WWE: Bray Wyatt Status Update, Bea Priestly Update, Randy Orton on Cinematic Matches

Bray Wyatt WWE Status Update

Bray Wyatt has been noticeably absent from WWE television since Night 2 of WrestleMania 37 on April 11th in Tampa, Florida.

Fightful Select reported that the recent rumors of Wyatt being on break from the company and wrestling due to mental health issues are not true.

It was reported that several talent spoken to stated that they have not been aware of any such situation of Wyatt currently dealing with personal issues. Several talent reportedly also stated that Wyatt had been seen backstage “a handful of times” and appeared to look fine although he has not been at RAW tapings in recent weeks.

It was also reported that several staff and talent who have worked closely with Wyatt currently believe that he wants to be on television but they have not heard of any specific reason for his current absence from RAW.

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Bea Priestly WWE Contract Talks Update

As noted before, Bea Priestley’s contract with Stardom expired this past April and was rumored to be signing a contract with WWE.

Dave Meltzer provided an update in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter stating that Priestley likely has recently signed an official contract with WWE and is “almost surely heading” to the company’s NXT UK brand.

Meltzer reported that the reason for the lack of any official announcements regarding her current status is due to WWE’s current rules in place when it comes to new signings and talent not being allowed to publicly reveal it until after the company does so first.

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Randy Orton Comments on Cinematic Matches in Wrestling

A recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show podcast had Randy Orton as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Orton’s thoughts on cinematic matches in wrestling.

“You know if you asked that same question a year or two ago, I would have shit all over the cinematic matches thing. But, that being said, now we’re here now, I guess ‘Mania 36 watching Cena vs. Bray – I thought that was brilliant and I don’t know if this has come out in an interview but Bruce Prichard and John Cena were out in the warehouse in Connecticut and they were walking around just trying to think how they were going to do this and how they were going to make it different. They saw all the props from all the history of the WWE and God knows what else was in there – the N.W.O. stuff, all kinds of props and I think it was Cena’s idea. He went to Bruce and was like, ‘this is what we do’. They did a whole history of John Cena throwing in the ‘what ifs’. Different timelines, like, there was a multiverse of WWE and ‘what if John Cena would have been in the N.W.O.?’ and ‘what if John Cena had done this instead of this?’ and I thought that cinematic match was awesome. The Undertaker vs. AJ match, I thought it was awesome and I thought it was great for ‘Taker to go out in that manner and it was different. I think people will remember it more, that man has had 10,000 matches give or take a few and that one was different than all those other ones. I think if it’s done right with the right talent and the right story, I think the cinematic matches thing works. I think that, like anything, you can overdo it too but I’m all for them in the right time and place and with the right performers.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com