AEW: Samoa Joe on His Match with HOOK, Daniel Garcia on AEW’s Arc Resembled My Character Arc Over The Past Year, More News

Samoa Joe Comments on His Recent AEW World Title Match with HOOK

WrestleZone held a recent interview with Samoa Joe. One of the topics discussed included Joe’s thoughts about his recent match with HOOK for the AEW World Championship at last week’s AEW Dynamite show.

“What a tough kid. I mean of all the lambs that I’ve slaughtered lately that was by far the toughest sheep I’ve ever had encountered. Let’s be honest here. I mean, Hook is very young. He’s a very tough and very durable individual, incredibly strong for his size. I will admit that. But when it comes down to it, he’s the type of dangerous individual that I knew I needed to squash out immediately. You gotta go after the dangers in this world. And you know, he’s a very, very dangerous young man who’s still becoming the predator that someday he hopes to be. But I was more than happy to remind him of his place in the grander scheme of things and how the food chain works.”

---

Daniel Garcia Comments on “AEW’s Arc Resembled My Character Arc Over The Past Year”

Adrian Hernandez held a recent interview with Daniel Garcia. One of the topics discussed included Garcia’s thoughts about his character’s up and downs reflected AEW’s identity crisis in 2023 as well.

“It was great. I feel like AEW was in a transition period over the past couple of months. It almost resembles my character arc. AEW’s arc resembled my character arc for the past year. Everybody knows my story, I was transitioning from a pro wrestler and then became a sports entertainer. I was stuck in limbo between being a sports entertainer and pro wrestler and finding my way.

I feel like that was the past six months for AEW. AEW kind of went away from its roots for a little bit and was seeming a little sports entertainmentish. Then, the Continental Classic fully brought it back into a pro wrestling product, sports-based product. With the promos and competition based around matches, I’m a fan of a very stripped-down product in wrestling. The Continental Classic brought that back to AEW. It was bare bones, ‘these people are competing for this.’ Super easy to follow, super easy story. It was a shot in the arm we needed, and I was glad to be part of that. If you notice, everyone started doing those backstage interviews after I did it. I’m not trying to say everyone is copying me, but I definitely think that was the catalyst for it.“

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

---

AEW News & Notes

Warner Brothers Discovery recently rebranded their Turner Sports and WBD Sports division under the new name of TNT Sports going forward. In regards to AEW, the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that AEW is currently listed as an entertainment property and not a sports property by WBD. Meltzer reported that AEW had been listed as sports by WBD until 2022.

AEW recently released a behind-the-scenes video from their January 17th AEW Dynamite show featuring the Undisputed Kingdom’s Roderick Strong, Matt Tave, and Mike Bennett embracing the Briscoe family backstage following the Jay Briscoe tribute segment on the show.

Warner Bros Games recently released a new trailer for the Deluxe edition of their upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League video game featuring Samoa Joe as the voice actor for King Shark in the game.

The Butcher recently commented on Twitter about Adam Copeland’s on-going Cope Open Challenge matches in AEW and being interested in a potential Cope Open match in the future. The Butcher stated “I’d love to see if @RatedRCope would give a real genuine brawler, bare knuckle monster like myself a chance at the Cope Challenge. I’d smear him across that canvas and pick my teeth with his bones. #cavemanofthefuture“

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, Adam Copeland gave his thoughts about his current plans for a potential writing career after he retires from wrestling. Copeland stated “I’d like to write a children’s book. I’ve always wanted to do that, especially now, having kids. I think that would be fun. Maybe part two of the autobiography because there has been almost more since I wrote that first one than took place in the first one. When I retire, retire, I want to properly learn guitar. Just for myself.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Going Ringside podcast, Eddie Kingston gave his thoughts about wanting to defend his AEW Continental Crown Championship in Japan again in the future. Kingston stated “I’m waiting for them to send me back. I love Japan. Japan was everything I wanted and more. That’s a different subject. AEW’s office has to talk with New Japan’s office, especially New Japan Strong, their other promotion, and they have to make sure they can get everything settled with the titles and bringing them together and how to defend it.” Kingston also gave his thoughts about his current goals for 2024. Kingston stated “The real goal, for me personally, is to take the Continental Championship and the crown over to New Japan and make it a world title.” (Transcript h/t: Figthful.com)

In a recent interview with Rock 106.1, Darby Allin gave his thoughts about recent advice he received from Ric Flair to slow down his work in the ring since he felt he was “crazier” than Mick Foley over some of the spots he was doing for matches. Allin stated “Ric Flair, a couple weeks ago, he came up to me and is like, ‘Darby, you need to slow down.’ I’m like, ‘Wait, what?’ ‘You’re crazier than Mick Foley.’ I’m like, ‘Getting advice from Ric Flair?’ What’s funny is, people don’t know how great I feel physically. I feel amazing, like nothing hurts. DDP also, he’s like, ‘We have to put you in a lab. They have to test you out and see what’s going on because you’re not human.’ I feel amazing. I won’t stop doing it. Sorry for anybody trying to give me advice, all the people out there telling me to slow down. I can’t and I won’t.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and co-host Booker T gave his thoughts about Toni Storm’s current “Timeless” character in AEW. Booker T stated “I like it, it’s different. What I like about it, you could have all the hardcore matches you wanna have, you can have all the spots, jumping over the top rope. But there’s always a spot on the show for entertainment, and that’s what she’s doing right now. Toni Storm might be doing the best work, and she might be more over now than she’s ever been, and it’s not because any one of her matches. So young people out there that’s trying to figure this out, Toni Storm probably would tell you herself, ‘Why’d it take me so damn long to figure this out? Why’d it take me this long to figure it out?’ So yeah, I like it, and for me, it’s wrestling. Wresting is to be embellished, and being embellished to the point to where you can pretty much make it whatever you want it, as long as it’s good. Not just anything. Wrestling has come to be embellished these days about just doing something that’s off the wall, craziest stuff you ever want to see in your life. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about still making it fun and entertaining for me to watch as the wrestling fans.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)