Josh Mathews Addresses The Lucha Bros' Impact Wrestling Future Following AEW Signing
Wrestling Inc. was on hand for a recent media call with one of Impact Wrestling's commentators, and a former WWE personality, Josh Matthews. Matthews took the time to discuss the number of PPVs Impact Wrestling will likely be producing this year, and he also addressed the futures of the newly crowned Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champions, Pentagon Jr. & Fenix.
Matthews gave those listening in on the media call an exclusive scoop: Impact Wrestling will be working with Al Snow's Ohio Valley Wrestling to produce a One Night Only event. Matthews also mentioned a few other upcoming events and where they'll be available to watch.
"I'll just tell you guys, we will be working with OVW: Ohio Valley Wrestling and Al Snow, and they're gonna put out something today hopefully, if not today, Monday," Matthews revealed. "But you heard it here first on Press Pass, we'll be doing a One Night Only with OVW and that group. I think we're all very excited to work with them and that will be coming on GWN soon. And then you've got on March 1, we'll be with Rockstar Pro again in Dayton for a Twitch that will air the following day. That will air on March 2, and then March 2 we'll tape the show for later, in a month, so a lot happening on those fronts, Twitch and One Night Only. In April, of course, Culture Clash switched to United We Stand, we do want to say thank you to House of Glory and Brian XL who runs House of Glory for being so accommodating with understanding that we needed to switch that show."
As reported earlier, The Lucha Bros. (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix) showed up at the AEW Double Or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party to set up a match between The Young Bucks & The Lucha Bros. at Double Or Nothing in May. The following night, Impact Wrestling would air on TV and their Twitch streaming service, revealing that Penta & Fenix won the Impact Wrestling Tag Team Championships in the main event bout. With abundant success and demand from all around the world of pro wrestling, Matthews discussed The Lucha Bros. future in Impact with Wrestling Inc.'s Nick Hausman.
"I think you would have to be living under a rock if you didn't expect [Pentagon Jr. & Fenix] to show up in Las Vegas," Matthews said about The Lucha Bros. appearing at the AEW Double Or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party. "It came as no surprise to me to see them there and, all I can say is, they're in the main event [on Impact Wrestling], Rebellion is right around the corner... I mean, I think that Pentagon & Fenix, even if you hear the way I call their matches, I think those guys are amazing. I think they have so much upside, I think that we're just scratching the surface on Fenix and I think that Pentagon Jr. is one of the best in the world.
"Long term, who's to say what's gonna happen? Who's to say where anyone's gonna go, and that's the exciting thing about wrestling right now, is that you don't know," Matthews continued. "None of us know even on the inside what truly is going to happen, where everyone's going to go, what's going to end up. And obviously my allegiance lies with Impact, so obviously, the more guys that we see come here, the better it is for all of us. And as someone that's been in the wrestling business my whole life, as an adult, I just see all these different things open up and all these different avenues, and more – I just had a conference call with another company a little while ago and I was telling them that this right now, this is the wrestling boom, and hopefully we all reap the benefits from this boom."
This past Friday night, Impact announced that Rey Fenix & Pentagon Jr. will defend the World Tag Team Championship against Rob Van Dam & Sabu at their United We Stand event on April 4 at the Rahway Rec Center in Rahway, New Jersey.
Matthews went on to explain that Impact's decision to produce four PPVs a year will likely continue as time progresses. Matthews prefers to switch the names up and he wants to keep the PPVs to four big events a year, unlike WWE, who produces over twelve PPVs a year and often repeats the titles.
"I think four [PPVs] is probably right, that we will see four going forward and I think that you have your staples like Bound For Glory & Slammiversary, and then I think that you can play around with the other ones," Matthews said. "You know, obviously, next January, if we don't go to Nashville, I don't see how you call that show Homecoming. I don't think you can have Redemption again, so now you have Rebellion and I think that's cool. I think that being a part of WWE for as long as I was, and watching all the different names of all the different PPVs, I mean it sort of fell in to, Backlash – I forget all the other ones we had, but you can't do Redemption again and again, Homecoming, unless you do Nashville again and call it Homecoming Pt. 2."