AEW: MVP on His Abscense at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025, Deonna Purrazzo on Body Shaming Comments From Fans & Praises AEW’s Tuition Reimbursement Program, Ricochet Files New “Bald” Trademark

MVP on His Abscense at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025

This past Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2025 event featured Brodido (Brody King & Bandido) defeating FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) and Hurt Syndicate (Sheldon Benjamin & Bobby Lashley) in a Three-way match to become the new AEW World Tag Team Champions. This match was notable for MVP being absent when the Hurt Syndicate came out for their entrance and throughout whole the match itself.

AEW recently released a digital exclusive backstage video featuring the Hurt Syndicate. During the video, MVP gave his thoughts for why he was absent from Forbidden Door 2025 and blamed Ricochet as a storyline reason.

“Ricochet, you think you’re real slick don’t you. My lawyer told me we know it was you that sent that document to the UK immigration department saying you felt threatened by me being a convicted felon to block my work visa so I couldn’t be at Forbidden Door. Coward. You’ve got 500 pounds of beef behind you and your nuts dropped, magnificent. What you succeeded in doing is putting yourself in an unwinnable situation because this is the standard of excellence Shelton Benjamin. This the almighty Bobby Lashley. We coming and we’re gonna crash through them gates and introduce you to some real agony. We are the Hurt Syndicate and we hurt people.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Deonna Purrazzo Comments on Body Shaming from Fans & Praises AEW’s Tuition Reimbursement Program

A recent episode of WrestlingNewsCo’s Velvet Ropes with SoCal Val podcast featured Deonna Purrazzo as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Purrazzo’s thoughts about her praise of AEW’s tuition reimbursement program and the company’s support for her pursing a master’s degree.

“AEW is so great in encouraging us to go back to school.

They have a program where they reimburse us for our tuition up to a certain amount every year.

That was a really big part of why I was happy to go there. I had just gotten my bachelor’s degree the summer of 2023 and I was like, maybe I want to get a master’s. But going somewhere that’s going to be supportive of that was huge for me. And so I’m very, very grateful that they’ve made it so easy and so seamless for me to be able to go back to school. And I’m halfway through my master’s degree.”

Purrazzo also gave her thoughts about the impact of body shamming comments from fans online and how she has been dealing with them.

“I had to realize that these people who comment ‘I’m fat,’ ‘you’re a pig,’ ‘you’re disgusting,’ ‘lose weight,’ ‘maybe then you’ll get booked,’ all of these comments are not my actual supporters. And being able to shift that in my brain — that person is not paying to come watch me wrestle, they’re not buying a ticket to Dynamite, they’re not buying a ticket to the independent show I’m wrestling at in Chicago.

Those aren’t the people, and I don’t need to focus on those people.

I like to have fun with it now, but it’s taken me a lot of therapy to get to that point. It’s taken a lot of conversations with my friends, my husband, and my family to get to that point — to be this strong. But I think that if you’re willing to put that work in for yourself, then no one can stop you. No one on Twitter is keeping me up anymore at night. No one on Twitter is making me cry anymore at night. I’m not giving them the power because they’re not being supportive in other aspects. They don’t deserve it.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

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Ricochet Files New “Bald” Trademark

Ricochet filed a new trademark for “Bald” on August 25th for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This is the same term used by fans for their mocking chants towards Ricochet during AEW shows.