Straight from his June 1st and 2nd tapings in Windsor Ontario, newly acquired Richard Swann will square off against the current Impact World Champion and Grand Champion, Austin Aries.
Swann will have barely a day to recover before being thrust right back into the ring against one of independent wrestling’s most prolific champions. On June 3rd, Swann will face Aries in Mississauga, Ontario for the second time in his professional wrestling career as part of Impact’s taping for their Night Only: Zero Fear pay-per-view event.
The first time the two met was back in 2011 when both Swann and Aries were in Dragon Gate USA. At their Enter The Dragon 2011 event, Swann teamed up with Johnny Gargano and Masato Yoshino in a six-man elimination tag team match against Aries, Brodie Lee, and Cima. They wouldn’t meet again until WWE’s Roadblock: End Of The Line pay-per-view event in December of 2016, where Aries called the triple threat match that saw Swann defend his WWE Cruiserweight title against TJ Perkins and Brian Kendrick.
Despite both wrestlers being regularly featured in 205 Live episodes between 2016 and 2017, their schedules never quite met up to provide them with a chance in the ring. Aries eventually became disillusioned with WWE’s writers and asked to be let go from his contract in July 2017, ending the possibility of them being billed in future 205 Live tapings.
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However, their wrestling paths were once again put on a collision course after Swann was dismissed from WWE following his arrest in December 2017. The former WWE Cruiserweight Champion was charged with battery and false imprisonment of his spouse, fellow wrestler Vannarah Riggs, better known as the current Impact Knockouts Champion Su Yung.
Swann was released from his WWE contract the following February.
Since then, Aries has been hard at work acquiring belt after belt. Soon after joining Impact in early 2018, he defeated Eli Drake to become Impact World Champion and then Matt Sydal to be Impact Grand Champion. He also retained several title belts in other independent wrestling circuits, and at one point held six belts between five companies on three different continents.
Their first matchup at Impact will be an explosive bout, but Swann may have a few things to learn from the reigning Grand Champion.