We are on the road to Revolution. On tonight’s Dynamite, we had an epic MJF promo, a heated confrontation between Chris Jericho and Eddie Kingston, plus the AEW debut of Buddy Matthews! Tune into Speak Now Pro Wrestling hosted by on-camera personality Denise Salcedo! This show is a fun and lively podcast perfect for all fans of All Elite Wrestling!
Topics Rundown:
– Battle Royal, fave moments, Adam Page attack on reDRagon and Adam Cole
– Breaking down the MJF promo, why I liked It, predictions
– Eddie Kingston has heated confrontation with Chris Jericho
– Ricky Starks vs. 10
– Tay Conti confronts Jade Cargill
– AEW Las Vegas dates announced
– Matches for Rampage, next week’s Dynamite and AEW Revolution
– Main event, Bryan Danielson defeats Daniel Garcia
Denise will return on Friday night to chat AEW Rampage and WWE Smackdown.
Buddy Matthews has signed with AEW, and has aligned with Malakai Black.
After Kings of the Black Throne defeated Death Triangle (PAC and Penta Oscuro) on tonight’s Dynamite, Black grabbed a shovel and was about to attack Penta when the lights went out. Matthews then appeared and at first acted like he was going to help PAC and Penta. However, he soon turned on them and a 3-on-2 attack ensued, ending with Matthews curb stomping Penta into a chair.
Tony Khan then tweeted that Matthews had signed with the promotion.
Matthews is best known for his run in WWE under the name Buddy Murphy, signing with the company in 2013. After spending time in NXT, he was called up in 2017 as part of the 205 Live brand, winning the Cruiserweight title. The following year, he moved up to the main roster and was best known for his matches with Black, which eventually led him to align with Seth Rollins, serving as his disciple. After turning against Seth, Murphy was mostly left off television until his release last June.
Even when they lose talent, AEW is continuing to stockpile their packed roster with free agents with the latest to catch their eye being former WWE wrestler Buddy Matthews.
Fightful first reported Wednesday that since January, several AEW talents were told that there is a working plan to bring in Matthews. There were no other details provided.
The former Buddy Murphy in WWE was released last June in one of the company’s various rounds of cuts. Since then, the 33-year-old Australian has worked for a variety of U.S. indies in addition to New Japan Pro Wrestling against Okada, MLW against TJP and this year’s PWG BOLA tournament where he faced JONAH, “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Lio Rush.
If the signing comes to be, Matthews joins Keith Lee, Danhausen, Mercedes Martinez, Kyle O’Reilly, Nick Wayne and others to sign with AEW in recent months.
Fightful also noted that former MLW tag team Violence Is Forever (Kevin Ku and Dominick Garrini) are in Nashville, Tennessee, for AEW Wednesday.
The report stated the indie team were in Cleveland, Ohio, last week, but weren’t used in any segments or matches for Dark: Elevation but that they are “set to participate in some degree this week.”
Both men came to terms on their respective MLW releases in the last few months.
A former WWE wrestler is set to arrive in MLW tonight.
Buddy Matthews will make his MLW debut at Friday night’s Blood & Thunder tapings in Dallas, Texas. The show is taking place at Gilley’s Dallas.
Matthews (the former Buddy Murphy) was released by WWE during a round of roster cuts last June. In addition to wrestling on the indies since being released, Matthews faced Kazuchika Okada at NJPW’s Battle in the Valley event in November. Matthews will return to NJPW at their New Japan Strong tapings in Hollywood, California next month.
“There’s one free agent we get a ton of requests for. Tonight he makes his @MLW debut,” MLW’s Court Bauer tweeted about Matthews. “Dude is a top level workhorse and fits perfectly with my vision for a new ’22 for MLW.”
The Blood & Thunder tapings will feature Alex Hammerstone defending his MLW World Heavyweight Championship against Pagano in a falls count anywhere match. 5150 (Slice Boogie & Danny “Limelight” Rivera) putting their MLW Tag Team titles on the line against Ross & Marshall Von Erich was supposed to be the other top match at the tapings, but the Von Erichs are off the show due to COVID-19. A mystery team will replace them in the match against 5150.
PWG has announced the full field of 16 for the Battle of Los Angeles 2022 tournament.
Buddy Matthews and Phillip Five Skulls were revealed today as the final two participants in the 2022 BOLA. PWG announcedboth on Twitter.
“Phillip Five Skulls” looks to be a mystery entrant, with PWG using the name as a joke. It’s based on a tweet from earlier this year where someone made up the name “Phillip Five Skulls from Dayton.”
Matthews, formerly known as Buddy Murphy in WWE, and the unknown Philip Five Skulls join PWG World Champion Bandido, ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham, AEW’s Lio Rush, Daniel Garcia and Lee Moriarty, JONAH, Alex Shelley, Kevin Blackwood, Black Taurus, Jack Cartwheel, Aramis, Davey Richards, JD Drake, and Rey Horus in the BOLA field. The event will be held at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles, California on Saturday, January 29 and Sunday, January 30, the same weekend as WWE’s Royal Rumble.
Matthews was released by WWE in June and has since embarked on an indie tour that has included a stop in NJPW for a match with Kazuchika Okada at Battle in the Valley in November.
Kazuchika Okada has challenged the former Buddy Murphy for Saturday, November 13 in San Jose.
In his post-match comments after today’s NJPW Power Struggle show, Okada called out Buddy Matthews to face him at Battle in the Valley on Saturday. Matthews will be making his NJPW debut at the event.
Battle in the Valley will air on NJPW World with Japanese commentary and on FITE TV with English commentary at 11 p.m. Eastern time. The show will go head-to-head with the last hour of AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view.
Here is the lineup:
NJPW Battle in the Valley, Saturday, November 13, 11 p.m. Eastern time on NJPW World & FITE TV —
NEVER Openweight Championship: Jay White (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Kazuchika Okada vs. Buddy Matthews
Will Ospreay vs. Ren Narita
Juice Robinson vs. Moose
Jeff Cobb & TJP vs. Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors
Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson vs. Fred Rosser, David Finlay, Rocky Romero, Alex Coughlin & Alex Zayne
Brody King & Chris Dickinson vs. Bateman & Misterioso
Buddy Matthews will debut for the promotion on the Saturday, November 13 Battle in the Valley event in San Jose, California.
NJPW made the announcement with a video promo during tonight’s NJPW Strong tapings in Philadelphia. The video can be seen below. The company later tweeted the video, which Matthews then retweeted.
The tweet read:
“‘They say as one door closes, another opens… Maybe it was staring at me the entire time.’
Buddy Matthews is coming.”
Matthews joins an announced lineup for Battle in the Valley that includes Jay White, Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii and Juice Robinson. No matches have been made official for the event as of yet.
Matthews was released from his WWE contract on June 2, 2021. He had been with the company since signing in March 2013. After a lengthy run in NXT, Matthews joined the 205 Live brand when it was part of WWE’s main roster in 2018.
Matthews had a run on SmackDown in 2019, but had his most high-profile run after joining Raw in the 2019 WWE Draft. With Paul Heyman as Executive Director of Raw, Matthews and Aleister Black had a series of matches late in the year and in early 2020 that served to elevate both.
Matthews aligned with Seth Rollins and feuded with Black and the Mysterio family in 2020. Matthews later turned face and began a storyline romance with Mysterio’s daughter Aalyah. The romance storyline was later abruptly dropped.
Matthews would make only a couple of more WWE appearances after the Mysterio story was discontinued. His appearance in the 2021 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the April 9, 2021 edition of SmackDown would be his last in WWE.
The NJPW appearance will be the most high-profile for Matthews since leaving WWE, though he wrestled a pair of independent matches in September following his non-compete expiring.
An indie match against Black for Battleground Championship Wrestling on December 18 in Philadelphia has also been announced.
