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Here's your wrestling news for November 22rd 2021
And your headlines for today include
Vince McMahon & WWE Received An Insane 7 Figure Payment For Promoting The Rock‘s Netflix Movie Red Notice!
Kenny Omega Vacates AAA Mega Championship!
Bray Wyatt's First Appearance Post-WWE Release Announced!
Major RIFT Between Andrade El Idolo & Charlotte Flair; Couple Staying Separately!
Former WWE Wrestler Is Returning To Pro Wrestling After More Than 4 Years!
WWE Sent Hit Row Big Mixed Messages Before Firing Them!
Top Dolla Breaks Silence About A WWE Producer Cussing Him BADLY During A Segment With SAMI ZAYN!
Bully Ray & Velvet Sky Announce Breakup! And more!
We’re kicking off today with RAW, as the saga of the missing egg was one of the biggest stories of the night.
The egg, which Mr McMahon claimed once belonged to Cleopatra, was stolen at Survivor Series, and the Chairman personally oversaw
the investigation, promising a WWE title shot to whoever found the culprit. This incentive worked, as we saw plenty of
Superstars, including Kevin Owens searching around, but it was ultimately SmackDown’s Sami Zayn who found the culprit
All his time as a conspiracy theorist paid off, as Zayn discovered it was Austin Theory, who took the egg to get a selfie with it.
In a response that can only be called ‘pure McMahon’ the Chairman was impressed with Theory’s guts, and after sharing a selfie
with him and the Egg, Vince granted the young Superstar the WWE title opportunity against Big E.
Unsurprisingly, Zayn was shocked and outraged, but the Chairman told him to shut up and “nobody likes a snitch,” which was admittedly hilarious.
Theory getting thrust into this spot was a huge indication that WWE, especially Vince McMahon sees him as a future World Champion,
and though he won’t beat Brock Lesnar or Randy Orton’s records as youngest WWE or World Heavyweight Champion respectively, Theory
is on the right path. That main event saw both Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens come out, and the two proved to
be a distraction for Theory, giving Big E the chance to hit the Big Ending to retain his title. Big E ended the night by taking out Rollins and
Owens, looking great one night after his loss at Survivor Series to Roman Reigns. For Big E, this was just another day as WWE
Champion, with a triple threat match between himself, Rollins and Owens seeming inevitable for RAW or WWE Day 1.
For Austin Theory though, this was his most prominent appearance to date, and right now, all signs say this will be just the first of many
world title opportunities in the future of RAW’s breakout Superstar.
McMahon’s golden egg was heavily featured at Survivor Series, which didn’t exactly sit well with the fans who wanted to see The Rock instead.
The egg was gifted to the Chairman by The Rock and was so prominently focussed on during the Pay Per View, that fans cynically questioned
whether this was all paid promotion for the Brahma Bull’s new Netflix movie Red Notice.
As it turns out, that’s exactly the case, as Mike Johnson of PW Insider confirmed by saying:
I figured this was obvious, but since we’ve gotten a few emails about this, the Vince McMahon missing egg story is 100% a Netflix
paid promotional partnership to push “Red Notice.” That storyline is expected to wrap up tonight, having made the company quite a nice payday.”
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful said that the amount of money WWE received was “insane,” and sources within WWE said that Netflix paid a seven
digit figure, estimated to be between $1.5 million and $1.7 million for this promotional material. Red Notice wasn’t the only product placement
on the show, as the battle royal was very clearly sponsored by Pizza Hut, with tables of Pizzas on display.
In an era where wrestlers are being fired at a rapid pace, WWE answers only to the shareholders, so whether you enjoy these
storylines or not, WWE will absolutely keep doing them as long as they keep getting paid big money.
Now, Kenny Omega is set to take some much- deserved time off, after a series of nagging injuries have plagued him for the past few years.
We previously reported that Omega put off surgery until his story with Hangman Adam Page was complete, but it appears that the
former AEW World Champion can’t wait any longer. On Twitter, AAA’s Dorian Roldan announced that Omega won’t be able to defend his title
at the upcoming TripleMania Regia event, and announced that the title is officially vacated. El Hijo del Vikingo, who was meant to be Omega’s
opponent on Decmember 4th will now face a yet to be confirmed opponent, and it’s reported that AAA were informed last week
that the Clenar wasn’t making It to TripleMania Regia 2. As the longest reigning AAA Mega Champion
of all time, it’s a shame that his reign has ended without anyone pinning him or making him tap, but the surgeries Omega has been
putting off for years really cannot wait anymore
Since being released from WWE this past July, Bray Wyatt hasn’t appeared for another promotion, but we know where the former
Universal Champion will be during WrestleMania weekend. It’s been announced that Wyatt will be at WrestleCon
2022, and with the convention also taking place in Dallas, the same host as WrestleMania, this could make for a very interesting situation next April.
Now, there’s no shortage of power couples in wrestling, but one couple seem to be going through a rough patch.
In 2019, Charlotte Flair began dating Andrade El Idolo and the pair announced their engagement last year, but there’s ben speculation on whether they’re
they’re still together. On both Instagram and Twitter, the pair have stopped following each other, but it’s unclear
if this is part of a breakup or just a disagreement. A month ago, Andrade posted a photo of Charlotte, calling her his queen, but hasn’t mentioned the
SmackDown Superstar since then. As for Charlotte, she posted a lengthy tribute to her fiancé On November 3rd, and in the
caption translated from Spanish on a November 18th post, wrote “I would invent you if you did not exist.”
In Andrade’s most recent Instagram post, he says he’s “always grateful,” but it’s impossible to know if he’s referring to his relationship,
career or something else. It wasn’t too long ago that fans expected Flair to leave for AEW to be with her fiancé, but
that was before a very personal feud with Becky Lynch, which culminated in an excellent match at last Sunday’s Survivor Series
It’s been reported that the rift between Charlotte and Andrade arised because Charlotte is unable to be beside her future husband because of
WWE’s gruelling travel schedule, and her various WWE commitments out of the ring. The couple haven’t called off their relationship
at least not publicly, but its reported that they’re not staying with each other, even when they’re in the same city.
There’s always the chance that by unfollowing Andrade, Charlotte is just working the fans to get a reaction, something she’s become a master of,
and whatever the situation is, it’s peculiar for the WWE and AEW star to have unfollowed one another in this manner unless something happened.
In October 2017, Summer Rae departed WWE, over a year after her last match in the company, and has stayed clear of the wrestling world
ever since. Summer’s last WWE match, where she and Natalya lost to Naomi and Becky Lynch at an
August 14th 2016 Live event, was also her last match ever, but she might be looking to make a return to the industry
Pw Insider reports that Summer Rae was backstage during the latest Impact Wrestling tapings, but it wasn’t noted what she was
doing there.
The former WWE Diva has a lot of friends in the business, so she may have just been visiting, or Impact could be scouting her as the next
name to join their growing Knockouts division. There’s always the option that Summer could have some non-wrestling on-screen role in
Impact, and we’ll have to see what plans, if any, the company has for the former WWE Superstar.
In the most recent round of releases, WWE cut the three remaining members of Hit Row, just two weeks after releasing B-Fab earlier this month.
While the team may or may not stay together, many believe that several of the members will find steady work on the national stage.
During the latest Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that there were plans in motion for Hit Row right up until they were cut,
and explained the mixed-messages the group received. He said: “Thursday is the day they got cut. So Thursday,
they’re first told that they’ve got to be on SmackDown, Survivor Series, and Raw and then they’re told they’re off all three shows.
Then they’re called again and told they’re back on all three shows. Then the next call they get is they’re fired. This is all on Thursday.”
Even in the final hours of their WWE careers, several pitches were made by creative for how Hit Row would be used, as even without B-Fab,
the company still believed that the group would have something to do on the main- roster.
In the end, all the talks and plans didn’t go anywhere, but the group have remained positive since being released.
On social media, Ashante Adonis was grateful to WWE, while Isaiah Scott simply posted a devil emoji.
It’s been rumoured that these two were just collateral In WWE’s decision to fire Top Dolla, who had backstage heat that had rubbed off on
his Hit Row partners Top Dolla’s social media freestyles brought him a lot of attention, but it wasn’t the kind
WWE wanted, and this was a factor in WWE cutting ties with him, and by extension the other members of Hit Row.
Speaking to Busted Open Radio, Top Dolla discussed his brief SmackDown tenure, which included an incident with those backstage.
During a rehearsal for a segment with Sami Zayn, Dolla politely asked if the music being played in the arena could be turned down for the
show, in order for fans to hear what he was going to say, and this request wasn’t received well at all. He added:
I don’t know what was said, but something was said about me over the headset that was so disrespectful, that three different producers
who heard it on the headset came up to me and apologized to me afterwards, even though I didn’t even hear what was said. Clearly
something was said that was very wild and disrespectful because they felt the need to apologize to me for something I didn’t even know.
If I would have heard it and said anything back, then I’m disgruntled, and I’m aggressive, and I’m the angry Black man. It’s unfortunate the way
that things shape out, but at the end of the day, I’m not telling nobody to never watch WWE again. I’m going to watch WWE. I’m not
sitting here pretending that I’m not. I watch everything. But also, that’s not the end all, be all. That’s not where we have to be, to be successful.
We are more than capable of going anywhere in this world and making the same impact.” Top Dolla also said that he complained to WWE’s
front office when B-Fab was released, which probably did him and his reputation no favours backstage, and now he, and his freestyle raps
won’t be heard anymore on WWE programming.
And we’re ending today with Bully Ray and Velvet Sky, who have announced their breakup.
On Twitter, Sky announced that the relationship ended amicably, saying there’s no animosity and they wish each other well in what will
be the only public comment on the matter. The pair met in May 2016, and had become a favourite of fans, and though there’s more to
this story, both sides are keeping quiet about what happened between them.