AEW: Kevin Knight Confirms He Is Signed to Both AEW & NJPW, Backstage Update on Finish to Swerve Strickland vs. Jon Moxley Match at AEW Dynasty 2025, More News

Kevin Knight Confirms He Is Signed to Both AEW & NJPW

As noted before, Kevin Knight’s contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling expired this past January and recently signed a new contract with AEW.

A recent episode of the Unlikley with Adrian Hernandez podcast featured Knight as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Knight revealing that he is currently signed to both AEW and NJPW.

“New Japan has nothing to worry about. I’m not going anywhere. As I got the AEW graphic, I inked a deal with New Japan as well. New Japan gotta deal with me for another year or so, and so is AEW. I’m doing both. Best of both worlds. The Jet is intergalactic, interdimensional, interpromotional.”

Knight also gave his thoughts about his recent tryout with WWE and the rumors about him feeling disrespected by WWE for his decision for signing with AEW instead.

“I wouldn’t say disrespectful. I understand how the business works. WWE is a machine and sometimes there may be a bubble and they may not know exactly what’s out there. I didn’t take it as disrespect, if anything, I took it as a challenge just to show what I’m about. If they didn’t know me before, they definitely do now or they did when I walked through those doors. I’m going to make a statement anywhere I go. That was a great experience as well. I’m glad I got to do that. I got to meet a lot of people in that company and it was great just being able to work with people so closely that you see on TV every week and see on the PLEs. For me, it was a great learning experience. I didn’t take any slight to it. I understand how the business works. If anything, it was a networking opportunity and exhausting all of my options. I feel like I only grew from that, seeing how they work, what they’re looking for, and seeing the environment that’s there. It’s so different than me coming from the LA Dojo where there are only four of us in a class with Shibata and our teacher can’t speak English. TNA and AEW don’t have a training facility, per se, so to see how they do it, it was a cool way to see how different they do things. It was a positive experience for me overall.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

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Backstage Update on Finish to Swerve Strickland vs. Jon Moxley Match at AEW Dynasty 2025

As noted before, the Young Bucks’ Matthew & Nicholas Jackson made a surprise return appearance at this past Sunday’s AEW Dynasty 2025 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Near the end of the AEW World Championship match between Swerve Strickland and Jon Moxley, the Young Bucks showed up and attacked Strickland to help Moxley retain the title.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that the recent online rumors of Bryan Danielson being the one who may have had influence on the finish to the match is not true. Those spoken to stated that the final decision for the finish was all from AEW CEO Tony Khan due to him having ultimate creative authority in AEW.

It was reported that within the company, AEW officials have emphasized the success of Moxley’s title reign and the rise of the Death Riders. It was also reported that despite the fans frustrations with the booking of the Death Riders storyline, internal data shows numbers are higher for live shows and same for DVR numbers during Moxley matches and segments. Moxley’s segments with Adam “Cope” Copeland reportedly generated high numbers for shows.

It was also reported that AEW officials had considered the potential idea of turning Jay White heel before his recent hand injury took him out of action. Those spoken to reportedly stated that AEW officials had to make changes to their original creative plans for Dynasty due to White’s injury.

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AEW News & Notes

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Baltimore, Maryland featured Don Callis addressing Brian Cage and Lance Archer’s recent absence from the Don Callis Family and confirmed it was due to an injury-related issue. Callis also stated that due to the Family currently being undersized, they are currently accepting new potential members for the time being.

Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Baltimore also featured Samoa Joe announcing that The Opps (Joe, HOOK, & Katsuyori Shibata) are challenging the Death Riders (Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, & PAC) for the AEW World Trios Championship at a future event.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Brian Cage and Lance Archer were among the wrestlers involved in the filming of a wrestling scene for an upcoming new film by legendary director Steven Spielberg. Johnson reported that this scene was filmed several weeks ago at The Paramount Theater in Long Island, New York and Chavo Guerrero oversaw the pro wrestling side of the stunt acting work.

AEW recently released a new AEW Timelines video on their official YouTube channel. This new video was an “AEW World Trios Title Title Changes!”

AEW also recently released a new AEW Close-up with Renee Paquette video featuring Kevin Knight as the guest.

AEW also recently announced that Kenny Omega’s One Winged Angel move was the winner of their fan voted tournament for the best finisher move in the company.

As noted before, Miro was released from AEW this past February and recently signed a new contract with WWE to return to the company. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that the reason why Miro was not used much on AEW television was due to him and AEW officials having heavy creative differences.

In a recent response to a fan on Twitter, rock band Downstait clarified who owns the theme songs they produce for wrestlers including Britt Baker in AEW. This fan stated “So i see alot of people saying @RealBrittBaker cant use her theme the epic from aew in wwe if she was to go but its done by same people who do @CodyRhodes@mikethemiz the band @DownstaitBand sure pretty sure she can use it.” Downstait responded stating “We own it, Britt can use it anywhere she wants. Just to clear it up; since 2016, we’ve been doing themes on our own, unsigned, so we own everything. The first few themes from us (I Came to Play, Perfection, Say It to My Face…) are Jim’s songs, owned by WWE.“

As noted before, Eddie Kingston has been out of action for AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling since this past May due to a broken leg, torn ACL, and torn meniscus injuries and surgery. In a recent interview with the Way of the Blade podcast, Kingston gave his thoughts about how him watching this past March’s AEW Revolution 2025 event gave him the belief that he can no longer hang in the ring with the current talent roster in the company. Kingston stated “This will probably get clipped or f*cking whatever. I don’t care… I haven’t really watched AEW. I watched the — not Dynasty. The pay-per-view before that, Revolution, and just, you know, I’m at a place right now where I’m trying to — my mind is like a minefield right now, with this injury and trying to get back, that I’m just trying to maneuver my way around these minefields, and watching that pay-per-view made me just go, ‘I can’t hang with these guys.’ Made me doubt myself. So I’m more focused on breaking that doubt than somebody I can feud with… And here comes the egotistical side of me. No one can hang with me if they wanna feud. A lot of guys are pro wrestling-tough, are pro wrestling-crazy. I’ve done it outside. I’ve done sh*t that it’s real life. I’m not saying I’m from the ghetto and all that. No. I grew up in a good neighborhood but chose to be an asshole. I chose to go down a certain path, because I didn’t want people to f*ck with me. It’s a whole psychology thing. I didn’t want people to f*ck with me so I wanted to show everyone I was tough. Let me go hang out in the tough neighborhoods. That was my mental at eight, nine years old. So I don’t think anyone — if they wanna go, I don’t think they can, to be honest. But… see, the yin and yang, the duality of Eddie is that I gotta first feel like I can hang with them and as of right now, as of today, Yankees lose, April 8th, 2025. Right now, my body is telling me I can’t hang with nobody right now. I need time. So I can’t even think about feuding with anybody right now. First, I gotta get myself physically and mentally ready… I’ll get there. Trust me, I’ll get there. Has (*audio blurs*) my mind? More than it has ever. To the point where now I’m worried that maybe I should sometime, if I’m thinking about it this much. But then, I talk to people close to me, I talk to my lady, I talk to my lady who just had ACL surgery herself. That’s what happens when you’re a black belt in jiu jitsu. For all those years, I tell her, ‘Stop doing that sh*t.’ But, I talk to my mother first, my father. I talk to people real close to me in wrestling like Ethan Page, Ortiz, monkey as I call him. I talk to those kind of people and they — and Homicide of course. My girl said it the other day because I was flipping out about something about wrestling. She lets me sound off. Homicide called me right after and gave me a pep talk, and I said, ‘Why’d you call me?’ He goes, ‘I don’t know. I just had a feeling.’ He always does that. That’s why I call him my guardian angel. It’s the weirdest thing ever. A guy named Homicide, Dee. Dee is my guardian angel so, that’s what I’m going through right now and I will get there and then when I do get there mentally and ready to rock, ask me that question.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)