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Catching up with Nova/Mike Bucci/Simon Dean: ECW, Cornette, OVW, Maven, Life After Wrestling

Fightful Select had the rare opportunity to get a few minutes with Nova at the Squared Circle Expo in Indianapolis.

Nova told Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp that he has lived in Kentucky for twenty years; Nova said he did the short drive to see [Blue] Meanie and some of his other friends he has not seen in years.

Sean asked Nova about the process of being put into the Retromania game. Nova said he is on their cabinet and thinks a sequel to the game is being worked on.

Sean told...

AEW Star Off TV For A Bit

Jeff Hardy won’t be on All Elite Wrestling TV for a while, again.

Jeff Hardy has been getting his legs underneath him of late after the longest in-ring absence of his life, but he’s not going to be performing on AEW TV during their trip to Canada. Fightful Select learned that Hardy is unable to get into Canada due to his arrests, and was written off of television as a result for the time being.

Hardy and his brother Matt lost to the Gunns, and were beaten down by Bullet Club G...

The List Goes On! at 4 ET

SRS and Jimmy talk the week's news!

LIVE: https://youtu.be/Uc0i_9tF1ns

Select Portions: Forbidden Door, WWE Raw, MITB Odds, AEW

- AEW will host a media call with Tony Khan on Thursday at 2 PM ET. Live streaming is prohibited, but Fightful will have notes and audio following the stream.

- Several AIW names were in attendance at this week’s WWE Raw. AIW was instrumental for many of the top-level wrestlers you see today.

- Creative planks for Nick Wayne have been pitched as early as Spring for his AEW debut and follow up program. He has connections to both Darby Allin and Swerve Strickland

- Sean Ross...

CM Punk vs. KENTA no longer planned for Forbidden Door

KENTA and CM Punk are no longer facing each other at NJPW Forbidden Door, at least as this past weekend.

Fightful Select has learned that KENTA expressed to NJPW and AEW that he isn’t facing CM Punk at the Forbidden Door show, as word started to make way around Collision this past week. As of the first episode of Collision, AEW was considering who CM Punk should face at Forbidden Door, or if he’ll even be wrestling on the show.

NJPW sources had confirmed to Fightful that KENTA...

Details behind the how & why of WWE PLE announcements

WWE haven’t been announcing their PLE shows as far out as years past, and there’s a reason for that.

We’ve noted on Fightful shows of late, WWE’s desire to maximize buzz around PLE shows. For example, up until now, the scheduled shows have fit a few categories – stadium shows, international shows, or directly correlated to major stories. Though WWE recently announced locations and dates for September and October, Fightful asked why it was being done much closer to the date of ...

Select Portions: Rollins Open Challenge, Saraya, Forbidden Door

- Seth Rollins’ open challenge was changed from what it originally was supposed to be, but it wasn’t supposed to be Johnny Gargano as many fans had hoped. Though Gargano wasn’t on the show, we’re told he was backstage at WWE Raw throughout the day. The Rollins opening segment changed from some of the original plans. 

- Regarding a Q&A question from a recent show, Wardlow’s vehicle being broken into was legit, and then turned into a storyline. His passport was also sto...

Select Style Podcast (6/20): G1 Climax Blocks, ALL TOGETHER AGAIN, NOAH, AJPW, Sareee/KAIRI

Scott Edwards is back with another edition of the Select Style podcast talking everything that was missed over the last two weeks including NJPW Dominion, G1 Climax Blocks, ALL TOGETHER AGAIN, NOAH Green Journey, AJPW Dynamite Series, and more! Plus Scott kicks off the show with the news that Sareee and KAIRI will team for the first time ever.
Here are the topics discussed in order:
- Sareee/KAIRI Teaming
- STARDOM
- AJPW Dynamite Series
- NOAH Green Journey
- NJPW Dominion<...

Alex & Kate's SOUR GRAPS: Raw 6/19 | Rageaholics Anonymous

(STARTING AT 11:10 est)

Kevin Owens has anger issues.

But so do I.

And tonight, they all stem from Logan Paul showing up and declaring that he's in the Money in the Bank match, and you'd have to be crazy to think that he's not the favorite to win the damn thing.  Which means there's a very good chance that Logan Paul will be a top champion in WWE in the not too distant future. Which means there's a very good chance that I will never watch WWE again.

Reactions to CM Punk Collision promo, nixed plans

As one would expect, there were some cage rattling due to CM Punk's AEW Collision promo.

Some things that people backstage took note of included Punk removing the AEW mic flag, with it being noted that it was almost exactly how he’d done the same during a WWE angle in the past as well. There were definitely people on both side of things that said that Punk was just getting out what he needed to get out, and others who felt like it was hypocritical to make comments about being “soft�...

Possible Spoiler Notes Ahead of Tonight's Raw

Some possible spoiler notes and details ahead of Raw. 

- We can confirm that Tommaso Ciampa is scheduled to be in Cleveland for WWE Raw. He was at another recent WWE Raw, as well.

- Cody Rhodes, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were being discussed for a six-man tag team match as of this weekend. 

- Bron Breakker is in Cleveland, as reported by PWInsider.

- We've heard that Vince McMahon made some changes to Raw tonight, as per usual. We have not been told that anyt...

SRS Backstage Report: SD/Collision Review, Punk, Contract/hiring/ firing news

- CM Punk's words about Hangman

- SRS reviews Smackdown!

- New AEW hirings, firings

- Vince McMahon changes

- AEW Collision news

- Lashley's return

- Punk and Dynamite?

- Rhea Ripley news

- Elite's contracts

- Hit Row news

- WWE act being repackaged

- Brian Zane, Darius Carter, Ridge Holland

- Mio Momono

- Who produced the end of Dynamite

- Charlotte Flair

- Goldberg/Israel

- Carlito

- SRS re...

Select Portions: Raw Plans, Rhea Ripley, Hit Row, Brian Zane

- Several have asked if Rhea Ripley not wrestling much on TV of late is related to her kneecap issues she’s mentioned. When we asked WWE sources, they didn’t confirm or deny, but did note she’s been wrestling live events of late. We'll have some more on Ripley in the coming weeks on Select. 

- Contrary to online reports, WWE higher ups said that despite there not being significant creative plans for Hit Row, there's nothing out of the ordinary with their view from WWE managem...

More on AEW's roster split, what happened

AEW has gone back and forth about the potential of a roster split, with Tony Khan saying “not as of now” in recent interviews. We’ve since learned more about it.

As far back as a month ago, there were preparations and details sent out in All Elite Wrestling indicating that there would be two distinct rosters for Collision and Dynamite. However, there were special exceptions to be made, especially for champions.

The move at the time was met with mixed reactions internally. Th...

Interesting news on this week's AEW Dynamite

AEW Collision is off to a hot start, and we might be in for more of the same on Wednesday. 

As expected, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega were not in Chicago for AEW Collision on June 17. However, we've heard they might not be in Chicago at all, and that includes for this week's AEW Dynamite at Wintrust Arena. We're told that there were pre-tapes done to progress some of their angles, but that there's a good chance they're not in the arena.

Instead, CM Punk may be showing up t...

Magazine Archives: Ricky Steamboat Interview – Part 4

By Jimmy Van from FightfulMag.com Issue 4

Ricky could not have been kinder and more generous with his time. This was meant to be a quick interview, but we ended up speaking for four hours over two days. What follows is about as honest and as detailed of an interview with Ricky Steamboat as you’ll ever read.

DECEMBER 8, 2005 – PART FOUR

Jimmy Van: You’re in WWE. You’re doing the Dragon thing. It wasn’t a very long stint in ...