CM Punk shook the foundations of All Elite Wrestling and gave Tony Khan his biggest challenge yet as the leader of a wrestling promotion with his All Out media scrum rant. Latest reports have now come out that suggest the move might have been premeditated as opposed to what was previously believed.
Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that when Punk originally made his return two weeks ago, he had claimed that the All Out press conference would be interesting.
A report from Wade Keller supports these claims as well. Before the Newsletter came out, Keller reported on Todd Martin’s The Fix audio show onPWTorch VIP that Punk had spoken to Tony Khan ahead of the scrum. The former world champion had apparently told the AEW president that he would be firing some shots at the press conference:
“I was told that Tony knew something was coming from punk, and he had some idea he had something he wanted to bring up.. so, watching Punk, he had the agenda,”
Several fans had noted after the PPV media scrum that the Straight Edge Star went on a rant for no reason and he kept bringing up the EVPs every now and then during the whole segment. These claims if true, changes the whole narrative of what transpired after the show.
The comments being preplanned would mean that CM Punk intentionally tried to bury the AEW EVPs. The promotion has hired an independent firm to investigate the whole issue. If the claims against Punk are verified, then it could prove to be the final nail in the coffin for his AEW run.
AEW has grown their roster exponentially in the past year or so and brought in a number of big stars. Though with limited TV time, it also means that the company has to make some changes to other people’s deals to accommodate and let some talents go. Alan Angles, previously known as number Five of the Dark Order is one such star who parted ways with the company earlier this year.
The former AEW star appeared on Talk Is Jericho recently. When asked about his decision to leave the promotion, he explained that it was just time to go:
“I just decided that maybe it was time to [go]. I was told they weren’t gonna renew my contract about 45 days before it was up. Basically, they just weren’t gonna give me the same deal. They were gonna give me a per appearance deal If I wanted it.” said Alan Angles, “I kind of just I figured that maybe I had reached the limits of where I could get here right now. In this run in my career, at this point in my career. I’m so young, I came into AEW virtually a nobody. I wrestled maybe three years doing the South East circuit.
He continued: “I had built up a little bit of a following on the internet and stuff like that, but I feel like there was a perception of me. I know a lot of people hate this word, but, I was kind of like the jobber of the Dark Order, or the bottom guy on the Dark Order. I feel like when fans build up that perception of you it’s kind of hard to change that. I think once that’s decided, once they get that, there’s no changing it. Unless, gradually you build up, build up, build up. But I feel like in AEW that would have taken a really long time, if that makes sense.”
Chris Jericho then asked Alan Angles what the final straw that led to his departure from the promotion was. The former Dark Order member explained that he just realized that he could do a lot more elsewhere:
“I don’t know if there was a final straw. I think it was just I kind of realized that I could do a lot more on the indies and or other companies, I could really build up my name doing that as opposed to just staying here and doing the same thing over and over again.”
Alan Angles had a relatively easy start in wrestling, and he was signed by AEW to a contract at only 22 years old. Though this doesn’t mean that he didn’t pay his dues and Angles had already been wrestling in the independent circuit for a while before that.
The former Dark Order member detailed his experience in the indie circuit during his recent appearance on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast. When asked about his worst indie booking, Angles recalled wrestling in a barn for his very first show:
“Probably the first indie show that I ever did. There was about seven of us packed in a car. We drove about seven hours to a town called Dyersburg, Tennessee for I think it was called DXW.” recalled Alan Angles, “It was in a shoot barn like an actual barn. There was hay on the floor.
A small lowboy ring, [with] just the worst ropes of all time. We got paid, I think $20 Each or something like that. That’s actually not the least I’ve ever been paid.”
Jericho then asked him what’s the lowest amount he got paid. Angles recalled getting paid $5 for a tag match “One time I got paid in a $5 bill, and it was supposed to go to me, and my tag partner.”
Alan Angles was part of the AEW roster from 2020 to 2022. He left the promotion earlier this year after the company offered him a per appearance deal instead of a full contract. The star previously known as Five explained that he wanted to rebuild himself.
Chris Jericho is not only helping talents get under the spotlight but he is helping them get contract extensions as well.
The former AEW champion spoke to Inside The Ropes before the All Out PPV. He talked about things such as Triple H’s comments about Dynamite beating NXT and more.
During the talk, Chris Jericho also confirmed that Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, and Jake Hager have all signed contract extensions with AEW:
“They all got contract extensions. I’ve told the story many times about how the Jericho Appreciation Society came to be. It was never planned; it was just something that happened in accordance to the circumstances that we were facing.
I do feel proud that they got contract extensions, raises, everything in-between.” said Chris Jericho, “They earned it, they earned it by showing what they can do.”
Bobby Fish unexpectedly left AEW last month after his contract with the company expired and both sides failed to negotiate a new agreement.
Fightful Select provided some news on his exit, noting that there was interest from both sides in continuing their relationship. They had entered the discussion about possibly renewing his deal.
However, the two sides couldn’t come to terms financially and decided to part ways. AEW officials thought the split was amicable, until Fish’s comments about CM Punk.
The creative didn’t have much for him after Kyle O’Reilly’s injury either, though it’s said that he remains friendly with many people in the promotion.
There has been no news of WWE reaching out to Bobby Fish and the creative haven’t been told anything about a potential return so far.
The issues between Fish and CM Punk have been highlighted since he left AEW. The former AEW star had told many that he didn’t appreciate Punk’s attitude after their match in October 2021. Though it didn’t have any effect on his contract negotiations.
Bobby Fish has been announced for an indie appearance later this month. There is no word on how long the 45-year-old plans to continue wrestling after his AEW departure.
The backstage altercation at All Out was the buzzing topic among fans going into this week’s episode of Dynamite, but it appears that the talent backstage were actually trying to move past it.
According to reports from Fightful Select, there was a much more positive vibe in the locker room after the Wednesday night show, with one source saying that it couldn’t have been worse than the chaos of the last few days.
The situation was ‘out of sight, out of mind’ for plenty of the roster. A talent said that the best way for all parties to make up the public embarrassment would be to get over the issues, make money for the company and help other talents along the way.
As of Tuesday, most of the roster didn’t know if they would be allowed to address the altercation on screen. AEW chose not to make any mentions of it except for the Tony Khan segment and some content had to be adjusted accordingly.
It was reported on Sunday that a top talent was scheduled to take time off. Jon Moxley confirmed during his promo that he was supposed to be on vacation.
The company planned on him being back by the Cincinnati show in October but he ended up staying to help conduct a talent meeting and add star power to the show.
Mox has since been added to the announced tournament for the vacant AEW World Championship, so it appears that he won’t be taking time off in the foreseeable future.
The phrase any publicity is good publicity seems to be true for AEW as the negative fallout from CM Punk media scrum and the backstage altercation seemed to have helped the viewership of Dynamite.
This week’s episode of the Wednesday night show averaged 1.035 million viewers, which is actually a 1.5% increase compared to last week’s show.
Last week’s episode which featured the final build for the Jon Moxley vs CM Punk match at All Out had averaged 1.020 million viewers.
The show did a 0.38 rating in the 18-19 demographic, which is an increase from the 0.35 rating last week. Dynamite ended up being #2 on cable for the night.
Tony Khan Reacts
Tony Khan didn’t miss the opportunity to tout these viewership numbers. He made a tweet sharing some stats about the show’s ratings:
“Thanks to you, last night marked the first time since Oct 2021 that Dynamite’s had 3 straight weeks over 1 million viewers! + we made it 15 straight Wednesdays Dynamite ranked in cable’s top 2 shows in the 18-49 demo!”
Thanks to you, last night marked the first time since Oct 2021 that Dynamite’s had 3 straight weeks over 1 million viewers!
+ we made it 15 straight Wednesdays Dynamite ranked in cable’s top 2 shows in the 18-49 demo!
See you TOMORROW for a huge Friday Night #AEWRampage on TNT!
The quarterly breakdown shows that fans were interested in knowing how the company will handle the fallout from the backstage altercation at All Out. Over 1.2 million tuned in for the first quarter of the show and it slowly decreased from there.
Now that it’s confirmed that we won’t be seeing The Elite or CM Punk on TV in the foreseeable future, it’d be interesting to see if the show is able to hold the viewership numbers next week.
Christian Cage has joined the list of AEW wrestlers who will need to take a long break from AEW programming due to an injury.
The former WWE star competed in a very short match at the All Out PPV. He defeated Jungle Boy with a spear and a killswitch in just 33 seconds. Jungle Boy was attacked by Luchasaurus before the match began.
A lot of people wondered about the length of the bout. After the PPV it was revealed that the wrestling veteran is actually dealing with an injury.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer provided the latest update on Christian recently. He confirmed that the AEW star will be out of action for 6 to 9 months:
“His injury may be the exact same injury as [CM] Punk. So we’re talking again like an eight-month-ish, six-to-nine months of being out.”
CM Punk suffered the injury during his AEW World Championship match against Jon Moxley at All Out. It’s believed that he suffered a torn triceps that will see him stay out of action for the remainder of the year.
Christian has joined the list of AEW stars that are expected to stay out of action for the foreseeable future with Punk and Thunder Rosa.
Chris Jericho was one of the biggest names to join AEW early on. He has been helping the company grow in every way possible since then. Jericho has stepped even more into the leadership role in AEW amidst all the locker room drama. Though despite this, he doesn’t want an official title in the company.
“I don’t need a job title to help the company. I do it every day. Whenever I show up to TV, it’s a constant. Constant working from two o’clock until the show is over. If I’m wrestling or not.” said Chris Jericho, “That’s the way it should be. There’s not a lot of guys that have been doing this as long as I have. In our locker room there’s Sting, there’s Dustin Rhodes and then there’s me.
I’m one of the original AEW guys, probably was very integral in getting the company off the ground in a lot of ways. So I don’t have a problem with giving advice and helping people. It’s what I’m there for. It’s part of my job. Like I said there’s nothing to be written on a business card, you know, Director of EVP or whatever the fuck it is, who cares. I’m Chris Jericho. That trumps all of that.”
You can check out Chris Jericho’s full interview below:
Claudio Castagnoli had a crazy first week in AEW. He made his debut at the Forbidden Door PPV defeating Zack Sabre Jr. and went on to compete in the Blood and Guts match only days later. Castagnoli gave fans a number of memorable moments during his very first week, including a giant swing on Chris Jericho from the top of the Blood and Guts cage.
The former WWE star recently appeared on AEW Unrestricted podcast. Speaking about the giant swing he delivered from the top of the cage, Claudio Castagnoli mentioned that it was Chris Jericho’s idea:
“He suggested it. He was like ‘We need to do it at the top of the cage.’ I’m like, ‘Sure, let me go up there and see’ Because it was my first time in that cage or especially on top of that cage. So the place where he suggested, I was like ‘Yes, that is possible,’ but in my mind his body would be almost over the cage for a second there. He was like ‘It’s fine I trust you.’ I am like ‘Yes, I trust myself too but accidents can happen.’ The highest priority is that my opponent is safe.”
‘Alright, We’re Done’: Claudio Castagnoli
However, the roles were reversed as soon as they got onto the top of the cage. Per Claudio Castagnoli, this time it was Jericho who was concerned about the success of the spot and wanted to be done with it:
“When we went and did it though. As soon as I did like one rotation I was like, ‘oh yeah, this is fine. We’re good. I can do this for a long time.’ But that’s when then Chris on the other hand was like, ‘No, no, we’re done. This is good. This is good.’ Because all he saw was obviously you know, being 20, 30 feet up in the air, seeing the crowd below him. He was kind of like, ‘Alright, we’re done.'”
Thankfully both the stars were unscathed coming out of the spot. You can relive the amazing moment from Blood and Guts below:
Both Claudio Castagnoli and Brodie Lee came from nothing and became big stars in wrestling. The two shared a lot of steps in this journey and Castagnoli has a lot of fond memories of working with the late star.
The AEW star shared some of these memories during his appearance on AEW Unrestricted podcast. He was asked about his experience of having the first ever Steel Cage match in the history of Chikara with Brodie. Replying to it, the BCC member first recalled how Lee used to stay with him everytime he visited the Philly area:
“Oh, it was awesome. Back then, Brodie came down from Rochester all the time to the Philly area for Chikara and Ring of Honor. Towards the end of my Ring of Honor run he was there. Every time Brodie came into town, he stayed at my place.
I remember one of my first paychecks from Japan, I bought a new bed. I could finally afford it. I saved my old mattress though, so he could sleep on it. Because he would just sleep on the couch. So then he had like his own bed.”
‘We Always Had A Laugh’: Claudio Castagnoli
Claudio Castagnoli then mentioned how they had a lot of fun working together. The cage match between the two was no different:
“We always had a laugh. We always had fun when we had our matches because we would always try to do something crazy.
To have the steel cage match, the first ever was a lot of fun. He still accused me every time he’s got the chance to of whipping him into the cage too hard and thus, he got color which was a big no no at the super PG Chikara. He would remind me every single time that I made him bleed. It was because I was shutting him too hard. Not so sure about that.”
Ricky Starks is considered a future world champion by many and so fans were left surprised over his quick loss to Will Hobbs at All Out.
Fightful Select provided some update on the situation and addressed some rumors that have been going on about the status of the AEW star.
They confirmed that the rumors of the former FTW champion being injured are not true and he is ‘healthy and good to go.’
In midst of all the backstage drama going on in AEW, some speculated that Starks might have asked for his release too. There were other rumors that said that he has signed a contract extension with the company recently but both are incorrect.
The All Out match between Ricky Starks and Will Hobbs originally had more time allotted to it. There is no word on why it was cut short. The current working plan is for Hobbs to get a push after his victory.
Ricky Starks won the FTW championship by dethroning Brian Cage in July 2021. He defended the title a number of times in the following year before dropping it to Hook in July this year at Fight For The Fallen.
During a post-match interview with Tony Schiavone, fellow Team Taz member Will Hobbs snapped and attacked Starks. The two have been feuding ever since.
The main event of this week’s Dynamite from Buffalo saw the crowning of a new champion. Danial Garcia beat Wheeler Yuta to become the new ROH Pure champion.
After the match, Yuta’s BCC teammate Bryan Danielson came out to congratulate Garcia. Chris Jericho also came out and stood at the ramp.
Once the cameras stopped rolling, Danielson hyped up Danial Garcia’s hometown crowd over his title win.
When the new ROH champion started celebrating with Bryan, Chris Jericho asked ‘What are you doing?’ The Buffalo crowd then chanted ‘You’re a wrestler’ to Garcia.
Garcia seemed torn between Jericho and Bryan for a moment but he shrugged and continue celebrating his title victory with Danielson. This led to Jericho storming back up the ramp while shaking his head in disapproval before leaving.
Rapper WESTSIDEGUNN who is also from Buffalo then came out in the ring to celebrate with Danial Garcia. Garcia cut a promo and said that it’s a big night for both AEW and wrestling and sent the crowd home happy.
Garcia wasn’t the only new champion crowned during the night. AEW also crowned new Trios Champions after the suspension of The Elite.
After a couple months of absence MJF finally returned to AEW at All Out and confronted the former AEW world champion CM Punk.
This week’s episode of Dynamite opened with Tony Khan addressing the future of the trios titles and the world title after the backstage drama that unfolded at the PPV on Sunday night.
MJF made his way to the ring after TK and addressed the fans for the first time in months. He got the Buffalo crowd behind him by wearing a Josh Allen shirt.
The AEW star mentioned how he said some offensive stuff when the fans last saw him. The crowd responded with ‘You were right’ chants. MJF claimed that he didn’t mean it and he loves AEW which led to an AEW chant.
MJF then explained why he isn’t a part of the announced tournament to crown the new AEW world champion. He mentioned that he already has a guaranteed world title shot after winning the Casino Ladder Match:
“You might think we’re in dark times, but we’re not.” said MJF, “What we need is leadership. I’m not saying I’m Moses, I’m better than Moses,”
When Jon Moxley came out to call MJF on his bullshit, MJF showed his true colors very quickly. He explained that he was going to use the world title as a bargaining chip for the 2024 bidding war.
The young star said that in 2024, he would go to WWE with his best friend Cody Rhodes and the ‘only Khan that matters’ because ‘that’s what’s best for business.’
He then teased a confrontation with Mox but MJF eventually backed off. He headed back to the ramp, leaving Mox to cut a promo about the AEW title.
Posted September 7th, 2022 in AEW, News. Tagged: MJF.
R Truth has explained his ‘clap back’ against CM Punk over the former WWE champion’s remarks about their old match.
The wrestling veteran recently appeared on Premiere Live TV. He talked about things such as his childhood hero John Cena, his music career and more.
Speaking about his exchange with CM Punk over their match at Vengeance 2011, Truth claimed that he has no beef with the AEW champion:
“I’m still me at the end of the day. You don’t say no bullshit on me and I won’t come back. I am a clap backer. It depends. Sometimes I ignore shit, but I will clap back.
We cool. No beef with me and Punk.” claimed R Truth, “Me and Miz beat him because we were hotter than him at the time. Punk has gotten his push and all that shit, but we were hotter than him at the time. No beef,”
CM Punk teamed with Triple H to face Truth and The Miz in a tag match at Vengeance 2011. To many people’s surprise the team of Punk and H lost this bout.
In his infamous appearance at Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast, Punk had questioned this booking decision. R Truth had later responded to the AEW star saying that they were hotter than Punk at the time.
Seth Rollins worked under Vince McMahon for almost ten years. According to the former world champion, working for the former WWE chairman was like a double-edged sword. You knew exactly who to go to for answers when needed but his style of working was also very stressful.
The Visionary recently appeared on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast. Among other things, he also talked about the recent WWE regime change. Commenting on his experience of working with his old boss, Seth Rollins detailed the two sides of it:
“With Vince, it was like kind of a double-edged sword. On one hand you knew exactly who to go to all the time. Every answer needed to go through Vince. That was security in that. If you needed something and you needed an answer, pronto. He was right there.” said Seth Rollins, “You knew exactly that if you got yes from him, nothing else beneath that mattered. So that was really cool.
He continued: “You could understand his vision, once you worked with him for a long enough time. You started to understand that. On the other side of that, he was very flippant. He was very all over the place. That was to his credit, part of his genius but it was also like very stressful to deal with as a talent.”
WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash has responded to his name being mentioned at All Out.
It all started when the former nWo member reacted to a tweet about NJPW star Will Ospreay having more 5 star matches than John Cena, Kurt Angle and CM Punk combined.
Nash made a remark about how it’s the money these wrestlers draw that matters. This prompted Ospreay to make a joke about Kevin’s previous injuries:
This past week’s Dynamite then saw Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks taking on The United Empire in the semi-finals of the AEW trios title tournament.
Taking note of the exchange between Nash and Ospreay, Kenny included a line about selling more merchandise in his intro on Dynamite before defeating the NJPW stable.
Though this wasn’t the last of it as Kenny Omega once again mocked his arch-rival during his All Out intro. The Cleaner claimed that he might be the new favorite wrestler of Kevin Nash after his victory on Dynamite.
The wrestling veteran took note of this. He reacted to a clip of the intro supporting the former AEW champion’s move:
— Jamie “The Contagion Of Madness” Holmes ???? (@JamiePrestigio1) September 4, 2022
The ending of the All Out match saw Ortiz sending Guevara out of the ring. When Ruby Soho tried to jump down, Melo also got involved, and the two women crashed down into their partners.
The female competitors then got back in the ring. Soho got the upper hand but as she was going for a running knee strike, Anna Jay grabbed her foot.
This distraction allowed Tay Melo to hit the TayKO on the former WWE star. She then pinned Ruby to retain the titles for her team.
The TayKO however, seems to have done more damage than intended. Ruby Soho grabbed her face instantly after the hit and she even forgot to get her shoulders down for the pinfall.
The female star continued holding her face after the match and it has since been confirmed that she suffered a broken nose.
Triple H has provided a ‘spoiler’ regarding Bad Bunny’s future in WWE after receiving praise for his Royal Rumble performance. The Game hosted the press conference after the Clash At The Castle PPV. He first offered some praise to the WWE universe.
When asked about the WWE future of the music star, the former world champion noted how Bunny is someone who put in a lot of effort into his performances. Triple H then revealed that he will be meeting with Bad Bunny ‘very very soon’:
“A little bit of a spoiler. He and I are gonna have a conversation very, very soon. It’s already scheduled. We’re gonna go and see what’s available. [He’s The] biggest music star in the world. So let’s go.”
– Triple H
Bad Bunny made his wrestling debut during the WrestleMania 37 event. He teamed up with Damian Priest to defeat The Miz and John Morrison. He then entered the Royal Rumble earlier this year and received praise for both performances.
While Triple H didn’t reveal much detail about the next WWE appearance of Bad Bunny, WWE has the Crown Jewel event scheduled for November 4. It’s possible that the music star will be brought in for the show.
Chris Jericho has been at the top of the wrestling world for over 30 years. He has been part of many incredible moments throughout his career. As is the nature of any live sport however, Jericho has also had his fair share of embarrassing moments.
The former AEW world champion was recently interviewed by Josh Martinez. During the talk, he was asked about his most embarring moment in the ring. Chris Jericho recalled the time he was wrestling with braces:
“One time I was working with Cesaro in Las Vegas on a non-televised live event, a House Show if you will. I was wearing braces. As I climbed the top rope to do my comeback, my brace got caught in the top rope. I literally fell into the ring.”
‘Over And Over Again’: Chris Jericho
Though this wasn’t the end of it for Y2J. He detailed how Vince McMahon kept the memory of the incident alive, making the whole situation worse for Chris Jericho:
“Well, that’s embarrassing enough as it is, but for some reason, Vince McMahon got a clip of it. [He] proceeded to show it for the next like four weeks every time everyone’s in the arena going over their stuff before the show. He just thought it’d be great to just show it over and over and over again.
I’m like ‘I’m gonna slap that stupid face of yours for showing this over and over again.’ [He’s like] ‘Ahaha, it’s so funny.’ Maybe funny for you, not funny for me, and only 3000 people saw it until you kept playing it over and over and over again.”
WWE will be presenting the Clash At The Castle PPV from the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales in a few hours from now.
Fightful Select recently provided some backstage updates on the show including some interesting details about the main event.
According to the site, Ludwig Kaiser, Butch, Ridge Holland, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley are all scheduled to be in the building for the show.
The main PPV will start with the 6 women’s tag match between the teams of Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss & Asuka vs. Bayley, Dakota Kai and IYO Sky.
The main event between Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre is scheduled to get the most time of all the matches, and it’s listed as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match.
Both Paul Heyman and The Usos are curiously not listed for the event internally which means we might see a fair one on one match between the two competitors.
With Drew McIntyre being the crowd favorite to win the bout, the absence of Heyman and The Usos will only strengthen his chances of defeating Reigns and walking out of the show as the new champion.
Clash at the Castle is finally upon us. It’s the company’s first UK Stadium show in 30 years and WWE has built a card worthy of this momentous occasion.
Roman Reigns puts the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship on the line against Drew McIntyre in what’s sure to be a riveting main event.
Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle look to settle their heated rivalry once and for all. Plus, Liv Morgan puts the SmackDown Women’s Championship on the line, Gunther and Sheamus promises to be a hard-hitting slug fest and much more.
Here is the final card for WWE Clash at the Castle:
Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre
Seth Rollins vs. Riddle
SmackDown Women’s Champion Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler
Intercontinental Champion Gunther vs. Sheamus
Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka vs. Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky
The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and Damian Priest vs. Edge and Rey Mysterio with Dominik
How to Watch
WWE Clash at the Castle takes place Saturday, September 3rd from Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, UK.
The event streams exclusively on Peacock in the United States and on the WWE Network internationally at 1pm (Eastern).
The backstage segment between Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle on this past Monday’s Raw took this feud to the next level. The two already had tensions brewing up for a long time and Riddle reached his breaking point when The Visionary brought up his divorce into the conversation.
The former WWE Champion spoke to Ariel Halwani ahead of his match with Riddle at Clash At The Castle. He was asked if he crossed the line by bringing up the personal issues of his opponent into the mix. Rollins claimed that it’s not the case. He then revealed what John Cena taught him about shoot segments in wrestling:
‘If It’s On Camera, It’s Fair Game’: Seth Rollins
“I mean, I don’t think so. This was something that I learned from working with John Cena. He always taught me to have a very thick skin when it came to whatever was said on camera because it’s fair game.” said Seth Rollins, “No matter what, if it’s on camera, it’s fair game. It stays out there and lives in that world. Backstage, that’s a different world. Those are two different things.
John always instilled in me, and I always feel the same way. And look, you can bring up anything you want about my personal life. I’ve got plenty of skeletons in my closet that you can talk about if you want, or things that I’m insecure about. You got to be prepared to handle that on the back end. So when you’re out there in front of a camera, I say anything goes.”
You can check out Seth Rollins’ full interview below:
WWE taped the September 2 episode of SmackDown from Detroit alongside tonight’s episode of the show. It featured the final build for the Roman Reigns vs Drew McIntyre Clash at The Castle match and more.
You can check out the full spoilers for the show below:
Karrion Kross wrestles first match since his WWE return and defeats Drew Gulak.
Ronda Rousey cuts an in-ring promo calling out Adam Pearce. They talk about her suspension and how it was lifted because she paid her fine. Her arrest was unwarranted as it was not a criminal act and she is reinstated immediately. Pearce tells Ronda that he would fire her if it was in his hands. The WWE producer calls her “The single biggest bitch he’s ever met,” leading to Rousey locking him in an armbar.
Hit Row defeats Maximum Male Models in a tag match. Humberto and Garza attack Hit Row after the bout and The Street Profits make the save.
Happy Corbin comes out for a promo. He trash talks Detroit and issues and open challenge. Shinsuke Nakamura accepts the challenge and defeats him via pinfall.
Butch defeats Ludwig Kaiser in a singles match. Gunther and Sheamus come face to face but Ludwig breaks it up and leads Gunther away. Butch apparently had his Bruiserweight gear back for this bout.
Viking Raiders face The New Day in a Viking Rules match. Raiders win the match after putting Kofi through double-stacked tables.
The Usos and Sami Zayn hosted a Championship Celebration for Roman Reigns. Reigns pulls up in the arena but gets taken down with a Claymore as soon as he gets out of the car. Drew McIntyre then heads to the ring and clears it of the rest of the Bloodline. He puts Jimmy Uso through the announce table and Jay through the Barricade. McIntyre emphasizes WWE as ‘World WRESTLING Entertainment.’
Former NXT UK champion Butch apparently got his old gimmick back during tonight’s double SmackDown tapings in Detroit before the Clash At The Castle PPV.
This week’s episode of SmackDown saw a confrontation between the current IC champion Gunther and the #1 contender for his title Sheamus.
The Intercontinental champion had Ludwig Kaiser on his side while Sheamus was accompanied by Butch and Ridge Holland.
The ending of this segment saw Butch attacking Kaiser. Sheamus and Gunther later broke them up. The IC champion then had a stare down with the Celtic Warrior before he left the ring.
Though this wasn’t the last of these two groups fans saw on the night. They came out again during the second set of SmackDown tapings.
Pete ‘Butch’ Dunn
The tapings for next week’s SmackDown saw Butch taking on Ludwig Kaiser in a singles match. Though what’s interesting is that the former NXT UK Champion, previously known as Pete Dunn brought back his old ring attire for this bout:
Dunn has been teasing the return of his old character after Triple H took over WWE creative. He recently changed his name on Twitter to suggest the same.
This SmackDown appearance seems to be another sign that Pete Dunn will be returning to his roots sooner rather than later. He might even get his old ring name back after the Clash At The Castle PPV.
