WWE: Dragon Lee & Carlito Added to SmackDown Roster, Adam Copeland on Original Plans for His End in Judgement Day, More News

Oct 13, 2023

WWE Officially Added Dragon Lee & Carlito to SmackDown Roster

WWE recently officially added both NXT talent Dragon Lee and Carlito to their SmackDown roster.

Prior to his addition to the SmackDown roster, Lee had made an appearance for the brand for the past two weeks in a row and also had competed on the September 25th episode of RAW in a match against Dominik Mysterio.

In regards to the reason for his call-up, Dave Meltzer had reported in last week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the terms in Lee’s contract with WWE included him being called up to the main roster around a year after his signing.

In regards to Carlito, he made his official return to WWE at this past Saturday’s Fastlane 2023 event as the mystery third member of the LWO’s team against Bobby Lashley and The Street Profits.

Prior to his addition, Carlito had been signed to a new deal with WWE since this past June.

Adam Copeland Comments on WWE’s Original Plans for His End in Judgement Day

A recent episode of the Talk Is Jericho podcast featured Adam Copeland, former Edge in WWE, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Copeland revealing what was WWE’s original plans for his end in Judgement Day.

“It was odd because that’s all I knew. Just in terms of me coming in and out, I miss a lot of things. I come back and go, ‘Oh, this is happening now,’ and just trying to wrap my mind around that.
When we were doing Judgment Day, the plan was Balor joins and about a year later they all turn on me. I get to Hell in a Cell and it was, ‘No, we’re changing everything and we’re speeding up that year long process and he’s joining tomorrow and turning tomorrow.’ It was just starting to find some legs, but it was going to be swimming upstream with me. I started to have that realization of ‘they’re not going to get where they need to get to with me in this thing.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE News & Notes

Longtime WWE employee and Warrior Award recipient Rich Hering reportedly retired from the company this past September, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Hering made the decision to retire and leave the company following its purchase to Endeavor being finalized. Prior to his retirement, Hering had been WWE’s Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Risk Management and had been working for the company for over the past 50 years dating back to Vince McMahon Sr.’s ownership period.

WWE recently announced that tickets for next year’s Royal Rumble event at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida will officially go on sale starting on October 20th for the general public and at an earlier date yet to be announced for the pre-sale.

WWE also recently announced that this past Saturday’s Fastlane 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana had broke several all-time company records. It was announced that this year’s event set the record for most watched and highest grossing event in Fastlane series history.

TKO Group recently announced that they will be holding their next investor’s meeting on November 7th to discuss the results from their fiscal third quarter 2023 report.

A fan who had attended this past Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at WWE’s Performance Center revealed on Twitter that he had a special reunion moment with John Cena over him being the same fan that Cena had engaged in a rap battle 20 years ago outside at WWE’s No Mercy 2003 event.

NXT commentator Vic Joseph recently announced on Twitter that his father had passed away this past Tuesday. Joseph stated “Yesterday I lost my dad – my earliest memory was watching wrestling with him – he always supported my dreams and did to the end – last night was for him – to everyone involved and all of you that watched/interacted – you allowed me to escape for a few hours THANK YOU.“

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that WWE officials are currently have plans for a Men’s WarGames match to be featured at this November’s Survivor Series 2023 event. It was also reported that Judgement Day is currently expected to be one of the teams competing in this match.

In a recent interview with the Busted Open Radio podcast, WWE SmackDown backstage interviewer Kayla Braxton stated that WWE officials recently had talks with her regarding the idea of her working in commentary for one of their shows in the future. Braxton stated “I’ve done a lot (in WWE). I’ve thought about that. They’ve talked to me about being on the commentary desk. I give so much kudos to commentators. That is a difficult, difficult job. I remember talking to Renee Paquette when she was doing it. Talk about a talented woman who could do pretty much anything under the sun. But it’s difficult, so I don’t think that’s gonna be my route… I’ve stepped down from hosting The Bump. I would like to look at some new potential shows to do. I live in L.A. with the intention of getting some more pop culture crossover here in WWE, potentially with podcasts. We’ll see, but no, I will not be wrestling anybody in the ring… Never gonna happen.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with PWInsider, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair gave his thoughts about when he felt that his “woo” taunt for his chops was starting to become popular with crowds. Flair stated “No, I could not (imagine that the ‘woooo’ has taken off like it has). I realized when it caught on. I think I used it when I first left WWE, and every night someone would chop somebody, I would text Vince, ‘You’re never gonna get rid of me.’ It caught on and I’m thankful. Not that I really overthought it, I just started saying it one day and now there’s almost not a stadium probably in the country or that I’ve ever been and even — well not North Korea necessarily but all through Europe and New Zealand, Australia, they love it. The kind of cultural expression of emotion of high, good emotion. I think about it sometimes… I take it a day at a time and I’m sometimes overwhelmed but I don’t share that with too many people…“

In a recent a Q&A session at the Big Texas Comic Con, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus gave her thoughts on what it would take for her to go on another run in WWE. Stratus stated “But again, I’ve been asked by people here (at Big Texas Comic Con), ‘Are you coming back? Do you want to do another run?’ But this is the thing, I’m like… the boxes it has to check. One is the creative. What is the creative? What am I going to come back and do? Is it going to check these boxes? So, I always turn it back to people and go, ‘I might go back but who should I face?’ Tell me, I wanna know.” Stratus also gave her thoughts on if she is interested in working for any other wrestling company. Stratus stated “Probably not.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)