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Select Answers: WWE Prospects, ACH, Kingdom

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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Is Rhio signed to NXT? Saw she has a progress career on the line match. Any word on other signings from the NXT UK tryout?

She's not listed on the internal roster right now. However, they've brought her in for extra wor...

FREE POST: More details on WWE releases

WWE releases happened today, with a massive cut.

Shayna Baszler, Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, Kayden Carter, Katana Chance were all released or departed the company. Unless we find out they were notified their contracts are expiring, they will have 90-day non compete clauses.

Dakota Kai already has gained the interest of outside companies and top agents in pro wrestling, as they expect her to have plenty of offers.

Shayna Baszler had helped out at NXT recently, causing a big ...

Alex's SOUR GRAPS: WWE Releases (and a SmackDown Review) 5/2 | The Hejira

SmackDown happened tonight.

We will briefly discuss the particulars, but mostly this episode is going to talk about the WWE releases that occurred early this evening.

Shayna Baszler
Dakota Kai
Braun Strowman
Cora Jade
Eddy Thorpe
Both Katana & Kayden
Every member of the Gallus faction.
Gigi Dolin
Riley Osborne
Jakara Jackson
and maybe more by the time you are reading this.

Everything sucks. Let's talk about it.

YouTube Link: 2025-05-03 02:52:28 +0000 UTC View Post

WWE Releases ongoing

While the names mentioned earlier weren't released, Fightful Select has learned of another number of other Releases.

Internal memos went out indicating Kayden Carter, Dakota Kai, Braun Strowman, Shayna Baszler and Katana Chance had been released

Gigi Dolin, Cora Jade, Riley Osborne and Eddy Thorpe have been released.

Gallus and Javier Bernal have been released

AEW wrestler's contract expires

A wrestler has finished up with All Elite Wrestling.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp has learned that ROH talent EJ Nduka’s contract recently expired with AEW, and he is effectively a free agent.

Nduka was signed to AEW in early 2023 and was used sparingly. Eventually he'd appear on the ROH brand where he'd team with Lee Johnson as LeeJ.

Nduka was formerly signed to WWE for NXT, before working for over a year in MLW. We're told there have been multiple companies interes...

Select Answers: Mariah May, Ethan Page, Contracts

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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How real is the possibility of WWE signing Mariah May?

Very real. I can't speak to the idea that WWE is going to make her a "big" offer or if she informed AEW she wasn't re-signing as others have reported. Those two sto...

Jeff Cobb Update

Jeff Cobb is still headed to WWE.

Fightful Select reported months ago that then-NJPW talent Jeff Cobb appeared on WWE's internal rosters. Despite that, Cobb had a number of New Japan Pro Wrestling dates remaining, and finished those out. That included a tag team title run that was puzzling to many in NJPW as they knew he was finishing up.

Despite playing coy about his future and teasing retirement, Fightful again confirmed that Cobb is headed to WWE. We've not been told if he wil...

Familiar Act Backstage At TNA

Some familiar faces were backstage at the May 1 live TNA tapings.

Fightful Select has learned that Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews are backstage at tonight's TNA tapings.

Fightful reported months ago the duo known as Subculture was in the process of getting their visas. They were IMPACT Tag Team champions in 2023, but did not appear for TNA at all in 2024.

Does Mercedes Mone have creative control?

There has been a lot of talk regarding Mercedes Mone having “creative control” since her AEW run started.

Almost like clockwork, whether it’s someone established, someone who just won their first match on TV, or an international star rarely seen on AEW TV, whenever Mercedes Mone gets a win, there are unfounded claims of her exercising creative control to make sure she wins those matches.

That isn’t the case.

Fightful Select reached out to sources in the know within A...

Big MLW contract coming up soon

MLW has a prominent talent deal coming up very soon.

Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp has confirmed that Alex Kane's Major League Wrestling deal is coming up very soon, with it expiring on June 1. We've not learned yet if the two sides have had extension talks, and didn't hear back from MLW.

The 31-year old Alex Kane has been a top pushed talent in MLW throughout his run, and has had a successful run with the Bomaye Fight Club. He's a former MLW World Heavyweight and National Open...

Select Answers: SRS Opinion Edition!

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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If wwe rebrands aaa as nxt Mexico, in your opinion, would that diminish the value of the AAA mega championship? To me that title is one of the top world championships

Yes, I think it would, and I personally don't think ...

Select Answers: Vince's T-Rex, TNA Roster, Bayley

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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This is less important than probably the other questions. But whatever happened to the T-Rex skull that was in Vince’s office?

I would imagine that he personally packed it up in a Radio Flyer wagon and took it out of ...

Thekla update

Thekla is now done with Stardom after over three years in the company.

Fightful confirmed that Thekla’s agreement with Stardom has expired, and we can also confirm that she is effectively headed to the United States. Those we’ve spoken to claim that her move to the US has been planned quite a while back.

When Fightful had asked WWE sources about Thekla, among other talent that made their name in Japan around the time of Giulia’s signing, we were told they “had their eye ...

Injured AEW talent backstage at Dynamite

A big boost could be coming for the AEW women’s division.

Skye Blue is present backstage at this week’s AEW Dynamite taping in Norfolk, sources told Fightful Select. We're told she's actually been backstage at numerous TV tapings of late. We're told she was also at tapings as far back as Cincinnati.

The 25-year-old has been out of action since July 2024 after suffering a broken ankle in a Collision match with Hikaru Shida.

It is currently unknown if Blue is nearing a...

AEW All In Title Match Being Kept Quiet Internally

AEW’s All In is less than three months away, with many matches still in question.

One of the top matches naturally will be the AEW World Title match. As of now, the winner of the Owen Hart Foundation Cup tournament will take on the AEW World Champion. That won’t be determined until Double or Nothing, but it’s also being quiet internally.

Fightful Select spoke with a number of sources that were told that both the winner of the Owen Hart tournament, as well as the main event, ...

Select Answers: Wyatts, Aldis, Orange Cassidy

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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What's going on with the Wyatts stuff? First it was "something at WM", then it was "the show after WM", neither happened.

Well, I'm not sure where you heard that, but it sounds like you're editorializing our reports. We ...

Plans for Rollins/Breakker/Heyman stable as of Mania weekend

A new stable has made its presence felt in WWE.

At this year’s Raw After Mania, Bron Breakker joined Paul Heyman and Seth Rollins, who had just joined forces two nights prior. The stable immediately began drawing comparisons to Evolution, to the Dangerous Alliance. 

However, we’re told that it isn’t intended to draw any comparisons to those. One WWE source near the creative of the situation told us they watched the Fightful Raw review and echoed the sentiment that the s...

FREE UPDATE: Liv Morgan, TLC Match, Select News

This article appears on our free tier. Subscribe to our $5.99 a month tier to gain access to daily scoops, Q&A shows, Discord access, and dozens of podcasts per month. The $10 tier gets early access to Fightful videos and interviews!

Liv Morgan

• Regarding Liv Morgan's movie role, people close to her claim that that "people's jaw will drop" when the announcement comes, which should be next week. We're told that it is a movie that doesn't appear to be on ...

  2025-04-29 17:28:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Alex & Kate's SOUR GRAPS: Raw 4/28 | Fun While It Lasted

The opening promo of Raw tonight has already ruined the New Dangerous Alliance. So that was a fun week.

Logan Paul is getting a title match vs Jey Uso. So that's a weird choice to ruin Jey Uso's young title reign.

Becky has turned heel on Lyra. But if you listen to her promo tonight, it's not even ABOUT Lyra. She's just a bystander. So that's an interesting path to ruin Becky's return from a year away from the company.

Pat McAfee is wrestling a match against Gunther. And he'...

Multiple WWE talent found out about nixed WrestleMania plans from Netflix trailer

WWE’s upcoming Netflix docuseries Unreal has had its trailer released, and has caused buzz.

During the trailer of the series, a whiteboard was shown with potential WrestleMania matches. From what we can tell, the whiteboard was from a creative meeting during the winter months.

Fightful gave a rundown recently of the matches, when and how many of them changed, and in the week following the trailer dropping, we’ve heard from a number of talent. There were some talent that approa...

Fightful Report Podcast 4/28: Q&A With SRS!

• Ace Austin, Alan Angela, Thekla contracts

• The Rock

• Karrion Kross

• Brodie Lee Jr's GCW spot

• Stokely's return

• 8:00 Q&A: WrestleMania Roast, Wyatt Sicks, AAA-NXT, Orange Cassidy, Punk/Cena, Ladder Match, Who could go back to AEW?

Fightful Weekender (4/28): BLP, DPW, ACTION, HOG, WWE EVOLVE, 1FW

- BLP: "At Squared Circle Expo III" results

- DPW: "Title Fight In Vegas" results

- ACTION: "Se7en" results

- HOG: "Isolation" results

- WWE EVOLVE (4/23) results

- 1FW: "Fight Night At Freedom" results

FREE UPDATE: TNA Notes, Indi Hartwell, Squared Circle Expo

TNA

• Indi Hartwell's signing was announced by TNA on April 27. Fightful Select had reported earlier in the month that a number of international signings hadn't been announced. Hartwell was in the process of being signed as far back as a full month ago, and it was finalized around that time.

• Those that we spoke to said that Leon Slater appeared to be okay backstage after his insane Ultimate X spot.

Squared Circle Expo

...
2025-04-28 14:20:27 +0000 UTC View Post

Thekla Update

Thekla is United States bound, by the looks of it.

The highly touted Austrian wrestler has made her impact in Japan for Stardom in recent years. On April 27, she also made a buzz when the company effectively wrote her off of TV with a confrontation with Stardom President Taro Okada. Thekla attacked Okada, staff members, and flipped everyone off.

Thekla said she's done wrestling in Japan for now, which we've learned is legitimate and she's done with Stardom. Those we've spoken to f...

TNA in negotiations to retain talent

TNA is looking to retain a prominent star in their company. 

TNA sources claimed to Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp this week that they had begun talks with Ace Austin to keep him with the company. We’ve not heard how far along the talks are, but that TNA was hopeful they’d retain him.

Austin was announced as re-signing with TNA back in March 2024.

We were told that Chris Bey’s original TNA contract would have also been up by now, but we’re not sure how that�...

Select Answers: AAA, Late Title Wins, Commentary

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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Have you heard anything from AEW Tony khan reaction to WWE buying AAA?

I can't speak to Tony Khan's reaction personally, but a number of people I spoke to were surprised that WWE bought AAA. One person familiar with the ...

SRS Q&A questions

Ask away friends

How Brodie Lee Jr's first match happened

Brodie Lee Jr won his first match, the GCW Clusterfuck.

Brodie has been training at the Dungeon 2.0, where he’s become a beloved face there. We’re told that Brodie legtiimately wants to learn to be a pro wrestler, and has put in work at the Dungeon to do it.

Regarding his appearance in the Clusterfuck, it came about earlier in the day when UK prospect Man Like Deriess ran into Brodie Jr. Brodie asked what he was doing that evening, Man Like Dereiss replied that he was in the G...

Select Answers: AAA, Stephanie McMahon, Bryan Danielson

Welcome to Select Answers, a short feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

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Have you heard anything from AEW Tony khan reaction to WWE buying AAA?

I can't speak to Tony Khan's reaction personally, but a number of people I spoke to were surprised that WWE bought AAA. One person familiar with the ...

Alex's SOUR GRAPS: SmackDown Review & WatchAlong 4/25 | Stuff Happens

John & Randy yelled at each other.
For half an hour.

And then there was some other stuff too.
But they were pretty clear about none of that other stuff mattering too much.

Fraser & Axiom debuted.
There's gonna be a Triple Threat Tag Team Title TLC Tilt. (That's a lot of T's)
Tiffany vs Jade got interrupted by a couple of party crashers.

Oh, and Aleister Black is back. For a feud with the Miz, I guess?
And the new Women's US Champ has exactly ...