Here's more wrestling news for August 11th, 2022.
And we're kicking off with AEW and in recent weeks,
there's been a lot of talk about the promotions
backstage atmosphere, which has reportedly been chaotic.
Thanks to the outbursts of Tony Khan.
A lot has been reported about Khan and his antics behind the scenes.
But when addressing the reports that an interview with superstar
crossover, the AEW president isn't seeing any locker room unhappiness.
We have a great crew.
We're very happy with the shows we've been doing.
We have a great team of people.
I recently did some promotions and added to the team with a new group.
Hopefully the communication is only going to get
better because I can only be in so many places at one
time and talk to so many people with such a big team.
Those hirings Khan referenced our belief to be two
names who will ease his workload and will hopefully
quell some of the AEW president's most erratic outburst.
Khan may not be admitting it publicly, but his
actions show that he is aware of problems backstage.
And we'll just have to see if AEW's backstage environment can become
as fantastic as the company owner claims it already is in March.
Tony Khan appeared on AEW programming to announce that he has
purchased ring of honor, but that's not entirely the case.
Khan now has a large investment in the company.
It was covered yesterday that thanks to
recently uncovered trademark documents.
Khan isn't the full owner of Roh.
Instead, the only copyright Khan owns himself is for RoHS video
library and the copyright holder for Roh wrestling entertainment,
LLC itself is linked to Sinclair broadcasting on Twitter Buck
Starsky gave an update on the situation, revealing that the former
ring of honor, COO Joe cough is unhappy about the situation.
Cost believe is that everything should have
been finalized in may and not in March.
As someone believed when Khan announced he owned Roh.
It was explained that when Khan ran the super card of
honor in April, that was seen as a mistake as the company
is still owned to some degree by Sinclair broadcasting.
This puts liability on Sinclair for assets.
So if anything goes wrong in what many believe to be Tony
Khan's promotion, it's Sinclair who will likely have to pay.
Hopefully Khan will be able to sort out all his paperwork issues.
And soon as the young promoter seems to have jumped in too fast
into owning ROH name, who's got experience with AEW and Roh is WWE's
Cody Rhodes, who has been out for months now with a torn Pactorl.
Despite the injury, Cody fought through the pain to
compete at June's Hell in a cell premium live event.
And while WWE has estimated a March return date,
many think he'll be back much earlier than.
Some have suggested that the date WWE has given is
to set up a surprise return at the 2023 Royal rumble.
But the American nightmare could be back even earlier than that
in a tweet from the Scotia bank arena in Toronto, the home of the
August 22nd raw, it advertises a singles match between Cody and Seth
Rollins though the former TNT champion doesn't feature on the poster.
Neither Cody nor Rollins have publicly commented on the supposed
match they're going to have later this month, but it could be that the
arena has accidentally spoiled the return of one of WWE's top stars.
Cody did recently tweet asking what's next and it appears
a rematch with Seth Rollins months ahead of his scheduled
return could be what's next for the American nightmare.
We mentioned earlier, how things have been difficult backstage in AEW
and one wrestler who is seemingly unhappy in AEW right now is Miro
who liked to tweet claiming he had things better in WWE a three time.
Former WWE United States champion.
The Bulgarian wrestler did plenty during his years
with the company, but isn't eyeing up a return.
As he explained to Renee Paquette on the sessions.
Miro said that when he hears from his good friend Shamus and
the four to five days a week, the former world champion works.
He believes it's far too much.
And he prefers AEW's more relaxed schedule Miro
added that he also wants the free time to work
on projects outside of the wrestling world.
Something he believes is far more possible as part of AEW.
Well, WWE has its eyes on several AEW stars, Miro.
Isn't interested in a return or at least not until WWE changes.
The busy schedule it forces on its roster.
Miro may not be ready to don the Rusev name again, but there has
been talks about who could possibly follow Cody Rhodes into WWE.
Rhodes says certain certainly been treated well since returning at
WrestleMania 38 and Booker T has his picks for who should be next.
On his hall of fame podcast, Booker spoke about who he believes,
could make the move saying I'd love to see Wardlow as well.
Andrade, come back to WWE because he's not doing anything
significant in AEW not saying that he's not going out and performing
he's performing, but if you think about Andrade in WWE, and he
had some upside, but I don't know I could be wrong about this.
I could be wrong.
Wardlow has never competed in WWE before, but it
has been reported in the past that the company has a
great deal of interest in the reigning TNT champion.
As for Andrade he left in 2020 after being denied.
But, but later being granted his release request
but recently
like a tweet stating that he'd do better in WWE.
This new era of WWE has many people
optimistic for the future of the company.
And it could be this optimism that brings either Wardlow
or Andrade to Stephanie McMohan and Nick Khan's promotion.
This week, it was reported that John Laura Knight's
21 year tenure with WWE has come to an end due to
his alleged involvement in the Vince McMohan scandal.
Laurinaitis wasn't liked in WWE with one high profile name, branding
him as snake, but the former general manager of both raw and SmackDown
does have some defenders speaking on his hall of fame podcast.
Booker T had praise for Johnny ACE, who he worked with, both
in w C w and later in WWE, Laurinaitis, I give the dude a
whole lot of credit for making me a much better performer.
He was very, very instrumental in my career in making me
challenge myself to think a whole lot more and be better.
So, yeah, man, sad day for me, I'm sad to see Laurinaitis step down.
I really am.
Booker may be a fan of Laurinaitis’ but he's in the minority
in WWE and most people are reportedly elated to see him
go and triple H take over as head of talent relations.
After 21 years in WWE, Laurinaitis will have to search for
work elsewhere and given the claims against him that may
prove to be difficult for the former head of talent relations.
Last Sunday, Tay Conti and Sammy Guevara married.
And the two will be appearing this Friday at the quake, by the
lake rampage, interestingly for the promotional material for their
upcoming AAA mixed tag titles match with Dante Martin and sky blue.
Tay , isn't known as Tay Conti , but rather Tay mellow.
Tay got the Conti name from her
previous marriage to Judoka Jorge Conti
. And while she could have used the Guevara name, Tay melo is proud
to represent her own family name going forward in AEW last month.
Ric flair competed in his final match teaming with Andrade
El Idolo to the defeat J Jay lethal and Jeff Jarrett.
Players last match came 14 years after
his first retirement match in 2008.
So we can't exactly blame fans for being skeptical that he's gone for.
Good.
It turns out that the fans are right to be skeptical of Rick
as during the latest episode of his, to be the man podcast.
The nature boy admitted that he regrets the promise he made.
I wish I hadn't said it was my last match.
That's gonna get.
Hell.
They wanted me to wrestle in Puerto Rico on Saturday night.
I said, guys, I cannot get in the ring one week later.
And the guy looked at me and said, well, you
know, what could you retire in Puerto Rico?
Can't you instead of wrestling in Puerto Rico, flare
managed his son-in-law for the match, but did still get
physical with fellow WWE hall of Famer, Carlos Colon.
Player is retired, at least for now, but it's clear that he's not
lost the wrestling bug and it may just be a matter of time before
the dirtiest player in the game steps foot back in the ring.
We've got some sad news to report next.
As judo legend Gene LeBell has died at the age of 89.
LeBell was best known for his work in judo, but
also had a role in other martial arts pro wrestling.
And even as a Hollywood stuntman.
Trained by the legends, Lou Thesz, Karl Gotch and ed
strangler Lewis LaBelle would become a trainer himself
as his career wound down working with the likes of Roddy,
Piper and current SmackDown superstar, Rhonda Rousey.
It was LaBelle who was the referee for the
iconic Muhammed ALi versus Antonio Inoki fight.
And he held many pro wrestling titles,
including reins as NWA TV and tag champion.
In addition to the NWA Hawaii championship.
For WWE fans, LaBelle may be best known as the man who
invented the LeBell lock, which Daniel Bryan would adopt
in WWE as the yes, lock in a statement from wwe.com.
The promotion praised LeBell as a towering figure in the world
of martial arts and highlighted his nickname as the godfather
of grappling known for being a man, nobody wanted to cross.
Gene LaBelle made an impact in so many ways.
And we'd like to offer our condolences to his family at this sad time.
And we're ending today with AEW who not too long ago, ran two
weeks of shark week themed episodes of dynamite in collaboration
with discoveries, annual celebration of all things shark.
The tie-in was the latest IP crossover AEW has participated
in and the company will have another crossover later.
This.
AEW's winter is coming event named, gained
its title from HBO's game of thrones series.
But a more recent event will directly collab
with the house of the dragon prequel, which will
take place 300 years before the beloved series.
The August 17th episode of AEW dynamite will be
presented by house of the dragon with the prequel
series premiere coming four days later on August 21st.
A lot has been changing and canceled in the wake of
the Warner brothers discovery merger, but AEW seems
to have escaped for now and fans can look forward to,
what'll be an interesting episode of dynamite next week.