Top 5 Wrestling News Stories Of The Week 11/04: NJPW Star Mocks “Embarrassing” CM Punk Incident, Cody Rhodes Admits AEW Mistake, Randy Orton Hospitalised & More
Each and every week, the weird and wonderful world of professional wrestling never fails to captivate fans with a plethora of captivating stories that make their way into the news cycle.
Whether it’s shocking upsets, dramatic showdowns, or behind-the-scenes drama, the happenings within professional wrestling always keep fans on the edge of their seats.
Here are the Top Five Wrestling News Stories of the Week.
NJPW Star Mocks “Embarrassing” CM Punk Incident
NJPW Star Gabe Kidd Takes Aim At CM Punk And Kenny Omega
Kenny Omega made a special appearance at NJPW Power Struggle, giving a clear indication that he is preparing to return to the ring. During a promo, Omega expressed his desire to face one of the company’s young stars, potentially at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5, 2025.
Shortly after delivering the good news, Omega was confronted backstage by Gabe Kidd.
In the days after the fight Kenny Omega gave an interview where he compared the incident to the famous backstage brawl following AEW All Out 2022 involving himself, CM Punk, the Young Bucks, and Ace Steel. Omega said that like Punk, Kidd is “unfit to be a professional.”
I immediately remembered the incident that happened in AEW. I won’t say his name, but I thought that Gabe was unfit to be a professional, just like that guy. He said a lot of bad things about AEW, but that’s irrelevant now. For now, I can’t trust Gabe.
During an interview with SP3 of SI’s The Takedown, Kidd quickly responded to Omega’s comments, and along the way, he also mocked CM Punk regarding his altercation with Jack Perry at All In 2023. Following that incident, Punk was fired, with Tony Khan stating that he feared for his life.
CCTV footage of the incident was subsequently aired on the April 10th episode of Dynamite.
Kidd said the footage of the incident involving “Little Phil” was the most embarrassing thing he’d ever seen.
“What I did find funny is he ran from the building immediately, ran to Tokyo Sports, said I pushed him and took a fighting stance and he got the first hit in. Well if you did, I didn’t feel shit because everyone heard that slap I gave you in that video.
Listen, I don’t care about any of those other guys, any of those stories. You saw the video of Jack Perry and ‘he who must not be named, little Phil’ we’ll call him?
Little Phil, It was the most embarrassing thing I ever seen and they advertised it to air on TV, that was the most bonkers thing I ever seen in my life. I’ve seen better scraps at nursery, it was embarrassing, so I don’t care if he compared it to that.”
AEW Star Disenchanted With Role In Company
Malakai Black has been a part of AEW since July 2021, following his release from WWE. Since joining AEW, he has primarily been involved with the House of Black faction, which includes Brody King, Buddy Matthews, and Julia Hart. The House of Black team has formerly held the AEW Trios World Tag Team Championship.
As a singles wrestler, Black has faced tough competition and even challenged for the TNT Title while Adam Copeland was champion, but he was unable to win the gold.
On AEW Dynamite, Adam Cole beat Malakai Black in a singles match that was very competitive, but it also had an obvious result with Cole winning.
While speaking about Black’s role in AEW, legendary wrestling announcer Jim Ross claimed on his Grilling JR podcast on Adfreeshows that Black appears to be “disenchanted” in the company.
“You didn’t get enough consistency. He could have been more deeply woven into the storylines over time. He’s one of my favorite characters. He’s a smart guy. He’s a hell of a worker. He can be a babyface or a heel. Wherever he’s going to go, he’s going to make money and he’s going to be an asset to any company that he works for.”
“I talked to him a couple of pay-per-views ago, and he didn’t tell me this, but you could tell he was a little disenchanted. I mean, God Almighty. Think about this. They work a day a week. They wrestle a day a week for AEW, maybe two if they get booked on both the Saturday show and the Wednesday show, but that didn’t happen that much. If it did, you’d be working two days a week. I think his future is always going to be bright. He’s a creative guy.”
Randy Orton Hospitalised After Banned WWE Move
Kevin Owens has sent Randy Orton the the hospital after dropping him with a move banned in WWE.
Kevin Owens and Orton are locked in a bitter feud which saw the Candian attack the Viper in backstage. They were set to clash in Saudi Arabia at Crown Jewel but their match never got started as the two stars fought around ringside and into the crowd before Owens took a leap of faith and sent himself and Orton crashing through tables.
Then on the November 8th edition of SmackDown, Owens took things a step further as he grabbed Randy Orton and nailed him with a pilderiver – a move that had been famously banned in the company.
Orton immediately sold his head and neck and was eventually stretchered from the ring with Cody Rhodes coming to check on his friend. Rhodes left the arena with Orton in an ambulance with Michael Cole later telling fans that Orton had been taken to a local hospital and was suffering from “undisclosed cervical injuries.”
Brand New WWE Women’s Title Unveiled
WWE has finally revealed the Women’s US Championship.
After plenty of rumours in recent months, WWE has unveiled a brand new championship for the company’s female stars on SmackDown.
WWE recently introduced a new women’s title in the form of the Women’s Speed Championship which is currently held by Candice LeRae. While that title is exclusively defended on X/Twitter, there is now a new title that will be doing the rounds on WWE TV.
Nick Aldis unveiled the new WWE Women’s United States Championship on the 8th of November edition of SmackDown. Aldis noted that the title would be earned and not given but it remains to be seen how the inaugural champion will be decided. The commentary team noted that women from both Raw and SmackDown will be able to compete for the gold indicating that a counterpart Women’s Intercontinental Title might not be on the way.
The new title will be the fifth on the WWE main roster for the company’s women to compete for in addition to the WWE Women’s, Women’s World, Women’s Speed, and WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.
Cody Rhodes Made Huge Creative Mistake In AEW
Cody Rhodes has admitted that not being able to win the AEW World Championship was a “huge mistake”.
During his AEW career, Cody Rhodes was a three-time TNT Champion, which was essentially the company’s second-biggest title while he was there. Cody never won the AEW World Title because he lost a match to former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho (thanks to MJF costing Cody) and the stipulation was that Cody was unable to challenge for the AEW World Title ever again.
In an interview with The Flagrant podcast, Cody talked about how he had it in his mind in AEW that he didn’t want to be World Champion.
“I had done two full storylines that I would say I completely oversaw. One was with Chris Jericho for the championship. Chris collaborated with that, offered hugely to it, Tony (Khan) as well, but that was my ‘Week one, week two, week three, week four.’
I was terrified of winning the championship. There is this revisionist history; the last year, I was a bad guy, and they were booing me left and right. Those first two years, and especially those first two months, I was the hottest thing they had, and that was a great spot to be in, but my fear was, ‘If I win the title, I’m abusing this. I’m the Executive Vice President.’
My dad, who was the Executive Vice President and Producer of Jim Crockett Promotions, he had won the championship and the people loved it. Later, the industry journalists, that’s something they looked at and would judge.”
Rhodes looked back on those AEW days while admitting it was a mistake to take himself out of the AEW World Title picture.
“I would say it was a huge mistake that I went that route. I was hot and the fans were happy. In my mind, I didn’t want to do it, and we put ourselves in a situation where I could never challenge for it again.
It’s wrestling, you can go back on it, but I told them, ‘Nope. This is a never go back on. I want to make it clear.’ I wanted to make my stories as big as the world title, which is a problem in itself. You might as well be World Champion.
That story was one I had good control on. I look back and said, ‘Perhaps that decision was a mistake,’ but my heart was in the place of where I didn’t want fans thinking I was going to abuse this position. From a creative standpoint, it probably would have been fine.
Once I was there, I didn’t realize how much of a ceiling it would be for fans. ‘I’ll do these really great stories that just don’t revolve around the title.’ Wrestling, at the end of the day, sometimes it’s not rocket science. It might just be about the title.”