With fans in attendance, spoilers will always get out for a pre-taped show. Lucha Underground went as far as to make fans sign NDA’s, and threatened legal action against websites posting them, and they still got out. However, as we are currently in a situation where most people in the venue are connected to the promotion, they shouldn’t leak.
Shockingly though, a Reddit user named SpaceForce1 has been continuously sharing results, which has infuriated those in the company. Although, according to Chris Jericho, who was speaking on his Saturday Night Special live stream, AEW knows who has been leaking the spoilers, and it’s a “NXT reject.” You can watch the excerpt below where Jericho reveals this.
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Jericho didn’t disclose the person’s name, but fans online have already begun speculating that either Cezar Bononi or Tino Sabbatelli are the leading suspects. It will probably become evident once we see who doesn’t attend future tapings.
Due to SmackDown being taped on Tuesday’s for many years, fans became accustomed to spoilers being made available on Wednesday. It has been proven over time that spoilers have minimal impact on ratings. That said, wrestling companies would like to surprise fans, and someone connected to the promotion leaking results is a serious breach of trust.
Social media is a different ball of wax, though. I think the amount of people who are on social media is very small compared to the overall people watching. For example, when we had the debate and Eric Bischoff was announced on Reddit, and we know the spy is, by the way. Oh, we know. He’ll never fucking be back in AEW. An NXT reject was a spy, so print that.
I was like, listen, we can announce this or we can just not announce it and don’t worry about it and see, you know, the people that know will know, and maybe they’ll watch if they weren’t going to. The people that don’t know, will still be surprised. That’s exactly what happened. People were super surprised that Bischoff was there, and it worked out great.
Chris Jericho
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Goldberg returned to WWE in 2016, having been away for 12 years. Since then, he has wrestled seven times and squashed Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, and The Fiend in a total combined time of less than five minutes. During these matches, he’d twice win the Universal Championship, and some fans weren’t happy about this, resulting in him being heavily booed at times. Now talking to professional strongman Robert Oberst on his American Monster Productions YouTube channel, he stated that he finds it disrespectful.
If I go out and a crowd boos me, I don’t take it personally and feel as if we’re not worthy of doing anything. No offence guys. There’s a lot of asshole fans out there. There’s a different generation of fans now, they want to be that guy that started that chant, and that guy that made Goldberg spit at them, or do whatever. I’m not here to give them the time to do that.
The reality is they are paying for me to put on a show for them, they are not paying for them to be a part of the show. They’re a part of the show because they interact, but interacting in a negative malicious way is very disrespectful.
Goldberg hasn’t appeared in WWE since his dud of a match against Braun Strowman that lasted just over two minutes at WrestleMania 36. Thankfully for him, there were no fans in attendance as he would surely have been on the receiving end of more boos that night.
Goldberg has a very high price to compete, and Vince McMahon knows this and therefore uses him as an attraction, meaning it has to be a high profile spot. It remains to be seen if he will be brought back for the match Vince McMahon deems to be a dream match against Roman Reigns.
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In August, WWE filed a trademark extension on the “Saturday Night’s Main Event” name, which was believed to keep it out of other people’s hands. However, a few days ago, they filed an additional four trademarks for various merchandise under that name. This has resulted in online speculation that WWE is planning on resurrecting the iconic show.
The famous show initial run from 1985 to 1992, and returned for five shows between 2006 and 2008. Its introduction was due to high ratings that two WWF specials drew on MTV in 1984–85, which caught NBC’s attention. The matches were almost always star vs. star bouts, which was rare for television during this time. Highlights of the event include a rematch from WrestleMania III of Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant, resulting in the WWF title being vacated. Plus a huge Hogan and Randy Savage vs. The Big Boss Man and Akeem tag match leading to the Mega Powers breaking up.
At present, WWE’s plans are unknown, but a possible scenario would be as an NXT special seeing as they’ve previously used the past names of In Your House, War Games, and Great American Bash.
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Following Dominik Mysterio being on the receiving end of over 30 unmerciful kendo stick shots from Rollins and Murphy, WWE has advertised Rollins vs. Mysterio will now be a “Street Fight” at SummerSlam. Being a street fight means there will be no disqualifications, weapons are permitted and falls count anywhere.
BREAKING NEWS: @WWERollins vs. @35_Dominik will now be a STEET FIGHT at #SummerSlam!WWE
Dominik Mysterio is a third-generation wrestler as he is the son of Rey Mysterio Jr. and the grand-nephew of Rey Misterio Sr, and the match will be his first-ever match. He is wrestling because he is seeking revenge on Rollins for taking out his father’s eye in kayfabe during the heavily criticized “Eye for an Eye” match.
Despite being a high profile match for Dominik to compete in for his in-ring introduction, he was involved in a huge match featuring Brock Lesnar and has received extensive training. He has trained with Lance Storm in Canada, Jay Lethal in Florida, indie wrestler B-Boy in California, and at the Performance Center, so should be ready.
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Rusev, who now goes by Miro, a shortened version of his real name following his release from WWE, was the guest on this week’s The Ryback Show podcast. It was a fascinating conversation, and Miro would open up on his feelings about his time with WWE.
He would say he knew WWE didn’t care about him after not contacting him while he was in the hospital recovering from shoulder surgery in March 2017.
After I give up my life for this freaking company like not even one person reached out, you know what I mean. Not Vince, not Hunter, not Carrano, nobody was man enough to be like, “Hey bud, are you ok? Do you need anything? I know you’re in the hospital, you’re by yourself because your wife is at freaking work!'”
I’m there laying by myself in the hospital, and nobody cares man, and then at the same time, you’re like, “What am I doing?” Like why am I giving everything I have, and I understand it’s my dream, but gosh darn man. Thank God, I did enough for my investments, I don’t need to work there at all. My wife is happy. Good for her. I’m done. I am done. Miro
He’d also express his frustration with the company not capitalizing on him getting “Rusev Day” over, and how Vince McMahon downplayed his t-shirt selling out.
They started putting my segments early so the Rusev chants can go away. There was a period where I wasn’t even supposed to be at WrestleMania, the one that I lost to Jinder, at the height of my career of Rusev Day. I was not on TV for three weeks.
I said, “Vince, we have sold out all of our merchandise. We are beating Roman. We are beating AJ. We are beating everybody.” He said, “what do you mean?” I said, “the shirt is sold out, the merch is sold out” and he said, “well, maybe they didn’t make enough.” I’m like, “they didn’t make enough shirts? That’s why my shirt is sold out? Not because we are doing good? Really? You’re going to give me that excuse?” Miro
Miro is currently taking a break from wrestling after his dream of working for WWE didn’t go the way he wanted. However, Cody Rhodes has stated he is interested in bringing Rusev to AEW, so it seems inevitable he will join the promotion sooner rather than later. In the meantime, Miro is focused on building up his Twitch subscriber base, which is growing by the day, despite receiving a temporary ban from the live streaming service.
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Kenny Omega, along with Michael Nakazawa, held a seminar last weekend at Tokai University in Japan. The seminar focused on the state of the industry, the difference between pro wrestling in Japan and America, plus a Q&A.
Omega would discuss many topics, including the state of the business in America, where he informed those in attendance there are three major companies; WWE, AEW, and Impact Wrestling, choosing to omit ROH. He’d say backstage politics are the worst in America, that he considered New Japan to be his home and thought he’d retire there, plus his favorite match in AEW is either the tag match at Revolution or the Iron Man match against Pac.
He’d add that he feels he still has great matches left in him, but there’s not much left for him to do. He’d then reveal that he definitely won’t be wrestling in ten years, but would still like to be part of the business. He instead sees himself focusing on his real passion, which is gaming and being involved in the video game industry.
Video games inspired Kenny Omega’s persona, and even his name comes from the character “Omega Weapon” in the Final Fantasy video game series. He has also previously hosted a YouTube series called Cleaner’s Corner, where he played video games and often attends gaming conventions. At present, he is also heavily involved in making an AEW video game become a reality, which should open plenty of doors for him to have a second career when he is ready to step away from the ring.
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It has been confirmed by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that AEW has released Jimmy Havoc, Bea Priestley, and Sadie Gibbs from their contracts. It’s understood the reason for Havoc’s release was related to the serious accusations made against him as part of the #SpeakingOut movement. These allegations lead to AEW arranging for him to have counseling and rehabilitation. It has been rumored that Havoc, who is currently living in the US with Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford, may return to the UK and even retire from the sport.
With Bea Priestley and Sadie Gibbs, it’s believed their releases are due to travel restrictions, meaning they cannot travel to the United States at any time soon. Gibbs would go on to thank Tony Khan for the opportunity on her Twitter account with the below tweet.
My journey it’s been one hell of a ride, I never expect it to get easier I just expect my core values and perception to evolve and for me always to find #GRACE within moving forwards. #UNDEFINABLE Thankyou so much @TonyKhan @AEWrestling for giving me a chance of a life time 🙏🏼 Sadie Gibbs
In May, Tony Khan was interviewed on the AEW Unrestricted podcast and stated that AEW had lost millions of dollars due to having to run live events without fans, and indicated they would have to eventually make cuts.
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Dwayne Johnson made his debut in WWE as Rocky Maivia in 1996, which was when Shawn Michaels was the top star in WWE, and Triple H was his close friend and confidante. Now during episode 15 of his web series “Confessions of the Hitman,” Bret Hart has revealed that during this time, Johnson was the victim of bullying by Michaels and Triple H. According to Hart, the pair wanted to make him quit the company.
A lot of the wrestlers would give him a hard time in those days, a really hard time, enough to try to break him and get him to quit, and they almost succeeded. And I can remember going to bat for Dwayne quite a few times and kind of looking out for him, Owen too.
I remember Shawn Michaels coming into the dressing room and dressing down poor Dwayne. Shawn came in and just dressed him down, and he chewed him out. And I believe, told him to never do a top rope dropkick ever again because that was his move. That’s what he was mad about. And then, he slammed the door, and he walked out. The Rock was deflated because, in those days, Shawn had a lot of weight.
I said, “nobody owns the dropkick off the top. You can do that. Owen does it all the time. Why doesn’t he cut a promo on Owen?” I said, “they’re just busting your chops, and they’re trying to work on you.”
Triple H was the same. He was always out to get The Rock. Shawn was out to get him, and they just worked on him, and worked on him, and worked on him.
Just jealousy, and distinctly jealousy. Seeing someone that is a nice kid climbing the ladder bothered someone like Shawn Michaels or bothered Triple H so much that they couldn’t see past it. They worked on him and worked on him, and it was pretty clear to me. Bret Hart
Stories of Shawn Michaels’ backstage behavior in the 90’s are well-known, as is Triple H’s reputation for holding down talent, so it’s easy to believe Bret Hart’s claims. Dwayne Johnson did overcome the pair’s attempts to force him out, and as The Rock became one of the biggest stars in WWE history, surpassing the duo along the way, which appears to be what they feared.
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WWE is always in need of extras, and numerous current stars have filled these roles before they were famous. One of these wrestlers is AEW breakout star MJF, who, before rising to prominence, appeared at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II in 2016. He’d accompany Samoa Joe ahead of his match against Shinsuke Nakamura, and while walking backstage, MJF made the mistake of trying to overtake Joe and was shoved back. Now in a callback to this incident, during his own entrance on Dynamite, MJF would do the same to AEW Dark regular Lee Johnson, who tried to overtake him. Twitter user @mckenzieas93V2 put the two clips together so you can watch below.
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Likely, 99% of fans watching Dynamite last night didn’t get the joke, but for those who did, it was a cool easter egg. Maybe Lee Johnson, who is currently 0-13 in AEW, will become a star in future years.
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Mike Chioda is as recognizable to WWE fans as any wrestler, having been with the company since 1989 and refereeing some of the biggest matches in history. He revealed as a guest on Talk Is Jericho that he had signed a new contract in March 2020 after recovering from a torn rotator cuff and torn bicep in October 2019 and was gearing up for a return. So given that he was surprised that WWE chose to release him as part of the mass budget cuts in April.
At the age of 54, it appeared his 31-year career had sadly petered out. However, last night he debuted for AEW on Dynamite refereeing the TNT Championship match between Cody Rhodes and challenger Scorpio Sky. Then later in the show, during a backstage interview, he was joined by Chris Jericho, who told him that he wanted him to referee his upcoming match against Orange Cassidy. He reminded Chioda that he had saved his job 18 years ago and told Chioda to “make sure you do the right thing,” implying he wanted him to help him win. During the match, Jericho wanted to hit Cassidy with his steel bat, but Chioda refused to look away and snathed the bat away from Jericho, which you can watch below. Jericho would go on to lose the match.
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AEW hasn’t yet confirmed if this was a one night deal, or if Chioda has signed a contract with the promotion. Sometimes AEW will bring someone in on a short term deal to see if they are a good fit like they did with Matt Cardona.
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During the first week of Raw Underground, WWE had scantily clad women dancing, and this caused a minor social media backlash. Fans complained it was a return to the days of calling female talent “Divas” and would undo the great work the company had achieved with their women’s evolution. WWE seemingly listened as they were nowhere in sight this past Monday.
One person though who does miss the dancers is Raw’s Liv Morgan, who took to Twitter asking for them to be brought back, and stating that having them doesn’t hurt the women’s evolution.
Hey .. #RawUndwrground… can we bring back the dancers next week ?Liv Morgan
We have come so so far in the evolution.. And with no signs of slowing down I don’t think it is in any danger. Showing beautiful women proudly dancing (believe it or not, huge money making profession 🤑) doesn’t hurt anything. Empower all womenLiv Morgan
WWE has done extraordinary things to improve women’s wrestling over the last five years, ever since a 30-second women match caused the hashtag #GiveDivasAChance to trend for three days. During that time, they’ve rebranded the Divas Division to the Women’s Division, held an all-women pay-per-view, had women main event PPV’s, and had a woman appear on the front cover of their annual video game.
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The wrestling world lost a true legend on Sunday when James Harris, known to wrestling fans as Kamala, died after a sudden cardiac arrest. He had been retired for the last decade after losing both of his legs due to diabetes. This resulted in his wife Emmer Jean Harris having to quit her job to be hisfull-time carer.
Now a GoFundMe has been set up to help Emmer cover her late husband’s funeral costs and other bills. As of writing, over $22,000 has been raised, thanks to 277 generous and kind donators. If you are in a position to contribute and are so inclined, you can do so here.
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