News

Madison Rayne Discusses Deciding on Ring of Honor Over WWE

Published

5 years ago

November 6, 2018

Pro wrestling veteran Madison Rayne finally found her way to a WWE ring over this past summer when she competed as Ashley Rayne during WWE’s Mae Young Classic II tournament, losing in the first round to Mercedes Martinez.

It was thought that WWE would land Rayne, the former Impact Knockouts Champion, shortly after her appearance, but she opted instead to sign with Ring of Honor.

“Conversations between WWE and myself were always positive,” Rayne said, during an appearance on CBS Local Sports: Pittsburgh. “I always got great feedback on everything I did, from the tryout a year ago to just recently doing Mae Young. This past year has been the first and only time that I’ve ever worked in any capacity with WWE. So, that was really exciting this many years into my career, to finally have been able to do that.”

“It’s about trying to figure out what was going to be best for me and which company I would flourish the best in. I felt that Ring of Honor was my best option, and that is not saying that WWE offered me something and I said no, I just feel like I was always very honest and upfront about the fact that Columbus was my home and Columbus would remain my home. I understand that they have a system that they put their talent through, regardless of whether you’ve never taken one bump, or you’ve been wrestling for many years, and that system starts in Orlando. While wrestling is still very, very important to me, being a mother and being a wife, those two things are greatly more important.”

Rayne ultimately told WWE that she wasn’t willing to relocate.

“There was never that definitive conversation, but just given the fact that I knew and I never wanted there to be any gray area in my communication with WWE, and I made it clear that I could and would not be willing to relocate, I think that probably kind of settled the question there as far as whether or not a contract with WWE was going to be in my future.”

All Elite Wrestling

Adam Cole Discusses Troubling Injury Recovery

Published

1 year ago

February 5, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

AEW superstar Adam Cole has opened up about what he calls a “scary” recovery from a second concussion that he suffered at AEW and NJPW’s ‘Forbidden Door’ event back in June 2022, with Cole set to make his return to the ring soon.

Cole specifically talked about memory loss as the most troubling aspect of his recovery:

”The memory stuff is the really, really scary part to me” Cole said, during an appearance on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t CagesideSeats). “When you’re in the middle of a ring and there’s thousands of people around you and I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing. That was really scary. So, I knew pretty early on after my memory started going that something was wrong.”

Cole’s road to recovery as an especially long one.

“The crazy thing was that after even a month, it was like that’s when real serious side effects started happening” he said. “Everything I said in my return in-ring promo that I did all of that was true, and more. There was a lot of stuff that was happening very late into the healing process, or, what I thought was late, like a month-and-a-half, two months.”

Cole is gearing up for his return to AEW, with all signs pointing to him stepping back into the ring at Revolution next month.

News

Donovan Dijak Suffers Injury at NXT Vengeance Day

Published

1 year ago

February 5, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

NXT Vengeance Day was a rousing success for WWE on Saturday which saw a number of headlines come out of the event that was well-received by fans, including an injury suffered by Donovan Dijak during his match with Wes Lee for the North American Championship.

Dijak suffered an apparent broken finger during the match, which was seen on camera and shared on social media.

Following the event NXT general manager Shawn Michaels provided an update on Dijak, stating he did not suffer a broken finger – “Yeah, everybody is good” Michaels said. “I announced it at gorilla, it’s got to be a miracle, It’s not broken.

“We got him x-ray, they said it’s not broken and so yeah, I guess what you do is you kind of numb it and put it back in place and that’s what’s happening now. But it is, again, a modern miracle because we all saw it, it was pretty gnarly looking. But, apparently, he’s going to be okay, which is obviously fantastic news for us and him.”

All Elite Wrestling

Tony Khan Open to AEW/WWE Crossover

Published

1 year ago

February 5, 2023

Anthony DiMoro

AEW owner and booker Tony Khan is certainly open to the idea of AEW and WWE working together for a potential crossover supershow, despite Khan’s consistent blasting of WWE over the last few years.

“It’s something I would certainly be open to and I think it’s an interesting thing for the future” Khan said during an appearance on WTF with Marc Maron. “It’s not something that’s ever really been done. They’ve kind of existed in their own space. We are working with a lot of wrestling promotions.”

Khan’s AEW has already worked with a number of promotions such as Impact Wrestling and NJPW, and WWE has even warmed to the idea of working with other promotions, as they have with Impact Wrestling, NJPW, and NOAH recently.