WWE RAW Preview 5/20/2024

Tonight’s WWE Raw live on the USA Network from the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.

  • King of the Ring Semifinal Match: Gunther vs. Jey Uso
  • Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match: Lyra Valkyria vs. IYO SKY
  • WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable in a non-title match

Backstage Details On Why Some WWE NXT Names Were Recently Cut

WWE released several “NXT” talents during its latest round of mass cuts, and Fightful Select has revealed why some of those performers were let go. 

Valentina Feroz and Boa were reportedly cut as they spent a lot of time on the sidelines through injury, which ultimately derailed their progress as they weren’t given enough opportunities to show what they could do. Meanwhile, Trey Bearhill was released due to his perceived similarities with Eddy Thorpe, but his departure came as a shock to many WWE employees behind the scenes.

Despite joining the promotion as an established celebrity who was touted for big things, WWE released the controversial Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson during the mass cuts. However, this didn’t come as a shock to many backstage, as he wasn’t progressing at a decent rate. Booker T echoed these views when he reacted to Steveson’s WWE departure, noting that the former Superstar didn’t have the hunger or drive as he still had the amateur wrestling bug in his system.

Some “WWE: Next Gen” talents, including Julian Baldi, were also released during the wave of cuts. According to Fightful, the performers weren’t allowed to announce their contract status until after the show had aired, though their deals technically began after the reality series debuted. The report also claims that Drew Gulak is still employed by WWE, but he’s been informed that his contract won’t be renewed. Gulak was reportedly released in the wake of Ronda Rousey accusing him of grabbing the drawstring on her sweatpants backstage at a WWE show.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Another Wyatt-Themed QR Code Flashes On WWE SmackDown, Commentary Addresses Storyline

The trail of clues and mystique via QR codes on WWE programming forged forward on “WWE SmackDown,” with simpler content behind it than “Raw’s” 20 pictures to sift through and a far shorter duration than Thursday’s 55-minute takeover of WWE’s Twitch stream.

On July 16, 2020, the WWE On FOX YouTube channel released a video of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt attending a therapy session with a psychiatrist named Rachel Bonnetta, who attempted to provoke Wyatt into speaking. Unfortunately for Bonnetta, her efforts were interrupted by a brief electricity blackout that resulted in Wyatt taking her place in the nearby chair, while Bonnetta mysteriously disappeared. Four years later, Bonnetta has now been found (albeit under a different name) alongside a cinematic recap of the Wyatt-related clues recently supplied by WWE.

Thursday afternoon, a new 55-minute WWE Twitch video opened with snippets from the July 8, 2013 episode of “WWE Raw,” which notably served as the main roster debut of The Wyatt Family. About two minutes in, however, the stream began to dramatically glitch before revealing an empty chair. This seat was later occupied by the aforementioned psychiatrist, Rachel Bonnetta, who appeared under the name of Wendy Lucho — a “missing” woman — in a series of images linked to a QR code seen on this week’s episode of “WWE Raw.”

Throughout the Twitch video, Bonnetta can be seen conferring with an unidentified client that later indicates that they’ve finally found their true purpose and family. As the conversation between client and psychiatrist progresses, flashes of QR codes emerge, routing back to several previous clues and messages reportedly connected to a new Bray Wyatt-themed stable.

But Friday’s reveal may have contained the spookiest breadcrumbs dropped yet.

This time it was more straight to the point, at least in the propped up landing page content itself. There was no optical illusion to solve to get there; no step-by-step, one-little-clue-at-a-time journey upon which to embark. Instead, the QR code that flashed during the tag team match between DIY and Legado del Fantasma led straight to a video wrought with the glitches with which we’ve become so familiar, flickering on and off through an image of a picture of a child in a Halloween-style costume getup, laid upon several drawings of the glyph of Pluto we’ve seen time and again. The audio in the clip says first, in a robotic voice, “He is nobody. He is all of us,” over and over again as it zooms in on the picture until it gets so close it goes out of focus. At that point, with the screen black, the voice asks, “Do you want to meet him?” before the video cuts to a black-and-white, grainy image of a hooded and/or masked figure staring back us.

But in digging past just the video itself, as has become customary in this saga, there was more to decipher.

The slug in the landing page is 22423, which refers to February 24, 2023 — the date of Bray Wyatt’s last appearance on WWE television, in a Firefly Fun House episode that also featured Uncle Howdy as the weatherman in a broadcast of “Fun House News.” When Wyatt and Ramblin’ Rabbit cut to Howdy, all he says is, “I am all of us.” The segment then ends with Wyatt promoting a game show called, “Can You Keep a Secret?” before it cuts to Wyatt in a black mask, asking, “If I told you a story, could you keep a secret?”

Meanwhile, images that flickered ever-so-briefly during the glitches in Friday’s video itself included a wooded area, an old promo from Waylon Mercy (a character portrayed in WWE by Dan Spivey in 1995 from whom Windham Rotunda drew inspiration for his Wyatt character, and whose name Joe Gacy, another name rumored to be a part of this eventual faction reveal, has invoked in the past as well), a woman looking terrified and/or tortured, what fans have suggested was a figure that looked like Uncle Howdy in the crowd at Monday’s “Raw” during a commercial break, and what looked to be the door from which Wyatt emerged at his 2022 Extreme Rules return, slightly opened, with light shining through.

Once again, as was the case on Monday, the announce team acknowledged the interruption, with Corey Graves and Wade Barrett remarking on the recurrence of these instances, seemingly indicating that the ultimate reveal could very well be imminent.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE SmackDown Preview 5/17/2024

WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FOX from the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.

  • King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Randy Orton vs. Carmelo Hayes
  • King of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Tama Tonga vs. LA Knight
  • Queen of the Ring Quarterfinals Match: Nia Jax vs. Jade Cargill
  • Queen of the Ring Quarterfinal Match: Bianca Belair vs. Tiffany Stratton
  • Cody Rhodes and Logan Paul contract signing for their champion vs. champion match at King and Queen of the Ring on May 25

Ivar Dealing With Spinal Injury, Surgery Possible

In a post on X, Andrew Sports Medicine announced that Ivar is working with them to overcome a spinal injury. WWE previously announced that the Viking Raider was out with an injury following an attack by Gallus on Tuesday’s episode of NXT. While it wasn’t been announced that he had surgery, WWE stars usually do so after going to the facility.

Ivar was previously advertised for next week’s episode but WWE noted he will be out of action indefinitely.

Source: 411Mania

Charlotte Flair Starring In Upcoming Horror Film ‘You Lose You Die’

Deadline has reported that Charlotte Flair has been cast in a leading role for the upcoming indie horror/thriller You Lose You Die alongside Freddy Rodriguez.

The film is written and directed by Carlos “Spiff TV” Suarez, with Rodriguez, Josue “Sway” Mendez, and Ulysses Terrero serving as executive producers.

The synopsis of the film, which is in preproduction as of this writing, reads:

You Lose You Die follows sociopathic tech expert, Mr. Fantastik (Rodriguez), who runs a popular show on the dark web with two other sociopathic tech experts, Ms. Perfect (Flair) and Mr. Creep (Anthony Alvarez). On the show, thousands of viewers vote on games and challenges for prisoners to participate in. If the prisoners lose, viewers vote on the weapons the sociopaths use to kill them.

The former WWE Women’s Champion has been out of in-ring action since December 2023 due to injury, last competing against Asuka on the Tribute to the Troops edition of SmackDown.

Source: WrestleView

WWE NXT Preview 5/14/2024

Here is the lineup for tonight’s episode of WWE NXT in Orlando, Florida at the Performance Center on the USA Network: 

  • Battleground Women’s North American title ladder match qualifier: Sol Ruca vs. Izzi Dame
  • Battleground Women’s North American title ladder match qualifier: Ivy Nile vs. Lash Legend
  • NXT Heritage Cup holder Charlie Dempsey defends against Tony D’Angelo
  • Noam Dar vs. Je’Von Evans
  • Edris Enofe & Malik Blade vs. Bronco Nima & Lucien Price
  • We will hear from Wes Lee

Latest WWE Raw QR Code Leads To More Clues, Teases For Presumed Uncle Howdy Stable

The latest in a series of mysterious QR codes on WWE programming led followers down their most complex path to date, with a landing page and 20 images to sift through. The code itself led to wwe.com/121212, which mimicked the look of a basic index page with the slug “/DOOR/” up top and a list of .jpg files, numbered 01-20, each tagged with a unique, six-digit number as well as precise time stamps for each, all purportedly captured yesterday, 5/12/2024, between 12:37:54 and 2:22:42 PM (with no specific time zone indicated).

The series of images contained various visuals and messages, including:

“DO YOU WANT TO MEET THEM?”

“I SET THEM FREE.”

“I REMINDED HIM OF WHO HE WAS. I SHOWED HIM HIS LIES. NOW HE SHOWS ME HIS VISION. IT IS BEAUTIFUL.”

“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.”

“THEY WERE TRAPPED. I SHOWED THEM HOW TO OPEN THE DOOR.”

“THEY WERE LEFT ALL ALONE. I OPENED THE DOOR. NOW THEY ARE NOT ALONE ANYMORE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

“CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?”

“IF YOU ASK WHAT YOU AREN’T SEEING THEN YOU AREN’T LOOKING”

“YOU DON’T SEE IT, DO YOU?”

“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?”

“I AM ALL OF US.”

“DO YOU SEE? I AM ALREADY FREE.”

“How are you doing? I CRAWLED OUT OF THE CAVE. SO I COULD SET THEM FREE. What challenges are you facing? I’M AFRAID THEY WON’T UNDERSTAND. How do you feel? I FINALLY KNOW MY PURPOSE & SOON EVERYONE WILL SEE.”

A newspaper clipping featuring the story of a woman gone missing, written by WENDY LUCHO (an anagram for Uncle Howdy)

An undecipherable, shadowy image in the dark

Several thumb drives and floppy discs, one of which labeled as “5.16.24 4 PM WITCH”

Notably, the “WWE Raw” announce team acknowledged this week’s glitch, perhaps indicating that a reveal is coming sooner than later. With Howdy’s name hidden this time in plain sight, one would think that could certainly be the case.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 5/13/2024

Tonight’s WWE RAW live on USA Network from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC.

  • King of the Ring quarterfinal: Ilja Draguno vs. Jey Uso
  • King of the Ring quarterfinal: Gunther vs. Kofi Kingston
  • Queen of the Ring quarterfinal: Lyra Valkyria vs. Zoey Stark
  • Queen of the Ring quarterfinal: IYO SKY vs. Shayna Baszler
  • Becky Lynch in action

Report: Becky Lynch’s WWE Contract Weeks Away From Expiration With No New Deal Signed

If WWE is planning to re-sign reigning Women’s World Champion Becky Lynch, they might want to do it soon. A new report from Fightful Select on Saturday claims Lynch has approximately three weeks left on her current deal, and as of this writing, she has not signed a new one.

The news comes less than a month after Lynch won the vacant Women’s World title in a 14-woman battle royal on “WWE Raw” and eight days after it was reported that Lynch’s husband, former World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, signed a lucrative new contract with WWE. Lynch had previously confirmed that her deal was up this summer and that she hadn’t been approached about a new one, but WWE’s new leadership under the auspices of TKO Group Holdings has been getting a lot of last-minute contracts drawn up lately, re-signing Rollins, Finn Balor, and Drew McIntyre over the last few weeks. Fightful reports that talks between Lynch and WWE have been ongoing, but nobody has put pen to paper yet.

Given Lynch’s stature in the company — she’s arguably the most popular female star in WWE history and the winner of the first women’s WrestleMania main event — one would assume WWE will make keeping her under contract a priority in the coming days. It’s also worth noting that Lynch is scheduled to defend her championship against Liv Morgan at King & Queen of the Ring on March 25, days before her deal expires.

Source: Wrestling Inc.