In this WrestleTalk News, Alexa Bliss reveals the truth behind her Ronda Rousey heat, details
on those Ric Flair to AEW rumours, huge plans for tonight’s Monday Night Raw and more.
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…So it’s Chris Rock vs. Will Smith at WrestleMania, right?
Last night at the Oscars, Chris Rock made a joke about Will Smith’s wife - fellow
actor Jada Pinkett-Smith’s - hair loss via alopecia. Smith responded to this joke by
heading to the stage, and slapped him across the face like he was making trouble in a neighbourhood
while Chris just wanted to play some b-ball.
It was like that Charlotte Flair and Nia Jax thing from Raw that one time.
And in that one brief moment, Film Twitter became Wrestling Twitter, as viewers were
trying to figure out if this was a work or a shoot, brother, like it was Bash at the
Beach 2000 or something.
Only they used terms like “real” and “staged”.
Learn the insider terms, you marks.
But just remember, Hulkamaniacs.
Don’t work a work and work yourself into a shoot, jabroni marks.
Much love, HH.
Moving over into the wrestling news now and… well it’s about works and shoots… brother.
Ronda Rousey’s time in WWE - prior to her leaving after WrestleMania 35 - ended on quite
a sour note.
WWE had to turn her heel after she posted vlogs about wrestling being fake and how she
didn’t like WWE fans, and she then doubled down on that in 2020 after a podcast interview
with Jackass star Steve-o saying: “Anyone who is outraged by me calling pro wrestling
'fake fights for fun' have never been in a REAL fight…
What am I doing it for if I'm not being able to spend my time and energy on my family,
but instead spending my time and my energy on a bunch of f****** ungrateful fans that
don't even appreciate me?
I love performing.
I love the girls.
I love being out there...but, at the end of the day, I was just like, 'F*** these fans,
dude.”
Several wrestlers took exception to these comments, including Alexa Bliss who tweeted
about her longtime injury and how that wasn’t fake.
This wasn’t the first time it appeared that there was real life friction between the two
either, as Bliss revealed on a WWE 365 documentary for the WWE Network, that she suffered a concussion
during a match with Rousey at Hell in a Cell 2018, and another concussion during a match
with Rousey at a house show.
Following Rousey’s comments on Steve-o’s podcast, Bliss told The Express: “Don’t
say what we do is fake because that’s just insulting…
I think she may have some apologizing to do because it was disrespectful and our company
is built on respect.”
This was all used to form an October 2020 article on The Sportster titled “5 Wrestlers
Who Loved Ronda Rousey (& 5 Who Disliked Her), which had Bliss listed as an entry adding
that, “The shade thrown at Rousey from Alexa in a group chat with other WWE women confirmed
the heat.”
A Twitter user by the name of Dreezy D seemingly stumbled across this article over the weekend,
and asked Bliss to share more details about it.
However, Bliss has shut down these long standing rumors of heat between the two saying: “This
is quite comical & not true . I’m only in one group chat & it’s with my bridal party
#keeptryingtrolls” That group chat, by the way, reportedly features
Avril Lavigne and Nia Jax, which means it’s probably full of chat about Chad Kroger loving
photographs and Nia telling you COVID isn’t real.
So a bit of banter about Ronda Rousey might actually brighten things up.
Bliss hasn’t been on TV since she was randomly brought back for the Elimination Chamber in
February, and reportedly is currently not factored in for anything at WrestleMania,
tweeting back in March: “I’ll just wait here I guess…”
However, there are some big plans for Raw tonight.
It’s WrestleMania this weekend!
Okay, hands up in the comments who else forgot it was WrestleMania this weekend?
But that means tonight isn’t just any episode of Raw - it’s the go-home edition before
WrestleMania episode of Raw - which has now been redubbed WrestleMania Raw.
And in an effort to drum up last-minute interest in this weekend’s stupendous premium live
event, WWE have stacked Raw to make this a legit must-see show.
Raw Tag Team Champions RKBro will battle SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos in the other night
of the year when Raw and SmackDown stars go head to head in direct competition - poor
Survivor Series - Alpha Academy take on Street Profits, The Miz faces Rey Mysterio, Natalya,
Shayna Baszler, Queen Zelina and Carmella take on Sasha Banks, Naomia, Rhea Ripley and
Liv Morgan - and both Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar will be on the show.
And if that wasn’t enough, WWE announced yesterday that Bianca Belair will team with
Ronda Rousey to take on SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair and Raw Women’s
Champion Becky Lynch.
And not only that, but Seth Rollins has teased something huge for the show - tweeting out
a text message he received from Vince McMahon asking him to attend a meeting at WWE’s
corporate headquarters - which has sparked further rumours that Cody Rhodes will finally
making his WWE return, and re-debut on Raw tonight.
Granted, we thought that was going to happen at the Jacksonville show and it didn’t so…
I’m not holding my breath for that one.
And if that wasn’t enough, PWInsider are reporting that Bobby Lashley is going to be
on Raw tonight - making his return to the company since he was injured at the Royal
Rumble in January.
Lashley had to be written out of February’s Elimination Chamber, where he was removed
from his pod due to injury leading to Brock Lesnar winning back his WWE Championship.
It was reported at the time that Lashley would be out for several months.
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select has also reported that Lashley is in town for
this week’s Raw, but could not confirm that he’ll actually be on the show.
They did report, however, that the WrestleMania plan for Lashley vs. Omos was still on the
table - which was also reported by Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter last
Friday - and that means Bobby’s possible appearance on Raw could there to set that
match up.
Interestingly, Fightful note that “as of this weekend the Omos push was scheduled to
continue through WrestleMania”, which could mean that if the match does happen, Omos will
be picking up the win over the former WWE Champion.
Sapp does also add, however, “anything can change all the way up to the show.”
SRS is also reporting via Fightful Select that the planned New Day vs. Sheamus’ lads
match is still happening at Mania despite Big E’s injury that he picked up on SmackDown
a few weeks ago.
The match has now been changed to Kofi Kingston and King Woods vs. Sheamus and Oh, Butch,
but this isn’t confirmed as of yet.
SRS adds though that it was “reiterated” to him that Ridge Holland could still be added
to the match - presumably with another partner on New Day’s side - I mean, Intercontinental
Champion Ricochet has nothing to do at WrestleMania - or the match could be “scrapped altogether”.
And while we have used Twitter to dispel this idea that there is real-life heat between
Alexa Bliss and Ronda Rousey, there is some legit heat with Ric Flair and a former podcast
co-host that has revealed an All Elite Wrestling cancelled connection…
When Andrade El Idalo debuted in All Elite Wrestling, his gimmick was that he had a revolving
door of managers and mouth pieces - starting with Vickie Gurrero who was then replaced
by Chavo Gurrero who was then finally replaced with Jose the Assistant.
However, the rumour at the time was that this was all being done to set up Andrade’s real
life partner Charlotte Flair’s father, Ric Flair, to come in to AEW and be his permanent
manager.
That ended up not happening, with rumours circling around that it was due to the airing
of the Dark Side of the Ring episode about the Plane Ride From Hell, where Flair was
accused of sexual assualt.
And this has now been confirmed - at least according to former WCW commentator Mark Madden
- in a bizarre public spat with Flair.
Madden announced yesterday that he was leaving Flair’s podcast Woo Nation Uncensored, saying
that it wasn’t a good fit for him anymore due to his busy work schedule, and thanked
Flair for the opportunity.
Flair responded to this amicable separation by saying: “Actually, I Relieved You Of
Your Duties!
Best Of Luck With Your Work!
I’ll Be Back & Better Than Ever Next Monday!”
What followed was a quite uncomfortable back-and-forth between the two, with Madden saying: “Have
another drink.
God gave you the gift of life a few years back, &you thank him by getting ***t-faced
every single night like you are right now.
You are the greatest wrestler ever.
What you’ve become is sad” and even claiming that several wrestlers reached out to him
to call Flair “petty” and “pathetic”.
And in all of this, Madden replied to a listener who brought up the rumours about Flair to
AEW confirmed, saying: “Ric was planning to work at AEW ‘til the Dark Side ep.
Not sure what Tony Khan thought.
Khan doesn’t talk to Ric now.
Disinvited Ric from his b’day party.”
Speaking of wrestling legends being teased for AEW debuts in managerial roles, and there
have been several hints dropped as of late that Bret Hart will be joining All Elite Wrestling
as the manager of FTR - which would also tie into the Owen Hart Cup tournament which has
its first qualifier this week on Dynamite.
Speaking at the virtual Signed by Superstars this past weekend, Bret was asked about joining
AEW and jokingly responded, “Go there and do what?”
I dunno, Bret, manage FTR?
Bret Hart to AEW confirmed.
Someone who isn’t AEW confirmed, but is being paid this weekend by Tony Khan is Denise
Salcedo, who was announced for ROH’s Supercard of Honor show prior to Khan’s announcement
that he’d bought the company.
Yes, that Denise Salcedo who was also on WWE’s Evil docu-series on Peacock and also works
for GCW and Mission Pro Wrestling, does videos with Fightful, us here at WrestleTalk and
has had the lads from Cultaholic on her channel.
She truly is the forbidden door.
Anyhoo, Denise revealed on last Friday’s WrestleTalk Podcast that - although she was
booked for Supercard of Honor - she didn’t know if that booking was still going ahead
following the Khan purchase - until very, very recently.