Fightful Wrestling Weekly 9/1: AEW, WWE, Cardona, More!

Ryder Major Wrestling Figure Podcast

If you thought that WWE would co-opt Major Wrestling Figure Podcast like I did, Matt Cardona says he learned his lesson from his vlog ten years ago when he realized if you use WWE IP, they automatically own it. When he started his figure podcast with Brian Myers, they decided to do it all on their own that way they would always own it. They saw other people doing shows and podcasts and decided they would give it a go. However, they had pitched web shows and WWE Network shows, and WWE didn’t want to do any of them.

HYPE BROS

Matt Cardona told me that he loved Mojo Rawley personally, but hated working with him professionally, and felt like it was never going to end. He enjoyed working with Mojo in the ring, but was over the tag team by the time they came back to the main roster. They kept ended up getting paired together. Cardona didn’t even know that Mojo was supposed to make his WWE main roster debut at Battleground 2016 until Arn Anderson told him because they had HIDDEN MOJO ON A BUS.

Matt Cardona Contract

Even though he’d been with WWE for ten years, Cardona told me that he was relieved whenever he got his WWE release. He’d actually been offered a new WWE deal around WrestleMania 2019 time, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to spend another five years in WWE. Cardona specified to me that although there are rumors that WWE has made offers to bring talent back, he’s never had any conversations to that degree with WWE since the release, only saying that he’s pretty sure everyone got the “maybe we’ll bring you back” talk.

Triple H, Matt Bloom high on Karrion Kross

Not that it’s any surprise considering he just won the NXT Title, but a source within NXT confirmed to us that Karrion Kross’ push has been the product of both Triple H and Matt Bloom being very high on him. As soon as Kross became available and met with WWE they were in on pushing him heavily. One person in NXT noted that they’ve never seen anyone there in their time held in such high regard by management, and it’s showing in the push for Kross. He’s said to have been easy to deal with since appearing in NXT after having a contract dispute in IMPACT.

MLW Backstage Reactions, DAZN

Wrestlers that we’ve spoken to are optimistic about Major League Wrestling’s new deal with DAZN because of a new platform that they’re hoping to capture from boxing and MMA fans. While none that we spoke to indicated that they thought the deal would be game changing, they do see it as a significant foot forward and the discussions gave some more confidence in the company. We have noticed, however, a lack of confidence in the brand after months of not running shows, and disgruntled talent that are limited in their negotiation options. MLW is still obligated to fulfill dates on many of the contracts they signed, and are supposed to do it within the specified time.

IMPACT Bound For Glory

Fightful has learned several of the plans ahead of IMPACT Bound For Glory this October.

As of now, Ken Shamrock is pegged for a high level match with IMPACT World Champion Eddie Edwards. Shamrock has been feuding and teaming with Sami Callihan in recent months.

After returning at Slammiversary, Rich Swann and Eric Young’s heated feud is expected to continue at IMPACT BFG.

There is a four-way IMPACT Tag Team Championship match in the cards with Motorcity Machine Guns, The North, The Good Brothers and Ace Austin & Madman Fulton.

An IMPACT Knockouts Championship match between Deonna Purrazzo and Kylie Rae is also tentatively scheduled for the show.

In addition to these matches, we’re told a 6-way IMPACT X Division Title match, as well as a Call Your Shot Rumble are planned.

Raw Underground

Fightful has learned that several WWE Raw Underground segments were scrapped last night without even being viewed.

The first featured UFC veteran Jessamyn Duke taking on an enhancement wrestler in a match that went about one minute. Duke received high praise for her striking int he segment, which didn’t end up airing. Following her win, Marina Shafir took on another enhancement wrestler.

Later, Titus O’Neil was given a spotlight on Raw Underground, which then evolved into Riddick Moss taking on Titus. Lastly, Ivar faced Dolph Ziggler, but Angel Garza got involved, which resulted in huge bumps everywhere.

We were not given a reason why the segments were scrapped.

Justin Credible MOF

Justin Credible did a short edition of Making A Finisher with us, where he told us that his spinning Tombstone was actually an accident. Originally, he and Jerry Lynn just wanted to do a series of Tombstone reversals. He added a spin and Jerry Lynn thought it looked awesome and said it should be Credible’s finish, and the move ended up just sticking.

English Puts Over Commentary

English spoke very highly of getting to work directly with Tom Phillips and Michael Cole when he was moved over to commentary, as he didn’t often get direct feedback from his bosses in WWE until then. He clarified he wasn’t injured and was excited to try something new, and the positive feedback motivated him anymore. His in-ring career is not over by any stretch, and was a little surprised to get the call to do the Worlds Collide show in April 2019.

Keith Lee Theme

Much was made about Keith Lee’s new WWE theme, which debuted on WWE Raw and was poorly received by fans and critics alike. Fightful has learned that Lee signed off on the change, but WWE has also been urging talent to ditch their CFO$ themes. The former WWE music group no longer works with WWE, and signed a terrible deal with their publisher that sees the publisher get half the royalties. WWE does not have the same publishing deal with the group as Jim Johnston, which is why we’ve seen so many changes to music over the last year or so. There have been some wrestlers that hated the music presented as replacements so much, they outright rejected the changes. 

AEW Timing

If you thought the main event of AEW Dynamite was way shorter than you expected, that’s for good reason. Fightful was told that the Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara tables match was “massively” cut for time, and they even had to go to a commercial break in the middle of it. AEW sources informed Fightful that three segments on the AEW broadcast went heavy on time, and led to the cut from the main event.