Here's your wrestling news for May 24th 2021
And your headlines for today include
More WWE NXT Releases Possibly On The Way!
Incredible Rumors About Keith Lee And WWE!
Possible Major Spoiler For WWE RAW Next Week!
Eva Marie Gives Sneak Peek At New WWE Ring Gear!
Current Wrestler & Former WWE & World Heavy Weight Champion Is Taking Time Off From WWE!
Jim Cornette Says It’s Too Late To Save Miro’s Character In AEW!
Stunning Details Of Becky Lynch’s Sister Abigail Vignettes!
Vince McMahon’s Shocking Remarks About Jack!
"WWE's Best Kept Secret To Align With Roman Reigns And More!
We’re starting today with WWE, and after a handful of NXT Superstars and referees last week, and now more cuts are expected
from the gold brand. During the Mat Men podcast, Andrew Zarian said he’s heard more NXT talent could be on
the chopping black, specifically saying that NXT UK stars are at risk.
All of WWE’s recent releases have been defended as due to budget cuts, though nobody buys that logic given that WWE has
made record profits over the past year. With WWE planning to get back to live touring this July, the company will soon
have ticket revenue as another source of income, but that won’t be enough to save some NXT Superstars from the pink slip.
With his absence from WWE TV since February, many fans have wondered whether Keith Lee has been released too,
but that isn’t the case. Despite a rumour of him being released recently catching steam, Sean Ross Sapp
has reported that Lee is still with the company, despite what he called a “vague rumour.”
We know that Lee hasn’t been released, and isn’t injured either, but whatever reason WWE has for not using the talented former NXT
Champion, it’s been a big enough reason to keep him off RAW for months.
What fans will see on tonight’s RAW is a match where WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Natalya and Tamina defend against Shayna Baszler
and Nia Jax, but Alexa Bliss may not be too far away. On last week’s show, Bliss took a liking to
the new Champs, hosting them in her playhouse and even helping them win a match by using fire from the ring posts to
stop Reginald interfering, and this sort of angle could be repeated tonight.
That’s according to Meltzer, who discussed Bliss, Natalya and Tamina on his show, saying:
“It’s way too early for them to lose [the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles], way too early. So, I would just presume that Alexa Bliss is
is involved in costing her the match. Maybe she can take out her [Baszler’s] knee or shoulder or something with voodoo.”
WWE could go any number of ways with tonight’s title match, and some supernatural angle would fit with their current direction,
as for now, Bliss and her powers are apparently on the side of the Women’s tag team champions.
The RAW Women’s title scene will soon have a new Superstar to deal with, as Eva Marie is returning to the red brand, and the former
Total Divas star teased her new look on her YouTube channel. During a vlog, Marie received her new ring-gear,
which was blurred out so fans couldn’t see, but we could tell it’ll be black.
Even when Marie put the outfit on, it was censored, as she doesn’t want to spoil the surprise yet, though she did say it has a
quote “boss superhero vibe” to it. We’ll have to see how long it takes for Eva Marie to actually wrestle in that gear, as she’s
appeared in video vignettes, but not in the Thunderdome, but that wait may be ending soon enough now that she has her wrestling
gear.
Speaking of returns, Edge made a shocking comeback at the 2020 Royal Rumble, and since then has had a handful of matches,
with his most recent being losing WrestleMania 37’s triple-threat main event for the Universal Championship.
The Rated-R Superstar hasn’t been seen since his loss in April, and there’s good reason for that.
While speaking on Fightful Select’s Backstage Report Podcast, Sean Ross Sapp refuted any rumours that Edge is injured, and says
that his absence is due to planned time off. As per his contract, Edge is slated to wrestle 5 times a year, and has already had four of
those matches in 2021 already. With WWE bringing back fans, and getting closer to Summerslam, it seems fans won’t
have to wait much longer to see him again, but as to who he’ll face when he does return remains a mystery.
More return news, as Mark Henry has made it clear over the past few months that he wants to return to WWE for one last match,
and the Hall of Famer has been working hard to make it happen. On Twitter, the World’s Strongest Man
showed off his incredible body transformation, and revealed he’s determined to shed another 20 pounds in order to reach his desired weight
goal, before he makes a return to the ring. Henry has explained that he wants to have that one-last match, the one where he gets
ride off into the sunset like Ric Flair in 2008 and Shawn Michaels in 2010, and with the Hall of Famer already
teasing NXT UK Champion WALTER as a potential opponent, Henry is clearly serious about having one more match.
AEW news now, as Miro recently captured the TNT Champion, demolishing Darby Allin in the process, but not everyone is a fan
of the Bulgarian Brute. On his show, Jim Cornette discussed Miro, who he calls Bluto, and said that though
Miro’s performance was impressive, it’s too late for his character now, saying:
“Now he looks good. He’s got his gear on. He’s doing a promo like a badass with bass in his voice. He’s not playing video
games. He’s not wearing pink Minnie Mouse t-shirts. He’s not hanging around with his little mascot Pip [Kip Sabian] and his little
virginal girlfriend Penelope [Ford]. They’re not doing phony sh*t with undercard goofs like The Best Friends.”
“This guy might have gotten over. I mean, it’s too late now because now we know he is a guy who wears f*ckin’ Minnie Mouse shirts
and f*ckin’ plays video games and goes off with goddamn little Pip to play video games or whatever, but at least it’s good to know
he could have gotten over if he came out like this from the start.”
Discussing Miro’s post-match promo, Cornette said that AEW has the most religious bunch of heels, after the Bulgarian thanked Jesus
Christ following his title win. Despite Cornette’s claims that Miro can’t be over now, the fans are on-board with the
Bulgarian wrestler, but if you ask the controversial wrestling personality, it’s too late for him, despite that great promo on Dynamite.
Now, Becky Lynch has become one of WWE’s most popular stars of the current generation, but like many stars of today
the Man had to hone her craft in WWE’s Performance Center. This week, Steve Maclin, aka former
Superstar Steve Cutler, discussed one time Lynch was at promo class, where she cut a promo as Bray Wyatt’s muse Sister Abigail.
Speaking to Fightful, Maclin said he was impressed by Lynch’s promo as the mysterious entity, saying:
Whats of the people there you saw, at least for me that I remember, was Becky Lynch did a Sister Abigail promo. I don’t know if
you ever heard that story. I remember this just because, ‘Holy s---, this is cool. This is something different from Becky at that time.’
she was in NXT. So, it was just something different and it was cool to watch."
Maclin added that this promo was part of a Dusty Rhodes-taught class, and it wasn’t related to any plans for Lynch and Wyatt to
teamed together, but the class was to just try different things and see if anything stuck.
Speaking on the American Dream, who died in 2015, Maclin said:
"Dusty was the best," Maclin stated. "I loved it ‘cause he was just an honest person. He would start every promo class where you’d
just sit there, ‘Alright, what’s the dirt?’ He just wants to know what’s going on. Who’s with who type thing. What’s the craziness?
already knows some of the dirt, so he’s just like, ‘C’mon, what’s the dirt?’ It was always just fun to see the creative process."
Dusty’s influence in NXT is where we get the Dusty Rhodes tag team classic, and whilst Lynch didn’t need to become Sister
Abigail to become one of wrestling’s biggest ever stars, before she left the rng last year due to her pregnancy,
she had the skills to pull the character off.
Now, earlier this month, ECW legend New Jack died of a heart attack, and the wrestling world gave their condolences to
one of the most infamous and controversial wrestlers of all time. New Jack never worked in WWE, though he
did once get an offer, as New Jack himself made clear in an interview before his passing.
During an appearance on Vinny Vegas’ PTM Podcast, Jack explained why he never signed with WWE after honing his skills in
jim Cornette’s Smoky Mountain wrestler, and later in ECW, saying:
“Vince McMahon told Cornette that I was the devil. He told Cornette that I was the devil and he would never hire me because
I was the devil. I was satan! But, he offered me a deal. What they wanted to do was they wanted to take my name, they wanted me to
give them the rights to my name, and this is the sh*t that I created, you know what I’m saying? I made New Jack; Vince didn’t
make sh*t. I made New Jack; you know what I mean? “Yes. Couldn’t do it, wasn’t going to do it.
I don’t know what they had in store, but I wasn’t going to go for that bullsh*t, you know what I mean. I wasn’t doing it.”
We’re wondering what New Jack would’ve been like in WWE had he joined in the 90s, and though he never did join, the ECW star
will always be remembered for his actions, both good and bad.
And We are ending with SmackDown news, and Buddy Murphy hasn’t been used well at all in recent months, with his last win
coming all the way back in November 2020. Most recently, Murphy returned to TV in March, trying to reunite with Seth Rollins,
but after being rebuffed by the Visionary, the WWE’s Best Kept Secret may be joining another Shield member.
According to reports, Murphy could soon be joining sides with Roman Reigns and the Bloodline, a role he’d certainly benefit from
after months of being mishandled. Even when Murphy was on TV last year, his booking left a lot to be desired, as he
had a romance angle with Rey Mysterio’s daughter Aalyah, which was abruptly dropped, leaving the former Cruiserweight
Champion without a direction
Now, Rey and Dominik are the SmackDown Tag Team Champions, and with Seth Rollins involved with Cesaro, joining Reigns’ side
would guarantee Murphy some TV time, and everything surrounding the Tribal Chief has been excellent.
It was Reigns who brought out the star in Murphy during their incredible SmackDown match in 2019 after fans spotted the
Australian lurking backstage when Reigns met with an accident, and the Universal Champion could help make Murphy a star