Here's your wrestling news for March 1st 2022
And your headlines for today include
Randy Orton Gets Pinned After A Potential Botched Ending On WWE RAW; Is Randy Orton seriously Injured? What Happened After
Went Off Air?
What Is The Current RAW Tag Team Title Scene And What Lies Ahead?
Bianca Belair Winning At WrestleMania Isn't As Obvious As It Seems!
WWE Star Involved In A Shooting, One Man Hospitalized!
Edge Turns Heel And Destroys Former WWE Champion To Set Up Dream Match At WrestleMania 38!
Is WWE Finally Taking Finn Balor Seriously?
WrestleMania 38 Internal Schedule Leaks A MAJOR Match!
Why Becky Lynch Was Pulled From WWE Live Event Revealed!
John Cena’s Current WWE WrestleMania 38 Status Confirmed! And More!
We’re kicking off today with RAW, as this week’s show saw RK-Bro face the Street Profits in a match that didn’t go as planned.
The Profits were able to pick up the win after some kind of botch, since all four Superstars stood in the ring looking awkward after the pinfall.
During the match, Montez Ford hit Randy Orton with a frogsplash right on his face, and the Viper would quickly roll over to the ropes and get pinned.
Aware that he was near the bottom rope, Orton tried to kick his foot onto the bottom rope, which would break the pinfall, but Angelo Dawkins was
there to stop it.
That’s at least what the plan was, but Orton was too far from the ropes, so it instead appeared that Dawkins just wanted to grab his opponent’s leg.
When Orton looked to see where his foot was, it also looked like he got his shoulder off the mat, which should’ve broken the pinfall but went unnoticed.
This was all a messy ending to an otherwise fun tag match, and its now being reported that the Legend Killer may have been injured during the match.
In fan-recorded footage from the show, Orton can be seen favouring his right shoulder, aided by Riddle and the referee.
It’s believed that Ford’s frogsplash is what did the damage to his shoulder, and the referee was seen attending to Orton with great concern
after the pin. This injury couldn’t come at a worse time, not only because WrestleMania is near,
but because RK-Bro along with Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins are meant to challenge Alpha Academy for the RAW Tag Team Titles next week.
We’ll only know for sure what the future holds for Orton in the coming days, but given his history of shoulder issues, this doesn’t look good at all.
This wasn’t the only major tag-title match this week, as Rollins and Owens got to face the Alpha Academy in non-title action, and got a
win over the champs. This win came after a hilarious back and forth segment between the two teams before the match,
in which Rollins and Owens called out how Chad Gable says “thank you,” which is admittedly pretty weird.
This win of course means that the team of former Universal Champions are unlikely to w in the titles net week, but if Orton is injured,
then its entirely likely plans could change.
An Orton injury would practically guarantee that RK-Bro won’t win, or even be in next week’s match, unless Riddle competes on his own.
If they are to be replaced, the Street Profits are the most likely choice, but for now, all signs point to Chad Gable and Otis retaining in 6 days time.
RAW also saw Bianca Belair once again be predominantly featured, as the EST seems poised for another huge victory at WrestleMania.
To her credit, Belair has been one of WWE’s most popular babyfaces for a while now, and with Charlotte Flair a heel champion,
Becky Lynch a heel Champion and Sasha Banks a face but in the Women’s Tag Title picture, WWE needs a face Superstar to
challenge for singles gold. Belair has certainly held her own following her loss to Lynch at Summerslam, as she not only
went through the Elimination Chamber to earn her WrestleMania match, but whipped Becky Lynch with her braid on this week’s RAW.
Big Time Becks is visibly in fear of facing the EST, and Belair’s character work has only made her seem more like a threat.
Every sign we’ve seen points to Belair getting her crowning moment this April, but is WWE building her up a little too well to defeat The Man?
Belair may be the underdog on paper, but she’s the clear favourite going into this match, but we can’t rule out WWE swerving fans for the sake
of a swerve and having Lynch retain on April 2nd.
We’ve got some shocking news from UFC/WWE star Cain Velasquez, who has been involved in a shooting.
Last Monday night, police reported that the shooting had resulted in one person being taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
A former UFC World Heavyweight Champion, Velasquez joined WWE in late 2019, appearing on the 20th Anniversary of SmackDown
alongside Rey Mysterio to confront Brock Lesnar.
Velasquez would go on to face Brock Lesnar at that year’s Crown Jewel, losing to the WWE Champion.
There were rumors that he would be involved in the 2020 Royal Rumble but a reported eye injury forced those plans to be scrapped before
Velasquez was released on April 28th that year. Its unclear how Velasquez was involved in the shooting, only that he was involved, and we’ll e
sure to keep following this story for any updates as more details come out.
Back to RAW as last week’s show saw Edge tease several opponents for WrestleMania, but this week saw him confirm who he’ll face
this April. On last night’s show, AJ Styles answered the call by the Rated R-Superstar which wasn’t too
surprising, as the pair have both said in interviews for a while now that they’d love to face each other.
Edge didn’t hold back on his comments about Styles, saying he wants the “bulldog” version of AJ who became WWE Champion in his first
year with the company, not the one who played second fiddle to Omos.
Styles had little to say to Edge, and wouldn’t say anything for the rest of the night as he was attacked by Edge, who cemented his heel turn.
With numerous chair shots to his WrestleMania opponent, Edge has confirmed that he’s return to his dastardly ways, though it’ll be interesting to
see how many fans can genuinely boo a man who made a miraculous, heart-wrenching return from retirement two years ago
A match between a Hall of Famer and a future Hall of Famer, it’ll be interesting to see if Styles can get a win, and possibly build momentum
back to the World title scene, or if this new version of the Rated R Superstar will be too much for him next month
Are you excited for this match? Who would you have chosen as Edge’s opponent if not Styles? Sound off in the comments
RAW also saw Damian Priest put the U.S. title on the line against Finn Balor, in a match that the Irishman really needed to win more.
Balor’s return to the red brand has been off to say the least, especially after his phenomenal return to NXT, so it was good to see the
Prince beat Priest. This marks Balor’s first U.S. title victory, and his first main-roster championship since
July 2019, after last year’s shot at the Universal title not only didn’t see him win, but also resulted in WWE greatly damaging the Demon King character.
Balor’s win gave fans a sigh of relief, especially after reports that Finn would only be used on RAW to put over new stars like Austin Theory
but the new Champion didn’t have long to savour his win. After the match, Damian Priest confirmed
his heel turn by attacking Balor, and all signs point towards a championship rematch at WrestleMania 38.
With Priest unleashing a darker side this week, it may be time for Balor to do the same, so don’t be surprised if the Demon re-emerges
inside AT&T Stadium
Last week, we reported on the rumor that Vince McMahon will face Pat McAfee at WrestleMania, in what’ll be the Chairman’s first match in
nearly a decade. It’s even been reported that the match will use hypothetical “smoke and mirrors,” most likely
interference to keep the 76-year-old McMahon’s physicality to a minimum, and now we’ve gotten our biggest sign that this rumored match is
going ahead. The match has yet to be confirmed on WWE TV, but according to Dave Meltzer, McMahon
Vs. McAfee has been listed on the card in the internal schedule for WrestleMania 38. McMahon’s last match saw him face CM Punk
an October 2012 edition of RAW, while McAfee only started wrestling for WWE in 2020, and the two are very likely to face off next month.
At WrestleMania, RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch will defend her title against Bianca Belair, in a match months in the making.
Ever since Lynch’s return and 26-second win over Belair at Summerslam 2021, this match has been in the works, but this feud is now in some jeopardy.
This past weekend, Lynch was advertised to compete at a live event in Youngtown, Ohio, but was pulled from the fatal four-way RAW
Women’s title match that was meant to headline the show. Instead, the match was moved down the card
and became a triple threat between Lynch’s opponents, and that match saw Bianca Belair get the win over Liv Morgan and Doudrop
No explanation was given at the show as to why Lynch was pulled, but in an update it was reported that she had a slight issue in
her ankle, and the decision was made to keep her off the show. Hopefully this issue isn’t too serious and Big
Time Becks will be ready to go soon, as with WrestleMania 38 now just 32 days away, the last thing WWE needs is to lose the reigning .
RAW Women’s Champion.
And we’re ending today with more from WrestleMania, as WWE is working hard to bring in as many big names as they can, but will
have to go without one of their biggest performers
John Cena is no doubt a WWE icon at this point and while the company would love to see him back, this won't be the case next month.
When Ringside News asked about Cena's status for Wrestlemania, they were told that he's not booked for the show, but like
everything else, his name had been brought up. One source said:
"Cena was discussed, as was everyone outside of religion and politics, but Cena was never a real possibility."
Cena’s last match in WWE saw him team with the Mysterios to win a tag-match against the Bloodline at an October Live event inside MSG,
with his last televised match being his loss to Roman Reigns at Summerslam. A star in Hollywood and on HBO, Cena is
unquestionably in high demand, and while he may have received heat recently for his comment on the Russia-Ukraine crisis in which
he referenced Peacemaker, the former World Champion remains too busy for WWE at this time.