Former IMPACT Name Upset At AEW Debuted The Kingdom Before Final Appearance

AEW

A former IMPACT name is upset at AEW for having The Kingdom debut before their final IMPACT TV appearance.

On the October 14 edition of AEW Rampage, former two-time ROH World Tag Team Champions Mike Bennett and Matt Taven with Maria Kanellis of The Kingdom debuted to confront FTR.

The show took place ahead of the October 20 edition of IMPACT on AXS TV where Taven and Bennett will defend the IMPACT World Tag Team Titles against Heath and Rhino.

On the latest edition of his “Refin’ It Up” podcast, former IMPACT senior referee Brian Hebner gave his thoughts on All Elite Wrestling debuting them before the three make their final appearance on IMPACT.

In regards to being happy with The Kingdom on their AEW debut, Hebner said:

“I am so very happy for them. I really am. I became very close in the short time that I was able to work with Maria and Mike, and they are just wonderful people. I love them and I think they’re the sweetest people in the world. They have beautiful kids. They’re just wonderful people. I’m not as close with Taven, but boy, we became really good friends too in a short period of time. What a great dude he is and I’m just so happy for them.”

Hebner continued on to note that the only thing that bothered him was the timing of their debut on AEW’s behalf, saying:

“Now the only thing that pisses me off, and it’s not about them, it’s about how it always just seems that Impact bends over backwards and does every f***ing thing they can with AEW to do the forbidden door gimmick or whatever the f*** it is now, and then they had the audacity to put them on their TV show before it’s even on Impact’s that they’re not there anymore. You can’t just wait or talk about it? You have to introduce them before the storyline comes out on Impact? It’s all about them all the time and it just kind of sucks. If I was Scott D’Amore, which I’m not, thank God, because I couldn’t be as patient and as gentle and nice as Scott, I would just be pissed. It just infuriates me because I just know when I was there, we did things for them as much as we could and did it right, and it just seemed like they just wanted to turn around and do what they wanted to do, how they wanted to do it, and they didn’t give a sh*t. It is what it is. They think they’re the bigger company, which I guess they are, but that doesn’t mean that you just can do whatever fu*k you want, but I guess they can.”

Brian Hebner retired as an active referee for IMPACT Wrestling back at the Slammiversary 2022 event in June.

The Kingdom were challenged by TNT Champion Wardlow and ROH World Television Champion Samoa Joe to pick a title and come fight them on the October 18 edition of AEW Dynamite.

Stay up to date with the AEW roster’s win-loss record (for televised matches) at this link.

Transcription via Wrestlingnews.co

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• Upset
• the kingdom
• Impact Wrestling
• AEW

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