Here's your Wrestling News for October 9th 2020 Top 15 Stars Missing From WWE Draft! WWE And Matt Riddle Sued! Elijah Burke On Chris Benoit WWE News
And your headlines for today include
More Than 15 Notable WWE Superstars Missing From 2020 WWE Draft Pool ; Rules For The Draft
Revealed !
Samoa Joe Confirms He’s NOT Done In The Ring!
Matt Riddle, WWE & More Sued For $10 Million EACH By Candy Cartwright; WWE Reacts!
Yet Another WWE Wrestler Is Out Of Action With Broken Nose!
Chris Benoit's Final WWE Opponent Elijah Burke Reveals What He Told Him In The Ring!
AEW Gives As Illogical Reason About Their Talent Socializing With WWE Superstars!
Bobby Lashley Finally Reveals Why He Agreed To Do The Storyline With Lana On WWE Raw And More!
We’re kicking off today with the 2020 WWE draft, and whilst over 60 Superstars will be involved,
there are some notable exceptions. The 2020 draft will start on tonight’s SmackDown and conclude on next
Monday’s RAW, though there are some big names missing, such as:
•John Cena hasn’t been around since WrestleMania, and he wasn’t included in last year’s Draft.
•Becky Lynch is currently out of action as she’s pregnant and due in December.
•Goldberg wasn’t included in the WWE Draft this year, but does have more years on his contract.
•The Big Show wasn’t in last year’s Draft either, and last appeared on RAW.
•Edge is out with his triceps injury.
•Samoa Joe is on commentary and currently on RAW.
•The Forgotten Sons haven’t been on television since Jaxson Ryker’s unfortunate social-media actions that
nobody has forgotten about.
•Sonya Deville lost a loser-leaves- WWE match at SummerSlam so they’re still playing that up.
•Jinder Mahal is out with an injury.
•Bo Dallas hasn’t been around since December 2019, and didn’t return at TakeOver 31.
•The Singh Bros have been stuck in Canada since the pandemic started. Robert Roode recently returned,
but the Singhs have not.
•Mojo Rawley was just left off for some reason, though it’s unclear why.
•Jimmy Uso‘s knee is injured so he was left off, but Jey Uso was on the list.
•Ivar was out of the pool as well, and though his partner Erik is also injured, he’s in the draft.
It’s notable that NXT was left off the draft, though stars of RAW Underground and Dabba-Kato and
Arturo Ruas are in the pool. Even without some huge names, the landscape of WWE is about to
change dramatically, and it’ll be interesting to see who goes wear in just a few hours.
More draft news next, as thanks to a report from Fox Sports, we now have an idea what the rules will be.
As part of the 60+ Superstars included, Tag Teams have also been placed in the draft, though teams can
be split-up. As RAW is a three-hour show, the red brand will get three picks to
SmackDown’s two, with RAW ending with over 30 picks, whilst SmackDown will get 20.
Teams will count as one pick unless they’re split, and any Superstars undrafted at the end of next
Monday’s RAW will be declared a free agent, and be able to sign with either brand.
It’s clear that things are going to be very different this time next week, thanks to the 2020 WWE Draft.
One person not in the pool is Samoa Joe, as he suffered a concussion that has kept him from the Ring.
While speaking to the Wilde On podcast Joe spoke about his current medical status, and said his current
commentary role has been a fun challenge. He added: “Obviously, I’m not done in the ring
by no means. I think right now I’m exploring things. Aside from that, I’m doing voice acting which is fun and
very cool. It’s a very enjoyable thing. I have a project coming up with Warner Brothers. I’m very fortunate
and I’m very happy that I’m doing the things I’m doing right now.”
Both in and out of the ring, Joe has been a valuable asset to WWE, and whilst fans would love to see
him back in the ring, it’s no secret that WWE doesn’t comment on concussion matters.
Over to SmackDown next as after Matt Riddle filed a lawsuit against the woman who claimed he acted
appropriately with her, Samantha Tavel has fired back. Recent court filings reveal that Tavel,
aka indie wrestler Candy Cartwright, has filed a lawsuit against Riddle, WWE, Gabe Sapolsky and EVOLVE,
with the assistance of the Circuit Court of Cook Country, Illinois. Tavel is seeking $10million from
each defendant, and is claiming actual damages, emotional distress, punitive damages, attorney’s fees
and other costs related to the case. The lawsuit alleges that Riddle forced himself on Tavel in
April 2017 after an Evolve show, and claims that Riddle bragged about his parking-lot escapades to Evolve
owner Sapolsky and two others from WWE who quote “tactically approved” of his actions.
The lawsuit also addresses May 19th, 2018, where Riddle alledgedly forced Tavel to perform actions for him by
crushing her windpipe, and claims that this was done in front of other EVOLVE wrestlers, while there were
on a bus leaving Summit, Illinois, where EVOLVE 104 happened. EVOLVE had a quote “misogynistic
culture,” according to the suit, which was alledgedly created by those she’s suing, and it’s also stated that WWE
has condoned toxic misogyny for 30 years. In January this year, Riddle alledgedly
forced her to sleep with him once again, under the threat that she’d lose bookings with both WWE and
EVOLVE, and when she refused, he alledlgedly told WWE, and both they and Evolve stopped booking her,
claiming that she had “issues with talent.” Riddle has defended himself in a
videos statement, denying he ever did anything illegal, but said he had an affair with Tavel.
In a statement from WWE, the company denied they were being sued saying:
“WWE has not been served with a lawsuit by Ms. Tavel. However, if served, we will vigorously defend
ourselves and contest it.” This is a huge case that could have huge ramifications for WWE, Evolve
and esepially Riddle if the court finds in Tavel’s favour, and we’ll keep you viewers up-to-date as both Tavel’s
case against Riddle, and his against her, proceed.
Back to the ring now, and Mickie James returned to the ring recently after being gone far too long,
but now she’s back on the shelf again. On a recent episode of Grown Ass Women, Mickie confirmed she’s
broken her nose, meaning she won’t wrestle for a couple weeks, which is thankfully, far shorter than her last
absence from TV. Even so, this is not the kind of speedbump she needs right now,
and hopefully WWE have a place for her as part of the draft when she’s ready to return.
Speaking of injuries, Ridge Holland’s ankle buckled on this week’s NXT, and now we know what’ll happen
with the former Rugby star. Yesterday, Holland had surgery to repair a left-ankle dislocation and
fracture, and his right knee patellar was also dislocated, and he also had a patellar tendon rupture
as well, so with three injuries, it could be quite some time before he’s back.
Lastly, Dakota Kai is also hut, as she’s dealing with back and neck pain as a result of her tag-team
match against Ember Moon and Rhea Ripley, and we’ll have to see what her condition in in the upcoming weeks.
Now, Chris Benoit’s last match happened against Elijah Burke in 2007, and took place on the Jun 19th
edition of ECW, just five days before Benoit’s death. Now, Burke has spoken about what
would go on to become a historic match for the wrong reasons, as while speaking to Wrestling Epicenter,
the former Superstar spoke about Benoit’s behaviour in the match. He said:
One thing Chris was big on, and hindsight is 20/20 on this if I could say, ‘oh, that kind of makes sense’,
is just the fact that he said, ‘talk to me out there. I might forget.’ So, after everything that happened, when it
came back that he had like the brain of an 80-year-old with Alzheimer’s. That was like, ‘hmm, that is interesting’.
In this business, I was always taught that we should communicate in rings. So, I didn’t think anything of it.
That could have been a sign. Chris Benoit asking me to talk to him?
Burke added there was no signs Benoit’s brain had degenerated, which was discovered later.
Sadly, Benoit would go on to sell his wife and son before taking his own life, and with Burke being released
in 2008, and going on to wrestle elsewhere, it’s clear that the 42-year -old has tried to move on from being
the final opponent of Chris Benoit.
AEW now, as the company recently suffered an outbreak, and are blaming their competition.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that there’s belief inside the All-Elite promotion that
WWE is to blame for the outbreak amongst the AEW roster, as the gold brand also suffered a similar incident.
He said:
“AEW has had one outbreak which they blame on wrestlers socializing and things like that with WWE talent
because it started there, however it happened. Lance Archer obviously didn’t get it from WWE talent,
so it’s more than that.” It’s no secret that AEW stars and WWE Superstars hang out in their
personal time, so it is possible that NXT’s positive cases had an effect on AEW.
With both companies operating from Florida, the two can both hold shows at full-capacity now, due to the
Sunshine state’s phase-3 of reopening, but given these recent rise of positive cases, it may be
some time before we see a sell-out crowd at either show.
Marty Jannetty next and thankfully it’s not about the selling he may or may not have done in his teens, but it’s
not much better. On social media, the former Rocker wrote a lengthy post, saying
he’d been attacked outside JFK airport and later taken to Jamaica Medical Center.
After revealing that he’d also been robbed, Jannetty said the doctor told him it was a case of mistaken
identity, and it seems the former Superstar lost his phone in the process.
Earlier this year, Jannetty made headlines as he confessed to selling a man in self-defence in his teens,
before saying he made the story up for an angle, but later said that that was a lie he told the authorities,
and it really happened. Clearly, Jannetty has a problem being 100% honest with what’s
happened to him, and we hope that things work out eventually for the former Rocker.
Back to WWE now, and whilst Bobby Lashley is now in the Hurt Business and the US Champion, fans will still
remember his Lana storyline of earlier this year. On After the Bell, Lashley revealed
why he did the storyline, which was almost universally panned, n the first place, saying that it was a good way
to garner heat, as he was feuding with the fan-favourite Rusev, and it was also an attempt for him to
loosen up and break out of his shell, and was encouraged by Kurt Angle to “have fun with it.”
Lashley may have had fun, but the fans who watched did not, and it’s safe to say everyone breathed a
a collective sigh of relief with Lashley and Lana divorced, and he joined the Hurt Business.
And we’re ending today with Kyle O’Reilly news, and despite his war with Finn Balor and TakeOver 31,
the WWE aren’t talking about it. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer and Alverez said that Balor’s
jaw-injury isn’t as bad as it seems, since the WWE are openly talking about it, but that’s not the case with
O’Reilly’s injuries. Alverez noted that When WWE don’t discuss an injury, it’s usually a
a concussion, something that WWE thankfully take very seriously, and have a strict protocol on.