Author: Andrew Ravens

Dan Ryckert, who worked for WWE, on podcasts and other projects recently left the company. Since his departure, he has been vocal about several things in regard to the backstage environment.

Ryckert spoke about a specific corporate meeting that he took part in while with WWE during an interview with MinnMax including the start of The New Day podcast. 

He recalled what the meetings were like, which reminded him of a dumb comedy movie. 

“But it’s more like running from meeting to meeting and kinda dealing with more of the corporate crap. These meetings and stuff, they feel like they’re straight out of a dumb comedy or something where like nobody could ever be this way. I remember for instance, so we had this business partner when I first started, before the pandemic. They would fly in these experts, these podcast marketing experts from Beverly Hills. It was always a big deal where it’s like, okay, we’re gonna have a three or four hour meeting with this company. I got pulled into this room and there’s this whole PowerPoint thing and they’re trying to think of ways to do a podcast with the New Day. The New Day, as a wrestling fan and a friend of those guys, the answer is let them talk because they are hilarious. Don’t screw with the rapport, we don’t have to overproduce this thing and put all of these segments [together] and stuff.

Ryckert continued on to detail some of the ideas that the partnering company had like using words such as “epic.” He noted that the people pitched working with Color Run for a podcast, which would’ve seen New Day doing a podcast while running in traffic. There was another pitch where New Day would play video games while doing a podcast and call it ‘Ya Boys Are Twitchin?’

Ryckert did recently admit how WWE has a culture of fear behind the scenes.

H/T to Fightful for the transcription

At a time when WWE is dealing with various stars injured such as Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, one wrestler could be coming back from injury soon and that’s Zelina Vega. 

The former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion has been absent from Raw for several weeks due to an injury that reportedly required surgery. 

Vega reacted to one fan calling for her return on Twitter by stating, “Aww I know my loyal subjects your queen will return soon, I promise! I am simply allowing the … humans … to have their fun … for now.”

After becoming “Queen Zelina” by winning the inaugural Queen’s Crown Tournament in 2021, she was paired in a tag team with Carmella and they went on to hold the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. They lost the titles to Sasha Banks and Naomi at WrestleMania 38 in a Fatal 4-Way Match that also featured the teams of Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley and Natalya and Shayna Baszler.

There’s still no word on what injury Vega was dealing with, but it was expected to keep her out of action for 6-8 weeks, which would allow for her to return in time for SummerSlam on July 30 in Nashville.

Former WWE Raw Women\’s Champion Rhea Ripley will not be wrestling at WWE Money in the Bank after all. 

During the opening segment of Monday Night Raw, Bianca Belair announced that Ripley will not be medically cleared in time to compete at this upcoming event where she was scheduled to challenge Belair for the Raw Women’s Title. 

As a result, she has been pulled from the bout. Belair revealed that Alexa Bliss vs Liv Morgan vs Carmella vs Asuka vs Becky Lynch would take place on the show in a fatal 5-way bout to determine the #1 contender who will challenge her for the title at Money in the Bank. 

As of this writing, there’s no word yet on the exact injury that Ripley is dealing with. This is the latest star to go down to injury as Cody Rhodes is out with a torn pec and Randy Orton is likely out of action for the rest of the year if he undergoes surgery to repair a back injury as WWE fears may have to happen. 

Other matches confirmed for the July 2 premium live event include the two Money in the Bank Ladder Matches, Ronda Rousey vs. Natalya for the SmackDown Women\’s Championship and more. 

‘Superstar ‘Billy Graham is scheduled to undergo surgery.

The WWE Hall of Famer announced on his Facebook page that he has some infections in his toes and his Mayo Clinic surgery will amputate a few of them. 

Graham mentioned that he will not be active on social media as he’ll be recovering and healing in between surgeries. He wrote the following: 

“Health Issues. Hi fans, nice shot here while working in Japan for you, enjoy. I have some infections in a few toes and my Mayo Clinic surgeon must do some partial amputations. This is going to take some time to recover from so I will be offline for a while.

If you good folks out there have any photos or thoughts you would like to put up in the meantime my FB is open for business. I just won’t be responding for the next 2 or 3 weeks, I have to heal up in between surgeries and it takes full concentration. Catch up with you all a little further down the line. Superstar Billy Graham.”

Graham has been battling health issues as late as this past September he checked into the Mayo Clinic for heart issues. Graham turned 79 years old on June 7th.

World Association of Wrestling in the UK announced today that Paige (SARAYA) will be part of Frightmare IV on October 15. 

This marks her first announced booking since she revealed that she will be leaving WWE when her contract expires on July 7. The promotion is owned by her family. 

The advertisement noted that the soon-to-be-former WWE star will be stepping back into the WAW ring, but it isn\’t clarified if she will wrestle or just do a promo. 

Paige has not wrestled since December 2017 due to her having spinal stenosis. Earlier this month, Paige noted that the decision to not renew her WWE contract was made by WWE. 

Her in-ring career ended in late December 2017 after she took a bad bump on the back of her neck during a six-woman tag team match. She officially retired from wrestling in April 2018 due to a neck injury.

The former WWE Divas Champion has publicly talked about wanting to wrestle again even though she hasn’t been medically cleared yet to do so.

As advertised, Vince McMahon appeared on this week’s episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown on the same day that it was announced Stephanie McMahon was named the interim CEO and Chairwoman of WWE, with Vince voluntarily stepping down in these roles. Vince is still in charge of WWE creative. 

McMahon cut a promo about how it\’s a privilege to stand in the ring in front of the fans. He said he was here to remind them of WWE’s signature of “Then. Now. Together. Forever.” He then welcomed everyone to SmackDown. That was the entire promo. 

McMahon allegedly paid a former $3 million in a settlement to stay quiet regarding their sexual relations. In addition to this, the board of WWE is also investigating other nondisclosure agreements that involve misconduct claims made by other former female WWE employees about McMahon and WWE’s head of talent relations John Laurinaitis.

Before the show went live, it was reported by PWinsider.com that McMahon was seen “joking around” during the production meeting and he was not selling anything as he was said to be in a great mood despite the circumstances. 

The pre-show meetings were described as “weird” and some are privately wondering how many NDA’s were uncovered.

We are sad to share that Dave Hebner has passed away at the age of 73. The news was first reported on Brian Hebner’s podcast.

Dave is the twin brother of Earl Hebner. He got his start in the wrestling business in the 1970s as a referee for WWE where he was part of several historic matches such as Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at WrestleMania III and as part of the famous twin referee angle on The Main Event in 1988 that let to Hulk Hogan being screwed out of the WWF Championship.

Andre The Giant handed the belt over to Ted DiBiase. The event marked the all-time viewership record for pro wrestling in the United States with 33 million people watching. Hebner worked in WWE on and off camera until 2005 before having a brief run in TNA Wrestling.

NASCAR’s Hermie Sadler mentioned on Twitter last month that Dave had been dealing with health issues but the exact nature of his illness was not mentioned although PWInsider reports that he had been battling Parkinson’s Disease.

We send our condolences to Hebner’s friends and family.

Shortly after WWE announced that Vince McMahon was stepping down as CEO and Chairman following the investigation into an alleged affair that he had with a paralegal who left the company this year and was paid $3 million as part of a settlement, WWE announced McMahon would appear on tonight’s SmackDown as Mr. McMahon. 

It was later reported that McMahon will be in character during the appearance. Fightful Select reports that many in WWE are unhappy with McMahon’s decision to appear on the show as it’s seen as a largely superficial move.

One source referred to it as a “cheap ratings ploy” while others plan to speak to Vince to express their displeasure at his appearance.

Some have speculated that McMahon will try to make the investigation into not only the affair, but also other nondisclosure agreements that involve misconduct claims made by other former female WWE employees about McMahon and WWE’s head of talent relations John Laurinaitis, as a ‘McMahon vs. The World’ narrative that McMahon did when he was going through the steroid trials of the early 1990s.

Stephanie McMahon has been announced as interim CEO and Chairwoman of WWE. One talent told the media outlet that they’re hopeful that Stephanie’s return will lead to an improvement for female talent who have suffered under the John Laurinaitis era.

WWE SmackDown commentator Pat McAfee gave his thoughts on the situation involving Vince McMahon after the Wall Street Journal published a report on Wednesday stating the WWE board of directors is investigating McMahon regarding a secret $3 million settlement regarding an alleged affair.

The investigation began in April when other nondisclosure agreements involving claims by former female WWE employees of misconduct by McMahon and John Laurinaitis. 

McAfee reacted to the news on his radio show on Thursday.

\”Yesterday, the WWE, I know less than everybody else. This is just me, I don\’t know shit about fuck. I go in, do my thing, say hello to everybody, I\’m out. I\’m in, maybe the most awesome situation in the history of WWE for anybody. I\’m a lifelong fan of the company, but I\’m not part of anything. I\’m part of no groups, I have no locker room. I literally bounce around, do my thing, and I\’m out.

It\’s designed to be that way, I think Michael Cole and everyone have set it up to be that way. \’This is the best way for this to happen, let\’s keep him out of everything. He comes in and does his thing.\’ I\’m very fortunate, lucky, and I love that job. Outside looking in, it\’s like, [makes a curious face].

After watching Succession, anytime a board is trying to do something, it\’s hard not to be like, \’woah, woah, woah.\’ Yesterday, on the Internet, there was a lot of \’who is, what is.\’ I\’m going there tomorrow. I\’m excited to hear the chatter. Obviously, what is being alleged is not fantastic at all, it\’s terrible. There will be full investigations.”

McAfee was asked why everything was coming out now. He noted that this came out of nowhere and there are going to be investigations about the investigations and those investigations will contradict other investigations. 

He continued, “For a good 9-10 hours, it was just, \’holy shit, I\’m learning a lot about a lot of things.\’ What\’s real, what isnt? Who knows. Hopefully, I\’ll find out at some point. Hopefully, we all will. Who knows how that whole thing will go. It sounds incredibly problematic.\”

McAfee added that he was trending because of McMahon’s comments made on McAfee’s show during an interview in March, specifically when Vince referred to Linda as \”my wife at the time.\” 

H/T to Fightful for the transcript

A report noted on Wednesday that Sasha Banks received her WWE release after being at odds with the company for a month. That has yet to be confirmed by anyone else, but her lawyers are said to be working on it.

Fightful noted that after speaking directly with Wrestling Inc’s Raj Giri, who broke the news, they were told that Banks\’ lawyers were involved and there had been eyes on a physical WWE release. However, they couldn\’t confirm a release has been made. 

Andrew Zarian said on today’s Mat Men podcast, “I cannot confirm she’s been released. But, I did hear late last week that her attorneys were working on getting this done.”

As previously noted, Banks and Naomi walked out of the company on May 16th at a Raw event because they had a creative dispute with Vince McMahon regarding booking leading into Hell in a Cell that would’ve seen Banks vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey and Naomi vs. Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. 

It was later announced the two were indefinitely suspended and stripped of the WWE Women\’s Tag Team Titles as a result. Also, their merchandise was also removed from WWE Shop and their deals were put on hold.

It was reported that Naomi was negotiating for a new contract at the time of the walkout while Banks\’ deal still has a lot of time left.