Here's more wrestling for may 23rd 2022
And your headlines for Afternoon include
WWE Hell in a Cell 2022 proving to be a hit with fans
Ronda Rousey reveals unused plan for her WrestleMania Backlash I-Quit match with Charlotte Flair
Ex-AEW star lucky to escape after spot with fire at recent GCW event goes horribly wrong
Impact Wrestling star joins Jessica McKay and Brian Pillman Jr. in upcoming action movie
John Cena teases returning to WWE in a matter of weeks
Ryback makes more claims about WWE: Is the company really wanting to settle?
Former WWE NXT Superstar opens up their own training academy
WWE adds more indie content to their Network/Peacock And more
We’re starting off with WWE, and if there’s one thing the company has struggled with in recent years, it’s selling tickets.
We’ve often seen images from events of fans being moved to give the illusion of a packed venue, or hundreds of seats being covered in tarpaulin, but that practice seems to be ending
According to WrestleTix, WWE Hell in a Cell 2022 is close to becoming a legitimate sell out show,as over 1000 tickets were sold for the event last week.
This means that out of the possible 12,367 seats available i n the Allstate Arena, 11,971 have been sold at this time, leaving less than 400 seats to fill.
This will no doubt cause WWE to ask some questions, as the show isn’t one of their big Stadium events, yet is close to selling out.
WWE may even be questioning that the show is close to selling out, even without the presence of Roman Reigns, who will neither wrestle nor is expected to appear at Hell in a Cell.
Instead, Cody Rhodes is serving as the poster star for this event, which is proving to be a hit with the WWE Universe.
At WrestleMania Backlash, Ronda Rousey captured the SmackDown Women’s Championship, defeating Charlotte Flair in an I-Quit match.
Rousey pulled out all the stops, including a steel chair, to get the win over the Queen, but one idea fans didn’t get to see was the involvement of Drew Gulak.
Gulak had been attacked by both women in the build up to the match, and on a recent Facebook gaming stream, Rousey said she had the idea for Drew to get involved at Backlash:
“It’s funny, I pitched him [Drew Gulak] getting involved, getting thwacked… I pitched him getting involved for the ‘I Quit’ match [at WrestleMania Backlash]. Like running into him and thwacking [him].”
Ultimately, Gulak didn’t appear during the match, as it wouldn’t have made sense for him to side with either woman, given that both had attacked him in the build to the match.
Now, Flair is expected to spend months away from WWE TV, as she’s set to marry AEW’s Andrade El Idolo, but we’ll have to wait and see what in her future, and Gulak’s when she’s back on TV.
As the self professed bad boy of wrestling, Joey Janela is no stran ger to getting heat, either from the fans or those backstage, but this past weekend, the ex-AEW talent got some serious, literal heat.
Working at GCW Maniac in the main event against Drew Parker, Janela set his boot on fire to hit a superkick, and the spot went as planned until that moment.
After the kick, the fire didn’t go out, and Janela was left sitting in the ring trying to get his boot off without burning his foot or his hands.
The announcers were concerned for him as the referee and other personnel tried putting it out with water and they were eventually were able to extinguish the fire.
On Twitter, Janela joked about the situation, sharing a photoshopped image of his leg on fire, and said he’d already tried to self-diagnose on WebMD.
All joking aside, fire spots in wrestling are rare because of incidents like this, and while Janela escaped relatively unscathed this week, things could've been much worse for the Bad Boy of wrestling.
Over to Impact Wrestling now, as Tenille Dashwood has been cast in an upcoming action movie.
The former Emma has been cast in ‘The Charima Killers,’ director Michael Rossi confirmed on Twitter, making her the latest wrestler to join the project.
It was last month that Jessica McKay, formerly Billie Kay, joined the film, just one day after The IInspiration announced that they were taking a hiatus from wrestling.
Earlier this month, AEW’s Brian Pillman Jr. was cast, but his role has not been specified, and now Dashwood is on board.
Little is known about the film, though we know it will involve the seven proteges of a killer meeting up, and we’ll have to see who else from the wrestling industry joins the Charisma Killers.
Back to WWE, and, it’s been nearly a year since John Cena last appeared for WWE, with John’s last televised match being a loss to Roman Reigns at Summerslam 2021.
Cena is certainly kept busy away from WWE thanks to his budding career in Hollywood, but the 16-time WWE Champion could be back within a matter of weeks.
We’ve previously noted that WWE has been working on getting John back for the Summer, with the hope being that a Summerslam match is possible.
Now, Cena himself has given a huge tease that he could be back, as when speaking to Adam Glyn of Adam’s Apple, said that there’s a lot of cool stuff happening in WWE, and he doesn’t
want to say no to any of the opportunities being presented to him.
John added that while he doesn’t known when he’ll be back, he will return, saying that it’ll hopefully be soon as he’s been gone for too long.
We don’t know who Cena will face, but we know that United States Champion Theory has teased a Summerslam match with Big Match Joh n, so time will tell if WWE gets another run from one of the all-time greats.
Now, since being released in 2016, Ryback has had plenty to say about WWE, despite claiming that he’s ‘definitely’ moved on and is all about forgiveness.
Form accusing WWE of illegal activity to using vulgar slurs at Vince McMahon’s deceased mother, Ryback always has something to say, and he’s now made another claim about the company.
In a series of tweets, Ryback addressed the ongoing lawsuit over the name, which both sides claim to own, and said that WWE is close to settling out of court.
Like his many claims before, Ryback gave no proof to this claim, but didn’t stop there, adding that the company is ‘desperate’ for him to stop talking about Vince McMahon.
This claim too, was given without any evidence, and while WWE probablydon’t appreciate the many claims made by Ryback, it’s difficult to believe that they want him to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement now,
as the former wrestler has claimed.
While Ryback can seemingly not shut up about WWE, the promotion has made no reference to him in any capacity in years, but according to the Big Guy, there’s secret conversations happening behind closed doors.
In November 2021, Jeet Rama became one of several WWE Superstars to be cut from the company, as he didn’t factor into plans for NXT 2.0.
Rama has since returned to his native Indie, and has big plans in the sub-continent to train the next generation of wrestlers.
On Twitter, Rama announced the launch of his own wrestling academy, and asked his near-7000 followers to get the word out about the academy.
This tweet did certainly get spread, earning over 80 retweets and over 300 likes, so there is support for Rama’s new venture.
WWE has had their eye on India for some time now, with an NXT India brand being announced last year, though nothing nothing has come of it yet, but perhaps Rama’s new school will see a new crop of Indian wrestlers.
And we’re ending today with the WWE Network and Peacock, as more indie footage and shows has been added to the platform.
WWE has recently uploaded ICW Fight Club 219, as well as Germany’s wXw, with their event ‘We Love Wrestling 29 now available for fans to check out.
Given how WWE has for decades treated the wrestling industry like they are the only promotion around, its still strange to see indie events being added to the Network and Peacock
but fans can now check out some more non-WWE programming on the award-winning streaming service.