Category: AEW

AEW Dynamite Winter Is Coming Preview 12/13/2023

AEW Dynamite Winter is Coming will air live tonight on TBS from the College Park Center at the University of Texas in Arlington.

Tony Khan announced Tuesday on social media that tonight’s show will have a five-minute overrun on TBS.

  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: RUSH (3) vs. Jay Lethal (0)
  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: Swerve Strickland (9) vs. Jon Moxley (9)
  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: Jay White (6) vs. Mark Briscoe (0)
  • Continental Classic Blue League Match: Andrade El Idolo (6) vs. Brody King (6)
  • Ruby Soho vs. Rhio
  • Hangman Adam Page vs. Roderick Strong
  • We will hear from The Golden Jets (Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega)
  • We will hear from Samoa Joe
  • Marshall and Ross Von Erich with their dad Kevin Von Erich to appear

Tony Khan On ROH’s TV Rights – ‘We’ve Had A Lot Of Interested Parties’

On Tuesday, Tony Khan took part in a media call to promote Friday night’s Final Battle 2023 pay-per-view event.

During the call, the AEW/ROH President commented on AEW and ROH’s TV rights and whether Ring of Honor could eventually come to Warner Bros. Discovery.

You can check out some highlights from the media call below:

On the possibility of ROH coming to Warner Bros. Discovery: “We’ve had really good talks with Warner Brothers Discovery, had a great visit with them today and we have a really exciting relationship that has grown a lot over the years and has expanded for AEW. Ring of Honor is still a third party in the relationship and is a company putting on really exciting wrestling and is peripheral to the conversation right now. It offers a lot of value to AEW and to a media company. There is a lot of interest in ROH and some of the most exciting wrestling and stories and some of the best events in ROH history are happening now. It’s really awesome that ROH has healthy options and very complimentary for myself, my family, and our business interests, the ROH media rights and the massive library and IP are there and accessible to us as we pursue new media rights for AEW in 2024 and we also have the additional value of the ROH library with the AEW library that has conitnued to grow. Almost 200 episdes of Dynamite, well over 100 episodes of Rampage, and an exciting half-year of Collision.”

On the value of ROH’s library and TV rights: “It is a value for us that we have this big library and additional media rights in addition to the five hours of weekly television and the great shows with Dynamite, Rampage, and Collision. Having that with our pay-per-view shows, our library, and complimenting that with ROH with new events, which have been some of the best events ROH has ever had in the time we’ve own the company, and the ability to go back and look at some of the greatest wrestlers in the world, a lot of them are in AEW now, and some of them wrestle in other companies all over the world. It’s great to look back at that library of events. I definitely think it’s a value add for AEW and ROH to be aligned with media rights that are coming up for AEW in 2024. It’s going to be a very exciting time for AEW and it’s great to have ROH there as far as strategic value.”

On holding onto the ROH TV rights thus far: “As far as the TV rights, we’ve had a lot of interested parties. It’s definitely something I’ve been holding onto and haven’t had a lot of detailed conversations. I think CW is a great network and we did have a visit. Dennis visited us as the Forum last year and was great. I have a lot of respect for Dennis Miller and the CW folks. The timing for us wasn’t necessarily right, but there is a lot of great, interested, people in the market place in both AEW and ROH. For 2024, it will be really exciting time for pro wrestling and ROH added good value going forward.”

Source: eWn

Director Confirms Chris Jericho Will Return In Terrifier 3 Horror Film

AEW’s Chris Jericho will make his return to the Terrifier horror movie franchise with the latest installment, it has been confirmed.

Speaking with Deadline, director Damien Leone confirmed that Jericho will be appearing in the third film in the series. He said,

“There are a few new major characters introduced in three, one in particular that it’s too soon for me to announce…What I think I can say at this stage is that Chris Jericho [who has a cameo role as a psychiatric hospital attendant in a credits scene] is going to be returning. He’s super excited.

“This one is going to pick up where Part 2 left off, in the insane asylum, so, you’re going to see what transpires there, what mayhem unfolds, because seeing how Art and Victoria ended up, is so insane, and seeing how they get out of that situation and what happens next is going to be really wild. So, we have to get Chris back in there and see how he becomes a part of that situation.”

Jericho has been competing for AEW since 2019. Currently, he and Kenny Omega have an opportunity at the AEW World Tag Team Championships.

Terrifier is a slasher series that has seen releases in 2016 and 2022. The series follows the enigmatic killer ‘Art the Clown’ butcher victims in creative ways.

Source: eWn

AEW Collision Preview 12/9/2023

Tonight’s Collision on TNT.

  • Continental Classic Blue League: Bryan Danielson vs. Andrade El Idolo
  • Continental Classic Blue League: Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli
  • Kenny Omega vs. Ethan Page
  • Willow Nightingale vs. Mercedes Martinez
  • Penta El Zero Miedo & Komander vs. Matt Menard & Angelo Parker
  • Wardlow vs. Willie Mack

AEW Rampage Preview 12/8/2023

Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT.

  • Continental Classic Blue League: Bryan Danielson vs. Daniel Garcia
  • Abadon vs. Trish Adora
  • Powerhouse Hobbs & Konosuke Takeshita vs. Christopher Daniels & Matt Sydal
  • Orange Cassidy & Hook appear

Major Update On Kyle O’Reilly’s AEW Status 18 Months After Neck Injury

It’s been more than a year and a half since wrestling fans last saw Kyle O’Reilly in the ring. The AEW star has been inactive as he recovers from neck fusion surgery, and with no news on his condition for months, it seemed a safe bet he would go all of 2023 without making an appearance on AEW TV. But with less than a month left in the year, a positive update has finally come along.

Fightful Select reports that O’Reilly has recently been backstage at AEW tapings, and that there has been talk of O’Reilly returning to TV, though no timetable was given for when. This is a stark contrast to the previous update O’Reilly gave earlier this year when the former reDragon member did not indicate a potential return was imminent.

O’Reilly debuted in AEW two years ago this month after his contract with WWE expired, immediately aligning with former Undisputed Era teammates Adam Cole and Bobby Fish. The trio would form the Undisputed Elite with the Young Bucks, but the group was short-lived after both O’Reilly and Cole were put on the shelf with injuries, while Fish left AEW after his contract expired. O’Reilly’s last wrestled on June 8, 2022, while he last appeared on AEW TV on August 3.

The news of O’Reilly’s potential return comes as AEW World Champion MJF, himself a close friend of Cole, has been targeted by a group of unidentified men led by a mysterious man in a devil mask, though O’Reilly himself has drawn little speculation as the potential “devil.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Dynamite Preview 12/6/2023

AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS from the Bell Centre in Montreal, QC.

  • AEW TNT Championship: Christian Cage (c) vs. Adam Copeland
  • AEW Women’s Championship: Toni Storm (c) vs. Skye Blue
  • MJF and Samoa Joe vs. The Devil’s Masked Men
  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: Jay White vs. Jay Lethal
  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: Jon Moxley vs. RUSH
  • Continental Classic Gold League Match: Swerve Strickland vs. Mark Briscoe

Report: There Is ‘A Lot Of Negativity’ Backstage In AEW

There’s never a dull moment behind the curtain at AEW. Among the many happenings are alleged backstage fights, wrestlers publicly speaking out about their booking, poor ticket sales, and key staff and performers departing the promotion. On the latest “Wrestling Observer Radio,” longtime wrestling reporter Dave Meltzer said he had received “a lot of negativity” from people in and around AEW. He feels that a lot of the issues stem from Saturday’s “AEW Collision” taping in Erie, Pennsylvania, which drew a very low crowd.

It was pointed out that despite the reported negativity, Tony Khan’s promotion is grossing more money than it has ever done before. It’s said that AEW will finish 2023 grossing between $170-$175 million, which is up 67% from 2022. That could increase even further next year with the company’s television rights up for renewal. The organization is also set to return to Wembley Stadium next summer for All In, with this year’s inaugural event grossing over $10 million in revenue. Meltzer added that there were “economic aspects” of the promotion that looked favorable, but there is still somewhat of a negative perception behind the scenes.

Following the announcement last week by wrestler and backstage contributor QT Marshall that he was leaving AEW due to the company moving in a different direction, it was reported yesterday that AEW VP of Post Production Kevin Sullivan had been let go. Meltzer noted there were “a lot of people” who were not happy about that decision, and he believes that’s why there’s currently negativity behind the scenes.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

ROH Reportedly Struggling To Sale Tickets For Final Battle 2023

AEW Worlds End may be the biggest wrestling event on Tony Khan’s calendar in December, but it’s not the only one. His other promotion, Ring of Honor, is set to hold its marquee event, Final Battle, in Garland, Texas, in a little more than ten days, airing exclusively on HonorClub. And so far, it appears fans aren’t viewing Final Battle as a big deal.

WrestleTix reports that, as of this past Friday, Final Battle has yet to cross the 1,000 tickets sold threshold, with the event only selling 996 tickets. The news doesn’t get much better, as the event is currently set up to hold 3,722 fans, meaning that 2,726 tickets remain available for purchase.

Should ticket sales continue at this current pace, this year’s Final Battle would be well down from last year, though that event itself only drew 2,700 tickets at Arlington, Texas’ College Park Center. Final Battle 2023 will be the third show under Khan’s umbrella to take place in Texas that week, with “AEW Dynamite” and “AEW Rampage” airing out of the College Park Center, while “Collision” will take place out of the Curtis Cullwell Center, the same arena Final Battle is booked for.

Only three matches have been announced for Final Battle so far, including Athena defending the ROH Women’s World Championship against former protege Billie Starkz, Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor, and a Six-Way Survival of the Fittest match to determine a new ROH TV Champion. It’s unknown if either the ROH Tag Team or ROH World Championships will be defended, as both ROH Tag Champs, MJF and Adam Cole, are dealing with injuries, while ROH Champion Eddie Kingston has put his title up in the ongoing Continental Classic tournament.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Collision Preview 12/2/2023

Tonight’s AEW Collision airs live on TNT at 8:00 pm EST. from the Erie Insurance Arena in Erie, Pennsylvania.

  • AEW Continental Classic Match (Blue League): Bryan Danielson (0) vs. Eddie Kingston (0)
  • AEW Continental Classic Match (Blue League): Daniel Garcia (0) vs. Andrade El Idolo (0)
  • AEW Continental Classic Match (Blue League): Claudio Castagnoli (3) vs. Brody King (3)