Austin Aries is slated to make his return to ROH at their upcoming Best in the World PPV.
Ring of Honor announced the news on Wednesday (June 20, 2018) through social media. It should be noted that Aries is still under contract with Impact Wrestling as he is slated to defend the Impact Wrestling World Title against Moose at Slammiversary next month.
ROH did not reveal whether he would be wrestling at this event or just making an appearance.
If you recall, Aries returned to Ring of Honor back in March at the 16th Anniversary pay-per-view where he originally challenged Kenny King to a match for the TV title at a later date.
His next appearance came when he attacked Todd Sinclar and King in May on the ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds Tour after issuing another challenge for the strap.
Best in the World takes place on Friday, June 29, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland at the UMBC Event Center. The event will air on traditional PPV outlets and the FITE TV app. You can check out the updated card here.
What do you think of Aries appearing at this event?
Austin Aries defeated Pentagon Jr. during the Under Pressure special of Impact and won the Impact World Championship back from the Mexican star last week.
The big question after Aries’ victory was whether he’ll continue his rivalry with the Lucha Underground star or move on to a feud with an Impact star instead and it appears we now have the answer to this.
During the press conference for the upcoming Slammiversary event, it was announced that Austin will be defending his title against Moose at the upcoming show, meaning he’ll be wrapping up his feud with Pentagon.
Though, this wasn’t the only match announced for the event as the company also revealed that Su Yung will defend the Impact Knockouts Championship against Madison Rayne.
It’s worth mentioning here that Yung also became the champion during the same Impact episode where she defeated Allie to win the title.
Apart from this, the company has also announced that both Johnny Impact and Taiji Ishimori will be competing at the upcoming PPV but their opponents for the show are yet to be revealed. After the announcement, below is the updated Slammiversary match card:
Impact World Championship
Austin Aries (c) vs. Moose
Impact Knockouts Championship
Su Yung (c) vs. Madison Rayne
Johnny Impact vs. TBD
Taiji Ishimori vs. TBD
Slammiversary will take place on July 22 at The Rebel Complex in Toronto, Ontario.
The last time Austin Aries saw the inside of a WWE ring, he suffered an extremely disappointing loss to Neville in a Submission match for the Cruiserweight Title at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view (PPV) in June of last year.
Less than a month later, WWE handed Aries his walking papers and was on a 90-day non-compete clause that ended this past October. Since then, Aries has done work for several promotions such as IMPACT Wrestling, Ring Of Honor (ROH) and many more.
A fan took to Twitter and posted a GIF of Aries after his Extreme Rules loss to Neville, noting it was one year since his last WWE match. Aries responded with this:
“And life was never the same… Dejected, almost amused at my repeated failure, who’d have known this moment here would be the catalyst for so much future success. And to my victorious opponent…I’d love to do it again, shackles off, whenever you’re done serving your time…”
Jeff Jarrett Defeats Rey Mysterio To Win Championship
WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett became AAA Mega Champion after defeating the reigning champion Rey Wagner and former WWE Star Rey Mysterio Jr. in a Triple Threat match during a show this past weekend.
Jarrett made his surprise return to AAA during Verano de Escandalo and entered himself into the title match. He became the champion after the Official for the bout got knocked out and the special guest referee La Parka made the three count.
Parka then went on to reveal himself as Konnan and after this reveal; Jeff became the newest member of Konnan’s faction MAD. It’s worth mentioning here that this is the second reign of Jeff Jarrett with the title after originally winning it back in 2011:
A fan recently posted an ‘on this day’ GIF of last year’s Extreme Rules PPV where the then-Cruiserweight Champion Neville had defeated the current Impact World Champion Austin Aries in a singles match.
The World Champion took notice of this tweet and reflecting on it he said that he would like to face the King Of The Cruiserweights again whenever he is done ‘serving his time’:
Neville is currently inactive after walking out of Raw for being unhappy with his creative direction for a long time. There hasn’t been any update on his situation in recent times and the belief is that the company will have him sit through his contract.
Impact Wrestling has decided to retire the Grand Championship.
On Monday, June 4, 2018, the promotion officially announced that the Grand title has been merged with the World Championship, thus creating one title: the Undisputed World Championship.
BREAKING NEWS: @AustinAries has officially merged the IMPACT World and Grand Championship into one undisputed World Championship. pic.twitter.com/bY77HbJPqm
What are your thoughts on this decision and new design? Sound off in the comment section below.
Legacy Of The Grand Title
The Grand Title was introduced at the August 13th, 2016 Impact Wrestling tapings by then-TNA President Billy Corgan. It initially replaced the King of the Mountain Championship. Matches for the Grand Title featured three 3-minute rounds and could be won by pinfall or submission. If there was no winner after 3 rounds, a panel of judges deciding the winner by considering physicality, aggressiveness, and control. There was an 8-man tournament held to crown the first champion Aaron Rex (Damien Sandow) earned the achievement to be the inaugural Grand Champion at the 2016 Bound for Glory pay-per-view event.
If you recall, Austin Aries held both titles before the merger was announced. When Aries returned to the promotion in February of this year, he beat Eli Drake to become the new World Champion on his first night back. He would go onto beat Matt Sydal the following week to win the Grand Title. Although he would lose the World Title to Pentagon Jr. at the Redemption PPV, he would win it back on an episode of Impact Wrestling.
It was also announced on Monday who Aries would be defending the World Title against at the upcoming Slammiversary PPV event. For more on the two matches announced for this event, please click here.
It was a real surprise when Pentagon Jr. won the Impact World Championship from Austin Aries during the Triple Threat main event of their Redemption PPV.
However this change didn’t last for very long and after almost a month-long reign of the Lucha Underground Champion, A-Double won the World Title back during the ‘Under Pressure’ special of Impact.
Austin won the title in a controversial match which was restarted not once but 3 times. The bout was first stopped when Aries refused to release a submission hold and both men were counted out.
Both stars then agreed to restart the bout but they were counted out again after Pentagon hit a Package Piledriver on Austin on the ring apron:
After this, the Mexican Star cut a promo demanding to restart the bout once again, though it didn’t go very well for him. As soon as the referee turned around to restart the bout, the former WWE Star low-blowed his opponent and then pinned him after hitting a brainbuster:
It’s worth mentioning that this wasn’t the only title change during the night as Su Yung defeated Allie during the show and was crowned the new Knockouts Champion.
This is Austin Aries’ third reign with the Impact World Championship and now it’d be interesting to see if he continues his feud with Pentagon Jr. or moves on to a rivalry with an Impact Wrestling star instead.
This week’s episode of Raw saw Braun Strowman teaming up with Finn Balor to face the team of Dolph Ziggler and the former NXT Champion Drew McIntyre.
However while most of the match on the show played out as it was drafted, it appears that one of the spots during the bout did not go as planned.
According to PWinsider, the moment where the Greatest Royal Rumble trophy broke after Strowman accidentally slammed Drew through it, was not scripted.
No word yet on if there is any heat on any of these men for the incident but since it was just an accident, it’s possible that Officials have already forgotten it.
Austin Aries Congratulates Ex On SmackDown Debut
As seen on SmackDown Live this week, former NXT Champion Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas made his main roster debut along with her manager Zelina Vega.
Almas defeated a local talent upon his arrival on the Blue Branded Show and Zelina then went on to cut a promo, warning the SmackDown Locker room.
After the show, former WWE Star Austin Aries posted a tweet in which he congratulated Vega on her SmackDown debut.
In the tweet, as seen below A Double revealed that the two are no longer a couple but said that he knows the effort she has put into making this dream a reality:
Congrats to my ex-girlfriend @Zelina_VegaWWE on her #SmackDownLive debut. I know firsthand all the time, effort, and sacrifice that went into making this special dream a reality.
As we’ve previously reported, former WWE Champion Kane has won his Republican Primary for the race for Mayor in Knox County, Tennessee. He will move on to the General Election in November to take on the Democratic Primary winner to decide who Knox County’s next mayor will be.
TMZ Sports posted a video in which they catch up with WWE Hall Of Famer Hulk Hogan and discussed Kane’s campaign. Hogan noted that Kane handles everything backstage and is very involved with the business aspect of things. Check it out:
Austin Aries To Challenge For The ROH World TV Title
Ring Of Honor (ROH) has announced that Austin Aries will challenge Silas Young for the ROH World TV Title at ROH War Of The Worlds next weekend on Sunday, May 13th from Chicago, Illinois. They also announced Cody vs. Jushin Thunder Liger for the Friday night before on May 11th in Toronto, Canada. You can get more information at this link.
While Alberto El Patron did not wrestle in any major event during the WrestleMania weekend this year, he still found his way to the headlines by no-showing the Impact vs. Lucha Underground event.
During a recent interview with WrestlingInc, Austin Aries who was supposed to be part of the original tag team main event of the show along with El Patron talked about him missing the event.
Aries claimed that the former WWE Champion’s no-show did not affect the revamped Triple Threat main event as both his opponents Rey Fenix and Pentagon Jr. were very talented.
When asked about the backstage reaction to Alberto missing the show, Austin said that initially, he wasn’t very concerned and revealed that they realized his absence after the show had started:
“With him being a professional such as he is and everybody else involved, I wasn’t overly concerned, but as the event was going I did inquire if anybody had seen him or where his location was, and that’s when we realized that he hadn’t arrived yet,”
For those who don’t know, Alberto El Patron was supposed to main event the Impact vs Lucha Underground event teaming with Pentagon Jr. to face Austin Aries and his partner Rey Fenix.
However, he no-showed the event, forcing the management to change the bout into a Triple Threat match among the other three participants of the announced tag match.
Impact ended up releasing Alberto El Patron shortly after this and there have been conflicting reports on why he missed the event. Reports say that Alberto told officials he was ill while in an interview he claimed the reason to be an undisclosed family situation.
Kayfabe Events has announced that former WWE Cruiserweight and current reigning IMPACT, IPW:UK, Defiant, WSW and Defy Champion Austin Aries will be appearing in a special one-off speaking appearance on April 26th in London. This will be an exclusive speaking event in the UK for the ‘Belt Collector.’
The show will be compared by Dean Ayass with a Q&A segment orchestrated by UK superstar and PROGRESS roster member Eddie Dennis. The evening will be taking place at the famed Hackney Showroom from 7pm and tickets are available to purchase here for £10.
Kayfabe Events have a stacked lineup of events taking place over the next few months, full details and ticket information can be found on their official website but here is a taste of what they have coming up in 2018:
Mike Parrow Speaking Tour 16th-18th April
Ted DiBiase Speaking Tour 17th-19th May
Jimmy Havoc Speaking Tour 25th-26th May
Bret Hart Speaking Tour 5th-8th June
Su YungThe Undead Tea Party Tour 27th July – 28th July
Austin Aries Has Added Another Title To His Collection
Austin Aries added a sixth title to his collection last night when he defeated Swerve (Shane Strickland) to capture the Defy Championship at “Vibes.” Here’s what he had to say on social media:
“Last night continued to prove why I love being a #prowrestler doing #prowrestling right now. @defynw has something cool going on in the NW right now. Well run, good locker room, and a legion of rowdy, loyal fans. Some weren’t happy how I swerved “Swerve” @stricklandshane, but sometimes that’s what it takes to beat a top talent and stay #TheBeltCollector. Thank you @defynw and it’s fans for a really fun night. See you soon. Time to celebrate.”
Up until recently, WWE has been hesitant from using the name of TNA or Impact Wrestling on television.
Outside of former TNA President Dixie Carter doing an interview for WWE Hall of Famer and current General Manager of WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW, Kurt Angle’s WWE 24 special that aired last year on the WWE Network, the sports entertainment company has gone out of their way of not mentioning the promotion.
Just look at Jeff Jarrett’s Hall of Fame speech last week, he didn’t mention TNA at all, which is a bit odd considering that it could be argued that is his biggest achievement of his career.
As seen on this week’s episode of Monday Night RAW in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Smoothie King Center on the USA Network, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn approached Angle about wanting a job with the red brand after they were officially fired from SmackDown following WrestleMania 34 loss to Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan.
Angle did name TNA during the backstage segment as he first told Owens and Sami that the RAW tag team division was full, but he heard “TNA is hiring.”
During Wednesday’s Impact conference call, former WWE star and current Impact World Champion Austin Aries responded to WWE’s jab at TNA. Here is what he had to say:
“It’s cool man. We are hiring. If you come here, we won’t test you, or take money out of your pocket for smoking marijuana.”
What are your thoughts on Austin’s response to this jab? Sound off in the comment section below.
Impact World Champion Austin Aries was recently a guest on the Wrestling Compadres podcast to talk about various topics.
Many fans were caught off guard when the news broke last year that the WWE and Aries had parted ways. The news seemed to come out of nowhere and was a shock to fans.
Aries, who signed with the company back in 2016 and last appeared on television in May on 205 Live, had been in a top position in the cruiserweight division prior to his departure from WWE. He was a big star on 205 Live on the WWE Network.
He decided to go back to Impact Wrestling and is currently their World Champion.
When ROH held their 16th Anniversary Show, the former ROH World Champion made a surprise appearance by walking out to the stage. Aries wasn’t advertised to appear, but he did challenge Kenny King for his ROH World TV Championship.
During this interview, he gave some insight into his free agent status. Here is what he had to say:
“I have an agreement in place with a certain amount of dates which would get me through a certain amount of time, which would be different than your typical contracts as we think of them. We have sat down and talked about some things about the future and what it looks like in their standpoint. There is interest for them to keep me. I have some interest too to continue to hone my skills,” he said. “I think there is a lot of positive momentum right now and I think that the things that are trying to be done with the company align philosophically with some of the same things that I believe in as far as doing business in this landscape so we will see what happens. With that being said, I definitely value my freedom. Right now, it is truly unprecedented to be an independent contractor in Professional Wrestling. To be able to go out there and make your money and travel the places that you want to go, so at the end of the day there is a lot of opportunities out there.”
During last night’s Ring Of Honor (ROH) 16th Anniversary Show, current IMPACT World Champion and former ROH World Champion Austin Aries made a surprise appearance (showcasing all his current titles from various promotions) to challenge Kenny King for his ROH World TV Title. Aries has yet to win that championship in his professional wrestling career:
PWInsider reports that ROH and IMPACT are not currently working together in any sort of capacity. Aries is not signed to a contract with IMPACT so he is able to work for anyone else simultaneously at will. ROH and IMPACT have a rough history with one another after IMPACT bumped an ROH PPV off Direct TV thanks to a cease and desist letter for Matt and Jeff Hardy’s “Broken” gimmicks. Aries did reportedly alert IMPACT of his appearance for ROH last night and they supported his decision.
New IMPACT management are looking to run more of an open door policy to work with other promotions, and saw Aries’ appearance for ROH as a positive. IMPACT also allowed Aries to show off his IMPACT World Title at the show as well.
The Ring of Honor 16th Anniversary show has concluded and there’s a lot to digest.
The event took place last night (March 9) inside the Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall in Las Vegas, Nevada. There were four title matches and two Women of Honor tournament matches. There were also a couple of surprises.
First off, Austin Aries made his return to ROH after Kenny King successfully defended his TV title against Silas Young. Aries came out wearing the multiple titles he’s earned in recent months. He laid out a challenge for King’s TV title, because he’s never had the gold.
Also on the show, Kenny Omega made a surprise appearance. He disguised himself as the Bullet Club bear. He shoved Cody to the mat and delivered a V-Trigger. In an effort to play mind games, Brandi planted a kiss on Omega.
Results
WOH Tournament Match: Sumie Sakai def. Hana Kimura
Austin Aries recently made his return to IMPACT Wrestling, the ‘Greatest Man That Ever Lived’ defeated then IMPACT World Champion Eli Drake in shocking fashion to once again sit atop the mountain for the company that previously saw him reign as X Division and TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
Since his departure from WWE and the Cruiserweight scene Aries has been branching out into more territories across the globe, most notably in the United Kingdom where he currently holds the IPW:UK and DEFIANT Wrestling World Championships.
Intriguingly Aries made his entrance on this week’s episode of IMPACT with both of these prestigious UK Championships and IMPACT appears to be touting the fact that Aries is a Champion around the world…will this mean co-promotion going forward? It will be interesting to see how this story develops, especially as IMPACT look to re-establish themselves on the pro wrestling scene and attempt to break back into markets such as the UK, possibly by running co-branded events alongside IPW:UK and DEFIANT.
Tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling will be the 2nd from the set of TV tapings the company held in Orlando last month. The Orlando tapings were the first under the company’s new management team of Don Callis, Ed Nordholm, and Scott D’Amore.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj1WC4sNb74
Matches and Segments Announced For Impact Wrestling Tonight
Tonight’s show will also be the first since Austin Aries won the promotion’s world championship last week.
Austin Aries Speaks on Winning the Championship
Aries defeated Eli Drake to win the championship last week.
The Cult of Lee in tag-team action
Caleb Konley and Trevor Lee attacked LAX last week. Konnan and his faction may have revenge in store tonight.
Knockouts Championship Laurel Van Ness (c) vs. Kiera Hogan
Hogan defeated LVN last week in a non-title match.
Allie caused the distraction last week which cost LVN the match.
Hania vs. Amber Nova
Hania is a pro since 2013 and has competed for Women of Honor. The Orlando tapings were her first with Impact.
Amber Nova is a pro since 2016 and has not competed with Impact previously.
#1 Contenders Match EC3 vs. Moose vs. Alberto El Patron vs. Johnny Impact
– Last night a photo began making the rounds on social media showing WWE Hall Of Famers Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler apparently sleeping during RAW 25. Ross took to his Facebook page this morning to clear things up and denied that he and Lawler were asleep, calling the claims ‘absurd’ and ‘ridiculous’:
Austin Aries returned to Impact Wrestling at Wednesday night’s Impact tapings from Orlando, FL and captured the company’s Global Championship from Eli Drake.
This Friday sees DEFIANT Wrestling Champion and former WWE Cruiserweight Superstar Austin Aries defend his belt against PROGRESS World Champion and international standout Travis Banks. This bout is part of the ongoing IPW:UK invasion of the DEFIANT roster, an invasion led by Aries and Mark Haskins.
You can catch the World Title match on DEFIANT’s official YouTube channel this Friday from 8pm GMT, that’s 3pm Eastern and 12pm Pacific. The #WeAreDefiant show is available to view for free EVERY Friday so it is well worth checking out, you can find last week’s episode below:
Defiant Wrestling (formerly known as WCPW) will be hosting their fourth weekly show tonight for free on YouTube. The company’s ongoing feud with fellow UK promotion IPW:UK is currently at the forefront of the weekly programming and features two of the independent scenes top stars Austin Aries and Mark Haskins. As well as the fallout from last week’s invasion this #WeAreDefiant show will feature bouts from some of the UK’s best.
Matches currently announced for the show are:
Xia Brookside vs Millie McKenzie vs Roxxy
CCK’s Chris Brookes vs David Starr
The show is airing right now so check it out below:
Former WWE Superstar Austin Aries recently joined former WWE European Champion Sean “X-Pac” Waltman’s podcast, X-Pac12360, to talk about a variety of professional wrestling topics. Aries discussed being contacted by IMPACT Wrestling after his WWE release, what kind of wrestling promotion he’d like to work with now, and the endless opportunities he now has away from WWE. Here are the highlights:
IMPACT Wrestling contacting him after leaving WWE:
“We had some talks but really for me, the only position I was interested in there was the position of being a decision maker. I told Dixie (Carter) when I left there I wouldn’t come back and work for anybody. But If I was going to come back there (Impact), that I had to be in a position to make a difference. I know they just went through a big régime change, I know we had some discussion about me coming in there and possibly being part of the team.
“But I know where I am right now in my career and all the possibilities and things I have in front of me, I really couldn’t invest myself emotionally into that because let’s be honest they’ve got a lot of work to do there. They’ve done a lot of bad business over the years and they’ve got a lot to overcome. And I think the guys there know that and I wish them luck.”
What kind of wrestling promotion he’d like to work with:
“I don’t wanna stamp my name of approval on places that aren’t doing it the right way or at least trying to do it the right way. It’s very important to me that if I show up somewhere, I’m going to believe in what you’re doing or trying to do. And if I feel at any point that that shifts, I have no problem walking away from that. I’m not gonna patch my name on places that are doing the old way of business. We want to move forward, we wanna have places where guys can make a good living.”
The endless opportunities he now has:
“I had to divide my time, had some restrictions and during that time, I had a herniated disc in my neck and I had to get right before I can get back in the ring. I’m really lucky and thankful that my opportunities were endless. I have seen people reaching out, booking me on their show. I really had the opportunity to pick and choose where I wanna go, make my own schedule, decide where I wanted to stamp my name.”
You can listen to Aries’ full interview on X-Pac12360 by clicking here.
Defiant Wrestling will be presenting their first PPV event this Monday December 4th. #WeAreDefiant will be showcasing some of the best talent that the UK, Europe and the United States has to offer.
As part of the 7pm UK time pre show on YouTube, Bennett will be introducing a brand new talent who he describes as the “hottest free agent in professional wrestling today.”
The names currently being thrown around as potential signees are Austin Aries, James Ellsworth (!?)and James Storm.
Who do you think it could be? Let us know in the comments.
A fan recently took to Facebook to call out Austin Aries for reportedly being rude and abusive to him and his friends at an airport. Aries was said to be hostile after the fan approached Aries for a photo, and the former WWE star began “abusing us saying why didn’t we pay at the show.” Here’s the full post:
“WHO THE F__K IS AUSTIN ARIES?!!! After what happened this morning, you’ve lost a true fan who’s been supporting you since Day 1. I can’t believe you think my friends & I aren’t supporters just because we asked nicely for a photo at the airport & you start abusing us saying why didn’t we pay at the show plus on top of that, you tried to get us kicked out of Qantas but lucky the amazing staff defended us saying we’re doing nothing wrong.
“We pay YOUR salary, YOUR tickets, put food on YOUR table & make you who YOU are today. Be f–king grateful you’ve got fans coming to the airport, wanting your photo/autograph, don’t be all greedy/money hungry thinking you’re f–king king s–t lol”
Aries responded to the allegations on Twitter:
Today, 3 adults at said show, who bought 0 from anyone, stalked at the airport wanting free pics. It’s rude and unfair to all the REAL fans. https://t.co/knjeQf8mXs
Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion will be returning to Twitch for another live show on December 2nd. Production problems plagued last Saturday’s broadcast but the entire show has not been put up for viewing-on-demand.
House of Hardcore 36 will air from Austin Aries’ hometown of Waukesha, WI. Aries cut a promo at HOH35 which was greeted with some heckling from the live crowd in Philadelphia this weekend.
House of Hardcore 36
Only 3 matches are announced thus far for the show:
Al Snow & Swoggle vs. the Squad
Candace Michelle vs. Lisa Von Marie (Michelle’s last match)