Here's more wrestling news for June 21st 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Roman Reigns Fans Are The Smartest In All Sports According To Study!
Big Update On Brock Lesnar’s WWE Return!
WWE’s Official Twitter Account Flagged For Copyright Infringement
Cops Show Up At A Wrestling Event TWICE And Question Wrestlers After Thinking There Was A REAL Brawl!
Blue Meanie Speaks Out After Wikipedia Said He Died!
WWE Wrestler Says She Feels A Lot Of Pressure From Constantly Being In The Title Picture!
Tony Khan Explains Why AEW Didn’t Build A ThunderDome Like WWE!
WWE Wrestler Saves Man’s Life From Fiery Car Crash And more!
We’re starting today with WWE and over the past year, Roman Reign has proven himself to be one of the company’s absolute
best stars, and has earned himself a lot of fans who used to despise the Big Dog. Wrestling fans come in all shapes and sizes,
but can be quite intelligent, as according to a study from ‘How To Bet’ that was conducted by professional psychologists
on 1006 U.S. Sports fans, WWE fans have a higher IQ than other fans. WWE fans in the study had an average IQ
of 112.6, higher than NHL fans, who had an IQ of 112.3, NBA fans with 110.7, and NFL fans with an average IQ of 105.9.
Not only are WWE fans smarter on average, but that’s especially true for fans of the Tribal Chief, who have an average IQ of
of 126.4, higher than Daniel Bryan fans with an IQ of 122.2, or Randy Orton fans with 116.4. We imagine Roman Reigns will be pretty happy
to hear this fact, and as several wrestlers such as Jey Uso, Rey Mysterio, Kevin Owens and Cesaro have learned the painful
way, it’s a smart decision to acknowledge the Universal Champion as the Head of the Table.
One man who knows all about Reigns is Brock Lesnar, who hasn’t appeared in WWE since his WrestleMania 36 loss to Drew
McIntyre. Since leaving the company in 2020, it’s been expected that Lesnar will return
when live fans are brought back, meaning his return could be happening very soon. On the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast
Andrew Zarian reported that Lesnar’s return will be happening soon, and in a follow-up tweet, explained how WWE
originally wanted Lesnar for Summerslam, before pivoting to John Cena for the show’s main event against Roman Reigns
Fightful are reporting that Lesnar and WWE are in talks, though of course, things could always change between the two parties.
In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that Lesnar is not on the card for Summerslam, and that a match
against Bobby Lashley isn’t and has never been in the plans, and sources have reported that there’s no merchandise in the
pipeline for the former Universal Champion. WWE has a big summer ahead of them as they return to the road, with names like
Becky Lynch, John Cena and Edge expected back very soon, and time will tell when the Beast Incarnate makes his long
awaited return to WWE.
Now, WWE is no stranger to hitting people with copyright strikes on social media, but this time Universal Studios has struck back
at Vince McMahon. Recently, the official WWE twitter account posted about Sasha Bank’s visit to
Universal Studios, but fans won’t be able to see the video from that tweet, as it’s been disabled by Twitter in response
to a report from Universal themselves. The video in question saw the Boss ride the new Jurrassic World VelociCoaster at
Universal Studios Orlando, and whilst it sounds fun, fans can’t see it. Given that WWE often flags videos
from others, several users poked fun at the irony of this situation, and we can only hope that Banks took plenty of photos and
home videos, because she won’t be able to relive her trip on WWE’s Twitter account.
Over to Impact now, and we’re sending our congratulations to Sami Callihan and Jessicka Havok, who are now engaged.
Havok confirmed the engagement n Instagram yesterday, which was also her birthday, and with Callihan set to challenge Impact World
Champion Kenny Omega at Slammiversary on July 17th, the future is certainly bright for the happy couple.
Back to WWE and last night’s Hell in a Cell show was a big event for the company, and hopefully the last Pay-Per-View in the
Thunderdome, but some fans struggled to watch the kick-off show. During the kick-off, a ton of fans noted that
there were technical issues on Peacock, preventing viewers from watching the show, and that a lot of these issues were
on Roku devices. Rather than seeing the kick-off show, fans saw an error screen featuring Puss in
Boots from the Shrek series, hardly the image you’d associate with Hell in a Cell. These technical issues were later
resolved around 7:16pm Eastern, but these problems were the last thing the company needed to deal with just before their
Pay-Per-View went live.
For nearly a year, WWE has operated from inside the Thunderdome, which has allowed fans to attend shows virtually,
but AEW went in a much different direction. Instead, the All-Elite promotion used the Daily’s Place to the best of their ability,
having a small number of fans use the ampitheater’s outdoor features to watch the show live whilst socially distancing.
Speaking to UPI, Tony Khan explained why they opted against a virtual fan experience, saying:
I didn’t want to have a video wall, and I pushed back when I got pushed to do a video wall. It was a fine idea and WWE did it,
but it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I respect it, it’s good and it’s economical, but I wanted to continue to find a way to do the
shows for the fans every week. And the fans at Daily’s Place supported us. We built like a wrestling territory having a
weekly audience. I’m really proud of that.”
Tony Khan was pressured into having a wall of video monitors, but as President of AEW, he pushed back against it, and we
can only hope that these upcoming tours from both companies work out, and that the days of the Thunderdome and socially
distanced AEW shows are coming to an end.
Back to WWE, and Charlotte Flair is undeniably one of the company’s top performers, having been a Women’s
Champion on 13 occassions, but not everyone is a fan of the Queen. Flair’s career in WWE has been largely
criticized for her getting title opportunities and reigns some fans believe should go to other Superstars, and the fact that she was
immediately given a RAW Women’s title feud after her post-WrestleMania 37 return hasn’t helped things.
Speaking to Justin Barrasso, Flair discussed her title opportunities, and understands that fans are frustrated.
She added: The women’s division is much smaller than the men’s division, and I realize I’m constantly
in the title picture. That pressure lives with me. I’m never in a side story where I can be relaxed. The women are constantly
fighting for time, storylines, and equality. Flair failed to win the RAW Women’s title at Hell in a Cell last night, but knowing how
WWE has treated her, and the dq-finish, we imagine it’s just a matter of time before the Queen gets another shot, despite what
fans may think.
We’re looking at GCW next, as at their recent Outlaw Mudshow event, Nick Gage and Mance Warner faced off in a match that got
too extreme for some in attendance. During the match, eight police officers showed up, believing the brawl was real,
and in footage taken by Joey Janela, officers can be seen questioning Warner over his actions.
The authorities were also looking for Gage believing that thing got quote “too out of control,” and this isn’t the first time the
Deathmatch wrestler has been wanted by police for his wrestling actions, as his i nvasion of the Major Wrestling podcast
also drew police attention. In a follow-up tweet, Janela explained that after the show, the roster were out
drinking, and the same police drove passed slowly, starting dead in the eyes of Warner.
Clearly, these cops believed their brawl to be real, and given how intense both Gage and Warner can be in and out of the ring,
it’s not hard to see why.
More AEW news, and in 2019, Matt Jackson said the company will not go after fans who share clips of shows online, but that isn’t the
case anymore. Earlier this year, the company began filing takedown notices against several accounts
including the much-beloved Botchamania, and now things have taken a darker turn. That’s according to ‘AEW Botches,
a Twitter account that as the name suggests, posts mistakes from AEW content, who have sent out a series of tweets revealing
that he’s been doxed, and that AEW fanatics have been paying others to dox him.
The account owner noted that after these fans found his real-name, they began harassing and threatening both him and
his wife. It was also noted that another person has been sending them copyright infringement
notices on Twitter, despite that person retweeting pirated clips of Dynamite on their profile, which have gone
unchallenged by Tony Khan’s company. This caught the attention of Joey Janela, and when a fan said receiving
death-threats isn’t a game of funny, The Bad Boy said it’s funny to him. Several accounts have been targeted by
AEW with takedown notices, and whilst Botchamania got their account back thanks to massive online backlash, most channels
don’t have the fanbase to protect themselves. There’s no word on if any other Twitter
users have been doxed by fans of AEW, and whilst the company has always praised itself as being more fan-orientated
than WWE, that clearly isn’t the case.
And we’re ending with Jake Crist, who is a free agent right now, and recently became a hero in South Carolina.
When Crist was heading home, he noticed a car had wrecked into a concrete pillar, and helped the man out of the car just in time
as the vehicle burst into flames not long after. Emergency services arrived in time to
deal with the blaze, but the man in the card would’ve surely died had Crist not helped him out of the vehicle
This is an incredible story of heroism that we don’t often hear of, and we’re sending our best wishes to the man the former
Impact Wrestling star was able to save.