Here's more wrestling news for April 14th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Cody Rhodes On The Reception He Received Backstage For His WWE Return!
Former WWE Superstar Cesaro Appears To Confirm Exit With Social Media Username Change!
Former WWE Superstar Kept His Relationship A Secret From Triple H!
NATALYA’s Immediate Wrestling Future!
Sasha Banks Wants To Headline WWE Pay-Per-View Event In Saudi Arabia!
Former WWE Champion Turned Down Offers From WWE & AEW!
Kieran Culkin Once Wrestled The Miz For 40 Minutes In A Hotel Room!
Good Brothers Impact Wrestling Contracts Set To Expire ' In July!
"She's Trash" - AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill Calls Out Former WWE Star!
Bully Ray Calls On WWE To Induct Former Tag Champion Into The Hall Of Fame!
TWO Former WWE Wrestlers Nearly Get Into A Fight At DDP’s Accountability Crib!
Juice Robinson Leaving NJPW After Contract Expires In April! And More!
We’re starting off Wrestlemania 38, where Cody Rhodes returned to WWE to defeat Seth Rollins, close to six years after leaving the company in 2016.
While many of the current Superstars were around six years ago, such as Kofi Kingston, The Miz and Randy Orton, there's plenty of new names who joined WWE during Cody's absence.
Speaking to Busted Open Radio, Cody discussed the new generation of talent, and the one Superstar he was most looking forward to meeting:
"The person I was most excited to meet was Bianca Belair. I got to meet her when she had just come back from tearing the joint down and I was underneath the stage. I could hear it all. You’re always
happy when you can hear a hot crowd and they set up such a brilliant crowd and put us in a difficult position to follow. She was a total queen when I met her and to be able to be one of the first
people to say congratulations.'" WrestleMania 38 was a big night for both Superstars, as Belair captured the RAW Women's
Championship from Becky Lynch, and had a very warm reaction backstage from the American Nightmare.
WrestleMania went ahead without Cesaro, who left WWE earlier this year, and is now distancing himself from the promotion.
On Instagram, the Swiss Cyborg has changed his name from WWE Cesaro to Claudio CSRO, which may be his ring- name going forward.
On Twitter, his account is still WWE Cesaro, as changing your Twitter handle can result in a user losing their aunthetication Blue Tick, but time will tell what Cesaro does next In his career.
One name still with WWE is Nikki A.S.H, who is married to former Superstar Killian Dain, who was released last year.
On screen, the couple shared TV time together as part of Sanity, but had actually been dating prior to signing with WWE.
In an interview with the Wrestling Inc, Dain, now going by Big Damo, discussed his relationship with Nikki, and how they had to keep It a secret:
“We didn’t want it to be a reason why one of us would get signed or the other one would get signed. Nikki got signed and she came about six months before me, and I came over then
to see her Damo didn’t want either his or his wife’s careers to be subject to criticism, as they wanted to make sure both came to WWE
because of their talent, not because of who they were dating. Now, Nikki remains part of WWE’s Raw roster, while Damo is looking for prospects outside the
company, but their marriage is as strong as ever after having to hide their relationship at first.
During this week’s NXT 2.0, Natalya made an appearance and became the latest main-roster Superstar to appear for the paint-splattered brand.
A 14-year veteran of WWE TV, Natalya has a ton of experience in the company, but she won’t be using that behind the scenes when her in-ring career is over.
The former SmackDown Women’s Champion made that clear she was interviewed by former TNA star Taylor Wilde, and said she isn’t patient enough to be a producer like her husband.
Natalya went on to say that she loves helping people, but isn’t the best at working behind the camera instead of in front of it, and fears she doesn’t have the patience to be a producer.
With that said, Natalya did say to never say never, and there are roles that she could easily excel in other than being a producer.
Trained by the Harts with decades of experience, Natalya could make a fantastic coach one day, but for now, the former SmackDown Women’s Champion remains a part on the
on-screen programming.
Sasha Banks knows all about being a headline act in front of WWE’s cameras, as she’s main evented shows including Hell in a Cell and WrestleMania.
Now one-half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Banks is one of the most decorated female Superstars of all time, but she has some things left to accomplish.
On the Ten Count podcast, Banks revealed her now goal, which is to headline a Premium Live Event in Saudi Arabia.
This obviously could be difficult, as the Saudi shows are almost entirely male-dominated shows, and the country’s restrictive view of women could make a female main event all but impossible.
Banks said that she’d also love to headline any WWE Premium Live Event with the Women’s Tag Titles on the line, but given how little focus WWE has often given the division, this too could be
tall order. Despite this, the Boss remains confidents of her new goals, and we’ll have to see how the reign of
Banks and Naomi goes after their huge title win at WrestleMania ' 38.
In wrestling, there are few legitimate athletes more accomplished than Kurt Angle, who was already a major success before he ever stepped foot in the ring.
Returning to WWE in 2017, Angle was released in 2020, but has refused to sign with any other promotion so far.
Despite this, Kurt remains in high demand, and while speaking to What Culture, the Olympic Gold Medalist said how he has turned down some pretty big offers:
“I’m leaving it open. I’ve gotten offers from both companies [WWE and AEW], didn’t accept them, didn’t feel it was right at that particular time, but if they come up with something that I feel is
worth it, I will do it.” Kurt is set to undergo surgery next month, as he has to have double knee surgery, but the Wrestling Machine is keeping all
his options for where he will go next.
Now, it’s no secret that Home Alone star Macauley Culkin is a big wrestling fan, but he’s not the only one in his family to have a love for the industry.
It turns out that Kieran Culkin, his brother is also a super fan, as disclosed by Freddie Prinze Jr. Wrestling with Freddie podcast.
On the show, Freddie discussed Kieran, who has found success on HBO’s Succesion, and called the Culkin brother a wrestling encyclopedia.
Prinze went on to describe a time where Kieran wrestled The Miz in an Arizona hotel room during WrestleMania week in 2010, saying it was “like a shoot match” and that after 40 minutes, it was Culkin
who got the pinfall victory. Some of Kieran Culkin’s antics haven’t been so warmly received by WWE, as Freddie said he was once saw
Kieran get kicked out of a WWE event for throwing a drink on the Big Show Paul Wight.
It’s safe to say that Kieran Culkin is an absolute pro wrestling fanatic and as far as Freddie Prinze Jr feels, their may not be a bigger fan than the Succession star.
Impact news next, as the Good Brothers have been with the company for some time, but they could be on the move once again soon.
Fightful Select reports that the contracts of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows is set to expire on July 17th, and there’s reasons to suspect they may not re-sign.
In addition to having appeared in AEW, New Japan, where the Good Brothers have also worked in the past, are in the process of getting work visas for American talent, but we’ll only know for
sure what the future holds for the duo this July.
Over to AEW, as Marina Shafir appeared on this week’s Dynamite, but didn’t get the reaction she would’ve hoped.
On a stacked show with a hot crowd, the quiet response Shafir’s match with Skye Blue stuck out like a sore thumb, which is something Jade Cargill definitely picked up on.
When a fan called out Cargill’s Baddie Section for being disrespectful during Shafir’s entrance, the TBS Champion said it was good to disrespect her, adding that “she’s trash.”
The first Moldovan wrestler to sign with AEW, this match isn’t exactly what Shafir had hoped for, but perhaps being called out by the reigning AEW TBS Champion could be a blessing in
disguise for the former WWE Superstar.
Back to WWE, and over the years, countless names have been inducted into the company's Hall of Fame.
It was earlier this month that The Undertaker, Big Van Vader and others became Hall of Famers, but we may already know a future inductee.
When WWE shared a video on Twitter, in which Spike Dudley is slammed though a table by Prince Albert, Bully Ray responded with nothing but praise for his kayfabe brother.
The former TNA World Heavyweight Champion called Spike one of the toughest guys he's shared the ring with, and called on WWE to induct the former Cruiserweight Champion.
In addition to that title, Spike also had reigns as a Harcore European and Tag Team Champion, as well as success in ECW and TNA.
Ultimately, it'll be WWE's decision who gets inducted next into the WWE Hall of Fame but after a career of taking some of wrestlings nastiest bump, Spike Dudley may one day join
Bubba Ray and D-Von in the Hall of Fame.
We’ve got a good news story concerning Mike Bennett, who had a rough day this week.
On Twitter, the former 24/7 Champion explained how this week, when getting into his car, his wallet fell out of his pocket, something he didn’t realise until he got home.
Losing the money in your wallet is bad enough, but it’s likely that Bennett keeps his credit cards in his wallet, and who knows what sentimental items he may have.
Bennett went on to say that later in the day, a man knocked on his door after having found the wallet and returned it, which Bennett praised as an “act of kindness.”
In these difficult times, people’s money and financial situation is more important than ever, and its great to know that there’s still good people out there.
For years, Diamond Dallas Page has opened his home to hose who need help, which has been rechristened the ‘ Accountability Crib.’
Right now, DDP is hosting several names as part of a new series, but this has proven to be challenge for two people in particular.
On a recent episode of Busted Open Radio, Buff Bagwell, who DDP is working with, said that things got heated between him and boxer/fighter Butterbean, saying:
Me and Butterbean almost got in a fistfight. He said I looked gay in my American Male video. I said, ‘Hey listen fat ass, I’m right here bro… he calls someone over and goes, ‘if he calls
calls me fat ass one more time, I’m gonna kick his ass!’ Me and him got in a huge fight and I de-escalated it to a point where Dallas watched the tape back
and he goes, ‘you see that there, that’s Marc Bagwell. Not the – when they’re cussing and yelling and all that – the Marc Bagwell, the charming motherf**ker that de-escalated that
argument Thankfully, the two didn’t come to blows, as Butterbean has a history of knocking out wrestlers in
seconds, and we can only hope the two remain civil as they both work with DDP to beat their respective issues.
And we’re ending with news from New Japan, as Juice Robinson’s time with the promotion is coming to an end.
During a guest appearance on Wrestling Observer Live, Robinson said he doesn’t have any plans to travel back to Japan, and that his deal with New Japan has technically already expired.
He explained that in January, he agreed to a three-month extension, and that his time with the promotion will officially end on April 30th.
A two-time IWGP United States Champion and one-time IWGP Heavyweight Tag Champion with David Finlay, Robinson has certainly made the most of his time with the company.
As for where’s next, Robinson said he’s unsure, though it’s worth noting that his fiancée is AEW’s Toni Storm, but for now, all we know for sure is his time with New Japan will be over this month.