Here's your wrestling news for December 1st 2021
And your headlines for today include
Why Segments Were Cut Short On WWE RAW This Week?
WWE Using Recent Releases On Raw Thought To Be In Poor Taste Internally; Released WWE Wrestler Reacts!
Is Tony Khan Is Buying AEW Tickets To Artificially Inflate Sales Numbers?
Big Swole Parts Ways With AEW
Scarlett Bordeaux Announces Plans To Launch An OnlyFans Profile!
What Happened After WWE RAW With Roman Reigns And Seth Rollins?
Impact Wrestler Says She May Be Too Scandalous For WWE’s Liking! And More!
We’re kicking off with RAW, which this week was full of surprises, including appearance by Edge, Mr. McMahon and the returning Miz
and Maryse. Kevin Owens was added to the WWE Title match at the Day 1 Pay Per View, but even
with so much in the show’s script, some segments ran longer than others. PW Insider reports that many backstage were
unhappy with segments running a tad too long, specifically the contract signing between Becky Lynch and Liv Morgan which made
next week’s RAW Women’s title match official. The other culprit was the return of Edge, who was interrupted by The Miz and Maryse
which led to a war of words between the two former WWE Champions. It seems as though the pair are going to have
quite the feud in the coming weeks, but their segment apparently took too long to get to the point.
These segments running long meant that many other planned segments for the night were cut short, which hasn’t gone down well backstage,
especially with the wrestlers who had less time for their own segments.
The two segments in question, namely the Edge return and the Morgan-Lynch contract signing may have run long, but there were some choice
words during these promos. Confronted by The Miz, Edge brought up the release of John Morrison, saying that the
A-Lister left his friend high and dry to get fired while he danced with the stars. The show also saw Liv Morgan blame Becky
Lynch's "big fat greedy contract" for the budget cuts that cost Ruby Riott and Sarah Logan their jobs.
These lines have received a mixed response from fans, who see them as both effective storytelling and incredibly tasteless, and the
reaction in the industry has been very negative. In his post-RAW review, Sean Ross Sapp said that when he spoke to people, including
ex WWE Producers, ex Superstars and at least one actively signed talent, the consensus is that WWE shouldn't have brought up these real life
releases. Promos that blur reality and fiction are nothing news, as AEW's CM Punk and MJF proved
last week, in which both referenced WWE, with MJF being called a less famous Miz. The salt of the earth fired back by comparing
Punk to John Cena, and while these barbs were very personal, they weren’t about people who had recently lose their jobs
Mike Johnson of PW Insider added that Morgan’s reference to Ruby Riott, now AEW’s Ruby Soho, and Sarah Logan was either a call from Vince
McMahon, or a member of the creative team. It’s also worth noting that the line has since been taken out of the replay on WWE’s
Youtube channel. As for Edge, it’s believed his line was an on the fly decision and not something he was
instructed to say, as the Hall of Famer has a lot of creative freedom in his promos. Over 80 Superstars this year alone have been
released by WWE and while this gives WWE's creative plenty of potential story fodder, it's come at the expense of people who don't know
when or where they'll work again. But what did you make of these promos? Were they too far, or was it good to see kayfabe
and reality be blurred? Let us know in the comments
In his promo war with The Miz, Edge referenced John Morrison’s release, accusing the A-Lister of leaving his friend high and dry so he could go
be on dancing with the Stars. Now, Morrison has responded to being referenced on RAW, as in a Tweet, the former
Superstar took exception to Edge’s ‘high and dry’ line, saying that Johnny Drip Drip is never not wet.
It seems that Morrison is on The Miz’s side in all this, as he also warned Edge to be prepared for a slaughter when he faces off against the A-Lister.
This isn’t Morrison’s first statement since being released, as he previously thanked WWE for allowing him to return in a video, and we’ll have
to see what he does next now once his non-compete clause expires in February next year.
Tonight, AEW Dynamite will take place at the UBS Arena in Long Island, the same venue Monday Night RAW was held earlier this week.
All reports indicate that Dynamite has sold more tickets than WWE, as the All-Elite promotion continues to win over crowds, but there
may be another reason why AEW’s programming always ends up on top. The war of the UBS Arena has drawn interest
because it’s a direct metric that fans can look at to see who is doing better, and on the F4WOnline message boards, Bryan Alverez made a surprising
revelation, saying: “You will be surely stunned to learn that there are a few people in WWE who believe Tony
must be buying up tickets for the AEW show.”
Alverez is known to be well-sourced, so there’s little reason to believe the information is false, and while it seems preposterous, apparently
some in WWE believe Khan is buying his own tickets. At the UBS Arena, WWE drew 5,887 fans with
a setup of 6,706, according to WrestleTix, but Dynamite sold 8,657 with an original venue capacity of 2,983.
That means that AEW had to open up more sections of the arena because of advance tickets selling out, and WWE would’ve had to
the same had their show sold out. There are plenty of factors that come into play when comparing the two shows,
so we have to look at more than just the numbers. We know that WWE offered huge discounts
for this week’s RAW, including a buy-one-get- one-free offer, and an advertised appearance by SmackDown’s Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
As for AEW, they usually offer a lower entry- level ticket price, which does make their shows more financially viable for a lot of fans than
their WWE counterparts. Tony Khan obviously wants to make New York City an AEW town, after being a hotbed for
WWE for decades, and now that there’s some competition, it seems paranoia might be creeping in at WWE Headquarters.
Unless AEW starts publishing details of every ticket buyer, something we know won’t happen, we’ll never know for sure who is buying all their
tickets, but all we know is that AEW tickets sell, and for now, are selling much better than WWE, even when RAW is stacked with huge returns.
Do you think Khan is buying his own tickets back to inflate AEW’s numbers? Or is this just WWE’s paranoia at their competition getting to them?
AEW is continuing to sell tickets well, but will now have to fill seats without Big Swole on the roster.
One of the earliest signings to their women’s division, Swole broke the news on Twitter, saying that after speaking with Tony Khan and
AEW higher ups, they’ve collectively decided not to renew her contract. Explaining her decision, Swole said that the past
couple of months of her life have been a time of growing, learning and changing, and had forced her to use inner strength she didn’t know
she hd. Thanking God for her family, Swole said she’s been through some of the roughest moments
of her life, but didn’t go into any further details. Calling her decision a leap, Big Swole said that she’s grateful for the company’s
understanding about this hard but necessary decision, and that yesterday was her last day as an AEW wrestler.
Swole went on to say that she appreciates AEW welcoming her into their family, and is proud to have lived her dreams while making a
difference in the wrestling world. The now former AEW wrestler had been a big deal early on, but one thing or another always
kept her push from really taking off. We’ll have to see where Big Swole ends up next, but she has plenty of tools for success,
and we can only hope her career has many more highs to make up for the bittersweet ending to her time in AEW.
Unlike Big Swole, Scarlett Bordeaux didn’t get to choose not to re-sign with WWE, but was instead released this month alongside her
fiancé Karrion Kross. The Smokeshow has already been booking a busy schedule for when her non-compete
clause expires, but wrestling isn’t the only thing she’ll be working on. After teasing that she may start an OnlyFans
earlier this month, Bordeaux has confirmed the account will be made, and said that the plan is for it to launch in January
Thirsty fans were quick to respond, as they were very pleased at the idea of paying for exclusive photo and content from the former
WWE Superstar. Making an OnlyFans wouldn’t have been an option had Bordeaux still been in WWE,
but with her free from the company’s control, bookings already piling up, and a clear market of people who’d be happy to pay for her exclusive
photos, it looks like the Smokeshow will be just fine from here on.
Back to RAW, as this week's slow closed with Kevin Owens earning a spot in the WWE Championship match at Day 1, but that's not all
the fans in Long Island got to see. With AEW set to be in the same arena this Wednesday, WWE tried to sell tickets with
the promise of Universal Champion Roman Reigns, who appeared in a dark match main event.
Reigns was accompanied by The Usos, but Paul Heyman didn't appear, and the Bloodline took on Drew McIntyre, King Woods and
Kofi Kingston. Before the match, Reigns and the departing Seth Rollins had a tense face off on the ramp
and sources at the snow told PW Insider that the Tribal Chief easily got the loudest pop of the night.
This match also marked the in-ring return of Kofi Kingston, who had been on paternity leave, and was written off TV earlier this month
with an attack by the Bloodline. The 20 minute ended with McIntyre hitting the Claymore kick on an Uso for the win,
as fans certainly got their money's worth with an appearance by the Tribal Chief.
And we’re ending today with WWE, who despite releasing enough talent over the past two years to start an entirely new company,
is also on the look out for new names to sign. One name some fans have been hoping to see join us Katie Forbes, but she doesn't see
that happening. This week, Mrs Rob Van Dam sat down with the Xenia Did That podcast and
explained why she isn't expecting a WWE contract, despite wanting to work there: "That [Joining WWE] is what I want to do. I
On Impact Wrestling I had the highest amount of views out of everybody on YouTube. So I was like, ‘Katie equals clicks.’ But I might be a
a little too inappropriate for WWE right now. That’s what I am scared of. But I don’t know, I’m scandalous, that’s just me.”
Forbes being scandalous may not hurt her chances, as NXT 2.0 has been allowing more mature gimmicks, but at 30 years old,
her age may be the biggest problem. WWE's new hiring policy says that no female wrestlers in their 30 or even late 20s should
be hire, and though Forbes getting a contract seems unlikely, it's not for the reason she thinks.