Brodie Lee, Luke Harper, Jon Huber…
I disagree.
You gave us everything.
A big thank you to Murad Rahan, who got that Cameo made for me shortly after I became Mr
Davis back in August because of mine and Brodie Lee’s shared Mafia movie influences.
Rest in power, big guy.
The 2020 pandemic - which is now totally over and solved everybody because it’s a new
year now.
That all stopped at midnight on the 31st December going by all the 2021 is going to be my year
posts on Facebook - revealed many things.
Most jobs can perfectly function working from home.
Front line workers are better than celebrities.
And yes, I can go ten days without washing.
And you said that wasn’t possible Megan.
It also updated the old saying of ‘adversity builds character’ to ‘adversity reveals
character’.
Because WWE, which has a PR machine that promotes its charity work, was actually much more about
firing people and making all the money.
Having the most profitable year in the company’s history wasn’t enough, as WWE fired or furloughed
a reported 40% of its workforce back in April, and then went after the extra money its ‘independent
contractors’ were making via 3rd party media platforms like Cameo or Twitch by enforcing
a new rule that any of those deals have to go through WWE.
And anyone who didn’t abide was also wished all the best in their future endeavours.
Despite reports of significant frustration backstage, with many wrestlers not just seeing
their Twitch channels as a way of making money, but also as a means to re-connect with fans
in lieu of live events, everyone eventually succumbed to WWE’s new edict.
AJ Styles, Cesaro, Mia Yim and more all suspended their Twitch accounts.
Everyone apart from two people - Zelina Vega and Paige.
Who didn’t just continue streaming.
They also started publicly discussing a wrestlers union on Twitter - which WWE seemingly wants
to stop happening so much, they donated tens of millions of dollars to the previous presidential
administration to get Linda McMahon a job in the small businesses cabinet.
In Zelina’s case, she was unceremoniously fired.
Fightful Select is now reporting Vega wasn’t even granted the usual exit interview with
Vince McMahon, which one anonymous wrestler told the site it “didn’t instill a lot
of confidence in them” and that WWE is being far more ready to fire talent as of late.
Zelina’s non-compete clause expires on the 11th February.
But what about Paige, who remains under contract with WWE, and has continued to stream on Twitch
over the Christmas period - one session even including Vega herself?
PWInsider is reporting that Paige “has bucked the orders” given to her, implying WWE have
commanded her to stop, but she is continuing to stream.
And the site speculates “Whether that leads to any fallout similar to Vega, we'll have
to wait and see.”
Do you think WWE will release Paige if she continues to publicly defy their Twitch ban?
Let me know in the comments down below because I’ll be replying to people FROM OUTTA PAIGE’S
STREAMING HAT!
Personally, I don’t think they will, because it will forever taint their Fighting With
My Family movie narrative.
But that’s not the only controversy Paige has been embroiled in already this year.
Paige tweeted over the weekend: “You realize how disgusting this is?
You literally tried to get money for our address!!
You’re a terrible person.
The cops are involved.
A report was put in your name.
Numerous people came forward about you w/ DMs.
You changed your Twitter name after being called out.”
- including a screenshot of someone trying to sell the address Paige lives at with her
boyfriend Ronnie Radke with some of the worst negotiation price scaling I’ve ever seen.
She then followed this up with: “I hate that, THAT had to be my first tweet
of 2021.
Second tweet.
This year will be better.
White heart” And her second tweet was…
“Yeah using lawyers to get a lawsuit for someone selling our address makes me super
shitty.
Thanks for making me see the light, bud.”
New Year’s resolutions are hard.
This comes just over a month after a stalker turned up at Paige and Radke’s house in
November, with the man claiming symbols led him to their address.
With that in mind, it’s even more understandable why Paige wants to keep private information
private.
The person trying to sell Paige’s private information apparently led to Twitter user
@ashhpotato sharing an alleged DM conversation with her - where Paige denies an incident
between @ashhpotato and Radke, and writes of the address seller: “We have lawyers
and cops involved and they’re setting up a case against her.
The more she does the more it helps our case.
And speaking of private information, former WWE star Ryback tweeted a rather odd Christmas
message to his old boss Vince McMahon.
“Despite the pain and frustration the @wwe has caused me since walking away I want to
send love their way towards @vincemcmahon as I’ve heard his health isn’t great these
days.
Hopefully he can find the strength to overcome so he can witness me kicking his ass fully
for #Ryback ❤️” It’s difficult to tell what’s genuine
and what’s troll with Ryback, as he’s become a master manipulator of the wrestling
media in the last several years.
But Jim Ross has now added his own thoughts on the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast,
where he said: “I’m a lot more concerned about his health
than him being able to run the company but he will run the company until they bury him”
- although contextually that could mean that Ross isn’t actually concerned about Vince’s
health, only relatively.
Because he will never stop working and owning WWE.
WrestlingNews.co adds the last they heard from a company source was that “McMahon
is still in good health and he still works out.”
Charlotte Flair is now claiming her WWE break wasn’t actually due to any health concerns,
like the elective surgery she had on her ruptured breast implant she tweeted about, but actually
because she had plateaued in the company.
In a preview of WWE’s latest The Day Of documentary series, this time focusing on
Flair, she admitted she went on the six month break because:
“I felt so deflated and it’s not that I wasn’t or felt creative.
I just felt like I was at a standstill.
I was working NXT, SmackDown and RAW, like I felt like I was doing the best work of my
career, but I was not moving forward.”
‘Not moving forward’ could actually mean ‘there were no immediate plans for her to
win a title’ - as she’d just dropped the NXT Championship without actually being pinned
the same month she went on her hiatus.
And only seemingly returned when she would win the tag team championships with Asuka
at last month’s TLC.
But she might actually have some competition in the women’s division soon…
Because it might be a new year, but we’ve still got reports of WWE officials being high
on wrestlers backstage!
Liv Morgan.
Liv Morgan is that Pokemon.
Fightful is reporting Morgan has impressed the WWE locker room with one source telling
them: “She is obsessed with improving and becoming one of the best.‘She cares more
than anybody, I think.
It’s great to see that kind of passion.
Not everyone has it.”
Apparently Morgan was featured in multiple major plans last year, but none of them ended
up happening - although Liv isn’t to blame for that.
Eva Marie is also still stuck in creative purgatory, with Fightful Select also adding
she was meant to return on the 14th December episode of Raw, but her interview segment
was scrapped for an unknown reason.
Marie has been training at the Performance Center for several months now after signing
a new WWE contract back in October.
Fightful is reporting she is internally scheduled for tonight’s Legend’s Night episode of
Raw - which will also feature caemos from Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and Carlito, along with
a big WWE Championship match between Drew McIntyre and Keith Lee.
WWE also seems to be changing their minds a lot over Roman Reigns’ big WrestleMania
37 plans.
It was initially hoped they could get Rock ‘The Dwayne’ Johnson to face him for the
show’s Hollywood theme, but with that set to be postponed until 2022, our sources at
WrestleTalk told us WWE were now booking Reigns vs Goldberg - in a retread of the match that
was meant to happen at Mania 36 before Roman pulled out due to the pandemic.
Goldberg has since started calling out Reigns on social media.
But now another moving part has been thrown into the mix.
Daniel Bryan was being built up to face Roman for the title at TLC, but that was changed
relatively last minute to Kevin Owens to give Bryan’s build more time.
Bryan was then supposed to face Reigns at the Royal Rumble.
But Bryan then declared himself for the Royal Rumble match.
Dave Meltzer is reporting this is because WWE officials think SmackDown has a lack of
babyfaces right now, so they want to continue Roman’s feud with KO.
Bryan is now being positioned as a possible Roman Reigns opponent for WrestleMania - meaning
he could win the Rumble match.
It’s a smart idea if WWE want an actual match for WrestleMania as opposed to a series
of spears back and forth.
A three way between Roman, Bryan and Goldberg could satisfy McMahon’s star power need,
while having enough in-ring workrate to make it good.
Speaking of workrate…
RAINMAKER SEGWAY!
New Japan’s biggest show of the year, the two night WrestleKingdom 15, starts today.
Or, has actually already started by the time you’re watching this.
Head over to New Japan World now to watch it, check out Wrestle2 for Tempest’s coverage
of the shows, and remember to get your predictions in on our Patreon WrestleLeague!
All the links for that are in the top of the video description below.
And very excitingly, those in the United States might have even more ways to watch New Japan
soon, as Dave Meltzer is reporting the promotion is close to signing a TV deal with their old
US channel AXS, with an announcement expected imminently!
What are the top 10 New Japan matches of 2020?
Visit WrestleTalk.com using the link onscreen now to find out!
And what are Adam Blampied’s ten favourite wrestling matches of 2020?
Click the video on the right to find out!
I’ve been Mr Davis, jam that jam.