WWE: Nikkita Lyons Suffers Torn ACL Injury, Ric Flair on Apologizing to Becky Lynch, More News

Nikkita Lyons Suffered Torn ACL & Meniscus Injury

NXT brand talent Nikkita Lyons announced on Twitter that she recently suffered a torn ACL and meniscus injury.

ACL & Meniscus are torn.🦵🏼This comeback is personal. Thank you to all who consistently show love & genuine support. it means the 🌎 to me.🦁Those of you who don’t see the vision, thank you too. Stay ya a** right there. This is just another lesson life needed to teach. 🌻 Love. pic.twitter.com/kOrMryOZsu

— Nikkita Lyons (@nikkita_wwe) January 25, 2023

This past Tuesday’s NXT show featured the aftermath of an off-screen attack by a mystery person to Lyons in NXT’s parking lot as WWE’s way to write out Lyons while she recovers from her most recent injury.

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Ric Flair Comments on Apologizing to Becky Lynch Over Her “The Man” Catchphrase Issues

A recent episode of the To Be The Man podcast featured co-host Ric Flair stating that he had apologized to Becky lynch backstage during this past Monday’s RAW 30 show over his past public issues with her “The Man” catchphrase.

“I apologized to Becky Lynch. I walked up to her and said, ‘May I speak with you for a minute?’ I just said I’m sorry this ever got to where it is’ I went over and shook Seth Rollins’ hands and I said, ‘I’m gonna apologize to your wife.’ I’ve just decided that, it all came with the documentary. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in things that you just forget and you get so wrapped up in things that you just forget, and you say it so many times for so many years. But ‘The Man’ trademark, the whole thing was decided by someone besides she and I. It’s not that as much as the money that was involved in it, which the company reaps the better part of it anyway. Then I saw her with her child, and I thought, ‘God, this will be Ashley someday, and Megan now with Morgan.’ It’s not worth it.

I am not ‘The Man’ anymore. ‘The Man’ is whoever the people think is. Basically, we’ve turned it over to social media to decide who ‘The Man’ is. Does that make sense? It could be Tom Brady, who’s still playing. It could be Aaron Rodgers in football. It could be LeBron, who I still think is the man in basketball. I will be in some people’s mind ‘The Man’ forever, but you gotta remember, I’m sitting there with ‘Taker and Shawn, and I’m 20 years older than those guys. I’m there on Raw, lucky enough to celebrate that moment and that time with these guys that grew up on me. Then I introduced my daughter and called her what she is, the greatest women’s champion in the history of WWE, and in my estimation, the best worker in the company. But that’s just how I feel personally.

I can walk around and not walk by Becky and feel uncomfortable and I can shake Seth Rollins’ hand, and it makes it a better world for me to be in. I feel better about myself. Becky was very receptive and said nice words to me, and so did Seth. My daughter works there, I want it to be perfect. Nothing’s perfect, but you want it to be as best as can be. How many people get to introduce their daughter? That, you’re not gonna see for a long time, something like that. So I feel thankful that I had that opportunity.”

Flair also gave his thoughts why he no longer considers himself to be “The Man” in the wrestling industry.

“I’m not ‘The Man’ anymore. I don’t know who ‘The Man’ is, but people decide that, and that’s in every sport, in every field, and every phase of life. But I’m realizing, during the body of the show, I’m realizing, I really got stuck on that because I said it for so many years. There was a time, in the 80s, I was the guy. I got no problem saying that at all. Maybe even the early 90s. But it’s like believing your own hype after a while because you just say it so long.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

This past Monday’s WWE RAW 30 show featured several WWE Legends and Hall of Famers making appearances throughout the show. One notable abscence was WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley. In a recent posting on Facebook, Foley stated that the reason for his absence was due to work schedule-related issues. Foley stated “I was definitely asked by WWE, and politely declined due to the hectic nature of my schedule. If I had not taken the past couple days off – and instead traveled to Philadelphia for the show – I would be on the road for 32 consecutive days. I have been working on a new project – which has been great fun, but also requires a lot of travel – and I just really needed a couple days off to relax and see my wife and children.”

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the reason for Lita’s absence from this past Monday’s WWE RAW 30 show was due to her being busy with WWE-related work for cable television network A&E in Philadelphia that day.

As noted before, this past Monday’s WWE RAW 30 show drew 2,344,000 viewers and a 0.70 key demographic rating. Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that WWE’s peak viewership for the show was at 2,765,000 overall viewers and 1,109,000 key demographic viewers during RAW’s second quarter, which featured the latter half of the “Trial of Sami Zayn” segment. Thurston reported that three of RAW’s eight quarter hours drew over 1 million key demographic viewers.

In a recent interview with Ottawa CityNews, Johnny Gargano stated that he is very interested in the idea of returning to WWE’s NXT brand in the future due to the brand holding a special place in his heart.

WWE Hall of Famer and former WWE coach D-Von Dudley recently announced on Twitter that he will be among the panel for WWE’s upcoming new season of WWE Rivals on A&E starting on February 19th.

BT Sport’s WWE account on Twitter recently teased the idea of New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Jay White being one of the surprise entrants for this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble match. White’s contract with NJPW is currently set to expire soon.