Conrad Thompson has confirmed that Jon Moxley will not be appearing at the Starrcast III event in Chicago this weekend.
As noted, Moxley was pulled from Saturday’s AEW All Out match against Kenny Omega due to a bad case of MRSA in his elbow. He’s being replaced by PAC in the match. Moxley is expected to be out of action for 4 weeks.
“We received word today that unfortunately @JonMoxley won’t be able to travel to @StarrcastEvents. Once he got the word from his doctor he told us, “I’m sorry, this sucks.” I’m sure we all echo those sentiments. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him soon,” Conrad wrote on Wednesday night.
He continued, “Everyone who purchased his meet and greet has been notified via email. Refunds will begin being processed tomorrow. His stage show has been cancelled and a new schedule will be released tomorrow.”
AEW confirmed today that former WCW announcer Tony Schiavone has signed a full-time, multi-year deal with the company.
Schiavone will do AEW TV commentary with Excalibur and Jim Ross, and will also serve as a senior producer for AEW events.
Below is the full announcement sent to us today by AEW, which includes comments from AEWExecutive Vice President Cody Rhodes:
AEW SIGNS VETERAN COMMENTATOR TONY SCHIAVONE TO MULTI-YEAR DEAL
August 26, 2019 – All Elite Wrestling (AEW) today confirmed that it has signed renowned commentator Tony Schiavone to a full-time, multi-year agreement.
Schiavone, widely considered to be one of the most important voices in professional wrestling, joins AEW’s television broadcast team of Jim Ross and Excalibur. Schiavone will also serve as a senior producer for AEW events.
In addition to his work with AEW, the versatile Schiavone will continue his role as producer for the University of Georgia Football and Baseball Network, and will call the play-by-play for the Atlanta Braves’ Triple A team, the Gwinnett Stripers.
“Tony ‘The Silver Tongue’ Schiavone was the lead voice of pro wrestling at a time when it was dominating the globe,” said Cody Rhodes, EVP of AEW. “It’s a pleasure to have him join AEW as a senior producer and member of the broadcast team. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a UGA fan either. I think Tony is one of the most underrated lead men with the narrative of pro wrestling there’s ever been. I’m thrilled to get into the studio with him. Let’s welcome Tony to All Elite Wrestling.”
Jon Moxley took to Twitter Friday afternoon to announce that he is pulling out of the AEW All Out match against Kenny Omega on August 31, due to a “serious case of MRSA” in his elbow. It was recently reported that Moxley may have picked up the staph infection while working in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
“I’m absolutely gutted to have to deliver this news but I’d rather it come directly from me. In a nightmare scenario, a serious case of MRSA has returned in my elbow. The timing couldn’t be worse. In this circumstance I am forced to pull out of the fight 8/31 vs Omega at All Out,” Moxley wrote in his original tweet.
Moxley continued tweeting this afternoon and apologized to the fans, noting that he should be good to go for the AEW TNT premiere on October 2. He also confirmed surgery for this week.
He wrote, “I apologize to all involved, most importantly the fans. I am incredibly frustrated and pissed off. I’ll have surgery this week to remove the bursa sac in my elbow and be done with it for good. Should be a quick recovery so I will be 100% for AEW Wednesday nights on TNT.”
Moxley also encouraged fans to tune in to the All Out pay-per-view.
“Still, I expect All out to be an amazing ppv and hope all the fans out there looking for an alternative tune in. You will be blown away by AEW and be excited to be a wrestling fan. I’m looking forward to watching as a fan myself,” he wrote.
Moxley added, “This f–king sucks.”
You can see most of his tweet below – for the tweet mentioned above click HERE
I'm absolutely gutted to have to deliver this news but I'd rather it come directly from me. In a nightmare scenario, a serious case of MRSA has returned in my elbow. The timing couldn't be worse. In this circumstance I am forced to pull out of the fight 8/31 vs Omega at All Out .
I apologize to all involved, most importantly the fans. I am incredibly frustrated and pissed off. I'll have surgery this week to remove the bursa sac in my elbow and be done with it for good. Should be a quick recovery so I will be 100% for AEW Wednesday nights on TNT.
Still, I expect All out to be an amazing ppv and hope all the fans out there looking for an alternative tune in. You will be blown away by AEW and be excited to be a wrestling fan. I'm looking forward to watching as a fan myself
On the latest edition of Being the Elite, it was revealed that it will be PAC taking Moxley’s place against Kenny Omega at AEW All Out this Saturday.
* Cody in the AEW office with The Young Bucks. On the whiteboard it says “Easter Egg 1” and “Easter Egg 2.” All three are stressed with Moxley out of the match and there’s only a week to go before the PPV. Matt says make the main event a triple threat match, but the other two respond that doesn’t make any sense. Cody follows up, “That’s a WWE move.” Cody says Kota Ibushi, Matt responds, “He’s not available, we don’t even work with that company.” Nick Jackson throws out “Marty Scurll, he’s probably available.” Matt says, “He might as well be dead to us.” Cody offers up Flip Gordon, that gets a no. Matt then thinks of PAC and Cody isn’t so sure, especially after what happened last time. Matt pulls out his phone, “What time do ya think it is in London right now?” We see a graphic of PAC vs. Kenny Omega at All Out.
Jon Moxley is currently dealing with some sort of elbow injury, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
There’s no word yet on injury specifics, but it may be an infection that Moxley picked up while working in Japan for New Japan Pro Wrestling this summer.
Moxley worked Northeast Wrestling indie events this past weekend and his singles matches were switched to tag matches, except for the match with Pentagon Jr. Moxley insisted on doing that singles match but was very careful not to bump on the elbow.
Moxley is scheduled to face Kenny Omega at AEW’s All Out pay-per-view next Saturday, August 31.
It looks like eSports host/announcer Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez has signed with All Elite Wrestling.
Mendez took to Twitter this week and posted a GIF that said “it’s official” and included a contract. AEW’s Alex Marvez responded and wrote, “Welcome aboard!!!”
Goldenboy did AEWFyter Fest commentary with Excalibur and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross back in July due to the partnership between AEW and CEO Gaming, who helped put the event on. Goldenboy made his name doing eSports commentary and also did commentary work for The Rock’s Titan Games on NBC.
TNT is scheduled to air an AEW special on Friday, August 30 at 10pm ET.
The one-hour special will give viewers an introduction to the AEW product to prepare them for the weekly TNT series premiere, which airs from 8-10pm ET on Wednesday, October 2.
The special will also promote the AEWAll Out pay-per-view, which takes place the next night, August 31.
One of the signature voices of the Monday Night Wars is on his way to All Elite Wrestling. PWInsider is reporting that Tony Schiavone has become a member of the AEW brand. This is after speculation that WWE had interest in the former voice of WCW.
The report went on to say that Schiavone will be able to continue his color commentary duties with Major League Wrestling, where he signed a two-year deal. It was previously reported that Schiavone’s current contract with MLW would not allow him to work with another company like AEW or WWE. In fact, Court Bauer did not know that Schiavone was going to be involved in AEW’s “Road to All Out” online series, which was shot this past May.
“Unless AEW elects to reach out, Tony Schiavone cannot proceed with AEW or any other company doing anything. I was unaware of him doing the digital stuff until I read it in this week’s Observer,” Bauer said.
At the time, Schiavone was just helping out Cody Rhodes. It is unknown what specific role he will have with the organization. AEW’s current broadcast team is comprised of Jim Ross, Excalibur and Alex Marvez. They also have Chris Van Vliet and Alicia Atout as backstage interviewers.
Whatever his role may be with AEW, Schiavone will return to TNT for the first time since WCW’s run when the brand ended in 2001.
AEW has announced that the first-ever AEW World Title defense will take place during the third TNT episode, which airs live on Wednesday, October 16 from Philadelphia.
The inaugural AEW World Champion will be crowned on Saturday, August 31 as Chris Jericho faces “Hangman” Adam Page in the main event of the AEWAll Out pay-per-view. There’s no word yet on who will challenge Page or Jericho in Philadelphia.
Below are the updated line-ups for the first three AEW on TNT episodes:
Wednesday, October 2 Premiere Episode
Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
* Jon Moxley appears live
* Cody Rhodes vs. Sammy Guevara
* The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho and two mystery partners
* The first-ever AEW Women’s Champion will be crowned
Wednesday, October 9
Agganis Arena, Boston
* Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears
* The Young Bucks vs. Private Party in an AEW Tag Team Titles tournament match
Wednesday, October 16
Liacouras Center, Philadelphia
* First-ever AEW World Title defense, Chris Jericho or Adam Page vs. TBA
AEW has two more pay-per-views scheduled for 2019, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The next AEW pay-per-view will be the big All Out event on Saturday, August 31 from the Sears Centre Arena near Chicago. There’s no word yet on details of the other pay-per-view scheduled for this year.
AEW currently has plans to hold 4 pay-per-view events in 2020. They have already held three special events in 2019 – Double Or Nothing, Fyter Fest, and Fight for the Fallen.
In other news on AEW content, the Wednesday, October 2 TNT episode will be AEW’s first live wrestling TV show, but they have other programming scheduled to air on TNT before that. There will be programming designed to give an introduction to the company and to build to major events. They should be making announcements on this programming soon.
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