Here's your wrestling news for November 17th 2021
And your headlines for today include
WWE Struggling To Sell Wrestlemania Tickets! Already Cutting Prices !
New Plans For WWE Authority Figure Revealed !
Tommaso Ciampa Makes Huge Statement During Last Night’s NXT Promo !
First Match For NXT 2.0 War Games Announced !
Former WWE World Champion To Make history At Survivor Series !
“That’s Not Your Character!” Riddle Reveals Plans That Were Banned By Vince Mcmahon !
AEW Champion Earns Heat From Locker Room After Full Gear !
Cody Rhodes Explains Decision To Leave Twitter For Good !
“It’s Like Survivors Guilt.” Top WWE Superstar Says Recent Releases Have Hit Him Hard !
Impact Wrestling Star Makes Huge Accusation At WWE’s Hiring Policy!
Roman Reigns Receives Huge Award For Work Outside WWE ! And More !
We’re kicking off today with WrestleMania 38, as tickets recently went on sale for what will be WWE’s third two-night WrestleMania in a row.
The show will be held inside the colossal AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys meaning WWE will have a ton of tickets that need to be sold.
Selling tickets is proving to be a problem for WWE, as Dave Meltzer explained on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio:
I don’t have a number but you could tell from the push really hard and everything like that [that they are] far far far far far from a sellout.
I didn’t expect it would be this quick. The first time they went to AT&T Stadium [WrestleMania 32], it actually didn’t sell out until a week
out and that was a one-night show Meltzer added that some tickets have already been lowered in price to appeal to more
casual fans, and expects even more tickets to get cheaper once WWE has sold all they can for their hardcore fanbase, who’ll pay anything
to see WrestleMania live. WrestleMania 38 is expected to be headlined by Roman Reigns Vs. Brock Lesnar, in their
third Mania main-event match, but WWE will have to announce a lot more than that to fill the seats of AT&T Stadium
Lesnar hasn’t appeared on WWE TV since he caused havoc on the post-Crown Jewel edition of SmackDown, earning himself a
million-dollar fine and indefinite suspension by Adam Pearce. Pearce has been acting rather strange as of late,
as he seemed to be targeting the Mysterios, and had both men removed from Raw’s men’s team ahead of this Sunday’s Survivor Series.
It now appears that Pearce’s behaviour is leading somewhere, as WWE have filed a trademark for Scrap Metal, a play on previous nicknames
used by Pearce including Scrap Daddy and Scrap Iron. It’s believed by some that this Scrap Metal term
will be used for a new heel stable, which will be run by Pearce. There’s no words on who could be in this stable,
but Austin Theory looks like a likely candidate already, and with the Naomi-Sonya Deville angle proving to be a hit, it may be just
a matter of time before the male Superstars have a heel authority figure to rally against too.
NXT 2.0 next, as Bron Breakker has bounced back from his loss at Halloween Havoc, and challenged Tommaso Ciampa for another NXT
title match on last night’s show. During a promo, Ciampa targeted some of the new names of NXT 2.0, including Grayson
Waller and Carmelo Hayes, but saved a very interesting line for Breakker. Confronted by the second-generation Superstar
Ciampa claimed that Breaker had a 33 and 1/3 chance of winning a rematch, a reference to the infamous Scott Steiner Math promo from TNA.
In that promo, Steiner tried to explain why he was the favourite in the Sacrifice 2008 main event, using numbers in a way numbers
have been never used before. It’s interesting to see Ciampa reference Breakker’s uncle, as so far, there’s been no
mention of the Steiner name on NXT 2.0, and Breakker has earned props backstage for making his own name on the show.
Steiner’s name was trending after Ciampa’s promo, and Impact also shared Scott’s promo in full on their Twitter account.
It had been reported that Rick Steiner, Bron’s father, was meant to be at Halloween Havoc, but pulled out shortly before the show,
but after last night, the chance of a Steiner appearing in NXT became far more likely.
More from NXT 2.0, as the show’s first major event, War Games will take place on December 5th, and we now have our first match announcement.
On last night’s show, Io Shirai aligned herself with Raquel Gonzalez and Cora Jade, and ended the show announcing WarGames to
Dakota Kai and Toxic Attraction. It remains to be seen who’ll be the fourth member of Team Shirai, as Zoey Stark continues
to recover from a torn ACL and meniscus she suffered a few weeks back. Kay Lee Ray has had her own issues with
Toxic Attraction as of late, and she could be the fourth member of Team Shirai, but we’ll only know for sure closer to WarGames on December 5th.
At Survivor Series 2021, RAW Tag Team Champions RK Bro will face Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Usos, as part of the brand warfare this Sunday
night. No titles will be on the line in this match, but Randy Orton will break a huge record regardless of the result.
By competing this Sunday, the Viper will compete in his 177th Pay Per View match, breaking the record set by Kane at 176.
Orton's first Pay Per View match came all the way back at Summerslam 2003, and after such a lengthy and storied career, it's only fitting that Orton make
history this Sunday, regardless of if RK BRO win, lose or draw.
RK Bro have proven to be one of the highlights of WWE in 2021, as the unlikely pair of Orton and Riddle continue to win over fans.
At Crown Jewel, the pair retained their titles against AJ Styles and Omos, but only after the Original Bro made his way to the ring on a camel.
Speaking to the Metro newspaper, Riddle revealed that Orton wanted to ride a camel for their entrance too, but this idea was immediately
blackballed by Vince McMahon. Explaining his decision, the Chairman told Orton that his character wasn't the kind of person
who rides camels, much to the bemusement of the RAW Tag Team Champion. Throughout his legendary career, fans have seen
Orton do everything from set Bray Wyatt on fire to punt McMahon himself in the head, but as long as Vince controls the WWE, Randy Orton
will never be seen on the back of a camel.
At AEW Full Gear, World Tag Team Champions the Lucha Bros retained their titles against FTR in a match that was especially rough on Dax Harwood.
It’s been reported that Harwood was knocked out during the match which led to plans having to be changed, and there’s even more to this story.
In an update from Fightful Select, it’s said that several wrestlers in AEW have taken issue with Fenix who has been known to work stiff in the past
and was the one responsible for KO’ing Harwood. Fenix also didn’t check in on Harwood after the match, and the talent who spoke to Fightful
said it was common courtesy to make sure your opponent is okay if you’ve hurt them. This is interesting news considering that Fenix
and Penta are still the AEW World Tag Team Champions, but if these sorts of incidents keep happening, and Fenix keeps getting a
reputation for both hurting people and not checking in, the pair may not be champions for much longer.
Cody Rhodes was also at Full Gear, as he teamed with Pac to defeat Malakai Black and Andrade El Idolo, but you won’t be hearing
from the former TNT Champion on Twitter. After promising to leave Twitter last week, the former TNT Champion has kept his word,
and deactivated his account. Last Friday, Rhodes said on Busted Open Radio that he’s leaving Twitter saying that the “
sniping and negativity,” has forced his hand. Now, fans can find Rhodes on Instagram, where he hopes to avoid the negativity that
plagued him during his time on Twitter.
Back to WWE, and earlier this month, the company let go of 18 Superstars, with surprising names like Keith Lee, Nia Jax and Karrion Kross all being cut.
As the reigning United States Champion, Damian Priest unsurprisingly was safe from the recent cuts, but that hasn’t made things any easier for
the Archer of Infamy. In an interview with the Metro, Priest explained how he understands why cuts have to be
made, but that it’s left an impact on him. He said: "It’s unfortunate, obviously. It is not just our business – it’s in any business, that’s just the
way it goes… it still hurts, because we care about these people. We know they’re hurting, so we hurt. It’s unfortunate. It’s like that survivors guilt –
you feel guilty." Priest may be feeling guilty for not being a victim of the dreaded budget cuts, but added
that those who were released are going to be fine, calling them “incredible people.” The U.S. Champion has had an incredible 2021
starting with a stellar performance at the Royal Rumble and huge WrestleMania tag-match with Bad Bunny, but that hasn’t saved him
from feeling guilty that he couldn’t save his colleagues from being released
WWE isn’t just getting rid of talent, but they’re also trying to sign new names, but with a new rule about a potential Superstar’s age.
This new rule means WWE doesn't want to hire anyone in the 30s, and for women, their late 20s, but it seems some backstage were already doing
this before the rule came into effect. That's according to Lady Frost, who had a try out for WWE in 2018, and also appeared
on the March 26th RAW, losing to Asuka. Speaking to Fightful this week, Frost claimed that despite a positive response after her try
out, she wasn't offered a deal, as she was deemed too old to hire. At the time, Frost was already in her 30s,
despite this being years before WWE would officially introduce their new rule. Since then, Frost has appeared for AEW,
the NWA and most recently signed with Impact Wrestling, where her age won't be a factor like it was in WWE three years ago
And we’re ending today with the Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who may be WWE’s top heel at the moment, but the Tribal Chief
isn’t all bad. This week, the Make A Wish Foundation announced that Reigns will be one of this year’s
recipients of the Chris Greicius Award for Celebrity Wish Granting. The award’s name comes from Chris Greicius,
a child in the 1980s who’s dream of being a firefighter despite battling leukemia inspired the entire Make A Wish foundation
Reigns will receive the award alongside singer JoJo Siwa, Shawn Mendes, MLB’s the Texas Rangers and others, who have played a pivitol
role in the Make A Wish mission. In a statement from the foundation, Reigns was praised for inspiring kids especially
given his own health challenges, and this is another huge honour for one of WWE’s biggest stars of the past decade.