Another week another blockbuster 7 days of AEW screaming the word news directly into our brains.
Some stuff happened at All Out, congratulations AEW for all the stuff, but while the rest of those news boys, Stupid Oli, Stupid, Laurie and Stupid Pete were covering the big news by the big people, I’m all about the little people, like you, you little tiny, minuscule piece of sh-
I’m Adam from Wrestletalk and here are this week’s 10 Wrestling News Stories That You Might Have Missed.
10. Tessa Blanchard Is ‘Nuclear’ To Companies
Once upon a time, before WWE shot half of its talent into space, former IMPACT World Champion Tessa Blanchard was considered the hottest free agent in wrestling.
In mid-2020, it seemed only a matter of time before someone like WWE or AEW picked her up, especially with her father being Tully Blanchard, who is working as a manager in AEW.
However, according to a report from Bodyslam.net, Blanchard is considered ‘nuclear’ by major companies and don’t want anything to do with her following controversy surrounding her unsavory comments and well-documented issues.
This was pretty exemplified during the Women’s Casino Battle Royale at All Out, where there were some small “We Want Tessa” chants drowned out by “No we don’t” chants in response.
According to the report, the only company that has had negotiations with her since her acrimonious departure from Impact in 2020 is NWA.
So for now at least, it seems she’ll just continue training with Izzy. Yes, that’s a thing that’s happening.
9. Kushida Tested Positive For Covid-19
Since winning the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in April this year, Kushida began putting on banger after banger in an open challenge format, often having the match of the night on NXT.
But after Roderick Strong’s new faction Diamond Mine debuted, setting up a Cruiserweight Title match against The Messiah Of The Backbreaker, Kushida has been absent from TV, forcing that match to be canceled.
Kushida has now revealed why, stating that he and his family all tested positive for Covid-19.
He said in a video posted to Instagram that despite being vaccinated, they all still contracted the virus, had low energy and lost their sense of smell and taste.
However, they’re all now fine and recovering, which is some positive news at least. Fingers crossed Kushida can return to NXT soon and light up the ring once more.
8. Jake Atlas Requested Release Before Firing
Sticking with NXT news ahead of their rebrand coming on Tuesday, oh god I’m so nervous, what if it’s terrible guys, one of the releases from the most recent batch of NXT talent to be let go from the company was Jake Atlas. Atlas had joined NXT in 2019 and made his debut in April 2020.
However, in an interview with WrestleTalk’s best friend Denise Salcedo on her channel Instinct Culture, Atlas revealed that he had originally asked for his release to Canyon Ceman, who was in charge of that sort of thing at the time, and whose surname is Ceman, and there’s nothing funny about that.
Unfortunately, Ceman was also then let go himself, (it took all the energy I had to not say Ceman was released but I have now said that) and despite requesting it for six months, Atlas never got a meeting with Triple H.
He turned down a contract extension in July and had some terms of his own he wanted to put forward, however after taking some leave to deal with declining mental health, he returned and a week later was released.
He mentioned in the interview that he doesn’t know whether he was already on the chopping block to be released, or whether they went through Ceman’s emails after he was released and saw Atlas’ request for a release and decided he didn’t want to be there.
7. Paige Hinting At In-Ring Return Again
In more positive news though, former Diva’s Champion Paige Here has been hinting at returning to the ring for a while now, and this week there was yet another tease of her not being done with the biz.
After a post in July where she mentioned that her neck was ‘feeling awesome’, which was the reason she had retired in the first place, Paige Here posted this past week wondering whether she could still use ‘this is my house’ or if it’s been taken now.
It would be nice to hear her say it again. Ultimately, we just want Paige Here to wrestle again, as long as she’s healthy, because she’s great.
6. Minoru Suzuki Needed 7 Stitches After Dynamite Match
Now let’s move over to AEW where ALL THE THINGS are happening.
After the debuts of Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole and Ruby Soho at All Out, one debut might get overlooked in the history books, but let’s not downplay that MINORU FREAKIN SUZUKI just showed up and starting elbowing the s**t out of Jon Moxley at the show.
This set up a match on Dynamite in Moxley’s home state of Ohio between the two, andboy was there some rough-housing.
There was plenty of blood in the match, and it’s now been revealed via Suzuki’s Instagram that he actually needed seven stitches afterward to fix a cut above his right eye.
I didn’t think Samurai Murder Grandpa could get more terrifying, but seeing blood pouring from his face might just do it.
5. Will Ospreay Teases AEW Appearance
And after Suzuki appeared on AEW, let’s get that speculation train rolling because who else could we see appear? Jay White? Tanahashi? Okada? Ibushi?!
Well, one name that hasn’t ruled out an appearance for the company is former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay, who responded to a fan’s Instagram story about whether we could see him on AEW Dynamite:
“I’d love to go there, but I’m a NJPW STRONG guy right now. And I’ve had enough of people knocking on their door, knock on my door! Bunch of p***ies if you ask me, they’re too scared to knock on my door. Do you know why? Because I’d embarrass those boys.”
Well ok then.
4. Tony Khan Says Jim Cornette Is The Person He’s Learned The Most About Wrestling From
It’s a rivalry as old as time…or as old as 2019, but who remembers a time before that. Jim Cornette vs AEW.
But in recent times, it seems hell has frozen over, as not only did Cornette praise AEW for their tribute to Bobby Eaton and their booking of Punk’s debut, but now Tony Khan has extended the respect back to Cornette. What’s happening?
Speaking on the All Out post-media scrum, Khan didn’t mention Cornette by name, but referenced a quote from him and mentioned the respect he has for him, saying that he’s completely right when he says “wrestling fans watch the wrestling programme to see the wrestlers wrestle”.
Cornette originally said that when he found out that WWE had banned the use of “pro-wrestling” as a term, instead opting for “sports entertainment”.
Khan went one further, saying that Cornette was “the person I’ve learned the most about the wrestling business from”. So…Jim Cornette to AEW confirmed I guess?
3. Tony Khan Tells Excalibur To Say Belt
And speaking of terms banned in WWE by this crazy old f**king guy, it’s been known for a number of years now that WWE has banned the use of the word ‘belt’ when describing a championship, despite it being… a championship belt.
On the same post-media scrum, Tony Khan was asked about pro wrestling vs. sports entertainment, and what his mindset is with bringing in names like CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, and Khan mentioned that pro wrestling is absolutely the encouraged term.
He doesn’t have a list of banned words or anything, and even made a point to say that after Excalibur on commentary exclaimed that Kenny Omega had hit Christian Cage ‘with the championship title’, Khan told him ‘Excalibur, you can say belt bro’.
2. Tony Khan Says Adam Cole ‘Scared The S**t’ Out Of Him
Time to complete the trilogy of ‘Tony Khans Says The Darnedest Things’. So, Adam Cole seems like a lovely man doesn’t he?
By pretty much all accounts and if you’ve ever watched any of his Twitch streams, he comes across as a genuinely nice person. Well, that apparently didn’t stop Tony Khan from being scared by him.
After Adam Cole’s debut in AEW, the two were on the post-media scrum, where Tony Khan admitted that while the Wednesday Night Wars were going on between AEW and NXT, Adam Cole was the one man who “scared the s**t” out of him.
Out of the 75 episodes of AEW and NXT going head to head in the key demographic, AEW won 74 of the episodes, as Khan mentioned. He then said that Cole was the 1 in the 74-1.
The one episode in question by the way, was opened by Adam Cole wrestling Finn Balor for the NXT Championship, and closed with Rhea Ripley defeating Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship.
1. WWE Netflix Interactive Horror Movie
And finally this week, WWE announced that they’re going to do a New Day/Undertaker crossover interactive horror movie on Netflix. That’s a lot of information to take in at once.
The movie will be called ‘Escape The Undertaker’, where Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods all look to escape Grunt Von Tunt’s haunted mansion, avoiding traps along the way.
As an interactive movie, viewers will have control, choosing which paths to take and things of that nature. Insert funny wacky scenario that New Day could find themselves in here.
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