John Cena has signed on to be part of a live action Looney Tunes live action/animated hybrid film titled “Coyote Vs. Acme”. This comes on the heels of his Peacemaker series being renewed for a second season.

The film has a very interesting plot. After years of being disappointed by Acme products in his pursuit of the Roadrunner, Wile E. Coyote has decided to sue the company. Cena will play the role of a lawyer in the film. Chris DeFaria and James Gunn are signed on to produce the film. Dave Green (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Earth to Echo) is set to direct.

John Cena’s The Peacemaker Renewed

John Cena’s Peacemaker’s Season 1 finale episode drops tonight at midnight. The show was recently announced as being renewed for a 2nd season. James Gunn will write and direct all Season 2 episodes.

“Creating Peacemaker has been one of the true highlights of my life, both professionally and otherwise,” Gunn said in a statement, “with John Cena and the incredible creative team around me, as well as our partners at HBO Max. To have something we all love so much be loved by the audience in turn has been a wonderful experience. I can’t wait for folks to see where Team Peacemaker goes in Season 2!”

Peacemaker currently has a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Former WWE Superstar AJ Lee recently appeared on the Wrestling With Freddie podcast with Freddie Prinze Jr. During the discussion, she discussed the possibility of getting back in the ring.

According to AJ, she’s not sure if she has the motivation physically to make an in-ring return but she still loves the art of professional wrestling.

“Wrestling opportunities have popped up over the years and I’ve never been ready for that.  I’m not sure if physically, the fire is there, but the art of it has always been there,” she said on the show.

Will AJ Lee Wrestle Again?

Last fall, AJ spoke more in-depth about whether or not she’s physically capable of wrestling again after injuries forced her into retirement.

“I will say, I say the same thing in every interview, and it’s always ‘never say never, but don’t hold your breath.’ What I mean by that is, I never say never to anything; physically, mentally, emotionally, I’m healed from everything I’ve gone through in wrestling. I could technically do it, but I’m so enjoying letting the next generation have their spotlight.”

AJ Lee’s Involvement with WOW

AJ is on board as an Executive Producer for the rebooted Women of Wrestling promotion, which returns to television later this year.

Lee told Freddie Prinze that they will begin filming in approximately two months. She was inspired to be part of the project because there are women involved behind the scenes in every aspect of the organization. She feels this is the perfect opportunity for her to be involved with wrestling.

Listen to AJ Lee on Wrestling with Freddie:

Chris Jericho casually revealed on Talk is Jericho that both Vince McMahon and Tony Khan asked him to not be part of the G1 Supercard Show from Madison Square Garden in 2019. The event was held on April 6th that year.

At the time, Jericho had already announced he had signed with AEW. The company had yet to produce its first show, however. According to Jericho, he was originally to face Hiroshi Tanahashi on the G1 Supercard.

“I was actually going to go against Tanahashi,” Jericho said while speaking to guest, Brody King. “And then both Tony Khan and Vince McMahon asked me not to do it. That’s a whole other story, we could do a whole podcast just on that. But I didn’t do the show.”

The show was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defeating Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. AEW would present its first show, the Double or Nothing PPV the following month on May 25th, 2019. Jericho would defeat Kenny Omega in the main event that night. He would go on to defeat Adam “Hangman” Page at All Out on August 31st, 2019 to become the inaugural AEW World Champion.

H/t To Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.

Ric Flair noted on a recent episode of his podcast that nobody from WWE reached out to him after his recent split with his wife Wendy Barlow. According to Flair, nobody at the company cares about you after you are gone.

Flair noted that many of his celebrity friends reached out to him following the split but not one person from WWE did.

“But what killed me is that Charles Barkley, Darius Rucker, Kid Rock, can call me and say, ‘Is everything cool?’, which they have, and I go, ‘Yeah, everything’s great.’ Life changes and goes in different directions. Not one person from WWE called.”

“The most insensitive company in the world, people that I’ve given my life to, and they’ve given me a lot of theirs. None. So you see how it goes. When you’re not there, they don’t care.”

Flair continued to say that no wrestlers from “either company” have called him. He has received calls from executives working in those companies, however.

“Executives have, but I’m talking about my wrestling friends,” Flair added.

Flair and Barlow were married in 2018. Back in 1993, Barlow portrayed “Fifi the Maid” in WCW in segments along with Flair. She was Flair’s 5th wife. Flair also noted on his podcast that him and Wendy still have a good relationship.

H/T to WrestlingNewsCO fro the above transcriptions.

WWE is reportedly planning another big surprise for WrestleMania this year. In addition to “Stone Cold” Steve Austin returning to the ring to face Kevin Owens, Dave Meltzer reports that the company has something else of equal weight also still to be revealed.

“There’s apparently one more surprise besides Austin still to come and it’s supposed to be ‘Austin-level’. That’s a pretty small list of people who could be Austin level,” said Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Meltzer continued, “The Rock… I think Dwayne’s got stuff going on so I don’t think it’s going to be him So, who else do we have? Hogan, Flair, and Undertaker, right?”

Who is Austin-Level?

In terms of who the surprise could be, there are limited options as to who could be as big as Austin. John Cena stated on the Ellen Show recently that he is unlikely for WrestleMania this year.

“WrestleMania is usually in the cusp of late March, early April. I don’t know if I’m going to make it this year. That’s a good conundrum to have because there’s a lot of good opportunities coming up, which I would love to take. And if all those things line up, I don’t know if I’ll be able to make WrestleMania,” Cena said.

“Cena’s got stuff going on,” Meltzer said. “That could always be a swerve too but I was told he had stuff going on.”

Who do you think could be considered at the same level as Stone Cold Steve Austin?

Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows have filed an interesting trademark considering their current rivalry with their former stablemates in Bullet Club. The Good Brothers have been in a rivalry with the Guerrillas of Destiny in Impact Wrestling as of late. The feud also played out on an NJPW show last summer.

Doc Gallows’ company “Wrestlemerica” and Karl Anderson filed to trademark “The BC” for wrestling purposes on February 10th, 2022. Michael E. Dockins is the attorney on record for the filing.

This comes at an interesting time, as The Good Brothers will defend the Impact Tag Team Championships against the Guerrillas of Destiny at No Surrender this weekend. The storyline is that Anderson and Gallows feel that Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and other members of the current Bullet Club should thank them for making the faction what it is today. Tama Tonga has been particularly unmoved by this sentiment.

Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga are 2 of the 4 founding members of the faction. Back in 2013, the group was started by Prince Devitt (Finn Balor), Bad Luck Fale, Anderson and Tonga. Gallows would join the group later that year. Tanga Loa would join the group in 2016. Jay White joined the group in 2018 and is also involved in the faction that is active in Impact and NJPW’s American division.

Nyla Rose and Red Velvet have responded to recent reports that Brandi Rhodes was disliked backstage in AEW. A quote from PW Torch’s Wade Keller has been gaining traction online and both wrestlers responded to refute it.

“It sounds mean but nobody has anything nice to say about Brandi Rhodes and her disposition or popularity behind the scenes,” Wade Keller was quoted as saying by @WrestlePurists.

Red Velvet then spoke up and said that the report is incorrect as she has nice things to say about Brandi.

“Me and i think it’s very disrespectful and rude how you guys can make comments and have people believe things that are not true! Back off and just be happy for people in their new endeavors. Good day!”

Vickie Guerrero responded to Red Velvet’s Tweet as well. She noted that Brandi carries herself with integrity and the two have been friends for a decade.

“This is disappointing, a story breaks and the media knows all the facts! I can vouch for @TheBrandiRhodes she is professional & my friend over 10 yrs…she carries herself with integrity on and off the camera”

Nyla Rose was less polite in her response and did not wish anyone a good day.

“This is just flat out some bullsh*t. Brandi was liked by many people backstage including myself. Is she a polarizing character, for sure… but don’t work yourself into a shoot. You want a hot scoop from the source, well here it is. Stop making sh*t up”

Red Velvet continued to support Brandi in the thread.

“I think you have a lot to say, about someone Im sure you never even got to know personally! @TheBrandiRhodes is very professional and private. Just because she’s not out there involved in everyones drama doesn’t make her unpopular backstage. She as Cody had a big hand in helping.”

Leva Bates also disputed that Brandi was disliked backstage.

Miro appeared on the Kurt Angle Show recently and noted the differences between WWE and AEW in terms of the creative process. The 37-year-old said wrestlers in AEW write their own promos based on guidance from Tony Khan. There are no writers and it is up to the performer to determine what they say.

“Big differences, first, the creative,” Miro said regarding AEW and WWE. “There’s no writers, we just have Tony that writes certain things. But on a day-to-day basis, you’re pretty much in charge of your own writing. If you have a promo, yeah, Tony may have a suggestion, but usually, it’s going to be on you and what do you want to say.”

Miro continued to talk about the differences between AEW and WWE in terms of the matches. While AEW does have producers for matches, they are not quite as hands-on in AEW as they are in WWE.

“The matches, yeah, we have producers, or agents, or coaches as we call them, but they’re not going to be on every match and they’re not as hands-on as WWE is. They’re not going to tell you ‘Oh, they dived in the last match so you can’t do dives before that,’ the control level, it’s all about peer-to-peer. There’s not going to be a middle man, there’s not going to be a man on top that tells you what you can and can’t do.”

Finally, Miro spoke about the differences between Tony Khan and Vince McMahon in terms of the direction given to performers. He noted that Vince is more hands-on and restricts his performers in more ways than what takes place in AEW.

“I had times where Vince tells me ‘Don’t smile, don’t look at the people, don’t raise your hand, don’t do this.’ Tony Khan is not going to do this, he’s a big wrestling fan and he wants to see good wrestling matches. The styles, you can tell the style is much different,” he continued.

Miro In AEW

Miro hasn’t wrestled a match in AEW since Full Gear back in November. He lost to Bryan Danielson in the finals of the title-eliminator tournament on that show. The latest reports are that he is healthy and waiting to be factored back into things creatively. Dynamite tonight will emanate from Miro’s home city of Nashville, Tennessee.

H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcriptions.

WWE has filed a new trademark related to the NXT 2.0 brand. The company filed for the term “NXT Level Up” on February 9th. The listed purposes of the trademark state that it is ” intended to cover the categories of a show about professional wrestling.”

Back in December, there had been talk that WWE was getting ready to rebrand 205 Live. Bryan Alvarez had the following to say about the rebranding of 205 Live on Wrestling Observer Live.

“So, it’s gonna get a new name. I don’t know what it is. It’s probably just going to be a tertiary show. I don’t know what form it would be. It’s going to be a low-level WWE show that God bless them, nobody is going to watch. But, this is where they will get their experience in front of a live crowd. It’s coming. It’s no longer going to be 205 Live.”

The trademark filed could also be for a new show focussed more on developmental talent, however.

NXT Vengeance Day Lineup

It’s a big week for the NXT brand as they present NXT Vengeance Day tomorrow night on the USA Network. The following matches have been booked for the show:

1. NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships: Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne) (c) vs. Indi Hartwell & Persia Pirotta
2. NXT North American Championship: Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Cameron Grimes
3. Weaponized Steel Cage: Pete Dunne vs Tony D’Angelo
4. Dusty Rhodes Classic Finals: MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee) vs. The Creed Brothers (Brutus Creed & Julius Creed)
5. NXT North American Championship: Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Cameron Grimes

Mia Yim recently took to social media to comment on why she’s hasn’t wrestled since being released by WWE. Yim was released from the company on November 4th, 2021.

She clarified that due to her recent wedding to AEW’s Keith Lee, she opted not to take any bookings until March.

“To those wondering why I’m not back in the ring yet.. February is a busy month. With the wedding and the move, I decided to not take any bookings until March to focus on getting everything handled at home first. So don’t worry, I’ll see you all in the ring in March,” Yim Tweeted.

The 32-year-old hasn’t wrestled a match in over a year. Her last actual match was a loss to Nikki Cross on Main Event on December 28th, 2020. This was under her “Reckoning” gimmick along with Retribution. Her only ever victory on the main roster came the week before on Main Event, when she defeated Cross.

Yim is a former 1x Knockouts Champion in Impact Wrestling. She also previously held the SHINE title as well.

It’s not clear where Yim could end up in the future. She might be signed by AEW, where her husband made his debut last week. Yim could also return to Impact Wrestling, where she has spent much of her career thus far.

Bray Wyatt returned to social media for the first time since November today. He responded to a Tweet from Talk Sport’s Louis Dangoor.

“If he beats Goldberg next week, Roman Reigns will have beaten every person to hold the Universal title during his current reign.”

This Tweet did not sit well with Wyatt. His Fiend character was the Universal Champion heading into a triple threat against Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman at Payback. Reigns pinned Strowman to win the title, however, and not Wyatt.

Wyatt responded to Dangoor’s Tweet.

The Tweet also didn’t sit well with Seth Rollins, who actually defeated Roman Reigns by disqualification at the Royal Rumble.

“Worth pointing out that Roman Reigns didn’t actually beat Seth Rollins at the Royal Rumble, but he retained the title over him, so the point still stands,” Dangoor also noted.

Where Will Bray Wyatt End Up?

Bray Wyatt was released on July 31st, 2021. He’s been gone from wrestling ever since. There were rumors that Impact Wrestling was interested in him but any thought of him going there is pretty much dead at this point.

Only time will tell when and where Wyatt makes his return to pro-wrestling.

Nick Wayne is All Elite. The 16-year-old son of the late Buddy Wayne received a contract offer from AEW during a recent Defy live event in Seattle. Wayne lost to Christopher Daniels in the night’s main event. Following the match, Darby Allin came out to offer Wayne an AEW contract.

Nick Wayne was recently prevented from appearing on The WRLD On GCW show after the athletic commission discovered his age.

“Due to circumstances that neither I nor GCW had control of, I was unfortunately not able to perform tonight at The Wrld on GCW at Hammerstein Ballroom. We still live to perform another day, Love y’all ?? Tonight was history making,” Wayne wrote on Twitter about missing the show.

Joey Janela Tweeted about this after the fact.

“This is 100% not a work, I walked up to nick & his mother before & told him I’d give him whatever he wanted. I told him to tell me what he wanted, he wants @WillOspreay we will make it happen. Nick is one of my favorites of all time! And I’m gonna look out for him @WillOspreay”

Although Janela offered him any match he wanted, he would later state that there are some restrictions to the offer.

There are numerous pro-wrestling connections attached to this year’s Super Bowl. Most notably, Los Angeles SoFi Stadium will be hosting the big game this year and in 13 months will host WrestleMania 39. Also, The Rock will be part of the pregame show this year. Next year, Rock could be headlining WrestleMania from the same venue.

WWE will also have a presence during the broadcast of this year’s Super Bowl. Ads for the WWE Network are scheduled to air. These have been paid for and produced by the Peacock Streaming Service rather than WWE itself, however. WWE previously paid for a Super Bowl ad in 1999.

Batista will also be featured in a Super Bowl ad this year. He’s in a commercial for Nissan. A recent Tweet from Batista about the ad is below.

Remembering Halftime Heat

The WWE Championship once changed hands at halftime of the Super Bowl. The Rock defeated Mankind in an empty arena match that aired during halftime of the Super Bowl in 1999.

The following year, WWE aired a sit-down interview with Steve Austin during halftime of the game. In 2019, NXT aired a match taped after TakeOver: Phoenix during halftime of the Super Bowl. That match saw Aleister Black, Ricochet and Velveteen Dream defeated Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.

Brian Pillman, the Cincinnati Bengals, and the Super Bowl

The Cincinnati Bengals will be in the Super Bowl this year for the first time since 1989. Brian Pillman played for the Bengals in 1984. He’d later play for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL before transitioning to wrestling. The Rock also was once on the Stampeders practice squad before doing the same.

When the Bengals last went to the Super Bowl in 1989, Pillman had an idea. His plan was to get Mark Madden’s media pass and chain himself to the field goal posts in order to get publicity. Madden was understandably not willing to give up his media credentials, however.

Wrestlers Cheering For The Bengals Or Rams

Brian Pillman Jr. will be cheering on the Bengals tonight. He’s been re-tweeting posts from his father’s old team. On an unrelated note, he also posted the below Tweet:

Pillman is not the only wrestler cheering for the Bengals tonight, however. Jon Moxley is from Cincinnati and has converted his wife, Renee Paquette, into a Bengals fan as well.

The Miz is from the Ohio area and is in Los Angeles for the Super Bowl. He stopped by WWE’s pop-up shop in the area.

Pat McAfee is also in LA for the Super Bowl. He missed Friday’s Smackdown as a result.

The Bella Twins live in Los Angeles and are at the Fanatics Super Bowl party.

Alexa Bliss is from the Ohio area and is in town as well. She appeared on a pregame show yesterday. Lilly does not seem to have been with her.

Former Impact World Champion Sami Callihan is also a noted Bengals fan.

Matt Cardona is the new NWA World Heavyweight Champion. He defeated Trevor Murdoch for the title at “NWA Powerrr Trip” in Oak Grove, Kentucky. The show was not broadcast live but matches taped at the event will air on episodes of NWA Powerrr in the future.

Cardona pinned Murdoch after delivering his leg lariat finisher. He debuted for the promotion at the Hard Times 2 PPV in December.

Cardona becomes the 56th person in history to win the belt. The title’s lineage dates back to 1948 when Orville Brown was the inaugural champion. Cardona’s victory over Murdoch was the 99th time the championship has changed hands.

Murdoch’s reign finishes at 167 days, which ranks him 28th out of 56 all time.

“I am @nwa World’s Heavyweight Champion. I can’t believe I just typed that. Fuck that. I CAN believe I just typed that. I worked my ass for this! @TheRealTMurdoch is a tough son of a bitch and he will forever have my respect. As for @RealNickAldis?”

Cardona’s singles titles now include the WWE Intercontinental title, United States Championship, the GCW World Heavyweight Championship, and the Impact Wrestling Digital Media Championship. He’s also the self-proclaimed Internet Champion and recently claimed to be the ECW Television Champion after defeating Rhino in GCW.

Billy Corgan’s National Wrestling Alliance will present the Crockett Cup on March 19th and 20th from the Nashville Fairgrounds in Nashville, Tennessee. To promote the event Corgan recently took part in an interview with the Tennessean. During the discussion, Corgan spoke about the current state of tag team wrestling.

“I’m a big fan of tag team wrestling,” says Corgan. “The Crockett Cup spotlights the unique art of in-ring storytelling that [tag team wrestling] allows. Young talents breaking out as stars and traditionally masters of the craft have been involved in this style of wrestling.”

Corgan also noted during the interview that WWE does not put much emphasis on tag-team wrestling.

“WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) sets the standard in the industry, but for the past decade, they’ve not focused on tag teams as much as a core part of their programming,” he added. “[Different than WWE], the NWA is not abandoning tag team wrestling’s traditional place [alongside singles matches] in pro wrestling.”

“For wrestling purists and casual fans alike, there’s something at the Crockett Cup to appreciate,” Corgan continued. “We’ll have ‘unbelievable’ marquee wrestling matches that appeal to wrestling fans. But for people who find that being told a great story by great storytellers is an underappreciated art, we have that, too.”

The 2022 Crockett Cup will be just the 5th in history. The original events ran from 1986 until 1988. Corgan then brought the tournament back in 2019. That year, PCO and Brody King won the tournament and the NWA tag team titles in the process.

The NWA has only officially confirmed one team for the event. Nick Aldis and Doug Williams have re-formed their British Invasion team in the NWA and will be in the Crockett Cup. Other teams assumed to be participating include the NWA Champions La Rebelion, former ROH & GCW tag champs the Briscoes, and more.

WWE taped the 2/18 edition of WWE SmackDown last night from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans. WWE will be in Saudi Arabia on 2/19, leading to next week’s Smackdown being taped ahead of time.

A new Intercontinental Champion was crowned on the show as Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the title.

WWE SmackDown 2/18 Spoilers:

• Roman Reigns and Goldberg had a face-off segment. They never came to blows but just exchanged promos.
• Ricochet defeated Sheamus.
• Intercontinental Championship
  Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura (c) to win the title.
• Ivar defeated Jimmy Uso
• Drew McIntyre, Happy Corbin, and Madcap Moss had a promo segment.
• A contract signing segment took place featuring Ronda Rousey, Naomi, Charlotte Flair, and Sonya Deville. A tag team match has been booked for the Elimination Chamber featuring Rousey teaming with Naomi and facing Flair and Deville.

New Intercontinental Champion

Zayn’s victory over Nakamura was the 181st title change in the history of the Intercontinental title.

Zayn is now a 3x champion and ranks 39th out of 87 in terms of days spent with the title (152).

In just a few days he will pass Ric Flair and Curtis Axel on that list. Nakamura ranks in at #12 on that list with 383 days spent as champion.

Tony Khan revealed on Twitter today that AEW has officially signed AQA. She was defeated by Jade Cargill in a TBS title match this Wednesday on Dynamite.

The Alabama-native was trained by Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling school and later signed to WWE. She performed in NXT under the name Zayda Ramier. She was released from her WWE contract on November 4th, 2021.

AQA was interviewed recently by A Wrestling Gal and spoke about dealing with anxiety during her time with WWE.

“Unbeknownst to me, I deal with anxiety. I have anxiety which almost everybody does but, I always have those exact symptoms except for it’s always followed by like the hyper, I’m like [breathing rapidly]. That’s how I know I’m having an anxiety attack but I had every symptom except for the breathing so it just canceled out in my mind,” AQA said on the show.

Wednesday’s match against Jade Cargill was her first since leaving NXT. Her last match was on June 1st, 2021 when she teamed up with Zoey Stark and they were defeated by Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell.

AQA is also a former 2x champion in Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling promotion based out of Texas.

Konnan is continuing to deal with health problems as of late. Last month, reports surfaced that the 58-year-old had heart surgery as a result of complications from a bad bout of COVID-19 from a year earlier. He also needs to have his second kidney transplant due to the impacts of the illness.

Konnan had a kidney transplant back in 2007 but now needs another one as a result of damage it took while he was sick with COVID-19.

According to a recent update from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Konnan has two potential donors lined up. He is still waiting on one potential donor to get tested to see if they are compatible. A second potential donor was deemed too overweight but is currently in the process of losing enough weight to be able to donate.

“So right now it’s a waiting game. But he’s been beset by health issues of late but is hoping to travel for the next [of AAA] tapings,” wrote Dave Meltzer

An earlier edition of the Wrestling Observer addressed Konnan’s recent health issues.

“When he had COVID, which was about a year ago, it really messed up his heart and his kidneys. His kidneys are actually in very bad shape right now,” Meltzer said. 

“The kidney issue is still ongoing. He’s going to need a kidney transplant again. He thinks he has a donor,” Meltzer continued. 

Kyle O’Reilly has been absent from AEW programming in recent weeks. His last actual match with the promotion was on the December 29th New Year’s Smash show. He teamed with Bobby Fish and Adam Cole that night and defeated Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor, and Orange Cassidy.

According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, O’Reilly has not been around recently due to the birth of his child.

“The reason Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly haven’t been out with Adam Cole and the Young Bucks thing has stopped is because O’Reilly was given time off since his wife just had a baby. It is expected to resume when he returns,” wrote Dave Meltzer.

This week on AEW Dynamite, however, Jay White debuted and helped Adam Cole and the Young Bucks attack the Best Friends in the back. In storyline, Cole brought White in without running it by the Young Bucks first. So now several dynamics are at play with the Elite, former members of Undisputed Era, and Bullet Club now with overlapping members.

O’Reilly was recently on The Sessions with Renee Paquette and spoke about why he decided to leave WWE. One thing that led to him signing with AEW is that he heard WWE was no longer looking for “pro wrestlers”.

“‘We don’t want pro rasslers’ was something I heard,” O’Reilly said. “And it was like ‘alright but I am a pro wrestler. And I want to be a pro wrestler still. So I want to go where I can be a pro wrestler.’ And I know that the things are the same, sports entertainment, wrestling, it’s all the same. But I don’t know if everyone looks at it that way.”

H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the above transcription.

After a very short free agency period, Bullet Club’s Tama Tonga has re-signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Tonga took to Twitter recently to state that his contract with the promotion expired on January 30th, 2022. Confusing matters was that Tonga had included the hashtag #Misinformation along with his Tweet.

Recently on his podcast, however, Tonga revealed that he really was a free agent but has since re-signed with NJPW.

“It’s true. I was a free agent on January 30. I am now officially signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling,” Tonga said on the show.

Tonga is a founding member of NJPW’s Bullet Club faction along with Prince Devitt (Finn Balor), Bad Luck Fale, and Karl Anderson. He’s been with the promotion since 2010. Tonga has also been competing in Impact Wrestling as of late. His Guerrillas of Destiny team along with Tonga Loa will face the Good Brothers for the Impact World Tag Team Championships on the February 19th No Surrender show from New Orleans.

The last time Tonga performed for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan was the World Tag League tour in December. He was not on any of the Wrestle Kingdom shows on January 4th, 5th, or 8th.

H/T To Fightful for the above transcriptions.  

Tony Khan says he hopes to have UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal perform in an AEW ring at some point. Masvidal had been involved in some of the American Top Team vs Inner Circle feud but has never competed in a match. Khan recently spoke with Josh Martinez about the possibility of Masvidal getting more involved with his wrestling promotion.

“Well I do think it’s still a possibility [Jorge Masvidal competing in AEW]. I mean, you know, we’ve established [that] the American Top Team fighters are very dangerous and we’ve [had] Junior dos Santos in the ring and Andrei Arlovski’s gone out and beat people up, so I do think there’s a constant threat and of course, Paige VanZant had been around AEW before and now she’s back so it’s something to keep an eye on and we’ll have to see how Masvidal’s fight schedule lines up but I’d certainly be open to it in the future.”

American Top Team has become a fixture in AEW with Dan Lambert increasingly being featured on Dynamite and Rampage. Recently, Paige VanZant and Brandi Rhodes were involved in a pull apart as ATT and the Rhodes family continue to take shots at each other in promos.

Khan would continue to say that he understands Masvidal must make his UFC career his top priority, however.

“But, you know, he’s gotta make the UFC a priority too. I really like those guys at the UFC. Dana has been so good to me. Dana White and Hunter Campbell are great executives and I really have a lot of respect for the UFC. So it just depends on what his schedule is like but it’s something I would love,” Khan continued.

Masvidal has dropped his last two fights in the UFC, both to Kamaru Usman for the UFC Welterweight Championship. His previous fight before then was a victory over Nate Diaz for the unofficial “BMF” title.

H/T to Post Wrestling for the above transcriptions.

WWE has revealed the opponents for Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey on a March 5th live event from Madison Square Garden. WWE sold less than 6000 tickets for their last event in MSG back on December 26th, 2021.

Brock Lesnar will go one on one with Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at Madison Square Garden. Considering this will be after the Elimination Chamber premium live event, it’s not clear which one of them will be the champion, however.

Ronda Rousey will also be on the card. She is scheduled to team with her one-time rival Sasha Banks to go up against Charlotte Flair and Natalya. Later in the month, Rousey and Banks are scheduled to face Flair and Shayna Baszler on a house show from Laval, Quebec.

The Madison Square Garden website has the following posted in regards to the event:

““The Beast Incarnate” Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley -WWE Championship Match

Roman Reigns vs. Seth “Freakin” Rollins -Universal Championship Match

Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Rhea Ripley -RAW Women’s Championship Triple Threat Match

2022 Royal Rumble Winner Ronda Rousey & Sasha Banks vs. Smackdown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair & Natalya -Tag Team Match“

Also scheduled for the show are RK-Bro, AJ Styles, Big E, Kofi Kingston, and the Usos.

WWE is reportedly interested in Jade Cargill now that they’ve been given a chance to see what she can do on television. According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast, WWE officials have been impressed with Cargill’s performances as of late.

“I know for a fact that people in WWE are interested in her now that they’ve gotten to see what she can do on TV,” Zarian said.

This comes on the heels of WWE reportedly being interested in Wardlow and Maxwell Jacob Friedman as well.

Jade Cargill Comments On Choosing AEW Over WWE

Cargill was on Talk is Jericho recently and discussed her reasons for choosing to sign with AEW over WWE. She noted that WWE sent her a contract but she ultimately chose to sign with AEW.

“So [WWE] sent the contract, they wanted me to do it,” she explained. “AEW came about, and I came here, I got the experience, and I felt calm. I remember you and I had this conversation in the car. It made me feel at ease about the decision that I wanted to make, I didn’t have to relocate, I felt at home.” 

“I could call the owner of our company and talk to him, you know, he knew my name and knew my purpose,” she said. “He knew that I wanted to do this and that I wasn’t just a number. He knew exactly who I was, so that made me feel comfortable.”

Cargill is undefeated in her AEW career thus far. She is 27-0, the inaugural TBS Champion, and most recently defended her title against AQA on Dynamite.

Tony Khan has responded to reports that he is planning to run for Congress. Earlier this morning, ProFootballTalk.com reported that Khan had filed to run for Florida’s 4th Congressional District. Not only did Tony Khan refute these reports, he compared ProFootballTalk’s sources to MJF and Tony Schiavone.

“The fact checking standard for @ProFootballTalk reporting is far lower than that of @AEW’s roving reporter @tonyschiavone24. I’m definitely not running for Congress; this filing is faker than Eddie Gilbert’s apology to Tommy Rich in 1984. PFT sources as trustworthy as @The_MJF.”

The NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport also reported the news.

Jacksonville attorney Chris Hand got to the bottom of the news, however, and confirmed that Tony Khan definitely is not running for Congress.

Things continued between ProFootballTalk and Khan.

Who Filed Tony Khan’s Name To Run For Congress?

The two options appear to be that Tony Khan filed to run but then didn’t follow up on it or someone filed Tony Khan’s name as a joke. Since Khan is denying the reports, the latter seems far more likely. Perhaps it was an AEW, Jaguars, or Fulham fan.

“But whether someone filed the statement as a joke or @TonyKhan filed it in 9/21 but decided not to complete the process, the bottom line is this: He isn’t an active candidate for Florida’s 4th Congressional District.”

The Great Khali is now officially a member of the Bharatiya Janata Political Party in India. Bharatiya Janata is one of two major parties in the country and has been in power since 2014. They are considered a right-wing party with policies that align with Hindu nationalist positions.

Real name Dalip Singh Rana, he officially joined the party today.

“I have wrestled all over the world. If I just loved money and fame, then I would have stayed in the United States and in the WWE. However, I have always loved my country. I was also impressed by all the work done by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So I told myself that even I should join him and help the country progress. I am a fan of his hard work and thinking,” Khali said, shortly after joining the party.

Khali has formerly worked as an assistant Sub-Inspector with the Punjab police. The 49-year-old also participated in the farmers protests held in India in late 2020/early 2021.

Khali is a former WWE World Heavyweight Champion and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021. The Wrestling Observer voted him the Most Overrated in 2007 and the Worst Gimmick in 2008.