Here's more wrestling news for August 19th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Roman Reigns Shoots On WWE Fans’ Short Attention Span!
Sonya Deville Has Her Eye On The SmackDown Women’s Title!
Paul Wight Booked In First AEW Match At All Out!
Steel Cage Title Match Announced For AEW All Out!
Kurt Angle On Why He Believes WWE Ended Taz’s In-Ring Career!
Ric Flair’s NON – PG Photo Is Going Viral!
"God, I miss him" - Seth Rollins Addresses Bray Wyatt's WWE Release!
Finn Balor On Why The Recent WWE Releases Will Be Good For Some Of The Wrestlers!
Impact Reportedly Signs Another Free Agent Wrestler! And More!
We’re kicking off today with Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who has been on a career high ever since returning in August 2020.
Before reinventing himself as the Tribal Chief, Reigns was pushed heavily for years as a face, often receiving a chorus of boos by the
crowd who preferred other, more naturally popular Superstars. Speaking to the Out of Character podcast
Reigns didn't hold back on the fans, saying that the crowd want everything far too quickly. He said:
“We have a very fast food-oriented audience nowadays. It’s a ‘what have you done for me lately’ situation, everybody wants kind of
some change as soon as they feel like they’ve gotten the portion that they were looking for. For me to still be almost a year now and for it
still to be interesting, for it to still be compelling, it just goes into, not just the performance, but just the hard work and the brainstorming
and everything that goes in to being able to develop these types of stories.” Reigns does make a lot of sense, and fans
will remember that before fans turned on the Big Dog, fans were wanting him to be pushed in 2014.
It took years of hostile crowds and a heel turn for Reigns to finally get the right reaction from the fans, and it'll be interesting to see what
reaction he gets when he faces John Cena at Summer slam.
Summerslam 2021 will mark one year since Reigns’ return to WWE TV, but it’ll also mark a year since Sonya Deville’s last WWE match.
After losing the Loser Leaves WWE match to Mandy Rose, Deville took a lengthy hiatus to recover after an attempted kidnapping, and
has since worked as an on-screen authority figure on RAW and SmackDown. Since returning, there’s been plenty of
speculation on when, if ever, Deville will compete again, and in an interview with Darren Paltrowitz, the former MMA fighter
spoke about her career: I started with this company when I was 21, I’m 27 now and I plan on being here for as l
long as they’ll allow me to be. I wanna do so much more and you know, eventually get back in the ring and win the SmackDown
Women’s Championship one day Deville seems ready for that in-ring return, and is looking to hold championship gold,
as Bianca Belair should watch her back whenever Deville steps back in the ring.
Over to AEW next, as Paul Wight shocked everyone by joining the company earlier this year, and now his first match has been
confirmed. Last week, the former Big Show got physical by delivering a chokeslam to Aaron Solow
and this week, he got into an altercation with QT Marshall. After Marshall showed off X-Ray’s of Wight’s
various Hip replacement, a possible HIPPA Law violation, the giant announced his debut match for AEW will be against Marshall
at All Out. The Factory leader wasn’t happy about that, but after over a year since his last match on
the July 20th 2020 RAW, Wight’s next match will happen on September 5th.
Wight Vs. Marshall wasn’t the only match announced for All Out last night, as a huge World Tag Title match was also confirmed.
After retaining their titles against Jurassic Express, the Young Bucks were informed that a tag-team eliminator will determined
their next opponents, which’ll feature the Varsity Blonds, Lucha Bros, Jurrassic Express and Private Party.
The winning team will face the Bucks at the Pay-Per-View, in a steel cage match for the tag-team titles.
Before Dynamite, the Bucks had promised to go on a vacation to Hawaii for a month, saying someone else can carry the
Pay-Per-View, but we now know the brothers will be in action on September 5th.
In January 2000, Kurt Angle’s WWF winning streak came to an end at the hands of the debuting Tazz, who had one of the best
WWF debuts of all time. From there though, Tazz’s WWF career quickly spiralled, and by the summer, he was in a feud
with Jerry Lawler, and would even lose their Summerslam match thanks to the interference of Jim Ross.
Speaking on his Kurt Angle show, the Olympian discussed Tazz’s fall from grace in WWE, saying he would’ve loved to had worked mo
more than just one match with the Suplex Machine. He added: “I think the reason was Vince McMahon had
this idea of Taz being a smaller guy and selling for the big guys and never giving up. Taz had in his mind that he wanted to be a dominant
wrestler and just beat everybody up dominantly. They didn’t want him to be, he didn’t himself want to be the underdog that was fighting
from underneath. “I think that’s the reason why they kind of ended Taz’s career a little bit early, because
he had a different idea than what the creative had for him. Then they made him a commentary. That was pretty much the end of Taz’s career.
I don’t think he lasted much longer afterwards.” By the end of 2000, Tazz had already began shifting into a commentary role, which he’d
eventually be in full-time until his WWE departure in 2009, but things could’ve been much different had the Olympic Gold Medalist been
able to work a longer program with the former ECW World Champion.
Now, yesterday, Ric Flair was trending worldwide on Twitter, but not for a reason the Nature Boy exactly wanted.
On the social media site, someone tweeted a photo of a man, who bears a resemblance to the two-time WWE Hall of Famer, performing
Oral sex on a woman. It must be noted that the man cannot be fully identified, and that people are just
assuming that it’s Flair based on the hairstyle of the man. Several Twitter users noted that the photo
looks like it was taken on the Long Island Rail Road, and now Ric himself is denying that he’s the man pictured
Sharing a picture of his own face, photoshopped onto a Dumbo Casey Jr. train, Flair said this photo was as real as the last, insisting that the
16-time World Champion doesn’t ride trains. It does seem odd that a man who chartered a private jet to Mexico city just last week, who is
literally known for riding limousines, would be caught riding a train. Flair’s name is still trending in some areas,
and although he’s been known for decades as the Dirtiest Player in the Game, even he’s not that dirty as the man in the photo
Last month, WWE made the shocking decision to release Bray Wyatt, despite how popular the Fiend had been over the past two years.
A two-time former Universal Champion, Wyatt’s first title victory came over Seth Rollins, who has nothing but love for his former adversary,
despite their history. Speaking on a media call to promote Summerslam, Rollins was asked if his current character
drew inspiration from either Wyatt or Triple H, and briefly addressed Wyatt’s departure, saying
Bray Wyatt… God, I miss him. I wouldn’t say I drew much inspiration from him. He was way out there with the stuff he wanted to do
character-wise and it worked for him. For me, not so much. That’s not really where I sit when it comes to characters in wrestling.”
Rollins added that although he doesn’t see much of himself in Wyatt, he was definitely inspired by Triple H, someone who’s played
a major role in his career. This Saturday, Rollins will face Edge at Summerslam, another man the former
Universal Champion has been compared to, and Rollins hopes to end those comparrisons by ending Edge’s miraculous return to the
ring this weekend.
Finn Balor isn’t booked for this Saturday’s event, at least not yet, but he’s continued to impress ever since returning to SmackDown
just one month ago. Over the past year, Balor has seen plenty of people lose their jobs in WWE, with 55
on-screen workers being cut this year alone, many of whom were friends of the former two-time NXT Champion.
Speaking with Oliver Browning of the Independent newspaper, Balor discussed the releases, and how many ex-WWE employees
are seeing it as a blessing in disguise. He said: “You never want to see these things happen but this business is very controlled. A lot of my
friends were on those lists. Some of them are seeing it as an opportunity.” Speaking specifically about the recent NXT
releases, Balor admitted it can be hard for wrestlers to get minutes on a weekly two- hour show, but said these releases
will allow those cut to grow outside of WWE. He added: “There are some incredible chances on the
independents. You never want to see these types of things happen, I hate reading those lists, but you have to look at the positives
of these situations, these people have been offered an opportunity to start again.”
Saying that a release from WWE means wrestlers can start fresh with a new character in a hands-off environment,
Balor encouraged people to accept the situation, move forward, embrace it, and grow as performers
Right now, everyone released from NXT on August 6th is waiting out their 30-day non compete clauses, and we’ll have to see
who follows Balor’s advice and seizes the opportunity when their free to work anywhere outside WWE.
And we’re ending today with Impact Wrestling, who have reportedly inked a multi-year deal with Zicky Dice.
A former NWA World Television Champion, Dice appeared during this Tuesday’s Impact tapings in Nashville, teaming with Manny
Lemons against Fallah Brah and No Way. Dice chose to leave the NWA after his contract expired at the end of last,
after originally requesting to be released in August. Fans may recognise Dice from his sole AEW
appearance, losing to Lance Archer on the June 4th 2021 edition of Dark, and now the former NWA star is bringing his talents to
Impact Wrestling.