Former Impact X-Division champ and MLW tag team debut in AEW

With the revolving door of talent often used by AEW to fill Elevation and Dark, familiar faces are bound to pop up. This week’s offerings had a pair of notable names for fans of Impact and MLW. Rohit Raju, Dominic Garrini, and Kevin Ku debuted in AEW.

Rohit is a former X-Division champion in Impact. He has been a free agent since the start of the new year.

Rohit was grouped into an 8-man tag during Dark (at 7:30). Unfortunately, he was smashed early by the Wingmen quartet. Rohit was on the receiving end of a beatdown for much of his time. He fired up to chop and kick JD Drake leading to a tag out. The match ended shortly thereafter with a Wingmen victory.

Garrini and Ku make up the tag team known as Violence is Forever. They entered MLW under the tutelage of Tom Lawlor as members of Team Filthy. Violence is Forever has been collecting tag team gold on the independent scene.

Here’s a taste of what they can do.

During Elevation (at 6:01), Garrini and Ku wrestled in a 10-man tag against 2point0, Daniel Garcia, and Gunn Club. With that many people in a squash match, it was tough for them to stand out. Ku kicked off the match eating a release German suplex and tag team offense from 2point0. Garrini entered to shake his booty riling up the Ass Boys. He promptly got his butt kicked by the Gunn sons. That was all from Violence is Forever as their team lost.

AEW dropped the ball on these debuts. Rohit has the ability to walk the walk and talk the talk. He could have been used more effectively to put over a young star in a quality match. With Garrini and Ku, it is a little more understandable since they aren’t well known yet. However, they could have also been used more productively against an actual tag team instead of fodder in a random 10-man. Despite that, it was still cool to see all three wrestlers show up on AEW programming.

At least Violence is Forever has an opportunity to make a positive impression in the NWA. They were announced as participants in the play-in four-way match to earn the 16th seed in the Crockett Cup tag team tournament.

Would you like to see more of Rohit Raju and Violence is Forever in AEW?