AEW: Trench’s Contract Reportedly Expired, Kenny Omega on Tiger Driver 91 Criticisms, More News

Jul 4, 2023

Trench’s AEW Contract Reportedly Expired & Departed from Company

As noted before, Trench, real name Granden Goetzman, has been absent from AEW since this past February due to an unknown injury.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Trench’s contract with AEW recently expired and he was not given a new deal to remain in the company. Johnson reported that Trench recently departed from the company and is currently a free agent.

Trench’s profile page on AEW’s official roster page was recently removed following the expiration of his contract.

Kenny Omega Comments on Criticisms of Will Ospreay’s Tiger Driver 91 Spot to Him at Forbidden Door II

Uproxx held a recent interview with Kenny Omega. One of the topics discussed included Omega’s thoughts about the online criticisms over Will Ospreay’s Tiger Driver 91 move dropping him on his head during their match at AEW and NJPW’s Forbidden Door II event last week.

“Hopefully it leaves fans questioning is he okay? It’s all about the match. We’re battling in that ring and I want you to go along for the ride with us. If they thought everything else in that match was just the worst shit they’ve ever seen in their life, but that one moment, got them for a second, ‘He’s not going to kick out, he’s not going to get up, they better get the gurney, call in the fucking airlift,’ that’s perfect. And if I had a whole match of those types of reactions, even better. It’s all part of my job, it’s all part of my profession. These are things that I take a lot of pride in and I think that’s why when I went into this match, there’s a lot of physical and mental preparation that goes into it because I was really preparing myself to wow the crowd to this kind of level.
People that wanted to shit on something or people that want to frown upon something, or for people that want to say, ‘Well, if it were me, I wouldn’t have done that.’ I didn’t get to where I was by being able to do things that everyone else could do. I realized, and I recognized that I do have special talents that maybe not everyone else can do. Without revealing too much, I think a lot about my health. I think a lot about life after wrestling. I think a lot about my current life. I think about next week’s Dynamite and the week after that. I would never do something I didn’t trust myself in performing 100 percent.”

AEW News & Notes

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that Jon Moxley is not expected to travel to Edmonton, Canada nor be physically present for this Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show due to him being in Japan for both nights of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s NJPW Strong Independence Day events on July 4th and July 5th. Meltzer reported that Moxley is still expected to make an appearance on the show in the form of a taped interview segment.

AEW reportedly recently signed a new television contract with Televisa to air their weekly Dynamite and Collision shows on the VIX streaming service starting this Wednesday, according to TUDN’s Diego Beltran.

Post Wrestling’s John Pollock reported that indie wrestler “World Renown” Steve Brown was the identity of the “wrestler from Hamilton” that initially answered MJF’s open challenge for his AEW World Championship at this past Friday’s AEW Collision show. Pollock reported that Brown’s appearance on AEW for Collision that was taped on June 29th was exactly 21 years to the date of his official wrestling debut.

As noted before, Jade Cargill has been on a break from AEW and wrestling since this past May’s Double or Nothing 2023 event. Cargill most recently teased at the idea of not coming back from her break due to her enjoying her time off too much. In response to a recent fan question, Cargill stated that she is not returning any time soon to AEW. Cargill also took offense at another fan claiming that AEW was the only reason why she became famous.

AEW Fight Forever publisher THQ Nordic recently announced that they are currently working on a patch to fix issues with the game crashing on PS4.

In response to a recent fan question on Twitter, Kenny Omega stated that AEW’s Fight Forever video game will get continued post-launch support to fix the issues with the game and gave thanks for all of the feedback from fans. Omega stated “As someone who plays a ton of fighting games and FPS, I’ll always encourage fixes and rebalancing when situations like these turn up. There will be continued support for the game so all this feedback and suggestions are great! Thank you!“

In a recent episode of the Being The Elite show, Christopher Daniels provided an update on the recovery of his left eye injury. Daniels stated ”
A couple weeks ago, I had a checkup. I did basically what was an ultrasound on my eye, and it just started to get better. Yeah, pretty much, I feel better, 100%. I am. Just a weird thing. For whatever reason, it stopped, and for whatever reason it healed.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)