Here's your wrestling news for May 2nd 2022
And your headlines for today include
Joey Janela Is Officially A Free Agent; What’s NEXT For Him?
Ryback Calls Vince McMahon’s Mother WH**** “ ; Sends Warning To WWE Fans To Not Judge Him For Dragging Vince McMahon’s Dead Mother!
Nia Jax Talks About ‘Perverted Ways’ Of Higher Ups, Lucky Ones Can Use Blackmail To Keep Their Jobs ; Calls Out “Perverted” WWE Higher-Ups For Objectifying Women!
WWE Hall Of Famer Jeff Jarrett Escorted Out Of Building After Controversial Segment At Triplemania XXX!
Wrestler Hospitalized; Asks Fans For Help!
Keith Lee Locks Down Trademark For New Nickname!
Rhea Ripley Tries To Make Becky Lynch Fall Off The Ropes During Entrance At Live Event! And More!
We’re kicking off today with AEW, as Joey Janela was one of the company’s earliest signings, but despite a popular run on Dark, never had the exposure to become a top star.
Now, Janela is a free agent, as his contract expired yesterday and he wasn’t re-signed by Tony Khan.
Janela’s departure isn’t surprising given that he hasn’t appeared on TV in months, and claimed in March that AEW had gone “radio silent” on him and that he was not expecting a new contract.
That doesn’t mean the Bad Boy is bitter, as around the same time, Janela told Denise Salcedo that he was not interested in signing agin with AEW, but said he still considers Toy Khan a friend, despite the
silence between them.
This silence may have been due to some heat with Janela, as PW Insider later reported that Janela was under fire for injuring Eddie Kingston during a match, as it disrupted a week’s worth of TV plans.
They add that Kingston was just one of a handful of wrestlers who had been injured during matches with Janela, and he had gained a reputation of being unsafe in the ring.
In his defence, AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page didn’t consider him unsafe, as when a fan accused Janela of delivering a rough ‘potato’ to the Champ, Page said he has nothing but respect
for the now former AEW star.
Whatever the future holds for Janela is unclear at this time, but with more AEW contracts set to expire this year, the Bad Boy may not be alone when it comes to leaving Tony Khan’s company behind.
Last weekend, former WWE star Ryback Reeves fired off an incredibly crass tweet in his latest attack on WWE.
In his most recent rant about the company that released him six years ago, Ryback took aim at Vicky Askew, the 101-year-old mother of Vince McMahon who died this past January, calling her a whore.
Ryback, who has claimed WWE is illegally surpressing the reach of his accounts, earned himself a ton of backlash from fans, but he’s not backing down from his latest attack.
In a follow-up tweet, the former Intercontinental Champion compared his situation to a man breaking into your house, adding:
“6 years of evil that many of you can’t see, so it’s best to not judge off 1 thing that needed to be done. The truth will win”
Ryback disabled the replies feature on the tweet, presumably because he knew that he’d once again receive a ton of backlash from fans, as it takes a certain kind of bravery to insult a dead
woman and then stop anyone from responding.
This isn’t all Ryback has had to say about his latest rant against WWE, as some fans have said that while he may have greviances with WWE, speaking ill of the deceased wasn’t necessary.
Responding to this criticism, Ryback fired off two more tweets, and explained why he deleted the original tweet, saying:
“What I’m going to tell you is I have talked about everything that’s going on. And the best piece of advice that I can give you is: that is my business with what I have going on with one other person and
that person has done a lot of bad things, a lot.” “What needed to be done was done he got the message loud and clear. I took it down because he got
the message loud and clear. And we are going to let the legal stuff continue to be worked out. That is all that there is to it. It’s my business with that one person and nobody else’s.”
It’s incredibly ironic that he considers what’s going on to be his bus iness with Vince McMahon and nobody else’s, given that he’s deciding to make his business public with countless social media rants.
Ryback may consider what he said to be private business with Vince McMahon, but we doubt he’ll ever stop posting on social media, despite the backlash these comments have received.
In November 2021, WWE released Nia Jax, and at the time it was reported that her vaccination status was a factor in her departure.
Jax has denied these claims in the months since being let go, but has had plenty to say about her former employer, none of which have been positive.
Over the weekend, the former RAW Women’s Champion fired off a tweet which many took as in reference to WWE’s recent releases which saw 10 people cut from NXT 2.0.
In the tweet, Jax said how some people deserve the opportunity to shine, but that “higher ups can never see past their own perverted ways.”
The ex-Superstar went even further, and implied that some Superstars have blackmail on WWE which has allowed them to keep their jobs, but didn’t name anyone in the company, or any possible examples of blackmail.
Jax’s comments about perverted higher-ups came shortly after news broke of female NXT superstars having to attend a ‘fashion consulting’ meeting as WWE described it, in which they were encouraged to
dress more sexily. Jax may have ended her tweet by calling it ‘random’ but fans quickly deduced that she was speaking
about WWE, and while she may have plenty of beef with the company, she’ yet to name any of these allegedly perverted higher ups.
Over the weekend, AAA hosted their TripleMania event which saw a controversial appearance by WWE Hall of Famer Jef Jarrett.
Double-J is no stranger to controversy, and during the show, interrupted the liftetime achievement award ceremony for AAA legend Latin Lover.
Latin Lover, who had two matches in the WWF in 1997, wasn’t pleased with Jarrett’s actions, and he and the returning Vampiro ran him off, but things could have got more tasteless.
In an update from Lucha Libre Online, it’s reported that before heading to the ring, AAA officials confiscated some tortillas that Jeff planned to throw into the crowd.
Even without this, security had to stop “multiple fans” who attempted to hop the guardrail and attack both Jarrett and his wife Karen.
The report goes on to say that the Jarretts were escorted from the building by eight members of his security, and this comes after AAA provided additional security at their hotel due to overzealous fans.
Double-J has a history of causing trouble in Mexico, as he nearly caused a riot during a 2005 AAA event in Mexico City, in which he threw tortillas to the crowd, and they threw rocks at him.
This most recent incident isn’t even Jeff’s first time being escorted ' from the arena by city police, as this has happened before, ironically, after defeating Latin Lover at a AAA event.
On this occasion, it doesn’t appear anything was thrown, either by Jeff or at Jeff, but the Chosen One still hasn’t been forgiven by the Mexican fans.
More from AEW now, as the company has seen plenty of stars try and make a name for themselves, but one is in a much tougher battle out of the ring.
Dillon McQueen is a relatively fresh face in the wrestling scene, having competed on Dark and Dark: Elevation in the past, but is now struggling from a serious medical issue.
On social media, the Nightmare Factory trainee explained how he was recently unable to walk for days, and can now only walk a few feet begore his legs collapse on him.
McQueen went on to say that he’s not even sure if he can continue as a professional wrestler, and pleaded with fans for their support, as he’s quickly racked up over $10,000 in hospital bills.
He’s since had a consultation with an orthpedic surgeon, which will no doubt be another costly experience for him, as the bills are continuing to pile up for the young wrestler.
In an update, he said that he is suffering from a bacterial blood infection in addition to his previously addressed medical concerns.
We certainly hope Dillon McQueen is okay and able to pay off the various X-Rays, MRIs and CT scans, but for now, his future in the ring looks incredibly uncertain.
When Keith Lee was released from WWE last year, it didn’t take him long to find a role with AEW, and had a ton of hype when he joined.
Now in a tag-team with Swerve Strickland, Lee is free of WWE’s control, and has now locked down his new nickname.
On April 26th, Lee filed a trademark for the term ‘Essence of Excellence’ and did so with AEW’s standard trademark attorney Michael E. Dockins.
While Lee is now in AEW, many fans believe that the promotion isn’t using him to his fullest potential, and we’ll have to wait and see whether the Essence of Excellence makes it to the top of the All-Elite company.
And we’re ending with Becky Lynch, who just hasn’t been the same since her RAW Women’s Title loss at WrestleMania, and her string of bad luck continued this past weekend.
At an April 30th live event in Lakeland, Lynch headlined the show with a fatal four-way title match, pitting Bianca Belair against Lynch, Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan.
When Lynch was posing for the crowd on the ring ropes, Morgan could be seen kicking the rope and trying to get her to fall off, and Lynch told her to stop before repeating the pose.
Sure enough, Ripley did the exact same, and the crowd at the show found the Australian Superstar’s actions to be hilarious.
While they were against each other at the show, Ripley and Lynch seem to be friends in real life as here’s what Rhea had to say after facing Big Time Becks in late 2019:
Like, I was on the inside marking out like a little child, but it didn't have a finish to the match, so I would very much like to see what would happen if we got to finish a match. But it was so fun being in
the ring with Becky and I would love to do it again because like I said before: I would love to have a match with her.”
Ultimately, it would be Belair who retained in Lakeland, but Ripley and Lynch were able to have some fun before the bell even rang.