It was always going to happen. The ties between Roderick Strong and former Undisputed Era ally and leader, Adam Cole, are simply too strong (pun intended). Additionally, professional wrestling spouses do tend to follow each other, and it was perhaps inevitable that Strong would eventually be reunited with his long-time partner, Maria Shafir, in All Elite Wrestling (AEW).
Roderick Strong is All Elite
On this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, Adam Cole – alongside Bandido and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy – was being victimized by the Jericho Appreciation Society. Eventually, Killswitch Engage was played over the speaker and out came CM P-no, wait, wrong song. Out came Roderick Strong to a strong ovation from the AEW audience to save his former comrade from an unjust beat down. We have in the past seen former Undisputed Era members Kyle O’Reilly (out injured) and Bobby Fish (released) in the All Elite ring, too, so all four have been in AEW at some point. Could we potentially see the group reunite sometime in the not-so-distant future? It remains to be seen.
Before joining the WWE in 2017, Strong was a well-established independents wrestler who has the distinction of being a former ROH World Champion. With Ring of Honor of course being now under the ownership of Tony Khan, it is not impossible that we see Strong competing both for ROH and AEW. However, for now, all that matters is that Strong – who was also a former WWE Cruiserweight Champion – is finally free from the WWE (where he had reportedly been seeking a release for quite some time) and is now #AllElite. Best of luck to Roddy!
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