CM Punk Reportedly Intends To Return To WWE; Wrestling News October 6th 2023

The CM Punk news just keeps on coming as FTR’s Dax Harwood has applied to trademark “CMFTR” for entertainment services.

Harwood filed to trademark the collective name that he, Cash Wheeler and CM Punk used across several trios matches in AEW. The trademark is officially live as of yesterday, October 5th, and can be viewed on the United States Trademark and Patent Office’s Trademark Electronic Search System.

The three last competed together on the August 12th edition of AEW Collision where they unsuccessfully challenged AEW World Trios Champions The House Of Black. The trio competed in four matches together across 2022 and 2023 with a 2-2 win/loss record overall. Their two victories came over Max Caster & The Gunns on the June 1st 2022 Dynamite as well as Samoa Joe and Bullet Club Gold on the inaugural episode of Collision.

The filing has emerged at the same time as reports emerging that CM Punk intends to return to WWE, with one WWE source claiming it’s a “safe bet” that the former AEW World Champion being at Survivor Series next month.

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will emanate from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri. The next WWE pay-per-view event will take place this weekend: WWE Fastlane on October 7th.

Matches and segments announced for the show include:

• The Judgement Day, Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso will appear
• Rey Mysterio vs Bobby Lashley
• Damage CTRL vs Asuka & Charlotte Flair
• Dragon Lee vs Austin Theory

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

Former WWE star Shannon Moore has revealed how Road Dogg saved him from a lifetime prison sentence or his own death.

Moore appeared on the latest episode of the WWE Hall of Famer’s Oh, You Didn’t Know podcast and opened up about his struggles with substance abuse back in 2013. Just before entering rehab, Moore came up with a plan to take either someone’s life (namely his ex-wife or someone else he believed responsible for his situation) or his own.

“That way I could go to jail for the rest of my life, or end up killing myself. “As I’m driving, I’m thinking these are my final few days on the planet, or I’m gonna be in prison. As I’m driving, I’m thinking, ‘Who would you reach out to, to say goodbye or whatever?’”

Road Dogg was heavy on my mind the whole trip. Because I’m like, ‘Road Dogg was able to get sober … I’ve been to the shows and he’s still Road Dogg. He’s still laughing. How did he do that?’ I’m thinking that during this whole trip.”

“I think it was the last ditch effort of, ‘Please help me. I’m not this person. I just need some help.’ I reached out to Road Dogg on Twitter. I still got the messages. If it wasn’t for him, I’d be either dead or in prison for the rest of my life.”

h/t to WrestlingInc

AEW World Champion MJF has admitted he “dropped the ball” on AEW Dynamite in his response to criticism of his recent appearance.

In a post to his X account earlier today, Friedman encouraged fans to embrace criticism in order to grow. A fan responded to the post with criticism of his most recent appearance on Dynamite, claiming it made him”never want to watch wrestling again.”

MJF replied, admitting that the segment wasn’t up to his usual standards and that he “dropped the ball.” He went on to say that he couldn’t afford to do that due to the attention on him as AEW World Champion and looked forward to returning to his usual standard next week.

“Already have. I could sit here and tell you I’ve consistently been the biggest ratings draw in my company for some time. I can say that I’ve also been universally praised. But the fact is I dropped the ball this week. There’s a lot of eyes on me. I can’t afford to do that. Look forward to picking the ball back up on Wednesday.”

Already have. I could sit here and tell you I’ve consistently been the biggest ratings draw in my company for some time. I can say that I’ve also been universally praised. But the fact is I dropped the ball this week. There’s a lot of eyes on me. I can’t afford to do that. Look…

— Maxwell Jacob Friedman™️ (@The_MJF) October 6, 2023

Dragon Lee looks to be graduating from NXT six months on from his debut in the black and gold brand!

In the most recent Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reports that Dragon Lee may already have been moved to the WWE main roster after impressing with his North American Championship match with Dominik Mystreio. His deal with the company already stipulated that he’d be on the main roster within a year but his recent Raw match may have accelerated the process.

“Dragon Lee did so well with Dominik that it looks like he’s now on the main roster. The nature of the deal he signed did indicate he’d be on the main roster after one year in NXT to begin with, but the match with Dominik may have sped up his timetable.

He was legitimately debating between AEW and WWE last year when both made their offers and WWE did indicate main roster money in the deal for year two.”

John Cena will not be Roman Reigns’ next challenger at WWE Crown Jewel, according to a new report.

Dave Meltzer reports in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that despite recent rumors, John Cena vs Roman Reigns is currently not planned for WWE Crown Jewel next month. The rumors seem to have stemmed from The Bloodline taking jabs at Cena being the second greatest ever behind Reigns, ahead of Cena’s match with Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa at Fastlane.

“Although the promos where the Bloodline and Heyman talk of Cena as “the second greatest wrestler of all-time,” with the idea Reigns is the greatest and a play off Cena’s WWE tag line of being the greatest, and Cena also at this point scheduled for Crown Jewel, it was confirmed to us that Reigns vs. Cena is not the match planned for the show.”

WWE has uploaded the main event match of SummerSlam 2022 in its entirety to their YouTube Channel.

The seventh one-on-one clash between Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar headlined last year’s WWE SummerSlam and saw the two clash in a Last Man Standing match for Reigns’ Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. As a result of Lesnar’s loss in this match, he can no longer challenge Reigns as long as he remains the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion.

Check out the video above and let us know your thoughts by sharing on Facebook or Twitter down below!

Raw star Raquel Rodriguez has admitted she’d like to “squash” WWE’s latest signing Jade Cargill!

Rodriguez was a guest on the most recent episode of WWE’s The Bump, during which she discussed Jade Cargill’s signing with WWE. Rodriguez admitted it was great to have Cargill add to the star power of the WWE women’s division but claimed she was just another name that she would likely “squash.”

“I think it’s great…our women’s division is growing. We are main eventing different shows on all of the platforms, all the way across. So to get another talent from an outside company come in, and she’s got such a massive following. And she’s just adding the list to the big girls that someone’s got to squash, probably me.”

h/t to Cageside Seats

WWE Hall of Famer Sunny has been deemed a “danger to society” as part of her ongoing DUI Manslaughter court case.

PWInsider released a sentencing memorandum from Florida State Attorney RJ Larizza ahead of her sentencing next month which recommended that she be imprisoned for 26 years for the numerous charges she faces. Should she be sentenced to the recommended amount, she would be 76 years old upon her release.

You can read part of the statement, where she is called a “danger to society” below.

“On August 26, 2023 the defendant entered a plea of no contest as charged to one count of DUI Manslaughter, Driving While License Suspended with Death, four counts of DUI with Damage to Person and two counts of DUI with Damage to Property.

Tamara Lynn Sytch is a danger to society as shown based on her past record and current offense.”

Randy Orton may be one of the best to step inside the WWE ring, but he wasn’t so successful in The Lands Between…

Recently released WWE stars Mansoor and Mace have spoken in-depth about their time with the company on their Twitch channel and have now shared their most bizarre story yet: The time Randy Orton paid someone $1000 to level his character in Elden Ring for him.

Speaking on a recent Twitch livestream, the former Maximum Male Model members recalled Orton expressing his love for the FromSoftware title but admitted he was struggling with the difficulty. So, as you do, he paid someone $1,000 to give him infinite runes (the game’s currency and experience system) so he could get to max level right away.

“Yeah, it’s f**king hard. I paid a guy $1,000 bucks to give me infinite runes so I could level up to 100 right away,” Orton said, according to Al-Shehail. Williams chimed in, adding that Orton told them “I love that game though. It’s awesome. But no, I couldn’t deal with that bulls**t so I just paid a guy to give me a bunch of runes.”

h/t to Kotaku

A WWE source has disputed a recent claim Hulk Hogan made about a proposed match at WrestleMania 39!

In an interview with Chris Van Vilet released yesterday, The Hulkster claimed that, at one point, there were plans for a match between Shane McMahon and Hulk’s son Nick at this past WrestleMania in Los Angeles.

However, a source within WWE has since gone on record to respond to Hogan’s claim. Fightful Select reports that Nick Hogan’s name was never brought up in terms of creative of the Showcase Of The Immortals and that the claim as a whole is outright untrue, per a WWE source who said the following:

“In no way is that true. I can’t think of a time in the last 13 or 14 years that Nick Hogan’s name was brought up at all, much less in a creative capacity. There has never been a serious conversation about him being involved in anything that I can think of. Even when Hulk would mention him being involved in things, there just wasn’t an interest or a benefit to that.”

Morning everyone, hope you’ve had a great week so far!

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!

Today’s top stories are:

• WWE Disputes Hulk Hogan WrestleMania 39 Claim
  
• Randy Orton Paid Someone $1000 To Play Elden Ring For Him
  
• Tammy Sytch (Sunny) Deemed “A Danger To Society”