Roderick Strong is your new AEW International Champion.
Strong defeated Orange Cassidy on this evening’s Revolution pay-per-view. The match was built around Cassidy’s back being taped up after weeks of title defenses, with Strong taking advantage and targeting the area at every expense. In the end, Strong hit the End of Heartache, capturing his first title since he joined AEW last year.
That wasn’t all that happened. Immediately after the match ended Kyle O’Reilly appeared to congratulate Strong. He has been out of action for almost a year. However, while commentary did say he was back, he did not join up with the Undisputed Kingdom.
UPDATE: Fightful Select says that there was a chance O’Reilly never returned to wrestle again, but by late 2023 they had been told that he was optimistic about coming back. Fortunately the latter ended up being true. As for O’Reilly’s decision to not join with the Undisputed Kingdom, Fightful reveals that a different direction for him has been planned for months.
Full results to tonight’s AEW Revolution PPV can be found here.