AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
One of AEW’s top tag teams will be shelved for an undetermined amount of time as FTR’s Dax Harwood took to X to announce an injury he first suffered at Dynasty that he effectively hid from the medical staff and the powers that be, which will now force him to rest until further notice.
Just before 9pm ET, Harwood posted a video more than five minutes long explaining just what went down, along with the caption, “An explanation that I feel I owe everyone. The fans, my boss, the medical team, and the whole roster. I appreciate you all, and I hope to see you soon. Top Guys, out.”
Harwood began with a disclaimer about the sometimes toxic world of social media, saying, “I know [there are] a lot of people, especially in the Twitter world, who don’t really care for me too much and that’s okay but I thought this was the best way that I could talk to the fans of AEW and the fans of FTR and finally get this off of my chest.” He then apologized to AEW President Tony Khan, to AEW staff, and specifically to its medical staff, with whom he admitted not being up front about the origin and the nature of the injury, which he would go on to explain in detail. “[At Dynasty], I gave Matt Jackson a Piledriver, and when I landed, it messed my lower back up really bad and caused a severe hematoma that appeared on my lower back,” he said. “As we know, that’s where a brunt of the bumps go for a professional wrestler. I thought I could tough through it.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
* Tetsuya Naito def. Callum Newman
* Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Clark Connors, Drilla Moloney & LJ Cleary
* NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling Championship Storm Catch Rules Match: Great-O-Khan def. Yuya Uemura
* NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship Match: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano
* NJPW World Television Championship Match: Jeff Cobb def. Tomohiro Ishii
* IWGP Tag Team Championships & NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships Tornado Match: Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste def. Chase Owens & KENTA, Guerrillas Of Destiny & Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
* NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Shingo Takagi found HENARE to a draw
* IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Lumberjack Match: Jon Moxley def. EVIL. Moxley then issued a challenge for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door and Tetsuya Naito answered.
* Best Of The Super Junior 31 Finals: El Desperado def. Taiji Ishimori
Tonight’s AEW Collision live on TNT from the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Quietly, AEW has made some changes to their broadcasting team early in 2024. The promotion released long-time personality/ring announcer Dasha Gonzalez towards the end of March, and recently brought in Arkady Aura to serve as a backstage interviewer alongside Renee Paquette. And it looks as though the duo will be joined backstage by someone who previously had a cup of coffee in AEW.
Taking to X Wednesday night, Alicia Atout posted a photo of herself backstage at “AEW Dynamite,” revealing that she had signed with the promotion, and would be seeing fans every Wednesday. Atout wasted no time getting to work, conducting two social media exclusive interviews last night with Wheeler Yuta, following his emotional return after five months off recovering from a concussion, and Mark Briscoe after he defeated Brian Cage to qualify for the TNT Championship ladder match at Forbidden Door.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
All Elite Wrestling recently announced that they have partnered with the city of Arlington, Texas to host the Path to All In Series at the Esports Stadium beginning on July 20. The series of events will include four live episodes of “AEW Collision,” one taped episode of “AEW Collision,” and the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, which takes place on July 26.
Wrestlenomics have been able to discover a few more details about the residency, with one financial note being that AEW is paying a half-price rate of $232,000 to use the venue across a six week span, with the local tourism organization potentially granting the company money or incentives to offset these costs as the events are set to bring in a healthy amount of revenue for the city. The figure of $232,000 breaks down as $112,000 going to the Arlington Expo Center, which will be paid in two instalments before the company moves in, while the rest will go to the Esports Venues, LLC company for the use of the building’s broadcast suite that is located on site.
AEW is also set to make that money back and more based on ticket sales alone. The report from Wrestlenomics suggests that the Esports Stadium will be scaled to a total of 1,290 seats. This means selling just over 5,000 tickets (or selling out four of the events) at an average ticket price of $45 will cover the rate that AEW is paying to use the building. While this residency takes place, episodes of “AEW Dynamite” and “AEW Rampage” are still set to take place in locations around the United States, but no dates or locations have been announced at the time of writing as the July 17 edition of “AEW Dynamite” in Little Rock, Arkansas is the latest event announcement the company has made.
The schedule also noted that there will be two exclusive Ring of Honor taping days taking place on July 28, two days after the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, and August 16, two days before the company loads out their equipment. However, these dates have remained unannounced and weren’t included in the official press release AEW presented on May 16, signalling that these dates could change at some point. Wrestlenomics did reach out to AEW’s public relations team for an update on the schedule but weren’t given a comment.
AEW and ROH might not be the only companies using the Esports Stadium over the summer. Wrestlenomics also received email records between AEW and government staff where the idea of potentially subletting the venue to CMLL or New Japan Pro Wrestling was floated around between staff members. However, AEW’s Vice President of Global Touring Ryan Seddon stated that the focus has been to get AEW’s ‘ducks in a row’ and that discussions regarding such things could happen. However, it seems as if it has just been nothing more than an idea at the time of writing.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite live on TBS from the Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado.
After a strong first seven months in AEW, Adam Copeland now finds himself on the shelf after suffering a broken tibia when attempting a diving elbow drop off a steel cage in his match with Malakai Black at Double or Nothing. The move isn’t just costing Copeland precious time in the ring, but it also put a halt to his two month reign as AEW TNT Champion. Even still, the “Rated R Superstar” isn’t looking at the negatives as he attempts to work his way back.
Late Tuesday morning, Copeland posted a video on Instagram at his home, revealing that he had successful surgery on his tibia twelve hours earlier. Showing off the cast on his left foot, Copeland proceeded to walk through the door to his gym, which featured a sign up front saying “Forbidden Door.” Copeland stated that if he couldn’t compete at the actual Forbidden Door PPV against a New Japan talent, he would instead go through the door to his gym to show fans what he could do so soon after surgery.
Accompanied by his dog, Copeland did just that, doing single leg plank workouts, with his surgically repaired foot raised in the air. Copeland credited handles he was using that kept him from sliding for helping him with the exercises, and by the end of the video, admitted he was already starting to “lose my breath and feel shaky” from holding his balance.
Aside from revealing he had surgery, Copeland provided no details as to when fans could expect to see him in the ring again. Depending on the severity, a broken tibia can take up to 4 to 6 months to recover from, which would put Copeland’s return between October and December, meaning he would miss AEW All In at Wembley Stadium.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
The Young Bucks may not be the most popular fellows in AEW these days, what with their attacks on AEW owner Tony Khan and fellow EVP Kenny Omega, as well as their continued appearance that their EVP power has gone to their head. But the current AEW World Tag Team Champions have shown a softer side when it comes to their Reebok Pump Superkicks sneakers, a trend that continued on Monday morning.
In a video posted on TikTok, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson revealed that, due to the ongoing success of their sneakers, they have decided to give away a free pair of shoes to a lucky fan, signed by the duo. Not only that, but the Bucks are also giving fans the opportunity to customize the shoes. The caption below the video provided further details, saying that fans could enter to win by following the Bucks or AEW on TikTok, and tag two friends in the comment section. The contest winner will be revealed this Friday.
First announced in the middle of May, the Bucks Reebok shoes have proven to be a big mover, reportedly selling nearly 2,600 pairs out of 3,000 available when they were made available last week. Those within Reebok have noted that this was the fastest selling shoe the footwear company has produced in some time, and discussions are already ongoing about further collaboration between the Bucks and Reebok for next year.
The Bucks’ work with Reebok is the second time the AEW EVPs have ventured into the sneaker business. The brothers had previously collaborated with Diadora back in 2022 for a sneaker sold through Champ Sports, while they were suspended from AEW following their backstage altercation with CM Punk at AEW All Out.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Tonight’s AEW Collision on TNT at 8:00 pm EST. Taped show from Palm Springs, California.
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