AEW: Grizzled Young Veterans Reportedly in Contract Talks with AEW, Two New Matches Announced for 6/15 Collision Show, More News

Jun 13, 2024

Grizzled Young Veterans Reportedly in Talks with AEW for Contract

As noted before, former WWE talents Grizzled Young Veterans, James Drake & Zack Gibson, made their official debut appearance for AEW at the April 27th AEW Collision show at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Grizzled Young Vets have been in on-going talks with AEW officials for a potential contract with the company. It was reported that a deal had yet to be reached as of last week.

In regards to the Grizzled Young Vets’ status with TNA Wrestling, it was reported that Drake and Gibson were never under actualy signed deals with TNA for their appearances and had finished their time with the company this past March.

Two New Matches Announced for Saturday’s AEW Collision Show

AEW announced two new matches for the card of this week’s AEW Collision show on June 15th at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown, Ohio.

The first new match announced was an Eight-Man Tag Team match of Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls), Lio Rush, & Rocky Romero.

#AEWCollision THIS SATURDAY!@CovelliCentre1 | Youngstown, OH
LIVE 8pm ET/7pm CT | @tntdrama

BCC vs TMDK, Rocky Romero & Lio Rush
It's #ForbiddenDoor season! @bryandanielson, @ClaudioCSRO, @JonMoxley & @WheelerYuta will face @mikeynicholls, @ShaneTMDK, @IamLioRush & @azucarRoc! pic.twitter.com/i3vQarcWoe
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 13, 2024

The second new match announced was a Trios match of Bang Bang Gang (The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn) & Juice Robinson) vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, & Brody King).

#AEWCollision SATURDAY!@CovelliCentre1 | Youngstown, OH
LIVE 8pm ET/7pm CT | @tntdrama

Bang Bang Gang vs. House of Black
After calling them out on Dynamite, Unified World Trios Champs @theaustingunn, @coltengunn & #JuiceRobinson face @malakaiblxck, @SNM_Buddy & @Brodyxking! pic.twitter.com/DXOczy8Yb0
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) June 13, 2024

Current card for June 15th AEW Collision One-Year Anniversary show:

Vacant TNT Championship Ladder Qualifier match – Lee Moriarty vs. Dante Martin
Eight-Man Tag Team match – Blackpool Combat Club (Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, & Claudio Castagnoli) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls), Lio Rush, & Rocky Romero
Trios match – Bang Bang Gang (The Gunns (Austin & Colten Gunn) & Juice Robinson) vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews, & Brody King)
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Thunder Rosa

AEW News & Notes

Former WWE tag team Maximum Male Models, Mace & Mansoor, reportedly are currently scheduled to make their official debut appearance for AEW at this Saturday’s AEW Collision show in Youngstown, Ohio, according to Fightful Select. It was reported that AEW’s creative plans for the Mace and Mansoor’s appearance are currently not known nor if they will be holding talks for a potential contract.

Wardlow filed a trademark for “Wardlow” on June 10th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

AEW recently released a new video focusing on Stardom’s Mina Shirakawa that later aired during Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show.

Anthony Bowens recently reflected on Twitter on being named by Pride.com to be their Grand Marshall for this year’s Pride Month. Bowens stated “I’m extremely honored to be named 2024 http://pride.com Grand Marshal! Every week I take pride in representing the LGBTQ community to the best of my ability in hopes that I can continue to open doors for the athletes of the future. #Pride @AEW“

As noted before, MJF officially revealed that he had signed a new contract with AEW at this past May’s Double or Nothing 2024 event. In a recent interview with TV Insider, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about what it meant to have MJF back in AEW and committed for the long-term. Khan stated “It’s really great. It means a lot to have MJF in AEW. He has been a great world champion and one of our biggest stars. Having MJF on Wednesday nights every week on TBS is a big deal. He was in an altercation with Rush last week. One of our top international stars and a brutal pro wrestler. Rush will be in action tonight surely beating the hell out of some poor kid from Iowa. I know MJF will be in the arena tonight, so something to keep an eye on. MJF is one of our greatest stars. We’re happy to have MJF back in AEW I believe permanently.“

In a recent interview with Daily DDT, Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts about the potential of former TNA Wrestling President Scott D’Amore joining AEW and Ring of Honor in the future. Purrazzo stated “Yeah, if that’s something he’s interested in, absolutely. I think that him and I have cultivated such a great relationship through my time at IMPACT, now TNA and I think that he treats women’s divisions so special. He just had that perfect storm, magic sauce with us. He treated us with so much respect and so much dignity. I think if that’s something he was interested in doing, it would be to our benefit for sure.“

In a recent episode of the Grilling JR podcast, co-host Jim Ross gave his thoughts about the potential of Ricochet joining AEW once his current contract with WWE expires. Ross stated “Well, not really, but I don’t know how much difference he makes. It depends on how he’s brought in and how he’s presented and how he’s positioned. He’s a talented kid, there’s no doubt about that. I’ve met with him before, and I like him. He’s very spot-heavy. I’d like to see him be able to be a little bit more fundamentally sound. But he’s a very talented, athletic kid, so who knows? But it seems to me to be kind of obvious that the AEW brand would be where he might migrate to. It’s regular work. I don’t understand. It seems to me like the fact that guys can work essentially one or two days a week and still make a good living and work with quality guys, that’s the great thing, too. Tony Khan has assembled an amazing roster. It’s pretty terrific, quite frankly, and I like the fact that they got that rolling, and again, you see how good these guys and gals are on these big events. Ricochet, he can add something to the mix if he’s brought in the right way and he makes an impact and so forth. So we’ll see how it works out, but he’s a good kid. Seems to me like a very good kid, and he’s sure as hell talented.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, Dax Harwood revealed this past Monday that he has been dealing with a hidden hematoma injury since this past April and has been pulled from action for AEW after he finally told AEW’s medical team about his medical situation. Harwood recently was involved in an online incident with former WCW and TNA talent Disco Inferno after disparaging comments made by Inferno on Twitter that were directed towards AEW over Harwood’s injury situation. Inferno stated “You just ruined your boss’s narrative that he will put their safety record up against anyone. If talent is working hurt and not telling the office, then it’s not a safe work environment. Bad look Dax.” Harwood responded stating “I know this is exactly what you’re looking for, because you beg for relevancy that you only got by being a punching bag your whole career, but you’re a f idiot. If you ever worked hard enough during your little 15 minute-of fame-career to ever feel any sort of pain, you’d know the anxiety that comes with injury to an athlete. So while you’re trying to turn this into a bit for your shitty podcast, I’m hoping & praying that I don’t have to go through an extensive surgery, or even worse. For being someone who claims to be so smart to our business, you’d probably know wrestlers have worked hurt for decades. Also, I’m 100% sure some wrestlers in WWE are working hurt right now, but of course you only decide to attack AEW…anything for the clicks. If anything, this does not go against the “safe working environment” that my boss promotes. It shows how dumb we as wrestlers are to hide this information from all the proper people put in place to keep us safe. How can this be anyone’s fault except mine? No one knew about the severity of my injury. And once I finally told Tony and Doc Sampson, they immediately MADE me take time off. Maybe one day, I can be on your podcast, but only if we do it live and face to face. I’ll fly myself wherever I need to meet you. Open invitation. Anyways…off to an MRI. While you’ll be talking about this for a segment of your show, I’m hoping the doctors don’t find out anything worse about my condition. Good day, Glenn.“

In a recent interview with the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Kris Statlander revealed that she is currently an unofficial member of AEW’s medical team in regards to her providing medical advice to AEW talent who are recovering from knee and leg related injuries due to her own past history with those injuries. Statlander stated “A lot of injuries are mental than they are physical, but I am at least very thankful that even though I hated having to blow out both my knees and recover from them, I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me about their knee and leg injuries and I’m just happy to be someone that’s there to kind of walk them through it and give them some advice, just let them know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel because I didn’t believe that light was there for a while but I got through it, here I am. It’s so easy to get negative and kind of just be like, ‘I’m done with wrestling’ because this is the worst feeling that I’ve ever had in the world. So it’s nice to, you know, be a mental advocate I guess but also kind of a physical one because I’m unofficially a part of the medical team with helping other people rehab from their injuries in the ring and it’s nice because it’s kind of my fault that — not my fault but I was kind of the prototype in a way for the recovery process and the return to sport, because of my constantly showing up to work even when I didn’t have to. Then wanting to rehab with them and wanting to find good steps and good feedback with the medical team about, ‘Hey, this might be too much at this point’ and, ‘Hey, I think we can start progressing a little bit more.’ It’s just been nice to know that I’ve been able to help out in other ways, besides just what’s on-screen. It definitely is (rewarding), especially since I am, technically, a licensed massage therapist and I don’t practice because I wouldn’t want people to just randomly want a massage, you know? That’s weird. But it’s nice to still have some sort of medical aspect a part of my work, even though I had to kind of go through injuries and figure it out and then help everyone else figure it out and I feel like now, everyone’s feeling a lot more prepared once they come back from their injuries so it’s nice to say that I was kind of the groundwork for that.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

AEW announced five new matches for the card of this week’s taped AEW Rampage show on June 13th in Des Moines, Iowa: