Here is your news for July 23rd 2020 AJ Styles RIPS Into Heyman! McMahon Family Sold Their Stock! Wrestler Says WWE Is A Broken! Wrestling News! 2 00:00:12,212 --> 00:00:14,547 Your headlines for today include:
Released WWE Superstars Takes An Epic Photo In Front Of Impact Wrestling Logo!
Sends A Strong Message To Vince McMahon!
AJ Styles Rips Paul Heyman, Says He Threw Several People In WWE Under The Bus!
Sammy Guevara Comments On His AEW Return!
Two title matches set for next week's AEW Dynamite!
Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Triple H, And More Executives Sell A Lot WWE Stock!
Finn Balor Confirmed For A Big Match On NXT Next Week!
WWE Pitching New Ideas To Keep Kairi Sane Around!
Road Dogg Unhappy With Scott Dawson For Taking A Shot At Shawn Michaels On
His Birthday And More!
We’re kicking off today with news from Impact Wrestling, as the company recently
picked up several former WWE Superstars, who have shown exactly what they
think of their ex-employer.
On his Instagram, Luke Gallows posted a photo from behind the scenes at an
Impact show, that features himself, Karl Anderson, EC3, Brian Myers, Eric Young
and Heath all stood in front of the Impact logo, with some giving middle fingers
that’d make Steve Austin proud.
Myers, formerly known as Curt Hawkins, was even showing off the ‘I Got Fired’
shirt, that Heath is selling on PW Tees as it seems the group are pretty happy
being back together in a different company.
These six stars aren’t even the only former WWE talent with Impact, as new
Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo was under Vince McMahon’s company
until recently, and time will tell whether anyone else makes the move to Impact.
Over to AEW now, and after weeks away, Sammy Guevara is back with the company.
During this week’s Dynamite, the main event between Chris Jericho and Jake
Hager taking on Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy saw a post- match beatdown, where
the Inner Circle were helped by Serpentico.
While Tony Schiavone speculated that Serpentico is the newest member of the
group, the masked wrestler revealed himself to be Guevara.
On Twitter, Guevara was very pleased with himself, sharing a photo of his return
with the caption that the Spanish God is Back
After horrid comments made about Sasha Banks came to light, Guevara had been
suspended and was made to undergo sensitivity training, something it seems he’s
now finished.
Sammy’s first-match back will take place next week, as the Best Friends, Orange
Cassidy, Jungle Boy and Luchsaurus will face the entire Inner Circle, in what should
be an explosive, 10-man tag-team match.
Next week’s show will also see two title matches, as Kenny Omega and Hangman
Page will defend the AEW World Tag Team titles against the Dark Order’s Evil Uno
and Stu Grayson, whilst TNT Champion Cody Rhodes will put his title on the line again.
With two title matches, plus a ten-man-tag, plus more, next week’s Dynamite will
be stacked to say the least, as they’re clearly going for the win in the Wednesday Night War.
Speaking of titles, Eddie Kingston failed to win Cody Rhodes’ TNT Title, but that
apparently won’t be the end of him.
In a post-match promo, the 19-year veteran said that on this occasion, Rhodes
was the better man, but that won’t stop him learning and moving forward, and
promised that he’ll be back.
Using thumbtacks in his first AEW match certainly helped Kingston turn some
heads, and though he wasn’t victorious on this occasion, we might just see the
Mad King in AEW again down the line.
Speaking of AEW, Chris Jericho has been able to do a lot in the company since it’s
debut, but the former AEW World Champion won’t be setting sail anytime soon.
This week, Jericho spoke about his upcoming Rock ‘n Wrestling cruise, which was
supposed to set sail next February, though because of the ongoing global
situation, this voyage has now been postponed.
Instead, Jericho’s cruise will set sail on October 21st next year, and this has also
affected AEW, who had plans for a live Dynamite on Y2J’s boat, which will also have to wait.
Jericho’s cruise is just the latest major event to be postponed due to the ongoing
situation, and it didn’t help that the ship was supposed to depart from Florida,
which has been particularly hard.
Now, fans will have to wait until October next year to travel the seas with AEW,
when hopefully things will be back to normal.
Back to WWE now, as reigning Intercontinental Champion AJ Styles has once again
spoke about his issues with Paul Heyman.
Speaking on a Twitch Livestream, Styles has previously said he felt that Heyman
was the one who pitched for Gallows and Anderson to be released, which is part
of why the Phenomenal One asked to be moved to SmackDown. He said:
“I can’t be around Paul Heyman. I just can’t stand him… You wouldn’t believe how
many people that I worked with despised this guy because of his lies and he’d find
ways to throw them under the bus when he screwed up”
Styles speculated that it’s Heyman’s apparent bad reputation backstage, that led
to him being removed as RAW’s Executive Director, adding that the only person
Heyman can blame is himself.
Clearly, the Phenomenal One isn’t a fan of the former ECW magnate turned WWE
personality, and if Styles is to be believed, he isn’t the only one with an axe to grind
From one former World Champion to another now, as John Cena may have been
the top star of Vince McMahon’s WWE for a decade, the Champ and the Boss
didn’t always see eye-to-eye.
One person who was around during Cena’s early years in WWE is Rico, who spoke
recently to [Sportskeeda about how Vince didn’t see much potential in the future
16-time World Champion. Rico said:
He [McMahon] didn’t understand Cena’s character at all, was going to cut him. He
didn’t understand… he said ‘I don’t get it, I don’t get it’ and he let him run with him
for a little bit and look what happened, face of the company.
It’s a good thing that Vince gave him another chance, as by the end of 2002, the
white-meat plain trunks Cena have evolved into the Doctor of Thuganomics, and
it’s possible that wrestling as a whole would be much different today, if McMahon
had cut John’s career short.
Speaking of Vince McMahon, there’s been more change behind the scenes this
week, as several top executives have sold some stock.
According to multiple SEC filings, Vince McMahon, Stephanie and Triple H also
sold stock, with the Chairman selling 12,762 shares.
At $46/26 a share, that sale netted Vince roughly $590,370, whilst the Game’s
10,628 shares that he sold earned him roughly $491,651.
As for Stephanie, her sale of 11,167 hares earned her $516,585, whilst Kevin Dunn
sold 21,809 shares, earning him over $1 million.
In recent years, the company’s share price has gone up and down a lot, and it’s
always interesting to see the top folks backstage unload some of their stock.
Over to NXT now, and the gold brand has addressed the future of NXT and North
American Champion Keith Lee.
Two weeks after capturing both titles with a win over then-NXT Champion Adam
Cole, Lee appeared this week to vacate the North American title, claiming that
he’s Limitless, but doesn’t want to be limiting the opportunities of the rest of the roster.
William Regal’s huge announcement came next, as he confirmed a new champion
will be crowned in a ladder match at TakeOver 30, with a series of Triple-Threat
matches announced to decide the participants.
It didn’t take long for Superstars to compete for a shot at the gold, as this week’s
show saw Bronson Reed defeat Johnny Gargano and Roderick Strong to earn a
spot in the match.
The next triple-threat qualfier will take place next week, as it’s been confirmed
that Finn Balor, Timothy Thatcher and Dexter Lumis will compete for a spot in the
North American Ladder Match.
NXT also showed off the logo for NXT 30, which is fire, literally, and fans will have
to see which Superstars burn brightest when the show takes place at either the
Performance Center or Full Sal Live on August 22nd.
Back to the main roster next, and Kairi Sane’s contract reportedly ended after this
week’s TV Tapings, but that’s something the WWE are trying to stop her from leaving
Before the current global situation, there were reportedly discussions about her
returning to Japan to serve as a company ambassador, and though she could be
leaving, she’d remain as part of the WWE’s ‘extended family.’
According to Fightful, Sane will be on next week’s RAW, as it was filmed this week,
though it’s unclear in what she’ll do. They added:
“WWE has made a big effort to retain Kairi, and pitched several ideas to keep her
on the payroll, and more specifically, away from other companies.”
The report noted that the company have discussed the idea of Sane being a
company ambassador back in Japan, but also said there’s been talks of her
becoming a trainer.
WWE clearly doesn’t want the Pirate Princess to go to any other company,
especially not AEW, and if allowing her to move back to Japan and be with her
husband helps prevent Sane showing up on Dynamite, then the WWE seems to be all for it.
One person who knows all about leaving WWE is Eric Young, who has said plenty
about his time in Vince McMahon’s company.
Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Young said that his time on the main roster was
much different than NXT, and spoke about just how difficult it was to get things
done out of the gold brand.
“The system is broken. It’s hard to get a word in. Even when you are doing nothing,
it feels like you are just trying to fix people’s mistakes all day. There is no creativity.
They want everyone to do things the same and be the same and sell the same.”
WWE’s creative and writing system has changed dramatically since EY’s release on
April 15th, and given that wrestling news sites would often make a big deal over
him just appearing on TV, it’s clear just how little he was used.
Recently returning in the main event of Slammiversary, Young is being treated as a
much bigger star in the other company, so don’t expect him back with WWE for at
least a long time.
Now, yesterday marked the 55th birthday of Shawn Michaels, and one person who
celebrated in their own way was Dax Harwood.
In a tweet, the former Scott Dawson celebrated HBK’s birthday with a picture of
he he described as the greatest wrestler ever, but instead of Michaels, shared a
picture of Bret Hart instead.
The real-life bad blood in the 90s between Bret and Shawn is no secret, but when
Miro asked why Harwood didn’t tag Shawn in the post, the Road Dogg Jesse James
said Dax didn’t have the guts to do so.
It’s no secret that FTR are big Bret Hart fans, and have praised the Hitman over the
years, but it looks like the Road Dogg isn’t the biggest fans of them.
It would be interesting to see if FTR responds to Road Dogg’s shot at them,
especially given that his former DX partner Billy Gunn, is now also in AEW, working
as a producer.
Back to WWE now, and we previously reported that SmackDown Women’s
Champion Bayley called out Stephanie McMahon, but it seems the former hugger
has had a change of heart.
After Stephanie’s announcement regarding the RAW Women’s title, Bayley said
that the WWE’s Chief Brand Officer is done for, a tweet that Stephanie took notice of.
In a subsequent tweet though, Bayley described her harsh words as a typo, and
defended herself by saying she meant that she hopes Stephanie’s day was done,
so she could relax.
As if this back-peddling wasn’t enough, the Role Model thanked Stephanie for the
opportunity that her best friend Sasha Banks has received.
Since turning heel last year, Bayley hasn’t backed down from anyone, and whilst
the SmackDown Women’s and Women’s Tag Team Champion still claims to be a
role model it seems even she knows not to cross a McMahon.
We’re looking back at Wrestle Mania 36 next, as night-one of the company’s
weekend-long event saw The Undertaker defeat AJ Styles in the acclaimed
Boneyard match.
Regarded by many as one of the Deadman’s best matches in years, fans got to see
a more down-to-earth version of the Phenom, though there was some thing fans didn’t see.
Whilst speaking to Ad Age Remote, Stephanie McMahon spoke about how Rock
legends Metallica were supposed to perform. She said:
Metallica was going to be apart of WrestleMania, their music was going to be
apart of Undertaker's entrance. When everything changed, they said 'we still want
to be apart of this if we can, we're not backing out.' We were very grateful to
Metallica for helping score the entire sequence
Whilst Metallica weren’t able to appear live at WrestleMania due to the ongoing
situation, their song ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ was a part of the video package,
and ‘Now That We’re Dead’ was used as the Deadman’s entrance theme.
On the final episode of the Last Ride, The Undertaker seemingly confirmed his
retirement, and if this is it for The Deadman, having Metallica play a part of his
final moments is a fitting send-off for the Phenom.
And finally today we’re ending with news from Vince Russo, who, much like Rey
Mysterio, is having trouble with his eye.
In a tweet, Russo confirmed that he was undergoing surgery for his eye, and joked
that they’ll be trouble if he comes out looking like Sloth from The Goonies.
About 6 hours later, Russo posted another photo, where he thankfully looked like
himself, as it seems the surgery was a success, and we’d like to wish the former
wrestling writer a speedy recovery.