Here's your wrestling news for December 20th 2021
And your headlines for today include
What Is The Truth Behind The Rock Buying WWE?
WWE Switched Up Plans For Roman Reigns On SmackDown This Week!
Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti Trend After News Of His Breakup With Fiancé!
Divide Growing Backstage In Both WWE & AEW!
Why Deonna Purrazzo Was Labeled As A Problem In WWE?
ROH Champion Receives WWE Tryouts!
Matt Cardona & Chelsea Green Quit GCW At Blood On The Hills Event!
Rhea Ripley's Stolen Championship Belt Spotted!
"I Was Vince McMahon’s Little Pet" - Reason Why Released Superstar Didn't Win A Singles Title In WWE And more!
We’re kicking off today with The Rock, who has been one of the highest paid performers, both in WWE and Hollywood.
With an estimated Net Worth of $320 million, the Brahma Bull certainly has money to throw around, but is he looking to make a WWE sized purchase?
That’s certainly what some people believe, as the theory is that WWE’s never ending cost-cutting measures, including releasing a ton of talent and
streamlining their divisions backstage, are to make themselves more appeal to a buyer. We also know that The Rock isn’t afraid to buy from
Vince McMahon, as he purchased the XFL not too long ago, but don’t expect the Great One to be taking over in McMahon’s office.
On his Drive Thru podcast, Jim Cornette addressed rumours of The Rock buying WWE, saying:
“Some people were saying, ‘Is The Rock going to buy WWE?’ I simply could not care less just how rich a movie star he is, he will not be investing $5 billion
all or part of his dollars, into a wrestling promotion or any wrestling promotion for that matter. He is definitely smart enough not to do that.”
It would take a lot of money to force WWE to sell his company, and the full-time role of running the promotion would likely end his time in Hollywood,
so despite now being the head of the XFL, set to relaunch in 2023, The Brahma Bull won’t be the next CEO of WWE.
SmackDown news now, as this week’s show was the final live episode of 2021, as next week’s show has already been taped, and the week after will be
special review of the past 12 months. With this week being the last live episode of SmackDown this year, the blue brand wanted to
to put on a good show, which featured plenty of huge changes behind the scenes. Fightful Select reports that Universal Champion Roman
Reigns was initially set to open the show with an in- ring promo, but this was oved to the main event of the night as a last-minute decision.
The Usos Vs. The New Day was the originally planned main-event of the show, but that match was moved to make room for the Tribal Chief, who fired Paul Heyman.
A sit-down interview with Brock Lesnar was also part of the original plans, but it never made it to air, and the tag-match fans saw, in which Shotzi Blackheart and
Charlotte Flair took on Sasha Banks and Toni Storm had been planned for next week’s show, but was moved up to this week’s programme.
The Storm vs. Flair “Championship Contender’s” match was scheduled to take place this week, and it’s interesting that all these changes happened at the
very last minute before SmackDown went on the air.
Over to AEW, as TNT Champion Sammy Guevara recently announced his break-up with his fiancée Pam, causing his name to trend on Twitter, but there
was another name from the company that was also trending.
On social media, fans speculated on a rumoured relationship between Guevara and Tay Conti, which hasn’t been confirmed by either party.
Interestingly enough, Conti also recently went public about her separation from her husband, and the two are very close friend, and have done several
appearances together. It’s no wonder why fans are shipping the pair in a major way now, as fans argued that their
respective splits from their partners of because of a relationship that’s already happening. In the end, Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti are both
adults and whatever they do, or don’t do, in their personal lives is their business, but with that said, plenty of fans expect them to end up together very soon.
Now, for the past 20 months, WWE have been unceremoniously releasing talent, which in addition to cutting the company’s budget, has given the
promotion some serious bad press.
Almost everyone released has had some harsh words for WWE, but now it’s AEW’s practices who are under scrutiny.
It all began with the release of Urban Meyer this past Thursday, as the 57-year old was fired from his position as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars,
a team part-owned by Tony Khan. New details have now emerged, as ESPN reported on Saturday that the Jaguars intend to withhold
the remaining guarantees on Meyer’s contract, meaning they won’t pay him for the remainder of his contract as promised.
With Meyer having four years left on his contract, that’s a lot of money the American Football team are unwilling to pay, which comes just over a month
after Khan took yet another shot at WWE for their latest releases.
In November, Khan called WWE contracts “temporary arrangements,” and said that when you sign with AEW, you enter a “real contract.”
Andrew Zarian has reported that the Meyer’s controversy has created confusion within WWE’s locker-room, as the Superstars are questioning
what Khan’s definition of a real contract is, given that he refuses to pay Meyer his remaining guarantees. He added:
“There seems to be a divide happening between talent in both companies.
“Spoke to multiple sources yesterday & they feel like many would not go to the other side if there was an opportunity.
“Either you’re team WWE or team AEW for many.”
Vince McMahon may have a fondness for cutting talent, but AEW’s President is by no means a saint when it comes to contracted workers either, and for many in
WWE, they’d rather work for the Devil they know than the Devil they don’t.
Deonna Purrazzo knows about working for both WWE and AEW, but is currently signed to Impact, as well as being AAA’s reigning Reina de Reinas Champion.
On April 15th last year, Purrazzo was released from WWE in the first of the many mass-releases, and she was appearing on Impact Wrestling the next month
where she’d become Knockouts Champion, before losing the title to fellow WWE alum Mickie James.
Speaking on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, Purrazzo discussed her WWE tenure, and how she pitched ideas that fell on deaf ears:
“I mean I was definitely labeled as a problem [in WWE]. I was definitely labeled as someone who has a loud mouth but, for a long time I wanted to check every
every box… I pitched losing and making that a thing until I snap, you know what I mean? I pitched I don’t even need to win the match. Let me just
keep the armbar and get disqualified and that can set up a feud with this babyface and I would do extra promos and film stuff at home.
“I really can say at the end of the day, I put every bit of me into that place to make it work and it didn’t because when I feel taken advantage of or I feel like
I’m not wanted, then I have an opinion about it and I’m going to stand up for myself and I’m going to advocate for myself and I don’t
necessarily think at the time that was what they wanted out of talent.” Purrazzo’s next opportunity will be at January 8th’s
Hard to Kill Pay Per View, where she’ll face reigning Knockouts Champion Mickie James in a Texas Deathmatch for the title, a huge chance for
the woman considered a problem by WWE.
After their Final Battle Pay Per View earlier this month, Ring of Honor embarked on what they insist is a temporary hiatus, giving the company time to reshape
ahead of a return in early 2022. This week, WWE had a series of tryouts from December 15 to the 17th, and these tryouts including a reigning
champion of ROH hoping to become a WWE Superstar. In a series of photos shared on WWE.com, Rok-C, the reigning Ring Of Honor Women’s Champion is
prominently featured, as the company took special interest in her. Rok-C began her training at just 13 years old, and later
studied under the tutelage of Booker T, working at his Reality of Wrestling promotion. Rok C successfully defended her title against Willow
Nightingale at Final Battle, but was immediately confronted afterwards by AAA Reina de Reinas Champion/Impact star Deonna Purrazzo,
who challenged her to a match. There’s no word on when this match will happen, or if it’ll be saved for when ROH is back, but
there’s always the chance that Rok-C will be a fully-signed WWE Superstar by then.
One man who knows about excelling outside WWE is Matt Cardona, who’s been impressive since his release last year.
A few months ago, Cardona feuded with deathmatch legend Nick Gage over the GCW World Championship, but now Cardona is leaving the promotion behind.
At GCW’s Blood on the Hills event, Cardano and his fiancée Chelsea Green came up short against Effy and Allie Katch, and an irate Cardona quit the company
shortly after. Flipping off the crowd and yelling expletives at GCW Owner Brett Laurderdale, the former Superstar
claimed that GCW is only big because of him, and in a tweet later on, said that his fiancé is also quitting.
The pair announced their departure by mocking WWE’s releases, saying they wish Game Changer Wrestling the best in all their future endeavours.
We will have to wait and see what is next in store for Cardona and Green, but for now, it seems their time in GCW is over.
In October this year, Rhea Ripley took to Twitter to reveal that her travel bag had gone missing, which contained both her wrestling tights, and one-half of the WWE
Women’s Tag Team Championships.
At the time, Ripley was a Champion with Nikki A.S.H, but now her missing title has seemingly resurfaced.
On social media, a person going by the name Joseph appears to be in possession of Ripley’s title bel has emerged, but rather than wanting to return the gold
to the Australian Superstar, is trying to sell it to the highest bidder. In a report from Dan Beltzer, it’s said that the seller
is being reluctant to respond to any messages, perhaps realising that they’re trying to see what is essentially a stolen item.
After losing her bag, Ripley had to borrow a wrestling attire from her friend Damian Priest, and wore a replica Women’s title until she and Nikki lost the gold to
Carmella and Queen Zelina, but we certainly hope Ripley is reunited with her gold soon.
And we’re ending with Fandango, aka Dirty Dango, who for all his time on WWE Television, had just one title reign to his name.
Debuting on the main-roster in 2013, Fandango’s one and only reign happened when he returned to NXT, as Breezango once held the NXT Tag Titles, but there
was a time when he nearly held another title. Speaking to Chis Van Vliet of Insight, The ex WWE Superstar discussed a proposed Intercontinental
Championship run in 2013, which would’ve happened had a series of unfortunate events not derailed his push:
"They were going to put the IC Title on me, and I got concussed working with Great Khali. I didn't tell them I was concussed; it was like a week or t
two before. I worked Khali a couple of weeks out from a pay-per-view, and we worked like a week before the pay-per-view. If you get concussed
and you go out and get hit again, it's a lot easier to get concussed. (...) I was concussed and I kept performing and didn't tell anybody. I think I was
wrestling Zack Ryder in Long Island and I took a shoulder tackle, and I was completely out. We got through the rest of the match, got to the back,
and I thought I just wrestled Khali because your brain just goes back to where you originally got f''d up. Then I just said it, 'I thought I worked Khali,
, I got knocked out.' I stooged myself off." To the company's protocol, I was completely wrong. You should definitely tell them when you're hurt
because they don't want any athlete to get seriously injured. I grew up in the wrestling business, and if someone is going to put the IC Title you on you,
you don't take yourself out of the game. (...) They took me off TV for a couple of weeks. I think Curtis Axel won the title. It derailed me. I was partying a
lot at that time, too—I kind of let up. I was in developmental for so long, and in my mind, I got to the finish line and I made it. You don't just make it. You have to keep
grinding after you get there even harder. I take full accountability for that. I kind of got there, I thought I was Vince's little pet and I let up. That's on me.
Fandango never got to hold the Intercontinental Title, but he fully sees it as his fault, and perhaps things would’ve gone differently had he been honest about
his concussion. Since his release, Fandango has said he is open to working with AEW or Impact, but said that neither
company has approached him so far, as the future looks uncertain for the ballroom dancing brawler.