Here's your wrestling news for August 9th, 2022.
And we're kicking off today with raw and for many,
the biggest story of the show wasn't who was on
the show, but who was not many fans expected?
The United States championship match between Bobby Lashley
and Ciampa to feature Johnny Gargano who left WWE last
December, but is opted not to sign with AEW just yet.
Given that Ciampa was in the match and that triple H is running
things many expected Gargano to return as part of the game's
new vision for the main roster fans didn't see that happen,
but they did see Champa face, Lashley, in a fantastic match.
One that saw Lashley retain the title Gargano wasn't on raw, but
there was a nod to him as when Ciampa applied the Gargano escape.
Hold Corey graves said that sometimes when you're
looking for a submission, you have to do it yourself.
The DIY reference was a nod to the tag team Gargano and
Ciampa had during their early days with WWEand didn't
go unnoticed by fans with returns happening each week.
It makes sense that WWE will eventually offer Gargano a new deal.
One that the former NXT champion may have a hard
time turning down raw also saw Dominic Mysterio.
Once again, look bad on the show, which has become a recurring
theme for the young former tag team champion in recent months.
On last week's raw Mysterio ate a spear by edge, which was a complete
accident, but Dominic refused to accept the hall of Famer apology.
This week later on Ray Mysterio faced Finn ballor and came up short
against the former universal champion, despite edge coming out to take
out Damien priest, Rhea Ripley, however, brought out Dominic Mysterio,
who she had beaten up backstage and would be the one to help ballor.
Get the win over WWE's ultimate underdo.
It seems every week, Dominic is made out to be even less of a threat.
And we imagine this being done to write him off
TV, giving Ray Mysterio an edge, the chance to
face ballor and priest at clash at the castle.
As for Dominic, his WWE future doesn't look great
right now, as he's becoming less of a superstar
and more of a punching bag, as things carry on.
We've got news from John Lauriniatis.
Now who was put on administrative leave earlier this
year for his alleged role in the Vince McMohan scandal.
It was claimed that the former general manager of Ron smacdown
aided McMahon in the alleged relationships with WWEemployees.
And now Lauriniatis gone completely from the
company PW insider were the first to break the
news that Lauriniatis has been officially quietly.
Let go by WWEwhich reportedly happened within the last week or so.
Shortly after PW insider.com posted our story
about Vince McMohan and John Lauriniatis.
Several WWE sources reached out to confirm.
Lauriniatis.
Has been officially quietly.
Let go by the company.
We're told that the termination happened within the last week or so.
It was for obvious reasons.
Being kept very quiet beyond a small circle.
We're working to confirm when the departure took
place, but every source to a person made it clear.
Lauriniatis was let.
It's important to note that Lauriniatis.
Was let go by WWEand did not choose to resign
in the wake of the allegations against him.
The writing had been on the wall for Lauriniatis as he
had his company phone number disconnected shortly after
the allegations were published and more recently had his
role as head of talent relations, awarded to triple H.
Lauriniatis was with WWE for decades, but was reportedly
not well liked amongst everyone in the promotion.
And we'd like to wish Johnny ACE, the best in his future endeavors,
over to AEW next as Tony Khan has developed reputations In
his three years in charge of AEW and not all of them are good.
Khan may be known for bringing an alternative to WWE
to our screens, but it turns out he is developing a
reputation of unprofessionalism within his own company.
Ringside news reports that Khan's behavior has become an
issue in AEW and one source said that he goes overboard
with how he talks to commentators on their headset.
Another source working within AEW has said that
Khan has become impossible for anyone to deal with.
And there's been more than a few comparisons to Vince McMohan.
They Add people who've worked in WWE say he's
much worse on headsets than Vince ever was.
And his level of unprofessionalism rivals what it used to be like when
Kevin Dunn would start yelling at people and mocking them on headsets.
It's also reported that Khan was really out of control during
the ring of honor death before dishonor Pay perview last month.
So his erratic behavior, isn't just confined to AEW ringside
news also reports that a high ranking backstage name
quit the company after an explosive night on the headset.
And that Khan ultimately begged the individual not to leave AEW.
More specifically Khan was said to have chased
him down and promised to change his behavior.
And afterwards promoted the likes of pat buck and
Sanjay dut to help with his workload, Kahn is said
to be doing his best at curbing his temperament.
But it's unclear if he's succeeding in this endeavor Khan
has made a huge impact in wrestling in just a few short
years, but if he doesn't change his behavior backstage, then
we may be seeing more wrestlers, try their luck elsewhere.
One name who is not a fan of Tony Khan is Eric Bischoff who has
criticized AEW in its owner over the years during his heyday
running WCW off seemingly had a never ending pool of money, which
he used to sign a ton of former WWF talent and the WWE hall of
famer see's history repeating itself today, speaking to NBC sports,
Boston Bischoff spoke about Khan saying he has taken the ATM.
Tony Khan now has the ATM Eric nickname that
ATM Eric thing has gone a long time ago.
That man is spending more money than Ted
Turner would've ever allowed me to spend.
The AEW president has never been afraid to splurge when it comes to
buying big names like cm, punk, or Brian Danielson, which has been an
issue for MJF, who feels that too much is spent on Ex WWE superstar.
It's unlikely that Kahn will stop hiring
who he believes are the biggest names.
Even if that means his wallet takes a hit.
And even if it earns him the nickname ATM Tony from Eric
Bischoff since triple H took over as WWE's head of talent
relations, multiple WWE stars have returned to the company,
including Dakota, Kai Karrion Kross, and Scarlet Bordeaux.
Now another return has taken place, at least in the crowd.
As during last night's episode of raw
Dexter, Loomis was spotted among the fans.
Even before fans saw him, WWE alluded to something
big, going down as during several segments, a
crashed car was seen in the background of shots.
Dew drop in Nikki, ASH were seen, inspecting the damage.
And it was only at the end of the night that fans
realized the car marked the return of Loomis.
Loomis was being stopped by security from reaching AJ styles
who had just won a no disqualification match against the MIZ.
Styles looked quite shocked and worried when he saw
Loomis, trying to get inside the ring and the commentary
team also acknowledged Loomis's presence on the show.
Loomis was released by WWE in April and immediately reverted to
his Sam Shaw name on the independent scene, where he recently
challenged for the vacant NWA world's heavyweight championship.
A star of NXT.
It's no surprise that triple H wanted him back in the promotion
now that he's head of talent relations and we'll have to
wait and see what's next in store for Dexter Lumis Lumis.
Didn't get into the ring during last night's edition of raw.
And what happened next was mostly for the crowd in Cleveland fans
In attendance caught Loomis's interaction with security on their
smartphones and shared the footage online with one video, showing
Loomis, being handcuffed as he's dragged out of the building.
Another video showed the former NXT superstar
being dragged to the outside of the arena.
And Dexter had a very similar gimmick as to
what he portrayed during his time in NXT.
Loomis had been in the middle of an onscreen wedding to
indie Hartwell when he was released and WWE explained
his departure saying that he had left his new wife.
So things could get real awkward.
Now that the two are back in the same company, uh,
this week's raw WWE kicked off their tournament
to crown the next WWE women's tag team champions.
The titles were vacated back in may after Sasha banks and
Naomi walked out of raw and it was on last night's show
that fans caught their first glimpse at the brackets.
Probably the most interesting team involved Nikita
Lyons and Zoey Stark who compete in NXT 2.0 and will be
Making, their WWE main roster debuts in the tournament.
They'll face Natalya in Sonya Deville in the opening round.
And if successful we'll face either the team of Xia Li and
Shotzi or Rockwell Rodriguez and Aaliyah in the semifinals.
There is something to be said that WWE felt the need to incorporate
an NXT tag team into this tournament, seemingly believing that
they do not have enough women on the main roster, but we'll
just have to see if lines in stark can go the distance on their
arrival to the main roster that tournament will see Dakota,
Kai, and EO sky team up to try and become the new champions.
But that's, if Bailey can get the New
Zealand superstar's name right first.
During raw Bailey introduced her new partners, but
tripped over her words, calling Dakota, Kai ‘Dakota
Sky.’ Bailey at least owned the moment telling the fans.
I know I said it wrong.
You dummies WWE has had plenty of name changes, but this
wasn't one that the company had planned, but we have to
give props to Bailey for carrying on after the botch.
And we're ending with dark side of the ring, who for the past
few years have introduced casual viewers to the seedier side
of pro wrestling, earning praise from fans and criticism.
From those in the industry Vice's hit show has faced
accusations of deliberately making people look bad so much.
So the Jim Ross has refused to work with them
anymore, but now a new series is in the works.
The official Twitter account of dark side of the ring announced
on Monday that a new docu-series is coming to vice in October,
which will see vice team with the rocks seven bucks productions.
The new series has the title of tales from the territories,
and we'll see those in the business relive the territory days
of wrestling with an October 4th premier date, the wrestling
world is much different now to how it looked in the territory
days, but we'll just have to wait until October to see if tales
from the territories can be a hit like dark side of the ring.