And your headlines for today include
“Hard To Say” What Future Holds For ROH ; New Logo & More!
Tony Khan Believes More AEW Stars Will Join WWE!
Braun Strowman Claims Tony Khan “Pays Dirt Sheets” And Blackballs AEW Wrestlers From Cyn Shows!
WWE Changed Up Plan For Cody Rhodes On Raw After WrestleMania!
Update On WWE’s Return To Saudi Arabia!
Why Shotzi Blackheart Vanished From WWE Television?
Brandi Rhodes Reportedly Had “Productive Conversations” During WrestleMania Weekend!
Lil Durk Plays WWE 2k22 Footage Of Him Beating Down Nba Youngboy During Concert!
WWE Referee Leaves WWE!
Former WWE Superstar On Rumors That Brock Lesnar Beat Him Up In Real Life!
WWE Yet To Finalize Plans For Roman Reigns As Undisputed WWE Universal Champion! And More!
We’re kicking off today with Tony Khan, who appeared on AEW Dynamite last month to announce that he had purchased Ring of Honor, in one of the biggest moves to date by the AEW President.
Now, ROH will reportedly serve as a sub-company under AEW, with tars from both promotions appearing on both shows, but there were \some notable plans for Ring of Honor before Khan inked a deal.
That’s according to ROH announcer Iam Riccaboni, who spoke to the Wrestling Perspective podcast and detailed the ROH relaunch fans never got to see.
Riccaboni explained that a new logo had been designed for ROH, which would’ve debuted at Supercard of Honor, and that merchandise had been made that will now never be sold.
While ROH’s original plans were snuffed out when Khan took over, Riccaboni said he remains excited for the company’s future.
Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor 15 marked Khan’s first show in charge of ROH, but in an interview with ESPN, he revealed that much of the company’s future remains unclear:
I’ve been having more conversations with WarnerMedia about what we can do together to grow Ring of Honor,” Khan said. “I think it would make sense for Ring of Honor to continue
as a weekly series and major events like we just had with Supercard. I think the success of Supercard, critically and commercially, will bode very well for WarnerMedia
really taking an interest in Ring of Honor, as well as AEW. I think there’s great potential to have a complementary wrestling brand
Discussing his deal with WarnerMedia, Khan said that he received permission to use some parts of AEW’s production for Ring of Honor, but only after making it clear that this would not be
presented as an AEW event. Khan claimed it “makes sense for everyone” for WarnerMedia to show interest in airing Ring of
Honor shows, but that has not yet been confirmed by representatives from Warner. When asked about the next step for Ring of Honor, K
Khan didn’t comment on when fans will see another ROH Pay Per View, but concluded by calling Supercard of Honor 15 one of the promotion’s biggest ever events.
Whatever the future holds for Tony Khan’s Ring of Honor, the new owner is confident he’ll make it a success and after the popularity of AEW, it’s not hard to see why Khan has faith in his abilities.
Supercard of Honor 15 certainly proved to be a hit, especially with the last-minute appearance by Samoa Joe, but Khan’s success has come at the expense of those who spent a lot of time planning
for Ring of Honor’s eventual return
In February, Cody Rhodes left AEW in one of the biggest blows to the company, but the American Nightmare could be the first of many to jump to WWE.
It's no secret that WWE has kept an eye on their competition, with great interest being shown to MJF and Wardlow especially.
During an interview with ESPN, Tony Khan discussed how Cody's decision could have a ripple effect in his company, and made it clear that he's ready to compete with WWE's offers:
"We have a lot of great wrestlers here,” Khan explained. “I expect t here probably will be, down the road, interest in some of them ' because we’re putting on such strong shows. I think
there’s bound to be free-agent movement on both sides of the competition. I think it’s great for the wrestlers.”
While AEW has parted ways with Big Swole, and will soon part ways with Joey Janela and Marko Stunt, none of these names are quite as big as Cody Rhodes.
Since returning, Rhodes has been given exceptional booking by WWE, which could cause some AEW stars to consider their options, but Tony Khan is committed to make sure that as few
wrestlers as possible jump to Vince McMahon.
Yesterday, we reported on Adam Scherr who had some choice words about AEW’s programming.
In a tweet, the former WWE Universal Champion called watching Dynamite a punishment for fans, and has now launched another attack at the company, especially their CEO.
In the comments of an Instagram post, Scherr claimed that Tony Khan pays off dirtsheets to write positive reports about AEW and negative reports about other promotions.
Scherr provided no proof of this claim, but went on to say that Khan is a hypocrite, as he says his wrestlers are free to do what they want, but have black balled talent from appearing for Control Your Narrative.
Again, the ex-Braun Strowman gave no proof of talent being blackballed by Khan, but said that this is happening, supposedly because Khan sees CYN as a threat to his multi-million dollar
massively popular promotion. Responding to a fan who said that CYN is wrestling’s blacklist, Scherr refuted the claim by arguing
that a ton of AEW stars were backstage at CYN’s events last month, but gave no names or evidence that this is the case.
Since his release from WWE in 2021, Scherr has become fully convinced that Control Your Narrative is the next big thing in wrestling, and while his talks to join AEW fell through last year, t
that’s apparently for the best, according to the Titan of Control Your Narrative.
Over to WWE now as Cody Rhodes opened up the post- WrestleMania 38 edition of Raw with a passionate promo about his legendary father Dusty Rhodes.
Given the incredible crowd reaction Rhodes got at WrestleMania, it only made sense that the former TNT Champion opened the show, but WWE had the opposite plan in mind at first.
Fightful Select has learned that rather than open the show, saying:
On Monday, the Cody Rhodes segment was scripted to go on last, even appearing internally as such until about a little after 7 PM EST. We weren’t told a reason the Cody and Reigns segments were flipped.
It’s also reported that this was a last minute change and that both men were informed of the change late into Monday.
Kicking of the show, Rhodes promo was interrupted by Seth Rollins, as it seems their feud will continue, and such a high profile program and top billing on Raw, is something fans never would’ve seen for
Cody had he not left in 2016.
Cody is yet to compete at one of WWE’s events in Saudi Arabia, but could be making the trip in the not so distant future.
PW Insider reports that the plans for a Saudi show this Fall are currently being finalised, and that it’ll likely take place during the final week of October or first week of November.
It’s previously been reported that WWE is planning on brining WWE TLC to the middle eastern Kingdom, which would mark the second time that WWE has hosted a Premium Live Event that
existed before the Saudi deal in the country.
With that said, it’s been reported in the past that TLC 2022 was scheduled to take place in September, far earlier than these reported dates for the next Saudi Arabia show.
After Elimination Chamber 2022 proved to be a success, we’re interested to see what WWE has planned for their next Saudi show, and expect details to be confirmed sooner rather than later.
Last year, Shotzi was called up to WWE’s main roster but 2022 has not been kind to the green-haired Superstar.
Throughout this year, Shotzi has only competed twice, first being as one of the 30 women in January’s Royal Rumble, and her most recent match being a loss to Sasha Banks on the February 25th
SmackDown.
We now know more about the situation as according to Ringside \ News, Shotzi has been around at tapings each week, and is said to be well liked by everyone who she interacts with.
Her absence isn’t due to an injury either, as instead, this is yet another case of WWE not having plans for her on the main roster.
The report notes that there isn’t any backstage heat on Shotzi, who despite her absence is said to be in “good standing” but just wasn’t needed on the road to WrestleMania 38.
Shotzi’s spot on the main roster may be in even more jeopardy as last Friday’s show promoted to debut of Raquel Rodriguez and the return of Lacey Evans, and with the women’s division getting more full
there’s going to be even less room for Shotzi Blackheart.
WWE has a ton of talented women on it’s roster, and now Brandi Rhodes may be the next person to join the division.
When Cody Rhodes left AEW in February, Brandi left with her husband, but at the time it was noted that WWE were only interested in the American Nightmare.
That seems to have changed, as Fightful Select reports that although Brandi hasn’t been brought in with Cody on WWE TV, the former AEW Chief Brand Officer has had “many productive
conversations,” with some very influential names during WrestleMania weekend
It was also noted that Brandi has been working on her unscripted content, and continues to train for in-ring competition.
Her last televised match for AEW happened on the September 16th 2020 Dynamite where she lost to Anna Jay, but Rhodes has had nearly a dozen matches on Dark and Dark: Elevation since then.
During her time in WWE, Brandi worked as a ring announcer under the name Eden Stiles but did not wrestle herself.
Leaving WWE in May 2016, the same month as her husband, it remains to be seen if the company re-sign the often polarising Brandi, but there are signs that she could soon be back, and as a
wrestler instead of an announcer.
If you’re a fan of the hip-hop scene, you’ll know that rappers have no problem taking their beef public, and that happened in a very unique way this week by Lil Durk.
On the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Durk performed his HBA YoungBoy diss track AHHH Ha and has now used WWE’s video game to continue their beef.
At Durk’s latest concert, fans in attendance captured a hilarious video of the show which saw Durk use footage from WWE 2K22 where he is fighting YoungBoy at his concert.
The beef between Durk and YoungBoy shows no sign of slowing down, due to their affiliation with rivals, and whatever the outcome is, this drama is providing for some amusing scenes in WWE 2K22.
We’ve got news from NXT UK next, as referee Atermis Ortygie has left WWE.
Having a tryout with WWE back in April 2019, Ortygie was signed to a contract in January 2020 and has appeared regularly on NXT UK shows in the stripes.
On Instagram, she announced the end of her WWE run, adding that she’s available worldwide and there’s no restrictions on where she can referee.
The first French woman to sign with WWE, Ortygie has worked for promotions such as the French Pro Wrestling Fedaration and the International Catch Wrestling Alliance, and it remains to
to be seen where she goes from here.
In 2016, Ryback was released from WWE, after a unique time with the company that saw many highs and lows.
Four years prior, a report emerged that Ryback had gotten into a physical confrontation backstage with Brock Lesnar, and that the Beast had left the show early over the incident.
At the time, neither Ryback or Lesnar commented on the matter, but appearing on his YouTube channel Ryback TV, the Big Guy this week confirmed that the fight never took place.
Ryback claimed that this rumour was reported to hurt his credibility, and explained that the eye injury he suffered in Summer 2012 was actually caused by Camacho.
If Ryback was worried about people thinking he’s not tough, we’re not sure why he’d reveal that his eye injury was caused by Camacho rather than the much larger, stronger Beast Incarnate
but after nearly a decade since this report came out, the rumours of a Lesnar-Ryback fight can be put to bed.
And we’re ending today with Roman Reigns, who’s coronation as Undisputed WWE Universal Champion at WrestleMania was a huge moment, but now the company has been left trying to figure
out what comes next. According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast, WWE are still yet to figure out
what exactly their plans are for the Head of the Table, and there’s plenty of little details that need to be sorted out:
“The concept of how they’re going to do this unified title thing, I don’t think they’ve decided if he’s going to be on Raw every week or every other week. It hasn’t been set yet. They’re working all thi
out right now on how they’re going to play this out.” On last Friday’s SmackDown, Reigns announced that he wants The Usos to unify the RAW and
SmackDown Tag Team Championships which would make the Bloodline arguably the most powerful stable if they succeed
The most recent SmackDown also saw Shinsuke Nakamura step up and challenge the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion, and while a match between the two seems highly likely, th
the company remains unsure as to what’ll happen next