With Triple H, Sean Waltman, Shawn Michaels, and Road Dogg reuniting to close the October 10th edition of WWE Raw, D-Generation X celebrated their 25th anniversary.
Billy Gunn of AEW was noticeably absent from the reunion. According to reports, WWE considered bringing Gunn back for the reunion, but that did not happen.
Gunn’s longtime tag team partner, Road Dogg, stated on his podcast that Gunn wanted to appear and that it broke both of their hearts that it didn’t happen. He also stated that Triple H, Michaels, and Waltman were upset that Gunn didn’t appear.
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter’s Dave Meltzer reported that WWE and AEW were in “meaningful talks” about having Gunn appear on the show. Money was not a factor because neither WWE nor AEW President Tony Khan offered or requested money.
According to Meltzer, “Khan agreed to let him do to the show, but on the air, they would have to mention he’s from AEW, or that AEW allowed him to appear or some wording, but there had to be one mention that in some form he works for AEW, just as WWE already did when they got Mickie James for the Royal Rumble this past year.”
According to the report, WWE stalled when responding to Khan and would not agree to the terms at the last minute.
JBL along with Baron Corbin made their return to WWE Television last night on RAW.
On Monday night’s episode of RAW, Corbin was introduced by the returning JBL. The WWE Hall of Famer called Corbin a “wrestling god.” JBL announced Corbin coming over to RAW from SmackDown was a trade for Rey Mysterio who became part of SmackDown this past Friday on SmackDown. Corbin then proceeded to pick up a win over Dolph Ziggler.
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, known together as the Good Brothers, made their return to the WWE last night.
A lot of familiar faces have been finding their way back to the WWE within the last few months. Some of these names include Johnny Gargano, Sarah Logan, Dexter Lumis, Candice LeRae, and, most recently, Bray Wyatt.
Finn Balor’s Judgment Day stable stood in the ring to cut a promo. Balor called out AJ Styles and told him to come to the ring; for the past few weeks, Balor had been recruiting Styles to Judgment Day with no success. Styles came to the ring and pretended to accept Finn’s offer. In reality, though, he was reintroducing his good friends and teammates, Gallows and Anderson.
They were among the crowd released due to “budget cuts” in 2020.
During their time away from WWE, Gallows and Anderson competed in AEW, IMPACT, and New Japan Pro Wrestling. They won the IMPACT Tag Team Championships. In NJPW, Karl Anderson won the NEVER Openweight Championship and is technically still billed as champion. He was supposed to defend at Battle Autumn on November 5.
NJPW updated the Battle Autumn card following The Good Brothers’ WWE re-debut, but not because Anderson needed to be removed from it. The Never Openweight title defense against Hikuleo remains, and according to Wrestling Observer, it will go ahead as planned. The show takes place in Osaka, Japan on the same day as WWE’s Crown Jewel, so don’t expect to see The Good Brothers on the first Saudi show without Vince McMahon in charge.
This clearly wasn’t a case of Gallows and Anderson showing up in WWE without permission, nor the pair finding a loophole or keeping a title in their possession after their contracts lapsed. NJPW has retweeted WWE’s clip showing the pair as they rushed to the ring to flank Styles. A deal must have been struck, but the finer details of that deal currently remain unclear.
Gallows and Anderson returning and confirming WWE has some sort of working relationship comes just days after Tony Khan revealed details about a conversation he had with CEO Nick Khan. The AEW owner spoke with Nick in 2021 following reports WWE had spoken to NJPW about working together. Tony called Nick a con man live on Dynamite after being assured by NJPW that no such deal was in place.
Tonight’s season premiere of WWE RAW live from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
The fallout from WWE Extreme Rules will also be felt. The event saw Bray Wyatt make his shocking return to the company, revealing himself to be the man behind the “White Rabbit” clues seen on WWE programming in recent weeks.
Jimmy Smith announced on Twitter that he is leaving WWE. The news comes on the heels of a major shakeup for the commentary teams across all of their shows.
Smith tweeted, “Just wanted to say, now that the story is officially out, that my time with the WWE is officially done. Had a lot of fun and met some great people. Really and truly blown away by the acceptance from the WWE fans! You folks make it work every week and your enthusiasm was amazing!”
Just wanted to say, now that the story is officially out, that my time with the WWE is officially done. Had a lot of fun and met some great people. Really and truly blown away by the acceptance from the WWE fans! You folks make it work every week and your enthusiasm was amazing!
As was noted earlier, the Friday Night SmackDown commentary team will consist of Michael Cole and Wade Barrett with Samanta Irvin continuing her ring announcing duties. Kayla Braxton and Megan Morant will conduct backstage interviews.
Over on Raw, Corey Graves and Kevin Partick will provide play-by-play and Mike Rome will continue as the ring announcer while Byron Saxton will do backstage interviews. Also, Cathy Kelley is returning to do backstage interviews.
On NXT, Vic Joseph and Booker T will provide the play-by-play and Alicia Taylor will continue as the ring announcer. McKenzie Mitchell will continue in her role as a backstage interviewer.
For Premium Live Events (pay-per-views), Michael Cole and Corey Graves will handle the play-by-play and Pat McAfee is expected to return after he wraps up his ESPN College GameDay commitments.
WWE has officially announced changes to the commentary teams for all three brands – RAW, NXT, and SmackDown.
Kevin Patrick & Corey Graves will be the commentators for Raw while Cathy Kelley is back and will work as an interviewer and Byron Saxton. For SmackDown, the team is Michael Cole & Wade Barrett, while NXT’s team will be Vic Joseph & Booker T.
Pat McAfee will return to the WWE announce booth following his commitments to ESPN’s College GameDay.
WWE issued the following:
WWE announces updates to commentary teams
Today WWE announced that Raw, SmackDown, NXT and Premium Live Events will all have updated announce booths starting with this week’s season premieres. The news was first reported by Variety on Thursday afternoon.
On Friday Night SmackDown, the commentary table will be headed by Michael Cole with Wade Barrett doing color commentary. Samantha Irvin will be the ring announcer, and interviews will be conducted by Kayla Braxton and Megan Morant.
On Monday Night Raw, Corey Graves will still be providing his colorful insights and will be joined by Kevin Patrick on play-by-play. Mike Rome will continue to announce from the ring, and Byron Saxton will transition from the commentary booth to backstage interviews. Also joining Saxton in backstage interviews is none other than Cathy Kelley in her return to WWE.
Over on NXT, Vic Joseph will be assisted by six-time World Champion and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T. Alicia Taylor will still provide her exceptional voice to ring announcing, and McKenzie Mitchell will once again be conducting interviews.
On the Premium Live Event side, Michael Cole and Corey Graves will come together again to announce from the booth.
Pat McAfee will return to the WWE announce booth following his commitments to ESPN’s College GameDay.
WWE Superstar Montez Ford is presently sidelined with an injury.
During last night’s (10/3) episode of “WWE Raw,” The Bloodline was confronted by Street Profits in a backstage segment, as “The Honorary Uce” Sami Zayn warned Angelo Dawkins & Ford to be prepared to acknowledge Roman Reigns next week at the “Raw” Season Premiere special episode. This led to Ford saying The Bloodline “don’t own the arena” and that they need to acknowledge two things – deez [nuts]. Just then, Jey Uso warned Ford not to disrespect the Bloodline, or he’ll “get another boot.” The cameras then zoomed in on Ford wearing a walking boot on his right foot. The segment ended with Solo Sikoa challenging Dawkins to a singles bout.
Later, during the Sikoa vs. Dawkins match, the announcers confirmed that Ford is dealing with an injury. However, there was no mention of the nature of the injury or the timeframe of his recovery.
Street Profits were last seen in action against Alpha Academy at a WWE live event on September 24. It’s likely that Ford suffered the injury during that match.
The “White Rabbit” QR Code teases continued on Raw, referencing Joe Gacy and the site of Extreme Rules. The latest QR Code let to a URL that features an image of Samson & Delilah, specifically the painting of that name by Jose Salome Pina which was completed in 1851. Samson was the Biblical strongman who was betrayed by Delilah, his lover who cut his hair and thus robbed him of his strength.
The URL for the QR Code is 01000111 01000001 01000011 01011001, which spells out “Gacy” in binary. In addition, the coordinates 751720W appear on the right side of the page if moused over, which is the location of the Wells Fargo Center where Extreme Rules takes place on Saturday.
In further addition, below the image is a mouseover message written in the written language of the Yautja — aka the titular aliens from the Predator franchise. The message translates to “Before me things created were none, save things. Eternal, and eternal I endure.” The quote is from Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy, which precedes the more famous line “All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
As noted by Fightful, Bray Wyatt posted a similar photo of Samson & Delilah the day before he was betrayed by Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 37 last year.