Matty Breisch Articles - Page 150

With New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom less than a week away, the hype for the most anticipated card of 2023 – at least so far – is only continuing to grow. Will “Switchblade” Jay White be able to retain his title against Kazuchika Okada? Will AEW’s FTR drop their third-straight title to Bishamon after […]

After having his big turn on Keith Lee on the final AEW Dynamite of the year, Swerve Strickland received his first opportunity at an in-ring opponent on Rampage, where he was booked to face off against the Ring of Honor Pure Champion, Wheeler Yuta, in a main event singles contest. Needless t0 say, it did […]

On Wednesday’s edition of AEW Dynamite, Max Caster and The Acclaimed released a new rap that subsequently acted as a pretty amusing takedown of their forthcoming opponents, Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal, with one particular line – “And you’re stealing money like it’s Kurt Angle’s wife.” – drawing particular ire from Karen Jarrett, the wife […]

Though it feels like William Regal has been out of AEW for months, as his request not to have his contract renewed has been one of the hottest stories in wrestling this year, His Lordship was still technically an employee of Tony Khan’s company until December 29th, even if he wasn’t a featured part of […]

Before SmackDown, Raquel Rodriguez made a bold prediction that Ronda Rousey wouldn’t leave the final SmackDown of 2022 as the SmackDown Women’s Champion, and like a regular WWE Nostradamus, her premonition proved correct… just maybe not in the way she hoped. That’s right, while the former NXT Champion wasn’t able to unseat “The Rowdy One” […]

Folks, Bray Wyatt and Uncle Howdy are two different people, and they might not even like each other. Crazy right? How did the WWE Universe even get here? Well, it all started just after 8 pm, where, after going absolutely berzerk on a cameraman on the previous edition of SmackDown, Bray Wyatt got on the […]

On November 20, 2022, Kairi Sane – now known as just Kairi – made history, becoming the first woman in history to become the IWGP Women’s Champion. That’s right, after finally returning to Japan after an expansive run in WWE that saw the former Kabuki Warrior win the NXT Women’s Championship and the Tag Team […]

Raquel Rodriguez has had a tough go in WWE over the past few months. She lost her tag team partner, Aliyah, to an injury at the hands of Damage CTRL, watched her other tag team partner, Shotzi, suffer brutal beatdowns at the hands of WWE’s two remaining Four Horsewomen of MMA, Shayna Baszler and Ronda […]

When former AEW World Champion Kenny Omega sat down with New Japan Pro Wrestling for a tell-all interview discussing his return to the promotion for Wrestle Kingdom 17 and his bout against long-time internet rival Will Ospreay, it almost begged for a response from “The Commonwealth Kingpin.” Omega called his British-born foil unintelligent, unstable, and […]

Max Caster and The Acclaimed have a problem in AEW. No, it’s not Jay Lethal, Sonjay Dutt, Satnam Singh, or even Jeff Jarrett, but instead Jeff Jarrett’s wife Karen, in a sort of “you-know-where has no furry like a woman scorned” sort of way. It all began on the pre-Christmas edition of Dynamite, when, in […]

Samoa Joe is a big, bad dude; whether he’s running the show as the Television Champion in Ring of Honor, or giving opponents fits as the TNT Champion in AEW, the self-appointed “King of TV” has been on a roll since returning to the ring as a regular performer – winning 17 of his last […]

There was a time when it looked like Dragon Lee was going to be #AllElite. A member of La Faccion Ingibernable who worked with his brother Rush in Ring of Honor, the son of La Bestia del Ring made his AEW debut in the lead-up to All Out, when he joined Team Andrade as their […]

When news broke that Emma, known as Tenille Dashwood in Impact Wrestling, was returning to WWE after half a decade away, was a pleasant surprise. Sure, after watching the likes of Dakota Kai, Karrion Kross, and the hints of Bray Wyatt make their way back into the WWE Universe, bringing back a performer like Emma, […]

There was a time when WWE was an island – performers would magically appear out of nowhere when they were signed, would disappear just as magically when they were no longer needed, and had no lives outside of the business, save appearances on shows like Total Divas, or Total Bellas. Effectively serving as action figures […]

As 2022 comes to a close, folks are beginning to recap the year and discuss the biggest developments across the professional wrestling world. From Roman Reigns’ time atop the WWE Universe, to the announced return of Kenny Omega to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and even the return of Ring of Honor, no story has dominated […]

While defeating Will Ospreay in only their second singles match is a huge goal for Kenny Omega, as “The Best Bout Machine” does not like the “Commonwealth Kingpen,” like at all, securing bragging rights isn’t his only reason to fly out to the Capitol of Japan for a marquee match at Wrestle Kingdom 17. No, […]

With 2022 winding down, it’s hard to say anyone on the WWE Universe had a better year than Sami Zayn; he worked a marquee match with Johnny Knoxville at WrestleMania 38 that garnered press coverage outside of the professional wrestling world, joined the top faction in all of wrestling, The Bloodline, and surprisingly got it […]

When Cody Rhodes made his triumphant return to WWE at WrestleMania 38, it was truly a magical moment. Sure, basically everyone knew “The American Nightmare” was going to be Seth Rollins’ mystery opponent, as the reports of his signing were almost as prominent as those of his exit from AEW, but when “The American Nightmare” […]

Kurt Angle is a wrestling legend for more reasons than one; he’s an Olympic gold medalist, a WWE Hall of Famer, and a nine-time champion in TNA/Impact Wrestling with more than 1,500 matches to his name. But could Angle have added the phrase “AEW star” to that list of accolades? Once upon a time, that […]

Though William Regal’s time in AEW is all but officially over, with his lordship headed back to WWE to work alongside his son, Charlie Dempsey, he still does have a legacy in the promotion in the form of Bryan Danielson, the “American Dragon” who worked closely with the two-time Intercontinental Championship during their shared time […]

In professional wrestling, continuing a family legacy is everything – AEW has Brian Pillman Jr., the Gunns, Brock Anderson, and Hook, to just name a few, WWE has so many multi-generational performers that they literally had a legacy stable headlined by Randy Orton, and both promotions employ one of Dusty Rhodes’ sons, with Cody set […]

Though it’s still 2022 for a few days more, Kenny Omega is already turning his attention to 2023 and one of the biggest matches of his career, when AEW’s “Best Bout Machine” goes toe-to-toe against “The Commonwealth Kingpin,” Will Ospreay at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17. That’s right, after three years away and […]

There was a time when the Dark Order was one of the biggest factions in AEW. They had a TNT Champion as their leader, three different tag teams within their ranks, and even a female tag team thanks to the loose affiliation of Anna Jay to Tay Conti. Since the height of their success in […]

After running the show over the past five weeks against a murder’s row, including the Green Bay Packers, the Tennessee Titans, the Indianapolis Colts, the New York Giants, and the Chicago Bears – okay, maybe it wasn’t that tough of a schedule – the Philadelphia Eagles dropped a nail-biter to the Dallas Cowboys on the […]

What makes some former WWE performers work in AEW while others don’t has to be one of the biggest questions Tony Khan asks himself any time a new round of releases comes down from Titan Towers. Would a performer like Andrade, who traveled the world and worked everywhere from Lucha Libre AAA to New Japan […]

Serena Deeb hasn’t worked a professional wrestling match since all the way back in October, when she secured a win over Haley J on Dark Elevation. While there’s been no public acknowledgment of why Deeb has been missing, be it via injury, via other commitments, or simply a lack of creative ideas, her absence has […]

The winter of 2022 was all about Ricky Starks and elevating his game to the main event level in AEW. After a relatively light workload in the fall, with just five matches booked between August and October after losing the FTW belt to Hook at Fight for the Fallen, Starks re-emerged onto the AEW landscape […]

Stephen A. Smith is the heel – to borrow a phrase from WWE – of the sports debate format. From his time working with Skip Bayless, then Max Kellerman, and now in an open format where he takes on open challenges and smites them down like he’s the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion Roman “Freakin’” […]

Solo Sikoa is seemingly living the dream in WWE; he’s been called up to the main roster after winning the North American Championship in NXT – even if his reign was technically vacated by Shawn Michaels – joining the hottest act in the business in The Bloodline, and gets to spend time working with his […]

As WWE’s calendar year winds down for the year, with just one final live main roster show left on the books in a December 30th show set to be headlined by a tag team match between Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns versus Kevin Owens and John Cena, the company is looking for ways to celebrate […]

There was a time when a tag team of Braun Strowman and Richochet felt like some sort of cruel joke from Paul “Triple H” Levesque and the crew in creative. While the duo had shared the ring together before, working eight matches together including two Royal Rumbles before the “Monster of all Monsters” was fired, […]

Things are going pretty well for ex-NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose heading into 2023. Sure, she lost her contract with WWE after refusing to change the content she was posting on her Fan Time page, but hey, according to her manager per TMZ, the former member of Fire and Desire has already made 500k since […]

Wrestle Kingdom is New Japan Pro Wrestling’s equivalent to WrestleMania, and much like WWE’s marquee event, Gedo, Rockey Romero, and company pull out all of the stops to make sure the event is as special as possible. With matches already on the books that felt impossible a few years back, from AEW’s Kenny Omega’s triumphant […]

Dax Harwood is a lot of things; he’s an AEW superstar, a tag team specialist with two different championship belts around his waist, and as of December of 2022, he can add podcaster to his list of descriptors, as, with William Regal heading back to WWE, the man nicknamed “The Ax” is set to take […]

Rudy Soho has been a member of AEW since all the way back in September of 2021, when she appeared in and ultimately won the Casino Battle Royale at All Out 2021 as the Joker entrant. Since then, Soho has competed for championships, feuded with Britt Baker, tagged with everyone from Toni Storm to Thunder […]

Rozanne Perez hasn’t even been the NXT Women’s Championship for two weeks, and yet, she’s already been tested considerably, not so much in the ring – no offense Toxic Attraction – but for how she won the title and who she won it off of. That’s right, while Mandy Rose’s run with the strap was […]

Though it may come as a bit of a surprise to AEW fans who are only familiar with “The Murderhawk Monster’s” work in Tony Khan’s company, for over a decade, Lance Archer has been a fixture of the Suzuki-Gun faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he’s served as a heater for the baddest dude […]

Kenny Omega is one of the most well-traveled performers in professional wrestling today. He’s worked for New Japan, worked for Ring of Honor, and worked in dozens of other promotions across the professional wrestling world, from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla to Top Rope Championship Wrestling, before helping to found the first legitimate challenger to WWE since […]

Folks, it’s official, Rick Ross is a member of an AEW faction. Is he a member of AEW proper? It’s unclear – typically, promoters don’t introduce a new faction with a member who isn’t going to be a regular part of the team, but hey, when you can nab a name like Rick Ross for […]