Junior Dos Santos was fired up for AEW Arthur Ashe.
The former UFC Heavyweight Champion will make his pro wrestling debut on Friday at AEW Rampage when he teams with the Men of the Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) to battle The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, & Sammy Guevara).
JDS first appeared on an August episode of AEW Dynamite and American Top Team founder Dan Lambert revealed just how fired up JDS was about the appearance.
"The first time JDS came to me to a show, with Andrei Arlovski, we did an in-ring promo and the fans were kind of vocal in response. As soon as we got to the back, JDS looked at me and said, 'Oh my God, when do I get to come back and punch somebody in the face? A couple weeks later, AEW had the Grand Slam show at Arthur Ashe Stadium and that was going to be the first time he got to punch somebody in the face. We got there early, figured out what our plan was for the night, went back to the hotel for a while and JDS was all excited, bouncing against the walls, and we're driving over to the arena and he's like, 'Man, I wish I felt like this before my fights. I'm ready to go,'" Lambert recalled in an interview with Marc Raimondi of ESPN.
While JDS did get some shots in at AEW Arthur Ashe, it was a hug that did the most damage.
Tony Khan was on the receiving end of a JDS hug following the ATT and Inner Circle segment. As a result of JDS' squeeze, Khan suffered some cracked ribs.
"He cracked them,” Khan told The New York Post. “I’ll be OK. But he legitimately cracked them. I’ll be OK. It’s been a few weeks, but I’m sleeping on my right side. It felt just right in the mom ent,” Khan said. It was just kind of improvised. He’s a very strong man. I love the gasp pop it got.”
Khan said he “no-sold it” once he returned to the back because he didn’t want the doctor pulling him out of the chair. He made it clear that dos Santos did nothing wrong, calling the interaction as a whole a great moment.
“I was definitely asking for it,” he said.
You can find Dos Santos' comments on his debut by clicking here.
Fightful will have live coverage of AEW Rampage beginning at 9 p.m. ET with the Buy In.
