Earlier this week, Shotzi Blackheart made her much-awaited in-ring return.
Last month, before the 2nd May episode of SmackDown, WWE released 17 top superstars, including Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, Katana Chance, and many more. While all of these stars were released, Shotzi’s contract was not renewed.
Soon, around a month later, Black made her in-ring return on Hoodslam’s ‘Fearless’ event in Oakland, CA (June 6). Following her return to in-ring action, the former WWE star has frequently referred to herself as ‘New Indy God’, taking a dig at Matt Cardona’s ‘Indy God’ persona.
This has not sat well with former Intercontinental Champion Matt Cardona, who recently threatened to hit Blackheart with “legal action” if she continued to use the moniker. Sharing his statement on X(Twitter), Cardona wrote:
“ShotziWWE has 24 hours to publicly apologize to me and take down all posts referring to herself as Indy God and Death Match King. The United States of America recognizes ME as BOTH!”
Soon, Blackheart shared her own unique response to the scenario on X(Twitter):
“ALL HAIL the NEW Indy God Deathmatch King SHOTZI FN BLACKHEART!”
The entire banter between these two former WWE stars seems kayfabe, and could be a buildup to an inter-gender match between the two on the Indies.
Earlier during an MLW Azteca Lucha broadcast, a vignette aired about the “Summer of the Beasts” event on June 26 from NYC’s Melrose Ballroom. It teased Blackheart’s arrival. Later, Fightful Select noted she was a heavy favorite for a match against Shoko Nakajima. Later, the former NXT Women’s tag-team champion was also advertised for a match against Nina Samuels on PROGRESS Wrestling’s June 29th show in Manchester, England.
Shotzi Blackheart Reflects On Her Early WWE Rejection
In an appearance on Dari & Toni Unwrapped, Shotzi Blackheart recalled her initial days in World Wrestling Entertainment, and how she once lost the offer despite being signed in 2018. Later in the interview, Blackheart revealed that it was due to certain “risky photos” of her.
“So my time was like weird because I got there. So I had like a weird thing where I got signed in 2018 and then they were like, nevermind. And then like AEW started blowing up and then they were like, and then they hit me up in 2019 and were like, nevermind. We are like actually going to sign you. Can you start in like two weeks?”
“I was over the idea of WWE at that point. I was just, okay, well, like I’m coming to terms that WWE is never going to sign me. I was not signed because of like background check stuff. They were like, I had risky photos up that, which I don’t even think are that risky now, but, they were like, ‘Oh yeah, no, that’s not what we want out of our WWE Superstars.’ So I was like, I was under, I just thought that, okay, then that’s it for me. if that’s what they don’t want, they’re never going to change their mind about that. Um, but then like not even a year later, they hit me up.”
In other news: A top AEW star has a wild prediction for WWE’s future.