AEW: Leyla Hirsch Reportedly Close to Making In-Return, Matt Jackson on Avoiding Surgery, More News

AEW

Jun 1, 2023

Leyla Hirsch Reportedly Close to Making Return from Injury

As noted before, Leyla Hirsch has been out of action for AEW since April of 2022 due to a torn ACL injury and surgery.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Hirsch is close to making her return from injury. It was reported that Hirsch recently had been training in the ring in preparation for her in-ring return to the company within the near future.

Matt Jackson Comments on His Decision to Avoid Surgery for His Torn Biceps Injury

As noted before, Matt Jackson had suffered a torn biceps injury this past March but had made his return ahead of schedule this past May.

Jackson recently provided an update on Instagram stating that the reason why he decided to not undergo surgery for his biceps injury was due to the possibility that he would not have been medically cleared for an in-ring return for at least six to seven months afterwards. Jackson also stated that his doctors had insisted that he get surgery immediately to repair the muscle in his arm.

“I got hurt about 10 weeks ago, literally on day one of the beginning of a very important story that we started. I was told there was a good chance I wouldn’t be cleared to perform again for 6-7 months after surgery. Surgeons insisted I get the muscle repaired immediately. I opted not to do surgery, but rather try other therapeutic options that’d get me back quicker. I had faith that through proper rehabilitation, supplementation & prayer, I’d be back wrestling with a target goal of Double or Nothing. There was clearly a lot of doubt, but I wasn’t going to miss it no matter what. In fact, I wasn’t going to miss any of the events leading to it either. During the process, I lived in fear that I was making a huge mistake. That my arm would never be the same again, or that I’d lose a bunch of strength. I had anxiety and many sleepless nights, that I’d let everyone including myself down. Thankfully my wife Dana, my family, close friends, & various medical staff members supported & showed their love these past couple of months. And, I hit my target. Wrestling with my ELITE family by my side in Las Vegas meant so much to me because the journey there was pretty rough.
Thank you to everyone who’s put up with me, my endless chatter about my rehab, and asking you to watch me flex so you can tell me how great I look. 😂
A few days removed from my first match back, my arm is great. My strength is completely back & I couldn’t be happier. Everything else on my body, including my foot? Not so much.”

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AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in San Diego, California featured the official announcement of CM Punk’s return to AEW on the debut show of Collision on June 17th. CM Punk recently reflected on Instagram about his upcoming return referencing a scene from the film Billy Madison where Billy Madison tells a group of kids that they are in “big, big trouble” before dominating them in a game of dodgeball.

Following AEW’s official announcement of CM Punk’s return for Collision’s debut show, New Japan Pro Wrestling talent KENTA teased on Twitter at being interested in showing up at the show. KENTA stated “I’m free on June 17th.” KENTA has had a years-long grudge with Punk on social media over his issues with Punk’s usage of his Go 2 Sleep finisher.

San Diego city government recently officially declared Wednesday, May 31st as “All Elite Wrestling Day” in honor of AEW holding their Dynamite and Rampage shows in their city that day.

AEW reportedly held two dark matches prior to the start of Wednesday’s Dynamite show in San Diego, according to PWInsider. These two matches were a Trios match of Jericho Appreciation Society (Matt Menard, Angelo Parker, & Daniel Garcia) defeating The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, John Silver, & Evil Uno) and a singles match of Skye Blue defeating indie wrestler Christina Von Eerie.

AEW reportedly had tentative creative plans for Nick Wayne’s upcoming official debut in the company as of several months ago, according to Fightful Select.

AEW Senior Vice President and Co-Executive Producer Mike Mansury recently stated on Twitter that he was proud of AEW’s production team and was disappointed over some of the recent online criticisms that were directed towards AEW and his team. Mansury stated “I’m proud to be part of @AEW and our team. Disappointed to hear the shots fired my way, but it just serves as motivation.“

AEW recently released three new trailers for their upcoming Fight Forever video game focusing on Eddie Kingston, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson.

AEW also recently released an 18-minute video on YouTube focusing on Kris Statlander recent return from injury and TBS Championship victory at this past Sunday’s Double or Nothing 2023 event.

Sports media Watch reported that this year’s NHL 2023 Stanley Cup Finals will primarily air on TNT with all games to also simulcast on TruTv and TBS to also simulcast games on days that do not conflict with their commitments for AEW and MLB. In regards to AEW, the only game scheduled for this year’s Stanley Cup Finals that could cause a potential preemption issue for AEW Rampage would be Game 6 on June 16th if the series were to go that long in length.