Here's your wrestling news for February 12th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Smackdown Exposes Huge Flaw In Reigns- Goldberg Title Match At Elimination Chamber!
New Superstar’s Incredible Push Continues Despite Defeat On Smackdown!
Does Backlash Advertisement Spoil Wrestlemania Results?!
‘This Should Never Had Happened.’ Mickie James Says She Received Personal Apology At The Royal Rumble!
WWE Hall Of Famer Explains That AEW Didn’t ‘Feel Right’ When An Offer Was Made!
Historic Match Announced For Next Week’s Elimination Chamber!
Former WWE NXT Superstar Signs Contract With AEW !
WWE Makes Offer To Former Ring Of Honor Champion After Impressive December Tryout! And More !
We’re kicking off today with SmackDown, which saw the continuation of the Goldberg-Roman Reigns feud, building to their long-awaited match at Elimination
Chamber. Last night, Michael Cole conducted separate interviews with both the champion and challenger
to hype up next Saturday’s match, but these promos hurt the story as much as it helped it. The major issue was with Goldberg, who promised
to bring back the old Goldberg fans know, and vowed to take the Universal title and defend it at WrestleMania.
It would’ve been an impressive promo, if we had not heard all these points before, as the Hall of Famer has spent the past year of matches vowing
to bring back ‘the old Goldberg.’ We should give WWE some praise for acknowledging that Goldberg has slowed down in recent
years, but with him losing more matches than he’s winning these days, bringing back ‘the old Goldberg’ is clearly not working out for him.
This is arguably Goldberg’s biggest flaw these days, that WWE continue to book him as an unstoppable monster, despite routinely being stopped time after time.
The crowd reaction proves this, as the former WCW World Heavyweight Champion isn’t seen as credible as he once was, and the aura of the iconic ass-kicker
who ran roughshod in WCW is a distant memory. Even in a company where we all know that Vince McMahon likes putting over old part-timers over
current-day talent, nobody expects Goldberg to leave Saudi Arabia as Universal Champion, despite having not one, but two Universal title reigns to
his name, both of which happened shortly before WrestleMania. The Silver lining to this is that Reigns was once
again on fire during SmackDown, delivering some great lines such as saying that if he’d been in WCW, the promotion would still be in business.
Saying that he’lll ‘Goldberg’ Goldberg this week, Reigns has threatened to demolish the Hall of Famer, and though it’s likely we’ll see a
performance reminiscient of the monster who dominated WCW, odds are that this performance will come from the Tribal Chief.
SmackDown also saw the continued push of Aliyah, who remained impressive despite her loss to Natalya.
Meeting the WWE veteran in a ‘Dungeon-Style’ match, the young Superstar proved her own, and is a breath of fresh air to SmackDown’s Women’s division.
The fact that a talent has made the jump to the main roster and is doing well is an achievement in itself, as the past few years and the call-ups of Keith Lee
and Karrion Kross has rightly made fans skeptical of any call-ups. Instead of being buried and forgotten about,
Aliyah is either picking up wins, such as her record- speed 3.17 victory over Natalya, or as seen in this week, holding her own even in defeat.
At 27 years old, Aliyah has years ahead of her in WWE, and as long as WWE’s booking of her remains consistent, it could be a matter of time before the
newest face on the blue brand is challenging for the SmackDown Women’s Championship.
On May 8th, WWE will host WrestleMania Backlash from the Dunkin Donuts Center Providence, Rhode Island, and will hope to replicate some of the
atmosphere from WrestleMania 38. No matches have been confirmed yet for the show, but judging by the advertisements for
WrestleMania Backlash, several massive names will be expected to compete. In a graphic for the event, Becky Lynch,
Brock Lesnar, Roman Reigns, Sasha Banks are all featured for the show, seemingly spoiling that they’ll all have matches at the Premium Live Event
Out of all of those names, Lesnar is the most interesting, as he is only slated for a handful of matches a year, and him wrestling at
WrestleMania-Backlash could imply that he’ll be defending his newly-won Universal title at the event. Pre-sale tickets for WrestleMania Backlash will go
on sale on February 16th, with tickets available to the general public made available two days later, and time will tell who enters Backlash with the
Universal title.
In the weeks before the Royal Rumble, WWE announced that Impact Knockouts World Champion Mickie James would be in the women’s
Rumble match, which unsurprisingly shocked fans. Not only is James the champion of another company, but her departure from WWE in 2021 was
highly controversial, as after being released, her personal items were sent in a trash bag. James’ experience started a discussion about how
WWE treats its staff, both past and present, and in a recent interview with Sportskeeda Wrestling, James explained how she got a personal apology
from company president Nick Khan.
“Nick Khan came up to me at the show and apologized… he apologized to me at TV, ‘This should’ve never happened.’ I agree it should’ve
never happened. It shouldn’t have happened 10 years ago and now it’ll never happen again.”
The hatchet between WWE and Mickie James appears to be buried, as the wrestling veteran has said she’d like to work with the company again,
and hopefully no-one else will have their items sent as trash when they get released.
Speaking of returning legends, Lita will return to action to challenge RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch at next Saturday’s Elimination
Chamber Premium Live Event in her latest match for WWE. This match is a huge deal, both for Lita and the
company, especially as it was reported not too long ago that she’d received an offer from Tony Khan and AEW.
In an interview with Esquire Middle East, the WWE Hall of Famer confirmed the reports of receiving an offer, and said she sat down with Khan to negotiate
negotiate a deal. Lita explained that while she thinks AEW is doing exciting stuff, and has brought new life to the
industry, everything she was offering was the same as she was already getting in WWE, her home for over 20 years.
Ultimately, Lita said AEW didn’t “feel like the right fit” for her, and turned the company down, and we doubt she’d be challenging AEW Women’s
World Champion Britt Baker this month had she signed with them instead. AEW may have a ton of ex-WWE talent,
but not everyone is ready to ditch Vince McMahon’s company for Tony Khan, and should she win next week, we’ll be seeing much more of Lita within WWE.
More from Elimination Chamber now, as there was a time when women’s matches were outlawed in Saudi Arabia, but we now have a third women’s
match on next weekend’s card
During SmackDown, SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair retained her title over Naomi, who suffered a post-match beatdown by Sonya Deville.
This beatdown would’ve continued had Ronda Rousey not made the save, and it’s since been confirmed that Rousey and Naomi will face Flair
and Deville next Saturday in tag-team action. This is the third women’s match on the card, as there’ll also be a Women’s Chamber match,
and the RAW Women’s title match between Becky Lynch and Lita. Elimination Chamber will see the most women’s
matches on a single card in the history of WWE’s deal with Saudi Arabia, and time will tell who picks up victories as well as momentum on the road to
WrestleMania 38.
On this week’s Dynamite, AQA made her debut for the company, coming up short against TBS Champion Jade Cargill.
Even In defeat, AQA has impressed the right people, as she’ll now be working full time for AEW.
On Twitter, Tony Khan confirmed that AQA is All Elite, calling her a shooting star of the company.
A protégé of Booker T, AQA previously worked for WWE as Zayda Ramier, but was barely used before her release last November, and she’ll now her
chance to shine as the newest member of the AEW roster.
And we’re ending today with another wrestler trained by Booker T, who could soon have a full-time home with WWE.
Last December, Rok-C had a tryout with the company, after her reign as Ring of Honor Women’s Champion came to an end,
and now the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that she’s been offered a deal by WWE. Rok-C’s wrestling journey began as a teenager
when she competed for Booker’s ‘Reality of Wrestling’ promotion in Texas, and she’s since made a name for herself out of the Hall of
Famer’s shadow, as she now has a huge opportunity with WWE if she chooses to sign.