Tag: excalibur

Orange Cassidy to induct Excalibur into GCW Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Orange Cassidy will induct Excalibur into the GCW Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame at a ceremony on Sunday, April 2.

GCW announced late Wednesday that Cassidy, AEW’s International Champion, will induct Excalibur at the event set for the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air live on FITE+ at 3 p.m. Eastern time.

AEW’s lead broadcast voice since its 2019 inception, Excalibur is also the co-founder of Pro Wrestling Guerilla, widely considered the most influential independent pro wrestling promotion in the country. 

Real name Marc Letzmann, Excalibur had a seven-year career as an independent wrestler prior to becoming a commentator. He wrestled on PWG’s first show in 2003. 

The 2023 class of the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame includes these entrants and inductees: 

  • Excalibur [Orange Cassidy]
  • Paul London [TBA]
  • Cheerleader Melissa [Dave Prazak]
  • Jimmy Jacobs [Alex Shelley]
  • Mike Modest [Beyond the Mat director Barry Blaustein]
  • Christopher Daniels [Frankie Kazarian]

GCW and Orange Crush magazine established the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2022. The first class consisted of Jerry Lynn, Homicide, Dave Prazak, LuFisto, Ruckus, and Tracy Smothers.

Excalibur announced for Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame

Posted on by Josh Nason

This story was updated and corrected.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla co-founder, former indie wrestler and AEW lead commentator Excalibur was announced as the fifth entrant into the Indie Hall of Fame Thursday.

The ceremony will take place Sunday, April 2nd at the Millenium Biltmore as part of WrestleCon taking place during WrestleMania weekend in Los Angeles.

It’s unknown who will induct him.

One final entrant has yet to be announced.

The 42-year-old Excalibur (Marc Letzmann) is one of six founders of the famed PWG out of Los Angeles, an indie promotion that has featured a who’s who of domestic and international talent in addition to their yearly Battle of Los Angeles tournament.

He was an indie wrestler from 2000 through his retirement in 2007 due to concerns about the long-term effects of concussions. In his time in the ring, he worked for PWG, CZW, Chikara, and California’s RevPro.

He has been part of the AEW broadcast team since 2019.

Here are the five current inductees and who will be inducting them:

  • Excalibur (TBA)
  • Christopher Daniels (Frankie Kazarian)
  • Cheerleader Melissa (Dave Prazak)
  • Jimmy Jacobs (Alex Shelley)
  • Mike Modest (TBA)

AEW reveals four-man commentary team for Rampage

Posted on by Bryan Rose

AEW has announced the commentary team for their upcoming new show on TNT, Rampage.

During tonight’s episode of Dynamite, it was announced that Excalibur, Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, and Taz would be the commentary team for Rampage, with the first episode taking place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 13.

It was announced previously that Henry would be a part of the commentary team when he made his debut for AEW back at Double or Nothing in May. Excalibur currently does commentary work for both AEW Dark and AEW Dynamite, with Taz joining him on commentary for Dark. Jericho has appeared multiple times on Dynamite’s commentary over the past year.

The first match for Rampage was announced during tonight’s episode of Dynamite, as Britt Baker will defend the AEW Women’s Championship in her hometown against Red Velvet.

Rampage will not air live every week, but will for shows prior to pay-per-view events. The first episode of Rampage will air live, as well as an episode that will air prior to All Out on September 3. Another episode of Rampage will air at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois on August 20.

Excalibur scheduled to return on this week’s AEW Dynamite

Posted on by Josh Nason

A week after he was originally slated to make his return to AEW Dynamite, Dave Meltzer is reporting that Excalibur is scheduled to return on this Wednesday’s show instead.

The popular color commentator and co-founder of PWG will first make his announcing return on Tuesday as part of the Dark announce team. It’s unclear why he didn’t return last Wednesday, the second delay after a planned August 12th return was pushed back.

He has been off TV since Taz replaced him on the Wednesday, July 29th Dynamite. Neither he nor AEW have addressed the absence, but it’s believed to be due to a PWG angle from 17 years ago involving he, Kevin Steen, Human Tornado, and Disco Machine that included a racial slur that he didn’t want to become a distraction to the company after it re-emerged on social media recently.

He has been a fixture in the announcing desk alongside Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone since AEW’s launch.

Excalibur returning to commentary on August 27th AEW Dynamite

Posted on by Josh Nason

According to Dave Meltzer, Excalibur will be returning to the commentary desk for the Thursday, August 27th edition of Dynamite.

He was absent from commentary with Taz replacing him starting with the Wednesday, July 29th Dynamite and was also not on this week’s show, nor Dark, the past two weeks despite flying into Jacksonville, FL.

Meltzer initially reported in this week’s newsletter that he was told Excalibur (real name Marc Letzmann) would be on the August 12th Dynamite. It’s unknown what changed or if the 26th was the plan all along.

While the 40-year-old and AEW have yet to address the absence publicly, Meltzer reported in a recent newsletter that there was some unrest on Twitter due to a Pro Wrestling Guerrilla angle he, Kevin Steen, Human Tornado, and Disco Machine did 17 years ago that included a racial slur that everyone involved regretted and apologized for afterward.

Meltzer could not confirm, but said the story was that Excalibur didn’t want to be onas he thought it would be a distraction due to the angle. Meltzer also said WWE didn’t discipline Steen (Kevin Owens) because they were previously aware of the situation and it was resolved.

That week’s Dynamite is set for Thursday instead of Wednesday due to the NBA Playoffs on TNT.

Excalibur to join NJPW broadcast team for final days of Tag League

Posted on by Bryan Rose

New Japan Pro Wrestling is bringing in Excalibur to call the last few days of the World Tag League next month.

NJPW’s Global Twitter made the announcement this morning. He will join Kevin Kelly to call the last three nights of action, which will start on December 6, continue on the 7th and end on the 9th with the finals.

“It’s been a longtime dream of mine to commentate for @njpw1972 @njpwglobal, and I’m super excited to be joining the booth-shaped booth with @realkevinkelly for the last three nights of [the World Tag League]” Excalibur wrote on Twitter. “Thanks to everyone for the support! Unless you don’t, then you can go to hell.”

In addition, Chris Charlton, author of the recent book Eggshells that details the history of wrestling at the Tokyo Dome, announced that he will be a part of Wrestle Kingdom 13’s English commentary team.

Excalibur is one of the founders of Pro Wrestling Guerilla and continues to do commentary for all of PWG’s shows. He recently was also part of the announce team for All In.

Broadcasting team announced for All In

Posted on by Bryan Rose

All In has their broadcasting team set for the upcoming September event.

Their Twitter account today revealed that their broadcasting team will comprise of  Impact backstage interviewer Alicia Atout, Impact and New Japan color commentator Don Callis, former WWE backstage interviewer and announcer Sean Mooney,  ROH announcer Ian Riccaboni, PWG announcer Excalibur, ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise and former WWE ring announcer Justin Roberts. It wasn’t announced what roles each would have on the broadcast, though the Young Bucks did ask Don Callis to do announcing when they made him part of All In last month during a New Japan’s Dominion event.

Cody Rhodes talked to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio this past weekend about distribution methods for All In. Rhodes mentioned that there would be both internet streaming and pay-per-view options. Despite that, no specific details have been announced as of this writing.

All In will take place on September 1 at the Sears Center Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, which is 25 miles from Chicago.