Per Tony Schiavone, Samoa Joe is off filming a project and Dax Harwood is ‘banged up’ but not ‘hurt’.
As of this writing, AEW’s CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Kyle O’Reilly, Adam Cole and Buddy Matthews are sidelined with injuries. Tony Schiavone talked about the injuries that the company has been dealing with on the most recent episode of AEW Unrestricted.
Schiavone mentioned that IWGP, AAA and ROH World Tag Team Champion Dax Harwood is ‘banged up’ but not hurt and added that ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe is off doing a project.
On the 6/1 Dynamite, Joe was ambushed by Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh and Sonjay Dutt. He has not been present on television since. The day prior to that segment airing, news became public that Joe accepted the dual role of ‘Sweet Tooth’ in the Peacock series ‘Twisted Metal’.
One of the most challenging things has been the injuries we have had here in AEW. It’s kind of amazing. It’s a challenge to really be able to put on a show when you don’t have your big stars and it’s not to say that we don’t have big stars left because we do but, we don’t have CM Punk right now, we don’t have Bryan Danielson, we don’t have Kenny Omega, Kyle O’Reilly is out, Samoa Joe is off doing a project. Adam Cole has been hurt again. Dax Harwood of FTR is not hurt, but he is banged up. You may see the shoulder tape that he has on. Jungle Boy’s not been around for a little while, MJF walked out. So it’s been a challenge really to put together a TV show and I know because I’m involved in that process. But, then when you circle back and you think about what we just saw at Forbidden Door, yeah, I know there was a lot of Japanese stars from New Japan Pro-Wrestling there and some American stars and obviously, some stars internationally but, it’s been a pretty cool time to be able to say, hey, we’re doing well despite.
Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards went on to speak about the Owen Hart Foundation tournament which was won by Adam Cole and Britt Baker respectively.
Martha Hart gave a speech after the tournament concluded at Double or Nothing and she presented Baker and Cole with their championship belts. Schiavone stated that originally, Martha was supposed to speak at AEW’s UBS Arena show on May 11th.
I think the [Owen Hart Foundation] tournament was a success on many levels. I think we had some great matches in the ring. I think we honored Owen’s name and the family name and the foundation and it’s something that is gonna be a yearly event. Plus, and let’s say this on another level, Martha’s hat, her ascot was absolutely wonderful and we had talked to Martha, I first met her when we were at the UBS Arena in Long Island when the tournament officially started. We had a lot of qualifying matches but officially started at Long Island so I went up to her and I said, ‘We are going –’ I may have mentioned this before on this podcast. I said, ‘We are going to have you come out and talk about the tournament.’ She was like, ‘Oh my goodness, I’m not ready’ and I said, ‘Well, you know, let me work on that a little bit’ so I bring Tony [Khan] in and her and Tony decide that we’ll wait until Las Vegas and then we got to Las Vegas and I thought she was gonna come out at the beginning. She said, ‘No, I’m gonna come out at the end’ and it all kind of worked out, it really did. It was a great presentation of the belts to Britt [Baker] and Adam Cole and it’s something we’re gonna be seeing a lot of as we move forward here.
The primary AEW commentary team since Forbidden Door has consisted of Schiavone, Taz and Excalibur. Jim Ross was brought out for the backend of Forbidden Door and the ‘Blood & Guts’ match on 6/29.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit AEW Unrestricted with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
