Here's your wrestling news for may 25th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Hall of Famer Blasts WWE! Says Sasha and Naomi scandal should have been handled differently
Sasha Banks to take on huge non-WWE project during suspension. How will WWE react?
Cancelled plans revealed for this week’s Monday Night Raw
Edge teases popular former Women’s Champion as next member of the Judgement Day
Johnny Gargano gives update on his career. Huge mixed-tag match teased
Former NXT Tag Team Champion the next Superstar t o get a new name and gimmick?
The WWE Brand Extension is ‘essentially finished’
Popular NXT Superstar injured! Out of Breakout tournament!
Alexa Bliss reveals surprising truth about her Twisted Bliss finisher And more
We’re kicking off today with Sasha Banks and Naomi, who have been suspended by WWE due to their walk out on Raw, but the company didn’t suspend them in the usual way.
Rather than a small statement on WWE.com, the promotion publicly announced their suspension on Live TV, and have branded the duo as “unprofessional” in a bold move by WWE.
Whether you agree with Naomi and Sasha’s actions or not, WWE has earned backlash for taking this approach, and on his Hall of Fame podcast, booker T said things should’ve have been handled differently:
“I just think this whole situation could have been avoided in front of the media. I do think all of this being in the media is just blowing it up to a proportion to where we’re looking at it like
hanging on the edge, wondering what’s going to happen next.”
Booker added that people assume the duo could always join AEW, but stated how Tony Khan isn’t hiring everybody, and there’s no guarantee he’d hire either woman.
There’s no end in sight for this saga, which is now in it’s ninth day, but things could’ve been done less in the spotlight according to Booker T.
All we know for certain right now is that Sasha Banks and Naomi won’t be appearing on WWE TV, but the Boss isn’t letting this free time go to waste.
During a recent appearance on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast, Banks’ cousin Snoop Dogg and his entourage discussed the former Raw Women’s Champion, and said they are working on a project together.
While they didn’t want to discuss details, it was said that Snoop and Banks are working on NFTs based around the WWE Superstar.
WWE has a unique and ever-changing policy when it comes to Superstars taking on projects outside of the ring, and we doubt WWE will be too pleased to hear about Banks and her cousin working
together in this capacity.
With that said, WWE doesn’t have much else they can do to Banks right now, as the company is against releasing her, so we’ll have to see what happens with Banks, these NFTs and the WWE.
Over to Raw, as United States Champion Theory was on this week’s show, helping Seth Rollins to beat up Cody Rhodes after the latter’s match with The Miz.
It turns out that this wasn’t the original plan for Theory however, as Fightful Select reports that there was a much different angle in mind for the champ.
It’s reported that originally, Theory and Mustafa Ali were going to have a segment, but it was cut from the broadcast due to time constraints.
While Theory still got on the show, there were no alternative plans made for Ali for this week’s episode, as the former Retribution leader’s return to TV continues to prove to be hit or miss.
One group that continues to have a presence on Raw is The Judgement Day, who have three members at this time, but a fourth one is coming.
On social media, Edge has teased several possible opponents as a fourth member of the team, and his recent tease will have fans excited.
On Twitter, the Rated-R Superstar posted a photo of Bayley, seen with the SmackDown Women’s Championship, and like other teases, gave no explanation behind the image.
Bayley hasn’t wrestled in close to a year, as she suffered an injury during training in July 2021, mere days before the return of live fans at that year’s Money in the Bank.
There have been reports of Bayley’s imminent return, and with Sasha Banks, Naomi and Charlotte Flair all away for the time being, WWE could certainly do with the Role Model having a return very soon.
Whether that return comes as part of The Judgement Day, that remains to be seen, but someone is coming to The Judgement Day, and will seemingly be coming soon.
Now, Johnny Gargano left WWE last December, after his contract with the promotion expired, but the former NXT Champion is yet to face anybody else.
With Johnny’s son Quill now being born, there’s been plenty of speculation on when Gargano will wrestle next, and we’ll have an answer to that question later this year.
It’s been confirmed that Gargano will be appearing at Starrcast 5 in July, and will be announcing what’s next for his career.
Not only that, but during Sammy Guevara’s vlog, the former AEW TNT Champion said it would be “pretty badass” if they faced off, teasing a match between the two.
In response, Gargano said he felt like someone was missing, alludi ng to his wife Candice LeRae, insinuating that his return match will be a mixed-tag, pitting himself and Candice against Guevara and Tay Conti.
We won’t know for certain what the future holds for Johnny Gargano until July, but with this latest tease, don’t be surprised if the former NXT Champion and his wife are All-Elite after all.
Back to WWE next, as NXT 2.0 is all about introducing new names to wrestling, and on last night’s episode, thanks got their first glimpse of Giovanni Vinci.
This name was recently trademarked by WWE, and the vignette included a video shot in Venice, Italy, depicting a well-dressed man with a focus on his fashion sense.
WWE didn’t show the face of the man, but according to reports, Giovanni Vinci is a star fans will be familiar with.
According to reports, Fabian Aichner is the person who is being repackaged as Vinci, as he was born in Italy.
Aichner hasn’t been seen in weeks ever since Gunther and Ludwig Kaiser were called up to the main roster, and there’s been talks of Aichner dropping the Imperium aspects of his gimmick.
It’s also worth stating that changing Aichner’s name to Giovanni Vinci makes sense, given that the Fabian Aichner name is his real name, and WWE wants to stop any wrestler using their real name in the company.
Time will tell how well Aichner does if he is indeed Giovanni Vinci, but he seems to be the latest Superstar to undergo a dramatic change of name and gimmick.
Now in 2016, WWE once again split it’s main roster brands, with Raw and SmackDown being separate shows with separate rosters.
This year though, we’ve seen much more crossovers between the red and blue brand, and with both the World titles and the Tag Titles now unified, fans can expected more Superstar to appear on both shows.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez discussed the situation, saying that the brand extension is unofficially finished in WWE:
This isn’t anything official, but the brand extension is essentially done. Half of the RAW crew is going to be on SmackDown Friday. Cody’s gonna be there, I think Seth is gonna be there. Edge doing
whatever and it makes for a better show, as we’ve mentioned a thousand times.
It’s worth stating that WWE hasn’t confirmed the end of the brand split, and that both FOX and the USA Network love having stars that can exclusively be seen on their respective shows.
We’ll have to wait and see whether WWE officially confirm that the split has ended, which would make future drafts pretty much pointless, but as far as Alverez is concerned, plenty of Superstars
don’t have to worry which shows they’re on.
More from NXT 2.0 now, as Nikkita Lyons has proven to be a hit with fans, thanks in part to her curvy figure and unique offence, but she’s now out of the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament.
On last night’s NXT 2.0, It was announced that Lyons is injured and got hurt while she was training that day.
Due to her injury, Lyons, a favourite to win the entire tournament, is now out, and her semi-finals opponent Fallon Henley has been given a bye to the finals and will face Roxanne Perez.
As for Lyons, there’s no word yet on what kind of injury she suffered, or how long she’ll be out of action for, but we’re sending our best to the young popular rookie on her road to recovery.
And we’re ending with Alexa Bliss, who has put countless opponents away with her Twisted Bliss finisher, but there can only be one first victim.
On Twitter this week, a fan shared a gif of Bliss hitting a picture perfect version of the move on Nikki A.S.H, prompting Lance Storm to respond, claiming that he was the first person to take the move.
This got a response by Bliss herself, who confirmed Storm’s claim w as true, and thanked the wrestling veteran for letting her try out the move that would become her finisher.
Lance later clarified that he was a guest trainer at the Performance Center when she was working on the move, so anytime you see Alexa hit Twisted Bliss, you have Lance Storm to thank.