Here's your wrestling news for May 5th 2022
And your headlines for today include
AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page turns heel on Dynamite! Cuts shocking promo
AEW star confirmed to appear on Mayans M.C. for the rest of the season
WWE has plans to make one of their stadium shows this Summer even bigger
Wardlow proves he’s a star with match against former WWE Superstar last night
Naomi addresses rumors of joining her husband Jimmy Uso in The Bloodline
Major title changes hands on AEW Dynamite
Latest on Tessa Blanchard controversy! Former Impact World Champion continues to make enemies
WWE edits out cool moment between two former World Champions on this week’s Raw
WWE Hall of Famer recalls The Rock REFUSING to go along with WWE’s plans for him And more!
We’re kicking off with AEW, as World Champion Hangman Adam Page turned heel on last night’s episode of Dynamite.
Speaking about his upcoming World title defence against CM Punk, Page promised to win, and said there they will not have a “masturbatory Bret Hart tribute match,” referring to Punk’s love of the Canadian legend.
This claim got some gasps from the crowd, and Page learned further into being a heel, saying that Punk wasn’t at Dynamite, probably because he was filming another TV show.
Promising to embarrass Punk, who has lost just one match since coming to AEW, Page definitely seemed more of a heel than fans have seen from him, as he’s been a pretty clear good guy during his world title run.
Given that both men are babyfaces, it makes sense that one of t he two would show some heel tendencies, and on this occasion, it’s the champion who’s embracing his darker side.
Whether this means his World title reign will end at Double or Nothing remains to be seen, but for now, Page is as serious as it gets ahead of his match with Punk.
Saying that Punk was filming another TV show was a reference to Mayans MC, which Punk made a cameo appearance on earlier this week.
Yesterday, we reported on how Punk played ‘Paul’ a military buddy of Vincent Vargas’ character Gilly, and speculated whether he could be back on the show, and now we know that will be the case.
Speaking to Gamespot, Showrunner Elgin James said how the Paul character was made specifically for Punk, and that his character will appear throughout the rest of season 4.
This week’s episode was the sixth of the season, and with 10 episodes having been greenlit for season 4 of Mayans M.C, the AEW star and former WWE World Champion will have plenty of
chances to show off his acting chops in upcoming episodes of the show.
Over to WWE now, as the company is more focused than ever about hosting big Premium Live Events at Stadiums, and one of these shows may be about to get even more special.
That’s according to WrestleVotes, who notes that WWE officials have been talking about holding another NXT Stand and Deliver show this year, with the idea being for it to happen in line with one of the big three
stadium shows this Summer.
Those shows are Money in the Bank on July 2nd, Summerslam 2022 on July 30th, and Clash at the Castle on September 3rd, WWE’s first Stadium show in the UK in 30 years.
WrestleVotes adds that out of the three, Clash at the Castle seems to be the most popular choice right now, but added that plans could always change, as is the case with any WWE event.
It’s also unclear if WWE plans on hosting the NXT Stand and Deliver event at the stadium which will be hosting the main-roster Premium Live Event, as that’s not what happened with Stand and Deliver earlier this year.
While NXT Stand and Deliver was held during WrestleMania 38 weekend, it took place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, not the AT&T Stadium, but whatever comes next, we’ll keep following this story
for further updates.
More from AEW now, as prior to last night’s show, MJF had promised someone bigger than Wardlow, adding that “you can’t teach that.”
With that reference, fans assumed that MJF’s mystery man was Impact’s W.Morrisey, who worked as Colin Cassidy and later Big Cass in WWE, and that turned out to be the case.
Making his AEW debut, Morrisey looked to be in incredible shape, but that wasn’t enough to hold back Mr. Mayhem.
Wardlow made quick work of Morrisey, even lifting the seven foot tall former Superstar with one of his powerbombs, thrilling the crowd and leading to Wardlow getting the win without breaking a sweat,
looking like a star in the process.
Post-match, MJF finally gave Wardlow what he’s earned, a match with him, and Wardlow can finally break free from the contract he signed with the Salt of the Earth if he manages to beat him.
This means we’ll be getting a contract signing, which will take place in MJF’s hometown of Long Island, New York. As for W. Morrisey, one could argue that he was too easily dispatched
of by Wardlow, especially as he’s meant to be one of Impact Wrestling’s top stars, but after years of difficulties post-WWE, it’s always great to see the former Big Cass looking well.
Since 2020, the Bloodline have dominated WWE TV, with Roman Reigns and the Usos holding both the SmackDown Tag Titles and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at this time.
All three men are part of the legendary Anoa’I wrestling family, but they’re not the only members of the family that can be found in the ring.
Speaking to Inside the Ropes recently, WWE Women’s Tag Champion Naomi, the wife of Jimmy Uso, discussed possibly aligning with her husband, saying:
“It is a little weird that I’m not in it [The Bloodline] because I’m always there with them… maybe later down the road or maybe there’s somewhere for me to come in with the boys, with Jon and Josh
Jimmy & Jey Uso], who knows? But it’s definitely something I would look forward to.”
Naomi is no stranger to factions, having been part of Team Bad in mid- 2015, and when her current title reign with Sasha Banks inevitably comes to an end, the Glow may be shining as part of the Bloodline.
More from Dynamite now, as a title changed hands on last night’s show, but not one that’s from AEW themselves.
During last night’s episode, the Ring Of Honor Women’s World Championships were unified, as Mercedes Martinez faced Deonna Purrazzo.
To clarify, Purrazzo was the original champion, but because she was unable to defend the title at Supercard of Honor 15 last month, Martinez was crowned the interim Champion, defeating Willow
Nightingale on April 1st.
In a decisive victory, Martinez defeat Purrazzo, who like Morrisey was making her AEW debut despite being contracted to Impact Wrestling.
It definitely wasn’t a good night for Impact Wrestling, but for Martinez, it was one of the biggest wins of her career, as she continues to prove that she is a great asset to AEW after being released from WWE last year.
We don’t know who Martinez will defend the Undisputed ROH Women’s World Championship against first, but odds are it won’t be Tessa Blanchard.
The second-generation wrestler has been a pariah of wrestling for some time now, ever since several allegations of abusive behaviour, racism and misconduct came out about her.
Last October, over a year after being released from Impact and stripped of the World Championship, Blanchard signed with WOW Wrestling, and all-female promotion which will also see AJ Lee
serve in a backstage role, but Blanchard’s time with the promotion may already be over.
Fightful Select has learned that there have been allegations of issues between Blanchard and WOW, and that despite being booked, her status for this week’s tapings is unknown.
The report says that many people within the promotion seem to think that both sides have more power within wrestling than they actually do.
What we do know is that there was an incident where Blanchard cut a promo on Samantha Sage, aka Americana, and verbally eviscerated to a point that many on the roster spoke up, believing
Blanchard went way too far with her comments.
Classes were canceled at that point, and it’s believed that Blanchard will be less involved moving forward, and has reportedly been removed from her position as head trainer.
One former star of WOW has even suggested that Blanchard is gone completely from WOW, but that can’t be verified, and whatever the case, the former Impact World Champion continues to make
enemies wherever she goes
Back to WWE and on this week's Raw, AJ Styles was attacked by Edge and Damian Priest, but was saved by Finn Balor.
Both Balor and Styles are former members of the Bullet Club, and threw up the 'Too Sweet' hand gesture in solidarity, but you wouldn't know it if you didn't watch Raw live.
As seen via the company's official YouTube channel, WWE decided to cut the gesture out of the replays of the segment, with no explanation given.
With AEW set to collaborate with NJPW for the Forbidden Door pay-per-view, the Bullet Club will soon be front-and-center in the United States once again, and it makes sense that WWE doesn’t
want any fans to recall the group Balor and Styles were once part of.
While the Too Sweet gesture has been used by the NWO and the Kliq, it’s perhaps best known for the Bullet Club, so don’t expect it to appear on WWE programming after being cut this week.
And we’re ending today with The Rock, and before he became a Hollywood megastar, before he even became the People’s Champion, he was part of the Nation of Domination.
The militant group was WWE’s version of the Black Panthers, with the name taken from the Nation of Islam group, who wore hats similar to what was donned by the Nation of Domination.
Speaking to Title Match Wrestling, former Nation member the Godfather discussed the Rock’s time with the group, and said that while everyone wore matching hats with a cultural significance
The Rock flat-out refused: “He didn’t wanna put the green, red and yellow, whatever the sign was… black, green and red… he
didn’t wanna put that on him, so he ended up putting a little stripe on his shorts. But that was the only problem we had. He completely refused to wear a hat.”
Given how poorly some of the storylines including the Nation of Domination have aged, it’s perhaps for the best that The Rock didn’t want to fully integrate with the group, and hat or no hat, the
People’s Champion was able to go on to become a globally known megastar, both in the world of pro wrestling and the world of Hollywood