An opponent has now been named for Kota Ibushi’s first AEW match since 2023.
AEW has announced that ibushi vs. Trent Beretta will take place on Dynamite this Wednesday night. The show is being held in Kent, Washington and will continue the build to AEW’s All In pay-per-view.
Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada are set to renew their legendary rivalry at All In on July 12, facing off in a match to unify the AEW International Championship with the Continental Championship. There was an angle on Collision this past weekend where Ibushi — one of Omega’s best friends — made his surprise return to AEW by fighting with Okada and the Don Callis Family.
Okada was recently revealed as the newest member of the Don Callis Family. Beretta is also a member of the faction.
A Japanese wrestling legend, Ibushi signed with AEW in 2023 but has only wrestled a few times for the promotion due to his career being hampered by injuries. This will be the first singles match he’s ever had for AEW.
No other match announcements have been made for Wednesday’s show as of now.
Trent made his return to AEW on tonight’s Dynamite.
After The Young Bucks defeated Rocky Romero and Chuck Taylor, they and Adam Cole continued to beat up both Romero and Taylor. Wheeler Yuta tried to make the save, but failed. It was then when Sue’s van showed up in the arena and Trent emerged from the van, sporting a new bald look. He helped clear The Elite out of the ring and hugged his friends as the Roppongi Vice music from his run in NJPW played.
Trent had been out of action since June when he announced he had undergone successful neck fusion surgery. He hasn’t wrestled since the April 21 edition of Dynamite, where he faced Penta El 0 M.
Since Trent’s absence, the Best Friends team has evolved into a stable involving Kris Statlander and Wheeler Yuta. They have also returned to New Japan’s CHAOS stable, teaming in recent weeks with the likes of Tomohiro Ishii and Romero.
AEW’s Trent is currently recovering from neck fusion surgery, once again putting him out of action.
He posted a message of himself in a hospital bed, with a noticeable scar on his neck, writing “neck fusion surgery went well.”
Trent returned to AEW back in March, helping Chuck Taylor in his match against Miro. He had previously been out of action with a partially torn pectoral muscle suffered in December that kept him out of action for several months. Trent and Taylor continued to team up after his return, but Trent had not wrestled since a match against Penta El Zero Miedo that took place on the April 21st edition of AEW Dynamite, though he continued to appear on AEW television as recently as the tapings that took place two weeks ago.
In recent months, The Best Friends have evolved into a stable, which features Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander. Orange Cassidy appeared on last week’s Dynamite, defeating Ceazar Bononi after an assist from the rest of the Best Friends.
Kris Statlander and Trent returned to AEW in the main event of tonight’s Dynamite.
Statlander popped out of an arcade claw machine to attack Penelope Ford, aiding Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor in their arcade anarchy match win over Miro and Kip Sabian. Statlander delivered a fisherman buster off the apron through an air hockey table to Ford.
Statlander suffered a torn ACL on the June 10, 2020 edition of Dynamite. She has been regularly featured on Being The Elite in recent months, but tonight was her first main show appearance since her injury.
Trent’s return came in the same arcade anarchy segment. He was driven to the ringside area in his mom Sue’s van, then speared Miro through a table. Taylor then pinned Sabian after hitting a powerslam off the stage through some tables.
Trent suffered a partially torn pectoral on the December 23, 2020 episode of Dynamite and has been out of action since.
AEW’s Trent Barreta is facing some time out of action due to a partially torn pectoral muscle.
“Hey I have a partially torn pec and will be out for months. It’s fine,” Trent tweeted on Thursday.
Trent appears to have been injured during a 12-man tag match on last week’s episode of Dynamite. The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, MJF, Sammy Guevara, Santana, Ortiz & Jake Hager) defeated Best Friends (Trent & Chuck Taylor), Top Flight (Darius Martin & Dante Martin) & The Varsity Blondes (Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison) in that match.
There was an angle on this Wednesday’s Dynamite where Trent was shown being taken out by ambulance. Kip Sabian said he was going to reveal he and Penelope Ford’s wedding date, but Sabian, Ford, and Miro were interrupted by Best Friends’ theme music. Sabian, Ford, and Miro acted concerned before laughing and revealing what really happened. Video was then shown of Trent being put into an ambulance while Taylor and Orange Cassidy looked on.
Sabian and Ford’s wedding will be on the Wednesday, February 3 Beach Break episode of Dynamite.
Sixteen matches are set for this Tuesday’s edition of AEW Dark.
AEW’s social media announced today that a match between Sammy Guevara and Marko Stunt had been added to the lineup, which was posted earlier this morning.
Additionally, a three way tag team match will be taking place. Chaos Project will meet the Dark Order’s Evil Uno & Stu Grayson as well as the team of Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela.
The Waiting Room, a new talk show hosted by Britt Baker, will also make a return. This week’s guest will be Tay Conti.
Here is the entire lineup for this week’s Dark, which will stream on Tuesday at 7 pm EST:
Sammy Guevara vs. Marko Stunt
Chaos Project vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson vs. Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela
Gunn Club vs. Cezar Bononi, KTB, & Seth Gargis
The Acclaimed vs. Alex Chamberlain & Damian Fenrir
Brandon Cutler vs. Adam Priest
Penelope Ford vs. Dreamgirl Ellie
Fuego del Sol vs. Peter Avalaon
Ivelisse & Diamante vs. Lady Frost & “Bionic Beast” Jenna
Alex Reynolds & John Silver vs. Lee Johnson & Aaron Solow
Kilynn King vs. Rache Chanel
Trent vs. Michael Nakazawa
Matt Sydal vs. Alan Angels
The Hybrid2 vs. Griff Garrison & Brian Pillman Jr.
A new match has been announced for this week’s Dynamite.
Kenny Omega will face one half of the Best Friends, Trent, in singles action. This follows Omega’s successful AAA Mega Heavyweight title defense against Sammy Guevara last week on Dynamite.
AEW is continuing to run new episodes of Dynamite despite the coronavirus pandemic shutting down most of the United States. Dave Meltzer reported today that the evolving situation has forced them to move out of the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida, where AEW had been filming their shows since mid-March.
The new location for future episodes of Dynamite currently isn’t known, as they don’t want people showing up looking for autographs. It is believed that AEW is doing a significant amount of taping today for future events.
A new episode of AEW Dark premieres tonight, featuring stars such as Jon Moxley, Sammy Guevara and Shawn Spears competing in singles action.
Jon Moxley will be in action on Wednesday’s New Year’s Day edition of Dynamite.
AEW announced this morning that Moxley vs. Trent Barreta has been added to the card for Wednesday’s show. It’s being held at Daily’s Place amphitheater in Jacksonville, Florida.
Moxley responding to AEW World Champion Chris Jericho’s offer to join the Inner Circle is also scheduled for the episode.
In AEW’s final top-five roster rankings of 2019, Moxley was ranked as the top contender in the men’s division.
Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. PAC & The Lucha Bros, AEW Women’s Champion Riho defending her title against Nyla Rose, Britt Baker, and Hikaru Shida in a four-way match, and Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin have also been announced for the New Year’s Day Dynamite, and MJF will appear and give his stipulations for an upcoming match against Cody.
Riho was originally supposed to defend her title against Kris Statlander, but Statlander was pulled from the show due to a scheduling conflict and will instead get her title shot on the January 8 episode of Dynamite in Southaven, Mississippi.
Two matches have been confirmed for next week’s edition of Dynamite.
Fenix vs. Trent was announced following the events of a match between Best Friends and Lucha Bros.. Pentagon & Fenix attacked Best Friends before the bell rang and had an early advantage, but the Best Friends cut them off, with Trent pinning Fenix to score the win for his team.
A six-man tag team match was also signed for next week, with Dustin Rhodes teaming with the Young Bucks to take on Sammy Guevara and Santana & Ortiz. This stems from a confrontation that took place on tonight’s show when Santana, Ortiz & Sammy Guevara came into the ring and jumped Dustin Rhodes as he was giving an interview. The Young Bucks came out for the save, including a returning Matt Jackson who was noticeably limping.
Joey Janela meanwhile announced at a GCW event tonight that he would accept a challenge from Jon Moxley for next week. That has yet to be confirmed by AEW.
Dynamite next week will be at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois.
PAC was last in action on Dynamite when he went to a time limit draw with Jon Moxley two weeks ago. PAC’s match for Full Gear was set up after that, with him facing Hangman Page at this Saturday’s pay-per-view.
Trent, Chuck Taylor & Orange Cassidy defeated John Silver, Alex Reynolds & QT Marshall in a six-man tag match on Dynamite last week.
Page & Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara will headline this Wednesday’s Dynamite. The match will be part of the final build to Jericho’s AEW World Championship defense against Cody Rhodes at Full Gear.
A segment with Cody is also set for Wednesday, with him hyping that he’ll be making the announcement that he was going to make before being interrupted by Jericho and the Inner Circle two weeks ago: “This week’s @AEWonTNT #AEWDynamite I will be uninterrupted and have the chance to make my career announcement. I hope it resonates with the fans, because it matters a great deal to me.”
This week in wrestling, the 2017 G1 Climax lineup was announced, SmackDown had its Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Mauro Ranallo announced that he’s the new voice of NXT, and sadly, Tetsuo “Mr. Pogo” Sekigawa passed away. Here are our favorite wrestlers this week. Who’s yours?
This week’s panel —
Alan 4L (Dr. Keith Presents host and Figure Four Weekly writer)
Joseph Currier (WrestlingObserver.com editor and Figure Four Weekly writer)
I don’t think anyone disagrees that Trent? is a super talented pro wrestler, whether as a singles or in a tag team with Rocky Romero or Chuck Taylor, and if you do disagree, well, stop that now.
But the reason Beretta is my favorite wrestler this week is for his unfailingly entertaining Twitter account. Oh, you want examples? Perhaps you’ll enjoy his rivalry with some gym dude:
Me and some dude at gym both hate each other I can just feel it
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, really. Trent Barreta, making Twitter fun again.
Paddy Morrow
By Alan 4L
Having just re-watched OTT’s huge ScrapperMania show from April on their new OnDemand service, I was in awe of the most unheralded Irish wrestler of all time as he put on one of the best single match performances of any wrestler this year.
Paddy “Suicide Machine” Morrow (or simply Paddy M as he’s now known as part of the popular Lads From The Flats) was a man on a mission in the big LFTF vs. Kings of the North trios match. His selling, his fire, his execution, and his timing were all so impressive.
Paddy may not be the most eye-catching in appearance, but he’s a wrestler’s wrestler. He’ll make anyone look good and he’ll always get the crowd invested. Nobody ever watches a Paddy Morrow match and winds up disappointed. He was a key part of the NWA Ireland promotion ran by Fergal Devitt (Finn Balor) and Paul Tracey in the mid 2000s, and is one of the many great wrestlers that have come from and continue to come from that gym in Bray, Co. Wicklow (now moving premises into the City Centre of Dublin).
Paddy is one of the most over acts in OTT and I hope some big matches await him throughout the rest of 2017, at home and maybe even abroad.
Kota Ibushi
By Joseph Currier
I’m incredibly excited that Kota Ibushi is in this summer’s G1 Climax.
NJPW confirmed last week that Ibushi (as himself and not the Tiger Mask W character that he’s been playing) would be in this year’s tournament. The company still has to announce the blocks for the G1, but Ibushi’s inclusion brings so many possibilities.
Will we finally get Ibushi vs. Kenny Omega in NJPW? Will we get Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. after it wasn’t meant to happen at the Cruiserweight Classic? Which other top guys will be in his block? Will he make the finals (or even win the whole thing and go on to main event the Tokyo Dome in January)?
While some of those things probably won’t happen, we’ll still be getting at least nine Kota Ibushi singles matches in NJPW this summer. There will be plenty more opportunities for him to be chosen as my favorite wrestler of the week again in July and August.
