During the men’s Royal Rumble match in January, two-time former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Christian surprised wrestling fans by appearing at number 24. It was so unexpected because Christian hadn’t wrestled for the previous seven years due to concussion issues meaning he previously couldn’t get medically cleared to wrestle. Following the match, Christian would be interviewed backstage by the WWE Network, and he said that wrestling was what he was born to do. However, he was non-committal regarding any further matches saying, “All I was ever promised was one more match. That could be it.” Since then, Christain hasn’t been mentioned by WWE, so seemingly, it was a one-off appearance, or WWE were waiting for the right time to make him a regular character. However, Wrestling Inc has revealed Christian has not signed a contract with WWE and is currently a free agent. With this news now known and Christian previously jumping from WWE to TNA in 2005, there is bound to be speculation that Christian is the mystery wrestler who will be joining AEW at their Revolution pay-per-view. While Christian would undoubtedly meet the criteria of being a Hall of Fame-calibre talent which Paul Wight promised, multiple other names remain in the frame. Mark Henry recently said he plans to return to the ring within the next six months, and Kurt Angle teased possibly coming out of retirement earlier today. Regardless of who the reveal is, fans worldwide will be focused on AEW on Sunday night.

On Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, Paul Wight, formally The Big Show in WWE, announced that at Revolution, another wrestler, who he referred to as Hall of Fame-worthy, would be signing with AEW. Since then, fans have been speculating on who the mystery wrestler would be with names including CM Punk, Brock Lesnar, Mark Henry, Christian, RVD, and even John Cena suggested.

Now Kurt Angle has added to the speculation by sharing a video on Twitter of him putting on his ring gear and lacing up his boots with the captain “To Be Continued.” You can watch this for yourself below.

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While Angle would meet both the hype’s requirements and meet the fan’s expectations, it isn’t confirmed he is the wrestler in question. The Olympic gold medalist could merely be having some fun at AEW fan’s expense. That said, he does look like a realistic possibility of being the surprise as since starting his own podcast, he has been very outspoken about his final run with WWE. He was specifically being disappointed with his retirement match being somewhat of a WrestleMania afterthought.

A run with AEW would allow him to end his career on a high and possibly have a couple of matches with wrestlers he hasn’t shared a ring with, such as Kenny Omega and Adam Page. However, WWE did encourage Kurt Angle to retire for a reason. He has broken his neck five times throughout his amateur and professional wrestling careers and has suffered numerous other injuries. Plus, he recently stated he requires further neck surgery, which will keep him bedbound for up to six months.

The thigh slap sells how impactful a move is and is used regularly in wrestling, like stomping a foot while throwing a punch. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, a memo has been sent to NXT talents informing them to stop making the sound effect, or they’ll be fined. This is considered ironic as Shawn Michaels is one of WWE’s greatest ever stars and is a current trainer who thigh slapped along with his iconic superkick finisher throughout his career.

In the newsletter, Melzer credits the late Chris Adams with popularizing the thigh slap, and Bret Hart has previously stated that it was introduced by his brother Owen. Regardless of past use, thigh slaps in wrestling have been a controversial subject over the last few years due to its now excessive use. Current AEW announcer Jim Ross has previously stated that he finds it passe and embarrassing on his Grilling JR podcast. Similarly, Randy Orton has mocked NXT wrestlers for overusing the technique on Twitter.

From now on, it will be interesting to see if the instruction is strictly followed, as many wrestlers do it instinctively. An example of this was in a Tommaso Ciampa and Angel Garza match, which saw Ciampa slap his thigh while kicking Garza’s ripped-off tights.

As Zack Ryder, Matt Cardona was with WWE for 15 years and is sharing stories of that time on his new MC! True Long Island Story Podcast. During the latest episode, he revealed that backstage at a WWE SmackDown/ECW combined house show in 2008, he and Curt Hawkins were caught using their cell phones by The Undertaker. This led to them being advised by Mark Henry to apologize to Taker, who then told them to apologize to both Vladimir Kozlov and Triple H, who were in the match they weren’t paying attention to.

Cardona’s days of walking on eggshells are behind him since he was released by WWE in April 2020. Since then, he’d debut for AEW on the July 29, 2020, episode of Dynamite by saving Cody Rhodes from Alex Reynolds and John Silver’s attack. The following week teamed with Cody against the Dark Order members for his in-ring debut. His final match with Tony Khan’s promotion came at All Out on September 5, 2020, when he was part of an eight-man tag.

Currently, he is wrestling for Impact Wrestling, having debuted at their January pay-per-view wrestling in an unannounced match against Ace Austin. Since then, he has teamed with Josh Alexander and Eddie Edwards, plus defeated Hernandez in his last appearance.

This Sunday, AEW is holding their second Revolution pay-per-view, scheduled to be headlined by Kenny Omega vs. Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship. The match will be an Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch, which originated in Japan with Atsushi Onita’s Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. The first match of this type took place between Onita and Tarzan Goto in August 1990 at FMW’s Summer Spectacular in front of 4,520 fans. Since then, Onita has competed in various variations of this match and faced names such as Terry Funk, Tiger Jeet Singh, The Great Sasuke, and Hayabusa over the years.

Onita would send AEW a video that aired on Dynamite as part of a package promoting the upcoming AEW match, but Yahoo.co.jp has revealed that AEW wanted Onita to be in attendance to witness AEW’s tribute to the match he made famous. However, sadly, due to being booked in a tournament previously established by the late Mr. Pogo, he cannot attend. He has though commented on the match in Japanese, which you can read a translation of below.

AEW isn’t the first US promotion to promote an exploding deathmatch. While ECW tried and failed to have Onita vs. The Sandman, CZW did manage to deliver the gimmick in 2017. They initially announced Onita vs. Matt Tremont in No Ropes Barbed Wire Exploding Baseball Bats Match, but it became a six-man tag match when Hideki Hosaka, Raijin Yaguchi, Danny Havoc, and Ricky Shane Page got involved. Sadly the match was didn’t meet expectations as CZW didn’t have the budget to do it properly. That, though, won’t be a problem for AEW and has the potential to be an unbelievable spectacle between two great workers.

Mark Henry last wrestled a singles match in February 2017 when he lost to Braun Strowmna on Raw. Since then, he has wrestled in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 33 and the Greatest Royal Rumble match in 2018. While not having an official retirement match, it was believed his in-ring days were behind him. Still, speaking on Busted Open, he recently revealed he wants to wrestle in the next six months. His motivation is catching up to his close friends Paul Wight’s record of wrestling in four decades.

He mentioned Randy Orton as a possible opponent as the last time he was on WWE television was Raw Legends Night back in January, which saw him bullied by Orton while he rode a scooter. The match, though, might not necessarily be in WWE as Henry’s current legends contact status is not publicly known. The former Olympic weightlifter has been associated with WWE since 1996 and does appear to be a WWE lifer, so the idea of him wrestling elsewhere seems far-fetched. However, the same was thought of Paul Wight, who recently jumped to AEW.

Borderline is a no-holds-barred, open discussion between a top pro wrestler and a popular female stripper, testing the age-old notion that wrestlers and strippers go well together! Featuring “The Rebel” StarBuck, the most acclaimed and accomplished pro wrestler out of Northern Europe since the turn of the century, and international showgirl Irina Tundra, Borderline features a bevy of relevant subjects that get dissected and analyzed from both the conservative and liberal points of view in an interactive setting.

In Episode 4 of Borderline European wrestling champion “The Rebel” StarBuck and Irina Tundra looks at the dichotomy between Happiness and Contentment, which are two things that are often confused with each other. Take part in the interactive discussion in the YouTube comments at https://youtu.be/uOGaWdf4LcE.

Late on Wednesday night Kayla Braxton, a backstage interviewer on SmackDown and host of Talking Smack and The Bump, tweeted a bi-sexual pride flag. She would follow this up by saying she was forced to choose during her life because she had one black parent and one white parent and then revealed she is bi-sexual. While she did receive lots of support, there were some negative comments, and seemingly these bothered her as she has now deactivated her Twitter account.

Braxton has been with WWE since 2016, debuting as a ring announcer on the October 20, 2016, episode of NXT. She’d feature a backstage interviewer on numerous pay-pwr-views in 2017 and permanently departed NXT and joined the main roster in August 2019. This isn’t the first time the Alabama native has deactivated her Twitter account due to receiving online abuse, so she may possibly return in the future.

One of the most historically significant people in professional wrestling, Jim Crockett Jr., sadly passed away Wednesday night, aged 76 following a short stay in hospice care. The cause of death is understood to be both liver and kidney failure after he decided to stop dialysis recently.

His father founded Jim Crockett Promotions in 1931, which was an important part of the National Wrestling Alliance, and following his death in 1973, his son-in-law John Ringley took control of the company. However, after Ringley had an affair with a former beauty pageant contestant, he was replaced by Crockett Jr. despite him previously having little interest in the wrestling industry.

By 1980 he became the NWA’s president for the first of three terms, a position that had great power in the industry. He had great success during the territory days and was arguably the #1 promoter in the country and brought out struggling territories like Florida, Central States, and Bill Watts’ UWF. He’d fight Vince McMahon’s national expansion better than most other promoters. Still, growing financial losses resulted in him selling the majority interest in his company to Ted Tuner’s TBS for $9 million to avoid bankruptcy. Turner would rename the company to World Championship Wrestling, and Crockett Jr. remained on as a consultant but left once his non-compete expired.

He did get back in the wrestling business in the 90s, running shows at the Dallas Sportatorium. He launched the World Wrestling Network alongside Paul Heyman, and they booked talents such as Bob Orton, Terry Funk, Jake Roberts, Road Warrior Hawk, Sabu, Sherri Martel, and Nailz. The promotion held a show in Texas in August 1993 and a television taping in February 1994 but closed once Heyman decided to focus on ECW. Crockett would leave wrestling to work in real estate and the mortgage industry and only recently returned by speaking at Conrad Thompson’s Starrcast IV event.

WWE had plans to bring Melina back to the company nine years after being told that creative had nothing for her. She would join The Robert Stone Brand on NXT and bring experience to the women’s division. However, an injury stopped WWE from signing her, and Melina has now opened up about the severity of the injury during a podcast appearance on Vicki Guerrero’s Excuse Me podcast.

Melina’s association with WWE began back in 2002 when she auditioned for Tough Enough. She’d be eliminated early but would go on to be signed by WWE and sent to OVW, which at the time was a developmental terror. She debuted on SmackDown in 2005 as the valet of Joey Mercury and John Morrison, collectively known as MNM. She’d go on to have a successful singles career where she became WWE Women’s Champion three times and won the Divas Championship twice. She was released in 2011 after being told creative had nothing for her, although it was believed to be due to her having backstage heat.

Over the weekend, all previous episodes of NWA Powerrr were removed from the NWA’s official YouTube channel with no details as to why being provided. Fans began speculating why, and even interviewer and ring announcer David Marquez, who has had a long association with the NWA, stated on Twitter he didn’t know why. It was feared the promotion was closing down, especially since so much of the NWA roster has moved on to new promotions since the last set of tapings.

However, now speaking to AP News, NWA owner Billy Corgan has revealed that the videos’ removal was due to moving exclusively to FITE.tv. He’d also announce the news that news episodes of NWA Powerrr are coming later this month. Additionally, a pay-per-view titled Back For The Attack is scheduled for March 21st and is available to pre-order now for $19.99.

While no matches have yet been announced, talents listed as appearing on the PPV are NWA Champion Nick Aldis, Thunder Rosa, Aron Stevens, Trevor Murdoch, Elijah Burke, Tim Storm, and Kamille. Former WWE star Carlito recently revealed that the company had reached out to him in an interview, so he may be appearing if a deal can be agreed.

NXT moved from the WWE Network to the USA Network in August 2019 to act as counterprogramming for AEW’s Dynamite series on TNT. The first time the shows went head to head, Dynamite averaged 1.409 million viewers against NXT’s average of 891,000 viewers. While Dynamite’s ratings haven’t hit those heights since, AEW’s flagship show has dominated the head-to-head battle, with Dynamite winning 58 times, NXT 9 times with 2 ties.

TNT was clearly happy, so they renewed Dynamite through 2023 and greenlit a second weekly television show due to debut later this year, meaning WWE’s counterprogramming attempts had failed. It now looks like the Wednesday night rivalry is set to end, as according to The Mat Men podcast, NXT will move to Tuesday nights from 13th April, which would be the first episode after WrestleMania.

If they are accurate, and others have since collaborated the report, it will undoubtedly look like WWE has failed. However, it may not be WWE’s choice as the USA Network have a massive say in what night NXT airs, and with the NBC Sports Network closing this year, it’s likely the National Hockey League will be moving to the USA Network and would have caused a scheduling conflict.

Ultimately going against Dynamite is costing the USA Network both viewers and money, and with Dynamite and NXT on different nights, both shows should see an increase in viewership. This was demonstrated when the shows ran unopposed for four weeks between 19th August 2020 and 9th September 2020 due to the NBA playoffs and NHL Stanly Cup causing preemptions. The big loser in all this could end up being Impact Wrestling, whose flagship show currently airs on Tuesday and saw an approximate 40% drop in viewers when NXT went against them in 2020.