Wardlow Gets Screwed Out of His Second AEW TNT Championship Reign

Wardlow set the record for the shortest TNT Championship reign in the title’s history on this week’s AEW Dynamite. After having his rental car vandalized and the original title stolen, Wardlow arrived for tonight’s Dynamite with the news that his first defense would be a Falls Count Anywhere, Anything Goes match with Powerhouse Hobbs. The big man earned a shot at the TNT title last week by winning this year’s Face of the Revolution Ladder Match. 

The fight started backstage and eventually culminated in the two brawling on the entrance ramp. But just when it looked like Wardlow was ready to powerbomb Hobbs of the stage, QT Marshall ran up and whacked him in the back with the steel chair. He then nailed “Mr. Mayhem” with a low blow as the commentary team realized Marshall was wearing a “QTV” shirt, indicating he’s behind the recent vignettes. Hobbs and Marshall then slammed Wardlow off the entrance stage, keeping the champ down for the referee’s 10-count.

Wardlow first won the TNT Championship last year as part of a massive babyface push but struggled to maintain momentum once his program with MJF was over. He admitted to mentally struggling with the push during a recent interview with ComicBook.

“Man, I think about this a lot, and I was just thinking about this very in-depth recently because I feel like I took it for granted a little bit. Few reasons,” he began. “So I’m a negative thinker, I’m my biggest critic. I don’t think at the time I allowed myself to comprehend just how big I was and how popular and how just outrageous the ideal of Wardlow was at the time.

“Also, I think there’s a little bit of truth to Max (MJF) calling himself the devil. Right around the time Max and I started our feud, I really just lost myself, and I just wasn’t myself in that whole stretch of time. I was just a different person and I was a ball of stress and I really couldn’t focus or grasp what my life was or should have been,” Wardlow continued. “And even after I beat Max, the devil wasn’t gone. He still had his claws in my back. And the next night, here I am, Wardlow getting my name chanted by a sold-out crowd like we haven’t seen in decades. And the next (episode) I’m back to doing nothing and Max is dropping this bombshell of a promo and now the show’s still all about him. I beat him, but I didn’t beat him. So there’s a lot to be said there. All’s I’ll say is I’ll dance with the devil again, and that time will come and things will be a little different next time.”