Wardlow is laser-focused heading into his title defense.
Sunday night at AEW Revolution, Wardlow defeated Samoa Joe to regain the TNT Championship, but the time for celebration won’t last long, as he pivots to his first title defense just three days later.
After winning the Face of the Revolution Ladder Match last week on Dynamite, Powerhouse Hobbs will challenge the new champion for the title, marking the first-ever singles matchup between the two. Last November, Warlow defended the TNT Championship in a triple-threat match against Hobbs and Samoa Joe, but it was Joe who walked out victorious.
Now, Hobbs and Wardlow will battle one-on-one, but it appears that Hobbs may be the crowd favorite. Not too far from Hobbs’ hometown of Palo Alto, the two will head to Sacramento, California tomorrow for their title match on AEW Dynamite. When asked how he plans to not only combat his hungry challenger, but Hobbs’ home state crowd as well, Wardlow vowed to keep himself focused.
“I’m a lone wolf in every aspect of life, and that’s how I’ve always been,” he said on the post-Revolution media scrum. “I appreciate my fans probably more than any professional wrestler on this earth. And there’s a lot of people that will back me up on that, but at the end of the day, I don’t need anybody to have my back. I don’t need a single person cheering for me because most of my life, I’ve been the only person cheering for me. So, if everybody wants to root for him, root for him all day long, I’m still going to do me.”
Before he regained the TNT Championship on Sunday, Warlow later admitted he got emotional prior to the match itself. Speaking about his mindset leading into his bout with Samoa Joe, Warlow said he had “a moment” about ten minutes before the bell rang. “I did get a little emotional and it was the most emotional I’ve ever been going into a match,” he said.
“I think there was a time where I had a full mount on him raining down fists, I think I almost did come close to getting myself disqualified. It takes many, many years of anger to gain the peace and control that I’ve had to learn to, because I didn’t always have control on it. Thank God I learned to control it. So, it doesn’t matter how bad somebody pisses me off, how personal things get. I’m a monster, but I’m an intelligent one and I can control myself to make sure the ending is how I want it to be.”
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