The ongoing pro wrestling injury bug attacked AEW’s roster throughout the build to Sunday’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view in Chicago. And unfortunately, it kept popping up during the show itself. On top of Dax Harwood suffering a shoulder injury that forced him to miss a chunk of the Ring of Honor and IWGP Tag Team Championship match, both Adam Cole and Jon Moxley potentially left the United Center with concussions. Cole, who was already battling injuries entering the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship four-way match, was pinned by Jay White without taking anyone’s finisher and was immediately checked on by medical staff.
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Reports of Cole being concussed quickly popped up after the match via Bryan Alvarez and Tony Khan addressed his situation during the post-show media scrum — “I think Adam Cole will be okay. He was in the match. It was a very physical wrestling match and he was pinned in the match. The timing of it wasn’t (right)… He’s gonna be okay long-term, but probably if he couldn’t continue wrestling it made sense (to end the match).”
Meanwhile, Moxley closed out the show by becoming the interim AEW World Championship after defeating New Japan’s Hiroshi Tanahashi. He cut a post-show promo in front of the fans in the United Center and joked that he was “probably concussed” as he lost his train of thought. No one has been able to officially confirm if he is concussed, but the comment did raise a few alarms.
An injury to Moxley could cause AEW some real issues, as he’s booked for Wednesday’s Blood and Guts match in Detroit. It would also further complicate the AEW World Championship picture if both the original champion (CM Punk) and the first interim champion (Moxley) were out of action. Tony Khan explained his thought process of crowning an interim champion instead of stripping Punk of the world title multiple times leading up to Forbidden Door.
“Based on what happens in real fights, in the world of fighting, this is what you do. You have a great champion, and if they are injured, you name an interim champion and set up an exciting unification fight. We have a great chance to set something exciting up,” he said during a Busted Open Radio interview.
Update: Alvarez reported on the latest Wrestling Observer Live that Moxley does not have a concussion and that his comment was merely him playing up his character. As of now, there’s been no change to the 12-man Blood and Guts match.
Update: Harwood confirmed via his Twitter that he suffered a separated shoulder during Sunday’s tag team match. It’s unclear how much time he’ll miss (if any).
