Here's your wrestling news for September 17th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar Confirmed For WWE Crown Jewel!
New WWE Extreme Rules Title Match Revealed!
WWE Wrester Is Of Action Indefinitely After Suffering Injury On WWE RAW
WWE Locks Down Becky Lynch’s Heel Character Nickname!
Backstage News On Botched Ending To WWE RAW Match!
WWE Receiving Pressure From Networks To Book RAW & SmackDown Evenly!
AEW Management Think Invited ‘Crying CM Punk Fan’ !
What Is The REAL Reason Why WWE Switched Up Bron Breakker’s Name From ‘Rex Steiner’ ? Serious Instructions Given To WWE NXT
ommentary Team!
Christian Cage Upset Some In WWE With His Comments On AEW Dynamite!
Released WWE Wrestler Signs New Contract With Impact Wrestling!
Former WWE European Champion’s Son Re-Packaged In WWE NXT UK! And More!
We’re kicking off today with Brock Lesnar, who returned at Summerslam to the shock of Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
Lesnar also confronted Reigns during the Madison Square Garden SmackDown, and the Beast Incarnate will have his shot at the
Tribal Chief next month. WWE have announced that Lesnar will face Reigns for the gold at Crown Jewel on October
21st, in what’s expected to be the main-event of the show. This match had been expected for a long time,
but this match confirms that the pair will face off once more, their first match since Summerslam 2018.
Crown Jewel will also see the finals of the King of the Ring and Queen’s Crown Tournaments, and with Lesnar Vs. Reigns already announced
it’s sure to be another stacked card in Saudi Arabia.
Over to Extreme Rules now, as a huge title match has been added to the show’s card.
On social media, WWE confirmed that the Usos will defend their SmackDown Tag Team Championships against the Street Profits
on September 26th. In their last two encounters, the Usos have got themselves disqualified, and retained the
titles at the recent Super SmackDown in Madison Square Garden, but the profits are hoping it’s third times the charm later this month.
There’s still no RAW Tag title match for the card, despite the belief among fans that RK-Bro will defend against MVP and Bobby Lashley,
but that match, originally planned for this week’s RAW isn’t happening soon. Instead of having tag-title shot this past Monday
RAW saw Bobby Lashley lose the WWE Championship to Big E, and MVP take an RKO by Randy Orton.
Last night, WWE sent out a status update, saying that MVP had suffered a broken rib during the attack, and no period of time
was given as to when he’ll return to in- ring action. MVP is now out indefinitely, in what’s believed
to be a storyline injury, and with his and Lashley’s RAW Tag Title match apparently off the table, things keep going from bad to worse
for the Almighty and his manager.
Since returning at Summerslam, Becky Lynch has done all she can to get over her new heel character, including refusing to defend
her title against Bianca Belair. That match will now happen at Extreme Rules, but fans may be calling the Man by
a different nickname, thanks to WWE’s newest trademark. On September 13th, WWE filed a trademark
for ‘Big Time Becks’ with the US Patent Office, and can use it for the usual ways, such as at wrestling events and for merchandise.
It appears that Big Time Becks isn’t going away and odds are that name will show up on a slew of merchandise eventually.
More from RAW, as Nikki A.S.H got a big win this week, but it happened in the most bizzarre of ways.
On Monday’s show, Nikki got the win over Tamina Snuka, but Snuka’s music played, and she was announced as the winner of the match.
This farce happened when Nikki hit a tornado DDT and pin combination, but Tamina kicked out just as the ref counted to three.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer said that the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion was always meant to win the match, but the referee
didn’t see her kick-out, and as per instructions, called the match like a shoot, hence why Nikki got the pin.
Backstage, the ref apologised for the botch, and since the ring announcer knew Snuka was meant to win, they announced her as
the winner instead. Nikki and Tamina reacted well to the botch, as an impromptu beatdown led to Rhea Ripley
making the save, and even with the announcers covering for the mistake and announcing Nikki as the winner, this all made for a strange moment
during this past Monday’s show.
AEW news next, as the company continues to go from strength-to-strength, especially when it comes to the coveted 18-49 demographic.
Wrestlenomics reports that this week’s Dynamite brought in an average 1.175 million viewers, and with 574,000 coming from the 18-49
demographic, Dynamite scored a .44 rating. That’s higher than RAW, which did a .43, meaning Dynamite had beaten the red brand
for the second week in a row. With that said, this .44 for Dynamite is quite the fall from last week, which saw the show
do a .53 in the 18-49 band, with 1.3 million viewers tuning in. AEW Dynamite may have lost viewers this
week, but they still had enough in the precious 18-49 demo to beat RAW yet again, and we’re expecting a similar result with their huge
Grand Slam Dynamite special next week.
For years, WWE Monday Night RAW was the company’s flagship show, where top names like Triple H, John Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin
ruled for years. Over the past two years, the moniker as WWE’s A-Show has moved to SmackDown, which
now receives much more focus, as Vince McMahon wants to keep on good terms with FOX, who’ve invested a lot of money for the
distribution rights for the blue brand. Now, that may change once man, at least according to Andrew Zarian, who said on
his Mat Men Wrestling podcast that WWE’s network partners, FOX and USA, want both main-roster shows to be treated evenly.
Zarian explained that from now on, if you see something big on one show, you can expect something big to happen on the other, even
if it doesn’t happen In the same week. He added that both FOX and the USA Network don’t want to hear about either RAW or
SmackDown being the B-Show, as they’ve paid millions of dollars for these shows, and want the very best.
With Monday Night Football underway once more, WWE will have to book a lot of RAW shows in order to maintain their already dwindling
viewership figure, and the company would be wise to keep both networks happy, even if it means a lot more big moments
CM Punk knows all about big moments, as he made one for AEW by debuting at the First Dance Rampage, in what was an emotional
night for long-term fans. One fan in the crowd was see openly weeping, which AEW focussed on during
their product, sparking a thousand memes and some others fans to ridicule his crying.
Punk himself has said that if people mock emotional fans, they mock him too, as the former WWE Champion wanted to make things
right with the fan in question. It looks like AEW tracked that fan down and set him up with some VIP access, as he
appeared with Punk in a photo and that fan was sporting an AEW All Access sticker on his shirt.
It’s great that AEW was able to track the fan down, and this has no-doubt made him a supporter of AEW for life, thanks to a gesture
of true generosity from the company, for someone who was being unfairly mocked, just for enjoying the moment.
This week, WWE launched the rebranded NXT 2.0, which featured a lot of new names make their debut.
Bron Breakker certainly made an impression, defeating LA Knight and later staring down new NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa,
but there's been some confusion over his name. Breakker, real name Bronson Rechsteiner,
is the son of Rick Steiner, NXT have so far avoided mentioning his wrestling pedigree. During his show, Dave Meltzer said that NXT's
commentary team have told explicitly not to mention Breakker's family under any circumstance.
Meltzer didn't explain why, but given the years of tirades by his uncle Scott, it's understandable that WWE want to keep
their distance from the Steiner name. According to PW Insider, Breakker’s name was presumably switched up for copyright reasons
as they explained: We are told you can expect quite the push for Bron Breaker in the weeks ahead. For those
who have asked why WWE quickly pivoted from his initially planned (and awesome) ring name of Rex Steiner, one source pointed to
the company wanting to create and own the trademarks of all their talents’ ring names as the likely reason for the switch.
During NXT, Breakker was described as having a "dog-faced gremlin mentality," a reference to his father's nickname, and although we'll be
seeing a lot more of Bron, seemingly in the NXT title picture, his family history is strictly off limits.
NXT’s commentary team may not be able to speak about Breakker’s family, but that hasn’t stopped Drake Maverick, who’s given a
suggestion of what the new Superstar should do next in his Career. On Twitter, the former 24/7 Champion said
that Breakker will one-day cut a promo about someone having a 33 1/3 chance of winning, and that everyone will rejoice
This is a reference to the infamous Scott Steiner promo from TNA, where he tried, and failed, to use math to explain why he’d win
the triple threat between himself, Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe at Sacrifice 2008. Steiner lost that match but his legendary
promo lives on, and we’ll have to see if Breakker is more comprehensible than his uncle in NXT 2.0.
Ever since AEW has been around, WWE have chosen to avoid referencing the competition on TV, the exact opposite of AEW’s strategy.
Although WWE usually avoids discussing AEW, Roman Reigns recently claimed that WWE ran New York City during the Madison Square
Garden SmackDown, which some believed was a reference to AEW’s upcoming Grand Slam in Flushing, New York
During Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alverez said that many in WWE were pleased with the Tribal Chief’s comments, but that feeling was
short-lived. “Someone in WWE texted me and they were all excited when Roman Reigns made that
comment last week, and the comment that the Usos made and they were so happy that they had taken the shot, and then on Dynamite,
Christian took a shot at WWE and they were angry. I was like, bro, come on it goes both ways, that’s just what’s gonna happen.”
For anyone who didn’t watch this week’s Dynamite, Christian Cage said that Adam Cole had been dragged away from developmental,
despite NXT being established as it’s own brand, and that the former NXT Champion was used to losing, referencing the Wednesday Night Wars.
The argument could be made that Reigns’ comment wasn’t in reference to AEW, but Cage was definitely mocking WWE’s programming,
becoming the latest AEW talent to take a jab at Vince McMahon’s company. Odds are AEW will never stop with these
little snipes at WWE, as it’s been the company’s M.O since day one, especially since it angers some top names in McMahon’s promotion
Impact Wrestling news, as the company has a roster full of stars, and one of their veterans will be sticking around for even longer.
PW Insider has announced that Rhino has signed a new deal with Impact, for a yet- to-be-determined amount of time.
Rhino is currently a member of ‘Violent by Design’ and has been with Impact since July 2019, after his WWE release.
At the time, WWE offered him a contract to stay but it wasn’t to the Man-Beast’s liking, and now fans will see plenty more of him on Impact TV.
More from AEW, as since winning the gold on the May 12th Dynamite, Miro has dominated AEW as it’s TNT Champion, claiming to be
God’s Favourite Champion. In his reign, the former Rusev has dispatched of Darby Allin, Lance Archer,
Evil Uno and Eddie Kingston, but the Champ may have now met his match. That’s according to Dave Meltzer, who said
on his show that AEW’s plan is for Miro to take on Sammy Guevara, and the Bulgarian’s match tonight with Fuego Del Sol is how we
arrived at that feud. Meltzer gave his own opinion on the title, saying he believes Guevara should be the
the one to dethrone Miro, and if anyone’s going to topple God’s favourite Champion, it may indeed be the Spanish God of AEW.
Back to WWE, and Bo Dallas was released this year after a lengthy run with the company, and the former NXT Champion hasn’t appeared
anywhere else since. It’s been nearly two years since Dallas’ last televised match, but fans can see him again
on YouTube, but not in the ring. On Twitter, the B-Team alum shared a photo of himself in the kitchen, promising that something
is cooking, and fans should check out his YouTube channel from October 1st. Dallas’ YouTube channel, which is under
under his real-name Taylor Rotunda, has no videos yet, but will apparently have some starting next month.
The former WWE Superstar has said that he’s not done with pro-wrestling, and while we don’t know when he’ll compete again,
we’ll all be able to see what the Bo is Cookin’ next month.
And we’re ending with NXT UK, which has Bailey Matthews, the son of William Regal on it’s roster, but he won’t be using that name anymore.
Now, Matthews has been repackaged as Charlie Demspey, and a teaser vignette advertised him as such during this week’s NXT UK,
and with WWE trademarking the name in mid-August, there’s clearly plans for the son of William Regal.