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Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Heyman Gives His Thoughts on AEW
While diplomatic in his response, WWE’s Paul Heyman shared his thoughts regarding AEW during an interview Thursday.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani on BT Sport (h/t Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News), Heyman said the following about WWE’s chief competition:
“They are viable. They are a viable entity. God bless them for being there. However, I am not the target audience. My personal opinion on their product, if I were to sit here and go, ‘My God, they are great,’ who cares what I think? It is merely a personal opinion and nothing more.
“They are not geared towards me. If I went, ‘Oh my God, they suck, they are horrible,’ I highly doubt they should care about that either. When [UFC President] Dana White gave his opinion on WWE and it was not flattering, I was asked about it, and I went, ‘And?’ Who gives a f–k? I do not think AEW should give a f–k what I think about them.”
Heyman is involved in the best angle in WWE and perhaps all of professional wrestling right now as the special counsel for The Tribal Chief Roman Reigns.
He has been a fairly consistent presence on WWE programming since Brock Lesnar’s return to the company in 2012, meaning he is deeply rooted in the company.
Heyman also had a stint as the creative director of Raw, but it only lasted for about a year from June 2019 to June 2020.
Few people in wrestling have a more respected opinion about the business than Heyman due largely to the success he enjoyed with ECW in terms of making it a legitimate third national brand alongside WWE and WCW in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
While Heyman didn’t give too much information regarding how he feels about AEW, the advice of focusing on its core audience and attempting to grow it is something AEW’s executives would be wise to heed in an effort to become a true competitor to WWE.
WWE Reportedly Attempting to Re-Sign Gargano
WWE is reportedly making a big play to re-sign NXT star Johnny Gargano before his contract expires.
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Mukherjee), Gargano’s WWE contract is up on Dec. 3, and while he has not re-signed yet, WWE is “pushing very hard” to keep him.
Meltzer added that WWE made a “very strong offer” with an eye toward keeping him in the company for “a long time.”
There is perhaps no wrestler more synonymous with NXT than Gargano, who signed with WWE in 2015 and quickly became a fan favorite within the brand.
Johnny Wrestling started off in a tag team with Tommaso Ciampa before branching off and enjoying a great deal of singles success.
The 34-year-old veteran is a former NXT champion and NXT Tag Team champion in addition to being a three-time North American champion.
On next week’s episode of NXT, Gargano and Pete Dunne will challenge North American champion Carmelo Hayes in a Triple Threat match for the title.
NXT has placed far more focus on its younger and less-experienced wrestlers over the past couple of months, but some veterans continue to receive a great deal of television time, including Gargano.
WWE recently found itself in a similar situation with Adam Cole, who opted to sign with AEW rather than re-signing with WWE.
It is unclear if WWE plans to keep Gargano in NXT or call him up to the main roster should he re-sign, but he undoubtedly has some quality options at his disposal with AEW, Impact Wrestling and many other wrestling companies likely to express interest in him as well.
Recent Releases Surprised Some Within WWE
WWE has released nearly 80 in-ring performers in 2021, and eight more were let go by the company Thursday.
Hit Row members Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Top Dolla and Ashante “Thee” Adonis were cut from their contracts, as were John Morrison, Tegan Nox, Drake Maverick, Shane Thorne and Jaxson Ryker.
According to Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast, a source said “many within the company were blindsided by this set of releases.”
The source also told Zarian, “Unfortunately there are a lot of All-Star players who will never get a chance to get off the bench.”
Releases have become a common occurrence for WWE this year, but the latest batch undoubtedly included some shocking names.
Chief among them were Scott, Top Dolla and Adonis who only recently got called up from NXT. Their Hit Row stablemate, B-Fab, got released a couple of weeks ago, which may have been a sign that WWE wasn’t fully invested in the act.
Nox was in a similar situation, as she only made a handful of appearances on the main roster after getting called up as Shotzi Blackheart’s tag team partner. Tegan and Shotzi were broken up in the WWE Draft, and Nox never appeared after that.
On the other hand, Morrison is a well-respected veteran who returned to WWE in 2019 and enjoyed success as The Miz’s tag team partner. They even faced Damian Priest and Bad Bunny at WrestleMania in April.
WWE’s spate of releases suggests very few performers are safe, which will likely create even more pressure for those not established as top stars to get over and succeed quickly.
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