Here's your wrestling news for October 22nd 2021
And your headlines for today include
KENTA Takes Major Shot At WWE!
Fans At Chris Jericho Cruise Forced To Suffer Terrible Conditions While Waiting Hours In Line!
AEW Wrestlers Calls WWE Crown Jewel A Blood Money Show!
Jim Ross Shares Gruesome Skin Cancer Photo!
Eric Bischoff Is Ready To Drop Painful Truths About Tony Khan!
Braun Strowman Accuses WWE Of Turning Him Into A Corporate Monster!
Top Dolla Claims AEW Stars Thanked Him For Calling Out Young Bucks!
Wrestler Busted For Possession Of Marijuana; Was Later Arrested!
Kota Ibushi Injured In Finals Of NJPW G1 Climax 31!
WWE Extends Multi-Year Partnership With Mattel!
Major News Concerning Alberto Del Rio’s Lawsuit! And More!
We’re kicking off today with Kenta, who signed with WWE in 2014, part of a huge wave of signings known as the NXT 5.
Unlike Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville however, Kenta never held gold in WWE and was released after an underwhelming
5 years in 2019. Joining Chase Owens this week for a Twitch Q&A, Kenta bashed WWE, as he explained how
happy he is to be back in New Japan. He said: "I’m happy now. Much more than when I was in — I forgot the name but WW-something."
Kenta also took aim at AEW's CM Punk, who uses the GTS finisher that Kenta originates years prior, saying:
"I’m happy if people want to see my move and then they want to use [it], except CM Punk.”
It’s comments that these that led to Kenta trending on Twitter, and though he’s Kenta has worked with AEW in the past, months before Punk
joined the company this past August, we can only imagine who'd be the undisputed king of the GTS if the two ever face off.
Over to AEW, Chris Jericho is holding another one of his cruises, but fans were having a pretty bad time before they even boarded the vessel.
Given the past year and the risk of positive cases, those in charge had a few extra things to consider with the latest voyage, and that didn’t speed things
up at all. The line to board was incredibly long, and one fan at the scene told Ringside News that there were
chants of ‘We want a refund’ before fans even got on board. This fan contacted Ringside News after waiting
for another four-five hours before they boarded the ship. One fan noted how they’d been waiting for so long,
that they were guaranteed to miss their dinner reservations and photos with Kurt Angle, and we’re sure that pics with the Olympic Gold Medalist
didn’t come cheap. Others at the seen tweeted out how there was no food, or restrooms for anyone waiting under
the hot Florida sun, and water was only been given at one location in the queue at the four- hour mark.
Some fans even started napping in the line, as the queue wasn’t moving at all, and fans weren’t the only ones going through this ordeal.
When Ringside News asked, they were told that Orange Cassidy and Marko Stung had been seen waiting over 2 hours to be tested.
This event has clearly been massively disorganised, and we can only hope all the fans get something special to make up for this ordeal, as waiting in the
blistering sun for hours with no food or water, instead of meeting the legends and AEW wrestlers on board isn’t the experience they paid for.
More from AEW, as Max Caster, like the rest of the roster, has never been afraid to bash WWE, and this week, took aim at the company’s return to
Saudi Arabia. During Crown Jewel 2021, Caster tweeted out an image from the show, in which a fan held a sign
that read ‘All my homies love The Acclaimed.’ The sign may have been photoshopped, but in the caption for the pic, Caster referred to Crown Jewel
as a ‘Blood Money Show,’ and expressed his surprise at the sign. WWE’s controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia
shows no signs of slowing down, even after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, reportedly at the request of the Saudi royals,
and we doubt this will be the last time an AEW star hits out at WWE’s decade-long deal with the middle eastern Kingdom.
We’ve got some concerning news from Jim Ross next, as the WWE Hall of Famer and AEW commentator appears to be suffering from skin cancer.
On social media, JR documented the ulcer he’s been dealing with for well over a year now, and said that it is a potential skin-cancer issue, a
and he’ll be undergoing a CAT scan to know for sure. This is a scary situation for JR, and one that we hope isn’t due to skin cancer, and we’re sending the
Oklahoma native our very best wishes
On the latest episode of his 83 Weeks Podcast, Eric Bischoff had some choice words about Tony Khan, saying that the AEW President should keep quiet i
instead of continuously bringing up WWE. Insisting that Khan focus on his own product instead of the competition, TK responded by
calling out Bischoff, who was no stranger to taking shots at the WWF during the Monday Night War. Now, Bischoff is responding once more, as on
Twitter, he promised to drop some painful truths about Khan on the latest episode of the 83 Weeks Podcast.
In a follow-up tweet, Bischoff said that truth can be painful, and this pain is going to be ugly, and we’ll have to wait until the latest episode drops
on Monday to find out what truth Easy-E has on the AEW President.
In June, WWE released Braun Strowman, bringing his impressive career with the company to a close.
Since then, it’s been reported that Strowman has been trying to get a job back with WWE, but in the most recent Busted Open Radio, the former Universal
Champion ruled out returning to work for Vince McMahon. He said: “I’m 38 years old and finally, for the first time in my
life, I don’t have to ask anyone for permission to do anything. And it’s honestly a pretty damn good feeling.”
Strowman added that in WWE, he had been turned into a “corporate monster,” and though It remains to be seen if he joins Impact at tomorrow’s Bound
for Glory as expected, the Monster Among Men is happy to be out of WWE.
Last week, a war of words emerged between WWE’s Top Dolla and AEW’s Young Bucks, over who is more passionate about their sneakers.
Since Dolla made a diss track about the former AEW Tag Team Champions, the Bucks have kept quiet about their shoes, and that’s something that the AEW
roster is reportedly very happy about. Speaking to Jobbing Out, Dolla claimed that his first comment, where he spoke about people
only wearing sneakers for clout, wasn’t aimed at the Bucks, but the Jacksons exposed themselves by responding the way he did. He added:
I got my friends from that other company [AEW] calling me and telling me ‘thank you’. It has nothing to do with companies. There are people on both
sides that bang with me and people that bang with other people. Dolla and the rest of Hit Row are now officially
SmackDown Superstars, as the WWE draft picks went into effect after Crown Jewel, and it’s apparently not just the WWE Universe
that have been impressed by the 31-year-old Superstar.
Now, Effy is one of independent wrestling’s hottest acts, and has teamed with Danhausen to orm the team Gaytanic Panic, but now the indie star has run
into trouble with the law. Yesterday morning, Effy revealed that he was arrested in his native Atlanta for possession
of .02 ounces of marijuana, equivalent to half a gram. Having to pay a fine, Effy took to CashApp to help
him out, noting that .02 oz is an incredibly small amount of marijuana. In many states in the U.S. marijuana is now considered
medicine, but that wasn’t the case for Effy, who’ll presumably be more careful with his weed from now on.
Over to New Japan next, as the G1 Climax 31 has come to an end, but in a way nobody wanted to see.
In the final match between Kota Ibushi and Kazuchika Okada, Ibushi attempted a Phoenix Splash from the top rope but Okada rolled out of
the way just in time. Crashing to the canvas, Ibushi was immediately clutching his right arm, and was checked on by
legendary New Japan referee Red Shoes. It was Red Shoes who decided to stop the match due to injury, giving Okada the win.
Post-match, trainers were seen trying to pop Ibushi’s right shoulder back into place, and the ring ropes were removed as trainers got Ibushi
out of the ring. We’re not sure who was meant to win this match, but the match definitely wasn’t meant to end this
way, and it certainly dampened Okada’s G1 victory celebration. Now, Okada has an IWGP World Heavyweight
Championship opportunity at Wrestle Kingdom 16, but it’s a real shame that his G1 victory came about in this way.
And we’re ending with Alberto Del Rio, who is involved in a lawsuit with MMA promotion Combate Global LLC, who he claims owes him
$250,000 for a fight against Tito Ortiz. In the suit, Del Rio alleges that the promotion wouldn’t return control of his social media
accounts, even after his contract ended, and Combate Global is now looking to have the case thrown out.
Their reasoning is that Del Rio’s lawsuit failed to state a claim, and we’ll keep following this legal battle as the story develops.