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Welcome to today's edition of the WWE Rumor Roundup. We take a look at a number of stories from the WWE Universe including Cain Velasquez and Curtis Axel's release from WWE, Apollo being pulled from Money In The Bank, as well as a current champion possible pulling out of SmackDown.
Regarding Velasquez's release, the WWE Rumor Roundup also takes a look at 3 possible mistakes Velasquez may have made which led to his release, as well as the possible reason WWE signed him in the first place.
Why Apollo was pulled from the Money In The Bank ladder match
Apollo Crews put on one of the best performances of his career on WWE RAW earlier this week. Crews pinned Andrade in a tag-team match to earn a US title shot later on in the night. Despite a fantastic performance, the match had to be stopped due to Apollo picking up a knee injury.
Sportskeeda’s Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz discussed Apollo’s injury on the latest episode of Dropkick DiSKussions. Tom said that Crews’ injury was possibly a part of the storyline and done to get sympathy for Apollo:
It's a kayfabe injury. He was taken out of the match. They knew it was going to happen beforehand, so before they filmed this, they had the match. They knew it was coming, they knew it was planned, so it was definitely written ahead of time. It does get some sympathy for the character. With Apollo Crews, the concern has never been his wrestling. He's a very talented performer. It's always been about the character and naturally connecting to the audience. You think back to how many times people going all the way to the promised land and pulling it back. Daniel Bryan in 2013 was an example.
Tom did go on to discuss other possible reasons why Apollo was pulled from Money In The Bank:
With Apollo Crews, they've done very good in a very short space of time. It's disappointing that he won't be in the ladder match, but we have to ask ourselves certain questions - maybe there's a niggling injury, maybe he's going into a period of self-quarantine and won't be seen for a couple of weeks, so they decided to do that. Maybe they found out that he's never been in a ladder match and that he's afraid of heights.
Possible reason why WWE actually signed Cain Velasquez
Next up on the WWE Rumor Roundup, we take a look at Cain Velasquez and possible reasons why WWE signed him.
Cain Velasquez’s WWE release shocked fans earlier this week as the former UFC Heavyweight Champion was released from his lucrative multi-year contract with the company.
Velasquez faced Brock Lesnar at WWE Crown Jewel last year but got destroyed in a quick match before going on to have knee surgery. He hasn’t been featured on WWE television much since then.
Dave Meltzer addressed Cain’s release from WWE on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and discussed reasons why Velasquez was signed by the promotion:
Velasquez was there for three major reasons. The most obvious one that people can recognize was because Velasquez beat Brock Lesnar on October 23, 2010, to win the UFC heavyweight championship, that Lesnar would avenge his most widely viewed defeat.
Meltzer added that another reason why Velasquez was signed was so that he could be one of the big stars they took to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel alongside Tyson Fury. Meltzer also added a third possible reason for WWE signing Velasquez, that being FOX wanting more stars on SmackDown after the show came to the network.
Triple H wanted Curtis Axel to be one of the top guys in WWE
Curtis Axel, as we previously mentioned, was released from his WWE contract yesterday. Axel was actually a top star when he was coming up in developmental and tipped for big things in the future. Amongst those who saw a bright future for Axel was none other than Triple H himself. Dave Meltzer addressed this on the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, saying that Triple H saw Axel as someone who could be a top guy:
He was pushed as one of the top stars in developmental. At the same time they liked his athletic ability and that he was tall. He was brought to the main roster and expected to be a star. Paul Levesque in particular thought he was going to be one of the flagship stars of the company. His first run as Michael McGillicutty went nowhere. The run where he was supposed to be a star was in the spring of 2013 when he was given the name Curtis Axel with Paul Heyman as his manager.
Axel was pushed as a Paul Heyman guy and Triple H himself put Axel over in singles action:
Levesque, as Triple H, put him over with the storyline that Axel gave him a concussion and collapsed.
Possible reason why Curtis Axel was released and not Bo Dallas
The news broke last night that Curtis Axel had been released from his WWE contract. Axel started in WWE as Michael McGillicutty and went on the win the Intercontinental Championship as well as 2 Tag-Team Championships during his run with the company.
Dave Meltzer addressed Axel’s release on the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and spoke about the possible reason why Axel was released from his WWE contract. Here’s what Meltzer wrote:
The company hadn’t done anything with him in years and thus, when cuts were made, given that fact and him already being 40, his prospects didn’t look good.
Axel hasn’t been used much in recent months and has barely appeared on WWE television. Axel and Dallas did find some success as part of The Miz’s entourage and alongside Bo Dallas as the B-Team but there hasn’t been much for him since.
As for Dallas, he’s just 29 years old and is still young, which is possibly why he was not released. Dallas did tease a character change in later 2019 on Twitter although we haven’t heard anything about it since.
Sami Zayn pulls out of SmackDown tapings
With the coronavirus pandemic bringing the globe to a standstill, WWE have been forced to hold their weekly shows behind closed doors at the WWE Performance Center.
We’ve already seen some Superstars choosing not to appear on TV during these trying times. The biggest of these names has to be Roman Reigns who pulled out of WrestleMania at the last second. It looks like we can now add WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn to this list.
According to the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Zayn is the latest Superstar to pull out of action right now and this could be the reason why he didn’t appear on last week’s episode of SmackDown. The report added that Zayn was originally slated to appear on the show but chose to pull out because of the prevailing conditions.
A report by WrestlingNewsCo suggested that WWE are taping RAW and SmackDown with only essential personnel present as well as only Superstars who are needed on the shows. WWE have reportedly given Superstars the freedom to stay at home during these trying times and it looks like Zayn has chosen to do so.
Cain Velasquez’s 3 big mistakes which may have led to his release from WWE
The news of Cain Velasquez’s release from WWE broke earlier this week. This was discussed by Tom Colohue and Korey Gunz on the latest episode of Dropkick DiSKussions.
Tom addressed the release, saying that Velasquez had made a few mistakes during his WWE run which could have rubbed people off the wrong way:
With Cain Velasquez, this is not that big a surprise for a lot of people. He hadn't appeared since his match against Brock Lesnar in Saudi Arabia which he lost in very short order. And he rubbed people the wrong way. He didn't say anything about his initial injury when he signed his contract. He said he was going to be in the Royal Rumble when it hadn't been announced, so he was pulled. He posted a picture with Ronda Rousey in the WWE HQ when nobody was supposed to know they were there. He unfortunately just made a catalog of errors early on.
Tom went on to say that a possible reason why WWE didn’t announce Velasquez’s release officially was because they wanted to avoid mainstream attention as much as possible. He added that WWE believed that the news would not reach mainstream level because it was not Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins who were released.
One of Samoa Joe's colleagues had harsh words for him HERE
