WWE: More on Blake & Cutler’s SmackDown Return, Pat Patterson Update, Riddle Lawsuit Update

More on Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler’s Return to SmackDown

Last night’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown featured the return of Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler following a lengthy absence from WWE television. Prior to their absence, Blake and Cutler were members of the Forgotten Sons group, which also included Jaxson Ryker.

Fightful Select reported (via 411Mania.com) that the reason why Ryker was not included in Blake and Cutler’s television return is due to him still having heat within the company over his social media controversies this past June. It was reported that at one point over the past several months, Ryker’s name was not listed among the company’s internal roster sheets for their shows.

One source spoken to stated that Ryker “wasn’t worth the risk of bad publicity of being on TV” and that WWE officials were not big on him to begin with when the Forgotten Sons were called up from NXT.

Several of their sources stated that there was never any heat on Blake nor Cutler over the situation involving Ryker and the sources felt bad for them being caught up in this whole situation.

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More on the Passing of Pat Patterson

As noted before, WWE legend Pat Patterson passed away this past Wednesday following a lengthy bout with cancer.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that prior to his passing, Patterson had been battling both bladder cancer and dementia for the past several years. Meltzer reported that Patterson had been mostly stuck in Florida for some time due to issues with the coronavirus pandemic and the progression of his dementia.

Meltzer also reported that a tumor had been discovered in Patterson’s lung following a visit to the hospital last month. Prior to his passing, Patterson had been scheduled for biopsy on Friday to determine if his tumor was cancerous.

Patterson reportedly was hospitalized for a second time last month due to a blood clot in his liver. This hospitalization on November 27th revealed that his tumor had spread elsewhere in his body. Meltzer reported that Patterson passed away at 1:15AM on December 2nd and the cause of death is currently assumed to be due to liver failure.

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Matt Riddle & WWE Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Update

As noted before, Matt Riddle and WWE are currently involved in a sexual abuse lawsuit filed by Riddle’s accuser Candy Cartwright. Cartwright’s lawsuit alleges that Riddle sexually abused her multiple times and others listed in the lawsuit were complacent in the matter.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE recently filed a motion to dismiss the claims made against them in Cartwright’s lawsuit. WWE reportedly claimed that the Northern District of Illinois has no legal jurisdiction over them due to the company having no involvement in anything that allegedly took place in the state of Illinois.

WWE also claimed that Cartwright’s timeline of Riddle’s sexual abuse incidents is plagued with serious issues over her claims of their working relationship and involvement with both Riddle and EVOLVE at the time.