Here's your wrestling news for April 29th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Several WWE Superstars forced to miss weeks of action after testing positive
“Everybody’s talking about us!” The Titan Adam Scherr tours the success of Control Your Narrative
Bayley teases shocking new plans for when she returns to WWE TV after injury
Pittsburgh International Airport beefs up security due to prank by AEW star
Former WWE NXT Women’s Champion hits out at ‘sexist’ meetings she was forced to attend
Several Ring of Honor names were backstage during this week’s AEW Dynamite
Serena Deeb posts gruesome selfie after Street fight victory on latest Dynamite
Worrying news posted from Peacock in their first quarter earnings report of 2022
WWE SmackDown Superstar says he’s open to try out stand up comedy in the future
Former WWE Champion to appear in Danny Trejo film that releases today And more!
We’re kicking off today the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the return of live fans and touring back on schedule, and touring back on schedule, it'd be easy to think that this ordeal is a thing of the past, at least in
the wrestling industry.
Unfortunately that isn't the case, as Hangman Adam Page missed Dynamite this week due to a positive test, and he's not the only wrestler who's missed time.
On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio Dave Meltzer explained that several WWE Superstars have missed shows in recent weeks as there's been a small outbreak within the company.
Meltzer added that over the holiday period, WWE suspended testing, so these cases may be symptomatic.
WWE does not reveal who tests positive, but there is speculation that Rhea Ripley recently did, as she was pulled from the April 12th Raw due to what WWE called a "medical issue."
WWE no longer does mandatory testing, but it's now up to the talent and staff to get themselves checked out if they feel unwell, but with a recent spike in positive cases, WWE could always change their current policy.
In February, EC3 and Adam Scherr announced the launch of Control Your Narrative, a new promotion which has had two events so far.
CYN has come under a lot of scrutiny from fans, who have found some of the comments by the new promotion to be very cringey, including an official rule for talent that “you’re not fighting another wrestler,
you’re fighting yourself.” Going from winning the Universal Championship at WrestleMania to small events in a bar is quite
the leap for Adam Scherr, but as he told Mike Jones of DC101, the former Braun Strowman believes that CYN is the place to be:
“Everybody’s talking about us. At the end of the day, that’s what you want. There’s so much competition out there, in the wrestling industry as a whole. If you really think about it... There’s 40
million streaming services so it’s finding your niche and finding a place to fit in there.” Everybody may indeed be talking about CYN, but that doesn’t mean
mean they’ve had good things to say, but that won’t stop Scherr or EC3 from trying to control their own narrative after years in other, much bigger promotions.
Last July, mere days before the return of live fans, Bayley suffered a torn ACL which has kept her out of the ring ever since.
There have been rumours for some time of her return to TV, but nothing has happened so far, but now the Role Model is teasing a return, but not to Raw or SmackDown.
When WWE posted a gif of Alba Frye, formerly Kay Lee Ray, this was shared by Bayley, and Frye was quick to call out the former SmackDown Women’s Champion for a match.
While she didn’t accept the challenge, saying she has a better idea, Bayley did certainly tease a programme with Frye, which would see her return to NXT.
Bayley’s NXT run from 2012-2016 is considered by many to be one of the best runs ever, as her loveable, huggable babyface persona made her a highlight of the gold brand at the time.
With WWE bringing in main-roster talent to NXT 2.0 in an attempt to boost the ratings, it’s entirely possible that Bayley could soon be competing on Tuesday nights, and we’ll just
have to wait and see where she goes when the Role Model eventually comes back to TV.
Over to AEW now, as MJF is known for riling people up, and this week, he got the entire city of Pittsburgh to hate on him.
At Pittsburgh International Airport, the Salt of the Earth shared a photo with a statue of Steelers running back Franco Harris, who is in a rather compromising position.
Grabbing the bent over statue from behind, MJF’s caption made it clear that this is how he feels about Pittsburgh, and the airport wasn’t going to take any chances afterwards.
On Twitter, DVE Morning show host Bill Crawford later posted a photo of security guards posted at the statue, saying it was a measure done in response to the AEW star’s actions.
MJF certainly knows how to get under people’s skin, and that’s exactly what he did at Pittsburgh International Airport, but with added security, he’ll have to find a new way to anger the Steel City.
Back to WWE, and it was in September 2021 that Triple H was removed from his position as head of NXT, around the same time that he suffered a cardiac event.
In his place, WWE’s main roster regulars including Vince McMahon, Bruce Prichard and Kevin Dunn took control of the brand, which ushered in a lot of changes that the roster didn’t approve of.
Speaking on Chis Van Vliet’s Insight podcast this week, former WWE Superstar Athena, then known as Ember Moon talked about meetings that the women of NXT had to sit through, saying:
“We would have to sit through stupid meetings about how we’d have to dress sexy. I remember looking at someone else (and laughing).”
These two-hour meetings were presented to be “fashion consulting” meetings, and WWE brought in fashion stylist and blogger Melanie Pace to speak to the women.
Many Superstars at the time believed the meetings to be sexist, as the male Superstars didn’t have to attend any fashion meetings, and pointed the finger of blame at John Lauriniatis.
The head of talent relations had previously hired women in the early 2000s not based on wrestling talent, but by flicking through a binder of modelling headshots at the time.
Athena said that one WWE NXT Superstar, who wished to remain anonymous said they were implied to “dress sexier,” but this was never said out loud during the meetings.
Released from WWE last November, Athena is now able to wear what she wants as a wrestler, and we can only hope that these meetings have been phased out as quickly as they were introduced.
Now, this week, AEW Dynamite was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home or brotherly love, and the home of Ring of Honor.
It was in Philly that the promotion first started in 2002, and this week’s Dynamite had plenty of ROH names behind the scenes.
Mike Johnson of PW Insider reports that Homicide, Ian Riccaboni, Cary Silkin and ring announcer Bobby Cruiser were all present backstage, and that Cruise even got an appearance as part of the
Rampage taping.
Cruise will announce tonight’s Ring of Honor World Television Title match between Samoa Joe and Trent Barretta.
Since Tony Khan bought ROH last month, fans have seen more Ring of Honor talent on AEW programming, and with ROH Women’s World Champion Deonna Purrazzo coming
to next week’s Dynamite, expect this trend to continue.
More from AEW, as on this week’s Dynamite, Serena Deeb defeated Hikaru Shida in a street fight, in one of the growing number of violent matches for the promotion’s women’s division.
Deeb certainly earned her win over the former AEW Women’s World Champion, and after the match, showed just how much of a toll the bout had taken on her.
On social media, Deeb posted an image of herself after the match, in which she has a large bruise over one cheek, and one of her eyes is nearly swollen shut.
With this win over Shida, some have said that Deeb is next in line for a shot at AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa, and given Rosa’s own experience with hard hitting matches in AEW,
this injury could look like child’s play should the Deeb-Rosa feud happen.
Back to WWE, and the company has been working with Peacock for over a year, allowing the WWE Network to be aired via the NBC-Universal platform.
Some of Peacock’s decisions, such as removing moments from WWE history that have aged poorly, haven’t gone down well with fans, but now we know more about the business side of things.
During a recent shareholders meeting, NBC-Universal chief Jay Shell praised WWE as one of their best earners, alongside the premier league, and revealed that Peacock added four million
subscribers in the first month of 2021.
With 13 million paid subscribers and 28 million monthly active accounts, Peacock brought in $472 million In revenue for that quarter, but despite that, the platform is still operating at a loss of $456 million.
NBC-Universal paid WWE a lot of money for their content, and it’s certainly proven to work out for WWE so far, but with Peacock still operating at a loss, it’ll be interesting to see what steps are taken from here.
When Riddick Moss aligned himself with Happy Corbin, he was rechristened as Madcap Moss, a wise-cracking jokester who was always trying to get a laugh out of the former King of the Ring.
Now, their partnership has ended, and the two will face off at WrestleMania-Backlash, but Moss isn’t leaving his funny side behind.
During the latest episode of El Brunch, Moss said how he loves making people laugh, saying that he’ll sometimes just do a Brock Lesnar scream during breakfast just to get a rise out of his family.
Moss even said that he hopes on one day doing stand up comedy when he has the chance, saying that there are similarities between being on a comedy stage and being in a wrestling ring.
For now though, Moss’ focus is on his in-ring work, and when the 2022 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal winner faces Happy Corbin at WrestleMania-Backlash, he’s promised that it will be no laughing matter.
And we’re ending today with Bobby Lashley, who has proven himself both in the ring and the Octagon, and is now taking his talents to the movie business.
It’s been confirmed that the former two-time WWE Champion has a cameo appearance in the new film ‘Green Ghost and the Masters of the Stone, which will see a car salesman/masked lucha libre
wrestler discover he has superpowers and must save the world. The film stars Danny Trejo, and while there’s no word on what role Lashley has in the flick that will
release today, perhaps this could be a stepping stone to much bigger things for the All Mighty WWE Superstar.