Logan Paul Takes Aim At Conor McGregor – “You’re Next”; Wrestling News August 9th 2023

Wardlow has opened up about his ongoing AEW absence, admitting that he isn’t feeling great about the current situation.

Ever since splitting away from his role as MJF’s lackey Wardlow has been a dominant competitor within AEW, winning the TNT Championship three times in just 9 months. Lately, however, the AEW original has missing from the promotion’s programming.

His last appearance came on the debut edition of AEW Collision where he lost the TNT Championship just 59 days into his third reign to Luchasaurus. Now, nearly three months on, Wardlow has opened up about his disappearance from AEW.

Speaking during an AEW panel at Terrificon 2023 (via Fandom Spotlite), Wardlow admitted that he feels “depressed” over his current situation and isn’t sure when he’ll be back on AEW programming.

“So, I’ve been off TV for almost a couple of months and I’ve been very depressed. Wrestling is my everything, it makes me happy. It was a rough start for me on Collision, I do not know when I’ll be back, hopefully soon,”

He went on to thank those in attendance for making him feel like himself for the first time in months and helping to “flip a switch” in his head and heart:

“Today I feel like me again for the first time in months. So, I just want to say thank you guys for coming out because you guys really, really flipped a switch in my mind, and my heart that I needed.”

h/t to WrestlingInc

Haku is alleged to have once pulled out a fellow WWE star’s eyeball during one of his many infamous backstage fights!

Quick warning: If you’re squeamish about eyeballs being pulled out of their sockets (who isn’t?!) then this story might not be for you…

During the latest episode of his Snake Pit podcast, Jake Roberts discussed some of the many stories surrounding Haku and his tendency to fight people.

In one particularly gruesome incident, Robert claims that Haku got into a fight with former WWE star Jimmy Jack Funk and pulled (yes, pulled) Funk’s eyeball out of its socket and left it hanging from his face.

The former King of the Ring was apparently nice enough to put Funk into a headlock to shove the eyeball back in though, so that’s… something.

“They f**king get into it and Haku f**king jerks his eyeball out. And now his eyeball is hanging down, like here, swinging. And he’s bent over and he’s like, ‘Hey, Jake, so f**king weird. I can see the ground and I can see you standing way over there. This is really f**ked up!’ And I’m like, ‘Your f**king eyeball’s out, man.’

At least Haku was nice enough to put it back in. Yeah, he f**king grabbed him in a headlock and just f**king shoved that s**t back up in there. I f**king ran to my room and f**king cried.”

h/t to 411Mania

WWE reportedly always planned for Roman Reigns to retain his Undisputed Universal Championship over Jey Uso in the main event of SummerSlam.

Fans were stunned back at Money In The Bank when Jey Uso became the first person since Roman Reigns’ 2020 return to successfully pin the Tribal Chief, leading some to believe the Uso brother could be the one to ultimately dethrone Reigns.

But it wasn’t to be, as Reigns retained his title for the 27th time in his historic reign thanks to Jey’s brother Jimmy ultimately costing him the match. But was there ever a plan for Jey to do the impossible?

Speaking on the McGuire on Wrestling podcast, Dave Meltzer revealed that Jey Uso defeating Roman Reigns was never considered or even discussed as a possibility backstage. Meltzer went on to say he believes Cody Rhodes will still get that honor.

“I never even heard anyone discuss that as a possibility. I mean, obviously, they’ve already got whatever it is. They’ve got plans going for Roman as champion for months down the line, so Jey wasn’t going to win. I’ve got to think Cody is eventually winning it, so it’s just a question of keeping him hot enough. Brock did a great job with Cody.”

Should Jey Uso have dethroned Roman Reigns? If not, who should? Let us know your thoughts by sharing on Facebook or Twitter down below!

WWE have released a brand-new video showing Michael Cole and Corey Graves’ live reactions to some of the biggest moments from this past weekend’s SummerSlam!

The video is shot from a camera on their desk live at the event and shows the duo’s reactions to Gunther retaining the Intercontinental Championship, LA Knight winning the Slim Jim Battle Royal, Jimmy Uso costing his brother Jey the main event match and more.

Check out the video above and let us know your favourite moment from SummerSlam 2023 on Facebook or Twitter!

Nick Jackson of The Young Bucks has revealed he was initially disappointed and frustrated by how the Blood & Guts match between The Golden Elite and Blackpool Combat Club turned out.

The road to the 2023 edition of AEW’s infamous Blood & Guts match was a bumpy ride, to say the least thanks to Bryan Danielson’s injury and Eddie Kingston’s absence due to competing in the NJPW G1 Climax.

Thankfully, the two were replaced by PAC and Kota Ibushi respectively and the match was well received by fans. But one competitor in the match itself wasn’t too happy with how it went down at first…

Appearing on the latest edition of the Swerve City Podcast, The Young Bucks confirmed the match’s time was cut short at the end which led to some initial frustration from Nick Jackson about how the match as a whole turned out.

Nick: There are some moments, I’ll be honest, I want to say it was Blood & Guts, we had to take the match home quick. I look at Matt and Hangman, “Dangit! That wasn’t the best match. I wanted it to be the best match.’ Matt is like, ‘are we all healthy? Can we walk?’ ‘Yeah. Oh, you’re right.’

Matt: I’m like, ‘Who cares? I’m going to Hawaii.’

Nick: Even I get lost sometimes in the moment, ‘I wanted it to go this way, but I’m healthy, whatever.’

Matt: I remember, I was like, ‘Did you try your best?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘I did too.’

Nick: That was in the ring, not backstage. The bell rang, we’re raising our hands, and I’m like, ‘Dangit.’

Matt: Later that night, we’re eating Wendy’s, just the two of us, watching the match back, and we were popping for everything. At the end of the hour, we’re like, ‘that was friggin’ great.’

Nick: Yeah. I was like, ‘what was I mad about?’

h/t to Fightful

The eight quarter-finalists in this year’s NJPW G1 Climax tournament, dubbed ‘The Elite Eight’, have officially been determined!

The final night of the tournament’s round-robin blocks format concluded earlier today and officially determined the first and second-place winners of D Block.

Tetsuya Naito and Zack Sabre Jr will advance to the quarter-finals after both obtaining 10 points in the tournament. Naito was determined the overall winner of the block, thanks to his singles victory over Sabre in their tournament match back on August 2nd.

The two join SANADA & Hikuleo of A Block, Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay of B Block and David Finlay & EVIL of C Block in the quarter-finals which will take place tomorrow. The semi-finals are set for August 12th with the finals on the 13th.

The quarter-final matchups have already been determined, with SANADA facing his former Los Ingobernables de Japon partner EVIL; Okada facing long-time rival Sabre Jr; Finlay looking to prove himself against the promotion’s top gaijin Ospreay; and Hikuleo set for a first-time-ever match against Naito.

CM Punk has launched a brand new AEW t-shirt in support of Trans Pride with 100% of the shirt’s proceeds going to charity.

Punk has been a long-time supporter of LGBTQIA+ causes, most notably bringing a fan into the ring holding a “support LGBTQ+ youth” sign and delivering an off-air speech in support of gay, lesbian and particularly transgender young people following the debut edition of AEW Collision.

Now the two-time AEW World Champion has launched a brand-new Best In The World AEW t-shirt sporting the colours of the transgender pride flag, which is now available for $29.99 from AEW’s online store until August 22nd.

All proceeds generated from sales of the shirt will be donated to The Trevor Project, a non-profit organisation dedicated to providing 24/7 crisis support services and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ young people in the United States.

Punk wore the shirt on last week’s edition of AEW Collision when he successfully defended the ‘Real World Championship’ against Ricky Starks.

Tonight’s AEW Dynamite will emanate from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio with three weeks to go till AEW’s historic first event outside of North America – AEW All In!

Matches and segments announced for the show include:

• MJF & Adam Cole speak
• The Jericho Appreciation Society hold a mandatory meeting
• The Hardys vs The Young Bucks
• The Lucha Brothers vs Blackpool Combat Club
• Jack Perry (c) vs Rob Van Dam – FTW Rules match for the FTW Championship
• Hikaru Shida (c) vs Anna Jay – AEW Women’s World Championship match

What are you most excited to see on tonight’s episode of Dynamite? Let us know by sharing your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter down below!

Bronson Reed has undergone a slight name change following the latest edition of RAW that you might not have noticed!

Reed has had a mixed time on the main roster since his return to WWE last December, having challenged for the United States Championship twice and even competing inside the Elimination Chamber.

Despite all that though, the former NJPW star has yet to pick up a major career accolade in WWE in order to kickstart his career. However, this new change for the star could be the fresh start he’s been waiting for.

Per a new report from PWInsider Elite (via Wrestling Headlines), Reed is now officially listed as ‘Big’ Bronson Reed internally and this will be his official ring name going forward – in a similar vein to Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins.

Reed most recently competed on this week’s edition of RAW where he lost to Shinsuke Nakamura in a singles match.

Click here to learn more about this story.

Tony Khan wasn’t too pleased with Dave Meltzer when he found out this classic AEW match didn’t receive a five-star rating from the journalist!

Dave Meltzer’s star ratings are divisive in their legitimacy amongst the wrestling community and spark many an online debate.

But it isn’t just fans that get caught up in what the Wrestling Observer Newsletter author thinks about the latest matches as Chris Jericho has revealed that AEW President Tony Khan keeps a close eye on Meltzer’s ratings as well!

During the latest edition of Talk Is Jericho, the AEW star looked back on his AEW Dynamite: Quake By The Lake match against Jon Moxley for the Interim AEW World Championship.

Jericho expressed his love for the bout and revealed that Tony Khan was “mad” that it didn’t receive a five-star rating from Meltzer and instead was awarded just four and three quarters stars.

“It was such a great match. I really, really loved it. I remember Tony was mad that Meltzer didn’t give us five stars, he gave us four and three quarters like it was pretty much the same thing.

But it was a five star match in my book, one of my favourites, and I’ve always had great chemistry with Mox because we’d like beating the sh*t out of each other. It’s that simple.”

Click here to read more about this story.

Yet another big hint has come to light suggesting that former AEW star Brian Pillman Jr is headed to WWE!

Rumors have been swirling as of late regarding Pillman’s future following his surprise AEW departure last month with several reports stating that the former Varsity Blond is WWE-bound.

But now, a new report has dropped another major hint regarding Pillman and where he might end up next.

According to Fightful Select, Pillman is said to be in the process of moving to Florida. This is noteworthy as Florida is the home state of NXT and where many of WWE’s developmental and main roster talent resides.

Pillman was last seen on AEW programming on the April 11th edition of Dark where he lost a singles match to Matt Taven. He went on to compete at two AEW House Rules events, losing to Claudio Castagnoli and The Gunns respectively, prior to his departure from the promotion.

Fresh from his SummerSlam victory over Ricochet, Logan Paul is looking to his future in combat sports as a whole and in particular, a showdown with Conor McGregor!

Paul recently announced his return to boxing after a two-year absence from the sport. The social media star is set to compete against Bellator’s Dillon Danis at The PRIME Card, a DAZN pay-per-view event live from Manchester, England on October 14th.

Despite the bout being over two months away, Paul is already looking ahead of Danis to bigger fish in the MMA pond and has laid down a challenge to perhaps the biggest of them all – Conor McGregor.

The challenge stemmed from McGregor reposting the announcement of the fight on X (formerly Twitter), which Paul quickly responded to. In his own repost, the now-WWE star took a page out of Hall of Famer Goldberg’s book, telling McGregor “You’re next.”

McGregor has not responded to Paul’s comments at the time of writing.

You’re next https://t.co/pU9edfuVlY

— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) August 8, 2023

Do you want to see Logan Paul vs Conor McGregor in a boxing match? Who would win? Let us know your thoughts by sharing on Facebook or Twitter down below!

Morning all, hope you’ve all recovered from SummerSlam weekend!

Welcome back to the TJRWrestling live blog! I’ll be with you from 7am to 1pm EST covering the latest stories & breaking news from WWE, AEW, NJPW and elsewhere across the wrestling world!

We’ve got some big stories headed your way today including:

• Logan Paul Takes Aim At Conor McGregor – “You’re Next”
  
• Another Big Hint Former AEW Star Is Headed To WWE
• Tony Khan Was “Mad” Classic AEW Match Didn’t Get 5 Stars