Here's your wrestling news for March 20th 2021
And your headlines for today include
WWE Confirms Rhea Ripley’s RAW Debut!
WWE Removes Charlotte Flair From WrestleMania Poster!
Special Ringside Enforcer Revealed For Daniel Bryan Vs Roman Reigns At WWE Fastlane 2021!
Charly Caruso’s Dirty Joke On WWE RAW Talk Might Have Prompted Pulling Her From Television!
Charly Caruso Scheduled For Non WWE Meet & Greet!
A Fatal-4-Way Direction For Wrestlemania 37 Seems Certain!
Yet Another In-Ring Return Confirmed!
AEW Star Has MAJOR Backstage Heat!
Eric Bischoff Reveals First Choice To Induct Him Into WWE Hall Of Fame!
Batista Not Currently Slated For WWE Hall Of Fame Appearance! Is WWE Angry with Batista?
Is WWE Illtreating Nakamura And More!
We’re stating today with Rhea Ripley, and after her main roster debut in the 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble match,
Rhea Ripley is finally coming to the red brand. Following weeks of vignettes promoting
her TV debut, it’s been confirmed that the former NXT Women’s Champion will debut on next week’s RAW,
but it isn’t clear what she’ll do. WWE recently registered a new trademark for ‘Subculture’ which
could have something to do with her storyline on the main roster, but fans will have to wait until Monday to see
what the Australian does as a member of the RAW roster. But what do you think WWE should
do with Ripley, now that she’s a part of RAW? Let us know in the comments below.
One woman who knows Ripley very well is Charlotte Flair, as the Queen defeated Ripley for the NXT Women’s
title at last year’s WrestleMania, but now Flair’s stance at this year’s show is in question.
It’s clear WWE had big plans for Flair, as she was on this year’s WrestleMania poster, something that even RAW
Women’s Champion wasn’t able to do. That isn’t the case anymore, as WWE have updated their WrestleMania poster,
and have completely removed Charlotte from the image. It’s unclear why WWE decided to
remove Charlotte, who was originally placed between Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns, and we’ll have to wait
and see whether the Queen of all Eras gets that rumoured title match against Asuka after all.
Over to SmacKDown, and last night’s show saw Edge in action, in the Hall of Famer’s first match on the blue
brand in over a year. Facing Jey Uso in his first match back on SmackDown, the Rated-R
Superstar picked up the win, earning himself a very special spot at Fastlane.
Now, Edge will be the special ringside enforcer in the Universal title match between Roman Reigns and Daniel
Bryan, a match Edge already has great interest in. No sooner had Edge beaten Uso on
SmackDown, he was levelled with a spear from the Tribal Chief, and Daniel Bryan also took a spear to close out
the show. We know that Edge will face the Universal Champion at WrestleMania,
whoever that’ll be, but how excited are you to see Edge back, and are you looking forward to seeing him at
WrestleMania? Let us know below.
Earlier this week, we reported that Charly Caruso garnered heat backstage after showing up late to do interviews for
RAW, but that’s not the only issue hat led to her being removed from programming.
In PW Insider, it was noted that Kevin Patrick was brought in to replace Caruso on RAW Talk, the week after
she was involved in a little off-colour humour about a suggested nickname for Damian Priest. The report reads:
Caruso, during the [2/08] episode of Raw Talk, joked that she “liked DP” when co-host R-Truth referred to
Damian Priest as “D.P.” Caruso has not appeared on Monday night programming the last few weeks as
Patrick, Braxton and Sarah Schreiber have been handling interviews on Monday Night Raw.
That little joke on RAW Talk isn’t 100% to blame for her expected exit, but it is very interesting timing, and after reports
that she had major heat with Randy Orton and Sheamus, two veterans of WWE, it’s not hard to see why WWE
pulled the plug on Charly Caruso.
Though Caruso won’t be seen on WWE TV anymore, she won’t be hard to find for fans looking for her.
ESPN still features Caruso, where she works under her real name Charly A rnolt, and now fans will be able to take
part in a virtual meet and greet today thanks to East Coast Autograph Signings.
It’ll be interesting to see if Caruso answers any questions about her current status with WWE, as we
imagine she has plenty to say, even if WWE won’t feature her on TV.
On last week’s SmackDown, the Mysterios and the Street Profits overcome the SmackDown Tag
Champions the Dirty Dawgs and Alpha Acadamy, with Montez Ford pinning Robert Roode, one-half of the champs.
Normally, that would earn the profits a title match, as they still haven’t had one after losing the titles, but that’s not the
the direction WWE are going. This week, The Mysterios picked up a win over the Profits, only to be interrupted
by Alpha Academy, all while the champs sat on commentary. Due to fatigue, the Mysterios lost their
second match of the night, as it seems the SmackDown tag division is an “anyone-can-beat-anyone situation.”
With all these teams intertwined, it seems certain that we’re heading to a fatal-four- way tag title match at WrestleMania, in a
huge match fitting WWE’s biggest show.
Thanks to an injury during her debut match on SmacKDown, Chelsea Green hasn’t been around for a while,
but she’s now cleared to return. That’s according to Fightful Select, who said that Green has been working hard
to recover from a broken arm she suffered on the November 13th, 2020 edition of SmackDown.
It wasn’t noted when Green will be seen on TV next, though there are a few pitches for her right now
by creative, and that she recently signed a three-year extension deal with the company.
Now that she’s cleared to compete, Green hasn’t wasted time in teasing a return to SmackDown, as she
posted a photo of herself standing in the backstage ring in the Thunderdome.
Given that Green was supposed to win her debut match in November, and earn a spot on SmackDown’s
women’s team at Survivor Series, her injury couldn’t have come at a worse time, but with WrestleMania plans still
yet to be finalised, it’s possible she could still make her presence known ahead of WWE’s biggest show of the
year.
AEW news next, as Jack Evans isn’t doing too well with the company backstage
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that Evans has heat “from the people you don’t want heat with there,
which implies the very top names and decision-makers in the company. This heat reportedly started when
Evans nailed 10 with a Phoenix Splash where he caught 10 with an elbow to the face that busted 10 open and he
had to have work done afterwards. During that same Dynamite, Evans wasn’t at ringside with Angelico and
we’ll have to see what happens with Jack, who’s managed to annoy the wrong people in a company that portrays
themselves as very relaxed.
More from WWE now, as Eric Bischoff is the newest member of the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2021.
Bischoff is unquestionably deserving of the accolade, and during his 83 weeks podcast, the soon-to-be
be Hall-of-Famer discussed who he’d like to induct him. He said: “I don’t know that there’s an obvious
answer to me. Clearly Hulk [Hogan] is one of my best friends, and the history that we have together in the industry
and the friendship that we’ve maintained…Certainly, if I have to sit down and think about that, that’s
probably where I’m going to go to first.” Bischoff’s wish may come true,
as Hogan will be in Florida for WrestleMania week, as the NWO are set to be inducted as part of the 2020
class, and Hogan will co-host WrestleMania with Titus O’Neil. Bischoff was one of the men
responsible for bringing Hogan to WCW and forming the NWO, so we expect the Hulkster will have a lot to say, if Easy-E
gets his way. But do you think Hogan is the right choice, or is there somebody better
to do the honours? Sound off in the comments.
This year’s Hall of Fame will feature both the 2021 and 2020 class of inductees, but not everyone will make it
to the event. According to Ringside News, Batista isn’t slated to appear at the
Thunderdome for the ceremony, despite being an inductee from last year’s class.
It isn’t known why Batista isn’t expected to appear, but it’s possible that his filming schedule may be a factor, similar to
John Cena missing WrestleMania to continue work on Peacemaker for HBO Max.
There have also been rumours that the Animal is aligned to AEW, so that too could be why he’s not appearing in person.
It’s also unclear whether Batista will appear via video message, or do a streamed acceptance speech, but for
now, the WWE may not be inducting the entire 2020 Hall of Fame class as planned.
And we’re ending with more SmackDown news, as it’s been confirmed that Seth Rollins will face Shinsuke Nakamura this
Sunday, in what should be an entertaining match. Though it should be great, we can’t
help but feel that WWE is using Nakamura as a stepping stone, on the road to a match at WrestleMania between
Rollins and Cesaro. Rollins has feuded with the Swiss Cyborg ever since he returned to
SmackDown, and though we like that match, it doesn’t help for Nakamura to be nothing more than a step to other
Superstars getting bigger things. It's a shame because it was just two months ago when Shinsuke
Nakamura put on his best performance in five years in the SmackDown Gauntlet match, and what do you make of
Nakamura’s booking? Let us know in the comments.