Here's more wrestling news for August 23rd 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Matt Riddle Tells Fans That RKBro Scooters Are Coming Soon!
WWE President Nick Khan’s Surprising Opinion About AEW; Discusses A 4 HOUR RAW!
Triple H Rejected French NXT Superstar Names For Interesting Reason!
John Cena’s New T-Shirt Blatantly Copies CM Punk Design ; Young Bucks REACTS!
Vince McMahon Meets Gable Steveson At WWE SummerSlam!
CM Punk’s First AEW T-Shirt Smashes Sales Record!
Bianca Belair Opens Up About Sasha Banks Missing WWE SummerSlam!
Goldberg Talks His Son Gage Potentially Joining WWE!
Asuka Fires Back At Report About Her WWE Absence! And More!
We’re starting today with new RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro, who’ve proven to be a highlight of WWE in recent months.
As one of the company’s most popular teams, RK-Bro t-shirts are already available, but some even more unique merchandise
may be in the pipeline. On the Battleground podcast, Riddle discussed working with Orton, and said
they’ve talked about having RK-Bro Scooters made to sell on WWEShop. com. Riddle said:
They are in the works. I think it depends on what kind of — I ride a high-quality scooter. I don’t settle for anything less. I think the
WWE wants to make sure if we provide a scooter to our fans, we want to make sure it’s the highest level scooter possible
Riddle already has t-shirts and flip-flops for sale, and if he and Randy Orton win tonight, then it may be just a matter of time before
official RK-Bro scooters are being ridden by the Original Bro’s dedicated fans.
Since forming in early 2019, AEW has gone from strength to strength, building a loyal fanbase with each passing week.
Several fans who have flocked to AEW did so after growing tired of WWE’s booking, but that’s not a problem according to WWE
President Nick Khan. Speaking to Ariel Helwani of BT Sport, Khan was asked about the competition WWE now
has thanks to AEW, but Khan said that WWE isn’t looking at competitors, but are looking ahead to their own future.
Khan may not be looking at competition, but perhaps he should start, as AEW has been doing very successful, earning the loyalty
of fans, something that WWE has been struggling to do. If Khan was looking at the competition,
he’d no doubt see how many of WWE’s releases have gone on to be bigger stars in AEW, but for now at least, WWE is only
thinking of it’s own product and no-one else’s at least according to the company President.
Many of Khan’s decisions have proven to be unpopular with the fans, and the WWE President may be preparing to make another
unpopular call. In that same interview, Khan expressed his desire to make Monday Night RAW a four-hour
show, saying that it would make the company more money, and joked about making SmackDown an eight-hour weekly event.
We all love wrestling, but it’s difficult enough getting through a four-hour Pay-Per-View each month never mind a four-hour RAW on
weekly basis. Thankfully, Khan was clearly joking, and said how there’s only so much the creative team
can create in a week, but it also shows that Khan is always looking for new ways to turn extra profit for the company.
For the past year, WWE has cut a ton of talent in the name of budget cuts, cuts that have been led and orchestrated by Khan himself.
Whenever we see a wave of talent be released, it’s almost always done at Khan’s request, making the WWE President one of the company’s
most unpopular figures, at least o the fans. Khan has previously said that he doesn’t mind taking the heat from fans, and in the interview
the WWE President double-downed on this idea of not caring what the crowd has to say. He said:
The people I love and care for, of course I care what they think of me as an individual. The people I do not know, they’re allowed to have
their opinions. It does not affect me in any way. I don’t read it. Khan went on to say that from his perspective,
that he’s happy to get all the blame when something’s a disaster, but when something’s great, he’d rather see the credit go to other
people. It’s a strange philosophy by Khan, who has grown increasingly more important since joining
the company just over a year ago, and fans can look forward to blaming him for everything, just as he wants it, for years to come
Two former WWE names that have since joined AEW is Ever-Rise, aka 2.0, who were released earlier this year.
Now, the pair are speaking openly about their time in NXT, and during Talk is Jericho, discussed how the Ever-Rise name came to be.
The story goes that the pair were told just one day before their debut that they needed a new name, and that they’d suggested a
French name, that was rejected by Triple H. At the time, the Game argued that they didn’t want French names, as if they did, it wouldn’t
be long before they were wearing berets as a French stereotype. Instead, the pair were named Ever-Rise,
which was the name one of a band one of the writers dreamed of having as a teenager, in one of the strangest ways for a team to get
their name, one they only had it for under two years, before their release.
Now, it’s been over a month since Asuka competed in WWE, and fans have been wondering where she’s been.
Recently, a report came out saying that she was fine, but WWE had nothing for her, and that she recently left a RAW taping early because there
were no plans for her on the show. That isn’t the case, according to the former RAW Women’s Champion herself, who in a tweet
called the information being circulated “totally wrong,” and said that the entire situation is “completely different.”
Saying that she’d like to find the person who provided that information, Asuka is refuting any claim that she’d leave a show early,
which is a sign of disrespect in the industry. If the story of her being healthy but unused is a quote “fake story,” then we’re curious as to
why exactly the massively talented Superstar hasn’t been used, and we’ll keep looking into this story as more details come out.
At Summerslam, John Cena debuted his latest show, which was an homage to the popular 1988 Nintendo game, Super Mario Bros 3.
Cena’s shirt isn’t the first time this game-cover art has been used though, and on Twitter, several fans pointed out that John’s shirt
was seemingly a rip-off of an older design for CM Punk, which can be found on Pro-Wrestling Tees
It’s certainly interesting that Cena’s shirt made it’s debut just one day after Punk joined AEW on Rampage, and though there’s a chance that this
is nothing more than a coincidence, and WWE didn’t even know if Punk’s original shirt design, it’s unfortunate timing to say the least.
It wasn’t just fans who noticed the similarities between the Cena and Punk shirts, as the Young Bucks also weighed in on this
merchandise controversy. Like Punk and Cena, the Bucks have used the Super Mario Bros 3 artwork as the template for
their own shirt design, and on Twitter, shared a pic of their own shirt, with no caption needed.
The Bucks are no strangers to cashing on various incidents over the years, even selling shirts from the time their faces were banned
in the Thunderdome, and we doubt the Bucks will stop their trolling, or making money from that trolling anytime soon.
At Summerslam, Olympic Gold Medalists Tamyra Mensah-Stock and Gable Steveson made an appearance, as the pair were recognised for
their wins in Tokyo this year. Both shared the ring for a quick celebration, and this could be the first of many times they
are in the squared circle. Mensah-Stock has previously said she’s interested in becoming a Superstar, while
Steveson has teased joining WWE, even tweeting at Vince McMahon himself. Now, the pair have come face to face
as Steveson tweeted a photo of him and McMahon backstage, calling the Chairman ‘ the man I wanted to see.’
Although Steveson has shown an interest in WWE, he’s also considering options with UFC and the NFL, but we’re sure he and the
Chairman had a very interesting talk at Summerslam
Over to AEW next, and not only did CM Punk debut on Friday’s Rampage, but he also debuted a brand-new shirt, his first official
piece of merchandise with AEW. AEW’s merchandise is sold through Pro- Wrestling Tees, who are no stranger to
huge sales figures, and now another record has been set, thanks to the Best in the World.
On Twitter, PW Tees said that Punk now holds the record for most shirts sold in 24 hours, but didn’t specify just how many
shirts had been sold. Previous holders of this esteemed record include Sting and the late Brodie Lee,
and with Punk now holding the records, we’re sure this’ll be the first of many pieces of merchandise for the former WWE Champion,
now that he’s an official member of AEW’s roster.
At Summerslam, Bianca Belair lost the SmackDown Women’s title to Becky Lynch, but she was supposed to be facing Sasha Banks.
Banks wasn’t at Summerslam, or the SmackDown before it, and had been pulled from two WWE live events for what was
called ‘unforeseen circumstances. Speaking about the Boss at the Summerslam after-party, Belair gave some insight into
why Banks hasn’t been around, saying: All I can say is, tonight it couldn’t happen with Sasha Banks, but coming soon, it will be a time
where Sasha and I are in the ring again. So, \we are definitely going to finish what we started off, and you know, it’s been a tough
couple of weeks for Sasha Banks, and I was ready to put an end to her tonight. So whenever that time happens, I’m going to be ready to put an
end to her and move over to Becky.” It's still unclear what has happened to Banks to cause these tough couple of weeks, but we’re
sending our best to the Boss, who has a lot of unfinished business with Bianca Belair
And we’re ending today with Goldberg, but not the former Universal Champion, but rather his son, Gage Goldberg.
At Summerslam, Gage got physical after the WWE Championship match between his father and Bobby Lashley, and he’s certainly
grown since when fans saw him at Survivor Series 2016. Speaking on the Bump this week, Bill Goldberg
was asked about the possibility of his son joining WWE, and said: I don’t want to choose his path. The kid’s
15-years-old, and he’s a hell of a baseball player and a hell of a football player. And if one day he wanted to step in the ring, you
know, I would support it 100 percent. I would let him know to be prepared to be a target, as he is probably right now. As a father,
I would be behind him 100 percent. Just know, if he did, he would be the biggest and baddest to ever step in the ring, just like his dad.
At 15, Gage has his entire life ahead of him, and plenty of time to make a decision, but after receiving the Hurt Lock by Lashley at
Summerslam, we’re interested to see how both Gage and his father respond.