Here's your wrestling news for February 9th 2022
And your headlines for today include
Former NXT Champion expect to debut on AEW Dynamite tonight! Shocking debut spoiled by unlikely source
Former NXT North American Champion in high demand now his no-compete clause has expired
Is WWE planning new Premium Live Event with latest trademark filing?
How did Ronda Rousey fool fans into thinking she wasn’t returning at the Royal Rumble
WWE laid them several rules for Mickie James’ return: Banned words list continues to grow
Unlikely 600-day record was broken on this week’s edition of Monday Night RAW
History-making former World Champion will be the next guest on Stone Cold’s Broken Skull Sessions
SmackDown Superstar releases first single: Mixtrape will drop next week And more!
We’re kicking off today with All Elite Wrestling, as the company is already host to plenty of major names formerly associated with WWE, with 4 former NXT
Champions already on their roster.
The All-Elite promotion already boasts the likes of Pac, Malakai Black, Andrade El Idolo and Adam Cole, and now Karrion Kross may be the next to join.
During an autograph session this week which featured both Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux, the host can be heard saying “Maybe you’ll be in
Atlantic city,” referencing tonight’s Dynamite which is set to take place in New Jersey. Scarlett began to respond, but after being given a look
by her fiancé, she stops speaking and bursts into nervous laughter, all while the host reacts, believing that Bordeaux has accidentally leaked that they’re
joining AEW tonight. Tony Khan has hyped up a huge debut tonight, one that will be through the Forbidden Door, and
there’s fewer free agents hotter right now than the two-time former NXT Champion. Whether Kross and Scarlett debut tonight remains
to be seen, but he has spoke in the pass about possibly joining AEW, and now his fiancé may have given away AEW’s huge surprise.
Last November, Hit Row were released from WWE, with B-Fab cut from the group first, and the rest of the stable released two weeks later.
These departures came just weeks after the stable debuted on SmackDown, and now one member of Hit Row is in high demand.
According to Fightful Select, Shane Strickland, formerly Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott, is being sought by several companies and there are already plans for him
to work in at least one “major promotion.”
The report didn’t clarify which promotion that is, but it did note that AEW have asked about Strickland’s availability now that he’s a free agent,
and that New Japan USA have reached out to him with an impressive deal for his services. MLW will also likely make an effort to re-sign Strickland,
who will be appearing at TERMINUS’ second show, as well as Wrestling REVOLVER’S Swerve’s House event.
After leading Hit Row in NXT, the former North American Champion was demoted on the main- roster, as the plan for the stable was for Top Dolla
to be in charge on SmackDown, and we should expect Strickland to be a major name on Television once more very soon.
Now, WWE is always looking to own as many terms as they can, and their trademarks are often a clue as to what the company has planned in the near future.
This was the case for Day 1, which was trademarked last year, and now a new filing may have revealed WWE's next Premium Live Event.
The latest filing is for the name “WWE Sunday Stunner," which was filed on February 3rd and will presumably happen on a Sunday,,
breaking from WWE's current plans for shows to happen on Saturday nights. With the Stunner name involved, we have to wonder
if the show will feature Stone Cold Steve Austin, but all will be revealed when the Sunday Stunner, whatever it may be, eventually takes place
At the Royal Rumble, Ronda Rousey returned to WWE to win the Women’s Rumble match, in her first appearance in nearly three years with the company.
Rousey’s return was a loosely guarded secret, as we had reported for the week prior that she was expected to be at the Premium Live Event in St. Louis,
Missouri, but the former RAW Women’s Champion did try to fool her fans. During a recent Facebook stream, Rousey admitted that
she deceived the fans during the Royal Rumble, as she was seemingly streaming during the Rumble event, but that live-stream had actually
been recorded days in advance. The Women’s Rumble match winner added that although many believed the stream was live,
her most die-hard fans picked up on something being off, as she usually announces her streams on Instagram, but didn’t this time around.
Rousey may have been able to trick some of her fans, but now everyone knows she’ll be facing SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair at
WrestleMania 38, in what’ll arguably be the biggest challenge to date for the Queen.
The 2022 Royal Rumble Premium Live Event also saw the return of Mickie James, who came back to WWE in history-making fashion, as the reigning
Impact Wrestling Knockouts World Champion. Not only did James return, but she did so with her Knockouts title and her theme from Impact,
but this only happened after WWE laid down some ground rules for everyone involved.
That’s according to Will Washington, who told the Fightful Grapsody podcasts that there were caveats to “literally everything” about her return,
and that wasn’t just on James herself. It’s reported that while commentary could mention Impact, they couldn’t say Impact Wrestling,
and that there could be no use of the world Knckouts or World, despite James being the Impact Wrestling Knockouts World Champion.
Instead, James was referred to as the Impact Women’s Champion, a term WWE found much more agreeable, and with the Forbidden Door
opening at the Royal Rumble, who knows who may step through next, but only if they agree to WWE’s rules
RAW news now, as Chad Gable was in action this week, pinning Angelo Dawkins in an impressive singles match.
On the surface, there's little that's notable about this match, but the bout actually marks the end of a lengthy streak for the RAW Tag Team Champion.
Gable's victory this week marks the Olympian's first televised pinfall win in nearly two years, with his last being on the June 15th 2020 Smackdown, where he
beat Mojo Rawley. Since forming Alpha Academy, Gable has yet to get the win in tag team action, as those wins have
come at the hands of Otis, including their RAW Tag Title win last month over RK-Bro. These two teams will face off again, and their tag
match is expected for Elimination Chamber, where Gable is hoping to continue his winning ways after breaking this near two-year streak.
On the Broken Skull Sessions, Stone Cold Steve Austin has hosted many iconic names from the past, and now a history-making legend is set to
to sit down with the Texas Rattlesnake. On Twitter, the official WWE Network account confirmed that Ron Simmons will be Austin’s next
guest, which will air on February 18th on both the Network and Peacock. A legit football star who became the first African-
American World Heavyweight Champion, Simmons’ importance in the professional wrestling landscape is often overlooked, but he and Stone Cold are
bound to have some stories to tell from Ron’s legendary career on the next Broken Skull Sessions.
And we’re ending today with Montez Ford, who has consistently shown himself to be a talented name, who wows fans with his athleticism in the ring,
and now the SmackDown Superstar has released his first single.
Ford has shown hints of his musical talent during some promos in WWE, but has now released the single ‘Jingle It Babe’ off his new mixtape.
That mixtape LMTYO will release on Valentine’s Day, and on Twitter, Ford said he had a lot of fun making the tracks.
Ford is already a big name in WWE, and is expected to be the breakout star of the Street Profits should they eventually break up, and he now has an extra
talent to impress the company’s top decision-makers with the releasee of his new mix-tape next week.