WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas.
Kenny Omega recently took to Twitch to provide an update on his recovery from diverticulitis.
While the AEW wrestler was originally set to compete at the Worlds End 2023 pay-per-view event, he was pulled two weeks before the show due to being hospitalized and diagnosed with diverticulitis.
You can check out some highlights from the Twitch stream below:
On how he’s doing so far: “I know how I feel physically. I’ve been through the ringer in terms of injuries and getting banged up and all of that. I kind of know now what I feel like, and I can come back (from physical injuries). This is the first time I’ve ever been put out with a sickness. It’s hard to really know what’s going on in the inside when you feel a little bit of pain, but you don’t actually know the inner workings of what’s going on. I would love to say, ‘Hey guys, I’m on track to coming back next week, next month, a half of year.’ I don’t have that confidence this time. When they’re explaining to me that I was 24 hours away from a terrible blood infection and possibly dying, this is like news to me. I’ve never heard of anything like that. ‘I wasn’t close to dying, are you kidding me? No way.’ The doctors are there to ensure my safety and educate me as to how important this is.
“I don’t want to talk out of my ass too much and say I’m going to for sure be back, and I’ll be back at a certain date or time because I don’t know. I will say, after watching Dynamite, and getting a feel of the lay of the land. If I can come back, I feel like I have to. We may never get an environment like that again. I don’t know if I would call it fun, more of a responsibility. I have a responsibility to mix it up with these guys that call themselves the best. I used to be that guy and have confidence. Now, instead of being that guy with a chip on his shoulder, now, it’s my job to be a gatekeeper. You want to call yourself the best? F**king prove it, b*tch.”
On the ups and downs of his recovery: “Do I need surgery? I still don’t know. It’s been really touch and go. I was feeling great for a week or two. When you feel terrible, a week or two feels like a long time and it feels like you have momentum and you’re going to push to the finish line, which is to come back. For two weeks, I was feeling great. I ran into a bit of a roadblock and I had to get some emergency treatment again. Well, I wouldn’t say it’s two steps forward, two steps back, but maybe it’s one and a half steps back. I’m better than where I was, but I’m not sure how much improvement I made.
“When I see these guys, whether it be on pay-per-view or Dynamite, Raw, SmackDown, NXT, anybody. It makes me want to get back into that ring shape. I’m doing this weird balancing act of trying to manage the pain or sickness and trying to train. I’m trying to make sure things don’t get too out of hand. If suddenly I’m healed and cleared, I want to hop back in. I don’t want to be like, ‘I haven’t done a thing in four or five months’ or whatever it is. I’ll be disappointed, and you guys will be disappointed. The bar is so high. I don’t want to come back being below that bar. I want to try the best I can.”
Source: eWn
AEW commentator Kevin Kelly has been removed from the promotion’s roster page, while he was also not present at the recent “AEW Collision” tapings.
At the tapings for this Saturday’s “Collision” show, Kelly was missing from the broadcast team, with Nigel McGuinness and Tony Schiavone manning the two-man booth. Kelly has been part of the Collision commentary team ever since he joined AEW last year. The former WWE backstage interviewer and MLW commentator was a part of NJPW’s English broadcast team prior to joining AEW.
There’s no news as to the reason why Kelly was removed from the roster page or the “Collision” show, but the speculation is that it could be because of Kelly’s recent comments directed at fellow AEW commentator Ian Riccaboni. Kelly claimed on X that Riccaboni “libeled” him and revealed that he has been “pushed aside.” Kelly last commentated on the March 2 episode of “Collision” alongside Nigel McGuinness and Tony Schiavone.
According to Wade Keller of PWTorch, Kelly has been released by AEW. The report states that his social media posts, in which he accused Riccaboni of sabotaging his career and engaging in libel, ultimately led to his departure from the promotion.
Kelly was the first commentator of the “Collision” show with McGuinness, while the likes of Riccaboni, Jim Ross, and Caprice Coleman have also called “Collision” action occasionally when Kelly was calling NJPW last year.
Kelly had an eight-year stint with NJPW, during which time he was also part of the ROH commentary team, which is incidentally part of AEW now.
Source:s Wrestling Inc. and eWn
It’s the last stop before Sacrifice! Don’t miss an all-new TNA iMPACT! this Thursday at 8/7c on AXS TV and 8:30pm ET on YouTube for Insiders!
ROH will air a new episode of its weekly television show tonight at 7 pm ET on HonorClub.
You can sign up for the streaming service here. Below is the lineup for the show:
Matt Hardy could become a free agent soon.
According to a report from Fightful, Hardy’s AEW contract is set to expire this month. The multi-time tag team champion signed with AEW back in March 2020.
Hardy and AEW have been discussing his contract situation, but it’s unknown if the deal will be extended.
Additionally, Jeff Hardy’s AEW contract was set to match Matt’s deal in length. However, back-to-back injuries and inactivity have reportedly added time to Jeff’s contract. Jeff debuted for AEW in March 2022.
Matt has only wrestled once this year, teaming with his brother and Mark Briscoe in a winning effort against Kip Sabian, The Butcher, and The Blade on the January 3rd edition of AEW Rampage.
Source: eWn
While huge announcements are customarily reserved for Tony Khan in AEW, The Young Bucks exerted their EVP authority on “AEW Dynamite” and were about to break some huge news themselves before Eddie Kingston interrupted them, leading to a fight. As the Bucks set Kingston up for the EVP Trigger, none other than “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada hit the ring to make the save — or so it seemed, before Okada turned on Kingston and was announced as the newest member of The Elite.
That group, of which the Bucks are founding members, was newly free of “Hangman” Adam Page and Kenny Omega. Prior to the exchange with Kingston and Okada’s debut, Matthew and Nicholas Jackson declared that Page was “suspended indefinitely from The Elite without pay,” for contact with officials at Revolution, and that Omega was outright fired from The Elite for not making any of his dates of late, “for no good reason.” Omega, of course, has been out since mid-December battling diverticulitis, while it’s been reported that Page is taking time off following Revolution.
After finishing up with New Japan Pro-Wrestling at “The New Beginning In Sapporo” on February 24th, Okada returns to AEW, this time as a full-time competitor, having competed for the promotion three times prior in 2022 and 2023. He leaves NJPW a seven-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, a NEVER Openweight 6-man Tag Team Champion (with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii), a four-time winner of the G1 Climax tournament, and a two-time winner of the New Japan Cup. Those accolades may have had AEW fans prepared to welcome him to the company as a hero, but his instantaneous alignment with the EVPs seems to have flipped that script right at the start.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS from the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia.
AEW announced took to X on Tuesday, revealing that this will be a new look and a new season of AEW Dynamite.
According to Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Haku is one of the rumoured names for the 2024 class of the WWE Hall of Fame. 2024 will be the first class chosen by Paul “Triple H” Levesque as opposed to Vince McMahon.
Paul Heyman was announced as the first inductee into the 2024 class of the WWE Hall of Fame on Monday, March 4 and earlier today Triple H announced Japanese women’s wrestling legend Bull Nakano for the WWE Hall of Fame. The WWE Hall of Fame ceremony takes place ahead of WrestleMania and the 2024 edition of the Shows of Shows will emanate from Philadelphia, a city synonymous with Extreme Championship Wrestling. Heyman owned ECW for several years until the promotion shuttered in 2001.
Known as one of the toughest men in professional wrestling, Haku had a long pro wrestling career. He performed in WWE as King Tonga and then Haku from 1985 until 1992, returning to the company in 2001 for a brief run. He also performed as Meng in World Championship Wrestling from 1994 until 2001.
Haku later spent time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling as part of Bullet Club with sons Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. He helped take out The Elite back in 2018 as part of the Bullet Club civil war. Haku made a brief appearance in All Elite Wrestling in 2021, accompanying his son Hikuleo to the ring at Fight for the Fallen.
Tama Tonga is believed to be WWE-bound following the end of his run with New Japan. He is reportedly not expected to debut before WrestleMania 40, however.
Source: Cultaholic
Last month, during a match taped for “AEW Rampage,” Jeff Hardy reportedly suffered a concussion. However, despite AEW having concussion protocols in place, the match continued, with Sammy Guevara landing his finisher on Hardy to end the bout. According to a new report from Fightful Select, Guevara was suspended following the incident.
It’s unclear when the suspension was enacted, as Guevara wrestled an “AEW Collision” match against Powerhouse Hobbs 10 days after his match against Hardy. Additionally, while it’s obvious Hardy shouldn’t have had any more physical contact, it’s not clear if Guevara ignored communication from the referee or if there was another specific reason why he was suspended. The report states that Guevara is currently serving the suspension and it’s not publicly known how long he’ll be kept out of the ring.
This isn’t the young star’s first AEW suspension. Guevara has previously had physical confrontations backstage with fellow wrestlers Andrade El Idolo and Eddie Kingston, the latter of which also resulted in a suspension. Kingston and Guevara later made amends, while El Idolo eventually wound up returning to WWE.
Guevara recently returned from an injury of his own, which kept the former TNT Champion out of action for several months at the end of last year. Since returning, he’d been involved in the storyline pitting himself and onscreen mentor Chris Jericho against The Don Callis Family, though that saga has since come to its conclusion. Guevara’s most recent onscreen appearance was on the February 24 episode of “Collision” that featured his match against Hobbs.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
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