In 1989 Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson were highly regarded by Vince McMahon. Still, the duo believed he was underpaying them, and they’d hand their notice in so they could return to the NWA. Infuriated by this, McMahon would schedule drug tests, and Blanchard failed because, according to him, he had licked a bag of an illegal substance to impress a woman. This failed test meant he was suspended and missed the Survivor Series pay-per-view and the substantial payoff. In addition, once the news became public, Blanchard’s offer to rejoin the NWA was withdrawn, and McMahon had his revenge.

Twenty-three years later, it appeared any ill-feeling McMahon had towards Blanchard was gone due to inducting Blanchard into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of Four Horsemen. However, speaking on longtime tag partner Arn Anderson’s podcast, Blanchard revealed he believes McMahon still had animosity towards him based on a comment he made that night.

Blanchard never did return to WWE after the Hall of Fame induction, but has since become a highly regarded part of the AEW family, where he is the on-screen manager of Shawn Spears and FTR.

Brodie Lee sadly and shockingly passed away on Saturday, and the wrestling world took to social media to pay tribute to the much-loved man. One wrestler conspicuous by his absence was his longtime tag partner Erick Rowan. However, earlier today, Rowan took to Instagram and shared a touching tribute where he declares Lee not only a friend but a brother and that this is not goodbye forever, but goodbye for now.

Rowan and Lee’s career with forever be linked due to competing over 400 times as tag partners. They’d hold both the NXT Tag Team Championship and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship during their WWE run together, which started in 2012 at an FCW show and ended in 2019 at a SmackDown houseshow in France. Apart from being partners, they also faced off against each other over 30 times.

On Saturday evening, Brodie Lee’s wife shared on Instagram the tragic news that her husband, real name Jonathan Huber, had passed away aged 41. He had been on hiatus from AEW after receiving treatment for a lung infection at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Once this unfortunate news broke, the wrestling world began mourning, and below are several tributes paid by those lucky enough to have known him.

Lee began his career by backyard wrestling before working independents, most notably CHIKARA, in 2007 and would wrestle for Ring of Honor in 2008 and 2009. These appearances put him on WWE radar, and Vince McMahon’s company would sign him in 2012. He began working for Florida Championship Wrestling, their developmental territory under the name he became famous under, Luke Harper, and become part of the Wyatt family. The group was massively successful between 2012 and 2014, but in a move that shocked many fans, WWE split them by having Bray Wyatt saying he was setting Harper and Rowan free. This lead to Lee winning the Intercontinental Championship, but eventually, his singles push stalled, and WWE reunited the Wyatt family. After failing to recapture their initial run’s magic, Lee would be repackaged as one of The Bludgeon Brothers tag team along with Rowan.

After being unhappy with his push in WWE and lack of creative direction, Lee requested his release from the company in April 2019 but was denied. Adding insult to injury, WWE added six months to his contract due to the time he’d missed due to injury. WWE would go on to release him in December 2019.

Once his non-compete clause expired, he debuted on for AEW on Dynamite as The Exalted One, the Dark Order’s mysterious leader, and challenged AEW World Champion Jon Moxley at Double or Nothing for the title. Despite losing Moxley, he’d continue to be heavily pushed and won the AEW TNT Championship from Cody Rhodes and held the title for 55 days (46 days recognized by AEW). His last-ever match was him dropping the title back to Cody in a violent and highly entertaining Dog Collar match on the October 7th episode of Dynamite.

At this time, our thoughts are with his widow and two young sons Brodie and Nolan. #RIPBrodieLee #RIPJonHuber

Thanks to having the Minnesota Vikings vs. New Orleans Saints NFL game as a lead-in, Friday night’s episode of SmackDown had its highest rating of the year. It was also the second-highest rating any WWE program has had since the premiere episode on FOX on October 4, 2019. The first hour averaged 4.097 million viewers, and the second hour averaged 2.574 million for an overall average of 3.336 million viewers. In the key 18-49 demo, the show drew a 0.95 rating. It should be noted these are overnight ratings, so not yet official, but the numbers do not usually differ significantly.

Knowing they would have a tremendous lead in WWE opened with Roman Reigns defending the Universal Championship against Kevin Owens in a steel cage match. The show then featured a Triple Threat Elimination Match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship, Daniel Bryan against Jey Uso, and a main event Lumberjack Match, which saw Big E win the Intercontinental Championship from Sami Zayn.

This rating will have brought some festive cheer to everyone at WWE after Raw received its lowest-ever rating just two weeks ago. However, the 37% drop between hours one and two shows WWE still has work to do when they manage to get extra eyeballs on their product.

Vince McMahon’s appearance at Survivor Series had many fans speculating on his health. He didn’t look like the same man who had appeared looking like a Greek God on the cover of “Muscle & Fitness” magazine just five years prior. However, age catches up to everyone, even genetic jackhammers, and Ryback has tweeted he has heard that WWE’s 75-year-old head-honcho is currently in poor health.

Regarding kicking Vince’s ass, Ryback is referring to the legal fight he is currently in with WWE where he is attempting to take ownership and has previously requested they delete him from their history.

As far as Vince’s health is concerned, no other reports have come out, so it isn’t known the extent of his health issues. Vince told Kurt Angle he intends to live to at least 105, which given his mother recently turned 100, might not be out of the question. However, his father only lived until he was 69, and his grandfather Jesse McMahon passed away at 72.

WWE aired a special Christmas Day edition of SmackDown yesterday but actually taped the episode on Tuesday. Select fans watched the taping via the WWEThunderDome.com, and one of them recorded what they were watching and captured a humorous moment where Sasha Banks dropped the SmackDown Women’s Championship during her entrance. It made it all the more amusing by Bayley pointing and making fun of her.

In WWE’s quest for perfection, they decided to edit out the harmless gaffe, but thanks to the fan watching live, you can watch it for yourself below.

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Banks was teaming with Bianca Belair taking on WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Charlotte Flair and Asuka, as well as Bayley and Carmella in a Triple Threat Tag Team Elimination match. Unsurpsrinly it was Charlotte Flair that would get the final pin after hitting the Natural Selection on Belair.

On last night’s episode of Dynamite, taped the week prior, AEW wrote Trent of the Best Friends tag team off television. While no attack was shown, a video aired showing him being carried to an ambulance accompanied by Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor. It aired during Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford’s wedding date announcement and featured Miro, so implied they were responsible. At the time, viewers were led to believe it was just part of their ongoing feud, but Trent has since tweeted, confirming he is legitimately injured.

It isn’t known when the injury happened, but his previous match was of the big 12-man tag match featuring the Inner Circle. Trent has unfortunately suffered this same injury previously when wrestling for PWG in 2018. He’d battle on to fulfill his upcoming ROH dates and then missed five months from the ring. That was considered a quick recovery, so he may be out even longer this time.

Sting was with WWE from 2014 until earlier this year and shocked the wrestling world when he appeared during the December 2nd episode of Dynamite. It was subsequently reported he’d signed a multi-year contract with Tony Khan’s promotion. Still, it wasn’t clear exactly what his role would be, seeing as he had retired after worsening his already damaged neck during a match against Seth Rollins at Night of Champions in 2015. Now speaking on the AEW Unrestricted podcast, he addressed the question everyone has been wondering since his first AEW appearance, and that was whether he would wrestle? With the answer being YES!

Cinematic matches aren’t new in wrestling and allow for a different style of presentation for select matches. While Matt Hardy helped bring them to prominence, they became an accepted part of wrestling once WWE featured two of them at WrestleMania 36. The Boneyard Match between The Undertaker and AJ Styles would headline the first night of the event and was well-received. The Undertaker would acknowledge afterward he wouldn’t have a better final match and announced his retirement.

AEW already has experience with cinematic matches, with the Stadium Stampede match heading their Double or Nothing pay-per-view. So now, with the question answered on whether Sting will wrestle again, the next question is who he will be facing?

As TNT Champion, Darby Allin is currently the cable television channel’s face and one of AEW’s breakout stars. Fans have compared him to Sting, Jeff Hardy, and CM Punk due to his look, daredevil in-ring style, and straight-edge lifestyle. Now speaking to Forbes.com, Allin has revealed that he is looking to be his own man and purposely chooses to not watch wrestling because he doesn’t want it to influence him.

Allin’s decision is unconventional because wrestlers typically study other wrestlers’ matches and angles to help shape their careers, but Allin is anything but typical. This is evident because he opted to make himself homeless, choosing to live out of his car to motivate himself. In addition, his name partly came from GG Allin, an outrageous punk musician who was known for his nonconformity.

Following the women’s WarGames match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames, Triple H updated journalists on the post-show media call that the company was waiting on Candice LeRae’s x-rays, but it appeared her arm was broken. The injury occurred when Shotzi Blackheart hit her with a senton from a ladder while covered by a chair. It looked nasty, and if you haven’t seen it for yourself, you can watch it below.

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Now speaking to PWInsider, LeRae has provided an update and revealed her arm wasn’t broken, and the injury is a soft-tissue issue.

Seemingly with her arm not being broken, the amount of time LaRae misses from the ring will be significantly reduced. This was great news for her career as she is currently being prominently featured alongside her husband Johnny Gargano, Indi Hartwell, and Austin Theory in a group known as “The Way.”

Rob Feinstein founded Ring of Honor in 2002, but due to serious accusations made against him, he would relinquish the company to longtime friend Doug Gentry. The promotion, though, was struggling, and ticket broker Cary Silkin bought them in 2004 and kept them afloat until selling to the Sinclair Broadcast Group in 2011. Now, while speaking to the ROHStrong podcast, Silkin has revealed that former CM Punk rose to prominence while working for the promotion texted him before he sold to Sinclair and inquired about purchasing the company.

It hasn’t been publically revealed how much Sinclair paid for ROH. Still, it’s been reported to have been an insignificant amount to Sinclair. As Silkin was losing money running ROH, he was happy to recoup some of his losses. Perhaps had Punk picked up the phone rather than texting to set up a meeting, wrestling history now would be very different. During this time, CM Punk was an upper midcarder for WWE and worked as either the Straight Edge Society leader or on Raw ahead of taking control of Nexus. Had he purchased ROH, it’s possible his famous Pipebomb promo would never have happened, nor his 434-day reign as WWE Champion.