Here's More wrestling news for July 13th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
WWE Adds More Matches To Money In The Bank PPV!
Murphy Opens Up About Kissing Aalyah Mysterio On WWE Television!
Asuka's Current WWE RAW Position!
WWE Officially Changes Names Of Former Retribution Members!
Photo Of WWE Production Truck In Houston, WWE Schedule For Return To Touring!
Released WWE Wrestler Says WWE ‘ Absolutely’ Affected His Love For Wrestling
Released WWE Wrestler Confirms Why WWE Cancelled RAW Underground Segments
AEW Signs Another Star To Full-Time Contract!
Why Vince McMahon Keeps Popular Pro Wrestling Term On WWE Banned Words List!
Darby Allin Shuts Down Jackass 4 Rumors!
The Rock Gives New Look At Black Adam Suit! And More!
We’re starting with this Sunday’s Money in the Bank, which’ll see not one, but two titular ladder matches.
With just a few days left, WWE isn’t finished adding to the card, and we now know the seventh member of the Women’s ladder
match. On Twitter, Sonya Deville addressed the recent changes, namely that Carmella is
replacing an injured Bayley against Bianca Belair, and Liv Morgan is filling Carmella’s spot in the Ladder match.
Deville added that Natalya has now been added to the match, which’ll be her fifth time in the ladder match.
In fact, Natalya has the worst record in Women’s Ladder match history, having lost all four matches she’s been in,
and we’re sure the Women’s Tag Team Champion is looking to break this streak this Sunday.
More from Money in the Bank now, as another title match has been added to this Sunday’s card.
During this week’s RAW, it was confirmed that RAW Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos will defend against the Viking
Raiders, a day earlier than their original title match which was planned for next week’s RAW.
This move is possibly due to the SmackDown Women’s title match being moved off the Pay-Per-View card, and we’ll have to see if
the Raiders can end the 93-day reign of the Champs.
In June this year, Buddy Murphy was released by WWE, after an strange time on the company’s main-roster.
In 2020, Murphy was in one of the hottest angles on SmackDown as part of an on- screen relationship with Aalyah Mysterio,
which ended very quickly, and the daughter of Rey Mysterio hasn’t been seen since the angle was abruptly dropped.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet this week, Murphy was very open about his on-screen romance, and admitted that he wasn’t comfortable
with their public displays of affection: “I wasn’t comfortable kissing Aalyah. I did that because it was my job and it was
gonna create more drama in the story. Originally, there was no kiss scripted and they went to talk about Vince about
something and they came back and I’m sitting there and pitching it to me, and it was kinda like weird, but then they’re like ‘and then you
kiss her.’ I thought they were joking. I look at the producers and they were serious and I’m like, ‘no way, how did you come back
with this?!’ Because my whole thing was that I had to play it very, very carefully, especially the timing of the situation, right?”
Murphy added that for the story, she had to pursue him, as he’s far older than her, and having him persue the much younger woman
would’ve been awkward to say the least. Murphy also discussed the text messages between the two, where Aalyah wished
him a happy birthday, saying that fans latched on to it, and googled how old he is, and how old she is
When Murphy asked WWE what Aalyah thought of the age difference, he was told by management that she’s cool with it,
as was Rey and the entire Mysterio family. We can only wonder what this angle would’ve looked like had Murphy not made
it clear that he didn’t want to pursue her, as it would’ve looked creepy if he had, though we imagine that whatever WWE had
planned for the pair would’ve been dropped without any explanation
Over to RAW now, and if fans try and remember long ago, there was a time when Asuka was an undefeated star
in WWE, but that booking is a distant memory now. Nowadays, Asuka routinely eats the
pin in multi-women matches, having lost her last three matches on the red brand.
It’s hardly surprising that WWE is having to turn Asuka into a jobber given that they’ve released so many names that could’ve
taken the pin instead, and this sparse women’s division is proving to be especially tough on the former RAW
Women’s Champion. It was only a few months ago that the Empress of Tomorrow held the title,
which meant she was the very best women’s wrestler in the biggest wrestling company on earth, and we
can only hope that some fresh booking and a potential change of brands fixes things for the immensely talented Japanese
Superstar.
At least the Empress is appearing on TV, which is more than can be said for the members of Retribution, as the stable
imploded during the Fastlane Kickoff show in March. Since then, T-Bar and Mace have stayed
together on RAW, and Reckoning and Slapjack were moved to SmackDown, though are yet to debut.
Whenever they do appear on the blue brand, the pair will be wrestling under different names, as PW Insider notes
that Reckoning and Slapjack are back to being Mia Yim and Shane Thorne respectively.
The report added that this could change if there’s a creative idea or direction for them, but right now, there’s nothing in the works
for either Superstar. Fans will be relieved that WWE is ditching their Retribution names, which like the
the group itself, was mocked incessantly, but even with their old names, this hasn’t helped either Yim or Thorne get booked.
Fans probably won’t see Yim or Thorne at this Friday’s SmackDown, but fans will get to watch the action live and in person in
Houston, Texas. The first WWE TV show with live fans in over a year will take place at the Toyota
Center, and the company is already in the area getting things ready. Several WWE production trucks have been
spotted in Houston ahead of this Friday’s show, as the wait to return to normalcy is now just days away for the WWE Universe.
We’ve got even more from Buddy Murphy next, as his on-screen relationship with Aalyah was strange to say the least,
and had an impact on the Australian’s love for professional wrestling In his interview with Chris Van Vliet,
Murphy discussed the ups and downs of his career, from being Cruiserweight Champion to working with Seth Rollins,
and said how losing AOP and Austin Theory from their group only hurt matters more.
Murphy explained that the Aalyah angle hurt his love for wrestling even more, as it dragged on for so long, before it was cut
short and he disappeared in an instant. The former Superstar has had a lot to say about his time in WWE, even saying that
the company would bring him to tapings and not use him, which he said was like the company rubbing his nose in it.
Now outside WWE, Murphy is reportedly a top priority for several promoters when his non-compete clause expires at the end
of August, and after so long in WWE and his love for wrestling being impacted, a change of promotion is exactly what
Murphy needs.
Arturo Ruas knows what it feels like to be cut from WWE, as he was one of the many names let go in the company’s latest wave
of releases. Ruas did get a main-roster debut, but it was on RAW Underground, and the WWE’s
staged shoot-fighting series was scrapped last fall. Speaking to Wrestling Inc this week, Ruas
discussed the RAW Underground segments, Ruas explained that RAW Underground ended because WWE didn’t want Superstars
from different brands mixing, especially at a time when everyone was being encouraged to keep their distance.
It makes sense that WWE wouldn’t want Superstars from NXT and SmackDown to go to RAW Underground, as that’d mean
a greater chance of people getting infected, and taken off TV. With things slowly returning to normal,
we’ll have to see I WWE brings back the RAW Underground idea, as the segments proved to be popular with some fans.
That said, the segments started because WWE wanted to use an empty warehouse at the Performance Center, and with WWE
now heading back on the road starting this Friday, they may simply not have time for wrestlers to tour and be compete at the
Center, even if they wanted to bring RAW Underground back.
AEW news next, as it was recently confirmed that Brian Pillman Jr is a full-time member of the company now his deal
with MLW is over, and Griff Garrison is All Elite too. According to Fightful, both Varsity Blondes
have signed full-time deals with AEW, after the pair have featured heavily on AEW Dark, and have appeared on Dynamite
several times. At this time, there’s no word on Julia Hart’s contract status, as she’s been leading the
Varsity Blondes to the ring in recent memory, but don’t be surprised if she ends up signing a full-time deal with AEW soon enough.
Back to WWE, and if you asked someone on the street what those three letters stand for, they’d probably say World Wrestling
Entertainment, much to the chagrin of Vince McMahon. The Chairman of WWE has a long list of
words he doesn’t want spoken on TV, including ‘wrestling’ ‘fight’ and ‘title shot, as McMahon has other words he’d m
much rather hear on his shows. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Melter discussed some of WWE’s banned
words, and explained how little sense it makes that Superstars can’t say the word belt. He explained
“Leveque [WWE COO Triple H] was watching boxing and they talk about belts, you know, and it’s kinda like he realized that it’s not a
freaking Southern Wrestling term, it’s a freaking sports term, but it doesn’t matter because the word belt has been banned
for a long time, sometimes guys sneak it in. Some days they ok it, but some days it isn’t.” Instead of belts, WWE’s performers wear
championships, and are Superstars not wrestlers, so if you ever hear a wrestler challenge for a belt, odds are they either
have a lot of clout backstage, or are about to get a verbal smackdown of their own at the hands of the Chairman of the board.
More from AEW as Darby Allin is a star on the rise in the All-Elite promotion, but he won’t be breaking into movies just yet.
Despite it being reported that Allin was set to be in the upcoming Jackass 4, even \being added to the cast list on IMDB,
that isn’t the case according to the man himself. On Twitter, Allin made it clear that he’s
not part of Jackass 4, with a simple “I ain’t in this movie.” The news that Allin was bringing his
wrestling and skateboarding skills to Jackass 4 excited fans, but sadly, he won’t be in the new movie which’ll release
this September.
And we’re ending with some movie news as the upcoming DC Comics film ‘Black Adam’ won’ be released until July next year,
but the Rock couldn’t wait that long to give fans a sneak-peak of his latest project. On Instagram, the Brahma Bull shared a
photo from the set, showing off the detailed Black Adam suit, and just some of the destruction audiences can expect in the movie.
The Rock has said the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is changing, and fans will get to see that change when Black Adam
reaches cinemas on July 29th 2022.