John LaRocca and I are back with another episode of The Fight Game Podcast.
We kicked things off with our discussion on this week’s Dark Side of the Ring episode on Chris Adams, looking at a major unanswered question as well as going through some of the finer details of Adams’ death through Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter bio from 2001.
We then got to the rest of our topics which included:
The end of any connection with Vince McMahon, the most powerful and influential figure in the history of pro wrestling, is now imminent.
McMahon has been completely out of power since resigning under pressure just prior to the Royal Rumble after the Janel Grant lawsuit and the threat of sponsor pullouts. But his last connection to the business, being the largest individual shareholder in TKO, is about to become a thing of the past.
McMahon has registered to sell his remaining 8,021,405 shares in TKO.
In something unrelated, WWE President Nick Khan has registered to sell 234,424 shares. The remaining shares McMahon is looking to sell would be worth about $781 million, while the shares Khan is looking to sell are worth about $23 million.
While my belief is that McMahon is done in wrestling, given he’s 78 years old, from a legal standpoint he does have a one-year non-compete. This would end in late January 2025. He can, at that point, start up a new promotion.
Other stories this week include:
An inside look at Rossy Ogawa’s Marigold and its WWE relationship
Why this weekend’s AEW Dynasty is so important
A criminal complaint against Dos Caras
A recap of all the week’s TV shows, events, and UFC 300
Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm is back with tons to talk about including the latest on Lance’s ongoing health issues, a look at AEW Dynamite from Wednesday night, Impact’s Saturday night PPV, a live Q&A and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Stemming out of AEW Dynamite, two new matches are set for Sunday’s Zero Hour pre-show for AEW Dynasty as Trent Beretta will take on Matt Sydal while Orange Cassidy will team with Katsuyori Shibata against Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty.
Beretta threw a chair at Sydal’s head on Wednesday’s Dynamite as the latter tried to aid Cassidy from a post-match attack by Taylor, Anthony Ogogo & Moriarty.
While the two have shared the ring 16 times in the past, this will be the first-ever singles clash for the two veterans. The two actually teamed together in the AEW Blind Eliminator tag team tournament in July 2023, losing to Big Bill & Brian Cage.
Sydal is looking to snap an eight-match losing streak in AEW while Beretta has lost seven straight in AEW.
The tag match will see Cassidy attempt to gain a measure of revenge alongside Shibata who has also been feuding with Shane Taylor Promotions in recent weeks.
Here’s the current lineup for the pay-per-view in St. Louis, Missouri:
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
Ladder match for the vacant AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks vs. FTR
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against PAC
AEW International Champion Roderick Strong defends against Kyle O’Reilly
FTW Champion Hook defends against Chris Jericho
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Mark Briscoe & Eddie Kingston vs. Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews
Pre-show: AEW Trios Champions Max Caster, Anthony Bowens & Billy Gunn vs. ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Jay White, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn in a title unification match
Pre-show: Trent Beretta vs. Matt Sydal
Pre-show: Orange Cassidy & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including CM Punk and Tony Khan and the triceps surgery, more notes from Tony’s press conference, AEW Dynamite notes plus more matches for Dynasty, the completely wacky Nyla Rose story, and tons more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Undisputed World Trios Champions will be crowned at AEW Dynasty.
On today’s AEW media call, Tony Khan confirmed the ROH Six Man and AEW Trios titles will be unified in the match between Bullet Club Gold and The Acclaimed on Sunday.
“The winner of the match will be the Undisputed World Trios Champions. I think that’s very cool and it’ll create a lot of great opportunities for the top trios out there,” Khan said on today’s call. “I think it’s very exciting, you know, some consolidation and unification of championships.”
Khan also noted that an injury almost delayed the match from being made.
“We had an injury this past week and I’d been waiting to confirm this match on the card,” Khan continued. “When we got the clearance from the doctors I was really excited to be able to add this match to the card.”
Further details regarding the injury or who was injured were not revealed.
The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn defeated The House of Black to win the AEW Trios titles at AEW All In last summer. Bullet Club Gold have been ROH Six Man Tag Team Champions since defeated The Mogul Embassy for them on the January 17, 2024 AEW Dynamite.
If CM Punk paid for his own triceps surgery, AEW head Tony Khan said he was surprised to hear it and offered to reimburse his former star if so.
Khan spoke to the media for an hour Thursday to promote Sunday’s AEW Dynasty, the audio of which is available at the bottom of this post.
Khan was asked about Punk’s claims during a recent interview that he had to take care of all aspects of the triceps injury he suffered at September 2022’s All Out and whether AEW had a policy to cover any medical expenses for their talent.
Khan said they typically cover those expenses for injuries suffered in AEW and would be surprised to hear if they didn’t do that for Punk. It didn’t sound accurate to him and he offered to reimburse him if that was the case.
When asked about how they would handle future dates in states with similar regulations, Khan was non-committal about not running those states or leaving Rose off those shows, saying he is looking forward to their 2024 schedule and will take everything under consideration with this developing situation.
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He was also asked about his decision to air the Punk/Jack Perry All In footage on last week’s Dynamite, saying that TBS called him after seeing the numbers and thought he did a good job. He said for TBS, ratings are the number one source of fan feedback and that airing the footage added “a lot of intrigue” into the FTR/Young Bucks Tag Team title match this weekend.
Here are some other highlights and threads from the hour-long talk with the audio available below:
Khan acknowledged and leaned into the $2 billion valuation by Forbes that came out Thursday and sayid AEW is the most valuable sports startup since the AFL which eventually merged with the NFL. He said the upcoming media rights deal is the most important thing for the company and that PPV growth is also important.
Khan said he isn’t sure if the multiple streaming options to buy AEW PPVs will continue after this upcoming three-month stretch. He didn’t say why WBD allowed them to now offer the PPVs via streaming sources other than Bleacher Report domestically.
He verified that the AEW Trios and Ring of Honor Six-Man Tag Team titles will be unified Sunday. He added one of the participants was injured and didn’t get cleared until this week which is why it took a while for the match to get announced.
Khan said they are up year-over-year when comparing first quarters, crediting more shows, higher PPV revenue and increased media rights.
He said the reason for the release of the full PPV schedule for the year was an initiative from new hire Kosha Irby.
He expects the availability of his full library to be part of the next media rights deal he signs.
They are still in the exclusive negotiation window with WBD on those rights.
He said the hire of Carlos Cabrera was Mike Mansury’s idea after having worked with him in WWE. Khan said he listened to fan feedback to upgrade their Spanish language presentation. He added that Mansury is fluent in Spanish.
Two title matches have been added to Sunday’s AEW Dynasty pay-per-view lineup.
As revealed during Wednesday night’s Dynamite, Hook will defend the FTW Championship against Chris Jericho at Dynasty. The match stems from weeks of a simmering feud between the two as Jericho wants to mentor Hook.
The issue boiled over on Dynamite as Jericho shoved Hook’s father Taz as Taz moderated a discussion between the two.
The other new title match for Dynasty will air on the Zero Hour pre-show on Sunday, as both the AEW World Trios Championship and the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Championship will be on the line in the same match.
ROH Six-Man Tag champs Jay White, Austin Gunn, & Colten Gunn will take on AEW Trios Champions Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, & Billy Gunn with both sets of titles on the line.
The updated card for Dynasty:
AEW Dynasty, Sunday, April 21, 8 p.m. Eastern time on pay-per-view —
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
Ladder match for the vacant AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks vs. FTR
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against PAC
AEW International Champion Roderick Strong defends against Kyle O’Reilly
FTW Champion Hook defends against Chris Jericho
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Mark Briscoe & Eddie Kingston vs. Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews
Zero Hour pre-show, 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on AEW’s YouTube & social media channels —
AEW Trios Champions Max Caster, Anthony Bowens & Billy Gunn vs. ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions Jay White, Austin Gunn & Colten Gunn with both titles on the line
A new stipulation has been added to the Tag Team title match at AEW Dynasty next week.
During AEW Collision, it was announced that The Young Bucks and FTR will now square off in a ladder match on April 21. The match serves as the finals of a tournament to crown new champions after Sting and Darby Allin vacated the titles following Sting’s retirement in March.
On Dynamite, The Young Bucks aired real-life footage of a brawl between Jack Perry and CM Punk at All In last August. They used the altercation to push their Dynasty match, saying that because of what happened, they weren’t able to focus on their match against FTR at All In. They even went as far as accusing FTR of being the masterminds behind the altercation, but later took it back as they said the accusation was too “unprofessional”.
Roderick Strong will also defend the International title against Kyle O’Reilly. After weeks of Strong supporting O’Reilly as he went on his own path, he turned on O’Reilly at AEW Battle of the Belts X. As O’Reilly was checking on Rocky Romero following his loss, Strong used the distraction to lay out O’Reilly, telling him that he had made the wrong choice.
The updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
Ladder match for AEW Tag Team titles: The Young Bucks vs. FTR
AEW International title: Roderick Strong defends against Kyle O’Reilly
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against PAC
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King)
A match for the Continental Championship is now official for AEW Dynasty.
On Dynamite, Kazuchika Okada accepted PAC’s challenge for a match on April 21 in St. Louis. PAC came out and the two had a staredown. PAC started to head to the ring but was jumped by The Young Bucks. FTR came out for the save but was taken out by Okada with a steel chair. The Young Bucks hit the EVP trigger on FTR while Okada struck PAC with the chair to finish the segment.
Last month, PAC made his return to the company, saving Eddie Kingston and Penta El Zero Miedo from an attack by The Young Bucks and Okada. On this past weekend’s Collision, PAC issued the challenge for the Continental title.
The updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW Tag Team title tournament finals: The Young Bucks vs. FTR
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada defends against PAC
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King)
The finals are now set in the AEW Tag Team title tournament.
FTR defeated Top Flight on Collision to advance to the finals of the tournament, with Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler picking up the win after hitting the Shatter Machine on Dante Martin. They will now face FTR for the vacant titles at AEW Dynasty on April 21 in St. Louis, Missouri. Whoever wins the titles will become the first-ever three-time AEW Tag Team Champions.
The Young Bucks failed to win the titles from Sting & Darby Allin at February’s Revolution event in what was Sting’s final match. Following the show, the titles were vacated and a tournament began to crown new champions. Nicholas & Matthew defeated Private Party and Best Friends to reach the finals, while FTR defeated The Infantry to advance to the semifinals.
The updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW Tag Team title tournament finals: The Young Bucks vs. FTR
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King)
Thunder Rosa will challenge Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship at Dynasty.
Rosa defeated Mariah May on Wednesday’s Dynamite to cement her spot as the number one contender to Storm’s Women’s title, and the match was officially announced for the Dynasty pay-per-view set for Sunday, April 21.
In a bout featuring the top-ranked Rosa and the second-ranked May, Rosa scored the victory on Dynamite to secure the title shot.
Rosa is a former Women’s World Champion, but never lost the title in the ring, vacating it due to injury in 2022. Rosa returned to the ring last December after missing more than a year with a back injury.
Storm is in the midst of her third reign as Women’s Word Champion.
The updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Champion Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defends against Thunder Rosa
TBS Champion Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
AEW Tag Team title tournament finals: The Young Bucks vs. FTR or Top Flight
Bryan Danielson vs. Will Ospreay
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King)
A six-man tag team match has been added to AEW’s next pay-per-view.
Adam Copeland will team with Eddie Kingston and Mark Briscoe to take on The House of Black. Copeland had retained the TNT Championship against Matt Cardona on Collision when the lights went out. Malakai Black appeared when they came back on, which led to Buddy Matthews attacking Copeland from behind. Briscoe and Kingston came out for the save. The match was then announced for April 21 in St. Louis, Missouri.
Briscoe has been feuding with The House of Black in recent weeks. He came out during their match against The Infantry in an AEW Tag Team title tournament match. His distraction allowed The Infantry to score an upset win over The House of Black, eliminating them from the tournament.
Here is the updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Championship: Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
TBS Championship: Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson
Tournament final to determine new AEW World Tag Team Champions
The House of Black vs. Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston, and Mark Briscoe
The AEW World Championship match for Dynasty is now set.
Swerve Strickland defeated Konosuke Takeshita to determine the new number one contender for Samoa Joe’s AEW World Championship on Wednesday’s Dynamite. It was confirmed right after his victory that their title match will take place at AEW Dynasty on April 21 in New Orleans.
Strickland has been looking to get another championship match after the events of Revolution, which saw Joe retain the title against Hangman Page and Strickland in a three-way bout after Joe submitted Page. Following the number one contender’s match on Wednesday, an upset Joe backstage told Renee Paquette that after Strickland signs the dotted line next week, he will make Strickland realize just what he’s asking for.
Willow Nightingale won a four-way match on Dynamite to become the new number one contender for the TBS Championship, defeating Skye Blue, Anna Jay, and Kris Statlander. New AEW signee Mercedes Mone was at ringside. After the match, TBS Champion Julia Hart attacked Nightingale and had a staredown with Mone.
Here is the updated lineup for Dynasty:
AEW World Championship: Samoa Joe defends against Swerve Strickland
TBS Championship: Julia Hart defends against Willow Nightingale
Will Ospreay vs. Bryan Danielson
Tournament final to determine new AEW World Tag Team Champions
In yet another change for how fans can buy their pay-per-views, AEW has added both YouTube and PPV.com as methods in which they can purchase next month’s Dynasty.
The new methods are notable as Bleacher Report was previously the sole option for U.S. streaming buyers to purchase AEW PPVs. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned brand is the domestic TV partner for AEW in a deal that expires at some point later this year. The renewal of those rights has been a hot topic, especially in how the PPVs will be packaged, or not packaged, as part of it.
During March’s Revolution, fans complained publicly about technical issues on Bleacher Report that forced them to miss portions of the first hour. In a first, the PPV was then made available for purchase on Triller for U.S. buyers roughly an hour after the main card started. Triller is an international streaming partner for AEW with both PPVs and the AEW Plus service.
Regardless of where it is purchased, the cost remains at $49.99 in the U.S. with no bundle options available.
As of this writing, AEW has not replied to a request for comment on the rationale for the changes.
