What’s up friends, welcome to The 10 Count!
The 10 Count is a quick rundown of the ten biggest stories, news, and rumors, from the WWE, IMPACT Wrestling, Ring of Honor, AEW and more.
In this episode, IMPACT reveals a “phenomenal” new wrestler, Chris Jericho tells a story about Pat Patterson being able to “talk wrestler” and WWE sends some big guys back for a little more training.
Let’s start at #10.
10. Tokyo Police To File Charges Against Man Who Cyberbullied Hana Kimura
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is planning to file charges against the man accused of cyberbullying former wrestler Hana Kimura.
Kimura received the threats following an episode of the reality show “Terrace House.”
According to Asahi Digital, investigators believe an Osaka man in his 20s sent thousands of bullying and threatening messages to Kimura on social media. Over 1200 posts from 600 different accounts were are being investigated.
The posts were deleted following the 22-year-olds tragic suicide on May 23, 2020, but screenshots were taken and sent to the police.
9. Ethan Page’s “Phenomenal Opponent” Revealed At IMPACT
Impact Wrestling teased a “Phenomenal Opponent” for Ethan Page, hinting to a possible appearance of former TNA star AJ Styles.
The phenomenal opponent ended up being Swoggle, formerly Hornswoggle in the WWE, dressed as AJ Styles and coming out to Styles’ old TNA theme.
Styles’ is reportedly cool with the knockoff and thinks the character is great. The character was also a huge hit backstage at both Impact and WWE.
8. Eric Bischoff Says “No One Wants To Change” At WWE
In a recent interview with Digital Spy, former WCW President Eric Bischoff spoke about his time as the executive director of Smackdown last year in WWE.
According to Bischoff, the job wasn’t everything he assumed, with most of the issues coming from WWE’s inability to keep an open mind to new ideas.
“There was not nearly the autonomy that I was hoping there would be. There wasn’t an open mind to new ways of doing things which, either I allowed myself to believe there would be or I was led to believe there would be, I’m not sure which is true even to this day”
Bischoff also commented the main issue came from the company just doing things the way they’ve always done them.
“There really wasn’t a new approach. It was the same approach with different people and it just didn’t fit real well.”
7. Elias Asked Permission From The Undertaker To Wear A Cowboy Hat
In an interview with Lillian Garcia on her Chasing Glory podcast, WWE star Elias opened up about getting to work with The Undertaker several times throughout the last few years.
The pair have not had a televised match together, but have shared the ring for several segments throughout the years, including at WrestleMania 34 with John Cena also involved, and the night after WrestleMania 35 on Raw.
Elias told Garcia that he even had to seek approval from The Undertaker to wear a hat before their segment at a house show in Madison Square Garden.
“Getting to work with him, he was one of, if not my favorite wrestler growing up. I remember having a match with him at Madison Square Garden. It was the main event. It was actually a big tag team match. I opened it up with one of my songs. I was wearing a hat, which I had to get approval from the dead man because it was like a cowboy hat.”
Elias isn’t the first WWE star who needed to get Taker’s approval on gear similar to the Dead Man’s gimmick. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin needed The Undertaker’s approval for the skull design on Austin’s iconic Austin 3:16 shirt.
6. Pat Patterson Tells Chris Jericho He’ll Be More Popular If He Loses
More and more Pat Patterson stories are coming out after the WWE legend passed away earlier this month.
AEW star Chris Jericho did a tribute episode of Talk is Jericho in memory of the WWE Hall of Famer and shared a story about Pat being a calming voice after Vince McMahon wanted Jericho to put over Health Slater.
“We were doing something where I had to work with Heath Slater, and Vince wanted me to put him over. You know me man, but I flipped out,” Jericho admitted. “I’m like, ‘What? This guy’s nothing. Why do you want me to put him over?’ Whatever reasoning was, I went straight looking for Pat, and I went to Pat. I said, ‘Can you believe what this f–king guy wants me to do? He wants me to put over Heath Slater. Can you believe that? What should I do?’ Pat’s smoking a cigarette in a no-smoking area. of course.
“He goes, ‘Do it!’ I go, ‘What?’ He goes, ‘Just do it!’ And he was basically telling me that everyone knows you’re going to beat this guy, but you’re a heel. If he beats you, you can flip out. You’ll get way more over by losing this match. You’ll have much more of a bone to pick and meat to chew on for a promo. He said, ‘No one’s even going to remember this guy beat you next week. They don’t even know what his name is, and they still don’t know what his name is.’ This actually gets you moreover as a heel to lose this match to this opening match jobber, and I never thought of it.”
Jericho shared that Patterson was better at explaining ideas to the boys because “Pat could speak wrestler talk.”
5. Will Charlotte Flair Finally Return at TLC?
A report from PWInsider noted that Raw star Lana is actually expected to be off TV for at least a month.
This leaves Asuka without a tag team partner for the TLC match against Raw Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler.
Charlotte Flair has been off WWE TV since June.
Early reports had her returning in time for Royal Rumble season, but a surprise return at TLC would make sense, and set up a storyline with current Raw Women’s Champion Asuka.
4. Cody and Brandi Rhodes Are Having A Little Nightmare
Cody Rhodes and Brandi Rhodes are expecting their first child and announced the news during Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite.
The show aired a vignette showing that Brandi is pregnant.
https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1339380922261655553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1339380922261655553%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2F411mania.com%2Fwrestling%2Fcody-brandi-rhodes-announce-theyre-expecting%2F
There must be baby fever going around the company. Last month, Jon Moxley announced during a vignette that he and wife Renee Paquette are also expecting a child.
3. AEW Champion vs. Impact Champion (sort of) at Impact PPV in January
The relationship between AEW and Impact is still going strong and will continue into the coming year.
AEW Champion Kenny Omega will headline Impact’s Hard To Kill PPV in January, tagging with The Good Brothers, to take on IMPACT Champion Rich Swann and the Motor City Machine Guns – Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin.
After leaving Swann unconscious on a recent episode of IMPACT, Omega told Swann, “This may be your house, but as long as you are a wrestler, you are living in my world.”
HARD TO KILL will take place on Saturday, January 16, and will be available around the world digitally via FITE TV.
2. Goldberg Returning…Again…Maybe
The WWE is allegedly looking to go back to the well one more time with Bill Goldberg.
The WWE is currently planning on having the 53-year-old challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 37. The match would reignite the feud between Reigns and the former champion that was supposed to happen at WrestleMania 36.
Unlike The Undertaker earlier this year, Goldberg has no plans of hanging up his wrestling boots anytime soon.
“We always have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Goldberg told Bleacher Report. “I’m 53 years old, I’ll be 54 here in a couple of weeks. Hey, as long as my body can still do it, I’m still going to do it. It’s very tough because being a power wrestler at this age, I’m not the person I was back in the past. You have that sense of, ‘Oh, am I ruining my legacy?’ Well, you know what? I still have to put food on the table for my family.”
In more Goldberg news, former WCW performer Disco Inferno told SK Wrestling that Bill wasn’t “the nicest guy to be around” backstage during the day of a wrestling show.
Wait, the guy who purposely rams his head into lockers before a match isn’t a fun guy to be around? The next thing you’re going to tell me is that water is wet.
1. WWE Unhappy With Raw Ratings (again) And Sent Multiple Performs Back For More Training
According to an inside source, the low Raw ratings are pissing off the higher-ups in the WWE.
Wrestlevotes quoted an unnamed source inside the company who said “the record low RAW rating news isn’t ‘sitting well’ with those in power. To a point where they expect some reactionary decisions to be made.”
Talking a source just now who said the record low RAW rating news isn’t “sitting well” with those in power. To a point where they expect some reactionary decisions to be made. Time will tell.
— WrestleVotes (@WrestleVotes) December 16, 2020
It was also reported that Vince McMahon “threw a fit” about the ability of some WWE main roster stars.
McMahon allegedly targeted the “big guys” on the rosters and ordered them to go back to the Performance Center to train with Adam Pearce and Drew Gulak. Those stars were Otis, Keith Lee, Dabbo Kato, Dio Maddin, and AJ Styles’ bodyguard, Omos.
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