WWE: Tyler Bate Suffered Injury at 7/2 NXT Show, WWE Announces AC Joint Sprain Injury for Kofi Kingston, Damon Kemp WWE Departure Update, More News

Jul 9, 2024

Tyler Bate Suffered Injury at July 2nd WWE NXT Show

During Monday’s WWE RAW show in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, WWE RAW commentator Michael Cole announced that New Catch Republic’s Tyler Bate is currently out of action due to an injury.

Cole announced that Bate suffered an undisclosed injury on the July 2nd NXT show and is currently expected to be out of action for a “little bit.”

Bate had competed in a tag team match with Pete Dunne against Hank And Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) at last week’s NXT show. Despite the injury, Bate competed on the July 8th RAW show in a singles match against Bronson Reed.

WWE Announces Kofi Kingston Suffered AC Joint Sprain on July

As noted before, the July 1st WWE RAW show in Boston, Massachusetts featured Xavier Woods defeating Karrion Kross in a singles match. Following the match, The Final Testament attacked Woods and Kofi Kingston resulting in Kross hooking Kingston in an arm lock and threatening to break Kingston’s arm before letting go on behalf of Scarlett.

During Monday’s WWE RAW show in Ottawa, WWE RAW commentator Michael Cole also announced that Kingston also recently suffered an injury and is currently out of action.

Cole announced that due to Kross’ attack, Kingston suffered an AC joint sprain injury and is currently expected to be out of action for a “number of weeks.”

It is currently not known if Kingston’s injury is legitimate or just for storyline-related purposes.

Update on Damon Kemp’s Expired Contract & Departure from WWE

As noted before, NXT talent Damon Kemp’s contract with WWE expired on Monday and he has left the company.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Kemp was not released by WWE as some sort of “roster cuts” and instead WWE officials simply chose to not renew his contract.

Kemp reportedly had been informed ahead of time that his contract would not be renewed.

It was also reported that Kemo had made a much better impression than his brother Gable Steveson did with WWE coaches, fans, and backstage officials during their three years together with the company.

WWE News & Notes

As noted before, this past Sunday’s WWE NXT Heatwave 2024 event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada featured TNA Wrestling talent Joe Henrdy making a surprise very brief video appearance. During Monday’s WWE RAW show, Hendry made another surprise brief appearance in WWE’s commercial hyping up Tuesday’s NXT show on USA Network. In response to WWE’s video tweet of the ad, Hendry stated “WWE just said my name.“

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Chelsea Green received a lot of praise from WWE officials over her performance in the Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder match at this Saturday’s Money in the Bank 2024 event. Green reportedly also received a lot of praise over her promotion of WWE’s event in the week’s leading up to the event in Toronto with both media outlets and on social media.

WWE recently they will be holding a new Undertaker 1 deadMAN SHOW event on August 3rd in Cleveland, Ohio.

WWE’s Money in the Bank 2024 event this past Saturday reportedly generated around 200,000 searches on Google for that night, according to the Wrestling Observer. Dave Meltzer reported that John Cena’s retirement announcement at the event had generated around 100,00 searches on Google that night as well.

As noted before, a lawsuit against WWE was filed this past March by a person named Richard Bryant claiming that he had suffered hearing injuries over “negligence and carelessness” caused by WWE’s handling of pyrotechnics at a SmackDown show he attended in Orlando, Florida in July of 2022. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that WWE filed a motion on July 3rd before The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut requesting to move the lawsuit to arbitration and staying the lawsuit until that process has been completed. Johnson reported that WWE is currently arguing that Bryant’s issues would fall under Ticketmaster’s terms and conditions which state that any issues arising from patrons having issues at events they attend after purchasing tickets from them would result in arbitration. Johnson also reported that WWE had stated in their motion that they have not waved their right to arbitration meaning that Bryant would have to go follow that route for his lawsuit.

As noted before, this past June’s NXT Battleground 2024 event at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada featured TNA talent Ash By Elegance, former Dana Brooke, making a surprise return appearance in WWE. In a recent virtual fan signing event for RDP Promotions, Ash gave her thoughts about the talk she had with Shawn Micheals and TNA President Anthony Cicione about her appearance at NXT’s event. Ash stated “I was like a caged animal in a caged room for like eight hours (prior to NXT Battleground). I couldn’t see or say hi to anybody. (Ash was asked who brought the idea to her) Shawn Michaels and then I had a call with the President of TNA, and I was like, ‘Of course I will. It’s like an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend wanting you back, right?’ (She laughed)” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

As noted before, Dijak’s contract with WWE this past June and is currently a free agent. In a recent interview with the Qui! Book podcast, Donovan Dijak, former Dijak in WWE, gave his thoughts about still not being given an actual answer from WWE about why he was released from the company. Dijak stated “I’m trying to get in touch with WWE to get an answer…I don’t know what I did wrong, genuinely, to this day, I don’t know what I did wrong. I’d love for someone to call me and tell me. I would love nothing more for someone to call me and be like ‘Hey, remember that time you stepped on my foot?’ ‘No!’ ‘Ok, well I remember that and that’s why.’ At least I’d know, right? I don’t agree with that, but at least I’d know and I have to accept it. I never got that. I don’t know what I did wrong. But I know it’s costing my family money and I know I need to pay my mortgage and my kids need a house to live in…and now I’m putting that in jeopardy, possibly because of decisions I made and that’s eating me alive.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a separate recent interview with Fightful, Donovan Dijak gave his thoughts about WWE’s way of releasing talent being “one of the most horrific business practices I’ve ever witnessed.” Dijak stated “It’s one of the most horrific business practices I’ve ever witnessed. I haven’t been in a lot of businesses. I will be outspoken about this until it gets fixed. That’s not how it should be done. They need to figure out a way to contact everybody, all at once, and let everybody know all at once that this is happening. We should not be put through this thing where you see one name come out, ‘Oh, Mustafa Ali has been released,’ and we all go, ‘Okay, I know he asked.’ I texted him, ‘Hey man, I’m sorry.’ He texted me back, ‘Yup, I think there is more coming.’ Even though I’m at a decent spot at that time in NXT, they can fire anyone. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that a guy from the main roster gets sent to NXT and then released. It’s happened many times and was a concern of mine. You’re watching people drop like flies. ‘He was just on TV last week.’ Why do they have to do it like that? The answer is, they don’t. It wouldn’t take that much thought to come up with a better way to do it. There has to be a better way. I went through 15 (release days). Ali was announced for a PLE, and was then released. I feel secure, but I bet he felt secure. The (release round) where Shane (Thorne) got released, that was the one where (I didn’t feel secure). I’m looking at my phone, Shane is texting me that he got released. My name is T-BAR, I can’t get off main event. ‘Sure, I’m at the top of this list.’ I have no credibility. I’m just staring at my phone. My wife can see it on my face. I’m starting to cry because I think I’m about to get fired and I don’t have a backup plan. Back then, I would have been fucked. Shane is still recovering from what they did to him. It was a mugging. He was ripped out of his tag team, made SLAPJACK, which is a bigger joke than T-BAR, and then cast aside for a year and released. You’re watching the names come out. We’re all on (Sean’s) Twitter page. We don’t have another source. We see one name. ‘Today is the day.’ We’re all just waiting for our name to pop up because you might find out before us. While we’re doing that, we’re looking at our phone waiting for the 203 number to pop up because that means you’re fucked. The game we’re playing in our minds is, ‘Why him?’ We’re talking to each other. ‘Braun, Bray, can you believe it.’ You hear through the grapevine, ‘I heard this guy got into an argument with Vince. I heard this guy asked for more money.’ We’re justifying it, ‘What did I do? Did I make a mistake?’ It becomes a nightmare. I don’t know what the answer is to a better way, but there has to be a better way.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE recently announced one new match for Tuesday’s NXT show:

Sol Ruca vs. Fallon Henley