Here's more wrestling news for April 20th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Cody Rhodes leaks shocking new WWE Championship design!
What are WWE’s plans for the brand split with so many titles being unified?
Update on Tammy Sytch fatal car crash legal case
NXT 2.0 tag team loses their team name on latest episode
Huge update to WWE 2K22! What has been added to the game?
AEW Battle of the Belts sees sharp drop in viewership compared to previous show
Former WWF writer says the world has passed WWE by in scathing attack on RAW programming
Tony Khan weighs in on an AEW-Ring of Honor crossover supershow event And more
We’re starting off with news from Cody Rhodes, who has made it clear that he’s back in WWE to become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Rhodes never won a world title in his first run with WWE, nor did he in AEW, but should he become World Champion, fans could see a classic title design re-emerge.
On his Instagram story, the American Nightmare shared a picture of the classic Winged Eagle title design, which was used from 1988 to 1998 and was last officially held by Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Many fans leaped on the post, believing it to be a sign that Cody will reintroduce the classic title design should he become the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.
Rhodes does have a history of bringing back classic designs, as in late 2011, the then-Intercontinental Champion reintroduced the white-strap classic title design, a change that
was well-received by fans at the time. At this time, no new championship design has been introduced for the Undisputed WWE
Universal title, which is still represented by two physical title belts, but should Rhodes fulfil the promise he made to his father, the next title design may be a blast from the past.
In 2016, the WWE reintroduced the brand split, with Raw and SmackDown getting exclusive rosters.
This has been the case for the past six years, but lately there’s been rumours that the split could soon be coming to an end.
Not only did Roman Reigns unify the WWE and Universal Championships at WrestleMania, but next month, the RAW and SmackDown Tag Titles will be unified at Backlash.
It certainly appears that the brand split may be ending, but that isn’t the case, as Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio:
Roman Reigns is scheduled to headline WrestleMania Backlash even though they don’t seem to have started a program for him. Also, regarding rumors of brand mergers because of the
singles title merger and the tag title merger, right now they are not merging rosters… as of right now nobody has heard anything discussed in that direction.”
Either RK-Bro or The Usos will hold both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Titles after WrestleMania-Backlash on May 8th, but no matter who wins, the red and blue brand will not
be unified unlike their tag titles.
Earlier this month, we reported on Tammy Sytch, who was involved in a three-vehicle accident that killed one person.
A toxicology report will determine if Sytch was inebriated behind the wheel, and she could face a serial criminal case if it turns out she was, but now the former Sunny has another legal battle
battle ahead of her.
On his show, Dave Meltzer said that in addition to the possible criminal chaeges, Sytch is being sued for wrongful death by the family of the man who died in the wreck.
The family is seeking at least $30,000 to compensate for the funeral and medical expenses, and the family is also suing Sytch’s boyfriend.
Meltzer added that Sytch was reportedly driving without a license, and could face a manslaughter charge regardless of the toxicology report.
While the WWE Hall of Famer has had trouble with the law before, this is perhaps the biggest trouble she’s faced, and we’ll keep following this case for further updates.
Over to NXT 2.0 next, as plenty of Superstars have undergone individual name changes, but now one pairing has lost their tag team name.
During last night’s show, the Grizzled Young Veterans faced Legado del Fantasma, but WWE didn’t use the Grizzled Young Veterans name at all during the broadcast.
Instead, the duo were referred to as ‘Drake and Gibson,’ but as the title of the Youtube Video of the match confirmed, they still have their first names, James and Zack, respectively.
It’s unclear why WWE has seemingly ditched the Grizzled Young Veterans name, but it may be due to the fact that this name was used by the dup before they came to WWE,
and was first used in PROGRESS Wrestling in 2017.
Whatever the reason, fans won’t be hearing the Grizzled Young Veterans name any more, in just the latest name change in WWE.
Video game news next, as WWE 2K22 has proven to be a success with fans, especially after the disastrous launch of WWE 2K20 in late 2019.
With that said, WWE is still adding to their new game, and this week, the game got it’s biggest patch to date.
The 1.09 patch update gives players a lot more features, including online entrances, expanded match cards in General Manager Mode and fixing bugs related to players getting
stuck backstage. Updated movesets and more signatures and finishers are also part of the update, and
perhaps the biggest addition is that the NXT 2.0 arena is now in the game for the first time. Before the launch of WWE 2K22, it was said that the game
was a make or break moment for WWE’s relationship with 2K, and WWE were in talks with EA Games as a potential new developer, but it looks like that won’t be the case after all.
Over to AEW next, as last Saturday, the company had their second ever Battle of the Belts event, which saw Sammy Guevara capture the TNT Championship for the third time, this time by defeating
Scorpio Sky.
Even with competition from the NBA Playoffs, the show was able to hold it’s own, but saw a dramatic drop in viewership compared to the previous Battle of the Belts.
Showbuzz Daily reports that this past weekend’s event scored 527,000 viewers for AEW, down dramatically from the January Battle of the Belts, which earned 704,000 viewers.
With AEW Rampage last week also losing viewers, it’ll be interesting to see how Tony Khan tries to turn these numbers around, as the Battle of the Belts 2 event didn’t go well for AEW.
Back to WWE, and for years, wrestling fans have complained about the company’s programming, and have threatened to never watch the show again, but always seem to be back
to complain about the next week’s episode of TV.
Countless fans have accused WWE of being out of touch with the wrestling world and refuses to change, and now a pretty important name has made a similar accusation against the company.
In a tweet, former WWF head writer Vince Russo didn’t hold back with his scathing claims, saying:
“@WWE RAW is just a terrible, terrible show. It is far and away the absolute worst thing on Prime Time. The ENTIRE WORLD has passed this company bye. There is nothing that anybody
can relate to. @VinceMcMahon, time to look yourself in the mirror. Are you better than this-or, not?” While Russo has is own critics for his booking in WCW,
it’s worth remembering that he oversaw Raw during the Attitude Era and made WWE’s flagship show the most popular it has ever been.
Whether WWE ever makes the dramatic changes fans want to see remains to be seen, but until they do, fans and those in the industry alike will continue to criticise a company that has been
passed by
And we’re ending today with Tony Khan, who will appear on tonight’s episode of Dynamite to make what he has claimed will be a huge announcement.
One possible announcement that has been rumoured is an AEW- New Japan crossover super show, but even if that doesn’t happen, that doesn’t mean the supershow concept is off the table.
As the owner of both All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor, there’s always the possibility of a supershow between these two companies, and Khan addressed this during his
latest appearance on the My Mom’s Basement podcast. Speaking about ROH alum including Bryan Danielson and CM Punk, Khan said that he would
love to see them appear in Ring of Honor, and said he wouldn’t count out having both men on every AEW and ROH show going forward.
Addressing an actual supershow which would pit ROH stars against AEW talent, Khan agreed that it would be a fantastic idea and said “we’ll have to see” when the time is right for
all his contracters wrestlers to come together for one big event. Whatever Khan has planned for tonight’s Dynamite,
we’re sure it’ll be big, but even if it’s not a supershow, it appears to be just a matter of time before one happens.