Fightful News Update: Punk, Sareee, SHOOT Beef, Rhea Ripley, Big BIll, More
Welcome to the weekly Fightful Debunkathon news update! This week is heavy on the news, light on the debunking.
CM Punk
AEW World Title plans
A SHOOT beef
Sami Zayn/World Title
TNA Albany
Big Bill
Rhea Ripley plans
Sareee
Trevor Murdoch/NWA
Dark Side of the RIng
The plan for Kenny Omega vs. MJF for the AEW World Title has been in effect for well over three months at the very least. Much like other outlets, we've heard the long term plan was for AEW Redemption.
The Steph De Lander/Nixi XS situation was a shoot, we're told.
Eric Young said that he's been under a TNA contract the entire time, but had told Fightful upon joining the company he was not under contract.
As one would expect, there were a lot of talent happy about Sami Zayn winning the world Championship. Both inside WWE and outside WWE. Naturally there was some pessimism about Zayn potentially losing the title to Brock Lesnar ahead of Summerslam, but that doesn't appear to be the plan.
There were a ton of indie wrestlers at TNA in Albany this week doing tryout matches, working as extras and helping backstage.
Wrestling Observer reports that Rhea Ripley was considered to face Alexa Bliss or Jacy Jayne at Summerslam. We're told one of those could have been at Night of Champions if not for the injury.
Big BIll is still technically on the AEW roster and under contract as of this moment. However, he has given his notice and is headed to WWE barring something huge.
Sareee Interview Notes for Fightful
Sareee was unable to compete in this year’s Owen Hart Tournament due to injury, but she’s now back and looking to get back on track. Recently, she sat down with Scott E. to talk about the injury in an exclusive interview for Fightful and Scott’s YouTube channel.
In the interview, Sareee discussed the difficulty she had with being injured — as it was the first time in her career she really had to miss any sort of time due to injury. She named her SPARK RUSH tag team partner Takumi Iroha as a massive help during her time healing, even noting it was Iroha who had recommended taking the time off to take care of herself.
Regarding the Owen Hart tournament and having to miss it, Sareee confirmed that she’d like to compete in the tournament in the future if presented the opportunity. She also hopes to compete in AEW sooner than later, and wanting to do so alongside her tag team partner Iroha.
In the interview, she also talked about the story of wrestling in two continents in the same calendar — explaining her journey from Fortune Dream at Korakuen Hall to wrestling in Las Vegas over WrestleMania Week at the Marvelous show held the same day. She not only explains the difficulty, but what she had to do to make it happen.
Sareee also talked about her happenings in Japan, including her willingness to compete with Marigold’s Seri Yamaoka who had said she wanted a match with her on X, the bond she’s made with Chi Chi over the last number of years and how she’s hoping to help her as she takes her own freelance journey, and gave her thoughts on the future of Joshi wrestling that continues to grow more and more by the day.
Perhaps the most notable note, however, for fans who may be interested in checking out the entire interview is that Sareee has named Mercedes Mone as a new opponent she’d like to face after the opportunity was missed in the Owen Hart Tournament this year. Hear why that match interests her when the interview is released!
The full interview will be on Fightful today.
Trevor Murdoch
Fightful spoke with Trevor Murdoch of the NWA.
Murdoch has taken over the King gimmick in honor of his trainer and mentor, King Harley Race. When asked about other Kings in wrestling he respected, he mentioned King Haku and King Booker. He's got a bit of a royal court forming as well.
We spoke about him working with 2 Cold Scorpio and Vader early in his career, and seeing them down the line. He said that his time in Japan formed and created who he was going to be in his career, and having Harley Race as a trainer helped open those doors. CM Punk was a guy he saw early in his career that he knew was going to be a guy he saw hit it big.
He said Danny Maff hit him the hardest he's ever been hit before. Carson Drake is a talent he thinks is going to make it big in NWA.
Though he did the faux retirement, he has no plans to retire, and doesn't have an end in sight.
Dark Side of the Ring
Sean Ross Sapp spoke to Dark Side of the Ring's Evan Husney ahead of the season 7 premiere of Dark Side of the Ring on Vice, July 7.
They were able to get Karen Jarrett for her first interview about the Kurt Angle/Jeff Jarrett/TNA situation, an in they had after speaking with Jeff Jarrett. They thought about doing a "Who Killed WCW?' spin off of TNA and ECW, but decided to do a multi part series on TNA for Dark Side instead.
He said they've never had issues with Vince Russo and Jim Cornette both appearing on the shows, and thinks their differing views adds to the programs.
Husney noted they have tons of footage, and have only used about four percent of it. Occasionally, they'll pull old footage if they need to. He's proud of the archive they've built, and when asked said maybe there's a path to releasing interviews in full.
Husney said that the Renegade was a story that has never really been told, and was particularly heartbreaking to cover.
Mike Awesome is one of the most requested stories they've had, but there are some people around it that aren't quite ready to speak about it yet.
June 29th WWE RAW Writers And Producers
Writers:
- Adam Pearce/Paul Heyman/Austin Theory/Oba Femi backstage segment: Brian Parise
- Dominik and JD steal Danhausen’s Knicks jersey: John Trowbridge
- Adam Pearce/Judgment Day backstage segment: Ben Saccoccio
- The Usos and Jacob Fatu backstage segment: Michael Kirshenbaum
- Lyra Valkyria promo: Kirsten Koedding
- Maxxine Dupri and Chad Gable backstage segment: Jon Baeckstrom
- Danhausen and Liv Morgan backstage segment: John Trowbridge
- Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri backstage segment: Jon Baeckstrom
Producers:
- Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar segment: Michael Hayes and Bobby Roode
- Rey Mysterio vs Ethan Page: Abyss
- Austin Theory vs Joe Hendry: Shane Helms
- IYO Sky and Liv Morgan in ring segment: TJ Wilson
- Jimmy Uso vs LA Knight: Michael Hayes and Bobby Roode
- Maxxine Dupri vs Raquel Rodriguez: TJ Wilson
- Chad Gable vs JD McDonagh: Petey Williams
Other Notes:
- There was no internal name listed for this week’s show.
- No writer or producer were listed for Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins’ segment.
WWE SmackDown July 3rd (Taped On June 29) Writers, Producers And Other Notes
Writers:
- Cathy Kelley interviews Charlotte Flair: Ioannis Filippides
- Adam Pearce, Sami Zayn, Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae backstage segment: Cristian Scovell
- Cathy Kelley interviews Giulia: Devyn Prieto
- Jimmy Uso, Jacob Fatu and Royce Keys backstage segment: Chad Barbash
- Danhausen backstage segment: Sondra Lacey and Patrick McAlpine
- Priest, Truth, FrAxiom and War Raiders segment: Eric Watts
- Cody Rhodes/Tongas and Finn Balor segment: Chad Barbash
Producers:
- Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso segment: Jamie Noble
- Charlotte Flair, Tiffany Stratton and Chelsea Green vs Jade Cargill, B-Fab and Michin: Jason Jordan and Molly Holly
- Rey Fenix vs El Hijo Del Vikingo: Shawn Daivari
- Blake Monroe attacks Giulia and Kiana James: Molly Holly
- Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams segment: Kenny Dykstra
- Brie Bella vs Lainey Reid: Kenny Dykstra
- Cody Rhodes/Tongas and Finn Balor segment: Kenny Dykstra
- Cody Rhodes vs Jey Uso: Jamie Noble
Other Notes:
- The show was internally titled ‘WrestleZania’.
DEBUNKATHON
Randy Orton is not helping Sami Zayn on Raw.
We've heard a lot of rumblings and rumors about issues regarding CM Punk and WWE dating back to WrestleMania, but never had any specifics confirmed to us. Not much has changed since our expanded report week ago.