And your headlines for today include
AEW’s latest huge announcement has been made! What has Tony Khan got planned?
Title of the upcoming AEW console video game has been confirmed
Top Champion in AEW confirms heel turn on latest AEW Dynamite
New SmackDown Superstar Raquel Rodriguez reveals shocking request by WWE after being called up
WWE Superstar apologises over hated segment during this week’s Monday Night Raw.
Tony Khan reveals more about ‘army of bots’ who are bashing AEW on social media
NXT 2.0 tag team announce that they’re “done” with the brand. Could move to NXT UK
Former WWE Superstars tie the knot in Alaska wedding And more!
We’re kicking off today with AEW Dynamite, as prior to last night’s show, Tony Khan had teased a huge announcement, with fans speculating what it could be.
The announcement was made in a rather unique way, as instead of Khan, Adam Cole interrupted the segment to announce that there will be an AEW-New Japan Pro
Wrestling supershow this Summer. The event, appropriately titled ‘Forbidden Door’ will take place on June 26th at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Jay White would also interrupt the segment, saying that the show will be all about the Undisputed Elite and the Bullet Club, and this is just the latest step in the partnership
between the two sides. In February 2021, New Japan’s KENTA attacked Jon Moxley during an episode of Dynamite
and since then, wrestlers from both companies have worked together on New Japan Strong, AEW Dynamite, Rampage and other shows.
This announcement comes mere months after Kazuchika Okada publicly expressed his desire to face CM Punk and Bryan Danie- lson, which could certainly now happen at the June Supershow.
So far, no matches have been announced, but we’re sure they’ll come soon enough, after yet another huge announcement made on this week’s Dynamite.
The AEW-New Japan Forbidden Door event was certainly a huge announcement, but it wasn’t the only big thing that was announced last night.
After Dynamite went off the air, Khan addressed the fans at the Petersen Events Center in Pittsburghh, and confirmed that AEW’s upcoming console video game will be known as AEW: Fight Forever.
Not only that but the fans were tasked with producing audio for the new game, as chants of FTR, Cash, Dax, Boom, Bay Bay,Adam Page and Sting, were all recorded after the show went off the air.
After being initially expected to release in 2023, it’s since been reported that AEW: Fight Forever could be out as early as this September, but for now, no date has been confirmed for
Tony Khan’s latest big project.
Plenty went down during, and after, last night’s episode of AEW Dynamite, including a heel turn by TNT Champion Sammy Guevara.
Accompanied to the ring by Tay Conti, Guevara addressed fans that turned their backs on him, before stating that they’re mad at him because of his hot girlfriend
The duo debuted their new catchphrase “Be Mad,” but their time in the ring was interrupted by Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky and Dan Lambert, and this was all to set up a TNT title match next week.
On the show, Guevara will put his title on the line against Sky, who he beat at Battle of the Belts, in a ladder match.
Ironically, it was a Ladder match which saw Guevara win his second TNT title, besting Cody Rhodes in his last AEW match, and while the company never officially pulled the trigger on a
Rhodes heel turn, despite being unpopular with the crowd that isn’t the case for Sammy Guevara.
Over to WWE as Raquel Gonzalez was called up to SmackDown a few weeks ago, now going by the name Raquel Rodriguez.
Not only has the former NXT Women’s Champion got a new show and a new name, but she’s also got some new advice for what to do now she’s on FOX.
Speaking with Busted Open Radio, Rodriguez explained that when she first started at the Peformance Center, she was told by Matt Bloom that she smiles too much, and needed to
focus more on looking intimidating.
Rodriguez added that when she came to SmackDown, she expected to be told the same, but instead was told to smile more, and look excited to be on the blue brand.
Raquel Rodriguez is ready to do whatever the producers of SmackDown ask her at this point as her long journey to the main roster finally paid off, and with her first feud seemingly
against Natalya, the former NXT Women’s Champion will have the chance to prove herself against a veteran of WWE.
On this week’s Raw, fans saw a double wedding segment which like almost all weddings in wrestling, didn’t go as planned.
During the segment, Tamina Snuka married Akira Tozawa \ while Dana Brooke married Reggie, but this was all a ploy to try and part Brooke from the 24/7 Title.
While Brooke would leave with the gold, kicking off her third reign as 24/7 Champion, fans hated the segment on social media, and now Brooke has weighed in herself.
On Twitter, the 24/7 Champion apologised for the segment, though it’s hard to say whether she’s apologising for the chaos that transpired, or if this is in response to the fan
backlash at the double-wedding segment. Whatever the case, Dana Brooke is feeling sorry over what happened on this week’s Raw, and
several fans are feeling sorry themselves, that they had to watch the segment in the first place.
More from AEW, as it was only a few weeks ago that Tony Khan spoke about those who are critical of AEW, but did so in a very unique way.
Rather than talk about the criticism and how he plans to improve the product, Khan said that most critics of AEW are paid trolls and bots, and said that an ‘Independent study’
he is paying for proved this to be the case. Given that he provided no actual data to prove his claim, Khan was ridiculed for his comments
by fans and those in the industry, including some of his own wrestlers, but he’s sticking by what he said. Speaking to TV Insider, the AEW President spoke about his
infamous anti-AEW bots tweet, and reaffimed that there is an ‘army’ of people who run multiple accounts that allegedly spread hate over the All-Elite company:
“A lot of their engagement, their retweets, likes, people responding, and signal boosting for what they are saying, those are bots. You got a network of a few people with a
lot of identities powered by a bunch of bots. I’m not making this up. I have hired IT experts that put together a much more sophisticated explanation than I’m capable of giving.
Whether what Khan is saying is true or not, the AEW President is sticking to his claim that the promotion is being bombarded with bots, even if he continues to get ridiculed over his claim.
On this week’s NXT 2.0, James Drake and Zack Gibson lost to Legado Del Fantasma, and lost a lot more than just the match.
Now, the pair are no longer known as the Grizzled Young Veterans, as that’s a name they used prior to WWE, and they may now be finished with NXT 2.0 completely.
In a post-match interview, Gibson said he was embarrassed by their losses in NXT 2.0, and said that “I’m done.”
James Drake also confirmed that he is also finished, and that fans won’t see Drake and Gibson in NXT 2.0 anymore.
This certainly opens up questions about where they could be heading next, as this could be the sign of a call up to the main roster.
With that said, the two came to NXT 2.0 after competing in NXT UK, and we can’t count out the possibility that they are heading back across to the United Kingdom and rejoining the show
they once dominated. With Pretty Deadly coming to NXT 2.0 and capturing the brand’s Tag Titles, NXT UK is now
down one of their top teams, and time will tell whether Drake and Gibson fill that hole, or if their futures are on Raw or SmackDown.
And we’re ending today with some fantastic news from Karrion Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux, as the former NXT Superstars are now married.
The duo eloped and tied the knot in the romantic, albeit cold setting of Alaska as part of a private ceremony, and documented the wedding on their social media accounts.
Kross posted a video of the exchanging of the vows on his YouTube page, and we’d like to offer our congratulations to the happy couple on their joyous occasion.