AEW

Kota Ibushi has now addressed criticisms surrounding his performance in the AEW Blood & Guts match, explaining why he didn’t move like normal.

Ibushi made his highly anticipated AEW debut on the July 19 edition of Dynamite.

The former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion teamed with Kenny Omega, Hangman Page and the Young Bucks to defeat Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Claudio Castagnoli, Konosuke and Takeshita in the company’s third ever Blood & Guts match.

While the match was very thrilling overall, Ibushi’s performance in his first AEW outing didn’t live up to the expectations of some fans, who were expecting the former NJPW main-eventer to hit the ground running in AEW.

Ibushi has now taken to X (Twitter) to note that he didn’t know that there would be glass and thumbtacks in this bout ahead of time, so wore thin wrestling shoes.

Explaining that he was moving ‘like an old man’ because he was getting cut through the soles of his shoes, Ibushi wrote:

I’m home ❗

It’s my fault that I didn’t know thumbtacks and glass after all this time.

I have thin wrestling shoes, so it penetrated and it was just painful from the middle, and I ended up moving like an old man.

I’m sorry! Far from being unable to kick, both ankles were stiff

Life with a cane for the first time in my life ❗ No, I’ll be cured tomorrow! That is Kota Ibushi!

(Translated from Japanese)

After AEW Dynamite went off the air, Ibushi took a bump on the thumbtacks. You can watch Ibushi take this extreme bump right here.

Kenny Omega also addressed Ibushi’s AEW future after the bout, which you can read more about at this link.

ただいま❗
今更ながら画鋲やガラスなんてしらなかった自分が悪い。
自分は薄いレスリングシューズだから貫通してきて途中からひたすら痛くておじいさまのような動きになってしまった。
くやしい！蹴れないどころか両足首がぶっ凝れた

人生初の杖生活❗いや、明日には治る！それが飯伏幸太だ！ pic.twitter.com/m4rxeT1U9s

— 飯伏 幸太 (@ibushi_kota) July 26, 2023

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