Here's your wrestling news for August 13th, 2022.
And we're kicking off today with SmackDown,
which came one week after Karrion Kross’
huge return.
Last week, cross returned with his wife, Scarlett
with fans speculating all week as to what they do
next, but we didn't get too many answers last night.
Instead the couple were restricted to a
backstage segment where Kross made it clear.
He has his sight set on drew McIntyre and Roman reigns
something that was already made clear during his return.
Given the positioning cross could very much
challenge Roman reigns post clash at the castle.
Should the tribal chief retain the title.
Some have even suggested that cross will help
brains defeat MacIntyre in Cardiff forming an easy
Alliance before cross eventually betrays the blood.
Whatever the case it's clear that cross is just
getting started in smack Down's main event.
Even if we didn't get many answers.
During last night's broadcast SmackDown also saw a contract signing
between liv Morgan and Shayna Basler who made their SmackDown
women's championship match official for clash at the castle.
The biggest surprise of the segment, however, was the return of
Rhonda Rousey who stormed in with a bag of money to pay off her fine,
indicating that WWE only planned on suspending her for a little while.
Morgan is expected by many to retain against Basler and Cardiff.
But if the plan is for her to resume a feud with rousey, then
it does raise questions about her title reign between Morgan's
controversial win at summer slam and rousey suspension.
It certainly feels like WWE is doing all they can to extend Liv's
title reign, which does make it come across that the baby face
is simply unable to hold her own against the former UFC fighter.
This has been an issue for Morgan's entire run as champion
so far that she's been booked as lucky, rather than skilled.
And may explain why some fans have started to turn on her.
If Morgan retains against Basler, then WWE can drag out
her title reign until October's extreme rules event.
But WWE is running out of reasons for Morgan
to be able to put off facing the now heal.
Rhonda Rousy.
More from SmackDown.
Now, as the show, didn't just see the superstars of the
blue brand, but also saw three more returns to the show.
Prior to the show, it was reported that hit rose top dollar
and Ashante Adonis were scheduled to be at SmackDown.
And not only did they return, but they didn't come alone.
Appearing on SmackDown.
The duo returned alongside B fab and made
quick work over a couple of enhancement talent.
Post match the trio reintroduce themselves as the
OG three of Hit row innovation from the crowd.
While these are the OG three, the group was originally
a quartet, which also included Isaiah swerve.
Scott, who's now an AEWs swerve Strickland.
When a fan tweeted it Strickland saying how he now has to return to
WWE as he's wasting away in AEW Strickland shared an image of all
the AEW champions, which includes himself as one half of the AEW tag
team champions hit rose return was huge on tonight's SmackDown, but
they'll have to go on ahead without Swerve swerve Strickland, and
it remains to be seen with the OG three do, now that they're back.
In the two weeks since triple H has been in charge of WWE's talent
relations department, the promotion has seen several returns.
Summer slam saw the return of Dakota Kai.
Well, last Friday, smack down, saw the
return of Karrion Kross and Scarlet.
And it was during this week's raw that Dexter Lumis made his
presence, felt all of these returns have been overseen by the game
and fans can expect even more ex superstars to make a comeback.
According to fightfull select sources within WWE said that the
returns aren't stopping soon, though, it should be noted that
the report didn't say who these future returns may involve.
As we mentioned earlier last night, SmackDown also
saw three quarters of hit row return as top dollar
Ashanti, Adonis, and B fab all made their presence felt.
Triple H clearly has a vision for WWE and a large
part of that means undoing what his father-in-law did.
But who do you want to see?
Come back to WWE?
Let us know.
In the comments, two names fans are hoping to see,
or Sasha banks and Naomi who walked out of raw
during the May 16th episode, over a creative dispute.
After the pair was stripped of the WWE women's tag
team titles, it seemed like both women were done
with WWE, but that was before Vince McMahon retire.
The ex-chairman gone.
It's expected that both will be back and in the
latest wrestling observer newsletter, Dave melter
revealed that the pair will be back very soon.
The current plan is for banks and Naomi to have some
involvement in the ongoing WWE women's tag title
tournament, despite all spaces already being filled.
The belief is that banks in Naomi will be a
surprise addition to the tournament though.
It's unclear how WWE would fit this ninth team
into the ongoing eight team, all female brackets.
It's been reported that banks in Naomi have already agreed to
a WWE return and unless plans change fans can expect to see
both women back within a matter of weeks, we are heading across
the pond next as NXT UK has been running since late 2018, but
things are far from easy in the promotion at the moment earlier
this week, two sets of tapings were canceled and this has
been a cause for great concern throughout the entire roster.
In the observer newsletter Meltzer notes that the talented
crew were told that the taping had been canceled because
BT sports studios required the area for soccer coverage.
This didn't sit well with the superstars who believed
that another venue could have been found for the taping.
And many have said that flat out
canceling tapings is never a good sign.
That's not the only issue NXT UK is facing as Ilja
Dragunov recently had to vacate the NXT UK championship,
which has been seen as a huge blow to morale.
Well, NXT UK has been running for years.
The brand has never been treated on the same level
as raw SmackDown or NXT 2.0, and it looks like
difficult times are ahead for the UK based show.
If you've watched WWE you'll know that name changes than the
company or nothing rare, especially over the past few months.
It was earlier this year that Vince McMahon made
a rule banning any part of a wrestler's real name,
which forced a lot of changes across the roster.
This rule changed Walter to Gunther Pete Dunn,
to Butch and Austin theory to just theory.
But now this rule may be becoming a thing of the past in the wrestling
observer newsletter, Dave Meltzer notes, that the rule about name
changes may be ending and we've already seen angel get the Garza
part of his name back Meltzer noted that Umberto angel Garza's cousin
and tag team partner is expected to receive the Carrillo part of his
name again, and that other superstars could have recent name changes.
And we're ending today to talk about more name changes as one
superstar, isn't waiting around for the company to make a decision.
When Viper Nivan signed with WWE, her name was changed to
Piper Nivan as Randy orton is the promotions resident Viper.
But when she was called up to the main roster, she was given the name
Doudrop during a recent appearance with inside the ropes, Doudrop
address her name and said she's had talks about getting it changed.
I'll give 100% full transparency about it.
We did have a conversation about it.
We did have a conversation about it because
here's the thing before it was Vince's vision.
And now it's triple H's vision.
So it's like, what's your vision?
And where do you see this going?
Are you open to ideas?
Do drop hasn't had her name changed yet, but it
could be coming as part of triple H's vision for WWE.
So we'll just have to see if Piper Nivan is
able to make an impact on the main roster.