Here's your wrestling news for July 16th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Possible Spoiler On Becky Lynch’s WWE Return!
Breaking News As Bill Goldberg Is Set To Return On WWE RAW Next Week! SummerSlam 2021 Opponent Is Leaked!
Great Decision By WWE; Employees Are Ecstatic!
MALAKAI BLACK REVEALS HOW HE CAME UP WITH NEW AEW NAME!
Stephanie McMahon Issues Letter Ahead Of WWE Return To Touring!
AEW's Matt Hardy Blasts WWE For Treating Their Established Stars Poorly!
WWE Wrestler Injured & Pulled From In- Ring Competition!
Cody Rhodes Likely To Miss Several Upcoming Weeks Of AEW Television!
Nia Jax Worries Fans With Cryptic Message!
Impact Wrestling Drops More Hints On Who Might Appear At Slammiversary!
Chris Jericho Says Conor McGregor Is ‘Done’!
Murphy Reveals How He Found Out WWE Dropped Angle With Aalyah Mysterio!
Roman Reigns Brags That He Has The ‘It’ Factor & More
We’re kicking off today with Becky Lynch, who hasn’t been seen in over a year in WWE, but her return to TV is expected
very soon. Lynch hasn’t wrestled since WrestleMania 36, and after giving birth to baby Roux last
December, has been working hard to get back in the ring. Now, The Man’s return could be mere days
away, as the PW Insider reports that Lynch is expected to be in the Dickies Arena this Sunday for Money-in-The-Bank.
There’s no word yet on whether Lynch will be appearing on camera or just watching backstage, but this is the biggest step the Man
has made towards an in-ring return. WWE wants this Sunday’s show to be a smash-hit as the company continues to try
and get fans tuning in again, and having The Man come around during the show would definitely garner a ton of interest for
Vince McMahon.
We know that if Lynch does appear, she won’t be a part of the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match, as the final sport has now been
filled. WWE have announced that Women’s Tag Team Champion Tamina will take the last spot,
which’ll make this her third Money-in-the-Bank ladder match. Several changes have been made to this match,
as Carmella was originally in, but taken out so she could face Bianca Belair instead of the injured Bayley, and her spot was filled by
Liv Morgan. Tamina will join fellow Tag Team Champion Natalya, Asuka, Naomi, Alexa Bliss, Nikki ASH,
Liv Morgan and Zelina Vega, and we’ll have to see who leaves Houston this Sunday with a guaranteed title shot at the
time of their choosing.
With WWE getting back on the road, the company will need some huge names to bring back live fans, and one huge name is expected
very soon. It’s no secret that WWE has several part- timers at their disposal, and according to a
Fightful Select report, Goldberg is on his way back to WWE, and will be challenging for Bobby Lashley’s WWE Championship.
Those were the plans as of Thursday afternoon, and it’s reported he’ll return on next week’s RAW, presumably to set up a
title match at Summerslam. Goldberg’s contract allows for a minimum two matches a year, and he’s already
competed at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per- View, and now his second match will seemingly be at Summerslam.
WWE plans on keeping Lashley as Champion for a long time, and a dominant win over Goldberg at Summerslam will prove why the
Almighty is RAW’s top star. This wasn’t the match Lashley wanted, as he remains focussed on one-day facing
Brock Lesnar, and it’s noted that as of Thursday, Lesnar and WWE haven’t shaken hands just yet, but Vince McMahon remains
focussed on doing the Lashley-Lesnar match on a much bigger scale, presumably at WrestleMania 38 next year.
Last August, Goldberg revealed that his current contract runs until 2023, and he’s contracted for 2 matches a year minimum.
It’s in everyone’s best interest that Lashley retains at Summerslam, as Goldberg hasn’t been received well by fans in recent years,
and a Goldberg win and potential riot is the last thing the company needs so soon after bringing back live crowds.
After losing to Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble, fans shouldn’t expect Goldberg to leave Summerslam as WWE Champion, and
what do you make of this upcoming feud between the Hall of Famer and the Almighty?
For the past year, the WWE has been all around cutting costs, which has seen dozens of wrestlers and even more names backstage
lose their jobs. Now, it appears WWE are opening up the purse-strings once more, as PW Insider is
reporting that company officials held an all-hands-on-deck meeting with employees yesterday, where they reinstated
promotions and pay-raises for all staff. In February, it was announced that many employees, but not talent, were upset
when the company said they’d no longer be receiving promotions, bonuses or pay raises, and morale was low.
The February meeting involved employees from production, WWE’s offices and other departments, but not on-screen talent.
It’s believed that the decision to cut bonuses, raises and promotions was made because of the 2020 fourth quarter and full-year
earnings reports, which released on February 4th this year. At the time, WWE insisted that employees
would still be able to receive performance- based bonuses based on the quality of their work, but they were scrapping all promotions
and official pay raises. WWE is scheduled to report it’s 2021 second- quarter financial results on Thursday July 29th
and with staff expected to receive pay raises in the coming days and weeks, this is a good sign that WWE is doing well financially.
AEW news next, and last week, Aleister Black made his shock debut for the company, but didn’t use the Tommy End name he made famous
before WWE. Instead, the former NXT Champion is now Malakai Black, as he certainly couldn’t be
called Aleister Black anymore, because WWE owns that name. Speaking on the Twitch stream of his wife
Zelina Vega, Black revealed how his new name came about, saying: “I was looking for an Old Testament name
and I found one that had a double-meaning. I was a big fan of Children of the Corn when I grew up and I felt that, with the character,
the name] kind of fit.” The Holy Bible and the Children of the Corn movie series don’t merge often enough,
but they did for Malakai Black, who’s already had some great booking, debuting by taking out both Cody Rhodes and Arn Anderson.
Black has quickly become one of AEW’s hottest stars, and after months, and arguably years of going under utilised in WWE, expectations
are high for the newest star of All Elite Wrestling.
Now, it’s safe to say that WWE and the fans are excited for tonight’s SmackDown, which’ll mark the first televised WWE event with a
crowd since the March 9th 2020 RAW. One person who’s especially excited is Stephanie McMahon, who this week sent a
company wide email to the entire WWE roster.
Referring to the crowd as the “lifeblood of our shows,” she added:
No matter how hard we tried, never going off the air and continuing to produce our live content; investing in new technologies and
bringing nearly one million people around the world into our shows virtually, it just wasn’t the same. We were missing our soundtrack,
missing the shared experience, missing the visceral and emotional reaction that makes every bump and bruise worth it.
Stephanie encouraged everyone to watch the tribute video shared by Vince McMahon on Twitter, and thanked everyone involved for
hanging in there during the no-crowd era. This past year has been the longest WWE has ever gone without live fans, and after
495 days, the wait is finally over for the company and the crowd.
More from AEW next, as Matt Hardy joined the company in March 2020, mere weeks after his last appearance on WWE RAW.
Before becoming All-Elite, Hardy spent much of his wrestling career under Vince McMahon, and doesn’t have many positive things say about
his former employer. Speaking to Down for the Count, Hardy \praised AEW President Tony Khan and took
a major shot at WWE, saying: "Tony Khan is very smart and very savvy in understanding how to utilise talent and get the
most out of them. You see in WWE often they take a guy who is established and towards the end of their career and they just use them
to put over guys or have the younger guys beat them up and they hurt the equity or the value of that star.”
Since forming, AEW has utilised legends of WWE including Hardy, Mark Henry, Paul Wight and Sting, all names that fans have claimed
went unused shortly before their WWE departures. As for Hardy, his last run in WWE ended
with him being attacked by Randy Orton, and after comments like these, don’t expect him in WWE ever again.
Over to NXT UK, and their Champion WALTER has been a truly dominant Superstar over the past two years, but he won’t be defending his
title anytime soon. A championship match between WALTER and Ilja Dragunov but that isn’t the case
anymore, as the Austrian powerhouse is dealing with a hand injury following a backstage brawl.
WWE sent out a social media blast informing fans WALTER is “severely injured,” and has been deemed unfit to defend his title at this time.
WALTER has been NXT UK Champion for over 830 days now, and has been a fighting champion too, meaning it’d be a shame to
see his historic title reign end if he has to vacate the gold.
Back to AEW, and Cody Rhodes has been a mainstay of Dynamite since the company started, but fans won’t be seeing him for
quite some time. Last year, Rhodes’ game show competition ‘ the Go Big Show’ pulled him away for a few
weeks after Brodie Lee beat him for the AEW TNT title, and now the show is coming back for another season.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that Rhodes is likely to miss several weeks of Dynamite tapings so he can be a
judge on the next season of the reality-game- show. The last time the show was shot, they had
to quarantine and form a strict bubble, but shooting might not be as strict this time around. Regardless, Cody is expected to miss tapings
and with DJ Khaled replacing Snoop Dogg this season, he won’t be hanging with the rap legend/WWE Hall of Famer.
The upcoming 10-episode season will begin filming in August, meaning AEW has just a few weeks to decide how Cody will be written
off TV.
We’ve got some concerning news regarding Nia Jax now, as the former RAW Women’s Champion has fired off some social media
posts that have fans worried. On Instagram, Jax shared a post saying that growth and change are painful, but nothing
is as painful as staying stuck somewhere you don’t belong. Many fans speculated that the place she’s
referring to is WWE, and on Twitter, Jax thanked the fans, but didn’t specify why she was thanking them.
This caused fans to worry she’d been injured or released, and it was much later that Jax explained that she was just thankful for all
the WWE fans she has and encouraged people to never take things for granted. It seems that Jax is doing okay after her
message was taken the wrong way, but at least she knows that she till has a ton of support from her fans.
Over to Impact now, and ahead of tomorrow’s Slammiversary Pay-Per-View, the company has continued to tease more recently
released WWE Superstars joining the company. During this week’s show, Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo signed the contract to face
an unknown opponent this Saturday, saying that Impact can be a ‘hot mess’ at times, that Slammiversary will be Iconic, and that
Nashville is hardcore country. Hot Mess is in reference to Chelsea Green, who used that term as a nickname in Impact
when she wrestled as Laurel Van Ness. Calling Slammiversary Iconic was a not- so-subtle reference to the IIconics,
who have both said they’re considering Impact as their next home, and the hardcore country line is referring
to former WWE Women’s and Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James. Both James and Green have already
appeared with other promotions, as James has joined the NWA and Green will be part of the upcoming Women’s tournament in
Ring-Of-Honor, and we’ll just have to see who Purrazzo faces tomorrow night.
From the ring to the Octagon now, as Conor McGregor had a literal tough break at UFC 264, losing to Dustin Poirier via doctor
stoppage after his leg snapped in the first round. Dana White has confirmed that a fourth
match against Poirier, who is 2-1 against McGregor is in the works, but that rematch doesn’t interest Chris Jericho.
On Keepin it 100 with Konna, Jericho said that McGregor is done, and everyone knows it, adding that had he not been injured in the
first round, he would’ve lost in the second. Jericho also advised Poirier to not agree to a rematch unless he can get a 50:50
purse split with the Notorious One, and with McGregor out of action for the rest of the year,
Poirier has plenty of time to take Jericho’s advice on-board.
On June 2nd this year, WWE released Buddy Murphy, and the former Superstar hasn’t kept quiet about his time in the company.
In late 2020, Murphy was in an on-screen romance with Aalyah Murphy which was dropped out of nowhere, leaving him with
no plans in the works. Speaking to Fightful this week, Murphy revealed how he found out his angle with
Aalyah was dropped, saying how no-one even came up and told him it was over. He said:
Rey and Dominik are doing stuff and I’m like, ‘what’s going on?’ Aalyah is not there. ‘Do they need me?’ I’m messaging Dominik like,
Is Aalyah coming to TV?’ There was no communication. She was asking her dad, I’m asking Dom and Rey. We had no idea.
The dirt sheets said they had dropped the angle. How do the dirt sheets know before I do? I’m trying to track down Bruce [Prichard]
I track him down and I’m like, ‘what’s going on?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, we dropped it,” said
Murphy has admitted that he wasn’t comfortable kissing Aalyah, but that doesn’t excuse WWE for not telling him the angle was over.
Now, Murphy is onto his next adventure in wrestling, and already has a match with Brian Cage announced, and wherever he
goes next, we expect Murphy will be kept in the loop a bit better regarding his storyline direction.
And we’re ending with Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who has been on fire as of late, with his excellent character work
and in-ring skills. Reigns’ reinvention as a heel has shown just how great of a performer he is, after several
several years of being forced on fans as a babyface, and while speaking to Forbes, the Tribal Chief
was more than happy to praise himself: “Yeah, you say you like this person or think this person should be in my position or this
person deserves it or they’ve been through a greater journey or more adversity, but when it comes down to it, who makes the
crowd louder? I’ve always, always been that guy. There’s only a handful of guys in the history of our company and the history
of our company and the history of our business that can say they have ‘it’—that factor that registers with the people,
that makes the people stand up and make noise, and I’m in that group.” Good or bad, few Superstars are able
to garner a reaction like Roman Reigns, who it’s expected will retain this Sunday against Edge, as part of the
billed to planed match with John Cena at Summerslam 2021.