WWE: Jagger Reid & Rip Fowler Not Granted Their Releases, Drew McIntyre Health Update, Paul Heyman

Apr 9, 2023

Jagger Reid & Rip Fowler Reportedly Not Granted Their Releases from WWE

As noted before, The Dyad’s Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler recently requested and were granted their releases from WWE.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE officials have yet to grant Reid and Folwer their releases from the company.

Meltzer reported that sources within WWE had given conflicting info regarding their status, first stating that they were released and later backtracking saying that was not the case. Meltzer also reported that Reid and Fowler had been telling others that they had been granted their releases.

Drew McIntyre Health Status Update

As noted before, Drew McIntyre was pulled from this past Friday’s SmackDown show in Portland, Oregon due to him currently suffering from an unknown health issue.

Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that McIntyre’s health issues began prior to his match against Sheamus and Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship at last weekend’s WrestleMania 39 event. Meltzer reported that McIntyre managed to worked through the match despite his health issue.

Meltzer reported that the nature of this health issue nor a potential timetable for his return is currently not known.

Paul Heyman on Cody Rhodes’ Loss At WrestleMania 39 Making WWE Fans More Passionate Towards Him

BT Sport held a recent interview with Paul Heyman. One of the topics discussed included Heyman’s thoughts on Cody Rhodes’ loss to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39 being a good thing since he feels WWE fans are now more passionate towards him.

“I like the fact that everyone walks in now thinking this is the last title defense (for Roman Reigns) and I experienced this before with something I had a hand in ending which was The Undertaker’s undefeated streak at WrestleMania and every year, you sat there and you said, oh, this is it and during the match, the audience is actually anticipating and salivating for this to be the moment that they get to witness the historical three count on The Undertaker to which the streak would finally end and then of course when Undertaker would defend the streak, they’d sit there, oh yeah, I don’t wanna see this end. I can’t wait for the next chapter and then it finally ended and the audience was shocked, because they thought they would see it, they thought they would see it, they thought they — no, they didn’t get to see it and this was year after year after year and they finally got to see it and I think that’s the same thing with Roman Reigns’ title defenses now. You hope this is the one, you think this is the one, you’re sure this is the one. You watch the match happening and you go, you know this is the one and then it turns out not to be the one. Oh man, I can’t wait to see the next chapter and the response to Cody Rhodes which was louder than the response last week to Cody Rhodes which was a response more passionate (on Raw after WrestleMania) for Cody Rhodes which was a response from an audience that believes in Cody Rhodes this week more than they did last week when they hung their hopes and their dreams on him and he didn’t disappoint them, we disappointed them, we took that away from Cody Rhodes. Roman Reigns took that away from Cody Rhodes and the audience and they blamed Roman Reigns for it and they appreciate how close Cody came and they know now, they know the next time Cody Rhodes steps in the ring with Roman Reigns, this will be the one. That’s the business. That’s the business at its very best. That’s promotion at its very best, that’s storytelling at its very best. That’s what you want. You want the challenger to come out a bigger star than he would’ve been if he had won the championship because where do you go from there? What’s the story to tell? Now you know the story. It’s Cody’s redemption. He’s coming back for what was just taken from him, from the defeat that he suffered that he didn’t deserve to have to have inflicted upon him.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com