Angel Garza was injured at Sunday’s Clash of Champions pay-per-view during a tag match against the Street Profits. The injury happened when Garza connected with a knee strike to Montez Ford. On Monday, it was thought he had either torn his quad or injured his hip and could be out for a while. Thankfully though he has revealed on YouTube, he only suffered a small quad tear and will probably be back within three weeks. He’d describe the injury and WWE’s actions in more detail, which you can read excerpts of below.
Angel Garza was one of Paul Heyman’s pet projects on Raw, and under him got to work with Drew McIntyre, Rey Mysterio, and Kevin Owens. However, following Heyman’s removal as executive director, he would predominantly work as part of a tag team with Andrade.
I heard a small pop, like a balloon exploding. Everything around that area started to get really hot, and when I tried to move the leg, I had that tension close to my groin, and it was my quadriceps, almost reaching my hip. That’s what I felt. The referee came to me and asked if I can continue, and I said no.
I remember giving Andrade the tag, and he asked me what’s wrong, and I tell him that I can’t go anymore. WWE has a system that’s really effective where they have all the doctors and medical personnel watching the matches on monitors, and they quickly go to the ring to see what’s going on.
They told me to get an MRI, and I got the results, and thankfully, it wasn’t anything involving the tendons or with my hip as some outlets have reported. It was a quad tear, and we already began treatment. I’ve been putting ice on it and bandages for the tear.
Thank God that it wasn’t anything long-term, like five or six months. They told me if I had continued, I could have completely torn and would have been out for a very long time. I don’t think it will even be a month to fully recover. I’m not going to be needing surgery. I’ll probably be only out for a week to three weeks since the injury.Angel Garza
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Tracy Smothers, who is best known for his work in WCW, WWE, ECW, and Smokey Mountain in the 1990s, was diagnosed with stage III lymphoma last November. To combat this, he required and six rounds of chemotherapy and the adverse side effects that caused. He also suffered a suspected heart attack, which reduced his heart function to just 55%. Unfortanly he has now been hospitalized according to his good friend and former ECW alumni The Blue Meanie.
My mind and heart are with Tracy Smothers tonight as I’m hearing of his battle with cancer and other complications have him hospitalized. This hurts my heart. I am who I am in wrestling because he helped mold me and countless others. I love you man! Keep fighting! The Blue Meanie
Hopefully, Smothers is able to make enough of a recovery to return home soon. Chris Hero launched a GoFundMe for him this past April to help him with his medical bills, and it is still open for donations if you are in a position to help.
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We reported yesterday that WWE would be taking over talents Twitch channels in four weeks and taking a percentage of their revenue. Not only that, but they will also be counting this against their downside guarantees. One of the talents who will be impacted by this is Paige, who had started using her real name in an unsuccessful attempt to circumvent this. She has now taken to her Twitter account to emphasize that she built up her following on Twitch and called it “MY place,” seemingly taking a shot at WWE.
Twitch is MY place what I built with my wonderful fans. A place where people can go and feel some positivity and little bit of normalcy. Fun. Interactive. Non judgemental. Charitable place. I’m proud of what I built with my fan base. Paige
It isn’t known if Paige will accept WWE’s request to hand over ownership of her channel, or if she will fight it. It has been speculated that she makes around $45,000 a month streaming on Twitch, so even if WWE only takes a small percentage, it is still a significant sum.
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Eight months ago, WWE announced that WrestleMania was heading back to Los Angeles for the first time since WrestleMania 21. It would take place at the SoFi Stadium, which cost $5 billion to build and has a 70,000 capacity for football games but can be expanded to 100,000.
Now, according to a report by Inside The Ropes, WWE is looking to change the location for next year’s showpiece event to the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that was originally scheduled for this WrestleMania 36, but ended up not taking place there because of global events. It’s also believed WWE has booked a number of another venus in Florida, which would likely be for an NXT Takeover show, Hall of Fame ceremony, and even possibly a WrestleMania Axxess event.
It hasn’t been confirmed why the change would be taking place, but there are rumors it is to keep the Governor of Florida happy after he declared pro wrestling an essential business earlier this year. By doing this, he allowed WWE to continue taping content to fulfill their television contracts.
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As reported previously, WWE informed talent they had 30 days to stop working with third parties. Friday, 2nd October was the deadline, and talent who didn’t obey faced being fined, suspended, or even fired. Later, after much backlash, WWE would clarify talent could keep their Twitch and YouTube channels as long as they used their real names.
In a new twist, Wrestling Inc has now reported that WWE has informed those with Twitch accounts they need to hand them over to WWE, and in four weeks, they will be splitting the proceeds. Not only that, but it will count towards their downside guarantees. This new policy will affect Paige, AJ Styles, Xavier Woods, and numerous others.
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Miro’s WWE career started with a lot of promise and would peak at WrestleMania 31 when he wrestled John Cena in a high profile match. After that, he slowly fell down the card despite substantial fan support. He did though have one more memorable feud before he was released this past April. In a Jerry Springer-Esque storyline, his real-life wife Lana left him for Bobby Lashley. The reason given for Lana dumping Miro, then known as Rusev, was because he had a sex addiction.
However, that wasn’t WWE’s initial idea, as Miro revealed on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. They actually wanted his character to be suffering from erectile dysfunction.
They wanted Lana to say I was a sex addict, but the original pitch was that I have erectile dysfunction. They really wanted to kill me completely. I don’t think in anybody’s eyes how the babyface has erectile dysfunction that he’s a good guy. There’s nothing wrong with people who have erectile dysfunction, people take care of it, but that was not the case here. There was no coming back from it. Absolutely no coming back from it.
I told them, “Vince, this is going to bury me completely.” He already had the man who took my wife, then I have erectile dysfunction, and I’m going to lose. I wasn’t supposed to lose; that just changed with time. I said it was a better idea if we do the sex addict thing, and he went for it right away. Thank God I did not have erectile dysfunction as a character. Miro
Despite being the babyface seeking revenge, Miro would repeatedly lose to Lashley. Firstly he was defeated in a tables match at TLC, then in a singles match on Raw. He’d go on to team with Liv Morgan in another losing effort the following week to Lashley, who teamed with Lana. His final WWE appearance was another loss when he teamed with Humberto Carrillo and was defeated by Lashley and Angel Garza.
Miro is now rebuilding his career in AEW, having debuted on the September 9th episode of Dynamite. He’d go on to team with Kip Sabian in his debut match on September 23, defeating Joey Janela and Sonny Kiss.
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Michael Elgin, best known to wrestling fans for his matches in Ring of Honor and New Japan, has taken to his Twitter account to announce that he has developed an addiction to painkillers due to self-medicating. He has now decided to tackle these issues head-on and is going to rehab, as you can read in his statement below.
In 2015 prior to my debut for NJPW I was on a tour of Western Canada and tore my groin. All my career even prior to starting my journey my main goal was to wrestle in Japan. I refused to give up on my dream and didn’t take any time off, but at times the pain was unbearable so I took painkillers to get me through.
Over the next few years injuries piled up, but like an overly proud idiot I didn’t take time off, and kept self medicating to get by. In 2016 I suffered a fractured orbital and rushed back instead of taking the appropriate time to heal. I did the same in 2018/2019 when I had knee surgery.
Then in January of this year in match 1 in a best of 5 with Eddie Edwards I suffered a neck injury. Once again pride and silliness got in the way and I continued down this path.
Over the years I had to deal with many other issues I chose to self medicate. I try not to talk about these struggles because in my head I was supposed to show toughness, show my grit.
Maybe when I recover o cab go deeper into more of my personal life struggles I didn’t really tell many about. But for now I’m going to rehab and deal with these issues. Thank you for everyone who supports me, you’ve been my life line. I gave you everything I had, taking time from everyone in my life. I’ll come back better than ever. Thank you again. Michael Elgin
Elgin is a 16-year veteran of the wrestling business despite only being 33. He became widely known in the wrestling world when he had one of the greatest matches in ROH history when he wrestled Davey Richards at 2012’s ROH Showdown In The Sun. His career highlight would home in 2016 when he defeated Kenny Omega for New Japan’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship. He had been contracted to Impact Wrestling since 2019, but after being named in the #SpeakingOut movement was released on June 26th.
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In August, The Rock, his ex-wife Dany Garcia and Redbird Capital Partners purchased the XFL for almost $15 million, a few hours before it was to be auctioned off. Now, The Rock has shared on social media that he plans to revive the league in the Spring of 2022.
XFL returns SPRING 2022 🏈
As owners, we’re proud to champion our XFL players, coaches, cities and fans into an electrifying 2022 season!
It’s an uphill battle – but we’re hungry, humble and no one will outwork us.
A league of culture, passion & purpose.
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The Rock
The Rock’s version of the XFL will be the second reboot of the football league, with Vince McMahon’s previous two versions failing. The first version in 2001 lasted one full season but closed due to the terrible ratings. The 2020 version was placed into bankruptcy by McMahon after he was forced to cancel the season due and losing out on tens of millions of dollars.
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With WWE 2K20 being such a disaster that required numerous patches to be functional, wrestling fans have been clamoring for a fresh take on wrestling video games. This has opened the door for AEW to bring something innovative to the market, but unfortunately, developing video games isn’t a quick process, and while an officially licensed AEW is coming, we don’t know when. Now in an interview with GameSpot.com, executive vice president of AEW and renowned gamer Kenny Omega shared an update.
I am working very closely creatively with a team. And every few weeks, they have very exciting new things to show us. So it’s a little ways away. We’re not going to be competing head to head against WWE Battlegrounds anytime soon. But when the game is ready, and when it will release, I think it has a very good chance of standing alone as probably the best wrestling product as a video game that you could probably find on the market. That’s the hope anyway. Kenny Omega
While it doesn’t sound like the game is near, fans might have something to tide them over in the meantime. This is because on September 10th AEW applied for trademarks on the names “All Elite Wrestling: Elite General Manager” and “Elite GM” under the category “downloadable computer game software for use on mobile and cellular phones.”
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On the 23rd September episode of NXT, Tegan Nox was shown backstage clutching her knee following an attack from Candice LeRae. It was initially thought it was just an angle to build to the match between the pair, but we now know it was cover a legitimate injury Nox has suffered. Triple H would confirm this during a media conference call on Wednesday, where he shared the news Nox had recently undergone surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Thirty years ago, an ACL injury was career-ending, but today, most athletes can return to sports thanks to keyhole surgery. Sadly this is Nox’s third such ACL injury, her first came in preparation for the 2017 Mae Young Classic, and she missed nine months. She was able to make a full recovery, but then tore the ACL in her other leg during the 2018 Mae Young Classic in a match against Rhea Ripley and was out for ten months. It’s believed this third injury did not occur during a match, or even in training.
ACL injuries are more common in women, and the chance of re-injury is 25%, meaning this issue could continue to plague her career. The reasons for tearing an ACL are usually a blow to the knee, changing direction quickly, a bad landing, or stopping abruptly when running.
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Edge made a triumphant return to a WWE ring this past January at the Royal Rumble, but since then his comeback hasn’t gone to plan. His first singles match in nine years was against Randy Orton and was poorly received by fans and critics. In the rematch, at Backlash, he suffered a torn triceps, which has kept him sidelined since. Now in an interview with Busted Open, he has shared the unfortunate news his recovery isn’t going as he had hoped.
I mean, I don’t know. It’s a learning process because I’m going to be 47 next month, so I didn’t know how I heal from injuries, surgeries, things like that. It’s a slow process. I’m not going to lie. The triceps is a different thing. I got back from an Achilles in six months, but I was 35 doing that, so at ten plus years, I don’t know. It’s a different thing. You don’t realize how much your triceps is involved in almost everything you do in terms of arm movement.
So, I don’t know yet. I know it’s a lot slower than I thought it was going to be because I just have this mentality of, “right, no big deal. Surgery, PT, and we grind through it, we break down the scar tissue, and off we go.” So, I don’t know if it’s the injury itself. If it’s I’m a little older, I don’t know what it is, but it’s not as fast as I would’ve liked.Edge
WWE’s plan for Edge when he can return is for him to have the rubber match with Orton to conclude their feud at WrestleMania 37 on March 28, 2021. That gives Edge six months to make recover.
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This offseason Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott had “Feed Me” tattooed onto his stomach, and on September 16th, put in an application to trademark the phase. This news has made its wat to former WWE wrestler Ryback, who believes Elliott got the idea from his own “Feed Me More” catchphrase, which he owns the trademark on. Now talking on the latest edition of his podcast, he revealed he plans on opposing Elliott’s trademark.
It’s far too similar. You’re literally trying to latch onto somebody else’s brand and then take it and make it your own in the same exact thing. It’s like, come on, be a little bit more creative. He’s a wrestling fan. He got it from me. He 100% got it from me. I’ve already established it and own it. I think it’s just really, really low.
Everything’s documented timeline-wise. I think there’s zero chance in hell he gets it. But for whatever reason, if they have an attorney that’s able to pull strings, then I’ve simply got to oppose it. I’ll tie him up for years, so he better get a good tattoo artist to cover up that shitty tattoo on his stomach. Who gets a tattoo of it before it’s even done? That’s pretty silly. I hope he has a good laser tattoo removal or a big blotch on his stomach. Ryback
You can see Ezekiel Elliott’s tattoo below.
Ryback is becoming well-versed in trademark law, as he is currently battling WWE over ownership of the Ryback name, and even changed his legal name from Ryan Reeves to Ryback Reeves so he could continue to use it. It did look like he would gain possession, but on the final day, before it expired, WWE decided to renew it, dispute Ryback having left WWE three years earlier.
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