Hello and welcome to the WrestleTalk News - I’m Oli Davis.
Despite embracing his Rusev Day comedy act with Aiden English at the start of the year,
The Bulgarian Brute effectively shifted into serious mode for his WWE Championship match
against AJ Styles at Extreme Rules last week.
Continuing that move away from SmackDown’s fun midcard, Rusev has now debuted his new
serious gimmick on Instagram: Him dressed up as a literal clown posing with
his wife Lana, with the caption: IT or Krusty?
Don’t let Vince see that, it’ll give him ideas.
Speaking of joke acts in wrestling…
...Brock Lesnar’s invisibility gimmick on Raw has just taken an interesting new turn.
Lesnar hasn’t appeared on WWE TV since he totally retained his Universal Title at the
27th April’s Greatest Royal Rumble, making it 87 days since the promotion’s top champion
last showed up.
But that’s not to say he hasn’t been busy.
He’s just gotten confused and started turning up for the wrong company…
On July 7th’s UFC 226 show, Lesnar hopped in the Octagon following the main event to
challenge new UFC Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier.
It came out the following day that Lesnar had started the re-entry process into USADA
drug-testing pool - a prerequisite for fighting again in the UFC.
In typical Lesnar style, though, he likely won’t show up there for several more months.
His last run saw his UFC 200 victory over Mark Hunt - not a swearword, that’s his
name - be overturned because of a drug test failure.
Brock was suspended for a year, of which he still has about six months left to serve.
That remaining time has now started ticking down, though, with USADA’s database revealing
Lesnar submitted his first test sample on Friday 20th July - meaning his rumoured superfight
against Cormier is on track for early next year.
WWE might want Brock back by April, though, as WrestleMania 35 weekend could potentially
be not just a pivotal moment for the promotion, but for the entire wrestling world…
...as F4WOnline is reporting Ring of Honor have reached out to CM Punk for a wrestling
return at their big Madison Square Garden show on the 6th April.
After years of building frustration, WWE’s spiritual home MSG reportedly finally had
enough of Vince McMahon running his big events at the Barclays Center down the road.
Despite only ever holding WWE wrestling shows at the venue, the Garden opened talks with
ROH and AAA.
But one call from WWE to MSG apparently scuppered the plans - with Ring of Honor COO Joe Koff
revealing the Garden cancelled their date.
Always up for no-selling not just wrestling moves, but business ones too, New Japan got
involved - and, likely much more significantly, ROH’s big money owners Sinclair - and now
the show is back on for WrestleMania weekend.
“ROH and MSG reached an agreement to drop legal action in exchange for getting their
date back.
The description was that MSG had no intentions of taking a lawsuit bullet for WWE.”
And now ROH have their date, they need to make their April 6th show a must-see, especially
with it going against the WrestleMania weekend NXT TakeOver show the same night.
And according to F4WOnline, “ROH has had interest in C.M.
Punk returning, presumably for the MSG show, but we're told that is a long shot.
But feelers have been sent.”
Punk was recently seen winning in court against WWE Doctor Chris Amann, so he could potentially
want some more sweet, sweet revenge on his former employer.
On the other hand, though, Punk said rather definitively that he was “done” with professional
wrestling following his UFC 225 loss last month.
So you’re telling me there’s a chance!
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I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.