AEW: Kiera Hogan Suffered Shoulder Injury, The Undertaker on Hoping “AEW Gets Their Crap Together One Day & Genuinely Creates Some Competition”, More News

Kiera Hogan Suffered Shoulder Injury

ASÉ Wrestling announced on Twitter that Kiera Hogan recently suffered a shoulder injury and as a result, they have pulled her from their upcoming ASE 4 event on June 22nd in Charotte, North Carolina.

🚨 ASÉ 4 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨 Today we have unfortunate news.

Kiera Hogan of “Fire N’ Flava” has received a shoulder injury and will sadly not be be cleared to compete at ASÉ 4 in the original advertised tag team match of the King Bees vs Fire N’ Flava.

We will update you will a… pic.twitter.com/9CDe52u6K0

— ASÉ (@ASEWrestling) June 13, 2024

Hogan last wrestled this past April at a ROH TV taping for Ring of Honor in Jacksonville, Florida.

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The Undertaker Comments on “Hopefully AEW Gets Their Crap Together One Day & Genuinely Creates Some Competition” with WWE

In a recent Q&A episode of the Six Feet Under with Mark Calaway podcast, WWE Hall of Famer and co-host Mark Calaway, also known as The Undertaker, gave his thoughts about being hopeful of AEW becoming a genuine competitor to WWE one day and what he feels is currently holding back AEW from being able to do it.

“Hopefully, one day, AEW gets their crap together and genuinely creates some competition. That’s probably not a popular take from most WWE insiders, but from the way I look at it, competition is only going to make you better.

I don’t think there’s a really true leader in the locker room. I have nothing against the man, but I don’t know if Tony [Tony Khan] is the guy to run the company. His heart is in a good place and he wants to do something, but I don’t know if he has the acumen to run a wrestling company against the juggernaut that is the WWE. I could be wrong. There was that one other time I was wrong [laughs]. I hope they do get it together and we do have some competition. It’s better for the wrestlers. It’s better for the audience, the fans, everything.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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AEW News & Notes

Mike Bennett recently reflected on Twitter about his over twenty year career in wrestling. Bennett stated “After 20+ years wrestling I can honestly say, tweets like this and interactions like this will always mean more to me than any championship I could win. This shit is real and I’m honored to be on this journey with all of you.” Bennett’s comments were in response to a recent tweet from a fan praising Bennett for being the person who inspired his own sobriety journey in life.

In a recent interview with TV Insider, AEW CEO Tony Khan gave his thoughts about taking a lot of inspiration from classic films “All About Eve” and “Sunset Boulevard” for the development of Toni Storm’s “Timeless” character. Khan stated “All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard changed the course of AEW. Those are two of my favorites. If you’ve seen them, you know what I’m talking about. With “Timeless” Toni Storm, I took a lot of influence from those when I wanted to make her a character and lead off with her. We have a great tie-in with Turner Classic Movies. One influence came at the start of the lockdown. There were a few days before we had to do our show during the lockdown, which I think was March 18, 2020. I had a lot of time to watch other shows and what others did during these situations.“

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Jim Ross gave his thoughts praising longtime ESPN NBA commentator Mike Breen and being inspired by Breen’s commentary work. Ross stated “Mike Breen is the [best] basketball broadcaster in the business. Period. End of story. There is no one better. He reminds me of a modern-day Curt Gowdy. I get inspired hearing how him provide lyrics to the music on the court. He knows exactly how much to say, and when to say it. He maximizes his minutes with every word he utters.” Breen responded praising Ross for being an icon in the wrestling commentary industry. Breen stated “Everyone in this profession should know Jim Ross. He’s an icon. I’m always listening to different broadcasters, whether it’s in baseball, football, hockey, tennis, or wrestling. Right away you can feel how much passion he brings to his calls. When you hear Jim Ross, you can instantly tell how much he loves what he does. It’s very humbling to know he feels that way. I still feel so blessed and honored to be calling the Finals. I always loved the team aspect of it. Bringing the Finals to the fans, it’s so rewarding, especially when you’re working with so many talented people.“

In a recent interview with Shakiel Mahjouri, Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts about her assessment of her current career in AEW. Purrazzo stated “I feel like coming in so strong and wrestling Toni Storm for the AEW Women’s World Championship at Revolution, Toni tapped out so I still have some kind of claim to I should be the AEW Women’s World Champion and then kind of veering off I feel like is a really great thing. I’ve not disappeared from our programming. On a week-to-week basis, I could be on Dynamite, I could be on Rampage, I could be on Collision and I feel like there’s more women in the mix. I’m currently in a story with Thunder Rosa that’s totally a non-title storyline and that’s really big. So we’re highlighting so many women across all of these shows and I’m just really grateful to be a part of that, to be part of the strengthening of this division and putting more eyes on women who aren’t particularly featured in just a championship storyline.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with the Hitting The Turnbuckle podcast, Lance Archer gave his thoughts about his current career in AEW has been “pretty steady”. Archer stated “I would say that my time (in AEW) has been pretty steady. I think everybody’s wrestling career and time in companies and the business as a whole has its ups and downs, its ebbs and flows. Mine certainly has that, but I think it has been pretty darn steady and then I think for the future, I’m always aspiring for the top, for the biggest spot. A lot of times, people go, ‘Who is your favorite person to want to work with? Who’s your dream match? Who’s your dream opponent?’ Things like that and my answer almost always is, ‘Who’s the champion right now?’ Right now, it’s Swerve (Strickland). So Swerve is my dream match, my dream opponent and with Forbidden Door coming up which you mentioned before, it’s a good combination show. It’s something that kind of opened the door for professional wrestling and some of the stuff you’re seeing around wrestling right now with different companies working together and whatnot and the fact that we’ve been working with New Japan, a company that I worked for nine years with and the IWGP Championship is going to be, I think, defended by (Jon) Moxley against (Tetsuya) Naito but, that’s another championship that I would love to obtain one time in my career. So my objective is always to be on top with whichever company I’m working with and the fact that AEW is working with New Japan on such a consistent basis, like I said, either the AEW World Championship or the IWGP Championship, one of those two, that’s always where I aspire to go and be.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In the same interview, Lance Archer also gave his thoughts about how he should be one of competitors for the qualifying matches for the vacant TNT Championship Ladder match at AEW’s Forbidden Door 2024 event. Archer stated “Not all the participants have been named for the TNT ladder match. I have a pretty rich history with the TNT Title in the sense that I was challenging for the first ever championship back in 2020 and I challenged again in 2021. I absolutely believe that I should be in that conversation and having one of those matches to be part of that TNT ladder match at Forbidden Door. Who knows what’s going to happen and what is on the table, but I absolutely believe I should be in that picture.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)