Top 5 Wrestling News Stories Of The Week 2/3: Vince McMahon & The Undertaker Spotted At NFL Super Bowl & WWE Releases Multiple Former Champions
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.
5. Vince McMahon & The Undertaker Spotted At NFL Super Bowl
Vince McMahon, Shane McMahon, and The Undertaker have been spotted taking in the Super Bowl.
Super Bowl LIX took place in New Orleans where the Philadelphia Eagles stopped any hopes of a three-peat as they defeated the Kansas City Chiefs to win the big one.
4. WWE Changes Charlotte Flair Creative After Fan Backlash
Changes are coming for Charlotte Flair.
At the Royal Rumble, Charlotte Flair won the women’s Rumble match to book her ticket to WrestleMania. At the event, she will now face Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley, NXT Women’s Champion Giulia, or Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton.
After grabbing the victory, Flair headed to Raw on February 3 where she cut a promo detailing her struggle to return from a major knee injury that kept her out for 13 months. Flair was given a mixed reaction by the crowd, and things only got worse after the arrival of Rhea Ripley. In the end, Flair all but abandoned her bid for sympathy and leaned more heavily into a heelish persona.
Despite the appearance on Raw, Charlotte Flair is expected to face Tiffany Stratton at WrestleMania, but it appears the fan reaction on Raw has pushed WWE into a rethink.
According to a new report from Sportskeeda’s Dr. Chris Featherstone, the feeling within WWE is that Flair will now be presented as more of a heel heading into a match with Stratton at WrestleMania. Originally, Flair had been scheduled to be the babyface in the feud.
Following an appearance on NXT, Charlotte Flair said she could make WWE’s champions wait before deciding who to face at WrestleMania. The former Women’s Champion teased that she might not make her decision until the night before the event.
3. MJF Responds To Seth Rollins After AEW Jab
In recent days the NBA and North American sports in general have been left stunned by a blockbuster trade between the Dallas Mavericks and the LA Lakers.
As part of the stunning deal, Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic was sent to the Lakers, while Anthony Davis went in the opposite direction.
In the wake of the trade, Seth Rollins was asked about a potentially similar situation between WWE and AEW. However, he didn’t think anyone in AEW was on the same level.
“You’ll make some headlines with this one. I don’t think there is anybody in AEW that’s on that level [laughs in Seth Rollins]. You’re probably looking at it, if you’re looking at a LeBron, that’s like a John Cena level guy. I’d be looking at John Cena for an MJF, maybe. That’d be the deal. Luka would be MJF. That’s the level. That’s how crazy that is,”
In response to the comments from Rollins, on social media MJF simply asked “Who’s Luca?”
Who the hell is Luca doncic?
Indie guy?
2. AEW Is Where Careers Go To Die Says WWE Hall Of Famer
AEW has once again come under heavy fire from Eric Bischoff.
The legendary WWE Hall Of Famer is a long-standing and outspoken critic of Tony Khan’s organisation, regularly registering his disapproval at creative decisions made by the company as well as the handling of both new and well-established talent.
The 69 year-old previous issues with AEW include disgruntlement at the use of Mercedes Mone and slamming comparisons between The Elite and the NWO.
Speaking during a recent appearance on ‘SHAK Wrestling‘, the former WCW President launched his latest attack on AEW, going as far as to suggest that it was the place where careers go to die:
“That promotion is circling the toilet bowl. And it’s because of the creative. It’s because of the lack of leadership. It’s because of the lack of structure, creative structure, and the lack of vision that.
There’s not a chance any one of those talents is going to be any more valuable as an asset 12 months from now than they are today or that they were 12 months ago. It’s the place where your career goes to die. There’s no exceptions to the rule.
From Mercedes to Adam Copeland to Christian, you name any big star that came over with equity and value in a fan base, and look where they are. The supposed best in the world, Will Ospreay, is a bust. He doesn’t draw money.”
The former Executive Director of SmackDown went on the hammer the company for not making better use of two of it’s biggest name stars:
“There’s just not one piece of talent there that is more valuable today than they were yesterday. Look what’s happened to MJF, for crying out loud. That was almost too hard to screw up, flat as can be.
Jon Moxley, are you kidding me? Death Riders, whatever that is, it ain’t working. The only thing that death is riding is the audience away from the product.”
1. WWE Releases Multiple Former Champions
There have been many WWE superstars released by the company, including former champions.
The roster cuts in WWE are continuing less than a week after the Royal Rumble.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson have been released by WWE, according to PWInsider. The team had multiple runs with WWE and were most recently part of the NXT brand although they were not being used that often.
While in WWE, Gallows & Anderson were two-time Raw Tag Team Champions. They were aligned with AJ Styles and Michin (Mia Yim) as part of The Club as well, but that group eventually fizzled out.
Gallows has been a part of WWE in multiple roles over the last 20 years including the memorable Festus character and he also played a fake version of Kane briefly. Gallows was also in the Straight Edge Society group led by CM Punk, which was a way to get him away from being Festus.
The team of Gallows & Anderson has had a lot of success in other companies like New Japan Pro Wrestling and TNA while also working for AEW as well.
Giovanni Vinci, who used to be in the Imperium group, has also been released, as reported by Fightful. After Vinci was attacked by Ludwig Kaiser in 2024, Vince was put on SmackDown on his own, they tried to give him a gimmick as a rich playboy type of guy and it didn’t work that well.
During his NXT days, Vinci was a two-time NXT Tag Team Champion when he was known as Fabian Aichner and Kaiser was known as Marcel Barthel.
Isla Dawn has also been released by WWE. She posted this message on her Instagram story: “Here for a good time not a long time. See you in 90” Dawn was a former Women’s Tag Team Champion with Alba Fyre.
There were more WWE superstars released on February 7th and the news of their releases were reported as SmackDown was going on.
* Cedric Alexander
* AOP – Akam & Rezar
* WWE Hall of Famer Paul Ellering
* Blair Davenport
* Sonya Deville was informed that her soon-to-be-expiring contract would not be extended, so it was essentially a release. Deville had the longest tenure with WWE since she was in the 2015 season of Tough Enough and was hired after the show was done.