AEW: “Speedball” Mike Bailey Reportedly Signed with AEW, Danhausen on His Current Status with AEW & ROH, Two New Matches Set for 2/1 AEW Collision Show, More News

Jan 31, 2025

“Speedball” Mike Bailey Reportedly Signed AEW Contract

As noted before, “Speedball” Mike Bailey’s contract with TNA Wrestling officially expired on January 1st and he is currently expected to join AEW.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that Bailey recently signed an official contract with AEW.

Sapp reported that Bailey had signed with AEW prior to his contract with TNA officially expiring and was legally not allowed to potentially debut in the company before January 1st.

Sapp also reported that Bailey is currently expected to make his official debut once AEW officials decide to use him.

Danhausen Comments on His Current Status with AEW & ROH

As noted before, Danhausen had been absent from AEW and Ring of Honor since February of 2023 with the exception of a surprise appearance made at ROH’s Final Battle 2024 event this past December.

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Danhausen as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Danhausen providing an update on his current status with AEW and ROH

“For a long time, I was there, I just wasn’t doing anything. If you don’t have anything for me, that’s fine, but I feel like we need to find something for me.”

Danhausen also gave his thoughts about if he was in attendance backstage at shows during his absence from AEW and ROH programming.

“For some of that. Not for all of 2024. At some point it was, ‘You can stay home.’ Okay, cool, that’s great and I appreciate that because then I’m not just being brought out to whatever. They’re letting me do indies and conventions and it helps me stay sharp for them. I always looked at that as, I’m still representing the company, in a way, because I’m still on these shows. That’s better than me not being on these shows. I’m still at a convention with Sting, taking and posting pictures. When people were like, ‘Where are you at? When are you coming back?’ ‘I don’t know. Ask.’ The more people are vocal, maybe the more of ‘Ah, I got something.”

Danhausen also gave his thoughts about his return at ROH’s Final Battle 2024 and his belief that his marketability should translate into him getting television time.

“It seemed like there was a big reaction. Now it’s kind of seeing where that is going to go and what’s going to happen. We’re figuring it out still. I would like to be presented on TV. The character is for TV. The top seller list for the last four years, on TV or not, I think it’s always top three or top four. Top three this year for sure. I feel like that should translate into television time. Marketability.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Two New Matches Announced for Saturday’s AEW Collision Show

AEW recently announced two new matches for the card of their AEW Collision show on February 1st.

This upcoming show was taped on Wednesday, January 29th at the Propst Arena at Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama as part of AEW’s double set of Dynamite and Collision tapings.

The first new match announced was a singles match of Harley Cameron vs. Taya Valkyrie.

#AEWCollision THIS SATURDAY!
8pm ET/7pm CT on @TNTDrama & @SportsOnMax

Harley Cameron vs Taya Valkyrie@HarleyCameron_ cost @DeonnaPurrazzo an opportunity at the TBS Championship, now she’ll face Deonna’s Vendetta partner @TheTayaValkyrie SATURDAY on TNT and Max! pic.twitter.com/YVo9YO0ete
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 30, 2025

The second new match announced was a Max Caster Open Challenge Series match of Max Caster vs. mystery opponent.

#AEWCollision THIS SATURDAY!
8pm ET/7pm CT on @TNTDrama & @SportsOnMax

Max Caster’s Open Challenge

Who will respond to The Best Wrestler Alive™ @PlatinumMax‘s FIRST EVER open challenge series SATURDAY on TNT and Max? pic.twitter.com/DXnjkKjsZe
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) January 30, 2025

Current card for Feb. 1st AEW Collision show:

AEW TNT Championship Three-way match – Kyle O’Reilly vs. Lee Moriarty vs. Daniel Garcia (c)
Mid-South Street Fight match – FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) vs. Death Riders (Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta)
The Learning Tree (Bryan Keith & Chris Jericho) vs. The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd)
HOOK & Samoa Joe vs. The Patriarchy (Kip Sabian & Nick Wayne)
Max Caster Open Challenge Series match – Max Caster vs. mystery opponent
Harley Cameron vs. Taya Valkyrie
“Timeless” Toni Storm to speak

AEW News & Notes

Wrestling podcaster Conrad Thompson reportedly was in attendance backstage at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show in Huntsville, Alabama, according to PWInsider.

As noted before, AEW was in talks with FOX in Fall of 2024 for a potential new media rights deal for a new show rumored to be called AEW Shockwave. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that AEW Shockwave was something that was always more of a theory than any actual plan for a new television series. AEW officials reportedly used Shockwave as something they wanted to gauge interest in for a potential new show.

As noted before, MVP made his official in-ring debut for AEW at the January 22nd AEW Dynamite Maximum Carnage show in Cincinnati, Ohio. MVP recently provided an update on Bluesky about his plans for the future of his in-ring career in AEW. MVP stated “I plan to wrestle periodically. Just to remind these pissants that I’m STILL a legit threat in the ring. I’m the spokesman for The Hurt Syndicate. And sometimes I speak with my fists.“

In a recent episode of the What Happened When with Tony Schiavone podcast, co-host Tony Schiavone gave his thoughts about the face-to-face interview segment between Toni Storm and “The Glamour” Mariah May at this past Saturday’s AEW Collision Homecoming 2025 show. Schiavone stated “I think it’s absolutely one of the best segments we have ever done. I told RJ City, who obviously works hard with those two girls, he’s a great talent, I told him, ‘Buddy, that was a fucking ten. Just a ten.” (Transcript ht: Fightful.com)

A recent issue of the Mone Mag fan newsletter featured Mercedes Mone thoughts about her TBS title match against Yuka Sakazaki at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show and getting to main event a Dynamite show for the first time in her AEW career. Mone stated “This week on Dynamite was a special one for me as I had my first TBS championship defense of the new year and my first match in the Main Event of AEW! I admit I always feel anxious and nervous when stepping into the Main Event. I set really high expectations for myself, and I know that you, the fans, expect a lot from me too. It can be overwhelming at times! But amidst all that pressure, I try to remind myself to relax and trust in my abilities. I always want to show that I was born to do this, and that Women can Main Event too! I hope ALL Elite Women and I get more opportunities to do so. I had a fantastic time wrestling Yuka—I’ve been looking forward to working with her since training with her in Japan at TJPW. She gave it her all, trying to take me down and spin me around, but in the end, she couldn’t keep up with the Moné Train! I hit my Moné maker and proudly marked my 17th win in AEW.“

As noted before, former TNA talent PCO recently claimed that he had turned down an offer from AEW three times in the past and also claimed that AEW had planned for him to face Kenny Omega in the main event of their first Double or Nothing event in 2019. In a recent interview with Fightful, PCO expanded on his comments stating “I had people attacking me about drawing the house. ‘Yeah, TNA gave you a platform.’ I worked my ass off for that platform. I worked three years for Ring of Honor. I don’t want to brag when I say I turned down AEW three times. Not that I wanted to turn them down, but the first time they reached out to me was October 2018, that’s a long time ago, ‘Would love to have you on big matches. Can you save the following dates; May 25 Las Vegas, August 31 Chicago, October 1 New York City.’ Also, ‘Keep Memorial Day open.’ That’s a text I got from AEW. I had another one November 29, 2018, they texted me, ‘We would really like you in 2019 and beyond. We want to make you a money offer. Sidebar, a match with you and Kenny Omega.’ November 27, I was at Sinclair. ROH flew me from Montreal to Baltimore and had me go to Sinclair with the President and General Manager Greg Gilliland, Delirious, we spent a whole day together. They show me their dojo. I was there with the students. When I left Baltimore, me and Joe [Koff] shook hands on a deal. I gave him my word. He said, ‘Your phone my ring now. You might have some other offers.’ I said, ‘I’m happy with the offer. I can promise you this is like a contract with me. I’m going to shake your hand and you can sleep on it.’ A couple of days after, that’s when AEW wanted me. After they offered me everything, I said, ‘I’m sorry guys, I just signed.’ I hadn’t signed, but I gave my word. ‘I gave my word. It would not be fair to ROH after they flew me to their office and made me one of the greatest offers I’ve had in my career. Promised me tons of things on the creative side.’ I didn’t know AEW was going to become big. They didn’t have the TV deal. I worked for ROH for three years. Awesome, awesome money. TNA called me after the pandemic and ROH had to close down. I started right away with TNA and did three years with TNA. During that time, I had other offers. April 20, 2022, ‘Carl, Tony Khan, wanted to bring you in for May 11 in Long Island, New York.’ I said, ‘I’m under contract with TNA. They don’t want me to go. I can’t do it. I’m under contract and signed.’ On November 3, 2022, ‘Hey Carl, just asked TNA and Scott D’Amore if you could work the big Chicago show.’ I was under contract with TNA and told Scott, ‘Unless you can organize some sort of trade to let me go work there on national TV, I’m going to respect TNA’s decision.’ I ran everything by TNA. I never put my ego in front of the company and said, ‘I don’t care about TNA anymore. I can have national TV and I’m going no matter what.’ I didn’t do that. I had a few other phone calls, sometimes they would call me a few days before, but I was always under contract with TNA. For me and AEW, it was almost mistiming. When they were ready for me, I was signed with ROH. If they wanted me to do something, I was signed with TNA. I was never a real free agent. I don’t want to say I turned them down three times because that’s not the truth, but the fact that I was under contract, I had to turn them down and had no other choice, even though I would have loved that platform. I got attacked on Twitter, ‘Yeah, he turned down AEW three times.’ I just couldn’t make it. I respect TNA too much and I have a huge respect for Scott D’Amore. It was different management. It takes time to get to know somebody. It took a year to get to know the new management. I was very disappointed at the end.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)