Here's your wrestling news for May 6th 2022
And your headlines for today include
WWE Was Very Impressed With W. Morrisey’s AEW Dynamite Appearance; Did Politics Play A Role In Finish To Wardlow Match On AEW Dynamite?
AEW Had To Change Plans When Power Went Out In The Middle Of Taping Match!
Seth Rollins Tries To Intimidate Asuka, Bianca Belair, And Liv Morgan After RAW Goes Off-Air!
WWE Expected To Release More Talent Soon After Evaluating Progress!
WWE Boasts Huge Numbers In 2022 First Quarter Earnings Report!
New WWE Role-Playing Game To Be Announced, Why Gaming Is A Priority For WWE?
AEW Star Injured After Suffering Terrible Car Wreck!
Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against AEW
Booker T Has Zero Respect Left For Ryback!
The Authors Of Pain Reportedly Returning To Pro Wrestling!
Released WWE Wrestler Apologizes For Insensitive Comments That Got Him Booted From AEW! And More!
We’re kicking off today with AEW Dynamite as this week’s show saw W. Morrisey make his AEW debut, acting as the mystery opponent for Wardlow.
Handpicked by MJF, the Impact Wrestling star and former WWE Superstar was given a huge spot on the card, and despite his loss, has impressed a lot of the right people.
According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast, several people from WWE were pleased to see the former Big Cass doing so well, and are speculating on a possible return:
“I got a couple of messages about him from people. People wanting to know when his contract ends. “I’m not gonna say that WWE is gonna take him but I can tell you that
WWE is definitely impressed by him. There’s no way around it, man. I got a message last night while he’s coming out and somebody wrote, ‘did you see this F’N guy?’”
Morrisey was released from WWE back in 2018 after going off script during a feud with Daniel Bryan, and struggled with substance abuse issues in the following years.
Now, the former Big Cass seems to have things back on track, and after his impressive performance on Dynamite, a WWE return could be in the works.
Morrisey was incredibly ripped on AEW Dynamite, but that didn’t stop him from taking a beating in what was almost an entirely one-sided match.
Wardlow dominated the bout, but didn’t finish the match with his powerbomb symphony’ when he hits four powerbombs on his opponent.
Instead, Wardlow hit just one powerbomb and got the win, and on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer suggested that politics played a role in the finish.
Meltzer said that while Impact will have agreed for Morrisey to take the loss, they didn’t want one of their top stars to be humiliated, and said they’d only allow him to take one powerbomb, not four.
He explained that one powerbomb is a finisher, and Impact had no problem with this, but the idea of four powerbombs would only bury Morrisey, making it clear he can’t hang with the AEW star.
W. Morrissey has only had one match with AEW, but has certainly left an impression, and with Tony Khan showing he’s willing to work with him, perhaps a bidding war could begin between WWE and AEW
when his Impact contract expires.
This week’s Dynamite was a big night for AEW, and also saw several matches taped for AEW: Dark Elevation, but some productions problems forced Tony Khan to change his plans.
During the taping, Max Caster was facing former ROH talent Cheeseburger when the lights around the entrance went out, but the bout was able to continue.
For the next match between Skye Blue and Nyla Rose though, AEW couldn’t taped it since the power was out, and they instead announced that the two women would have a match for the live fans only.
The scheduled Dark Elevation main event was a tag match pitting Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland against Nick Commorato and QT Marshall, but with the power out, AEW waited until after the power
was restored and after Dynamite to tape it. Fortunately, AEW was able to get things sorted before Dynamite went on the air at 8pm, as It would
have been disastrous to not have power for a live Television show, and it goes to show the perils of live TV that AEW was able to deal with this week.
Raw news now, as this week’s show was headlined by a six- woman tag, where Liv Morgan, Asuka and Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair defeated Becky Lynch, Sonya Deville and Rhea Ripley.
The faces celebrated to end the show, but this wasn’t the end of the festivities at Raw.
After the show, Seth Rollins appeared to compete in a dark match, and seemed seemed irate at Asuka, Liv, and Belair on the ramp, trying to intimidate them to leave immediately.
Rollins certainly wasn't in a good mood, as he was left reeling following a brawl with Cody Rhodes during the show, and it’s clear that he hadn’t calmed down after the red brand went off the air.
It’s been just one week since 10 Superstars were cut from NXT 2.0, in the latest wave of cuts by the company.
Dexter Lumis, Dakota Kai, Harland and Malcolm Bivens are all without a job, and more releases could be coming sooner than you think.
Andrew Zarian talked yesterday about the potential for more WWE releases, and said that these are set to become even more regular than they have been over the past two years:
“I want to clarify a convo we had on the air today regarding more releases.
“What I was told: “Talent is constantly evaluated on progress. Expect more releases soon & regularly” (Regarding Developmental talent)”
No exact timetable was given as to when the next wave of releases happen, but we do know that WWE is giving new signings 90 days to prove they have improved in the ring.
Like all recent releases, the 10 cuts last week were explained as due to budgetary reasons, despite WWE yet again boasting about huge profits in this week’s 2022 Q1 financial call to investors.
We’ll have to wait and see who are the next set of Superstars to be released, but one thing we know for sure is that these are nervous times for the talent in Orlando.
Video Game news next, as each year, bar 2021, WWE releases their annual 2k game, but now the company is planning a much different project.
During WWE’s Q1 2022 investor’s call today, Stephanie McMahon announced that the WWE RPG game is in development, marking the promotion’s first foray into the role-playing game genre.
A WWE RPG basically means a world set in the WWE universe with characters that fans can choose to advance through the crafted storyline, which much more freedom in the in-game choices
compared to current WWE games
McMahon didn’t expand on this RPG idea, and while fans will no doubt hope for a console release, they may have to settle for a smart phone app.
With non-wrestling aspects of WWE games, such as General Manager mode, proving to be a hit, it’s clear that there’s an audience for a WWE Game that isn’t just about wrestling,
and it’s good to see an alternative being provided by the company.
Now, recently, we reported on Darius Martin, who was said to be on the shelf again with another injury.
After reports of Martin’s injury, which comes after he had to spend a year off hurt, Darius clarified that his most recent hiatus isn’t due to a wrestling injury, and we now know what’s the issue.
On the Universal Wrestling podcast, AEW’s Malakai Black discussed working with Darrius’ brother Dante, and explained what has happened, saying:
“I’ve wrestled Dante Martin but his brother, unfortunately–I wish him a speedy recovery, he had a really nasty car accident. He’s out for another, like six to nine months.”
We wish Darius nothing but a fast recovery and he hopefully takes all the time needed to get back on his feet, especially after this setback comes just weeks after he overcame his last injury.
More from AEW next as the promotion has received a lot of attention since 2019, but now has some attention it really would rather go without.
As first reported by Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, AEW is facing a class action lawsuit by a fan, who claims that the company’s merchandise website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The fan, who is legally blind, claims that AEW doesn’t provide any kind of service for vision-impaired users of their site, such as text-to-speech software.
In the paperwork, the claimant has demanded compensatory damages, an statement from AEW saying they discriminate agains the visually-impaired and legally blind, as well as an injunction
forcing the promotion to add the necessary changes to their site.
Interestingly, WWE had a similar issue a few years ago, when a visually-impaired fan filed a lawsuit over WWEShop.com lacking certain features, but the two sides settled out of court in December 2020.
At this time, AEW hasn’t publicly responded to the suit, but we’ll make sure to keep updated as more information comes out.
Last week, Ryback made some incredibly vulgar comments about Vicky Askew, the recently deceased mother of Vince McMahon.
In his latest rant against the WWE Chairman, Ryback called Askew a wh*re, earning himself a flurry of backlash from the wrestling community.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast this week, Booker T discussed Ryback’s comments, and didn’t hold back, saying that he’s lost all respect for the former wrestler.
Booker said that when you talk about somebody you don’t know in the way Ryback spoke about Vince’s mother, it’s just “outright stupid and nasty,” and said that Ryback was bitter because he “didn’t
make it in WWE.”
Booker also said that for all his hatred for WWE, Ryback is happy to use the name WWE gave him, Ryback, which is a portmantaue of his name Ryan and his pre-WWE nickname ‘Silverback.’
The five-time WCW World Champion went on, saying that if he saw Rybak face to face, he’d tell him how he has no respect for him, and would not be welcoming if Ryback somehow returned to WWE.
In his self-help book, Ryback says that people need to learn to forgive each other, in the way he has apparently forgiven WWE, but the former Intercontinental Champion should really practice what he preaches.
We’ve got news from the Authors of Pain now, as the former WWE Raw Tag Champions are ready to get back in the ring.
Fightful Select reports that the duo, who haven’t wrestled in over two years, have reached out to other wrestlers about an event they plan on running in early June in Dubai, which they plan on both
promoting, and wrestling on the card for. When Rezar told a reporter last year that he is no longer a professional wrestler, there had been
speculation that the two were finished for good, but the AOP are back, even if it’s just for one event next month.
In February this year, Brian Kendrick was set to make his debut for AEW, having a high profile match with Jon Moxley.
At the time, Kendrick had only recently left WWE and was looking to build some hype for himself, but past comments came back to haunt the former Cruiserweight Champion.
In comments from 2013, Kendrick made several antisemitic claims a bout the Holocaust of Jewish people in World War 2, and after this and claims that the Sandy Hook school shooting was staged,
Tony Khan pulled him from the show.
Kendrick apologised for his comments at the time, and speaking to Duke Loves Rasslin, Kendrick elaborated on his incredibly tasteless comments:
“Back then, I was trying to create some sort of buzz and I didn’t care who I offended. When it gets thrown back in your face, one, it’s embarrassing, two, you’re forced to reflect on it. I’m sorry. I’m
sorry for being so cold-hearted and trying to profit off of tragedy. I suppose that’s what it was.
I was trying to gain off of other’s tragedies but making conspiracies and creating a buzz for myself to gain bookings. It was a terrible idea. Even if it hadn’t affected anybody, it’s horribly embarrassing.
I am sorry for anybody…to people I hurt, for making light of stuff that happened to them or their family. I hope you accept that.”
To his credit, Kendrick has recently worked for the Mitzvah Project, aiding elderly people who survived the Holocaust, and has accepted that his comments may have permanently ended his wrestling career.
Kendrick clearly sees what he said was wrong, but hopes to one day come back from it, but time will tell if that ever happens for the former Cruiserweight Champion.
And we’re ending today with Drew McIntyre has also had an interesting journey to the top of WWE, but has had plenty of setbacks too.
Despite being touted as the Chosen One in 2009, McIntyre was released in 2014, and in his autobiography, admits that this led to a spiral of depression that it would take him a long time to recover from.
While speaking with Ad Council’s Seize the Awkward campaign, Drew opened up about his mental health issues, which have plagued him from an early age, saying it wasn’t healthy to keep everything bottled up.
McIntyre said how there’s still a stigma for men to speak about their mental health, saying it’s “not easy for a guy,” but that speaking to others when you’re struggling is a sign of true strength.
Returning to WWE in 2017 and winning the WWE Championship in 2020, McIntyre seems to be in a much better place now, but it goes to show that nobody is immune from suffering issues related to mental health.