Here's more wrestling news for January 21st 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
WWE responds to SmackDown Superstar requesting his release from the company
“Triple H was all over these guys!” AEW star says company may have never happened thanks to the Game
WWE changes strategy following controversial name change, NXT 2.0 Superstar says he’s to blame
Huge split in AEW expected very soon for current team
RAW Superstar breaks WWE rules by admitting to positive test!
How has recent changes to NXT 2.0 affected the brand?
SmackDown Superstar confirms he’s signed a new deal with the company And more!
We’re kicking off with Mustafa Ali, who last Sunday requested his release from WWE, and let everybody know that he was looking to
leave with a tweet. In his statement, Ali said he has a message, one he can’t tell while in WWE, but the company aren’t
ready to see that message spread. Fightful Select report that WWE has no plans to grant Ali his release, despite the company letting
plenty of talent go, names far more expensive than Ali, in the past two years of budget cuts. It’s said that there term “value” was brought up a lot
when WWE told Ali that his request was being denied, but there’s no confirmation why exactly the company wants to keep him around.
Ali has a few years left on his contract, but hasn’t been used on TV in months, with his last appearance being an October 29th SmackDown defeat
at the hands of Drew McIntyre. During his hiatus, it was speculated that he was on paternity leave, util it was reported that Ali had
only requested one show off, not two months, and while WWE clearly has no plans for him, they’re not willing to let this particular Superstar out of his contract.
In the three years AEW has been around, the company has welcomed dozens of names from WWE, with Bryan Danielson, Miro, Andrade
El Idolo and many more coming from Vince McMahon.
This has all been thanks to the company’s founding by the Elite, but that may have never happened had Triple H got his way.
Speaking on his own podcast, Matt Hardy, another WWE alum now in AEW, spoke about plans that the Game had prior to AEW being founded,
and it appears that Triple H could tell something big was about to happen. Hardy said: “WWE was trying to get all these AEW guys, they
wanted to lock them all down. I know that Triple H, Trips was all over those guys (Omega, Young Bucks, and Hangman Page) as far as trying to bring
them in, and they offered them a ton of money and I know they did Hangman as well.”
Despite the Game’s massive offer, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks and Adam Page all turned down the chance to join WWE, and we can only imagine how
different AEW would’ve been without this group, or if it even would exist at all.
Back to WWE, as Gunther, formerly WALTER, debuted his new name this week, which came after WWE filed a trademark for Gunther Stark.
Not long after this filing was made public, we learned that Gunther Stark was also the name of a Nazi Germany captain, who died when his ship was
sank on June 8th 1944. Instead of using the full name, WALTER is now going by Gunther, and in recent filings from the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office, it can be seen that WWE has abandoned their filing for the Gunther Stark name.
Now, that full name is open to anyone who may desire to use it, though we doubt anyone will want to claim ownership, as WWE is looking to
move past this controversy with the former United Kingdom Champion.
Even without the Nazi undertones, the Gunther name hasn’t been popular, as fans had had no problem with calling the Austrian WALTER,
the name he used prior to joining WWE. On Twitter, Grayson Waller is tasking responsibility for the name change, saying that WALTER is
close to Waller, and that thanks to him and his lawyers, the former United Kingdom Champion is now Gunther.
Of course Waller isn’t the one responsible, as it’s far more likely that a name change for WALTER is a sign of an imminent main-roster call-up, but that
won’t stop NXT 2.0’s most despised heel take credit for ticking off the fans.
Speaking of loathsome heels, there’s few men more despicable in AEW than MJF, who is not only having problems with CM Punk, but Wardlow as well.
In a recent segment, the Salt of the Earth docked Wardlow’s pay because his bodyguard put his hands on him, and fans should expect this pairing
to split sooner than you’d first think. On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that this split has been teased of and on for two
years, and that AEW needs to pull the trigger on that one soon. As for when the split will happen, Meltzer
suggested that it should happen when Punk and MJF finally face off, saying that the former WWE Champion should win, but MJF should blame Wardlow.
For his entire run in AEW, Wardlow has been aligned with MJF, and has helped the cocky heel countless times in and out of the ring, and time will tell how
he does with a face turn and singles run of his own.
In WWE, the company’s policy is that Superstars do not disclose the results of their tests, no matter if the test comes back negative or positive.
In fact, the company has reportedly changed their testing policy, ditching twice a week testing in the performance center, and ditching regular testing
for main-roster talent, in an effort to stop Superstars testing positive. With that said, positive cases are still coming out, a
as during her Bare with us Podcast with fiancé Corey Graves, RAW’s Carmella admitted that she recently tested positive.
Referring to it as ‘the vid,’ Carmella said she woke up super un well and was out for three-four days, and this all happened just two weeks ago.
Graves added that he was mentally prepared to catch it, especially as Carmella said the two had been “making out like animals” the night before
her positive test. Somehow, the RAW commentator didn’t test positive, and Carmella has since recovered
but it goes to show that we all still need to be careful on the road back to normalcy.
When NXT relaunched as NXT 2.0, it came at the expense of Triple H, who not only lost his control over the popular brand, but saw a lot of those
closest to him lose their jobs. At the time, it was reported that the releases of Samoa Joe, William Regal and other names close
to the Game were meant to be a personal shot at Triple H, but the show has continued to present content despite these cuts.
When Ringside News asked about the releases in NXT 20, they were told these releases were not the start of a big change, but just the latest major
change in recent months, as NXT 2.0 has been run by Bruce Prichard, Ed Koskey and Vince McMahon for months, and that this has been
the system ever since Triple H had his heart issues. The source added that many of those who were released had already had their roles filled by newly
appointed staff, which were selected by these three men, and that the slimming down of the backstage roster had no effect on the production.
Now, NXT 2.0 is almost identical to how RAW and SmackDown are run, as writers send stuff to Prichard and Koskey, who take it to be approved by
Vince McMahon, and while the Boss now has more control, it comes at the expense of NXT’s most faithful fans, who enjoyed just how
different the show was to the rest of WWE.
And we’re ending today with Sami Zayn, who has confirmed that he’s signed a new deal with WWE.
Zayn’s contact was meat to expire this month, but it was reported late last year that he’d agreed to a new deal, and now we have confirmation from
the man himself. On Twitter, the two-time former Intercontinental Champion confirmed the deal, saying that he’s
sticking around and having fun” calling it ‘the Sami Zayn way.” There’s no confirmation on just how long his new
deal is, though it’s presumed to be a three-year contract, the same length his best friend Kevin Owens signed to stay with WWE last month
Zayn has been a fixture of SmackDown as of late, having a brief programme with Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, and is still the number one
contender for the Intercontinental Title, and we’ll just have to see what Zayn does when he faces his new enemy Johnny Knoxville in this
year’s Men’s Royal Rumble match.