While not quite Day 1 talents in AEW, The Butcher and The Blade can claim to be part of most of AEW’s history, having debuted shortly after the launch of “AEW Dynamite” in the fall of 2019. But over the last year, the duo has been scarcely seen on AEW TV, with Butcher being inactive since a February 2025 “Collision” match against Gabe Kidd, while Blade was inactive for nearly two years recovering from back surgery before returning to the ring in December.

Naturally, this had led to questions regarding whether Butcher or Blade are still actually signed with AEW. During an interview with “Youngstown Studio” to promote his new band Atomic Rule, Butcher clarified that duo’s status.

“I mean, I’m still under contract,” Butcher said. “Blade is like…that was the big thing. Blade had his back fused. As a tag team wrestler, it’s like ‘How many times can you send a guy out there in singles matches, and then they lose after,’ you know what I mean? You kind of have to shelve them. And I kind of understand it and try to be humble with that. It does seep into your head like ‘Dude, what did I do wrong,’ you know what I mean? Cause no one talks to you…it’s not like they check up on me every week going ‘How you doing dude?’ 

“It’s just like ‘We’ll call you when we need you.’ And that is kind of like a head f**k. But at the same time, I’m so grateful because I get paid every two weeks, and like, Blade is now healthy. So we can now work indies and stuff like that, and [are] just waiting for the call for a return. Hopefully it happens soon. I know that there’s a lot of injuries going on right now in AEW. So that’s usually an indicator that they’re probably going to bring some guys back that they’re sitting.”

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

WWE Women’s United States Champion Giulia took on former Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton this past week during “WWE SmackDown.” While Giulia walked away with the win, she took several high-impact bumps, like Stratton’s Swanton Bomb, in which she landed with her full body weight on Giulia. According to a now-deleted Instagram post (via F4WOnline), it seems that the reigning champion suffered a few lasting knocks.

Giulia’s trainer, Matthew Ennis, took to the social media platform to share a post about a recent gym session, stating that his client was more banged than usual and that they had to make a few changes to her session in order to not aggravate things. “She was in so much pain,” Ennis reportedly wrote. “Low back pain, knee pain, hip pain, shoulders, you name it.” 

He further clarified that he sought to simply focus on having Giulia walk out of the gym in a better state. “And now we’ll be more prepared to push harder tomorrow, and that’s a big thing for pro wrestlers — depending on how your body feels, you may need to adjust the workout for the day,” he wrote.

At this stage, it is not clear if Stratton will appear at WrestleMania 42 or not, but her hard-hitting clash against Giulia on “SmackDown” might just have set that up. Stratton interestingly commented on the rumors during an interview not too long ago, notably not playing up to the rumors but expressing that she’d love to compete for the Women’s US Championship.

Many fans thought WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus was destined for another big run in the company in 2025, the year that marked her 25th anniversary in the professional wrestling business. That wasn’t meant to be, however, but Stratus performed alongside then-WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton at Elimination Chamber in a tag match, then against Stratton at Evolution 2 in her first championship match in 20 years.

Stratus hasn’t been seen in WWE since that match, where she received a standing ovation following her loss, and she recently spoke with The Takedown on SI about what it would take for her to get back in a WWE ring. She said she would need to see the landscape.

“I’m very story storyline driven,” Stratus told the outlet. “And for me, is it gonna be interesting for the fans? Is it something they wanna see? Is it gonna elevate someone? And of course, there’s like the storyline behind it. I love the story, I wanna make sure it makes sense and I wanna make sure the landscape makes sense for me to enter into.”

Fightful Select reported back in January that there were expectations for WWE to do something with “25 Years of Trish Stratus,” but that obviously did not happen and no details about what that would have entailed were provided. It was reported that Stratus has always pitched things to WWE over the years and has made herself available when needed.

Prior to her program with Stratton, Stratus worked with Becky Lynch in 2023. The pair won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships from Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez, and would go on to feud against one another, culminating in a steel cage match at Payback that year.