Long-time independent wrestler Joseph Hudson sadly passed away earlier this week from what is believed to be either a stroke or an aneurysm. A GoFundMe has now been set up to raise $15,000 to cover his funeral costs and medicals bills. That target was achieved in less than twelve hours thanks to over 250 donors, including Jimmy’s Famous Seafood, Cody Rhodes, and Eli Drake. It’s noted that all extra money raised will go into a trust fund for his young son. Hudson was best known for wrestling for Billy Corgan’s NWA promotion, where he competed as Jocephus and challenged for the NWA World Championship multiple times. He’d also wrestle as a hugely popular masked wrestler called The Question Mark. Notably, he also portrayed Bruiser Brody in the Dark Side of the Ring episode about Frank Goodish’s death.

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 3 of Borderline European wrestling champion “The Rebel” StarBuck and Irina Tundra pick apart the topic of looks and aesthetics, Take part in the interactive discussion in the YouTube comments at https://youtu.be/SRLPenITlr0.

Velvet Sky worked for TNA between 2007 and 2016 and is best remembered for her time in The Beautiful People, a group of wrestlers who felt they were more attractive than the other talents. While the group had various members throughout its run, Sky and Angelina Love were the founders and have recently launched The Beautiful Podcast.

The best way to stir up interest in any new wrestling podcast is to grab headlines and get fans talking, and Sky has done just that after branding TNA’s former majority owner Dixie Carter “vile.”

While Dixie Carter is often criticized for her time in TNA, as Sky stated, she did save them from going out of business after HealthSouth Corporation cut its financial support of the promotion. Dixie convinced her parents, who owned Panda Energy International, to purchase 71% of TNA for $250,000. She would become TNA President, but after the promotion failed to challenge WWE, her parents stopped investing in TNA.

Following legal issues involving money owed to Billy Corgan, the company was sold to Anthem Sports and Entertainment, who rebranded TNA as Impact Wrestling. Carter does still own 5% of the promotion, but it’s believed she has no decision-making power anymore.

Longtime independent wrestler Joseph Hudson has sadly passed away from what is believed to be either a stroke or an aneurysm. He was best known for wrestling for Billy Corgan’s NWA promotion, where he competed as both Jocephus and The Question Mark. Additionally, he portrayed a young Bruiser Brody on Dark Side of the Ring in 2019. Corgan would be the one to break the sad news on his private Instagram.

Hudson had been wrestling for over a decade and met Corgan in the early days of his career when working for his Chicago-based promotion Resistance Pro Wrestling in 2012. He’d also wrestle for TNA at their Victory Road pay-per-view in 2016, likely based on Corgan being the company’s Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development at the time. He’d follow Corgan to the NWA once he took ownership and challenged for the NWA World Championship multiple times. His final match took place at an NWA Powerrr taping in January 2020, where he teamed with Aron Stevens, better known as Damien Sandow, in a losing effort to The Rock’ n’ Roll Express.

The Big Show is now officially with All Elite Wrestling and will be wrestling and commentating under his real name Paul Wight. To say the news was unexpected would be an understatement, as Wight had appeared on WWE television last month and was thought to be a WWE lifer. Obviously, that won’t be the case now, and according to PWInsider, Wight was unhappy about how he was portrayed during what will be his final WWE appearance for at least a few years.

On the January 4th episode of Raw, WWE brought back several legends, and Wight was among them. In a backstage segment that you can watch below, Randy Orton verbally bullied Wight, who was shown to be unwilling to fight back and no longer a threat. This did not match how the Big Show character had been presented in WWE since debuting in 1999 and Wight was not pleased.

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It’s believed WWE did offer Wight a new contract, but both parties could not agree on a deal. With WWE seemingly taking Wight for granted, it appears to have opened the door for the former seven-time world champion to join AEW and end a twenty-plus-year association that was only interrupted in 2007 due to Wight briefly pursuing a boxing career. While not the same in-ring performer as in his prime, Wight was synonymous with WWE and one of their most recognizable names.

In literally one of the biggest talent acquisitions in their history, AEW has signed The Big Show, now going by his real name of Paul Wight, to a multi-year deal. AEW would announce this Wednesday morning via a press release and on their official website. Apart from being a signed wrestler, the former seven-time world champion will commentate on the promotions upcoming new show AEW Dark: Elevation every Mondays at 7 p.m. ET on AEW’s YouTube channel.

WWE clearly knew ahead of time as Wight had been moved to the Alumni section of WWE.com and is now written about in the past tense. While not the same in-ring performer as in his prime, Wight was synonymous with WWE and one of their most recognizable names. He last competed for them in July 2020, losing to Randy Orton on Raw, and as recently as last month appeared as a legend during Raw Legend’s Night.

Wight began his wrestling career in 1995 for WCW under the name The Giant and would win the companies world title in his debut match against Hulk Hogan. Despite being one of the few younger talents pushed into the main event scene, he opted to leave the promotion and signed with WWE in 1999. Since then, he has been a constant for Vince McMahon’s promotion except for a hiatus in 2007, when he attempted to become a professional boxer.

Ric Flair and Arn Anderson met in the early 80s while both working Southeastern Championship Wrestling, an NWA-affiliated promotion operating out of Tennessee and Alabama. Their careers would eventually become intertwined due to the Four Horsemen, and it was thought a lifelong friendship had begun. Anderson even watched the door and risked his job when Flair tried to beat up Eric Bischoff during their time together in WWE.

Sadly it now appears the pair are no longer close as Ric Flair has revealed in an interview with Wrestling Inc they no longer communicate, and he is distraught Anderson isn’t there for him following the death of his son Reid. He’d also add he doesn’t know her from Tully Blanchard, Barry Windham, or Ole Anderson.

It’s sad to hear Flair is no longer in contact with people that were such significant parts of his career. However, there are always two sides to every story. Perhaps when word gets back to them about how Flair feels, it will open the door for an eventual reconciliation. Thankfully Ric has his fifth wife, Wendy there for him.

Randy Orton is currently feuding with The Fiend, who he set alight back at TLC in December. With The Fiend now selling being burnt alive, Alexa Bliss is tormenting Orton in his absence. This week, while Orton was cutting a promo about being distracted and unable to focus on challenging the WWE title, he would begin spitting up seemingly the same black liquid that dribbled from Bliss’ mouth earlier this month.

Fans across social media started harkening back to 1992 when the Ultimate Warrior had a spell cast on him by Papa Shango and began having a similar black liquid run down his face. This resulted in “Papa Shango” trending and fans mocking WWE for rehashing a terrible concept. If you happened to miss Raw’s 2021 version of the segment, you can watch it out below.

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For those unfamiliar, Papa Shango was a gimmick portrayed by Charles Wright, best known as The Godfather. Upon entering WWE, Wright would wrestle as Sir Charles in 1991 before becoming Shango, a face-painted voodoo priest in January 1992. He’d get off to a strong start defeating the likes of El Matador, Jim Duggan, and Virgil before working a program with the Ultimate Warrior that played out mostly on house shows.

The gimmick was not over with fans, and readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter in 1992 voted Shango the worst gimmick, most embarrassing wrestler, and the feud with Warrior the worst of the year. Thankfully for all those watching at the time, Pat Patterson pushed for the gimmick to be dropped. Wright’s final WWE appearance as the Shango character would come in October 1993 following several house show defeats to Bob Backlund. In 1997 WWE did consider bringing the character back and had a makeup and wardrobe test, but wisely Vince McMahon decided against it.

On last night’s episode of Raw, Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler defeated Asuka and Charlotte Flair. The match’s purpose seemed to be the start of setting up Charlotte vs. Asuka for WrestleMania 37. This was done by Charlotte mistakenly kicking Asuka, allowing Jax to leg drop and pin her. After the match, The Empress of Tomorrow didn’t want Charlotte’s help, and it seems now a matter of time until they split.

During the hard-hitting match, Asuka received a stiff boot to the face from Baszler when she broke up an armbar on Jax. Asuka appeared to sell it exceptionally well, but you can see she actually lost a tooth upon a second viewing.

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WWE acknowledged the lost tooth during Raw Talk but has yet to provide any further update on Asuka’s condition. Hopefully, she will be OK after a trip to the dentist and did not suffer any additional facial injuries.

Lacey Evans was involved in an angle where she was in a relationship with Ric Flair and feuding with his daughter Charlotte. However, on last week’s Raw episode, Evans would leave the ring mid-match, pick up a mic, and announced she was pregnant. This was followed by Ric celebrating in typical Flair style and saying, “call me daddy.” It appeared this was WWE just progressing the storyline in typical soap opera style, but it was confirmed that Evans is legitimately pregnant after the show.

While WWE could have progressed the storyline with Evans being pregnant and played along with Ric being the father, it now appears the angle has been scrapped. Charlotte told Ric to go home during a backstage segment between the father and daughter and stop stealing the spotlight from her. Ric would confirm he wasn’t the baby’s father, and he saw potential in Evans and wanted to expand the Flair brand. The passionate segment came across as WWE writing Ric off television for the time being.

Earlier in the show, Charlotte and Asuka lost to Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax, and WWE teased an issue between Charlotte and Asuka. It now seems likely the pair will end up wrestling at WrestleMania 37 for the Raw Women’s Championship.

The third season of Dark Side of the Ring is coming later this year, narrated by our very own Chris Jericho. So far, an episode on Brian Pillman is the only one so far officially announced. Although it is believed there will also be episodes on Chris Kanyon, the Collision In Korea event, Grizzly Smith and his family, Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling, Xtreme Pro Wrestling, Nick Gage, Bruiser Bedlam. PWInsider has now reported that The Dynamite Kid’s first wife Michelle, children, and former sister-in-law Julie Hart have been interviewed for an episode about him.

The Dynamite Kid’s story is an unfortunate one that saw him destroy his body by wrestling against the doctor’s advice after he blew out two discs in his back in the 80s. He’d finally retire in 1996, but the damage had already been done, and he’d spend his final years virtually penniless in a wheelchair. It’s believed heart problems and a previous stroke contributed to him passing away on his 60th birthday.

During his prime, he was a huge fan favorite due to his tag team, The British Bulldogs with Davey Boy Smith, and was considered one of his generation’s greatest wrestlers. Notwithstanding that, he wasn’t well-liked by his peers and was considered a mean-spirited bully. In his first book, Mick Foley revealed he had been left unable to eat solid food following an enhancement match against him.

No air dates for any upcoming episodes have yet been confirmed, and the series is still being filmed. However, it is known season 3 will premiere with the Brian Pillman episode and include an interview with Steve Austin. This was quite a coup by the producers as talents still affiliated with WWE don’t usually participate.

Dark Order member Anna Jay was scheduled to face Dr. Britt Baker in the first round on the US side of the AEW Women’s title eliminator tournament. However, AEW has announced on social media that Jay has been replaced by Madi Wrenkowski, a Thunder Rosa student. This is because Jay has suffered a shoulder injury in training and requires surgery which will put her out of action for between 6 and 12 months. Jay would comment on the sad news herself on Twitter which you can read below.

This will be the second shoulder surgery required by Jay during her short career. During her initial pro wrestling training, she suffered a similar injury. In that case, she managed to make a full recovery and made her in-ring debut at a charity wrestling event put on by former WCW wrestler Glacier five months later in September 2019. Less than a year after that match, she’d sign for AEW following a losing effort to Hikaru Shida on Dynamite which impressed AEW management.