Here's More wrestling news for May 5th 2021
And your headlines for today include
WWE Only Has One Match Booked For Throwback SmackDown So Far!
WWE Cancelled Braun Strowman Universal Title Run At The Last Minute!
WWE Working On A New Nexus Project!
Latest on Tessa Blanchard signing with WWE or AEW – Reports!
WWE Wrestler Reveals Why Triple H Buried Him In WWE!
Daniel Bryan’s WWE Contract Reportedly Expired!
WWE Veteran Recalls Incident Where WCW Played Mind Games With Vince McMahon!
Former WWE Star Got In Trouble For Letting Randy Orton Sleep In Her Hotel Room! And More
We’re kicking off today with SmackDown and this Friday’s show will be a Throwback edition of the blue brand, but what that means remains
a mystery. We previously reported that WWE’s creative team have been kept in the dark about the
show, being promised that they’ll be told more about the show later this week. What we do know is that Seth Rollins will face
Cesaro in a WrestleMania 37 rematch, but according to the latest reports, that’s the only match booked for the show so far.
This explains why all the promotional videos for Throwback SmackDown during RAW focussed on the Rollins-Cesaro match, and whilst we’re
sure more matches will happen this Friday, for now Throwback SmackDown remains a mystery to everyone involved.
At Wrestlemania-Backlash, Braun Strowman will look to become WWE Champion, which if successful, will be his second world title.
Last year, Strowman was finally crowned Universal Champion, after years of stop-start pushes.
After Roman Reigns was forced to relinquish the title in 2018, fans expected that Strowman would be next, and according to Former WWE
writer Kazeem Famuyide, that's exactly what was meant to happen, as he told the Say Less podcast:
Braun was supposed to beat Brock... we had a whole Monday Night Raw written with Braun Strowman as champion and then sike,
Brock Lesnar wins and then as soon as Brock wins, we all had to go back into the office, rewrite the whole show and I just thought it was
some sh*t where it’s just like oh, they’re just kind of keeping us on the down low.
Though Strowman eventually won the title in 2020, that win only came after Reigns chose to take a hiatus, and to many fans, this win
was too little too late for the Monster Among Men.
In 2010, WWE debuted one of it’s most interesting stables, the Nexus, comprised of NXT rookies, who weren’t ready to wait
around for their moment on the main-roster to come. For the next year, the Nexus dominated
RAW before quietly fizzling out in 2011, but fans will now get a behind the scenes look of the Wade Barrett-led stable.
On Twitter New Japan and NWA star Fred Rosser (aka Darren Young) revealed that a WWE Network documentary is in the works
about the Nexus, and has been interviewed for the doc. Young even had his old Nexus armband for
the filming, and it’ll be interesting what he, and other Nexus alumni have to say when the Untold documentary is released.
One person who knows all about shaking things up is Tessa Blanchard, but it seems some of the claims made about the former
Impact World Champion have been greatly exaggerated.
It wasn’t too long ago that reports came out saying that she and her husband Daga were deep in negotiations to sign with AEW, with the
signing being described as a “formality.” This week, PW Insider’s Mike Johnson said that not only is Blanchard not set to debut in
AEW, but there haven’t been ANY discussions in the company about her joining, nor have any contracts been offered.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful confirmed this with his sources in AEW, saying that for now, the idea of the company signing Blanchard is a “firm no.”
That doesn’t mean fans should expect her in NXT, as despite rumours that she’s part of the gold brand’s new ‘Diamond Mine’ due to the
diamonds used in her attire and entrance, that isn’t the case either according to Sapp. Where Blanchard goes next remains to be seen,
but for now, we know that it won’t be in AEW or WWE, despite what some rumour reports would have you believe.
What fans can see in NXT is Franky Monet, who debuted a month ago, but she hasn’t done all-too-much in terms of a story.
Instead, Monet has romanced around the place with her dog, confronting women on the roster, and whilst she’s quickly become a
fixture of the show, this exercise has gotten repetitive. When she debuted, interrupting new NXT
Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez, fans thought a programme was in the works, but that didn’t happen.
Confronting Io Shirai the next week and Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart the week after, Monet is meeting big names, but just isn’t doing
anything with them. This week’s appearance was even less consequential, as she gave Kayden Carter
and Kacy Catanzaro some encouragement, whilst her dog seemingly spoiled Blackhearts tank.
It’s great that she’s getting TV time, as many new names struggle to get just that, but Monet needs these appearances to actually build to
something down the line.
As we know, NXT is overseen by Triple H, who has done a lot in his career, and that includes getting on the wrong side of Triple H.
When the original Sin Cara joined WWE in 2011, he was seen as one of the Game’s first big signings, though his career didn’t live up to the
lofty expectations set on him.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet this week, the second Sin Cara, Hunico, discussed Triple H, saying:
“He hires big Kharma and then she had to leave the company, I don’t know the reasons. And then this is the biggest signing that he had from
Mexico [the Original Sin Cara] comes in and he doesn’t do anything. So, in the eyes of Vince I think it was harder for Hunter to think,
Oh no, I failed twice now!'” Hunico added that by the time he donned the Sin Cara name full-time, the character wasn’t
project of the Game anymore, saying that he never got any support from Triple H.
Hunico also alleged that The Game wasn’t a fan of him, because if he was successful, then it’d mean that Triple H had been wrong
about the original hiring. When asked if he thought the Game affected his push in WWE, Hunico said “big time,”
and who knows what Hunico could’ve done in WWE if things had gone differently.
Daniel Bryan knows a thing or two about doing big things in WWE, but his last match saw him lose to Roman Reigns, which means
he’s now banished from SmackDown. Following this loss, Bryan was moved to WWE.com’s alumni section, and it seems
this loss may be more real than fans first believed.
Fightful Select reports that Bryan’s contract with WWE expired last week, following his loss to Roman Reigns.
Their report also noted that it’s possible Bryan signed a new deal, as high-level sources haven’t heard about his contract
expiring, but that may be down to the former WWE Champion keeping quiet about his contract.
In the past, it was reported that Bryan’s contract was set to expire in September 2021, a date refuted by Bryan himself,
and now we know that the actual date his contract ended was this month. There was no reported farewells backstage
during SmackDown, adding to the idea that he’s signed a new deal in secret, but given Bryan has expressed a desire to work both
in WWE and in other promotions, not being under an official WWE contract may be the best thing for him.
Bryan debuted in WWE in February 2010, and has been a consistent name in the company ever since, but now Bryan’s future in the company
has never been more unclear.
More from NXT, and the third-ever NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions have ben crowed.
It was an intense Street Fight which pitted Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon against Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae, and it was
The Way who picked up the win, becoming the new tag team champions The new champions won the gold without any
interference from Johnny Gargano, Austin Theory or even Dexter Lumis, and time will tell how this title reign goes now that the Way
has even more championship in their collection.
Holding North American and NXT Women’s tag titles, The Way is a dominant force in NXT, and may
soon be adding the NXT Championship to their collection. During the show, Karrion Kross spoke
about his title reign, before being interrupted by Kyle O’Reilly, and the pair were later interrupted by Pete Dunne.
Finn Balor also marked his return to NXT, and whilst the three attacked Kross, the NXT Champion fought them off with ease, sending
all three to the floor, When Johnny Gargano and Austin Theory, Cross nearly finished off the pair too, but a
series of superkicks eventually downed the fighting Champion.
It’s clear that Kross has a long-list of challengers for his NXT Title, and we’re interested to see who exactly will get that title shot at the next TakeOver
event.
Now, during the Monday Night Wars, WCW and the WWF were in a cut-throat ratings battle, and neither side was afraid to fight Dirty.
It’s no secret that the WWF sent DX to a WCW show to bury the competition in April 1998, whilst WCW would often give away the
results of pre-taped RAW events, but perhaps the dirtiest tactic happened off air.
In a recent interview with Lucha Libre Online, former WWE referee Mike Chioda spoke of some serious mind-games WCW played, saying:
I remember stopping off at the WWE office in Connecticut… we had to go there and there was a WCW billboard that was built right in
Stamford, Connecticut. If you opened Vince’s curtain, that’s when you’d see the billboard! They put that there on purpose! It was like,
holy s***, I can’t believe it! Chioda added that he believes the DX Invasion of WCW was done as payback for
the billboard, and although Vince McMahon wasn’t happy about the advertisement, he’d ultimately have the last laugh in the Monday
Night Wars.
Over to AEW now, and whilst there’s already a World title, secondary title, Women’s title and Tag titles, the company has plans for more
gold. In the past, it’s been reported that AEW was meant to introduce trios titles, which was
promised by Kenny Omega, but fans will have to wait longer until 6-man tag-team matches have gold on the line.
Speaking to the Battleground podcast, the Inner Circle’s Ortiz addressed the rumoured trios titles, and wants them to happen, saying:
There are a ton of people on the roster and to have a belt like that or a tournament or whatever they decide to do with it — it would be
beneficial to get the spotlight on guys that haven’t had the opportunities. In the past, Kenny Omega said that the next
Chris Jericho cruise will most likely feature the introduction of those new title belts, but given the ongoing situation, whenever that
cruise and title reveal happens remains to be seen.
Back to WWE, and recently, former WWE Diva Dawn Marie spoke to D-Von Dudley on his podcast about her career, which had it’s
shares of ups and downs. During the show, Marie spoke about her time on the road, where she almost got in a
lot of trouble after she looked after a young rookie by the name of Randy Orton. As the story goes, Orton was new on the
road and hadn’t booked a hotel room, though Marie did admit there’s a chance he lied to get in her room, she added:
“I was like, ‘Randy, okay, fine. You can sleep on the chair in my room!’ And I was like, ‘If you come anywhere near my bed, I swear to
God I’m gonna kill you.’ It seems that this was against WWE’s rules at the time, as Marie said she could’ve been fired
had someone told management she was allowing Orton to share her room. Marie also mentioned that now that he’s
doing much better, that Orton has paid her back for her trouble, and we doubt the Viper ever has to worry about not being able to
to afford a room of his own.
And we’re ending today with news from WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett, who recently did a Q&A on his brand-new Facebook page,
and one answer in particular got fans talking. When one fan asked Double-J what’s going in with Global Force Wrestling, Jarrett replied with
“stay tuned,” fueling speculation over his own promotion.
Jarrett found GFW in 2014, and entered agreements with promotions such as AAA and New Japan, and even co-promoted Wrestle
Kingdom 9 in 2015. Despite early promise, including taping their own show GFW Amped in Las Vegas, and an
invasion with Impact Wrestling, the promotion has since fizzled out, at least for the time- being.
When asked about who he’d love to feud with from the current product, Jarrett was quick to say Elias, and although a feud longer than
what fans saw in 2019 would be great, it seems Jarrett may not have given up on GFW just yet
Do you think GFW could survive against the likes of WWE, AEW, ROH and New Japan? Let us know in the comments.