‘Heavy Heat’ On AEW Name For Recent Botch

Published: Sep 27, 2023 by Connel Rumsey | Last Updated: Sep 27, 2023 by Connel Rumsey

Connel has over five years of wrestling journalism experience writing about some of the biggest stories from across the wrestling world. Being a fan for 20 years, Connel has an expansive knowledge from a wide range of various wrestling promotions, including WWE, AEW, NJPW, TNA and Joshi.

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‘Heavy Heat’ On AEW Name For Recent Botch

There was said to have been ‘heavy heat’ on an AEW name within the company for a recent botch on AEW Dynamite.

On last week’s Grand Slam special episode of Dynamite, Jon Moxley defended his AEW International Championship against Rey Fenix, which didn’t go as planned.

The match saw Jon Moxley get injured, which led to an audible being called and Fenix instead pinning Moxley to become the International Champion.

The referee for the match, Rick Knox, didn’t count to 3 the first time Moxley was pinned and didn’t raise his shoulder, which made for a very awkward moment before Fenix hit his finisher a second time and that’s when Knox did count to 3.

PWTorch reported that Moxley has been diagnosed with a concussion that actually occurred during the pre-match brawl rather than during the match itself.

Moxley walked out on his own power, and was immediately checked on by the BCC as well as Tony Khan after the match, where Moxley implied to people that he was okay.

Per Fightful Select (Subscription required), several talent on the AEW roster said that, while they like Rick Knox, there was ‘heavy heat’ on him within the company, as this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened where a wrestler wasn’t protected in a match he was refereeing.

One of the notable examples of this was the match where Alex Reynolds of the Dark Order appeared to potentially have been knocked out in the middle of the ring in a multi-man match and everyone else was just working around him before he was dragged to the corner by someone else in the match.

The audible changed a lot of plans for AEW, including for tonight’s (September 27) Dynamite show and this Sunday’s WrestleDream pay-per-view.

Moxley was reportedly set to defend the title against a non-AEW wrestler on the show, though it is not known exactly who that would have been.

The latest update from Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer was that Moxley had been doing okay and there was “nothing of grave concern”, but he needs to pass protocols before he can return.

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