Here's your wrestling news for April 12th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Is Cody Rhodes Set For A Long-Term Feud?
WWE Nixed Title Match On Raw Due To Covid Protocols!
Tommaso Ciampa Called Up To WWE Main Roster; What Happened With Tommaso Ciampa Before WWE Raw ent On Air?
Real Reason Why Chris Jericho Lost Weight Is Finally Revealed!
Vince McMahon On Roman Reigns & Brock Lesnar’s Current Status!
Some Major Accusations Levelled Against STEPHANIE MCMAHON!
The Random Finish Of AJ Styles Vs. Damian Priest; What’s NEXT for AJ Styles on WWE RAW!
Surprising Booking Planned For RONDA ROUSEY By WWE Writers!
Rick Ross Pays Tribute To Scott Hall While Filming Television Show & Getting A Shave!
Sarah Logan Booked For Multiple Appearances With Control Your Narrative Company
Is Shotzi Blackheart Having Heat In WWE ? And More!
We’re kicking off today with Monday Night Raw, as Cody Rhodes seems set for a long-term, or at least medium- term feud with Seth Rollins.
Appearing at the start of Raw, Rhodes said he is willing to give the former Universal Champion a rematch, and went on to defeat the Miz in his first match on Raw since 2016.
After the bout, it was confirmed that Rollins and Rhodes will face off one more time at WrestleMania-Backlash, and if the WrestleMania match is any indication, this should be a fantastic
match.
Some have compared this to the Edge-Seth Rollins feud of 2021, which didn’t last too long, but saw some great matches b etween the two on TV.
With Rhodes getting the win at WrestleMania, we wouldn’t be surprised if Backlash is where Rollins evens the score, as Cody will have to lose eventually in WWE, and that first loss may
come next month.
RAW saw the Rollins-Rhodes rematch be made official, but one thing it didn’t see was the advertised bout of WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Sasha Banks and Naomi against Rhea Ripley
and Liv Morgan.
Instead, fans saw Naomi defeat Morgan in singles action, and the original tag match was postponed for circumstances out of the company’s control.
On commentary, it was said that Ripley could attend Raw due to C-19 protocols, which may be why she was also absent from last week’s SmackDown.
This absence comes at a tough time for WWE and Ripley, who was rumoured to be turning heel very soon, with many saying it was going to happen this week after losing the tag match to the champs.
It’s also been reported that WWE are planning on putting a heel Ripley in Edge’s stable alongside Damian Priest, but until she’s able to appear on TV again, all plans are on hold for the former
RAW Women’s Champion.
Now, Tommaso Ciampa has for years been one of NXT’s most dominant Superstars, holding the NXT title on two occasions.
The Blackheart was one of the very few Superstars left from the Triple H era when the show was rebranded into NXT 2.0 in September 2021, but his time with NXT is now at an end.
PW Insider reports that Ciampa is a fully-fledged main roster talent now and will exclusively be appearing for Monday Night Raw going forward.
During a backstage interview this week, Ciampa made things official, after a month of appearing on Raw, but still being regarded by WWE as an NXT talent.
After losing to Tony D’Angelo at NXT Stand and Deliver earlier this month, many expected this call-up to happen, and while Ciampa once said he’d rather retire than leave NXT for the main
roster, those plans have obviously changed.
Ciampa made his official debut as a Raw superstar this week, but didn’t wrestle during the three-hou show, and was interrupted during his backstage segment.
Interrupted by Ezekiel, who would later be confronted by Kevin Owens, Ciampa told the former Universal Champion that he’s mistaken Ezekiel for his brother Elias.
Prior to RAW however, fans did get the chance to see Ciampa in the ring, as PW Insider reports that he defeated T-Bar during the tapings of WWE Main Event.
That show also saw Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez team to defeat Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander.
These are still early days for Ciampa on the main roster, and it remains to be seen how he fares, especially after such a lengthy, dominant run in NXT.
Over to AEW, as Chris Jericho has managed to balance his wrestling career with his life as a rock star, as Fozzy continues to make tours when they can.
In recent weeks, the former AEW and WWE World Champion has been looking noticeably slimmer, after being mocked online for his bloated physique.
On Busted Open Radio, Jericho spoke about his transformation, and how a recent health scare forced him to change his ways.
“I’ll tell the whole story one of these days. I had a little bit of a health issue when we toured England in December. When it happened and things were cool, I just decided to kind of do a reconfiguration
of the lifestyle, shall we say. I went on a diet, a strict diet, and I wanted to lose 10 pounds, I lost 10 pounds in a week. So I thought, well, let me just stay on it and see what happens.”
Before this tour, Jericho had gained a considerable amount of weight and had been ridiculed on social media by trolls, but it was Y2J who is having the last laugh.
At WrestleMania, Roman Reigns defeated Brock Lesnar to unify the WWE and Universal Championships, in one of the biggest matches in the career of both men.
Lesnar hasn’t appeared on WWE programming since his loss to The Tribal Chief, and reportedly left Texas on a private jet back to Canada immediately after the show, leaving fans questioning
what’s next for the Beast.
During that same match, it was rumoured that Reigns had suffered an injury, possibly a dislocated shoulder, but WWE is keeping hush- hush about what is in the future of both men.
When Ringside News asked about the situation, they were told by a member of creative that “no one knows the truth” regarding the situation outside of Reigns, Heyman and the Usos
and Brock Lesnar also keeps his situation to himself.
Only those at the top of WWE, such as Vince McMahon, know what the plan is, and even big names like Bruce Prichard and John Lauriniatis may know what’s happening, but it’s not confirmed
that they do. That same member of creative added that the team has asked Vince McMahon what the plan is, as they are putting
WrestleMania-Backlash together, but the Chairman didn’t answer with any definitive plans. It’s no secret that the flow of information backstage in WWE
isn’t stellar, but those who are creating the Premium Live Events really need to know what’s going on, but for now, McMahon isn’t saying anything about the future of
Roman Reigns or Brock Lesnar.
In WWE, Stephanie McMahon has held many roles with the company, including being an influential member of the creative team during the early 2000s.
The current-day Chief Brand Officer is one of WWE’s most controversial figures, and this week, faced accusations of giving a pitched storyline to someone else.
Speaking on Rene Dupree’s Café de Rene podcast, former two- time WWE Women’s Champion Jazz spoke about her career, and how despite being an ECW alum, she struggled for airtime
on WWE’s rebrand of the show in 2006: When Stephanie asked Jazz to create her own storyline, the former Superstar did just that with the
help of Fit Finlay and Paul Heyman, but didn’t go as Jazz had hoped as she explained: “Stephanie ran it and everything. Just two weeks later, 0
she got back with me. She was like, ‘Jazz, I got good news and bad news. Which one you want first?’ I was like, ‘Just throw it at me however you
wanna give it to me.’ She said, ‘The good news is we f****** loved it. The bad news is we’re gonna give it to somebody else.’ I was like, ‘Wow.”
Since leaving WWE, Jazz has wrestled for various promotions, but has said she plans on retiring for good this year, but who knows how things could’ve been had she gotten this storyline
that she pitched to Stephanie McMahon.
More from Raw, as AJ Styles faced Damian Priest this week in what turned out to be a very odd match.
A meeting of two talented former U.S. Champions, the lights went out during the match, and Styles vanished, allthewhile Priest stood there illuminated and making a weird face.
After the match ended with an inconclusive finish, Styles vowed to do what it takes to get back at Edge, and while that’s always good, there were far more pressing questions that the Phenomenal
One didn’t address.
Despite being seemingly teleported with black magic, Styles didn’t say where he dissppeared to, how he vanished or why the match ended in the way it did.
Doing an interview a minute after the match just made things confusing, as we’re questioning why did Styles not go back to the ring to carry on his match with Priest.
This should have been a crucial bout that furthered his storyline with Edge, but it definitely felt like a step back for everyone involved thanks to some ropey booking.
We understand that WWE didn’t want someone to take a loss and wanted to protect everyone involved, but this finish only went to hurt both AJ and Priest.
Even with the little sense it made, WWE made it clear that Styles’ feud with Edge and now Priest is far from over, so expect the rematch at WrestleMania-Backlash.
WrestleMania-Backlash will see Ronda Rousey get another shot at SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair in a match where the only way to win will be to make your opponent say I Quit.
With Rousey losing at WrestleMania 38 in controversial fashion, many expect this will be the show where she gets her win back, as well as the title, but WWE has much more planned for the former
UFC fighter than a championship belt
Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian recently reported that WWE are planning for Ronda to tag with Shayna Baszler in future, as they are the two remaining stars from WWE’s four horsewomen of MMA.
Ronda trained for WrestleMania 38 match against Charlotte with Baszler, who teamed with Natalya on night two of the show earlier this month.
It remains to be seen if Rousey can capture the SmackDown Women’s Championship next month at Backlash, but win or lose, expect the MMA star to soon have some serious backup from the Queen of Spades.
Last month, the wrestling world sadly lost Scott Hall, who passed after three heart attacks due to a blood clot during a surgery.
Since then, countless people have posted tributes to the Bad Guy and that includes Rick Ross, who gave a shout out to Hall during a trip to the barber.
During his time getting a trim, Ross said he was getting a razor for Razor Ramon, who Hall played for years during his time in WWE.
Scott Hall may be gone, but his influence continues to be felt by all those who knew him, as even after his passing, the Bad Guy’s legacy continues to live on.
During this January’s Royal Rumble, Sarah Logan made a return to WWE in the Women’s Rumble match, and now the former Riott Squad alum is getting ready to get back in the ring.
Now going by her real name Sarah Rowe, the former WWE Superstar has signed on for two appearances with Control Your Narrative, the controversial promotion run by EC3 and Adam Scherr.
CYN has already had its share of backlash for echoing conspiracy theory narratives and some cringe-inducing rules, such as saying that the wrestlers are fighting each other, but deep down are fighting
themselves. Rowe will be appearing at the May 13th event in Cleveland, as well as the show the next night in Detroit, Michigan.
In the announcement of CYN, EC3 and Adam Scherr announced that they have a huge TV deal, which turned out to be for ‘Pro Wrestling TV’ a new streaming service that right now
consists almost entirely of podcasts, but perhaps Sarah Rowe will bring some credibility to Control Your Narrative.
And we’re ending today with Shotzi, who hasn’t been seen on WWE TV in months, and fans have speculated on the reason for her absence.
It has been reported that Shotzi’s break from TV is due to heat backstage, as on social media she played a prank when she said she was going to marry Brandi Lauren.
It’s known that Shotzi was broken up after Lauren was released, as the duo are incredibly close friends, but they are not in a relationship.
Billi Bhatti was the one who reported that WWE found the prank immature, and has been monitoring her social media posts, but that isn’t the case at all.
When Ringside News asked a source within WWE, they were told that there is no heat on Shotzi for this faux-lesbian prank, and that her absence from TV has nothing to do with it.
Instead, her hiatus has simply been due to WWE not having plans for her in the run up to WrestleMania, a fate that countless Superstars have suffered from over the years.
It remains to be seen when Shotzi will be back in the ring, but her friendship with Lauren and comments on social media have not been a factor despite this false report.