Here's your wrestling News for December 15th 2021
And Your's Headlines for today Include
Jeff Hardy Makes Public Appearance Following WWE Release. Reveals Future Plans!
When Did WWE Decide To Cancel Huge RAW Tag Match?
Real Reason For RAW Match Being Cancelled Explained !
Current WWE Superstar Bashes Company For Stealing Released Wrestler’s Gimmick!
Sonya Deville Speaks On Summerslam 2020 And The Hair Vs. Hair Match That Never Happened !
Former Universal Champion Teases Stable With Recently Released WWE Superstar !
NXT 2.0 Sees Masterclass Performance For New Top Heel Of The Show.!
Liv Morgan Injured Following Attack On RAW !
Former Universal Champion Says RAW Spot This Week “Absolutely Destroyed” Him !
AEW Wrestler Out With Injury. When Will They Be Back In The Ring? And More !
We’re starting today with Jeff Hardy, who was released last week after a concerning appearance at a Live event.
Plenty has been said about Hardy’s final week with WWE, in which he fled into the crowd during a tag-match
and didn’t return, and refused rehab when it was offered by WWE, saying that he didn’t see any reason to go.
Now, Jeff has made his first appearance since being released, appearing on Matt Facts, a show
his brother Matt runs on Twitch that he has uploaded to YouTube.
In the video, Matt speculates on Jeff becoming a regular on the show, possibly showing off some of his art,
before Jeff promotes some of the dates for his upcoming concert/meet and greet tour,
which’ll kick off tomorrow at the Miramar Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Jeff, who looked to be doing well, said he Is “super excited” to meet some people and sing some original music.
Although fans are hoping to see Jeff in AEW with his brother, that can’t happen until his 90-day non-compete
clause expires in March 2022, but it’s good to see Jeff seems to be doing so much better after his Live event appearance.
Ahead of this week's RAW, a match between the Mysterios and the Street Profits was booked, in which the
winners would become the number one contenders for the RAW Tag Team Championships.
That match never happened and the RK Bro-namemt finals will have to wait for another show,
but this is something WWE had known well in advance.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that the company knew the match was off
by last Saturday, but the company was slow to inform everyone.
It’s been announced that the match will instead happen on the December 27th RAW, and with Riddle losing to Otis on RAW
it appears a brief feud between RK-Bro and Alpha Academy will tide the champs over
until they face whoever ends up the number one contenders.
Before RAW, WWE announced that the tournament finals were postponed due to injuries suffered on both teams,
but didn’t go into any detail what kind of injuries these are. On his show, Dave Meltzer
went into greater detail, saying that “something is up” with Montez Ford,
but that’s the only person he knows who couldn’t compete.
Meltzer added that he doesn’t know if it is Rey or Dominik who’s hurting, and it’s always possible
that this was just a line WWE used to cover for Ford’s very real injury. Whatever the truth may be,
we’re wishing a speedy recovery for Montez Ford, and whoever is injured on team Mysterio,
after what would’ve been a fantastic match was called off this week. RAW didn’t see The Mysterios face the Street Profits,
but it did see Austin Theory who’s been hard to miss, especially now he's sharing screen time with Mr McMahon.
After beating opponents in the ring, Theory often celebrates with a post match selfie, but it's not just his beaten
opponents who don't appreciate these candid photos. After sharing a selfie with Finn Balor this week, Smackdown's Bayley lashed
out at Theory, accusing him of stealing Tyler Breeze's gimmick. Saying there's only one Prince Pretty
fans were surprised to see Bayley reference Breeze, as WWE typically avoid mentioning any of their released talent.
Before his departure in 202xx, Breeze's vein character loved taking selfies, and now this gimmick is
being recycled, much to the chagrin of the former Smackdown Women's Champion.
At Summerslam 2020, a Hair Vs Hair match was booked between Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose,
before the stipulation was changed under awful circumstances. After Deville narrowly avoided a kidnap attempt
by a crazed fan, the stipulation was changed to a ‘Loser Leaves WWE’ match,
which gave Deville plenty of time to deal with what had happened to her.
Returning to TV with her hair intact on New Years Day this year, Deville has been WWE’s latest authority figure, and
discussed the hair vs hair match that never was when she spoke to Alex McCarthy of TalkSport.
When asked if she was really willing to lose her hair, Deville joked that “you never know” what could happen, and added:
It was creative’s idea. We needed a big, epic conclusion to this great story and that would have been it.
But, ya know, life happens and things had to changeBoth Deville and Rose were called as part of Absolution with Paige,
and the former MMA fighter recalled their debut, saying Vince McMahon was excited for
the group, proclaiming “this is going to work” backstage.
The plans for Absolution and the Hair Vs Hair match didn’t happen because of real-life
circumstances, but that hasn’t stopped Deville from making an impact in her own way.
In June this year, Braun Strowman was released by WWE, making his last match with the company a
WWE Title triple threat match at WrestleMania-Backlash.Coming just one year after a Universal title run
that saw him defeat Goldberg, Strowman was a surprising release, and the Monster Among Men
has re-emerged as the Titan, appearing at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle Pay Per View alongside EC3.
It’s no secret that the pair are close, but on Instagram, Strowman teased adding another huge former WWE name to their growing group.
In a picture, Strowman can be seen alongside EC3 and Karrion Kross, who was shockingly released from WWE last month
despite an impressive run in NXT, and finally finding his footing on RAW.
The caption said that “time will tell,” and having the two time former NXT Champion on their side would certainly be a big win for Strowman at EC3.
At Final Battle, the pair also aligned with Westin Blake, formerly Wesley Blake in WWE, and time will indeed tell what the future holds for this stable of
ex-Superstars, who could soon be aligned with Karrion Kross.
If Kross does join the group, they will have to find work outside Ring of Honor, who have gone on hiatus for the time being while they reshape the company.
This has left plenty of big names as free agents, including the Briscoes, who could show up in AW soon enough.
At Final Battle, the pair had a moment with AEW’s FTR, and after plenty of speculation by fans, Dem Boys could be All-Elite soon enough.
On social media, Jay and Mark uploaded a video, telling Tony Khan that they want him to send tickets to the next AEW event.
They also invited Khan to gas up his private jet and park it in their cornfield, and said they just need to know when and where they need to be to fight FTR.
Signing the Briscoes would be just another huge win for AEW, and with tonight’s Dynamite being the Winter is Coming special, Jay and Mark could be
appearing far sooner than anyone expected.
Back to WWE, and this week’s NXT 2.0 was the first show since the departure of Johnny Gargano, who was last seen being attacked by Grayson Waller.
Gargano isn’t around anymore, but in his last act, the former NXT Champion put Waller over in a major way, as seen on last night’s show.
Every single person Waller interacted with either walked away or reacted negatively, as he’s become the most hated heel on the brand in very short time.
Bron Breakker made it clear that Waller isn’t welcome in the NXT 2.0 locker-room, and it wasn’t just the Superstars who despise him.
This emotion was shared by the crowd, and Waller did himself no favours if he was trying to win people over when he took aim at the commentators.
Mocking Vic Joseph for being Gargano’s best friend, Waller said he doesn’t take Wade Barrett’s advice because it isn’t 2010, a reference to Barrett’s days
leading the Nexus. Fan were quick to speculate on an in-ring return for the former Intercontinental Champion after this
line, hopefully to shut Waller up with a Bullhammer elbow. That remains to be seen, but what we do know is
this run as a mega-heel has got off to a fantastic start for Waller, who had the last laugh, attacking LA Knight and stealing the date in
a masterclass performance.
Over to RAW, and on this week’s show, Liv Morgan was granted a rematch against RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch for the Day 1 Pay Per View,
but only after an attack from The Man.
During that attack, Lynch threw her challenger into the steep steps, and now the young Superstar is reportedly injured.
On RAW Talk, it was noted that Morgan has a deep bone bruise, as well as a strained radial collateral ligament in her left arm.
These reports are often for kayfabe purposes, but sometimes the WWE announces real injuries in this matter, and whatever the case, fans should still
expect the rematch between Morgan and Lynch on January 1st next year.
Liv Morgan isn’t the only one feeling worse for wear after this week’s RAW, as Kevin Owens took a nasty bump that hurt the former Universal Champion.
During his match with Bobby Lashley, Owens attempted a running somersault plancha, one that the Almighty easily avoided, but Owens hit the
the ground. On Twttier, the Prizefighter called the spot one of the most painful moments of his career saying
that it “absolutely destroyed” him. Like Lashley, Owens was a late addition to the WWE Championship match at Day 1, and it’s believed
that his inclusion was made because he’ll be taking the pin ahead of his contract expiring at the end of January.
Now, the originally planned title match between Big E and Seth Rollins will be Big E Vs. Rollins Vs. Lashley Vs. Owens, but the Canadian will be hoping to
avoid missing any running somersault plancha’s on January 1st.
And we’re ending today with AEW’s Marq Quen, who is also dealing with an injury.
That’s according to Fightful, who report that Quen is on the sidelines, but didn’t disclose the nature of the injury.
Quen hasn’t wrestled since NEW’s Better than You event at October 12th, where he teamed with Matt Hardy and Isiah Kassidy for a six-man
win over Channing Thomas, Tommy Grayson and JP Grayson. In AEW, his last match was on the October 111th
edition of Dark where Private Party teamed with The Butcher and The Blade for an eight-man loss to Brock Anderson, Lee Johnson,
Chuck Taylor and Wheeler Yuta. This is just the latest injury for the Hardy family office, after the Butcher suffered a biceps injury
last month, and with no information on what kind of injury his suffered, there’s no word on when Quen will be able to get back in the ring.