Here's more wrestling news for August 6th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Pete Dunne’s WWE Contract Is Coming To An End; Trends On Social Media When The News Broke!
Malakai Black On Strange Final Meeting With Vince McMahon Before WWE Release!
Eric Bischoff On How AEW Should TREAT Hot Shot CM Punk!
WWE In Big Money Lawsuit Over Employee Car Wreck!
AEW Pitched A GREAT Idea After Ric Flair WWE Release!
WWE Could Be Signing Another Olympic Gold Medalist!
Yet Another BIG WWE Name Could End Up In AEW Soon!
Recently Released WWE Wrestler Wants To Become A Motivational Speaker And more!
We’re starting today with NXT, and earlier this week, we reported how Adam Cole’s current deal ends after this month’s
Summerslam, and he’s not the only big name who could be on their way out.
According to Fightful Select, Pete Dunne is currently in a situation similar to Cole, and a subsequent report from Sean Ross Sapp
reports that his deal, like Cole’s could be up as soon as after Summerslam 2021. Dunne joined WWE in 2016 as part of the
NXT UK brand, winning the NXT UK title the following year, holding the title for 685 days before losing to current Champion WALTER.
After news broke of his potential departure, Dunne’s name quickly trended on Twitter, as fans debated whether a move to AEW,
New Japan or re-signing with WWE is the right call. It’ll be very interesting to see where the
Bruiserweight could land should he leave WWE, especially as his contract seems to be coming to an end very soon.
Now, before he was Malakai Black in AEW, Aleister Black had an impressive time in NXT, before an underwhelming main-roster tenure.
Black spent much of his final year with WWE off TV, as the company had no plans for him, and despite his return to SmackDown in May
the decision was made to cut him in June. Speaking on the Talk is Jericho podcast, Black discussed his WWE release, and the final
meeting he shared with Vince McMahon. He said: “I have been told the actual reason,
which I can’t talk about that because number one, it’s no longer relevant because I’m here now. Two weeks before I attacked Big E on
the night of the last vignette, I had a sit down with Vince, and he was very convinced of it. He liked it. I just
wanted to get his thoughts. I hadn’t seen him in six months. A lot happened at that point. I wanted to sit down with him a little bit and kind
of see how he was doing. “We had just a normal conversation. ‘How do you feel about it?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah,
great. I it like a lot,’ and then we did the attack on Big E. Something about it just didn’t feel right, and I told my wife. I don’t know
what it was. The way he looked, there was a disconnect. Not a disconnect as in, ‘I don’t get it,’ but I kind of felt that he had made up
his mind even back then. It’s his company. It’s fine. No harm, no foul. During this week’s AEW Homecoming, Black
defeated Cody Rhodes in decisive fashion, as his booking is already much better than his final few years with WWE.
Black isn’t AEW’s only huge signing in recent months, as CM Punk is expected to debut for the company very soon, in possibly the
biggest signing of a wrestler to a company since AJ Styles shockingly joined WWE five years ago.
Everything with Punk is moving very quickly, but it’s all happening too quickly for Eric Bischoff, who suggested on his podcast
that the All-Elite promotion needs to take their time with the Best in the World:
“I wouldn’t put him in a hot angle right away. I wouldn’t hot shot it, I would want to continue to build on the successful anticipation
element that AEW has built upon. I wouldn’t drag it out for 6 months but I like the idea of Punk, especially because he can talk,
coming in on commentary, stirring the s–t and building upon that for a couple of weeks and then eventually
have a spontaneous combustible moment and then leads to a wrestling storyline. That’s probably what I would do,”
As arguably their biggest signing ever, it’ll be hard for AEW not to push Punk straight to the top once he appears on TV, and we’ll
have to wait and see what kind of booking he receives, after seven years away from the ring.
Back to WWE, and the Sports-Entertainment juggernaut is no stranger to lawsuits, and they have a pretty big one on their hands.
On June 12th, Jackson Parsons filed a lawsuit against WWE, after he was involved in a vehicular accident with a car rented by the
company. It’s claimed that the driver was an employee of WWE, when the car collided with Parsons
on his motorcycle. We now know how much Parsons is seeking, as according to records from the Thirteenth
Judicial Circuit in and for Hillsborough Circuit Florida, he’s seeking a settlement of $1,064,328.38.
The record also notes that this is way above the initial cost od damages sought by Parsons in his civil action lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that Parsons’ health bills totalled $171,430.38, and it’s expected to rise to $314,850 in total.
It adds that he’s lost a total of 75,036.00– $100,048.00 in his earnings, as the crash made him unable to work.
Claiming that the accident left him with physical injuries, scarring, disfigurement and mental anguish, Parsons and WWE have until
September 10th to reach a settlement, and if they don’t, they’ll see each other in court somewhere around February 2023.
This month, Ric Flair parted ways with WWE, and there’s been plenty of talk of what he’ll do next.
Flair himself has said he’s working on several projects, including his own wine and comic book, but we’re sure they’ll be a time
when he appears in a wrestling promotion once more. The obvious favourite as to where is AEW,
and during Busted Open Radio, Bully Ray explained why Flair in AEW makes a lot of sense. He said:
“We know that Tony Khan is a huge fan of pro wrestling, of old school pro wrestling. You bring in Flair, now you have Flair,
Arn (Anderson), and Tully (Blanchard) on your roster – you have three quarters of the original Horsemen.”
If Flair, Arn and Blanchard were all on the same show, we imagine it wouldn’t take much convincing for Ole Anderson,
the fourth Horseman to appear on AEW programming. Of course that all hinges on getting Flair to
AEW in the first place, but given how much respect the company treats legends of the ring, a Horsemen reunion could happen
very soon.
Names like Flair and Bray Wyatt are just the latest big names to leave WWE, but there’s plenty more big names who could be
departing very soon. We’ve already noted how Adam Cole and Pete Dunne’s contracts are expiring soon,
and they’re not the only ones who’s time is nearly up. In June 2018, Sami Zayn signed a three-year
deal, meaning his contract should already be up, but his deal was extended due to an injury, meaning his contract will be coming to an end
in the next few months. It’s believed that Zayn, like countless WWE Superstars, will join AEW after his contract is up,
unless the company can coax him into signing another lucrative deal with them. As of late, Zayn has been receiving some good
exposure on TV, thanks to his conspiracy theorist gimmick, but that only came after years of going underutilised on the main-roster
It was a long five years between Zayn’s brief NXT title reign, that he captured the Intercontinental title in 2019, as the next
few months will be very interesting for the self-proclaimed great liberator.
Now, from Kurt Angle to Ronda Rousey to Chad Gable, WWE has never shied away from working with Olympians, and now
another Medal-winner could be making their way to the company. During this ongoing Olympics in Tokyo,
the USA’s Tamyra Mensah-Stock won gold in the women’s freestyle wrestling, and in a post-win interview with NBCUniversal
she made it clear she’d love to one day compete in WWE.
WWE has now tweeted the video of the interview, and it’s clear that the company are onboard with the idea of signing her.
A 28 years old, we’ll have to see what the future holds for the Olympic Gold Medalist, but it may be a matter of time before she
trades the wrestling floor mats for the squared circle.
At Summerslam 2021, Bill Goldberg will face the Almighty WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, in a match that’ll be hard hitting to say the least.
Not everyone wants to see this match though, as Dolph Ziggler still remembers being decimated by Goldberg two years
ago, and is taking his anger out on the fans. Responding to a video of his loss at Summerslam 2019, Ziggler called fans pathetic,
saying that the same people who do nothing but complain online about Goldberg squeal for joy when he shows up on WWE TV.
The 2019 Goldberg-Ziggler match was a last- minute decision, as the Hall of Famer wanted to redeem himself after his woeful showing
against the Undertaker at that year’s Super Showdown, but Ziggler hasn’t forgotten about the match, or the crowd reaction on
that fateful night.
And we’re ending today with Braun Strowman, who was released from WWE this past June, in one of the year’s most shocking releases.
Since then, Strowman has kept active on social media, and has said he’s got a lot of choices to make, and now the Monster
Among Men has made a choice few fans would’ve predicted. On his Instagram story, Strowman was
asked about what job he wants to do for the next 20 years, and the former Universal Champion said he wants to become a
motivational speaker. Strowman explained that he’s been through a lot of rough stuff in his life, and feels like he
can help people overcome their own personal problems. Interestingly, there’s been talks in WWE about
bringing Strowman back, if nothing else, than to keep him away from AEW, and with Braun set to work the big Supershow
in Qatar next February, it’ll be interesting to see what the former Superstar does next, in and out of the ring.