Here's more wrestling news for March 3rd 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Backstage News Concerning Kevin Owens And Edge!
Backstage Notes On This Week’s WWE RAW Heel Turns!
Keith Lee Somewhat Debunks Talk Of Attitude Issues In WWE!
AEW Recording Content For Video Game During Dark Tapings!
AEW Star Takes A Shot At Kane On AEW Dynamite!
Matt Hardy Calls Out WWE!
WWE Legend Reveals Upcoming Broken Skull Sessions Episode!
AEW’s Streaming Deal ; NXT’s New All Time Low ! And More!
We’re kicking off with WWE, as last December, the company’s annual Boxing Day event from Madison Square Garden saw an epic steel cage match,
pitting Kevin Owens against Edge.
The first, and to date, only match between the two, it was a spectacle for the New York crowd, but one the pair had little time to prepare for.
On the Out of Character podcast, Owens told Ryan Satin that he and Edge were only given two days notice, saying:
Man, that was awesome. We had two days’ notice. I found out on Christmas Eve, that that’s what was gonna happen. That was a real thrill. We’ve
been talking about wrestling each other for so long since he came back. Who knows if we’ll get to do it again. I certainly hope we will get to do it
again. But even if we don’t, main event of MSG in a cage and we rocked it, it was a lot of fun. Great times. [It’s] something I [would] look back on very
long time for sure.” On this week’s RAW, it was confirmed that Edge will face AJ Styles at this year’s WrestleMania,
and its rumored that Owens will take on ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, but perhaps these two will do battle again at some point later this year.
Speaking of Edge, the Rated-R Superstar did more than just confirm his WrestleMania match with AJ Styles, as he also laid out the Phenomenal One with
a series of chair shots. This past Monday’s show also saw Damian Priest lose the United States title, and his cool, as he
attacked Finn Balor mere minutes after the Prince won the title. An intense episode to say the least, these attacks
won’t be brushed under the carpet like many WWE storylines, as according to the behind the scenes internal rosters, both Edge and Priest are
are now listed as fully-fledged heels. After months of Priest teasing a tweener role, he’s now officially a heel for the first-time in his main
roster run, and while it may be difficult for fans to boo Edge after his miraculous return from retirement, WWE will just have to find a way
to get fans against the Hall of Famer.
Over to AEW now, as Keith Lee joined the promotion last month and made an impactful debut, qualifying for this weekend’s Face of the
Revolution ladder match. Lee’s debut comes mere months after he was released from WWE in November 2021,
and in reports since then, it’s been said that ‘ attitude problems’ caused the Limitless One to lose his job.
After an incredible run in NXT, Lee had a sub-part run on RAW, but was quick to refute any rumoured attitude problems when he spoke to
the New York Post this week: “At the end of the day, man, I’m very much like these old school guys like I really don’t pay
attention to the internet like that, and half the time I don’t really pay attention to the apps. Like I may post a
thing and someone who helps me with my account may post a thing that’s trying to be positive for other people or promote what I do here in
AEW, especially now. I feel like this
If there’s no truth to it then why should I give it any credence? This is going to sound arrogant and I don’t really care. At the end of the day it is beneath
me and I treat it as such.” Keith Lee has been very well received by AEW fans and wrestlers alike, and will have a huge
opportunity this Sunday, and isn’t going to let anything, not even so-called attitude problems from getting in his way as part of Tony Khan’s
promotion
Despite being released from WWE, Lee will reportedly still be in the roster for the upcoming WWE 2K22, and could soon be part of AEW’s
upcoming console video game. Kenny Omega is personally overseeing the development of the new game with Yuke’s and
now the company is recording new content for this massive project. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reports that AEW will
be recording content for the game at the upcoming AEW Dark: Elevation, and that some voiceovers for the game have already been recorded
Kenny Omega has said that it’ll be hard for AEW’s console game to compete with WWE 2K22, saying that they’ll never be able to match WWE’s work with 2K.
WWE 2K22 will hit shelves next week, and while we s till have no definitive date for AEW’s console game, Omega and his team are planning on making this
the company’s next major success.
For the past week, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been global news, with Russian President Vladimir Putin being widely condemned for what his party
are calling a ‘peacekeeping’ operation. Last week, Glenn Jacobs, aka Kane used the conflict to take a shot at the left, and said that
might makes right,” adding that the U.S. despite its impressive army, shouldn’t get involved.
This earned the WWE Hall of Famer plenty of backlash, and he’s now made it onto AEW programming.
During a performance by Max Caster, the Acclaimed star brought Kane’s efforts on social media, saying:
“We’re the reason for the people in the seats, ya’ll less popular than Glenn Jacobs’ tweets!”
This line comes just days after Caster referenced Vladimir Putin during the tapings for last Friday’s Rampage, but that line was edited out before it
made the broadcast. At this time, an estimated 4,786 people from both sides of the conflict, as well as NATO volunteers
and civilians, have died due to the conflict, which we only hope will end as soon as possible.
Now, before he was working for AEW, Matt Hardy spent much of his career in WWE, and has seen plenty of what goes on at his old promotion.
For a while now, fans have complained that WWE’s booking has taken a nose-dive, with feuds going nowhere, 50/50 booking and teams splitting up
for no reason, and now Hardy has another bone to kick with his former employer.
On ‘The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy’ Matt discussed WWE’s booking in general, and said that the company “overdoes” DQ finishes.
“I definitely, 100% agree that WWE overdoes DQs, without a doubt. There are times where you could either put heat on the heels and have
some other heels interfere or you can have a great kickass match where the baby face valiantly overcomes the heel. And then you can
have the heel always do something to get heat on him after the fact if you want to continue the story.
They’re just done a lot of times for protection, to keep people strong or to continue a story. Once again, I feel like fans are so knowledgeable about
the wrestling product in 2022, they want to see a clean finish and they want to feel like they’re being rewarded for watching this angle or story,
and they want to be paid a proper finish.” It was back in January that WWE ended their Universal title match with a DQ finish, allowing
Roman Reigns to walk away as champion without having to pin Seth Rollins, and while these finishes do have a place in wrestling, Hardy feels they’re
used far too often in WWE.
It’s no secret that WWE is always looking for new talent to sign to a deal, and now another name from another sport has signed a contract to work
for Vince McMahon.
This week, Gabriel Wai confirmed that he’s signed with WWE, after two years of playing men’s Rugby for Lindenwood University.
At 6 foot 6 and 260 pounds, Gabe already has a lot going in his favour, and has said that getting into WWE quote “can absolutely launch me into the
acting world.”
We’re not quite sure how well he’ll be received if Gabe considers WWE a stepping stone to other projects, but for now, he’s WWE’s newest signing.
At Wrestlemania 38, Stone Cold Steve Austin is rumoured to be returning to the ring, though WWE haven't publicly confirmed anything yet.
There's always the chance that he won't wrestle this coming April, but fans will soon get to see him with a new guest on the Broken Skull Sessions.
On Twitter, Bully Ray shared a photo of him and the Rattlesnake, promising that he will be Austin's next guest on the show.
Having held gold in ECW, WWE, TNA and elsewhere, Bully Ray has enjoyed a long career, and he'll have plenty of stories when the next Broken Skull Sessions
makes it to air.
More from AEW, as this week’s announcement that Tony Khan now owns ROH was a huge deal for the company, but it may not be their only one.
Prior to Khan’s announcement, Andrew Zarian said he’d asked around, and there’s rumours circulating that AEW has been able to strike a deal with HBO Max.
The new HBO deal would likely mean that fans will finally have official access to the entire history of AEW, similar to WWE and their Network on Peacock.
So far, no announcement has come out making this deal official, but AEW could be on the cusp of yet another huge partnership, this time with HBO.
And we’re ending today with NXT 2.0, which has struggled ever since the show’s relaunch in September, and that was very much the case this week.
According to Wrestlenomics, the March 1st episode scored an average 551,000 viewers, with a .13 rating in the 18-49 demographic.
This is a drop of 61,000 viewers from the prior week, though this week’s show did see a .01 increase in that crucial demographic.
WWE revamped NXT into NXT 2.0 to try and attract younger fans, which hasn’t worked out so far, and we wouldn’t be surprised if WWE makes even
more changes to the brand to try and turn thing around very soon.