In this WrestleTalk News, two top AEW stars suffer possible concussions, more details
and reaction to Claudio Castagnoli’s AEW debut, and Tony Khan refuses to comment on
MJF’s contract situation.
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door is now in the past, yes, it’s in the very recent past, but we
can all look back on it fondly and say to our friends, “hey, remember AEW x NJPW Forbidden
Door?” and they’ll say “yes, it was yesterday, do you think I’m stupid?”
Ah, good times.
What isn’t such a good time is the state of AEW’s seemingly ever increasing injury
list, which already features names such as AEW World Champion CM Punk, Bryan Danielson,
Jungle Boy, Bobby Fish, Buddy Matthews, Kenny Omega, Kyle O’Reilly, Matt Hardy, Scorpio
Sky and many others.
Unfortunately for AEW, it seems we may have to add two more names to that list after last
night, with two top stars suffering possible concussions.
Adam Cole, who was already working injured and hadn’t wrestled since May 29, took part
in the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Fatal-4-Way match, which also featured Hangman
Paige, Kazuchika Okada and Jay White.
After the match, which was won by Jay White, medical staff could be seen checking on Cole,
and now it’s being reported by Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer that the belief
is he suffered a concussion at some point during the match.
While the injury hasn’t been confirmed, there was clear concern for Cole after the
bell, and many noticed that the final spot of the match, when White rolled up Cole for
the win, didn’t seem to go exactly to plan.
According to a Fightful Select report from earlier this month, Cole has been “banged
up for quite a while” and has been “battling a series of injuries”.
We’ll have to see whether these injuries, and now this possible concussion will see
him take time away from the ring.
If possibly losing Adam Cole to a concussion wasn’t already bad enough, it appears new
Interim AEW World Champion Jon Moxley may also have suffered the same fate.
Speaking in a post-show promo, in which he welcomed Claudio Castagnoli to the Blackpool
Combat Club and made fun of WWE, Moxley apologised for rambling, and then claimed he is “probably
concussed” after his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi, which saw Moxley bleed profusely
from the head for large portions of the fight.
While it could just be Jon Moxley being Jon Moxley, AEW really cannot afford to lose him
for any amount of time, or we might end up having about 9 interim champions before actual
champion CM Punk is able to return.
Punk is currently dealing with a broken foot, and there has been no news as to when he might
be able to return.
If Moxley is indeed concussed and is therefore unable to compete, AEW could be without a
top male champion for a few weeks.
Fingers crossed neither Cole or Moxley has suffered any lasting harm, and hopefully they’re
back in the ring as soon as they’re fit and healthy enough to do so.
With so many of its top stars currently injured, is it time for AEW to reconsider its more
hardcore wrestling style?
Is it really worth being a more dangerous and physical company if the consequences are
losing so many top stars?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Also, if you want a full review of last night’s show, you can check out Oli’s review from
earlier today after you’ve watched this video.
The link is in the description.
On a more positive note, former WWE star Cesaro, now once again wrestling under his real name
Claudio Castagnoli, made his debut at Forbidden Door in a match against Zack Sabre Jr.
Castagnoli was heavily rumoured to be the mystery opponent for ZSJ, who was originally
set to face Bryan Danielson before Danielson also suffered an unknown injury, forcing him
to miss the show.
On last week’s Dynamite, Danielson promised the crowd his replacement would be able to
deliver both the technical wrestling prowess to compete at Forbidden Door and the violence
to compete in Blood and Guts.
Fair to say he delivered on his promise, I think.
Claudio is officially an AEW star, and is part of the Blackpool Combat Club.
For those wondering whether this would be a one-off appearance for Claudio, Fightful
Select has your answer, with a new report stating his deal is “long term”, although
noted they weren’t sure whether anything has actually been signed as of this video
going out.
The report noted Castagnoli has been training hard at Flatbacks in Orlando ahead of his
return to the ring, which was his first match since facing Happy Corbin on SmackDown on
February 11.
Oh no, we’ll never get to see Cesaro vs Happy Corbin again.
Please, give me a second to compose myself after this devastating realisation.
According to Fightful, AEW had already prepared merchandise and promotional materials for
Claudio Castagnoli ahead of his debut.
The report finished by saying that given Bryan Danielson’s injury this was not at all the
plan for Castagnoli’s debut, although they aren’t yet aware of what the original plan
was.
What we do know for sure is that a number of his former colleagues are very excited
to see him in AEW.
From everything I have heard, and I can tell you, I’ve heard an average amount of stuff,
Cesaro was one of the most popular people in the WWE locker room.
His departure from the company was met with a lot of sadness behind the scenes, so it’s
nice to see some of his colleagues reacting to positively to his new job.
Both former WWE Women’s Champion Becky Lynch and former King of the Ring Xavier Woods have
taken to Twitter to show just how excited they are.
Ever the poet, Becky Lynch tweeted: “Yessssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!”
Woods on the other hand took a bit more time to compose himself, think about what he wanted
to write, and then he tweeted: “LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”
I’m looking forward to the “Cladio debuted for AEW” chapter in Woods’ eventual autobiography.
I on the other hand would like to give my own, far more mature reaction to the matter.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS.
And it isn’t just his former colleagues who are happy, because Claudio appears to
be pretty thrilled about the whole situation, too.
During the post-Forbidden Door media scrum, Castagnoli spoke about how excited he is to
be in AEW, and said he already feels like he’s been there for years.
He said: “What is most important is who the fans
are excited to see.
Who is my dream opponent?
I don’t care.
Who do you guys want to see me wrestle and here in AEW all that stuff can happen.
… I can probably give you a short list of who I don’t want to step in the ring with,
and that’s nobody.
You know what I mean?
So to me?
I’m a kid in a candy store.
You know when you go shopping and they go ‘pick whatever!’
and you just stand there like, ‘uh, I don’t know what to pick!’
I’ve just come in here and I don’t know if you can tell but I’m very happy and it
fits.
This is my first night, and I told this to a bunch of people, but this is my first night
and I feel like I’ve been here for years.
It just fits.
It’s awesome.”
He also made sure to mention one man in particular when discussing dream opponents.
“The last time I faced Kenny Omega was in Ring of Honor in 2008, I think we’ve both
grown a lot since then I think that’s just worth a mention, you know what I mean?“
Yes, I know what you mean, Claudio.
Someone who didn’t appear on last night’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door show was MJF, who
has spent much of the last couple of months being the most MJF he’s ever been.
While many now feel his TV persona is now a work, there is little doubting he was unhappy
with his contract situation in AEW, and that him joining WWE down the line was, and maybe
still is a real possibility.
Despite not being on the show, MJF still managed to make some headlines, albeit minor ones,
as Tony Khan was asked by the media what the latest on the situation was.
For anyone hoping for more interesting insight from Tony, I’m afraid he don’t talk about
Maxwell, no, no, no.
All he said was: “Especially after the great show we did,
I’m not going to comment on it but it’s a fair question to ask, but I’m not going
to cover that one now, thank you.”
No, thank you, Tony.
Cody Rhodes is now one of WWE’s biggest stars, and so it will come as no surprise
to anyone that he is going to be one of the playable characters in the upcoming AEW game,
and won’t be playable in WWE 2K22.
No wait, that can’t be right, let me do that again.
Cody Rhodes is now one of WWE’s biggest stars, and so it will come as no surprise
to anyone that he is going to be one of the playable characters in the upcoming AEW game,
and won’t be playable in WWE 2K22.
Oh, I guess I was right.
AEW Fight Forever, the company’s first ever console video game, is set to be released
later this year, with Fightful Select reporting a couple of months ago that the plan was for
a September 2022 release.
Kenny Omega, who has played a very big role in the game’s development, spoke to Sports
Illustrated ahead of Forbidden Door, and was asked about Cody’s inclusion in the game.
He revealed Cody would be in the game, as Omega and the game’s creators wanted to
make sure Cody’s legacy in the company’s history is preserved.
He said: “This may come as a surprise to people,
but Cody is still in the game.
I was very passionate about making sure his legacy and position within the company were
preserved.
We’ve built this game from the ground up, starting everything from scratch.
That’s why I thought this game could coincide with the birth of this company.
You get to experience AEW from the beginning, from day one.
The game is going to reflect a lot of that, even though our locker room is ever-changing.”
AEW has been slowly announcing playable characters for the upcoming game, with the full confirmed
list now being Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Hikaru Shida, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, Owen
Hart, Sting, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, Ruby Soho, Kris Statlander, Nyla Rose
and now Cody Rhodes.
No doubt more names will be announced in the coming weeks.
If you like wrestling video games, and especially watching two bald men play them not very well,
make sure you check out Pete and Luke’s WWE 2K22 MyGM series over
on Partsfunknown.
It’s really good.