WWE announces there are no plans for Roman Reigns to drop the Universal Championship, AEW set to release CM Punk and other wrestling updates

 

Roman Reigns is without question the top draw in not just WWE but the industry as a whole right now. The problem is WWE worked itself in a corner putting both top titles on him and hasn’t figured out how to resolve the controversy without having him lose cleanly. Therein lies the problem: WWE announced a few months back there are no plans for Roman Reigns to drop the Universal Championship this year and perhaps most foolishly, no plans for him to lose cleanly for the rest of this year.

The thing is, this past June USA Network told WWE they want the WWE Championship and a separate champion back. Roman Reigns is not only assigned to Smackdown but since April, he has transitioned to a part-time on-screen schedule. It’s not as bad as Lesnar just not being around for months but it’s still a problem RAW has not had a top (Male) Champion to anchor the brand since Lesnar lost the WWE Championship to Reigns at ‘Mania. When Reigns isn’t on TV, he’s making public appearances on behalf of the company or doing interviews on a monthly basis. That’s the difference between him and Lesnar.

All that said. A simple solution would just be to have Reigns vacate the WWE Championship on-screen. Might as well given it’s now publicly known Reigns is only booked to work two more matches in 2022–Crown Jewel and Survivor Series: War Games–and we know he will not lose cleanly. That takes a lot away from the Crown Jewel match where the titles will be contested against Logan Paul.

On a related subject. In an interview earlier this month, Reigns shut down the idea of his current character becoming a Babyface. He made it clear The Head of the Table character is exclusively Heel. Given how well-received the character has been since its debut two years ago, he has no reason or need to change things anytime soon.

He definitely should stay heel through 2023 even when he loses one or both titles. That’s a fair punishment for the WWE Universe for being so disrespectful to him for years. His episode of Peacock/WWE Network’s WWE: Evil sums things up quite well. Go watch it if you haven’t yet. I have experineced that kind of disrespect on a much smaller scale and I can tell you it sucks.

 

 

AEW just announced CM Punk will “never wrestle another match with the company again” which comes as no surprise. Last month, Punk dropped the AEW Championship in a brutal match to Jon Moxley. After the match, CM Punk exploded backstage and made an ultimatum to the locker room: “Either you’re with me or you’re against me.”

As soon as news broke online, the internet wasted no time pulling up the last time Punk had a meltdown. Back when he was in WWE 10 years ago. Commenting on CM Punk walking out on the company at the time, Triple H said Punk “Took his ball and went home”. That quote sparked outage among wrestling fans who lined up in droves to support CM Punk who they believed was being buried by WWE.

He played his fans, I’ll just put it like that. I mean his hardcore fans who ate up everything he said online and in interviews after his release from WWE. It was generally assumed “Punk did nothing wrong, WWE abuses their talent”. Fast forward to last month and now people are saying different. People are now seeing “WWE was right about him all along!”

It took 10 years but it’s now fair to say WWE and Triple H have been vindicated. This isn’t said enough but when Punk first walked out, Triple H personally when to his house to try to talk to him and Punk refused to talk to him. WWE did everything they could to try to resolve things with Punk and he didn’t want to talk. So, WWE had no choice but to cut its ties with him. When Fox hired Punk for FS1’s WWE Backstage, he was under contract only with Fox but not WWE unlike his co-hosts.

When CM Punk made his AEW debut last year, many AEW fans saw it as the beginning of the end of WWE’s dominance in North America. What didn’t get enough attention at the time was Punk’s arrival broke the dam on AEW talent who didn’t just come from WWE voicing their displeasure with ex-WWE guys being pushed so hard over them. The most famous example is of course MJF.

AEW’s got serious problems internally. Their recent purchase of Ring of Honor has turned into a messy affair with some ROH talent leaving for Impact or NJPW. Clearly some saw the writing on the wall and are getting out while they can. This is to say nothing of confirmed reports reports Triple H is reaching out to former WWE talent in AEW to see if there may be interest in their return.  We’ll see.

Bobby Fish is in a bit of a rough place to say the least. Fish, who was recently released by AEW–and who many expected to return to WWE–surprised everyone when he made his Impact debut. The story goes, Fish had heat with Punk in AEW. Punk went to Tony Khan about it and soon after it was announced Fish’s contract would not be renewed.

It’s worth noting just before his release was finalized, Fish said he was willing to “Go to war for Triple H” on social media. We’ll have to wait to find out why he ended up in Impact but given he debuted in Impact alone, it seems AEW talked Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reily out of following their former Undisputed Era stablemate.

In a recent interview, Braun Strowman revealed he couldn’t see himself working for any wrestling promotion other than WWE. He was pretty direct and firm as speculation had been swirling after his release from WWE on where he might end up. He has made various public appearances in various places under his real name Adam Scherr but if any promotions reached out to him, he’s keeping that info to himself.

It looks like Strowman has been assigned to the Smackdown roster. Even more interesting is apparently he will be a Babyface. As it happens, the recently returned Karrion Kross is also on Smackdown but will be a Heel. Drew McIntyre is the top Face on Smackdown. We will have to wait until next year to find out who of those three will get a shot at Reigns at the Royal Rumble and beyond.

MJF and Liv Morgan each dropped that picture via Twitter of themselves together earlier today. It’s drawing a LOT of buzz as speculation has been swirling for over a year MJF is on his way to WWE sooner than later. In a separate group picture with both of them featured, Liv Morgan is wearing her Smackdown Women’s Championship. It’s hard to believe she didn’t do that on purpose. Is it something or nothing? We’ll have to wait and see.

 

 

Current NXT Champion Bron Breakker sat down with his Hall of Fame father and uncle in the latest episode of Table for 3. One of the interesting things that came up that I was not expecting was when Bron’s father Rick Steiner turned to him and asked him where he got the name “Breakker” from as well as why he doesn’t use the “Steiner” name.

 

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, Candice LeRae is back!

The Poison Pixie made her WWE return and RAW debut almost a month after her husband did the same. It was also her first match since early last Spring. For those who might not know, LeRae is the wife of Johnny Gargano. She gave birth to their son Kole this past February. She did make on-screen appearances through most of last year until her husband’s NXT contract expired (hers expired a few months later). She is also now the third WWE Superstar to return to the ring after giving birth in the last 12 months–Becky Lynch and Lacey Evans being the other two–and hasn’t lost a step.

Gargano and LeRae going to RAW is quite refreshing and more so given how stacked Smackdown has become over the last two years. RAW needs more main event-level talent and more so given Reigns has both top titles. Bianca Belair’s been holding it down as the RAW Women’s Champion and it makes sense for WWE to have keep the title on her since ‘Maina. She’s earned it. We’ll have to wait and see if Bayley will be the one to beat her at Extreme Rules in a few weeks.

 

In recent interview, Bayley revealed she thinks herself and the other three Horsewomen of NXT–Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks–should have a Fatal Four Way Match at Wrestlemania next year with or without a title on the line as the main event for one of the two nights.

It’s been about 12 years in WWE for them now but it’s probably fair to say all four women are first ballot hall of famers. Charlotte’s a 14- time champion and Lynch won both titles at ‘Maina while Banks and Bayley have both done quite a lot in singles and tag runs. Next year would be the time to have WWE’s Four Horsewomen headline either ‘Maina or Summer Slam to say the least. Lynch should be back around or just after the Royal Rumble while Charlotte and Banks will be back by then as well.

Speakng of Banks. As everyone (should) know by now, Sasha Banks and Naomi negotiated their return to WWE two months ago. The main reason they haven’t redebuted on WWE TV yet is because as part of the terms, Banks and Naomi are on leave to do the promotional events you’ve seen them in online. They’re under contract for those public appearances and though he didn’t have to, Triple H is letting them finish those outside obligations since they agreed to them  before they renegotiated with WWE.

 

 

At a time when speculation around the possible soon return of Bray Wyatt to WWE has set wrestling fans ablaze, Seth Rollins broke his silence after three years in an interview on that fateful Hell in a Cell match he had with The Fiend. I’m referring to the one imfamously stopped by the referee. A rematch took place several weeks later at Crown Jewel and it ended with The Fiend winning the Universal Championship.

Commenting on the match ending by referee’s decision, Rollins publicly confirmed the match’s non-finish was Vince’s decision and was made the night of. At the time, The Fiend was MEGA popular but the timing wasn’t there for Rollins to drop the title yet. Vince realized too late he put two super popular superstars in a corner storywise so their match was doomed to end in a no contest.

Rollins did say at the end he would be very interested in getting in the ring with Bray Wyatt again (addressing him by his real name, Windham Rotunda). My guess is Rollins either doesn’t know his current status or if he does, he can’t say anything publicly.

 

Former WWE Superstar and current AEW Superstar Miro (Rusev in WWE) recently weighed in publicly on a potential return to WWE. He closed the door on the possability saying he has no interest in returning to WWE. He said he’s happy where he is now and is looking to do more as a professional wrestler.

Miro’s AEW contract is reportedly set to expire soon and if he’s not going back to WWE, he might decide to go to either Impact or NJPW. Time will tell.

The Good Brothers announced last month they will be stepping away from Impact and are heading to Japan to compete in NJPW. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson were among the first batch of former WWE superstars released during the pandemic two years ago. They went back to Impact and like FTR, their careers have been on the rebound. While they have not gone so far as to close the door on a potential WWE return, right now they are clearly happy doing what they’re doing now. WWE reportedly reached out to The Good Brothers a few weeks ago but talks didn’t go anywhere.

When they were released two years ago, their longtime friend AJ Styles was devastated as they were brothers to him. He took their releases so hard, he had to switch brands for a while. Styles himself signed a contract extension a few years ago and announced he will retire from wrestling when his time with WWE ends.

 

 

For those who might not know, former UFC Champion Daniel Cormier vs. Brock Lesnar was the UFC fight that ultimately never happened. About five years ago, Lesnar stepped into the octagon looking to challenge Cormier. Cormier has just retained his unfied title when Lesnar stepped to his face and shoved him, breaking the internet.

Their UFC match ultimately ended up not happening because Lesnar retired from UFC several months later. Cormier wasn’t going to let it go though. He basically said “If I can’t get my hands on Lesnar in the Octagon, no problem. I’ll step into his world.” Cormier’s involvement as the referee in Riddle and Rollins’ Fight Pitch Match at Extreme Rules is just to formally introduce him to the WWE Universe.

Recent pictures of Lesnar revealed he shaved his beard sometime after Summer Slam. That wasn’t just a cosmetic change he made. He’s preparing for yet another fantasy match likely to go down at Crown Jewel. Cormier started winding down his UFC career after Lesnar retired. He is all-in on having a run in WWE  to say the least (and hopefully he brings Connor McGregor with him).

 

On a related note.

Tyson Fury serenaded Drew McIntyre after his loss to Roman Reigns at the end of Clash at the Castle but it’s obvious the match between them teased two years ago might happen sooner than later. The Gypsy King retired from boxing earlier this year so he could turn his full attention to WWE. He’s been training in the WWE Performance Center since then as well.

Fury last competed in WWE opposite Braun Strowman at Crown Jewel in 2019. His boxing obligations forced him to leave after that but now that he’s free, he plans to be back in WWE full time. We could see Fury/Strowman II or Fury/McIntyre at Crown Jewel. Then again, a potential Strowman/Omos was teased on RAW this week. We’ll have to wait and see.

 

 

Although it’s not been announced, the WWE Draft will NOT be happening this year. It typically happens the week before the season premeires of RAW and Smackdown but for various obvious reasons, it’s being pushed to sometime in 2023. The common belief is it will happen sometime after ‘Maina 40.

WWE has had a number of notable redebuts since Triple H took over in July and he recently indicated more are planned. Given AEW and Impact have both started signing talent to longterm deals or giving contract extensions, that would lend credents to the reports WWE is actively reaching out to former talent either not signed anywhere or might be free soon.

I can’t begin to guess who might swap brands at this point–I can see a half-dozen or so NXT vets moving on in the coming months for example–but we’ll probably get a better idea by the end of March. The next few months are sure to be interesting.

 

If you have enjoyed this post or other posts I have made on this blog, please consider making a monetary donation via PayPal. Whatever amount you can provide would be greatly appreciated.