Here's your News for August 18th 2020 Vince McMahon Acknowledged Why He Hates Rusev Day! AEW Finally Gets Even With Randy Orton! WWE News! 2 00:00:03,436 --> 00:00:05,705 And your headlines for today include
Triple H Explains Why WWE Decided To Bring Back The Dream? Nia Jax Strongly Reacts!
Flying Drones , LED Boards , WrestleMania Style Production Values For WWE Thunderdome !
WWE Wrestler Receiving A Very Special Presentation Inside WWE Thunderdome ! Big Names React
To WWE Thunderdome!
Vince McMahon Finally Reacts To Rusev Day! Gets An Unexpected Response From Vince!
AEW Finally Hits Back At Randy Orton!
Stipulation Added To WWE SummerSlam Title Match!
AEW Explains Why They Decided Not To Reach Out To Roman Reigns And More!
We’re kicking off today with news from NXT, as after Velveteen Dream returned to the gold
brand recently, many fans weren’t happy.
Earlier this year, the former North American Champion was accessed on proportionate
messages to majors, including an implicate photon which Dream admitted was him, but claimed
he’d been hacked and a voice message that certainly sounded like the NXT Superstar was also found.
Speaking to CBS Sports though, Triple H explained the company’s investigation into Dream, saying:
“You know, in this day today, insertions are made and you take them all very seriously.
You look into them the best you can, and you find out what is there and what isn’t. In this situation, [Clark]
was also involved in a car accident. That’s what took him off TV. In the moment, all this other stuff happens
and you look into it and you find that there is a situation that people bring to everyone’s attention,
you look into it and find that it is what it is and there’s nothing there. Everything that we have done,
we are comfortable with him continuing to do what he does and everything else. But he had a
car accident. It stemmed down to people thought we removed him from TV for different reasons.
We didn’t. He was in a car accident. Once he was medically cleared to be able to return to the ring
from his car accident, we continued forward the way we did. We looked into what was there and we didn’t
find anything.”
Whilst the former North American Champion may have been cleared by WWE’s investigation,
there’s still plenty of heat on him backstage for what’s being called preferential treatment, with Nia
Jax responding to a post about the investigation with a series of clown emojis, as it seems she feels the
investigation was a joke. The fact that one of Dream’s accusers has claimed WWE
never contacted him during the investigation certainly doesn’t help the company out, as this
story may not be over, despite WWE’s investigation being finished.
Now, as we’ve reported yesterday, a man recently broke into the home of SmackDown’s Sonya Deville,
and now there’s been an update on this case. Phillip A. Thomas is currently
incarcerated at the Hillsborough Country Jail in Florida, with a pre-trial hearing scheduled to take
place this Thursday. This hearing will decide whether Thomas should be held without
bail or be allowed to post a bond, though it’s been noted that the chances of him staying in jail are slim,
given that he’s not from Florida.
Thomas faces charges of yarmed burger with a dwelling, nominal mister, agreeing talking and
attempted yamed kidding, and time will tell what sort of punishment he faces if he’s found gullaby by
the courts. Back to the ring nw, and there’s been some big updates about the WWE’s
upcoming production from Orlando’s Amway Center.
Whilst fans won’t be allowed in the arena for the time being, the WWE has issued a release to outline
some of the unique changes that fans can expect. Deemed ‘The Thunderdome’,
this new system reportedly has a state-of-the-art set, video boards, pyro, lasers, cutting edge graphics
and drones, which will allow fans to see WWE content on an unprecedented level.
Fans won’t even have to wait long to see the Thunderdome in action, as this Friday’s SmackDown
will be the first of many shows from the Amway Center. Speaking to Sports Illustrated,
Kevin Dunn highlighted the 1000 LED boards that will be used in the venue as well as the drones that will
give a never-before-seen view of the action, and said that the shows will have rows and rows of digital fans.
He added: The atmosphere will be night and day from the Performance Center.
This is going to let us have a WrestleMania-level production value, and that’s what our audience
expects from us. Dunn also touted that the new set-up allows things production
wise that they could never pull off before, including a planned projector in place to project content
on the roof of the facility. One of the benefits of this new system is that it allows the company
more control, as Dunn also said that they could have specific fans for specific roles on the show, such as
guaranteeing a cheering audience for the typical babyfaces.
One person who Dunn spoke about in his interview was Bray Wyatt, as he said that the former
Universal Champion will have his own quote “fiend-dom” whenever he makes his way to the ring.
With it being unclear just how long the ongoing global situation will last, fans will get to see olenty of
the Thunderdome, as the company has use of the Amway Center until at least November, and most likely for
for long after that, if they still can’t tour. This is certainly a unique time for WWE, as well as wrestling as a whole,
and whilst the company still hasn’t got the live fans they’ve been hoping for for months, as their statement
confirms that only essential personnel will be in attendance, the company’s certainly going to have a
much more interesting production from now on.
Whilst the Thunderdome is coming together nicely, and fans are getting excited to see it, there is still one
issue with the concept that WWE is yet to address. According to recent copyright filings,
WWE doesn’t own the term Thunderdome, as it’s currently being used by other business,
including for a gold tournament, protective gloves and a wine company.
Not only do WWE not own Thunderdome for wrestling, they also don’t own WWE Thunderdome
either, though given that WWE likes to trademark as much as they possibly can, we expect these
copyright filings to be happening any day now.
One person who is certainly excited for the Thunderdome is Eric Bischoff, who took to Twitter to share his
views on the company’s new project. Despite his departure from WWE, Bischoff had plenty of praise for the
for the company, saying nobody an produce live action TV like WWE, and though he said it’s often
overproduced for his taste, it’s clear Bischoff will be one of the millions tuning in this Friday to see the
Thunderdome in action.
There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Thunderdome, and whilst many are excited, there are some who
aren’t too thrilled by the name. In a Tweet, former WWE Champion CM Punk poked fun at the
Thunderdome branding, commenting on how many names for wrestling have come from Road Warrior movies.
Explain himself in a subsequent tweet, Punk pointed out that terms such as Road Warriors, the Match
Beyond and Thunderdome have all come from the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max.
The 1985 film Mad Max 3, featured it’s own version of a Thunderdome, and though Punk is clearly a fan,
we doubt we’ll be seeing Mel Gibson or Tina Turner showing up to the Amway Center for this week’s
SmackDown. Speaking of Punk, the former World Champion has continued to watch
WWE despite Backstage being canned, and he’s had plenty to say on the recent Retribution stable.
On this week’s show, the group of anarchists hijacked RAW’s production truck, and after forcing the employees
out, destroyed the equipment, temporarily taking the red brand off the air.
We’ve still no idea who Retrbution is, as it’s been reported that those we’re seeing now won’t be the people
who are unmasked, though on Twitter, Punk commented that the group should be the grandchildren
of former territory leaders, who were taken over by Vince McMahon.
Punk even suggested that Greg Gagne could lead the group, and though we have some good ideas
who’s under the masks, and none of them are the grandkids of territory owners, who knows when the
members of the anarchy group will actually be revealed.
One person who isn’t is Retribution is Miro, who’s commented on The Ryback show about his WWE career.
Speaking about the chant that arguably made his career, the former Rusev spoke about how
company wasn’t on board at first, and deliberately would book him in early segments so that the fans
would get the chant out of their system. Rusev also addressed speaking to
Vince McMahon about how the company wasn’t capitalising on Rusev Day, causing the boss to
say that the fans were making fun of him by chanting his name. He added:
“They’re shoving me down and I don’t understand why. What am I fighting for? I did everything, right?
I went to acting classes, I started working on my body, I did all the extra stuff. I was just defeated.”
Following his release earlier this year, Miro has gone on to become a full-time Twitch streamer,
and a successful one at that, and we doubt anyone is donating to him to make fun of him, despite what WWE
might want fans to believe.
One person who’s not leaving WWE anytime soon is Randy Orton, despite the Viper’s recent
back-and-forth on Instagram with AEW’s Matt Jackson.
It turns out their spat didn’t end on Instagram though, as during Being the Elite, Jackson joked about how
AEW needs to target the over 50 demographic, a group WWE onsistently scores will with, and
after saying they needed something boring slow and plotting, added that he doubts WWE will let them use
Orton’s matches. This is certainly shaping up to be an interesting battle between Jackson
and the Legend Killer and whilst the Viper teased joining AEW last year, before signing a multi-year deal with
WWE, don’t expect these two to settle the score in the ring.
We’re looking ahead to Summerslam now, as this week’s RAW saw a major change made to the Sunday’s
event. During RAW, US Champion Apollo Crews defeated Shelton Benjamin,
partly due to a distraction by R-Truth and the ninjas, and per the match’s stipulation, it means that the Hurt
Business will be canned from ringside for Summerslam’s US Title match between Crews and MVP.
A former two-time US Champion and tag champion in his own right, MVP is no stranger to winning big matches,
but will have to do it by himself this Sunday when he faces Crews.
Over to AEW now, and though we already know that the company has plenty of former WWE stars,
including reigning champions Jon Moxley and Cody, it could’ve had many more.
During a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer spoke about current WWE
Superstars considering a move to the competition, saying:
“Virtually everyone in WWE, including guys who have claimed different, at one point or another have called
up people in AEW trying to see what they can get, or have had interest.”
Meltzer went on to say that whilst nearly everybody has contacted AEW, one person who hasn’t is
Roman Reigns, as the former Universal Champion is more than happy in WWE.
Whilst it’s likely that some current Superstars have reached out, we recently reported that Braun
Strowman denied that he’d reached out to AEW, brandishing any claims as fake news.
It’s entirely likely that more former WWE Superstars will one-day join Tony Khan’s promotion, and if Meltzer
is to be believed, those Superstars have already inquired about the big jump.
And we’re ending with news from the Octagon, as Daniel Cormier recently retired following UFC 252, and though
his last fight had some eye-gouging controversy, there’s plenty of parties that have their sights set
on him. On the latest Saturday Night Special, Dave Meltzer confirmed that WWE
still has interest in Cormier, which stems from his confrontation with then-Universal Champion Brock
Lesnar at UFC 226 in July 2018.
FOX also have an interest in signing Lesnar, and in the past, Cormier has shown an interest in joining the
wrestling world, either in the ring, or on commentary. Cormier’s loss via decision to Stipe
Miocic was a huge deal, as was his subsequent retirement, but if WWE and Fox have their way,
the former UFC Heavyweight Champion won’t be leaving the world of combat sports just yet.