Here's your News for August 17th 2020 Why WWE Payback Is Coming Real Soon? How Sonya Deville Was Rescued? NXT Spy In AEW! Wrestling News! 2 00:00:03,536 --> 00:00:05,638 And your headlines for today include
Man Arrested For Stalking & Attempted Kidnapping Of Sonya Deville! Deville Reacts!
Yet Another Wrestler Passed Away At An Early Age!
Dustin Rhodes Teases Return Of Unique Bulldog Finisher!
Full Roster Revealed For WWE 2K Battlegrounds!
WWE Likely Planning Cliffhanger Ending For Top SummerSlam Match!
Spoiler On WHY WWE Is Holding Payback Pay-Per-View!
Shocking Identities Of Two NEW Members Of Retribution Revealed!
Chris Jericho Says That WWE Leaked Vital Information Pertaining To AEW!
Did AEW Reach Out To Braun Strowman? Braun Admits The Truth And More!
We’re kicking off today with some concerning news regarding Sonya Deville next, as the SmackDown
was the victim of an attempted kidnapping last week. The Tampa Bay Times reports that
24-year-old Philip A Thomas was arrested at Deville’s home, adter he stalked the former MMA fighter
and plotted out her kidnapping for eight months. Thomas also stalked Deville on
social media for years, and F4W Online is reporting that they received a call from Deville’s
neighbour who confirmed that it was the SmackDown star. Last Saturday, Thomas parked
his car around midnight and walked to Deville’s home, where he alledgedly cut a hole in the
patio screen, and waited there for hours, as it’s believed Deville and a friend were watching UFC at the time.
At around 2:45am, after the SmackDown star had gone to bed, Thomas entered the home, which
fortunately tripped the home security system, and he was spotted, causing him to flee and Deville to call 9-1-1.
He was later found carrying a kn***, plastic zip ties, duct tape, m*** and other items that could be used to
have held Deville during a kidnapping. Responding, Sherrif Chad Chronister
said that it was frightening to think how this situation would’ve gone had the home alarm not gone off.
On social media, the SmacKDown Superstar thanked fans for their concern, and gave a special thanks
to Hillsborough County Sherrif’s office for their response, whilst Titus O’ Neil has said that he’s
contacted Sonya to make sure she’s okay. Thomas’ own Twitter account shows
a deep obsession with Deville, as he retweeted any mention of her, and whilst by all appearances he
seemed like a super fan of the SmackDown star and nothing more, he was planning something much
more . Now, the 24-year old has been charged with aggravated stalking,
armed burglary of a dwelling, attempted armed kidnapping and criminal mischief, and with him being
held without bail, this obsessive fan won’t be having any interactions with Deville for a very long time.
We’ve got some sad news to report next as John Jirius, better known as Ring of Honor’s Xavier, has died
aged 43. A former ROH Champion, Xavier’s was born in New York City,
and broke into indie wrestling with Northeast Wrestling after traing under ECW-alum Tony Devito.
Arriving in ROH, he became the 2nd ROH Champion when he defeated Low Ki at Unscripted on September
21st 2002, and after 6 months, would lose the gold to Samoa Joe at ROH Night of Champions in March 2003.
His last match came for ICW in 2016, where he returned after a four year absence from the ring to defeat Indigo
Child during their One Night Only event. Out thoughts go out to Xavier’s
family, friends and fans at this awful time, as it’s clear that the former ROH Champion was taken far too
soon from this world. Over to AEW next, as Dustin Rhodes recently teased bringing back one
of his old moves. On social media, the former Goldust replied to a gif of the Bulldog he
used in WCW, as Rhodes said he was bringing it back. The replies were mixed, as some
fans questioned whether he was joking, whereas others pushed him to use the move again.
It’s certainly a different take on the classic Bulldog, and though it feels like Dustin will be transitioning
into a coaching role in the years to come, don’t be too surprised if he busts out this outta-nowhere
move in the near future on Dynamite.
Over to WWE now, and with 2K Battlegrounds now just over a month away, the full roster of the
game has now been released. The new game will be much different than the usual 2k games,
as it’ll focus on arcade style combat and there’ll be a total 70 playabale characters for fans to enjoy at launch,
with others to be released later on as DLC. The game will be acailable on PC,
Xbox One, PS4, Stadia and Nintendo Switch, which will mark WE’s first game on the Switch
since the disastrous release of WWE 2K18. It’ll be interesting to see how WWE
Battlegrounds does, after 2k20 was universally panned by critics and fans alike, and hopefully this new
style of WWE game will be much-better received when Battlegrounds launches on
September 18th. Before Battleground launches though, we’ve got WWE
Summerslam this weekend, and the company is reportedly planning something big for this Sunday’s
Pay Per View. With Payback taking place just one week later, this won’t give the
company much time to book new matches for the August 30th show, and on Wrestling Observer Radio,
Dave Meltzer speculated on the company having the Biggest party of the Summer end on a cliffhanger.
He said: “I think the key will be you know an angle at SummerSlam will lead
to an immediate rematch. We’ll see what that is whether it’s Drew and Randy Orton… One of the two major
championship matches will build toward an immediate return.”
It’s entirely possible that fans could see Orton and McIntyre, or Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt,
face off at Payback just a week after their Summerslam matches, and fans shouldn’t be too surprised if
either the WWE Championship or Universal Championship matches end on a cliffhanger..
Over to AEW now, and whilst Dynamite has a great home on TNT, the NBA Playoffs are getting
in the way right now, which will span the next month.
Dynamite won’t air again until August 22nd, which will be a special one-hour show that’ll
also air the same night as NXT TakeOver 30, though one hour prior to the NXT event.
For fans who want to still tune into AEW this Wednesday though, the company confirmed that they’ll
be screening the first half of AEW All OUT 2019 this Wednesday on their youtube channel, with
the second half airing the next week on August 26th.
This means that the Dynamite schedule for August 26th will now air on Thursday 27th, whilst
the September 16th Dynamite will be one-hour long and take place after the NBA Playoffs, which will also
air on Thurssaday September 17th. There’s clearly a lot of changes happening in AEW because of
the NBA, and though they might have to switch up where fans can see their shows for the next few
weeks, it’s good for them, and the fans, they they’re able to find somewhere to go, rather than
simply going without any AEW programming for an entire month
Back to WWE next and we’re looking ahead to Payback, as the August 30th Pay Per View is
taking place just one week after Summerslam.
Ever since Payback was announced, fans have speculated that this show has been placed to compete with
AEW All Out, with the supposed attitude of WWE being to saturate the wrestling Pay Per View
market ahead of All Out on September 5th. However, it’s now being reported
that this isn’t the case, as according to Steve Carrier of Ringside News, AEW has not been a factor at all
in Payback taking place just days before All Out.
He added that the show was scheduled for August 30th to quickly carry on the angles that’ll develop
at Summerslam. With that in mind, it’s possible that All Out could be affected by having
Payback and Summerslam take place shortly before AEW’s flagship show, but for fans of both WWE and All
Elite Wrestling, there’s three weeks of Pay Per Views to look forward to.
One group that may make their presence known at Payback or Summerslam is retribution, and
this week, one of their members was revealed.
During Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez pointed out that one female Retrbution member
had purple at the end of her hair, and also noted that one woman in the crowd who Retribution beat
up the week prior had purple in her hair as well, saying it was the same woman.
It’s been previously reported that the members of Retribution we are currently seeing are not the actual
final members of the group, though It’s clear that one member of the group this week was a victim of the
group a week prior. It appears that the purple-haired Retribution member is Jessi Kamea,
whilst the woman with red-hair could be Santana Garrett, but until the group’s members are revealed,
nothing is for certain. Back to AEW now, as former SmackDown Executive Director
Eric Bischoff recently appeared on Dynamite, though his debut on the August 5th episode was spoiled
before the show had aired. Unsurprisngly, this leak didn’t go down well with AEW’s roster,
and during Chris Jericho’s latest Saturday Night Special, the former World Champion made a pretty
big accusation about how this news got leaked. He said:
“When we had the debate and Eric Bischoff was announced on Reddit and we know who the spy is, by
the way. Oh, we know. He'll never f---ing be back in AEW. NXT reject was a spy, so print that."
This is quite the claim from Jericho, who didn’t reveal who this so-called NXT reject was, but whoever it is,
don’t expect them to be appearing on TNT ever again. Over to SmackDown next, as
Universal Champion Braun Strowman is staying with the Blue brand, despite what others have said.
After reports came out that the Monster Among Men had contacted AEW, Strowman told Heel By Nature
that the story is fake news, and he doesn’t like being clickbait for lies.
In July last year, Strowman signed a new five-year deal with WWE, before it was announced that
Dynamite would be on TNT, and given that he’s the top star on SmackDown, the reigning Universal
Champion and with a huge match at Summerslam, its clear that Strowman is here to stay.
And we’re ending today with more Strowman news, as the Universal Champion’s past with Alexa Bliss
has been the focus of SmacKDown as of late. During the original Mixed Match
Challenge, a romance between the two was teased, and on the latest SmackDown, Bliss said that there
was something between them. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained why this storyline,
which hadn’t been used in over a year, was brought back, saying:
“It was sort of there that there was a connection with Team Little Big and she was bossing him around
and he had a crush on her. It was years ago, and it hasn’t been touched in years, now they’re
bringing it back. They gotta find something, but at least now they’re trying something that’s working.”
Whilst their may have been a spark between the two before, Strowman’s actions as of late have certainly
been against Bliss, and we’ll have to wait and see what influence the former Women’s Champion has
on Strowman’s Universal title match against the Fiend this Sunday.