The months of speculation have come true: Bobby Lashley has joined AEW after leaving WWE!
For weeks and months, the signs intensified, and now it has happened: former WWE Champion Bobby Lashley has made his debut at rival AEW!
During the current episode of the TV show Dynamite, companion MVP revealed that his old protégé – along with Shelton Benjamin – followed him to Tony Khan’s league. Together, the three former members of the Hurt Business attacked former AEW Champion Swerve Strickland and his manager Prince Nana.
AEW Dynamite: Bobby Lashley takes aim at Swerve Strickland
MVP and Benjamin had already shown up a few weeks ago and tried to poach Strickland from Nana, but got the cold shoulder from the “Mogul”. Now there was a match between Strickland and Benjamin, which Strickland won – whereupon MVP picked up his cell phone and summoned Lashley.
Together, the 48-year-old Lashley and Benjamin beat down Strickland, while MVP took out Nana. MVP ended the segment by asking the fans to guess who was “back in business.”
Lashley and MVP let their WWE contracts expire over the summer, and at the same time, rumors immediately began to circulate that the two were planning a reunion with their old friend Benjamin to form the Hurt Business.
As early as August, a company affiliated with MVP had registered the name “The Hurt Syndicate” as a trademark, and it is apparently to be the name of the revived alliance at AEW.
Lashley is likely to make his ring debut at the next major event, Full Gear, on November 23 in Newark, while the World Title Match for the show was officially announced on Wednesday: Champion Jon Moxley will be challenged by crowd favorite Orange Cassidy – a rematch of the all-out main event from 2023.
Private Party dethrone the Young Bucks
Another surprise at the Halloween edition of Dynamite was a throwback to the second Dynamite issue from AEW’s founding year, 2019: as in that year, there was a match between the Young Bucks and Private Party (Isaiah Kassidy and Marq Quen) – and as in that year, Kassidy and Quen unexpectedly defeated the AEW co-founders.
Kassidy and Quen took the tag team titles from the Bucks, avoiding the clause that would have forced them to split up if they lost, after a chaotic showdown. Instead, the two celebrated their first title win in AEW in a long time.
