AEW is taking some heat over how they handled Matt Hardy’s obvious injury last night at All Out.
In his match against Sammy Guevara, Hardy hit the concrete floor instead of a table in a spot. He was slow to get to his feet and when he did, he looked dazed as he stumbled around.
Referee Aubrey Edwards immediately made the ‘X’ sign with her arms indicating to the producers and medical staff that there was a serious injury.
Viewers saw AEW’s head physician check on Hardy and the announcers played off the match as over.
Minutes later, a still faltering Hardy continued the match with Guevara causing some fans to wonder if the entire spot was perhaps a work (part of the storyline or angle). Hardy finished the match beating Guevara by knocking him off some rigging. Guevara fell to a padded, fall area below.
Hardy was sent to hospital a short time afterwards.
During his YouTube show that night, Chris Jericho assured fans Hardy was okay.
“Matt is okay by the way but he was knocked for a loop for sure. That obviously didn’t pan out the way that we wished it could have,” said Jericho.
Hardy’s wife and professional wrestler Reby Sky took to Twitter to express her outrage with AEW.
“Let me be f—–g clear. There is NOTHING entertaining about a concussion. Shame on everyone in that goddamn building,” she wrote before making her account private.
Bryan Alvarez of Figure Four Online and the Wrestling Observer Tweeted:
How in God's name did Doc Sampson allow that to continue? Seriously.
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvarez) September 6, 2020
His comment elicited a strong fan reaction
https://twitter.com/shogunstewa/status/1302415000653398018?s=20
They had to awkwardly stumble towards their finish with a guy that was OBVIOUSLY concussed. Stupidity.
— Ryan Pike (@RyanNPike) September 6, 2020
https://twitter.com/tblank0/status/1302414565762711552?s=20
All Elite Wrestling president, and CEO Tony Khan addressed the situation in a media scrum after the show.
“The health and safety of the wrestlers is always the most important thing at AEW. I just wanted to give everyone an update on Matt Hardy and say, most importantly, Matt is okay and he’s going to be okay. What had happened was Matt had taken a fall in the match and I stopped the match, paused the match, and sent the doctor to check on him,” said Khan.”I was concerned that Matt could be hurt. I rang the bell to pause the match. When the doctor checked him, he passed him and cleared him on the concussion protocol. He checked with Matt and then Matt came back after and passed the concussion protocol and he’s doing okay. I spoke with him after the match and talked to him again just now. He went, as a precaution, to the hospital to get some tests and check out that he’s okay but looks like he is okay and that’s why the doctor cleared him to continue. It was not something that any of us enjoyed. It was a scary moment but the most important thing is that Matt is okay. We’re all really glad about that.”
