Account
Lance Archer and Wrestlers with Most to Gain at AEW Double or Nothing 2020
May 19, 2020
Stars can be made any time All Elite Wrestling holds a pay-per-view event, and many of the company's wrestlers will have an opportunity to grab the proverbial brass ring Saturday at Double or Nothing.
Top stars such as Chris Jericho, Cody, Jon Moxley, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks are all set to compete at the event, but all of them are already made men. Many others on the card are still searching for the career-defining victory that will take them to the next level.
Aside from the obvious big names looking to add another accolade to an already long list of accomplishments, here are a few AEW stars with the most to gain at Double or Nothing.
Lance Archer
Lance Archer enjoyed a great run in New Japan Pro-Wrestling that included holding the IWGP United States Championship, and he even had stints in WWE and TNA, but Saturday's match against Cody may be the biggest moment of his career.
Archer came to AEW with plenty of fanfare and WWE Hall of Famer Jake "The Snake" Roberts as his manager. It was apparent early on that AEW intended to build him into a dominant monster heel, and that has been proved true thus far.
The Murderhawk Monster smashed his way through the first two rounds of the tournament to crown the first AEW TNT champion with victories over both Colt Cabana and Dustin Rhodes, and now he must go through Cody.
There is no question that The American Nightmare represents a significant step up in competition for Archer, and it can be argued that Cody is the biggest star and babyface on the entire roster.
AEW has to be careful with the way it books Saturday's match. A Cody win would ensure the title feels important and finally give him a championship, but it would also result in Archer suffering his first loss, and the company would run the risk of him losing much of his luster.
On the other side of the coin, Archer winning would further establish him as an unstoppable heel, but it would damage Cody's credibility as a top face since he has already lost big PPV matches to Jericho and MJF.
It is a tough call, but Archer would likely gain more from winning, especially since it would be easier for Cody to bounce back from a loss due to the fact that he is already an established star.
If Archer does win, the argument could be made that he is already the No. 2 heel in the entire company behind only Jericho.
Jungle Boy
While there will be no title on the line, the singles match between MJF and Jungle Boy could be huge for both participants at Double or Nothing.
MJF is young at 24 years old, but he has already accomplished a great deal, including beating Cody at Revolution in February. Jungle Boy is even younger at 22, but he is still waiting to truly break out as a top star in AEW.
Jungle Boy has had some good moments as a member of Jurassic Express with Luchasaurus and Marko Stunt, and he even showed his potential as a top underdog babyface in singles competition in December when he faced then-AEW world champion Chris Jericho.
Jericho bet that Jungle Boy wouldn't be able to last 10 minutes with him in the ring, but he went the distance and the match was ruled a draw, which was almost as good as a win for the son of late actor Luke Perry.
Aside from that, he has lost all of his other singles matches in AEW, including a pair of defeats to MJF on Dynamite.
Double or Nothing will represent Jungle Boy's best chance yet to score a significant singles win on a big stage, and doing it against an elite-level heel like MJF would make it feel even more important.
A loss would be a pretty big setback for MJF since his last match of importance was a win over Cody, but Jungle Boy will take a huge leap in terms of how fans perceive him if he manages to pull off the upset.
Scorpio Sky
Any number of participants in the Casino Ladder match could experience a career-making moment if they win Saturday, but Scorpio Sky may benefit more than anyone.
Sky isn't necessarily a youngster at 37 years of age, but the opportunities to prove himself as a singles wrestler in a big company have been few and far between. The biggest came in November when he lost an AEW World Championship match to Jericho on Dynamite.
Although he fell short, Sky showed some potential as a singles guy. He has primarily continued to operate as part of the SCU tag team with Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels since then, but it may soon be time to branch out.
It is clear that AEW is trying to get Sky over as an individual based on video packages they showed recently on Dynamite about his rise in the wrestling business and the trials and tribulations he faced to get to where he is now.
Perhaps the easiest way to fast track Sky as a singles competitor would be to have him win the Casino Ladder match against eight other competitors since he would then have a guaranteed shot at the AEW World Championship.
It is difficult to envision Sky winning the title any time soon, but giving him another shot would be a good way to transition him from tag team wrestler to singles action and start changing the perception fans may have of him.
Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).