Here is your news for May 13 2020
and some headlines for today
Drew McIntyre’s NEXT Challenger Revealed!
Sting No Longer In Contract With WWE
CM PUNK Appears On WWE Backstage As Smackdown Mystery Hacker!
Former WWE Champion Turning Face!
Sami Zayn Stripped Of WWE Intercontinental Championship and MORE!
We’re starting off today by looking back at Money in the Bank, as the 12
Superstars involved in this year’s ladder match did plenty of damage to WWE’s
Headquarters in Stamford.
During Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez read a report that detailed the
destruction that the Superstars did to the building, and after looking at the data,
the damage evaluations was estimated to be between $1100 and $3500.
Though some speculated that WWE could have saved costs if the Superstars had
been more careful, possibly meaning some of those recently released could’ve
kept their jobs, the amount of damage caused was nowhere near the cost of even
one contract.
According to the report, a rowing workout machine was the most expensive item
that got destroyed in last Sunday’s main event, as the company was able to put on
a unique main event, without breaking anything too expensive.
We’re looking ahead to WWE Backlash next, as with Seth Rollins seemingly
entering a feud with Rey Mysterio, it seems that Drew McIntyre is without a
challenger for next month’s Pay Per View.
According to Dave Meltzer who spoke on Wrestling Observer Radio, the WWE may
soon be putting the Scottish World Champion against Bobby Lashley, as he said:
“They really put Lashley over strong and I got the impression from watching it that
McIntyre and Lashley is perhaps the next pay-per-view match.”
It’s no secret that Lashley has been pushed as of late, as he picked up back-to-back
wins over R-Truth and Humberto Carrillo this week, and was even approached by
MVP, who mentioned the destroyer’s last WWE Championship opportunity in
2007 whilst offering him a space in the stable.
Though Lana protested the idea, it seems Lashley is on board, as he helped MVP
beatdown R-Truth during the three-hour show.
Whether Lashley actually wins the title from McIntyre or not is a different matter,
but with Lana, MVP, and Porter’s team of Brendan Vink and Shane Thorne behind
the former ECW World Champion, the numbers are certainly stacked against the
reigning WWE Champion.
So far the only match that has even been teased for the next WWE Pay Per View is
a rematch between Edge and Randy Orton, but fans should expect McIntyre’s
opponent, whoever it may be, to be confirmed soon enough.
From Backlash to Backstage next, as this week’s show saw the return of CM Punk,
who made a joke about fans believing he is the Smack Down hacker.
Appearing on this week’s show, Punk appeared with a hoodie on and his back to
the camera, leading Renee Young to introduce him as the SmackDown hacker,
before Punk swivelled around the reveal his very recognisable face.
Everyone on the call, including Booker T and Chrisitan had a laugh about the
rumour that Punk is the hacker, though knowing wrestling fans, this joke probably
won’t stop fans from believing that the former WWE Champion is the man behind the monitors.
We’ve got some huge news from the WWE now, as Pro Wrestling Sheet has
learned that Hall of Famer Sting is no longer under contract with the company.
Though details are scarce at the moment, Sting’s exit from WWE was hinted at
during the Major Wrestling figure podcast, when it was revealed that a figure of
the WCW Icon had been pulled from the latest series, which Mattel said was due
to factors out of their control.
Though fans won’t be getting another plastic iteration of the Hall of Famer at the
moment, Post Wrestling’s sources added that this departure doesn’t mean a
merchandise deal between WWE and Sting can’t still be worked out.
It wasn’t long after Sting’s figure was pulled that Cody Rhodes made it clear he
was interested in signing the Stinger to AEW, and given that the Icon has praised
AEW’s product in the past, this certainly seems like a possibility, now he’s
reportedly no longer under a WWE contract.
SmackDown news next, as after weeks of not appearing on the blue brand, Sami
Zayn has been stripped of the Intercontinental Championship.
The news of the title being vacated was broken on WWE Backstage and later
confirmed on Twitter, and this follows reports that the company was going to
address Zayn’s absence from the blue brand on this Friday’s show.
In the same tweet, the company confirmed that a new champion will be crowned
at the end of a tournament, which will start this week on SmackDown.
It wasn’t too long ago that reports of Zayn being difficult to work with backstage,
and not showing to work, even despite the ongoing global situation, probably
didn’t help things.
It’s a shame that Zayn’s reign with the Intercontinental title had to end this way,
and hopefully the Canadian will be back in the title hunt when things go back to normal.
We’ve got news from Becky Lynch next, as following The Man’s pregnancy
announcement, we’ve got an update on when The Man discovered she’d be a mother.
During RAW, Lynch revealed that she and Seth Rollins will be expecting their first
child in December, meaning that her pregnancy started in March, before
WrestleMania 36, but told People Magazine that she didn’t know she was
pregnant until last month, and didn’t knowingly compete at the biggest show of
WWE’s calendar whilst pregnant.
Speaking on PW Insider Elite Audio, Mike Johnson addressed this timeline, saying:
“When she wrestled Shayna Baszler at WrestleMania at the WWE Performance
Center she became the first- ever WWE performer that I know of to work a
WrestleMania while pregnant.”
“It makes her a hell of a warrior, but it also might explain why that match was not
the physical war that we all expected and a physical brutal monster of a match.
Obviously, the finish there was a little safe and a little weird and that match did not
live up to what a lot of people think it should have been, but in hindsight, that
makes a lot more sense and kudos to everybody involved.”
With Lynch and Rollins expecting their child in December, it’s possible that the
now-former RAW Women’s Champion could be back in time for WrestleMania 37,
which hopefully won’t be taking place at the Performance Center.
Speaking of Lynch, WWE have been clearly excited about The Man’s big news, and
though WWE just lost a big piece of their roster, the company has been able to
turn this into cash.
Following Lynch’s pregnancy announcement, the company put out two new shirts,
both in the Style of Lynch’s The Man shirt. One reads THE MOM, whilst the other
has THE MAN, with the N blacked-out, making it THE MA.
It’ll be quite some time before fans see Lynch compete in WWE again, but at least
she got one more wave of merch on her way out, and for all those wrestling fans
who forgot Mothers Day in the U.S. was last Sunday and are now looking for an
apology gift, here’s your chance to make up for it in style.
We’re sticking with the women’s division now, as Lana may have married Bobby
Lashley on WWE TV, but it didn’t take long for the cracks to show for the not-so-
happy couple.
On RAW, MVP encouraged Lashley to align with him to chase championship gold,
an offer that Lana clearly wasn’t happy about.
On PW Insider Elite Audio, Mike Johnson said it was obviously the end of the Lana
character with WWE, and it’ll certainly be interesting to see where the Ravishing
Russian goes from here.
Under normal circumstances, Lana would presumably go back to working with her
real-life husband Rusev, but he was just released so that’s not possible.
We’ll have to see what direction Lana’s character goes from here, as we strongly
doubt the company wants her to be sat at home each Monday with her husband.
From one big change to another now, as Jinder Mahal recently returned to WWE,
and the Modern Day Maharaja may soon be undergoing a huge transformation.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer brought up Mahal’s interesting
booking as WWE, pointing out that he worked as a heel in America, but as a face
in India, though this didn’t seem to work out.
According to Meltzer, the new plan is for Mahal to be a face over in the U.S. as
well, as he said:
“Maybe they’ll do it this time around where they’ll say that we can’t have him
doing heel things while kissing up to India let’s actually have him be a babyface
this time for India. It’s an attempt. It’s something different.”
It’ll be interesting to see if WWE can pull this off, as Mahal was a very menacing
heel, and given that his title reign was more profitable than recent face-
championship reigns like Seth Rollins time with the Universal title last year, the
company has a tall order ahead of them in trying to turn one of their most
despicable heels face.
We’re sticking on RAW now, as though Austin Theory was brought up from NXT to
join Zelina Vega’s stable just before WrestleMania, it appears he may be on his way out.
During PW Inside Elite Audio, Mike Johnson mentioned that he was told Theory
was a temporary fix for the group, and given the recent tension between the
former EVOLVE Champion and Angel Garza, he may soon be out of the group.
Johnson said:
“They seem to be teasing the beginning of Austin Theory getting tossed out of the
group. When Austin Theory debuted at WrestleMania I was told he was not long for
the group. He was there basically to help cover things up in terms of what was
needed while Andrade was injured, but the long-term plan was not to keep him with
Zelina Vega and friends.”
At just 22 years old, Theory has plenty of time to make a big impression in the
WWE before he hangs up his boots, but now it looks like that big impression will
be made without Vega and her clients, by his side.
And finally today we’re looking at news concerning the new RAW Women’s
Champion, as Asuka didn’t just capture the coveted title on this week’s show, but
also made history.
On RAW, Asuka was crowned the new RAW Women’s Champion, as Becky Lynch
explained that the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match was actually for the
title, and with this win, Empress of Tomorrow is now the first and only Superstar
to win the RAW, SmackDown and NXT Women’s Championships, the Women’s tag
titles, as well as both a Money in the Bank match and a Royal Rumble match.
On WWE’s official Japan Twitter account, a translated video showed Asuka and
Kairi Sane celebrating this achievement with the new Women’s Champion
describing her win as unbelievable, whilst Sane said that people will need to start
praising her tag team partner.
It’s certainly a huge accolade fitting the Empress of Tomorrow, and with Lynch
expected to be out of the ring for the remainder of the year, it’ll be interesting to
see how the red brand fares without the Man, but the Empress of Tomorrow, now in charge.