Explanation For Buddy Matthews Recently Being Off AEW Television
Buddy Matthews' absence from AEW television over the past couple of weeks has seemingly been explained.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported that Matthews has been touring in his native Australia as part of the World Series Wrestling roster.
Went home to Australia for a tour. Will be back. https://t.co/yc6dFnmbEl
— Dave Meltzer (@davemeltzerWON) July 21, 2022
Meltzer also said that ROH World Champion Jonathan Gresham was originally slated to be on a WSW card, however, he was unable to go because AEW needed him in America to do his heel turn on "Rampage" and build up ROH's upcoming Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view on July 23 in Lowell, MA. Brian Cage (who is still under contract with AEW despite his lack of appearances since late 2021) also made an appearance on this tour.
It had been initially reported that Matthews had been off television due to a shoulder injury. Matthews would confirm the injury in a video posted to his Instagram in early June, captioning it with the following:
"Always a work in progress. Dealing with a shoulder injury which limits a lot of my shoulder movements. But slowly increasing the weight again. [Be] better than you were yesterday!"
Matthews has not been seen on AEW programming since the June 27 edition of "AEW Dark: Elevation", in which he teamed up with fellow House of Black member Brody King to defeat Brubaker and CJ Esparza. Before that, he was in action against PAC in an AEW All-Atlantic Championship qualifier match on the June 8 edition of "Dynamite".