Back to the ring now for news from NXT, as this week’s show saw two
injuries take place.
The WWE NXT Injury report said that Tony Nese was in pain following his
lost to Kushida in the NXT Cruiserweight tournament,
though Nese will have to pull himself together when he faces Drake
Maverick next in the round robin tournament.
NXT North American Champion Keith Lee reportedly suffered a bruise
larynx after an attack from Damien Priest, just one week before the pair
face off with the limitless One’s title on the line.
We've got news from Monday night RAW, as this week's show saw a very
nasty bump during the Nia Jax Vs. Kairi Sane match.
During the match, the former RAW Women's Champion performed a
buckle bomb to Sane, though the move saw Sane's head bounce off the
bottom turnbuckle, rather than her back hit the top pad.
Online, fans were quick to criticize Jax for the botch, as she has a history of
injuring opponents such as Becky Lynch in late 2018, and fans also tried to
decipher what the Kabuki Warrior said, shortly before the unfortunate botch.
According to some, Sane said "I'm not set", though other fans, fluent in
Japanese have claimed that Sane can be heard saying a word in her native
tongue, which translates into English as "let me go," as both she and Asuka
trash talk in Japanese
Whatever Sane said, this is certainly an unfortunate situation, and its very
interesting that this has come up, so shortly after Jax commented on
standing up to WWE management over somebody injuring Alexa Bliss,
reportedly Ronda Rousey.
Whether Jax was referring to Rousey or not, this clearly isn't a good
situation for anyone involved, and fans don't wanna see any more
incidents like this doing the rounds.
From two former Women’s Champions to another now, as its been a while
since Paige wrestled in WWE, but the former Divas Champion certainly had
an interesting time travelling during her career.
Whilst appearing on ‘A Little Late With Lily Singh’ alongside Alexa Bliss and
Natalya, Paige brought up the time she got some flack from TSA, who
didn’t appreciate her spiked ring jacket. She said:
“They were all focused on my jacket. I had a crap-ton of stones on it…
Obviously there’s a lot of metal, the woman pulls it out and she’s just like,
‘What is this?’ I’m like it’s my jacket, and she’s like that’s a very spiky jacket
are you going to use that as a weapon… You think I’m going to come
on the plane and just start attacking people with my jacket? We literally had
a crowd of people inspecting my jacket. I said I promise you I’m not using this
as a weapon I actually wear this thing.”
Whilst a quick google search would probably have said Paige a lot of
trouble, and it’s interesting that every elaborate costume worn by WWE
Superstars around the world, had to pass through airport security first.
Speaking of Money in the Bank, this year’s show will see the two titular
mates presented in a cinematic style and according to the Pro Wrestling
Sheet, this won’t be the last time the WWE uses this format.
Ryan Satin reports that during the investors call, Vince McMahon
confirmed plans to do more cinematic matches, which will be good news
for those who enjoyed the Firefly FunHouse and Boneyard matches at WrestleMania.
McMahon himself described this decision as taking advantage of a
challenging environment, and it’ll be interesting to see what cinematic
matches the WWE has in store, especially as we approach Summerslam.
We’ve got news from Smack Down now, as Dolph Ziggler has enlisted an
unlikely ally to try and win back Mandy Rose.
On Twitter, the SHowOff posted a video of Hornswoggle telling the Golden
Goddess about how swell Ziggler is, though given that this is a paid cameo
video, Mandy should take what the former cruiserweight champion is
saying with a pinch of salt.
Describing Dolph as the Justin to Mandy’s Britney and the Zack Morris to
her Kelly Kapowski, Hornswoggled certainly tried his best, though it looks
like the Golden Goddess is happy with Otis for the time being.
Back to NXT now, and this week saw Drake Maverick lose to Jake Atlas, but
the former Superstar received some words of encouragement from Atlas himself.
After commenting on how he’s fighting for his mom, sister and family,
Atlas said he sees that Maverick is fighting too, and told the recently
released Superstar to keep his head up high.
Maverick thanked Atlas for his encouraging words, and the fact that WWE
are paying a lot of attention to Drake AFTER he was fired has got people talking.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer commented on Maverick’s
situation, and compared him to Sarah Logan, who was referenced on
RAW’s commentary this week despite being released last Wednesday. He said:
“As of this afternoon he was under the same deal as Sarah Logan as in they’re
gonna use them, but they’re still fired.”
There were reportedly plans for Logan to be used on RAW this week, but
that never transpired, but the fact that WWE is referencing both Maverick
and the former Riott Squad member means that WWE fans may be seeing
the pair be welcomed back to the company, sooner rather than later.
From WWE to AEW now, and though its been many years since Cody has
been allowed ed to use the Rhodes name, that may be changing very soon.
Earlier this month, the former NWA Heavyweight Champion filed for the
name Cody Rhodes, which WWE took ownership of in October 2009 on a
decade-long deal.
After the deal expired last year, the WWE had a 6-month period to take
ownership of the contract again, but have opted not to agree to take
ownership of the Cody Rhodes name, and according to reports, Cody filed
a copyright for the name the very same day that WWE's six-month period expired.
Since leaving WWE, the closest that Cody has been able to use the Rhodes
name is by being described as Cody and Brandi Rhodes when entering the
ring with his wife, but it looks like Cody may finally be able to use the name
made famous by his father, very soon.
Back to WWE now, and this Friday's SmackDown will see the start of a
special celebration for Triple H, and now fans have the chance to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of the Game in Style.
On WWE SHop, the company has released a special Triple H themed
Championship, featuring the same plates the Game captured during his
first World Championship win in the Summer of 1999.
Featuring a custom strap based on Triple h's Logo, as well as plenty of
skulls fitting the SKull King, including his logo on the cloth bag it arrives in,
this is the ultimate collector's item for any fan of the 14-time WWE World
Champion, but at $500, fans may need a COO's salary to purchase this
incredible piece of hardware.
One man who knows all about capturing world championship gold in WWE
is The Rock, and though the Peoples Champion is considered one of the
nicest people in Hollywood, he wasn't always that way.
Speaking on an Instagram live stream, the Brahma Bull admitted that fame
went to his head when he became a megastar in his 20s, and explained
how a couple who asked for his autograph changed his perspective on
things. He said:
So I said '...Sure. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Come on. Sit down.' And at that
moment, their demeanour changed, their energy changed.
"They went from excited, and 'sorry' but really excited, to then they felt
bad. I have goosebumps now thinking about it.
"They said, 'We’re so sorry. You know what? Bad idea.' The wife is hitting
the husband. 'See? I told you we shouldn’t come over.'"
The most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment added that the couple
were still apologising as they were leaving, and added:
"It took all of 30 seconds, not even 30 seconds, for me to realise that I had
an opportunity to make somebody feel good, and I made them feel bad."
Fortunately, the Rock was able to change his ways, and is now known for
being one of the nicest people, both in wrestling and Hollywood, and we
can only hope that the couple who helped the third generation Superstar
change his ways, one day find out what exactly they did.
From one established legend of WWE to a fresh face in the company, as
last week's NXT saw Killer Kross debut on the final segment on the show.
Now though, the former Impact Wrestling star is now known as Karrion
Kross, and this week has seen plenty of news about his new name.
According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select, the name Karrion was
actually Kross' idea, and whilst it relates to the decaying flesh of dead
animals, it's a much more WWE friendly term as opposed to Killer.
This isn't the only significance for the Karrion name, as it also related to
Kharon, the ferryman of Hades in greek mythology, and Kross himself has a
tattoo of the word Kheiron on his back.
Given Kross' actions on his debut on NXT, it seems likely that he'll be
feuding with Tommaso Ciampa in the coming weeks, as the company clearly
has big plans for Kross by putting him with the former NXT Champion
Now, we all know that one of the biggest rules in WWE is to never cross the Boss,
but another rule that should be obvious is to pay attention during creative meetings.
This is a lesson Freddie Prinze Jr. learned the hard way, as after working as a WWE
writer in 2007-2008, appeared on the New Day’s podcast to speak about his experiences.
On the show, the Scooby Doo star revealed that he played World of Warcraft
whilst on a conference call with WWE, but didn’t expect his character to be heard
by the Chairman. He said:
My dwarf was in a raid. He was this Dwarven priest, and I just was in the middle of
my moment so I wasn’t thinking about the work call anymore. I was in my
apartment, and so I hit the forward slash charge, which is like an emoji for people
who don’t know. Only this one in particular? Your dwarf would actually speak and
it was like this battle cry! So Vince said ‘WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?’”
Prinze eventually left WWE on his own accord, and now the movie star has plenty
of free time to play the popular online game, without Vince McMahon looking
over his shoulder.
We’re going back in time to the Attitude Era now, as for years, fans speculated