On today’s news, Keith Lee has explained his months-long absence from WWE earlier this
year, the real reason for Adam Page being removed from AEW TV has been revealed, and
more.
Did you know it’s my birthday next week?
Like, my real one.
Not the fake ones everyone keeps wishing me.
And do you know what I’d like more than anything as a birthday present?
I’d like you to subscribe for daily wrestling news videos.
That’s right.
Subscribe.
For my birthday.
Don’t be heartless.
Earlier this year, Keith Lee was taken off TV just before Elimination Chamber, where
he was originally scheduled to face Riddle & Bobby Lashley in a Triple Threat for the
United States Championship.
Lee was kept off TV until the July 19 episode of Raw, where he made his grand return...and
then lost to Bobby Lashley.
During those months off, Lee frequently mentioned on his Twitter that he was off recovering
from an undisclosed medical issue, and that he would explain his story in his own time.
It seems last night was that time - as Lee posted a video to his own YouTube channel
explaining what had happened since January.
In the video Lee explained that he had been off TV for 3 weeks in January due to contracting
Covid-19, and that the only reason his fiancée Mia Yim also contracted the virus was because
she opted to care for him at home, which ended up costing her a spot in the Royal Rumble.
After that, Lee was brought back to TV, but after a match, he was pulled aside and informed
there was something unusual with his blood.
And after some tests, it was revealed he had inflammation on his heart, and as such was
forbidden from any sort of training, for risk of serious injury, or possibly even death.
Because of this, Lee was taken off TV, and while the initial signs looked poor, with
him potentially needing surgery, eventually the inflammation subsided, and he was able
to resume training and return to TV.
I personally haven’t met Keith Lee, but Oli and Luke have, and any time he’s mentioned,
they cannot stop singing their praises about what a genuinely lovely person he is, so I
for one am absolutely thrilled he’s made a full recovery.
And we get the added bonus of being able to continue watching him wrestle, which is always
a joy.
Lee has most recently wrestled a dark match against Austin Theory before a Raw show, and
here’s hoping he’ll be wrestling much more soon.
His fiancée Mia Yim hasn’t been seen since leaving Retribution back at Fastlane, however
she has reportedly changed brands twice, being moved to SmackDown two months after Fastlane,
before being moved back to Raw in exchange for Naomi in July.
I didn’t even know that trade had happened because Naomi hasn’t been on SmackDown either.
Makes perfect sense.
Something else that makes perfect sense is Adam Page challenging Kenny Omega for the
AEW World Championship at All Out, something that’s definitely going to happen, right…?
Well, not quite, because after Page and The Dark Order lost to the Elite on Dynamite,
costing them a World title and Tag Title shots respectively, Page has been taken off TV entirely,
with the World Title match instead going to Christian Cage, who is also challenging Omega
for the Impact World Title on tonight’s debut episode of Rampage.
Some fans had pieced it together by now, but PWInsider confirmed that the real reason Page
has been taken off AEW TV is because his wife will be giving birth to their first child
soon.
The report also notes that it was always the plan to have Page take some time off ahead
of the birth, meaning he was never going to be in line for the World Title match at All
Out.
What do you think of AEW’s decision to make it seem like they were heading in the direction
of Page challenging Omega?
Is it some smart booking, extending out the feud for the eventual payoff, or are you underwhelmed
by the bait and switch with Cage challenging instead?
Let me know in the comments because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA NOWHERE for
the first 30 minutes after this video goes live!
And it seems Page’s absence might already be hitting AEW hard...
The viewership for this week’s episode of Dynamite,
which featured the fourth labour of Jericho against Wardlow and Britt Baker’s homecoming
drew an average of 979,000 viewers according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics.
This marks the first time since July 7 that AEW has dropped below 1 million viewers, which
some have attributed to the return of the TV show The Challenge.
Dynamite scored a rating of .35 in the 18-49 demographic, or 454,000 viewers, a pretty
big drop from .46 rating the previous week, which was 593,000 viewers.
However with Rampage debuting tonight with an Impact World Title match, the teased debut
of CM Punk next week, and the build to All Out continuing, one would expect the viewers
to tick back up again past that 1 mil barrier.
You know what AEW need to get those viewers back up?
More sexual references on TV.
It sure worked for WWE.
Shortly after John Cena’s return to WWE at Money in the Bank, Roman Reigns cut a promo
on SmackDown, saying that it was the same old John Cena, and comparing him to the missionary
position night after night.
Missionary: a person sent on a religious mission, especially one sent to promote Christianity
in a foreign country.
Huh.
Weird comparison to make, but sure let’s go with it.
While this line seemed to go over well with the live audience, it was removed from the
YouTube version of the clip, instead jumping ahead to the next section of the promo.
Reigns has now commented on this edit, speaking to Sports Illustrated:
“I don’t know why they edited it out.
I think it raised some eyebrows.
I don’t get in trouble.
The gimmick is as close to being real as possible.
Even if they tried to say something to me, I wouldn’t have cared anyway.
What are you gonna do?
Not have me on SmackDown next week?
Like I did before SummerSlam last year, I’ll go home.
It doesn’t matter to me.
Let’s see how they do without me.”
Oh, Roman.
Never change.
You the man.
Someone else that’s The Man, I’m on fire with these segues today, is Becky Lynch, who
hasn’t been seen since May 2020 after she revealed she was pregnant and would be taking
time away.
After giving birth in December to she and Seth Rollins’ daughter Roux, Lynch has teased
a return to the ring at basically every big WWE PPV since, including the Royal Rumble,
WrestleMania and Money in the Bank.
WWE have now filed a new trademark for “THE MAN”, which could indicate they’re thinking
about bringing her back soon.
Or not.
Who really knows these days.
Lynch is reportedly going to be at the building for SummerSlam next weekend, but there are
no guarantees she will be on the show at all.
Because we’ve been burned too many times before.
Curse you Becky and you’re frankly great trolling.
Someone else who’s good at...trolling...on UpUpDownDown?
That’s a less good segue, I’ll be honest, is Tyler Breeze, who was recently released
by WWE.
However out of everyone that’s been let go from the company in the past year and a
half, Breeze revealed he may have been the most prepared for it.
Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, he said: “I was preparing to get fired the day I
got hired.
There is a lot of life to live after wrestling.
I immediately started to make a plan, got ready...By the time 3 years came up I went
I don’t have to, but it’s good, things are going OK.
So I just signed it and went OK cool.
By the time the next one came around, very different scenario.
It was a ‘You don’t need me, I’m going to leave.’
kind of thing.
At that moment in time, I was not happy.
All they said was ‘I’m sorry, we can give you more money.’
I said ‘I’ve been really smart with my money.
I don’t need more money.
I go to the airport and turn around because I’m not happy at work.’
That was when I had the conversation to go back to NXT.
But I was ready to leave right then.
I had accomplished everything I had wanted to achieve of having that goal of the freedom
to not sign that contract.
When you sign that contract you know what you sign up for.
If you are not happy then please don’t sign.”
As a prominent Twitch streamer prior to WWE’s crackdown on the platform last year, you’d
expect Breeze to be a bit upset with the company over it.
Not quite...
In the same interview with Chris Van Vliet, Breeze commented on the Twitch edict, saying:
“Obviously, everyone threw their hands up in the air when they stopped everything.
It's one of those things where it's a saying that lasts for a long time, 'The boys will
always mess it up for the boys.'...Now, you have to be mature enough to realize you represent
a bigger entity and you have to conduct yourself accordingly, which I did, so nobody noticed
so for two years I was doing my thing.
Then, people noticed and were like, 'Oh, we can do this or do that' and they jump on and
don't do things according to how they should, whether it's using intellectual property or
giving away things they shouldn't be giving away, they violate certain things and eventually
the guy who is in charge of everything will say, 'You know what, everything is stopped,
you've ruined it.
I can't go case by case.'”
Breeze makes a fair point regarding representation of a larger company - however it’s also
fair to say that as independent contractors with no discernable benefits, WWE stars should
be free to say essentially what they like as long as they are not in breach of contract.
What do you think?
It’s an interesting topic to discuss - so talk to me about it in the comments.
One of the more prominent names surrounding the Twitch edict was Zelina Vega, who was
released from WWE in November last year after she refused to shut down her Twitch page.
However, she then returned to the company, and hasn’t won a match since.
Speaking to Wrestling Daily’s Stephanie Chase, go subscribe to Wrestling Daily, Vega
explained why she wanted to return to WWE: “More than anything, WWE has always been
a place where I felt like I had unfinished business.
For me, as a kid, I wanted to be a champion and there are so many things I want to accomplish.
Coming back, I set my eyes on the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
That’s what I’m focused on the most and seeing where that takes me.”
“Sometimes, you do need that mental break.
It may not be wrestling, it may be anything.
You take your time, revitalize yourself, get refreshed and you can dive back into that
creative side of you and think ‘what can I do differently?’ or ‘how can I add to
this style to my moveset?’”
I hope that goes well for her, but maybe she might need to start getting some wins first
to make
that happen.