Here's your wrestling for may 17th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Sasha Banks and Naomi WALK OUT of WWE Raw! What happened during this week’s broadcast?
Who approved the bizarre new rule about Money in the Bank winners?
Eric Bischoff continues his war of words with CM Punk with scathing new accusation
Japanese sensation rumoured to make AEW return on this week’s Dynamite
Cody Rhodes names his pick for the best wrestler in the world today
Nash Carter issues first statement since being released from WWE over Hitler picture
WWE Premium Live Event nominated for prestigious award And more!
We’re kicking off today with Monday Night Raw, as the original main event of the show was meant to be a six-pack challenge to determine Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair’s next challenger.
The match was meant to see Asuka, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Naomi, Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H face off, but that’s not what fans saw.
In a backstage segment, Becky Lynch told Adam Pearce that she saw the champions walk out, and Pearce rebooked the match as a singles bout between Big Time Becks and Asuka.
It turns out that this change wasn’t an original part of the story, as Banks and Naomi legitimately walked out of the venue and did not return.
PW Insider reports that Banks had a meeting with Vince McMahon to discuss a change in her creative, and took issue with some of the planned creative for the six-pack challenge.
When McMahon didn’t agree, she refused to back down and left the taping.
Naomi walked out in solidarity with her tag team partner, leaving WWE no choice to change the planned six pack-challenge.
In a statement issued to Wrestling Inc, WWE detailed the situation saying:
When Sasha Banks and Naomi arrived at the arena this afternoon, they were informed of their participation in the main event of tonight’s Monday Night Raw.
During the broadcast, they walked into WWE Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis’ office with their suitcases in hand, placed their tag team championship belts on his desk, and walked out.
They claimed they weren’t respected enough as tag team champions. And even though they had eight hours to rehearse and construct their match, they claimed they were uncomfortable
in the ring with two of their opponents – even though they’d had matches with those individuals in the past with no consequence.
Monday Night Raw is a scripted live TV show, whose characters are expected to perform the requirements of their contract. We regret we were unable to deliver, as advertised, tonight’s main event.
WWE would have obviously preferred to save Asuka Vs. Becky Lynch for a premium Live event, but instead the company was forced to put it on TV with next to no build.
It is odd that WWE didn’t just replace Banks and Naomi with other Superstars, such as Carmella and Queen Zelina, and if they wanted Lynch Vs. Asuka for a bigger date, then some
kind of controversial finish could have made the title match a triple threat, pitting Belair against both Becky and the Empress
Nothing is known about what caused Banks to react the way she did, but one theory is that the finish of the match would’ve seen her or Naomi win, but by pinning the other.
WWE wanting Lynch Vs. Asuka at Hell in a Cell means they wouldn’t have been booked to win the six-pack challenge, and with Doudrop and Nikki A.S.H having little momentum as of late
it’s likely that either Banks or Naomi were booked to win. This theory makes sense as Banks has been incredibly protective of the Women’s tag
division, and wouldn’t be happy with the idea of the champs turning on each other to score a Raw women’s title opportunity, which they would almost certainly lose.
The problem is that WWE’s higher ups, especially McMahon, have shown little interest in the Women’s Tag Team division, and that’s been the case almost immediately after the titles
were introduced in 2019. Interestingly, it was after losing the Women’s Tag titles in 2019 that Banks requested her
release from WWE, a sign of how important she treats the division, but we’ll have to wait and see what’s in store for her and Naomi, both on and off-screen.
During WrestleMania Backlash, a commercial aired for Money in the Bank, which said that the two ladder match winners will earn the chance to headline Wrestlemania.
This line has confused fans and those in the company alike, as the Royal Rumble is traditionally the only way to guarantee a Mania main event, but this bizarre statement is
coming from the boss himself.
Wrestling Inc have learned that it was Vince McMahon who came up with the line, and insisted it be used in the commercial that features Cody Rhodes.
A source in WWE explained that despite the wording, the plan is for the winners to get the traditional, guaranteed title match prize, with WrestleMania being merely an example of one
date the winners could choose. So far, only one person has cashed in at Wrestlemania and that was Seth Rollins in 2015, and
if you've been confused by WWE's bizarre explanation of the Money in the Bank prize this year, now you know who to blame
Last week, CM Punk and Eric Bischoff started a war 6of words, over comments made by the WCW alum.
When Bischoff said that AEW caters to too small a market and needs to grow, Punk fired back saying that fans shouldn’t listen to “bad-take carnies” who should “die in the dark with their
ego podcasts.” In his response to Punk, Bischoff used a quote in which the former WWE Champion said that
what he, Bryan Danielson and Adam Cole are doing in AEW is bigger than Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash in WCW, and asked ‘how’s that working out?’
On his 83 Weeks podcast this week, Bischoff didn’t back down, addressing the quote and his use of it, and made a pretty bold claim against Punk:
“I took his quote and posted it and said how’s that working out? Which it isn’t, obviously. In terms of a return on investment, this guy has to be the biggest financial flop in the history of wrestling.”
Bischoff said that he is happy to be proven wrong, but without data such as merchandise revenue, he can only go off of vie wership, which has returned to where it was before Punk arrived.
Punk has a busy couple of weeks ahead of him, as he’ll challenge for the AEW World title at Double or Nothing, his first World Championship march in nine years, but it’s one that
Eric Bischoff doesn’t want to see.
More from AEW now, as this week's Dynamite will see Britt Baker compete in the Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament, against a mystery opponent.
Tony Khan has given no clue as to who this Joker will be, but it could be someone fans haven't seen in quite some time.
On Twitter, Maki Itoh announced that her next match will be in the United States, fueling speculation among fans that she'll be stepping in the ring with the former Women's World Champion.
During her brief run with AEW last year, Itoh teamed up with ] Baker in a match against Riho and Thunder Rosa at the Revolution pay-per-view, and competed on Dynamite and Dark
Elevation, earning quite the fanbase in the process. Itoh's last match in AEW was on the very first Dark Elevation in March 2021, where she lost to
Riho, but now, the Japanese wrestler may be mere days away from her return to the All Elite promotion.
Back to WWE now, as Cody Rhodes has been one of the company’s biggest names since his return at WrestleMania 38, following three years of working for AEW.
Rhodes has had major success in both companies, as well as runs in Impact, the NWA and Ring of Honor, and the American Nightmare certainly thinks highly of himself.
In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Rhodes was asked about who’s the best in the industry today, and had only one answer:
“I think I’m the best wrestler in the world. And I think it’s by a large margin. That upsets a lot of people, but I don’t mean it to draw ire. This is all I do. I’m not in charge. I’m here to hone my
craft, build my body, and win matches. Every week, I have to be better. That’s the ultimate clarity for me."
Rhodes is expected to do big things in WWE, and many expect the American Nightmare to be the one who finally dethrones Roman Reigns, and a win over the Head of the Table and
capturing the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship would certainly give credence to Cody’s bold claims
One name fans certainly won’t see in WWE is Nash Carter, who was released following accusations of misconduct by his wife Kimber Lee.
While WWE reportedly did not find Lee’s claims to be credible, the company chose to release Nash after an image was shared by Lee, depicting Carter impersonating Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Now, the former NXT Tag Team Champion has issued his first statement on the infamous image since being released, saying that the picture was taken in 2015, at a time where he was
uneducated on the topic” and didn’t understand the magnitude of how hurtful he was being. Carter added that in 2020, when someone tried to extort him
after finding the photo and threatening to post it on social media, he sent the image to his wife to ask for help, having no idea that she would keep it.
Regardless, Carter said there is no excuse for the photo, and encouraged those in the Orlando area to visit the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida, calling it an
“incredibly eye-opening” experience for him. Carter, now going by Zachary Green, will likely never wrestle for WWE, and this incident will
surely have an impact of his wrestling future, but the former NXT Tag Team Champion is hoping to move on from this controversy, and is immensely sorry for what transpired
And we’re ending today with WWE, who have been nominated for a 2022 Sports Business Journal award.
Celebrating the achievements of sporting events, it’s been confirmed that Summerslam 2021 has been nominated, as the show saw the returns of Becky Lynch and Brock Lesnar, in
addition to the long-awaited match between the Tribal Chief Roman Reigns and John Cena.
Last year’s Summerslam will face some stiff competition, including SuperBowl 56, the 2021 PGA Championship and the 2022 Discover NFL Winter Classic to name just a few.
Summerslam 2021 filled the giant Allegiant Stadium, which will host this year’s Money in the Bank, and we’ll have to see if the August 2021 event can take home the prize.