Here's more wrestling news for January 6th 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Scary Injury Concludes Historic Debut AEW Dynamite On TBS !
Former WWE Superstar Injured During AEW Rampage Tapings !
Inaugural AEW TBS Champion Crowned! Who Won The Title First?
Latest Figures Back-Up WWE Making Brock Lesnar Champion Again !
Current Champion In WWE Working Injured: Determined To Tough It Out On TV !
They Wanted Us To Buy!” Is WWE For Sale After All?
Shocking Secret About Latest Wave Of Releases Comes Out. Why Were They Really Fired?
Controversial Entrance At NXT New Year’s Evil Earns Heat Backstage ! And More !
We’re kicking off with AEW Dynamite, which this week debuted on TBS.
With the show being a historic night for the company, AEW wanted to set the tone with a Tag Team title match, but that match went
horribly wrong. During the final minutes of the main event, Luchasaurus put Ray Fenix through a table
set at ringside, and the latter’s arm seemed to snap in half due to the move.
Fenix immediately signalled for help from a doctor, and as the match continued, he was taken to the back for further medical attention.
Though it was first believed that his arm was broken, it’s now believed that he suffered a dislocated elbow, which is still not great, but much better than the
previous diagnosis. With the match continuing, the main event saw Jurrassic Express win the AEW World Tag Team
Titles, ending the reign of the Lucha Brothers at 123 days.
We ultimately won’t know for certain on Fenix’s condition until AEW themselves provide an update, but this was a worrying way for AEW’s debut
on TBS to end.
Fenix isn’t the only one who got injured yesterday, as AEW also taped their Friday Rampage, where Jake Atlas faced Adam Cole.
In a battle of the former NXT Superstars, Atlas reportedly blew out his knee after trying to execute a springboard from the apron into the ring.
When Cole hit a superkick, Atlas hurt his knee coming day and began grabbing it immediately, and had trouble to put weight on it for the finish,
which was meant to be a Panama Sunrise. Atlas was unable to take the finisher, which led to Cole grabbing him in a kneebar for the
submission, and Jake was helped to the back after the match. In their report, PW Insider said there’s no word yet on
severity of this injury, but we’ll just have to wait until this Friday’s Rampage to see how much of this particular spot makes it into the broadcast.
With AEW Dynamite’s move to a new channel, it was only fitting that the first TBS Champion was crowned, and it’s Jade Cargill who stands tall as the inaugural
champion. Defeating Ruby Soho in the tournament finals, Cargill hit the former WWE Superstar with her
Jaded finisher to get the win, in an epic war worthy of the finals. This marks Cargill’s first title in AEW, and the first
reign of anyone as TBS Champion, and we’ll have to see how AEW books this first reign of their new championship, especially with Battle
of the Belts later this week.
At Day 1, Brock Lesnar captured the WWE Championship from Big E, in a decision that has split fans.
Although Lesnar has certainly been entertaining since his August 2021 return, many are angry that the long-awaited Big E World title reign ended at
the hands of a part-time Superstar.
Some fans may not like Brock as Champion, but it’s hard to argue with the numbers, as this week’s RAW saw a huge jump in viewership.
This week’s RAW saw 1.716 million fans tune in, a jump of over 100,000 from the previous week’s 1.59 million.
In addition to an appearance on this Friday’s SmackDown, it’s also been announced that Brock will be on next week’s RAW, as the Beast Incarnate
as WWE Champion is seemingly best for business.
This week’s RAW also saw Women’s Tag Team Champions Carmella and Queen Zelina defend their titles against Rhea Ripley and Nikki A.S.H,
and the champs retained despite a disadvantage. Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that Carmella didn’t get physical during the match, and that’s
because she’s been dealing with some nagging injuries. On PW Insider Elite Audio, Mike Johnson explained
that despite these injuries, the plan is for Carmella to keep appearing on TV, and that WWE are trying to come up with different scenarios to
prevent her doing anything too physical in the ring. Johnson added that if you watch the past few weeks o RAW, you’ll see that Zelina is doing the
the bulk of the work for her team, with the Staten Island Princess making brief appearances in the ring.
There’s no confirmation at this time of what injuries Carmella is dealing with, only that she plans to tough them out, but for now, don’t expect anything too
dangerous from the Women’s Tag Team Champion.
For decades, Vince McMahon has run WWE with an iron fist, and has steered the company through several highs and lows.
Over the past two years, budget cuts and mass- talent releases has led to suggestions that McMahon is looking to sell his company, but that
claim has always been refuted by WWE. This week, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr was joined by fellow actor Macaulay Culkin
on the former’s podcast, and Prinze claimed that not only is WWE willing to sell, but they’ve already tried.
Prinze explained that he once spoke to an executive at Fox, who auditioned for the Company President role that is now held by
Nick Khan, and said that WWE wanted the TV network to buy their product. He added: “We were just talking about the brand and all this,
and he goes ‘yeah, they wanted us to buy the whole product.’ He’s an exec at FOX. He goes ‘ they wanted us to buy the whole brand but the
number they wanted wasn’t a number we were going to pay, so we licensed SmackDown instead.'” Time will tell whether McMahon eventually does
sell his company to someone else, something that still seems unlikely given his controlling nature, but according to Freddie Prinze Jr, it could
certainly happen for the right price.
Yesterday, WWE had their first wave of mass releases of 2022, with trainers, producers and coaches being cut from NXT 2.0
These releases are never fun, either for those being cut nor those they leave behind, but almost all of those now ex-employees have one thing
in common. Fightful Select has noted that almost all cuts were people hired by Triple H, with Cathy Corino
aka Allison Danger being the only recent hiring not orchestrated by the Game. As for everyone else, they were either hired,
or close to Triple H, as Road Dogg Brian James was obviously close with the WWE COO thanks to both being in DX.
William Regal’s friendship with Triple H is said to go back to their WCW days, and the British legend was also one of the Game’s groomsmen
during his real-wedding to Stephanie McMahon in 2003. Triple H has also gone to bat for Regal when the
latter was dealing with substance abuse issues many years ago, as Regal has said he cannot recall a second of his Attitude Era run as Man’s
Man Steven Regal. Fightful added that these latest cuts were not due to budget cuts, like previous cuts over the
past two years, but happened directly to remove Triple H’s people. There was a time when it seemed Triple H was
destined to inherit his father in law’s company, but that isn’t the case anymore, as now being friends with the King of Kings is just as likely to get you a
pink slip than a push.
And we’re ending today with Bron Beakker, the new NXT Champion.
Breakker’s win over Tommaso Ciampa at NXT New Year’s Evil has seen as a passing of the torch moment, but his entrance hasn’t exactly gone down
well backstage.
Making his way to the ring, Breakker kicked a gold X in half, symbolising the end of NXT and the reign of NXT 2.0.
Fightful reports that this entrance was not received well backstage at all, with many believing the act was “sending a message” that didn’t need to be sent.
NXT 2.0 has been airing for months now, and this week’s cuts have only further cemented the fact that the brand has changed, but despite this, WWE
felt the need to crown a new NXT Champion by literally destroying the show that came before him.