NEWS

Everyone is back. WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel in which they show the full match between Roman Reigns and Edge for the Universal Championship from Money in the Bank 2021. This was the first pay-per-view with fans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and featured John Cena’s return.
You can see the video in its entirety below:
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From WWE.com:
In a fair world, the headline would read: Edge pins Universal Champion Roman Reigns. After all, the WWE Hall of Famer, in search of a fairytale ending to his comeback story, had The Tribal Chief’s shoulders pinned to the mat for three seconds and then some after connecting with a Spear late in the bout. The only problem? There was no referee to administer a count.
To get to that point, Edge indeed manifested the anger he knew he’d need to unseat The Head of the Table. He endured Reigns’ punishing offense — from the Drive-By to the Guillotine — before mounting an incredible r..

Put something on the line. There are all kinds of titles in wrestling and some of them are rather prestigious. Fans have seen and heard of these titles for decades and some of them have been held by some of the biggest names in wrestling history. Every title has to come from somewhere though, and now another one is coming into existence, with a bit of a unique twist.
The All Atlantic Title was announced this week on AEW Dynamite. The title represents the countries where AEW television airs, with a tournament to crown the inaugural champion consisting of international stars being announced. The first champion will be crowned at Forbidden Door in a four way match. Here are the brackets, including two wrestlers who will be announced later:
Buddy Matthews
Pac
Ethan Page
Miro
Penta Obscuro
Malakai Black
New Japan Wrestler
New Japan Wrestler
Opinion: I’m not sure how much AEW needs another title but that is what they are getting no matter what. The tournament itself is barely a tournam..

Dynamite
Date: June 8, 2022
Location: Cable Dahmer Arena, Independence, Missouri
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross
It’s time for things to get all the more interesting again as this week will include the first half of the process to find a new Interim AEW World Champion. That alone should fill in a good bit of the show, as we get a battle royal and then a Jon Moxley match in the show’s main event. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Casino Battle Royal This is the battle royal with four groups of wrestlers coming in at unspecified intervals before the Joker is the 21st entrant, with the winner facing Jon Moxley later tonight. We’ll start with the first group:
Clubs: Eddie Kingston, Darby Allin, Tony Nese, Daniel Garcia, Lance Archer
It’s a brawl to start with Archer and Allin being left alone early, though no one is eliminated. Archer shrugs off Allin’s skateboard shot and takes him into the corner so the Diamonds can come in:
Diamonds: Ricky Starks, Jake Hager, Re..

There he is. Sometimes a wrestler needs to take some time away from the public eye to shake things up a little bit. It might be just to give the person a refresher or something brand new entirely. There might even be a bit of mystery to the whole thing, as the person’s identity could be concealed. That is not the case this time, as WWE has flat out said who a returning star will be.
Over the last few weeks, NXT has been presenting vignettes of a soon to be debuting star named Giovanni Vinci. Throughout the vignettes, Vinci’s identity was not made clear, as only his hands and feet were shown. This week though, Vinci’s face was shown, revealing that he is the star formerly known as Fabian Aichner, who will be returning next week. This had been rumored since the vignettes began but never confirmed.
Nice to meet you. Check out the final vignette:
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Opinion: This wasn’t exactly a surprise but it is interesting to see NXT flat out show who Vinci i..

That’s a different way to go. The McMahons have been around the wrestling world for a very long time now and are the most powerful family in all of wrestling. However, for the first time in a very long time now, there is one McMahon working in WWE. This comes after Stephanie McMahon has taken a leave of absence from the company. It seems that there might be more to it than it seems though.
Last week, stories began to surface about Vince McMahon possibly being the reason for Stephanie McMahon taking a hiatus from WWE. Stephanie was said to have done poorly in her new roles with the company, but according to Fightful Select, Vince was not responsible. Some of WWE President Nick Khan’s team had said Stephanie needed to improve in some areas but it was not enough for her to leave. The decision was said to be Stephanie’s own choice, though it is not clear when or if she will be returning.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that could go in a few ways, but it does seem like Stephanie just ..

What could have been. Stables have been a thing for a very long time in wrestling and that is certainly still the case in WWE today. The important thing is finding the right idea for the right group of people as missing on either point can be quite the mistake. Sometimes a bad idea has to be rejected and that took place earlier this year with a WWE stable that has already undergone a big change.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Finn Balor joined Edge’s Judgment Day stable before kicking Edge out to take over the stable for himself. According to Fightful Select, WWE originally wanted the stable to be more supernatural in nature but Edge was opposed to the idea. As a result, WWE changed the direction of the stable as a reactionary measure as WWE wants to change the direction of the stable. It was said to not be due to establishing a new star once Cody Rhodes was injured.
Opinion: This is an interesting way to go but I hope that WWE doesn’t go with the supernatural stuff. Outside of Balor..

Welcome back. While the wrestlers are certainly the most prominent part of a wrestling show, there are a lot of people who work behind the scenes to put the show together. Those people are often names you have heard of before and that is certainly the case in WWE today. The wrestlers need someone to help make their matches work and now the main roster is getting someone old yet new.
According to Fightful Select, Finlay produced the dark match from last week’s SmackDown, which featured NXT stars Wes Lee and Sanga. This was Finlay’s first time producing a match on the main roster since he returned from a furlough in November 2020. Since then, he has been working in NXT and there is no word on if he will be a producer on the main roster going forward.
Opinion: Finlay is one of those names who fits in perfectly what this job so if WWE is giving him another try, they are at least thinking smart. He has been around forever and knows what he is doing, so let him use what he knows and teach ..

He’s on the other side. There are a lot of different ways to present a wrestler but ultimately it boils down to them being good or evil. While you can have varying degrees either way, what matters most is that someone is on one side or the other. It can mean a lot when someone changes sides, and that apparently was the case this week, even if it wasn’t all that clear.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Finn Balor joined Edge’s Judgment Day stable, only to immediately turn on Edge and have the team beat him down. According to PWInsider.com, following the turn, Edge is now officially considered a babyface backstage in WWE. There is no word on when he will be back in the ring following the attack or who he will be facing first.
Opinion: This absolutely feels like a quick change to balance out the loss of Cody Rhodes and that is not a bad idea. Edge is someone the fans will cheer no matter what so letting him feud with people like Balor and Damian Priest is a good idea. If nothing else, Edge..

Put him down as not a fan. There are certain promos and interviews which resonate with fans for one reason or another. It might be the delivery, it might be the context and it might be what is being said, but sometimes it can be everything coming together. That was the case with a promo last week, but it seems that one wrestling legend was certainly not impressed.
Last week on AEW Dynamite, Maxwell Jacob Friedman cut a promo bashing AEW President Tony Khan and the company as a whole. The promo followed Friedman no showing a scheduled meet and greet over Double Or Nothing weekend. During the latest edition of his Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts said that the promo “made me sick” and said the bomb that it dropped in the locker room will have repercussions.
Opinion: I’m curious to see where this goes, but I am a bit more interested in the fact that Roberts, who works for AEW, is so curious to see how the locker room responds. Roberts is someone who has been around for a long time and kn..

Stick around. WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world and has its hands in all kinds of things. Above all else though, their biggest method of exposure is television. With two national television deals for Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, it is easy to see WWE programming if you want to. Now we know that will continue to be the case for an even longer time to come.
In a press release by way of 411mania.com, the FOX Network has announced that SmackDown will be returning for the 2022-23 television season. The show will remain in its current time slot, meaning that it will continue to air on the network in the same way for a fourth year. WWE and FOX began a broadcasting agreement in 2019, with the teal set to expire in 2024. There was nothing to suggest that a change was coming.
Opinion: That’s good to hear, as WWE airing SmackDown on FOX is one of the best things that it has going. In addition to the prestige of having a show on broadcast television, there is also the fact tha..

Welcome back. With such a large roster in WWE, it can be easy to forget what to do with some of them. That includes getting them on television, as there are only five hours a week between Monday Night Raw and SmackDown, but there is a third option. That would be NXT, which offers two more hours worth of spots to WWE stars. Now we get to see another one of those stars on NXT TV.
This week on NXT, Apollo Crews made a surprise return to the show, confronting Bron Breakker, who was asking who would be the next challenger to his NXT Title. The two shook hands out of respect and no match was set. Crews also teamed with Solo Sikoa to defeat Grayson Waller and Carmelo Hayes in the main event. That match was Crews’ first in NXT since 2016, though it is not clear how long he will be staying. In addition, Crews had dropped his Nigerian royalty character and was appearing as his normal self.
Homecoming. Check out Crews’ return and match:
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NXT
Date: June 7, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph
We’re fresh off In Your House and the show came with a few changes. The North American and Tag Team Titles changed hands so there is some fresh blood in the gold scene around here. This week’s features the finals of the Women’s Breakout Tournament as Tiffany Stratton faces Roxanne Perez. Let’s get to it.
We open with a match by match recap of In Your House.
Here is new North American Champion Carmelo Hayes, with Trick Williams, for a chat. Hayes is really happy to have the title back and gives Cameron Grimes credit for a tough fight on Saturday. He brags about his greatness, but here is Solo Sikoa to interrupt. Sikoa says he has next, but Hayes says that deal was with Grimes, not the new champ. Now it’s Grayson Waller to interrupt, saying it doesn’t matter who Sikoa’s family is because no one cares or likes him. The brawl is on, with Sikoa being taken down by some tripl..