Here's more wrestling news for April 5th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Bron Breakker wins NXT Championship on RAW after WrestleMania!
When Will Brock Lesnar Likely To Return; WWE Schedule And RAW Status Revealed!
Long Time WWE Star Quits After Finally Having Enough Of The Grueling Schedule!
Eddie Kingston Was Seen Crying In His Hotel Room ?
Cody Rhodes On Meeting With Triple H After Taking Shots At Him In AEW!
Seth Rollins Still Wants To Be In The Ring With Jon Moxley!
Jeff Hardy Says AEW Will Be The Last Run For The Hardys!
Dustin Rhodes To Be Interviewed For WWE A&E Documentary! And More!
We’re starting today with the NXT Championship, which changed hands for the first time ever on Raw last night.
During the show, Bron Breakker had a rematch with NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler, after coming up short at NXT Stand and Deliver, and regained the title from the Show
Off after losing it earlier this year. It had been reported after Breakker’s first reign ended that WWE was setting up a win on a
bigger stage, and while many expected that to be Stand and Deliver, the company waited for the always unpredictable post-WrestleMania RAW.
This marks Breakker’s second reign as Champion, and between this win, headlining NXT Stand and Deliver and inducting his father Rick and Uncle Scott Steiner into the
WWE Hall of Fame, it’s been a huge week for the second-generation Superstar.
Now, in 2019, Pat Buck joined WWE as a producer, but his time with the company has come to an end.
On Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez confirmed Buck’s departure, and said that the toll of the role he had played a huge influence on his decision to quit the company.
Alverez explained that WWE uses the same producers for Raw and SmackDown, meaning they constantly have to travel between shows, unlike the majority of talent who
only compete on Raw or SmackDown.
Buck did at least end his WWE career on a high, as he co-produced the WrestleMania: Sunday main event between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, alongside
Michael Hayes. Producing for the biggest promotion in the world, we can only imagine how difficult this decision
was for Buck, but after such a gruelling schedule, we hope the former WWE producer is able to have some time to relax now that he can finally go back home
Over to AEW now as Eddie Kingston debuted back in July 2020 and has recently been feuding with Chris Jericho on the company programming.
At AEW Revolution, Kingston beat Jericho in an epic war which proved to be very emotional as Kingston told the Wrestling Perspective:
I remember after the match with Jericho, I went back to the hotel room before hanging out with everybody, and I just cried because I didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t know
whether to scream, yell, or whatever. I didn’t know how to handle that moment. I still see myself as that 17-year-old kid on the street corner. I’m just trying to do good. That’s
all I’m trying to do. I’m just trying to be better every day.” After being laid out by the Jericho Appreciation Society, Kingston returned on last week’s
Dynamite with revenge on his mind, and while he failed in that attempt last week, it’s clear that this war between the Mad King and the Demo God is far from over
Signing Cody Rhodes back is a huge win for WWE, especially as Rhodes has said some things in the past that made a possible return seem unlikely.
At AEW’s very first Pay Per View, Double or Nothing 2019, the former TNT Champion took aim at Triple H, destroying a throne themed around WWE’s COO with the Game.
This could have led to a tense reunion at WrestleMania 38 but in the post-show media scrum, Rhodes recalled meeting up with Triple H backstage:
We did speak and I think Triple H did it in such a Triple H fashion. Everybody had come on that bus to say hello, talk a little bit about what may happen and the very last one
was Triple H. My former assistant from AEW came as a friend and he was on [the bus] and he knows the world’s worst kept secret that Hunter is my favorite wrestler.
That was a really, [starts to tear up] jeez, this has been a wild tear-filled weekend, but it was just a good moment. Also to see him healthy and I know the retirement came
as it did but to do some justice to not only see my favorite wrestler and somebody that gosh I wanted to model so many things after and such. Seth being his protégée
and to be able to give some of those fan service moments for the fans and also for Triple H.
“That was really touching and especially, you’ve got to put it in perspective, I talked a lot of smack, I destroyed his throne, I was very loud. Very intent on getting angry, I was just angry
and that was just a moment of no anger. Because why would I be angry? You guys are paying me this absurd amount of money and I get to be me? I get to be
me and especially coming from where I had left here, there’s nothing to be angry about. It’s more of a matter of one chapter ended, a beautiful chapter in AEW which I’m so proud of,
and then to start this new chapter here. I just kept saying out there finish, I wasn’t talking about the match, but finish as far as what’s next, what I started here, I have
to finish if that makes sense. But I spoke right before with him and I’m very excited to see him.”
Like many AEW stars, Rhodes did himself no favours by taking shot after shot at WWE, and its great to see that there’s no hard feelings between Triple H and the American Nightmare.
For years, Seth Rollins has shared the WWE ring with some of the very top Superstars, including John Cena, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.
Of course there’s plenty of huge names who have left WWE in favour of AEW, but Rollins hasn’t given up on possibly facing one of his oldest friends and fiercest enemies.
During a WrestleMania panel, Rollins acknowledged Jon Moxley’s role in AEW, where he’s working with fellow WWE alum William Regal and Bryan Danielson, but still hopes
to one day share the ring with the former Dean Ambrose: “You never know what will happen. He could show up right here. He might be behind the curtain
right now, I have no idea. So, if I get Paradigm Shifted on this stage, don’t be alarmed. But, I hope that we have not seen the last of Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in the same
ring together.”
Rollins may be quietly confident of a possible match, but that may be wishful thinking given the harsh words Mox had about departing WWE in his recent memoir.
With that said, fans once thought we’d never see Cody Rhodes in WWE ever again, so we can’t entirely rule out the return of Dean Ambrose one day.
Only time will tell whether Moxley one day returns to WWE, but don’t expect Jeff Hardy to step foot back in a ring owned by Vince McMahon.
In December, Hardy was released from WWE under controversial circumstances to say the least, and during the Ad Free Supershow Media Scrum, the Charismatic
Enigma confirmed that joining AEW will be his last run in the ring: “Our last run. We’re getting older, you know? I’m 44,
Matt’s 45, 46, 47. So I mean, it’s our last run. It’s gonna be special and I think AEW is the place we can actually do that open-minded. Like
it’s free. So it feels so good. I’m right exactly where I’m supposed to be.” This isn’t what WWE wanted in the slightest, as the company
even tried to goad Jeff back with the promise of A Hall of Fame induction, one that Hardy swiftly turned down
While Jeff is Hall of Fame worthy, he and Matt have said they’re going after the AEW World Tag Team titles, and we’ll have to see if that dream is fulfilled in this final run
in the ring.
And we’re ending today with Cody Rhodes, who has been on fire since his return to WWE last weekend.
After Rhodes' appeared, it was confirmed that he will serve as executive producer on a documentary from WWE and NBC universal all about Dusty Rhodes, but this
would've been the case no matter what happened last weekend. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that even
when Cody was with AEW, Tony Khan had given both him and Dustin Rhodes to appear in the WWE authorised documentary.
Meltzer also said that if he was in Khan's position, he would do the same, but isn't sure if Vince McMahon would allow it if the roles were reversed.
Both in WWE and out of it, the American Dream Dusty Rhodes meant a lot to a lot of people, and even if Cody hadn’t returned to WWE, this documentary wouldn't have
been right without his two sons.