Former WWE NXT North American Champion Wes Lee came out to the ring alone, ready to address the fans following his crushing loss to champion Oba Femi at WWE NXT Heatwave, which robbed Lee of further opportunities at the North American Title, when he was surprised by some supportive faces from his past.
Former TNA World Tag Team Champions Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz, known as The Rascalz, made a surprise appearance on Tuesday, shocking the fans and their former fellow Rascal. The tandem’s appearance is yet another chapter in the cross-promotion between WWE and TNA, where Wentz and Miguel are currently employed, following in the footsteps of Kazarian, Joe Hendry, and TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace. Later in the night, the reunited trio were confronted by the dastardly Gallus, who threw cold water on the group’s reunion, leading to a six-man tag match set for next week’s “WWE NXT.”
AEW and ROH star Maria Kanellis has provided a health update via her social media accounts after experiencing some problems in recent weeks. Kanellis was last seen managing the trio of Anthony Henry, Cole Karter, and Griff Garrison on the June 20 edition of “ROH on HonorClub,” which was originally taped on June 8, and has been absent from tapings as of late.
“So fun story,” Kanellis wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Six months ago I asked to get my adrenal glands checked and blood work done to check hormone levels because of symptoms I had been having. Insurance would not approve the tests. Fast forward today, I had a CT with contrast to check a mass that was found accidentally during another test, that is either on my kidney or adrenal gland. Moral of the story… listen to your body.”
“So here is the update,” she wrote.” Yes it is a mass on my adrenal gland. Next step is meeting with an endocrinologist surgeon. It’s inconclusive at this point, if it is cancer. In other news, I ate French fries and a concrete mixer and I feel a little better.”
The adrenal glands, located just above the kidneys, produce hormones which are then released into the bloodstream. Masses on these glands can lead to increased hormone levels that can lead to things like high blood pressure and diabetes, and are often non-cancerous, with around one in ten cases being cancerous.
Bobby Steveson, better known as Damon Kemp to WWE fans, has been a member of the “WWE NXT” roster since 2021, initially debuting as part of Roderick Strong’s Diamond Mine stable and more recently joining the No Quarter Catch Crew. Now, however, it seems his days in WWE are over. On Monday, the 25-year old took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to reveal that he has officially left WWE.
“As of today, I am no longer under contract with WWE,” Steveson wrote. “Forever grateful for the people I met and the experiences I’ve had.”
As of today I am no longer under contract with WWE. Forever grateful for the people I met and the experiences I’ve had. For business inquiries – damonkempmgmt@gmail.com
Contrary to what many initially assumed, Steveson was not released by WWE. A report from Fightful Select revealed that WWE simply chose not to renew Kemp’s contract; he signed a multi-year deal in the summer of 2021. Fightful was told that Kemp was informed ahead of time that his contract would not be renewed, and that this was not part of a new round of talent cuts. Kemp was last seen on the June 25 edition of “WWE NXT,” where he lost an initiation match to Tavion Heights, who has since taken Kemp’s place in the No Quarter Catch Crew alongside Charlie Dempsey and Myles Borne.
Steveson is the older brother of controversial Olympian Gable Steveson, who was also signed by WWE in 2021 and was released back in May. Fightful noted that Bobby made a much better impression than Gable did on coaches, fans and backstage officials during their three years with the company.
The Wyatt Sicks continue to terrorize Chad Gable, complete with a third VHS tape delivery to commentary from Nikki Cross/Abby the Witch, after Bo Dallas revealed why the stable was going after the Alpha Academy leader in a video segment with his Uncle Howdy alter ego last week on “WWE Raw.” Last week, Dallas called Gable a “false prophet” who was belittling his family for his own gain. This week, the stable’s front man took things a step farther, appearing on “WWE Raw” for the first time without the Uncle Howdy mask since 2019 in a backstage segment.
As Gable was fighting fellow Money in the Bank ladder match contender Jey Uso following in the first match of the night, some of the lights in the arena went out while Gable had Uso in an ankle lock. Thanks to the distraction, Uso hit a spear and got the victory, then “yeeted” to the crowd and ran back in the ramp in the dark. All the lights in the arena then went out, the jarring piano tune signaling the arrival of the Wyatt Sicks began, and smoke filled the ring with Gable still in it. Cross/Abby then rose from underneath the ring once again, and Gable followed Uso up the ramp in complete darkness while the apparation once again put the box on the commentary desk, to be played later on the show.
When Michael Cole threw to the video from the commentary desk later in the night, Dallas delivered a monologue to the camera about his new family. He said he took in those that “no one wanted,” the discarded and forgotten. He said he gave them a purpose.
“They are so happy you remembered them,” Dallas said, as the video cut from the Firefly Funhouse characters to those who portray them behind the masks. Huskus the Pig was officially revealed to be the former Joe Gacy; Mercy the Buzzard, Dexter Lumis; Rambling Rabbit, Erick Rowan; and Abby the Witch, Nikki Cross.
“For grief is the price we pay for love,” Dallas can be heard saying as the video cut between characters. “So now we must set the captives free, so they need no master.”
The video of Dallas then kept cutting to show him as Uncle Howdy as he delivered the line, “Do you think we are sick?” and the over-modulated voice of Howdy from the tapes of weeks prior responded, “Yes, I do.”
“Then sick is what we’ll be,” Dallas said.
After the video, the broadcast cut to Gable backstage with “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce. Gable lamented to Pearce that he was being targeted by the Wyatt Sicks, to which Pearce responded, “If they’re coming after you, did you stop and think why that might be?” Gable said he would deal with the Wyatt Sicks himself. Pearce turned to walk into his office, where he found Dallas waiting for him. The last thing viewers saw was Pearce walking into his office and shutting the door.
Former Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley returned to “WWE Raw” on Monday following Dominik Mysterio and champion Liv Morgan’s mixed tag team victory over the LWO’s Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vega. Ripley had been out of action due to injury at the hands of Morgan, and was forced to vacate her championship. Prior to Ripley’s departure, Morgan declared her “Revenge Tour,” and after she won the championship from Becky Lynch at Crown Jewel, she set her sights on Ripley’s boyfriend, Dominik. Earlier in the night, Judgment Day’s Damian Priest was seen backstage taking a phone call, and asked whoever was on the line (presumably Ripley) where they were, foreshadowing her return to TV.
Dominik was initially reluctant to team with Morgan, who once again got him into compromising positions through the show, but they managed to pick up the win after Morgan threw a chair in the ring to distract the referee, then helped Dominik knock Rey from the top rope, allowing Dominik to hit the frog splash and get the pin, his first victory over his father. Dominik impulsively hugged Morgan in the ring before pushing the women’s champion away, but Morgan jumped into his arms, knocking them both down with Dominik on top. At long last, Dominik seemed about to give in to Morgan’s seduction efforts — which was when Ripley’s music hit, causing both Dominik and Morgan to go wide-eyed with terror.
Ripley stormed down the ramp while Morgan scurried off through the crowd, leaving Dominik in the ring to face “Mami.” The USA Network feed cut off before the segment could be resolved, but footage from after the cameras went dark show Ripley speaking angrily to Dominik before storming right back out of the ring and up the ramp, while a hapless Dominik attempts to follow her and explain himself. Interestingly, a video posted to WWE’s social media afterward shows Morgan watching the confrontation from behind the curtain before turning away with a smile on her face.
WWE will be transitioning through various programming changes in the near future, with “WWE Raw” heading to Netflix come January 2025 as well as “WWE Smackdown” moving to the USA Network and “WWE NXT” going to CW in October. However, according to Chief Content Officer and Head of Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque, “NXT” leaving the USA Network will not be the only change coming to the gold brand later this year.
Speaking at the Money in the Bank 2024 post press conference, “The Game” went into detail about WWE planning ahead toward making more changes to “NXT” in the fall. He also explained that, over time, the audience will see various differences to “Raw” and “SmackDown” as we inch closer to December.
“We are just getting started. I really feel like that. We got a whole fall thing coming up with CW for NXT. Which by the way Shawn is just killing it right… Whether that’s talent development, recruitment, NXT in general. I can’t say enough good stuff about it. I’m in awe of what they’re doing down there… When they move to CW, when SmackDown makes the move to USA, when Raw makes the move to Netflix. We’re just getting rolling. We’re lining up all this stuff that’s gonna happen. A lot of the changes you see now, we are slow rolling things out. When we get to the fall, when we get to the winter, there’s gonna be a lot.”
Triple H also expressed how excited he is about John Cena returning to the ring for a full year after announcing his retirement at Money in the Bank. Furthermore, he stated how grateful he is to be running creative with the current talent on the WWE roster.
Sam Robert & Megan Morant previewed the card for tonight’s show. For the kickoff match, they transitioned to the broadcast team of Booker T. Huffman & Vic Joseph to transition into the opening match.
Karmen Petrovic & Arianna Grace def. Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx via Pinfall (O’Connor Roll from Petrovic on Nyx).
Axiom was frustrated that Nathan Frazer had arrived at the arena for their NXT Tag Title defense, but Frazer showed up and said he had travel difficulties. He then asked Axiom what was the game plan for tonight.
Main Show
Vic Joseph & Booker T. Huffman welcomed the audience to the broadcast before transitioning into the opening match.
NXT North American Championship Match: Oba Femi (c) def. Wes Lee via Pinfall (Pop-Up Powerbomb).
With the result of this match, Wes Lee cannot challenge for the NXT North American Title while Oba Femi is the champion.
NXT Women’s North American Championship Match: Kelani Jordan (c) def. Sol Ruca via Pinfall (Split-Leg Moonsault).
Gallus (Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey & Wolfgang) called out Tyriek Igwe & Tyson Dupont on a promo from Twitter saying it did not matter how many people they could tackle when they could still get a beating.
Ava congratulated Karmen Petrovic & Arianna Grace on their win tonight but said Grace was why they won. Ava then booked Grace to face Petrovic for the 7/9 edition of NXT.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Super Sonic Duo (Nathan Frazer & Axiom) (c) def. Chase University (Andre Chase & Duke Hudson) (w/ Thea Hail & Riley Osbourne) via Pinfall (Golden Ratio from Axiom on Chase).
Wes Lee was interviewed backstage expressing he was extremely frustrated from the loss tonight. He said he would address the situation on Tuesday.
There was a video package of The Family (Tony D’Angelo, Adrianna Rizzo, Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo & Luca Crucifino).
There was a video vignette, where Shawn Michaels invited Brooks Jensen to sit down with the NXT General Manager on the 7/9 edition of NXT.
Lexis King cut a promo celebrating the 4th of July before calling out Tony D’Angelo to a match for the NXT Heritage Cup.
In a video promo posted by Tony D’Angelo on his Twitter (X) account, D’Angelo accepted King’s challenge and promised to slap the fake-ass beard from King’s face and go back to gardening his basil.
NXT Championship – Fatal Four Way Match: Ethan Page def. Trick Williams (c), Je’Von Evans & Shawn Spears via Pinfall (Lay Down Pin on Evans) to win the title.
With this win, Page became the first Canadian wrestler since Bobby Roode in 2017 to win the NXT Championship.
After the match, a brief shot of Joe Hendry smiling to the camera was shown to end the broadcast.
While Damian Priest emerged with his WWE World Heavyweight Championship still in hand after WWE Money in the Bank, he also emerged to viral videos highlighting an in-ring mistake of his. The mistake in reference occurred when Seth Rollins laid out Priest with a Falcon Arrow, to which Priest was meant to kick out of. As the referee’s hand inched closer to the three count, though, Priest’s shoulder remained firmly planted on the mat. Nevertheless, the referee ruled that Priest had kicked out of the pinfall attempt. At the Money in the Bank post-show press conference, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque addressed the confusing spot.
“Human beings in a ring, mistakes happen, things happen. It is what it is,” Levesque said. “It’s funny, for me, now looking at that, if that was something I was involved in as a talent, I don’t care how good the rest of it was, that would be all I would think about. To me, it’s a shame that that’s all people will talk about, and that’s all people will hit Damian Priest with, while he had a phenomenal performance tonight. But a bunch of people will attack that, criticize that, comment on that.”
Knowing that the negative aspects of a match can sometimes eclipse the positive, Levesque further wishes he could have powered off Priest’s phone to allow him the proper space and time to reflect on all the shining moments in his WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign. “He has stepped up to a place where when you see him as a performer now, I feel like I’m watching a champion come out. I feel like I’m watching a top tier guy,” Levesque said.
Despite the questions surrounding Priest’s kickout, or lack thereof, Levesque asserts that the referee’s decision stands, and Priest remains the WWE World Heavyweight Champion. Looking ahead, Priest now turns his attention to WWE SummerSlam, where he is slated to defend his title against the 2024 King of the Ring, GUNTHER.
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