Here's more wrestling news for July 5th, 2022.
And we're kicking off this afternoon with Bianca Belair, who before making her name on SmackDown & raw was a part of NXT.
The EST of WWE never won the NXT women's championship, but was immensely popular on the brand.
And isn't opposed to a return sitting down with wrestling ink, the reigning raw women's champion addressed a possible return
and would be happy to head back to the paint splattered brand.
Yeah.
I mean, I started at NXT.
I mean, that was my home.
I'm homegrown talent.
That's where I learned everything.
So I would always love to go and give back.
I think what Natalia did when she went back to NXT was amazing.
She's a legend in the game and she always has so much, you know, love and so many gyms to give.
I would love to be able to go back and get back to NXT, to step in the ring with them and get a little, you know, homecoming
welcome and step in the ring with some of the new talent.
That would be fun.
WWE has sent several main roster stars to NXT 2.0, since the show's revampe all a part of a
plan to boost ratings for the developmental brand.
Belair seems very pleased on raw and it's easy to see why, but perhaps there will be a time when she
can take her shot at the NXT women's championship.
UFC news.
Next is Israel as Adesanya retained the UFC middleweight championship last Saturday night, but it's his entrance that has had fans talking.
Heading to the octagon Adesanya war, a black hat, like the undertaker carried in, urn and walked out to the dead man's iconic theme.
As the young fighter is obviously a huge fan.
Unsurprisingly.
This entrance has had people speculating on a possible WWE run for Israel who confirmed that he is eyeing
up a career with WWE when he spoke to BT sport.
Definitely that is something I'll try my hand at later on.
Just for fun.
I'm not saying it's gonna be a fulltime job, but I'm definitely going to jump in.
The WWE.
WWE is already home to several MMA alum, including Brock Lesnar, Rhonda Rousey, riddle and Shayna Baszler as for now at Adesanya
is committed to the UFC with his win over Jared Cannonier marking his 12th straight win, but it may just be a matter of time
before Adesanya trades in the octagon for the squared circle.
When Alexa bliss embraced her darker side in 2020, she underwent a huge character change, both in and out of the ring.
One of the more unique aspects of Bliss's dark persona was Lily, a creepy stuffed doll that.
According to WWE K fab had been Bliss's favorite toy since childhood speaking this week on the out of character podcast,
BLIS discussed being a grown woman, carrying a children's doll around and why her character embraced a more childlike mentality.
I wanted to kind of have my character have a bit of an identity crisis.
So with that, that's why I kind of reverted to a child's mentality because you know, for me personally, to get real about it.
So when I had my eating disorders, it was a traumatic thing for me and my brain went back to a childlike defense mechanism.
And so I kind of took part of that into my character.
I remember thinking, okay, what did I like watching when I was a child, I liked watching the big comfy couch.
Then, so I got the concept of having Lily from the girl from the big comfy couches doll, Molly,
while WWE has finished Bliss's darker persona.
She still carries Lily to the ring likely because of the possible merchandise the doll can sell.
And a lot of thought went into this part of Alexa's character.
Bliss's dark persona was certainly a change for her, but it was not one, a lot of fans wanted to see.
Not everyone liked the dark character with many saying that bliss had just stolen from Bray Wyatt’s the feed persona, but the former
women's champion didn't let that get to her bliss, told satin on his podcast that, well, there were a lot of negative comments.
She chose to focus on the positives, such as the fans who loved her dark character and the young girls who dress up as dark Alexa.
Alexa said how Twitter can often be a dark place full of negativity.
And it's hard to argue with that, but the raw superstar refuses to let the hate the character received by some
fans, get to her when it comes to big names and wrestling, journalism, none are bigger than Dave Meltzer, who often is a
bigger celebrity than some of the wrestlers he writes about.
Meltzer has his fair share of critics, but has been working in the journalism game for decades
and has established himself in the industry.
He reports on.
Well, WWE would never mention Meltzer on TV.
The wrestling journal does have a presence in the company.
As former magazine writer, Brian Solomon told the cheap heat productions podcast.
We wanted to do the greatest seal cage matches ever.
And Vince McMahon goes, boy, you guys really need to take your heads out of Dave Meltzer ass.
I'm terrified.
Of course, I don't know what I'm supposed to do.
I'm like 30 years old, whatever it is.
I'm just trying to feed my kids and this crazy billionaire in his whims.
There would be other times when he'd be totally agreeable and nice and warm.
Talk to me about his family, his kids, his father.
Tell me these stories about when he was a kid and the things that he saw McMahon clearly felt the idea of a best steel cage matches
article was to similar to what Meltzer would write in the wrestling observer newsletter, which remains a popular source of wrestling news.
We are sure at some point on wwe.com an article about great steel cage matches will have been shared, but this story goes to show just
how Meltzer still has an influence over Vincent's Kennedy McMahon.
Speaking of icons of the industry, few names are more synonymous with wrestling than the undertaker who enjoyed a three decade
ring career with WWE before his November, 2020 retirement.
One of the phenoms.
Most underrated feuds was with Jeff Hardy in 2002.
When the then heel undisputed champion took on the popular face, painted superstar.
This culminated an incredible ladder match on the July 1st, 2022 edition of raw, but some ideas for the storyline
didn't make it to TV on his extreme life podcast.
Matt Hardy said that for the feud, Jeff had pitched for him to wear the old undertaker gear, including
hat as a sign of disrespect to the heel champion.
Matt said that the undertaker quickly shot the idea down saying I don't wanna go there.
As the biker character he had at the time was incredibly different to the one.
He had played a decade earlier, even without this idea party.
And the undertaker had one of the best title defenses to ever take place on raw and still stands the test of time to this day.
And we're ending today with money in the bank, 2022 as the women's ladder match saw a spot with
Shotzi that didn't quite go according to plan.
During the match Shotzi attempted as senton on Becky Lynch, that didn't go as hoped.
And the SmackDown superstar has faced some backlash from fans online on Twitter.
Shotzi said that while she can take a joke name, dropping Botchamania, that she cannot stand fans calling for her
to be fired and saying other terrible things about her.
Fortunately for Shotzi Alexa bliss is on her side.
As in a tweet of her own.
The goddess said that people are always too quick to bash everything they see, and that WWE works hard to keep everyone safe.
Bliss is no stranger to bad interactions with fans online.
So it's no wonder why she's trying to support Shotzi despite being opponents at money in the bank.
Neither Shotzi nor BLIS walked away from money in the bank, the Victor, and while the formers move on Lynch did not go as hoped
that doesn't justify trolls, taking her apart on social media.