Tag: WWE

Backstage News On Why Bray Wyatt & Other Notable Superstars Weren’t Included In WWE Draft

Fightful Select has provided an update on several Superstars who were not included in the WWE Draft, including two-time WWE Universal Champion Bray Wyatt.

Wyatt was pulled from WWE programming due to a physical issue on the Road To WrestleMania 39. As a result, his WrestleMania feud with Bobby Lashley was also nixed and the All Mighty didn’t get to wrestle at the Showcase Of Immortals this year.

According to the report, Wyatt was overcoming illness during WrestleMania weekend. He has recently been telling his friends about his excitement to return to work as soon as he can.

Additionally, Big E, Randy Orton, R-Truth, and Robert Roode are all dealing with injuries and weren’t part of the 2023 WWE Draft.

Both Truth and Roode are expected to miss most if not all of 2023. Truth tore his quad this past year and Roode recently underwent neck fusion surgery. Big E is still recovering from a broken neck and Orton has been dealing with back issues. WWE is currently uncertain about when these four Superstars can return to work.

On the other hand, certain wrestlers are simply absent because they’ve been missing from television, namely, Aliyah, Carmella, Alexa Bliss, Shanky, and Uncle Howdy.

Shanky hasn’t wrestled since Triple H took over WWE Creative. Aliyah hasn’t been seen since September, following her recovery from an AC sprain and rib injury.

Alexa Bliss was shelved due to skin cancer treatment and hasn’t been included in creative plans. Uncle Howdy, played by Bo Dallas, likely won’t return until Wyatt does.

Carmella’s absence has not been explained, but she vanished ahead of WrestleMania 39.

Gable Steveson was drafted to RAW in 2022 and has been undergoing training ever since. No creative plans were in place at the time and the move was described as a publicity stunt.

Jinder Mahal is now considered to be on the NXT roster.

Finally, part-timers like Lita, Logan Paul, and Maryse were also excluded from the Draft.

Lita is out selling a storyline injury and isn’t expected to be doing much ringwork in the future. Her appearances with Becky Lynch were simply meant to advance the storyline with Trish Stratus.

Speaking of Paul, even though he was included in the official Draft graphic, he’s viewed as a free agent and will appear wherever WWE needs him to.

Maryse was also included in the graphic but went undrafted. She will just appear whenever The Miz does, and The Hollywood A-Lister was drafted to RAW.

Source: eWrestlingNews

More WWE Draft Picks Announced On SmackDown LowDown

Yesterday on “The SmackDown LowDown,” WWE announced even more picks, and here’s who’s headed where.

Drafted to “Raw” are the trio of The Viking Raiders and Valhalla, Dexter Lumis, Candice LeRae, Natalya, “WWE NXT” call-ups Zoey Stark and JD McDonagh, Apollo Crews, the team of Sonya DeVille and Chelsea Green, and the Maximum Male Models with Maxxine Dupri. Headed to “SmackDown” are the Hit Row trio of Top Dolla, Ashante Adonis, and B-Fab, as well as Lacey Evans. Interestingly, that puts all four members of former “NXT” stable The Way on the “Raw” roster, although Johnny Gargano may possibly be drafted to “SmackDown” when more picks are made official on Monday night.

In a surprising move, “The SmackDown Lowdown” also confirmed that a few WWE stars in the first draft pool are set to be free agents, able to appear on either show, at least for now. In that category are Omos with manager MVP, Mustafa Ali, Dolph Ziggler, and “NXT” call-up Von Wagner. In Omos’ case, the onscreen explanation for his free agency is that MVP negotiated him into that position. However, it remains unclear why exactly Ali, Ziggler, and Wagner weren’t drafted to a specific brand.

WWE SmackDown:

  • Hit Row (Top Dolla & Ashante “Thee” Adonis w/ B-Fab)
  • Lacey Evans

WWE RAW:

  • Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör & Maxxine Dupri)
  • Dexter Lumis
  • Candice LeRae
  • Natalya
  • Apollo Crews
  • Chelsea Green
  • Sonya Deville
  • Zoey Stark
  • JD McDonagh

Omos & MVP, Mustafa Ali, Dolph Ziggler, and NXT’s Von Wagner are free agents. NXT’s Zoey Stark, JD McDonagh, and Apollo Crews were also called up. 

WWE Draft Night 1 Results, AJ Styles Returned

ROUND 1:

  • SmackDown No. 1: The Bloodline (Undisputed Universal World Champion Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa & Paul Heyman); the World Heavyweight Championship thereby exclusive to Raw
  • RAW No. 1: Cody Rhodes
  • SmackDown: Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair
  • RAW: Becky Lynch

ROUND 2:

  • SmackDown: The Street Profits
  • RAW: Imperium (Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER, Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci)
  • SmackDown: Edge
  • RAW: Matt Riddle

ROUND 3: 

  • SmackDown: Bobby Lashley
  • RAW: Drew McIntyre
  • SmackDown: The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson & Michin)
  • RAW: The Miz

ROUND 4:

  • SmackDown: Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai & Iyo Sky
  • RAW: Shinsuke Nakamura
  • SmackDown: Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn (NXT Women’s Tag-Team Champions)
  • RAW: Indi Hartwell (NXT Women’s Champion)

Undrafted superstars: 

  • Candice LeRae
  • Sonya Deville and Chelsea Green 
  • Omos
  • Hit Row
  • Maximum Male Models
  • Dolph Ziggler
  • Dexter Lumis
  • Natalya
  • Mustafa Ali
  • Viking Raiders
  • Lacey Evans

Additional picks will be announced on today’s edition of “The SmackDown LowDown”.

AJ Styles returned from injury last night after he was drafted along with the rest of The O.C. Styles has been off TV since suffering a broken ankle at a live event in December.

The O.C. was interrupted by the Viking Raiders, but Styles had The OC “handle their business” and the group made short work of their opposition.

WWE SmackDown Preview 4/28/2023

WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX and will emanate from the American Bank Center Arena in Corpus Christi, Texas.

WWE Revealed Complete List Of Eligible Stars For 2023 Draft

The 2023 WWE Draft will kick off on tonight’s episode of WWE SmackDown and then carry over to Monday’s edition of RAW.

On Thursday, WWE posted a complete list of stars eligible to be drafted on each night. While the NXT brand will be involved, the names who could potentially be called up from that specific brand have not been announced.

You can check out a complete list of the eligible names below:

Night One: Friday on SmackDown

  • Becky Lynch
  • Bianca Belair
  • Bobby Lashley
  • Candice LeRae
  • Chelsea Green & Sonya Deville
  • Cody Rhodes
  • Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY & Dakota Kai)
  • Dexter Lumis
  • Dolph Ziggler
  • Drew McIntyre
  • Edge
  • Hit Row (Top Dolla & Ashante “Thee” Adonis w/ B-Fab)
  • Imperium (GUNTHER, Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci)
  • Lacey Evans
  • Matt Riddle
  • Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör & Maxxine Dupri)
  • Mustafa Ali
  • Natalya
  • Omos (w/ MVP)
  • Shinsuke Nakamura
  • The Bloodline (Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa)
  • The Miz
  • The O.C. (AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson & Michin)
  • The Street Profits
  • Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar w/ Valhalla)
  • Select NXT Superstars

Night Two: This Monday on Raw

  • Akira Tozawa
  • Alpha Academy (Otis & Chad Gable)
  • Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo
  • Asuka
  • Austin Theory
  • Baron Corbin
  • Braun Strowman & Ricochet
  • Brock Lesnar
  • Bronson Reed
  • Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
  • Charlotte Flair
  • Dana Brooke
  • Elias
  • Emma
  • Johnny Gargano
  • Judgment Day (Finn Bálor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio)
  • Karrion Kross (w/ Scarlett)
  • Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
  • LA Knight
  • Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez
  • Nikki Cross
  • Piper Niven
  • Rhea Ripley
  • Rick Boogs
  • Riddick Moss
  • Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
  • Seth Rollins
  • Shotzi
  • Tamina
  • Tegan Nox
  • The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland & Butch)
  • The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Zelina Vega)
  • The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)
  • The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
  • Trish Stratus
  • Xia Li
  • Select NXT Superstars

WWE NXT’s Sol Ruca Suffers Torn ACL

On Tuesday’s WWE NXT episode, there was an angle where Sol Ruca was attacked outside the Performance Center by a mystery person. 

This person has been attacking wrestlers around the training center. Nikkita Lyons and Wendy Choo have already been injured as a result. 

Dave Meltzer addressed Ruca’s status on Wrestling Observer Radio, noting that she has legitimately suffered a torn ACL. 

Source: eWrestlingNews

Details On Roderick Strong’s WWE Departure, Surprise AEW Debut

AEW shocked the wrestling world on Wednesday night with Roderick Strong’s surprise debut on “Dynamite” in Sunrise, Florida. He had requested his WWE release last May, hadn’t been seen on WWE programming since August, and as of mid-March, was reportedly still under contract. So for him to show up on “Dynamite” to run in and save Adam Cole from the Jericho Appreciation Society was something almost no one saw coming. Very quickly, Fightful Select reported some details to try to help give context to what was a very left-field debut.

The most recent information that Fightful had was that the AEW talents they spoke to were “pleasantly surprised” that Strong had signed. On the WWE side, the newest information was that 2K Games had been told not to include Strong in the “WWE 2K23” video game, that other WWE talent had never been updated on his status, and he had not been at the WWE Performance Center “in quite some time” even though he was fully cleared to wrestle. The report also noted that Strong’s WWE run started its downward slide when Paul “Triple H” Levesque lost power in “NXT,” as he was behind Strong’s push as the center of a revitalized cruiserweight division.

Strong has been wrestling since 2000, breaking into the business when he was 16 years old after years of training under Jim Neidhart. After initially getting on the map for his work in the IPW promotion in Florida, he made a name for himself in Ring of Honor, where he was a mainstay for over a decade before signing with WWE in 2016.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Braun Strowman Reportedly Out Due To A Concussion

According to PWInsider Elite and then confirmed by Fightful, WWE Superstar Braun Strowman is currently out of action due to a concussion.

As of this writing, it is not known how long Strowman will be out of action.

Fightful notes that Strowman was scheduled for house shows on April 22 and 23, but was pulled.

The concussion happened during the April 21 episode of SmackDown when Strowman had teamed up with Ricochet against the Viking Raiders.

Strowman noted on Twitter that he “misjudged things” with the spot that saw him toss Ricochet into the ring, trying to hit the Viking Raiders in the April 21 match. He then fell to the apron after he left the ring.

https://twitter.com/Adamscherr99/status/1649807082680401921

Source: WrestleView

WWE NXT Spring Breakin’ Preview 4/25/2023

The annual WWE NXT Spring Breakin’ themed event goes down tonight at 8/7c on the USA Network from the Capitol Wrestling Center inside the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Vince McMahon reportedly made changes to Monday’s WWE Raw

According to F4WOnline, although Vince McMahon was not at tonight’s Raw in Chicago, he has still made major changes to Monday’s show.

PWInsider said they were told there had been some major changes to Monday’s Raw script, which were done remotely at Vince McMahon’s request.

PWInsider in their Elite subscription section said that McMahon changed finishes on several matches. The report also notes the match between The Street Profits and Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin was added to the show after McMahon’s changes. 

Fightful reported that Piper Niven and Candice LeRae were scheduled for a backstage segment, then a match, but that The Street Profits vs. Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin was done instead.

https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1650664551774314503

PWInsider Elite and Fightconcluded by noting It was also reported that “a number of segments” with the female talents were cut from the show. That would include a backstage segment that was planned with Candice LeRae and Piper Niven. There reportedly was another segment cut that involved Adam Pearce, Sonya Deville, and other female talent. The decision to cut that segment was reportedly made so that they could spend more time on setting up the six-woman tag team match with Damage CTRL. It is interesting that LeRae and Niven were cut because they were also cut at the last minute on the Raw after Mania. Vince McMahon was backstage and running that show.

Source: WrestleView