Heath Slater has the opportunity to take advantage of the current competitive environment for the first time in his career after getting his release from WWE last month and he has a plethora of options to choose from.
The former WWE star recently had an interview with WrestlingInc where he talked about things like his release from the company, the coronavirus pandemic and more.
During the interview, Slater discussed his WWE contract and the One Man Band revealed that he will be a free agent on July 18 as this is when his non-compete clause expires:
“I know that by July 18, I’m gonna have to start making some moves and get my name out there again. I can do whatever I want then. I’m hanging in there until then and just working on myself – mentally and physically and all that good stuff.”
When asked what he wants to do in his future, Heath Slater said that he wants to hit all the platforms because he has never had the opportunity to do so:
“Honestly, I want to hit all the platforms. The reason why is because I’ve never had the opportunity to. I wanna do the indies. I wanna go to some of the big indie promotions and have a good time.
Heath continued by name dropping promotions such as TNA, NWA and AEW as potential places for him to work at and said that he just wants to go out there and have fun.
The Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn has been stripped of the title and WWE has announced a tournament for the crowing of a new champion.
The news was announced just recently and it was noted that WWE is declaring the title vacant because the former Champion is unable to compete and defend the championship.
BREAKING NEWS:@SamiZayn is unable to compete and defend the Intercontinental Championship, therefore @WWE has declared the title vacant. A tournament to crown a new Champion will begin on Friday Night Smackdown on FOX. pic.twitter.com/5qZgUyL9rC
Sami Zayn has been away from WWE programming for a while and he was last seen on WWE TV during WrestleMania 36 where he defended his title against Daniel Bryan in a one on one match.
It was reported recently that the former NXT Champion was booked for the April 23 episode of SmackDown but he pulled out of the show due to coronavirus concerns.
This move from the officials is especially surprising because the company has previously told its employees that they would not face any consequences over the decision to pull out of the shows amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The Intercontinental Championship was Sami Zayn’s first title in the WWE main roster since his debut on Raw 5 years ago during the May 4, 2015 episode of the show.
The high flying star is not the only wrestler to have pulled out of WWE shows. Roman Reigns infamously decided against working his WrestleMania 36 match with Goldberg and he hasn’t been mentioned on WWE programming ever since.
The now-former champion has not reacted to this change as of this writing but we will keep you posted on any development in the situation.
The rumors about the relationship between WWE and Sting have picked up steam after some recent developments and now latest reports suggest that there might be some truth to these speculations.
According to reports from Pro Wrestling Sheet, the former WCW star’s deal with WWE has expired and as of right now The Icon is not under a WWE contract.
Though the site notes that this development doesn’t necessarily mean that the two parties could not work out a merchandising deal in the future.
The rumors about the WWE status of Sting first became a topic of discussion after he was abruptly pulled from an upcoming WWE action figure lineup of Mattel.
The statement from the toy company did not provide a clear reason for this change and they just noted that the former champion was being pulled from the series due to ‘circumstances out of their control’.
Sting made his WWE debut in November 2014 during Survivor Series and he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2016. His last WWE appearance came during the February 25, 2019 episode of Raw where he took part in Ric Flair’s 70th birthday celebration.
There have also been rumors about the wrestling legend’s future and some latest developments suggest that he could be making his AEW debut soon. You can check out a detailed report on the matter here.
There have been mixed feelings among the WWE roster about the company’s decision to run shows amid the coronavirus outbreak but it appears that at least Kofi Kingston is in support of the decision.
The former WWE Champion recently had an interview with WrestlingInc where he talked about things like spending time with his family in quarantine and more.
Talking about the company’s decision to run the shows, Kingston claimed that he takes a lot of pride in providing the escapism for people in these trying times:
“We do take a lot of pride in providing this escapism for people because I do think it’s important to allow people to think about something else besides what is going on, we want to provide a sense of normalcy, provide something that puts smiles on people’s faces.
We need that. If we’re on just news lines all day, there is so much negativity out there.” said Kofi Kingston. “Maybe rightfully so because of all the uncertainty, and we don’t’ really know what’s going on.”
The New Day member went on to say that there should be some positive stuff out there and he takes a lot of pride in being part of the positivity.
Kofi Kingston and Big E successfully defended their SmackDown Tag Team Championships at the Money In The Bank PPV. We should get an idea about what’s next for them on this week’s episode of the Blue Branded Show.
WWE had confirmed that Becky Lynch will be making a big announcement on this week’s episode of Raw but the company had not revealed any details about it.
So the announcement of her pregnancy came as a big surprise to all the fans of The Man and her speech during the opening segment of Raw left them emotional.
The now former Raw Women’s Champion took on her twitter after the show and addressed the fans who have helped in making her dreams come true.
Becky said that she doesn’t know what will happen in the future but recalled how she entered the Performance Center in 2013 not knowing anyone and now she has a family:
Asuka won the Women’s Money In The Bank match this past Sunday during the namesake PPV and she was named the new Raw Women’s Champion after the announcement on Raw.
There is no word yet on what Becky Lynch is planning for her future and there is no news on when or if she will return to wrestling after her pregnancy.
The former Champion gave some more details about her pregnancy and revealed when she found out about it in an interview before this week’s episode of Raw. You can check out her comments on the matter at this link.
The recent WWE releases has opened the doors for other companies to add some star power to their roster and it appears that Impact Wrestling is in the race to sign at least two such talents in Gallows and Anderson.
The now-former WWE stars were talking about their future and other things on the latest episode of their Talkin Shop podcast which is hosted by the duo and Rocky Romero.
What’s interesting to note here is that Impact Vice President Scott D’Amore ended up making an accidental appearance during the broadcast of the episode.
As first noted by The Combat Republic, D’Amore called Gallows while the show was still being recorded and they put him on speakerphone. You can check out their conversation in the clip below:
Impact EVP Scott D’Amore makes an accidental appearance on the Gallows and Anderson podcast “Talkin Shop”. Sure sounds to me like they may be negotiating. pic.twitter.com/6yp6S3If74
Gallows and Anderson signed a three year deal with WWE in 2016 and they had renewed their contracts with the promotion in July earlier last year.
However, the company released the duo alongside numerous other stars such as Kurt Angle and Rusev as part of WWE’s coronavirus budget cuts last month.
There is no news yet on what the former champions are planning for their future but we should get a better idea about their plans after July 15 when their non compete clause with the company expires.
This week’s episode of Monday Night Raw was the follow-up episode of Money In The Bank and the company followed the PPV with a number of interesting announcements and the return of the former women’s tag team champions The IIconics.
The duo appeared as the guests on “A Moment of Bliss” show hosted by the current Women’s Tag Team Champions Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross and they demanded a title shot from the current champions.
While Bliss and Cross did not grant them a title match, they did agree to a nontitle clash and the IIconics ended up winning this bout after Peyton Royce pinned Alexa for the win.
This win earned them a title shot and the company later announced that the former NXT stars will be challenging the current champions for their titles at next week’s episode of the Red Branded Show.
This week’s episode of Raw was an eventful episode and apart from the return of the IIconics, the show featured a number of buzzing announcements and segments.
The episode started with Becky Lynch announcing her pregnancy and relinquishing the Raw Women’s Championship. After this, the Money In The Bank winner Asuka was named the new champion.
The company also reintroduced the wild card rule with a new format. The shows can now challenge the other brand and the first match under this new rule has already been announced which you can check out here.
It was reported earlier yesterday that WWE is looking to reintroduce the wild card rule and the company confirmed the same during the latest episode of Monday Night Raw.
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre defeated the US Champion Andrade in a champion vs. champion non-title match on this week’s episode of the show.
After the bout, the Scottish superstar announced that a Brand-to-Brand invitation had been extended to SmackDown and the Blue Branded Show has accepted the challenge.
He then announced that SmackDown has chosen King Corbin as his opponent and the two will be battling in an inter-brand match at next week’s episode of the Red Branded Show.
Though this was not the only announced cross-brand appearance and the company also confirmed that the NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair will be making an appearance on SmackDown this week.
Charlotte has been a regular of NXT since winning the title at WrestleMania 36 but she is still considered a Raw star and the Queen continues to make appearances for the brand.
There is no word yet on what she will be doing at the show this Friday night but like Baron Corbin, it’s possible that she will be making this appearance for a match.
While not confirmed, it’s believed that WWE has decided to bring back this new version of the wild card rule due to the plummeting ratings. You can check out a more detailed report on the matter here.
Lance Archer ended his eight-year-long relationship with NJPW when he chose to leave the promotion and sign with AEW from the many opportunities he had at the time. During a recent interview with TalkSport, the former IWGP US Champion talked about his decision to join the upstart promotion and revealed the reason behind it.
Archer admitted that there was lots of stuff on his table and claimed that his decision was not a quick one. He explained that it was a long thinking process for him and according to the former NJPW star; it ultimately came down to the fact that the people in AEW were much more attentive:
“It ultimately came down to the people in AEW were much more attentive to having me apart of AEW. The numbers were adding up in the right way. As I said, the prayers I was doing were leading me towards AEW and just everything was leading me towards it.
The opportunity to be a part of something that is growing, help that and help AEW become even greater than it already is, that challenge was just too enticing.” said Lance Archer. “Nothing was quick about the process. It took it’s time and I made some tough decisions, but ultimately the right decision in my opinion. That’s what led me to AEW and now we’re here, I’m ready to kick some ass.”
The former TNA star signed a deal with AEW in February earlier this year and he made his debut for the promotion in March when Jake “The Snake” Roberts introduced him as his new client. Archer has been given a push in AEW and he is currently scheduled to face Cody Rhodes in the finals of the TNT Championship Tournament at the upcoming Double Or Nothing PPV on May 23.
The Street Profits have received a push since their arrival in the main roster and reports have suggested that the Raw Executive Director Paul Heyman is behind the success of the former NXT stars.
During a recent interview with TalkSport, the current Raw Tag Team Champions talked about their interactions with the ECW founder and revealed the advice they received from the advocate of Brock Lesnar.
According to the duo, Paul talked to them as soon as they got to the main roster and his advice for the former NXT stars was to be themselves and do what they usually did:
“As soon as we got up there, he was like ‘ay, ya’ll be ya’ll. We brought you up here for a reason, ya’ll be ya’ll. Don’t do anything else, just be the Street Profits. Do what the Street Profits would usually do. This is just like NXT for you’. And we’re like ‘alright, cool!’ He gave us the keys and we ran with it.
Any time we began to teeter and not really be like the Street Profits a little bit, he’d be like ‘woah, woah, woah! Remember, you’re the Street Profits, keep that same energy’.”
The former NXT Tag Team Champions also talked about their WrestleMania 36 match and Montez Ford discussed how he got to work with his wife Bianca Belair in the bout.
The Street Profits started making appearances on Raw back in July last year. They have been given a push since officially being called up to the main roster and they won the Raw Tag Team Championships in March earlier this year.
Charlotte Flair has taken an interesting route in her career in recent months and after winning the Royal Rumble, she decided to challenge for the NXT Championship instead of the Women’s Champion from Raw or SmackDown.
She won the title by beating Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 36 and The Queen is now in a unique position where she wrestles at both Raw and NXT at the same time.
The current NXT Champion was recently interviewed by Sports Illustrated and when asked if she worries about the competition on Wednesday nights, Charlotte said that she tries not to get caught up in the business side of the things:
“I try not to get caught up in the business side. When I have that opportunity to highlight my opponent and myself, that’s what we’re here to do. Going into this match, we’re trying to raise the bar.”
The interview was done before this week’s episode of NXT where Charlotte Flair defended her title against Io Shirai in a one on one match. The bout ended in a disqualification after the reigning champion introduced a kendo stick into the match.
She continued attacking her opponent after the match but Rhea Ripley made her return to WWE programming for the first time since her WrestleMania loss. She made the save and it appears that the two will be reigniting their rivalry in the coming times.
A new SEC filing has revealed that WWE Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Triple H has unloaded WWE stocks worth more than $1 million recently.
The WWE Hall Of Famer sold a total of 23,255 shares of Class A Common Stock on Monday, May 4. The shares were valued at $43.80 per share, totalling at approximate $1,018,569.
Triple H and others had unloaded a large number of shares last year as well and the sale included Vince McMahon selling away over $250 million worth of WWE shares to fund XFL. The filing reveals that The Game still has 144,646 shares of Class A Common Stock left.
This week’s episode of NXT saw the current champion Adam Cole retaining his title over Velveteen Dream in a one on one match with help from his Undisputed Era teammates.
The stable was interviewed backstage after the successful title defense from Cole where the reigning NXT Champion talked about his victory during the latest episode of the Black And Yellow brand.
During the interview, Adam Cole said that he has defeated everybody in NXT and the title should now be retired in his name. You can check out the post-show interview below:
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all businesses and even though wrestling companies have found a way to continue their programming, the promotions are losing money on cancelled events and live audiences. During his recent appearance on AEW Unrestricted podcast, president Tony Khan talked about this loss in revenue and discussed the possibility of releasing talents due to it.
Khan first discussed how they were on schedule to do shows with some of the largest audience in the company’s history between Revolution and Double or Nothing. He then admitted that they have lost millions of dollars in live event revenue and there might come a day when they have to let some people go, but he claimed that now is not the time:
“We’ve lost millions and millions of dollars in live events. I don’t take it lightly, but I can’t take it out on the people that work here because it’s not their fault.” said Tony Khan. “We’ve really not let anybody go here as a company, and look, I’m gonna be honest, there’s gonna come a day where somebody, we’re gonna have to, but now is not the time.
This is a hard time for everybody. It’s a hard time for us, but I have to look at the bigger picture. In the big picture, we’re in such good shape. We’re the second healthiest wrestling company in the world, and that’s a really great place to be. And we haven’t let a single person go to do it.”
Tony went on to explain how eventually they are going to have the audience back at the shows but the revenue they have lost in between will not be coming back. Apart from this, he also talked about putting together the recent AEW tapings, being excited for the upcoming Double Or Nothing PPV, and more.
The Bella Twins recently appeared on Busted Open Radio to promote their new book Incomparable and during their appearance; they revealed how it’s like to deal with Vince McMahon in real life.
Brie was the first to speak. She said that the Boss is “definitely intimidating.” Agreeing to her comments, Nikki said that you do get scared when you go to meet Vince in his office.
Though Brie continued by saying that Mr McMahon does appreciate when you come up with ideas and she then claimed that their conversation with him were always gentle:
“Every time we sat down with Vince it was always a gentle conversation. I mean, he definitely yelled at us a couple of times in ‘Gorilla [Position]’ and that was scary,
But to actually sit down and we always walked out of there either understanding our story or the bigger picture or just changing something in a way that we all were kind of like, ‘Oh, you’re right. Maybe it should go this way.'”
Nikki then jumped in to say that Vince McMahon is straight up with talent and you would know exactly which direction your character will be going to after talking to him:
“When you would talk to him, it’s kind of like, you couldn’t be disappointed on what was going to happen or what direction you’re going in, because you knew it,”
The Bellas also talked about how many talents do not build a relationship with Vince McMahon and always look at him as the ‘scary Vince’. You can check out the duo’s comments in the clip below:
Karrion Kross, accompanied by Scarlett, made his long awaited NXT debut on Wednesday night. Dubbed as the ‘Tandem of Terror’, the former Impact Wrestling star made an impressive entrance. The high production values suggest WWE is looking to invest big on their latest high-profile talent acquisition.
Kross went up against Leon Ruff who is an enhancement talent from WWE’s partners Evolve in a one on one match and he picked up an easy victory over his opponent.
The debuting star first hit two brutal looking Doomsday Saito suplexes to weaken his opponent and he then used the Jacket submission to make him tap.
You can check out footage of Karrion Kross’ debut below:
There is no word yet on what the company is planning for Karrion Kross but the previous reports have suggested that they have planned a big push for the monstrous athlete.
He has been seen in the background of a Johnny Gargano segment and Kross also attacked Tommaso Ciampa recently. So it’s likely that his first rivalry in the company will be against one of these two former tag team partners.
WWE has announced that Money In The Bank match will be taking place from the WWE Headquarters this year and reports have since revealed that the company has already taped the bouts.
However, this doesn’t mean that all of the PPV will be pre-taped and according to reports from PWInsider, there will be several matches on the show that will air live.
According to the site, both the Money In The Bank matches will be pre-taped this year but the rest of the matches on the card will be live and they will air from Performance Center as they happen.
Though this is not the only interesting thing about the format of the show and WWE has previously announced that both the Money In The Bank matches this year will be taking place at the same time.
This means that all the participants will be competing simultaneously and we can expect to see some interaction between the male and female competitors.
The male Money In The Bank match will see Aleister Black, Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan, King Corbin, Otis and AJ Styles competing for the chance to win the briefcase.
On the other hand, the female ladder match is expected to feature Nia Jax, Asuka, Shayna Baszler, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans and Carmella competing for the opportunity. You can check out an updated match card for the event at this link.
Aleister Black says it has been “mind-blowing” to work with Paul Heyman, the Executive Director of WWE Raw.
It’s no secret that Heyman has certain wrestlers whom he has taken under his wing. Black, Buddy Murphy and Cedric Alexander are among the current crop of ‘Paul Heyman Guys.’
Aleister Black was a guest on WWE Backstage this week. The former NXT Champion appeared ‘out of character’ and spoke about his relationship with Zelina Vega and more.
During the discussion, Christian asked Black how he feels about working with the big names on the Raw brand.
Aleister Black on Working with Paul Heyman
Black said, “It’s so strange that people like yourself, people like Paul Heyman and people like Edge and many many more are now amongst people that I can call on to give me advice or to help me further my game within the WWE.”
“It’s a very unique situation for me because never in a million year that I think that some kid from Amsterdam would be in the position that not only he would be in Money In The Bank,” he continued. “But he would be a fan favorite, but he would be informed and led by Paul Heyman. It’s mind-blowing.”
You can see video of Aleister Black talking about his experience working with Paul Heyman in the video player embedded below.
Continuing on the topic, Black said that he has accepted this part of himself and it’s necessary to have such people in his close circle to elevate his career further.
Aleister Black is currently scheduled to compete in the mens’ Money In The Bank ladder match this Sunday on pay-per-view.
Zack Ryder’s Intercontinental Championship win at WrestleMania 32 was one of the highlights of his WWE career and the former champion himself admits that it was one of the top moments of his wrestling career.
However, the former WWE star was not originally expected to be part of the bout at all and he was put in the match due to the injury of the former Cruiserweight Champion Neville, now better known as Pac.
During his recent appearance on Busted Open Radio, Ryder talked about the match and said that it was the top moment of his career in the company. He then recalled the ups and downs going into the bout and revealed how he got the spot:
“Someone got injured. It was Neville, Pac, that got injured, and I went right up to Road Dogg, who was head of creative. I don’t remember exactly what I said. I think it was an out-of-body experience. I just rattled off why I think I deserve to be in that match. I think he could just feel that passion just coming out of my body.
I guess one of the things I said was, ‘I never heard my music play at Mania,'” said Zack Ryder “and later he said that was the comment that stuck with him and got him to vouch for me to get me in there.”
Zack continued by saying that just coming down the aisle and hearing his music for the first time at WrestleMania after so many years in WWE was a win for him alone and then winning the title was another incredible moment.
His father, who was sitting in the audience slid in the ring after this win and during the interview, the former WWE star revealed that this was not part of the plan and Dolph Ziggler waved his father over to get into the ring after the match.
Ronda Rousey made an impactful WWE debut at Royal Rumble 2018 but it overshadowed the victory of Asuka and it appears that Nikki Bella who was one of the final two competitors in the match is not a fan of the way things were handled.
In her new book titled ‘Incomparable’, the former Diva’s Champion talked about the event and claimed that it was an incredible night with not so incredible finish.
She continued by saying that the booking was a little triggering for her. Nikki wrote that her words are not against the former UFC star but the moment was a bit of a slap to all the women who competed in the match:
“But it was a bit of a slap in the face to all the historic women wrestlers who had come out for the match, the main event, only to have the moment upstaged by the Ronda announcement. It just didn’t need to happen like that.
It dominated the postshow news cycle and became the only thing everyone wanted to talk about—not the historic Royal Rumble and Asuka’s dominance in the league.” said Nikki Bella. “And by the way, it sucked for Ronda, too. Because that’s no way to join a team—they threw her right into the lion’s den.”
Royal Rumble 2018 featured the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match which was won by an undefeated Asuka. She eliminated Nikki Bella for the win and the Japanese star was confronted by both Women’s Champions from Raw and SmackDown afterward.
However, before Asuka can choose her opponent for WrestleMania, Ronda Rousey made her official WWE debut. Her arrival ended up overshadowing the Japanese star’s victory, becoming the hottest topic of discussion among fans.
Drew McIntyre has been wrestling for almost two decades and he spent a good amount of time in the independent circuit at the start of his career and after getting his release from WWE in 2014 as well.
However, despite this, he has never faced AJ Styles in a one on one match and during his recent interview with Vicente Beltrán of ViBe & Wrestling, the WWE Champion talked about possibly defending his title against the Phenomenal One.
McIntyre was asked who he would like to face for the title. Answering the question, he said that he would like other possible challengers like Jinder Mahal to build themselves first and then talked about possibly facing the former World Champion:
“Somebody that’s not there right now, hopefully he can dig himself out from the ground, but AJ Styles is somebody that’s certainly up there. He’s a performer that, you know, he’s one of the greatest in-ring performers of all time.
When I first started training when I was 15 and he was, like, on top of the independent world, I used to study his tapes like crazy.” recalled Drew. “I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to be like AJ Styles,’ and then I kept getting taller and kept getting bigger and I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not going to be like AJ Styles, but he’s really cool to watch.'”
The interview was recorded before this week’s episode of Raw which saw AJ Styles making his return to WWE programming and winning the last chance gauntlet match.
Styles now has the opportunity to win the Money In The Bank this Sunday. Winning the briefcase would guarantee him a world title opportunity, hopefully against the current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre.
NXT star Brendan Vink has been making appearances on Raw in recent weeks and it appears that his presence on the show is part of a longer plan for the Australian wrestler.
WWE officials have considered him to be a project in development for sometimes now and the NXT star is in line for a push, according to Pwinsider.
WWE’s partner promotion Evolve was building Vink up and his push in the indie promotion would have continued if it wasn’t for the coronavirus outbreak.
His recent main roster appearances are apparently the beginning of trying to make him into a real star and they are building towards a long term push.
The plans for Brendan Vink’s push were described as being similar to the push given to the current Universal Champion Braun Strowman as part of the Wyatt Family when Mr McMahon saw the Monster Among Men as a long term project.
The NXT star has been teaming with Shane Thorne on WWE television recently and the two have made a number of appearances on Raw in recent weeks.
This week’s episode of Raw was the first time these two picked up a victory on the show when they teamed up to defeat the team of Cedric Alexander and Ricochet.
Aiden English had found success in his early days in NXT as part of The Vaudevillains tag team but he didn’t achieve much after being called up to the main roster.
The former WWE star recently had an interview with Inside The Ropes where he talked about his WWE career and many other things in detail.
During the interview, Aiden English also explained the difference between dealing with Triple H while in NXT and dealing with Vince McMahon in the main roster giving the impression that Mr. McMahon was harder to reach:
“Hunter was great because when NXT was starting, Hunter was out there on the floor, and he still is to this day and he’s helping put the show together, especially the TakeOvers and all that stuff, He’s hands on. I mean, Vince, between all the business stuff, network stuff, international stuff.
He’s dealing with that on our TV days, as well as trying to get these shows written.” said English. “So it is hard, and there’s a lot of the stories of waiting outside the office door and hoping knock and catch him at the right time, ’cause the man’s got to eat too. You don’t want to be the person knocking when he’s about to have dinner.”
The former NXT star went on to say that he didn’t develop his relationship with Vince during his initial run in the main roster but he started speaking for himself after becoming a singles competitor.
During the interview, Aiden English also talked about his pairing with Rusev and revealed that they used to ignore the promos given to them by WWE creative. You can check out his comments on the matter at this link.
AJ Styles made his return to WWE programming this week on Raw and the Phenomenal One earned himself a spot in the upcoming Money In The Bank match at the show.
Dave Meltzer talked about the former World Champion on the latest episode of Sunday Night’s Main Event podcast and revealed that the original plans called for him to stay away from WWE programming longer.
AJ was apparently expected to spend more time on the shelf to sell his loss to the Undertaker in the boneyard match at WrestleMania 36 but the company changed the plans.
There is no news on why the decision was made but it’s speculated that the recent low ratings could be one of the reasons why he was brought back earlier than expected.
It’s worth mentioning here that Vince McMahon had talked about the low ratings on the 2020 Q1 earnings call and blamed them on the recent absence of big names from the WWE programming.
AJ Styles made his surprise return to WWE programming as the final participant of the Last Chance Gauntlet match on Raw and he defeated Humberto Carrillo to win the bout.
He will now be competing in the upcoming ladder match against Daniel Bryan, Baron Corbin, Otis, Aleister Black and Rey Mysterio at the Money In The Bank PPV this Sunday.
Jinder Mahal made his in-ring return after almost a year of absence earlier last month but the former Champion had to do it in an empty arena due to the current situations.
WWE posted a behind the scene video of his return recently where the former WWE Champion talked about his time away and revealed that he actually reached out to WWE officials after getting cleared to set up his return.
The video also featured the post-match comments after his comeback. Discussing the bout, Jinder admitted that he was a bit nervous coming in but claimed that it felt good:
“Coming in I was kind of a little bit nervous, over how I would perform with no fans, just because a lot of what I do is based off reactions and instincts, and feelings. You know, kind of their reactions does dictate a lot of what I do in the ring, so it felt good. I really did miss it while I was gone.”
WWE announced back in June 2019 that Jinder Mahal has suffered a knee injury and the required surgery will keep him out of action for somewhere between six to twelve months.
He was part of the SmackDown brand at the moment but the Modern Day Maharaja was sent back to Raw during the 2019 draft when the Blue Branded Show moved to Fox.
Mahal finally made his return to WWE programming during the April 27 episode of Monday Night Raw where he defeated Akira Tozawa in a one on one match.
Lio Rush was one of the stars released by WWE as part of their coronavirus budget cuts and he is now teasing a retirement from the wrestling business altogether.
The former Cruiserweight Champion took his twitter today and made an interesting comment saying “I legitimately might not ever wrestle again”:
While Rush did not elaborate on his future plans, he has been making tweets promoting his hip hop career, and shortly before the above post he had sent out another tweet, saying that he is available for music features.
The former WWE star posted an email where he can be booked and he had also recently confirmed that his debut album called Ever After will be releasing on Monday, May 11.
Lio Rush started his wrestling career in 2014. Before being picked up by WWE in August 2017, the high flying star wrestled for companies such as CZW and ROH.
He was moved to the main roster in June 2018. He first competed in 205 Live and was later paired with Bobby Lashley as the former Champion’s mouthpiece.
While this pairing gained popularity with fans, the former NXT star got himself in a controversy after making public comments about his WWE pay.
After his comments became a hot topic of discussion, stories about Lio Rush’s backstage attitude became viral and he was finally released from the company last month.