Here's your wrestling news for September 18th 2021
And your headlines for today include
Roman Reigns Has Yet Another Opponent Lined Up On Smackdown; Huge Spoiler In The Biggest Title Feud On WWE Smackdown!
Recently Signed WWE Wrestler Davey Boy Smith Jr. Has ‘Disappeared’ From The Company!
Current WWE Wrestler Is TAKEN OFF OF WWE TV; Expected To Miss Several Months!
Is WWE Burying Samoa Joe Once Again?
Ric Flair Trends In A Terrible Way After Dark Side Of The Ring’s ‘Plane Ride From Hell’ Episode! Fans Are Forcing AEW Not To SIGNv
The Legend!
Tommy Dreamer Indefinitely Suspended From Impact Wrestling!
Ric Flair Ad Campaign Paused Due To Dark Side Of The Ring Controversy!
Several Other Former WWE Superstars & Veterans Confirms The Actions Of Flair!
Former Female WWE Wrestler Vents About WWE’s Culture Of ‘Not Selling’ Sexist Behavior! And More!
We’re kicking off with SmackDown, which this week saw RAW’s new WWE Champion Big E on the show.
Big E was a SmackDown Superstar until this week’s cash-in, and we’re not sure whether Big E’s appearance last night was
just a thinly-veiled attempt to get a r atings boost.
Not much about SmackDown made sense, as Big E and Finn Balor were in a championship contenders match against The Usos, which saw
the babyfaces get the win. A good, but unnecessary match, the finish saw a side-by-side Coup-de-Grace and Big Ending
seal the deal for the faces. As for Reigns, he continued his interrogation of Paul Heyman, who apparently knew that
Brock Lesnar was going to return at Summerslam. During the show, Big E teased facing the Tribal
Chief at Survivor Series, making him the third opponent lined up for him after Balor and Lesnar.
We won’t have to wait until November to see Big E and Reigns square-off, as a 6-man tag between the New Day and the Bloodline
has been booked for RAW, and we’re interested to see who gets the win in this match, which is being given away on free TV.
Reigns will face Lesnar at Crown Jewel next month, but this has effectively spoiled the biggest storyline on SmackDown.
With the Crown Jewel match billed as for the Universal title, WWE has seemingly spoiled that Reigns will retain the gold next Sunday
when he faces Finn Balor. Balor’s loss next week is practically confirmed unless WWE pull-off a major swerve, but
there’s always the chance that Lesnar could show up. A surprise appearance would establish the
Beast as a looming threat to the Universal title, and if he does show up at Extreme Rules, a triple-threat title match may not be far-away.
This Summer, Davey Boy Smith Jr signed a new deal with WWE, returning to the company after a decade away.
Since then, the son of the British Bulldog has had one dark-match before the July 16th SmackDown, but has yet to appear on TV
for any brand. Fans shouldn’t expect to see Davey Boy soon, as the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports
that Smith has “disappeared” from WWE for now, after being around backstage for a short while.
There had been plans for Smith to debut as a top star for NXT UK, but that hasn’t happened yet, nor has the previously-discussed match
against WALTER, though that feud would have to be a non-title encounter now that the Austrian is no longer NXT UK Champion.
Wade Keller of PW Torch adds that WWE has hardly shown any interest in the English Superstar since his dark match return a few
weeks ago. Smith was promised a SmackDown debut and feud with Happy Corbin, and after squashing
the heel several times, the third-generation wrestler would’ve moved on to Seth Rollins. As of now however, creative has nothing for
Davey Boy, who is reportedly already regretting his decision to re-sign with WWE.
Some sources have said that WWE’s new plan is for Smith to finally debut at the 2021 draft as a SmackDown Superstar, but with how little
interest the company has shown in him, even making it to TV seems unlikely for the former Unified Tag Team Champion.
One person fans can check out on SmackDown is Seth Rollins, who this week said that a single win over Edge isn’t enough for him, and wants
and wants a trilogy of matches with the Hall of Famer. Many took that as Rollins challenging Edge to
a match, presumably at next Sunday’s Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View, but that won’t be happening.
Last week, Edge was carted off in a stretcher, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that this injury was done to write Edge
off TV, and he’s expected to miss a few months of in-ring action. They report: Edge went out on a stretcher and was taken
away in an ambulance. This will explain Edge not being around for a few months. Since Edge only works part-time it is easy to do injury
angles to explain his being gone but there’s also a limit on how many you can do before it feels like you’ve seen it before.
If Edge is going to be off for a few months, then he may return in December, but more likely will be back in January, possibly as a men’s 2022 Royal
Rumble entrant. A surprise return at the Rumble could see Edge eliminate Rollins, reigniting their feud that’d
culminate with their third and final match at WrestleMania 38, likely under some extreme stipulation.
It’s ultimately Edge and WWE’s decision as to when he’ll be back, but after being stretchered away last week, the Rated-R Superstar could
very well be done for the rest of the year.
Over to NXT, as Samoa Joe reliniquished the NXT Championship just before the show rebranded, and although NXT 2.0 saw Tommaso
Ciampa win the gold, Joe was hardly mentioned. After vacating the gold due to injury, Joe promised to be back, but WWE themselves
may not be on board with that idea. In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it’s reported that Joe was hired to NXT in a
mostly-non wrestling role, saying: Samoa Joe was stripped of the NXT title under weird circumstances to say the least.
The story is that he suffered a minor injury and would be back soon but that they were stripping him of the title. The only direct WWE
word is that Joe was hired primarily for a non -wrestling role in NXT. After a year on the shelf, Joe returned to
dethrone Karrion Kross, but some believe that this was only done to take the title off Kross, given his move to the main-roster.
There’s also a rumour going around that Joe isn’t actually injured, but that he’s simply not available, and even if he’s able to return to the ring, there’s
no guarantee WWE will use him as a Superstar again.
As a legendary wrestler, and a 16-time World Champion, Ric Flair is no stranger to being the talk of the pro-wrestling world, but this week,
the Nature Boy was trending for the worst reasons. This week, VICE’s Dark Side of the Ring
released their ‘Plane Ride from Hell’ episode, which documented the infamous Plane ride in 2002 that saw all manners of controversy
Flair, a locker-room leader at the time, was the one who rallied the Superstars to party, and did his trademark strut wearing just his robe
and nothing underneath. The episode also covers Flair’s horrific actions during the flight, where he harassed two
flight attendents, Taralyn Cappellano and Heidi Doyle, and backed Doyle into a corner, forcing her to touch his genitals.
Doyle was interviewed by VICE, and was clearly still traumatised all these years later by what Flair did to her.
After the episode aired, Flair’s name trended on social media, as countless fans wondered why WWE didn’t punish him for his actions.
Many fans argued that AEW could never bring Ric Flair into the company now, especially after Tony Khan previously banned Hulk Hogan for life
life for his own controversial past. Others went as far to say they hope Flair never works again, and called on Tony Khan to “do
the right thing,” by refusing to sign the former wrestler. After leaving WWE earlier this year, the belief
was that Flair would sign with AEW as soon as he could, and would work as the manager for his future son-in-law Andrade El Idolo,
but Flair’s past may have a serious impact on the Nature Boy’s future.
Flair may not be seen much on TV going forward, and it’s the same case for Tommy Dreamer after his appearance on Dark Side of the Ring.
In the episode, Dreamer openly defended Flair’s \ ctions, saying that Flair was “styling and profiling,” and that “someone” namely the flight
attendant who was forced to touch his genitals, “took offence to it.” Dreamer also compared the woman getting
upset about Flair’s actions to fans getting upset about his haircut, though the two are nothing alike
Fans who watched were outraged by Dreamer’s flippant comments, and he’s now been suspended indefinitely by Impact Wrestling.
In a statement, Anthem CCO and Impact President Ed Nordholm issued an email to staff, saying the veteran was “asked to leave, effective
immediately” from Skyway Studios in Nashville, where the company is preparing to tape more content this weekend.
Dreamer has been working for Impact, both on air and behind-the-scenes, since 2018, but his time may have come to an end because of
his comments this week
We’ve already mentioned that Ric Flair is in serious hot water with the wrestling community, and it’s already had an impact
on his current career opportunities. Up until recently, Car Shield had been running commercials featuring Flair, alongside NXT
2.0’s LA Knight, AEW’s Peter Avalon and David Marquez, but that commercial has been put on pause, as a spokesperson for Cas Shield’s
advertising agency InterMedia said: “We take these matters very seriously. As of right now, we are pausing the campaign
and we will do our due diligence.” In an interview with Renee Paquette mere days before the episode aired, Flair denied all
claims made against him during the Plane Ride from Hell. We’ll have to see what’s next for Flair’s career
but despite his legendary status and two Hall of Fame rings, promoters may think twice before booking the 16-time World Champion.
There’s been a lot of outrage over what Flair did during the infamous 2002 plane ride, and it’s not just the fans who are mad at him.
On the latest edition of SmackTalk, Dutch Mantel called Flair’s actions “disrespectful,” saying they weren’t funny in the slightest. He added:
“He did it for years and what surprised me is more people didn't know about it… I have no sympathy at all because this is behaviour
that he did over and over and over again.” Flair’s character was always that of a womaniser, but his actions on that plane ride
ride crossed line that should never be crossed, and if Mantel is to be believed, it’s a line the Hall of Famer crossed countless times.
Rob Van Dam also appeared during Dark Side of the Ring, and made some massive claims, not about Flair, but the wrestling industry as a whole.
On the show, RVD said that at one point it was normal for wrestlers to drug local girls and have their way with them, and when questioned
about it on Twitter, said that was sadly the case when he broke in the business. RVD may have been the only person who came
out of the episode not looking like a terrible human being, as his future is far more secure than the likes of Flair or Dreamer
And we’re ending today with Maria Kanellis, who has also spoken out against how the industry treats women.
During the show, Terri Runnels said she was told to ‘no-sell’ Brock Lesnar, when the Beast exposed his genitals to her, and in a Tweet,
Maria said that there was a laundry list of things female performers were told to keep this scandal under wraps.
From ‘boys being boys’ to ‘don’t let them see you cry’ and ‘you’re lucky to be here,’ Maria said that these indecent actions were all
power-play to keep female wrestlers submissive, but the former 24/7 Champion refuses to keep quiet on this matter anymore.