NEWS

After this year’s All Out, CM Punk went ballistic during a media scrum, bashing a lot of people on the roster, including the company’s Executive Vice Presidents, better known as the Elite (for the sake of clarification, I’ll only be referring to Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks when I mention the Elite). Following the media scrum, there was a huge fight between Punk, Ace Steel and the Elite which has resulted in pretty much everyone involved being suspended. It isn’t clear when those people are going to be back and that is what we are looking at this time around.
Now before you panic, no, we aren’t talking about the media scrum comments or the brawl, because those topics have been driven so hard into the ground that I’m expecting them to wind up on Impact Wrestling sooner than later. Everything that we know or have speculated about those incidents has been covered to death so we’ll move on to something a little more practical.
This week saw AEW’s Grand Slam events, held in Arthur Ashe..

Sometimes it has to be done. Wrestling is a unique breed among sports, as it is certainly athletic but it is predetermined and often planned out in advance. That makes for some interesting situations, as you can see things go off script, or at least off plans, right in front of your eyes. That can make for some interesting moments and that was the case this week on SmackDown.
This week’s SmackDown featured a segment between Drew McIntyre, Karrion Kross and Scarlet. While McIntyre and Kross were fighting, Scarlet launched a fireball at McIntyre, which missed him entirely. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Kross was told to keep going to get to the planned ending of the segment. As a result, McIntyre gave Kross a spinebuster before Scarlet hit him low, allowing Kross to lock in the KrossJacket.
This could have been worse. Check out what happened in the segment:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: They didn’t have a choice but to improvise here, as McInty..

His name is out there. One of the most interesting things that a wrestling promotion can push is a mystery. By making fans wonder what is going on and where a story might be going, a company can get a long way in a short amount of time. As a bonus, there can be some fascinating theories put out there, including some currently about a possibly returning top WWE name.
Over the last few weeks, WWE has been dropping clues related to something known as the White Rabbit. While it is unclear what that might be, one of the most popular options has been the return of Bray Wyatt to WWE. A new video has been released on YouTube showing Wyatt training with Keith Thurman, a former boxing welterweight world champion, ahead of a rumored WWE return. However, it is not clear if the footage shown is new. In addition, a fan posted a photo of a man who was clearly not Wyatt at the Salt Lake City airport renting a car. Wyatt responded, saying he would never use the Hertz rental car company.
Bray Wyatt sp..

Well that would be more. There are a lot of stars in wrestling but there are only a few who are such natural talents that it can be hard to believe they are that good. You see these people every now and then and they rarely disappoint. It can be amazing to watch these people rise through the ranks, and now one of them is going to have a huge rise in his bank account.
The end of AEW All Out saw the surprise return of Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Before Friedman came back to the ring, a voicemail played with AEW President Tony Khan announcing that Friedman was receiving an upgrade in pay but no specifics were given. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the raise will possibly give Friedman more than a million dollars a year. Friedman did not have to sign an extension, meaning his contract still expires on January 1, 2024.
Opinion: That is a heck of a raise and Friedman has certainly earned it. Friedman has gone from little more than a promising talker to one of the best promos in..

You never want to hear that. An injury is one of the worst possible things that can happen to any wrestler as you never know how long someone is going to be out of action. Someone can be injured in any way and miss time, which can lead to some difficult situations. Thankfully though, this time things might not be as bad as they seem given the circumstances.
Earlier this month, WWE announced that SmackDown’s Aliyah had suffered an unspecified injury and would be out of action. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the injury is not said to be serious and Aliyah should be back on television as early as next week. Aliyah has been teaming with Raquel Rodriguez, with the team winning the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles in August, only to lose them two weeks later.
Opinion: That could be a lot worse as you never want to see someone get hurt. What matters most is that Aliyah does not seem to be hurt that badly and should be back soon. She has been getting the biggest push of ..

It’s a homecoming. Stables have long since been a major concept in WWE and it makes a lot of sense. Putting a group of wrestlers together allows them to fill in more television time while also getting more people on the show. That is a tricky thing to do and a stable can make it that much easier. Now WWE is bringing back one of the biggest stables ever for a special reunion.
As announced by the Barclays Center Twitter, D-Generation X will be reuniting to celebrate twenty five years of the team on the October 10 Monday Night Raw. The members who will be appearing are not specified but Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Road Dogg and X-Pac appear in the clip. There is no word on what the team will be doing during their reunion. D-Generation X has had various reunions over the years after splitting up full time.
BROOKLYN! The DX 25th Anniversary Celebration is set to take place at @wwe Monday Night RAW on October 10!?
Don’t miss out, get tix now??https://t.co/EsnEKRis9I pic.twitter.com/GXi1eG4..

Is that a mutiny? The rise of AEW has changed the way the wrestling world works. After so many years of WWE dominating the industry, there is now a new promotion on the rise that is allowing wrestlers a fresh place to go. That has been a game change, but at the same time, not everyone who goes there is going to be happy. That seemed to be the case with one star, but some others shut him down.
According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Ryan Frederick on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s message board, Bobby Fish tried to get Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly to leave AEW and return with him to WWE. However, the two turned him down while Fish left the company, setting up his debut with Impact Wrestling this weekend. Cole and O’Reilly are both currently out of action with injuries and it is not clear when they will be returning.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that you do not hear about often but the cool thing is that it is happening again. There are now two companies which are fighti..

The night isn’t over. With so many talented stars on the WWE roster, it can be difficult to figure out how to get a lot of people on television. Even with five hours of main roster television time to fill every week, there are still wrestlers who are not on the show. While it might not be the same, there is still the chance to wrestle after the cameras go off and six wrestlers got to do that this week.
Following this week’s edition of SmackDown, the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and the Street Profits defeated Imperium in a post-show dark match. Nakamura pinned Ludvig Kaiser after Kinshasa to win the match. All six appeared on the SmackDown broadcast, but none of them wrestled. Nakamura and the Street Profits appeared in multiple backstage segments while Imperium interfered in the main event.
It was a big match. Check out the showdown after SmackDown went off the air:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This is the kind of thing that works well for a special post show m..

Rampage
Date: September 24, 2022
Location: Arthur Ashe Stadium, New York City, New York
Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Chris Jericho
It’s the biggest Rampage of the year as we are in New York City for a stacked two house show. The card is headlined by a battle royal (shocking I know) for the #1 contendership as we have a title shot to get through before Full Gear. Other than that, there are a bunch of grudge matches so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
House Of Black vs. Sting/Darby Allin No DQ and Sting/Allin pop up behind the House (Brody King/Buddy Matthews with Julia Hart) during their entrances to start the fight on the stage. The bell rings and they fight to the ring with the House taking over without much trouble. Sting gets surrounded but manages to fight them both off, only to be driven hard into the corner. A super Code Red gives Allin two on King but a suicide dive is cut off by a raised knee.
Sting goes up but gets shoved through a table, with his h..

That would be a showdown. WWE is still the biggest and most powerful wrestling promotion in the world and that means they are going to be able to draw in names that almost no one else can. It means something to be part of a WWE show, even as an outsider. WWE is making an effort to bring someone back in for one of the biggest spots imaginable if they can pull it off.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE is interested in a match between Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns and boxing world champion Tyson Fury. There is no word on when this match would take place as Fury has a title defense scheduled for this December. Fury has wrestled for WWE before, defeating Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel 2019 and has made appearances since.
Opinion: This is about as logical of a move as there is and it is nice to see WWE moving in such a direction. Reigns is more or less out of challengers for the time being so setting up this kind of a dream matchup would make sense. I’m not sure wh..

That might be a bit much. The rise of AEW has seen wrestlers being offered another place to apply their trade at a top level. The company is offering a top stage that has not been available outside of WWE in a very long time. Several wrestlers, including some who had previously worked in WWE, are now getting a new place to go, but it seems that WWE wants some of them back.
According to Fightful Select, WWE sent out feelers to FTR (Cash Wheeler/Dax Harwood) and Swerve Strickland about potentially returning to WWE. There is no word on when this would be possible due to their AEW contracts or if any of them are interested in a potential jump. This comes after reports that WWE has reached out to Malakai Black, who recently departed AEW in some fashion.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that you are going to hear more about going forward as the companies fight for talent. While the contract situations are going to make things more and more complicated, the fact that the promotions are ev..

Now that’s a cameo. There are certain pairings in wrestling history that work so well that people will talk about them years if not decades later. That is the kind of thing that can make for a very fun moment when it is referenced years later, especially if it is done well. Another such moment took place this week, as a pair of rivals from decades ago had a stunning reunion.
This week’s AEW Rampage featured a No DQ match between Sting and Darby Allin against the House of Black. During the match, Sting was in trouble when the Great Muta appeared to save him from Buddy Matthews. Muta took Mathews down with a dragon screw legwhip and sprayed him with mist, allowing Sting to get the win. Later in the night, Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that Sting will be part of Muta’s final match on January 22.
This was awesome. Check out Muta’s surprise appearances:
[This post contains video, click to play]

?
??????????????FINAL????” ????? “?????????
?
?GREAT MUTA FINAL “BYE-BYE“?
?2023?1?22?(?) 15..