Matt Cardona revealed on his Major Wrestling Figure Podcast that WWE wanted to tape the Otis and Mandy segment that aired on the May 29th edition of SmackDown from his house, specifically his pool. The company that had only just released the former Zack Ryder didn’t even ask him directly. Instead, they went to his fiancée Chelsea Green who wrestles for them on NXT. Cardona would say: Thankfully for fans of the Otis and Mandy angle, in the end, WWE did find an alternative location for their poolside date, and if you didn’t watch it at the time, you can view it below.

Jinder Mahal underwent surgery to repair a ruptured patellar tendon in June 2019, causing him to miss 10 months from the ring. He’d return on the April 27th episode of Raw defeating Akira Tozawa and go on to wrestle twice on Main Event in May. Since then, though, he hasn’t competed, and today he’d explain why on Instragam.

It isn’t known if the recent surgery is related to the previous injury, nor how long Mahal will miss from the ring this time. Hopefully, The Modern Day Maharaja can make a full recovery, and return to the ring sooner rather than later.

Drake Maverick was part of the mass cuts made by WWE on April 15th, but because he had already been advertised in the tournament for the interim Cruiserweight Championship, WWE decided to turn his release into a storyline. They had him continue wrestling on NXT while he was still being paid during his non-compete period, and Drake would end up making it to last night’s tournament final.

He ended up losing to El Hijo del Fantasma, and it seemed Maverick’s WWE career was over, but following the match, Triple H came out, shook his hand, and offered him a new contract in a what came across as a genuinely emotional moment. It played out so well that some fans had wondered if Maverick was ever really released, and the whole thing had been a storyline from the start.

As luck would have it, Triple H was doing a media conference call today and was asked about the situation, and explained it started off real, but Maverick was able to work his way back into a job.

Triple H didn’t address the subject of Maverick’s new contract, and that might be because it’s rumored to be for less money than what he was previously earning, but it’s likely Maverick is just happy to have secured another opportunity with WWE.

Last year’s Fyter Fest event was a single show and streamed on B/R Live and PPV internationally. It was understood that this year’s event was initially planned to be in the UK, but unfortunately, that had to be changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now though, AEW has advertised that Fyter Fest would place over two nights, July 1 and July 8, and air on TNT. No location has been announced, but Daily’s Place is most likely.

Confirmed for Fyter Fest is Jon Moxley defending the AEW World Championship against Brian Cage. The latter became the #1 contender by winning the Casino Ladder Match at last month’s Double Or Nothing PPV. Plus, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page will also defend their AEW World Tag Team Championship against Chuck Taylor and Trent, who earned their shot by defeating Private Party on the Double or Nothing pre-show.

The commercial for the event, which you can watch below, also confirms every title will be on the line, so the AEW Women’s World Championship now held by Hikaru Shida and the AEW TNT Championship currently held by Cody Rhodes will also both be defended. The event could also feature Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy following an angle between the pair on Dynamite last night.

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We’ve been told the first night will be shown live, and the second night taped.

A video aired during last night’s episode of Impact announcing the Slammiversary would air on July 18th. What made this particularly newsworthy and got the social media buzzing was the reveal of numerous newly released WWE wrestlers included in the video.

The featured wrestlers were Eric Young, Drake Maverick, EC3, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, Brian Myers, Mike Bennett, and Maria Kanellis. There was also a Bulgarian flag, which would seemingly reference Rusev, who the promotion wouldn’t have any previous footage of to show. You can watch the video for yourself below.

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Slammiversary is one of Impact Wrestling’s flagship events, and the timing of the releases seems to have worked out well for Impact. All the featured talent were released April 15th, which means their the 90-day non-compete clauses will have expired three days before the PPV.

Kurt Angle was included in the list of those released by WWE on April 15th due to cutbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite that, he would subsequently be used as a guest referee on NXT for a steel cage match between Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher, and then on SmackDown announcing, Riddle would be joining the blue brand.

These appearances have had fans wondering if Kurt Angle could soon be rejoining the WWE, but following an interview with SI.com, that doesn’t appear to be in Angle’s immediate plans, even though WWE did have an idea for him.

Angle would also hint at a potential in-ring return even though he had a high profile retirement match at WrestleMania 35 and previously saying his quality of life sucks.

WWE thought they’d pulled off quite a coup with the signing of former New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, and proudly hyped him as the host for both nights of WrestleMania 36. WWE would even go so far as to put the 24/7 Championship on him.

Unfortunately for WWE, the Tampa Bay Tampa Bay Buccaneers came calling, and the opportunity to reunite with quarterback Tom Brady and $10 million was too much for Gronkowski to turn down. Clearly being both an active NFL player, and pro wrestler isn’t feasible, and last night on Raw, WWE aired a video of him losing the 24/7 Championship to R-Truth, ending his record-breaking 57-day reign as the titleholder.

It’s understood Gronkowski had a release clause in his WWE contract that he opted to exercise, but it does contain a non-compete clause meaning. This means he can’t go and work for AEW or any other wrestling promotion for an undisclosed duration, but at 31 years of age, and currently only signed to a one-year deal with Buccaneers, there is a possibility that Gronk returns to WWE in the future.

Last year we reported that on Ric Flair had filed a trademark application on “The Man” due to Becky Lynch’s use of the moniker he had been using since 1976. He’d tell TMZ that he was happy to allow Lynch to continue using the name, but he expected WWE to compensate him for it. He’d add that WWE’s lawyers were being uncooperative, and even speaking to Triple H hadn’t helped resolve the issue.

At the time, it seemed the issue would need to be addressed in court, but we now know the two sides were able to come to an arrangement with Flair signing the paperwork transferring “The Man” to WWE on February 21st, with the actual transfer occurring on May 18th.

It isn’t known how much Flair received for the trademark, but it’s speculated that as he has just recently signed a new contract with WWE, the trademark ownership issue possibly played a part in that deal.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has reported that initial Double or Nothing PPV numbers from B/R Live (US) and FITE (international) were up at least 10% on February’s Revolution PPV. This would put the PPV second only to last year’s Double or Nothing in AEW’s all-time PPV figures. Exact numbers take time to be confirmed, but estimations of 115,000 to 120,000 buys will make everyone connected to AEW very happy.

The show was initially scheduled to take place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Nevada, but the COVID-19 pandemic sadly stopped that, and instead, the event took place at Daily’s Place and TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida. This change resulted in the unique Stadium Stampede main event between Adam Page, Kenny Omega Matt Hardy, and The Young Bucks versus Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Santana, and Ortiz which captured fans imaginations. Also, the announcement of Mike Tyson’s involvement on the show will have helped persuade fans to purchase.

AEW has done a good job converting TV viewers into PPV customers during a time that WWE has taught fans that even the biggest of events are only worth $9.99. Even before the WWE Network existed, WWE’s then principal alternative TNA would rarely break 50,000 buys, and on some occasions, not even break 10,000 purchases even though their flagship show Impact regularly had over a million viewers.

At WWE’s Night of Champions PPV in 2015, Seth Rollins hit Sting with a Buckle Bomb, which would contribute to ending the illustrious career of the WCW icon. Sting would later tell Ric Flair on his now-defunct WOOOO! Nation podcast that he was lucky a catastrophe didn’t happen that night, and he required surgery for cervical spinal stenosis he wasn’t aware he was previously suffering.

At the time, many fans were vocal, saying the move was too dangerous, and shouldn’t be used, although Sting would later say he didn’t blame Seth Rollins. That said, Rollins would also injure Finn Balor using a version of move on the outside of the ring at SummerSlam 2016.

Now though, WWE has decided to take action and banned the Buckle Bomb after Nia Jax botched the move on Kairi Sane during their match on the April 20th episode of Raw. Thankfully, Sane wasn’t seriously injured, but it looked very scary.

For many years, WWE has been concerned with neck injuries, previously banning the Piledriver for that very reason, so it is surprising this decision took so long to make.

Last night’s SmackDown opened with an apparently intoxicated Jeff Hardy crashing his car into Elias outside the Performance Center. Elias would be taken away in an ambulance, and Jeff Hardy arrested.

After the segment aired, both Matt and his wife Reby Hardy took to Twitter, seemingly unhappy with WWE basing a storyline around Jeff’s real-life issues that resulted in two DUI arrests, plus a charge of public intoxication.

Just to reiterate..

I’m happy to be working at @AEWrestling for @TonyKhan on Wednesdays.

— #BROKEN Matt Hardy (@MATTHARDYBRAND) May 30, 2020

I’m throwing my TV out.

— Reby Hardy (@RebyHardy) May 30, 2020

Jeff Hardy would later return to the Performance Center in time for the main event, jumping Sheamus. WWE would explain how this was possible by issuing the below update after the show.

From a strictly ratings standpoint, the angle seemed to be a success, with a 5.4% increase from last week’s average viewership in the overnight ratings. The provisional 2.15 million average viewers rating would be the best rating for SmackDown since April 17.

In a memorable angle on Raw back in 2010, Chris Jericho was knocked out in storyline by Mike Tyson following a tag team match the pair lost to Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

Now the pair have reignited their ten-year grunge on last night’s episode of Dynamite, which left the wrestling world buzzing and grabbed mainstream media attention.

Mike Tyson had appeared at the Double or Nothing PPV this past Saturday and made a followup appearance for AEW by interrupting the Inner Circle’s pep rally. Tyson was accompanied by former FC stars Vitor Belfont, Henry Cejudo, and Rashad Evans, ended up getting into a pull-apart brawl, potentially setting up a future match between the pair.

Speaking to DigitailSpy.com, Chris Jericho would confirm he was happy with how the angle played out, saying:

Jericho would also indicate that a match between them is a real possibility by saying:

If a match between Jericho and Tyson can come to fruition, it would likely do huge business for AEW and firmly establish the promotion as a threat to WWE’s current dominance of the wrestling industry. Although with Tyson receiving enormous offers to return to the boxing ring, it likely won’t come cheap.