Update On Bayley’s Injury Status Following WWE Live Event Scare; July 17th Live Wrestling News Round-Up

AEW talent Don Callis was attacked by a fan during last night’s AAA show in Mexico.

Following the assault, Callis was promptly taken to San Diego for medical evaluation and treatment. Although the severity of his injuries has not been disclosed, sources indicate that he remains optimistic and determined to fulfill his obligations at Blood & Guts.

Speaking on the matter on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer had this to say:

He’s okay. He got hurt but he’s okay, I don’t think he has any major injuries, nothing that’s going to keep him from being at Blood and Guts in Boston on Wednesday. Based on what I last heard today was that he’s hurt but okay.

You can read Meltzer’s full report, here.

After being quietly released by the WWE after refusing to work with Vince McMahon, IMPACT Wrestling star Eric Young has broken his silence on his departure from the company.

Eric Young made a surprise return to IMPACT Wrestling when he was unveiled as Scott D’Amore’s mystery partner for a match against Deaner and Bully Ray.

The former Team Canada teammates picked up the win, to make sure Young’s big comeback ended on a high note.

Following his return, Young took to Twitter to reflect on the hard decision he feels he got right.

“This felt good! This felt right! I made a hard choice and there is no doubt in my mind it was the right one!”

You can read more about Young’s quiet release from the WWE, here.

Bruce Prichard has opened up about his dislike of the term “writer” and why he would never use it to describe himself.

Prichard is currently the Executive Director of Raw and SmackDown, meaning he is heavily involved in WWE’s creative team and the product fans see on television. However, Prichard isn’t a writer, and he’s never seen himself as one.

Speaking on his Something To Wrestle podcast, Prichard attempted to break down his role, and how he sees himself within creative.

“I’ve never been a writer. Creative and booking TV, I would never consider myself a writer. I don’t consider myself a writer in the way that I think that Hollywood and people look at writers. Not a big fan of that term. I think we’re creative people that put things on paper.”

You can read Prichard’s full breakdown of his current WWE role and responsibilities, here.

During WWE’s press tour ahead of Money in the Bank, ‘The Messiah’ Seth Rollins stopped by the Lad Bibles offices to try some authentic British snacks.

And the results are hilarious!

Check it out!

Peacock has dropped a new incredible trailer for their upcoming Cody Rhodes documentary.

Check it out!

Unfiltered. Unedited. Untouchable. Witness @CodyRhodes become the American Nightmare.

American Nightmare: #BecomingCodyRhodes premieres July 31 on Peacock. pic.twitter.com/iHboe8mr8Z

— Peacock (@peacock) July 17, 2023

Jake Roberts has named the one star he believes could, and should have been World Champion.

On the latest episode of Robert’s podcast, he was asked about wrestlers he felt could have benefited from a World Title.One wrestler that he believes deserved the WWE World Championship is the late Curt Hennig, also known as “Mr. Perfect”.

Despite never winning the title, Hennig had all the qualities of a world champion, according to Roberts. He was an accomplished wrestler who held the WWE Intercontinental Championship twice and had also won titles in other promotions such as WCW, All Japan Pro Wrestling, AWA, and the NWA.

You can read Robert’s full comments, here.

Ring of Honor star Tony Deppen has pulled himself from a booking following the inclusion of multiple controversial talents including disgraced British wrestler Marty Scurll.

Deppen was included in a show poster for ‘Battle at the Bridge’ an independent wrestling show held in collaboration between CCW, ALOUR, 7MW and PCWA, the latter of which was the training school for Deppen.

The poster received immediate backlash online for including disgraced British wrestling star Marty Scurll, who is alleged to have taken advantage of a inebriated sixteen year old girl.

Also featured on the show poster is NZO (formerly Enzo Amore) who was also previously accused of sexual assault, although the former WWE star’s case was closed without any conviction.

Deppen has taken to Twitter to ensure fans he was not aware who was on the show and he would be pulling out with immediate effect.

“This has randomly been sprung on me. I was told I was working pcwa (place i got trained at) then I randomly get this as a flyer. I had no idea who was on the show (shows are normally low Budget); but after seeing the line up… yah no thanks”

In an exclusive interview with Nick Hausman for Inside The Ropes, former WWE Tag Team Champion Paul London has blasted WWE Superstar Jimmy Uso for his DUI record.

London would even go as far as to blast the former Bloodline member as a “f*cking idiot” for his actions.

You can check out this exclusive interview, here.

NJPW and United Empire star Aaron Henare has made wrestling history by becoming the first wrestler to dawn the Mauri traditional Tā moko, a culturally significant chin and lower face tattoo that signifiies, amongst other things, a Maori’s transition from childhood to adulthood.

Henare’s history making moment transcends wrestling as he actually becomes the first pro athlete in any sport to bear the Mataora markings.

Maori news outlet TE AO, has covered Henare’s journey to honour the Mataora markings and what it means to him and his culture to have this seen on a global stage.

Henare states:

“I feel more secure in myself as well, and more representative of my tūpuna.

“I’ve felt mana, responsibility, power all wrapped up in one. It’s not just that I’ve got these markings and I’m the man, it’s now ‘I’ve got these markings, now the responsibilities have doubled, tripled, quadrupled.’”

You can check out this full interview and behind-the-scenes of the ceremony, here.

Jake Roberts has called out Vince McMahon for the mistakes he made following the tragic death of Owen Hart.

On a recent episode of “The Snake Pit” featuring a Q&A, Roberts shared his thoughts on the tragic incident and stated that a death in the ring should stop everything out of respect for the person involved. Hart was supposed to face The Godfather, but he fell from high up in the area while rappelling to the ring.

Roberts believes that Vince McMahon’s decision to not stop the Over The Edge PPV on the night of May 23, 1999, when Owen Hart passed away, was a huge mistake and disrespectful to his family.

You can read Roberts’ full comments, here.

Do you agree with Robert’s comments? Let us know by hitting the thumbs below!

On July 17th 2011, 12 years ago today, CM Punk and John Cena tore the roof off the Allstate Arena as they put on one of the WWE’s all time greatest matches.

Enhanced by the impending real life departure of CM Punk and animosity between Vince McMahon, Triple H, WWE Management and ‘The Second City Saint’, the match was WWE’s only five star match for over a decade and is considered one of the greatest matches of all time.

Check out the incredible moment CM Punk hopped the barricade and left the WWE as their reigning champion.

AEW Star and former Tag Team Champion Rey Fenix has revealed that he is “done” with Mexican promotion AAA for the foreseeable future.

Taking to Instagram, the modern Lucha Libre legend would state that he was done with AAA for the foreseeable future before thanking the fans and ending on a positive note, that this is not goodbye but rather a see you later.

Writing in the caption of his goodbye video, Fenix would state:

“Gracias a toda la afición @luchalibreaaa esto no es un adiós, si no hasta pronto.”

This roughly translates to the following:

“Thanks to all the fans – @luchalibreaaa this is not a goodbye, but see you soon.”

You can check out Fenix’s full goodbye, here.

Former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis has officially departed IMPACT Wrestling following the promotions 2023 Slammiversary PPV.

It has been reported by PWInsider that Nick Aldis, alongside Zicky Dice, has finished up his current short-term contract with IMPACT Wrestling and is once again a free agent.

The news comes months after reports that WWE was interested in Aldis despite their current unofficial hiring freeze.

Aldis competed eight times for IMPACT following his return, losing his final match to returning hero Eric Young who was quietly released from the WWE earlier this year for refusing to work with Vince McMahon.

The Raw Talk and The SmackDown Lowdown’s co-host, Megan Morant, donated a kidney to her former boss’s wife, saving her life in the process.

Morant recently revealed on her Instagram that she would be donating a kidney in Boston, Massachusetts.

Morant has attempted to help those in need of a Kidney on two occasions, once for a member of the WWE creative team and the other was for her former New England Patriots boss’ wife.

Although Morant was not a match for her former employers spouse, she was able to help her receive a kidney by agreeing to donate her own to National Kidney Registry helping to provide much needed help to the over 100,000 individuals in the United States currently on the kidney transplant waiting list.

You can read more about Morant’s incredible selfless journey, here.

Dave Meltzer believes a recent AEW clash was the best televised American tag team match in history.

As the rivalry between Jay White & Juice Robinson and FTR continues, the two teams met in a Two-Out-Of-Three Falls match on the July 15th episode of Collision from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer heaped praise on the match, describing it as the best tag team bout to air on American television.

“I thought that was the best American tag team match ever on television. I think there are pay-per-view matches that are comparable, but as far as on regular television — to me the best one that I ever thought was Midnight Express and Fantastics. The have been a lot of matches in AEW that are in that league too, but I think this one was a notch better.

I think — this match, again, is one of the best matches of the year, and the best tag team match of the year. And it’s two straight weeks for these guys because they had an incredible match the week before.”

Do you agree with Meltzer’s comments? What do you think is the best TV tag team match in wrestling history? Let us know by using the ‘get involved’ feature at the top of the page!

AEW’s Saraya talks exclusively to Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes about the untold reasons for her WWE exit, career discussions with Vince McMahon and Triple H, Working with Tony Khan, Total Divas and if she has any more reality show plans.

Check out this brand new interview, below!

The Bloodline is one of wrestling’s most dominant factions with Roman Reigns, Solo Sikoa and The Usos dominating the WWE for over 1000 days now.

But it is another member of the legendary Anoi’a family that is making headlines this morning.

Zilla Fatu, son of WWE legend Umaga, has made his in-ring debut at Reality of Wrestling, a US training school and independent promotion run by NXT commentator and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T.

The school has seen recent success with graduate Roxanne Perez dominating NXT and capturing the NXT Women’s Championship earlier this year.

Fatu would channel his inner Umaga finishing off his opponent with a brutal Samoan Spike.

Fans in attendance have shared footage of the awesome moment which you can check out below!

found a clip of zilla fatu at ROW. he’s also using the spike here pic.twitter.com/wkqT0X8Pui

— MADS (@hangermads) July 17, 2023

Do you think we will see Fatu turn up in The Bloodline soon? Let us know by hitting the thumbs below!

Mercedes Mone remains out of action and it doesn’t appear that she’ll be back in the ring any time soon.

Mone has mainly kept out of the spotlight since suffering her injury but was recently backstage at IMPACT Slammiversary as her friend Trinity won the Knockouts Championship.

Let’s get this Trinding 🫶🏽#KnockoutsMainEvent pic.twitter.com/FxN7JyIE8L

— Mercedes Moné Varnado (@MercedesVarnado) July 15, 2023

During an update on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed that Mone is still on crutches and in a walking boot, furthermore, there remains no timetable for her return.

You can read Meltzer’s full comments, here.

WWE has continued their YouTube countdowns by looking at the 25 greatest slaps in the companies history.

The awesome montage includes such iconic moments as John Cena’s WWE debut and Stephanie McMahon’s heated confrontation with Batista.

Check it out!

WWE Superstar and Brawling Brute Ridge Holland has deleted his Twitter following an influx of online abuse after being blamed for the recent injury sustained to Pretty Deadly’s Elton Prince.

On the July 14th episode of WWE SmackDown, Sheamus teamed with Ridge Holland to take on Pretty Deadly — Elton Prince and Kit Wilson. During the match, Prince suffered a separated shoulder during a spot with Holland. “Ridge The Fridge” later revealed that Prince suffered the injury during a “wonky” landing from the pounce, and had nothing to do with a Belly-To-Belly as some fans had claimed.

Despite claiming the injury had nothing to do with him, fans on Twitter weren’t so forgiving and would bring up Holland’s history of injuring talent such Johnny Gargano and Big E, claiming that he is an unsafe worker.

The influx of abuse has lead the Brawling Brute member to delete his social and go dark online for the foreseeable.

Ridge Holland previously received a massive amount of online abuse for his role in the career threatening injury sustained by Big E in 2022.

Do you think social media was write to criticise Holland or do you think they are over stepping their mark? Let us know by hitting the thumbs below! 

Welcome to the July 17th Inside The Ropes live blog fact of the day!

Today’s fact relates to current undefeated superstars in the WWE.

In 2023 currently their are a total of ten undefeated superstars in the WWE spanning across Raw, SmackDown and NXT.

Some of the names on this list make sense and others are a complete curveball.

The ten undefeated WWE Superstars of 2023 so far are:

• Bad Bunny (1/1)
• Beth Pheonix (1/1)
• Blair Davenport (6/6)
• Bray Wyatt (8/8)
• Cameron Grimes (5/5)
• Lita (2/2)
• Maxxine Dupri (1/1)
• Pat McAfee (1/1)
• Veer (3/3)
• Wes Lee (22/22)

Outside the undefeated superstars, Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley hold the most impressive records sitting at 94 and 93 percent win rates with a combined 79 wins from 82 matches.

Dave Meltzer is one of the most informed wrestling fans of all time, with a near encyclopaedic knowledge of the sport and it’s history and as it turns out, Meltzer recently used that knowledge to help improve AEW’s Battle of the Belts TV special.

During the July 15th broadcast of AEW Battle of the Belts, high winds due to a storm in Canada caused the broadcast to be temporarily unavailable to fans watching around the world.

This led to fans missing the ending of Toni Storm’s AEW Women’s Championship defence against Taya Valkyrie.

Enter Dave Meltzer.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer would reveal that he contacted Tony Khan during the broadcast of the show to make sure that he the finish of Storm vs Valkyrie was replayed to those watching at home.

“They missed the finish of the Taya Valkyrie – Toni Storm match. I actually — I don’t know what they knew, I kinda presumed they knew everything.

[Bryan Alvarez questions how much AEW management and the announce team knew about the feed going down]

I don’t know if they knew when it went out is what I’m saying. They may have, I just know that sent a message to Tony Khan and I go ‘You’ve got to tell’ — because when they came back they didn’t tell people the finish, I think they thought people knew the finish — They came back and were doing the next thing and I said ‘You’ve got to tell people who won that match because we don’t know, and if you get a chance you should put the finish on.’

Which they did end up putting the finish on right at the end of the show.”

Following his return to the WWE in the aftermath of the companies merger with the UFC, Vince McMahon’s role in the WWE creative process has been a hot topic online with fans concerned that he has begun influencing the product once again.

In recent weeks it has been reported that Vince McMahon has caused chaos backstage at both SmackDown & Raw by enforcing last minute changes to the show and planned creative.

It has even been reported that Triple H and other WWE Officials were looking into how they could “Vince McMahon proof” their creative plans in order to protect them from last minute changes.

Taking to social media, respected journalist Dave Meltzer would clarify Vince McMahon’s current role in the WWE creative process.

Taking to Twitter, Meltzer would state:

“Vince has final say but Paul [Triple H] is largely doing it.”

Have you noticed a change in the quality of Raw & SmackDown on a weekly basis since Vince McMahon’s return? Write in using the ‘get involved’ feature, or by clicking here, and we will share your responses throughout the day!

During WWE’s July 16th Live Event in Maryland, Bayley would take on Asuka & Charlotte in Triple Threat action only for the match to be cut short after ‘The Role Model’ suffered an injury scare early into the match.

Bayley would trip over WWE Women’s Champion Asuka, landing awkwardly and clutching her knee upon hitting the mat.

WWE Official Jessika Carr would throw up the “X” symbol, a non-verbal sign used by WWE Officials to indicate a competitor is hurt, and the match would finish shortly after.

Taking to social media, Bayley would provide fans with a brief update following the scare, stating that she is going to be “alright.”

Writing on Twitter, the former WWE Women’s Champion would state:

“I’ll be alright, thanks everyone.”

Following the show, one fan would take to Twitter to share footage of Bayley leaving the venue, Bayley is seen walking unassisted and without crutches but with a slight limp.

You can check out that video in full below.

UPDATE from my friend who is at the event: Bayley is able to walk on her own and is leaving the arena but is limping, no crutches or anything are with her pic.twitter.com/1fmISLgDh8

— abby (@blisstatements) July 17, 2023

Good Afternoon!

Hope everyone is doing well and had an awesome weekend!

I will be with you this afternoon from 12 pm to 6 pm BST (7 am -12 pm EST) with all the latest news and rumours from AEW, WWE and NJPW.

This afternoon we will be kicking things off with some of today’s biggest stories, including:

• Update on Bayley‘s injury status following WWE live event scare.
• Dave Meltzer reveals he gave Tony Khan advice during recent broadcast of AEW Battle of the Belts.
• Update on Don Callis following fan attack in Mexico.
• WWE Superstar Ridge Holland deletes Twitter following influx of online abuse.
• Vince McMahon‘s current role in WWE creative confirmed.

As always if you have anything you want to ask us or any stories you would like us to try to provide an update on, let us know by using the ‘get involved’ feature at the top of the page!