WWE: Shawn Michaels on Not Wanting to Spoil CM Punk Plans for 10/1 NXT Show in Chicago, Vince McMahon Deteriorating Health Rumors Debunked, More News

Shawn Michaels Comments on Not Wanting to Spoil Plans for CM Punk for October 1st NXT Show & Other Surprises in Store

As noted before, WWE will be holding the premiere episode of NXT on The CW in Chicago, Illinois and CM Punk will be making an appearance on the show.

WGN Radio held a recent interview with WWE SVP of NXT and Talent Relations Shawn Michaels. One of the topics discussed included Michaels not wanting to spoil the current plans for CM Punk for the October 1st show and stated that there are other surprises in store for that show.

“Can’t let the cat out of the bag on that right now. So, he’s going to be there. He’s going to be playing a major role, obviously, for us, and again, as I said. Certainly, other surprises are sure to come.”

Michaels also gave his thoughts about NXT traveling on the road to perform in front of a Chicago crowd.

“The NXT Universe, as they say, are very excited to be coming to Chicago. Here in Orlando, our talent, we absolutely love our home base here and our arena, but getting out on the road is a really big event for us and for our talent, so they’re excited to come. Perform in front of, again, not just saying that, one of the greatest crowds that everybody around the world knows about, that’s Chicago there at the Allstate Arena. Absolutely one of the best crowds to perform in front of, and our NXT Superstars are extremely excited about getting to do just that.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Vince McMahon’s Attorney Denies Rumors of McMahon Being in Deteriorating Health

In an official statement to Post Wrestling and Wrestlenomics, Vince McMahon’s lawyer Jessica Rosenberg denied a rumor that McMahon is currently dealing with deteriorating health issues.

“Vince’s health is fine. We have no idea where the rumor that he had health issues came from, but it is not true.”

This rumor originated from comments made by Lee Cole, brother of former WWE ring boy Tom Cole, in a recent video posted on YouTube. In the video, Cole stated “Linda McMahon, somebody that her and I have in common, was talking to a person and telling them that her husband’s health is deteriorating fast.”

John Pollock reported that in a follow-up video, Cole stated that the identity of this person Linda spoke to was someone who had worked for the McMahons for seven years.

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WWE News & Notes

The Athletic’s former Pittsburgh Steelers writer Mark Kaboly announced on Twitter that he was recently hired by WWE to a WWE digital contributor job. Kaboly also announced that he has recently joined The Pat McAfee Show as their new Pittsburgh Steelers correspondent.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE currently has Damage CTRL (Dakota Kai, Kairi Sane, & IYO SKY) listed as a face stable on the internal roster list for their RAW brand.

As noted before, WWE is considering plans to rebrand the Judgement Day with “Street Trash” as a potential name change for the group. WrestleVotes reported that their sources provided an update stating that WWE officials have dropped their plans to rename Judgement Day but still have plans for “Street Trash” slogan to be incorporated within the group’s gimmick. It was also reported that Finn Balor was the one who came up with the idea of the “Street Trash” name for the group. Merchandise concepts featuring this slogan reportedly have already been completed and approved.

WWE recently announced that Rey Mysterio will be making an appearance at this Saturday’s Fanatics Fest NYC event in New York City, New York. It was also announced that Mysterio will be making a special entrance with a mystery guest tag team partner at this upcoming event.

As noted before, a lawsuit against WWE was filed this past March by 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 Augist 7th before the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut requesting for the court to reject Bryant’s motion attempting to prevent the lawsuit from being moved to arbitration.

In a recent interview with the Impaulsive podcast, Dominik Mysterio gave his thoughts about fans current expectations of WWE’s RAW show becoming more edgier and adult-oriented when it moves to Netflix. Mysterio stated “I think people are going to expect us to go in there and first episode of Raw on Netflix, people are going to expect blood and tables everywhere. Titties. Edge and Lita where they had the live sex show. I’m sure people are going to expect that. I feel, in order for stuff like that to be special and meaningful, you can’t have it all the time. It’s got to come like an RKO out of nowhere. You don’t expect it and then it’s, Boom! Tit! I don’t know if it’s necessarily going to edge up. I think it’s going to take time to edge up. I think we’re going to gradually stay the same and then slowly start testing our boundaries.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Cody Rhodes’ So, What Do You Want To Talk About? podcast, Randy Orton gave his thoughts about John Cena being his choice to to induct him for a potential induction into WWE’s Hall of Fame. Orton stated “Gosh, I almost even don’t want to say because I feel like he’d hear this and then feel obligated, but maybe John [Cena]. There’s a few reasons. Selfishly, because I know that he would knock it out of the f*cking park. I have a tendency to sell myself short. And I feel like, maybe he would love to do it. But I don’t know that I could ask him. You know what I’m saying? And I almost don’t even want to think about it until that time comes, if it comes.” (Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com)

In a recent interview with the Good Karma Wrestling podcast, WWE SVP of NXT and Talent Relations Shawn Michaels gave his thoughts about Ethan Page joining WWE and him pushing for Page to join the company once he found out he was available. Michaels stated “Well look, I will say this, soon as I found out that he was available, it was something that I started looking into immediately. Again, because you’re talking about a great deal of experience, seasoned, comfortable. Somebody that knows what they’re doing out there… I didn’t know everything about him but you sort of look at him and you say, I think there’s a lot of untapped potential there. You can hear different stories, this, that and the other. You never know what’s true but you just see potential and you think to yourself, has he ever been given the opportunity? Let’s just find out if he has and again, look, if he falls short, you fall short and then you kind of get dropped to the bottom of the card but he’s a guy, again, we sort of took a chance on, he took a chance with us and right now, I think you see that it’s been pretty successful. He’s a guy that certainly brought experience to the table that we don’t have a lot of here at NXT. But also a guy who’s so excited and passionate about now somebody believing in him and so when you put those two together, it’s a great combination because he’s a guy that feels that he’s got a place that appreciates him and is investing in him and then we’ve also got the experience level that we need here in NXT.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

As noted before, Big E has been out of action for WWE since March of 2022 due to a broken neck injury. In a recent interview with Carlo Peruzza, Big E gave his thoughts about the possibility of him making a return to in-ring action in the future. Big E stated “We’ll see (if I could ever wrestle again). Right now, my neck is just not ossifying. It’s not turning into new bone quite yet. It is kind of healing fibrously. So it’s all connected and it’s no fear that if I were pushed too hard or if I were bumped, anything would happen. None of that. But I’m not really in a position right now to be cleared, medically, because of the nature of what we do is very physical and taking bumps requires you to have a rock-solid neck. So, we’ll see what the future holds. Mind you, there’s kind of a race against the clock. I’m 38. I’m no spring chicken anymore so, if I were to be cleared, hopefully it would happen within the next year or so. But more than anything, I’m focusing on what I do have in life and I have a great life, I have a lot of things I’m able to do right now. I went down to Cancun a couple of months ago for stem cells and we’ll see how that goes. Went to a great spot called RejuvStem in Cancun. They also have an office I believe in Guadalajara and they’re looking to expand. They were great to me, and yeah, I’m really having a great time on these Countdown shows. We’re doing pre-shows and post-shows for all the PLEs. I’m headed to Berlin very soon but, it’s been fun. I’ve really enjoyed this new role, this current role and if an opportunity in the ring opens up, then we’ll address that but, for right now, my focus is on the broadcasting side of things.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

WWE recently announced one new match for the card of Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida:

• Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes