Tonight’s AEW Rampage airs on TNT from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
* The Lucha Brothers (c) vs. The Butcher & The Blade (AEW World Tag Team Championship)
* Miro’s TNT Championship vs. Fuego Del Sol’s New Car
* Anna Jay vs. The Bunny
* Kenny Omega and Bryan Danielson comment on their future matchup
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode airs on TNT at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Tonight shows features the AEW in-ring debut of Adam Cole.
* CM Punk does commentary
* Bryan Danielson addresses AEW World Champion Kenny Omega
* Matt Hardy continues his feud with Orange Cassidy
* Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki issue a challenge to Jon Moxley
* Adam Cole makes AEW in-ring debut vs. Frankie Kazarian
* Shawn Spears vs. Darby Allin
* Leyla Hirsch vs. Jade Cargill
* Dan Lambert hosts a Tough Guy Challenge
* Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley vs. 2point0
Tonight’s AEW Rampage airs on TNT from the Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. More fallout from last Sunday’s All Out
* PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo (w/Chavo Guerrero)
* Darby Allin and Sting interview
* Ruby Soho, Riho & Kris Statlander vs. AEW Women’s Champion Dr. Britt Baker, Jamie Hayter & Rebel
* Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Max Caster
Brian Cage’s wife took to social media to suggest AEW has overlooked him and isn’t treating him like the star that he is. He agreed.
It was only a matter of time before certain members of the AEW started using social media to hint they’re getting frustrated with their roles in AEW. With so many new faces and big-name talent coming into the wrestling promotion, other stars were bound to get pushed aside. Whether fans view Brian Cage as one of those stars being overlooked, and whether or not they agree he’s got the ability to be a top-level guy is up for debate. Still, his wife seems to think so and it appears the wrestler himself tends to agree.
Cage’s wife took to social media on Thursday and flat out said her husband was a star and was being misused by AEW. Melissa Santos used Twitter to vent about how AEW has seemingly cast him aside in favor of other talents. She noted, “Brian Cage is a superstar. Those people who know him from the indies, Impact, Lucha Underground where I met him know that he is a superstar. All you have to do is google him and watch all of his matches. He’s a superstar and he’s being misused right now.”
While spouses have been known in the past to speak out on behalf of their other halves, Cage actually retweeted a post his wife put together and included a meme of Will Smith shrugging his shoulders with the caption, “I mean…” The hint here is that he didn’t think she was wrong in her assessment and that he recognizes AEW should be doing more with him. Specifically, he shared a screenshot of an article suggesting he has gotten lost in the shuffle in AEW.
Cage was brought into the company last year as a surprise entrant in a Casino Battle Royale. Since then he’s been part of Team Taz and then booted from the group, only to wrestle more on Dark shows than on Dynamite or Rampage. He recently lost a match to Powerhouse Hobbs, who AEW seems very keen on pushing.
Cage may not be wrong, but there’s only so much television time to go around in AEW and the company is signing a lot of people on a regular basis. As such, originals and talent who have been in the company for a few weeks are bound to get less time to show their stuff. What’s interesting here is that Cage is actually still being featured in segments and matches and has been a regular on AEW programming. It’s hard to imagine what more he (or his wife) really wants considering he’s part of a company that has a ton of eyeballs and major buzz surrounding it.
Source: Jim Parsons/TheSportster
AEW has added a number of big names, but it doesn’t sound like they’re handing out big fat contracts to acquire these stars.
Talk in the professional wrestling world has been highly focused on big names jumping from WWE to AEW. With CM Punk, Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson, Christian Cage, Andrade El Idolo, and others potentially already a part of the AEW roster, the question about how many more WWE stars might follow suit is valid. Recent chatter that both Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn have WWE deals that expire soon and would be on AEW’s radar is interesting, while the futures of talent like Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt are still to be determined.
What seems to be the case, with exception of Punk — who was on Tony Khan’s radar for some time — is that AEW is not actively going after these former WWE stars. In fact, even when these talents become available, the talk is that AEW is not offering big money to convince the talent to join the roster. In some cases, these stars are being offered less and gladly accepting the deals because they are prioritizing the work environment over money.
One of the consistent themes is that AEW has money, but they aren’t eager to throw it away. Their pitch is creative input, a team atmosphere, fewer days, the ability to work outside the promotion, strong in-ring wrestling matchups, healthy relationships with the people in charge, and a family environment where talent wants to work together and there isn’t nearly as much political dissension as there might be in WWE. That’s how AEW is selling coming aboard and for wrestlers who value earning the best money over those things, AEW is happy enough to let wrestlers look at other options. In fact, Danielson said he almost didn’t come over.
In other words, AEW is not doing what WCW did back in the day and offering bigger money to acquire talent.
In some situations, Tony Khan is going after the talents that he wants. He had his eyes on 2.0 after they were released from NXT and he patiently waited for Punk to feel like the timing was right and AEW was the right fit. In other cases, Khan isn’t chasing free agents. Ruby Soho mentioned that she wasn’t sure if there was a spot for her in AEW and reached out to find out there was. If Ric Flair joins, it will likely be because he’s asked to work with Andrade El Idolo. Adam Cole was surprised to learn his contract had expired in AEW and Khan didn’t know anything about it until he was told as much. While the pay is likely fair for everyone, it doesn’t sound like any of these stars have hit a financial home run.
As such, don’t be surprised if stars like Owens and Zayn don’t jump. It will depend on what they value. It could be financial security or it could be the freedom that comes with having the best matches with creative input and joining a “wrestling promotion” over a sports entertainment company.
Source: TheSportster
Kenny Omega has topped the PWI 500 for the second time in his career, beating Roman Reigns to number one.
Kenny Omega has topped the PWI 500 for only the second time in his career, knocking Jon Moxley off the top spot and all the way down to number six.
Pro Wrestling Illustrated has been ranking the 500 best male wrestlers in the business since 1991. Who deserves to be number one each year is heavily debated, with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Stone Cole, CM Punk, and AJ Styles all having clinched the top spot in the past. This year’s top ten has been revealed, and PWI has declared Kenny Omega 2021’s best male wrestler.
This is actually the second time Omega has topped the PWI 500. The Cleaner was named the publication’s best wrestler in 2018 as well. It was hard to argue with the decision to place him first then, and maybe even more difficult to make a case against him in 2021. During PWI’s assessment period, Omega won World Titles in three different promotions, holding them simultaneously.
The rest of the top ten has been revealed too, with Universal Champion Roman Reigns claiming the number two spot. That’s the highest Reigns has placed since he took the number one spot in 2016, bouncing back from dropping out of the top ten completely in 2020 when he missed a chunk of the year due to the pandemic.
Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, and Finn Balor also make the top ten, as does Will Ospreay. However, the New Japan star appears to be a little miffed with only making it as high as seventh. It’s actually the highest Ospreay has ever placed, only cracking the top ten one time before this in 2019. The British star tweeted that he could beat Omega any night of the week in response to the top ten being posted on Twitter.
SouOmega responded that New Japan has been “ice cold” since he left, to which Ospreay replied by pointing to a sold-out MSG show and the best-selling Tokyo Dome show in the promotion’s history. Ospreay closes by challenging Omega to a match. The forbidden door between AEW and New Japan is wide open right now, so it could happen. Just last night on Dynamite Moxley defeated Minoru Suzuki.
Source: TheSportster
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode airs on TNT at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio.
* Fallout from All Out
* Jon Moxley vs. Minoru Suzuki
* Ruby Soho vs. Jamie Hayter (with Britt Baker and Rebel)
* Malakai Black vs. Dustin Rhodes
WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley took to Facebook this morning and issued a video warning to WWE following the AEW All Out debuts of Adam Cole, Bryan Danielson and Ruby Soho.
Foley titled his video, “WWE – WE’VE GOT A PROBLEM.” You can read his full comments and watch the video below:
“Hello, this is ‘The Hardcore Legend’ Mick Foley. I’d like to title this video, ‘WWE – We’ve Got a Problem’ because I think you do and that problem is that WWE is no longer the place for talent to aspire to,” Foley began. “Part of it is because AEW is doing a great job of attracting great talent, proven talent, building other talent, creating storylines, but part of it is a problem of your own making. I think younger talent sees the way that developmental characters are cut or left by the wayside, or in the case of Karrion Kross, greatly watered down and even made a joke of when they debut on the main roster. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
“If I was an aspiring talent now, big league talent with a major decision to make, I’m not sure that I would trust WWE creative to do the right thing with my career. You guys did wonders with me back in the day… that was a different time, different place. If it was today, I’m not sure I would trust the powers to be with my career in their hands, and until that changes, WWE – you’ve got a problem.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Bryan Danielson has revealed why he didn’t chant “yes” along with the fans at AEW All Out.
Bryan Danielson has explained why he didn’t chant “yes” along with the fans when he came to the ring at All Out.
Daniel Bryan, who will now go by Bryan Danielson since he is no longer with WWE, made his very first appearance for AEW at All Out. Danielson aligned himself with Jurassic Express and Christian Cage, chasing off The Elite along with its own brand new member, Adam Cole. Fans in-house broke out into a deafening yes chant as Danielson made his way to the ring, but the former WWE Champion didn’t join in.
On the surface, that was probably because he was focused on helping out the wrestlers getting beaten down in the ring. However, when asked about it after the show, Danielson admitted he’s not sure he’s legally allowed to chant yes and strike his signature pose on a non-WWE wrestling show.
“I don’t know, we’re going to have to talk about like what I can do and what I cannot do,” Danielson explained. “I appreciate the people I worked for before and respecting their intellectual property and that sort of thing… the fans doing it is great, but I’m not sure if I’m going to do it.” Tony Khan added afterwards that he doesn’t believe the yes chant is WWE’s IP.
Despite WWE’s penchant for trademarking everything it can when it comes to its employees, it seems unlikely that it would be able to lay claim to one of the most commonly used three letter words in the English language. Based on everything else Danielson said during the post-show scrum, it may be more of a case of him wanting to respect WWE. He said that he still has a great relationship with Vince McMahon, and sees some of the people still under WWE’s employ as family.
It could also be a case of Danielson simply not wanting to bring that part of his WWE persona with him. While he might have reached the once unfathomable levels of fame he as attained while under WWE’s banner, this is a whole new chapter in his career. He may want to reinvent himself using elements of his time in WWE, but not necessarily all of them.
Source: TheSportster
AEW star Kip Sabian hasn’t wrestled since May 24 and underwent successful arm surgery in mid-May.
His last appearance on AEW TV was on April 28, thanks to a backstage attack from Miro. The current TNT Champion was not happy at the time about their loss to Chuck Taylor and Orange Cassidy in an Arcade Anarchy Match.
Sabian now looks to be potentially working on a new gimmick, posting a photo of himself wearing a suit and box over his head with the words, “underrated, over it” on the box. There’s also a sand timer on the side of the box.
“Time doesn’t heal…It changes you…” Sabian wrote in the caption.
During this weekend’s AEW All Out Fan Fest, Sabian did an unadvertised meet and greet with fans and scribbled different messages over his 8×10 photos.
On many of them he scratched out his face and wrote “no” as to indicate he’s not long connecting with that character. In the videos, it didn’t sound like Sabian talked at all with the fans that came up to him.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
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