Here's more wrestling news for November 8th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
What Went Wrong With WWE’s Survivor Series Announcements?
Multiple WWE Superstars Hit Out At Underwhelming Survivor Series Booking !
Spoilers On Plans For Roman Reigns This Week !
More Names Were Considered For Recent WWE Releases! Who Nearly Lost Their Jobs?
WWE Rewriting History To Remove Former AEW World Champion! And More !
We’re starting off today with Survivor Series, as last weekend, WWE finally began the build towards what’s meant to be one of their biggest
events of the calendar. In a series of tweets, WWE announced the men’s and women’s teams for the show,
which will once again be about brand supremacy, which came as a surprise to fans, who expected these announcements to be made on TV.
Fightful Select reports that not only were fans caught off-guard, but so were the Superstars themselves, as those picked for the respective
teams were given ZERO heads up backstage about what they’d be doing at the show. Instead, the Superstars only found out they were
on the Survivor Series teams when they checked social media themselves and saw their names being announced
This year’s show will mark the 35th Survivor Series, and WWE had hoped for an appearance by The Rock, but things seem to been chaotic as
usual backstage in the run-up to November 21st.
Fans haven’t been happy about WWE announcing the teams on social media, rather than TV, and one Superstar isn’t pleased with being overlooked for
his show. On Twitter, Ricochet expressed his frustration about not being included for the men’s
SmackDown Survivor Series team, as he asked “what happened to qualifying matches?” Traditionally, WWE has given Superstars the
chance to qualify for their respective brand teams, but not only was Ricochet not picked, the former United States Champion wasn’t
even given the opportunity to earn a spot on the show. Ricochet isn’t the only one with issues over Survivor Series, as in a response to the WWE on FOX account
account, King Woods questioned what the winning brand will get other than bragging rights. WWE has been using the RAW Vs. SmackDown
format for Survivor Series since 2016, and have never given a prize for the winning brand, but Woods is now one of the ever growing
crowd of people who feel that something should be offered to add stakes to this month’s Pay Per View.
We know that Universal Champion Roman Reigns will be in action at Survivor Series, as the Tribal Chief will face WWE Champion Big E in the
presumed main-event. On last night’s SmackDown, WWE planted the seeds for that match when the Bloodline
attacked King Woods and Sir Kofi Kingston, starting a feud with the New Day that’ll eventually include Big E.
We now know what’s next in this feud, as PW Insider has found that WWE is advertising a singles match for Roman Reigns on this Friday’s
SmackDown, which’ll air from the Scope Arena in Norfolk, Virginia. A singles match for the Tribal Chief implies he’ll be
taking on Woods after promising to show the former Tag Team Champion what a quote “real king,” looks like during last Friday’s beatdown.
Whether Big E shows up on next week’s SmackDown remains to be seen, but fans can expect a rare match from the Head of the Table
on free TV.
In the recent WWE releases, Mia Yim was cut from her contract, nearly a year after her last match in December 2020.
Yim’s entire run on the main-roster had been a flop, as she was part of Retribuiton until the group split earlier this year at the Elimination Chamber Pay Per View.
Fightful Select reports that although Yim didn’t wrestle at all in 2021, the company had what they called “several tentative plans” for her on
the main-roster, prior to the recent draft. Unfortunately, all those plans ended up getting nixed, including her proposed
SmackDown debut, which was meant to come in May, which ended up being cancelled.
Yim was released alongside her fiancé Keith Lee, who was reportedly cut due to attitude problems backstage, and now both these
talented wrestlers will have to wait out a 90-day non-compete clause before appearing for another company.
Yim and Lee were just two out of the total 18 names cut from WWE’s roster last week, all explained within the company as down to budget cuts.
These were just the latest wave of releases, as the company has cut a ton of talent since April 2020, and many more were nearly given the pink slip.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained that 10 more Superstars were in strong discussion to be cut, and only narrowly
avoided being released. Meltzer implied that these names were from NXT, as he went on to say that WWE’s desire
to make NXT 2.0 a younger brand put several established names at risk. Even NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa may
not be entirely safe, and Meltzer also referenced Danny Burch and Timothy Thatcher, saying their names were definitely
considered, along with everyone in their 30s who aren’t on TV. It’s been reported that releases from NXT will
now occur around every 6 months, with two waves of releases expected each year, and we’ll have to see if these long-established
of the paint-splattered brand all still around by the end of next year
It should come as no surprise that Universal Champion Roman Reigns was safe from the recent releases, as he continues to be the
unquestionable top star in WWE. Following the recent draft results coming into effect, the Tribal Chief now finds himself on the
same brand as Drew McIntyre, and a feud between the two has been speculated on for quite some time.
Speaking to Sky Sports, McIntyre had plenty of praise for the man who defeated him at last year’s Survivor Series event, but said he’s in
in no-rush to take on the Head of the Table: “I’m sure it’s inevitably going to happen, but I don’t want it to happen right now… I want him
to have to watch me build up momentum and when the time is right we come together, it’s going to be a huge match for us as Superstars
and for the fans. Not until the time is right, though." Today marks day 435 of the Tribal Chief’s incredible reign as Universal Champion, meaning
he’s surpassed CM Punk’s 434-day reign as WWE Champion from 2011-2013, and while a McIntyre- Reigns collision seems inevitable, the Scottish
Warrior is happy to make the Universal Champion wait.
And we’re ending today with The Miz, who has had an incredible career in WWE, becoming the first-ever two-time Grand Slam Champion.
Not only is he a Grand Slam winner, the A-Lister is also a former Mr Money in the Bank and WrestleMania main-eventer, but that’s still not
enough for someone in WWE. On the latest WWE Topps trading card, The Miz is praised as a Superstar “racking up record
Intercontinental title wins,” as he’s an eight- time holder of the title. This line is factually inaccurate, as being an eight-
time IC Champion doesn’t make him the record- holder, but that accolade goes to AEW’s Chris Jericho, who’s a nine-time Intercontinental Champion.
It’s very interesting that WWE would gloss over Jericho’s accolade, as the company continues to distance themselves from a wrestler fans
once-considered a sure-fire Hall of Famer. To be fair, Jericho has had plenty of harsh words for WWE since joining AEW in early 2019
in early 2019and we’ll have to see if there’s any more examples of WWE rewriting history due to the competition.