Here's more wrestling for April 26th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Bray Wyatt was making a SHOCKING amount in WWE! Reasons why he hasn’t been signed elsewhere
Vince McMahon sees current Raw Superstar as a “new John Cena.” Big push in the works
John Cena sends massive warning to new WWE United States Champion Theory
RAW Champions set to miss next week’s go-home Raw before WrestleMania Backlash
Huge update on WWE wanting to bring back FTR! WWE Hall of Famer now involved in the plans
WWE Hall of Famers call on current female Champion to start wrestling male Superstars
Drew McIntyre compares Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE to his own comeback in 2017
Ezekiel and WWE Hall of Famer share hilarious segment at latest Raw in Knoxville
Cody Rhodes praises former WWE World Champion in post-Raw dark segment And more!
We’re kicking off with Bray Wyatt, who was released from WWE in July 2021, and given his popularity with the fans, audiences were shocked by the decision.
Recently, we reported that the former Universal Champion has a quote “very high asking price” according to Dave Meltzer, which may explain why he hasn’t wrestled anywhere since his WWE
departure. Now, we know more about Wyatt’s financial situation, as on the latest Sunday Night’s Main
Event podcast, Meltzer revealed more, saying that here are several companies who want to work with him, but can’t justify what he’s asking for
Meltzer didn’t state how much exactly Wyatt is requesting, but said that with WWE, the former Fiend was making over $4 million a year, and if his asking price is anywhere close to
this figure, then only AEW will have the resources to sign him. He went on to say that while AEW could afford him,
it would be difficult for Tony Khan to justify spending this much on one wrestler, and Meltzer himself doesn’t see Wyatt as a good fit in AEW or New Japan.
Wyatt has said he will wrestle again, and there’s plenty of fans who’d paid to see just that, but until he lowers his expectations when it comes to money, it’s likely he’ll remain a free agent.
In late 2021, Theory was brought back to WWE programming and was immediately given a huge push on Raw.
Becoming the personal protege of Mr McMahon, Theory has been sharing at lost of screen time with the boss, but this isn't just for the cameras.
According to Wrestle Votes, McMahon is genuinely excited for Theory's career, with one source claiming the WWE sees him as a "new John Cena" who will be given everything he needs to succeed.
The comparisons to Cena have already started to come out, as both men's first titles in WWE were the United States Championship, which Theory currently holds.
On this week's Raw, Theory brought his newly-won United States title to an edition of Miz TV, and we'll just have to see if he can emulate the success of the 16 time WWE World Champion.
There has been a war of words as of late between Cena and Theory, after the U.S Champion posted a sarcastic message for John’s 45th birthday.
In a tweet, Theory tweeted a happy birthday to Cena, but added that he’s already a better United States Champion than John, who held the title on five occasions.
Now, Cena has fired back with some interesting words, as he starts his tweet by saying that Theory has far more talent, strengths and gits than he ever had.
Cena then said that Theory shouldn’t be apologising to him now, but should apologise if in 20 years he hasn’t become the megastar that many people believe is in the future of the young Raw Superstar.
Adding that he hopes the day of that apology never comes, Cena laid down the challenge in a big way, and it’s now up to Theory to prove just how good he really is.
At Wrestlemania Backlash, Raw Tag Team Champions RK Bro will face Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Usos in a huge title unification match.
There's no word yet on which team WWE plans on winning, but next week's Raw will have to go ahead without the show's tag team champions.
As explained on Wrestling Observer Radio, RK Bro will be on the upcoming European Tour, but will be the only Raw Superstars on the show.
RK Bro will miss next week's Raw but will be on next week's SmackDown, which was taped last Friday.
That show will see the contract signing to make the title unification official, but the final Raw before Wrestlemania Back lash will have to go on without the show's most premier tag team.
Now, it was reportedly recently that WWE were interested in re-signing FTR, over two years after the duo were released by the company.
The former Revival have certainly gone on to become big stars post WWE, but in a recent interview, Dax Harwood said that the pair are remaining loyal to Tony Khan.
It appears Dax nor Cash Wheller will be sticking with AEW no matter what, as when Ringside News asked, they were told that WWE is not interested in bringing them back.
Not only that, but the source within WWE added that despite FTR saying they remain loyal to Tony Khan, it was actually Dax and Cash who are interested in returning, and tried to float
interest in returning to WWE through their good friend Edge. It’s well known that Edge is a friend of FTR, even name dropping their real names during his feud
with Seth Rollins, but despite the Rated-R Superstar’s best efforts, there was reportedly no interest in bringing FTR back.
While FTR have always said that they are loyal to AEW, that may not be as true as they have claimed, though with two very different sides, it’s likely we’ll never know the full story
of who wants whom.
Charlotte Flair in unquestionably WWE’s most successful female Superstar, having held more titles than any other woman in the company’s history.
A WrestleMania main event and Royal Rumble winner, Flair has seemingly done it all in WWE, leading to the question as to what’s next for her career.
On this week’s Busted Open Radio, Mark Henry discussed what Flair could do next, and after attacking Drew Gulak earlier this month, Henry said that intergender wrestling should be
be in the Queen’s future: “She has the potential to eclipse Ric if she’s allowed to wrestle men and have a run doing that
and then going back to women’s wrestling and being the ultimate heel, like, ‘I left y’all because y’all beneath me.”
This isn’t the first time a Hall of Famer has called on Flair to wrestle the men of WWE, as it wasn’t too long ago that Bully Ray said it would be great for her career.
WWE has traditionally been against intergender wrestling, with the company’s PG rating being a sticking point for violent actions between men and women, but after
dominating the women’s division, it may be time for Flair to throw down with the men.
When Cody Rhodes returned to WWE at WrestleMania 38, he did so in a major way by defeating Seth Rollins, and this is a much different Cody than the person WWE fans saw leave in 2016.
Ditching the Stardust character behind, Cody has returned with the sole purpose of becoming a World Champion, and this isn’t too different from another current Superstar.
Sitting down with Cultaholic, Drew McIntyre discussed Cody’s return to WWE, and noted the similarities between the American Nightmare and his own career:
“Much like myself, when I was gone from the company, I had to go find who I was as a performer and grew up as a man. Cody has done exactly the same and it’s cool.
I’ve seen him before he came back and was aware of that. It’s cool to see him back in WWE and I knew, even when he was outside the company, he had that chip on his
shoulder like I did and in the back of his mind, ‘when I was younger, this was supposed to happen.’
He literally did the promo, ‘I’m back to win the title my dad never won.’ I knew that was something in the back of his mind because we both had very similar experiences
with being young and promised the world, but at the same time, it fell on us and we weren’t able to finish the job and we had to go away to find ourselves to come back
to inevitably to finish that job.”
McIntyre’s release came in 2014, and despite once being touted as the Chosen One and a future WWE Champion, it wouldn’t be until 2020 that this promise came true.
Now, McIntyre is one of WWE’s top Superstars, and seems poised to feud with Roman Reigns, but we’ll have to wait and see whether Rhodes can match the Scottish Warrior’s success.
Since coming to WWE a few weeks ago, Ezekiel, has made it clear that he is not Elias, but he’s not the only Superstar with a case of mistaken identity.
Given that this week’s show was in Knoxville, Tennessee, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs appeared for a segment in which he refused to admit his darker alter ego.
When Eekiel praised Jacobs’ work as Kane, the WWE Hall of Famer refused to admit they were the same person, though did praise the Big Red Machine as one of the greatest WWE
Superstars of all time
Ezekiel didn’t seem too pleased with Jacobs refusing to admit who he is, and we can only imagine that somewhere, Kevin Owens was pulling his hair out.
While the Ezekiel character may have received backlash from fans at first, the crowd seem to be warming up to the new gimmick, and we are wondering what Mr. America, who is
definitely not Hulk Hogan, thinks to this case of mistaken identity.
And we’re ending today with more from Raw, which this week was centered around Randy Orton, who celebrated the 20th anniversary of his debut for WWE.
In the main event, Orton, Riddle, Cody Rhodes and Ezekiel defeated The Usos, Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens, but the crowd in Knoxville got an extra treat after Raw went off the air.
Speaking after Raw, Cody Rhodes took the time to praise Orton, and noted that it was the Viper who took him under his wing when Cody was just starting off with the company.
Fans may remember that Rhodes and Orton were in the same faction, legacy, from 2008-2010, and even before that, it was the Legend Killer who was Cody’s first opponent when he
debuted in July 2007. With Orton’s mentorship and tutelage, Cody has gone on to become a huge success, both in
and out of WWE, and with Rhodes now taking on a mentor role of his own for up and coming wrestlers, perhaps he will be the one to discover the next major star of the industry.