Here's Your wrestling news for January 21st 2022
And your headlines for today include
What did fan say during AEW Dynamite that caused them to get ejected?
WWE Hall of Famer says Jon Moxley should’ve apologised during this week’s return
Update on Drew McIntyre’s injury! Future plans for WrestleMania leaked
“I might get fired tomorrow” Former World Champion admits his job is on the line in WWE
Former NXT Superstar seemingly confirms signing with AEW
Huge update on WWE 2K22! Legend returns for latest video game instalment
Why was pre-announced tag team match called off during this week’s Dynamite.
AEW star reveals gruesome medical procedure just hours before match And more!
We’re kicking off today with AEW Dynamite, which saw Jon Moxley return after a stint in in-patient rehab.
Moxley’s return was a huge moment of celebration for almost every fan in attendance, but one person tried to spoil things.
When a single fan yelled something that caught Moxley’s ire, the former AEW World Champion had the fan ejected by security much to the
the delight of the rest of the audience. AEW’s production didn’t catch what this fan said, but during Wrestling Observer Radio,
Dave Meltzer said that the fan in question yelled “get this drunken piece of trash out of the ring.”
Meltzer compared what happened to a Bret Hart promo in 1999, not long after his brother Owen died, and when one fan mocked the Hitman
during his promo, Meltzer called Hart to say they didn’t deserve such a great promo. Responding with profanity, we doubt Moxley’s
rebuttal went down well with TBS, as the censors didn’t have time to bleep his swearing, but this response was highly appropriate in the face of this
disrespectful fan.
Moxley’s promo certainly had everyone’s attention during this week’s Dynamite, but not everyone was thrilled to hear what he had to say.
On Busted Open Radio, WWE and Impact Hall of Famer Bully Ray discussed Moxley’s return, and suggested that the former World Champion
should’ve apologised for his absence from the company. He explained: The fans expect a little bit more from you.
What about the fans that bought tickets to see AEW and Jon Moxley while Jon was away taking care of his problems I’m very happy that he left and took care
of his problem. And he looked incredibly healthy last night. And I love everything that he said. I just would have loved to have heard a little bit of
accountability.
Bully Ray added that if he was in the situation, he would’ve apologised to fans, calling it “the proper thing to do.”
While the Hall of Famer feels Moxley should’ve apologised, many believe that Jon’s decision to take a break to fight his demons isn’t something
he needs to apologise for, and we’re thrilled that Moxley is doing much better, and has nothing to say sorry about.
At WWE Day 1, Drew McIntyre was written off TV by an attack by Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss, after an intense schedule in 2021 has left him with a
neck injury. This injury will keep McIntyre out of next Saturday’s Men’s Royal Rumble match, and the former
WWE Champion has undergone medical tests of his neck to see just how damaged it is. WWE hasn’t disclosed the results of these tests,
but things may not be as bad as first feared, as the Scottish Warrior is being advertised for upcoming shows.
PW Insider reports that Drew has been advertised for the March 25th edition of SmackDown, which is scheduled to tape in Brooklyn.
If this is McIntyre’s return, it’ll be just 8 days before WrestleMania 38, and while a match at WrestleMania is still theoretically possible, we’ll only know
for sure when the former WWE Champion is back in the ring.
If the past two years has taught us anything, it’s that almost everyone is expendable in WWE, even top names such as Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt.
One staple of WWE for the past decade and a half is Kofi Kingston, who has entertained millions of fans, but even the former World Champions knows
it could all end in a moment’s notice. A Grand Slam Champion with multiple WrestleManias under his belt, there’s little for Kingston to
achieve these days, and that’s something Kofi knows when he spoke to the Herald Dispatch about when he plans on retiring:
“I’ll know when it’s time, I’ve done all I can do. Not having fun anymore, when my body might give out. Heck, I might get fired tomorrow.”
This last line is especially interesting, as despite being a former World Champion and consistently over with audiences, Kingston is aware that WWE’s budget
cuts may claim him next. In December 2019, Kofi signed a new five-year deal with WWE, which should in theory keep him
around until at least 2024, and only time will tell if Kingston’s contract ends prematurely with a call from John Lauriniatis.
Marina Shafir is just one of many to receive the call from Big Johnny, as she was cut from WWE in Jane 2021.
In December, the Moldovian wrestler made her debut for AEW, facing Kris Statlander on an episode of Dark, and it appears that she’s signed a deal with the company.
Although neither Shafir nor AEW have confirmed her signing, a shirt for Shafir is now for sale from AEW’s official shop, indicating that she’s signed a
contract to be All Elite. Shafir, who’s married to NXT 2.0’s Roderick Strong, had her first match post WWE at October 2021’s
GCW Boodlsport special, where she put her MMA skills to good use, but fans can expect to see plenty more from Marina Shafir in AEW.
Video game news now, as WWE 2K22 will release this year, much later than the initially planned late 2021 date, and over a year after the disastrous 2K20.
This latest instalment needs to be a home-run for WWE and 2K to keep working together, and this week, a new trailer was launched for the game.
The trailer, which features several WWE Superstars helping to put the game together shows the likes of Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre and Rey Mysterio,
as well as an appearance from The Undertaker in his first in-character appearance for WWE ‘s production since Survivor Series 2020
It’s been confirmed that Mysterio will be the cover -star for WWE 2K22, with the game retailing for $59.99 on previous generation consoles
such as the PS4, Xbox One and PC, and $10 more for PS5 and Xbox Series XIS. For fans wanting to splash the cash, a Limited edition
NWO 4 Life’ version will retail at $119.99 for all consoles, with bonus content about the legendary group, including alternate attires for Hogan,
Nash, Hall and Syxx, Eric Bischoff as a playable character, custom NWO arenas and titles.
This edition will also release 3 days early on March 8th, with the standard game releasing on March 11th.
So far, all the reviews for WWE 2K22 have been glowing, with it being called a wrestling fan’s wrestling game and hopefully this will be the game
fans deserve when it hits shelves in under two months time.
On this week’s AEW Dynamite, FTR faced Brock Anderson and Lee Johnson in a hotly-contested match, or at least that’s what was promised to the fans.
Instead, the match didn’t take place, with the company not informing fans about why the match was pulled, but we now know why it didn’t happen.
During the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Melter said the match was called off for medical reasons, and suspects, but could not say for certain,
that someone has tested positive.
Meltzer went on to say that FTR are doing fine, meaning the issue, whatever it may be, is with either Anderson or Johnson.
There’s been some speculation that FTR will be answering the Briscoes open challenge at this Sunday’s GCW Pay Per View, where fellow AEW
stars like Ruby Soho and Jon Moxley will be competing.
There’s no word on if the FTR Vs Anderson-Johnson match will happen down the line, but we now know why the four didn’t lock horns this week.
And we’re ending today with Frankie Kazarian, who was at this week’s Dynamite where he took a loss to Lance Archer, but that wasn’t the only
bad part of his day. On Twitter, Kazarian has revealed that just two hours before the Archer match, he suffered a
case of bursitis, and had to have his elbow drained with a syringe. Bursitis occurs when the small fluid-filled sac
that cushion the bones, tendons and muscles near your joints become inflamed, and need to be drained of excess fluid in a painful procedure
Kazarian accompanies his tweet with a picture of the inflamed sac, showing that his elbow had inflated greatly, and we’re pleased that the Elite
hunter was able to get this matter sorted quickly before this week’s Dynamite.