The third hour of Raw kicked off with an Alexa’s Playground segment featuring Charlotte Flair. First, Flair would say that Bliss is barely a competitor nowadays, and Bliss would go on to mock her for bragging about how many titles she’s won, which also illustrates how many she has lost. Eventually, the pair would get into a brawl, and Charlotte would rip the head off the Charly doll Bliss is now carrying. Then when Flair went to apparently do the same to the Lilly doll, but Bliss would intervene with a Tornado DDT.

It was certainly more sports entertainment than pro wrestling, and despite not being evident on television, Dave Meltzer has reported that fans left in droves during this segment. He would specifically state that 1,500 of the almost 8,000 fans in attendance decided the segment was their cue to leave, and you can listen to him state this during the excerpt from his Wrestling Observer Radio show below.

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However, after seeing reports of this, Bliss has fired back at Meltzer, initially tweeting, “Haha yeah get outta here dirtsheets lol find click bait somewhere else.” She would, though, delete that tweet and instead tweeted that Meltzer was lying and that it didn’t happen.

While Dave Meltzer is one of the most respected wrestling journalists in the industry, having covered the business since the 1980s, it is hard to believe many that people left the arena. Especially when you consider that there was a huge triple threat match between Universal Champion Roman Reigns, WWE Champion Big E, and Bobby Lashley was scheduled for the main event. It will now be interesting to see Meltzer goes on to elaborate on where he got his information from.

On March 6th Scott Steiner would collapse while filming a retro TNA-themed episode of Impact Wrestling. He was rushed to the hospital after he stopped breathing and had to have his heart restarted by a defibrillator. His wife, Christa Rechsteiner, later confirmed that he was expected to make a full recovery, and since then, he has remained out of the spotlight.

Now though, at this past weekend’s Wrestling Reunion event held at the Fitzgerald’s Casino Event Center Mississippi, he would make his return to the ring. The 59-year old would face off against 71-year-old Lawler in the show’s main event in a match not high on work rate but garnered an excellent crowd response nevertheless. You can check out the match in its entirety below.

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It’s great to see Steiner able to resume his career after such as scary incident, and while he is no longer the athlete he once was, considering his age and past health conditions, the former WCW Champion clearly is still passionate about wrestling. How much longer he can continue to compete remains to be seen, but based solely on this appearance, Big Poppa Pump looks to have a few years left as an active wrestler ahead of him.

Keith Lee returned to WWE on 19th July, having been away due to medical issues relating to his heart. However, after just wrestling three times on television, he has found himself again off TV. Thankfully, there hasn’t been any reoccurrence of his health problems, but instead, he is wrestling dark matches ahead of a potential heel turn with management feeling he needs to practice being a heel. Now, before this week’s Raw, he was introduced with a new nickname, being called Keith “Bearcat” Lee.

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The belief is the name “Bearcat” is in reference to Edward Wright, who wrestled in the 50s, 60s, and 70s as Bearcat Wright. Wright holds the distinction of being the first-ever black World Champion after defeating Freddie Blassie by count-out in 1963. The title he won was the WWA World Heavyweight Championship based out of Los Angles, and Wright would refuse to lose the belt when the time came.

With a reputation of going into business for himself, judo champion Gene LeBell was brought in to get the belt off him by any means necessary. Bearcat would subsequently refuse to compete, resulting in him being stripped of the championship. Despite a poor backstage reputation, he would still get plenty of bookings due to his drawing ability and was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as a part of the Legacy wing in 2017.

Following the controversial episode of Dark Side of the Ring covering the notorious “Plane Ride From Hell,” Ric Flair’s reputation has been severely tarnished. This is because Heidi Doyle, one of the flight attendants on board, alleges Flair acted inappropriately towards her, including exposing himself. Despite having departed WWE previously, the company had left Flair’s “woooo” in their signature introduction video package and continued to sell his merchandise. However, it has now been edited out and had his shop.wwe.com/collections/ric-flair page has been removed.

Now the 16-time world champion has taken to social media to issue a public statement acknowledging his financial issues, adultery, divorces, and heavy drinking covered by his ESPN “30 for 30” special. Then without specifically mentioning Dark Side of the Ring, he says the incident “never happened.“

pic.twitter.com/8L2ovXNgQe

— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) September 21, 2021

What happens next for Flair remains to be seen. His CarShield commercial is still airing in some markets but is expected to be entirely removed within days, and a personal appearance has been canceled. He was expected to debut for AEW shortly, but that is now hanging in the balance with Tony Khan potentially not wanting to risk the expected fan backlash.

Tommy Dreamer appeared as a talking head during this past Thursday’s Dark Side of the Ring episode. The ECW legend would end up trending on Twitter after he excused and essentially approved the alleged behavior of Ric Flair on the infamous “Plane Ride From Hell.” Subsequently, Dreamer would end up indefinitely suspended by Impact Wrestling, where he worked as a performer, producer and was a significant part of the creative team. Now the reprimanded wrestler has taken to Twitter, issuing a statement apologizing to anyone he offended and saying he didn’t mean to hurt or victim shame anyone.

pic.twitter.com/sWhfI2sSWB

— Tommy Dreamer (@THETOMMYDREAMER) September 19, 2021

For those unaware, the “Plane Ride From Hell “took place in 2002 and featured multiple drunken wrestlers embarrassing themselves on a flight from the UK to the US. While numerous shameful incidents occurred, the most shocking claim came from Heidi Doyle, one of the flight attendants on board who alleges Flair exposed himself to her. It should, though, be noted that Flair has always refuted this accusation, and as of writing, has not commented on his portrayal in the episode.

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On Saturday night, Ring of Honor founder Rob Feinstein’s new Battleground Championship Wrestling promotion ran at the 2300 Arena, previously known as the home of ECW. The main event was advertised as ECW legends Sabu (who missed the show) and Rob Van Dam taking on Matt Hardy and a mystery partner, and for a brief moment, fans thought it might be his brother Jeff Hardy.

This was because when Matt was introducing his partner, he would point out he was wearing his old school ring gear and said his partner was “family” before the famous Hardy Boyz music played. But, to the dismay of the enthusiastic crowd, instead of Jeff, it was Hardy Family Office stable member Marq Quen of Private Party mimicking the WWE star.

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Unlike AEW, WWE typically doesn’t allow its talent to work independent shows, so there was really no chance of Jeff Hardy appearing on the show. Although fans were clearly taken in and believed they were witnessing something special. However, they would still go home happy as Bully Ray came out to help RVD with Sabu not being at the show. Then closing the show, The Sandman would bring out beers, ensuring an authentic ECW reunion occurred.

The second episode of Rampage will go down in history as the monumental night CM Punk made his return to pro wrestling. While AEW hadn’t officially announced Punk ahead of time, it was well-known he would he’d be there, and fans congregated to Chicago’s United Center to witness the moment live. Once Cult of Personalty hit, the building would explode with cheers, and the camera would capture the excitement among those in attendance. One fan, though, would stand out more than others as he had tears rolling down his face, and on social media would become known as “Crying CM Punk Fan.”

Since then, fans have tried to locate the fan, but unlike Brock Lesnar Guy, Shocked Undertaker Guy, Angry Miz Girl, and arguably the most famous of them all, It’s Still Real To Me Guy, he seemingly didn’t want publicity or to become a famous fan. However, a recent photo shows that AEW did manage to locate the fan, and he was a special guest at their All Out, actually getting to meet Punk.

Many fans on social media would complement the fan for his passion and love of wrestling. Still, a small but vocal minority would make fun of him. Punk himself, though, would defend the fan during a recent interview by saying that anyone mocking the fan is also making him. He would reveal that he cried when the Cubs won the World Series and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup. He’d even confess he has cried during Marvel movies and believes there is nothing wrong with being emotional.

Last night’s episode of the Vice series Dark Side of the Ring featured the notorious story known as The Plane Ride From Hell. For those unaware, a 747 full of WWE talent returning from the UK-exclusive pay-per-view Insurrection got very unruly due to Vince McMahon providing them with an open bar. Multiple wrestlers embarrassed themselves, and Mr. Perfect and Scott Hall would be fired. The flight attendants onboard would end up suing the company, and WWE settled out of court.

Now, during the episode, one of those attendants, Heidi Doyle, has spoken publicly about her ordeal for the first time, and some startling allegations against Ric Flair were elaborated upon. While Flair has consistently denied any wrongdoing, he would end up trending on Twitter, along with Tommy Dreamer. While no accusations about the ECW legends actions on the flight were made, he would excuse and almost approve Flair’s alleged conduct, as you can see in the below clip.

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Many fans were angry and disappointed with Dreamer speaking up for Flair, and according to PWInisder, Impact Wrestling has now suspended him due to his comments not aligning with their core values. Dreamer has been back wrestling for Impact Wrestling since 2018, and it was later confirmed he was working as a producer and a significant part of the creative team.

What the future holds for both Flair and Dreamer now remains to be seen. Flair was expected to join AEW imminently, however, the company may now want to risk fan backlash by bringing him. Likewise, with Dreamer, if Impact uses him again, they will face negative attention, meaning his match with Ace Austin, which aired earlier this month, may end up being his last for the promotion.

Just over a year ago, Buff Bagwell was hospitalized with broken ribs, a broken hip, a broken eye socket, a broken nose, and a torn right groin muscle after losing control of his Chevrolet Tahoe. At the time, investigators concluded the cause of the accident was that Bagwell was impaired by prescription medication. Since then, the 51-year-old former WCW star has been involved in a second car accident and was arrested and charged with Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, an Open Container Violation, Reckless Driving, Speeding, and Giving False Name or Address or Birth Date to Law Enforcement Officer.

Now speaking on his Rebuilding Buff podcast, he has revealed he reached out to WWE to help pay for his rehab. His hope was he could turn his life around and eventually get a job with AEW, but he was turned down.

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While WWE has no legal obligation to pay for him to attend rehab, they have helped multiple former talents tackle their demons in the past, and the cost would be a drop in the ocean to the company. With Bagwell now publicly disclosing he has asked for help, it will look terrible on WWE if something happens to him, so perhaps, even if it is just to avoid bad publicity, they will reconsider their decision and reach out to Bagwell.

The son of Rick Steiner, Bronson Rechsteiner, made his WWE debut as part of NXT 2.0, defeating LA Knight and later teasing a future match with new NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa. Overall, fans would praise the second-generation wrestling performance. However, one thing that didn’t go over well was the ring name of Bron Breakker. The name change apparently was a last-minute decision, as the prior week, Rechsteiner had updated his social media using the name Rex Steiner. Why WWE felt the need to make the change isn’t clear, but according to PWInisder, the decision was made so WWE could trademark the name.

Why WWE couldn’t just trademark, Rex Steiner wasn’t explained by PWInsider. Still, it’s likely WWE simply decided against using the Steiner surname despite Bronson wrestling the same style as his father and wearing gear resembling both his father and uncle Scott during their tag team days. It’s actually believed management instructed those on commentary to not refer to him being the son of Rick Steiner, although it was said on commentary that he showed a “dog-faced gremlin mentality” as a nod to fans who knew who he was.

WWE doesn’t have a set policy for the sons of daughters of past wrestlers using their famous surnames. So for every Charlotte Flair and Dominik Mysterio, there is a Curtis Axel or Bo Dallas. In some instances, it makes sense due to the wrestler being unlikely able to live up to the standards set by their parent. However, the vast majority of fans will find out about their ancestry at some stage, so it seems pointless to try and hide it, especially with a legitimate athlete like Bronson Rechsteiner, who would only benefit from the Steiner name.

Recently there has been a lot of discussion about Jeff Hardy’s booking in WWE. While fans see him as a star, it appears management currently doesn’t, and this was evident when he was used following a 24/7 Championship match simply to catch Reggie. This resulted in Hardy trending on Twitter with fans saying he should leave and join his brother in AEW. Obviously, this is easier said than done, and Jeff has years remaining on his WWE contract. However, it seems Matt hasn’t given up hope that one day he will be able to reunite in AEW, as during a recent interview with Adam’s Apple, he would confirm he wants that.

QUOTE

Matt and Jeff last teamed on a SmackDown houseshow back in 2019. It was at this point the brother’s contracts went out of sync as Jeff injured his knee, and his contract was put on hold while he recovered. Matt’s contract would go on to expire, and he opted to sign with AEW, while Jeff now had time remaining with WWE. Jeff would then sign a new multi-year deal, which at the time seemed a sensible decision as he was being pushed. Although in recent months, he has begun wrestling on Main Event and being used to put others over and not having storylines.

Killian Dain was let go by WWE on June 25, 2021, having been with the promotion for five years. At the time, he was part of the NXT roster, and the decision was somewhat of a shock due to him having the size liked by WWE. Due to having had his contract renegotiated when he was part of SmackDown with Sanity, he had a 90-day non-compete clause, unlike most NXT talents. However, with him soon able to wrestle again, he has revealed in an interview with WrestleZone that he can’t legally wrestle elsewhere. The issue is that he is from Northern Ireland and now has to get a new work visa.

Whenever a foreign talent is released by WWE, it becomes a major issue for them, and typically they have 60 days after their non-compete expires to get a new job or return home. However, in the case of Dain, what is in his favor is that his wife Nikki Cross is still employed by WWE. This means he is eligible for an H-4 visa granted to husbands or wives of those who work in the US. Seemingly though, it isn’t a quick process, but hopefully, for Dain, it can be resolved shortly, and he can resume his career.