Two of AEW featured stars in Powerhouse Hobbs and Julia Hart are reportedly injured and the initial thought is not promising for the former champions.

According to Fightful Select, Julia Hart has suffered an injury that may require surgery. This is after Hart has ran into a string of recent injuries as of late and the timeframe for her return is currently unknown. She reportedly was injured on the lead-up to AEW Dynasty where she dropped the TBS Championship to Willow Nightingale. Hart is still very early her pro wrestling career and has hit a note with fans since aligning with the House Of Black.

Powerhouse Hobbs Is Also Injured

In the very same update, Fightful Select confirmed that Powerhouse Hobbs is also now out with injury as first reported by Bryan Alvarez of The Wrestling Observer. The injury is said to be significant and the former TNT Champion is not expected back anytime soon.

Hobbs was just featured in the main event match this past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite as he became the first challenger to Jon Moxley as the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Hobbs lost to Moxley via technical submission when the Blackpool Combat Club member got Hobbs in a rear-naked choke.

Hart and Hobbs now join a significant list of name talent on the AEW roster out with injury. MJF, Kenny Omega, Adam Cole, Darby Allin, Kota Ibushi, Bandido, Jamie Hayter, Miro, Britt Baker and Jeff Hardy are only a handful of talent on the shelf.

Stars from AEW are preparing to step out of the ring and into the car as part of the next season of Carpool Karaoke: The Series.

The Emmy Award-winning show, now entering its fifth season is based on the Carpool Karaoke segment from “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”

AEW stars appearing on the upcoming season include:

• CM Punk
• Bryan Danielson
• Britt Baker
• MJF
• Christian Cage
• Powerhouse Hobbs
• Ruby Soho

Other celebrity guests appearing on this season include Zoey Deschanel (New Girl), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), and Sydney Sweeney (The Handmaid’s Tale).

Carpool Karaoke: The Series’ fifth season will premiere on May 27.

Watch the Carpool Karaoke season 5 trailer here:

AEW’s burst into the mainstream

While it’s not uncommon to see WWE Superstars and personalities appear on late-night interviews or other non-WWE programming, AEW has made a big splash in a relatively short amount of time.

Earlier this week, it was announced that Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor, and Kris Statlander will appear on the upcoming season of Netflix’s ‘Floor is Lava.’

The show features contestants trying to cross an obstacle course without falling into the ‘lava’ underneath.

AEW isn’t just making their presence felt in programming, as former Women’s World Champion Nyla Rose recently teamed with MARVEL, co-writing the ‘Giant-Size X-Men: Thunderbird #1 which hit shelves this month.

• Tony Khan Reveals What He Looks For When Signing Talent To AEW (May 2022)

Will Hobbs debuted for AEW this summer. He turned heel and aligned with Team Taz this November. He was the guest this week on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Hobbs spoke about trying out for WWE earlier in his career as well as earning a full-time contract with AEW.

“The tryout was good. That’s a long story but I’ll give you the short story,” Hobbs said about trying out for WWE. “They said we didn’t have anything for you right now.”

Hobbs continued to say that WWE contacted him again after he had appeared on AEW television.

“Years later, (I was) getting the carrot dangled in front of me, then I pretty much told them F-you.”

“The way I was raised, I don’t have time for that s**t. I’m not ‘Boo Boo the Fool’ as my grandmother used to say,” he continued.

Aubrey Edwards then noted others in Team Taz have similar stories.

“Yeah I think Ricky (Starks) had the same thing happen. Both the Team Taz guys. It was like (they) appear on AEW, ‘hey, remember us, we would like to talk you.'”

“I’d rather you tell me ‘100% no’ than try and BS me,” Hobbs continued.

Will Hobbs On Getting A Full-Time AEW Contract

Hobbs also spoke about signing a full-time deal with AEW in September.

“I started off as a Tier 0,” Hobbs said about his first deal with AEW. “And then I believe I got that offer, I want to say right after my Darby match on the Saturday Night Dynamite.”

“Then I believe the PPV was maybe 3 weeks after that. Right after I did my whole thing with Mox, saving him, I got to the back and had another contract waiting for me. I got on the phone, I called a few people back home. When I got back to the hotel, I’m not a real emotional person, but I had to shed a few tears.”

Will Hobbs showed his true color last night on AEW Dynamite. That color is orange.

The main event saw TNT Champion Darby Allin and Cody Rhodes taking on Brian Cage and Ricky Starks. Team Taz picked up the win after Cage spiked Allin with an avalanche Drill Claw. After the match, Team Taz beat down Allin and Rhodes, until Will Hobbs came running down to ringside with a steel chair.

Hobbs was a bit late to make the save, as he has been before when saving Allin and Rhodes from Team Taz. As it turns out, this was no coincidence and was actually a big angle playing out before our eyes.

With the heels outside the ring, Hobbs dropped the steel chair, picked up Cage’s FTW Championship smashed into the face of Cody Rhodes. Hobbs embraced Team Taz as the faction’s newest member.

Will Hobbs will be in action next week on Dynamite.

You can watch Will Hobbs join Team Taz in the YouTube player embedded below:

Two big heavyweights will collide next week on Dynamite with the FTW title on the line. Brian Cage will look to defend his championship against Will Hobbs. The two big men brawled at ringside during the Darby Allin vs Ricky Starks match this week and AEW officials scheduled them to go one-on-one next week.

This bout between two of the largest athletes in AEW has fans discussing potential ways the FTW title can be used in the promotion. Many fans have been commenting on the title possibly being used as a “Hoss” championship competed for by top heavyweights.

“FTW title is officially the hoss belt lezgoo” wrote a user on Reddit.

Some fans even began putting together a “Hoss Division.”

“Sold. Miro, Lee, Wardlow, Luchasaurus, Hager, Butcher, Archer, let them all kill for that hoss title,” another user on Reddit wrote.

Will Hobbs commented on the match in the Tweet below:

FTW Title History

Although the title is not officially recognized by AEW, this will be Brian Cage’s second title defence in the promotion. He defeated Brian Pillman Jr. with the belt on the line on an episode of Dark in July.

Cage is one of only three men to ever hold the title. Taz introduced the belt in 1998 and briefly lost it to Sabu in 1999. The title was abandoned after Taz defeated Sabu in a title vs title match at Living Dangerously 1999.

• AEW Dynamite Results (9/30): Jon Moxley Defends AEW Title, FTR vs. SCU

AEW confirmed earlier this week that Will Hobbs had signed with the promotion. 

This came after the indie wrestler recently impressed company President & CEO Tony Khan.

Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his signing and ultimate push began at All Out in the Casino Battle Royale. This was after Khan was impressed by him after he originally worked for the promotion as an enhancement wrestler on AEW Dark.  

In fact, Khan was hands-on in helping put together Hobbs’ match against Darby Allin on Saturday Night Dynamite last month. Khan had an idea behind the match to show that Allin could beat a physically impressive wrestler and Khan thought Hobbs performed great in that role.

The prospect first started working for the promotion back in July during a Dark TV taping and has worked several matches on the weekly show since then. 

He picked up his first win when he defeated Sean Legacy on the September 8 edition of Dark. This came just days after Hobbs participated in the Casino Battle Royale at All Out. Hobbs then defeated Jessy Sorensen on this past Tuesday’s Dark episode.

• Will Hobbs Signs With All Elite Wrestling