AEW: Concerning Injury Updates on Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole
AEW's roster has been hit with a series of injuries over the past couple of months that have put some of its biggest stars on the shelf for an unknown period of time. Bryan Danielson got hurt during the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing and had to step away from competing at Forbidden Door against Zack Sabre Jr., while Adam Cole made it to Forbidden Door only to suffer a concussion in the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship four-way match. Dave Meltzer had updates on both on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
Regarding Danielson, Meltzer said, "I'm very concerned with Danielson obviously, because when you have the number of concussions he's had, and he's been out now for five weeks. You start worrying at five weeks of a concussion — this may be a real bad situation. I know in real life and everything like that he's fine, he can function, he can do everything, but as far as being cleared to wrestle, I don't know anything, no-one knows — getting cleared from a concussion can be any time. There's no timeframe. But the fact that it's been this long is very concerning."
He then said Cole is expected to be "out for a while" as a result of the concussion. The former NXT Champion was already banged up from injuries, including an issue with his labrum, heading into the match.
Meltzer also mentioned CM Punk, the current AEW World Champion who had to undergo foot surgery last month. He wasn't able to get a sense of the timetable for Punk's return, but did note recovery for that kind of surgery only takes a couple of months. With Punk gone, AEW crowned an interim AEW World Champion in Jon Moxley and had his first successful title defense (against Brody King) in the main event of this week's Dynamite. Check out the full lineups for AEW's next few shows below!
AEW Rampage (July 8)
- Jonathan Gresham & Lee Moriarty vs. Gates of Agony
- Orange Cassidy vs. Tony Nese
- Mercedes Martinez & Serena Deeb vs. TBA
- Eddie Kingston vs. Konosuke Takeshita
AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest (July 13)
- AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Young Bucks vs. Ricky Starks & Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Swerve in Our Glory
- Claudio Castagnoli vs. Jake Hager
ROH Death Before Dishonor (July 23)
- ROH World Tag Team Championships: FTR vs. The Briscoes
- ROH World Television Championship: Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal
- ROH Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta vs. Daniel Garcia