LiveBryan Danielson Believes That AEW Is Best For Business Even If The WWE Want It To Fail; September 10th Wrestling News Round-Up

Rhea Ripley shocked fans this week by making her return to NXT, but she didn’t come back alone.

The former Women’s World Champion has been a shining example of what NXT can produce, rising from the developmental ranks to the main roster where she’s become one of WWE’s most dominant stars. Recently, Ripley has been entangled in a feud with the Kabuki Warriors, stemming from her alliance with IYO SKY. On Raw, she even came to the aid of Nikki Bella after a backstage clash with Asuka and Kairi Sane.

But this week, Ripley went back to her roots at NXT. The brand is preparing for its big Homecoming event at Full Sail University on September 16th, and Ripley joined two other former NXT Women’s Champions—Stephanie Vaquer and Tiffany Stratton—for a surprise appearance.

The trio confronted Fatal Influence after NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne berated her teammates, Jazmyn Nyx and Fallon Henley, claiming she was the greatest champion of all time. Ripley, Stratton, and Vaquer quickly shut that down, taking out the entire group and standing tall to close the show.

The AEW YouTube channel has uploaded another forgotten classic in full for fans to check out.

This time it is Castagnoli vs Cabana – banger alert!

Check it out in full below.

Maven’s story in WWE is one of the most unique of the early 2000s. Bursting onto the scene as the winner of Tough Enough in 2001, he instantly made a name for himself by famously eliminating The Undertaker from the 2002 Royal Rumble. During his run, Maven captured the Hardcore Championship three times and mixed it up with some of the biggest names of the era, including Evolution and Batista. But despite the memorable moments, his WWE tenure came to an end in 2005.

In the years since, Maven has carved out a new lane for himself outside the squared circle, most notably through his successful YouTube channel, where he shares behind-the-scenes stories from his time in WWE. While he says he has no regrets about leaving wrestling behind, he admits there’s a bittersweet side to looking back on his career.

On a recent appearance on The Aerial Helwani Show, Maven candidly reflected on one particular experience that opened his eyes: working with Triple H. According to Maven, the future Hall of Famer made him realize he needed to significantly improve as a performer.

“Hunter [Triple H] was having to call every spot to me, every spot, and it just hit me, like slapped me across the face. Man, I wasn’t ready,” Maven said.

“The veteran should be leading the rookie through a match, but he shouldn’t have to call every spot. There was a moment where I punched him, and you see him lower his head and tell me, ‘Stay on me, punch me again.’ Stuff I know now, but I didn’t know then.”

For Maven, that realization changed the way he looked back on his WWE run, including his release in 2005:

“I was mad and upset when they let me go, but this is all stuff I should have known. They had every right to let me go when they did.”

Although Maven has wrestled occasional matches on the independent circuit, he considers himself effectively retired today, happy with life outside of wrestling. Still, he remains open to the right opportunity if it excites him enough.

The world of wrestling has seen its fair share of in-ring proposals, and the latest couple to join that tradition is two-time Knockouts Tag Team Champion Killer Kelly and her longtime partner, Myron Reed.

The big moment happened on September 6 at Wrestling Revolver’s Clean Slate event in Clive, Iowa. After Reed successfully defended the REVOLVER Championship against Steve Maclin, Kelly surprised him by stepping into the ring and getting down on one knee. She popped the question in front of the crowd, and Reed quickly said yes, declaring his love for her before showing off the ring as the two shared an emotional kiss.

Both wrestlers have enjoyed success in the ring—Kelly as a two-time TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champion alongside Masha Slamovich, and Reed as a standout in MLW and now a core member of The Rascalz in TNA. But beyond the ring, the couple already shares another major milestone: the birth of their daughter, Ruby, in November 2024.

AEW continues to divide wrestling fans across the globe even six years after the first episode of Dynamite aired back in October 2019.

Whilst fans online argue about the products quality, presentation, wrestling style and just about anything in-between there is one person who is confident 2025 is the best year in AEW’s history so far… Tony Khan.

Speaking on the Battleground’s Podcast, AEW owner Tony Khan would reveal why he believes AEW has had it’s best year yet citing a range of factors from attendances to show quality.

Khan states:

“I think AEW is having our best year yet. Start to finish, we can pull this thing off.

Right now in September and since January, I think we’re having, so far, the best year of wrestling from January to September we’ve ever had. We’ve accomplished so many cool things this year. Hit new milestones. We did our biggest crowd ever here in North America for All In: Texas. We set the record for the most wrestling fans ever at the London O2 for Forbidden Door. Gonna have a huge, huge crowd at All Out in Toronto.

Our weekly TV shows, most importantly, are really good shows, — If you look at the lineup of wrestlers in AEW right now and the quality of shows that we’re putting on, I think that if we keep this pace up, this will be our best year and we’ll have so much to look forward to next year.”

[h/t WrestlePurists]

Do you agree with Tony Khan? Let us know using the thumbs below!

Since Vince McMahon’s retirement in 2022, Paul “Triple H” Levesque has been the driving force behind WWE’s creative direction, earning widespread praise for his long-term storytelling and emphasis on in-ring action. However, fans noticed his absence from the latest episode of Monday Night RAW on September 8th at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

On The Pat McAfee Show, Triple H himself revealed why he wasn’t backstage running the show. Surprisingly, it had nothing to do with WWE business.

“To be honest, I was not there last night. I haven’t had a chance to watch the show yet because I did Kill Tony last night,” Levesque said, before quickly realizing he may have said too much. “Oh, sh*t. I’m not supposed to say that… I forgot. It’s a secret that I’m on there till Monday.”

The Kill Tony appearance marks one of Triple H’s rare ventures outside WWE’s orbit while serving as Chief Content Officer. With Hunter at the helm since July 2022, WWE programming has seen a creative resurgence, but even “The Game” occasionally takes a night off.

During an exclusive interview with the Ned & Josh podcast, Bryan Danielson revealed that although AEW is fundamentally good for business it is his belief that some within WWE want the company to fail.

Appearing on the hit Australian podcast show, ahead of AEW’s upcoming Grand Slam event live from Sydney, Danielson would discuss the positive impact AEW has had on professional wrestling,

“Having two companies where you can make a serious living is really good for the wrestlers, the production people in wrestling.”

Continuing, Danielson would reveal that although he believes most of the wrestlers in WWE agree with this stance he is not blind to the fact that there are some who wish to see AEW fail.

“So I would think most wrestlers in WWE want AEW to keep existing because it’s good for them. But certain people there obviously don’t want us to exist.”

During the same interview, Danielson would expand on this concept further, noting:

“It almost seems, and this is just my perception, and I don’t want to put this on anybody because I’ve never talked to anybody about this.

It almost seems like they would like us to go out of business.”

Is Bryan Danielson right? Do WWE want to put AEW out of business? Let us know using the thumbs below!

If you use any quotes from this interview please provid a h/t to ITRWrestling and link back to The Ned & Josh Podcast.

Hello and welcome back to the ITRWrestling live blog

My name is Liam and I will be with you from 2pm to 6pm (UK) covering all the biggest stories from the past 24 hours across the world in wrestling.

Kicking things off today we have:

• Bryan Danielson believes that AEW is only a positive for the wrestling business but understands that some in WWE want it to fail.
• Tony Khan claims that 2025 is the greatest year in AEW history on and off the screen.
• Multiple major matches have been confirmed for NXT Homecoming.
• Surprising reason behind Triple H‘s absence at Raw has been revealed.