Here's more wrestling news for July 23rd 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Breaking News As The Rock Is Expected For WWE Survivor Series!
Five On Five Elimination Match, Tony Khan's Special Announcement And More Booked For Next Week's AEW Dynamite!
Malakai Black To Make His In-Ring Debut At AEW Dynamite: Homecoming!
Malakai Black Slams WWE Main Roster’s ‘Bipolar’ Booking!
Huge Title Match Added To Next NXT TakeOver Event!
Ex WWE Wrestler Joining NJPW Commentary Team!
Great Gesture By Jon Moxley After Brutal Texas Death Match!
Kiera Hogan Done With Impact Wrestling!
Former WWE Wrestler Criticizes Goldberg For Not Earning His WWE Title Shot Against Bobby Lashley!
WWE Files New John Cena Related Trademark! And More!
We’re starting today with The Rock, who hasn’t wrestled since his six-second win over Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32.
In recent months, rumours and speculation have persisted that WWE wants The Brahma Bull to return for this November’s Survivor
Series, and it seems that we’re past the wanting stage. Andrew Zarian of the Mat-Men Pro-Wrestling
podcast notes that WWE has booked the Great One for Survivor Series, which’ll mark his 25th anniversary since debuting in 1996.
Zarian also notes that WWE’s current match card for WrestleMania 38 does include the speculated dream match between Rock
and Roman Reigns, saying that this will main- event the show in Dallas. Though there’s been speculation on the Great
One’s return for months, this is the first time a source has said that WWE has got this planned out, and we’ll have to see if the
company can follow through on this plan given Rock’s busy movie-making schedule.
Speaking of wrestlers-turned-actors, John Cena recently returned to feud with Roman Reigns, and the WWE has a whole ‘Summer
of Cena’ planned to mark his full-time return to the company. That won’t be the case for the Rock, as
Andrew Zarian reports that the Brahma Bull may be too busy to appear every single week, but he will be appearing across the entire
WWE: “I can tell you, USA Network tentatively wants him on that Monday {the RAW after Survivor
Series]. By the way, he’s gonna go everywhere. This isn’t just a RAW storyline. He’s going to go everywhere.”
When Ringside News asked, it was confirmed that the plan is for Rock to appear on RAW and SmackDown.
Given that the plan is for Rock to feud with Roman Reigns towards a WrestleMania 38 match, it makes sense that the Great One
would appear on SmackDown, and having him on RAW would no-doubt boost the show’s numbers.
Of course, a lot could happen between now and November, but for now, the plan is that fans will see plenty of the Brahma Bull
across both main-roster brands.
AEW now, as next week will be the company’s Fight for the Fallen special, and it’ll be a huge night for the company.
With Fyter Fest out of the way, the card for next week’s show is coming together, with a huge 10-man elimination tag already
announced. That match will see The Elite face Hangman Page and the Dark Order, whilst new IWGP
U.S. Champion Lance Archer will defend against Hikuleo. Santana and Ortiz will take on FTR,
Chris Jericho will look to get one step closer to facing MJF when he has a no-rules match with Nick Gage, and the team of Christian
Cage Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy will face HFO. A huge announcement by AEW President
Tony Khan has also been and time will tell what he has to say at Fight for the Fallen.
Next week’s Dynamite will be a massive event to say the least, but the week after, AEW will see the in-ring debut of Malakai Black.
At the AEW Dynamite Homecoming in Jacksonville on August 4th, Black will finally wrestle, taking on Cody Rhodes.
AEW TNT Champion Miro will also be in action, and the self-professed Redeemer will face a yet-to-be-named opponent,
as the company continues to give the Bulgarian powerhouse the push he lacked for years in WWE.
Speaking of Malakai Black, the former NXT Champion has bounced back nicely from his disappointing WWE main-roster run,
which he said was like a slow-death in the company. Before his call-up, Black enjoying incredible
feuds in NXT with the likes of Andrade, Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano, but things changed when he joined the
main-roster. Speaking to Metal Injection, AEW’s newest signing said he loved his time in NXT,
but his main-roster run was plagued with too much “bipolar 50-50 booking,” which made nothing he did feel important.
Black added that this 50-50 booking is the entire product right now, saying nothing feels consistent and that everything changes on
a weekly basis. Hopefully, Black can avoid this same 50-50- booking in AEW, with his first match
confirmed for under two weeks time.
Now, for weeks, NXT UK Champion WALTER and Ilja Dragunov have meant to have a title rematch, which was delayed after the
champ suffered a several hand injury. Now, we know when that match will take place, as during last night’s NXT UK,
it was confirmed that the match will happen at TakeOver 36 on Sunday August 22nd.
No location has been given for the show yet, but it’s expected to happen at WWE’s Performance Center, and time will tell if
Dragunov can be the one to end WALTER’S 800+ day reign as Champion, in the long- awaited sequel to their October 2020 classic
Earlier this week, we reported that the Drama King, aka Aiden English, is expected to get a huge push in Impact Wrestling, but it’s not the
only promotion he’ll be appearing on. It’s been confirmed that English will be joining New Japan’s English-speaking broadcast
team for their upcoming Resurgence event, which’ll air on August 14th. English, who is referred to as Matt Morris
by New Japan, knows all about being a commentator, as he called action for 205 Live, and now fans can hear him on the headset
for New Japan next month.
More from AEW, and on this week’s Dynamite, the IWGP United States title changed hands, when Lance Archer dethroned Jon Moxley in
Texas death match. An all-out war that saw both men beat each other to a pulp, Archer certainly earned his title,
but earned the respect of Moxley as well. After Dynamite went off the air, Moxley handed the title to Archer, and raised the
new champion’s hand, as the Texas crowd cheered loudly for both men. Moxley enjoyed a record-breaking 564 day
reign as Champion before losing to Archer this week, and has a record five title defences to his name, and we’ll have to
see what the future holds for the former U.S. Champion.
Over to Impact now, as Kiera Hogan is no longer part of the company.
On her OnlyFans, the former Knockouts Tag Team Champion announced that she’s leaving Impact to pursue other ventures,
but didn’t specify what they are. On last night’s Impact, Rosemary and Havok defeated Hogan and Tasha Steelz
to retain the Knockouts Tag-Team titles, in what is Kiera’s last match to date with the company
Back to WWE, and this week, Bill Goldberg’s return to challenge WWE Champion Bobby Lashley for a match at Summerslam didn’t
go down well with fans. It’s no secret that fans are tired of seeing Goldberg be pushed in world-title programs
at 54-year-old, and it’s not just the fans who think this way. Speaking on Busted Open Radio, WWE
Hall of Famer Bully Ray lashed out at WWE’s booking, saying: “How come nobody pumps Goldberg’s
brakes? How come Bobby Lashley didn’t say, ‘No, you’re not next?’ The next week he turns around and says, ‘You know what, you show
up, you lose and then you go home. So now if you want to show up and get a shot at this Championship, you’ve got to beat three people.”
Bully Ray added that WWE should have Goldberg earn the title match by picking up dominant victories, similar to how he got
over in WCW. The problem there is that Goldberg only has two guaranteed matches in his WWE contract,
and even if fans believe he hasn’t earned yet another shot at the WWE title, they may not appreciate the idea of Goldberg squashing
younger stars in 30-second RAW matches, even if it’d add credibility to his challenge to the Almighty.
For what it’s worth, Lashley did turn down Goldberg’s challenge on Twitter, but we doubt that’ll factor into the on-screen storyline,
as WWE insists on pushing the Hall- of-Famer despite what fans have to say.
And we’re ending with a much-better received return, as John Cena appeared at Money in the Bank, and has his sights set
on Universal Champion Roman Reigns. Cena returned in merchandise decked out with his new tagline ‘earn the day’ and
it shouldn’t be surprising that WWE has filed a trademark for that term. Now, WWE owns ‘Earn the Day’ and
we’ll see if this new tagline can earn as much as ‘Hustle Loyalty and Respect’ and ‘You can’t see me’ did many years ago.