Here's your News for September 17th 2020 WWE Wrestler Does The Unthinkable In A Promo! Will Wade Barrett Wrestle Again? Wrestler Resigns WWE News
And your headlines for today include
Real Reason Why Lana & Natalya Were Destroyed On WWE RAW!
Wade Barrett Signs Full-Time Contract With WWE ; Triple H Reacts!
Huge #1 Contender Match Booked For WWE NXT Next Week!
WWE Superstar Leaves WWE In A Surprising Way!
Chris Jericho Breaks His Silence On Roman Reigns!
WWE Wrestler Does The Unthinkable In A Promo!
Kevin Owens Is Legitimately Frustrated By WWE’s Inconsistent Booking!
Mickie James Reacts To Her RAW Women’s Title Match Finish!
AJ Styles Confirms Talks With AEW!
WWE Attorney Feels Bad Former Superstars Were Misled In Concussion Lawsuit And More!
We’re kicking off today with RAW news, as this week’s show saw Lana and Natalya get squashed,
and many fans thought this was petty booking by WWE. After all, Lana’s husband Miro
recently debuted on AEW Dynamite, and has since spoken on Twitch about fears that his AEW debut
will lead to his wife getting heat in WWE. With that said, Ringside News have
been told that this won’t be the case, as Steve Carrier reported: People are upset about this, but Lana
& Nattie were destroyed on #WWERAW because #WWE needed to show the devastation that Nia and
Shayna are capable of. It had NOTHING TO DO WITH MIRO OR #AEW.
Of course, some fans don’t believe this is true, and there’s now speculation that Lana will be
put in RAW Underground, and to be fair, neither Lana or Natalya were happy about the angle either.
Ultimately, the segment had nothing to do with bitterness, but was instead to make the Women’s Tag
team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax look strong, something that the company succeeded in.
Over to NXT, as after being confirmed by Wade Barrett’s Sports Illustrated interview, the 4-year-old has signed
a one-year contract with WWE, and will be a full-time member of NXT’s commentary team.
Barrett also has the option to extend his contract down the line, and the five-time Intercontinental Champion
will join Beth Phoenix and Vic Joseph behind the desk. On Twitter, Triple H said he was
thrilled to be working with the former Nexus leader again, and praised Barrett as an experienced performer
who’ll add insight from years of in-ring experience to the commentary team.
Previously, Barrett left WWE in 2016, which his last ever match happening on the April 4th 2016 RAW, where he
and Sheamus lost to The New Day’s Kofi Kingston and Big E. This return isn’t the Brit’s first time
commentating, as he did some work behind the desk for Billy Corgan’s NWA, and was set to sign a full-time
deal before the global situation got in the way. Nonetheless, Barrett’s return to WWE
at the end of August as a guest commentator was a huge deal, and he returned on the Super Tuesday
editions of NXT, coincidentally at the same time WWE parted ways with Mauro Ranallo.
Speaking about his new role in WWE, Barrett said:
"I hope this lasts for a long time; that's our intent. So there is no bad news to share, but never forget, there is
always a little bad news up my sleeve. Our aim is to be different, a little more unique than the other WWE
programming. We don't want to be a carbon copy of what you hear on Raw or SmackDown. I've known Beth for
years, and she is incredibly talented, and I am just getting to know Vic. I'm excited to learn from and work
with both of them, and I'm really excited to develop this into a really tight unit."
Of course, bringing in the former Nexus leader has led to speculation of an in-ring return, which Barrett
didn’t rule out, saying: "Physically, I feel 100%. My body feels incredibly good. I'm not doing
commentary because I had a career- ending injury. I want to focus on commentary because I'm passionate
about it. That's not to say I won't pull the boots back on at some point, but commentary is my focus and I am
extremely excited about it." It may be just a matter of time before Barrett dons his cape and crown
once again, but until then, fans will have at least a year to hear what he has to say as the newest member
of NXT’s commentary team. More gold brand news next, as William Regal delivered a huge
announcement during the show’s last quarter, as an elimination Gauntlet Match will determine Finn Balor’s
opponent. The Elimination Gauntlet match will take place next week,
and the rules are: Two men will start in the ring Every 4 minutes, another competitor
will enter The only way to be eliminated is via pinfall or submission
The winner will challenge Balor for the NXT Title at the October 4th TakeOver, but the Gauntlet isn’t the
only huge match for next week. Next week will also see Jake Atlas face Tommaso Ciampa once again,
as well as a Battle Royal to determine NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai’s next opponent.
It wasn’t said, but it’s likely that this women’s title match will also take place at TakeOver, and we’ll have
to see which two Superstars earn championship opportunities next week.
We’ve got news from the Lucha House Party, as the group may soon be getting smaller.
On Instagram, Lince Dorado posted a photo of himself maskless, though facing away, with a single
word caption: Goodbye. Whilst Dorado worked under his in-ring name for years, it’s now the property
of WWE, and if he is saying goodbye to the Lince Dorado moniker, that may mean fans could see a change of
character, or for the cruiserweight to leave WWE entirely.
It’s possible that Dorado could be the mystery Superstar who reportedly won’t sign a new deal with WWE
when their current one expires, and if so, he’ll have to leave the Dorado name and mask behind.
Whatever the case, Dorado has certainly got a lot of fans talking from one picture, and we’ll have to keep
an eye on where his career goes from here. Now, WWE have never hidden
the fact that Roman Reigns and The Rock are related, and much like the Brahma Bull, the Big Dog’s career
has reached new heights now that he’ turned heel. Speaking to Inside The Ropes, one
person who’s been impressed by the Tribal Chief’s new ‘Wreck-Everyone- And-Leave’ attitude is Chris Jericho,
who said: I’m a huge fan of Roman Reigns. I think as a heel, he’s going to leaps
and bounds be better than as a babyface, which will then allow him to become a babyface, which will be
leaps and bounds over being a heel.” “I love Joe [Roman]; he’s a great worker. I love working with him.
I probably worked with him, I don’t know, 40 times in 2016-17. We did house shows all around the world,
live events all around the world, and he’s got a great personality. If you would just let Roman Reigns be
himself, he’ll get over even more so.” “He reminds me a lot of The Rock. He’s the type of guy that if you’re
a guy, you want to have a beer with them. If you’re a girl, you want to go on a date with him, but he doesn’t
get a chance to really show that.”
With Jericho in AEW, and showing no-signs of a WWE return, it looks like these two may never lock horns
in the ring again, though given that fans never thought they’d see Reigns as a heel, or aligned with Paul
Heyman, you can never say never in Pro-Wrestling. We’ve got Kevin Owens news next,
as the Prizefighter’s recent promos about being frustrated in WWE is more than an act.
Despite being a former NXT, Universal, Intercontinental and United States Champion, Owens
is pretty far-away from any gold right now, and though he’s usually liked backstage and respected for
his hard work, Ringside News is reporting that Owens’ demeanour backstage has changed as of late.
One member of creative said that Owens is unhappy about his inconsistent pushes, and that s
made him quote “a total asshole” in some respects. It’s interesting that Owens is this
unhappy, as morale backstage has reportedly improved since the move to the Thunderdome, and the creative
team member noted that his recent RAW Talk promo was more of a shoot than fans realise.
We’ll have to see what WWE does to help Owens feel better about things, as he could be the mystery
Superstar who doesn’t plan on resigning, which’d be a huge loss for Vince McMahon’s company.
Back to NXT, and whilst the gold brand Superstars all want to make their mark in WWE, one person took
things a bit literally this week. Ahead of this week’s non-title match against Io Shirai, Shotzi Blackheart
dropped an intense video promo, which included her using a stale sun to fasten paper to her own chest.
As if using a real staple gun wasn’t enough, she used it twice to make sure the paper stayed in place,
and after seeing that, our answer to her question “can you out-crazy Shotzi Blackheart” is an emphatic “No.”
The paper in question said Hurt Me, and that’s something that Blackheart certainly did to herself, and though
she came up short against the Genius of the Sky, she certainly left an impression, both on herself,
and the reigning NXT Women’s Champion.
Over to AEW now, as fans can hear Tony Schiavone every week on Dynamite, but that nearly didn’t
happen. During a recent episode of ‘What Happened When’, Schiavone said
that WWE wanted to bring him in, but they didn’t have an exact position for him, but just wanted someone
with his level of experience. Schiavone added that it was clear they wanted him in WWE just to
stop him from going to AEW, though that obviously didn’t happen, and whilst we’ll never know what vague
spot WWE had for the commentator, Tony clearly wasn’t interested enough to find out.
Speaking of AEW, next week’s DyNamite will be a loaded card, including a huge title match.
On next week’ show, Brodie Lee will defend his TNT Title against Orange Cassidy, whilst a six-man tag pitting
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley, Will Hobbs and Darby Allin against number-one-contender Lance Archer,
Brian Cage and Ricky Starks has also been confirmed. Speaking of tag-team action, Hikaru
Shida and Thunder Rosa will face Diamante and Ivelisse, and with Chris Jericho set to cut a promo, though
we don’t know what about, next week’s Dynamite is set to be a huge show.
Back to WWE now, and this week’s RAW Women’s title match ended in controversy when the ref said
Mickie James was unable to continue, and now Mickie has weighed in. On the Bump, James spoke about her
controversial loss, and how at one point, she had Asuka’s shoulders pinned to the mat, though the ref
didn’t count. She said: “I’m heartbroken. I can’t even watch it, I’m so devastated…I pinned her.
I just don’t understand it.” Whilst Zelina Vega quickly appeared to seemingly build to a RAW Women’s
title match with the Empress, that match isn’t set in stone, and now WWE has the chance to give James
the title match she deserves, without some botched officiating.
Back to NXT, and one Superstar this week got an interesting name change.
We previously covered that trademarks were filed for Desmond Troy and Ashante Adonis, and whilst we found
out Adonis is Tehuti Miles’ new moniker, this week we discovered that Troy is the new name for Dejournette.
Troy lost a quick enhancement match to Tommaso Ciampa on this week’s show, and whilst losing is never a
great start, the fact that WWE is copyrighting his name is a good sign that they have something planned for
the new Desmond Troy. We’re looking back to last week now, as the WWE won a big legal battle
when a judge backed up a ruling that threw out a class-action concussion lawsuit by former Superstars.
A lot of former wrestlers were involved in the case that was led by a lawyer who’s been attacking WWE
for years, and now WWE’s own legal head Jerry McDevitt has spoke about what happened.
Speaking about Konstantine Kyros’ recent lawsuit that had Road Warrior Animal Joe Lauriniatis as the head
plaintiff, McDevitt said: “I feel bad that he misled so many people because he did… he tried to
throw in these claims for more money and royalties and a bunch of nonsense stuff like that. And so that’s what
basically happened, and we, unlike the NFL, decided we were not going to pay anything and we’re going to
contest these claims because we knew what they were basically”
Whilst there are legitimate arguments over WWE knowing the effect of too many bumps to the head,
many wrestlers in the lawsuit only spent a fraction of time in WWE, and had Kyros handled the situation
differently and avoided adding so much extra stuff to the case, this lawsuit might have gone quite
differently. And we’re ending today with news from AJ Styles, who signed a new,
lucrative deal with WWE last year, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t once consider leaving.
On his recent Twitch stream, Styles admitted that he spoke with AEW about joining the company, saying:
There were talks. Look, it’s a business. My contract in WWE was going to expire and there were talks
happening… The Bucks are my buddies. We never discussed money or anything, but there were
talks coming in… it’s all business. Though Styles didn’t hint at a figure, we have to imagine that AEW was
both willing, and able to offer him serious money to join the All Elite company.
Now, Styles is still with WWE, and has insisted that his current contract will be his final contract before
retiring, so unless the former World Champions plans on wrestling even longer, WWE will have ben able to
keep him for their competition for good.