Here's your wrestling news for June 23rd 2021
And your headlines for today include
Artist Behind Nikki Cross’ New Superhero Gimmick Is Revealed!
Nikki Cross Meets WWE’s Original Superhero!
WWE Decides To Keep Their Wrestler Off TV!
Reason For Kevin Owens Announcing A Break From Wrestling Revealed!
Lawsuit Filed Against WWE Over Traffic Accident!
WWE’s New ‘Doudrop’ Name Seems To Have Dirty Double Meaning!
Kurt Angle Says He’s ‘In Extreme Pain All Day Long’ But Won’t Take Painkillers!
"That's Why I Lost The Job" - Former WWE Superstar Recalls Disastrous Meeting With Vince McMahon
Damian Priest Has Been Off WWE Television For ‘Undisclosed Reasons’!
Mickie James Makes A BIG Announcement!
Multiple Matches Added To WWE NXT Great American Bash And more!
We’re starting today with Nikki Cross, who debuted a new Superhero character on this week’s RAW, but the idea of the
Scottish Superstar as a superhero has been in the works for a while. It turns out that months ago, Cross enlisted
the help of artist Rob Downie to help design the character, and after the gimmick’s debut on this week’s RAW, Downie tweeted some
concept art of the character. Downie explained that Cross herself pitched the idea to him, and we’ll have to see what
the former Women’s Tag Team Champion is able to do to make this new character work.
This new character is an original idea by Coss, and got past all the approval stages and made it to TV this week, marking a fresh start for
Nikki Cross’ career.
Cross’ character has received a mixed response from fans, with many not being sold on the entire of a blue and yellow
Superhero on Monday Night RAW. The Scottish Superstar isn’t the first wrestler to don the cape and cowl, and after some
backlash from fans, Pro Wrestling Illustrated pointed out that many people weren’t behind the Hurricane Helms gimmick either, which
got a response from the former Superstar. He said: Yup. So did a lot of my friends and peers.
But I got it over, so over in fact, that THREE other Talents became derivatives of MY character. How often does that happen?
And now @NikkiCrossWWE steps up to the plate and I'm gonna support her every step of the way! Fly Nikki Fly
The three talents he’s referring to are Mighty Molly, Rosey and Super Stacey Kiebler, all of which had superhero gimmicks when
working alongside Helms, and in a response, Cross said Hurricane’s words mean so much to her.
Kross’ husband Killian Dain has noted that this superhero gimmick is an original by Kross, and we’ll have to see if it can get over like
Hurricane Helms did years ago.
This week’s RAW also saw Xavier Woods lose a Hell in a Cell match to Bobby Lashley, and fans won’t be seeing the New Day star
for a while. Post-match, Lashley assaulted Woods whilst Kofi Kingston stood helplessly outside
the Cell, and this attack was done to write Woods off TV. It makes sense that Woods has been written
off TV, as he’ll be hosting the EA Play Live event on July 22nd, meaning he’ll be kept plenty busy out of the ring.
On Twitter, Woods said he feels horrible after the beating he received at the hands of the Almighty WWE Champion, so when Kofi
Kingston challenges Lashley for the WWE title at Money in the Bank next month, he’ll have to go it alone.
Another person taking time off TV is Kevin Owens, who came up short against Sami Zayn at Hell in a Cell.
After the Pay-Per-View, Owens tweeted that he needs to take a break from wrestling, and thankfully, it wasn’t due to any injury he
suffered on Sunday. During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer claimed that Owen’s departure is all
storyline-related, meaning it’s not due to an injury or anything from the former Universal Champion’s personal life.
There’s no word on when Owens will return to TV, but fans shouldn’t expect to see any Stunners on SmackDown for quite some time.
More from RAW now, and this week’s show saw a packed three hours, including a Hell in A Cell match on free TV, but that wasn’t
enough to get fans tuning in. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, this week’s show brought an
average 1.719 million viewers, down from last week’s 1.742 million. In the all-important 18-49 demographic,
the company stayed even from last week with a 0.49, and with a Hell in a Cell match not being enough to boost the ratings, time
will tell what WWE tries next as they continue preparations to go back on the road.
It’s no secret that WWE is no stranger to dealing with lawsuits, and now have another one to deal with, stemming from 2019.
That’s according to PW Insider, who report that a lawsuit has been filed in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Hillsborough Circuit
Florida by Jackson Parsons. In his suit, Parsons claims that on June 22nd, 2019, he was struck whilst riding his bicycle
by a van being rented by WWE, which was being driven by WWE employee Gaitan Thomas, who is best known as a props expert for the
company. Parsons claims that in addition to dealing with physical injuries, mental anguish and
disfigurement, that he’s also dealing with permanent issues as a result of the accident, and cited a “loss of earnings and earning
capacity, both in the past and in the future.” In December last year, Parsons demanded a settlement amount of $1,064,328.38,
well above the $75,000 threshold the court requires for this type of civil action, but WWE didn’t respond at that time.
Now, Parsons is demanding several amounts, including $314,850 for medical expenses and lost work, $76,5000 for
mental anguish and $401,500 for future pain and suffering, and time will tell if he sees any of this money as the case
progresses.
Back to the ring and after making her main- roster debut last week, Piper Niven was given the name Doudrop before her
tag-team match with Eva Marie during this week’s RAW. Fans haven’t been happy with the Doudrop
name, and many are hoping WWE changes it soon, and that very well may happen thanks to the terms rather suggestive
meaning. According to Urban Dictionary, Doudrop refers to a woman who is attracted to
other women, and that applies to lesbians and bisexual women. The irony of all this is that Piper Niven is
bisexual, coming out in September 2019, though we’re not sure if that was a factor behind her name change.
In fact, we’re not sure if WWE knew the meaning of Doudrop before renaming the Scottish Superstar, and now that her
pairing with Eva Marie is seemingly over, perhaps another name change could be in the works.
Now, as a former WWE Champion, and a man who won Olympic gold with a broken freakin’ neck, Kurt Angle knows what it’s
like to win in the ring, but now the Hall of Famer is dealing with some serious issues. During a Q&A on AdFreeShows.com,
which hosts his Kurt Angle Show podcast, Kurt discussed how his life is now that he’s retired, and didn’t hold back, saying:
“I’m in extreme pain all day long. I do maintenance on my body all day. I do my neck traction. I have a thing called the Iron
Neck, where it trains your neck. I have anti-gravity machine rollers. I stretch. I do a lot of weight lifting. I work on my body
a good 2-3 hours a day. I have to. I’m so banged up now. I sacrificed a lot of my body in professional wrestling, and
amateur wrestling. I have to blame both sports, not just one. I’m paying for it now, but I’m managing it.
I had a painkiller problem, and I kicked that eight years ago. Not having painkillers anymore is really difficult, but I’m never going
going back to those, nor do I want to. I’m going to keep doing my body maintenance training, and doing what I’m doing right now.
We applaud Kurt for being determined to never take painkillers again, even if it means his condition is more painful.
After returning to WWE in 2017, Angle was released on April 15th 2020 as part of the company’s budget cuts, and whilst he
hasn’t wrestled an opponent since WrestleMania 35 in 2019, he’s now facing a much different battle every single day.
Like Angle, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay know what it’s like to be released by WWE, as they \were cut earlier this year despite showing
great potential. After all, WWE reportedly split the IIconics last year because they saw Royce as a
huge singles star, but the push promised for her never materialised before her departure.
Speaking on their Off Her Chops podcast, Royce discussed her release from WWE, saying:
This is when you [Billie Kay] were drafted to Smackdown and I decided to put on my big girl panties and talk to Vince. I had in my
head what I wanted to say but he brushed it off very quickly and I went ‘crap’. I had an idea that I wanted to present, and he
wanted to discuss other ideas – but I didn’t have other ideas. This is what I wanted to talk about and put my time and effort into.
Vince says “What do you do for fun?” Me being me, the introvert and the homebody that I am, I had to let him know that I like to
sit on the couch with my dogs and watch TV. He just stared at me and in my head I’m
just like, ‘make something up’ and I couldn’t make anything up – nothing was coming out. I’m not a liar. I feel like he could have
seen right through that. I basically said to him ‘I’m sorry, I’m boring’ and I just like to be home on my off days’. I didn’t contribute
much during that unfortunately and that’s probably why I lost the job.” Together, the IIconics proved to be a very
talented duo, and there’s no doubt they’ll be an asset wherever they go next, but we’ll have to wait until their non-compete clause
ends on July 14th to find out where that’ll be.
Now in 2005, WWE conducted one of their most tastless angles, as the company used the real-life relationship of Lita and Matt
Hardy, in which Lita had a very-real affair with Edge, and turned it into an angle. Speaking on Oral Sessions this week,
Lita revealed that this angle, and her relationships are still brought up to her to this day, something that doesn’t happen
with her male partners such as Edge, Matt Hardy and CM Punk, calling it a “double standard.”
Speaking directly about the angle with Edge and Matt, she explained:
I almost quit a month [into] the whole love triangle. At that point, not only was it so hard, it was also out of shame. Like,
I wasn’t proud of how I conducted myself. Yes, if I had to do it all over again, I absolutely would have handled myself
differently. But I didn’t. So, I was like, make the bed, and you lie in it. And at that point, I was just like, I deserve all of these terrible
things that everybody is saying to me. I deserve not wanting to wake up every morning.
Though Lita didn’t quit at the time, it was only just over a year later that she retired from the ring, and though the Hall of Famer
has made appearances since then, this angle continues to be a stain on her otherwise stellar career.
Earlier this year, there were fewer stars hotter than Damian Priest, who not only had a stellar performance at the Royal
Rumble, and one of WrestleMania’s most high-profile matches teaming with Bad Bunny.
In recent weeks though, Priest hasn’t been around and now we know why.
According to Fightful, the former North American Champion are dealing with a back injury, but it’s noted that he’s healing
nicely, and could be back as soon as next week, if creative have any plans for him. Whilst it’s being reported that Priest is
dealing with a back injury, Fightful’s sources in the company refused to confirm this report, saying that in WWE, his absence is
being cited as due to quote “undisclosed reasons.” Despite his absence on-screen, Priest was
at the Capitol Wrestling Center last week for NXT, and whilst it’s unclear what WWE will do with him next, it seems he won’t be
off TV for much longer.
In April 2021, Mickie James was released, with a trash-bag full of personal items, by WWE, and now the former Women’s
Champion is getting back in the ring, In a video, James confirmed that she’ll be wrestling at the NWA’s 73rd anniversary
show on August 29th, and we’ll have to wait and see who her opponent will be. And we’re ending with NXT news, as several
huge matches have been announced for the gold brand. On next week’s show, Xia Li and Boa will
face Mercedes Martinez and Jake Atlas in intergender action, whilst a triple-threat women’s-tag match will determine the
number one contenders for the NXT Women’s Tag Titles. Next week, Zoey Stark & Io Shirai, Dakota Kai
& Raquel Gonzalez, and Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart will face-off, with the winners facing the Champions Candice
LeRae and Indi Hartwell at the Great American Bash on July 6th. It’s also been confirmed that MSK will
defend their NXT Tag Titles against Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa at the Bash, as the landscape of NXT could change
dramatically in a few weeks time.