WBD Officially Denies Report It Was Responsible For Brody King's AEW Dynamite Absence

One week after he pummeled MJF in short order to earn himself an AEW World Championship match at "Grand Slam: Australia," Brody King was nowhere to be seen on "AEW Dynamite." Thursday morning, a possible explanation was revealed, when Dave Meltzer reported that King had been kept off the show at the insistence of Warner Brothers Discovery, who feared his presence would lead to more anti-ICE chants following fans chanting "F**k ICE" prior to King and MJF's match.

Hours later, WBD responded. In a statement sent to Wrestling Inc., the media company categorically denied that there were any plans to remove King from AEW programming.

"Warner Bros. Discovery did not have any involvement in Brody King's upcoming AEW schedule," the statement read. "Any speculation to the contrary is categorically false. Brody is scheduled to appear during the next AEW event, which will air this Saturday on TNT and HBO Max."

When asked by Voices of Wrestling whether their use of the word "upcoming" meant that they were not responsible for King's absence on last night's "Dynamite," WBD affirmed they had no involvement in King missing the show. In addition, Fightful Select reports that AEW has also denied King's absence from "Dynamite" was due to WBD or the anti-ICE chants from last week. Sources further stated that the earlier report about King was the first they had heard of such rumors. As for what King was doing last night, it appears he was traveling to Australia for "Grand Slam." PWInsider reports that King was among several talents flying out to Sidney, Australia from LAX last night, and as such was never booked to appear on "Dynamite."

Boy was this an adventure, huh? Regardless of how one feels about the reporting of this situation or not, it does little to change that King is about to wrestle the biggest match of his life this weekend with more eyeballs on him than ever before. Last week, following the anti-ICE chants on "Dynamite," I would've said there was a strong argument with going for King pulling off the surprise upset over MJF, though I still would've leaned towards MJF retaining the title to drop it either to Andrade at Revolution or Kenny Omega at Dynasty. One week and this wild Thursday later, I'm proud to say I'm a changed man; Brody King absolutely should win the AEW World Championship this weekend.

Now yes, was this the most bizarre, unlikeliest of routes we took to get here? You better believe it. But I don't see how it can be denied now. King was hot last week coming off that win and the anti-ICE chants. Now between all the attention that drew and all the attention King and AEW have received today, to call King hot may be a bit of an understatement. It's a case of where controversy (even false controversy) can be good, and today's events should only increase anticipation for King vs. MJF at "Grand Slam" this weekend, not to mention attention for the event as a whole. So strike while the iron is hot. I get there's probably months of plans Tony Khan has set for this title, and maybe Andrade, Omega, MJF or whoever may have seemed more viable. But if I'm Khan, I'm scrapping it. You have a potential superstar ready to explode if you choose to go with him this weekend. Strap up Brody King. The moment has arrived.