It All Started With Double or Nothing

My wrestling story didn’t begin with Double or Nothing 2020.

It started several months earlier.

In October 2019, I tuned in for the debut episode of AEW Dynamite. As someone who had watched wrestling off and on over the years, there was something exciting about seeing a brand-new company trying to do things differently. Every Wednesday night became appointment viewing. Week after week, I found myself invested in the wrestlers, the stories, and the feeling that I was watching something grow from the very beginning.

Then the world changed.

By the spring of 2020, COVID had shut everything down. Schools closed. Businesses closed. Sporting events disappeared. Families were stuck at home trying to figure out what normal looked like in a world that suddenly felt anything but normal.

Wrestling changed too.

The packed arenas were gone. The crowds disappeared. Shows were filmed in empty venues, with only a handful of wrestlers at ringside making noise. It wasn’t the same, but somehow wrestling kept going. Every week, it gave people a few hours to escape everything happening outside their doors.

Then came Double or Nothing.

On May 23, 2020, I sat down to watch AEW’s annual pay-per-view. The card was good, but it was the main event that would end up changing everything for me.

The first-ever Stadium Stampede.

If you’ve never seen it, it’s difficult to explain. It was part wrestling match, part action movie, part comedy, and completely ridiculous in the best possible way.

As I watched the chaos unfold, my eleven-year-old son walked through the living room.

At the time, he had never watched wrestling. Not once.

He stopped.

He watched.

And within minutes, he was completely hooked.

What started as curiosity became a tradition.

Six years later, Wednesday nights still belong to wrestling.

Every week, when Dynamite comes on, that same kid tells his friends, “I’m done with this game for now. I’m going to watch wrestling with my mom.”

There are few things in life that stay constant as children grow up. Interests change. Friend groups change. Schedules get busier. But somehow, through middle school, high school, and everything in between, wrestling has remained our thing.

When live events finally returned, we made memories together that I’ll never forget.

We attended All Out in 2021.

Then All Out 2022.

Then All Out 2024.

We’ve gone to multiple episodes of Dynamite and spent countless Wednesday nights cheering, laughing, and occasionally yelling at the television when a storyline didn’t go the way we wanted.

Some people look at wrestling and see fake fighting.

I see storytelling.

I see heroes and villains.

I see friendships and betrayals.

I see redemption arcs, impossible comebacks, and moments that make entire arenas erupt with emotion.

As a writer, maybe that’s why wrestling has always appealed to me. At its heart, wrestling is about making people feel something. The best books do the same thing.

But wrestling gave me more than a weekly show to watch.

It gave me a community.

Through AEW Heels, a group created for women and female-identifying wrestling fans, I met some of the most supportive people I’ve ever known. What began as a shared love of wrestling turned into friendships, encouragement, and a community that celebrates each other’s victories and supports each other through difficult moments.

In a world where genuine connection can sometimes feel hard to find, that group has been something special.

Looking back, it’s amazing to think that one random Saturday night during a global pandemic became the beginning of something so much bigger.

A mother and son found a shared hobby.

Friendships were formed.

Memories were made.

And every Wednesday at 7 PM, no matter what else is happening, you’ll still find us sitting together watching wrestling.

Not because it’s just a TV show.

Because it became part of our story.