Today we’ll be taking a look at some stories involving Randy Orton, AJ Lee and CM Punk
Roman Reigns, and more
For today’s question of the day: which brand do you think has the better tag team division?
Raw or Smackdown?
Speaking of the tag team division, that brings us to the latest updates and rumors on Randy
Orton
Randy Orton’s last WWE appearance was in the middle of June
Randy Orton was set to compete the following week in a last chance triple threat match
to qualify for money in the bank, but he never appeared and Riddle ended up taking his place
And since that week there’s been very little mention of Orton and riddle is still sort
of fighting within the tag team division, but he’s obviously alone
It’s been mentioned and reported several times that whatever is the reason for this
absence from Randy Orton came out of no where and was unexpected
So when you see that it was a sudden reason why he had to go away, you can’t help but
to feel a little bit worried about what could be going on there for Orton
The reason for Orton’s absence has been sealed very tightly, there’s no reports
out there that have a single clue on what’s happening with Randy Orton, so thankfully
it’s still being kept under wraps and private
Doesn’t seem to be injury related, obviously not creative related, so a lot of fans assume
that it’s most likely a personal issue, family related issue, something along those
lines
Nothing comes before family, so if it is something along those lines, everyone completely understands,
no questions asked
Reports claim that Randy Orton is still being listed on the inactive roster for WWE
Originally it was reported that Orton wouldn’t be spending too much time on the inactive
list and that’s he would return by August third or sooner
Well he didn’t return sooner and August third is long gone, so the concern there just
continues to grow
A lot of fans expected Orton to return in Chicago to save riddle from Omos and AJ Styles,
but he didn’t show up in that spot either
Maybe there’s still time to do it if Orton returns in these next few weeks here, but
reports claim that the Summerslam plan was originally Team RK-Bro vs AJ and Omos
That’s a great high caliber tag team match right there for an event as big as Summerslam
Riddle and Orton, the two unlikely teammates, going up again AJ and Omos, the dominant champions
That seemed to be what the team of Orton and riddle was building to, their tag team story
would eventually lead them to the title picture against Styles and omos
Orton has missed well over a month of action, but if he’s still able to appear at Summerslam,
there’s a slight chance that we still get this match at Summerslam
But regardless of the time frame of Randy Orton’s WWE return, it appears that this
is the plan and they’ll pick back up with Team RK-Bro chasing their tag team titles
when they’re back together
Their future as a tag team will also be very intriguing to keep an eye on
Everyone knows that Randy Orton usually disposes tag team partners faster than anyone else,
so that’s sort of the obvious route here.
Everyone expects to be his usual self and turn on riddle eventually
But other fans have discussed the possibility of riddle being the one to turn on Orton,
that’ll be a real unexpected surprise right there
So we’ll have to see how that story unfolds there for riddle and Orton
—-
CM Punk and AJ Lee took to social media this week to share new pictures and videos from
their trip to the beach
AJ posted some pictures of herself at the beach, she posted a picture of their shadows
at the beach, and even videos of the water as well
So it’s just nice to see them out and about like this just enjoying themselves
If you follow Punk and AJ’s careers right now then you already know that it seems like
they never have any free time
AJ is always busy, Punk says that she is always in the room writing.
AJ continues to rise up the ranks as a writer.
She made multiple list honoring her writing and story telling abilities.
DC comics just picked her up for that Wonder Woman series and it’s even being reported
that she’s still working on a film script as well
CM Punk, on the other hand, has been doing MMA, acting, and of course now prepping for
a wrestling return
So as you can see, free time may be hard to come by with schedules like these
CM Punk’s alleged AEW debut is getting closer and closer as well
AEW rampage debuts this Friday and then August 20th on the second edition of the show, that’s
when CM Punk is rumored to appear
So what do we know about rampage so far?
It will be on Friday’s but won’t be competing with WWE Smackdown, Rampage will start at
10 pm eastern, so fans of both shows won’t have to worry about switching back and forth,
one starts when the other ends so that takes care of that
It will only be an hour long and will serve as AEW’s third weekly hour of programming
Between Raw, NXT, and Smackdown, WWE has 7 hours of weekly television programming
AEW has only had 2 hours of weekly programming since they came onto air, which of course
isn’t enough if you’re a big fan of their programming
So Rampage will give AEW that extra hour of weekly programming
And if you’re a fan of both Smackdown and Rampage, it works out perfectly because Smackdown
ends and you flip over to rampage for an extra hour of content, so that’s another plus
there for wrestling fans
Its also a really smart move to have this big debut of CM Punk on your new show rather
than ordinary dynamite because fans will be forced to tune into the new show for CM Punk,
so it’s a good move
But we’ll have to see how things play out there.
Will CM Punk actually appear on August 20th?
We’ll have to see
——
Like we’ve discussed many times this year, it feels like everyone is almost becoming
numb to mass WWE releases because we see them on an almost daily Basis now
WWE has released what feels like a large percentage of their talent over these last few months
A complete one eighty compared to how things were in 2019
After Moxley left and AEW debuted, it seemed like they didn’t wanna let a single soul
out of their locker-room to go help AEW, so they didn’t release anyone for a long time
there
The only way out back then seemed to be waiting out your contract
But fast forward 2 years later and they are just launching talent out the backdoor right
into AEW’s hands, they completely stopped caring about talent going over there
And like we heard Vince McMahon say on WWE’s earning call, he said that he’s ready to
give AEW even more talent if they want it
Fast forward just a few days after those comments from Vince and Bray Wyatt was released
So it has turned into such a weird and strange time where it feels like no one’s job is
safe
Reports claim that top of the mountain guys like Roman Reigns are fully safe
But all of the top guys aren’t exactly safe.
Doesn’t mean anything if you’re a former world champion or main eventer, you can be
gone
Just look at the two superstars who headlined last year’s Summerslam event for the universal
title, Bray and Braun, they’re no longer with the company just one year later
It really just feels like a horror movie at this point, you don’t know who’s gonna
get picked off next
Mark Henry talked about the constant releases on his podcast and said that he wonders if
this will affect talent that’s on the verge of resigning with WWE
Do they still resign with WWE and risk waking up one day to be randomly released and jobless
or do you look for some extra job security with a different landing spot in other wrestling
organization?
That’s just a really great point there by mark Henry.
Someone is probably about to sign an extension with WWE and if you don’t have a no-cut
clause in that contract, you can be released any day no matter how long that extension
was for
Your contract can just be voided randomly, so that it’s a bit scary when you think
of it like that, so it does make you wonder if talent will take that into consideration
when resigning
Talent like Adam Cole will have a big decision to make in the coming weeks here
But what are your thoughts on today’s stories?
Leave your comments, don’t forget to subscribe, and leave a like if you enjoyed!
Thanks for watching guys!