ESPN/AEW, Luchasaurus, Tony Khan, Sami/Knight, Betting Favorites, Evil Uno, More

• Many noticed that ESPN removed their AEW coverage once their WWE deal was announced. AEW didnt get much coverage from ESPN in recent years, which was a relationship they had tried to establish.

• Luchasaurus aka Killswitch made his return on the August 20 episode of AEW Dynamite. We were told that he has been cleared for a number of months. 

• Tony Khan has an AEW Forbidden Door Media Call this afternoon. We will put notes at the bottom of this article as it takes place at 3 PM ET. 

• We were told that Sami Zayn and LA Knight were effectively “traded” for each other to help freshen  up the babyface sides of Raw and Smackdown. We were told it’s possible it is acknowledged as such on commentary. 

• Right now, Kyle Fletcher, Cope & Christian, ZSJ, Hangman, Toni Storm, Okada, Mercedes and Team Ospreay are the favorites at most betting sites for Forbidden Door. We have those as our favorites.

• The odds aren't up for MyBookie, but we have been encouraging them to add them, for those asking.

EVIL Uno

Evil Uno and Joel Pearl caught up at C4 Wrestling’s Fighting Back event, supporting Cancer Research, in Ottawa, Canada, to talk about the World’s Longest Match, Mystery Wrestling, and more! The interview will air next week and is now up for early access subscribers (tier 2)

- Uno has still not yet recovered from the Mystery Wrestling 24 Hour World’s Longest Match stream despite 4 nights of sleep and only wrestling for one hour on the show and sitting on a chair for the rest.

- Every year there is at least a 12-hour charity stream in support of Fighting Back, but this year Uno decided to commit to 24 hour after someone offhandedly asked what the longest match ever was, and when he saw it was less than 24 hours, he said “eff it, we’re doing it!”

- The day they announced the match was the day he decided to do it, which is the Mystery Wrestling way

- Uno says they knew they would do well with donations for the stream, but his main concern was maintaining interest on air for 24 hours and making sure nobody got hurt.

- What he didn’t anticipate was that the wrestlers would all try to rest between 1am and 9am despite everyone making plans for who would participate in the match and at what times, so other wrestlers in town called Uno to be added to the match late.

- The first 6 hours felt fine, but the next 8 were very difficult, and the final 2 hours felt good again - Uno does not think he’ll ever do something like this again

- When asked about Bryan Powers, the guitar playing wrestler at Mystery Wrestling, Joel revealed that he and Powers played in a band together in the past. Uno adds that Bryan is a wrestler training at The Keep (the school ran by Uno and Stu Grayson), a legitimate musician and incredibly nice person. Uno adds that he likes to take advantage of peoples’ skills on Mystery Wrestling shows, and when he asked Bryan to play guitar, he didn’t expect it to become so popular, to the point where it’s become a part of the show. He also wrestled on the 24 hour match despite not originally being planned for it.

- With Mystery Wrestling coming to Toronto on September 21st, a sold out show and their first outside of the Ottawa-Gatineau region, Uno says he did it on a whim and it has been an immense success, selling 300 tickets in less than 24 hours of on-sale. Uno says this will be the biggest show they’ve produced.

- On Fighting Back’s history and importance, Uno explains that the show began after one of his closest friends and wrestling partners, Phrank Morin, passed from an aggressive form of cancer. They raise money for the Canadian Cancer Society in his name, and the annual event is very important to the local Ottawa scene, donating their time and with every penny going to the cause. Uno says he sees himself continuing to be involved with Fighting Back even after he retires. Next year, he plans to do “something stupid” to raise even more money.

- Phrank’s name has donated over $600,000 to the Canadian Cancer Society, and this year’s donation was the largest to date ($132,000 announced at the event)


Tony Khan Call

• Tony Khan is asked by Jon Alba about WWE's counter programming efforts. Tony says he believes AEW has had a great year focusing on their own efforts. He says AEW has been able to grow their audience. He said he loves wrestling and there's almost always other wrestling companies doing cool things. He knows AEW has the best wrestlers and wants to highlight that.

• Tony says that ideally the Forbidden Door show would happen before the G1, but that isn't the way it happened this year. That led to limited participation and build with NJPW and Stardom. He says that's okay because they're all a team and will make it work with who is available. He says the first Forbidden Door was the most challenging things he worked on because of injuries and illnesses.

• Tony Khan said he personally asked Hiroshi Tanahashi to do the cage match, and Tanahashi said he would love to.

• Bozilla was Tony Khan's first choice on the Stardom roster he wanted in AEW and this was the first time she's been available.

• Tony Khan admits he's not an expert in the world of video gaming. He tried to take advice from people in AEW and developers, and they learned a lot making a video game. He believes they can learn from the experience and make a better game down the line, but said that he's not sure what the future is for AEW gaming. He thinks they will have more forays into various types of gaming.

• Tony Khan tells @CeeHawk that Jon Moxley set a high standard as champion.

• Tony Khan confirms Fightful Select's report that he originally considered Yota Tsuji as Swerve's opponent for Forbidden Door last year. Ospreay ended up volunteering to put over Swerve in a title match to help establish Swerve even more as champion