Tamyra Mensah-Stock officially Signs with WWE, Sonya DeVille’s attempted kidnapper sentanced and other non-draft Updates

It’s now official: Tamyra Mensah-Stock is a WWE Superstar.

WWE.com confirmed ESPN’s announcement of the signing. Mensah-Stock gained national fame for being the first black woman to win a Gold Medal at the Tokyo Olympics in Freestyle Wrestling. During an interview with NBC Sports, she revealed she wants to be a WWE Superstar. She would later join fellow Black Olympic Gold Medalist and NIL WWE signee Gable Steveson in the ring at Summer Slam 2021 where the two were publicly acknowledged for their accomplishments at the Olympics.

Speaking of Steveson. He’s set to make his RAW debut any time. It’s just a matter of timing at this point in regards to him. There’s been a lot going on in WWE in recent months plus he’s been focused on other things since he signed with the company almost two full years ago. His younger brother is a trainee in the WWE Performance Center as well. As he explained in recent interviews, right now it’s about WWE booking his main roster debut. He does plan to train to compete in the 2024 Olympics in Paris but obviously would like to make his main roster debut before then.

 

I planned to talk about something related to this when news on Sonya Deville’s stalking case broke on Wednesday. The man charged with attempting kidnapping has been sentanced to 15 years in prison plus 15 years probation. I’m not saying his name but a few years ago, a deranged stalker followed DeVille home. When he was arrested, rope and other implements were found in the suspect’s car meaning he was planning to kidnap her and possibly her fiance as well.

The news of this conviction comes about two months after video footage of scalpers stalking Rey Mysterio and Rhea Ripley at airports for autographs hit social media. Even worse is they tried to frame Rey Mysterio as “refusing to autograph for fans” when he finally put his foot down in the footage uploaded to social media. People like that are not “fans”, they’re profiteers. WWE, AEW, ROH, Impact and NJPW all need to crack down on the practice to put a stop to that.

That aside. Most REAL wrestling fans–more so now–understand and respect the fact aside from being public figures, wrestlers/superstars are not that different from everyone else at the end of the day. That includes being entitled to some privacy when they’re not on the clock. Especially when they’re out somewhere with their family.

I think of that Table for 3 episode from about 5 years ago featuring the wives of Randy Orton (Kim Orton), Matt Hardy (Reby Hardy) and Kurt Angle (Giovanna Angle). One of the things their wives touched on was navigating family time in public places. While they understand their husbands are public figures all too well, there is a time and a place for everything. They put it on not just the fans but to an extent their husbands to set boundaries when they’re with their families in a public place. That’s pretty fair and more so since they’re on the road most of the time already. The only time they usually spend time with family is when they’re sidelined with an injury.

I live in Boston. It’s not uncommon to see a pro athlete, politician or actor in public places every now and then. The only time you see a crowd is when there’s a movie shoot going on, a politician is at an event or a public figure is at an advertised public event. Aside from that, people mind their business up here. Most of us have something called RESPECT.

 

I’m sure many have heard the news by now but as of last week, Trinity Fatu FKA Naomi in WWE is now on Impact Wrestling.

She recently broke her silence about what went down on that day she and Mercedes Vernado FKA Sasha Banks walked out on WWE last year. Most online publications as well as myself were VERY careful with speculation regarding her and Mercedes’ reasons for walking out of WWE. Mercendes shared her perspective immediately after it happened but when WWE Officials saw radio silence from Trinity, they set to work setting the narrative the whole thing was Mercedes’ doing and she pulled Trinity into it.

Trinity has now revealed she was basically close to quitting when everything went down and it was only because of fan support she didn’t outright quit the business. Obviously not anytime soon but I do think we will see Trinity return to WWE at some point in the future personally. Her husband being Jimmy Uso certainly helps with that. She has a path back into WWE when she’s ready. Mercedes revealed a few months back she would be open to returning to WWE if the opportunity presented itself at some point in the future too.

 

As I speculated in the previous article, The Way may in fact be getting back together =O

The May 2 episode of NXT ended with Indy Hartwell vacating the NXT Women’s Championship. She won the title in a fatal 5-way ladder match at NXT Stand & Deliver during Wrestlemania weekend and defended it in a triple threat match last week with Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton. During her title defense, she suffered a high ankle sprain on her right ankle and left the match for a while, temporarily making it a 1 on 1 match.

NXT officials reportedly planned to have Stratton win the title but Hartwell was cleared to rejoin the match. If you pay attention when she returns you can see her talking to the ref during some brief downtime in the action. The ref then walks over to Stratton and Perez presumably to let them know the revised plan for the finish. Hartwell pins Perez to retain after Stratton is dumped out of the ring.

The next day, Hartwell would share a picture of herself on social media wearing a walking boot on her right leg. She would then be drafted to RAW. Vacating the NXT Women’s Championship this week makes sense for those two reasons as well as the fact the NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions were drafted to Smackdown. Even though she’ll likely be sidelined due to her injury for a little while, we could still see her used in backstage promos or prerecorded skits with Dexter Lumis and the Garganos who were all also drafted to RAW.

 

Ah, the WWE PC/Thunder Dome Era. Still hard to believe it lasted for 18 months, yes?

As everyone knows, WWE’s Thunder Dome concept is based on what the NBA did for the 2019-20 NBA Playoffs: House everything in one or two centralized locations. WWE basically lived in Florida for 18 months. When WWE was not able to travel around North America due to the Pandemic, RAW and Smackdown were moved into the WWE Performance Center in Olrlando.

After seeing what the NBA did in Disney World, WWE adapted and expanded the concept to create the Thunder Dome. The Amway Center in Orlando hosted the Thunder Dome during the NBA’s offseason while Tropicana Field hosted the Thunder Dome during MLB’s offseason. There were a few scheduling conflicts but the NBA and MLB worked with WWE to make things work.

The WWEPC/Thunder Dome Era will unfortunately mostly be remembered by wrestling fans for the dozens of on-air talent who were released within the first 8 months. Despite the circumstances, some of the best storylines in the history of the business took place during what some fans refer to as The Pandemic Era.

Here’s a few:

• Roman Reigns returns as a Heel, begins 3+ year reign as Universal Champion
• The Undertaker retires
• Main Event Jey Uso
• Dark Alexa is born
• Rated RKO Feud
• Bayley and Sasha Banks become Double Champions as Women’s Tag Team Champions
• Asuka becomes a Double Champion (RAW and Women’s Tag Team Champion)
• Banks and Bayley Feud, ending in Hell in a Cell
• The Hurt Business Dominates RAW
• Big E emerges on Smackdown and establishes himself as a Singles Competator
• Braun Strowman and Bray Wyatt Feud
• Samoa Joe transitions to commentary work
• Keith Lee becomes NXT’s first Double Champion with both singles titles
• The Street Profits, Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley make impacts on RAW
• Matt Riddle makes a splash on Smackdown
• Carmella redebuts with Reginald (AKA Reggie FKA SCRYPTS)
• Dominik Mysterio debuts as a WWE Superstar against Seth Rollins
• The Mysterios become the first Father-Son Team to become Tag Team Champions
• The Miz becomes WWE Champion
• Bobby Lashley becomes WWE Champion
• Iyo Sky (FKA Io Shirai) becomes NXT Women’s Champion
• Braun Strowman becomes Universal Champion
• Randy Orton sets The Fiend on Fire in third-ever Inferno Match
• RAW Underground
• The Retribution stable

That’s just off the top of my head. A lot happened to say the least. Some like Ninja Omos are obviously forgettable. Everything Iisted above and more certainly is not. One of the nuances of perfoming with no fans present is talent could actually get through promos uninterrupted by the crowd’s reactions.

If you ever wondered why promos last a bit longer and have a bit more depth compared to pre-Pandemic, that’s why. Superstars also had to get SUPER creative to maximize airtime and more so since there was no live crowd to lean on. Wrestling legends of the past have told current talent one after another although they don’t think they would have been able to adapt, they’ve been impressed with how well current talent in not just WWE but AEW and other promotions performed under the circumstances.

I know that even though to an extent even WWE doesn’t really talk about stuff that happened during the Pandemic Era, it happened. I’d stop short of saying WWE is trying to forget that era ever happened but as I noted above, a LOT of big stuff happened during that time and helped set things up for WWE’s return to traveling again and performing in front of live crowds again after Summer Slam 2021. Wrestlemania 37 (2021) was held in front of a live audience but they returned to The Thunder Dome format until after Summer Slam to allow time for shows in front of the public to be scheduled and booked in advance.

 

WWE’s Peacock deal is set to expire in 2025 and a few months after new sister company UFC’s ESPN+ deal is set to expire. WWE President Nick Khan revealed in a recent press conference regarding WWE’s Q1 2023 earnings although the company is locked in with Peacock for a few more years, nothing is set in stone after that.

There’s been a bit of speculation since UFC’s parent company bought WWE during Wrestlemania weekend WWE may be open to reverting to a PPV model after the Peacock deal expires. As things are now, WWE’s PLEs (Premium Live Events) like ‘Mania, Backlash and Money in the Bank are free with Peacock (and WWE Network outside the U.S.).

Given monthly Peacock subscriptions are as low as $10 and annual subscriptions are $100, the company has seen a rise in viewership mostly for that reason. I plan to renew my annual subscription in September but this time not just for WWE-related content. I’ve been watching Bel Air since last year and this July, a TV adaptation of the Playstation video game series Twisted Metal is going to premeire on Peacock (!).

Before I forget. Peacock is owned by NBC Universal, which is USA Network’s parent company. NBC Universal started moving Olympics coverage to Peacock when it comes around and in recent years. Peacock has started streaming select movies before their home releases. Violent Night, M3gan and Cocaine Bear are three such movies currently available on NBC’s flagship streaming platform.

No question WWE programming is Peacock’s strongest asset. As a reminder, WWE shut down their own streaming service in the U.S. when the Peacock deal was first announced back in 2020. In exchange, WWE migrated all of their programming to Peacock. One sticking point NBC Universal hopefully pushes for is more original content.

WWE has been making content for A&E, Bravo and other cable networks for some time now but Peacock hasn’t gotten any new original noteworthy content since the Ric Flair documentary. I am being mindful talent have been busy with all kinds of stuff over the last 12 months. There’s also the McMahon situation and now Endeavor buying the company during Wrestlemania weekend. They haven’t really had much time to make original content but that needs to change ASAP.

 

 

The new World Heavyweight Championship belt will be awared at Night of Champions. It was rumored for months WWE was considering introducing a new belt but this was not what wrestling fans either expected or wanted in hindsight. There’s also the fact Triple H admitted during the reveal they’re bringing the title back so RAW can have its own top champion again.

According to some new reports that broke this week, Roman Reigns could remain the Undisputed Universal Champion until September 2024. WWE worked itself in a corner putting both the Universal Championship and the WWE Championship on one guy with no offramp in mind. I don’t have a problem with Reigns breaking the all-time record held by Bruno Sammartino–Reigns would need to hold the Universal Championship for at least 7 more years–but the thing is right now WWE has the RAW and Smackdown brands with their own sets of titles. I do think the RAW and Smackdown tag titles will be split up again sooner than later on that note.

One title wrestling fans as well as some women’s wrestlers have been clamoring for ever since the 24/7 Championship was discontinued last year is a midcard women’s title. I mean an Intercontinental Championship or U.S. Championship for the Women’s Division. It would likely have to be a cross-brand title like the current Women’s Tag Team titles are but it would be helpful and more so given Bianca Belair has held the RAW Women’s Championship for over a year herself now. She first won it from Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania 38 and retained it when she faced Asuka at Wrestlemania 39 last month. She has more than earned the long reign but it could end when she faces Iyo Sky this coming weekend. Both of them were drafted to Smackdown so either way there will be a title swap with Rhea Ripley, who holds the Smackdown Women’s Championship or her Backlash challenger Zelina Vega if the title changes hands. We’ll see.

 

At this point, it’s probably fair to say Benito aka Bad Bunny is the biggest celebrity ever to cross into WWE on several fronts. He is not only the biggest artist in the entertainment world right now but is a bonafide WWE superstar. Randy Orton gave rare praise in a press conference after Wrestlemania 37 for Bad Bunny, calling him a bonafide WWE Superstar.

Honestly, I would not be surprised at all if Bad Bunny is given another title run at some point. As a reminder, he held the 24/7 Championship for a few weeks in 2021. I could see him becoming a tag team champion or winning either the Intercontinental Championship or the U.S. Championship. That’s how good he is.

One thing I couldn’t help but enjoy during the build to Backlash was WWE letting Bad Bunny, Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Dominik Mysterio and Damian Priest cut their promos in Spanish with no English translation. I’m not just saying that because Backlash is taking place in Puerto Rico either.

 

 

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Breaking News: WWE Opens The Forbidden Door with 2021 Women’s Royal Rumble Match

She’s a familiar face but even so, this is MAJOR. For those who don’t know, WWE Legend Mickie James is the current Impact Knockouts Champion which both Impact and WWE are separately acknowledging in mentions of her already. On January 8, James successfully defended her title in a rematch with former NXT Superstar Deonna Parozzo, ensuring she will enter the Royal Rumble as Impact Knockouts Champion.

Assuming James doesn’t test positive for COVID-19 and is forced to miss the event, she will be the first wrestler signed with another promotion to appear in WWE. We’ll have to wait and see if she comes out with her title and which entrance theme is used. Her theme from Impact or her WWE Entrance theme. For those who don’t know, James previously spent time in Impact after her first WWE run ended. Many former Female NXT superstars who weren’t main event-level that were released in recent years have made their way to Impact as well.

Like I said, this is a historic announcement.

I’ve mentioned this many times before but until now, WWE never acknowledged other promotions by name in the context of storytelling. That changed last year when Stone Cold Steve Austin interviewed former AEW Champion and current AEW Superstar Chris Jericho. That was a watershed moment. As for how that happened, Austin revealed he texted Vince McMahon to get the OK and Vince texted him back saying “Go for it”.

It’s also worth mentioning Impact collaborated with AEW for almost two years though it seems that relationship ended sometime last year. Kenny Omega famously held both the AEW and Impact Championships at the same time for quite a while. You also saw Impact Superstars appearing on AEW and vice versa. Commenting on their partnership after it ended, an Impact official said he’s not sure their company benefited much from their partnership with AEW.

Will this lead to say, Charlotte Flair appearing on Impact? Time will tell.

As it happens, the Smackdown Womens Champion is also announced to be in the Women’s Royal Rumble match. This is the second time in two years a current top title holder will appear in the Royal Rumble match. Brock Lesnar did it in 2020 (Drew McIntyre won the match that year) though like was the case then, Charlotte’s title is not on the line. She said if she wins the match, she will pick her own challenger. When she won in 2020, Charlotte shocked everyone and picked then NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley to face at Wrestlemania 36, beating her for the title.

WWE Hall of Famers The Bella Twins, Lita, Summer Rae and Michelle McCool are a few names who will headline this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble. We always find out who will make up about half of each Royal Rumble roster in advance though the rest are kept a secret until the event itself. More names will be revealed in the coming weeks.

I almost forgot to include this part. In case it’s not obvious by now, WWE is REALLY shorthanded due to the talent releases over the last two years. This is being felt even more in the Women’s Division and the fact that they have announced over half of the roster in advance tells me they are still trying to fill the Women’s Rumble roster. Charlotte’s gonna be in the match despite being the current Smackdown Women’s Champion though so will current 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke. My guess is Mandy Rose, Raquel Gonzales, Io Shirai and a few others from NXT will be called in to fill some slots.

It’s not much better on the Mens side though a surprise return by John Cena or The Rock in the Royal Rumble Match could be real interesting. Mickie James and Lita make the Womens Royal Rumble much-watch so WWE is probably gonna feel pressured to announce a big name or two for the Mens Royal Rumble.

…Could we see CM Punk, Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley or even MJF from AEW? In the immortal words of Triple H, never say never. According to some credible rumors, MJF is VERY interested in making his way to WWE sooner than later. Hmm…

 

The sudden and abrupt releases of both William Regal and Samoa Joe this week were quite the shock to say the least. Now there are reports NXT staff and talent are very concerned about the future of the brand after Vince McMahon’s hostile takeover last year.

For those who might not remember or know, WWE executives took over operational control of NXT last summer. The only reason it didn’t happen sooner is likely because of the Pandemic. This was done in the aftermath of NXT moving from Wednesday nights opposite AEW Dynamite to Tuesday nights the year before.

NXT switched to Tuesday Nights after being on a months long ratings losing streak to AEW Dynamite. The change did help NXT recover but the damage to Triple H’s reputation as the creator of NXT was already done. The introduction of the “new” NXT 2.0 was the most visible change made to date.

This is of course aside from established NXT talent like Ember Moon, Johnny Gargano and The Undisputed Era being let go. Tommaso Ciampa and Roderick Strong will presumably be the next to be let go after dropping their respective titles at New Year’s Evil. It’s no wonder there is a lot of uncertainty by those who remain in NXT be it talent, staff or otherwise.

After having NXT taken from him, Triple H has quietly gone back to his duties at WWE HQ in Stamford. Meanwhile, Shawn Michaels has been working as a trainer at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. The Undertaker is likely to formally become a trainer as he’s already been spending a lot of time there in recent years.

 

One recent return to the ring everyone saw coming was WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix at Day One. After working as an NXT commentator for 5 years, Phoenix suddenly announced via social media a few days before War Games 2021 that would be the last event she worked as a commentator. She said she was stepping away as a commentator to spend more time at home with her family and as was revealed, that wasn’t her only reason.

The Glamazon revealed in her January 5 appearance on The Bump storyline reasons were why she waited until now to work alongside her husband onscreen. It had to make sense for both of their respective characters and the current version of Edge–a fusion of all of his past characters as well as himself–makes sense for her character.

Then she took it a step further and said she’ll probably be around beyond her booked mixed tag match with The Miz and Maryse. She specifically named Becky Lynch as someone she’d like to get in the ring with, making reference to Lynch’s husband Seth Rollins invading her home last year. Weather that meeting happens one on one or mixed tag remains to be seen but everyone knows she can hold her own against literally anyone regardless of gender. She was the second woman after Chyna to appear in a Mens’ Royal Rumble after all.

 

 

On a related note. Speculation of The Rock’s next return to WWE persist but rumors of the return of another icon from the Attitude Era is picking up steam. I’m specifically talking about none other than WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin.

About three years ago, Austin revealed he’s been in the best shape of his life since he retired from wrestling. He chose his words carefully because he knows Vince McMahon doesn’t like it when he publicly talks about making a return to the ring. For those who might not know or remember, Austin suffered a career-shortening neck injury not long after he came to WWE in the late 1990s. There was a noticable change with his wrestling style after the injury which he often talks about. Before the injury, he was more of a technical wrestler but he became more of a brawler out of necessity after the injury. Austin’s last match was in 2003 at Wrestlemania 19.

Had Austin not suffered the neck injury several years earlier, he could have continued for at least 4 or 5 more years. The Ruthless Aggression Era that introduced us to John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar among others certainly would have been different if Austin was still around to say the least but I’ll save that for a separate post.

Instead, let’s get to the more interesting question: Assuming Austin returns for at least one more match at Wrestlemania 38, who should he face?

Here’s my short list:

• Randy Orton: Everyone would LOVE to see The Legend Killer go up against the biggest WWE legend he never had the opportunity to face in the ring. The Viper vs. The Rattlesnake. WOOT!
• Kevin Owens: Master vs. Student? Stunner vs. Stunner?! YES, please!
• Shawn Michaels: Well…they ARE both from Texas. Plus, it wouldn’t be the first time they headline Wrestlemania if it happens. I watched their encounter at Wrestlemania 14 in Boston in person.
• Jon Moxley: Tony Khan wouldn’t mind loaning him to WWE if there is mutual interest.
• Goldberg: They never really crossed paths during their respective careers though obviously they know each other well outside the ring.

All those make the most sense to me. Should be interesting regardless of who is booked to face Austin 3:16 at Wrestlemania 38.

 

Two years ago before the Pandemic shut down the world, there were rumors Impact was looking to buy ROH. Those plans were put on hold due to the Pandemic. Strapped for cash, both companies collaborated with AEW and even traded title holders across each company’s respective shows. With things having now stabilized, it looks like talks likely continued between Impact and ROH, more so with the Invasion angle at Hard to Kill on January 8.

A potential buyout might seem odd but given Impact has now opened The Forbidden Door with WWE, suddenly a merger with ROH is much more profitable. AJ Styles was the biggest star to come from Impact while Kurt Angle revived his wrestling career with the company after his first WWE run ended.

This is nothing more than speculation on my part but I would not be surprised at all if WWE starts sending their Performance Center trainees and NXT Talent to Impact to work with their talent and get some experience in front of live crowds. This is to say nothing of the fact WWE has been trying to get Impact’s match footage involving AJ Styles, Kurt Angle and others for some time. Don’t be surprised if said matches suddenly show up on WWE Network on that note.

Impact and ROH got the lion’s share of WWE’s talent releases over the last two years. Yes AEW got most of the then main event-level talent but in terms of numbers, Impact and ROH got much more. As some folks have pointed out, WWE mentioned Impact more in 12 hours than AEW did over 12 months. That’s because most don’t know WWE and Impact have been talking to each other for at least the least 5 years if not longer.

 

 

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