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It’s going to happen at some point. With as much wrestling as you can find anywhere today, there are going to be some instances of things not going as planned. Sometimes a match might be announced in advance but for one reason or another, a change has to be made. That seems to be the case again this week and now we know a bit more about what happened.
Last week on AEW Dynamite, FTR interrupted a Lee Johnson/k Anderson interview to set up a match on this week’s show. However, the match did not take place and there was little mention of the match whatsoever. According to PWInsider.com, the match was postponed due to medical protocols, though it is not clear which of the four were involved. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, there is no word on if this is a Coronavirus incident.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that is going to happen from time to time and while there is no mention of the Coronavirus, it is easy to jump to that conclusion. I’m sure we’ll see the match take place w..

This is only a rumor, so take it for what it’s worth. It had been previously reported that Mustafa Ali had requested his release from his WWE contract in order to pursue other projects.
According to a report from Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, WWE has denied Ali’s request for his release to be granted.
WWE does not plan to grant Mustafa Ali's request for release, Fightful Select has learned.
The full story and many more details are up for subscribers of Fightful Selecthttps://t.co/am3HsakygE pic.twitter.com/CX0pA63m26
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) January 20, 2022
Ali has been ready to return to WWE since the beginning of December, following one week off for the birth of his third child. He has not appeared on WWE programming since the October 29 episode of Smackdown, where he lost a match to Drew McIntyre.
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The statement that was released stated: “I have a message that is much bigger than my dreams in pro wrestling…

It’s that time of year again! WWE has announced the arrival of its WWE 2K22 video game, produced by Visual Concepts. The game includes a number of new features and features Rey Mysterio on the cover.
Below is the official trailer for the game:
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From WWE.com:
“Representing the culture of lucha libre as the cover Superstar for WWE 2K22 is a moment of great pride for me,” said Rey Mysterio. “I’m looking forward to sharing the stories behind the big moments of my career with a dedicated community of players and connecting with WWE fans in a whole new way as they play through my 2KShowcase.”
“Throughout his career, Rey Mysterio has staged multiple comebacks to prove his resiliency time and time again, and through it all, has cemented his legacy as a living legend of sports entertainment,” said Alfie Brody, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy at 2K. “In that same spirit of resiliency, WWE 2K22 strikes back with a slew of upgrades and com..

He’ll be sticking around. One of the most important wrestling stories over the last few months has been the amount of wrestlers leaving WWE. There are a few different sides to this, but the most interesting of them all is how many wrestlers are deciding that WWE is not the best place for them anymore. It is almost more interesting when someone sticks around, and that is the case again.
Fightful Select is reporting that Sami Zayn has signed a new deal with WWE and will be with the company for the next several years. Zayn’s contract had been coming up soon, though it was not clear how long Zayn had left in the company. Zayn had been reported to sign a new deal a few months ago, but he had been quiet about the negotiations. He is also currently the #1 contender to the Intercontinental Title.
Zayn has been part of the WWE main roster since 2015 and has won the Intercontinental twice during his time with the company. This is in addition to a run in NXT, where he is a former NXT Champion. ..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Royal Rumble 2021
Date: January 31, 2021
Location: Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe, Tom Phillips
It’s officially the Road To Wrestlemania and that should only be a good thing. The other major positive this year is how wide open both Rumbles could be, which means we could be in for a lot of drama. Other than that though, it is going to be a bit sad to watch the Rumble with no crowd. Let’s get to it.
Kickoff Show: Women’s Tag Team Titles: As..

That was special. There are some things that are just more important than wrestling. Sometimes you have wrestlers dealing with things that take place outside of the ring and need to be dealt with before someone can get back to work. That was the case last year, but now we have something to make the situation a lot better and it was a very special moment.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured the return of Jon Moxley, who has been away from the show and wrestling since October. Moxley had been undergoing alcohol rehabilitation treatment and had been away from the industry since. He gave a speech to open the show, talking about how his scars told his story and said the only thing that he drinks now is blood. There is no word on when Moxley will return to the ring in AEW.
It was a special moment. Check out the great speech:
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Opinion: You don’t get to see many things like this in wrestling and it was a special moment. This is the kind of..

Moving on up? NXT has been shaken up in a huge way over the last few months and that seems like it could be continuing for the foreseeable future. At the end of the day though, NXT exists as the developmental program for WWE and that means the wrestlers need to move up at some point. One wrestler seemed ready to go but there is a specific reason they are sticking around.
According to Wrestling Observer Live, Raquel Gonzalez was ready to move up to the main roster but the move was postponed for the sake of the women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. There are not enough teams available so Gonzalez is staying around to help fill in a spot. No teams have been announced for the tournament, which is scheduled to begin at some point in February.
Gonzalez has been in NXT since 2020, where she debuted as Dakota Kai’s enforcer, a role she would continue in for over a year. The team would win the first ever women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and the first NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles. Gonzale..

That might be a better idea. Every now and then you see WWE make a decision that might not make the most sense. It might be the kind of thing that could get them in a bit of hot water, or at least some bad publicity. Sometimes a new solution has to be found, if nothing else for the sake of damage control. That seems to be the case this week, as WWE has already changed a change.
This week, WWE filed a trademark for the name Gunther Stark, which is also the name of a Nazi U-boat captain from World War II. During this week’s edition of NXT, Walter defeated Roderick Strong in the show’s main event and then announced his new name as Gunther. Now, Walter’s WWE.com profile has been changed to Gunther, with no sign of the name Stark. While not confirmed, this could suggest that WWE has dropped the name Gunther Stark, instead sticking with just Gunther.
Opinion: Having Walter change his name to Gunther might not be the greatest idea in the world, but it is the kind of thing that WWE tends to ..

It happens to everyone. There are so many wrestlers in WWE today and some of them have been around for a very long time. You get to see some of these wrestlers for years and years, to the point where you might forget just how long they have been around. Those years ago going to add up, and now one of the more legendary wrestlers has started to feel some of the damage.
Monday Night Raw’s Randy Orton was recently interviewed by FOX 2 Now in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. During the interview, Orton spoke about how his body is starting to feel the thousands of RKO’s he has delivered over the years. Orton said that he wished he had invented a signature move that did not involve jumping as high as he could have and landing on his back. Now 41 years old, Orton is now currently scheduled for the Royal Rumble, though he could still be added to the show.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that is going to happen over the years and that is not the best thing to hear. Ultimately, Orton is..

That’s never good to hear. Wrestlers may play larger than life characters on television but they are still humans like all of us. That means they are going to have their good and bad days, with some of those days being a bit more serious than others. Occasionally this can mean a health issue, which was the case this week with a wrestling legend. Thankfully though, things seem to have gotten better.
Alfonzo Lizarraga of The Gladiatores is reporting that Konnan has undergone heart surgery due to complications from the Coronavirus. While the situation continues to change, Konnan was considered stable as of Wednesday afternoon. There is no word on when the surgery took place or when Konnan will be released from the hospital. Konnan has been part of several promotions throughout America and mexico, most notably in WCW, Impact Wrestling and AAA.
Konnan fue sometido a una cirugía de corazón por secuelas de Covid, aún que la situación fue y sigue siendo delicada todo indica que al momento es..

That’s a different way to present things. Professional wrestling has been around for a very long time now and you can see it take place in all different forms. The style that was popular in the early days of wrestling is quite different than what we see today, which doesn’t even include all of the style changes along the way. Now though, we might be seeing something that has never been done before, even in wrestling.
Aro Lucha, a lucha libre promotion, has announced that it will stop producing live wrestling events and move towards an animation project instead. In an announcement to its current investors, courtesy of Fightful Select, the company spoke about their decision, citing the Coronavirus pandemic, the market opportunity of the animation industry and the growing Latino and Hispanic market. The company has already begun working on the untitles animated series. Aro Lucha ran four events in Texas and Tennessee in December 2017 and January 2018, with most of its wrestlers now being..

It’s a spot. Wrestlers are in a weird place when it comes to celebrity status. Yes they are famous and people who are on television every single week, but ultimately they are known for one thing and one thing only. Every now and then you get to see someone move into another area and get exposure on a new stage. That is the case again with a soon to be returning WWE star.
According to Yahoo News, WWE Hall of Famer Brie Bella has been announced for the upcoming FOX celebrity competition show The Real Dirty Dancing. Bella will be part of the cast, which also includes Corbin Bleu, Tyler Cameron, Cat Cora, Howie Dorough, Antonio Gates, Anjelah Johnson-Reyes and Loni Love. The show debuts on February 1, three days after Bella is returning to the ring as part of the women’s Royal Rumble on January 29.
Opinion: Bella is one of the wrestlers who has managed to make it to a certain level of success outside of wrestling and a lot of that is due to her reality show efforts. If nothing else, at l..