Here's more wrestling news for December 16th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Karrion Kross Joins Ec3’s Control Your Narrative Stable!
Charlotte Flair On Zelina Calling Herself A Queen In WWE: “It’s Silly”
"Lazy And Incompetent" - WWE Legend Criticizes Big E-Bobby Lashley!
WWE Legend's Son Breaks Cm Punk's 4-Month Long Record
Former WWE Superstar Reveals That He Rejected Vince McMahon’s Hall Of Fame Offer
Jim Cornette Supports Petition To Change Lyrics Of Cm Punk’s Entrance Music
4 Mick Foley Highlights Released WWE Star's Potential
Axe Body Spray Drops Clever Response After John Cena Follows Them On Twitter
WWE Wouldn’t Allow Hart Family Dungeon Mention On Television?
Tony Khan Explains How He Gives More Freedom In AEW Compared To Other Companies And More!
We’re starting off with Braun Strowman, who after aligning himself with EC3 at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle, teased adding Karrion Kross to their team.
On social media, Strowman shared a photo of the trio, saying time will tell, and fans haven’t had to wait long to find out the answer.
Now, Kross has also shared the graphic, and said that he is choosing to control his narrative, a line often used by EC3 ever since his own release
from WWE. Kross was released from the company last month, which came as a shock to fans given that he was
finally being pushed on RAW, and we’ll just have to see what he, Strowman and EC3 do together now they’re all on the same side.
At Crown Jewel 2021, Zelina Vega made history by being crowned the first official Queen of WWE, but she’s hardly the first woman to claim the moniker.
For years, Charlotte Flair has been called the Queen, mostly by herself, and there’s now two women claiming the throne in WWE.
While a storyline pitting the Queen of SmackDown against Queen Zelina makes sense on paper, Flair sees no reason for it to happen, as she told Alistair
McGeorge of MetroUK:
“I don’t think I need to fight over a crown, sorry. I don’t think I need a crown to be called the Queen. I am the Queen. It’s silly to me. No offense!”
Flair did admit that she’s interested in wrestling the current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion, but feels that a match focussed on Queen Vs Queen is
unnecessary. As for now, Flair will continue her feud with Toni Storm, who she is expected to defend her
SmackDown Women’s Title against at WWE Day 1, and perhaps the two Queens of WWE will cross paths in 2022.
On this week’s RAW, Bobby Lashley earned a spot in the WWE Championship match at Day 1, after defeating Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and
WWE Champion Big E on the same night. Lashley’s win over Big E came thanks to an attack by MVP, who attacked the champ during
the No-Disqualification match, before Lashley got the spear and the win over the man who ended his title reign.
On Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray made it clear he wasn’t a fan of this finish branding it “lazy and incompetent” because MVP attacked Big E in
front of the referee. Bully Ray did admit that this was allowed due to the No-Disqualifications stipulation, but said that
the referee shouldn’t have seen the attack, as it would’ve made MVP and Lashley seem more dastardly
Rather than cheating to win, the heels simply followed the rules of the match to get a win over the reigning WWE Champion, something
that the WWE Hall of Famer didn’t enjoy seeing on RAW.
Since debuting in AEW, CM Punk has enjoyed an undefeated streak in the ring, but now one of his impressive records has been broken by an unlikely
opponent. On a recent episode of AEW Rampage, Hook, the son of Taz made his in-ring debut in a highly
impressive outing against Fuego Del Sol, earning the respect of the fans.
Now, Hook’s shirt is the number one seller on pro-wrestling tees, knocking Punk down to second place.
This is the first time since August 20th that Punk’s shirt isn’t the top seller on PW Tees, and it just goes to show just how much of an impact the
second generation wrestler has made in such a short amount of time.
Each year, before WrestleMania, the WWE honours legends of the industry with the annual Hall of Fame,
celebrating those who have come before. In 2019, the NWO was inducted, represented by Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Hulk Hogan and Eric Bischoff,
they were only 4 members of what grew to be a massive group.
Speaking during a recent podcast appearance, Buff Bagwell claimed that he was offered the chance to be inducted, but said no, and explained why saying:
"They actually called me to do the Hall Of Fame thing, " Buff Bagwell revealed. "I was like — I’ll be honest with you, I said, 'I don’t want to be part of a group
going into the Hall Of Fame.' It’d be like Brett Favre getting a [NFL] Hall Of Fame ring because of the Green Bay Packers."
“It wasn’t me that got in with the nWo, that wasn’t me that was getting into the Hall Of Fame. It wasn’t the same," Buff Bagwell continued. "I said, ‘Hey guys,
don’t take this wrong, please. I’d rather it be for something that I did, not something that the group did. Even though that’s cool, it really isn’t cool.”
Bagwell was with the New World Order from 1996- 1999, and after WCW collapsed, he had just one match in the WWF in 2001 before being released.
There’s no way of knowing if Bagwell is telling the truth, but he’s sticking to the story that he said no when given the opportunity to be a Hall of Famer.
More from AEW, as CM Punk brought Living Colour’s Cult of Personality to the company upon his arrival, after using the song both in WWE and Ring of Honor.
Jim Cornette is no stranger to poking fun at AEW, and neither are his fans, as one Cult of Cornette member has started a petition, hoping for the
lyrics to be changed. The petition reads: “AEW is a wresting company that appears on Turner Television stations with coverage in
many other countries. Currently one of their performers uses the song “Cult of Personality” in response James
Mark Cornette (aka Jim Cornette) and his fanbase have created “CULT OF MEAT WITH EXTRA CHEESE” as a parody song available on Youtube…”
Once the petition was sent to Cornette himself, he responded via tweet, saying:
A petition has been created to change @CMPunk ‘s theme to “Cult of Meat With Extra Cheese” at least once. Now, I don’t know if it will work, but it would
be hilarious if it got a lot of signatures, wouldn’t it??? Right now, over 400 people have signed the petition, and while we very much doubt that AEW will
ever agree to the petition, no matter how many names sign It, it’s good to see Cornette having some fun without having to verbally berate the
company or it’s wrestlers for a change.
At the 2018 Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey debuted for WWE, after establishing herself as the biggest female name in MMA.
Rousey isn't the only MMA star to join WWE, as Sonya Deville fought in the Octagon before signing, though never completed against the former RAW
Women's Champion. Speaking to TalkSport this week, Deville discussed rumours that she and Rousey had heat based on a
comment where the Hot Rod called Devilles MMA career a hobby. She said: "Its all good. We worked together a bit on Total Divas,
it was fine... I'd like to fight her if she comes back around. Make her regret calling me an MMA hobbyist. Which is ironic because me transitioning
from MMA to wrestling, and she did, wouldn’t that make her a hobbyist?” Rousey hasn't been seen in the ring since her
one and only WWE loss during the main event of Wrestlemania 35, but if she ever does make a return, Sonya Deville is ready for her
At a recent indie event, Devon ‘Hannibal’ Nicholson stabbed referee Lando Deltoro in the head several times with a spike, causing the ref to bleed
As a 16-time WWE World Champion, John Cena has a huge fan following, and his presence across social media is strong.
Most recently, Cena has been using Twitter to promote his upcoming Peacemaker series, which is set to release in January, but Big Match John
took some time to fllow the official Axe Body Spray account.
Now, that account has reacted in a hilarious way, as they tweeted that they got a brand new follower, but don’t see anyone.
Playing off Cena’s You Can’t See Me catchphrase, current NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes, also got in on the joke, as when Cena
followed his account, the Champ made it clear that he can see the Suicide Squad star. Interestingly enough, Hayes debuted in WWE much
like Cena, screaming ‘Ruthless Agression’ before slapping the face of an established name, in his case Adam Cole, and he’s certainly caught the
attention of one of wrestling’s biggest ever Superstars.
In the history of Canadian wrestling, no family is more respected than The Harts, who trained, and trained countless others, from the infamous Hart
family Dungeon.
Stu Hart, the father of Bret, ran a gruelling operation from the Dungeon, which trained countless names in the industry, including Viktor of the Ascension.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip to discuss his WWE tenure, Viktor spoke about his education under the Harts, and why it wasn’t referenced much,
if at all on TV. “When I got to WWE, they told me I wasn’t really allowed to say it. I’m not too sure if it had to do
with the Benoit stigma or whatever it was, but we used to always pitch it. Like, this is one of my things because that’s a thing in wrestling
Everybody else that came from the Dungeon, it was a given that if you hear somebody is from Calgary and you’re like, ‘That guy can work.
That guy is going to be a good wrestler.’ When I got to FCW, they were like, ‘Nope, we’re not letting you say that anymore.’
I think even (William) Regal said it one time on NXT and they told him to quit saying it. I never got a definitive answer as to why. They just told me
to drop it, and I said fine.” It’s no secret that WWE had bad blood with the Harts for many years, and we’re sure that the
actions of Chris Benoit, one of the most successful Hart Dungeon graduates, only soured WWE’s relationship with the famed training area.
Viktor trained in the dungeon under Ross and Bruce Hart in the late 90s and early 2000s, and had a mixed career in WWE, but despite being a jobber for much
of his main-roster run, Viktor has some serious training under his belt.
And we’re ending with Tony Khan, who as President of AEW, allows a lot more creative freedom than WWE.
While Superstars have to recite promos word for word, that isn’t the case in AEW, where things are much more on the fly.
On the Wrestling Perspective Podcast, Khan explained how AEW gives their roster more freedom, and said that as long as a wrestler gets the key points, naming
their opponent, the venue of the match and the date it’ll happen, he’s fine not handing scripts to his roster.
Calling the AEW promos “very authentic” and “very real, AEW will continue to present their product in such a way that sets them apart
from the competition, and will continue to earn the support of fans who are tired of WWE’s word-for-word delivery.