Trademarks are a big deal in wrestling, and WWE looks to take ownership whenever they can. However, their attempts to trademark the name “Keith Lee” look to have failed after Keith Lee filed to trademark his birth name for himself. WWE applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to trademark his name when he was part of NXT, but the law requires Lee to sign a consent form giving WWE permission. It now appears that Lee has not signed that consent and has instead filed his own application. While it’s only speculation at this point as to why Lee has decided to go against WWE’s request, he may be thinking about his future away from WWE. When he signed with WWE in 2018, it was for three years, so unless he signed an extension when called up to Raw, he’d be a free agent in May 2021. Upon his main roster callup in August, Lee received a push, and reportedly Vince McMahon told Randy Orton to make him a star. Now though, his push has somewhat stalled, and it’s understood that Vince McMahon hasn’t been happy with his ring work. This has led to him having twice-weekly training sessions with Drew Gulak and Adam Pearce to change his ring style.

Shad Gaspard died a hero on May 17, 2020, after he and his ten-year-old son Aryeh were caught in a riptide while swimming at Venice Beach, California. Instead of accepting the help of lifeguards, he directed them to save his son first. Tragically, when they came back for him, he had disappeared underwater. The U.S. Coast Guard searched 70 square nautical miles over 17 hours but could not him, and he would end up washing ashore three days later.

The Los Angeles Daily News has now reported that his widow Siliana, a fitness trainer and nutritionist, filed court papers on Monday against the state of California, Los Angeles County, and the city of Los Angeles. The documents were filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of herself and her son Aryeh ahead of the official lawsuit. It was reported she is seeking burial costs and unspecified damages. Her claim is there were not the appropriate amount of signs warning of danger, there were not enough trained lifeguards, and they didn’t have the correct equipment. She also stated that lifeguards “left Shad Gaspard in the water to die.”

Gaspard was known to wrestling fans for his time in WWE, where he competed as half of the tag team Cryme Tyme alongside JTG. The duo had two runs on the main WWE roster, initially between 2006 and 2007, and again between 2008 and 2010. Following his release, he would work occasional independent shows but mainly focus on his acting and writing career over pro wrestling.

Johnny Fairplay, real name Jon Dalton came to fame in 2003 as the villain on the reality television show Survivor. He’d lie to the other contestants about his grandmother having died to gain an advantage and sympathy. It has now been reported by TMZ that he, along with his mother Patsy Hall, were arrested last week in their hometown of Danville, Virginia, for allegedly stealing furniture and a $5,000 necklace from his grandmother. The complaint was filed by Fairplay’s aunt claiming the pair had taken advantage of her dementia.

Before Fairplay came to fame through Survivor, he had worked in professional wrestling and run his own promotion after being trained by Manny Fernandez. His biggest claim to fame before appearing on Survivor was that he was the personal assistant for Roddy Piper. After he rose to fame, TNA signed him to manage for $150,000 a year with high hopes of him bringing in reality tv fans. His debut didn’t go to plan after receiving a concussion after being powerbombed by AJ Styles. He’d appear a few times for the company and got resigned for the same amount for year two but wasn’t used and got paid to sit at home. After departing TNA, he’d go on to work with Ring of Honor and DragonGate USA.

During this past Sunday’s “Reindeer Games” event put on by Atomic Revolutionary Wrestling show in Florida, indie wrestler Deimos (Michael Anderson) popped the question to Teal Piper, daughter of the late great “Rowdy” Roddy Piper. He’d do this in the ring, and fortunately, she said yes! You can watch this special moment for yourself below.

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While her legendary father initially wanted her to stay out of the business, Teal is now making her way as a wrestler herself. She’d make her debut in 2019, competing in the Casino Battle Royale at AEW All Out, and then signed with Women of Wrestling. Her fiancé Deimos has been wrestling on the independent scene since 2008 and won tag team gold with former TNA wrestler Rob Terry during his career. The newly engaged couple was recently in the news, having trained with Ronda Rousey for her World of Warcraft commercial.

While most people will remember Kevin Greene as a Pro Football Hall of Famer who played in the NFL for 15 years, wrestling fans will remember him for his matches in WCW during the 90s. Unfortunately, news broke earlier today that the father of two has passed away aged 58. As of writing, no cause of death has been released.

His NFL career saw him play for the Los Angeles Rams, Pittsburgh Steelers, Carolina Panthers, and San Francisco 49ers, and he would be voted as part of the NFL 1990s All-Decade Team. Once he retired, he’d work as an outside linebacker coach for the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets. During his time playing football, he also got involved in pro wrestling and would wrestle several times for WCW between 1996 and 1998 due to being a huge fan of the sport.

His favorite wrestler was Ric Flair, and he got to work with him twice. The first time came during his debut match when he teamed with Steve McMichael against Flair and Arn Anderson. Greene would end up pinned by Flair after McMichael turned on him to join the Four Horsemen. He ended up leaving WCW when NFL teams began clamping down on their players wrestling. However, it’s believed he did consider taking up wrestling full-time, and Eric Bischoff has stated he would have signed him had he decided to quit the NFL.

Back in June, Charlotte Flair was written off WWE television following an attack by Nia Jax. The angle was done because she needed a cosmetic fix on her breasts to repair a previous surgery carried out due to her suffering silicone poisoning in 2018. Now though, during WWE’s TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs pay-per-view, the 12-time women’s world champion made her big return as Asuka’s surprise tag team partner. Charlotte was replacing the previously injured Lana and was facing the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler with the titles on the line.

Asuka and Charlotte won the titles after Asuka took out Jax, and Charlotte pinned Baszler after rolling through the Kirifuda clutch and hitting a Natural Selection. After their victory, WWE showed Charlotte’s father Ric applauding backstage while watching on a television set. Charlotte didn’t seem to have any ring rust, and the match itself was good, although a little short. With Charlotte having lost to the current Raw Women’s Champion Asuka before her hiatus, there is bound to be a match between them down the line.

Charlie Haas is best known to wrestling fans for his WWE run as part of The Worlds Greatest Tag Team with Shelton Benjamin. During this time, he met and married Jackie Gayda, the co-winner of the second Tough Enough series, and the couple had four children. Sadly, during an interview with The Hannibal TV, Haas revealed he had gone through a rough patch due to getting divorced. Thankfully, he would let fans know he is now back on his feet and running a Texas youth wrestling program.

Aside from amateur wrestling and working with his youth program, Haas has also recently returned to the independent scene after a two-year absence. In November, he began competing for Southwest Wrestling Entertainment out of Texas, which also books former WWE talent Rodney Mack and current AEW star Lance Archer.

Many wrestling fans have a big misconception that WWE wrestlers are paid continuously big money for their matches. In fact, a wrestler’s payoff can vary massively depending on their placement on the card, who their opponent is, the paying attendance, and how the company is doing in general. Now in a new interview, Rob Van Dam, who had a very successful run with WWE between 2001 and 2007, and returned in 2013 and 2014, revealed that nowadays he is making 20 to 30 times as much money for a single match as he was getting paid at his lowest in WWE.

Since leaving WWE in 2014, RVD has competed in around 65 matches. The majority have been for Impact Wrestling, a promotion he just recently amicably parted ways with. He has also traveled the globe during that time, competing on big independent shows in the UK, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Chile, and Qatar for seemingly huge money.

Former WWE referee Mike Chioda is as recognizable to any longtime wrestling fan as any wrestler following over 30 years with the company. Still, WWE chose to release him as part of their mass roster cut in April despite him having only signed a new contract the month previous month.

Since leaving WWE, he has made a few appearances for AEW and done several interviews about his time in WWE. One such interview was with WrestlingINC, where he discussed being surprised at how much freedom AEW gives both talents and referees in terms of merchandising. He also revealed that in WWE, he was taken out of future video games for asking then Senior Vice President of Talent Operations John Laurinaitis about royalties.

It’s well known WWE doesn’t like to pay royalties unless absolutely necessary. Talents don’t get paid for their matches on the WWE Network, and anyone who has ever watched any ECW content on the Network will have noticed the music changes. It wasn’t until Jesse Venyuta’s lawsuit against WWE in the 90s that wrestlers other than Hulk Hogan began to see royalty payments at all. Since then, video games have become one of the most significant revenue sources for wrestlers, with payments often being high five figures. So even a fraction of that to a referee would noticeably affect their check.

Before becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, and the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment, The Rock attempted to have a football career. He was highly regarded and received many offers from Division I collegiate programs. He’d join the University of Miami, where he mostly played as a defensive tackle. Unfortunately, he’d suffer injuries and end up playing in the Canadian Football League rather than the NFL and was cut a few months into his first season.

Now, a very rare piece of memorabilia from his football career has recently sold for big money through an eBay auction. In 1994, the Bumble Bee tuna company produced a 24-card sheet of players from the University of Miami football players, including future NFL stars Ray Lewis and Warren Sapp. The Rock was among them, and this would act as his rookie card, which is usually the most in-demand card for any sportsperson. The cards were given away, but due to the bad weather, many were damaged, and it’s believed there are only around 50 still in existence. After being graded a Gem Mint 10 by PSA, which is a virtually perfect card, a total of 53 bids were placed, with it selling for $13,988. It’s believed this is $10,000 more than the last time one of these cards sold for in 2014 and shows The Rock’s popularity is continuing to increase.

Sasha Banks secured a role on the Disney+ series The Mandalorian as a character called Koska Reeves. Interestingly it wasn’t her pro wrestling fame that brought her to the attention of Jon Favreau, the man behind the Star Wars spinoff, but actually, her appearance on the YouTube show Hot Ones. That, though, doesn’t mean her pro wrestling ability hasn’t come in valuable, because on the just-released episode of the show, titled Chapter 16: The Rescue, she hits non-other than Boba Fett with a Tornado DDT! You can watch her perform the move below.

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Banks has only appeared in two episodes, but based on her performances, it looks like she’ll be able to have a successful acting career after this if she chooses to. If you haven’t already checked out The Mandalorian, you definitely should do. Even if you’re only interested in the original trilogy, this episode, which was the season finale, is an absolute must to watch and looks set to go down as one of the greatest moments in the franchise’s history.

This Sunday is WWE’s final PPV of the year, TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs takes place, and a new stipulation has been added to one of the featured matches. Following Randy Orton setting fire to a box containing Bray Wyatt, which saw The Fiend escape unharmed this past Monday, WWE has announced the match is now a Firefly Inferno Match. The gimmick also acknowledges the feud’s history, which saw Orton burn down The Wyatt Family Compound leading up to WrestleMania 33.

The match rules have not been confirmed, but previous Inferno matches, which all involved Kane, required a wrestler to set fire to their opponent. Given that Randy Orton wears very little in the ring while The Fiend is fully-clothed, you’d imagine that Orton would be the likely winner, but the betting odds actually strongly favor The Fiend to win, so we’ll have to wait and see.