Below are the top pro-wrestling (WWE & AEW) news stories of the day:
• WWF Developmental Wrestler Passed Away 13 Years Ago Today At The Age Of 32
On this day in 2008, we lost former Old School WWF Developmental Wrestler Steve Bradley (Real name: Steven Bisson), who passed away at the very young age of 32.
He was found dead in a parking lot. His cause of death was not determined, autopsy results were inconclusive.
A month before his death, he was indicted on possession of heroin charges, but Police doesn’t believe any foul play was involved in his death.
Steve Bradley was signed to a World Wrestling Federation contract from 1998 till 2002, but didn’t make it to WWF TV in those years and only competed in dark matches and at House Shows.
During those years, he was sent to various official WWF developmental territories, such as Memphis Power Pro Wrestling, Ohio Valley Wrestling, Memphis Championship Wrestling and the Heartland Wrestling Association.
In 1999, Bradley trained with then upcoming superstar Kurt Angle, under the guidance of coach “Dr. of Desire” Tom Prichard.
When Angle was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2017, he mentioned Steve Bradley and thanked him for being an unsung hero.
† REST IN PEACE
December 10, 1975 – December 4, 2008
Also Read: Former Local WWF Announcer Passes Away
• The Undertaker Reveals What He Would’ve Done If He Hadn’t Become A Wrestler
During an interview with the Dallas Morning News, The Undertaker was asked what he would have done if hadn’t got into pro-wrestling in 1987.
Here’s what The Phenom said:
“It probably would have been the military. Like I said, I’ve always been one to really know what my strengths, my weaknesses, my capabilities are and aren’t.
I doubt if I would have had a very long run in European Pro Basketball, but I do see myself – if I had to join the armed forces I probably would have been a career guy.”
The Deadman is expected to get inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame in 2022.
Also Read: “I was livid” – The Undertaker On Survivor Series 1993 Angle
WATCH: Torrie Wilson Taking A Shower:
• Bayley Says She’s Going To Post A Photo Of Her In Lingerie
Current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Carmella recently reached 3 million followers on Instagram.
To celebrate this milestone, she posted a photo her in lingerie and wrote the following:
“3 MILLION followers???? What the!!! It blows my mind! I don’t even really know what to say to that…. I’m so grateful for each and every one of you. And I’ll just leave it at that! Thanks for creeping on me, yall. 💋 “
View this post on Instagram
Under this post, former Women’s Champion Bayley (who is currently out of action with an injury) wrote the following:
“You hit 3 mil before me?!!? That’s it!!! I’m posting a pic EXACTLY like this.”
Bayley is obviously playing her heel character here, as she doesn’t post revealing photos.
However, if she does, it’s safe to say it’ll break the internet!
Bayley has 2.9 million followers on Instagram right now.
Also Read: Bayley Makes A Comment After Checking Out Rhea Ripley’s Butt
WATCH: Bayley’s Big Buns Grabbed
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• “For WWE, I think there was an overreaction when AEW started” – Former World Champion
Tony Khan started All Elite Wrestling in 2019 and they are the #2 pro-wrestling promotion in the United States.
AEW had a Wednesday Night War with WWE’s developmental brand, NXT, for a while, which they won.
When AEW first started, WWE started offering new, big money contracts to their wrestlers and began signing more indy wrestlers, in order to make sure they can keep as much wrestlers from signing with AEW as possible.
However, last year, WWE began releasing a lot of talent, even top stars, and a lot of them ended up joining Tony Khan’s promotion.
During an interview with TV Insider, current AEW wrestler Bryan Danielson (former WWE Champion Daniel Bryan) said that WWE overreacted when All Elite Wrestling came to existence 2.5 years ago.
Here’s what he said:
“For WWE, I think there was an overreaction when AEW started. Even when [indy wrestling] got real hot with Cody [Rhodes} and The Young Bucks. WWE felt they needed to sign up all the talent.
They realized, ‘our business is fine’. AEW is catching up. They’ve done incredible for a company that has been around for less than 3 years. WWE is still making a billion dollars, so they don’t need to hoard all these talent.”
WATCH: Revealing Videos Of Brie Bella’s (Daniel Bryan’s Wife) Top Being Taken Off:
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• Backstage News On How Much Money Top WWE Stars Are Making
According to the Wrestling Observer, WWE’s top stars get paid over a million dollars per year.
While Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar are the highest paid superstars in WWE today, where they make over $5 million per year, other top stars make around $2-3 million per year.
These are their guaranteed salaries, which means additional income from merch sales, etc aren’t included.
It was also reported that an un-named WWE Superstar is making $4 million per year.
These salary numbers are more than what WWE was offering their top stars a couple of years ago on an average.
In 2019, Braun Strowman was getting paid $1.2 million per year and Becky Lynch was on a $1 million per year contract. Strowman is no longer with the company, while Becky got a raise after she officially became the #1 female star in WWE at WrestleMania 35.
WATCH: Becky Lynch Exposed At Survivor Series 2021:
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• “I’m an attraction. I’m Andre The Giant” – AEW Wrestler
During a recent interview on Busted Open Radio, AEW wrestler MJF talked about not wrestling on All Elite Wrestling shows every week.
MJF claimed everyone is already impressed with him and that he’s an attraction like the late, great Andre The Giant.
Here’s what he said:
“I only wrestle when it behoves me to wrestle. I find that a lot of guys on the AEW roster are wrestling because they feel they need to impress our fanbase. I don’t have to impress anybody, everybody is already impressed by me. You’re impressed by me the second my music hits.
There’s a reason that when my music hits, I get one of the loudest reactions, positive or negative, in all of wrestling. I don’t have to wrestle every single week to make people feel that way to get people excited about me.
I’m an attraction. I’m Andre The Giant.”
MJF is currently feuding with CM Punk.
WATCH: Lita Accidentally Exposes Herself:
• RAW Star’s New Gimmick Cancelled Because He Looked Too Similar To Randy Savage
RAW Superstar Elias’ musician gimmick is over. Earlier this year, WWE aired vignettes which showed Elias burning his Guitar.
WWE Officials have been working on Elias’ new character and they came up with a new look, but he reportedly looked too similar to “Macho Man” Randy Savage, so they nixed that character.
Here’s what Wrestlevotes reported:
“Interesting note on Elias, source states they had no end plan for graveyard vignettes. Just shot them to kill off the ‘music’ gimmick.
His initial rebranding weeks back looked to similar to Randy Savage w/ colorful trunks & beard so Vince & co didn’t like it. Back to square 1.”
Elias hasn’t been seen on WWE programming in months.
WATCH: Stephanie McMahon Forcefully Kissed:
• Tony Khan Reveals AEW’s Rookie Of The Year 2021
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, AEW President Tony Khan talked about the TBS Women’s Championship tournament, that’s currently going on in All Elite Wrestling.
Below are the highlights:
On the TBS Title Tournament building anticipation for AEW Dynamite’s move to TBS in 2022:
“A number of people have come up to talk to me about that lately and I am so glad that so many people have liked it.
When I sat down and put the bracket together, I really felt like it would be a great way to build towards Dynamite making that huge move at the end of the year to TBS. I think it has only created more anticipation for the move. I am very excited about the semi-finals.”
On Jade Cargill being AEW’s Rookie Of The Year 2021:
“The crazy thing is when you see Jade. Not only is Jade a beautiful woman but one of the most dangerous and powerful competitors in pro-wrestling. I think Thunder Rosa is going to have her hands full in the semi-final with Jade.
I think she’s clearly the rookie of the year. I think she is definitely one of the favorites to potentially be the TBS Champion.”
WATCH: AJ Lee’s (CM Punk’s Wife) Wardrobe Malfunction In WWE:
• “The Jeff Hardy storyline was the end of any relationship I had with Hunter” – Former WWE Writer
During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show, former WWE writer Freddie Prinze Jr. talked about pushing the idea of making Jeff Hardy the WWE Champion.
Vince McMahon wanted to do it and that’s what happened, but Triple H was against it and it resulted in Freddie’s relationship with The Game ending.
Here’s what he said:
“We were on the road to making Jeff champion, which some people were against. It turned out to be rightfully so because he was not responsible with his life and he was having drug issues at the time. That was the reason they were nervous to do it, but Vince [McMahon] had greenlit this.
The Jeff Hardy storyline was the end of any relationship I had with Hunter. I’m open about that, but it wasn’t a secret. He was very against it, he didn’t think we could count on Jeff. Hunter is a company man and I felt, creatively, it was worth the risk. He didn’t, and in hindsight, he was right.
Jeff was released from the company I think a year later because he got in more trouble. I never blamed him for it. But at the time, I’m sure he doesn’t care now. At the time when I worked there, he wasn’t having me.”
WATCH: Non-PG Shot Of Lacey Evans’ Buns:
• Jeff Hardy Reveals What He Took Before The TNA Victory Road 2011 Main Event
During his appearance on Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions on the WWE Network, former WWE Champion Jeff Hardy talked about the TNA Victory Road 2011 main event against Sting.
This is one of the most infamous matches of all time, as Hardy came out high for this match, which was for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.
Eric Bischoff, who was the Executive Producer in TNA at the time, had to come out and propose a new finish to Sting quickly, which saw the match end in under 90 seconds.
Sting was visibly disappointed with how the PPV main event had to end. You can watch it below:
In this interview with Austin, Jeff Hardy revealed that he took Somas (a muscle relaxer) before this match.
Here’s what he said:
“[Soma] hadn’t become a controlled substance yet. So I was still taking the Somas. But I do remember talking to Sting before I got too altered to even…walk out there, hardly.
We were gonna do this spot with his finish – the [Scorpion Death Drop] – but my head was gonna be in a chair. And I remember being scared of that. Oh, I might really hurt my neck doing that but it’s gonna be awesome if I don’t. So yeah, I just took too much.
By the time it was time for me to go out there, they [had to find me]. Eric Bischoff came out there. They had to shut it down. He had to take it home real quick and that was the right thing. They had to do it.
To screw up like I did that night, it was just insane. But one positive asset that I have by looking back at that footage is just – so embarrassing. So – oh my God – just shameful, you know? Out there with my hero in the main event. All these people are watching. But then to do that?
After that is when I really got it together. So fast forward to like 2012-2013, man. 2012 was one of the best wrestling years in my life in that company. I was on fire. I started doing the paint with the eyes and my creativity was just off the charts because I was completely sober and that’s when everything got really good.”
Also Read: “Are we really going to trust the championship with this guy?” – Triple H On Jeff Hardy
WATCH: Scarlett Bordeaux’s Bare Buns:
