Fightful News Update and Debunkathon: Richard Holliday, Andrade, Fanatics Fest, AEW Title Shots, Mark Henry
We're told that the TNT Champion getting a world title shot around this time of year has also been planned for quite some time.
WWE has an incredible amount of content planned for this weekend at Fanatics Fest, as one would imagine.
Indie wrestler Ava Everett was the Andrade selfie girl this week. Rachel Ley was in the vignette from Collision.
As has been the case, some of the plans for Redemption were kept close to the vest until the day a lot of the matches were announced.
Deonna Purrazzo told us she is still rehabbing her injury.
If there was any doubt, yes the Raw vignette was for Big Cass. He was officially signed this month, but the loose plan had been in order for him to join WWE since May.
Regarding Richard Holliday, it should be noted that we can only confirm internal interest from the company. One source had indicated they expected him to be signed. He's been playing it up on social media to an almost suspicious level. He wasn't at the Boston TNA tapings which surprised a number of people at TNA, leading to the inquiries. We do expect him to land in WWE.
WWE is also planning on bringing in a new referee soon.
Fanatics Fest general admission sold out for Thursday.
A reminder, our 24 hour charity stream for NAMI is going on RIGHT NOW, with tons of guests. Check it out at this link. You can donate at this link. Steve Maclin, Doc Gallows, Jim Fannin, Pollo Del Mar, Trevor Lee, AJ Francis, The Cazanas, Carson Drake, Lucky Leone, Rachael Ellering, Pro Wrestling Symphony promoter Connor Casey have all joined.
We have an interview with Bobby Steveson at this link.
Fightful spoke with Mark Henry via Casino.org: Were there any feats of strength that WWE wanted you to perform, but you turned down? If so, what were they and why did you pass on them?"I never turned anything down. The one thing that I almost turned down though was holding the limo back, but once I saw how it worked, I was not worried anymore, and it was fine." Who was the strongest wrestler you ever encountered?"Brock and Big Show are just mutants when it comes to size and strength. They’ both can bench-press 500 pounds . There were guys that I knew that were powerlifters, but powerlifting doesn't always apply to a fight. But what Brock & Big Show had was a strength that applied to fighting, particularly their style of fighting which made them so difficult to wrestle.""Brock is the strongest out of the two. I think that he would be able to lift more with his legs than Big Show. They are probably about the same in upper body strength, but the lower extremities, I'm sure that Brock could squat over 600 pounds. I don't think Big Show would be able to do that."
Don Callis
Fightful spoke to Don Callis about the Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling's TSN2 debut.
We spoke about the importance of Maple Leaf Pro to Canadian Wrestling. He touched on how Bret Hart opened a lot of doors for him in his career, and he said he's happy to do that for other people now.
We also spoke about working with John Tenta, aka Golga aka Earthquake, who he spoke so highly of. He said that he wanted Tenta in the Brawl For All because of his shoot and sumo background, but the WWE office wouldn't let it happen.
He says he does not believe that Mick Foley would be anything but reckless with him if they ever wrestled. He said there are times he thinks he could get in the ring and take a hip toss.
You can see the full interview at this link.
July 13th WWE RAW Writers And Producers
Writers:
- Hype Package for IC Title number one contenders gauntlet: James Curtin and Mike Mirabile
- The Vision backstage segment: Ben Saccoccio
- Adam Pearce and Oba Femi backstage segment: Brian Parise
- Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins contract signing: Michael Kirshenbaum
Producers:
- Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar segment: Michael Hayes
- IYO SKY vs Roxanne Perez: Jason Jordan
- The Vision/Alpha Academy segment: Shane Helms
- Jimmy Uso vs Royce Keys: Shawn Daivari
- Bayley and Lyra Valkyria in ring segment: Shane Helms
- IC Title Number 1 Contenders Gauntlet: Bobby Roode and Jamie Noble
- Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins contract signing: Michael Hayes
DEBUNKATHON
Wrestlling News Now is the dog shit worst. Interesting that they have a warning to not steal their content, because it's all fictional. Unfortunately, lots of people fall for it.
Bob Holly no longer has twitter and hasn't since 2019. The one pretending to be him used to pretend to be Sid. Bob Holly's wife wants that
Sportskeeda referral program garbage. AJ Lee and Paige are reuniting on a podcast, not in ring.
USA Network wanted CM Punk on Smackdown. This site has no details on the length of Punk's title run.