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Show Notes

• The situation surrounding the AEW World title
• CM Punk's injury
• Who should be crowned Interim AEW World Champion?
• Candidates to win the Battle Royal to face Jon Moxley on Dynamite
• NJPW setting up Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto for Dominion

For more AEW discussion, you can follow me on Twitter @wrestleblake.

Transcript

We have a lot to discuss here on this episode, and it is the fallout from the surprise announcement on AEW Rampage.

CM Punk announced that he is currently dealing with an injury and will have to undergo surgery, which will lead to an Interim AEW World Champion.

Thus begins the AEW interim World Championship Eliminator series featuring several different steps. It will first start off with the battle royal, which will open up this Wednesday's AEW Dynamite Independence, Missouri. The winner of the battle royal goes on to face Jon Moxley later that night.

The winner of that match will go on to compete for the Interim AEW World title at Forbidden Door on June 26 in Chicago. And another wrinkle that was added is New Japan announcing that at Dominion, it's going to be Hiroshi Tanahashi going on one on one with Hirooki Goto in what is being described as another Eliminator Match. The winners meet at Forbidden Door.

There are a lot of moving parts with a sudden announcement like that because none of us expected it. But here's where things stand.

We can get the New Japan part of this out of the way first. It's going to be Hiroshi Tanahashi going up against someone from AEW, whether that's Jon Moxley or the winner of the Battle Royal. Love Goto, but it's not going to be him headlining Forbidden Door. It's going to be Tanahashi.

On the AEW side, there are really only a couple of different directions. And let's start with the one that I don't think is likely. But I think it's worth mentioning Tanahashi was the one who had the scheduled match against CM Punk at Forbidden Door. Tanahashi was not going to win that match, but could AEW go the route of putting the belt on Tanahashi if Punk's injury is a short-term thing?

I don't see it as likely. But again, if you're looking for something outside the box, it's something worth thinking about just because it was going to be Tanahashi as next in line for an AEW World Championship match. But Tanahashi actually becoming champion, I don't think that's realistic.

That leads us to some of the other possible scenarios. I think the most likely one is Jon Moxley being the interim AEW World Champion. Moxley has been wanting this match with Tanahashi, and I think Moxley is going to be the choice coming out of Dynamite no matter who he faces in the main event.

So, Moxley advances to Forbidden Door to headline that pay-per-view with Tanahashi and it gives you a match that has been building for a while. This is the perfect time to do it. And I think it'll be Moxley being the first two-time champion. That's the most likely route just because Moxley is someone that Tony Khan has turned to time and time again, in terms of putting him in all these big spots. He's someone AEW has leaned on a lot since the company started.

This is probably that scenario where you're comfortable with Moxley. He can kind of carry you moving forward until Punk returns. It gives you a big name and there are a lot of different ways you can go with that. How could that tie in with Bryan Danielson? Could Danielson try to get that title from Moxley their relationship? Eddie Kingston? Throw him in the mix. There are a lot of possibilities by putting Moxley in this particular role.

Beyond that, who are the options? There have been reports out there that Bryan Danielson is dealing with an injury and is reportedly going to be off for a couple of weeks perhaps. So that would likely not put him in this battle royal on Wednesday for that opportunity. I think you can count him out of the mix.

Adam Cole? I think it was Brian Alvarez who reported that Cole is expected to not wrestle until Forbidden Door. So that takes him perhaps out of the battle royal. He just won the Owen Hart Cup. He's ranked number four in the rankings. So those are all possibilities.

Meanwhile, who else is ranked in the in the top five in the rankings? You've Wardlow, who was the previous number one before Moxley moved to one, and he's at two now. Hangman Page, the former AEW World Champion is at three, and Jay Lethal at five.

I don't think Jay Lethal is going to be the guy to win it and face Moxley in the main event. But this is where I think you have a lot of different options. And I think now, the most intriguing part of this to me is not necessarily who's going on to become the champion, because like I said, I think my prediction right now is going to be Jon Moxley. And I don't think that's going to change. I think he's your Interim World Champion, unless they go the route of Tanahashi.

I would be more surprised it's on Tanahashi just because you don't know the logistics there of him carrying the title because you don't know when Punk is gonna be back. That's the big question. How long is this going to be? You've got to kind of put the belt on someone who's going to be a regular in AEW. And again, Moxley fits that description.

Beyond that, I don't think they're going back to Hangman. I just don't see that as something where you take the belt off of him and immediately you put it right back on him as the interim champion. I don't think that does a whole lot for him. And I just don't think that's the way they're gonna go here.

And then it's Wardlow, right? He comes off the highest point of his career, beating MJF at Double or Nothing. And then immediately on the next Dynamite, he is stuck into what looks like it'll be some sort of legal dispute with Mark Sterling. That's clearly a step down for Wardlow.

Could you put him in this battle royal? Have him win it? Sure you could. But here presents the problem. I don't think it's going to be Wardlow vs. Tanahashi in the main event of Forbidden Door, which means Wardlow would have to lose the Jon Moxley. Right now, I don't think you want Wardlow losing. He's coming off the highest point that he's had his entire career, and I don't think you want to put him in that spot to where even if he were to win the battle royal, he loses to Jon Moxley. So, I would not go that route.

I think I would keep Wardlow away from that spot. Unless you've got something pretty big planned or you do something that is going to negate that loss, which I just don't really see a lot of options outside of just a blatant interference. then I think that is not exactly something you want to get into right now with Wardlow.

Who are the other options? We'll go to the one first a lot of people are discussing, and that is MJF.

I get the understanding that this is sort of the "strike while the iron is hot" with MJF. His stock has never been higher given the promo he cut last week. But AEW has pretty much taken the stance that they are ridding themselves of MJF. I think they're really going all-in on this. Unless there is just something I'm not thinking of, I don't really see a scenario where you can bring him back the following week after the promo he cut on Tony Khan and put him in this battle royal with the opportunity to become the AEW World Champion.

I think you could make it work because again, the summer of MJF as a lot of people are calling it, would be must-see television because of the story involved. And knowing that Punk could come back and and all of a sudden, you have a guy that wants to leave the company going up against CM Punk. There are a lot of parallels you can draw there.

But I just think the timing is not the best based on what happened last week, because I don't think you can immediately go from what MJF did last week, and put him in that match the following week. I just don't think you can do it. That's the only issue I have with it unless there's just a perfect, compelling reason you can think of which, again, may just be slipping my mind.

I don't see it happening, so I think I'm going to discount that one. I would probably love it if you think about the possibilities. But right now, I'm not seeing how they get from Point A to Point B with that and have it make sense. But you never know. It's wrestling. We always say anything's possible in wrestling.

So, if you take MJF out of the equation, you start to go down the line. And that's where I think you look at guys like Eddie Kingston, who, I mean, if you put Eddie Kingston versus Jon Moxley in a main event on Dynamite, that would be something, right? That would be must-see in terms of knowing what Kingston has talked about time and time again, wanting to be a world champion. That's something you could do.

Beyond that, I think you're looking at a group of guys perhaps like a Darby Allin. If you keep going down the list, I'm looking at the roster here - I just don't see a lot of possibilities that I think that you're going to go with now.

Miro is one that is interesting. But again, Miro going on to face Moxley where Moxley beats Miro, which goes back into the question. You just brought Miro back. Do you want him to lose that quickly?

I just keep going back to it. I do not see another scenario outside of Moxley vs. Tanahashi at Forbidden Door. So, I think whoever wins the battle royal is going to take a loss in the main event. That's where - I know sometimes we overvalue what a loss means and all this other stuff, but I just think with guys like Wardlow and Miro right now, I just don't think you want those guys losing based on what you have going on before this whole Punk announcement.

Someone like Malakai Black, he could certainly be in the mix. I mean, could you go with a Samoa Joe? I think that's the roster that you're working with. Those are the options that you really look at here.

So, if I had to go with a group, I think that's it. I think it's probably the group of Darby Allin, Eddie Kingston, Miro, but again, I just don't know that Miro losing is the best route to go on that.

But I'll stick with my prediction. I think it's whoever wins the battle royal, Moxley is going to win that match, go on to face Tanahashi, and Moxley becomes the Interim AEW World Champion.