Here's more wrestling news for August 14th 2021
And your headlines for Afternoon include
Gable Steveson Shades Jake Hager In A Big Way!
King Of The Ring Tournament Reportedly Set To Conclude In Saudi Arabia!
CM Punk On Advice For Recently Released WWE Wrestlers; Drops An Indirect Hint Regarding His AEW Debut!
Vince McMahon Scrapped ‘Super Expensive’ Segment Over Pronunciation Of Superstar’s Name!
Matches And Segment Revealed For The Final WWE RAW Before SummerSlam!
The Smackdown Tag Team Division Is On Fire Right Now!
Becky Lynch Training With Seth Rollins For WWE Return!
WWE Superstar’s Family Members Insulted During An Event!
AEW Wrestler Returns With A Brand New Look After 2 Years Being Away!
Roman Reigns Had Two Requests Before Making WWE Return! And More!
We’re starting off with the Olympics, and even before Gable Steveson won gold in Tokyo, WWE had their eyes on the
amateur wrestler, who could become the second-ever Olympic gold medalist on their roster.
One man who knows all about amateur wrestling is AEW’s Jake Hager, and on Twitter, the Inner Circle member bet
$20,000 that Steveson couldn’t take him down, teasing a showdown on Dynamite. In response, Steveson said that if Hager
wanted to lose 20 grand in five seconds, that’s fine, and Hager offered Houston, Chicago and New York as possible
destinations for their match. It was then that Steveson threw some major shade, saying he’d never heard of Hager, but
said he can DM him for his address. At only 21, Steveson has his entire future ahead of him, and though he’s teased
joining WWE, UFC and the NFL, don’t expect him to be locking up with Hager, a man he’s never even heard of.
For the past few months, it’s been reported that the WWE is bringing back the King of the Ring Tournament, in addition to the first-ever
Queen of the Ring tournament. It’s previously been reported that the King of the Ring tournament will happen in October
and we now have an idea when the next king will be crowned. According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men
Pro Wrestling podcast, the finals will take place at WWE’s next Saudi Arabia event, which should also be the same night that
the Queen of the Ring finals take place. It’s worth mentioning that WWE already has a king, King Nakamura, which is how
Rick Boogz was brought to the main roster and it’s possible the tournament could lead to a programme for the new Intercontinental
Champion. It’ll be interesting to see which tournament Vince McMahon will give more attention to
though there’s still no word on who’ll be in either tournament. Xavier Woods has made it clear he’s after
the crown, and we’re hoping the two next monarchs of WWE will make good use of their historic victories.
One person we know won’t be in the tournament is CM Punk, who’s expected to debut for AEW next week on the second
episode of Rampage It’s been reported that Punk is ‘100%’ going to appear at an AEW Chicago show, and next
week’s Rampage will be at the United Center in the Windy City. Over seven years since his WWE departure,
Punk remains one of wrestling’s most-discussed stars, and an interview with TV Insider, Punk discussed how the wrestling world is changing,
but not necessarily for the better. He said: “I think the older the stuff is the better. I think it’s partly unfortunate that WWE owns the
super good libraries in pro wrestling. I think that stuff is classic and they don’t even put it on their network. They are sitting on it.
I want to watch Austin Idol versus Jerry Lawler in Memphis. I do think the landscape of pro wrestling in general really needs a
a kick in the d*ck. I think we are about there.” Punk recently admitted that he doesn’t watch WWE programming anymore
and with reports that the AEW locker-room is excited to hear about Punk signing with the company, we’ll have to wait until next
week to see if Punk does indeed debut at the AEW Rampage: First Dance special.
That wasn’t all Punk has had to say recently, as he also sat down with the Sunday Night’s Main Evenr podcast, and discussed the
recent major releases from WWE. In the interview, Punk admitted to know knowing a lot about those 13 NXT names
who got fired last week, but said that it was a blessing, noting that you can be a pro-wrestler, but you don’t have to work
for WWE. Adding that it always sucks when anybody gets fired, Punk noted that he
believes that 2021 is the year where being pro wrestler is more possible than ever before.
Punk has certainly kept his name in the public eye, seven years after his own departure from WWE, and according to him,
the likes of Bronson Reed, Bobby Fish, Leon Ruff and others received a blessing in disguise by being let go last week.
Back to WWE, and in June this year, Fandango was released from the company, bringing his 15-year tenure to an end.
As a veteran of the company, the former Johnny Curtis was no stranger to working extensively with Vince McMahon, and not
every plan for him made it to TV. Speaking to Rewind, Recap, Relive, Fandango told the story of when McMahon rented out an
expensive ballroom for a vignette, but scrapped the whole thing because of how the Superstar pronounced his own name.
He said: ”We actually filmed a whole — Vince [McMahon] paid to rent out the whole
Highline Ballroom, dance ballroom in New York City. We went there and filmed vignettes for a couple days and there’s
this super expensive set and he didn’t like the way I said ‘Fandango’, so he scrapped the whole thing and he came
and produced the vignettes himself. So me not pronouncing the name the way he thought in his mind actually turned into a
a gimmick, into a shtick that we did on TV.” Upon his 2013 reinvention as Fandango, the ballroom dancing Superstar would put off
wrestling for weeks because of how his name was pronounced by ring announcers, but this gimmick all started with Vince McMahon
wasting a lot of money on a ballroom that never made it to TV.
Over to RAW now, as next week’s show is the go-home show before Summerslam, and plenty has been announced for the three-hour card
On RAW, Randy Orton will face Omos in singles action, a week after RKO’ing his teammate Riddle, but it’s still expected that RK-Bro will challenge
Omos and AJ Styles for the RAW Tag Team titles at Summerslam. Veer and Shanky will team-up against
Drew McIntyre, in a rematch from the August 2nd RAW, which saw McIntyre get the DQ win over the two powerhouses.
During SmackDown, McIntyre Vs. Jinder Mahal was confirmed for Summerslam, and we’re sure the Modern-Day Maharaja will be watching
closely on RAW. Monday’s show will also see Bill Goldberg and WWE Champion Bobby Lashley meet face-to-face
one last time before Summerslam, in what’ll be a packed go-home RAW from San Antonio.
Over to SmackDown now, and we always enjoy it when a tag-team feud can happen without the need for the tag titles, and that’s exactly
what happened this week when Alpha Academy faced the Street Profits. This fun match essentially served as a title
eliminator, which the Profits won, meaning they could be in line for a title opportunity against the Usos after Summerslam.
On the other hand, Rey Mysterio was once again seen advising Dominik, and his advice paid off, as the former SmackDown Tag
Champions picked up the win over Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode. There was a moment when the Usos appeared
on the titantron to distract Dominik, but Rey was able to get his son back on track, in yet another tag match featuring two teams
who aren’t champions. The SmackDown tag team division is on fire right now, and we can only hope that this
much focus is seen consistently on the blue brand, especially as far little, if any focus is given to their red brand tag-team counterparts.
Now, it’s been over a year since Becky Lynch last competed in WWE, but reports continue to circulate that she’s expected to return very soon.
Those reports continued this week, as Fightful are noting that Becky Lynch is training at Seth Rollins’ Black and Brave Academy, and has
been doing so since May. It’s also been reported that WWE have plans in place for her comeback, but that these plans
won’t happen until October at the earlier, but we’re sure that the Man will make a lot of noise when she eventually returns to TV.
In April 2020, WWE released Mike and Maria Kanellis-Bennett, and the pair seem more than happy since returning to Ring of Honour.
That doesn’t change the fact that they have bad memories from their WWE days, and this week, Maria spoke to SHAK Wrestling about the way
she and her family was treated during WWE’s biggest event of the year. Speaking about WrestleMania weekend,
Maria said how when they arrived, there was no place for the families of talent to go, and said she didn’t like the attitude shown towards her family.
Maria added that her daughter was stuck outside the venue with her mother-in-law and nanny for 45 monutes, before they could enter
the building, and that ultimately, it was Maria’s make-up artist who had to go and get her family inside. She added:
It made me sad to think that wrestlers were no longer the ones that were special. It was the sponsors and the free giveaways to the VIPs
They all had rooms. But the talent’s family, the families that have sacrificed the most, had nowhere to go.
The former 24/7 Champion concluded saying that the family of talent, those who’d sacrificed the most, had nowhere backstage
and were instead led into seats in the stands, where it was cold and difficult to see the show.
Maria had wanted to give her family a VIP experience at WrestleMania, but WWE didn’t have plans for the families of wrestlers.
WWE is always changing, as they shift their focus towards making a profit, and while that means the sponsors and various
executives are treated like royalty, it also meant that the families of those who risked their bodies for the company didn’t get
any special treatment.
AEW news next, as last night’s Rampage saw Britt Baker retain her women’s world title over Red Velvet, but the action continued after
the match. Post-match, Baker was ready to do more damage, but that’s when Kris Statlander
jumped in to defend Velvet, but suddenly, Jamie Hayter showed up with a brand new blonde look.
On commentary, Exaclibur told fans who Hayter was, because she didn’t look the same at all, and she took our Statlander,
aligning herself with the Champ. The 26-year old English Wrestler only recently relinquished the Rev Pro British
Women’s title, due to a try out with WWE, which obviously didn’t lead to a full-time contract.
Hayter had previously worked with AEW until her travel plans from the U.K were stopped, and she’s now back with a new look and a
new partner in Britt Baker.
AEW news next, as Riho returned to AEW in February, after spending a year away because she couldn’t travel back to the U.S.
but the first-ever Women’s World Champion has vanished once again. Riho’s last match was at Double or Nothing
Nothing in May, and we now know that her most recent absence is because of a bad reaction to the vaccine, according to the
Wrestling Observer. The report adds that Riho is feeling much better now, and is expected to be back very soon.
The vaccine is incredibly valuable in the fight to return to normalcy, but it isn’t without it’s side effects, and that’s what’s kept Riho
away from AEW for the past three months.
And we’re ending today with Roman Reigns, who’s return to WWE last August after a lengthy hiatus, and his reinvention as a
heel has earned him widespread praise amongst the wrestling community. Speaking to Sports Illustrated’s Media
Podcast, Reigns talked about his return, and the two requests he made to WWE: “I had two requests. I wanted to work with
Michael Hayes, that’s my guy. He’s been with me from The Shield days and even before that with my family. The other request was
Paul [Heyman]… they have a great history with my family and they’ve taken to me like family, like blood and those are two guys who are
critically in my process – Michael Hayes and Paul Heyman.” Together, the team of Reigns, Heyman and
Hayes have created one of WWE’s most dominating Champions of all time, and we’ll have to see if the Tribal Chief’s reign
can continue when he faces John Cena at Summerslam on August 21st.