Tag: aew notes

AEW notes: Trios title challenge, Cope, Chris Jericho, new faction name

Posted on by Josh Nason

Image: AEW

Here are some follow-up notes from Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite — the follow-up to last Sunday’s Dynasty pay-per-view.

Trios title challenge

Following Samoa Joe & Hook’s victory over Wheeler Yuta & Claudio Castagnoli in the main event and the subsequent brawl with the Death Riders, Joe issued a challenge on behalf of Hook and Katsuyori Shibata for the AEW Trios titles that Yuta, Castagnoli and PAC currently hold.

The challenge has yet to be accepted, but a potential wrench in the plan is the foot injury PAC suffered in his match with Swerve Strickland earlier in the night. As of this writing, it’s unknown what the extent of the injury is and how long he could be out of action.

Cope out

During the broadcast, the announce team recapped FTR turning on Adam “Cope” Copeland at Dynasty and questioned whether he will ever return to wrestling due to his history of neck injuries. They said the former TNT Champion is out indefinitely while FTR will be on Collision this Saturday to address the attack. It’s likely they also confront Tony Schiavone who took Dax Harwood to task and invoked the name of his daughter in doing so.

New Callis Family members?

During a backstage promo flanked by Kyle Fletcher and Konosuke Takeshita, Don Callis said that due to a rash of injuries in the group, they are accepting potential new members so people should send their resumes, phone numbers and bank accounts because they’ll go straight to the top.

He didn’t mention the injured by name which is Brian Cage (knee injury) and Mark Davis (foot injury) that will keep them out of action for a while.

Chris Jericho has had enough

As part of an in-ring promo, Chris Jericho informed Big Bill and Bryan Keith that he is disappointed with everyone’s failed efforts at Dynasty (Jericho losing the ROH World title with Bill and Keith unable to win the AEW Tag Team titles). Therefore, he is leaving until Bill and Keith until they change that disappointment in him. He later shown leaving the venue in a car to drive the point home.

Jericho’s band Fozzy is about to embark on a one-month tour that begins next Thursday and runs through Monday, May 12th. Of note, there is only one Wednesday date on the schedule (April 30th).

Undisputed No More

In a backstage promo, new TNT Champion Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong introduced what appears to be a new faction name for this new chapter in their history: The Paragon which Cole said is “undisputed.”

The three had been going by the Undisputed Kingdom along with Mike Bennett & Matt Taven. However, Bennett and Taven haven’t been on AEW or ROH TV since December’s Final Battle. Their last AEW appearance was in early-November and it’s unclear what their future is with the Tony Khan-owned promotions.

Tony Khan AEW media call notes: Bandido, Sting & Lex Luger, spiked bat spot, Max viewership

Posted on by Josh Nason

Ahead of this Sunday’s AEW Dynasty pay-per-view in Philadelphia, AEW head Tony Khan held his usual pre-PPV media call was asked and answered questions about the Bandido/Chris Jericho match, Sting and the WWE Hall of Fame, the Max viewership report and more.

The full audio from the call can be heard below.

Bandido vs. Chris Jericho

Khan was asked if the match was off for Sunday since it’s disappeared from the website and wasn’t mentioned during the Dynamite rundown. Khan said there’s still one more TV show to go before Dynasty, but also said Bandido never formally accepted the mask vs. title challenge. He said he never confirmed the match for “good reasons” and then mentioned a reason being “the availability of Bandido to do the match and have the match play out safely for him and for us” which he didn’t clarify what that meant.

Sting and the WWE Hall of Fame

Asked about the potential of Sting inducting Lex Luger into the WWE Hall of Fame, Khan said he caught up with Sting in March but that topic didn’t come up and still hasn’t.

Max viewership

Khan didn’t deny anything written in the much-discussed BJ Bethel report this week about AEW viewership numbers on Max, but said he still he doesn’t get weekly reports like he does from Nielsen. He said he was excited about that report and that he does know AEW is one of the top sports events on Max week in and out, but not much else.

Moxley, Cope and Spike

Asked about some of the negative blowback online to the spiked bat to the back spot in the Jon Moxley vs. Cope match recently, Khan said it was a “hardcore moment,” put over how tough both guys were, and noted Moxley was able to wrestle this week. Khan overall didn’t sound like he put much weight in the negative comments.

For the full hour-long call, listen here.

AEW Double or Nothing scrum: Mark Henry, Lio Rush, NJPW notes

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Photo credit: Jon Alba

AEW held a media scrum following the Double or Nothing PPV. 

Tony Khan, Chris Jericho, Britt Baker and Jungle Boy spoke to reporters. Here are some notable items from the event. 

Tony Khan —

  • Khan said that he has a handshake deal with Lio Rush, who debuted in the Casino Battle Royale. He said that he had looked to bring Rush in for an event in 2020, but Rush filming MTV’s The Challenge precluded that from happening. He said that Rush will continue to be available for NJPW events. 
  • Regarding the promo that Khan cut on WWE’s Nick Khan and the report that WWE had negotiations with NJPW, Khan said that he asked NJPW if they thought he should cut the promo. He said that NJPW agreed and “they thought it was great.” Khan said that he expects to continue working with NJPW. 
  • Khan discussed Mark Henry’s signing. He said that he and Henry are personal friends. He put over Henry’s mind for the wrestling business and thought he would be a good locker room presence. 
  • Khan said that Mark Henry and another current AEW roster member will be commentators on Rampage when the show debuts in August. He said that Rampage will sometimes be taped in conjunction with Dark and Dark: Elevation, but that Rampage will also be live some weeks. 
  • Khan said that he apologized to Hikaru Shida for the incident where commentator Willie Urbina mocked her accent and that it was important that he take action in dealing with the incident. 
  • Khan said he expects that there will be another Stadium Stampede match in the future. 

Chris Jericho —

  • Jericho said that portions of the Stadium Stampede match were filmed over a period of four days and that they were looking to make the match look more like an action movie. 
  • To that end, Jericho said that they brought in a stunt coordinator who works on the Jon Wick action films to help film the “fight scenes.”

Britt Baker —

  • Baker put over the hard work of the entire women’s division and said that they collectively have improved with more television time. 
  • Baker said that AEW currently doesn’t have any female coaches, but could see Serena Deeb in that role in the future. 

Jungle Boy —

  • Jungle Boy gave credit to wrestling veteran talent like FTR and Chris Jericho for improving his in-ring work. He said that working on Dark and Dark: Elevation has helped him improve as well. 
  • He described the anxiety that he deals with before his matches, but said that having his Tarzan Boy entrance music has helped ease that. 

H/t to Fightful for posting video of the scrum.