Double? No, Nothing

Should it happen? Nope.
Graphics via AllEliteWrestling.com

While WWE has gotten the most heat for continuing operations during the COVID-19 outbreak, they're not the only wrestling company to do so. All Elite Wrestling has been airing Dynamite each week since the outbreak, albeit with a skeleton crew, no paid attendance, and with stripped down expectations and operations. While they've continued to set the table for big events, they've been somewhat judicious about what events to hold on Wednesdays. For example, the Blood and Guts match was supposed to happen the week after the quarantines and social distancing orders went down, but that was postponed until it could be held in front of fans and in an arena that wasn't piddling little Daly's Place in Jacksonville. One could ask how judicious AEW has been by airing shows at all. Keeping things contained to one place with a seemingly static group of talent feels like it's the best of a bad situation, but it's still a bad situation.

So when the question of the next pay-per-view event, Double or Nothing, came up, the venue, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, came down pretty swiftly on the side of safety. They postponed the event until May 29, 2021. AEW, however, had different plans, not that they wouldn't abide by the venue postponement. They announced on Twitter that they would hold this year's Double or Nothing on the original date, May 23, while honoring or refunding tickets to the MGM Grand event for next year. The plan was met almost immediately with resistance from people on Twitter who don't want to see wrestlers' lives further put in danger, and I find it hard to disagree with those reactions.

The fact that I've watched every Dynamite since the COVID-19 outbreak began really is immaterial to the fact that it shouldn't be happening. At this point, if you have habitual viewing arrangements, you're going to take advantage of them at a time when television and streaming are your only options for entertainment. Game Changer Wrestling shouldn't have done the Acid Cup, but I mean, those shows were pretty bonkers. WWE shouldn't have done WrestleMania, but I mean, the people who like WWE watched and enjoyed it. It's hard to put on the consumer the burden of action because content creators in capitalism have to produce or they die. It should be on the people making the product to shut down and protect the humans who work for them.

Again, capitalism makes this hard, especially when the networks that air wrestling are unreasonable in their demands for the content surrendered during trying times. The fact that Vince McMahon has set a precedent can't help. He aired Smackdown two days after 9/11. The show went on after Owen Hart died. Wrestling's cultural reputation means that NBC Universal and FOX can penalize WWE for not giving them new content, which necessitates Linda McMahon using her PAC to quid pro quo WWE being called "essential services." For all anyone knows, AEW could be in the same boat with TNT, which might lessen the blow for Dynamite's continued airing.

Double or Nothing, however, is not aired on TNT. There's no commitment to air PPV events, and increasing the dates that the AEW roster has to work, which presumably will also include people who have stayed home during this outbreak like Hangman Page, will just add to the risk. I don't agree with weekly television, but I get it with the circumstances in place. Anything extra is just unnecessary risk, and for what reason? Pro wrestling narratives are flexible, and even in the interest of keeping a regular schedule to keep the sports facade up, real sports leagues are cancelling games. There will probably be no NBA or NHL Champions this year. If the sports leagues with their rigid rules and routines can change to accommodate its players in the interest of health, why can't a wrestling company?

At the end of the day, pro wrestling has a reputation that it shouldn't uphold, yet every time a chance to change the game comes up, promotions bend over backwards to let everyone know that they love being backwoods carny capitalists. AEW might have a superior product, one that doesn't insult your intelligence whenever it airs content, but ultimately, it's owned by a billionaire and run by the son of one of the most dubious bookers in history and three other wrestlers who have known nothing but the business in their professional lives. The mix of toxic capitalism and extreme carny brain will make even the best wrestling companies uphold their lowbrow reputation.

Forget any argument that might hinge on charging a premium price for a show that people might not be able to afford by themselves. I know I buy AEW PPVs with the assistance of friends who come over to watch with me. It's about the safety of the performers in an industry that has never really cared for the safety of said performers. Wrestling needs unionization in the worst way, because the only way that things like "working during a pandemic" or "getting fired after risking your life to work in a pandemic" go away is with solidarity and collective bargaining. If there's a case where a wrestler contracts COVID-19 and dies because they were en route to working a show, the outrage that comes after will be too late. The smart thing would be to use Zoom or other backchannels to get together and make sure that whatever mandates come from above will be met with a collective response rather than disparate and varied answers to individually-asked questions.

The best place to start flexing this muscle should be in response to the demand at working Double or Nothing. AEW is in a unique position where while Cody has publicly spoke against a union that he doesn't have the history of union-busting like Vince McMahon. He's also still "one of the boys." The roster has some leverage, but even if they didn't, unionization is still the right move. WWE wrestlers should have unionized at any point in history after McMahon consolidated the territories or "defeated" World Championship Wrestling and absorbed Extreme Championship Wrestling. No matter what he says, McMahon can't fire everyone if they band together. Neither can Cody or Tony Khan. The only way to make sure that shit like this doesn't happen is by solidarity.