Top 5 Wrestling News Stories Of The Week 11/25: “Incorrect Reporting” Surrounding Jade Cargill’s WWE Absence, AEW Pull Star From GCW Show & John Cena Confirmed For Another Major WWE Event

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.

John Cena Confirmed For Another Major WWE Event

Another 2025 appearance for John Cena has been confirmed.

At Money In The Bank, John Cena delivered an unexpected bombshell by announcing his intention to retire in 2025. During the post-show press conference and over the following weeks he broke down how he plans to say goodbye.

In another surprise, he won’t be retiring at WrestleMania 41, instead, his farewell will take place across a year-long retirement tour made up of around 36 dates. Crucially, Cena said he won’t be falling into the trap of going back on his retirement when he finally hangs up his boots.

With 2025 just around the corner, the first part of Cena’s schedule has now become a little clearer.

On March 1st, 2025, WWE will head to the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada for Elimination Chamber. The event will be the first WWE Premium Live Event held at the famous venue since WrestleMania 18, and that match between The Rock and Hulk Hogan.

It’s now been confirmed that Cena will be at the event and in Toronto, Canada with WWE for the last time ever. Although Cena appears on the new poster, there’s no word on whether he’ll be wrestling.

It has previously been announced that John Cena will be taking part in the 2025 Royal Rumble in Indianapolis, Indiana. He’s also been confirmed for Monday Night Raw’s debut on Netflix on January 6th.

GCW Boss Responds To AEW Pulling Ricky Starks From Upcoming Booking

Ricky Starks won’t be appearing for GCW going forward.

On November 23rd, Ricky Starks appeared at a GCW event before it was announced that he’ll face Matt Cardona on December 14th. But now, not only will that match not be happening, but Starks won’t be working for GCW at all.

Three days later it was reported that Ricky Starks had been pulled from the match and other planned appearances. The report noted that derogatory comments from GCW regular Effy about AEW and Tony Khan’s father were at the heart of the fallout.

The complicate matters further, the whole situation is playing out against huge speculation about Starks’ AEW future. Despite appearing to not want to use him on television, it’s been reported that the company took up a one-year option on Starks’ contract in the spring.

During an appearance on the Game Changer Weekly podcast, GCW boss Brett Lauderdale responded to Starks being pulled from the bookings.

“Ricky Starks has worked for GCW before. So, he’s no stranger. We know him and we had a little bit of a relationship. And he’s also pretty tight friends with a few of the people in our locker room.

He, like many others, reached out to us and asked if we’d be interested and, of course, we’d love to have a guy like Ricky Starks, who we know how talented he is, we know how popular he is.”

Lauderdale went on to suggest that independent contractors aren’t being allowed to be very independent, adding that while he’s never spoken to Tony Khan, he always considered GCW and AEW to be on the same team.

“Theoretically an independent contractor is independent, and they can go and work wherever they want. But in wrestling, these independent contractors don’t seem to be very independent. They’re at the whim of an employer, which sure makes it seem like they are an employee…

I don’t really have a line of communication with AEW. I’ve never talked to Tony Khan on the phone or via text in my entire life. They don’t talk to me. I’m not trying to say that necessarily in a negative context but, I guess, we’ve never really had to talk.

I haven’t been on the phone with AEW where they’ve given me an explanation or asked me any questions or anything. I have no communication with AEW over this. I don’t know where it goes beyond Ricky Starks.

But, of course, Sunday was Bloodsport in Jersey city and Jon Moxley was there, and Marina was there, and some others, many others, actually, were there, both on and off camera. So, I’m not sure what the deal is. Of course, I’ve heard things. I’ve heard things in many different directions but, again, without me hearing it directly from AEW, it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.”

“I’ve always considered GCW and AEW to be on the same team. So, I don’t know if this is meant to punish Ricky Starks, is it meant to punish GCW, is it somewhere in-between? I just don’t know because again, I just don’t have that line of communication. It certainly doesn’t feel great.

I would love to know if there is something that we should have done or something we should be doing or whatever. But we got to the point where this stuff was agreed upon and announced and fans were looking forward to this. So whenever that happens, to promote something and then have to pull it back, it’s not ideal.”

With regard to the comments from Effy playing a role in Starks being pulled from the bookings, Lauderdale said he’s only heard snippets of what the star said. Although he did note that Effy is an independent contractor so is free to give his own thoughts and opinions without them being linked to GCW.

“Incorrect Reporting” Surrounding Jade Cargill

What’s going on with Jade Cargill?

On the November 22nd edition of SmackDown, Bianca Belair, Chelsea Green, and Blair Davenport squared off in a first-round match in the tournament for the Women’s United States Title. However, the match was thrown into chaos by a video from backstage showing Jade Cargill laid out on the hood of a car with the windshield smashed.

Following the show it was reported that Jade Cargill was dealing with a real injury and set to miss a minimum of three months. Although details on the injury were being kept secret.

Given the news, a further reported that Cargill and Belair would be forced to give up the Women’s Tag Team Titles. Cargill had already been removed from WarGames and the Women’s United States Title tournament.

Despite this, a new report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider has claimed that Cargill isn’t injured after all. Johnson noted “incorrect reporting” around the star, stating that suggestions she’s injured are “100% incorrect.”

The attack on SmackDown was purely for storyline purposes and laid out to create another story in the future.

The report closes by reiterating “So, in short, Jade Cargill is not injured.”

AEW Has No Plans To Use Another Wantaway Star

It’s become an open secret that the Lucha Brothers are looking to join WWE, but their path to the sports entertainment giant is very complicated.

Back in September, it was reported that AEW was looking to add injury time to Rey Fenix’s contract in order to keep him tied to the company. However, his tag team partner would soon be a free agent.

It’s now been confirmed that Penta will leave AEW upon the expiry of his contract in December. But the situation around Fenix remains very different. As reiterated by Fightful Select, the star’s contract runs well into 2025, putting plans for a Lucha Bros move to WWE well and truly on hold.

In the latest update in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that Tony Khan has no desire to use Fenix, despite being under contract for several more months.

The last word is that he is not being let out of his contract but they aren’t going to use him either. For all the complaints about paying him and not using him, and unfortunately, WWE set the rules of combat.

If you are in a war with WWE and play by different rules, not only do they see it as weakness but they’ll exploit it to death by going after contracted guys constantly.

WWE Legends Sign With TNA Wrestling

Two former WWE stars have officially signed with TNA.

Matt Hardy returned to TNA in April 2024 for a third spell after his AEW contract expired. After initially chasing the World Championship, Matt was reunited with his brother Jeff at Bound For Glory after he made his own exit from AEW.

It was reported at the time that the pair were working under a handshake deal and technically remained free agents. However, that has now changed. As first reported by The Takedown on SI, The Hardys have re-signed with TNA.

You can find the official press release from TNA Wrestling below.

TNA Wrestling confirmed today that it has re-signed Jeff & Matt Hardy, aka, The Hardys – the reigning TNA World Tag Team Champions, as first reported by Sports Illustrated.

Brothers Jeff & Matt Hardy have been wrestling professionally since 1993, holding countless championships over the decades. In fact, WWE named The Hardys as one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history. Jeff and Matt are the only team to have held the WWE/World, WCW, TNA, ROH, Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships. Revolutionary and fearless, Jeff and Matt are known for their energetic, high-risk approach to pro wrestling. In 2003, Jeff & Matt co-wrote an autobiographical book of memoirs; their book was a New York Times best-seller.

The Hardys won their third TNA World Tag Team Championship in October, defeating previous champions The System (Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers) and ABC (Ace Austin and Chris Bey) at Bound for Glory in a Full Metal Mayhem match.

JEFF HARDY

Jeff has long had a passion and participated in motocross, as well as artistic endeavors such as music and painting. Jeff made his TNA debut in 2004 in a match against A.J. Styles for the TNA X Division Championship. He has been the TNA World Champion three times for a combined 249 days.

MATT HARDY

Matt Hardy’s eccentric “Broken” gimmick made its debut in 2016 and has long been praised, winning multiple Best Gimmick awards. Matt made his TNA debut in 2011 in a match against Rob Van Dam. Matt is a two-time former TNA World Champion. He played baseball and football while growing up and attended Union Pines High School in North Carolina.