Injured AEW Star Returns To Action At ROH Tapings

This AEW favourite has been out of action since the end of last year.

by Andrew Pollard
Griff Garrison
AEW

Having been out of action since October, AEW's Griff Garrison made his return to the ring at yesterday's Ring of Honor TV tapings.

As detailed by Jacob Cohen, who was in attendance for yesterday's tapings from Orlando's Universal Studios, Garrison made a surprise appearance to challenge Lee Moriarty to a match. Unfortunately for Griff, he would come up short against Taigastyle in this contest.

Advertisement

The last time fans saw Griff Garrison in action, he was teaming with Brian Pillman Jr. as the Varsity Blonds on the 8 November episode of AEW Dark.

Advertisement

There, the Blonds were defeated by the Factory's Cole Karter and Q.T. Marshall in a bout that was actually taped on 21 October. It would then be announced in December that Garrison was to undergo surgery for an unspecified injury.

While he has worked for Ring of Honor previously - usually teamed up with Marcus Cross - this outing against Lee Moriarty marks Griff Garrison's first ROH match since the promotion was purchased by Tony Khan. Interestingly, Cross these days finds himself a semi-regular presence on ROH TV, so maybe that is something that could be revisited down the line.

Advertisement

As for the Varsity Blonds of Garrison and Pillman, they haven't formally split up, though BPJ did suggest in September that the team were no more. That said, the Blonds had three more matches together since Pillman made those comments and before Griff suffered his injury.

Where Brian Pillman Jr. is concerned, he's been barely seen on AEW TV since Garrison got injured. Instead, Pillman's AEW outings have consisted of a handful of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation and live event offerings, with him only having one televised bout - an AEW Rampage loss to Swerve Strickland - during this time. He's also been teamed up with Brock Anderson for a lot of those contests, so it remains to be seen whether the Blonds are indeed no more.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.