Hot Take Predictions for WWE Night of Champions and AEW Double or Nothing Match Cards

WWE will present Night of Champions on Saturday from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, while All Elite Wrestling produces Double or Nothing on Sunday from Las Vegas, making this holiday weekend one of the most hotly anticipated in recent memory for wrestling fans.

Each show figures to have reaching influences on the companies and their products as they move into the summer months, but what might fans expect from the broadcasts?

Ahead of two of the biggest extravaganzas of this first half of 2023, take a look at the announced match cards for each show and hot take predictions for the broadcasts.

Announced Night of Champions, Double or Nothing Match Cards

Credit: All Elite Wrestling

WWE Night of Champions

• Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar
• Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn (c) vs. Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa
• World Heavyweight Championship Match: Seth "Freakin" Rollins vs. AJ Styles
• Intercontinental Championship Match: Mustafa Ali vs. Gunther (c)
• Raw Women's Championship Match: Bianca Belair (c) vs. Asuka
• Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus
  

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AEW Double or Nothing

• AEW World Championship Match: Darby Allin vs. "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry vs. Sammy Guevara vs. MJF (c)
• Anarchy in the Arena: The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks and Hangman Page) vs. The Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta)
• AEW World Women's Championship Match: Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Toni Storm
• Adam Cole vs. Chris Jericho
• Ladder Match for the TNT Championship: Wardlow (c) vs. Christian Cage
• AEW World Tag Team Championship Match: FTR (c) vs. Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal (Mark Briscoe as guest referee)
• TBS Championship Match: Taya Valkyrie vs. Jade Cargill (c)
• AEW International Championship Blackjack Battle Royal featuring Orange Cassidy
  
• Six-Man Tag Team Match: Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy and Isiah Kassidy vs. Ethan Page and The Gunns
  

NOC: Roman Reigns Will Suffer His First Pinfall Loss Since 2019

Roman Reigns has not been pinned, submitted or otherwise defeated since December 16, 2019, when he lost to Baron Corbin at the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view event.

It has been 1,253 days (and counting) since The Tribal Chief last had his shoulders pinned to the mat for a count of three, a stretch that will conclude Saturday in Jeddah when he and Solo Sikoa fail to take the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship away from Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens.

Yes, after narrowly escaping Montreal with the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and robbing Zayn of a monumental moment in front of his friends and family, Reigns will finally lose his first match, suffering a pinfall loss at the hands of The Underdog from the Underground.

Zayn gets a measure of revenge and pays off his journey, but for The Bloodline, it ignites full-on dissension within the group, especially when Jimmy and Jey Uso's errant interference in the match is what sets up the outcome.

The finish provides fans the happy-ish ending they deserve for sticking with the Zayn storyline for so long and propels things forward in The Bloodline storyline, as the best tag team of this generation finds themselves squarely in the crosshairs of The Tribal Chief and, after Saturday's defeat, their younger brother, Sikoa.

DoN: The Elite vs. Blackpool Combat Club Overshadows Pillars Main Event

The "Pillars" Four-Way for the AEW World Championship should be one of the most important matches in the still relatively young history of the promotion, but lackluster storytelling and an emphasis on the return of The Elite has it playing second fiddle at Double or Nothing, and that will not change by the end of the extravaganza.

So much creative effort has gone into the Anarchy in the Arena match between The Elite and Blackpool Combat Club, including high-profile, show-ending angles that it is nearly impossible for fans not to recognize it as the real main event of Double or Nothing.

Even if the world title match goes on last, and even with the presence of the top prize in AEW, it pales in comparison to the fandom and emotion that has gone into the more anticipated trios war.

Recognizing the enormity of the match, MJF, Darby Allin, Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara will likely deliver a fantastic match that proves exactly why they have been established as the four young pillars of the company, but it will be for naught.

A long, bloated card that leads to a long runtime, and a hotter match elsewhere on the lineup, will hamper their ability to deliver the match.

In the wake of the show, the critics of The Elite and those who believe they are only worried about putting themselves over will have more ammunition whether their arguments are valid or not.

NOC: Gunther and Mustafa Ali Steal The Show With Superb Intercontinental Title Match

The idea of Gunther stealing any show he is on may not be the boldest hot take, but given the matches on the Night of Champions card and the significance of those versus the relatively thrown-together nature of the Intercontinental Championship match between The Ring General and No. 1 contender Mustafa Ali, it would be somewhat surprising if it is the match that has fans buzzing loudest in the wake of Saturday's event in Jeddah.

Still, Ali is one of the industry's most underrated and undervalued performers, while Gunther is an unstoppable force—a crushing striker who can zap the breath out of his opponents with a single open-hand chop to the chest.

Both men have demonstrated an ability to have great matches against opponents of different styles and backgrounds, so there is reason to believe they will take the age-old "David vs. Goliath" story and make magic out of it at Night of Champions.

Not only may it end up as the best match on the entire card, but it could also be a star-making showcase for Ali, who is still finding himself as a personality in WWE, despite being with the company for years now.

Showing up and showing out against Gunther, with Triple H carefully watching from the Gorilla Position, may be the emphasis for the push that has long eluded him.

For Gunther, it would be further evidence that the Austrian-born competitor is ready to take that next step up the proverbial ladder in WWE.

DoN: CM Punk Makes Appearance, Sets Stage for Comeback, AEW Collision and All In

Is he or isn't he?

It is the question on the lips of wrestling fans everywhere as the idea of a CM Punk comeback in time to spearhead AEW's Collision show every Saturday night lingers. Some have reported that it is a done deal, while others have backed off after complications led to his absence from the Collision reveal at last week's WBM up-fronts.

Is it because of Ace Steel? Are there unsettled issues preventing the formal reveal?

There are more questions and greater uncertainty than anything at this point, but it will become clearer at Double or Nothing when CM Punk makes an appearance and puts all doubts to sleep.

Of course, this is strictly a prediction based on Tony Khan's tendency to deliver some sort of shocking occurrence at AEW pay-per-views, and Punk appearing in front of the Las Vegas fans would certainly qualify as that.

It would be the spark that the company has been missing outside of a few significant announcements from Khan and put an exclamation point on a show that serves as the official start of a summer that may prove to be transformative for the company.

Sure, that hurts AEW's ability to sell the first episode of Collision on Punk's return to the company, but it can still book a big main event featuring the former world champion and have big ticket sales.

With so many negative headlines surrounding the relationship between AEW and Punk, the sooner the company can reverse course and give the fans something to be excited about, the better.