AJ Styles Comments on Current WWE Not Being the Same WWE That Vince McMahon was in Charge Of
A recent episode of The Battleground Podcast featured AJ Styles as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Styles’ thoughts about the difference in how WWE treats their talent now compared to when Vince McMahon was in charge of the company.
“This isn’t the same WWE that Vince was in charge of.
I really believe that Triple H looks at our talent and goes, ‘Alright, let’s get them better or let’s find ways to bring out the best in them rather than show off the worst.’
A lot of those guys and girls, when they got released from WWE, it crushes them. I never understood why we would want to do something like that rather than just like, ‘Ok, let’s send them back to NXT, they just need a little bit more work’ or something like that.
Being released, it’ll crush you and I don’t want to see people, their lives being ruined because of a job. At the end of the day, it’s just a job, but still, it’s something they’ve worked for their whole life and then when you’re told you’re not good enough, man, that sucks.
But that’s not the way it is these days. Now, with Triple H in charge, I think he’s doing a great job of making everyone feel important.”
Styles also gave his thoughts about the potential of former New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Tama Tonga joining WWE in the future.
“I think that the sky’s the limit. This guy can get after it. I know how good Tama is so the fact that he may be coming over would be awesome. I was hoping that he’d come over a long time ago but he didn’t have any interest back then so if there’s interest now, he’s making the right decision.”
Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com
Drew McIntyre WWE Contract Status Update
As noted before, Drew McIntyre’s contract with WWE is currently expected to expire beyond this April’s WrestleMania 40 event. McIntyre’s contract was originally set to expire by the event but WWE officials had recently added injury and inactivity time to cover for time that McIntyre was away from the company.
A recent episode of The Ringer’s The Masked Man Show podcast featured McIntyre as the guest. One of the topics discussed included McIntyre’s thoughts about his current contract status in WWE and talks for a potential new deal.
“It’s very important to me, having a new contract. It’s been talked about for a very long time on the internet. I’m not the only one whose contract comes up every few years or whatever, but you would think it, reading the internet. There is nothing I can say right now. I can say that I’m having fun. I can say that I intend to continue having fun and I’m in my prime. I’m younger than everyone thinks I am because I’ve been around for such a long time. I have years to go. No matter what, you’ll still see Drew McIntyre wrestling. I can say ‘or Drew Galloway’ and that would get everyone’s attention.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com
WWE RAW News & Notes
Monday’s WWE RAW show in Raleigh featured a video package involving CM Punk. During his promo, Punk stated that he will be in attendance at next month’s WrestleMania 40 event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. CM Punk has been out of action for WWE since this past January due to a torn triceps injury.
Following Monday’s RAW show in Raleigh, Becky Lynch gave a post-show speech to the live crowd. During her speech, Lynch announced that she has officially become a citizen of the United States.
Monday’s RAW show in Raleigh also featured a reference to The Hardy Boys mentioned during the show’s broadcast. During the opening promo segment between Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso, RAW commentator Michael Cole stated that Jey and Jimmy’s match against each other will only be the third time in WrestleMania history that brother vs. brother match will be taking place. Cole mentioned Bret and Owen Hart as the first pair to do it and then mentioned Matt and Jeff, albeit without saying Hardy, as the second pair to compete against each other at a WrestleMania. In an interesting note, Cole did not mention Kane and The Undertaker, who are storyline brothers in WWE.
Monday’s RAW show also featured DIY’s Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano defeating The Creed Brothers to earn a spot in the Six-Pack Challenge Ladder match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 40. WWE held a digital exclusive backstage interview with DIY for their thoughts about what their win meant to them. Gargano stated “What does it mean, Cathy? You’ve been with us forever, right, so you could almost say it’s full circle. But from main-eventing NXT TakeOvers, we’ve been with WWE since 2015. We’ve main-evented TakeOvers, we’ve been on many, many big shows. But WrestleMania was always that dream. That dream you had as a little kid. When you’re growing up, you dream of wrestling at WrestleMania. Finally, after all this time, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, together, DIY, is going to WrestleMania. It’s in Philadelphia. The story writes itself. I know the word ‘story’ is a buzzword right now, but our story in Philadelphia…for years, we were killing ourselves on the indies in Philadelphia, in those types of cities. The most respectful, hardcore wrestling fans in the world. That’s who we performed for, and that’s who’s gonna be there to witness our dream come true.” Ciampa responded stating “I’ll tell you this. I grew up, and I was a Rocky Balboa fan, and I was a WWE fan. I love this industry, and the fact that we’re going to Philadelphia, I said it to my wife the other day, it is not every day that you have an opportunity to punch your ticket to WrestleMania. We’ve been waiting our entire lives for one opportunity, and it came tonight, and we were not gonna miss it, and I love the Creed Brothers. I respect the hell out of them. They’re gonna have so many WrestleManias in their future. But this, Philadelphia, WrestleMania 40, this is our moment.” Gargano responded back stating “This is the biggest ladder match in WWE, as far as I know. 12 men in one ladder match has never been done before. This is gonna be insane. Everyone’s goal is to steal the show at WrestleMania. We’re gonna steal the show at WrestleMania. In the process, we’re gonna take the tag team titles that have eluded us our entire nine-year career in the WWE. It’s gonna be a great night.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
WWE recently announced that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be making an appearance at their WWE RAW show on April 1st in Brooklyn, New York. This will be the go-home RAW show for WWE’s upcoming WrestleMania 40 event.
WWE recently announced three new matches for the card of their WWE RAW show on March 25th in Chicago, Illinois:
- Ricochet vs. JD McDonagh
- Andrade vs. mystery opponnent
- Candice LeRae vs. Ivy Nile
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