Here's More wrestling news for May 1st 2021
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And your headlines for today include
Everything about the WWE SmackDown main event ; Current NXT champion Sends Daniel Bryan A Subtle Message Following Tonight's
Smackdown!
WWE announces a special episode of SmackDown for next week ; What’s In It For Kevin Owens?
Fans Call For Ryback To Retire In Mass Numbers As He Claims Fraudulent Votes In Survey!
"Embarrassment To The Business"- WWE legend slams Bray Wyatt!
Andrade Officially Announces Next Pro Wrestling Destination!
Why Seth Rollins Called Out Young Bucks?
AEW Coming At YouTube Channels Big Time With Copyright Strikes!
Tessa Blanchard & Daga Might Give A SHOCKER To WWE!
WWE Hall Of Famer Cried for Hours After WWE Cut Her Hall of Fame Speech Time!
What Really Happened With Drake Wuertz’s WWE NXT Suspension! And More!
We’re kicking off today with SmackDown, as last night’s show saw Roman Reigns debut his brand new theme.
Ditching the last part of his pre-Tribal Chief life, as he’s used the Shield’s theme since his 2012 debut, the new song is grand, and for
a better phrase, worthy of someone dubbed ‘the Tribal Chief.’ Reigns’ exceptional theme was matched by
Paul Heyman’s exceptional pre-match promo, as he reminded fans why he’s considered one of the greatest talkers of all time.
By the time the bell rung, expectations were high, and Reigns and Daniel Bryan delivered with a story of two-evenly matched athletes
competing for the Universal title. It was Reigns who got the win, meaning Bryan is now ‘banished from SmackDown’ but the Yes!
Man has nothing to be ashamed of with his last match on the blue brand.
Though Bryan is banished from SmackDown, that doesn’t mean he’s gone from WWE, and the former World Champion may be heading to NXT,
if Johnny Gargano gets his way. On Twitter, Gargano shared a picture of them from their indie days, saying it’s been a while
since they last competed, and a move to the gold brand could be in the future for the former WWE Champion.
Even without Bryan, the show must go on, and next week’s SmackDown will have a different feel.
On Twitter, WWE confirmed that next week will be an old school SmackDown setting, and even used the logo of the show when it debuted over
20 years ago.
It’s unclear if WWE will use an old set, such as the ever-popular giant fist, as this would be difficult to construct for one night in the
Thunderdome. It’s also unclear if any special appearances will happen, as none have been confirmed yet,
but it wouldn’t be much of a throwback Smackdown if there were no legends involved.
What we do know is that next week’s show will see a WrestleMania rematch between Seth Rollins and Cesaro, and it’ll be interesting to
see what unfolds on Old School SmackDown.
One person hoping for the Giant fist stage to return next week is Kevin Owens, as he has big plans if the iconic set returns.
When a fan asked Owens on Twitter if he’d be willing to jump off the fist, Owens replied with a curt “Yes,” as the former Universal Champion
is clearly willing to go the extreme next week, if WWE brings the fist back.
Back to this week’s SmackDown, and in the first of two-title matches, Apollo Crews retained his Intercontinental Championship against Big E in
in a WrestleMania 37 rematch. Big E was close to becoming a three-time Champion, until Commander Azeez pulled him
out of the ring and attacked him, causing a DQ meaning that Crews retains.
Kevin Owens, who had a grudge with Azeez after last week’s show, made the save, but then Sami Zayn appeared to help out the heels.
Dropping Owens with a Helluva kick, there was some tension when Zayn was reluctant to give Crews his title back, and Zayn
ultimately ate a Nigerian Nail from Azeez, the 2021 version of Umaga’s Samoan Spike. With Big E, Owens and Zayn all involvd
it seems a fatal-four-way for the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania-Backlash is inevitable, in a nice throwback to the 2016 post-WrestleMania 32
Intercontinental title picture, when Zayn, Owens, The Miz and Cesaro had one of the best matches of the year.
With four excellent stars five-years-later, this match could reach a similar level, and we’re excited to see it happen, hopefully soon.
Last month, former WWE star Ryback asked fans what he should do next in the world of wrestling, and though he offered many options,
including him joining AEW, Impact or NXT, the majority of fans, 44.8% in-fact, felt Ryback should retire and quit the business.
Now, Ryback is getting a second opinion, as he’s posted the same poll again, telling fans to not vote retire, and has said that his first
vote was plagued with ‘fraudulent votes.’ This new poll has backfired in a major way, as now more fans are voting for the Big Guy
to retire, with 68.8% of people responding saying he should hang up his singlet for good.
In the past, Ryback has claimed that his Twitter account is being illegally supressed, and whilst he’s now getting a lot of people
interacting with his tweets, the Big Guy doesn’t want to hear what the fans have to say.
More from SmackDown, and Women’s Champion Bianca Belair opened this week’s show, which quickly led into multiple
confrontations, a brawl, and eventually, a six-person tag-team match. With Belair and the Street Profits facing
Bayley and the Dirty Dawgz, the rules of these matches is that the men face the men and women face the women, but that didn’t
stop Belair from lifting Dolph Ziggler high into the air. Belair also woman-handled WWE’s longest-
reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley, but also had a direct impact on the outcome, that saw Robert Roode pinned.
While it's normal to protect a babyface champion, not many are made to look as good as Bianca Belair, as the company has
all the faith in the world in the EST of WWE.
More from NXT next, as the gold brand could soon be getting an influx of new Superstars.
The Wrestling Observer Newseltter reports that WWE is planning a talent-exchange partnership with MLW that’d allow some NXT
Superstars who struggle to get TV time a chance to showcase their skills in MLW. Stars from MLW would also get a test of what
working for WWE would be like, and WWE reportedly doesn’t like the reputation that they don’t work with other companies.
It was said that this’d be akin to the deal WWE had with Evolve a few years ago, or ECW back in the late 90s, before both
companies were bought by Vince McMahon. We’ll have to see if anything comes out of this idea, as there’s a ton of underused NXT
stars who could benefit from getting some TV exposure on MLW programming
More from SmackDown, and this week’s show saw not one, but two teams of champions be pinned, in some strange
storytelling to say the least. Not only did Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler lose (with Tamina Snuka busting out an
poorly-executed splash,) but Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler also lost, as it seems the only way storylines progress now is by
challengers pinning Champions. This seems to be the only-way to earn a title-shot now, and it does mean that some
of the mystique of a title match is lost when you’ve already seen the champion be pinned.
Given we’ve already seen the SmackDown and Women’s Tag Champions lose to their challengers, do you really want to see a
rematch, which the champions will presumably win thanks to WWE’s love of 50/50 booking.
It doesn’t help that these title units seem bland thanks to shoddy booking, and hopefully WWE figures out a way to let
storylines continue, without the champs constantly losing.
For the past few years, Bray Wyatt has been one of WWE’s most popular stars, but not everyone likes the Fiend.
On his latest Drive Thru podcast, Jim Cornette made his views on Wyatt clear, saying:
“Every time we see him it's garbage. It's goofy f**king puppets appearing out of nowhere. It's supernatural bull**it, black sludge vomit, being
killed in front of us and then just getting up or whatever… it's totally unsalvageable. That's not wrestling anymore. So I don't know what
the f**king attraction is that anybody would be entertained by this horses**t.”
Fans haven’t seen Wyatt since his WrestleMania 37 loss to Randy Orton, and he was absent formany months before then
too, and although the Fireflies may not like this, Jim Cornette would no-doubt be thrilled if fans never saw the former Universal
Champion ever again.
Back to NXT, and a deal with MLW isn’t the only big plan in the works, as new details have leaked about the gold brand’s upcoming
second show. In February, WWE had filmed a pilot show for an NXT Evolve show, with title belts already
designed for second brand, and now the Wrestling Observer is reporting that this show may be a digital exclusive programme.
They noted: There is also the idea of creating their own Evolve-like group as a weekly streaming
show, but this would allow the guys to work on actual television and get more exposure than on Peacock and also seem like they are
changing and modernizing. WWE reportedly wants to allieviate the frustration of many people on the roster
who don’t get to wrestle, and given how stacked the company’s roster is, a second NXT Show seems like the logical route to
give more people some much-needed screen-time.
One person fans won’t see is Andrade, who left WWE earlier this year, and now we know where he’s going next.
During a virtual press-conference for Federation Wrestling, the former NXT Champion appeared, and officially announced
that he’s joined the company. Andrade was also booked for a match, as he’ll team with RUSH, Bestia Del Ring and
mystery partner, to face Matt Taven, PJ Black and two surprise opponents.
This match will happen on their June 19th Pay Per View, and is Andrade’s second confirmed match since his WWE departure,
and the former Superstar is wasting no time getting back in the ring.
AEW news next, and recently, the Young Bucks appeared wearing some very familiar looking jackets, and this caught the attention
of someone important in WWE. Wearng black jackets with a fur lining, many fans saw these jackets as a dig at Seth Rollins
who wore a similar look last year, and it appears the Messiah was watching the Jackson brothers closely.
On Twitter, Rollins congratulated his jacket on a successful trip through “the Forbidden Door” a term AEW’s Tony Khan invented to talk about
wrestlers jumping across promotions. Though Rollins didn’t reference the Bucks or AEW by name, it’s clear what he was referring too,
as the SmackDown Superstar is very proud of his unique look.
Ever since the company was founded, AEW’s leaders has said that they’re different to WWE, and will change how the wrestling world operates.
For years, they’ve said how they won’t come at fans for creating videos and gifs, but it appears they’re back-pedalling on that promise.
This week, Maffew, the creator of Botchamania, tweeted that something big is happening with AEW’s YouTube channel, as they’re coming
after smaller creators in a major way. Some channels which just discuss AEW Games department have had strikes, whilst Maffew
himself has had 7 videos removed, and is close to having his entire channel banned.
Maffew acknowledged that it’s AEW’s content and they can choose what to do with it, but said it still sucks, especially as
the company has claimed it’s all for fan- created content. In response, AEW’s Aubrey Edwards told
Maffew to “hang tight,” saying they’re working to fix what’s happening, but that fix hasn’t happened yet.
At this time, AEW is still flagging a ton of videos and channels, as the company isn’t as fond of some fans as they claim to be.
permanently moving nights, fans will have to tune in on a different date later this year to find their weekly fix of AEW.
Now, Tessa Blanchard made history last year, when she became Impact’s first female World Champion, but her reign was
controversial to say the least. Shortly before her win, several accusations of bullying and racist language were made against
her, and it’s interesting that Blanchard hasn’t appeared anywhere else since leaving Impact.
Blanchard and fellow wrestler Daga married recently, and it seems they could be working together soon, as SE Scoops report that it’s
all but a formality until they are signed by AEW. Ringside News reports that WWE are aware
that Blanchard is available, but haven’t made any moves to sign her just yet, and we’ll have to see what AEW does next, and if her
controversial past will be a factor in any future contracts.
Back to WWE and last month, Molly Holly took her place in WWE’s Hall Of Fame, and thanked fans with an emotional, but noticeably
short speech. While speaking to Busted Open Radio recently, Holly revealed that she had a much longer
speech than what fans heard, saying she’d worked really heard on it, and added:
“A couple days before, they said, ‘Oh, never mind. You actually have two minutes to give your speech.’ I cried for like four hours.”
As such an integral part of women’s wrestling, it’s a wonder why WWE cut Molly’s speech down, as the former Women’s Champion
would’ve had some incredible stories from her many years in the business.
And we’re ending today with NXT referee Drake Wuertz, who has stirred up trouble with his promoting of debunked QAnon
conspiracies, which reportedly led to a brief suspension earlier this year. It turns out that this wasn’t a full suspension,
as in the Observer, it’s reported that during the last outbreak of positive cases in NXT, Wuertz was told to go home and not come back for two
weeks, but was paid the entire time. It isn’t believed that Wuertz tested positive, but that he was sent home out of precaution
after coming into contact with someone who did. Wuertz wasn’t wearing a mask during the
outbreak as he doesn’t believe in them, but his two-week ‘suspension’ from WWE had nothing to do with his belief in conspiracy theories.