After receiving a hometown hero’s welcome in Los Angeles, “Jungle” Jack Perry fulfilled his destiny by becoming the new AEW National Champion after his third attempt against Ricochet and 20 other men in a Blackjack Battle Royal at Revolution on Sunday. However, looking past the raining confetti, a lot of emotions came crashing in, including not having his biggest fan and supporter of his career, former actor Luke Perry, sitting out in the crowd at the Crypto.com Arena watching him perform and giving him the embrace any champion looks for from their family after such a feat. From once being a fan to now a performer at the Crypto Arena, Perry spoke at the post-Revolution media scrum about his late father and how much he misses him.

“Today’s kind of bittersweet. I don’t talk about it too much. My dad died, like seven years ago now. It’s not something that I think about in a big way every single day,” the new champion said. “Obviously, I think about it, but it’s been seven years and thankfully I’ve been able to have other stuff to put my mind towards. And today, coming here, being in this building, the only time I’ve been here was walking around with my dad. And at that point I was so young, I was probably still holding his hand. It was interesting and it was really cool for me to now be here in this way, but it was also sad because I was thinking, you know, the person who I wish could be here the most isn’t here.”

Jack’s father and the beloved former “Beverly Hills, 90210” teen icon passed away from a stroke on March 4, 2019, at the age of 52. Recognizing the highs and lows that have come since joining the squared circle in 2015, Jack mentioned how his love from family, friends, cohorts like his tag team partner Luchasaurus, and AEW as a whole have reaffirmed his passion for this sport vigorously. This is Jack’s third singles championship that he’s carried so far in his young career outside of the TNT (one-time) and now retired FTW (one-time) belts.

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “AEW” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Joe Rogan has admitted he feels “weird” over the prospect of UFC’s White House event in June while war with Iran continues. 

The UFC will stage its landmark Freedom 250 card on the South Lawn of the White House on June 14, celebrating President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday with the event headlined by Ilia Topuria versus Justin Gaethje. Alex Pereira will also make his Heavyweight debut, fighting Ciryl Gane for the Interim Heavyweight title. 

Rogan will be at the booth commentating over the event, but that hasn’t stopped him from voicing concerns over it during his podcast. 

“Yes, I’m excited,” he said, mulling over the question. “It sounds crazy, I know it’s going to very high security, and high stress, and weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a f***ing war. I would hope the war will be sorted out by June. But quite honestly, I’m not confident that’s going to be the case. So, that would be weird. Having this very high-profile event where everybody’s in one place at one time, right there.”

The war in which Rogan speaks of is the ongoing conflict with Iran initiated by United States and Israel attacks on February 28. And while he stopped short of outright saying the concern, in part due to his co-host taking note of the direction, Rogan was concerned that the White House event could become a target in some shape or form. 

In 2003, “Stone Cold” Steve Austin opted to retire from professional wrestling after wanting to avoid permanent neck issues, which was caused by the infamous piledriver he took from Owen Hart in 1997. Austin’s WrestleMania 19 match with The Rock marked the end of his full-time career, but nearly 20 years later he returned to the ring for a one-off contest against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 38. Unfortunately, Owens has suffered a similar fate to Austin, having picked up a career-threatening neck injury after his battle with Sami Zayn at the Elimination Chamber last year. However, “KO” has been given advice and assistance from his WrestleMania opponent, as Austin recently explained in an interview with “The Takedown on SI” that he referred a doctor to Owens.

“I called Kevin a couple of months ago,” Austin said. “I think he’s got a great doctor, according to him, and I threw out a name that I’d heard good things about. I care about the guy. Love the guy. He’s a Hall of Fame talent. I don’t know how he banged his neck up, but he took a lot of bumps. He did a lot of stuff.”

Austin continued to shed light of how easily injuries can happen in the wrestling industry and revealed that he has stayed in contact with Owens throughout his recovery.

“It’s a rough business, right,” Austin stated. “No matter what style you work, you’re going to take a bump. And even the most simple bump can be the devastating bump. Although it looks normal, that sets off some chain reaction, or is the straw that breaks the camel’s back and there’s that injury. So, hey, injuries happen. I stay in touch with him a little bit and I wish him nothing but the best.”

As AEW has continued to grow, the promotion has gotten more ambitious when it comes to running big arenas, beginning with AEW All In 2023 at Wembley Stadium in London. Since then, AEW has returned to Wembley for All In 2024, ran All In 2025 in Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, and is set to return to Wembley again for All In 2026. And it appears another major arena is in play for a potential future AEW event, at least if Tony Khan has his way.

During the post-Revolution media scrum, the AEW owner was asked about potentially running an AEW show in SoFi Stadium, held just down the road from the Crypto.com Arena, the site of Revolution over the last two years. At first glance, the home of the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers would seem to be a bit of a tall order for Khan and AEW, who have never run an event in an NFL sized stadium since the promotion’s formation. But Khan didn’t dismiss the idea at all, and even indicated it had crossed his mind.

“Yeah, it could be interesting,” Khan said. “It’s interesting. I’ve thought about it before. I think it’s interesting. I think it’s a very interesting idea. It’s not crazy at all. I don’t think that’s a crazy thought. 

“When you saw all the star power and it gets your brain firing off, and it makes you think. And there were so many great wrestlers wrestling tonight, there were so many great returns and rivals and all the moments. It’s not crazy.”

Over the years, WWE Hall Of Famer “Stone Cold” Steve Austin has admitted that he doesn’t keep up with professional wrestling as much as he’d like due to his several business ventures, such as managing his Broken Skull Beer company and dessert racing. However, there’s still talent today that he’s been impressed by, and during a recent interview with “The TakeDown On SI,” he credited WWE star Chelsea Green for not being afraid to take risks creatively during her time on the main roster.

“You’re an idiot when you first join the business,” Austin said. “You just are, unless you’re Shawn Michaels and you kind of get it from day one. When you’re starving and you’re making $15 and $20 a night, you realize that you better get good pretty quick and learn how to reach people on an emotional level, so you can start making some money. I think that Chelsea Green does that a lot of time. She’s pretty fearless out there. On a creative note, she’ll go for it, and it’s done well for her.”

Despite Monday being “Austin 3:16 Day,” “The Rattlesnake” revealed that he will not be attending tonight’s episode of “WWE Raw” to celebrate, as he is preparing for dessert race later this week, and will be in car a garage in Nevada. That said, in January several reports indicated that WWE was looking to schedule Austin’s return, and with “Raw” being held from his home state of Texas, there’s always a possibility that the 61-year-old tried to keep his appearance on tonight’s show a surprise.