NEWS

She’s back! Tonight on Raw, Alexa Bliss made her return to television after being away for several months. She would be the mystery opponent for Sonya Deville, whom she defeated in somewhat of a squash.
You can see the return and the match in its entirety below:
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Bliss was last seen on WWE programming at the 2022 Elimination Chamber premium live event back in February. She would eliminate Liv Morgan but then be eliminated herself by Bianca Belair.
Alexa returned with what appeared to be her ‘Little Miss Bliss’ gimmick that she has used for the majority of her time in WWE. Since July 2020, she had been playing a supernatural character, that had been manipulated by ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt.
Sonya Deville was in a state of shock for this match, as she had just been fired as a WWE official by Adam Pearce. She still remains an in-ring performer, however.
Editor’s Opinion:
YES! Alexa Bliss has always been one of my favorite performers in the com..

They had a different plan. Tournaments are a common idea in wrestling and something that can be used to quite the success. There is something so simple about putting a bunch of people into a field and seeing who comes out on top in the end. You can see all kinds of tournaments today and we almost saw another one, albeit not one that you see very often around here.
Back in March, AEW began holding qualifying matches for the men’s and women’s Owen Hart Foundation tournaments, which will officially begin later this week. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, the original format would have been a round robin style tournament with all eight participants in each field facing each other once. However, this was seen as impossible due to time constraints. The finals of both tournaments will take place at Double Or Nothing.
Opinion: I know this might not have been what AEW wanted to do but the single elimination format works a lot better. With so many other things going on, having a tournamen..

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 9, 2022
Location: XL Center, Hartford, Connecticut
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
We’re done with Wrestlemania Backlash and now it is time to start getting ready for Hell In A Cell. This means that we are likely in for MORE rematches, as WWE continues to get more time out of their one set of ideas. Not much happened last night on the Raw side, but Cody Rhodes’ rise continues. Let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of last night’s main event, with Roman Reigns pinning Riddle so the Bloodline could beat RKBro/Drew McIntyre.
Here is RKBro for a chat. Randy Orton talks about how they came up short last night, but that was just a battle and they will win the war. The original plan was for a Tag Team Title unification match, but Roman Reigns cut that off because he knows the Usos can’t beat RKBro. That’s why they’re going to Smackdown this week and DEMANDING that Reigns allow the match. If Reigns doesn’t say yes, it shows how little he beli..

I would call that a good reason. There are a lot of people moving in and out of any given WWE show. Some of them are around for the long haul but occasionally need some time off for one reason or another. That can make for some dramatic exits, which was the case for a bigger name over the weekend. Now we might know the reason for someone taking a bit of a break from WWE.
Over the weekend, Charlotte lost the SmackDown Women’s Title to Ronda Rousey in an I Quit match at WrestleMania Backlash. Following the loss, a WWE report announced that Charlotte had suffered a broken arm and would be out of action indefinitely as part of the storyline injury. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Charlotte is taking time off because she is getting married to AEW’s Andrade El Idolo. There is no word on how long Charlotte will be gone, but the timetable for recovery from such an injury is about six to eight weeks.
Opinion: It is great to hear that there is a reason for Charlotte to be gone other tha..

NXT LVL Up
Date: May 6, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Sudu Shah
We’re coming off a big NXT event on Tuesday and odds are that doesn’t mean much around here. What might mean something is the upcoming women’s Breakout Tournament, which very well could get some hype on this show. This is where some of the upcoming women have appeared before so maybe we get more of that this week. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Tatum Paxley/Ivy Nile vs. Erica Yan/Sarray Roderick Strong is here with Nile and Paxley. Nile takes Sarray into the corner to start and it’s an exchange of wristlocks with Paxley. Sarray slips out and hits a running dropkick so Yan can come in instead.
An exchange of rollups get two each and that’s good for a standoff so we’ll try Nile vs. Sarray again. A fisherman’s suplex gets two on Nile but she is back up with a clothesline. Some rolling suplexes set up a running kick in the corner and Sarray is in trouble. Paxl..

That’s something special. Wrestlers can be in a weird place when it comes to celebrity status, as while they are television stars, they are also stuck in the wrestling bubble. While that can keep them from breaking through to another level, there is quite the status for them right where they are. That was on display recently in a very sweet moment for a group of people.
New York school teacher Victor Perry runs a wrestling club with his students where wrestling is used to teach life lessons. During their most recent meeting, WWE star Sasha Banks made a surprise appearance to meet with the students, take photos with her WWE Women’s Tag Team Title and sign autographs. Banks thanked Perry for having her and called him a great role model.
The GOAT. ??? @SashaBanksWWE pic.twitter.com/9oYQeRjqyI
— Victor Taylor Perry (@wallflowerperry) May 6, 2022
Made a special stop to see @wallflowerperry wrestling club. Your students inspire me so much!! Thank you for being the best/coolest role model..

That sounds like a big relief. There are very few wrestlers who can be described as the face of WWE. Over the years you can see a few of them come up through the ranks, but it is very rare to have someone who is the focal point of the entire company. Those wrestlers are going to be among the biggest names WWE has ever seen, and now WWE might have some good news about one of them.
Over the weekend, Roman Reigns spoke at the end of a WWE live event in Trenton, New Jersey, saying that he was moving into a new phase and did not know when he would be back in front of these fans. What Reigns meant was not clear, but according to Fightful Select, there is nothing to suggest that Reigns is leaving WWE or even taking time off. The speculation is that Reigns is expected to wrestle fewer non-televised events. There is also no word on him taking time off for any Hollywood commitments, though that is a possibility in the future.
Opinion: Reigns’ comments were interesting, as they were vague enoug..

That sounds like an upgrade. There are certain WWE matches throughout the year that can shape the rest of the calendar. Some of these matches will spend months getting ready, but the payoff winds up being worth it in the end. One signature WWE match can become a big deal at any time, but now WWE might be making a change and giving it a set spot at the biggest show of the year.
This weekend’s WWE WrestleMania Backlash featured a promo for July’s Money in the Bank event, as narrated by Cody Rhodes. During the video, Rhodes mentioned that the winner of the Money in the Bank ladder matches would win the chance to main event WrestleMania. While not confirmed, this could mean that the winner of the match receives the WrestleMania World Title shot as opposed to being allowed to cash in at any time. WWE has NOT confirmed a change to the match though and this may just be poor wording in the video.
See for yourself. Check out what Rhodes said about the matches:
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That could change things. There are all kinds of injuries in the wrestling world and some of them are a lot more serious than others. An injury can put someone on the shelf for any length of time and you never want to see one of them take place. At the same time though, an injury might be part of a storyline and that seems to be the case again with a prominent WWE star.
This weekend’s WWE WrestleMania Backlash pay per view featured an I Quit match between Ronda Rousey and Charlotte for the SmackDown Women’s Title. Rousey defeated Charlotte with an armbar while Charlotte’s arm was wrapped in a chair. Later in the show, a backstage report announced that Charlotte had suffered a broken radius in her arm, which will put her out of action indefinitely. According to Fightful Select, this is a storyline injury as Charlotte is taking some time off from WWE. It is not clear when she will be back.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that needs to happen from time to time as Charlotte has been o..

Give her the gold. Titles are the kind of thing that can make someone career in an instant. Someone winning a championship turns them into an even bigger star as they become the focal point of a show, or at least a division. Title changes feel important and can mean the start of something new, which might be the case again as another WWE title has changed hands.
This weekend at WrestleMania Backlash 2022, Ronda Rousey defeated Charlotte in an I Quit match to become the new SmackDown Women’s Champion. Rousey made Charlotte quit with an armbar with the arm tied up inside of a chair to win the title for the first time. The match was a rematch from WrestleMania 38, where the referee did not see Charlotte tapping out, allowing Charlotte to pin Rousey and retain the title.
Opinion: After the way Rousey lost at WrestleMania, this was about the only way the match could go. What matters is that Charlotte’s reign ended as it should have, with Rousey beating her soundly to take the title. That ..

Welcome to the club. Stables are a great idea in wrestling as you can do all kinds of things with them. A bunch of wrestlers can be put into a team with a common idea and that is usually enough to make things more interesting. WWE has spent years using stables for just such a reason and now they are doing it again, as a new member has joined the company’s latest group.
This weekend at WrestleMania Backlash, Edge faced AJ Styles in a WrestleMania 38 rematch. Late in the match, a masked person distracted Styles, allowing Edge to get the win. After the match, the person knelt to Edge and unmasked as Rhea Ripley, making her the newest member of the Judgment Day stable. Ripley was named as a potential member of the stable before it first formed.
Opinion: This is something that could work out well, as Ripley feels like someone who could fit in well with the team. If nothing else, it is nice to see Ripley getting to do something else, as she is someone who has all kinds of talent but has no..

Wrestlemania Backlash 2022
Date: May 8, 2022
Location: Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island
Commentators: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee, Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
it’s time for a pay per view that feels like it has been little more than an obligation as the show is six matches long with a number of title matches. Granted in this case that number is one but take what you can get. The main event is a six man tag for reasons that I’m still not clear on but maybe the in-ring work can make up for it. Let’s get to it.
The opening sequence looks at Wrestlemania and how we got here.
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