Tag: AEW

Backstage News On Jeff Hardy’s AEW Status And Potential Return

Contrary to recent reports, it seems Jeff Hardy may not be back in the ring as soon as previously thought. According to PWInsider, Hardy is preparing for a pre-trial hearing set to take place later this month regarding his DUI arrest back in June. The report also claims that Hardy is not expected back with AEW until his legal issues are handled and the company feels confident that Hardy has a handle on his sobriety.

Last month, Jeff’s brother Matt Hardy teased on his podcast that we would soon be getting a look at a brand new Jeff. Matt shared his confidence in his brother’s new outlook on life and his ability to stay sober. Prior to his DUI arrest, Jeff was reportedly set for a major run with his brother in AEW, with the pair even being “strongly considered” for an AEW Tag Team Championship victory. However, Hardy’s arrest and subsequent suspension derailed those plans.

Hardy was released by WWE last December after a strange incident that saw him leave a match during a live event and enter the crowd. Many speculated that Hardy was somehow inebriated at the time, but nothing was ever conclusively proven, and it was later denied by both Hardy brothers. Following his release, WWE reportedly attempted to convince Hardy to return to the company, even offering him a spot in the company’s Hall of Fame. However, Hardy turned down the offer and instead decided to join his brother in AEW. Though their initial run in the company would wind up being short-lived, it seems likely that Hardy will be given another chance once he has straightened things out in his personal life.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Dynamite Preview 10/5/2022

AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS, and emanate from the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC.

MJF vs. Wheeler Yuta

Bryan Danielson & Daniel Garcia vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara

TNT Championship Match: Wardlow (c) vs. ROH star Brian Cage

Hangman Page vs. Rush

Toni Storm, Athena & Willow Nightingale vs. Jamie Hayter, Serena Deeb & Penelope Ford

Darby Allin vs. Jay Lethal

Luchasaurus in action

National Scissoring Day” with The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn

AEW Rampage Preview 9/30/2022

Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT at 10/9c.

  • The Acclaimed (c) vs. Private Party vs. The Butcher & The Blade – AEW World Tag Team Championships
  • Rush vs. John Silver
  • Lee Moriarty vs. Fuego Del Sol
  • Jamie Hayter vs. Willow Nightingale
  • HOOK appearance

Jim Ross Says He Assumes Saraya Will Wrestle In AEW

AEW commentator Jim Ross has joined the growing number of people who believe Saraya will compete as part of Tony Khan’s promotion.

Saraya hasn’t wrestled since Boxing Day 2017 when she suffered an injury at a WWE Live event.

The former WWE Divas Champion retired in April 2018 but remained hopeful of an in-ring return, before her departure from WWE this July.

Speaking on his Grilling JR podcast, Ross said he is hopeful that she will wrestle again.

“Saraya, I am assuming she’s going to be healthy enough to wrestle, I don’t know, I am assuming that she is.

“We will see, she’s a positive addition if so. It’s good, helps our women’s division I think, she was a good hand, and still is a good hand … so we will see.”

Neither Saraya nor AEW President Tony Khan have confirmed or denied claims that she will wrestle in AEW.

A recent report has suggested that she will wrestle given the amount she is being paid by AEW.

Source: EWrestlingNews

AEW Dynamite Preview 9/28/2022

AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS at 8/7C, and emanate from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, PA.

Saraya to speak

AEW World Champion Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson in a World Title Eliminator Match

Chris Jericho’s Championship Celebration

Chris Jericho to defend ROH World Heavyweight Title against Bandido

AEW Interim Women’s Champion Toni Storm defends against Serena Deeb

MJF to speak

Tony Khan Reportedly Refusing to Release Any AEW Talent

After an AEW wrestler informed the company that a WWE representative had contacted them about the possibility of returning to WWE, the company reportedly sent an email to WWE co-CEOs Nick Khan and Stephanie McMahon warning them “not to tamper” with their talent.

Malakai Black has now denied the claims that he wanted to be released from his contract after it was later revealed that he had made a request. After Triple H took over creative duties from Vince McMahon a number of months ago, WWE reached out to numerous members of AEW, including Black, FTR, and Swerve Strickland, to inquire about the possibility of returning to the company.

Dave Meltzer revealed the news that AEW President Tony Khan will not be releasing anyone during his appearance on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.

“Nobody’s getting released, that’s the doctrine. [AEW President] Tony Khan made that very clear I guess in the last couple of days. So now it’s just, [Malakai Black’s] not being released, Buddy Matthews isn’t being released. Now they may be back sooner than before. They were wanting to go and trying to get a way out.

It’s not to say it’s hard and fast, and there’d be no way they’d never give anybody a release. But I think it’s pretty much the deal that if this happened in any other company, would those people get releases, and the answer is no. They signed the contract, so basically now their option is to sit at home – and [Tony Khan] can extend the contract if they sit at home – or wrestle. So now they’re gonna wrestle. He [Malakai Black] waved goodbye and now he’s coming back and he’s gonna blame me.”

“They really came after [Tony Khan], it’s pretty blatant that [WWE] came after so many of the guys. Basically everyone who had worked there, there might be an exception, every name that you would think of that had a previous relationship with Triple H was contacted and told to ‘try and get your release and come in.’ Several went to Tony and said, ‘they’re contacting us we have no intention of going’ and several said ‘we want the release’ and have been told no.”

You can listen to the audio below:

Source: PWMania

AEW Rampage on 10/7 will air live at 9pm, followed by Battle of the Belts IV

TNT has updated its programming schedule, and a change has been made to AEW’s upcoming TV slate.

AEW will air a live Rampage on Friday, October 7, in addition to taping Battle of the Belts IV at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.

Originally, Rampage was listed as airing at 9 p.m. ET followed by Battle of the Belts IV at 10 p.m. ET. This would’ve put Rampage head-to-head with the second hour of WWE SmackDown.

TNT now lists Rampage as airing at 10 p.m. ET followed by Battle of the Belts IV airing at 11 p.m. ET on Friday, October 7. The start time for the show is listed locally as 8 p.m. ET. 

Rampage typically airs at 10 p.m. ET on Fridays, while Battle of the Belts has been taped in the past and aired on Saturday nights at 8 p.m. ET.

If the Battle of the Belts special aired on October 8th, it would’ve gone head-to-head with WWE Extreme Rules on Peacock.

Source: WrestlingNews.co

Malakai Black Denies Reports Of AEW Release, Says He’s Received Death Threats

Malakai Black took to Instagram to make a statement about the recent reports he has been released by AEW.

Black said he will be back soon. He also noted that he has received death threats.

He had previously stated that he had asked for his release, saying that he need time off to recalibrate.

Black said the following in his live statement on Instagram.

“Some people can’t seem to just shut the fuck up and create things that are not there, so I have to go out here again and have a conversation with you guys. So guys, how many times do I have to tell people to not trust people that are not in this business? If you can’t even get the years of my contract right, which is a very minuscule detail, then how are you expecting or how are people expecting these guys to know very intimate and private detailing in regards to my private business? My contract’s not five years, my contract’s never been five years. This is all bullshit, it’s all lies. So you know, I posted a statement and you, of course all of you, have read my statement, because even if you read my statement, it clearly reads that even release is in quotations. Now, if you don’t know what quotation means, it means that the author does not agree with said quote or said word choice. Or it also means that it’s not his wording. Then it is followed by a bunch of multiple things, in regards to my marital stuff, but it even says that my stuff about my conditional release, that it’s false. So how are you guys still thinking like, why are people still writing that I’ve got my release? Guys, I don’t know, why do you trust these people to tell you the truth? Because it’s not true. In a time where I’m supposed to take care of myself and kind of wind down, I have to deal with this kind of stupid bullshit from people who are not in the business and pretending that they are in the business with all their sources. You know, the worst thing about it is, for the past three days, [I’ve been getting] hateful comments and today, even two death threats. Death threats? Death threats? You wish death upon a person because of what someone else had said, and then says that it’s confirmed. It’s not confirmed. Clearly it’s not confirmed. None of it’s confirmed. There’s no confirmation because I haven’t left. That’s what this whole thing was about. I’ve been given time off by Tony to take care of a bunch of stuff. All this stuff has been played up like weeks. All this stuff was weeks ago…

I posted that statement was a summary for you to understand why I’d take some time off. Again, it’s in the statement. It is in the statement. It’s mine-boggling, if this isn’t enough incentive for you to stop believing these people, then I don’t know what is. Because if you were part of this whole mob that, like I said, sending me a bunch of hateful comments based on the words of someone else, then sorry, but you’re dumb. You’re stupid. Does anyone understand that in the time where I’m going through this stuff and I’m kind of dealing with a bunch of stuff in a very productive manner, that exactly doesn’t help, and what I hate about it is that none of these dirt sheets will take responsibility, none of these guys will take accountability and say, ‘Oh shit, we fucked up, I’m sorry. We should have probably not said that. Oh he’s going through some stuff. Maybe we should not. Maybe we should not make all these baseless assumptions because again as it turns out, it’s not true. None of it’s true. Not one single thing of it is true.

So again, if you were part of this mob that felt the need to send me death threats, well, then thank you dirtsheets because they don’t care about my mental health. They don’t care about your mental health. They don’t care about your feelings, they don’t care about my wife, they don’t care about my family. They don’t give a shit. All they want is dumb clicks with stuff that they’re making up. Because they’re tying bridges between things that are no longer there, they’re tying things… that don’t exist. Because they want the narrative to exist. But again, I’m sure, tomorrow there will be a different narrative, and tomorrow it’ll be, ‘Oh, we got the wrong information. Oh we heard it from this. Don’t blame us, we’re just reporting.’ A real person will own up to their bullshit. They will own up to their words and then say, you know what? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. If the words come out of your mouth, then you know, own it. Just own it. Anyway, I would like to very much go back to just working on my stuff, working on my private life, working on getting to the point of feeling good again. So I hope that this puts all this stuff to bed. I am definitely not going to be on my social media for a while because like my god. Again guys, stop believing these things. It is unbelievable. Anyway, I will see you guys in a couple weeks, maybe a couple of months, like I said, I’m only taking some time off. That’s it. Just taking time off. There’s no conspiracy to this. Just taking some time off. Alright. I will see you guys soon. Take care of yourself, stop believing any other narrative. Right now, I debunked it. There’s nothing going on. Don’t believe these people. Don’t write, don’t believe it, nothing. I’m fine, I’m going to be fine. Everything is fine. You’ll see me right back with AEW pretty soon. I’m just gonna take some time. That’s it.

Guys, last thing before I leave, don’t make me some instrument for this while tribalism, us versus them thing because I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do the whole Team AEW versus Team WWE. I don’t play that. To me, this is a business. This is genuinely like a business in the sense that it’s a business, it’s my job, it’s what I do for a living. This is how I’ve made my living for the past 22; 13 years of my life. I’ve been in this business since the 2000s. So thank you for those who have been supportive of me, thank you for your nice messages. Thank you for the people who clearly obviously did my statement and understood from the get-go that that means that I wasn’t released. So again thank you for the support. Thank you very much. Not true if it didn’t come from me. Even that’s said in the statement. If it doesn’t come out of my mouth, it’s not true. Now you’ve known me to be a pretty calm guy for the most part, but this shit is annoying as hell. So again take care of yourself, and we’ll see each other soon. Thank you very much.“

Transcript is courtesy of Fightful.

Source: WrestleView

Buddy Matthews Gone From AEW, Malakai Black AEW Status Update – UPDATE (Nobody’s getting released)

There have been reports that Buddy Matthews(Buddy Murphy in WWE) is believed to be on his way out of AEW. Sources say that last week’s AEW Rampage Grand Slam was Matthew’s “last night” with the company.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, both Matthews and Malakai Black “want to go to WWE” and wish to leave AEW. Meltzer confirmed that Matthews is indeed gone from the company. As for Black, it was reported earlier this month that he was granted a “conditional release.” One of the conditions is that he can’t compete elsewhere, specifically in WWE, for quite some time.  In a post on Instagram, Black stated that he needs a “few months to recalibrate the last two decades of [his] life.”

Source: EWrestlingNews

UPDATE

Dave Meltzer revealed the news that AEW President Tony Khan will not be releasing anyone during his appearance on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.

“Nobody’s getting released, that’s the doctrine. [AEW President] Tony Khan made that very clear I guess in the last couple of days. So now it’s just, [Malakai Black’s] not being released, Buddy Matthews isn’t being released. Now they may be back sooner than before. They were wanting to go and trying to get a way out.

The Great Muta Appears On AEW Rampage, Sting To Be Part Of The Great Muta’s Final Match 

Japan pro wrestling legend The Great Muta, who is in the midst of his retirement tour, made a surprise appearance on AEW Rampage: Grand Slam to assist Sting in his No DQ tag team match.

Muta hit Buddy Matthews with his trademark mist and then got him with a dragon screw. Sting then hit the Scorpion Death Drop for the win.

Sting and Muta had an epic rivalry in WCW and NJPW in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so this was cool to see.

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1573496610440495114

Sting will be heading to Japan next year and will be involved in The Great Muta’s final match.

Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced that Sting “has decided to participate in the Yokohama Arena tournament” at the “Great Muta Final Bye-Bye” show on January 22, 2023.

https://twitter.com/noah_ghc/status/1573525621036425216

Source: EWrestlingNews