"Not happy with the explanation"- WWE legend voices his displeasure on Wardlow's exclusion from the Battle Royale

Wrestling legend Tommy Dreamer was unhappy with Wardlow's exclusion from the 21-man Casino Battle Royale on this week's Dynamite.

The match was the first round of the Eliminator Series to determine an Interim AEW World Champion. Kyle O'Reilly emerged victorious, and he went on to square off against Jon Moxley in a grueling match where he came up short. While both bouts were well-received, Wardlow's exclusion confused fans and veterans alike.

Speaking on the Busted Open podcast, Dreamer expressed his displeasure at Mr. Mayhem's absence from the tournament:

"If you did not tell me why he wasn't in the battle royale, I wouldn't have cared. But if you really think about what he said, and I don't wanna say it was a negative towards him..." said Dreamer. "He spoke on the microphone, he looks great, people were still into him. It was different from how we've seen him. He's not this beast, which at times it's a bit of risk because especially in wrestling, we love repetition." (4:18 - 4:54)

Given the power rankings, it was widely anticipated that the former Pinnacle member was going to compete in the battle royale. Instead, he was left out entirely.

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Tommy Dreamer criticizes Wardlow's explanation

Mr. Mayhem has been massively over with the audience since turning on MJF, and he has been on a dominant run ever since. However, his explanation behind sitting out the eliminator series didn't sit well with many, including Dreamer.

Speaking further on the podcast, the former ECW star criticized Wardlow's logic as to why he distanced himself from the Interim World Championship:

"His explanation was 'I wanna be the champion once I beat CM Punk. That's the person I wanna beat'. Now, I'm like hmmm ok so you don't wanna be the interim champion, which I get. You're a competitor. But if he would've went in there, beat everybody in the company, become the champion... and I'm just going with the logic he said. Then he would've beaten everybody, and then he could've been the champion and then faced Punk once he returns," Dreamer continued. (5:25 - 5:55)

Wardlow has truly become a red-hot prospect for AEW. It will be interesting to see how AEW creative plans to capitalize on his momentum in the near future.

Please credit Busted Open and give a H/T to Sportskeeda when using quotes from this article.