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Welcome back. One of the most entertaining things you can see in wrestling is a surprise return. If these are timed right, it can be about as cool as you can get in wrestling, as a major name returning at just the right time can do all kinds of good for a show. That was the case again this week, as a legend returned to fill in a spot that no one else was taking at the moment.
Edge made a surprise return at the end of this week’s SmackDown. Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman were in the ring to give the State Of The Universal Championship Address, where Heyman spoke about how there was no one left for Reigns to face. Edge then returned and brawled with Reigns, but had to stop to beat up Jimmy Uso instead. This was Edge’s first appearance since losing to Reigns in a triple threat match, also involving Daniel Bryan, at WrestleMania 37.
Edge was previously advertised for the July 16 edition of SmackDown, which will be the first WWE event with a full capacity of fans since March 2020. There is ..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 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?
Hog Wild
Date: August 10, 1996
Location: Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Sturgis, South Dakota
Attendance: 5,000
Commentators: Dusty Rhodes, Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan
This is one of the more unique shows that you’ll see as we are outside in front of a bunch of bikers. I’m sure they will be a completely acceptable crowd with no problems or distractions whatsoever. We’re also just into the NWO era and Hollywood Hogan is getting the World Title shot against the Giant. Let’s get to it.
Of note: there were EIGHT Saturday Ni..

Two less spots. We are less than a month away from Money In The Bank and that means it is time to start getting things ready for the for the show’s namesake matches. The Money In The Bank ladder matches are some of the biggest matches of the year and that will be the case again this time around, with eight entrants each in the men’s and women’s version. Now we know a few more names involved.
Two more entrants were confirmed for the Money In The Bank ladder matches were confirmed during this week’s SmackDown. First up, Big E. defeated Apollo Crews with the Big Ending. Big E. was in trouble thanks to Commander Azeez, who was then ejected, allowing Big E. to pin Crews. Later, Carmella was announced for the match by Sonya Deville without having to win a match.
Big E. joins Ricochet, Riddle and John Morrison in the men’s match while Carmella joins Asuka, Naomi, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in the women’s match after they qualified on Monday Night Raw. More names will be announced in the co..

Smackdown
Date: June 25, 2021
Location: Yuengling Center, Tampa, Florida
Commentators: Pat McAfee, Michael Cole
We’re done with Hell In A Cell and that means it is time to get ready for Money in the Bank. A bunch of the ladder match spots have already been filled so it is time to start hammering out the rest of the field. Throw in Roman Reigns needing a new challenger and we could be in for a packed show. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of Roman Reigns beating Rey Mysterio in the Cell last week.
Paul Heyman tells Roman Reigns that the Mysterios are acknowledging him from their hospital beds. Jimmy Uso comes in so Reigns asks where Jey is. Jimmy called him a hundred times and finally got through to him, but Jey isn’t coming back. Reigns isn’t happy, but Jimmy says he’s got Reigns’ back. He says he can do everything Jey can, but Reigns doesn’t look convinced. Jimmy needs to prove himself.
Here is Bianca Belair to say we are three weeks away from leaving the Thunderdome and comi..

That never sounds good. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be hard to keep track of what everyone is doing. Sometimes this means that one of them might slip underneath the radar, allowing them to do something else if they need to. That is not always the best news to hear, and in this case it seems that someone has been gone for a less than great reason.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, SmackDown’s Montez Ford has undergone surgery but will not be out of action for very long. There is no word on what kind of procedure Ford had done, but it is not related to any kind of an injury. Ford has posted a photo of himself in the hospital, with the caption of “GOD IS GOOD”. While Ford has been appearing on WWE TV, he has been out of action since June 11 due to a storyline rib injury at the hands of Otis.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by ???? ??? (@montezfordwwe)
Ford is an amazing talent. Check out what he can do when he is back:
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Back to normal? The Coronavirus pandemic has shaken up the wrestling world in a variety of ways, with the biggest change of them all being the lack of fans in attendance at events. It makes things feel all the less important and also changes the way the company’s finances work. Things have started to get back to normal though and now WWE has taken another big step back towards normal.
WWE has announced a four city United Kingdom tour, taking place from September 19-22. The tour will be SmackDown exclusive and includes names such as Roman Reigns, the Usos, Big E., Bianca Belair, Bayley and Sasha Banks. Assuming she does not appear before then, this would be Belair’s first appearance since the April 16 edition of SmackDown. The tour will include the following events:
Newcastle – Utilita Arena (Sunday, September 19, 2021) London – The O2 (Monday, September 20, 2021) Cardiff – Motorpoint Arena (Tuesday, September 21, 2021) Glasgow – The SSE Hydro (Wednesday, September 22, 2021) WWE has b..

Even more down. One of the biggest stories of the year has been WWE’s huge round of cuts. WWE has let dozens of wrestlers go from the company, with some of them being fairly high profile names. Almost no one on the roster has been immune to what has been happening though and that has made for some big shakeups. There were even more of them today and the list keeps growing.
In addition to the seven names released from the company earlier today, WWE has also released six more names later in the day. According to PWInsider.com, Marina Shafir, the Bollywood Boyz (Sunil and Samir Singh), Curt Stallion and Arturo Ruas have all been released from the company. Finally, NXT’s Killain Dain has confirmed his own release via Twitter.
Shafir is a former mixed martial artist and a member of the Four Horsewomen of MMA. The Bollywood Boyz have been longstanding members of the 205 Live roster and appeared with Jinder Mahal as the Singh Brothers. Stallion had been on 205 Live as well, but has been out..

The cuts continue. According to a report by Bleacher Report, by way of Fightful, WWE has come to terms on the releases of several wrestlers. This list includes Tyler Breeze, Fandango, NXT tag team Ever-Rise and 205 Live wrestlers Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari and August Grey.
Fandango, who also wrestled for WWE as Johnny Curtis, seemed to acknowledge his release in the following tweet:
Thank you @VinceMcMahon @TripleH @StephMcMahon Thank you for the last 14 years . I truly appreciate it!?
— Fandango (@WWEFandango) June 25, 2021
This most recent wave of cuts, continues a trend that has been happening for a few months. Several releases have taken place during this time, including Tucker, Samoa Joe, Chelsea Green, Kalisto, Bo Dallas, Wesley Blake, Mickie, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, Braun Strowman, Aleister Black, Ruby Riott, Lana, Santana Garrett and Buddy Murphy. Adnan Virk and Tom Philips have also been released by the company.
Breezango was pretty entertaining as a team:
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It’s a blank slate. WWE is a bit different than the rest of the wrestling promotions in the world. The company has more resources and options available than any other, including the amount of television time that they have on hand. That means they are going to need something to fill in that time and now we are seeing some interesting details on how some of their television content is created.
Newly signed WWE creative writer Kenice Mobley appeared on the June 6 edition of the Asian Not Asian podcast to talk about her signing with the company. Mobley was signed to WWE on June 3 and was not required to know anything about WWE. Instead, Mobley was hired due to her experience in film production and comedy writing. Mobley was only familiar with a handful of names and did not know if Bobby Lashley’s last name was Lashley or Ashley. Mobley is part of the Monday Night Raw team and it is not clear if she has officially started actively working or not.
This is what Mobley is coming into. Check..

Take care of the veterans. There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster and some of them are a lot more established than others. You can find some wrestlers who have been around the company for years now, many of whom have had quite the amount of success. It is easy to see what they can do for WWE, but now WWE might have done something different for one of them.
According to Fightful Select, Jeff Hardy’s WWE deal has either been reworked or extended in some way, perhaps with a new detail entirely, as his contract will now expire in either late 2022 or early 2023. One of the changes to Hardy’s deal will see him getting to use his previous No More Words entrance music from his 2009 run with the company. There is no word on when the two sides reached a new deal.
Hardy began wrestling for WWE in 1994 as part of the Hardy Boyz tag team with his brother Matt. Throughout his career, Hardy has won multiple titles in WWE, including three World Titles. He has also left the company from time ..

We need to shake things up. There are so many wrestlers and performers of various types in WWE that sometimes you want to see how things would go if it was mixed up a bit. It doesn’t help when you have Monday Night Raw, SmackDown and NXT as separate brands, but every now and then you get to see things mixed up a little bit. Now we know more about it happening again.
According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast, the 2021 WWE Draft will be held on the August 30 Monday Night Raw and September 3 SmackDown. There are currently plans for some big names to be moved around and WWE is hoping to make the Draft feel like a bigger deal than in previous years. There is no word on who will be moving where or how many names will be changed.
The WWE Draft is taking place on Aug 23rd & Aug 27th.
Im seeing a few reports that WWE doesn't have set plans for after the draft.
I can tell you that report isn't totally accurate. WWE has big plans for some who will be switchin..

It was nice while it lasted. Every now and then you find a person who takes to wrestling like an absolute natural. With no time or experience, they are suddenly leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else and it can be fascinating to see just how good they are. Wrestling promotions notice this as well and often move them up in a hurry, which seems to be the case again today.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, SmackDown broadcaster Pat McAfee is likely done with NXT in any way. McAfee has made appearances in NXT as a manager and occasional wrestler, including in WarGames 2020 against the Undisputed Era. Following his team’s loss at WarGames, McAfee did not appear in WWE again until debuting as a SmackDown broadcaster on April 16.
McAfee really is one of the most natural talents you will see in wrestling. Check out what he did in NXT:
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Opinion: This is kin..