WWE: Colby Corino Signing, Bronson Reed on WWE Return Decision, More on Sami Zayn’s SD Promo

Feb 19, 2023

Colby Corino Signs Contract with WWE

Former National Wrestling Alliance talent Colby Corino reportedly recently signed an official contract with WWE, according to Bodyslam.net.

Bodyslam’s Cassidy Haynes reported that his sources stated that Cornio had signed an official contract with WWE earlier this past week and he is currently expected to report to their NXT developmental brand very soon. Those same sources reportedly also stated that Cornio could be starting in NXT as early as next month.

Bronson Reed Comments on His Decision to Sign with WWE

Post Wrestling held a recent interview with Bronson Reed. One of the topics discussed included Reed’s thoughts on his matches with Kazuchika Okada in New Japan Pro Wrestling and being hopeful they could have another match in the future.

“It’s pretty much day-by-day (was when I was discovering how my G1 run would go). Japan’s a bit of its own world in the way that they operate and they do things and I think it’s very much — it’s not like WWE and some of these places, they have a set idea for six months in time whereas in Japan, I think they very much go off of what you do in the ring. They’re waiting to see what I could do, how I’m presented to the crowd, how they feel about me and stuff like that and then it sort of moves from there so, yeah, I wasn’t 100 percent sure about the (Kazuchika) Okada match but then when it happened, I was very happy and I’ve had the two matches with him now, we’re one a piece. Hopefully, there will be a rubber match somewhere down the road. I say hopefully, maybe under the WWE banner.”

Reed also gave his thoughts on when he made his decision to leave NJPW and return to WWE.

“I had spoken with Triple H himself at that point (going into the second match with Kazuchika Okada) and I was sort of 50-50 on what was about to happen. I’d also spoken to New Japan management and I sort of made my choice, yeah, right before that match so, you’ll see in that match that there is a bit of a — not that anything is planned or anything but Okada shakes my hand after the match and I think it was sort of a, you know, he’s leaving for now so, yeah, it was something I had in my mind and by that time, I was ready to come back to WWE.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

More on Sami Zayn’s Promo Segment at This Past Friday’s SamckDown Show

This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Montreal, Canada featured an emotional promo segment by Sami Zayn in front of his hometown crowd as the main event of the show.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials had always planned for Zayn’s promo to be one segment in length for the show. Those same sources also stated that WWE did not originally have plans for Zayn to enter using his old ” Worlds Apart” theme song but made the decision to do so based on “heavy online requests from fans.”

In regards to Zayn, it was reported that he had looked “visibly anxious and nervous” backstage prior to the start of his segment. Michael Hayes reportedly was the producer of the promo segment for the show.

In regards to the crowd’s reaction during the segment, it was reported that there was some panic within WWE’s production team due to the crowd’s heavy usage of the “F*** You Roman” chants that led to them having to edit and black out those chants from the show. Those spoken to reportedly stated that they were “very happy with how things ended up” with one longtime WWE producer calling it a “special” moment for the company.