AEW Star Confirmed For First Match In 21 Months
After making their surprise return to the company on pay-per-view, one AEW star is set for their first match in almost two years.
At AEW Revolution Roderick Strong challenged Orange Cassidy for the AEW International Championship at Revolution with Strong defeating the man who had made the title his own. After the match, however, Strong got a blast from the past as he was faced with Kyle O’Reilly.
O’Reilly looked like he was stalking Strong but ended up embracing his former partner in NXT’s Undisputed Era. However, when handed an Undisputed Kingdom t-shirt, he handed it back to Strong before whispering a message in his ear before walking away.
Kyle O’Reilly last competed in an AEW ring back in June 2022 when he lost to Jon Moxley. O’Reilly had been out of action due to a serious injury and he had been dealing with a post-surgical issue that he revealed at the beginning of 2023.
Kyle O’Reilly Set For In-Ring AEW Return
On Dynamite Big Business, it was confirmed that O’Reilly will finally be back in action for the first time in 21 months as he takes on Bryan Keith on the 16th of March edition of Collision. In an interview with Renee Paquette on the show, O’Reilly stated:
For two years the thought of never wrestling again, the least of my problems. There was a span where I couldn’t physically pick up my daughter and they were the darkest days of my life. But my neck got better and my arm got better and now that I’m here and I look at the landscape, the AEW roster, and I just wonder if I can still hang.
It’s probably the most competitive roster in the history of the sport. But then I look at a guy I’m impressed by. A guy I’ve had my sights set on, so to speak, a guy that I think can bring out ‘that’ Kyle O’Reilly. So, ‘Bounty Hunter’ Bryan Keith you and I, we have a duel this Saturday on Collision, my first match back in almost two years, my home country, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Collision will be AEW’s debut in the city of Ottawa as the show emanates from The Canadian Tire Center in Canada’s capital city. No other matches have yet been confirmed for the show.