AEW: Julia Hart Underwent Shoulder Surgery, Wendi Richter on Her Interest in Match with Toni Storm for Right Price, More News

Julia Hart Shoulder Injury Update – Hart Underwent Surgery

As noted before, Julia Hart suffered a shoulder-related injury this past April that was believed to potentially require the need for surgery. Despite the injury, Hart was able to compete at this past April’s AEW Dynasty event.

Hart recently provided an update on Instagram confirming that she had underwent surgery for her left shoulder.

Julia Hart posted the following photos on her Instagram stories, confirming her injury. pic.twitter.com/coVPBgYXNz

— Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) May 3, 2024

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the current expectation within AEW is that Hart will likely be out of action until late Summer or early Fall.

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Wendi Richter Comments on Being Interested in a Match with Toni Storm for the Right Price

A recent Virtual Gimmick Table fan signing event for Highspots featured WWE Hall of Famer Wendi Richter as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Richter’s thoughts about “Timeless” Toni Storm calling her out for a potential future match at recent AEW post-show media scrums.

“I didn’t even know she had been calling me out. Someone told me she’s been doing it on a regular basis. Well, money does talk. If they can cough up enough money, I’d take her on. I’d even give her the first swing. Bring it, Toni. You think you can beat me? I’d like to see it. I’m not afraid.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Bryan Danielson suffered a storyline neck injury at this past March’s AEW Dynasty event. This past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show featured AEW commentator Excalibur providing an injury update stating that Danielson has not been medically cleared by AEW doctors to travel to shows due to the injuries he had suffered.

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that AEW generated a live gate gross of $1,025,829.50 for this past March’s Revolution 2024 event in Greensboro, North Carolina based on a public records request to the City of Greensboro. Thurston reported that AEW generated a net revenue of $951,417.17 from their live gate. AEW reportedly had distributed 16,118 tickets with 13,950 tickets being scanned and 281 tickets being comps at the event.

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston also reported that AEW had sold 7,131 tickets for a live gate revenue of $423,913 for their AEW Dynamite Big Business show on March 13th at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts based on a recent audit from Pollstar.

AEW recently released a new Nyla Rose shirt at their ShopAEW online store. It was announced that all royalties generated will go to Freedom Oklahoma, which is a political advocacy group that advocates for Two Spirit and LGBTQ+ rights in the state of Oklahoma.

This past Monday’s episode of Being The Dark Order show featured Preston Vance having a reunion moment with The Dark Order.

In a recent interview with the AEW Close Up show, Swerve Strickland gave his thoughts about his AEW World Championship victory at this past April’s AEW Dynasty event. Strickland stated “What a momentous occasion, what a time, what a venue. What a crowd. After a four-hour insane show, seeing all the action, seeing everything, the locker room, just everybody motivating and pushing each other to just put on another classic pay-per-view for All Elite Wrestling, but just also in the wrestling business itself, to still have that energy for me in the main event against Samoa Joe, and still, we’re not leaving. We got a lot, but we’re still not leaving until we see this finish. That meant a lot to me.” Strickland also gave his thoughts about the current morale level within AEW’s locker room. Strickland stated “Right now, I think the locker room is just on a whole ‘nother morale level. Everybody knows you can’t half-step at all now. The guy next to you is [Kazuchika] Okada. The guy near to him is PAC, the guy next to him is [Adam] Copeland, the guy next to him is [Powerhouse] Hobbs and Kyle Fletcher, who are hungry. The guy next them is Daniel Garcia. The guy next to them is the Lucha Brothers. The guys next to them is [Will] Ospreay, who can just carve out a classic at the snap of his fingers. The guys next to them are the Mogul Embassy. So the depth is insane, and we haven’t even gotten to the guys that haven’t even really been here for the last several months. We haven’t had a Hangman Page, a MJF, a Keith Lee. We haven’t had a Kenny Omega. There’s a lot of guys. That shift needed to happen to really fill that space and that void while these guys are still recovering and getting through whatever they’re going through. For me to be at the top of that, there’s a lot of pressure. To be, to be the first of anything is a lot of pressure. I can already read the comments and stuff, and I think they’re waiting to see how I respond to that. They want to see me take that bait, but they don’t understand the professionalism and the mind state I’m at at this point. They want to see the cracks, they’re waiting for it. Coming right off of Dynasty, going to Dynamite, it’s like, boom, right into the action. Good, give them no room to speak.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, this past Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Jacksonville, Florida featured Rey Fenix making his official return from injury. In a recent interview with the Superstar Crossover podcast, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about his process when it comes to deciding which AEW talents will have surprise returns and which will have their returns announced beforehand for shows. Khan revealed that Fenix had been medically cleared for a return shortly before this past Saturday’s show. Khan stated “RUSH, I wanted to bring back as a surprise to the fans in Jacksonville. We had done some cool things on Wednesday, some fun surprises in terms of the Casino Gauntlet Match. We had given the fans a fun show on Wednesday’s show. I wanted to give the fans a nice surprise on Saturday. I thought it would be great to have RUSH come back. I thought this was a cool surprise. I got a fun surprise, it didn’t happen until after Dynamite, so I wasn’t able to get ahead on it on prior weeks of television, it was something that snuck up on me later, but we just cleared, right before Collision, Rey Fenix. When he came in for the medical check and he was cleared, he really wanted to wrestle for the fans in Jacksonville, I thought it was great. We announced it during the draft, and I had a block there; then, there was something else that I moved around and still accommodated, but I made some changes to make sure we got this great match for the fans. I was very pleasantly surprised when Rey Fenix came in and said he got cleared, it was not something I went in expecting. It was a nice thing to get Rey Fenix back.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a separate interview with TV Insider, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about his father Shad’s current favorite wrestlers to watch in AEW. Khan stated “My dad is a big AEW fan. He watches all the time. A few weeks ago I got a text from him during Will Ospreay and Claudio [Castagnoli]. He knew them both. He hadn’t seen much of Will Ospreay. He said Ospreay was amazing. I introduced him to Will, and he is now a huge fan of him. He is a huge fan of Kenny Omega, MJF, Jon Moxley, Orange Cassidy, Dr. Britt Baker, and recently ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm and Mariah May. Also, he had some nice interactions with Swerve [Strickland].“

In another separate interview with TMZ Sports, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about the potential of Jacksonville Jaguars players making appearances on AEW shows in the future. Khan stated “I would love that. I think that’s a great thing. I know some of the Jaguars players were very upset about what happened to me. That’s something to keep an eye on too. The Jaguars players follow AEW really closely. A lot of the NFL players follow it. Every week on the road, people come up to me, all kinds of people, whether it’s the opposing coaches, opposing players, security at the stadium, the people in concessions, every week in the NFL whether it’s in Jacksonville or on the road, people always come up and talk about AEW. It’s one of those things that really amazed my dad. He was not a big wrestling fan coming into this and he’s become a fan of AEW and enjoys watching it.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)