Wrestling

The rosters for Raw and SmackDown will look a little different by Halloween.

WWE announced Monday a two-night draft is right around the corner. The event will begin Oct. 1 on SmackDown and conclude Oct. 4 on Raw, with details on the draft structure itself likely forthcoming.

BREAKING NEWS: The #WWEDraft is BACK!

10.01 on @FOXTV
10.04 on @USA_Network#WWERaw#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/AzvOhhJxqz

— WWE (@WWE) September 14, 2021

The timing of the 2021 draft lines up with the dates of the last two installments.

It will also come after Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Pro Wrestling Podcast (via Wrestling Inc's Marc Middleton) reported officials at NBCUniversal and USA Network were unhappy with what they saw as a roster imbalance.

Brock Lesnar and Becky Lynch, two of WWE's biggest stars, returned at SummerSlam and aligned with SmackDown. They had previously been aligned with Raw before their extended breaks from programming.

WWE reportedly responded to the concerns by laying out its plans for the upcoming draft.

Lesnar appears to be on a collision course with Roman Reigns, so he's presumably either staying on SmackDown or coming to Raw alongside the WWE universal champion. Lynch, meanwhile, is the SmackDown women's champion, which would seemingly leave her off-limits in any draft scenario.

Extreme Rules on Sept. 26 is the last pay-per-view before the draft, and the outcome of the card could foreshadow how the draft unfolds. Reigns and Lynch and both scheduled to defend their title belts.

The draft itself should subsequently lay the groundwork for WrestleMania 38 in April 2022.

Having made her return to WWE, Becky Lynch has set the modest goals of achieving "world domination" and surpassing one of wrestling's biggest legends.

"I hope I can be bigger than The Rock and better than The Rock," she said in an interview with the New York Daily News' Kate Feldman. "The Rock is a good friend. The Rock is a great friend."

"But I'm on a different path and I'm different than The Rock and I'm not trying to be the next anybody. I'm the first Becky Lynch."

Nobody in WWE history has been a bigger crossover star than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and he had already built a Hall of Fame-worthy resume in the ring before he went into acting. It's difficult to envision anybody on the active roster becoming "bigger than The Rock."

Having said that, Lynch has already assembled quite the list of accolades. 

She was part of the first women's match ever to main-event WrestleMania in 2019. She's a five-time women's champion and once held the Raw women's title for 398 days. And that championship run coincided with her ascendance as one of the hottest wrestlers in the company.

Given her age, 34, Lynch could plausibly assert herself as on par with The Rock in terms of what she meant to wrestling and what she contributed during her time in the business.

Danielson Kept Notebook of Lessons From Vince McMahon

Bryan Danielson may have left WWE for AEW, but there are clearly no hard feelings. Danielson has spoken consistently about the immense respect he has for people in WWE since making his AEW debut at All Out, and we've gotten even more details regarding his respect for Vince McMahon from Dave Melzer of the Wrestling Observer.

Meltzer reported Danielson kept a notebook of important lessons he gleaned from the WWE boss over his time with the company.

While not details were given on what Danielson learned from McMahon, it's not hard to imagine the notebook being filled with small anecdotes. Danielson arrived in WWE as the best wrestler in the world but still in need of some character work; he left WWE as one of the biggest names in the sport, thanks in large part to lessons he's picked up over time with the company.

It may be more fun for fans to buy into an AEW-WWE rivalry, but it's good to see not all former WWE superstars are disenchanted with their time in the company.

Kevin Owens Contract Update

https://twitter.com/Fiend4FolIows/status/1435330132756025345

The contract status of Kevin Owens has become one of the sport's hottest topics over the last week, thanks in large part to Owens himself and the Young Bucks playing up the topic on social media.

We now have a better understanding of Owens' contractual status, with his deal set to expire Jan. 31 of next year. Fightful Select reported his deal expires before the Royal Rumble, which is expected to move to February.

The situation is largely in a holding pattern for the next few months, but Owens leaving WWE for AEW would be another huge boost for the ascending company. AEW has all of the momentum in the wrestling world right now, and adding another upper-carder from WWE would only continue that trend.

Orton vs. Lashley on Raw Due to AEW's Ratings

For the first time in company history, AEW defeated Raw in the 18-49 demographic last week. That major accomplishment reportedly led to major changes on Raw for this week.

Meltzer reported Vince McMahon decided to have a Randy Orton vs. Bobby Lashley WWE Championship match on Raw this week as a reaction to losing in the ratings. 

 “They moved the pay-per-view match to Raw. Originally they were going to do the tag team title match," Meltzer said. "The whole show last week was built to set up this tag team title match on this week’s Raw and then they pulled the match because they lost in the ratings and they’re putting Randy Orton and Bobby Lashley, the pay-per-view main event on TV tomorrow night. Yeah, that’s among the responses [to AEW]. I’m not surprised.”

Ringside News refuted Meltzer's report, saying there were "other reasons" the match was moved.

Big E may have revealed those "other reasons" when he announced his plan to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase Monday.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

After weeks of teases—mostly in the form of torturing Paul Heyman backstage on SmackDown—Big E is ready to cash in his Money in the Bank contract.

On Raw.

Big E announced he plans to cash in his MITB briefcase Monday on Raw in a tweet sent out hours before the event.

Let’s let that cat out of the bag…I intend on cashing in my Money in the Bank contract tonight and cashing in to become WWE Champion.

— Ettore “Big E” Ewen (@WWEBigE) September 13, 2021

Of course, this all could be one big swerve. Big E is known to frolic in the lands of trollery, and MITB storylines consistently have false starts. The word "intend" is operative here.

That said, if Big E actually does cash in, it makes a lot of sense from a storyline perspective. While he's been teasing a cash-in on SmackDown, Roman Reigns is busy with Finn Balor and Brock Lesnar while Bobby Lashley is kind of treading water. Lashley is in a program with Randy Orton at the moment—the pair are supposed to meet Monday in a WWE Championship match—and a rematch with Goldberg seems likely for Saudi Arabia in October. 

The Goldberg match does not need a championship attached; in fact, it may be better without a title. Very few fans want to see a Goldberg championship reign in the year 2021, but he probably should go over Lashley as a comeuppance for what happened at SummerSlam. Transitioning the belt to Big E avoids a scenario where a 54-year-old Goldberg is the face of Raw.

Lashley also squashed Kofi Kingston in violent fashion at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view. Big E defeating Lashley and avenging Kingston would be a good way to reunite The New Day as the top faction on Raw.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Samoa Joe's third reign as NXT champion has come to an abrupt end.

Joe announced Sunday on Twitter he's relinquishing the title belt due to undisclosed injuries that will leave him unavailable for a "brief, yet still indeterminate amount of time."

pic.twitter.com/a1ERDGyRfH

— Samoa Joe (@SamoaJoe) September 12, 2021

The 42-year-old defeated Karrion Kross at NXT TakeOver 36 on Aug. 22 to capture the championship.

While it doesn't appear to have been planned, Joe alluded to how Sunday's announcement comes amid a period of major transition for NXT.

The brand recently lost one of its biggest stars, Adam Cole, to All Elite Wrestling, and Wrestling Observer Radio's Dave Meltzer (via Jason Ounpraseuth of Wrestling Inc) reported WWE was shifting gears for its developmental arm. The company wants to focus on building homegrown stars rather than relying on wrestlers with established profiles from the independent circuit.

NXT has also been teasing the new look it will unveil during Tuesday's show:

NEXT WEEK. #WWENXT #WeAreNXT pic.twitter.com/8KI7HxciK9

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) September 8, 2021

Joe's injury allows for NXT to complete this changing of the guard with a fresh face as its top singles champion on the men's side.

General manager William Regal will presumably announce the next steps from here Tuesday night.

A separated shoulder meant Kross' first title reign ended almost as soon as it began in August 2020. To determine a new champion, Regal booked a four-way Iron Man match between Cole, Finn Balor, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa to determine a new titleholder.

When that ended in a stalemate, Cole and Balor had a singles match on the second night of the Super Tuesday special. Perhaps Regal will opt for a similarly expedient route this time as well.

It's unclear when NXT will have its next major show. If the last few years are any indicator, then fans can expect to see WarGames around November or December. That would also allow for a more drawn-out title tournament to crown a new top dog.

Vince McMahon lost Bryan Danielson to AEW, but it wasn't without trying everything he could to keep him in WWE.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported Danielson was offered by WWE the chance to compete in New Japan Pro-Wrestling's G1 Climax tournament. WWE does not typically allow its performers to wrestle for other promotions, so this was seen as a major concession on McMahon's part.

The Observer report noted Danielson was offered similar contracts by both promotions, offering him more limited dates and the chance to work for other companies if he wanted. Danielson ultimately chose AEW, saying he chose the new promotion for the health of the wrestling business and because he wanted to test his limits: 

I started thinking about things and WWE was so gracious with me as far as the offer that they gave me. They were going to let me go do some other stuff on the outside. But, I hate to say this... Vince (McMahon) and I have a great relationship. I love him, I do. Sometimes he's overprotective of me. And I want to be able to push my limits. That's one of the things that I love about this, is the physicality of what we do out there and being able to push my limits and being able to do that here in a safe manner is one of the things that really drew me here.

There's just excitement," he continued. "You all see it. You were probably all out there and you felt it. You felt how excited people are about this product and it feels vibrant. And even just watching it through a TV screen in a trailer. I'm sitting there going, 'God this is awesome. I want to be a part of this.' So that was it... I really battled back and forth because there's a lot of people there that I consider family, that actually are legitimately my family, and you know, people that I love there. So it was a really tough decision.

Danielson made his AEW debut at All Out in what was one of the biggest pops in recent wrestling history. He immediately hopped into a feud with AEW champion Kenny Omega, who is often mentioned alongside Danielson as the best wrestler in the world. 

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

Sami Zayn's contract with WWE is reportedly expected to expire before the end of 2021.

The Wrestling Observer reported the details of Zayn's contract, though no exact date has been given.

Zayn has been with WWE since 2013 after a wildly successful run on the independent circuit. There have been natural questions regarding his future with the company since word got out that longtime friend Kevin Owens' deal with WWE expires at the end of January.

Owens seemingly teased joining AEW by tweeting out the coordinates of Mount Rushmore last week before deleting the tweet. The Young Bucks, Adam Cole and Owens were part of a PWG stable called Mount Rushmore in 2013 and 2014. Cole left WWE to join AEW at the All Out pay-per-view.

Owens, meanwhile, changed his Twitter bio's location to "almost there" while the Young Bucks changed theirs to say "there." 

The careers of Zayn and Owens have been intrinsically linked for more than a decade. If one is planning to leave WWE for AEW, logic follows that the other one will go too. 

Based on the dates of their contracts ending, Zayn would be the one forced to make the first move. 

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

If Bray Wyatt is coming to AEW, we may finally have a date for his arrival.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer reported AEW's Sept. 29 date in Rochester, New York, would be the plan if Wyatt ultimately signs with the company.

That date is noteworthy because Rochester is the hometown of the late Brodie Lee, who died at age 41 in December. Lee and Wyatt were close friends after spending years in WWE as part of the Wyatt Family stable.

It's also noteworthy because AEW is coming to Rochester about a month before Wyatt's 90-day non-compete clause with WWE is up. Typically, WWE requires released wrestlers to observe a 90-day waiting period between their departure and showing up for another company. (They are paid their salary during this period.)

There are exceptions to this rule—Andrade joined AEW after having his non-compete waived—and Wyatt could be a special circumstance because of the Lee connection. Lee was well-regarded in the WWE locker room, and it's possible that Wyatt asked for his non-compete to end early so he could honor his friend.

WWE shockingly released Wyatt in July, less than a year after he won the Universal Championship.

Listen to Ring Rust Radio for all of the hot wrestling topics. Catch the latest episode in the player below (warning: some language NSFW).

WWE's first show at Madison Square Garden in two years turned out to be a huge financial success. 

Per MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, Friday Night SmackDown produced the highest gate in the history of the show dating back to 1999. 

It's not a surprise that a live WWE show at Madison Square Garden would set at least one financial record. Ticket prices for any event in New York City, especially at MSG, are going to be high regardless of the circumstances. 

When you combine that with WWE loading up the show, there was little doubt last night's SmackDown was going to do big business. 

The show opened with Brock Lesnar challenging Roman Reigns to a match. The Head of the Table accepted the match at the close of the show, but he will first defend the universal title against "The Demon" Finn Balor at Extreme Rules on Sept. 26. 

Other segments on the show included Becky Lynch signing the contract to defend the SmackDown women's title against Bianca Belair at the pay-per-view, and Seth Rollins defeated Edge in a terrific pay-per-view-caliber match.

Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young solidified his status as MSG's biggest villain right now when he attacked Rey Mysterio during a 10-man tag match. 

.@TheTraeYoung was just trying to have @SamiZayn's back! #SmackDown @ATLHawks @TheGarden pic.twitter.com/0hrseHbNLc

— WWE (@WWE) September 11, 2021

It appears as if Edge is either being written off television for the time being or he could be moved to Raw at some point. He was taken out of the arena in an ambulance after being hit with a series of superkicks and the stomp by Rollins. 

WWE is returning to Madison Square Garden for its traditional post-Christmas house show on Dec. 26. 

Former WWE and ECW star Al Snow said he saved a child from drowning at a Florida beach Thursday.

Speaking to TMZ Sports, Snow discussed springing into action at Santa Rosa Beach in Destin, Florida, after hearing a young boy screaming for help in the midst of a riptide.

Snow said when it became apparent the lifeguard wouldn't make it to the child in time, he swam out in an effort to retrieve him.

"I made it, thank God," Snow said. "And, I caught him just by the arm just as a wave started to pull him even further out. If I hadn't have grabbed him, I think he'd have probably went out to sea. That would have been it."

Snow added that he was able to hand the child off to the lifeguard before swimming to safety himself, noting that he was "exhausted."

The 58-year-old Snow, whose real name is Allen Sarven, also noted that neither he nor the child suffered any injuries.

Snow is perhaps best known for his success in ECW from 1997-98 and WWE from 1998-2004. He developed a deranged character that saw him walk around with and talk to a mannequin head named "Head."

Snow was hugely over with the crowd and went on to hold the Hardcore Championship six times. He was also a one-time European champion and a one-time WWE Tag Team champion with Mankind.

During his later years with the company, Snow did commentary, served as a trainer and appeared on the Tough Enough reality show.

He also went on to serve in a variety of roles with Impact Wrestling from 2008-17 and is currently one of the operators of Ohio Valley Wrestling.