In this WrestleTalk News, is there backstage heat between Brock Lesnar and the departed
Shane McMahon, is Alexa Bliss’s return being delayed, who is walking through AEW’s forbidden
door and more!
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Let’s kick this week off with some much needed happy news, as not only did Keith Lee
and Mia Yim officially become free agents this past week, they got married over the
weekend!
Congratulations and many happy returns to the happy couple from everyone here at WrestleTalk.
Go over to Twitter @RealKeithLee and @MiaYim and send the pair some love.
In the span of just five days, Shane McMahon returned in the Royal Rumble, was reported
to have big matches at Elimination Chamber at WrestleMania, got tonnes of heat backstage
for his behaviour during the planning of the Rumble, and was then fired by his own father.
Five days.
Reports started to come out shortly after the event that Shane was being very difficult
to work with when it came to booking the Rumble match - verbally berating producer Jamie Noble
- and trying to make the Rumble all about him.
A source told Dave Meltzer for the Wrestling Observer Newsletter: “He was unprofessional
the likes of which left [Vince] no options but to fire him.”
Sean Ross Sapp over at Fightful Select has now added that Shane even pitched entering
himself in at number one because he wanted a spot that would “highlight him”.
Meltzer adds in the Observer, that plans were “constantly changing all day”, and talent
would be told one thing by Shane who was then overruled by Vince.
Sean Ross Sapp describes it as Vince, “making changes to the match and wouldn't be doing
much of what Shane laid out.”
But it wasn’t just Vince that Shane was rubbing up the wrong way, it was eventual
Royal Rumble winner Brock Lesnar.
Dave Meltzer notes that there were three different views on the Rumble match: Shane’s, Vince’s
and Brock’s.
He’s reporting that there were disagreements between Shane and Lesnar, “regarding the
closing stages of the match”, and Vince overruled Shane’s plans and ended up “agreeing
with Lesnar”.
SRS adds, “when Vince McMahon learned of Shane McMahon's plans, he wasn't happy about
them, and neither was Brock Lesnar.
Shane was insistent on seeing them through, which didn't end up happening.”
Meltzer adds that the heat between the two wasn’t helped when Shane botched his elimination
by Lesnar, and had to do it a second time when he didn’t jump high enough to get over
the ropes.
According to Meltzer, the only spot Shane got from what he pitched, was where, “he
would outstrike babyface and former UFC fighter [Matt] Riddle.”
This company just made a billion dollars.
As if all of this didn’t sound insane enough, Sean Ross Sapp adds on Fightful Select that
Shane’s entry number was seemingly switched without telling him.
According to SRS, Shane was supposed to be number 29, but they played his music for number
28 which was originally set for Randy Orton.
Sapp writes, “Those near the situation say and heard Shane McMahon reacted hastily, and
Orton pretty well informed him via "verbal cues" that he would in fact NOT be entering
to Shane McMahon's theme, so Shane probably needed to go out when his number was called.”
What do you make of the heat between Shane McMahon and Brock Lesnar?
Let me know in the comments down below.
Someone who was never factored into a Rumble return, however, was Alexa Bliss.
And now we know why.
Alexa Bliss hasn’t been in ring on WWE TV since last September’s Extreme Rules, where
she lost to Charlotte Flair who then tore up her Lily doll.
On the January 3rd episode of Raw, it was announced that Alexa Bliss would be making
her journey back to the show, which began the following week with therapy sessions which
have been playing out over the last 4 weeks.
This led many to believe Bliss would be making a surprise return in the Royal Rumble match,
but that wasn’t the case, and the therapy session videos have continued to air on Raw.
The segments have been quite odd, though.
Although the first one aired in full, the subsequent ones have just faded out halfway
through as the show returns back to the commentators.
And according to Fightful Select, that’s because - despite airing 5 Alexa Bliss videos
in 4 weeks - only two actual fully produced segments have aired.
Fightful are reporting that WWE filmed nine therapy sessions, so they’re apparently
cutting them up to extend out the story, and may even “double up” on them until they’re
ready for her to return.
That means that the last 3 weeks worth of videos have actually only been from one whole
segment.
And because this is a “long term plan”, according to Fightful Select, Alexa “wasn't
factored into the Royal Rumble creative.”
WWE and long term plan?
Does not compute.
But this means we now have a race on our hands: who will get to Raw first: Alexa Bliss’s
journey, or Veer Mahon’s cumming?
Let me know in the comments down below who you’ve got your money on.
Fun fact, Veer Mahan is only 28 days away from breaking Emmalina’s 133 day “is coming”
vignettes reign.
A return that certainly won’t be happening, however, is Kurt Angle’s.
On his podcast recently, Angle announced that WWE had called him to return to the company
after they released him in 2020 as part of their ‘budget cuts’.
He’s since expanded upon that it was to do a 3-week programme that would have led
into WrestleMania 38, and was even spotted at the Royal Rumble - but didn’t feature
in the match.
Angle has now revealed on The Kurt Angle Show that WWE cancelled the programme “at the
very last moment.”
According to Ringside News - so I would usually say take it with a pinch of salt, but they
did get all the Shane O’Mac stuff - but according to Ringside News there is some truth
to this story, but it’s not entirely as Kurt put it.
Apparently, Angle was never set for a WrestleMania storyline, and he was only brought to the
Rumble weekend to film stuff for WWE documentaries.
They add that the three week story that Angle was talking about, was nothing more than “a
pitch”, and that it was “never anything Vince signed off on.”
Although going by what Sean Ross Sapp said on this week’s Fightful Select Q&A show,
there are a lot of Mania plans up in the air following Shane McMahon’s departure.
SRS notes that the likes of Edge, Drew McIntyre and AJ Styles don’t currently have concrete
plans in place for what they’ll be doing at the most stupendous 2-night Mania premium
live event buzzwords.
So could Angle be the one to open AEW’s newly announced Forbidden Door?
Following last Friday’s AEW Rampage, Tony Khan put out a tweet saying, “The Forbidden
Door can be opened for anyone from any wrestling promotion in the world, whether or not it’s
a company @AEW is on good terms with, even if it’s someone from a company that’s
open for business.
They’re also welcome to slam the door in the face of their prior company.”
So… is it a free agent, or a forbidden door type situation?
According to Khan, it’s both!
Adding, “The big announcement for Wednesday’s Dynamite that we referenced on #AEWRampage
(a free agent debut) and the person walking through the Forbidden Door are one and the
same.
They’re walking in the door, signing a contract, and then slamming the door shut.”
This is the Steiner Maths of Forbidden Door teases.
The Forbidden Free Door Agent (Freebiden Doorgent?)
will be in a Face of the Revolution qualifying match against Isiah Kassidy this Wednesday
on Dynamite, and Kassidy has started to tease that it could be none other than Jeff Hardy
saying, “this better not be who I think it it is, y’all gonna force me to put this
dude out for good 100 emoji.”
Can I be honest?
I don’t know what the 100 emoji means.
Jeff Hardy was released by WWE on December 5th, 2021 after he was acting “erratically”
at a house show.
It was then reported that WWE offered him rehab and he refused to go.
However his brother Matt revealed on Twitch that Jeff has been clean for a while, and
WWE jumped the gun on releasing him.
Jeff was offered a spot in this year’s Royal Rumble by WWE, but turned it down asking to
see his drug test results because he knew they would be negative.
However, Jeff is only 64 days into his 90-day non-compete, which will come to an end on
5th March 2022, which likely rules him out for this Wednesday.
However, March 5th is just one day before AEW Revolution, so, you know, Jeff Hardy to
AEW confirmed.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Kassidy’s opponent
could be the newly married Keith Lee saying, “we’re told that he’s been talked about
for [AEW], if not has already agreed to a deal [there].”
Keith Lee to AEW confirmed.
But perhaps it could be British Heavyweight Champion and New Japan’s Will Ospreay, who
at Rev Pro’s recent show over the weekend called out AEW’s Jon Moxley.
Both men are booked for New Japan’s Windy City Riot on April 16th, and Ospreay recently
started a new Twitter feud with AEW’s Kenny Omega.
Will Ospreay to AEW confirmed.
Lastly we just wanted to thank everyone who tuned into our hour long interview with AEW’s
Eddie Kingston last Friday.
We were only supposed to have half an hour, but Eddie was kind enough to go through all
of your questions and give honest and very frank answers.
He spoke openly about his mental health, his struggles with addiction and suicide, but
also wrestling stuff.
Like, how he really, really doesn’t like CM Punk.
Or Chris Jericho.
Or Bryan Danielson.
Here’s a clip!