News.
What to expect from All Elite Wrestling event with Will Ospreay
Ospreay is taking on “Hangman” Adam Page in the show’s main event, the finals of the Owen Hart Cup. That is a tournament that honors the late Hart and awards the winner a shot at the AEW World Heavyweight Championship.
That opportunity comes at July’s All In, the biggest yearly show AEW puts on. That will take place at Globe Life Field in Texas. The last two iterations were hosted by London’s Wembley Stadium to crowds of over 70,000 in 2023 and 40,000 in 2024.
The tournament began in early April, and the payoff of its completion won’t come until that July event. This illustrates how the art form has long-running narratives with interconnected storylines.
“I think that’s the thing … (neither) of us can afford to lose,” Ospreay said of the main event. “That’s the thing that’s going to be more interesting. What happens to the winner, but what happens to the loser as well.”
Following those storylines week after week on the TV is what makes it so exciting, he added.
“We have found this incredible blend between showing people that when the bell rings, there is no one on this planet that wrestles better than the AEW roster, but now we have got this incredible blend of this emotional attachment to all these characters.”
Who else is fighting in the upcoming wrestling event in Arizona?
Other matches headlining the show include the women’s final of the Owen Hart Cup between Mercedes Mone and Jamie Hayter, as well as the “Anarchy in the Arena” match, which will put two teams of competitors against each other in action that will rarely take place in the ring and instead will venture all around the building (and outside of it).
“That’s great for someone that doesn’t know wrestling,” Ospreay said. “If you don’t know wrestling and you just want to come for that, that match is sheer chaos.”
One of the draws of this rare event is that anything can happen in the match, he added.
“It’s such an intimate environment,” Ospreay said. “You are actually in that match in a weird way.”
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