Here's your wrestling news for July 8th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Aleister Black Makes AEW Debut On Dynamite; Zelina Vega Reacts!
WWE Made A Major Blunder During Aleister Black's Release!
CM Punk’s UFC 225 Loss Against Mike Jackson Overturned!
Bayley Says Recent WWE Releases Have Hit Her Hard!
Fan Rushes The Ring At AEW Road Rager!
Britt Baker Takes Shot At WWE’s Partnership With Saudi Arabia During AEW Road Rager!
Re-Launch Of XFL Is Delayed ; Major Partner Backs Out!
Released WWE Star Says He Painted His Face ‘Like An Idiot’ For Nothing’ In WWE!
Former WCCW Star Chris Youngblood Passes Away! And More!
We’re kicking off today with AEW, and this week’s show marked the company’s return to the road, and they had a major way of
welcoming fans back. During the Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall opener, the lights flickered, and during a
segment later with Arn Anderson and Cody Rhodes, the cuts cut out completely.
When they turned on, Aleister Black was in the ring, and levelled Arn Anderson with a roundhouse kick, before giving another
kick to Cody. On commentary, Excalibur called the former NXT Champion Malakai Black,
himself introduced during a truly insane video on Instagram. In that video, two doctors are seen
talking about a dangerous patient, which of course is Black, and one doctor mentions how the Dutchman is engaging
in fights with other patients, and isn’t improving. The second doctor says that Black isn’t
getting better, even after five years, perhaps a reference to his five-year stint with WWE.
Ever since his release due to budget cuts, there’d been talks of him signing with AEW, as well as talks of WWE employees
believing he was cut too soon, but now Malakai Black is All-Elite from now on.
Although there’d been rumours that Black would be signed to AEW, fans didn’t expect him so soon, as he was only released on
June 2nd. When a main-roster WWE Superstar is released, they traditionally have to wait
90-days before they can work for another promotion, and WWE haven’t let Black out of his non-compete clause early.
According to Dave Meltzer, the reason for Black’s appearance is that instead of 90- days, the Dutchman was bound by a
30-day non-compete clause, and as a result, was able to appear on last night’s edition of Dynamite.
Black debuted in WWE as part of NXT, which traditionally have a 30-day clause rather than the main-roster’s 90-days,
and PW Insider reports that WWE forgot to update Black’s non-compete clause during his time with the company.
This is a huge mistake on WWE’s part which has led to Black now appearing for AEW, and if WWE did ever have plans of
bringing him back, they waited too long to re-sign the former NXT Champion.
Black’s debut for AEW unsurprisingly sparked a huge reaction on social media, and his wife Zelina Vega has also
commented on her husband. Vega, who returned to WWE last week, said she couldn’t be prouder of Black,
and we’re interested to see what both do in the opposing companies.
Now, Jon Moxley has been out of action ever since the birth of his daughter, but it’s now time for Papa Moxley to get back on
the road with AEW. At next week’s night-one of Fyter Fest, Moxley will put his IWGP U.S. Title on the
line against Impact’s Karl Anderson, and this will no-doubt be an interesting match with three huge promotions being represented.
After leaving wrestling in 2014, CM Punk tried his hand at UFC, having two fights in the company.
At UFC 225, Punk lost to Mike Jackson via unaminous decision, but this week, Punk’s record in the Octagon has improved.
MMA Junkie reports that the result of the June 2018 fight has been overturned, as Jackson tested positive for marijuana on
fight night, and tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol. After testing positive, Jackson has been
suspended for three months, and fighters were notified not to use marijuana mere weeks prior to the event.
Neither Jackson nor Punk have commented on the situation at this time, and neither have fought in UFC since their fight from three
years ago. As for Punk, he’s still winless in UFC, as the result of the fight is now a no-contest,
but the former WWE World Champion isn’t expected to compete again, having traded the squared-circle and the Octagon for
thriving movie career.
Over to SmackDown, as Bayley continues to be a focus of the blue brand a lot of her friends haven’t been so lucky.
Instead, many of Bayley’s colleagues have been released in the name of budget cuts, which has had a major toll on the Role Model.
Speaking to the Metro UK newspaper, Bayley discussed WWE’s recent releases, saying:
The past few have been really hard because most of them are really good friends and so talented… It’s really hard not to see certain
ones in our locker room.” Bayley specifically praised Tyler Breeze, who’d been with WWE since 2010, saying
that he helped a ton of women’s wrestlers, including herself, Eva Marie and Sasha Banks, adding “I owe so much to him.”
The former SmackDown Women’s Champion insisted that Breeze and the other recent releases will be successful outside WWE
and is excited to see them succeed, but she and the remaining roster will have to make do without the likes of Breeze, Braun
Strowman and the IIconics when crowds return next week.
Back to AEW, and Malakai Black’s debut wasn’t the only big event on last night’s Dynamite, as a segment with Chris Jericho
saw a fan storm the ring. During the show, Jericho agreed to a challenge from MJF, who’s said that Y2J
will have to defeat four different opponents under four different stipulations, just to earn another match with the young heel
in what’s being described as ‘the Labours of Jericho.’ The segment ended with Jericho signing
the contract and laying out MJF with the Judas Effect, but before nay of this went down, a fan tried to invade the ring during
Jericho’s entrance, walking as if he was Y2J. That fan was quickly detained, but not before Jericho got a shot in, and AEW also cut to a
black screen as security dragged the fan off. Whilst AEW didn’t want fans to see this, fan-footage from Road Rager shows the
guy being literally dragged out of the building, and it’s a good thing that security was prepared
With being AEW’s very-first show back on the road, this was the last thing the company needed, and hopefully this
incident will serve as a reminder to fans to never, ever under any circumstance jump the barricade.
AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker was also at last night’s Road Rager event, and like so many stars before her, took
a shot at WWE. During a promo, Baker said she wasn’t happy about Rebel being injured last week,
and after continuing her promo on Vickie Guerrero and Nyla Rose before adding
“Hey, maybe next week AEW Dynamite can run in Saudi Arabia.”
Baker had little reason to refer to WWE’s controversial relationship with Saudi Arabia, but said that the injuries Rebel received
were all part of a plan for Tony Khan to bring Andrade El Idolo to AEW, calling it ‘blood money.’
Baker’s comment got a solid Ohhhh reaction from the crowd, and with AEW struggling to go a week without bringing up
Vince McMahon’s promotion, we’ll have to see what dig the company takes during next week’s Dynamite.
In August last year, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson bought the XFL for $15 million, after Vince McMahon couldn’t get the relaunched
league to work. To be fair, McMahon couldn’t have predicted how 2020 would’ve been, but now the
Brahma Bull is facing some setbacks of his own. Not long after Johnson’s purchase, there
talks that the new-new XFL could partner with the Candian Football League, but that won’t be happening.
On Twitter, the official CFL account confirmed that there will be no partnership, despite talks about a deal between the
two leagues. It was also noted that the CFL is open to working with the XFL in the future if a
deal can be struck, but for now, both sides have decided not to pursue further talks. Even before the ongoing situation,
the 2020 XFL was showing signs of struggling, as the strong ratings they started with dwindled rapidly within
weeks of the league’s debut. The People’s Champion has gone from success in wrestling to success in
Hollywood, but he’ll now have to try and succeed with the XFL without the help of the CFL.
More XFL news now, as the league won’t be working with the CFL, but it will be kicking off in two years time.
This week, it was confirmed that the league will start in the spring of 2023, in a statement given by the league to Sports Business
Journal. It reads: “While our discussions with the CFL did not ultimately lead to a collaboration
the effort reinforced our belief and commitment to developing the XFL for international spring football. We look
forward to seeing everyone for kickoff in spring of 2023.” The Rock and his investors are hoping to
change the game of Football, and will now have an extra year to get things right, and time will tell if he can do with
XFL what Vince McMahon failed to do twice.
Earlier this year, Mojo Rawley was released from WWE, after going unused for years in the company.
There was a time when WWE tried to revamp Rawley’s character, which saw him don face-paint and cut strange
promos to a mirror, but the former 24/7 Champion wasn’t a fan. Speaking to Insight with Chris Van Vliet,
Rawley discussed the face-paint gimmick, which only lasted a few weeks, saying: “I was so against that. I really didn’t want
to do that. But truthfully the sketches didn’t look half bad. I remember thinking I hope when I wear this it looks this cool…
We literally did one match with that character… it was a 60-second match that was written out entirely for us. Two
and a half weeks, then it’s that, then it’s over. I just painted my face like an idiot for nothing.”
Now out of WWE, Rawley is making a name for himself on the silver-screen, appearing in the trailer for the new
Snake Eyes G.I. Joe movie. This may be the first of many movie roles for the former Superstar, who’s 90-day
non-compete clause will also be ending soon, and no matter where he goes next, odds are Rawley won’t be painting his face.
And we’re ending with some sad news, as wrestler Chris Youngblood has died aged 55.
The son of the legendary Ricky Romero, Youngblood entered the ring at 13, and alongside his brother Mark, had success
in WCCW, GWF and the USWA, as well as success in Japan with FMW and All-Japan. WWE fans may not know his name,
but they’ll know his opponents, as Youngblood once feuded with a young Steve Austin in the USWA, and faced Rob
Van Dam in Japan. Not just a wrestler, Youngblood ran the Romero Academy of Wrestling, and
Renegade Outlaw Wrestling, and while no cause of death has been confirmed, we’re sending our deepest
condolences to his wife Krista and their three children at this sad time.