Note on Penelope Ford Following Injury on Last Night’s AEW Dynamite

As previously reported, Penelope Ford suffered a legitimate injury during the Women’s World Tag Team Title match on last night’s edition of AEW Dynamite. The match saw the Babes of Wrath (Willow Nightingale and Harley Cameron) defend their titles against Megan Bayne and Ford, aka MegaBad. During the match, Ford appeared to be hurt when attempting a top rope moonsault on Nightingale and Cameron, who were on the floor outside the ring.

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez spoke about the matter on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio. Alvarez said he hadn’t heard anything about Ford “other than her ankle was badly injured.” Melter noted that while he hasn’t heard an update yet on Ford’s condition, he did get a message from someone within AEW regarding Ford.

Meltzer stated about Penelope Ford, “I did get a message, and the message was essentially that, you know, they’re hoping for the best. It wasn’t like — there’s nothing definitive, but it wasn’t like [Tomohiro] Ishii.”

Earlier on the show, Meltzer commented on the Moonsault where Ford suffered the injury, addressing criticism of Nightingale and Cameron on social media for not “catching” Ford to break her fall. Meltzer stated, “A lot of people who do that move come from a gymnastics background, and in gymnastics, you’re taught to land your feet. In pro wrestling, you’re supposed to not land on your feet. You’re supposed to have the fall broken by the person who catches you.”

Meltzer took note of how more wrestlers are now trying to land on their feet when executing a Moonsault off the top of the ring post to the floor. He added, “But a lot of the women, and we’ve seen several get hurt — and there are guys now too who are doing a lot more landing on their feet.”

Alvarez also commented, explaining, “There are two ways to do the Moonsault. You either have to lay out and basically go down horizontally and hope people catch you, or you have to do the backflip, land on your feet, and everyone else just falls down.” He continued, “And that’s the way most people do it nowadays, I think, because they think it’s safer, but it’s not.”

Additionally, Alvarez said that Ford’s Moonsault “was not designed to be caught because she was going to land on her feet.” He elaborated, “I’ve seen people blame everybody else that’s in the match, but that’s not a Moonsault designed to be caught unless you want to be kicked right to the face because she’s rotating to land on her feet. So the point is, doing a Mooonsault off the post to the floor, at some point, you’re going to be hurt.”

It was later reported by Fightful Select that AEW had to call an audible and change the finish of the match during the middle of it due to Ford’s injury. It’s unclear how extensive the change was or who was originally set to win the match.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit Wrestling Observer Radio, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.