Here's your wrestling news for April 30th 2022
And your headlines for today include
WWE drops their own plans with no explanation on SmackDown
Top SmackDown feud is about how can wrestle the least?
Yet another WWE Superstar has had their name changed
Major update in the attempted kidnapping case of Sonya Deville
WWE Considering huge change to NXT 2.0 – Bring back some of the feel from the original NXT
WWE has lost one of their top NIL signings to their original sport
AEW edited out massive botch from this week’s Dynamite for the West Coast feed
Cody Rhodes announced for next episode of the Broken Skull Sessions.
Cody says he’s too blame for huge issue in wrestling right now! What did he do? And more!
We’re kicking off today with SmackDown, and after weeks of speculation, the next challenger for Roman Reigns has been confirmed.
In what can only be called a ‘bizarre’ series of circumstances, this all started with a contract signing for the title unification match at wrestleMania-Backlash, which was going to see Raw Tag Team
Champions RK-Bro face SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos.
This was meant to be a title unification match, but WWE has randomly dropped this stipulation, and the contract signing was interrupted by Reigns.
With the Bloodline having the numbers advantage, Drew McIntyre emerged, fresh off his victory over Sami Zayn to even the odds.
Backstage, Paul Heyman ordered Adam Pearce to make a change, and instead of a title unification match, it will instead be a six-man tag, pitting the Bloodline against McIntyre and RK-Bro.
It’s hard to say if this was always WWE’s plan, or if they did indeed have an idea for the tag titles to be unified, but then changed their minds on the matter.
Since McIntyre came to SmackDown, it’s been inevitable that he would one day feud with Reigns, but this decision at least extends their feud by at least one month.
McIntyre won’t challenge for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Backlash, but his time will come, most likely at WWE’s next Premium Live event, Hell in a Cell.
One match that is still going ahead as planned at WrestleMania- Backlash is the I-Quit match for the SmackDown Women’s Championship, where Charlotte Flair will defend again against
Rona Rousey
WWE decided to give this feud the main event of the night, but this equated to less than 200 seconds of actual wrestling time.
In the first beat the clock challenge, Rousey made Shotzi say I-Quit in 101 seconds, while Flair failed to beat this time when she faced Aliyah.
It’s an interesting move for WWE to have the focus of one of their biggest feuds right now to be about who can wrestle less, but on this occasion, it was Rousey who got the last laugh.
Judging by the crowd reaction, the former UFC fighter is still struggling to win over large parts of the crowd, perhaps because Shotzi, despite being a heel, still has a lot of support from fans.
Nevertheless, WWE is continuing to tease a huge title change at WrestleMania-Backlash, in what’ll be a physical bout between the two Superstars.
For the past few weeks, several WWE Superstars have undergone name changes, as the company doesn’t want any part of a wrestler’s real name to make it to TV.
This is why the likes of WALTER, Pete Dunne and Austin Theory are now GUNTHER, Butch and just Theory, and now yet another star has had their name cut.
According to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Robert Stone has had his name changed, and will be going by just Mr. Stone going forward.
Like the examples mentioned earlier, this is because Robert is his real name, as the NXT 2.0 star was born Robert Strauss.
It’s been several months since Mr. Stone competed, as he’s instead been working as a manager for Von Wagner, but he’ll now have to deal with his client under a new name.
Now, shortly before Summerslam 2020, Sonya Deville was the victim of an attempted kidnapping when Phillip Thomas broke into her home.
Thomas was arrested and charged with various crimes, but was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial, and now this case is officially closed.
Wrestling Inc reports that all cases have been closed, and it’s unclear at this time if Thomas is still at the Florida State Hospital he was mandated to visit.
At the time of the incident, Deville was feuding with Mandy Rose,but their originally planned Hair Vs. Hair match at Summerslam was changed to a Loser Leaves WWE match, giving Deville time off to recover.
Just this week, Deville said on Pat McAfee’s show that the ordeal had left her afraid to go back to her own home, but as far as the law is concerned, this case is officially finished.
When WWE instituted their collegiate NIL program last year, they did so with the hope of finding athletic individuals who they could train in WWE’s style of wrestling.
Since then, several college athletes from various sports have been signed, but now WWE has lost one of their contracted clients.
In a tweet, it was confirmed that Lexi Gordon, who played for the Duke Blue Devils, has signed a deal with the LA Sparks basketball team, as part of their 2022 training camp roster.
WWE themselves tweeted their congratulations to Goran, who was part of the inaugural class of NIL athletes that were announced in December 2021.
As an undrafted player, Gordon will have to overcome a lot of odds to make it into the WNBA, but even if her return to basketball doesn’t play out, WWE will be merely a phone call away.
For the last 19 months, WWE has hosted NXT from the Performance Center, after years of the brand emanating from Full Sail University.
It was while at Full Sail that NXT was at it’s arguable heights in popularity, and now the paint-splattered brand may be heading back home.
In the Observer, Dave Meltzer notes that there has been talks of bringing NXT 2.0 back to Full Sail, but this would hinge on the University allowing the show to come back.
The main bonus to Full Sail is that WWE being around gives students there the opportunity to learn vital skills in a professional setting, while WWE will be able to benefit from having a team
of students hungry to get any experience they can.
It’s worth stating that at this time, a return to Full Sail has only been discussed behind the scenes in WWE, and neither the promotion nor the University have made any concrete plans.
Over to AEW now, as this week’s Dynamite saw the TNT Champion change hands, as Scorpio Sky bested Sammy Guevara in a ladder match to win the gold.
This match was easily the match of the night, but it also saw a huge botch, but one that those fans watching on the West Coast didn’t get to see.
As explained in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, at one point in the match, Guevara attempted a 630 body block on Sky but missed completely, but the latter still sold the move.
Sky sold the move so much that it got silly how slowly he climbed the ladder, giving Guevara the chance to recover, and when the show aired on the West Coast, the split screen during this time in
the match was completely blacked out. Not only did Guevara lose his title, but he also suffered an injury during the match, and between
those two setbacks and this huge both, this ladder match didn’t go at all as the Spanish God, or AEW, had planned.
Back to WWE, and Cody Rhodes has had plenty of momentum since returning at WrestleMania 38, mere weeks after he left AEW.
Rhodes had plenty to say about WWE during his time with AEW, and fans will soon get to hear much more from the American Nightmare.
On Twitter, ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin announced that Rhodes will be featured on the next episode of his Broken Skull Sessions podcast, which will air next Friday on the WWE Network and Peacock.
After 15 years since his WWE debut, and after finding success both in and out of WWE, fans will no doubt be interested to hear what Rhodes has to say, and hopefully no topics will be
off limits when he sits down with the Texas Rattlesnake.
And we’re ending with more from Rhodes, who’s episode of the Broken Skull Sessions will air next Friday, but the former AEW TNT Champion has already had some things to say about both
his old and current employer.
On After the Bell, Rhodes spoke to Corey Graves about the divide between wrestling fans right now, and admitted that at least part of the tension between WWE and AEW fans is his fault. He said:
“The last shows I had done before making this WWE return, I’m taking little fun potshots and talking smack which is what wrestlers do. I think sometimes the fans that attach themselves
to those statements forget that we are in the realm of entertainment, but I added to the tribalism myself, so I can’t necessarily get mad at it when I see it.”
AEW has never shied away from taking digs at WWE, and just this week had the Jericho Appreciation Society call the fans the ‘AEW Galaxy’ a dig at WWE calling their audience the WWE Universe.
To his credit, Rhodes has avoided bashing AEW since returning to the WWE, and he’s hoping fans are able to get along, despite what he did by his own admission, to cause the divide between fans
of the two promotions.