Update On Why Wardlow Has Not Returned To AEW TV
Wardlow has been missing from AEW television, and it appears it's for a few reasons.
AEW star Wardlow has not been on television for over a year. His last match was a world title match against Samoa Joe on the 'Big Business' episode of Dynamite in March 2024. According to Fightful (via Fightful Select), Wardlow suffered what was believed to be a torn labrum injury sometime in the spring of 2024.
Advertisement
He was later involved in a car accident, which he wrote about in April 2024. Fightful stressed that the accident did not cause the injury, but made it worse. During an appearance on the Stick to Wrestling Podcast, Matt Taven said Wardlow had been dealing with a 'knee injury.' However, Fightful's report did not mention any other injuries besides the initial one.
Wardlow also landed a significant acting role
In addition, Wardlow landed what was described as a 'very appropriate and special' television role earlier this year.
In March, it was reported that the former TNT Champion was backstage at AEW Revolution. Despite that, he was not planned on being used due to recovering from the injury and working on outside projects. He is cleared to compete now, but he met with Tony Khan, and both sides agreed that bringing him back to TV didn't make sense yet since he'd have to leave again for the TV role.
Advertisement
Wardlow has a 'significant amount of time' left on his AEW contract and is expected to be with AEW for a long time.
'Mr. Mayhem' has been with AEW since 2019 and had a lengthy run as MJF's bodyguard. After turning on MJF, he then won the TNT Championship three times, with the last reign coming in 2023. Wardlow later joined the Undisputed Kingdom, and he was with the group until his AEW hiatus began.
The post Update On Why Wardlow Has Not Returned To AEW TV appeared first on Wrestlezone.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Contract Set To Expire For Fan-Favorite WWE Superstar: Report
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. WWE Raw superstar Karrion Kross is currently in a contract year, with his agreement reportedly set to expire this summer. According to a recent report from Fightful Select, there has been no significant progress on a new deal. This uncertainty comes at a time when Kross is prominently featured in a significant storyline on Monday Night Raw. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful had previously noted earlier in the year that Kross was in the final year of his WWE contract. Fightful recently asked sources close to the situation and Kross himself for an update on his contract status. The outlet reported that, based on the information they received, WWE has not yet approached Kross regarding a contract extension or renewal. Furthermore, Fightful has not heard indications that the company has expressed interest in doing so at this time. This lack of movement on a new deal is particularly noteworthy given Kross's current role on WWE Raw. He has been deeply involved in a compelling storyline, delivering cryptic promos and psychologically targeting Sami Zayn. He plays a key part in the narrative surrounding Zayn's potential character shift towards a more aggressive persona. His consistent on-screen presence makes his contract status a keen point of interest for many WWE fans. The WWE logo is seen on the front of the WWE wrestling world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut. WWE founder Vince McMahon resigned from the WWE and its parent company TKO as... The WWE logo is seen on the front of the WWE wrestling world headquarters on January 28, 2024 in Stamford, Connecticut. WWE founder Vince McMahon resigned from the WWE and its parent company TKO as executive chairman and its board of directors following allegations of sexual assault made public in a lawsuit in Connecticut. A former employee Janel Grant accused McMahon, 78, of sexual assault and sexually trafficking her. MoreMore news: WWE News: Steve Austin Reveals Real-Life Vince McMahon Confrontation The report from Fightful Select also provided insight into WWE's recent practices concerning expiring talent contracts. While the company typically notifies talent about a month before their deals are up if they do not intend to renew, a more recent trend has seen WWE keep performers on television right up until such notifications are made or extension talks officially begin. As it stands, there are reportedly 'a few months remaining' on Kross's current WWE deal. This situation creates a degree of uncertainty around his future with the promotion, especially as other recent departures and contract non-renewals (such as those for R-Truth and Carlito) have been reported. Kross, often accompanied by Scarlett, made an impactful return to WWE in August 2022 under the new creative leadership of Triple H, following a previous release in November 2021. His second stint has seen him involved in various feuds across both SmackDown and Raw. His current dark and manipulative character work is drawing significant attention and is often praised for its intensity. WWE fans will be watching closely to see how his contract situation unfolds in the coming months. More WWE News: For more on WWE, head to Newsweek Sports.


San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area's toughest trail race has a twist: A child just might win
Daniel Saucedo just ran up 700 feet of elevation on 'Cardiac,' the most carnage-filled section of the Bay Area's most carnage-filled trail, and he's smiling like a maniac. The 12-year-old jumped over logs, dodged obstacles, rolled his ankle and was almost certainly exposed to poison oak. His reward upon reaching the summit? Three more miles of brutal hill work. When it's over, the only question I can think to ask him is some variation of 'why?' 'It was tough, but that's where I learned to enjoy it,' Saucedo said, as upbeat as ever. 'To be comfortable in the uncomfortable.' A hundred miles from his home in San Juan Bautista, the pre-teen is here to train for one of the Bay Area's most storied sporting traditions. The Dipsea Race on Mount Tamalpais, which returns on Sunday, June 8, is known for its chaotic and grueling course, and many quirks. Over the 7.5 miles from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach, runners climb 688 steps in the first mile, navigate hills with names like 'Dynamite' and 'Insult,' and contemplate choose-your-own-adventure shortcuts that trade stability for potential speed. Entering its 114th year, the Dipsea is the nation's oldest cross country trail race, and a religion for Marin County runners. But to outsiders, there's one Dipsea oddity that stands out above all others: When the winner crosses the finish line this weekend, it's entirely possible it will be a child. Thanks to the Dipsea's byzantine and ever-shifting handicapping rules, a grade schooler can beat a competitive athlete in their prime. Unlike most races, where the elite or fastest competitors take off at the sound of the gun, the Dipsea assigns groups to launch from the Throckmorton Avenue starting line at one minute intervals in reverse order of assumed speed. A 7-year-old girl or a 74-year-old man gets a 25-minute head start. Men aged 20-25 are 'scratch' runners, who would have to pass most of the race's 1,500 competitors to win. The idea of a child breaking the tape in Stinson Beach isn't theoretical. Children have won the Dipsea 15 times in 113 races, and the field usually includes at least 100 kids. When I ran in 2023, more than 75 children finished ahead of me, including four 10-year-olds. But it's been 15 years since a kid took first place. Eight-year-old Reilly Johnson, the last child to win in 2010, was also the youngest champion ever. Now that field is expanding. The Dipsea Kidz program has been bringing Marin County elementary and middle school children to the trail for more than a decade. And this year, the race's 2023 winner, professional ultrarunner Paddy O'Leary, has recruited five more youngsters to compete and be featured in a crowdfunded documentary. His goal is to spread the trail race gospel and making distance running more accessible in places that don't have specialty running stores, established programs or a century-old race in their backyard. Among O'Leary's Dipsea Generations team are runners like Saucedo and Karina Arrizon Lopez, a senior at Mt. Eden High School in Hayward, who had never been to Mill Valley before this May training day. 'I thought, 'What am I getting myself into?'' Arrizon Lopez said after the run, looking tired but enthusiastic. '(Dipsea) is such a different scene to me. … In Hayward we don't see many people just running around.' Kids won Dipsea from the beginning. The first Dipsea Race in 1905, sponsored by Olympic Club members, included several marathoners who had won European or East Coast races. In the days before the race, the Chronicle covered each celebrity entrant as they arrived by train. But the victor that year was a 'gritty schoolboy,' 17-year-old Oakland High student J.S. Hassard, who took his 10-minute head start and outlasted runner up Cornelius Connelly — a speedy Irishman who didn't realize he was in second place until the last mile. 'When I got straightened out on the beach I saw someone running ahead of me and I could not understand it,' Connelly told the Chronicle. 'He was going like a cyclone. I don't know where that kid got his speed.' Over the years, other child legends have emerged on the trail. Mary Etta Boitano ran in 1968 at age 5, registering as M. Boitano to disguise her gender because women weren't officially allowed to enter until the 1970s. The tiny Boitano stepped on a hornet's nest near Muir Woods and was stung five times, yet still finished the race. And she came back. Boitano won the 1973 Dipsea at age 10, just ahead of her 11-year-old brother Michael, who won in 1971 and '72. Boitano went on to win the Bay to Breakers women's division at ages 11, 12 and 13, successes that made the front page of the Chronicle and helped fuel a Bay Area jogging boom. Now Mary Blanchard of Sonoma, she has run scores of Dipseas since, and will line up this weekend with the 62-year-old women and a 21 minute head start. 'Every year I tell myself, 'This is going to be my last year.' But for some reason I just keep coming back,' Blanchard said, laughing. 'I feel great support, like everyone is celebrating each other.' O'Leary said his first Dipsea in 2019 was sensory overload. Starting near the back of the pack, he was nervous about passing dozens of kids on the Dipsea's narrow trail, but came away inspired. 'It's a unique way of experiencing a sport, where all those boundaries are collapsed,' O'Leary said. 'You're all throwing down against each other.' But securing a place among the field can be tough, and the entry process has long favored locals in affluent Marin County. The race openly accepts 'bribes' for 100 of the 1,500 coveted spots, with the money going to charity, and until recently, many runners got an upper hand by bringing their entries directly to the local post office. Motivated by races like Gilroy's Mt. Madonna Challenge, which raises scholarship funds for young runners to pay for training and travel, last year O'Leary gathered a film crew for Dipsea Generations with a long-term plan to complement inclusive elements of the Dipsea Kidz project and get scores of children running the race from across the region. 'That inspired me to think of an idea like this,' O'Leary said, 'where we try to get kids from all over the Bay Area, they experience something special and spread the word to their (community).' With three weeks to go before race day, the five Dipsea Generations kids and their coaches gather at a parking lot near the Dipsea Trail to run a 6-mile loop with about 25 regulars from Dipsea Kidz. The newcomers get a sampler platter of the course — running through Muir Woods redwoods that convert fog into droplets for surprise rain showers, up wooden stairs and along a sunny ridge with Pacific views — and a chance to test their legs on the climbs. Nicole Amyx, who started running Dipsea when she was 11, and two more sure-footed members of the film crew are half Christopher Nolan, half Steve Prefontaine, darting ahead of the kids to get video on the trails. 'For me it has always seemed so normal,' said Amyx of the race's challenging route. 'It wasn't until I was old that I heard my friends say, 'That's insane. Who sprints up and over a mountain? Who runs a race on Mount Tam?'' Saucedo is undaunted. The middle schooler was discovered by running coach Jose Cruz at a Morgan Hill gym, where he saw a little kid in street clothes sprinting up a treadmill like Captain America. 'He had it at an incline and he's just charging up this thing,' Cruz said. 'I turned away, turned back, and he's still hauling up there. I liked him right away.' Arrizon Lopez was the only girl on the cross country team her freshman year at Mt. Eden, and helped recruit teammates for a program that now fields a full girls varsity squad. Coach Schuyler Hall sees Dipsea as another challenge for the runner who set personal records each year and this spring broke 6 minutes in a 1600-meter (1 mile) race. He also sees what she has to give back to the sport and her peers. 'When we run in the foothills above Garin (Regional Park), we can see the city of San Francisco in the distance, we can see Mt. Tam in the distance,' Hall said. 'But unless we come out on a dedicated spring break trip, so many of the kids in our school have never run in Golden Gate Park. They've never even been to the bridge.' Amyx, who is Mexican-American on her mother's side, points out that the greatest champion in Dipsea history was Sal Vasquez, a Mexican immigrant who won seven titles between 1982 and 1997. She says the Bay Area running scene is strongest when high-profile events draw from different communities. 'We predominately have seen white people in the sport,' Amyx said. 'In reality, it's becoming more open and welcome. But we always need more people of different backgrounds to set an example.' For Mary Blanchard, her childhood runs on the Dipsea launched a long journey of health. The former champion estimates she has run more than 175,000 miles in her lifetime, a tally that would be an impressive odometer reading on a Honda Civic. Meanwhile, the Dipsea is overdue for the next Mary Etta Boitano. Just one child — a 17-year-old boy — finished in the Top 35 last year, an honor referred to as 'black shirts' for the numbered tees awarded after the race. Four of the five Dipsea Generations youth will compete in the 'runners' section this weekend, starting the race later and hoping for a time that qualifies them for the more competitive invitational section next year. When they do, Hall said the kids have real advantages beyond the significant handicap. Arrizon Lopez is 4 foot 9 inches and low to the ground, benefiting from quick steps, a compact stride and better balance. 'If we can get her comfortable,' Hall said, 'she's going to be able to rip through a lot of this terrain in a way that somebody who's a foot plus taller than her is going to have to be a little bit more careful.' Saucedo, who has broken six-minute miles in a 5K race, said his goal is to 'have fun and finish.' Arrizon Lopez, who will run Dipsea two days after high school graduation, is focusing on just one runner: Schuyler Hall. 'My ultimate goal is to stay in front of my coach,' she said. O'Leary, Amyx and their crew have more ambitious hopes. They plan to finish the documentary and share it at local film festivals and schools, then expand the Dipsea Generations program. Perhaps by next June they'll have 15 or 20 child entries from all corners of the Bay Area. 'I love the Dipsea Race and everything about it,' O'Leary said. 'I want to continue to tell the world about it, but also the people in this area. We want to tell them that this race can be for them.'
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Tay Melo Returns On AEW Fyter Fest
Tay Melo has officially returned to AEW. During Wednesday's episode of AEW Fyter Fest, Melo shocked the crowd by returning. She showed up just as Megan Bayne was about to throw Anna Jay off the stage, and immediately caused chaos. She got into it with Penelope Ford (who was on hand with Bayne) and then brawled with Bayne. Advertisement Officials had to run in and break things up, but Melo was clearly still ready to go, trying to egg Bayne on the whole time. Melo has been away from All Elite Wrestling television for over two years. The superstar was last seen in AEW in January 2023, and took a break at AEW Double or Nothing, when she announced she was pregnant. Melo recently returned to the world of wrestling at STARDOM earlier this year. Prior to her departure from AEW, she was teaming with Anna Jay, which explains her helping the superstar tonight. It's unclear what she'll up to be in AEW now, however. What do you think? Are you excited for Tay Melo's return to All Elite Wrestling? Will she team up with Anna Jay again? What do you think she should do? Let us know in the comments below. Advertisement READ MORE: AEW Fyter Fest Results: Review, Grades, Card For June 4 The post Tay Melo Returns On AEW Fyter Fest appeared first on Wrestlezone.