NEWS

Happy Birthday! WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel, in which they show the full segment of The Rock’s Birthday Celebration From the May 2, 2011, episode of Raw. This is to promote The Rock’s 50th birthday, which is today!
You can see the segment in its entirety below:
[This post contains video, click to play]

From WWE.com:
It’s a shame birthdays only come around once a year. With all the cake, candles, and chaos, though, memories of The Rock’s celebratory bash should last at least that long.
With the evening going full force, The Great One thanked the fans in his hometown of Miami and the entire WWE Universe for helping him celebrate. He was then joined by surprise guest Mr. McMahon, who offered some uncharacteristically kind words before unspooling a video tribute to The Rock. Then Grammy-award winning recording artist Mya was introduced and led the crowd in a rendition of “Happy Birthday.”
None other than Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Carrell, Ellen DeGeneres, Dan Ma..

Monday Night Raw
Date: May 2, 2022
Location: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
Commentators: Jimmy Smith, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton
It’s the go home show for Wrestlemania Backlash and that means it is time for the final push towards the event. Granted after last week’s Smackdown, everything has changed again as we have a six man tag between the Bloodline and RKBro/Drew McIntyre. Yeah just a six man, with no titles currently on the line. Let’s get to it.
Here is the Bloodline to get things going. Paul Heyman handles Roman Reigns’ introduction and Reigns himself tells North Carolina to acknowledge him….but RKBro runs in to RKO the Usos. Cue Drew McIntyre with Angela the sword, leaving Reigns looking worried. The sword is dropped down so McIntyre gets in, with the Usos and RKBro joining them. Referees come down to break up the fight and we take an early break.
Earlier today, Ezekiel met with the Street Profits and had a drink. Kevin Owens (in a Becky Lynch shirt) and Alp..

Another heel turn. WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel, in which they show the full match between John Cena and John Laurinaitis from Over the Limit 2012. The Big Show made his return and turned on John Cena to give Laurinaitis the win.
You can see the video in its entirety below:
[This post contains video, click to play]

From WWE.com:
Clad in a sheen jumpsuit, emblazoned with the hollow words “People Power,” Laurinaitis sulked to the ring like a man headed down the green mile. From the get-go, the match unfolded like a televised mugging as the General Manager was relentlessly contorted and battered by Cena, who took slow pleasure in manhandling the General Manager—at one point dumping a garbage can full of arena swill over Big Johnny’s head and cooling off the shame-faced GM with a fire extinguisher.
Throughout the main event humiliation, the Cenation leader toyed with his prey, finding unique ways to torture Big Johnny. Cena even locked Laurinaitis in the STF for ..

It truly is the end of an era. According to a report from Sean Ross Sapp via Fightful, NXT superstar Roderick Strong has requested his release from the company.
You can see the information in a tweet below:
Roderick Strong has requested his release from WWE, per @SeanRossSapp pic.twitter.com/OpHsvL3Dp5
— B/R Wrestling (@BRWrestling) May 2, 2022
Strong has been a part of the faction Diamond Mine faction in NXT since June 22, 2021, when he returned to the company. He held the NXT Cruiserweight Championship from September 21 through January 4 of this year, where he lost to Carmelo Hayes in a title unification match of the Cruiserweight and North American Championships.
Before Diamond Mine, Strong was a part of The Undisputed Era, which consisted of himself, Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish. After the group disbanded, Cole, O’Reilly, and Bobby Fish would sign with AEW.
We will continue to monitor this story and provide any updates provided to us.
Editor’s Opinion:
Does this..

They might not be done yet. There have been all kinds of wrestlers released from WWE over the last two years, with well over one hundred wrestlers being let go. This has included wrestlers up and down the card, some of which have not even been part of the main roster. That was the case again last week and now it seems like we might be seeing the case again in the near future.
According to Dave Meltzer on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, there might be some more releases coming from WWE in the coming days. The idea is that WWE will release wrestlers if they do not see improvement in ninety days, with new wrestlers being brought in to replace the released wrestlers. However, there will be exceptions to this rule in special cases, ala Dakota Kai, who had been in NXT for years. There were ten names released from the company last week, with budget cuts being cited as the reason.
Opinion: I can’t imagine how frustrating something like this must be as the wrestlers, among others, have..

That’s a heck of a trick. There are a lot of perks that come with being a professional wrestler, but having a lot of free time is not one of them. Wrestlers are not able to spend a lot of time doing things that are unrelated to wrestling and that makes a professional life more complicated. This is especially true when it comes to relationships with someone outside of the business. A WWE star has found a way around that, but it is still not the easiest concept.
A fan recently asked Rhea Ripley what AEW’s Buddy Matthews had that she didn’t have. Ripley responded by saying “me”, suggesting that Matthews and Ripley are in a relationship. So far, Matthews has not made any comment on his possible relationship with Ripley. Matthews was released by WWE on June 2, 2021 and he made his AEW debut on February 23, 2022.
Me.
— RheaRipley_WWE (@RheaRipley_WWE) May 1, 2022
Opinion: I’m not sure if Ripley and Matthews are together or not, but it was a great response to the fan without being overly ..

He has some experience. There are some things that you will see in wrestling which you just do not see happening in other sports. That can often be due to the ring itself, which is quite the complicated setup. Sometimes it can be due to something literally falling apart, which took place at a recent WWE show. Now another WWE star is having a good time with the accident.
Last week, Bobby Lashley narrowly escaped a very bad situation when the top rope broke and he crashed out to the floor. Lashley was ok following the crash and continued the match against Drew McIntyre. Following the match, Finn Balor tweeted out an image of himself losing to Roman Reigns at Extreme Rules when the top rope broke as well, though Balor’s was planned in advance.
pic.twitter.com/imrFbZR5Ab
— Finn Bálor (@FinnBalor) April 30, 2022
Opinion: This is something that is worth a chuckle once you know that everyone is ok. Lashley crashing out to the floor like that could have been a complete disaster and it is g..

They have their eye on her. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be difficult to figure out a way to make themselves stand out. There are a few ways to get such attention in a good way and sometimes it can be quite the success. That seems to be the case again with a relatively new NXT star and now the higher ups in the company are seeing something in them too.
According to Dave Meltzer on the Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast, WWE may be high on NXT’s Nikkita Lyons. This comes after Lyons has been presented as a star in the women’s division, including being featured both in the ring and in backstage segments. She is also set to work with Natalya, who is in NXT to help build up women who WWE sees as future stars on the main roster.
Opinion: This is something that should not be the biggest surprise and that is not a bad thing. At the end of the day, Lyons is a very unique looking star and someone who has all of the potential you could ask for. I could see Lyons becoming a s..

That’s good to hear. There are all kinds of injuries that can put a wrestler on the shelf and none of them are a good thing. One of the major problems associated with an injury is wondering how long it will be before someone is back in the ring. That was the case with one of the more successful AEW stars, but now we know some rather good news about her return.
Former AEW Women’s World Champion Riho suffered a broken collarbone during her match against Britt Baker at AEW Battle of the Belts on January 8. Since then, Riho has returned to Japan to recover, but has now revealed that she is back to full health and is planning to return to AEW. There is no word on when she will be back in the ring or whom she will be facing.
Confirmed: Former AEW Women's World Champion @riho_gtmv Confirmed on her BLOG That she'll be Returning to the United States Soon for @AEW #AEWDynamite – shes fully healed from her injury pic.twitter.com/uJ4hVtrcyo
— The Midwest Marks Podcast?? (@marks_midwes..

Welcome to the team. One of the major benefits of the rise of AEW has been seeing several wrestlers getting the chance to shine on a stage other than WWE. That is something that has been missing from the wrestling world for a very long time now and AEW has done a lot to make things better. Now we are getting to see that again, as another former WWE star is making his AEW debut.
As seen on images that are circulating online, former WWE star and former NXT North American Champion Leon Ruff debuted for AEW at a recent Dark taping. Ruff appeared on Sunday in Orlando, Florida in a match taped for AEW Dark, though it is not clear who he will be facing or when the match will air. Ruff was released from his WWE contract on August 6, 2021 and has wrestled on the independent circuit since.
Hey! That's @LEONRUFF_ #AEWDark pic.twitter.com/sytUmMWyKF
— JJ Williams (@JJWilliamsWON) May 1, 2022
Opinion: I know Ruff might not be everyone’s cup of tea due to his small stature but it is nice to..

That would be the big one. There are very few true dream matches left in the WWE. With so many matches being presented at any given time, it can be difficult for the company to come up with something new that fans will want to see. Those things do happen though, and there was another indication that what might be an all time dream match could be a possibility.
WWE is currently in Europe on a live event tour, including a show in London, England on Saturday. The show was headlined by Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns successfully defending his title against Drew McIntyre. Following the match, Reigns thanked the fans for bringing their energy to the show. A fan shouted something about the Rock, with Reigns responding that “The Rock can get it too.” Rock vs. Reigns has been discussed as a possible WrestleMania 39 main event, though the match has yet to be confirmed.
It’s weird to see Reigns like this. Check out Reigns breaking character and addressing the London crowd:

[Thi..

They might want to work on that. WWE is the largest wrestling company in the world and that brings a lot of benefits. They are able to do things that other promotions are unable to do, but at the same time the status can cause some problems. With so many people in the company it can be difficult to keep track of everything, and that seemed to be the case earlier this week.
On Friday, WWE released ten names from NXT, including several wrestlers. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, the amount of wrestlers who were released while involved in televised storylines suggests that the NXT creative team did not know the releases were coming. This includes Malcolm Bivens, who gave no indication that he would be done with the Diamond Mine stable anytime soon.
Opinion: This wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, as WWE has a tendency to make these moves out of nowhere with little communication beforehand. If that is the case, I certainly feel sorry for NXT, as they now have to come up with so..