Here's your wrestling news for January 28th 2021
And your headlines for today include Charlotte Flair Takes A Dig On Ronda Rousey! Miro Wanted To Retire From Wrestling! Edge! WWE News! 3 00:00:07,323 --> 00:00:10,860 WWE Makes Decision On Royal Rumble Match Winners!
Edge Wants To Get Back The Championship “He Never Lost”!
CM Punk Celebrates Anniversary Of Him Quitting WWE!
How Vince McMahon Reacted To Shane McMahon Quitting WWE Over Money!
Charlotte Flair makes a bold statement about Ronda Rousey!
Why Miro Wanted To Retire?
Title Match & More Booked For WWE NXT Next Week!
Is There Legitimate Heat Between Triple H And Shane McMahon?
Matt Riddle Picks Up A Feud With Bobby Lashley!
Santino Marella Shares Exciting News On WWE’s The Bump And More!
We’re kicking off today with the Royal Rumble and after weeks of uncertainty around this year’s show, the two titular
matches are finally in place. We’ve previously reported that WWE were discussing every idea available
but now it’s been decided who’ll be winning. When Ringside News asked their sources
in the company, they were told “the Royal Rumble finish has already been decided.”
Now that WWE has their winners planned out for the two Rumble matches, the build to WrestleMania 37 can begin,
though that being said, these winners could still change given Vince McMahon’s history of last-minute alterations.
For now, the winners of the men’s and Women’s rumble matches have finally been decided, and though this decision has
been made later than usual, at least the Superstars can go into the Thunderdome this Sunday with some sort of plan.
More Rumble news, as Edge will return at this year’s show, competing in the 30-Man Rumble Match
On Twitter, Edge said that it feels like a decade since his return thanks to the ongoing global situation, and says that
his journey in the Rumble this year is such different. Whilst he was just happy to be back
at last year’s event, he’s focussed this year, saying he want backs what he never lost, and it starts Sunday.
It’s worth noting that Edge retired in WWE as World Heavyweight Champion and never lost the title, which was unified with
the WWE Championship in December 2013. If Edge wants the title back that he never
lost, then he’ll be facing Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania, but that all hinges on the Ultimate Opportunist winning this Sunday’s
match.
Speaking of the Rumble, this week marks seven year’s since CM Punk’s last WWE match, which saw him compete in the 2014
Rumble before walking out of WWE the next day. Though there’s been plenty of fans
itching to see Punk return to the ring, it looks like the former WWE Champion is happy staying retired.
On Twitter, Punk celebrated the fact that his last match took place seven years ago, saying “happy anniversary to me,”
and disabled replies. Punk’s anniversary to his wife AJ Lee is June 13th, which was the same day he
was given his release papers by WWE in what Vince McMahon has always insisted was an unfortunate accident.
There’ll always be fans who hold out for Punk returning to the ring, but judging by this tweet, the Chicago-Made star is happy
with how the past seven years have gone.
From one departure to another, as Shane McMahon left WWE in 2009, but that wasn’t the first time that the Prodigal Son
left the company. Speaking on his Something to Wrestle With podcast, Bruce Prichard spoke
of a time that Shane quit the family company as a teenager, as he wasn’t satisfied with the office job he had.
Prichard explained: “Shane went to the guy in charge of the bricklaying, the masonry on Vince’s
house, and said, ‘Hey, what do you pay?’ The guy paid, I don’t know, 10, 12 bucks an hour, which was more than he
would’ve been making at the office… Shane was like, ‘hey, this guy will give me this.’ Vince was like, ‘Congratulations,
you’ve got a new job.’” We all know that Shane did return to WWE, and has made a lot more than
$12 an hours in the years since, and though he hasn’t been seen on-screen since RAW Underground got cancelled,
you can never say never when it comes to a Shane O’Mac return.
Now, we’ve reported that Ronda Rousey is being considered to win this year’s Women’s Rumble match, despite not being
in a WWE ring since WrestleMania 35. One person who know Rousey well is Charlotte Flair, as the pair faced at
WrestleMania and Survivor Series 2018, but the Queen isn’t excited for a potential rematch.
Speaking during the Royal Rumble press conference, Flair addressed rumours of a Rousey return with a mixed
response: “Can Ronda Rousey add to the division? Absolutely. Do we need her? No.”
Time will tell if Rousey returns to the WWE as part of this Sunday’s Women’s Rumble match, but with Flair already confirmed
for the 30-Woman match, fans may see the long-awaited rematch.
Over to SmackDown now, and Sasha Banks is riding high as the blue brand’s women’s Champion, and may have
something special planned for WrestleMania. During an appearance on the Complex
Sports podcast, Banks spoke about her cousin Snoop Dogg’s recent AEW appearance, which saw the rap legend
perform a top-rope frog splash. Speaking about her cousin, Banks said that she wants to have matches with him,
and plans on having a WrestleMania match with her cousin as her tag team partner.
WWE has worked with Snoop Dogg in the past, even inducting him into the Hall of Fame in 2016, an though he’s currently
working alongside AEW’s Cody Rhodes for TBS’s Go-Big Show, fans can expect the Boss and the D-O-Double-G to team
if Banks gets her way.
Over to AEW next, and despite joining in September last year, Miro has been nowhere neat a championship match.
It now looks like the former Rusev has run out of patience, as on a recent Twitch Stream, he openly declared that he’ll retire
if he doesn’t become AEW World Champion.
The Bulgarian didn’t give himself a time- limit for this challenge, but seems more than confident in becoming AEW’s top star.
In a media call in December, Tony Khan said that the company has discussed big plans for Miro, but said they’ll need
to rehabilitate his character post-WWE, and hopefully the former U.S. Champion will get the title shot he feels he’s ready for.
NXT news next, as this week’s show was set to feature a Cruiserweight title match between Santos Escobar and Curt
Stallion that never took place. Instead, Stallion was found attacked in the hallway, and although William Regal
knew someone from Legado Del Fantasma is to blame, he couldn’t pin-point who exactly.
Regal then re-booked the NXT Cruiserweight title match for next week’s show, before Escobar found a tarot
card that freaked him out, a sign that Karrion Kross may have somehow been involved in the situation.
Next week’s NXT will also see the Lucha House Party face Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde, whilst the Undisputed
Era will take on Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher in the quarter finals of the Men’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
Next week’s edition of NXT will be up against the AEW Beach Break special, which has a loaded card that got even
bigger this week. A huge tag team battle Royal will determine the Young Bucks next
challengers for the AEW Tag Titles, and the match will even include the Bucks, who will get to pick their own opponents
for Revolution should they win next week. The beachside wedding of Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford will happen,
with Miro as the Best Man and Chuck Taylor as his butler.
Britt Baker will face Thunder Rosa in singles action and with a main event of AEW World Champion Kenny Omega and
Impact Tag Champions the Good brothers facing Jon Moxley, Fenix and PAC, AEW’s Beach Break is shaping up to be a huge
event.
Speaking of AEW, we previously reported that the company was having issues bringing Riho back from Japan, where she’s
been stuck since early last year, but it looks like these issues are a thing of the past.
It was announced this week that a Women’s Eliminator Tournament will determine the next number one contender
for AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida, but the company didn’t announce when this tournament starts.
What they did announce during Dynamite is that Riho will face NWA Women’s Champion Serena Deeb in the opening
round, marking Riho’s first match since the March 18th 2020 Dynamite, where she lost to Shida in fatal four-way action.
Travel restrictions have kept Riho from returning to Dynamite, and although we don’t know when this match will happen,
at least we know that Riho is coming back to Dynamite.
More from AEW now as last month, Shaq called out Cody Rhodes in a segment with Brandi, and his associate Jade Cargil
has wasted no opportunity in antagonising Cody. During the AEW Awards, Shaq
challenged Cody to an intergender match at AEW Revolution, a challenge that Cody wasn’t ready to accept given his wife’s
pregnancy. That’s when Arn Anderson offered up Red Velvet as a replacement, and it
seems that Rhodes and Velvet are more than willing to accept the challenge.
Tony Schiavone said the ball was in Shaq and Jade’s court, though the match hasn’t been made official yet.
What was made official is that AEW Revolution has been pushed back to March 7th, and fans can expect to see this
colossal intergender tag match at the show.
Back to WWE, and Bruce Prichard has seen plenty in his tenure with the company, but one thing he hasn’t seen is beef
between Triple H and his brother-in-law Shane McMahon. Speaking on his podcast, Prichard was
was asked about any real-life animosity, and responded with a story from Eric Bischoff’s first night in WWE in 2002.
“You had Vince, Steph, Hunter and Shane, and just the genuine love, and his [Bischoff’s] first night in, he saw it and he
was like, ‘Wow, you know, no matter what anybody says about anybody else, when you have that kind of love of your family…
and you’re cool with everything, then you can’t be that bad of a person.”
Prichard went on to say that Shane McMahon deserves to be in the WWE Hall of Fame, and we presume that when
that honour does come, that his brother- in-law will be more than happy to induct him.
Now last year, WWE split up the IIconics, a decision which came out of nowhere and surprised fans.
This week, Sportskeeda’s Rich Ucchino spoke with Peyton Royce about the split, and the former Women’s Tag Team
Champion revealed that it’s been difficult to say the least:
“Billie and I, we, more than just who we are as WWE Superstars; we have grown up together… our whole journies have
been together… I feel like I'm still digesting it, and I'm still trying my footing without her."
Though they’re not teaming, the IIconics are still very close, as Billie Kay responded to a video from the interview,
saying she felt exactly the same way, calling Royce her life partner. At the time of the split, it was rumoured
that Vince McMahon wanted to push Royce as a top singles star, which didn’t happen, as she instead was moved into a
makeshift team with Lacey Evans. Kay has had better luck on SmackDown, becoming one of their funniest stars
with the Riott Squad, and perhaps fans will see an IIconics reunion in this Sunday’s Women’s Rumble Match.
Now, Matt Riddle recently earned himself another shot at the United States Championship after defeating three quarters
of the Hurt Business in a Gauntlet match on RAW. After his big win, the King of Bros was
attacked by Bobby Lashley, and is now looking to have a very special stipulation for their eventual title match.
On Twitter, Riddle asked who to call so that the title match will happen in the NXT Fight Pit, and even tagged NXT head
Triple H in his request. In response, Lashley tweeted a photo from Riddle losing in the very first Fight
Pit to Timothy Thatcher, and given that both Riddle and Lashley have MMA experience, having the title match in
the Fight Pit could be an excellent idea.
Now, Santino Marella was on this week’s ‘The Bump’, and had some exciting news to share.
After discussing his past Rumble experiences, including his ‘sister’ appearing last year, the former
Intercontinental Champion said that it’s fitting the show is called The Bump, as his wife also has a bump.
For anyone who didn’t get it, Santino explained that his wife is three weeks pregnant, which’ll mark the former
Superstar’s third child. Santino explained that his daughter, Bianca, who’s 25, is training to become
wrestler, whilst his son Marko just turned two, and we at Slat Rock are sending our congratulations to Santino and his wife
on the newest addition to their family.
Back to AEW, and the company has revealed their AEW Dynamite Award winners
After 436,000 total votes from the fans counted, Cody Rhodes accepting the Dog Collar Match challenge from brodie
Lee won Best Moment on the Mic, whilst Sting’s debut won the Biggest Surprise award.
TNT Champion Darby Allin and Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida took home the Breakout male and female star awards
respectively, whilst Rey Fenix won the High Flyer award. The Biggest WTF moment went to Kenny
Omega’s shocking AEW World title win, whilst the Stadium Stampede won Pay Per View moment of the year.
And we’re ending today with Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who has had plenty to say about his family ever since
his return last year. Recently, the WWE paid tribute to Yokozuna, the WWE Hall of Famer who
comes from the same Samoan dynasty, and Reigns paid tribute in his own way.
Online, Reigns said they don’t represent Yoko with the moves they do in the ring, but by being the best every week, and
we’re sure that the Tribal Chief is looking to be the best at this Sunday’s Universal Title last man standing match with Kevin
Owens.