Paul Heyman doesn’t have the best reputation in wrestling. Virtually everyone who ever worked for him or alongside him has at least one story to tell where he was economical with the truth. Now, P.N. News, best known for his time working for WCW in the early 90s, who briefly wrestled for Heyman in ECW, has shared his own personal story of Heyman not being truthful with him. Speaking to Dr. Chris Featherstone on the latest episode of UnSKripted, News revealed he only found out he’d be advertised for a Loser Leaves Town match after the match had taken place and he was no longer part of Heyman’s plans. The match itself was part of a TNN Taping on November 13th, 1999. News and his partner Vito LoGrasso lost to Axl Rotten & Balls Mahoney, and neither man appeared on television again for ECW. While Vito LoGrasso went on to work for WWE, News’ three month run in ECW was the end of his national television career. As for Heyman, he has remained on television on and off for the past two decades, mostly thanks to his association with Brock Lesnar, and according to AJ Styles, he is despised by many within WWE.

Miro debuted on Dynamite on September 9th, 2020, as Kip Sabian’s best man. Since then, he has been feuding with Best Friends and Orange Cassidy in a midcard angle. Despite being undefeated, several fans have questioned AEW’s booking of the former Rusev, feeling he should have been positioned as a main eventer from the off. Now speaking on his Twitch channel, he has guaranteed fans he’ll become AEW World Heavyweight Champion or retire.

Tony Khan has previously started that AEW is currently rebuilding Miro as WWE hadn’t treated him as a star in years. He’d expressly state that the wrestler who entered in a tank at WrestleMania wasn’t the performer he had signed with AEW. Despite initially being pushed by WWE, Miro would move down the pecking order after his program with Jon Cena. The low point of his career came when he was booked in an angle with Lashley that saw his wife Lana leave him. Miro went along with the storyline because he was initially told he would main event WrestleMania 36, which obviously never happened. In fact, Miro wouldn’t wrestle on the show and was released a few weeks after it took place.

While accidents happen in wrestling, there appears to be a much higher chance of suffering an injury when sharing a ring with Nia Jax. She famously busted open Becky Lynch on Raw, leaving her bloodied and concussed, and has also hurt Ember Moon, Bayley, Zelina Vega, Charlotte Flair, and Kairi Sane. On Monday night’s episode of Raw, it appeared she had added Dana Brooke to the list following a botched chokeslam. Thankfully Brooke wasn’t hurt. However, fans took to social media to call her out, and seemingly unbothered by her reputation of being dangerous, she responded with the below tweet.

Many fans and critics speculate that WWE gives Jax a pass on her reckless ways due to being related to The Rock, as her father is a cousin of Peter Maivia. While that makes sense, as WWE is hoping to have The Rock vs. Roman Reigns in the future, it seems unlikely he’d approve of her injuring colleagues, either accidentally or purposely. Somewhat hypocritically, Jax complained to WWE management when Ronda Rousey gave Alexa Bliss a concussion and requested she instead worked with the former UFC star.

Vince McMahon was not at either Friday’s SmackDown or last night’s Raw due to his elder brother Roderick “Rod” McMahon’s death. Rod passed away on Wednesday, 20th January, aged 77, and lived in Willis, Texas. As of writing, it isn’t known the cause of death. Rod was never involved in the wrestling industry but would attend WWE shows and some Hall of Fame ceremonies. He almost appeared on WWE television as part of the planned “Who Killed Vince McMahon?” angle in 2007 but didn’t as WWE scrapped the storyline in the wake of Chris Benoit tragedy.

Rod McMahon received a Bachelor of Business degree from Memphis State University and was part of the U.S. Air Force in his younger days. In 1987 he formed a successful company named North American Metals Inc along with his wife. His company still exists today, and you can visit its website at northamericanmetals.net. He had two sons named Rome and Troy, plus six grandchildren called Law, Blake, Ty, Trace, Tatum, and TJ.

In what was billed as the “Greatest Wrestling Match Ever,” Edge tore his triceps against Randy Orton at Backlash last June. It was terrible timing as it was only Edge’s third match since returning to the company following 9 years away. He had previously been forced to retire in 2011 due to being diagnosed with cervical spinal stenosis. However, in 2019 he was medically cleared to return and made a surprise appearance at number 21 during the Royal Rumble match, lasting almost 24 minutes.

Edge has now returned to WWE television via a pre-taped promo on Raw’s go-home episode last night and declared his entry into the 2021 Royal Rumble match. Edge said that he knows this year won’t be like last year and that the stakes are now higher as he needs to win the match so he can main event WrestleMania and win back what he never lost. You can watch Edge’s passionate promo below.

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Edge joins Daniel Bryan, Bobby Lashley, Big E, AJ Styles, Mustafa Ali, Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, Shinsuke Nakamura, Sheamus, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, John Morrison, The Miz, Jey Uso, Otis, and Cesaro, who have already been confirmed for the match. As of writing, bookmakers make Daniel Bryan the favorite, followed by Keith Lee.

In May 2020, former WWE Champion Alberto Del Rio was accused by his now ex-girlfriend of assaulting her multiple times and threatening to leave her young child in the street. His trial was meant to start today, and he was in court to face one count of aggravated kidnapping and four counts of sexual assault. However, it has been reported that shortly before the trial was to start, it was postponed until 3rd May 2021. It isn’t known as of writing why the trial was pushed back.

With the alleged crimes taking place in Texas, Del Rio could be imprisoned for life if found guilty. The case, though, is complicated as Del Rio’s accuser took to Instagram in November 2020 and, in a now-deleted post, wrote, “An apology to the Rodriguez del Rio family for the damages caused by my mistakes.” This looks like she may have been withdrawing her accusations, although only the State can drop the case, and they are clearly proceeding.

Charles Wright’s initial WWE gimmicks of Papa Shango and Kama “The Supreme Fighting Machine” failed to get over, and he was gone from the company. However, in 1997, it was decided there was a place for him in the Nation of Domination, and Kama was back, now with the surname Mustafa. This character evolved to be The Godfather, and as part of the Attitude Era, Wright got over huge, even winning the Intercontinental Championship.

Despite his success, WWE had Wright go from The Godfather to The Goodfather and renounce his previous lifestyle. The reason for this was WWE was on the Parents Television Council’s radar and protested WWE’s adult content. Vince McMahon decided to parody the ultra-conservative group by forming Right to Censor and included Wright. Now in an interview with Scheduled for Two Falls, Wright has revealed that he hated this being part of RTC and even considered quitting the company.

As Wright said, he, along with Bull Buchanan, won the Tag Team Championships as part of RTC, but they’d lose them in a four-way to Edge and Christian just over a month later. Thankfully for Wright, RTC only existed for another six months. After seven months off WWE television, he returned at the 2002 Royal Rumble as The Godfather, much to fans’ delight. WWE failed to recapture lightning in a bottle for a second time, and then a year later, he was released. Since then, he has made sporadic appearances for the company and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2016.

WWE has announced that they have agreed to an exclusive US rights deal for the WWE Network to move to NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming service. The new five-year agreement, valued at over $1 billion, takes effect on March 18, and all current United States-based WWE Network subscribers will become Peacock Premium members automatically.

There appears to be no downside for current Network subscribers, as the price they will now pay will be reduced from $9.99 to the current Peacock Premium price of $4.99. However, it should be noted that the package contains commercials. Still, the ad-free version is also $9.99, which effectively means no price change, but fans are also getting access to other Peacock shows. Thankfully, the WWE’s Networks big draw of live pay-per-views has been confirmed to be included, with Fastlane being the first to stream on Peacock on Sunday, March 21. Non-US countries’ existing versions of the WWE Network, which differ based on location, will be unaffected by this news.

The WWE Network first launched on February 24, 2014, in the United States. As of the end of Q3 2020, it had 1.137 million paying subscribers in the United States and 412,000 internationally. Including free signups, more than 2.4 million people watched a total of 37 million hours of content in that three month period, which breaks down to almost five hours per month per fan.

Val Venis’ comments on social media have been a hot topic of discussion over recent months due to often being potentially libelous. He has slammed The Rock, Mick Foley, and Batista due to supporting Joe Biden, and the other day quit social media following the new president’s inauguration. Now controversial podcaster Jim Cornette has commented on Venis by saying he had all the tools to be a star but blamed Vince Russo for ruining his career. He then adds that when he knew Venis, he had a good head on his shoulders and didn’t say such bizarre things.

Venis had a decade-plus run with WWE, which twice saw him hold the Intercontinental Championship, however as Cornette alluded to, he was only really over between 1998 and 2000. Once he changed gimmicks and became part of Right to Censor, his career went downhill, and even a return to his adult movie star gimmick in 2002 couldn’t help him. After being released by WWE at the start of 2009, he toured with New Japan and briefly joined TNA in 2010. Since that run came to an end, he competed on the independent scene but appears to be in semi-retirement, having wrestled just five times since 2017. Away from wrestling, he is a big advocate of cryptocurrency and has invested in two medical marijuana dispensaries in Arizona.

The Undertaker was recently a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and covered numerous topics, including WWE’s drug testing policy and his own prior steroid usage. He also gave his opinion on the current state of WWE and referred to the product as “soft” and “there’s too much pretty and not enough substance right now.” It’s understood this comment has upset several current talents, and the current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre has responded in an interview with Sportskeeda, saying he disagrees and that in the ring, WWE’s never been so physical.

Today’s WWE product is vastly different from what it was during the Attitude Era, which the Undertaker was a massive part of. Nowadays, WWE could never get away with hanging or crucifying someone. However, they sometimes try and push the envelope, as seen recently with their “Eye for an Eye” match and The Fiend being set on fire. It’s also difficult to disagree with McIntyre on the level of physicality, but that isn’t always a good thing when you consider Finn Bálor and Kyle O’Reilly both needed hospital treatment following WWE NXT TakeOver 31.

Conor McGregor seems determined to rival Terry Funk for most retirements, having retired three times in four years. However, he is returning to the Octagon at UFC 257 to face Dustin Poirier. Regardless of the result, McGregor will remain incredibly marketable and valuable to the UFC. Still, when he does finally step away from the world of MMA, many people consider it a foregone conclusion he will get involved in pro wrestling. One of those people is WWE’s Sheamus, who was interviewed recently by Stephanie Chase and said it isn’t a case of if, but when his fellow Irishman will join WWE. You can watch Sheamus’ full comments in the excerpt below.

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As Sheamus states, McGregor would totally suit WWE. His ability to trash talk and get media attention would likely result in more positive publicity than WWE has received in years. Ronda Rousey has proven an MMA star can translate to the world of wrestling, and the only issue with recruiting McGregor would likely be monetary. While McGregor makes wild claims about his pay for fighting, it’s been reported for his fight against Poirier, he will receive $30 million due to receiving a share of the pay-per-view revenue. Therefore, if he is going to one day wrestle for WWE, it would likely need to be at a WrestleMania or an event held in Saudi Arabia to make sense financially for Vince McMahon.

The last twelve months have featured a succession of both good and bad experiences for Matt Hardy. The ups saw him sign a big-money deal with AEW, and earlier this month, he announced that he and his wife Reby are expecting their fourth child. However he was also hospitalized after taking a nasty bump at All Out in a Broken Rules match against Sammy Guevara. Now he experienced another unfortunate event after being involved in a car accident. As you can see in the photo below, which Hardy posted on Twitter, someone hit his Cadillac from behind, and he has warned his fans against rubbernecking.

Thankfully, based on Hardy saying he is invincible, he appears to have been unhurt in the collision, so hopefully, he won’t miss any time. Currently, he is involved in the AEW/Impact Wrestling relationship as he is portraying the kayfabe agent of Private Party who are challenging the Impact World Tag Team Champions Gallows and Anderson at No Surrender. The event is taking place on February 13, 2021, at the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and airs on IMPACT Plus.