WWE: Seth Rollins & Dakota Kai Reportedly Dealing with Injuries, Update on WWE’s RAW & SmackDown Commentary Teams Plans, More News

Aug 9, 2024

Seth Rollins & Dakota Kai Reportedly Dealing with Injuries Issues

As noted before, this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Baltimore, Maryland featured Seth Rollins being involved in a storyline injury angle at the hands of Bronson Reed. Besides Rollins, Damage CTRL’s Dakota Kai was also involved in a backstage angle involving Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark attacking her causing IYO SKY to replace Kai for her match against Deville.

Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that his sources stated that the reason for both Rollins and Kai’s injury angles was due to both of them currently dealing with legitimate injuries issues.

In regards to Kai, Meltzer reported that details regarding Kai’s injury situation and severity are currently not known.

In regards to Rollins, Meltzer reported that those spoken to stated that Rollins is currently not in a bad situation injury-wise and is cleared to wrestle but he is currently banged up. WWE officials reportedly felt it was a good time for Rollins to take some time off to recover. Meltzer reported that it is currently not known if Rollins will return in time for his planned match against Reed at Bash In Berlin.

Update on WWE’s Current Plans for Their RAW & SmackDown Commentary Teams

As noted before, former ESPN broadcaster Joe Tessitore was recently hired by WWE and will be joining RAW’s commentary team while Michael Cole will be moving over back to SmackDown’s commentary team starting on the September 2nd RAW show.

Dave Meltzer reported in a special preview edition of this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that WWE’s plans for Cole to move back to SmackDown is only meant to be a temporary move.

Meltzer reported that WWE officials current plans as of this week was for Tessitore to be moved to their SmackDown brand in January of 2025 while Cole would return back to their RAW brand when RAW moves to Netflix.

WWE News & Notes

WWE recently released a new behind-the-scenes vlog of CM Punk making his in-ring return from injury at this past Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam 2024 event in Cleveland, Ohio.

Roman Reigns is currently scheduled to be making an appearance on the October 16th WWE SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida based on a recent ad announcement by host venue Kia Center.

WWE filed trademarks for “American Made,” “Desmond Troy,” and “Robert Stone” on August 7th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

As noted before, WWE announced that the first two NXT shows on The CW will be held outside of their Performance Center with the October 1st debut show taking place in Chicago, Illinois and the October 8th show taking place in St. Louis, Missouri. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials current plans are for NXT to return back to their Performance Center for shows for the rest of October.

Sports Illustrated reported that there was a fan incident at this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Baltimore, Maryland that resulted in security escorting the fan by force out of the venue. This fan reportedly was acting in an unruly manner believed to have been caused by drunkenness.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that filming for the upcoming The Smashing Machine film wrapped up earlier this week in Japan. This film features Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson among the cast and Johnson portraying the role of former MMA fighter Mark Kerr.

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, RAW General Manager Adam Perace gave his thoughts about his interesting in having a potential program against SmackDown GM Nick Aldis. Pearce stated “I think neither one of us, neither Nick nor I, are ever going to angle for a position in the spotlight like that. I think we’re both content, very happy and very honored to have the positions we have currently in WWE. There’s only one general manager for the show, so it’s highly important. It has been the pinnacle of my professional performing career, and I hope that continues into the future. But as I’ve said 100 times, privately, publicly, I ain’t afraid to get my hands dirty either. So if the situation calls for it, I’m sure Nick would be down for it and I think there’s a whole litany of NWA fans who have played that ‘What if’ game? Because I think our names are always connected when people talk about that, especially in the ‘modern era.’ I think it’d be fun for a lot of different groups of wrestling fans.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)