— Buddy Matthews sustained an injury during AEW Grand Slam: Australia in his match against Kazuchika Okada for the Continental Championship.
Fightful Select is reporting that Matthews is not expected to return in the near future and will likely remain sidelined for the rest of the year.
Back in June, Matthews revealed on Instagram Stories that his ankle wasn’t healing as he had hoped and that he had no mobility in his foot. He noted that after suffering the injury in February, his initial expectation was to be cleared for an April return, though that has not come to pass.
Matthews is a former AEW Trios Champion with Brody King and Malakai Black. Since then, Black has made his return to WWE.
— On today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer shared an update on the status of Jay White and Colten Gunn in AEW.
White has been sidelined since March after suffering a hand injury, and later opted to undergo surgery on his shoulder as well. White’s return is “not imminent,” which aligns with a recent Fightful report suggesting that he’s likely out for the rest of the year.
As for Gunn, he remains several months away from making his comeback after being injured in July.
In the meantime, Juice Robinson and Austin Gunn have brought Ace Austin into the Bang Bang Gang to keep things moving in their absence.
— Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona of the Gates of Agony recently appeared on the “Battleground Podcast,” where they addressed their current contract situation with AEW.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
Liona on family being the big reason for him signing a new deal with AEW: “For me, as a family man, as a dad of four children, as the father of a type 1 diabetic, I had financial needs. This is my first time in this big opportunity, and to take advantage of that from a financial standpoint, I had to really address that. And thankfully, our brotherhood, none of that ever stood in the way. I never looked at him like ‘Hey, you need to hurry up and sign.’ No. Whatever happens, happens.
“And I think that’s why we’re in the spot we’re in now, because it organically became that. He knew I cared about him, and I didn’t force him. I never once asked him ‘Hey, you going to sign yet?’ Like, never. So I think that’s why it worked out perfectly. And…what’s next? Man, we’re on a quest for gold. We saw that promo that Ricochet shot, and we looked at that as another opportunity to become undeniable and take that opportunity. And we want to be champions in AEW, and we will be champions in AEW.”
Kaun on why he re-signed with AEW: “We [my girlfriend and I] kind of just took this five hour hike to honestly go over what I wanted to accomplish in this business…how much time and equity I wanted to put into AEW. They had invested in me. I really had to kind of check my ego at some point too, because everybody wants to be a World Champion, and I’m fairly new into the business, like nine years, but I had really high goals and aspirations. And honestly, we want to be at the top.
“I was like ‘Hey, they invested in me. I want to invest in them.’ I actually had a couple conversations with Tony where I was like ‘Hey, I’m trying to be a workhorse here. If y’all invest in me, I’m down to be here and be an AEW guy.’ And honestly, this is a new company, and why not be these guys that AEW can put their backs on and be the tag team and singles stars of the future. At that five hour hike, I was like ‘You know what?’ I screamed at the top of the hike. I was like ‘Yeah, I’m here, I’m locked in.’”
