Here's more wrestling news for September 14th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
William Regal Books WWE NXT Title Match For This Week!
Mick Foley Criticizes WWE NXT For Losing Wrestlers’ Identities
KENNY OMEGA SAYS ROMAN REIGNS COULD HAVE ‘EASILY’ BEEN #1 IN PWI 500
Possible New AEW Stable Name Revealed!
CM Punk Set For Commentary On AEW Dynamite!
WWE Reviewed All NXT Contracts To Avoid Another Adam Cole Situation!
Yet Another Wrestler’s WWE Contract Expires This Year!
Gable Steveson Reveals Length Of His WWE Contract, Thinks He’ll Go Straight To Main Roster
Brian Cage Tweets Out After Wife Complained About His Booking In AEW!
Fandango Gets Amazing Brodie Lee Tattoo In Touching Tribute And more!
We’re kicking off with NXT, which will usher in a new era tonight, but it’ll have to do so without a top champion.
Due to an injury, Samoa Joe has been forced to relinquish the NXT title, and a new champion will be crowned tonight.
In a statement, General Manager William Regal, announced that a fatal-four-way match, which was originally meant to determine Joe’s next
challenger, will instead be for the vacant title. Hat means that either LA Knight, Tommaso Ciampa, Kyle O’Reilly or Pete Dunne will be
leaving the Capitol Wrestling Center as champion, which could make for an interesting call given the ongoing contract disputes
There’s still no word on if Dunne has signed a new deal with NXT, as his contract is set to expire soon, and a title win could certainly be
used to sweeten the deal for the Bruiserweight.
Time will tell who is crowned the new NXT Champion, but the gold brand is ushering in their new era in a huge way tonight.
As a 14-time WWE World Champion, Intercontinental and U.S. Champion, and current RAW Tag Team Champion,
Randy Orton has done it all in WWE, and is rightly seen as a locker-room leader.
One thing the Viper is not is a doctor, but that didn’t stop one fan from asking him for some medical advice this week.
In a tweet, the fan shared a photo of his 6-year-old stepdaughter’s bite wound, which seemed to be from a spider and
asked Orton for his feedback. Bewildered, Orton responded by ordering the fan to take his stepdaughter to a doctor, and
asked why the fan thought he’d know what to do. We can only imagine that the fan thought
WWE’s resident viper was an expert on all spider-bites, but that isn’t the case, and just because he’s the Apex Predator, that
Predator, that doesn’t mean he has an encyclopaedic knowledge on Arnold Schwarzenegger movies either.
Recently, Mick Foley got in hot water with WWE for posting a video, in which he highlighted some of the company’s big problems.
In the video, Mick talked about the booking of Keith Lee and Karrion Kross on the main- roster which has paled in comparison to
their runs in NXT. Foley isn’t done yet in his crusade to improve WWE’s product, as on Busted Open Radio,
he spoke about how NXT has problems too, and that the company’s developmental system causes wrestlers to lose their
individuality. He said: “I was watching sporadically, and I was like, “Wow, look at that guy. Good shape, looks
great, handsome guy, wearing trunks, great moves, can’t remember his name. A lot of guys tend to fall into the same pattern of
looking and wrestling the same.” WWE may not like what Foley has to say, but that won’t stop him trying to improve the
product, both on the main-roster, and in the company’s very own developmental ground
Earlier this month, Pro Wrestling Illustrated released their annual top 500 male wrestlers listing, and for the second time, Kenny Omega
was #1. The reigning AEW World Champion beat Universal Champion Roman Reigns to second
place, and given the Tribal Chief’s incredible time over the past year, many fans believed that he should’ve taken the top spot.
Speaking on the PW podcast, Omega talked about the stiff competition he had in this year’s list, and admitted that the Head of the
Table could’ve taken the top spot: I don’t think I was number one by far. I think the best part about this year, especially, is you
could have went in multiple directions and no one would be disappointed. I feel that, up until his unfortunate injury, number one could have
been Will Ospreay. Number one could have easily been Shingo Takagi. Number one could have easily been Roman Reigns. Everyone had
such a strong year. The most recent PWI 500 list was constructed during an unprecedented year in wrestling
where live crowds couldn’t attend and shows had to happen behind closed doors, so it’s safe to say that whoever came first, they
would have earned that top spot.
More from AEW, as the Young Bucks are two of the biggest names in the company, and now the brothers are looking to expand their work
as professional wrestlers. According to PW Insider, the Bucks recently filed to trademark the term ‘Superkliq,’ and it’s
believed to be the name of a new stable in the company. This is an interesting name, given that Superkliq
was a stable on the indies that included The Bucks and Adam Cole, and with the former NXT Champion now in AEW, it seems that
Superkliq could be having a reunion, despite all three men being part of the Elite
Since debuting for AEW last month, CM Punk has been a regular on TV, and we now know what’s in store for the former WWE Champion
this week. It’s been confirmed that Punk will be on commentary during this week’s Dynamite,
and will probably have a lot to say about his budding feud with Team Taz. Wednesday’s show will also see Frankie
Kazarian face Adam Cole, in the latter’s in-ring debut for the company, as well as Jade Cargill take on Lelya Hirsch
Shawn Spears will take on Darby Allin whilst Bryan Danielson once again addresses AEW World Champion Kenny Omega, as the company
continues on the road to Full Gear in November.
It’s highly possible that Punk will one-day feud with Adam Cole, who joined AEW just a few days after his short-term NXT deal expired.
Before his release, we reported that Cole’s original contract which expired in July, ended far earlier than anyone in WWE expected
and that Pete Dunne was a similar situation. Fightful Select reports that WWE has since reviewed everyone’s contracts in the gold brand,
to make sure they know exactly when every deal is up. The report adds that WWE also checked for
non-compete clauses, as they want to avoid another Malakai Black situation, who was able to join AEW a month after his WWE release
because he had a 30-day non-compete clause instead of the standard 90-day clause for main-roster talent.
WWE has lost a lot of great talents this year, and with NXT setting to debut their new rebrand tonight, the last thing the show needs is
more talent leaving without WWE even knowing.
Losing Adam Cole was a huge blow to NXT, but he may not be the only former NXT Champion looking for work outside WWE.
Fightful reports that Johnny Gargano’s WWE NXT contract is up soon, and will expire on December 3rd this year.
This December 3rd date is interestingly when WWE believed Adam Cole’s contract was up, meaning they were out by 5 months,
as his original deal expired in July, causing Cole to sign a short-term contract that allowed him to wrestle at NXT TakeOver 36.
Joining NXT in 2015, The Way’s leader has some tough decisions to make in the coming months, and although AEW can’t sign everyone
a guy like Johnny Gargano will be hard to pass on for Tony Khan.
This month, Gable Steveson signed a lucrative deal with WWE, that’ll allow him to keep defending his NCAA Championship while
training to be a Superstar. Sitting down with Ariel Helwani of the MMA Hour, the Olympic Gold Medalist discussed
his future, saying that he may compete at the 2024 Summer games in Paris, if his WWE contract allows it.
Given that the Paris games at three years away, Steveson actually disclosed that his contract with WWE is at least three years long, and added
that his contract with WWE means he could skip NXT entirely and jump straight to the main-roster.
Steveson is a huge get for WWE, and will bring a lot of attention to the company when he eventually makes his TV debut, which
may happen sooner than anyone thinks.
More from AEW, as Brian Cage hasn’t been getting a high spotlight in AEW lately, and that’s a major problem for his wife Melissa Santos.
Recently, Santos tweeted her frustrations, saying AEW is misusing her husband, and now Cage has responded.
In his own tweet, Cage said he appreciates everyone’s opinions, both good and bad, and promised that he has something in store for
everyone. Time will tell what that something is, because with CM Punk now feuding with Team Taz,
it seems that the Machine has moved on from his most recent storyline.
And we’re ending today with Fandango, who was released by WWE this year, and during his lengthy tenure, he made a lot of friends
in the company. One friend Fandango made was Brodie Lee, who tragically passed last December, and now
Fandango has shown just how much their friendship meant to him. On Instagram, the dancing wrestler revealed
his new tattoo of the Dark Order leader, along with the text ‘Yeah Yeah Yeah,’ which was one of Lee’s catchphrases
Fandango and Brodie Lee competed against each other in WWE, but we’re clearly very close behind the scenes, and it’s great to
see how wrestlers continue to pay tribute to their fallen comrade in their own unique ways.