Here's more wrestling news for July 16th 2021
And your headlines for today include
WWE Thinks Very Highly Of Carmella!
Chris Jericho Opens Up Roman Reigns And Why He Is Successful!
John Cena Promises Peacemaker TV Series ‘Will Turn Up The Volume’ Of The Suicide Squad!
WWE Wrestler Was Worried That Vince McMahon Was Getting His Head Shaved!
Edge Says ‘This Window’ In His Career Isn’t Open For Very Long!
Titus O’Neil Returning To In-Ring Competition!
WWE Nixed Plan For Released WWE Wrestler To Lead NEXUS Stable!
Vince McMahon Likely ‘Hit Hard’ By AEW In New York Market!
Malakai Black Reveals Injury He Suffered On WWE RAW & More!
We’re starting with SmackDown, and tonight’s show will see a huge SmackDown Women’s title match as Bianca Belair will
defend against Carmella. This match was announced following Bayley’s ACL injury, which will keep the
role model out for nine months, and the choice of Carmella as her replacement has been interesting.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed Sasha Banks, who is scheduled to return on tonight’s show,
and why WWE didn’t book a WrestleMania 37 rematch. Meltzer explained that WWE thinks very
highly of Carmella, despite her losing her last two matches, which he explained away saying “they don’t care about wins
and losses.” It was also noted that out of all the women in WWE, Carmella is the one with the big ring
entrance, and with the live crowd returning tonight and WWE wanting to provide a memorable show, an out-of-nowhere title
change may not be as impossible as fans initially believed.
Tonight’s SmackDown will also see Roman Reigns in action, as the Universal Champion continues his incredible reign as the
company’s top star. Reigns returned to WWE after a lengthy hiatus at Summerslam 2020, and won
the Universal title a week later, and his phenomenal run as the Tribal Chief has impressed people outside the company.
Speaking to Keepin it 100 with Konnan, Chris Jericho said he hasn’t kept up with everything WWE and Reigns has been
doing, but he knows him, and isn’t surprised with what he’s read about the Tribal Chief. Jericho said:
I haven’t [kept up] but I’ve been reading about it and it’s no surprise. When I was there in 2016 I worked with Roman
basically all around the world. I was a heel, he was a babyface. It’s a no brainer there. You know what Roman is? I always said
this and he’s doing it now, if you just drop the f*cking script and just let him be him, he’s Cool Hand Luke man. He’s like the
coolest cat. He’s a great guy. Just let him be him, and that’s what he’s doing now, obviously with a heelish slant, which is great.
When he eventually turns babyface he’ll be even bigger than he is now, because he’s just a cool, cool guy. And now they’re
letting him do all this stuff and it doesn’t surprise me that he’s killing it, because he’s that type of performer.”
Reigns’ success over the past year has been because WWE letting him do his own thing, a far cry from scripted,
cringe-inducing word-for-word promos that the company forced on him as a babyface.
Reigns and Jericho will likely never wrestle each other again, unless one joins the other’s company, and even if they don’t
wrestle one another, both men are doing great in their respective companies, thanks to some great booking that brings out the
best in them.
Reigns and Jericho may not be facing off, but the Tribal Chief is expected to take on John Cena at Summerslam, and John’s
return is expected very soon. Since 2017, Cena has transitioned into a part-time Superstar, as he takes on more
movie roles, most recently becoming DC Comics’ Peacemaker in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, and HBO Max series
about the character. In an interview with EW, Cena discussed his character, which he once called a
“douche Captain America,” saying: I would venture to say that Peacemaker actually turns up the volume on anything
that you see in The Suicide Squad. I want people to enjoy The Suicide Squad and I really think they will. Once
they get a feel for these characters they’re going to want more and that’s where Peacemaker picks up.
The Peacemaker spinoff series will be for eight episodes and is releasing in January 2022 and expectations are high for the show.
Whether Cena is a record-breaking 17-time WWE World Champion by then remains to be seen, but after a decade of carrying WWE
through the PG era, he’s confident that fans will want to see more of Peacemaker after the Suicide Squad releases this month.
In 2002, Kurt Angle and Edge faced off in a match that saw the Olympian lose both the match and his hair, and in the 19 years since
then, Kurt’s hair hasn’t grown back. This week, Angle had his old nemesis as a guest on his show, and the pair discussed
the infamous match from that year’s Judgement Day Pay-Per-View. Edge explained that throughout the day of
the show, he was stressing, and for good reason, as he explained: “Well, it was. So, Shane, all day, was trying
to convince me that I’m getting my head shaved, getting my head shaved, getting my head shaved. And he will to this day,
he will say that I bought it. Now, there might have been a percentage of me that went like, ‘God, this is Vince
and these guys, you never know.’ There is that possibility, but I don’t think so, which just goes to show how much has changed,
like we literally, I didn’t find out what they actually wanted, like probably four in the afternoon.”
Angle confirmed that Vince wanted Edge to think he’d be losing his blonde locks, and the Rated-R Superstar added:
“Well, I know what my head feels like. It wouldn’t be pretty; it wouldn’t be pretty. I’d kind of look like, remember that old vampire
movie, Nosferatu. That might be me.” Edge did eventually cut his hair years later, though he wasn’t bald and it did grow back
and it goes to show that Vince McMahon is never afraid to prank his own Superstars for his own amusement.
Speaking of the Rated-R Superstar, Edge will be in tonight’s huge six-man-tag main- event where he’ll team with the Mysterios
to face Roman Reigns and the Usos. During this week’s edition of The Bump, Edge discussed being able to headline
such a historic show, and admitted that fans should enjoy him in the ring while they still can.
“It’s huge. Rey and I talked about it, I mean this will be Dom’s first match in front of an audience, I mean, that’s so cool. I don’t
look past that. I appreciate it. I savor it. I just wanna sit in the pocket of these experiences, because I know this window
isn’t open for very long, so I need to enjoy it.” The WWE Universe haven’t seen Dominik compete in person yet, and a strong
showing tonight could do big things for his career for years to come. As for Edge, the idea of him wrestling on
SmackDown was impossible just a couple of years ago, and we’ll have to see if the Hall of Famer can add one more world title
to his resume before he retires again, for good.
For the past year, Titus O’Neil has been a busy man, representing the WWE as an ambassador and continuing his various
charitable efforts. It’s been quite some time since the inaugurual 24/7 Champion last wrestled
but the Hall of Fame Warrior award recipient is now getting back in the ring. Speaking to DAE on Demand, the
WrestleMania 37 co-host explained that there are plans for him to get back to action, and it’ll be within the next few weeks.
Titus’ last match was in November 2020, when he lost to then-United States Champion Bobby Lashley, and it’ll be
interesting to see who O’Neil faces in his return on the road to Summerslam.
From 2010 to 2011, the Nexus were a dominant force in WWE, first being led by Wade Barrett, before the group was
usurped by CM Punk. Punk’s takeover of the group happened in December 2010, and led to Barrett forming
the Corre on SmackDown, but the Best in the world wasn’t the original plan.
During his MC! True Long Island Story podcast, Matt Cardona said that WWE had plans for him to lead the Nexus, saying
that the script he found a script where he was meant to be the Nexus leader, something that no-one told him at the time.
Cardona said that the storyline would’ve begun with the Nexus having a match, and then Ryder coming out to deliver his
catchphrase ‘Woo Woo Woo, You know it.’ He added: “I think it was gonna be the ‘Woo, Woo,
Woo Nexus’ or something like that. But no one ever told me like this was a plan until years later. I found out because someone, an
ex-WWE writer like held onto the script. So if anyone’s listening to this and has that script—now that I think
about it, I don’t know if I was ever given the script, maybe just told about it. So I would love to read the script.”
We’ll never know what the Nexus could’ve done with Zack Ryder at the helm, but it might have sent everyone involved in a different
direction. If anything, now we know yet another WWE plan that never saw the light of day, and
who knows what Ryder would be doing now had he been the Nexus’ leader after Wade Barrett.
More from AEW, as the promotion brought Fyter Fest Night 1 to Houston this week, and the show impressed fans.
With a violent coffin match and fans wanting to see what was next for Cody Rhodes and Malakai Black, it’s no wonder that Dynamite
brought in 1.025 million viewers, according to PW Torch.
This is the first time they’ve broken 1 million viewers in a while, and they also beat WWE in the 18-49 demographic with a respectable
0.40. This is a sharp increase from the Road Rager event’s 871,000, which itself was a
drop from the previous week’s 883,000, as the company is clearly doing something to get the fans tuning in.
Over to AEW now, as the promotion is heading to the Arthur Ashe Stadium for their Grand Slam Special in New York, which’ll take
place on September 22nd. That same month, WWE will be returning to Madison Square Garden on the 10th, but
tickets haven’t been selling well, causing WWE to brand the September 10th SmackDown a dual-brand Supershow to
generate interest. Even with that extra buzz, it appears WWE won’t be selling out the Garden, and during
his show, Meltzer noted that AEW’s presence is affecting Vince McMahon greatly: “The AEW advanced ticket sales, I’m sure
the New York one is gonna hit Vince hard. I’m sure it’s started to. I’m sure it will, even more, by Friday.
Vince McMahon must know that AEW will be in New York just 12 days after them, but he may not know how well their advanced
tickets have sold, as Tony Khan’s company continues to garner momentum as they return to touring.
And we’re ending with Malakai Black, who wrestled for years in WWE before making the jump to AEW, and has plenty of painful
stories from his tenure with Vince McMahon. During his wife’s Twitch stream, Black explained how he once strained his MCL
during a RAW match against an enhancement talent, saying that his opponent turned during a low kick, saying that the enhancement
talent was probably scared. Black added that at the time, his lower leg felt like it was hanging off him, and any time
he did something, he had to flex his quads and hamstring to pull his knee back into position.
The former NXT Champion didn’t name the opponent, but there’s no shortage of jobbers he beat on RAW, such as Jason Reynolds
Deonn Rusman, Ryan Gingell, or Jason Cade, all of whom Black beat between October 2019 and March 2020.
Pro Wrestling is all about trust between the performers, and the enhancement talent broke that trust by turning when Black
wasn’t expecting, leading to the Dutchman getting injured, and the enhancement talent presumably receiving a hell of a receipt.