Within a matter of days, arguably the most popular wrestler in AEW and the most popular wrestler in WWE went down with what appeared to be significant injuries.
CM Punk, who had just beaten Adam Page for the AEW championship May 29, suffered an undisclosed injury on the June 1 show at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif. He then announced he had been hurt, although not the exact injury, on television two nights later.
The next morning, the word started getting around wrestling that Cody Rhodes had suffered a severe injury, but would still be wrestling in the main event in his Hell in a Cell match with Seth Rollins on the WWE pay-per-view show of the same name at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.
Later that night, after Rhodes’s scheduled main event with Rollins at a house show in Champaign, Ill., didn’t take place, even though Rhodes was at the show, the word was that Rhodes had a torn right pectoral muscle.
At the start of Sunday’s pay-per-view, WWE did announce the injury, claiming Rhodes had a partial tear from a brawl on Raw with Rollins on Monday, and then tore the muscle completely off the bone while lifting weights late in the week. It is not clear whether there is any validity to the partial tear story. Every version of the story was that he tore the pec lifting weights, and it would make little sense to be lifting weights on a torn pec. Then again, it hardly made sense to wrestle more than 24 minutes on a completely torn pec while in what had to be incredible pain with his entire right side of his chest and much of his right arm badly bruised.
It’s hard to call this the greatest match of Rhodes’s career, as his 2019 match with older brother Dustin was uniquely emotional. But as much as that match will be etched in the memories of everyone who saw it, Sunday’s match is likely to be similarly remembered. While pro wrestling is performance art and not sport, this was Willis Reed in the NBA Finals a half-century ago. The closest wrestling equivalent would be Kurt Angle in his ’03 WrestleMania match with Brock Lesnar, with a broken neck that was going to need surgery. While Angle went on to wrestle more than another decade, it was conceivable that this may have ended up as his last bout due to the severity of the injury.
When Rhodes took off his ring jacket, the hot crowd went quiet seeing the extent of the bruising that engulfed nearly half of his torso and much of his right arm. Certainly nobody in recent memory has wrestled with body bruising to that degree.
It’s hard to predict the future and how something will be viewed 20 years from now, but it did feel like one of those nights that makes someone a legend and a moment everyone watching will never forget.
One can certainly question WWE medical for allowing Rhodes to do such a match while clearly needing major surgery. Rhodes, who had jumped off a cage, taken multiple moves off the top of a ladder and basically set himself on fire in matches in recent years, was probably not going to pull himself out of his first major WWE singles pay-per-view main event.
Even though usual wrestling protocol is that the guy who is going to have surgery loses to the guy who is staying if both are headliners, Vince McMahon decided to go with the finish that kept intact Rhodes’s undefeated streak since joining the company two months ago. Rhodes is clearly being groomed for a shot at WWE’s top champion, Roman Reigns. That match was not to happen any time soon since the key summer matches have been laid out. Rhodes wasn’t going to be against Reigns that quickly even if he wasn’t hurt. And even if he was, the surgery for a full pec tear usually takes six months or longer to recover from, so from a timing standpoint, a return would be around the time the build starts for the Royal Rumble.
After the show went off the air, Rhodes indicated he would fully explain the situation on Raw, which is Monday night in Green Bay.
For Punk, his injury led to the creation of an AEW interim championship. The decision was made by owner Tony Khan not to have Punk vacate the title. Punk didn’t exactly explain his injury, but it happened on Wednesday, and Punk did say he broke bones and would need surgery.
Wednesday's episode of Dynamite in Independence, Mo., will open with a battle royal, with the winner of that match going on to face Jon Moxley in the show’s main event. The winner of that match will advance to the tournament final on the next AEW pay-per-view show, Forbidden Door, on June 26.
The opponent for Moxley or the battle royal winner will face the winner of a match at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Dominion show. Hiroshi Tanahashi, a Hall of Fame Japanese wrestler who is that country’s equivalent to John Cena as a generational star, will face Hirooki Goto, an Arn Anderson–like journeyman performer with solid skills. The winner faces the American winner since the Forbidden Door show is built around AEW wrestlers against New Japan wrestlers.
When Punk does return, he would then make his next title defense against whoever holds the interim title. It is too early to know when Punk would be able to return, as he’s not had the surgery, but the hope is it would be before the end of the year. (Punk also had recurring roles in two different television shows that he had been filming in recent weeks.)
Punk and Rhodes are hardly the only top stars laid out. Bryan Danielson, another of AEW’s top stars, is also out with an undisclosed injury but is not expected to be out long. Danielson, who has formed a tag team with Moxley, would have been among the favorites if he would be able to be in the Battle Royal. Scorpio Sky, the TNT champion, noted a muscle injury in his right leg early in his match with Dante Martin on Friday led to the leg being almost useless in the match. Jeff Hardy last week went into a match with his body all banged up, and according to brother Matt, took a shot in the match with the Young Bucks and Jeff doesn’t even remember much of the match.
Both AEW and WWE sold out their major events during a year when legitimate pro wrestling sellouts of major arenas are rare. AEW is likely to end up with its biggest four-week period as far as revenue from touring in its existence.
Double or Nothing at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas did 13,800 paid for $1.15 million. It was the largest gate for a pro wrestling event in history in North America from a company other than WWE, which has topped that figure many times. The Forum show did 13,900 paid for $860,000, the company’s third-largest paid attendance in its history and its largest so far this year. In fact, it was the highest attended television taping show in pro wrestling in the U.S. this year.
The Friday show in Ontario, Calif., sold out more than a month in advance with another 7,400 paid. Forbidden Door will likely top both of those shows for paid attendance, as it was also a sellout just minutes after tickets were put on sale. There is also a Detroit market debut on June 23 that will top 10,000 fans. Forbidden Door at the United Center will top 15,000 fans and be the company’s second million-dollar gate in its history, and only the third non-WWE million dollar show in U.S. history.
WWE’s event also topped a $1 million gate on Sunday with more than 12,000 paid, and the Rhodes vs. Rollins match led to the highest secondary market ticket numbers of the year, with a $125 get-in price, well ahead of Double or Nothing, AEW’s Revolution, the Royal Rumble and both nights of WrestleMania.
