Recently-crowned champion suffers a major loss outside AEW

An AEW up-and-comer made history when he became the youngest ROH World Television Champion a few weeks ago. The star in question, Nick Wayne, has now suffered a huge loss in a prestigious tournament organized by New Japan Pro-Wrestling.

The Prodigy has shown remarkable growth as a performer since joining forces with Christian Cage as a member of The Patriarchy. However, tensions have been brewing between the former TNT Champion and his "son" since the latter criticized him on live television. Christian later claimed to have been impressed by Nick's newfound spark and revealed that he had supposedly secured him a spot in NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors 32.

Wayne kicked off his run in the tournament with three back-to-back wins over SHO, El Desperado, and Robbie Eagles. Unfortunately, the 19-year-old suffered his first setback on Saturday (May 17th) in Tokyo, where he lost to recent AEW acquisition Kevin Knight in a Block B matchup.

Expand Tweet

What was Sabu really like? More info HERE.

The Jet has not fared as well in the BOSJ this year as Wayne. He had lost all three of his prior matches against MAO, Eagles, and YOH before finally picking up his first two points in the tournament over Nick.

What Nick Wayne and Kevin Knight have been up to in AEW lately

Besides getting him into the Best of the Super Juniors, Christian Cage also procured for Nick Wayne an opportunity to dethrone Komander for the ROH World TV Title on AEW Collision: Spring BreakThru.

The up-and-comer defeated the masked luchador to win the belt last month in Boston. Since then, Wayne has mounted successful defenses of the title against Jay Lethal and, earlier this month, against WWE and ECW legend Rhino in his All Elite Wrestling debut.

Kevin Knight, on the other hand, sustained a vicious beating at the hands of Rush ahead of his Continental Championship Eliminator Match against Kazuchika Okada on the May 7 edition of AEW Dynamite. The 28-year-old agreed to wrestle the match in spite of that, but unfortunately succumbed to The Rainmaker, who hit his finisher to retain. Okada continued to attack Knight after the bout until the latter's new tag partner, 'Speedball' Mike Bailey, rushed to make the save.

About the author

Anurag is an AEW writer for Sportskeeda Wrestling. He holds a BA and MA degree in English along with a TEFL certification to teach English. Before Sportskeeda, he worked as a Content and Correspondence writer at Nayabad Titas, a theater group. He has also worked as a English language tutor.

To ensure complete accuracy, he uses internet resources, social media platforms, and especially pieces composed by his peers to find solid, verified information that he presents as objectively as possible. Thanks to his academic background, he can research different subjects thoroughly.

Anurag's interest in wrestling began as a child. He watched RAW and Smackdown frequently from age 10 or 11 and was officially hooked by the YES Movement story in WWE heading into WrestleMania 30.

As a lifelong wrestling fan and lover of stories, Anurag would read news, articles, and other content about the talent and events he enjoyed watching. His understanding of the business continued to grow with time, and his interest in the art and sport of wrestling led him to pursue a career as a writer.

Apart from writing, he loves to read books, watch movies and television programs, play and listen to music, and write poetry and fiction.

Know More

Edited by Anurag Mukherjee