The Blade discusses post-AEW plans after departure
The Blade (Jesse Guilmette) reflected on his AEW run and favorite matches that stood out following his exit from the promotion.
He revisited working with The Young Bucks, FTR and wrestling Sting on Talk’n Shop and was grateful for his AEW stint.
“It’s hard for me to pick one but just to rattle some off the top of my head. During the pandemic, we had a really good Falls Count Anywhere match with The Young Bucks. Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. That was really big. We were FTR’s first match when they showed up, and we were the opener of the show. That was a really good one. Just getting to work with Sting, period. I got to wrestle Sting a couple times. There was a month-long period where basically my job was I would show up to work and have to catch Sting jumping off a balcony, for like four weeks straight.”
“Getting to work with Sting was great. We had a really good one with (Jon) Moxley and Claudio (Castagnoli) on Rampage. We got a standing ovation in the middle of the match. Tables match, live on Dynamite with The Hardys. So yeah, it’s hard for me to pick just one but, in our six-year run, we had a lot of good moments there for sure.”
Addressing his wrestling future after his AEW contract expired this month, he is eager to return to the indies.
“Right now, you know, what’s next-next? I’m not sure. But I just know that right now, that it’s really exciting doing indies again. I was an independent wrestler for 20 years. It feels good to be doing old shows that I did for a long time. It feels good to be doing new shows again. Feels good to be working with guys I worked with 10 years ago. It feels good to be working and wrestling with new guys. Right now, it’s all very exciting. It feels good.”
His tag team partner, The Butcher (Andy Williams) also parted ways with the promotion at the same time. Their last AEW and ROH tag team matches were in January 2024. They debuted as a tag team on AEW in 2019 and became a staple of the division, bringing their hard-hitting fighting style to feud with the promotion’s top names.
Rosanne Raphael is a wrestling writer with over three and a half years of experience covering all things related to the industry. From a kindergarten teacher to PR Associate to turning her lifelong passion for the industry into a career, Rosanne is currently writing for F4W Online where she focuses on wrestling news, analysis, and storytelling.
Rosanne previously contributed to Sportskeeda as an Assistant Content Manager.
When not consumed by wrestling, Rosanne is a musician and an aspiring artist.