Another week has gone by in this silly world of professional wrestling which means we’ve had to wade through a week’s worth of Oli, Laurie and even our precious pocket prince Pete Quinnell covering the “biggest” and “most interesting” stories of the last seven days.
But what about the other stories, guys? What if The Undertaker is holding a charity bake sale? He isn’t, but what if he was, would those guys bring you that story.
No, they’d be too fixated on oh Bryan Danielson’s fighting Kenny Omega next. Yawn.
But that’s why this weekly show exists, to bring you the quaint, the less attention-grabbing but no less perfectly formed news stories that added a bit of life and color to this week in wrestling.
I’m Adam from WrestleTalk and here are this week’s 10 Wrestling Stories that you might have missed.
10. WWE’s Offer to Daniel Bryan
Before there was even speculation of Daniel Bryanson joining AEW, most fans simply expected him to stay put and sign his soul over to Vince McMahon for the rest of his career.
“SAY YES, DANIEL”, “but I really want to wrestle-”, “SAY YES, DANIEL!”
WWE actually put in a lot of effort to make him stay, and even promised to let him wrestle for a promotion Vince had never even heard of called New Japan Pro Wrestling.
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE was willing to let Bryan wrestle at the G1 Climax, something WWE allegedly hoped would convince Bryan to stay.
Unfortunately for WWE and for fans of seeing him wrestle Happy Corbin 14 times a month on SmackDown, Bryan said you can shove your G1 up your Thunderdome, and off he headed to AEW, where they’ll probably also let him wrestle in the G1 Climax anyway hooray.
9. Jake Atlas Retires From Wrestling
On a slightly sadder note, former NXT star Jake Atlas has revealed that he has decided to step away from the ring, announcing his retirement this past week at the far-too-young age of 26.
Taking to Twitter, Atlas explained his decision to his fans.
“I’m not concussed or ‘banged up.’ I simply just can’t keep going anymore. Take your mental health seriously, both for yourselves & for each other, because we only have one life to live. Thank you to anyone who did support me for 5 years. I didn’t do much, but what I did was fun.
I’m stepping away from wrestling completely right now so please don’t ask me to do interviews/appearances. I’d like my privacy to be respected. At 26 years old, I’ve got my entire life ahead of me & I’m choosing to explore completely different industries to find my passion again.
Unfortunately, it was unhealthy for me the entire time. I just learned how to hide it really well. I hope that friends & fans I’ve made alike continue to support me no matter what.”
We wish Jake all the best in the future, and while he’ll be missed, kudos for having the bravery to step away from a career for which he was ludicrously talented, because it was making him unhappy and unhealthy.
8. MVP Broken in Half
On Monday’s episode of Raw, Bobby Lashley would lose his WWE Championship to Big E, who cashed in his Money in the Bank contract, and there was much rejoicing.
Just before BIGE cashed in, Lashley seemingly picked up a kayfabe leg injury, protecting Bobbles in the loss. However, turns out that at least one person picked up a legit owee during Raw’s main event.
WWE has announced that MVP suffered from broken ribs when he was hit with an RKO by Randy Orton. WWE’s announcement suggested MVP will be out “indefinitely”, but it isn’t known whether this injury is legitimate, or whether it’s part of a storyline.
If it’s the former, we wish MVP a speedy recovery, as he’s one of the best managers going right now.
7. Gable Steveson Training Facility
There’s nothing WWE thinks its fans love more than a babyface, all-American patriot, and if they’re an Olympic gold medalist, you better believe Vince will be salivating into his morning bowl of Saudi money.
Gable Steveson, who won Gold at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, signed for WWE two weeks ago, and it appears WWE is pulling out all the stops to make him a star.
Writing in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer revealed:
“WWE will be setting up a training facility in Minneapolis specifically to train Steveson while he continues to go to college. He will also be brought to Orlando for training at times during the year.”
Meltzer added the current plan is to have him debut on TV in May 2022, once his college wrestling commitments are over.
Will WWE go full flag-wearing babyface with him, or will he maybe inherit a certain superstar’s intensity, integrity, and intelligence?
6. More Banned WWE Words
Vince McMahon is a pretty normal guy. He’s just your typical man with a t-rex skull in his office who bans people sneezing near him, although these days we can kinda see where he’s coming from on that second one.
Something else old Vince just loves is to ban words he perceives to be damaging to WWE’s sports entertainment brand, words like belt and wrestling. Dangerous terms all of them.
The current list of banned words, according to Dave Meltzer, is as follows…
Blood. choke, belt, strap, diva, head shot, trauma, kayfabe, house show, DQ, The Anti-Diva, spinal injuries, victim, violence, violent, wrestling, wrestlers, wifebeater, curb stomp (the move is only referred to as “the stomp”), phases that include the word “push” and “over”, babyface, heel, job, jobber, card, strangle, kill, murder, and of course, Mofos.
Words that aren’t banned include, beautiful, progressive, city and Jeddah.
5. It’s a Boy!
Presumably off the back of our very own Luke Owen revealing he’s going to be a dad, and in fact he might be a dad by the time this list goes out in which case, I hope you and baby Slapjack Owen are doing great, NXT stars Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae are also having a baby.
The wonderful couple shared a video on Twitter this past week revealing the sex of the child, who will debut on the main roster of life in the near future.
In the video, their dog pops a giant balloon, revealing a cloud of blue smoke, because the baby is going to be blue raspberry flavoured, and also…a boy!
Congratulations to the happy couple, it’s only a matter of time before Luke’s Kid is talking Johnny’s kid in whatever we have instead of podcasts in the year 2040.
4. Biggest AEW Women’s Match Ever?
Even though AEW puts on match of the year contenders on a pretty regular basis at this point, there’s no doubting the Unsanctioned, lights out match between Thunder Rosa and Britt Baker is solidly in the promotion’s top 10 matches of the year.
It was so good, that AEW reportedly wants to do it all again, with Dave Meltzer reporting soft plans are in place for the two women to do battle once again in the first half of 2022.
It isn’t clear what kind of match this will be, or when the feud will start, but discussions have included talk of a cage match, with the idea being that AEW are reportedly looking to bill it as the biggest women’s match in company history.
3. Bad News For ROH Fans
While big promotions like AEW and WWE have been touring with fans in attendance since July, for other promotions it’s not that easy.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider is reporting Ring of Honor has no plans to bring back fans before the end of the year over COVID-19 fears, and let’s face it, that’s probably a smart move from what’s probably been the smartest promotion in terms of safety over the course of the pandemic
Fans were in attendance for its Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view last weekend, but this was very much a special occasion and not something we should expect to see at Ring of Honor shows before the year is up.
The status of the promotion’s final pay-per-view of the year, Final Battle, is currently up in the air, but tentative plans are for it to air from Baltimore, Maryland.
2. Fandango’s Brodie Lee Tribute
The late great Brodie Lee was once again in our minds this past week when one of his closest friends Big E won the WWE Championship.
The latest loving tribute to Brodie was shown off by former WWE star Fandango this past week, and this tribute will stay with him for life.
‘Dango showed off a new Brodie Lee tattoo, complete with Brodie’s face and trademark “yeah, yeah, yeah” catchphrase.
A wonderful tribute to a wonderful man. We miss you, Brodie.
1. Big E Reflects on Brodie Lee
And in case you wanted to have a quick cry this afternoon, we’re closing with more wholesome Brodie Lee tribute content, as Big E has spoken about his friend following his WWE Championship win.
Speaking on the Bump, E revealed he’s still in touch with Brodie’s wife Amanda, who actually FaceTimed him after he won the title.
“He was on my mind throughout. Of course, I love him dearly and I miss him. He was one of my best friends, such an incredible human being. I still stay connected with his wife and his kids. They actually FaceTimed me yesterday. He’s someone that means so much to everyone who knew and loved him. I just want to do my part to continue to keep shouting out my boy and keep his memory alive.
“Someone tweeted about Brodie, and my response was, you know, ‘I just wish he was there to hug backstage and to talk to’. I know how he was, man. He’d be one of the first to come up and congratulate me and pull me aside. I know he would have been happy for me.”
Stupid rain, why are you targeting my eyeballs?
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