NEWS

That’s another thing. This week saw nearly twenty wrestlers leaving WWE in the span of one day, as the company released several wrestlers at once. The wrestlers released were from all different levels of the company, including younger and less established wrestlers and bigger stars. However, it seems that some of them had something in common as one of WWE’s newer rules may have been in play.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, age may have played a factor in some of the WWE’s releases. The company is looking to bring in physically larger and younger wrestlers with a more legitimate athletic background. WWE wants to have more wrestlers in their twenties on its television shows, especially women. As a result, a new hiring directive suggests that any new women hired be twenty five years old or younger.
There were some very good wrestlers on the list of releases. Check out some of them in action, regardless of age:
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On the mend. There are all kinds of ways a wrestler can be injured, both in and out of the ring. Sometimes it is something that takes place over time and sometimes it is one big moment. What matters even more though is how long someone is going to be out of action after getting hurt. Another wrestler has a pretty bad injury, and now it is time to get things fixed up.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, NXT’s Zoey Stark suffered a knee injury during the ladder match on the October 26 show. As a result, she is scheduled to undergo knee surgery soon and her attack at the hands of Toxic Attraction earlier this week was designed to write her off of television. There is no word on what happened to Starks’ knee or how long she will be out of action.
Stark is rather talented in the ring. Check out what she can do when healthy:
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Opinion: That’s never ..

Smackdown
Date: November 5, 2021
Location: Ford Center, Evansville, Indiana
Commentators: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee
We’re just over two weeks away from Survivor Series and it might be time to start talking about the show. Since it absolutely has to be Raw vs. Smackdown, it shouldn’t be that hard to get things going. The show almost has to be better than last week’s so at least they have a clear bar to clear. Let’s get to it.
Here is the Bloodline to get things going. Roman Reigns talks about taking last week off after smashing Brock Lesnar, but now he’s back so this tiny little no name town can acknowledge him. He was on a private island running around naked last week (his wife loved it), but not everyone had a good time. Brock Lesnar got fined a million bucks, but there was one more thing.
Reigns asks Paul Heyman what happened to the Usos, with Heyman talking about how it was a non-title match. When flat out asked though, Heyman has to admit that the New Day won the match. Reigns li..

I guess he wasn’t happy. Sometimes you will see a wrestler make some kind of a change, many of which can be better than others. Occasionally those changes make things better, but other times you see things go downhill as a result. That can be a problem when a wrestler is still finding their footing, and now a recently released star is letting us know what he thought of a last minute change.
Earlier this week, WWE releases several wrestlers from the company, including Karrion Kross, who had only been called up to the main roster earlier this year. Soon after his debut, Kross began wearing a helmet to the ring for his matches. A fan asked if he could have the fan now that Kross is gone, to which Kross replied “nobody wants that piece of s***”. There is no word on where Kross is expected to go next.
Wonder if Kross would give me the helmet
— ?Video editing skeleton? (@IQWrestler) November 5, 2021
Nobody wants that piece of shit brother. ?
— ? KROSS (@WWEKarrionKross) November 5, 2021..

Keep piling them on. We are just over a week away from AEW’s next pay per view offering with Full Gear, meaning the company shouldn’t have much left to do to get the show ready. AEW has a rather strong history on pay per view and it is nice to see how well they can do when they get the chance. That will be the case again now as more matches have been added to the show.
Two more matches were added to Full Gear during this week’s AEW Rampage. First up, Eddie Kingston and CM Punk had a face to face confrontation, with both insulting the other. Kingston eventually challenged Punk to a match, with Punk accepting to set up the match. Later, Christian Cage and Jurassic Express challenged the Superkliq to a falls count anywhere match at Full Gear. The match was confirmed later in the night. Full Gear is set for November 13 in Minneapolis.
It was a pretty big showdown. Check out how we got to these matches:
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They’re not done yet. There have been a lot of departures from WWE over the last two years and the trend continued this week with several more wrestlers being let go. These are the kind of moves that can change the way the company works, but they are not alone. In addition to letting wrestlers go, there are other people who now no longer work for WWE after this week.
Five more backstage employees have departed WWE this week. WWE has announced that Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen has left WWE, with Frank A. Riddick being announced as her replacement. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, Salen was not liked in WWE and she was a reason why several finance department employees also left. Salen had been with the company since August 2020.
In addition, according to Fightful Select, the following employees have also left WWE:
Lauren Petrucelli (Vice President of Branding)
John Stamatis (Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Sales Strategy)
Laura Todd (Vice Preside..

Impact Wrestling
Date: November 4, 2021
Location: Sam’s Town Live, Las Vegas, Nevada
Commentators: Matt Striker, D’Lo Brown
Things are staying interesting after Bound For Glory as Moose is the World Champion and needs some friends to go after his challengers. This time around, that means a guest star in the form of Minoru Suzuki, who will be in for a six man tag. I think that’s enough to hype up the show so let’s get to it.
Opening recap.
Opening sequence.
Steve Maclin vs. Rohit Raju vs. Laredo Kid vs. Black Taurus For a future X-Division Title shot and Raj Singh and Crazzy Steve are here too. Maclin and Taurus clear the ring to start and take turns running the ropes until Taurus scores with a clothesline to the floor. The two of them wind up on the floor and Laredo hits a moonsault onto everyone else. Back in and Raju hammers Kid into the corner, setting up a sitout gordbuster for two. Taurus comes back in so Kid hurricanranas out back to the floor, setting up a dive for two. Raju..

Say goodbye. Wrestlers are a weird type of athlete as you never know when you are going to see someone compete for the last time. Since wrestlers can stay around longer than most mainstream athletes and can get in the ring for a one off match, retirements can be a tricky thing to keep. Now another wrestling legend has seemingly announced their retirement from the ring, seemingly for good.
In an interview with Wrestling Shoot Interviews, Sabu has announced that he is likely retiring from the ring, but did leave open the door for a return. Sabu, 56 years old, says that he injured his back in a match last year and it is still causing him problems. He said that he wrestled a match earlier this year and felt he physically should not have done so as his body gave out. Instead of wrestling, he will be participating in autograph signings and personal appearances.
Sabu was certainly an influence. Check out his announcement plus some of his time in the ring:
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That’s horrible. There are all kinds of issues that come with being a wrestler, but people often forget the others who are involved in presenting a wrestling show. With so many people involved, it can be easy to overlook some of the other contributors. Now one of the more prominent WWE names has revealed a problem he has which is never a good situation to be in.
WWE broadcaster Michael Cole appeared on the November 4 edition of the Pat McAfee Show and mentioned that he has lost 65% of his hearing. As a result, he has to wear special earpieces underneath his headset while broadcasting for WWE. Cole did not mention how long he has had this issue or what caused it in the first place. McAfee and Cole have broadcasted SmackDown together since April of this year.
It’s quite the show. Check out Cole’s appearance (beginning at about 9:40, though he returns later) and come of Cole’s time in WWE:
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And now for the reaction. The biggest wrestling story of the week has been the releases of more than a dozen WWE and NXT wrestlers. This was another surprise batch of releases and several names were rather unexpected. The releases have shaken up WWE again and it seems that the rest of the wrestling industry is feeling it as well. Now we know some thoughts on the releases.
Following the announcements, several wrestlers have spoken about the wrestlers being let go. This includes some of the released wrestlers themselves, as well as other names from around the wrestling industry. The majority of the reactions have been negative, with wrestlers voicing displeasure at WWE for releasing even more wrestlers on such short notice. It is not clear if more releases are expected.
I wish WCW would’ve won.
— Uncle Dax FTR (@DaxFTR) November 4, 2021
Thank you WWE universe for welcoming me with open arms during my stay in the company. Thank you @VinceMcMahon for granting me my release. I will miss..

What a weird reaction. There are certain wrestlers who are nothing short of beloved by their peers and you can see how much these wrestlers mean to others. It can often lead to some issues involving one wrestler protecting another. That can be even more ferocious if a wrestler is gone and unable to defend themselves, which might have been the case this week in a strange way.
This week, Samuray del Sol, formerly known as Kalisto, made his AEW debut on Dynamite. Del Sol sent out a tweet, saying that he spoke to John (Brodie Lee, real name Jon Huber, who passed away in December 2020) before his match, asking for strength in his match. Chris Jericho responded, saying that del Sol spelled Huber’s name wrong. Huber’s widow Amanda sent out a gif agreeing with Jericho before arguing with fans over del Sol’s mistake. Later, del Sol would send out a tweet apologizing to Jericho. There is no word on if del Sol will be back in AEW.
You spelled his name wrong. https://t.co/5xMymtqfzd
— Chris Jer..

They’re good at this. There are a lot of complaints to be made against WWE and a lot of them seem to be quite valid. The company has done quite a few things that make fans shake their heads, but there is one thing that WWE does rather well: make money. WWE has figured out how to make a fortune in wrestling and now we have an idea of what they have been doing as of late.
WWE released their third quarter earnings report on Thursday. The company announced that their revenue was up almost across the board compared to the third quarter of 2020, when the company did not run any live events with fans in attendance. This included revenue of $255.8 million, up 15% over last year. At the same time, operating income was $64 million, up only 1% ($600,000) by comparison. WWE began touring with fans again in July of this year.
It seems to be a good day for WWE financially. Check out some of their money moments:
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