Former Champion Makes Surprise Return on AEW Dynamite

Wardlow squashed Griff Garrison by referee decision tonight.

By Liam Crowley

All Elite Wrestling has been missing one of its most popular homegrown stars for four months. Former AEW TNT Champion Wardlow had not been seen since the premiere episode of AEW Collision. There, he lost the AEW TNT Championship to Luchasarus, ending his third reign with the prize. Many had criticized Wardlow's booking up to that point, as the maestro of the powerbomb symphony lost much of the momentum that he had built up over the early months of 2022. The AEW TNT Title ended up holding Wardlow back more than it helped boost him forward. After his latest title loss, it appeared Wardlow was due for a character reset.

Wardlow Returns With New Attitude on AEW Dynamite

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(Photo: AEW)

Wardlow is back.

Wardlow made his return to AEW on tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite, surprising fans as Griff Garrison's opponent. The heavyweight made a beeline to the ring and wasted little time taking care of business, powerbombing Garrison over and over again until the referee called for the bell. Wardlow won via referee's decision and proceeded to retreat through the crowd back to the locker room.

This new all business attitude is reminiscent of the Wardlow that fans knew when he was paired with Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Back then, Wardlow would have squash matches on most episodes of AEW Dynamite, slowly building up his singles stock before he eventually turned on MJF. That turn at AEW Revolution led to Wardlow becoming one of the most popular performers on the AEW roster, but his eventual dominant victory over MJF did little to progress his meteoric momentum.

"Man, I think about this a lot, and I was just thinking about this very in-depth recently because I feel like I took it for granted a little bit. Few reasons," Wardlow told ComicBook.com earlier this year. "I'm a negative thinker. I'm my biggest critic. I don't think at the time I allowed myself to comprehend just how big I was and how popular and how just outrageous the ideal of Wardlow was at the time. Right around the time Max and I started our feud, I really just lost myself, and I just wasn't myself in that whole stretch of time. I was just a different person and I was a ball of stress and I really couldn't focus or grasp what my life was or should have been."

Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for live coverage of AEW Dynamite.

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