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It’s calling his name. Wrestling and acting has a weird relationship, as there is always the question about how much acting there is on a wrestling show. Wrestlers are seen as actors but it is a bit more complicated than what they are doing. It can be interesting to see wrestlers trying their hands at acting and that might be the case again with a rather prominent star.
According to Fightful Select, AEW’s Maxwell Jacob Friedman is said to have a growing interest in acting. Friedman was reportedly in Los Angeles this week to explore acting possibilities. This comes after Friedman has announced that he has recorded a voiceover role for an animated film due out next year. There is no word on what this means for Friedman’s future in wrestling.
Opinion: This is something that you see happen every so often, but you never know how things are going to work out. Some wrestlers do find success in acting, but there have been several who have never gone anywhere outside of dabbling at best. I’m ..

It continues to loom. The WWE roster of three years ago looks very little like the WWE roster of today, as the company has released all kinds of wrestlers from their contracts. Well over one hundred names have been let go from the main roster down through NXT and those releases continue to take place. Now we might be getting ready for the next batch of releases.
According to Bryan Alvarez on the Bryan And Vinny Show, WWE may be announcing more releases soon. WWE has a policy of reevaluating wrestlers every ninety days and releasing those who are not improving. More evaluations have recently taken place, though it is not clear when the releases could happen. WWE’s most recent batch of releases took place in late April.
Opinion: You know these things are coming, but that doesn’t make them any better. At the end of the day, WWE has released so many wrestlers that it is hard to fathom at times. That being said, it still strikes me as a questionable idea to release wrestlers if they aren’..

Where you lead, I will follow. There are a lot of people on the WWE roster and that can create some problems. Above all else, the biggest issue is finding a place for all of them, which is occasionally made better by having the wrestlers split into separate rosters. It can mean something when one wrestler is officially moved elsewhere and that seems to be the case again.
This week’s NXT featured the surprise return of Apollo Crews, who has dropped his Nigerian royalty gimmick and reverted back to his original character. According to PWInsider.com, Crews has officially been moved to NXT and is part of their roster. Crews’ bodyguard Commander Azeez has been moved to NXT as well, but he was neither seen nor mentioned on the show.
Opinion: This is the kind of move that WWE should be making, as it isn’t like Crews was doing anything on the main roster. Send him to NXT where he will have credibility based on his main roster success and see what he can do down there. In Azeez’s case, it isn..

They have guest stars. AEW has several strengths and one of them has been the amount of international stars the company has brought in. As a result, AEW is able to offer all kinds of matches that fans might not be able to see on such a large stage. This will be the case again later this month at Forbidden Door, when New Japan and AEW wrestlers meet. It turns out we will be getting a bit of a preview.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured an in-ring segment between FTR and Trent Beretta. During the exchange, New Japan’s Will Ospreay’s name was mentioned, which caused Ospreay himself to appear. Ospreay’s distraction allowed the team of Aussie Open, part of Ospreay’s United Empire stable, to appear and jump all three. As a result, a six man tag was announced for this week’s edition of Rampage.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that I could go for, as Aussie Open and Ospreay have the ability to put on some excellent matches when given the chance. Throwing them in the ring with FT..

Welcome back. A return can be one of the most exciting things in wrestling, especially if it is one that you aren’t expecting. It can be a lot of fun to see someone pop up out of nowhere after a long time, but there is also something great about it happening after only a few weeks. That was the case this week, as a star made a return in a fairly big spot after being gone for a bit.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured a Casino Battle Royal as part of the series of matches to crown a new Interim World Champion. As usual, the match included twenty one entrants, with the final being the Joker. Andrade El Idolo made his return as the Joker, but did not win the match, which was won by Kyle O’Reilly. This was El Idolo’s first match in AEW since April 20, when he lost to Darby Allin in a Coffin match.
Opinion: This was a nice surprise, though not exactly earth shattering. What mattered the most here was having one of the more talented stars in AEW back in action, as El Idolo had bee..

Try again later. WWE has a lot of talented wrestlers on their roster but it is clear that Roman Reigns is the top star in the company and has been for a very long time now. Reigns is rapidly closing in on two years as Universal Champion, which will put him on a very short list of all time title runs. WWE has found a new way to extend that time and now you are seeing it again.
According to both Sports Illustrated and F4WOnline.com, Reigns is no longer scheduled to wrestle at Money In The Bank on July 2. While a Reigns match had not been announced, Riddle had said that he was coming after Reigns, starting this week on SmackDown. It is not clear when Reigns will wrestle again. He has not defended his title since WrestleMania 38 on April 3.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that frustrates me about WWE. I understand that Reigns is on a new contract that allows him to do things like this, but that doesn’t mean it is a good idea. Assuming Reigns defends the title at Summerslam on July 30,..

Everyone is back. WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel in which they show the full match between Roman Reigns and Edge for the Universal Championship from Money in the Bank 2021. This was the first pay-per-view with fans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and featured John Cena’s return.
You can see the video in its entirety below:
[This post contains video, click to play]

From WWE.com:
In a fair world, the headline would read: Edge pins Universal Champion Roman Reigns. After all, the WWE Hall of Famer, in search of a fairytale ending to his comeback story, had The Tribal Chief’s shoulders pinned to the mat for three seconds and then some after connecting with a Spear late in the bout. The only problem? There was no referee to administer a count.
To get to that point, Edge indeed manifested the anger he knew he’d need to unseat The Head of the Table. He endured Reigns’ punishing offense — from the Drive-By to the Guillotine — before mounting an incredible r..

Put something on the line. There are all kinds of titles in wrestling and some of them are rather prestigious. Fans have seen and heard of these titles for decades and some of them have been held by some of the biggest names in wrestling history. Every title has to come from somewhere though, and now another one is coming into existence, with a bit of a unique twist.
The All Atlantic Title was announced this week on AEW Dynamite. The title represents the countries where AEW television airs, with a tournament to crown the inaugural champion consisting of international stars being announced. The first champion will be crowned at Forbidden Door in a four way match. Here are the brackets, including two wrestlers who will be announced later:
Buddy Matthews
Pac
Ethan Page
Miro
Penta Obscuro
Malakai Black
New Japan Wrestler
New Japan Wrestler
Opinion: I’m not sure how much AEW needs another title but that is what they are getting no matter what. The tournament itself is barely a tournam..

Dynamite
Date: June 8, 2022
Location: Cable Dahmer Arena, Independence, Missouri
Commentators: Excalibur, Tony Schiavone, Jim Ross
It’s time for things to get all the more interesting again as this week will include the first half of the process to find a new Interim AEW World Champion. That alone should fill in a good bit of the show, as we get a battle royal and then a Jon Moxley match in the show’s main event. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Casino Battle Royal This is the battle royal with four groups of wrestlers coming in at unspecified intervals before the Joker is the 21st entrant, with the winner facing Jon Moxley later tonight. We’ll start with the first group:
Clubs: Eddie Kingston, Darby Allin, Tony Nese, Daniel Garcia, Lance Archer
It’s a brawl to start with Archer and Allin being left alone early, though no one is eliminated. Archer shrugs off Allin’s skateboard shot and takes him into the corner so the Diamonds can come in:
Diamonds: Ricky Starks, Jake Hager, Re..

There he is. Sometimes a wrestler needs to take some time away from the public eye to shake things up a little bit. It might be just to give the person a refresher or something brand new entirely. There might even be a bit of mystery to the whole thing, as the person’s identity could be concealed. That is not the case this time, as WWE has flat out said who a returning star will be.
Over the last few weeks, NXT has been presenting vignettes of a soon to be debuting star named Giovanni Vinci. Throughout the vignettes, Vinci’s identity was not made clear, as only his hands and feet were shown. This week though, Vinci’s face was shown, revealing that he is the star formerly known as Fabian Aichner, who will be returning next week. This had been rumored since the vignettes began but never confirmed.
Nice to meet you. Check out the final vignette:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: This wasn’t exactly a surprise but it is interesting to see NXT flat out show who Vinci i..

That’s a different way to go. The McMahons have been around the wrestling world for a very long time now and are the most powerful family in all of wrestling. However, for the first time in a very long time now, there is one McMahon working in WWE. This comes after Stephanie McMahon has taken a leave of absence from the company. It seems that there might be more to it than it seems though.
Last week, stories began to surface about Vince McMahon possibly being the reason for Stephanie McMahon taking a hiatus from WWE. Stephanie was said to have done poorly in her new roles with the company, but according to Fightful Select, Vince was not responsible. Some of WWE President Nick Khan’s team had said Stephanie needed to improve in some areas but it was not enough for her to leave. The decision was said to be Stephanie’s own choice, though it is not clear when or if she will be returning.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that could go in a few ways, but it does seem like Stephanie just ..

What could have been. Stables have been a thing for a very long time in wrestling and that is certainly still the case in WWE today. The important thing is finding the right idea for the right group of people as missing on either point can be quite the mistake. Sometimes a bad idea has to be rejected and that took place earlier this year with a WWE stable that has already undergone a big change.
This week on Monday Night Raw, Finn Balor joined Edge’s Judgment Day stable before kicking Edge out to take over the stable for himself. According to Fightful Select, WWE originally wanted the stable to be more supernatural in nature but Edge was opposed to the idea. As a result, WWE changed the direction of the stable as a reactionary measure as WWE wants to change the direction of the stable. It was said to not be due to establishing a new star once Cody Rhodes was injured.
Opinion: This is an interesting way to go but I hope that WWE doesn’t go with the supernatural stuff. Outside of Balor..