Today would have been the 49th birthday of Brian Christopher Lawler, known to pro wrestling fans worldwide as Grand Master Sexay. To mark the occasion, his father, Jerry “The King” Lawler, has posted on Twitter that he has taken a pair of Pittsburgh Steelers gloves to his gravesite. Brian was such a big fan of the six-time Super Bowl champions that he was buried in a Steelers casket. Lawler points out that his own favorite team, the Cleveland Browns, are playing the Steelers today. Brian Christopher sadly died in 2018 by hanging himself while in a jail cell. He had been arrested for driving under the influence and evading police. Since then, Jerry Lawler has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Hardeman County and Sheriff John Doolen. The case is set to be heard later this year.

Multiple wrestlers have caught COVID-19 over the last ten months, including The Rock and Mick Foley, and now Nick Jackson can now be added to that list. The AEW Tag Team Champion has revealed on Instagram that he had to deal with the infectious disease in September. He also states that he had to let his brother Matt handle much of the wrestling in their matches due to the virus affecting his cardio once he could return to the ring.

Nick missed 46 days during this period, with his last match in September taking place at All Out on September 5th. This goes some way to explaining the unusual build to the Young Bucks vs. FTR match at Full Gear on November 7th, as we now know Nick was unavailable. Thankfully, Nick has managed to recover, although sadly, he did share the news in an earlier Instragam post that his aunt recently passed away due to the virus. Everyone at WIJ offers their condolences to him and his family.

Fans have reported that WrestleMania 24 is no longer available to view on the WWE Network. The pay-per-view is one of the companies most memorable Mania’s, having featured Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels in what was supposed to be Ric Flair’s final match. Also on the card as a special attraction was Floyd Mayweather vs. The Big Show, and this match previously caused issues with the DVD release due to Mayweather’s entrance music. This was because the music producer Anthony Lawrence Dash claimed Mayweather’s entrance music featured his song beat without permission. However, back in 2013, a judge ruled in Mayweather’s favor due to Dash being unable to prove Mayweather made any money by using the song.

HeelByNatureYT reached out to the WWE Network and asked for clarification on why WrestleMania 24 was removed, and was told that they didn’t know but confirmed the show would be coming back. Fans interested in why will have to watch the event when it is re-added and try to spot any potential edits, with Mayweather’s entrance probably a good starting point.

During Friday night SmackDown, WWE ring announcer Greg Hamilton’s hand was visibly shaking while introducing the SmackDown gauntlet match. Fans would draw attention to this on social media, and Hamilton would take the time to address these concerns on Twitter. In doing so, he revealed that his girlfriend Ari is sick, and he was distressed because he was not with her.

After getting home, Hamilton would again take to Twitter, confirming his girlfriend is resting and grateful for all the support received. Hopefully, Ari can make a full recovery, and she agrees to be Hamilton’s fiancée in the near future.

Matt Hardy has taken to Twitter to reveal the happy news that his wife Reby is pregnant with their fourth child. The couple began dating in 2011, married in 2013, and have three sons named Maxel, aged 5, Wolfgang, aged 3, and Bartholomew, who is 13 months. In the announcement, which you can view below, Matt confirms they are expecting a girl. Congratulations to both Matt and Reby at this exciting time.

On the latest episode of his Grilling JR podcast, AEW commentator Jim Ross had a Raw Roulette Watchalong. During this discussed former WWE talent Maria Kanellis. She started in the business as part of the 2004 Diva Search and would go on to win a Slammy Award for Diva of the Year in 2009 after a fan vote. However, she was released in 2010, and there were numerous conspiracy theories as to why. Her second run in WWE started in 2017 but didn’t go to plan, and she was part of the mass roster cuts WWE made in April 2020, along with her husband, Mike Bennett. Despite her lack of success the second time around, Good ol’ JR says he would love for her to join him in AEW.

Maria is currently associated with Ring of Honor and working on an online project called “The Experience,” and her husband Mike returned to ROH television in December and competed in ROH Final Battle 2020 teaming with Matt Taven. Their contract status with the promotion hasn’t been made public, so it isn’t known if either would be available to join AEW.

One of New Japan’s top stars, Jay White, a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the fifth and current leader of the Bullet Club, has been attracting attention from WWE for some time. Now, according to the Super J-Cast podcast, his contract is up at the end of the month, and it’s 50/50 whether he re-signs with New Japan or signs with WWE. Adding credibility to the reports he may be leaving is the fact in his latest match at New Year’s Dash, he was the man pinned in a ten-man tag team match. However, it should be noted he had wrestled an almost 50-minute match against Kota Ibushi the previous day.

The New Zealander is only 28 and considered one of the world’s best wrestlers and would be a significant signing for WWE. He was a Young Lion with New Japan early in his career and went through their dojo system. He would also wrestle for Ring of Honor as part of the New Japan/ROH partnership. Once he returned full-time, he would move up the card and in 2019 won IWGP Heavyweight Championship, the same title held by AJ Styles and Kenny Omega. He would hold the title for 54 days before dropping it to Kazuchika Okada at the ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard in New York.

It would be interesting timing if WWE did take one of New Japan’s biggest stars, as the promotion is about to announce television deals in the US and UK. Losing an English speaking top-tier talent would undoubtedly be a blow to the Japanese promotion, and possibly another reason WWE is keen to sign him.

Trademarks in wrestling are more serious than ever in pro wrestling, and Rey Fenix, who is signed with AEW, applied last August to own the rights to his name. However, On January 5th, The United States Patent and Trademark Office denied his application. Numerous reasons were cited, but the main one was that Lucha Libre FMV, a company owned by AAA and FactoryMade Ventures, already have a trademark on “Fenix,” and this could cause confusion. One of the other issues is related to a foreign individual using a US address. This could be because the application was made with assistance from Masked Republic, a company with its headquarters in San Diego, California.

Records indicate that Lucha Libre FMV registered “Fenix” in May 2017, and Rey Fenix consented to this, which seemingly would hinder his chances of getting control of his name. He now has six months to submit further documentation, or the trademark application will be abandoned. Last year his older brother Pentagón Jr. had to change his ring name to Pénta El Zero M due to AAA owning the trademark. If attorneys can not resolve the issues, then there is a real possibility that Rey Fenix will be forced to change his name if he wants to secure a trademark.

Rhea Ripley lost a Last Women Standing match to Raquel Gonzalez on Wednesday night’s NXT New Year’s Evil show. It was a hard-fought battle and ended when Gonzalez chokeslammed Ripley through the stage, and Ripley couldn’t answer the count. Following the match, Ripley was stretched out, and the belief is this was to write her off NXT television ahead of her main roster call-up. As of writing, it isn’t known which brand she is headed for.

The Australian began wrestling for WWE in 2017 and competed at the inaugural Mae Young Classic. She’d start to make a name for herself on the NXT UK brand in 2018 before moving to the top NXT brand in 2019. Her most notable angle came in 2020 when she appeared on Raw and pressured the Royal Rumble match winner Charlotte Flair to use her title opportunity to challenge her for the NXT Women’s Championship at WrestleMania 36. To the dismay of many fans who thought a WrestleMania victory over Charlotte would make Ripley a star, Charlotte defeated Ripley by making her tap out to the Figure-Eight Leglock. However, at 24 years of age, she has more than enough time to become one of the company’s top stars, and perhaps get her win back on the main roster.

WWE Hall of Famer, Snoop Dogg, appeared on Dynamite yesterday to promote the Go-Big Show that he and Cody Rhodes appear as judges on. The famous rapper would feature in a backstage segment with Private Party and Matt Hardy, and later accompany Cody for his match with Matt Sydal. Following Cody’s win, Luther and Serpentico hit the ring and attacked Cody. Sydal made the save, and Snoop climbed the ropes and hit Serpentico with what was described on commentary as a “Snoop Splash.” The actual move wasn’t performed well, but Snoop was having fun and seeing as Snoop isn’t trained, safety was the top priory.

After the clip was shared on Twitter, Sasha Banks couldn’t resist the opportunity to poke fun at her real-life cousin’s lack of wrestling ability, as you can see below.

😭😭🤣 fam! We’re gonna have to work on this.

— Mercedes Varnado (@SashaBanksWWE) January 7, 2021

With Snoop seemingly being a hit with AEW, it will be interesting to see whether he works with WWE again. Just two months ago, he collaborated with the company for a range of merchandise with The Undertaker, but it’s understood the company was very upset with him agreeing to work with a rival.

As reported yesterday, Damian Priest is in line to be called up to the main roster and was actually backstage at SmackDown on Friday. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has now revealed that the plan was for Priest to debut as Kevin Owens best friend and face Reigns and Jey Uso in the main event. However, Owens said it didn’t make sense to align the pair, as he has nothing in common with Priest, and once Reigns agreed, the idea was nixed. Instead, Owens faced Jey Uso in a singles match with Reigns getting involved.

WWE does still intend to call up Priest, who at the age of 38 does need to make his main roster debut sooner rather than later. He wrestled on NXT last night and lost to Karrion Kross in what was possibly his final match on the brand. Right now, the belief is he will now be part of Raw by the end of January, but as with anything regarding WWE’s creative plans, things can change at any time.

Following Kenny Omega’s victory over Rey Fénix, Jon Moxley came out with a barbed wire bat and attacked Omega. This lead to Impact Wrestling Tag Team Champions Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson making their AEW debuts and laying out Moxley. Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison, along with several other wrestlers, tried to make the save but were laid out. Finally, the Young Bucks ran out, but instead of going after Omega, Gallows, and Anderson, they would join them. The five former Bullet Club members ended Dynamite by making the Too Sweet hand gesture.

AEW and Impact are currently working together, with the interpromotional angle having kicked off on the December 2, 2020, Winter is Coming themed episode of Dynamite. On this episode, Impact’s Don Callis assisted Omega in defeating Moxley to become AEW World Heavyweight Champion. Omega has since made numerous appearances on Impact Wrestling on AXS and is scheduled to headline their Hard To kill pay-per-view on January 16, 2021. He will be teaming with Gallows and Anderson to face Impact Wrestling Champion Rich Swann, Alex Shelley, and Chris Sabin in a six-man match.

However, before that match occurs, Omega will be in action on New Year’s Smash Night 2 when he teams with the Young Bucks. Callis announced this after Dynamite, and Omega would tell fans that “We blew away everyone’s expectations, we warned you guys, the clues were there. Weren’t you listening? We’re just getting started.“