Here's your wrestling news for October 22nd, 2022,
and we're kicking off today with extreme rules.
Seth Rowlands and Matt Riddle hope to settle the score
for good when they compete in the fight pit the matches.
WWE's answer to mixed martial arts' cage matches, so
it's only fitting that a star of MMA will be involved.
Ariel Hellani was the first to report that Daniel
Cormier will serve as the special guest referee
for the fight, which was later confirmed by WWE.
A former UFC heavyweight champion Cormier announced his retirement
back in 2020 and said in a statement shared by Hellani that he's the
only guy in Philadelphia qualified enough to oversee the fight pit.
The fight pit has been used only twice beforeinWWE as part of
NXT with Riddle calling his fight with Timothy Thacher on the
May 27th, 2020 episode, one of his most unforgettable matches.
The addition of Comme to the fight pit match in extreme rules
will bring WWE some major mainstream coverage and we'll have to
see how the retired fighter fares in his role as guest referee.
WWE Extreme Rules will also see Bailey Challenge.
Draw Women's Champion Bianca Bellaire in a ladder match the
first ever singles women's ladder match on the main roster.
Bailey hopes to add more gold to damage controls collection,
but you'll need to make it official with Belair first.
On tomorrow's raw Bailey and Be Air will take
part in a contract signing, which if history has
taught us anything, will be anything but peaceful.
Belair has been on a roll ever since she came to the main
roster, but between this stipulation and Bailey having damage
control in her corner, the odds may be way too much even for the
T at Extreme Rules, we imagine that Bailey and Be Air will get
physical during their upcoming contract signing on raw, but two
people who cannot and will not are Matt Riddle and Seth Rawlin.
While the pair will have a face to face interaction on
raw, WWE has decreed that there is a no contact clause
and effect, meaning the two can't touch each other.
If either man attacks the other, they'll be
removed from the fight pit at extreme rules.
It's also been announced that AJ Styles and Ray
Serial will unite to take on the judgment days.
Finn Baller and Damien has, both men have
suffered because of the group as of late.
Given how manipulative Seth Rawlins can be.
We wouldn't be surprised if he tries to come up
with a way to get around the no contact rule, but
we'll have to tune in to tomorrow's raw to find out.
Now, it was that WrestleMania backlash
that Rya Ripley joined the Judgment Day.
Coming to the aid of then Leader Edge.
Ripley has spent less than two years on the main roster
officially joining the Red Brand in March, 2021, but fans
have seen her go through quite the dramatic change over that.
Speaking to Sports Bible Australia,
the judgment day's personal eradicate.
Spoke about her transformation from cool baby face to
gothic heel, saying I feel like this is a different
side of me compared to the Rio Ripley from a year ago.
It's just different personas and emotions
inside of me that get to come out.
I'm being very cheeky on TV these days and getting
my hands dirty, and it's been a lot of fun.
Ripley is thriving as part of the judgment day, and although
she's not been in the raw women's title picture in quite some
time, expect the former champion to be back there soon enough.
When the SHIELD debut all the way back at Survivor series 2012, it was
clear from the start that all three men were destined for greatness.
Sure enough, all three would become multiple time
world champions, but neither Seth Rolins nor John
Moxley have enjoyed a prolonged push like Roman rains.
Even when I'd won the title at WrestleMania cashed in great
moment, I still felt like I was second fiddled to Roman.
I still felt he was the guy.
And you're the placeholder.
He's totally ready and we're totally
ready to put the ball in his hands.
But for now, you're a step ahead.
So we're gonna give you this and then
we'll move on to where we're going to be.
Rawlins added that WWE has almost never considered
him as a WrestleMania main inventor with the only
time they thought of him closing out the show being
when Rains pulled out of WWE's biggest event in 2020.
Rawlins may be a huge name, but his career
can't match the success of his shield brother.
And that's something the visionary is well aware of over to AEW.
Now, as Tony Kahn has made a lot of decisions over
the years that have gone down well with fans, but
a decision made this week was not one of them.
On Twitter, the AEW President announced that from
now on AEW will no longer be available on space.
Meaning fans in Mexico, much of South America,
Central America and the Caribbean will no longer
be able to access a Spanish commentated program.
In fact, the only place a W are still
sticking with space is Brazil and K's.
Decision to end Spanish speaking commentary for
many Spanish speaking areas has not gone down
well with fans who until recently have used space.
One account even pointed out how Khan had made his
announcement on Twitter, only in English, which they felt
was another sign of disrespect by AEW and their leader.
As we all know, Mexico is a nation rich in wrestling
tradition with several AEW stars calling the country home,
but now fans in Mexico and the neighboring areas will
have to find another route to AEW's Spanish commentary.
When you think of who the top names and wrestling are today,
you'll likely look to world champions such as Roman Reigns and
John Moxley who have dominated their respective promotions.
Perhaps you'll think of legendary stars still wrestling
like Edge, but Hurricane Helms has a much different idea.
And after the bell, the former superstar called
Sammy Zane, the top performer in the entire industry,
thanks to his work is part of the bloodline.
Helms didn't just praise Sammy's work with the faction,
but said that everything Zane touches turns to gold and
that he hits a home run or grand slam every single time.
Zane can be goofy at times, but that hasn't stopped
WWE from putting him in the very serious bloodline.
A sign of the company's confidence
in the Canadian, according to Helms.
From his entertaining match with Johnny Knoxville at
WrestleMania to sharing the screen with Roman Rains.
Sammy Zane has been a hit in 2022 and his momentum
with the crowd showed no signs of slowing down.
More from Seth Rawlins now as well.
He may be a heel.
He didn't deserve an attack from a fan
during an episode of Raw last November.
Rawlins attacker was mad after getting scammed by an
imposter who posed as the visionary and jumped the barricade
believing he was confronting the man who conned him.
Speaking in that interview with Ariel Hellani Rollins
recalled the attack and how everything happened so quickly.
It was so fast, I didn't really have time to process it.
The only thought I remember having was when he was on
top of me and they were already pulling him away, but
he had like a handful of my hair and I was just trying
to punt him off me with whatever foot I had underneath.
My instinct was to grab his head immediately just to control his head.
I don't have any jujitsu training at all, so whether I
did anything right or wrong is completely instinctive.
But yeah, my instinct was just as soon as I knew that
someone was upon me just to control his head as best I could.
I was just thankful that security was there.
I was thankful that he wasn't armed in
any way that could have gone very badly.
And then in the aftermath, I just felt bad for him when I saw
online what his situation was and that he had possibly been
catfished out of some money, and his mental capacity wasn't great.
I just felt bad.
I felt bad that there wasn't anybody
in his life that could help him out.
It was an unfortunate situation that I think was
handled as best as it could all the way around.
At the time, Roland's baby.ro was less than a year
old, and this situation could have turned much worse.
And we sincerely hope such an incident
never happens again to any pro wrestler.
Over to SmackDown now as next Friday show will be the final
event before extreme rules and a stacked card has been announced.
It was previously reported that the Intercontinental champion
Gunther will defend against Shamus and a clash at the Castle rematch.
But that's not all that's in store.
It's also been confirmed that the bloodline solo OA
will take on ricochet while Roman rains and Logan
Paul will be present on the show for a face off.
Paul will challenge the undisputed WWE Universal champion
at Crown Jewel on November 5th, but neither he nor
Rains may wait another month before coming to blows.
Cody Rhode was instrumental in putting AEW on the map.
The American nightmare stayed with the Jacksonville based promotion
for nearly three years before returning to WWE at WrestleMania 38.
Cody Rhode was involved in several projects with TBS during
his time in AEW as well, and his decision to leave the
promotion shocked fans, peers, and network officials alike.
Sean Ross SAP reported from behind Fight Fulls paywall that
Warner Brothers Discovery executives pushed for Cody Rhodes to
stay in AEW when they were made aware of his decision to leave.
In speaking with Warner Brothers discovery
sources, we are told that several efforts were made
within the company to retain Cody Rhode and AEW.
Between AEW.
Roads to the top and go big show Roads had developed a good
rapport with several in Warner Media at the time we're told that
the Cody Rhodes WWE deal wasn't official until a few weeks before
WrestleMania, even though WWE considered in a foregone conclusion.
As a result, after the merger of Warner Brothers
Discovery, there were inquiries in the company completely
separate of AEW to gauge road's interest in staying.
Among those that we are told made an effort to reach out to Rhode was
Sam Linsky, who serves as Associate general manager and senior Vice
President of scripted original programming for tnt, tbs and True tv.
We've heard that there wasn't any ill will between
either side and Rhode had told those who asked
that it was quote time to leave the territory.
It was also reported that due to the Rhodes connection
across multiple Warner Brothers discovery shows, they were
also contacted to possibly participate in the upfronts.
We weren't told if that was tied to AEW.
The other shows or a combination.
Cody Rhode is getting closer to making a WWE return as well.
Fans are anxiously awaiting for the American nightmare to
regain the momentum he had lost due to his terrible injury.