Here's more wrestling for June 3rd 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Another Former WWE Superstar Was Backstage At AEW Dynamite This Week
WWE Changes Plans For Lacey Evans Again
AJ Lee Shocking News Concerning Her Wrestling Return
AEW Talent Informed Of Next ROH Pay-Per-View
Don West Calls On Fans For Help As He Battles Brain Lymphoma
Brian Pillman Jr’s Mother Melanie Pillman Passes Away ; Brian Pillman Jr. Pens An Emotional Message
"You've Just Had Your Last Match" – Vince MCMAHON's Reaction To Major Star Suffering From Memory Loss
Latest On Plans For The Usos Vs. Riddle/Shinsuke Nakamura Title Match
NWA Releases Statement After Matt Cardona Injury
Sting Pitched Idea To Perform Insane High-Risk Maneuver In AEW And more!
We’re starting off with AEW Dynamite, as plenty of big names were on the show and some more big names showed up backstage.
We’ve already reported that current WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler was at Dynamite to catch up with friends and his brother Ryan Nemeth, but there was also some ex-WWE talent.
Former WWE Superstar CJ Perry, aka Lana, was also in attendance as her husband Miro made his return to the show after over a six-month hiatus to defeat Johnny Elite.
Renee Paquette was also backstage for the show where her husband Jon Moxley defeated Daniel Garcia, and there was also a party backstage hosted by Warner Discovery.
There’s no word on if Perry, Paquette, or even Ziggler discussed possibly working for AEW during this week’s Dynamite, but this week’s show was a packed house, both in the seats and backstage.
Last month, after weeks of build, Lacey Evans was brought back to WWE TV, appearing on SmackDown as a babyface.
Dropping her Sassy Southern Belle character, Evans’ segments focused on her time as a U.S. Marine and a mother, but that was later dropped.
Mere days after her in-person return, Evans was moved to the Raw brand, and it was reported that she was going to be a heel, but now that angle has been dropped as well.
PW Insider has learned that Evans is now getting moved back to SmackDown, after never even competing on Raw despite being moved to the red brand:
Lacey Evans was shifted back to the Smackdown roster over the last 48 hours, PWInsider.com has confirmed.
Evans was slated to make her Raw in-ring return this past Monday, but did not appear. She had initially returned as part of the Smackdown roster with a series of vignettes promoting
her return, but was moved to Raw last month.
As for whether she’ll be a face or a heel, that’s difficult to say at this time, but expect Lacey Evans to be appearing on SmackDown from now on, until WWE change their mind again.
At Double or Nothing 2022, CM Punk won his first World Championship in a decade, dethroning ‘Hangman’ Adam Page.
After the show, Punk thanked his wife for her support, and many have speculated whether AJ Lee could soon be joining her husband on TV.
We’ve seen plenty of former Superstars, including Punk, Bryan Danielson and Edge do great things after coming out of retirement, but AJ Lee won’t be joining that list.
Speaking on The Sessions, AJ told Renee Paquette that despite her husband’s success, she is fully retired, and said Punk’s win ‘didn’t spark’ a desire to get back in the ring herself.
AJ has signed on as a producer for the Women of Wrestling promotion, and will serve as a commentator for the show which is expected to debut this fall, but don’t expect her to done her
ring-attire, either for WOW or AEW.
In March, Tony Khan appeared on Dynamite to announce that he had purchased Ring of Honor, in one of the biggest moves the AEW figure head has made.
Since then, ROH has had their Supercard of Honor 15 event, and now talent are being told about their next big event.
According to Sean Sapp behind his paywall, AEW talent were told that ROH’s next pay-per-view is targeted for July 23rd and will be Death before Dishonor.
No matches have been confirmed for the show, which hasn’t even been announced by Tony Khan yet, but expect the show to be publicly known sooner rather than later.
In June 2021, Don West was diagnosed with a Brain Lymphoma, and has been battling the disease ever since.
This week, fellow Impact veteran Scott D’Amore gave an update, and sadly, West isn’t doing too well.
On Twitter, D’amore rallied fans to support by opening their wallets, saying that any funds donated to the GoFundMe for West will be matched dollar for dollar.
At the time, over $34,000 had been donated, but that number has risen to nearly $50,000 since his tweet about West’s situation.
The fundraiser has already smashed it’s $40,000 goal, and West will need every penny to afford his long and expensive medical bills, and we’re continuing to send him the very best in his fight
with the brain lymphoma.
We’ve got some sad news to report now, as Melanie Pillman, the mother of Brian Pillman Jr. has died.
The sad news from broken by her son, who said that his mother was pronounced dead around 1pm, and that while he didn’t have the best relationship with her, both sides had been working to improve it.
Brian added that Melanie could often be found interacting with fans during his Twitch streams, and recalling stories of Brian’s father, the late-Flyin Brian Pillman, who died in 1997.
Fans of Dark Side of the Ring will have seen Melanie during last year’s season of Dark Side of the Ring, and we’re offering our deepest condolences to Brian and the entire Pillman family at this sad time.
Now, Mick Foley rightly earned the nickname as the Hardcore Legend by competing in some incredibly violent matches, from death matches in Japan to the infamous Hell in a Cell match at
the 1998 King of the Ring.
Foley’s body, which is covered in scars and missing one ear, paid the price for his career, but there was one match that went too far, even for Vince McMahon.
On the pilot episode of his Foley is Pod podcast, the Hall of Famer recalled a match where he teamed with Al Snow to face Crash and Hardcore Holly on SmackDown in 1999.
Foley explained that he had a few gaps in his memory during the match, and when speaking to Vince McMahon after the match, admitted that his memory had gotten so bad, that he couldn’t
remember where he lived:
"I talked to Vince; I was so embarrassed that night," revealed Foley. "I said, 'Vince, I think I've got to hang up the boots.' (...) I said, 'Vince, I can't remember where I live anymore.' He was like, 'What's
that?' I said, 'I drive past my house, and I can't remember things, and he said, 'You've just had your last match.
A career of taking shots to the skull had played havoc with Foley’s mind, but despite desiring to retire, Foley would continue wrestling for a few more months.
Even after retiring in full the next year, Foley would continue to make sporadic in-ring appearances, proving that it’s hard to walk away from the ring, even for the Hardcore legend.
Back to the present, as on this week’s Raw, Riddle and Shinsuke Nakamura became the number one contenders for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships, getting a DQ victory over The Usos.
WWE didn’t confirm when that title match will be, but despite speculation that it could happen at this Sunday’s Hell in a Cell Premium Live Event, that won’t be the case.
During Observer Radio, Meltzer said that at this time, a Tag Team Title match isn’t booked for Hell in a Cell, but the plan is for the title match to happen at Money in the Bank on July 2nd.
If that’s the case, it’s certainly interesting timing, as recent reports have stated that Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will be facing Riddle at that show, which has been moved
to the MGM Grand Arena. We can’t rule out the possibility of Riddle doing double-duty on the night, or that Reigns may face a different opponent at the show.
Given the Tribal Chief’s absence however, we can’t think of who else is ready to face him other than Riddle, but whatever the future holds, the Original Bro and Nakamura won’t be challenging for the
tag titles just yet.
Earlier this week, we reported on Matt Cardona, who has suffered a torn biceps.
Cardona got injured at GCW Downward Spiral and will need to undergo surgery, leaving the fate of the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship unclear.
Cardona was meant to defend against Nick Aldis on June 11th, but in a quote issued to Busted Open Radio, and used in a stateme nt by the NWA, Cardona promised to be at Alwayz Ready next week.
With this surgery looming, it’s unlikely Cardona will be wrestling, but the former WWE Superstar will have something up his sleeve at Alwayz Ready.
And we’re ending today with Sting, who joined AEW in 2020, five years after wrestling in WWE in what fans believed was a career-ending match.
Even at 63, the Icon is proving to be a hit in AEW, performing dared evil stunts that wrestlers over half his age would think twice about doing, and is even pitching himself to perform high risk manouvers.
When the Hardys spoke on Talk is Jericho, Jeff recalled their match against the Butcher, the Blade and Private Party, saying that Sting wanted to do one of the biggest spots of the bout:
“That swanton from the window ledge, it was so sketchy up there because it was not even a foot wide. Sting, that day, said, ‘If you don’t want to do it, I’ll do it. I’ll dive onto a group of people.”
Matt added that it was Darby Allin who found the ledge to jump off, and that once again, the Icon was the first to put his name forward.
“They were talking about it and Darby said, ‘I found this cool ledge that somebody can jump off of, maybe onto a bunch of guys.’ You can see Sting looking back and you can tell his wheels are turning.
He looks at me and he goes, very aggressively, ‘Matt, you don’t want to jump off that, do you?’ ‘Well, if it fits, I will. It’s not really my wheelhouse, but if it fits to where I jump off, I will.’ He goes, ‘I’m
sorry, the reason I’m saying this is because I’ll do it if you want me to.’ Jeff had already been volunteered by Darby to do it with the swanton.”
Sting is showing no signs of slowing down, and has proven to be a hit with fans, and none of this would’ve happened if he’d stayed retired as part of WWE.