Backstage Update on The Beast Mortos Replacing Claudio Castagnoli at AEW Grand Slam Mexico Show
Wednesday’s AEW Grand Slam Mexico show at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City featured The Beast Mortos replacing Claudio Castagnoli for the scheduled 10-Man Tag Team match between the Death Riders & The Young Bucks vs. Will Ospreay, The Opps, & Swerve Strickland.
Fightful Espanol reported that their sources stated that the reason why The Beast Mortos was able to wrestle at the Arena Mexico despite CMLL’s rules against former AAA talents working at their venue was due to AEW CEO Tony Khan personally meet with CMLL CEO Salvador Luttheroth Lomeli. Khan reportedly had requested for Mortos to be allowed to wrestle his first match in the Arena Mexico in 14 years as a replacement due to Cash Wheeler and Castagnoli both not being able to be at the show.
It was reported that Lomeli and CMLL were happy to accommodate Khan’s request leading to Mortos wrestling on the show.
Orange Cassidy Torn Pec Injury & Potential Return Update
As noted before, Orange Cassidy has been out of action for AEW since this past March due to an injury believed to be a torn pectoral.
Fightful Select reported that their sources confirmed that Cassidy had suffered a torn pectoral injury.
It was reported that it is currently not known if Cassidy has underwent surgery for his injury but the current belief within AEW is that Cassidy might not return for the remainder of 2025.
AEW News & Notes
The Texas Rangers will be holding an AEW Night on Wednesday, July 2nd during their baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
Prior to the start of Wednesday’s AEW Grand Slam Mexico show at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, CMLL revealed on Twitter that AEW CEO Tony Khan met up with CMLL mascot KeMalito backstage.
John Silver announced on Twitter that he got engaged to his girlfriend Denise Liguori on Wednesday.
AEW’s taping of Global Wars Mexico show for Ring of Honor featured Bryan Danielson making a surprise post-show appearance. Following the Atlantis vs. Lee Moriarty match, Shane Taylor Promotions attacked Atlantis leading to Danielson, Hologram, Mascara Dorada, and Atlantis Jr. running out to save Atlantis and clear the ring of Shane Taylor Promotions.
Will Ospreay announced on Twitter that he was informed when he landed from his flight in Mexico on Wednesday for AEW’s Grand Slam Mexico show that his grandfather had passed away that morning. Ospreay stated “Personal note. I landed in Mexico this morning at 3am. Once landed I had a phone call from my mum telling me my grandad had passed that morning. Extremely close to my Grandad, he was a bloody hero to me. Your love & support eased my pain, Thank you so much 💚“
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown on SI, current ROH Women’s World Champion Athena gave her thoughts about her being unsure if she will be competing at AEW’s All In Texas event in her home state. Athena stated “I don’t know if that’s in my stars. If not, I have a Ring of Honor pay-per-view that I will probably be defending my championship on. You know, I would probably be super bummed out if I wasn’t on All In, but honestly, there’s still time.“
In a recent episode of AEW’s Close Up with Renee Paquette show, Mina Shirakawa gave her thoughts about AEW changing her new entrance theme song back to her original one following her first match as an official contracted AEW talent at the May 4th AEW Dynamite Beach Break 2025 show. Shirakawa stated “So, for returning to AEW, AEW debut, I want to change something… My friend made me a song, a new song and so, I love that track. I love the song. But, maybe, my fans loving my old one. Yeah, because very iconic. Tony (Khan), during match, changed my music… Yeah, I win (Shirakawa started singing the tune of her original theme). So maybe I feel, oh, it was mistake. So after match, I asked Tony, ‘Oh, so my music, what happened?…’ He loved the old one. But I love both of music. But, maybe (the old song) is very Mina-style, very iconic…” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Wednesday’s AEW Grand Slam Mexico show in Mexico City featured Hangman Adam Page delivering a show opening promo entirely in Spanish. English translation of Page’s full promo “Hi, my name is Hangman and I wanna apologize for my Spanish cause it’s not the best, but it’s a little better than much gringos, so I will try. When I was young my family had a tobacco farm, and every Summer, like 6 men would come from Ruiz, Nayarit to work [says their names]. Every year I worked with them, and they taught me about Mexico. They were hard workers, honest, and cared for their families. They taught me that we are all better when we work together. This is why I want to say thank you–thank you for having us in your house tonight. Thanks for this collaboration between AEW and CMLL cause when we work together, we can change the world. Now, I will talk about our champion Jon Moxley. I’m sorry to say that I don’t have a match tonight, and I’m not allowed to be in the arena during his match… but nobody said anything about after the match… so after all that, I will beat his ass! Until then, thank you to everyone here in Arena Mexico, and I’ll see you soon.” (Transcript h/t: @WrestlingCovers)
In a recent interview with the Monte & The Pharaoh podcast featured AEW and ROH talent Rachael Ellering giving her thoughts about the criticisms of AEW and ROH talent no taking indie bookings if they are not booked for AEW and ROH television shows. Ellering stated “I myself feel like in the last year or two, I’ve lost a step working so infrequently, and being under contract, that’s such a tricky thing because technically, we can take independent bookings. You have to get them approved. They can’t clash with any shows or travel that you have as a contracted talent. But then there’s also that risk of if you do that and you get hurt on the independent show, you’ve really put yourself in a corner, right? And so it’s such a challenge and like you said, it’s hard to find good, reputable, safe schools that have a good ring, good people to train with that have good intentions. And I know that’s a big hold-up for a lot of us AEW, Ring of Honor talent… Again, back to fan comments online but, all the time, people, ‘Well, if they’re upset they’re not booked on TV, go work a bunch of indie shows,’ and it’s like, yes, the principle of that is right. Your heart is in the right place I suppose (Ellering laughed). But it’s definitely not as easy as just, well, let me just go get on a couple of local shows where the board’s broken in the middle of a ring and the ropes are really wobbly and there’s no mats outside of the ring, it’s not clean. You’re working with someone who’s a month into training that only knows how to do a tackle and so, there’s a lot that goes into, okay, I’ll work this show, I know who I’m working with. It’s a promoter I trust that I can work with and I’ll be safe and taken care of because a lot of places, that’s not the situation, right? A lot of wrestling schools, that’s not the situation. You’re not always in there with someone who should even be training, like considering themselves a trainer, and so, you have to really pick and choose your spots as they say and try to get the reps in when you can, try to improve on the things you can control.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
AEW All In Texas Results – July 12, 2025 – Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Adam Page
Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI Planning U.S. Tour This August & September
Various: Steve Blackman on Idea of Potential In-Ring Return Crosses His Mind Sometimes, Michael Oku on Him and Amira Are Not Under Contract & Would Be Open to Uprooting If Offered One, Indies/Misc.
