The opening segment on the March 16th episode of AEW Dynamite got people talking about who MJF would defend the title against at double or nothing. While Darby Allin was the only one of the four to appear on this weeks show, following his victory with Sting and Orange Cassidy he pointed to the Wrestlemania sign, or more accurately he longingly glared at the Double or Nothing banner hanging in the arena.
In mid 2021 towards the end of the Daily's place pandemic shows the 'four pillars' term was coined. This is a nod to the past, the four pillars of All Japan Pro Wrestling from the 90's into the 2000's who are still beloved to this day; Kenta Kobashi, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada and Akira Taue. It's also a nod to the future, with AEW's first home grown stars Jungle Boy, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara and MJF, the latter being the current world champion. Yes I know many want Britt Baker to be the fifth pillar but she's not wrestling MJF anytime soon...
Seeing all four in the ring made people wonder what AEW has planned for Double or Nothing, AEW's anniversary event. Some assumed that we are going to see a four way match, but I personally would feel it a bit lazy if they just threw the four of them into a match based on one promo, so I had an idea of how they could do it differently. At the time of me writing this we are 10 Dynamites away from Double or Nothing, so they have a fair while to build to the event. My idea, is that they do a round robin challenge between Jungle Boy, Allin and Guevara, and the winner of that challenges MJF.
One thing Tony Khan can't be doubted on is his knowlege of wrestling history, and he likely is well aware that on March 30th 2002 Ring of Honor held a one night round robin challenge between Bryan Danielson, Low Ki and Christopher Daniels. Rather than doing it in one night though, I'd like to see Guevara, Allin and Jungle Boy wrestle each other in singles matches over three weeks. You could if you wanted have one of them earn two wins and have one challenger, but you could also call back to history. In the first round robin challenge Daniels, Low Ki and Danielson ended up in a three way tie with each man having one victory. Maybe we could see Guevara, Allin and Jungle Boy do this, and if the matches are good enough, we will have three credible challengers to MJF at Double or Nothing.
The last time AEW did a multi man World title match as best I can remember was at Double or Nothing 2021, when Kenny Omega defeated Orange Cassidy and Pac. While that match was by no means bad, it felt thrown together for the sake of having a World title match on the show. With the round robin challenge, I'm trying to find a way to have a multi man World title match where each competitor has earned a right to be in the match, and so the stakes end up higher.
Now lets look at the credibility of each of the three 'other' pillars. According to AEW's own win loss records (which aren't entirely accurate but it's what they base their booking on), Darby Allin is at an all time 78 wins and 28 losses, and for this year he is at 7 wins and one loss, that being him losing the TNT title to Samoa Joe. Jungle Boy has 87 wins in his whole AEW career, which is the third most ever behind Orange Cassidy and Jon Moxley. Jack Perry is also undefeated this year, having seven wins despite AEW's roster page claiming 4. Sammy Guevara might have the weakest claim by the numbers, with 60 career wins and more losses this year than the other two, but Sammy has had significant moments at past Double of Nothing events having been part of both Stadium Stampede matches, so it would feel like a full circle moment for him to be in the World title match.
Lets get even nerdier for those of you who are still with me, and take a look at every singles match between any of these three men in this G1 style points table. Darby comes out the winner with one win over Jungle Boy and two wins over Guevara. Sammy comes second with two wins over Darby and Jungle boy is dead last with no wins at all. You could argue that Darby got the earlier push because as Sammy pointed out, early on he was mainly Jericho's fall guy, and in the first year of AEW Jungle Boy was portrayed as a rookie who didn't get a single win for months, but would eventually go on to become the first AEW Wrestler to gain 50 wins, and also the first to compete in 100 matches. If we add MJF to the table and only look at his singles matches with all three, he has beaten all of them, even Jungle Boy twice. Could they use that to build Jack Perry's transformation from Jungle boy to Jungle man maybe?
Ultimately, what I'm trying to point out is that you could make a case for any of the three of them from various angles to get their world title shot at the anniversary event, based on how far each of the three have come since AEW started. However none of the three challengers are a proven pay per view main eventer in AEW, so work is going to have to be done over the next several weeks to make them feel like credible threats to MJF. That's especially true after MJF's performance against Bryan Danielson at Revolution. They've built up a champion, but can they build up a challenger, or even a trio of challengers? I'll be interested to see which way AEW goes on route to Double or Nothing.
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