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It was one those slow news days that we just hate! However, despite the sluggishness, we've still managed to gather a few noteworthy stories from in and around the WWE.
The company went on an outrageous trademarking spree of old WCW and ECW PPV names, which has been viewed as an obvious move to prevent AEW from acquiring the rights to use them. The list has 21 names!
There was an update regarding which match would main event the TLC PPV.
The recent WWE releases have been one of the biggest talking points of the week and more updates about the same were made public.
A long-time WWE character was effectively retired as well.
WWE's aggressive attempts to sign a top tag team were also revealed. There were also a couple of interesting stories regarding John Morrison's return and the statuses of Mike and Maria Kanellis.
Not that bad of a lineup, eh? On that note, here's what's in store in today's edition of the daily rumor roundup:
#7. WWE aggressively tried to sign Ortiz and Santana
There was a time not too long ago when an all-out bidding war broke out between WWE and AEW to get the signatures of Ortiz and Santana, previously known collectively as LAX from their impressive Impact Wrestling run.
Ortiz and Santana eventually decided to join All Elite Wrestling but WWE were relentless in their pursuit of signing the highly-rated tag team.
'Proud-N-Powerful' spoke to Chris Van Vliet and revealed WWE's attempts at getting them on board.
The duo revealed that they were initially going to turn down WWE's offer, however, they made the decision to not burn any bridge. WWE was willing to let the stars 'write their own ticket' to seal the deal.
"We were about to turn down WWE, and we sat down and we were like, ‘Alright man, we don’t want to burn a bridge.’ We never want to burn a bridge anywhere we go because that’s not how you do business, you should keep every avenue open. So he [Santana] had this whole spiel, he was like, ‘Alright, this is what we’re gonna say so we don’t burn a bridge,’ right?
"So we go, and we get cut off, and they were like, ‘Listen, just really think about your decision,’ right? And then we stop and we hang up the phone, we were about to turn them down, and then we sit there and we’re like, ‘Damn, they’re making this really hard for us.' H/t Credit: 411Mania
The plan was to get the former Impact Wrestling tag team to NXT before they moved up to the main roster. Ortiz and Santana chose AEW over WWE as they wanted to be a part of history rather than be small fish in WWE's big pond. They were confident in their abilities to be successful in the WWE, however, the AEW project was just too appealing to pass up.
The Inner Circle members revealed that they were in talks with WWE much before AEW came into the picture. They were also considering Ring of Honor as a possible destination and had never intended on kicking off a bidding war.
However, the emergence of AEW changed the scenario and they realized that they could get lost in the shuffle if they went to the WWE. There were people in the WWE who were pushing for Ortiz and Santana to be signed, but the team decided to go to AEW instead.
They also added that WWE knew about AEW's contract as Vince McMahon's company has 'secret agents' everywhere.
#6. Update on the Sin Cara character
After being with the WWE for almost 10 years, Sin Cara was released from the company earlier this week. However, it was odd that WWE mentioned the character 'Sin Cara' in their official statement and not Jorge Arias, the man behind the mask.
On the latest edition of Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions with Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz, WWE Insider Colohue revealed that the WWE has no plans on having another performer wear the Sin Cara mask, which pretty much means that the character has been retired for good.
The Sin Cara experiment is done and dusted and the WWE sees no value in the mask anymore.
Here's what Tom had to say:
“The reason that we’re looking at it that Sin Cara has been released, rather than the actual person under the mask, is that the experiment is over. They brought Sin Cara in, initially in a tag team with Rey Mysterio, to be the next big deal, as it were, to be the next big Mexican sensation, and it just never happened.”
“WWE has not put over the man beneath the mask. There was no value in them keeping the man or the mask.” H/t Credit: Danny Hart of Sportskeeda
#5. The reason why John Morrison returned to WWE after 8 years
The announcement of John Morrison's WWE return after 8 years has been received with a lot of positivity and while we still don't know when he will return to the WWE ring, Morrison made his first WWE programming appearance after a long time on the latest episode of The Bump.
The former Intercontinental Champion first revealed why he left the company back in 2011. Morrison initially planned to take a break for just a year to act in a few movies. However, he had always wanted to come back to WWE and figured that he'd have to do it before 10 years went by.
"When I left in 2011, I meant to take like a year off, you know? I wanted to take a year off, I wanted to make some movies and do my own thing for a little bit and that year turned into eight years. It’s crazy how fast the time flew and part of it was because i had a lot of fun wrestling for these other places.
"I was like the guy, the brand ambassador and it was cool having all that autonomy and why did I come back or why did it take so long? I think I was just having so much fun doing what I was doing and I’d always meant to come back here and then at this point when I realized, I was like, ‘Man, I better like, get my a** back to the WWE before ten years go by cause time’s flying." H/t Credit: WrestleZone
During his appearance on The Bump, Morrison also spoke about potential matches against Finn Balor and The Fiend and his thoughts on Seth Rollins, among various other interesting topics.
#4. The TLC main event
As per a report from Cagesideseats, there is backstage talk about Roman Reigns vs. King Corbin main eventing the upcoming TLC PPV.
That shouldn't surprise anyone as the feud between Reigns and Corbin has been pushed to be one of the top angles for the show.
The Big Dog was force-fed dog food on the previous episode of SmackDown Live and he is expected to gain some retribution on the go-home episode this week.
The other top matches for TLC include Rusev vs. Bobby Lashley in a tables match, Bray Wyatt vs. The Miz in a non-title match and Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs. The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women's Tag Team titles.
#3. The reason why WWE allowed The Ascension to leave
Viktor and Konnor of The Ascension were part of the recent mass releases from WWE.
It was revealed by Tom Colohue on the latest edition of Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions that Konnor and Viktor were very professional in how they handled their release from the company. The former NXT Tag Team Champions didn't make a fuss about the delay in their exits, and the company honoured their conduct by accepting their requests.
Also, The Ascension was never really a part of WWE's plans and releasing them was the best move for all parties involved.
Tom explained:
“They [Konnor and Viktor] have been in conversations [with WWE]. They did want to go but they didn’t kick up a fuss about it. They just quietly went about their business. WWE have decided to essentially honour that on that basis. They like how they’ve gone about it, so nothing is planned in storyline. The WWE believe they simply have better options already, so The Ascension will be moving on.” H/t Credit: Danny Hart of Sportskeeda
#2. The reason why Maria and Mike Kanellis have not been released
Mike Kanellis was one of the Superstars who had publically asked for his release from the company. However, he was not a part of the list of talents who were recently allowed to leave.
Bubba Ray Dudley revealed the possible reason why WWE didn't release Mike and Maria Kanellis during his recent appearance on Busted Open Radio.
Dudley claimed that he had heard backstage talk of the Kanellises possibly misleading the company when they signed their new deals. Mike and Maria reportedly signed new contracts not too long ago and Dudley stated that the company could be keeping them on board to get their money's worth.
“I heard rumors, and not internet rumors and dirt sheet rumors. I’ve heard talk of some scuttlebutt amongst the boys that Mike and Maria might have misled the WWE when their new contracts were signed. I don’t know this for a fact but I’m saying maybe the WWE didn’t want to release them because I want to keep them [and get] their money’s worth out of them." H/t Credit: SEScoops
#1. WWE trademarks old PPV names
Add trademark wars to the already heated Wednesday Night Wars.
As revealed by PWInsider, WWE filed for trademarks on many WCW and ECW PPV names and also a few phrases and words: Given below is the full list:
- Fully Loaded
- Living Dangerously
- Heat Wave
- Anarchy Rulz
- World War 3
- Chi-Town Rumble
- Sin
- Souled Out
- New Blood Rising
- Hog Wild
- Capital Combat
- Road Wild
- Greed
- Uncensored
- Spring Stampede
- The Day Of
- Mayhem
- Beach Blast
- Massacre on 34th Street
- Hardcore Heaven
- Eat Sleep Conquer Repeat
WWE's move to trademark the aforementioned names comes after Cody Rhodes filed for a bunch of trademarks himself, one of which included Bash at the Beach.
It's pretty clear that Vince McMahon wants to play it safe and hold the intellectual rights over most of the names that can come in handy for AEW. There is a reason why he's been the undisputed leader in the world of pro wrestling for decades!
