Category: WWE

Tammy ‘Sunny’ Sytch Being Sued Following Car Accident That Led To A Man’s Death

A civil case has begun as police await the results of a toxicology test before pressing criminal charges.

Tammy Sytch, better known to a lot of wrestling fans as Sunny, has been caught up on the wrong side of the law a number of times in the past few years. The latest incident Sytch was involved in could be the most serious so far pending the results of a toxicology report. The WWE Hall of Famer was allegedly driving a car at speed when it collided with another, resulting in the driver of the hit car passing away due to their injuries.

A blood sample taken from Sytch while she was hospitalized is currently being tested and will determine what charges are brought against her, if any. However, the estate of the 75-year-old man who died following the collision has already brought a civil case against the former wrestler and her boyfriend James Pente reports PWInsider.

The civil suit alleges negligence on Sytch’s part, and that Pente was vicariously liable for allowing his partner to get behind the wheel of a car in the state she was allegedly in. The estate of Julian Lasseter, the man whose car Sytch hit, is seeking a payout in excess of $30,000. That money will cover medical and funeral expenses amassed since the incident, as well as money for Lasseter’s daughter who is suffering from the sudden and unexpected loss of her father.

Witnesses at the scene of the collision claim Sytch’s vehicle was traveling at a high speed right before it hit Lasseter’s car, which was at a standstill. Lasseter’s car was knocked forward with such force that it collided with the car in front of it. None of the people in that third car were seriously hurt but have complained of back, neck, and side pain.

As touched upon above, Sytch has been in trouble with the law a number of times over the years, even finding herself in jail on more than one occasion. Many of her arrests have come for driving while under the influence of alcohol, while earlier this year she was arrested for weapon possession and making terroristic threats.

Source: TheSportster

Kushida Reportedly Parts Ways With WWE

According to a recent report, Japanese wrestler Kushida is no longer with WWE.

Former NXT Cruiserweight Champion Kushida is reportedly no longer a member of the WWE roster.

According to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Kushida parted ways with WWE after his contract expired.

Kushida signed for WWE in 2019. His signing was announced by Triple H at a press conference in New York City just a few days prior to that year’s WrestleMania. In a video on the WWE Performance Center channel at the time of his in-ring WWE debut, Kushida was shown talking about how excited he was to debut in NXT. After defeating Kassius Ohno on his debut, Kushida told an interviewer he felt “reborn” and happy.

The 38-year-old cut his teeth in his native Japan and made a name for himself in New Japan Pro Wrestling — the country’s most prestigious professional wrestling promotion. During his NJPW tenure, Kushida became a six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (with Time Splitters teammate Alex Shelley). He also won the 2015 and 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournaments, and the 2016 Super J-Cup.

While his WWE tenure was largely uneventful, Kushida did have a few standout moments. In 2020, he reunited with Time Splitters partner Alex Shelley in order to compete in that year’s Dusty Classic. The team was eliminated by The Grizzled Young Veterans in the first round, but the moment was special as it was the first time Shelley and Kushida had teamed up since 2015. It was also Shelley’s first appearance in a WWE ring since 2005.

Last April, Kushida won his first and only title in WWE when he defeated Santos Escobar for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Kushida lost the title to Roderick Strong on the September 21 episode of NXT 2.0. More recently, Kushida performed as one half of a comedy duo tag team called Jacket Time with his countryman Ikemen Jiro.

Source: TheSportster

UPDATE:

The belief within WWE is that Kushida is going to be returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling at some stage in June, following his WWE departure, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio.

WWE RAW Preview 4/18/22

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY with more build for the upcoming WrestleMania Backlash event.

It looks like Becky Lynch may return to RAW on tonight’s show, her first appearance since dropping the RAW Women’s Title to Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 38.

Two WWE NXT Superstars Given New Ring Names

NXT 2.0 Superstars Kacy Catanzaro and Kay Lee Ray have new ring names, according to PWInsider. 

Kacy Catanzaro’s ring name is now Katana Chance.

The former American Ninja Warrior star signed with WWE in January of 2018 and then worked the Mae Young Classic tournament that year. She also participated in the Women’s Royal Rumble Match in 2019.

Kacy Catanzaro is currently teaming with Kayden Carter and last wrestled at Roadblock.

Kay Lee Ray’s new ring name is Alba Fyre.

The former NXT UK Women’s Champion made her NXT 2.0 debut at TakeOver 36. She also won this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament with Io Shirai.

KLR last competed at Stand & Deliver in a fatal four-way for the NXT Women’s Championship.

WWE filed trademarks for both “Alba Fyre” and “Katana Chance” on April 12.

As noted this past week, Raul Mendoza has changed to Cruz Del Toro, Austin Theory is now just Theory, and Raquel Gonzalez was re-named to Raquel Rodriguez.

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/15/22

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will take place from the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.

* Ricochet will defend the WWE Intercontinental Title against Jinder Mahal

* Drew McIntyre will face Sami Zayn in a rematch from last week’s bout that ended in a count out win for McIntyre

The WWE Events website has RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro advertised for tonight’s SmackDown. There’s no word on if they will be there to continue the feud with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, or if they’re just working a dark main event.

RAW Superstars Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins are also advertised by the WWE Events website. The arena website has Rhodes vs. Rollins advertised, which is likely a dark main event.

It’s interesting to note that The Usos and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns are not being advertised to appear, by the WWE Events website or the arena. Ronda Rousey is also not listed by either website, but SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair is.

The Bloodline ended last week’s show by taking out Shinsuke Nakamura, so it will be interesting to see if they miss this week’s SmackDown for whatever reason.

Backstage News On Recent WWE Superstar Name Changes

WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly issued a recent decree on Superstar ring names.

There have been recent changes to WWE Superstar ring names, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the roster recently received a memo that included a decree from Vince, who doesn’t want anyone new using their real names anymore, or names they’ve used before on the indies.

The former WALTER became Gunther because WALTER was his real name and a name he used on the indies. Marcel Barthel’s name change to Ludwig Kaiser is interesting as this was a WWE-owned name that he never used before WWE.

Raul Mendoza was changed to Cruz Del Toro this past week, but there’s no word on if he is being called up from WWE NXT. Pete Dunne was re-named to Butch. Raquel Gonzalez was re-named to Raquel Rodriguez this past week when she was brought to SmackDown, but she kept her real first name.

There are obvious exceptions to this rule, like every rule. It was noted that the decree applies mostly to people just coming to the main roster, but obviously does not apply to Cody Rhodes, or Gable Steveson.

It was announced this past week that Austin Theory is now going by just Theory. There was speculation on this name change being related to WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin, but that’s not the case. The Observer notes that Theory’s name was changed because his real name is Austin White.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Karl Anderson Describes AJ Styles Reaction To Drinking Beer

The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) joined SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio for an hour-long discussion.

Karl Anderson reflected on the night they were the headline dark match at Madison Square Garden with WWE in September 2019. After the bout, there was an in-ring segment involving “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and AJ Styles, which resulted in Styles asking Anderson if he should drink the beer handed to him.

“When we got to do The Garden and the dark main event — this is a good story,” Anderson said. “We’re in there with ‘Stone Cold; Steve Austin, me, Gallows, and AJ [Styles]. ‘Stone Cold’ hands AJ a beer. AJ doesn’t drink, and AJ looks at us and AJ goes, ‘shall I drink this?’ and I go, ‘yeah, just have a sip.’ He takes the sip, he takes the Stunner, and people react. We get to the back and he looks at us and he goes, ‘you guys lied to me. That is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life! How do y’all drink those things?’”

Luke Gallows discussed the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36. Gallows noted The Deadman cut open his arm when smashing the window of the hearse. It resulted in filming being stopped every few minutes to attend to the wound.

“I remember at the time, I remember us saying – because AJ was our best buddy, like, it’s hard not to be in a stadium with a match like that,” Gallows said. “They wanted that. They deserved 80,000 people and they didn’t have it. So everyone made the best of a rotten situation and the match was cool as sh*t, I thought.

“You talk about an old-school badass dude too at the very beginning of that, because it took all night to shoot it. He punches the window out of the hearse, right? And his arm is bleeding profusely. You can see tendons. A lot of people – Karl would have quit. I mean every fifteen minutes we would stop, ice, towel, hold it on to get the bleeding to stop. Alright, let’s start going. For 8-9 hours just bleeding.”

Source: Wrestling Inc – credit SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio 

Natalya Returns To NXT, Attacks Cora Jade

Veteran WWE Superstar Natalya appeared in an NXT ring for the first time in a long time during this week’s edition of NXT 2.0.

Natalya returned to her old stomping ground at WWE’s Orlando Performance Center when she made a surprise appearance on the April 12 edition of NXT 2.0 on USA Network … which did not end well for rising star Cora Jade.

The segment in question kicked off with Cora Jade making her way to the ring, where she preceded to address the NXT Universe. Jade lamented her failed attempt to capture the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver, but assured fans that her goal is the same now as it was when she was a child of eight journaling about how she would one day become a champion in WWE. The 21-year-old vowed to one day be considered as successful as the likes of AJ Lee, Paige, Sasha Banks, and more … and then Natalya’s music hit, and the main roster Superstar made her way to the ring — much to the joy of the fans in attendance, who cheered and chanted her name.

Nattie got on the mic and said that the Performance Center brought back a lot of memories for her. The emotional veteran introduced herself to the upstart standing opposite, but she needn’t have bothered as Jade had been familiar with Natalya for a while. Jade shared an anecdote in which Natalya pointed at her during a WWE house show the 11-year-old Cora attended. As a child, Jade sent Natalya a message on Instagram, but Natalya didn’t see the message until years later when she sent Jade a message of congratulations regarding her NXT debut.

Jade continued to express her admiration for Natalya, and Natalya said Jade was the future of NXT … but added that the future was bleak before blindsiding Jade with a huge open-palmed strike to the side of the face. Jade fell to the mat and Natalya slapped a Sharpshooter on the youngster, forcing her to tap out as the segment drew to a close and officials tried to quell the carnage.

Later in the episode, Natalya was confronted in the locker room by Tatum Paxley, who challenged her to a match on NXT week’s NXT 2.0. That match will be Natalya’s first in an NXT ring since 2016.

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1514072398584328193

Source: TheSportster

WWE NXT Preview 4/12/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode on the USA Network is being billed as a “colossal edition” of the show as three titles will be on the line.

NXT 2.0 will feature the vacant NXT Tag Team Titles on the line in a Five-Team Gauntlet Match. The titles were declared vacant last week after it was reported that MSK’s Nash Carter was released over abuse allegations by his wife, Kimber Lee, who is still under contract to Impact Wrestling, and due to photos of Carter a photo of Carter performing a Nazi salute in which he appears to have modeled his mustache after Adolf Hitler’s.

It’s believed that tonight’s NXT show will also feature a follow-up on the abduction of 2022 WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner. Last week’s show ended with NXT Champion Bron Breakker looking on as it was revealed that Joe Gacy and Harland were holding his father hostage, tied up in a cage.

Cody Rhodes’ Banned Word Slips On Raw Were No Accident

More than a week later, it’s still sort of hard to believe Cody Rhodes is back in WWE. This week on Raw, Rhodes wrestled his first match on the red brand since 2015. A clash with The Miz from which Rhodes emerged victorious. Prior to their clash, Rhodes and Miz opened Raw with a talk show segment during which The American Nightmare dropped a couple of supposedly banned words.

The first faux pas came when Rhodes referred to the Universal Championship as a belt. The Miz quickly cut in, informing him it’s a title as belts are for holding your pants up. A line Vince McMahon has likely said to wrestlers a thousand times as he doesn’t like WWE’s championships being referred to as belts. Speaking of wrestlers, the second slip-up came when Rhodes used that word instead of Superstars, at which point Miz corrected him again.

The American Nightmare is allowed to say belts and wrestlers.

Rhodes making these mistakes would make sense as he has been working in a company that lets you say them for the past three years. The thing is, according to Wrestling Observer Radio, Rhodes’ use of these banned words wasn’t a mistake at all. It’s all part of his gimmick in WWE. That he isn’t a WWE guy at all and he uses these words because he is a different Cody Rhodes who has returned from somewhere else.

There was another subtle nod to that during the very same segment. Rhodes went to tell The Miz that he’s full of shit, only to stop short at the curse word and look around at the fans. The word shit is thrown around a lot in AEW, but it is seldom said on WWE television. Only people like Brock Lesnar tend to be allowed to say it, probably because they don’t ask for permission first.

Rhodes’ gimmick in WWE is basically the AEW guy. It’s why he has the same look, the same music, and why he almost says curse words and utters banned terms on live TV. It all fits in with the framing of Rhodes being a completely different person to the one that left WWE six years ago without having to give credit or even make mention of the company he helped create while he was away.

Source: TheSportster