AEW Anarchy In The Arena Could Be Getting One More Big Surprise

AEW’s Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing just got a whole lot more chaotic—and possibly one man short. Or not.

The May 21 episode of AEW Dynamite closed with a wild brawl between both sides of the Anarchy in the Arena feud. Chairs, chains, trash cans, and tables were all in play, but the biggest surprise came when Gabe Kidd suddenly stormed the ring. He laid into Kenny Omega, tipping the balance in favor of the Death Riders and the Young Bucks.

That one appearance has now sparked serious questions about the numbers heading into Sunday’s pay-per-view. According to Bryan Alvarez on Wrestling Observer Radio, the official lineup is now “Joe, Shibata, Swerve, Hobbs, Omega, and Willow against Moxley, Claudio, Wheeler, the Young Bucks, and Marina. So right now it is 6 on 6. But at the end of the show… Gabe Kidd did show up, and so it looks like it’s 7 on 6.” That seventh man is the wild card.

Dave Meltzer chimed in with important context, noting that “they’re actually playing back, you know, the match from the Tokyo Dome” between Omega and Gabe Kidd, which most AEW fans didn’t see. “To do that, you have to tell people,” he said. “They really need like a music video of that Omega and Gabe Kidd match so people know what the hell is going on.”

As for the missing seventh babyface, two names are now in the conversation: Hook and Eddie Kingston.

Alvarez suggested the obvious fan-favorite. “This is a situation where it’s going to probably end up 7 on 7…” he said. “It’s got to be either him [Eddie Kingston] or Hook.”

Meltzer agreed, with a lean toward Kingston—if he’s healthy. “Eddie Kingston’s a far better option. But I don’t know that he’s ready. He had a really nasty injury, but his injury came at the hands of Gabe Kidd, so it fits the story perfectly.” He also warned that unless AEW connects the dots for fans who don’t follow New Japan, the surprise won’t land the same way.

Alvarez proposed one possible route: “They could just do a thing where they announce like on Collision: ‘It’s 7 on 6,’ and the other guys go, ‘We have a mystery partner,’ and they don’t tell. And then they bring Kingston in as the surprise.”

Meltzer was good with that, calling it a strong enough card to support a late-game surprise. “This show has been built well enough that you can do that surprise and it’s fine.” But if it’s Hook? Meltzer was lukewarm. “It’s okay. You know, it’s okay. It’s not great.”

Here’s how the teams stand right now:

• Heels: Samoa Joe, Katsuyori Shibata, Powerhouse Hobbs, Swerve Strickland, Kenny Omega, Marina Shafir, Gabe Kidd
• Faces: Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Willow Nightingale, + mystery partner (Kingston or Hook)

AEW Double or Nothing airs Sunday, May 25, from the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. As a reminder, Ringside News will have live play-by-play coverage.

Please credit Ringside News if you use the above transcript in your publication.