Here's your wrestling news for September 20th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Roman Reigns’ Next Three Matches Are Reportedly Locked In!
WWE Extreme Rules Not Expected To See Any Title Changes!
Tommy Dreamer Releases Statement On His Dark Side Of The Ring Comments!
Undertaker Accused Of Orchestrating Backstage Bullying In WWE!
“Big E’s Title Run Is Due To AEW’s Momentum” Says Former WWE Talent!
Matt Cardona Announces Retirement!
Spoiler On Another Former WWE NXT Superstar Joining Impact Wrestling!
Missy Hyatt Drops Horrific Bombshell About Wrestlers Drugging Women In The ’90s!
AEW Set New Records Thanks To CM Punk!
Roman Reigns Defeats Big E And Former WWE Champion In A Triple Threat Match And more!
We’re kicking off with the Head of the Table Roman Reigns, who’s expected to retain his Universal title at Extreme Rules, in what’ll be a
rare in-ring appearance by the Head of the Table. Over the past year, Reigns has wrestled
considerably less on TV, and that trend is set to continue after Extreme Rules. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer
reported that Reigns’ next four matches have been locked in, the first of which will be tonight on RAW, and the second against Finn Balor
this Sunday. After that, the Tribal Chief’s next opponent will be Brock Lesnar on October 21st in Crown
Jewel, before he faces WWE Champion Big E at Survivor Series on November 21stin the traditional RAW Vs. SmackDown match
Now that Reigns competes less than he used to, his matches are always more of a big deal, and if the plan is for him to face Big E in November,
that seemingly spoils that he’ll retain against Lesnar in Saudi Arabia.
Reigns’ second of four matches will happen this Sunday at Extreme Rules, but so far, the show has been extreme in name only.
At this time, none of the six announced matches have a stipulation to them, and fans may indeed be in store for an underwhelming night.
According to the latest odds from BetOnline, no titles are expected to change hands in any of the 5 title matches that have been confirmed.
Reigns is the heavy favourite to defeat ‘The Demon’, in what’d be the second loss ever for Finn Balor’s alter-ego.
There’s always the chances the odds could change, especially when WWE gets around to announcing the stipulations for Extreme Rules
but unless WWE feels like swerving the audience, expect a subdued event this Sunday.
Last week, Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring documented the infamous 2002 Plane Ride from Hell, in which WWE Superstars caused
drunken chaos on a flight back to the U.S. During the flight, Ric Flair exposed himself to a flight attendant, and forced her to touch his
genitals, which was defended during the show by Tommy Dreamer. Dismissing Flair’s horrific acts as “someone
took offence,” and comparing It to people not liking his haircut, Dreamer was suspended by Impact Wrestling after the episode aired, and
now the ECW veteran is feeling remorseful
In a statement released online, Dreamer said:
Regarding my comments made on Dark Side of the Ring. It was never my intention to offend, hurt or victim shame anyone. I understand
my comments were insensitive and could trigger emotions in someone’s own personal past. I do not condone sexual misconduct of
any kind. I apologize to anyone I offended. From the bottom of my heart. I am so sorry.” In their own statement, Impact said that
Dreamer’s comments were “out of line with our core values,” and after three years of working for the company, both on-screen and
backstage, Dreamer’s defence of the Nature Boy may have cost him severely.
In WWE, there’s few names more respected than the Undertaker, who was a locker-room leader for decades up until his final farewell last year.
As leader, the Undertaker oversaw everything that happened backstage, but he might have also encouraged some less than savoury behaviour.
Speaking to ‘That 90s Wrestling Podcast’ former WWE Superstar Renee Dupree revealed he was the victim of some backstage bullying, and
accused the Deadman of being behind one incredibly disrespectful act of hazing. He said: “They took my $500 shoes and $1000 suit and
ruined it in the shower because I didn’t go out drinking at a bar the night before because nobody invited me. That’s just materialistic sh*t
you can replace that, that doesn’t bother me. What really bothered me is when in Italy the next night they took my French flag – my
heritage – they shoved it in a toilet and pissed and sh*t all over it. I don’t know what bullsh*t world you live in but in my world that’s called
racial discrimination. That was really hurtful.” “What I did do was I went to Arn Anderson who was the agent and I asked him – Arn’s advice to
me was ‘Don’t sell it.’ I was like ok. The next person I went to was The Undertaker and I said ‘What do you do when someone does this
to you?’ And he goes ‘Well you find out who does it.’ He ordered them to do that because I didn’t go out drinking with him and the guys
at a bar.” The infamous ‘Don’t sell it’ line is the same as what several female Superstars were told
when they came to WWE’s executives about being harassed by Superstars, as revealed by Terri Runnels during the most recent Dark Side
of the Ring. We doubt the American Badass would have found desecrating a flag in a toilet so funny
had it been the U.S. flag, and the Undertaker hasn’t spoken about these claims at this time.
It’s also worth noting that it was earlier this year that the Deadman criticised the modern-day roster for playing video games backstage,
rather than drinking and carrying knives, but we know which roster we’d rather be a part of. Going out to the bar after a show was also a
a ritual that few wanted to skip, and apparently that cost Renee Dupree big- time during his WWE career
Over to RAW, and we are just one week into Big E’s reign as WWE Champion, which came in the middle of a ratings war with AEW Dynamite.
Dynamite has beaten RAW for the past two weeks in the crucial 18-49 demographic, and if Renee Paquette is to be believed, fans have
AEW to think for Big E’s huge win. Speaking to Busted Open Radio, the former Renee Young spoke about WWE’s booking,
and her belief that AEW’s success is responsible for WWE changing course: “I do think that there was more of a business
side behind making that moment, especially doing it on Monday Night RAW. Who knows where Big E is going to continue to kind of
show up? But yeah, I definitely think that was a bit of, I don’t want to say a knee jerk reaction, but as you see AEW nipping
at the heels of WWE, they got to start making some bigger moves. And they’ve got to start making fans happy. So you give them Big E,
that’s going to make people happy.” Big E’s title win was always the plan, but it was originally set to happen next month
during the WWE draft episode of Monday Night RAW. AEW isn’t the only problem for RAW, as they
now have to compete against the return of Monday Night Football, and between these two obstacles, don’t be surprised to see more
huge moments from the red brand in the coming months.
Earlier this year, Matt Cardona won a brutal death match with Nick Cage to become GCW World Champion, but The King won’t get another
chance to curve the Broski up with a pizza cutter. Losing the GCW World title recently, Cardona
has been able to avoid another bloodbath, and now his death-match days are a thing of the past. When asked by a fan if he’ll get into another
death-match, Cardona said that he’s retired from death match wrestling, and won’t be seen competing in any light-tube brawls going forward.
Cardona was a heat magnet during his brief time with GCW, and immediately after winning the title from Gage, was pelted with trash by the GCW
faithful. After introducing a spinner title, Cardona lost the Championship to Jon Moxley before AEW
All Out, and whatever’s next for the ex-Zack Ryder, Death Matches aren’t in his future
At the most recent Impact Wrestling tapings, several ex NXT Superstars appeared on the show, and now another member of the gold brand
is calling Impact home. Fightful reports that Alex Zayne, formerly NXT’s Ari Sterling, was at the Impact tapings, after
being released over the summer by WWE. It isn’t known is Zayne has signed a contract with Impact, or if this will be a one-off,
but audiences will soon be able to see the ex-Superstar in the Impact Zone on TV.
More from Dark Side of the ring, as last week’s episode shone a light on the disturbing antics that went on for decades behind the scenes
in wrestling, and one person who sadly knows plenty about it is Missy Hyatt. Known as the First Lady of Professional
Wrestling, Hyatt was a staple of WCW in the early 1990s, and on Twitter, detailed some of the disturbing actions backstage at the time.
Hyatt said that at the time, exposing yourself to a stranger, and drugging co-workers or even strangers, which is something the Rockers
and Mr Perfect reportedly did, was sadly not frowned upon, and she’s glad the new generation of wrestlers are far wiser
She added that these sort of acts wouldn’t fly in any non-wrestling jobs, and that’s why most jobs have a legitimate
HR department to handle these matters. Dark Side of the Ring has opened up a can of worms about what happened at the time,
and though excuses such as ‘boys being boys’ may have worked at the time, the industry has changed for the better since then.
Over to AEW now, as many consider CM Punk’s debut last month as an all-time highlight for the company, and it’s hard to argue with that.
Even Guiness World Records have said Punk’s debut may have been the biggest wrestling pop ever, and on Busted Open Radio, Tony Khan
confirmed that plenty of records have been broken thanks to the Best in the World. Khan said how over 100,000 Punk shirts have
sold so far, and that thanks to him, AEW have seen records in attendance, TV ratings and Pay Per View boys
CM Punk has certainly proven to be a valuable asset to AEW and with a long-term deal with the company, will continue to be one of AEW’s
biggest names in the years to come as well.
And we’re ending as we started with Roman Reigns, who may only have four televised matches in the works, but continues to compete
at live events. One plan that’s set to happen is against Big E at Survivor Series, but the Tribal Chief
already has a win over the WWE Champion. At the September 18th live-event super-show, Reigns faced Big E and Bobby Lashley in
stacked triple threat, one that Reigns got the win in. As Big E was about to hit the Big Ending on
Lashley, Reigns attacked both men with a chair, and speared the Almighty to end the match. With this win, Reigns has beaten both the WWE
Champion and the man the WWE Champion beat to win the gold, but we’ll have to see who gets the win tonight when the Bloodline
face the New Day on Monday Night RAW