AEW Star Claims Heavily Criticised Spot Was Planned

The AEW product has been heavily praised for its fantastic in-ring action and gripping storytelling since the launch of Dynamite last year, but the promotion has come under fire for some of its safety measures.

The latest example of this was on an episode of AEW Dynamite back in October where Dark Order’s Alex Reynolds was seemingly knocked out during a tag team match, with very little medical attention being given to him.

However, during an appearance with John Silver on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, Alex Reynolds revealed that the spot that saw him dragged from the middle of the ring to the corner by The Blade was actually planned ahead of time:

“I was lying in the middle of the ring waiting for Private Party to hit the combination splash/leg drop off the top rope, and I got kinda rocked. It is what it is, but what many people online don’t know — obviously, because they weren’t in the situation — I wasn’t knocked out. I was awake the whole time and remember everything. I knew where I was, knew what was going on in the match. I literally did a self-check with myself. The big thing everyone was complaining about was Blade dragging me to the corner. That was all planned. What people aren’t understanding is that I just took a double team move off the top rope. In order to win the match, you have to be legal. So, Blade just drags me to the corner so he could become legal and try to win the match.

“People were upset, but I was just laying there and selling this move, but I was also rocked and just making sure I was OK. I’ve been wrestling long enough to know I’m pretty sure I could continue. John looked at me like, ‘Are you okay?’ And I was like ‘Yeah, I think I’m OK.’ While I was on the ground, I was like, ‘OK, I can do this.’ And then once I stood up, I was like, ‘Oh no.’ That’s the thing – that’s when everybody realized I was hurt. It’s chaotic. I’ll be honest, the worst part of it was the feedback I was getting on social media. That was the hardest thing. The doctors and everybody – once they knew I was hurt and once I knew I was hurt, it was like, ‘Hey, I’m done. Get me out of here.’ People sit back and watch it with the knowledge that I was already hurt. So they’re like, ‘They handled it wrong.’ And I’m like ‘No, they handled it perfectly.’ Thankfully, I’m OK, cleared, and ready to go.’ It was a little scary, and my wife was a little traumatized by it.”

After the spot, Alex Reynolds would not go on to wrestle until November 18 and was not seen on the next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, which was taped the day after the incident at Daily’s Place.

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