During this week’s episode of Raw, fans in attendance would loudly chant “We Want Wyatt.” This mainly occurred while Goldberg was cutting a promo on his SummerSlam opponent WWE Champion Bobby Lashley. Seemingly indicating that fans would rather have had the recently released wrestler in the ring rather than Goldberg. Now though, Ronda Rousey has taken to Twitter to criticize those fans for being hypocritical, blaming them for his release in the first place.

Although currently unable to wrestle due to being seven months pregnant, Rousey is still contracted with WWE. Before she announced her pregnancy, she was expected to return to WWE, but now her future with the company is unknown. Her initial run time in WWE was successful, and she’d headline WrestleMania 35 against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. However, she wasn’t happy that fans would boo her during her feud with Lynch and went as far as to call WWE fans ungrateful in a podcast interview afterward.

WWE is currently running a competition with TikTok to find a guest ring announcer for SummerSlam. This has resulted in WWE wrestler Ryback deciding to entertain his followers with his own application. He would do this by uploading a video where he introduced Roman Reigns and John Cena, who are set to headline the event. Yet, rather than doing this seriously, he would take shots at both Reigns’ manager Paul Heyman and Cena.

He would first take aim at Heyman by calling him “Oswald Cobblepot aka fat schmuck,” taunting Heyman about his weight. Then he would introduce Cena by saying, “You can’t see him, but China certainly can,” in reference to the controversy Cena found himself involved in when promoting F9. You can watch this for yourself below.

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Ryback’s heat with Heyman goes back to when they worked together in 2013. Ryback claimed that Heyman had made a career from latching onto successful wrestlers, seemingly alluding to Brock Lesnar. Heyman would then fire back during a virtual autograph signing, answering Ryback when asked about who he knew would never be successful in the business. Regarding Cena, Ryback has been unhappy with him for years, accusing him of holding others wrestlers back, specifically naming Alex Riley.

Nowadays, Ryback uses social media to keep his name in wrestling fan’s consciousness, having not wrestled since 2018. The reason for his absence is thought to have been a back injury that required multiple stem cell procedures. However, late last year, he stated that he was training for a return and frequently teases signing with various promotions. Still, so far, nothing has yet been announced.

News recently broke that Adam Cole, who is one of the top wrestlers on NXT, will be out of contract following SummerSlam later this month. Apparently, his contract actually expired in July, but WWE extended it so he could compete at NXT’s next TakeOver event. The belief is someone within WWE dropped the ball, allowing his contract to lapse, and was let go over it, although that hasn’t been confirmed.

Cole is now only being weeks away from being able to talk with AEW, where he is well-known due to his girlfriend Britt Baker working there. Given this, it would be reasonable that if the WWE wants to keep him, they would throw everything at Cole to get him to re-sign. However, Fightful Select has reported that Cole has not yet been offered a new contact. They would, though, add that WWE plans to, but it seems crazy to treat a star of the future, who would presumably be welcomed into AEW with open arms in this manner.

Cole started his career at Combat Zone Wrestling’s Academy in 2008, and he’d make a name for himself in Ring of Honor and New Japan before signing with WWE in 2017. In August, he’d debut at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, attacking NXT Champion Drew McIntyre, showing the company had big plans for him, and he would form The Undisputed Era with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly the following month. He would go on to become the NXT Champion for a record 396 days. Yet despite so much success, he has continuously been overlooked for a main roster call-up.

Yesterday it was revealed that Ric Flair had received his WWE request, and the story doing the rounds was he wanted out of his deal. Given his age and health situation, it seemed a surprising decision as he was believed what was said to be an outstanding deal. However, on Wrestling Observer Radio wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer has claimed that the decision to release Flair came from Vince McMahon. Apparently, Flair had been messaging McMahon complaining about Charlotte’s booking, and seemingly an unhappy McMahon decided to let him go.

It should be noted that Flair has just issued a statement on Twitter stating he requested the release, which may be accurate, or a way for him to save face. It certainly seems though there is more to the story than currently public knowledge. If Flair was, in fact, fired for speaking up for Charlotte, it will be interesting to see what happens in the long term regarding her WWE future. Earlier this year, her fiancé left WWE for AEW, and there is already speculation that Ric could be AEW joining him.

When WWE was in the ThunderDome, they would regularly manipulate the audio so talents would receive the response the company wanted. A perfect example of this was during JBL’s Hall of Fame induction when chants of “JBL” could be heard while nobody on the screens was even reacting. However, with WWE now back in front of live crowds, it seemed WWE would have to accept legitimate reactions.

Seemingly though, old habits die hard because it was clear that the audio was being manipulated during Drew McIntyre’s entrance. Michael Cole, who wasn’t even on commentary, could clearly be heard saying “16-time champion,” indicating WWE was using audio from a John Cena entrance to make McIntyre’s crowd reaction seem louder.

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WWE’s production standards are usually far better than this, and it’s shocking this gaffe made it to air, and it will be interesting to see if they fix this for replays. WWE loves to control the narrative of their shows, and they are well known to edit crowd reactions after the event going as far as to completely change cheers to boos when Sid eliminated Hulk Hogan in the 1992 Royal Rumble match.

WWE would actually do this in reverse multiple times for Roman Reigns when trying to position him as the company’s top babyface when he would receive heavy boos. However, the most well-known example of a company messing with crowd reactions was when WCW famously piped in “Goldberg” chants. Those involved later said it was done to get fans excited.

With Raw taking place in Chicago and being the hometown of CM Punk, the expectation was the always vocal crowd would chant his name throughout the show. While these chants did occur and were audible during Drew McIntyre’s match and Miz TV, the most prominent chant of the evening was actually for the recently released Bray Wyatt.

A chant of “We Want Wyatt” could clearly be heard during the opening segment of Raw, directed towards Goldberg while he was cutting a promo on Bobby Lashley. Seemingly, indicating that they would prefer to be watching Wyatt instead of the WCW legend. You can hear this for yourself below.

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While Bray Wyatt and his alter ego The Fiend aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, he was unquestionably over with the bulk of WWE’s fanbase, and him no longer being with the promotion isn’t going over well. The belief is WWE decided to cut Wyatt due to the size of his contract, with it being deemed he didn’t warrant the salary he was earning. However, with fans voicing their displeasure, it will be interesting to see if WWE reconsiders their decision over the coming weeks. Thanks to Triple H, WWE did bring back Samoa Joe shortly after releasing him, and it’s is believed there are ongoing talks about bringing Braun Strowman back on a lower money contact.

José Alvarado Nieves, known as both Brazo de Plata and Super Porky, passed away on July 26th, aged 58, from a heart attack. He has left behind five children, all of whom followed him in the business. The most famous of them is his son Psycho Clown, one of Mexico’s biggest stars, having headlined the past three TripleMania’s.

With him performing for the first time since his father’s death this past weekend at a show in Texas, Psycho Clown would use it as an opportunity to pay tribute to his father. He did this by having an image of his father added to his mask and would do the signature Porky dance to the delight of fans.

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Video Credit: @PharrFromHeaven

While difficult to believe now, the late wrestler began his career in 1977 as a lightweight luchador and was considered a great athlete. However, in later years he would embrace his fuller appearance and focused on entertaining fans through comedy. Over his long career, he worked for CMLL, AAA, New Japan, All Japan, and even WWE when he was hired to be part of SmackDown’s Juniors division in 2005 and 2006. Additionally, in 2003 he competed in MMA for a Japanese-based promotion. Unsurprisingly he would lose the fight but did last until the second round before being forced to submit.

Ric Flair signed a new contract with WWE last year, extending his long association with Vince McMahon’s promotion since he departed TNA back in 2012. At the time, he’d say he intended to be with WWE forever. However, it has now been confirmed that the 16-time world champion has asked for his WWE release, and this was granted over the weekend.

Why Flair wanted out of his lucrative WWE deal isn’t known, but there is bound to be speculation that he is set to join All Elite Wrestling. Rumors of this actually started last week when photos of Flair with AEW commentator Jim Ross would be shared on social media. Although at the time, it could easily be explained as two old friends catching up. Now though, the timing does raise questions. If he were to join AEW, he would be reuniting with fellow original Four Horsemen Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, as well as one of his greatest rivals Sting, and his future son-in-law Andrade El Idolo.

In recent years Flair hasn’t been in good health due to a heart condition called alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Plus, in 2017, he had a piece of his bowel removed, resulting in kidney failure and dialysis. Thankfully, he made a recovery and even confirmed that he had been medically cleared to get physical in the ring. Despite this fact, McMahon refused to allow Flair to take bumps.

With Bray Wyatt being shockingly released by WWE this past Saturday, it has led to questions surrounding the status of his girlfriend, JoJo Offerman. Offerman has been on leave from her WWE due to giving birth in May 2019 and then May 2020 and it was believed she would continue her career with WWE when ready. However, PWInsider has confirmed she was actually released several months. This now means Wyatt’s brother Bo Dallas, father Mike Rotunda, and girlfriend were all let go within the past twelve months by WWE.

Offerman became involved in the wrestling industry through Total Divas, where she would feature during the first season of the E! reality series. Aged just 19, she began appearing on WWE television, making her wrestling debut aged just 19 in 2013. She would, though, only wrestle a total of six times, and instead become a ring announcer and backstage interviewer. In 2017 her relationship with Wyatt would become public knowledge after his wife at the time Samatha filed for divorce.

Pro Wrestling Guerrilla ran their first show since December 2019 on Sunday named Mystery Vortex 7. The highly anticipated event featured wrestlers from AEW, Impact Wrestling, and Ring of Honor, including Orange Cassidy, Evil Uno, Trey Miguel, Brody King, Bandido, and Black Taurus. However, arguably the biggest name on the show would end up being Malakai Black, formally known as Aleister Black in WWE.

PWG co-founder Super Dragon, himself making an unexpected appearance, would curb stomp PWG World Champion Bandido after he had retained his time by defeating Black Taurus. This led to Brody King coming out, but the heels would lay him out. At this point, the lights would go out, and new AEW signing Black would arrive to make the save to a huge pop. This seemingly sets up Super Dragon, Taurus, and Flamita vs. Black, King, and Bandido for next month’s Threemendous VI show.

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Black made a one-off appearance for PWG in 2006 when they ran a show in Germany in 2006. Then just under a decade later, he’d travel to the US and compete for the promotion several times, including having singles matches with Chris Hero, Drew Gulak, Zack Sabre Jr., and Mike Bailey. Once he signed with WWE in 2016, he obviously could no wrestle for PWG, although now being with AEW, he is now permitted to work for other promotions as long as pre-approved by Tony Khan.

Black is currently one of the most talked-about names in wrestling, having signed for AEW three weeks ago after an error on WWE’s part meant his non-compete clause was only 30 days rather than the typical 90 days. As a result, he is now set to wrestle his first match in ten months when he faces Cody Rhodes on the August 4th episode of Dynamite.

Adam Cole is one of NXT’s biggest stars and held the brand’s title for a record 396 days between June 2019 and July 2020. However, he may soon have a big decision to make as it has been reported he is set to be a free agent following SummerSlam weekend. The belief is his contract actually expired in July. Still, he agreed to extend it by an additional month to cover the next TakeOver event. It isn’t 100% certain he will be leaving, however with his girlfriend, Britt Baker working for AEW, it will obviously lead to speculation he could be AEW bound.

Cole began training at CZW’s Academy in 2008 and would work for the promotion until 2013. Additionally, he worked for Ring of Honor, Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, and New Japan before signing with WWE in 2017. He’d debut on August 19 at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III, attacking NXT Champion Drew McIntyre, immediately establishing himself as a top wrestler on the brand. He would form The Undisputed Era with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly in September and have been a prominent part of the NXT since.

Former two-time UFC Heavyweight Champion Cain Velasquez wowed fans of Lucha libre when he made his in-ring debut with AAA during Triplemanía XXVII on August 3rd, 2019, as part of a six-man trios match. Wearing a mask, he’d team with Cody Rhodes, and Psycho Clown beating Texano Jr, Taurus, and Killer Kross, and looked like a veteran performing moves someone his with his experience level shouldn’t be able to do.

His foray into pro wrestling caught the attention of New Japan. who had a meeting with him. Still, WWE would act faster and signed him for what was understood to have been a big-money deal to wrestle Brock Lesnar, who he had famously defeated inside the Octagon. Despite such little training, WWE would debut him during the 1st episode of SmackDown on FOX in 2019, setting up a match between the pair at Saudi Arabia’s Crown Jewel event.

Regrettably, for Velasquez, he would look inadequate in the match due to a knee injury and was squashed by Lesnar in just over two minutes. Following a single houseshow appearance in Mexico, he was sent to train at the Performace Center before eventually being released. Now in an interview with In This Corner with Cyrus Fees, he has discussed his time working for Vince McMahon’s company, saying he wasn’t given enough time, and he prefers to wrestle the Lucha style.

WWE threw Velasquez in at the deep end, and fan first impressions of him wasn’t great. Unfortunately, after his match with Lesnar, WWE really didn’t have anything else for him. However, Velasquez still has pro wrestling ambitions despite being aged 39 and is set to return to AAA in December, where he will be able to utilize his natural Lucha abilities. Hopefully, this second chance will and the extra time he has had to train will allow him to eventually redeem himself in the eyes of fans.