Here's more wrestling news for December 9th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
“It’s Disheartening To Watch.” Former NXT Superstar Lashes Out At NXT 2.0 !
Update On Hacksaw Jim Duggan’s Battle With Prostate Cancer !
AEW Wrestler Fears He’ll Be Sent To Jail Very Soon By Corrupt Officials !
New Details Announced For First AEW Pay Per View Of 2022 !
Why Vince Mcmahon REFUSES To Be Inducted Into The WWE Hall Of Fame !
Tony Khan Comments On RAW Running Show In Long Island Days Before AEW Dynamite !
Title Match Confirmed For Christmas Day Rampage !
Matches Added To Next Week’s AEW Winter Is Coming Special ! And More !
We’re kicking off today with NXT 2.0, which despite a revamp that was meant to appeal to younger fans, has failed to win over many members of the WWE
Universe. The company didn’t see how Bronson Reed was going to fit into NXT 2.0, and he was released from
his contract on August 6th, just over a month before NXT 2.0’s pilot episode.
Reed never worked on NXT 2.0, but he has been watching the show closely, and feels that things aren’t working out, as he told Fightful:
“The thing I like least about it is, Hunter had such a vision for what NXT was. And that whole vision is just gone now… it seems to be the end of black
and gold, like that’s it. It’s just disheartening… I’m a huge pro wrestling fan, and I love WWE, I love what they do, but I saw RAW and SmackDown
as their entertainment shows and saw NXT as the pro wrestling show, and now I feel like it’s just another entertainment show.”
Reed’s comments are the opposite of Shawn Michaels, who recently praised NXT 2.0 as the only place which can truly create new stars,
but we’ll have to wait and see whether the early success of Bron Breakker, Von Wagner and others leads to success on the main roster
In Late October, WWE Hall of Famer Hacksaw Jim Duggan announced that he was battling prostate cancer, which came after an emergency surgery
earlier in the month. In mid-November, Duggan posted an update, saying he was feeling much better, and now the
former WCW Television Champion has given his best piece of news to date.
On Instagram, Dugan shared a video where he announced that he is prostate cancer free, and this was the second time he’s beaten cancer.
The first time, Duggan beat kidney Cancer 20 yeears ago, and after openly announcing his prostate cancer, said that he had been forced to cancel all his bookings
for the rest of 2021. There’s no telling when Duggan will be making appearances again, but he has said he hopes
to be back on the road in 2022, and we’d like to offer a hearty congratulations to Duggan on his victory.
Over to AEW now, as Jack Evans has made some concerning posts on his Twitter about the police in Mexico.
In the tweets, which were posted in both English and Spanish, Evans said that officers from the Del Valle PD have extorted him for around 7000 pesos,
equivalent to $350, in the last four days alone, and expects to be arrested on false drug charges very soon since he refuses to pay any more.
Evans certainly sound urgent with his series of tweets, and in a follow-up, said that he’s filed an official complaint, and got witnesses together,
claiming “there is a lot of them.” Evans added that he’s laying low for the time being, and his account has been flooded with support
despite the AEW wrestler never explaining how he got in this situation in the first place.
Jack Evans’ last match in AEW was on the October 24th edition of Dark, where he lost to Eddie Kingston, and this will be his last match if Del Valle PD have
their way, according to the 39-year-old wrestler.
We certainly hope Jack is okay by the time AEW Revolution rolls around, as the date and location has been announced.
During Dynamite, it was confirmed that Revolution 2022 will take place on March 6th, at the Additional Financial Arena in Orlando Florida.
The show will be the culmination of a three-day spectacular, kicking off with AEW Rampage on March 4th, and a FanFest event on the 5th.
Tickets for Revolution 2022 will go on sale on Friday December 17th at 10am Eastern, and if history is to be repeated, expect seats to sell quickly for
Tony Khan’s first Pay Per View of the new year.
Back to WWE, as the company’s Hall of Fame has some of wrestling’s biggest names, from Bruno Sammartino to Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin
and more
With that said, arguably the biggest contributor to professional wrestling hasn’t been inducted, and that’s none other than Vince McMahon.
The man who turned wrestling from a set of isolated territories to the global spectacle it is today, McMahon’s admission from the Hall of Fame is
startling, and on his podcast, Jim Cornette explained why the Chairman isn’t a Hall of Famer: Vince will never go in the Hall of Fame as long as
he is still alive. That is one thing he constantly tells everybody, he gets mad if they don’t listen, he doesn’t want anyone to thank him on their acceptance
speeches… I don’t know if he wants to be humble and loveable like a shoeshine boy, but he knows the ways that the boys are
Cornette added that McMahon sees wrestlers thanking him as a problem that gets him heat from the fans, as realistically, everyone who comes out owes
some of their success to the WWE Chairman. A former WWF Champion, ECW Champion and Royal Rumble winner, McMahon is certainly
deserving of an induction, but that won’t happen until the Chairman isn’t around to hear what people have to say.
Since AEW was founded, the company has insisted that they don’t focus on WWE’s programming, but that simply isn’t the case.
From the weekly references to WWE, to holding shows in direct competition, AEW is well aware of the biggest name in town.
Last night’s Dynamite was in New York’s UBS Arena, which came not long after WWE hosted RAW in the exact same venue.
Speaking about the competition he claims he doesn’t focus on, Tony Khan sat down told News 12 claimed he had no idea WWE were
hosting a show at the same venue:
“I just came to run a show in Long Island and like – it’s like, hey, you know, they’re jumping to the front of the line. Run a show ahead of me.
Try to beat me to market. Well, how did it work out? When asked if he would become a regular on- screen character on AEW TV, Khan said that it
would run counter to his philosophy for AEW, which is to get as much great wrestling on screen.
Khan’s company has unquestionably been a success, often beating WWE in the key 18-49 demographic, but despite the recent war of Long Island
Khan still claims he keeps himself unaware of what WWE is doing.
More from AEW, as Christmas Day will fall on a Friday this year, which means that they’ll be a December 25th edition of AEW Rampage.
During Dynamite, a huge title match was announced, as TNT Champion Sammy Guevara will defend against Cody Rhodes on the Christmas Day episode.
Rhodes, the only two-time TNT Champion has struggled to win over fans as of late, but we’ll have to see if a possible third reign with the
TNT Title will do him any favours later this month.
And we’re ending with next week’s AEW Dynamite, which will be the company’s Winter is Coming special event.
We already know that the show will see AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page defend against Bryan Danielson, but that’s not all
announced for the show. In an updated match card, AEW announced that the Dynamite Diamond Ring Finals will take place
between MJF and Dante Martin, as will a women’s division match between Hikaru Shida and Serena Deeb.
It was at last year’s Winter is Coming event that Kenny Omega beat Jon Moxley to become AEW World Champion, as well as the debut of Sting,
and next week’s show will have a lot to live up to if it wants to match what happened 12 months ago.