NEWS

What a mess. There have been a lot of wrestling headlines this year but one of the biggest has been Sasha Banks and Naomi walking out on WWE. The two were the reigning WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions when they left and there is nothing to suggest that they will be back anytime soon. As you might have guessed, this is quite the complicated situation and now it is getting messier.
One of the more complicated aspects of the situation has been Banks’ contract status, with earlier reports saying that she had been let go from the company. However, according to Dave Meltzer on Sunday Night’s Main Event, Banks has yet to be released, though it could take place this week. There is nothing to suggest that Banks will return to the ring or even WWE programming.
Opinion: I don’t think it’s the biggest surprise that Banks will not be back on WWE TV, but the idea of WWE releasing her is more than a surprise. Banks is a very talented star, but at what point is that talent not worth all of the headach..

I know him. We are coming up on AEW’s latest pay per view event with this weekend’s Forbidden Door. The show will feature a series of matches between AEW and New Japan wrestlers, many of whom have never met before. This opens up a variety of possibilities as there are some incredibly talented people on both sides of the roster. Now we might have a hint about what one of them will be doing.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, there will be some “newcomers” appearing on this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite. Among the possible multiple names appearing on the show is Zack Sabre Jr., who has been teasing a match with Bryan Danielson. Sabre Jr. is expected to be at Dynamite and missed this week’s New Japan Road event to free up the date. However, Danielson is currently not cleared for the show and is expected to make an announcement about his status this week on Dynamite. It is not clear who Sabre Jr. will face if he is still appearing at Forbidden Door.
Opinion: Sabre Jr. vs. Danielson ..

It’s another place to go. WWE and AEW get most of the attention in the wrestling world and that is not going to change for the time being. That being said, they are also not the only promotions in the world and there is a lot of talent out there away from the major companies. Sometimes you see a former WWE wrestler try his luck elsewhere, and that is the case again with a homecoming.
Kushida made a surprise return to New Japan Pro Wrestling this week at the New Japan Road show in Tokyo. Kushida returned and confronted IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, likely setting up a future match between the two. After the confrontation, Kushida announced that he would be spending the rest of his career with New Japan. This marked Kushida’s first appearance since leaving WWE in April of this year.
Opinion: I don’t know if Kushida returning to New Japan was so much a matter of if but rather when. He had the greatest successes of his career there and it makes sense to bring him back ..

Welcome back. There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster and it can be easy to forget that some of them are around. Once you forget, it can be even easier to see them slip away for one reason or another. Sometimes that is due to some kind of an injury and that might be the case again. This time though, a wrestler seems like she is ready to make her big return.
WWE’s Queen Zelina has sent out a tweet saying that “your queen will return soon.” This comes after Zelina has not wrestled a match since the April 11 Monday Night Raw, during which she suffered an undisclosed injury. It is not clear if the injury has healed or what needed to be done to fix the situation. There is no word on when Zelina will be returning or what she will be doing when she gets back.
Aww I know my loyal subjects ? your queen will return soon, I promise! I am simply allowing the .. humans.. to have their fun.. for now. @wwe https://t.co/dU7sMlhJfy
— ? ????? ?????? ? (@ZelinaVegaWWE) June 21, 2022
Opinion: T..

There is a lot to go through. Injuries are one of the worst things that can happen to a wrestler as you never know when someone is going to be put on the shelf. It could be for quite a long time or a short while, but either way it is something that can create quite the problem. That is the case again in AEW, but this time there are quite a few injuries at the same time.
Fightful Select is reporting updates on several AEW injuries. First up is Matt Hardy, who suffered some sort of a knee injury over the weekend at AAA’s TripleMania event in Tijuana, Mexico. Hardy’s knee is said to have “major” swelling but it is not clear how long he might be out, if he is at all. In addition, Bryan Danielson is currently not cleared to wrestle at AEW Forbidden Door, though he is expected to make an announcement about his injury status.
Next, Lee Johnson is currently out of action with a knee injury and is expected to be out of action for the rest of the summer. Finally, Darius Martin is also out of a..

That’s a plan for later. We are rapidly approaching WWE’s Money in the Bank pay per view and the show is going to be rather stacked. That being said, there are other major events later in the year that need to be built up as well. WWE also needs to get ready for Summerslam and now it seems that they have the plans in place for one of the bigger matches on the show.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Omos defeated Riddle in a Money in the Bank qualifying match. Following the match, Seth Rollins attacked Riddle, including laying him out with a Stomp. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, this is likely setting up a match between the two at Summerslam. Riddle is currently not scheduled for Money in the Bank and Rollins has already qualified for the men’s ladder match, making Summerslam the first pay per view where the match could take place.
Opinion: I don’t think it is any kind of a surprise that Riddle vs. Rollins is coming, but waiting for Summerslam is a bit different. It is rare for W..

Meet the new guy. WWE is a rather large wrestling company with all kinds of stars under its umbrella. As a result, the company is able to offer a wide variety of matches and stars, including wrestlers from around the world. It can be interesting to see wrestlers from different countries trying their luck on different stages. That seems to be the case again as NXT has a new star on its hands.
This week’s edition of NXT featured a vignette for a debuting star named JD McDonagh. The video ended with a shot of McDonagh, who was revealed as former NXT UK star Jordan Devlin, who said his “never bet against an Ace” catchphrase. This comes after Devlin lost a Loser Leaves NXT UK match to United Kingdom Champion Ilja Dragunov earlier this year. There is no word on when he will debut in NXT.
You might know the guy. Check out the McDonagh vignette:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This is the kind of thing that baffles me about WWE, as it isn’t like Devlin was some no name ..

NXT
Date: June 21, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph
It’s another title week this time around as we have Carmelo Hayes defending the North American Title against Tony D’Angelo in the main event. Other than that we continue the build towards the Great American Bash, where Bron Breakker will defend against Cameron Grimes. Other than that, we get more Lash Legend and Joe Gacy because we’re that lucky. Let’s get to it.
Solo Sikoa vs. Grayson Waller Before the match, Sikoa talks about how he’s tired of Sikoa whining and is ready to uncensor himself. That’s enough for Sikoa to charge at him and the fight is on fast. They head inside with Sikoa hammering away and hitting a belly to back suplex. Back up and Sikoa head fakes him to set up a clothesline as Waller can’t get anything going here. Waller gets smart by kicking at the leg and dropping Sikoa for a change. Sikoa gets sent outside but comes back with an elbow to the face as..

He might not be back. WWE has a lot of people who come together to make the promotion work. This includes the wrestlers in front of the camera, but also several people who stay backstage. There are a lot of names that fans might recognize for their previous or current efforts, but now one of those names very well might not be around any longer after a scandal has taken place.
Earlier this week, John Laurinaitis was placed on administrative leave from his role as heat of talent relations in WWE due to his investigation in a scandal involving an affair with a WWE employee. Bruce Prichard has taken Laurinaitis’ place while still being part of WWE creative. According to Fightful Select, several backstage in WWE believe that Laurinaitis is “as good as gone”, with many of them being happy that Laurinaitis is gone. There is however a worry about Prichard holding both roles, as it could become an issue in regards to working with the two departments.
Opinion: This whole ordeal has turned into..

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?
Money in the Bank 2018
Date: June 17, 2018
Location: Allstate Arena, Rosemont, Illinois
Commentators: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Tom Phillips, Jonathan Coachman, Byron Saxton
It’s finally time to get to what WWE seems to think is the most important show of the year, at least based on how much they promote it. Tonight we find out who might be cashing in to get a cheap World Title reign at any point in the next year. Other than that we have AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura V in a Last Man Standing match. Let’s get t..

It would be a big one. There are a lot of matches in WWE any given year but only a handful of them hit the big time. It often takes something special to get a match to that level and a lot of that is due to the amount of time that is put into everything. WWE might have another case to do that again, but it could be a long time before we actually see the match take place.
On a recent edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer spoke about how a potential Randy Orton vs. Riddle match could go. Meltzer said that the seeds had been planted to have Orton be annoyed at Riddle for dedicating a major match against Roman Reigns to him and then losing in the ending. The idea would be that Orton would turn on Riddle, though the match would not likely take place until next year due to Orton being out of action with a back injury. Riddle has continued to mention Orton and use his moves while Orton has been out of action.
Opinion: The more I think about it, the more I would like to see Orton..

That’s an important part. WWE has long since taken over the wrestling industry and no other promotion really comes close to what they are doing. That puts them in a unique place, which is helped by the fact that they have more money than any other promotion. Part of that comes from being a publicly traded company, but now the negative side of that could be coming through.
According to Businesswire.com, the Schall Law Firm is asking for WWE investors to contact their office over possible violations of security laws. This comes after WWE announced that they are investigating Vince McMahon allegedly paying a WWE employee $3 million to hide an affair between the two. Schall is looking into whether or not WWE violated security laws by possibly issuing false or misleading statements or failed to disclose pertinent information. WWE has not commented on the announcement.
Opinion: I have no idea where this is going, but there is a very good chance that this winds up being something else WWE h..