Here's your wrestling news for June 10th 2021
And your headlines for today include
WWE NOT Currently Planning Brock Lesnar Dream Match For SummerSlam!
Current WWE Star Takes A DIG At LIO Rush On Twitter; Apologized Later!
Braun Strowman Reportedly Charging Exorbitant Fee For Post-WWE Indie Bookings!
Eric Bischoff Is Convinced WWE Is Not Going Up For Sale!
Why Indie Promoters Reportedly Want To Work With Buddy Murphy In His Post- WWE Career!
Vince McMahon Apologized To Aleister Black For Failing To Push Him In WWE!
Backstage Reports Of A "Push" To Bring Aleister Black Back To WWE!
Are AOP Retired From Wrestling! And More!
We’re starting today with Summerslam, as WWE is preparing a huge event for the August 21st Pay-Per-View in Allegiant
Stadium, with it speculated that Brock Lesnar will headline the show. Lesnar left WWE in April 2020, and the
belief is that the Beast will return to WWE alongside live fans, to build to the long-anticipated dream match with
WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. It now appears that won’t be happening, as Dave Meltzer explained on the Sunday
Night’s Main Event podcast, that Lesnar isn’t slated for the show. He said:
As of a week ago, Lesnar and Lashley was not on (the SummerSlam card). Now, it can always change. They can always
offer him money, he will do it. Again, it’s up to Vince but they had not made the call a week ago. And I know there’s
forces there that don’t want Lesnar there until it’s a feud with Reigns.” As for Roman Reigns, it’s believed he’ll be
defending the Universal Championship against John Cena at Summerslam. Lesnar did recently re-appear on WWE’s
roster page, meaning it’s possible he’s inked a new deal, but with the Tribal Chief already booked for Summerslam
fans will have to wait until after August to see the Beast in action once again.
Now, yesterday, we reported that Lio Rush has announced his retirement from wrestling, after an undisclosed
injury suffered at AEW Double or Nothing. The New Japan star, who was the Joker during the Casino Battle Royale received
an outpouring of support following his announcement, but not everyone had kind words for Rush.
In a now-deleted tweet, Greg Hamilton unloaded on the former Cruiserweight Champion, saying:
Wow…..unreal…..if we all didn’t have our own lives and families to take care of I just might pretend I give a [cursing emoji] .
On behalf of the wrestling family and community who work for a living) On to the gym. [eye-rolling emoji]
When a fan asked the SmackDown announcer where his tweet about Rush went, he replied “You tell me,” but later
apologised for his words in a follow-up tweet, saying that he has all the respect in the world for Rush, even if they didn’t
see eye-to-eye backstage. We’ll have to see what Rush does next, as he has a budding music career,
as well as a growing family, and hopefully Hamilton thinks twice before he lashes out.
Release news next, as Braun Strowman was cut from WWE last week, and he’s not wasted anytime looking for bookings
outside the company. Despite once saying that he’d rather hang up his boots than wrestle outside
of WWE, the former Universal Champion has had a change of heart, as he’s reportedly already booking
post-WWE appearances on the indies. According to PW Insider, Strowman doesn’t come cheap, as he’s charging a
five-figure number to make an appearance. Word is that Strowman is pretty set
financially, and doesn’t need to immediately start booking indie appearances, but if a promoter is willing to
pay tens of thousands of dollars for him, he would be interested. As for now, Strowman is under the
standard 90-day non-compete clause with WWE which expires August 31st, and time will tell which promotions pay
big money for the former Superstar.
Strowman is just one of the dozens of WWE employees from both on and off- screen that have been cut in the past
month, with many believing these cost- cutting measures are ahead of WWE being put up for sale.
believe WWE will soon be up for sale. Even people in WWE are starting to believe that Vince McMahon and Nick Khan
are on the hunt for buyers, but Eric Bischoff isn’t buying it. Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast,
Bischoff discussed the rumoured sale, and disputed the idea that it’ll happen anytime soon:
“The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced WWE is not for sale. I’m not suggesting that’ll never happen. Nobody
knows for sure, and I’m not privy to any inside information. But I’m more and more convinced that what WWE is doing –
and I think Nick Khan is probably the catalyst for a lot of this – is making good business decisions. What was their stock
price before COVD? Somewhere around 70 bucks a share, give or take. Now, it dropped down to the mid-30s when COVID hit.”
“I was pretty convinced that without touring ……the idea that component of that business model was going to evaporate,
I was kind of like wow, this is not pretty for WWE. That entire company has been set up on a business model where live
events and merchandising were such a big chunk of their overall revenue stream. The stock went down, and I thought it
was gonna be hard for this company to get back where they were. But I think the stock is around 56 or 58 dollars a share.
If I’m WWE, and I’m on the board or the chairman or just a shareholder, I’m sitting here wondering what they are
gonna do to get that stock price back up to where it was. That should be everybody’s goal.”
Nick Khan has made a lot of changes since taking over as WWE President from Michelle Wilson and George Barrios,
including firing a lot of people at a time of record profits. WWE also has guaranteed money from
their TV deals and their lucrative contract with Saudi Arabia, and whilst the company could be attractive to the right buyer, the
bigger question is who would be in the market, and have the revenue, to make such a purchase.
More release news as former Cruiserweight Champion Buddy Murphy was cut last week, but he won’t be
struggling to make a living outside WWE. PW Insider reports that ever since Murphy’s release on June 2nd, that there’s
been a lot of top promoters who’ve been interested in working with him, with the feeling that he could have
ton of dream matches with some of the top indie wrestlers. The Australian wrestler signed with WWE
in 2013, moving from his homeland to do so, and like Strowman and all Superstars released last week, is subject to a
non-compete clause. That clause expires on August 31st, and with promoters lining up to work with him,
the self-professed ‘Best Kept Secret’ of WWE won’t be a secret for much longer.
Like Murphy, Aleister Black was another victim of WWE’s recent cuts, but he’s had plenty to say about his tenure in the
company. Speaking recently on Oral Sessions, End discussed the final minutes of his time as
a WWE Superstar, and revealed a lengthy call he had with WWE’s most important people when he was cut. He said:
“I had a conversation with Bruce Prichard and Vince (McMahon) that lasted about 30-45 minutes. It was a long talk – but it
was a good talk. Again, full of praise, complimenting my ability to be honest with them whilst being respectful and just
saying how much he respected my creative thought process. And he also understood that there were things during
my time in the main roster that did not go the way he wanted it to go, and he said, ‘I’m sorry for that, I apologize.
Let’s do it this way. I’m going to send you home for a bit, we’re going to get some separation between you and Kevin
Owens and when you come back, we’re off to the races.'” Black did return to TV after this absence
but was released not long after, though he may not be gone from WWE TV for very long.
That’s according to PW Insider, who report that the general consensus in WWE is that the Dutch Superstar was “cut too soon,
and was a victim of broken promises and stop/start pushes, rather than any of his own actions leading to his release.
There is also reportedly a push within WWE for the company to bring him back, but it isn’t noted which Superstars are
part of that movement. Ultimately, only Vince McMahon can decide whether Aleister Black makes a return to
WWE TV, but it certainly helps his chances that there’s a lot of people still in WWE on the Dutchman’s side.
More release news, as AOP was cut from WWE last September, and haven’t competed since, with their last wrestling
match be an 8-person tag team victory on the March 9th 2020 RAW. Recently, a report claimed the reason they
they haven’t wrestled in over a year is because they’ve chosen to retire from the ring, but that isn’t the case.
On Twitter, Rezar addressed the retirement rumours with a photo of himself, Akam and Paul Ellering giving the
middle fingers, with the caption making it clear that the team isn’t done yet. This is an interesting situation, as the
initial report noted that the team were telling interested indie promoters that they’re not taking bookings anymore
but the Authors of Pain aren’t as finished as first believed.
At WrestleMania-Backlash, The Miz suffered some kind of injury that is keeping him from the ring, but that
won’t stop WWE’s resident A-Lister making appearance for other sports. It’s been confirmed that The Miz will be
part of the festivities for the MLB All- Star game next month, and will be at the Celebrity Softball game.
The Miz didn’t specify if he’d be playing, or merely there, but that all depends on how his injured knee is doing.
What we do know is that the former WWE Champion is excited to take part, and fans will get to see him at the big
game on July 11th at Coors Field.
And we’re ending today with some documentary news, as several of WWE’s own projects have been
nominated for some very prestigious awards. As part of the New York Festivals TV
and Film Awards, the ‘Second Mountain’ WWE 24 documentary, detailing Edge’s return has been nominated for the
Biography/Profiles award, whilst the Chronicle doc on Jey Uso is in the running for the best Cinematography for a production.
The WWE Untold documentary on Goldberg’s legendary streak is up for the best Streaming Documentary awards,
and we’ll have to see if WWE adds any awards to their collection when the winners are announced on October
12 at the Storytellers Gala Honoring Radio & TV Film Awards in Las Vegas, Nevada.