Here's more wrestling news for June 6th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Latest of Money in the Bank 2022 after moving to much smaller arena
AEW didn’t learn of CM Punk’s injury until HOURS before Rampage went live!
Another top AEW star is injured: How long will he have off?
SmackDown Superstar takes aim at WWE’s repetitive booking after months of facing the same opponents
Rhea Ripley explains surprising new attire at WWE Hell in a Cell 2022
Popular former Divas Champion says the door is always open for a return to WWE
WWE is blocking content for South African fans. What’s going on?
Company insider reveals shocking reason behind Stephanie McMahon’s absence from WWE
The Rock earns ‘World’s Best Son’ title after giving incredible gift to his 73-year-old mom And more!
We’re kicking off with WWE’s next Premium Live Event, Money in the Bank, and the July show has already undergone some major changes.
After being announced for Las Vegas' collosal Allegiant Stadium, the show will now happen at the much smaller MGM Grand Arena, reportedly due to low ticket sales.
WWE made a bold move by relocating the show, but it seems to have paid off, as WrestleTix reports that 9,000 tickets have already sold at the new venue.
The company can expect roughly 12,000 seats to be filled on July 2nd, and while that would have been an awful number had they stayed at Allegiant Stadium, the MGM Grand is expected to sell out.
With no title matches confirmed, and no names announced for the two titular Ladder matches, Money in the Bank 2022 is still proving to be a success, and it goes to show that sometimes, bigger isn't always better.
On this week's AEW Rampage, CM Punk announced that he is injured and will require surgery, throwing all of the company's plans into dissaray.
While AEW had planned on Punk facing Hiroshi Tanahashi at Forbidden Door, that show will see the crowning of an interim World Champion who the ex-Superstar will face when he's healed.
While fans only found out on Friday, it turns out that this wasn't uch longer after AEW themselves learned of the injury, as PW Insider's Mike Johnson reports that it was only confirmed that he
needed surgery on Friday afternoon, mere hours before Rampage went live
Immediately after learning the news, Punk shared on Twitter that he had an important announcement to give, which of course was announcing he is hurt.
Punk isn't expected to be out for long, and will remain AEW World Champion while he recovers, but Tony Khan and his team had very little time to make a plan prior to this week's Rampage.
We’ve got more injury news now, as Bryan Danielson is also reportedly on the shelf for the time being.
Danielson had been scheduled to attend a meet in greet in New Bedford, Massachusetts last weekend, but when fans arrived, they were told he wasn’t going to be appearing.
Fans were also told that Danielson was unable to fly due to an injury, disappointing the fans who had come to see him.
It wasn’t too long ago that Bryan was retired due to a series of injuries and concussions, so it’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to any injuries he may have.
The only silver lining is that on Figure Four Wrestling online, Bryan Alverez said the injury is nothing too serious, and he’ll be out for around two weeks.
It’s bad for AEW to lose CM Punk, but they’ll now also be working with Bryan Danielson for the time being, and with AEW-New Japan Forbidden Door getting ever closer, the situation is far from good for Tony Khan.
Over to SmackDown now, as Xavier Woods can be seen each week on the blue brand, and he can be seen doing the same thing every single week.
For months, Woods and Kofi Kingston have been involved in a feud with Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch, and it appears even the positive Superstar is getting tired of the same matches.
On Instagram, Woods shared a ‘King’s Blog’ where he took aim at WWE’s repetitive booking, noting that he’s been facing Sheamus, Ridge and Butch for most of 2022 so far.
Woods even said that he’d much rather be focusing on the Interco ntinental Championship, currently held by Ricochet, who’ll defend against GUNTHER on this Friday’s show.
For reference, the last televised match in which Woods didn’t face either Sheamus, Holland or Butch, or a combination of the three men, was all the way back on the January 7th SmackDown, but
with no signs of this feud ending, the King of the Ring may have plenty of matches against the three heels to come
At WWE Hell in a Cell, the Judgement Day teamed together to face AJ Styles, Finn Balor and Liv Morgan, but Rhea Ripley was sporting a much different look.
Rather than her usual attire, Ripley donned short trunks for the match, and had colour scheme that matched Edge and Damia n Priest, and there’s a reason for this new look.
After the show, the former Raw Women’s Champion took to Twitter to explain that her gear for the show hadn’t arrived in time, and that she’d had to improvise a costume for the event.
This isn’t the first time Ripley has thought on the fly, as long before they were stablemates in The Judgement Day, Damian Priest leant her his tights in October 2021 when hers went missing.
Fans may have loved the new look, but it seems to have been just a one-off for the Judgement Day member, and hopefully she’ll carry a spare pair of tights from now on.
In 2015, after years on top of WWE's women's division, AJ Lee abruptly retired from the ring, with her last match being on the post-WrestleMania Raw.
Despite her husband CM Punk's success in AEW, AJ has said that she will not be following him to the All-Elite company, but the door is still open for a return to WWE.
Speaking on the Sessions, AJ told Renee Paquette about her final meeting with Vince McMahon and the heartfelt exchange between them:
"He was very kind. He was just like, ‘the door’s always open if you want to come back.’ and that to me was I don’t know like I know it’s different for some people, but to me, it was so important to go out
AJ has ruled out wrestling again, but is working as a producer and commentator for the Women of Wrestling which is set to return later this year.
After seven years away, it'd be interesting to see if McMahon would keep his word about the door being open for AJ Lee, but we can never count out some kind of return for the former Diva's Champion.
Now, WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world, and is available to be viewed all around the globe, but some fans are having trouble catching content right now.
In March, MBC, the Middle East Broadcasting Center, signed a new deal with WWE for content, but it appears fans in Africa aren’t getting to catch the action.
African fans who spoke to Ringside News said that there have been issues with the WWE Network, and that some programs, including the Broken Skull Sessions, are unavailable to watch.
One particularly frustrated fan said that contacting MBC’s customer service has proven to be useless, as nobody is answering their phones or responding to emails.
It’s also reported that while fans are able to watch WrestleMania 38, the English version of the two-night April event was only made available recently, and its hard to get excited about the biggest
show of the year when you’ve known the results for months.
Hopefully, WWE and MBC will come up with a solution soon, but for now, fans in the continent of Africa aren’t enjoying WWE’s content at this time.
Last month , Stephanie McMahon announced that she would be taking a leave of absence from her roles with WWE, allowing her to spend more time with her family.
While WWE employees have had nothing but positive things to say publicly, it wasn’t long after that it was reported that some very important people from WWE’s corporate side had been
badmouthing the Chief Brand Officer.
We now know more about the situation, as according to an article by Business Insider, a “company insider” revealed that WWE wasn’t seeing the expected growth under Stephanie. The source explained:
source explained: Family or not family, we’ve got to get the right people in place. We weren’t seeing that growth.
When someone is moved out of a company, it’s usually the result of something not working. We took stronger control of that a few months ago
Stephanie may be Vince McMahon’s only biological daughter, but it seems some in WWE didn’t like how things were operating with her in a position of power, so it remains to be seen how she
will fare and what role she’ll have when she makes it back to the office.
Next month, Ric Flair will compete in what’s being sold as his final ever match, bringing his incredible wrestling career to an end.
At 73 years old, it comes as no surprise that fans have questioned the condition Flair will be in for the match, but the Nature Boy can still go in the ring.
In a video with AEW star Jay Lethal, Flair can be seen taking a bump off the top rope and stood up instantly, signifying that his body is still more than capable of taking a few bumps.
If you’ve seen Ric Flair’s career, you’ll know that going to the top rope rarely ended well for the Dirtiest Player in the Game, but that’s a risk the Ric is happy to take in his last ever match.
And we’re ending today with The Rock, and as a leading man in Hollywood, it should come as no surprise that the People’s Champion is loaded.
This week, The Rock decided to spread the wealth, with his mom, and in a video posted to Instagram, treated her to a brand new home.
If you’ve seen NBC’s Young Rock, you’ll know just how important Ata Johnson has been in her son's life, and with this gift, The Rock can add ‘World’s Best Son’ to his list of nicknames.