When AEW CEO Tony Khan was asked at the AEW Dynasty post-show press conference in Vancouver to name his favorite AEW memory in Canada, he went through several of the obvious candidates before settling on a very specific moment from Sunday night’s show: Kyle O’Reilly’s surprise return from a long term neck injury in his hometown, capturing the AEW World Trios Championship with Orange Cassidy and Roderick Strong as The Conglomeration.
Tony Khan’s full quote on Kyle O’Reilly
“Tonight’s pay per view, so many great matches. A lot of the great Canadian stars wrestling, and some of them had tough outcomes, but I do think Kyle O’Reilly, that moment for him, given all the circumstances, for many reasons, in the ring, with all the momentum Kyle O’Reilly had on TV and as a wrestler on television, winning big matches, the biggest win of his career up to tonight was probably, I would say, against Jon Moxley, coming in. And somebody that had multiple wins against Jon Moxley and the Death Riders and was on fire when he went out injured, and I think it was very important as a wrestler. I also think for the reasons outside of the ring that he talked about, which, you know, he already spoke in detail about that and for him and his family. I think that knowing everything Kyle O’Reilly’s been through in and out of the ring, especially out of the ring, to be here for him and his family tonight, I thought that is also maybe the best memory I will ever have here in Canada as a wrestling promoter.”
Tony Khan was referencing comments Kyle O’Reilly himself had made earlier at the same press conference. O’Reilly, clearly emotional throughout his appearance, acknowledged how difficult the last month had been and thanked his Conglomeration teammates for carrying him through it.
“Absolutely unbelievable feeling to hold gold in this company for the best wrestle, that means the absolute world to me, and to do it with friends. Your friends pick you up when you’re down. I don’t know if anybody really knows, it’s been a challenging month for myself, and you know, to be able to stand here with a smile on my face after everything, with my buddies on my side and some gold around my waist, doing a dream job in what we get to do week in and week out, I mean, there’s really no words.”
Orange Cassidy then spoke about his friendship with O’Reilly during the layoff.
“I’m just so happy that Kyle’s back. Missed him so much, we all did. And you know, sometimes, like we all do, we forget how much appreciation people may have for us. And I was communicating with him during the process, and I felt the love. He’s just the coolest and strongest dude I know, and wrestling is better when he’s in it. So I’m excited.”
Kyle O’Reilly’s daughter was at her first live wrestling show
When asked whether his father had been able to be at Rogers Arena for the moment, O’Reilly gave one of the most personal answers of the entire press conference.
“This building here, this is where I was introduced to wrestling. I saw my very first show in this building in 1998. My dad brought me here. We sat in the very last row, and I knew in that moment that this was going to be something that I was going to do, and to come back here, you know, my dad, fortunately, he was able to be here when I wrestled Adam Copeland at the first Collision that was here, and it was an extremely special full circle moment for me. And I always felt a little bad that he wasn’t able to see me win a big match, you know. But everything that my father went through, and that my mother went through, it’s not about winning or making it, it’s just they fought till the very end. And that’s a lesson that they passed down to me, is just, you know, it’s not about the destination, it’s always about the journey. And you always get up in the morning, keep going, and you know, this is what I love to do.”
O’Reilly then revealed that his four year old daughter was at Rogers Arena for her very first live wrestling show on Sunday night, alongside her three year old cousin.
“My daughter got to be here. Talk about full circle, again. My daughter was here for her very first live wrestling show. She was very concerned. She was like a ravid animal all show. She’s got her little cousin here, who’s three, and she’s four. So they were just running around the whole arena all show, until finally the big match came. But it was very special.”
The levity of the entrance
Asked about The Conglomeration’s instantly memorable entrance, which featured the trio coming out through a doorway onto a sitcom style living room set, O’Reilly credited the AEW production team for turning it around in 48 hours and said the bit actually helped him mentally during what could have been an overwhelming emotional return.
“I think it was a perfect way to reintroduce myself, because the Conglomeration, that’s what you see is what you get. I think we kind of check those boxes of what we are. It was just something really unique. I felt so giddy being back there behind that little door. It was like I was in a high school play again. It put me in the perfect mood and mindset to go out there and perform.”
Roderick Strong added, “I usually come up here and I say stuff really nice about the graphics and the crew that we have. When you ask them, you know, in 48 hours, can we do a live TV show type sitcom for an entrance, and they make it happen. And they did incredible as per usual. And I told them, they better get ready, because we’re gonna do it a lot.”
What it beat out for the top spot
Tony Khan listed several other major Canadian AEW moments before settling on O’Reilly’s Dynasty return as the favorite, including Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door 2023 in Toronto, Renee Paquette’s AEW debut in Toronto in October 2022, the Adam Copeland and Christian Cage TNT Championship match in Canada that included a hockey fight, Daniel Garcia turning on Bryan Danielson to join Chris Jericho, and Orange Cassidy winning the AEW International Championship.
“This show was certainly one of the highlights for me. There were so many great matches and great moments. So this being our pay per view debut in Vancouver, I thought was definitely one of my all time highlights in Canada. Up there with Renee’s arrival in October 2022 on Dynamite.”
Then he came back to O’Reilly.
“Knowing everything Kyle O’Reilly’s been through in and out of the ring, especially out of the ring, to be here for him and his family tonight, I thought that is also maybe the best memory I will ever have here in Canada as a wrestling promoter.”
What’s next for The Conglomeration
Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy, and Roderick Strong made it clear at the press conference they have no interest in sitting on the titles. Asked whether they wanted to enjoy the titles for a while or jump straight into defenses, O’Reilly cut in immediately.
“We live for this. We want to fight every single night. This is a dream team as far as I’m concerned. So we’re ready to go and defend these things any day of the week.”
AEW Dynamite this Wednesday April 15 comes from the Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett, Washington at 8 PM ET on TBS and HBO Max as part of the Spring BreakThru anniversary celebration. Tony Khan has already announced MJF defending the AEW World Championship against Darby Allin and Kevin Knight defending the TNT Championship against Claudio Castagnoli for the show. Spring BreakThru continues with a special Thursday edition of AEW Collision on April 16, also from Everett.
If you use quotes from this article, please credit the AEW Dynasty post-show press conference and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
