Here's your wrestling news for October 20th, 2022, and we're
kicking off today with AEW dynamite as this week's world
championship match between Jon Moxley and Hangman Adam.
Page did not go as planned.
Instead, the match has ended 10 minutes early
after page was motionless in the ring, following a
stiff lariat by Moxley and rough looking landing.
A statement by AEW confirmed that Hangman has suffered a
concussion, and in a statement of his own, Paige thanked
everyone for being so nice in his first public comment.
Since dynamite, Paige added that he's doing all right and feeling
good, and said how he was enjoying a panini for his lunch.
Paige may be feeling good, but as we all know,
concussions are extremely dangerous and in the
worst of circumstances can end a wrestler's career.
Hopefully that will not be the case this time
around, but we're pleased to hear that Paige is
doing much better after this week's scary incident.
After AEW All out CM Punk had some explosive comments for several
members of the roster, which resulted in a fight breaking out.
Backstage punk, as well as anyone else associated
with the fight has been suspended from AEW due to an
ongoing investigation, but one person is gone for.
As Dave Meltzer confirmed on Wrestling Observer Radio, a steel
has been fired from AEW, which reportedly happened on Tuesday.
Steel was on punk side for the fight, and according to reports, both
bit Kenny Omega and through a chair that hit Nick Jackson in the eye.
The now former AEW trainer had given hints that he expected to
lose his job as on October 12th, he tweeted a video from the
Blues Brothers featuring Aretha Franklin singing about freedom.
With steel gun, there are questions as to
what punk's future in AEW will look like.
As there was a belief earlier this year that the former world
champion would quit AEW if anything happened to his old trainer.
In an update from Sean Ross Sapp, it said that the decision
to part ways with steel who, despite a handful of onscreen
appearances, was more of a backstage hand, was a no brainer.
Much of the roster has remained quiet since the brawl out situation,
whether it be on the record, off the record, or on background.
This became even more of the case
after the Jon Moxley, Brian Danielson.
Chris Jericho led talent meeting that encouraged
talent to keep their dirty laundry in house.
After word emerged of a steel finally being
let go, more talent and staff were willing to.
The unanimous consensus that we've heard from was that
the move was expected, and if there weren't constantly
pending legal ramifications, this would've been done.
The week of brawl out, by the time the following weeks tapings
happened, most everyone thought that they were effectively
done working with a steel who actually had to be fined
for using course language on television just days before
Steele's proximity to CM punk throughout the situation.
Complicated matters.
It was added that a long time talent that had been on
good terms with a steel expected him to be released.
Once Kenny Omega appeared in public and the bite
marks on his arm were still visible, another talent
called the decision to fire steel an no-brainer.
While another gave the advice that biting people is bad, a different
source who spoke to Sapp said it was a unanimous consensus behind
the scenes that steel would be cut from AEW, and he only stayed
with the company this long because of the legal ramifications.
Steel was signed to aew following the Revolution 2022 Pay Perview,
but his only onscreen appearances came while speaking with CM Punk.
One veteran of AEW, who wisely chose to not be named, said
that bringing steel back would've caused a lot of frustration
among the roster with another saying that the all out fight
hasn't actually been discussed too much in recent weeks.
The ongoing investigation that caused Steel's release has led
to punk Omega and the young bucks all being pulled from tv.
And in Omega's case, he was banned from
doing a video for AAA's Triple Mania event.
We'll keep following this investigation, which could
dramatically alter the future of AEW, but one thing we know
is that a steel's time with the company has come to an end.
Speaking of fights backstage, it was a few weeks ago
that Eddie Kingston got into a fight with Sammy Guevara
and was suspended for a few weeks for his actions.
Kingston has been apologetic over the fight and has
even defended Guevara from criticism by fans, but the
Spanish God isn't the only star to get on his bad side.
During the latest episode of Keeping it 100, Conan discussed
the mad King of AEW saying that Kingston has had his
issues with Santana because of his fallout with Ortiz.
It breaks my heart because I spend a lot of time with
them, and I've said before that they're like my sons.
I heard it almost got physical with Santana and Kingston over this.
It's not a good look, bro.
I really hate seeing that these two guys who could have
gone to WWE and really fucking blown up that they separated.
I can see Santana when his contract is up leaving.
Ortiz is very chill and laid back.
Santana is more of a hothead.
Ortiz was like, Hey, they ain't doing shit with us,
and Santana's like, They ain't doing shit with us.
And he's right.
Ortiz is more like we are getting paid and are getting taken care
of, and he was comfortable in his role and Santana wants more.
Despite once being very close friends.
It's reported that Santana and Ortiz have had a
falling out and will not be working together again.
Santana is currently out of action due to an injury
he suffered during June's blood and guts match.
But when he is back, he should keep a lookout for Eddie Kingston.
Typically, little of importance takes place on AEW's.
YouTube show, AEW Dark elevation.
But a recent match between Athena and Jody
threat was anything but typical threat.
A trainee of the legendary Jacque Rougeau got a huge ovation
as the show was taped in Toronto, Canada, but the match
got far more aggressive than management would've like.
Sean Ross's sapp of Fight Full reports that the two women were
approached post match to make sure everything was fine, saying
those close to Athena indicated that each woman were approached
by management after the match to make sure everything was okay.
One source.
Familiar with the situation, believed that should
have been an opportunity to lead by example, as
opposed to letting it devolve those close to Athena.
Believed that this was the way the match was
going to go because of her having to switch to
the heel roll due to Jodi's baby face reaction.
We didn't hear of any confrontation or anything
of the sort between the two women after the match.
It was reiterated to us that not everything that is being
micro analyzed on social media was a result of this situation.
We are told that Jody threat herself didn't complain
about how the match went and hasn't spoke on the match the
situation, or indicated anything out of the normal publicly.
All we've heard from her side of things is that
she's not big on all the attention that emanates from
situations such as these and generally tries to keep
her head down to avoid political aspects of wrestling.
Fightfull will reached out to Jody Threat as well
as reps for Athena, but haven't heard back directly.
There's no shortage of examples of wrestlers taking
liberties in the ring and trying to teach a lesson to
someone they don't like, but that isn't the example this.
Hopefully this showdown with Athena doesn't define
threats career as she's trying to avoid backstage
politics, and sometimes a match is just a match.
When Carl Anderson returned to WWE on last week's raw, he did so
as the reigning defending new Japan never open weight champion.
At the time of his return, Anderson was booked for
new Japan's battle Autumn event on November 5th, but
is also booked to work WWE Crown Jewel the same day.
There's been plenty of speculation on how Anderson will work.
Both shows in two different countries and
now one show has had to go on Twitter.
Anderson appeared with Luke Gallos and seemingly
revealed that he won't be showing up to new Japan's
event next month saying, New Japan pro wrestling.
I love what you've done for the Good Brothers through these years.
I'm the greatest never open weight champion of all time.
I only work when the lights are bright.
November 5th, we're not coming.
Well come on our time.
The machine gun will tell you when
I'm coming to defend my championship.
It's not hard to see why Anderson has chose WWE over New Japan
as it's been reported that he wasn't under any official contract.
Well champion something he is under with WWE.
New Japan are reportedly hopeful that Gallows and Anderson will make
multiple appearances in the run up to Russell Kingdom 17 next January.
But with the pair seemingly off battle autumn, it looks like
WWE will be the only place to see the good brothers in action.
One name who could be competing at Crown Jewel is Bray
Wyatt, who has returned to WWE with a ton of momentum.
Even during his first WWE run, Wyatt Fudded with some of the biggest
names of the day, but Roman Raings made sure WWE was careful with
their program after costing rains, the 2015 money in the bank
briefcase, Wyatt Fudded with the big dog and on the post pay-per
view raw, saying I'm a little teapot while showing an image of rains.
And his daughter, Joelle.
Raings explained on the Sam Roberts Wrestling podcast
that he didn't mind the photo being used as it was
a promotional image with his daughter and wasn't
personal, but made sure that WWE didn't cross a line.
The tribal chief added that while the use of the image
sparked a reaction, he didn't want his daughter to be an
onscreen character and made this clear to the company.
Rains may be WWE'S Top superstar today, but
the father of Five's family life is private and
that's exactly the way the Tribal Chiefs likes.
Now Ronda Rousy is back on top of WWE'S Women's Division after
regaining the SmackDown Women's Championship at Extreme Rules.
Roussy hasn't just beaten former Champion Live Morgan, but
has decimated the entire women's division of the Blue brand,
and her next opponent may be coming from Monday Night Raw.
During her most recent YouTube stream, Roussy was asked who she'd
like to face instead of feud between her and Oscar would be.
Of course the Empress is a raw superstar, but Rousy pitched
that a WWE draft could easily see Asuka move to SmackDown, but
that would end her alliance with Alexa Bliss and Bianca Belair.
For what it's worth, Asuka isn't against the idea either
as when asked this year in an interview with Entertainment
Tonight named Rousey as an opponent she needs to face.
Rhonda Rousey debuted back at the 2018 Royal Rumble.
The same night Oscar won the very first Women's Rumble
match, and perhaps a few between the two immensely
talented stars could take place down the line.
When Jim Ross signed with AEW in early 2019, he was one of
the first names to do so, and the legendary WWE commentator
drew a lot of attention by joining the upstart promotion.
Since then, JR has called the action for both Dynamite and
Rampage, but his commentary has come under criticism from
some fans who believe the Oklahoma native has lost a step.
Sitting down for the latest episode of his Grilling
JR Podcast, Ross spoke about what's next for him in
AEW and said that he is thinking about retirement.
His current deal with AEW will last for just over another year, and
Ross said that he's not a young kid and will have to take things from.
The WWE Hall of Famer went on to say that maybe he is
traveling too much, and while he hasn't spoken to Tony Khan
about retirement, it is something that crosses his mind.
Jim Ross broke into the wrestling business all the
way back in 1974 and has had various roles over the
following near five decades, but the career of arguably
the greatest commentator of all time may be ending soon.
One name Ross has called matches for is Kenny Omega, who
is still missing from AEW TV due to his ongoing suspention.
You won't be seeing the cleaner on AEW programming, but some
lucky fans did spot him at Universal Studios this week and
were able to snap some picks with the former World Champion.
Omega isn't expected to be fired from AEW as all
accounts of the backstage fight is that he was attacked
first and was merely defending himself in the bucks.
But while there's no return date for the cleaner,
he's at least enjoying himself out of the ring.
At W CW Starcade, 1999, Brett Hart would suffer a
concussion that would ultimately end his time in the ring.
A sad end to one of the greatest careers in wrestling.
While Brett has wrestled a handful of times since then,
these matches never displayed just how good he was in the
ring with his most recent being a September, 2011 tag team
match with John Cena against Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez.
Heart realizes his days in the ring are over.
But when asked if there was the possibility of one more match during
a K and s Wrestle Fest signing spoke about what could have been,
if I had no issues with my concussion and stuff, if I never had a
stroke, maybe let's just say I was healthy at my age, I'd go back.
I would've taken it pretty seriously.
I would've wrestled a lot more over
the last 10 years if I hadn't been.
All of the dream matches that everyone talks about.
I would've loved to have done all of them.
Daniel Brian, Brian Danielson, CM Punk,
Roman Reigns, John Cena, Randy Orton.
In addition to his career ending concussion, heart suffered a
stroke in 2002 and fought through prostate cancer in early 2016.
These days, the hit man is remembered for his
incredible career defining feuds with the likes of
Sean Michaels, Rick Flair, and countless others.
But the Canadian legend wishes he could have had more matches.
And we're ending with more from that infamous star 1999 incident as
the one who delivered the kick was none other than Bill Goldberg.
In the decade since heart has remained bitter about what
happened, constantly bashing Goldberg who has gone on to have
multiple successful runs in WWE speaking, during a recent
Wrestle Fest signing, spoke about Goldberg, a fellow WWE Hall
of Famer, and that's something the hitman wants to change.
I always thought that if Goldberg got in the Hall of
Fame, then Horowitz should have gone in the Hall of fame.
Horowitz can actually wrestle.
Goldberg never could.
I think he got in there for hurting everybody he worked with.
They should take Goldberg out.
Barry Horowitz is known as one of the most high profile
jobbers losing countless matches to other wrestlers, but
is more deserving of an induction according to Brett.
In fairness, we should say that Goldberg has spent years apologizing
for what's happened at Starcade and deeply regrets what has happened,
but that's simply not enough as far as the hitman is concerned.