WWE NXT has changed the names of several performers, according to a report.
The former Karen Q, most recently known as Mei Ying, will now be called Wendy Choo, according to PWInsider. Choo made her WWE debut during the 2018 Mae Young Classic. Her signing was officially announced in February 2019. She was repackaged as part of the Tian Sha group with Xia Li and Boa in late 2020, with the group making their debut as a trio in January 2021. Li has since been called up to WWE’s main roster.
PWInsider also reports that the former Kellie Morga has been renamed Mila Malani. Malani, 24, was signed following WWE’s Las Vegas tryouts during SummerSlam week in August 2021. She has previously worked for the I Believe in Wrestling promotion in Florida.
Three NXT referees have also reportedly been given new on-screen names. Aja Smith has been renamed Daphne Lashaunn, DA Brewer will be called Dallas Irvin, plus Tom Castor will now be known as Derek Sanders.
WWE’s Extreme Rules show on 9/26 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH was decent. Most of the matches were good, but there was nothing blow away.
The show was built around two bouts, Roman Reigns vs. Demon Finn Balor for the Universal title and Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair for the women’s title. Both had gimmicked finishes.
The Demon match ended with Demon ont the top rope when the top rope suddenly collapsed and he fell into the ring injured, and got pinned by a spear. The bout had been the most exciting on the show, but at one point the idea was that Demon had died. Then his music played and he acted as though he was resurrected, and in fact, that was the verbiage used, and he made a comeback until the rope broke.
In the Smackdown women’s title match, Belair powered out of the disarmer and set up the KOD when Sasha Banks ran into attack Belair for the DQ. Banks also laid out Lynch after the match to set up a three-way program.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
The eight-man tag match that was previously planned for tonight’s NXT is now off. Instead, a four-way tag team match between MSK, Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams, Grizzled Young Veterans, and Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen will take place. Mei Ying vs. Indi Hartwell has also been added.
A number of wrestlers were not drafted following the conclusion of the 2021 WWE Draft last night on Raw. Those wrestlers include Asuka, Bayley, Elias, Eva Marie, Gran Metalik, Lacey Evans, Lince Dorado, Shane Thorne, Titus O’Neil, John Cena, and Shane McMahon. Per the rules of the draft, they are now free agents and can sign with the brand of their choosing.
Dana Brooke commented on the reaction to Corey Graves’ comments regarding her on Raw. Writing on Instagram: “You cannot entertain everything regardless if its INDIRECT or DIRECT! Let people do what they do best. TALK. Ya’ll act like ya’ll gone die because somebody said something about you. IT IS NOT THAT DEEP! You cannot stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. ONCE you entertain a clown, you BECOME ONE.
Matches taped for WWE Main Event include Karrion Kross vs. Ricochet and T-Bar & Mace against The Viking Raiders.
Escape the Undertaker, an interactive WWE film featuring Undertaker and The New Day, is now available for streaming on Netflix.
Big E talked to ComicBook about filming the new movie, while also talking about becoming the WWE Champion. When asked if he has had the chance to take in the moment, Big E replied “A little bit. I’m not sure it’s entirely sunken in yet. It’s still very cool. As much as I think I’m ready for this, and I feel very confident in that in many ways, and I keep saying this but, in many ways, I still harken back to being a failed former football player who took this job on a whim. I’m just a guy who likes being obnoxious, doing splits in rings and making people laugh. For some reason, they took me seriously enough to put me in this position. That is pretty cool. But yeah, it’s only been a couple weeks, maybe a little over a couple weeks, but it’s been, I think it’s been a good start. Like you said, man, already, in these few weeks, we’ve done stuff. We’ve had a tag match, a dream match with The Bloodline, a triple threat that you could also, that’s a WrestleMania caliber match with Roman (Reigns) and Bobby (Lashley) and, like you said, the cage match with Bobby.I feel like I’ve had four months’ worth of programs and pay-per-view caliber matches in a few weeks, but I’ve had a lot of fun doing it. It’s been a lot of work, as they tell you, with interviews and media, but it’s been fun, man, and everyone’s been so kind. I’m trying my best not to squirm and bristle and deflect with the compliments. I’m trying to do a better job accepting my flowers. So, it’s been really cool to have so many people be so kind, and it’s been a good start so far.”
AEW’s Road to Dynamite for this week, focusing on the Sammy Guevara vs. Bobby Fish TNT title match and Hikaru Shida looking for her 50th AEW win.
GCW owner Brett Lauderdale on Twitter: “I try not to be that guy but sometimes there are exceptions. I will be making a major announcement, the biggest announcement in GCW history, on Saturday in Atlantic City at #MOXvsGAGE.”
ABC 6 in Philadelphia has a story on Bryan Danielson prior to Dynamite heading to the area on Wednesday. He talked about the differences between AEW and WWE. I mean there’s a litany of differences. But I think this is one of the things that drew me to AEW and why I kind of wanted to come to AEW: It’s that AEW is a wrestling-first company; it’s a wrestling company for wrestling fans. Sometimes WWE is more just based on general entertainment where they want to reach as many casual viewers as possible, where I think AEW is like ‘hey, if you love wrestling, here’s this.’ But also even if you’re not a wrestling fan, we’re putting on wrestling, and the wrestling itself is going to bring you in. If you were to do a comparison just watching the shows, you’ll see that there’s a lot more wrestling in the two hours of Dynamite than there is even in a three-hour WWE Raw. Sometimes there’s more wrestling on an AEW Dynamite show than there is in RAW and SmackDown combined. So that’s one of the things that drew me to it because as a fan, when I was in high school everybody loved the Rock and (‘Stone Cold’) Steve Austin. They were my least favorite people because all they did was talk.
Britt Baker was a guest on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette. Baker said that Adam Cole had told her that WWE was interested in her. “It’s no secret because he’s [Adam Cole] already said it by now so cat’s out of the bag, I’m not gonna get in trouble — that WWE was definitely poking the bear a little bit through him recently, when I was still signed with AEW,” she said (h/t Post Wrestling). You know, ‘Let Britt know we’re really interested in her.’ Without teetering the lines of contract tampering, they definitely let me know they had interest in me but, wasn’t a mutual thing. I’m very happy at AEW and very content and thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had there and this is where I wanna stay.”
