Back in mid-April, WWE released a large portion of their mid and undercard talent.
Since then we’ve had referee Mike Chioda and Zack Ryder turn up in AEW; Hurt Cawkins,
YEric Oung, 3EC, Seath Hlater, Doc Gallows and Arl Kaderson turn up in the IMPACT Zone;
Rusev defect to Twitch; and ...Drake Maverick go back to NXT.
And the future of another released top WWE name might’ve just been leaked.
This is potentially a spoiler for next Saturday’s big episode of AEW Dynamite, which was taped
in Florida yesterday - so skip ahead to the next story using YouTube’s fancy new chapters
feature on the timeline, or stay right here as we enter the Spoiler Room Brawl in 3…
2…
CM Punk is going to be the leader of Retribution and get all his MMA wins back in Raw Underground.
Just kidding.
1…
It’s the Big Red Machine...
...Erick Rowan.
According to a fan claiming to have been at the tapings, the former Rowan in AEW makes
his debut on next Saturday’s Dynamite using his real name Joseph Rudd.
He shows up in a mask, helps Brodie Lee win the TNT Championship from Cody Rhodes, and
then reveals his identity - presumably joining the Dark Order.
Apparently the match is very overbooked, but in an entertaining way.
The account also claims NWA Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa showed up at the tapings, challenging
Shida to a title match at All Out.
Reddit insider SpaceForce 1 has been the source of several AEW leaks over recent months, like
Eric Bischoff’s debut.
But this Rowan story comes from user WeirdWarthog, who hasn’t broken any stories of their own
before.
Take it with a pinch of salt, as WrestlingNews.co have added they’ve been contacted by someone
else at the tapings, who said the Reddit spoilers are false.
Which you should also take with a pinch of salt, because that’s what happened when
WWE tried to cover up one of their developmental wrestlers leaking the result of Keith Lee
vs Adam Cole.
Are you excited to see Rowan in AEW if the spoilers are true?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below, because I’ll be replying FROM
OUTTA HIS BIG BUSHY BEARD.
Before we get on with the rest of the news, I just want to say a huge thank you to this
episode’s sponsor…
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Tell me what your favourite animes are in the comments below, because I’ll be replying
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BINGE WATCH IT ALLLL But back to my other favourite anime - Erick
Super Red & Spider Cage.
100 years ago in January 2020, you might remember Rowan had started carrying a cage down to
the ring.
Sometimes it bit him, sometimes it terrified opponents, but it was always, always pretty
crap.
In a Q&A with Sportskeeda’s Stephanie Chase, Rowan has revealed how Superstars are mostly
just as confused by WWE’s creative plans for them as we are.
One day Rowan was just “informed I was carrying a cage, I asked what’s in it and I was told
you’ll find out.”
Apparently it was going to constrain a rodent of some kind that Rowan loved, which would
be killed by an unspecified babyface champion, which would turn them heel.
But “they just kept extending it, extending it, extending it.”
At one point, Erick pitched they build a slightly larger cage, so they could put the world’s
smallest woman in there Jyoti Amge - who had featured on American Horror Story.
“Me and her would be friends and I would be protecting her from the atrocities of the
outside world by locking her in the cage.”
Instead they revealed it as a fake animatronic spider and had Drew McIntyre stomp it under
his foot.
Sometimes you’ve just got to trust in creative, Rowan.
They really came through for you in the end.
Interestingly, Rowan also revealed WWE asked him to film a cameo for the Bray Wyatt vs
Braun Strowman Swamp Fight match at the Horror Show at Extreme Rules - shortly after his
non-compete had expired - but he was busy filming another project.
But Rowan might not be the only wrestler AEW is looking to bring in, as we can exclusively
reveal someone else the promotion has their eye on.
WrestleTalk.com’s Louis Dangoor has been informed by his sources that IMPACT wrestler
Ethan Page - who lost the Tag Team Titles last month after a year long reign, the longest
in the promotion’s history - has his contract expiring on the 31st December.
Page has been teasing on social media that he could be signing a new contract at the
start of 2021, and our sources tell us one of the options is AEW - who have been interested
in Page for some time.
Page has been building up his social media following as of late with Twitch streams and
V-Logs, and, of course, our WrestleTalk Interview with him - where he made the bold claim that
"Vince McMahon is the greatest wrestler of all time".
Head over to WrestleTalk Interviews to watch that.
But bringing in so many new faces, especially right now, is unsustainable unless you release
some of your existing roster.
And, for the first time in the company’s 19 months of existence, it appears All Elite
Wrestling have made their first ever talent firings - with Jimmy Havoc, Bea Priestly and
Sadie Gibbs being let go from the company.
AEW themselves haven’t yet officially announced the firings, but Havoc, Priestly and Gibbs
have all been removed from their roster page.
Gibbs, who signed with AEW at last May’s Double or Nothing, confirmed her release with
a tweet: “My journey it’s been one hell of a ride,
I never expect it to get easier I just expect my core values and perception to evolve and
for me always to find #GRACE within moving forwards.
#UNDEFINABLE.
Thankyou so much @TonyKhan @AEWrestling for giving me a chance of a life time 🙏🏼”
The Wrestling Observer writes “the reasons for the releases are not known.”
AEW President Tony Khan admitted back in May that the company was set to lose millions
and millions of dollars without live events during the pandemic, and that while he didn’t
want to take it out on the wrestlers that worked for him, “there’s gonna be a day
when someday we’re going to have to [let people go].”
Dave Meltzer did recently report that AEW has become slightly profitable in the last
few months though.
Instead, the reason might be more geographical than financial.
Gibbs, Priestly and Havoc are all English, and Bea and Sadie haven’t been able to travel
to the United States to wrestle for AEW during the pandemic.
There’s also their close affiliation to Japanese all-women’s promotion Stardom.
Initially, there appeared to be a working relationship between them and AEW - with other
Stardom wrestlers like Jamie Hayter and Riho on the first few months of Dynamite - but
late last year, New Japan owner BushiRoad, which still seems a bit burned by AEW being
run by all its former top foreign stars who suddenly decided to leave them, bought Stardom,
and these appearances became less common.
The two aren’t without controversy, reportedly having a fight backstage before last August’s
All Out pay-per-view.
But while Gibbs and Priestly have hardly appeared on Dynamite, Jimmy Havoc was prominently featured
alongside Kip Sabian in the first months of lockdown.
He is by far the biggest release here, which comes after allegations of sexual assault.
AEW issued a statement on Havoc on the 19th June in the wake of numerous Speaking Out
allegations, saying they “are evaluating his status with our company” and that they’d
make a decision once he had received “treatment and counseling in an effort to overcome the
mental health and substance abuse challenges in his life.”
And that decision has now been made.
Over in NXT, Velveteen Dream, another of the wrestlers embroiled in the SpeakingOut movement,
made their return on Wednesday’s episode.
Which has prompted their accuser to issue a statement.
In April, Velveteen Dream was accused of sending indecent images of himself to a minor - which
he denied in a statement on social media.
These allegations resurfaced in June during the #SpeakingOut movement, and Dream was removed
from TV after an NXT Championship feud with Adam Cole.
Multiple reports at the time said he was ‘done with the company’.
But then he returned to NXT on Wednesday’s episode, inserting himself into the North
American title picture.
This has prompted one of his original accusers, Josh Fuller, to issue a statement on Twitter.
“It’s a really sh**** feeling that I feel like I can’t say the things I want to about
everything because of fear over my wrestling career.
That shouldn’t be okay...
“I’m not sure if I’ll keep rambling about it but I just want to say above anything,
I never chose to speak out because of myself.
It was completely over the kids he sexually harassed and the fact that the internet tried
to turn them into the bad people.
Be sorry for them, not me....
“The only things really pissing me off from social media are the people claiming that
it was clearly investigated when there’s no proof or statement that ever was the case.
Myself or anyone else involved weren’t contacted by anybody to my knowledge.”
On to less horrible real-life things, here’s all the other news rounded up into the Hot
Shots News Zip, Formerly Known As The Shooting Gallery.
Again… better names welcome.
Despite it first being reported years ago, WWE themselves announcing it last Summer,
then Vince McMahon reportedly firing the two executives in charge of the idea in January,
then planning for it to happen again, then stalling the roll out for the paid and free
tier versions, WWE will finally be adding the indie promotions it owns of PROGRESS,
wXw, ICW and EVOLVE to the Network tomorrow, August 15 - which means you can see me in
the front rows of the early PROGRESS shows.
Because I liked it before it was cool.
WrestleVotes is reporting SummerSlam won’t take place in the Performance Center, instead
it’ll move to the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida - along with all subsequent TV tapings.
This has apparently boosted the morale of the WWE locker room, eager for a kind-of return
to pre-lockdown normalcy.
Kind-of normalcy like… virtual fans!
WWE won’t be letting fans into the Amway Center for SummerSlam, so PWInsider claims
they’re considering having virtual fans on screen instead.
Over at AEW, Ryan Satin is reporting around 150 real-life fans were allowed into Daily’s
Place for this week’s Dynamite taping, all of them invited by AEW, potentially one of
whom posted the spoilers earlier on.
One of those fans, Jessi Davin, tweeted that safety precautions were closely followed - with
all groups socially distanced from each other, and mask enforcers in place to make sure no-one
was flouting the rules, adding “felt very safe and so did my husband.”
But did it make a difference to the all-important Demos War?
Both AEW and NXT saw a drop from the previous week, but it was AEW who came out on top by
173,000 viewers.
AEW drew 792,000, while NXT got 619, booyaka.
There’s a new Tron movie, and the Oscar-winning Parasite is getting a black and white version
- click the video on the right to watch Laurie and Luke talk movie news on Cineworld’s
What’s On!
And we’ve got an interview with the former Zack Ryder in WWE, Matt Cardona.
Click the video under that to watch Louis Dangoor’s chat with Matt.
And please get yourself a Crunchyroll free trial, as it’s amazing, and it helps support
the channel.
I’ve been Oli Davis, Jam that Jam.