WWE: Rhea Ripley on Judgement Day’s Big Impact on Her Career, Booker T on NXT’s Move to The CW Will Create “Sink-or-Swim” Mentality for NXT Talent, More News

Rhea Ripley Comments on Big Impact Judgement Day Had on Her Wrestling Career

A recent episode of The Wrestling Classic’s Casual Conversations with The Classic podcast featured Rhea Ripley as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ripley’s thoughts about the big impact Judgement Day had on her wrestling career.

“The Judgment Day was really family to me. Like, it really was and it has helped my career so much more than I can actually put into words because I feel like that was when I started opening up and feeling comfortable going out there in front of the crowd because I had the boys that I could fall back on. So, it was really emotional for me. I saw something come out about Judgment Day members, a specific one crying backstage after everything and I’m not ashamed of it. That was me. I was upset. The last two and a half years of my life — it’s changed now. I can’t go back to that. They were my boys, they were my family and it was really sad but at the same time, when something so good comes to an end, the other side of it is something amazing is about to start as well and I wasn’t really thinking about that because I was just so emotional, because yeah, that was the most fun that I’ve had in my career in a long time. I felt invincible. I felt like I could go out there and just be a cheeky little menace and get away with it, like for real and have fun with my friends and yeah, I don’t know. I loved my time with The Judgment Day. But I feel like now, I’m loving my time absolutely brutalizing The Judgment Day, and they’re not the real Judgment Day. They’re Street Trash (she laughed).”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

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Booker T on WWE’s NXT Moving to The CW Being Huge & “Going To Be A Sink-Or-Swim Mentality For NXT Talent”

A recent episode of The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer and co-host Booker T giving his thoughts about NXT’s upcoming move to The CW network being huge for WWE’s NXT brand.

“When you’re on network television, everybody get a chance to see you. You’re in everybody’s household. All they need is rabbit ears and they can see you [laughs]. I told all the young guys that’s a part of NXT right now to get ready, to get ready to become major, major superstars, becoming household names now. That’s what’s getting ready to happen to these young guys. This is bigger than it ever could be for a talent if they’re on television today.”

Booker T also gave his thoughts about how NXT on The CW will create a “sink-or-swim” mentality for NXT talent.

“It’s gonna raise the stock as well as it’s gonna bring a whole lot more criticism if you’re not out there really, really performing at a certain level, with Twitter and all that stuff now, social media. You’re gonna be put out there and exposed to a lot more fans now, but it’s gonna be a sink-or-swim mentality. Fans are gonna be coming at you from every way possible now. Being under that bright light, you’re gonna have to go out and raise your bar on a weekly basis as well, so it gonna be a pressured situation. I love pressure. For me, there again, cream rises to the top. It’s about the best guys, the best talent on the roster performing in those spots. So for me, it’s gonna be almost like competition, how can I get on the show? I’m excited, man. It’s a really exciting time for NXT, it’s a really exciting time for all the young talent that’s a part of this thing as well as WWE. This is huge.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, WWE recently announced that their classic Saturday Night’s Main Event series will be returning with a new event on December 14th in Long Island, New York. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that this upcoming special will be having a runtime of two hours. Johnson reported that this upcoming special will be longer than past episodes of SNME, which were 90 minutes in length, and will be the new runtime for WWE’s revival of the series going forward.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE officials made changes to how they handle run-sheets for this past Monday’s WWE RAW show. Johnson reported that those spoken to stated that the names of the writers for the promo segments that took place on the show were listed on the internal run-sheet and something that WWE did not used to do before for shows. Alexandra Williams reportedly was listed as the writer for CM Punk’s promo segment, Brian Parise was listed for Jey Uso’s promo segment, Christian Scovell was listed for Sami Zayn’s promo segment. One source spoken to described the changes as being a “natural evolution” to how the company handles their creative.

WWE filed new trademarks for “Austin 3:16” and “Shotzi Blackheart” on August 16th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Portland, Oregon featured Braun Strowman and Bronson Reed’s match ending in a no contest following the ring partially breaking and Strowman and Reed brawling all over the place. During the brawl, Reed grabbed a “fan” in the crowd and launched the man at Strowman. This person was revealed to be a man named Nessy Hendrixx who previously worked as an extra as a security guard for Paul Heyman on the February 25th RAW show.

NXT talents Gallus and Sol Ruca reportedly were in attendance backstage at this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Portland, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that the reason for Gallus and Ruca being brought to the show was due to them working that night’s Main Event tapings that was held prior to the start of RAW.

WWE recently released three new videos on their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was a “Mick Foley reacts to Cactus Jack’s wildest moments: WWE Retrospective.” The second new video was a Hell in a Cell match of The Undertaker vs. Edge from SummerSlam 2008. The third new video was a WWE World Heavyweight Championship Hell in a Cell match of The Undertaker vs. Kane (c) from Hell In A Cell 2010.

The CW is currently scheduled to air WWE’s “WrestleMania XL: Behind the Curtain” documentary on Saturday, September 28th starting at 8PM EST on their network. This broadcast version is currently listed to be two hours in length and will go directly against AEW’s Collision show that night.

RAW General Manager Adam Pearce recently announced on Twitter that he had “fined” both Bronson Reed and Braun Strowman for their uncontrolled brawl during this past Monday’s WWE RAW show and for their destruction of multiple items and his own sanity. Pearce stated “Bronson Reed has been fined a massive undisclosed amount for plucking an adult human male from the Portland audience and firing him at Braun Strowman. Both men have been fined an equal undisclosed amount for destroying walls, golf carts, production equipment, and my sanity.“

CM Punk recently asked wrestling fans on Instagram to respect his and other WWE talents privacy and personal boundaries at airports when it comes to wanting autographs. Punk stated “Hey guys, Love y’all, but friendly reminder to respect privacy and boundaries. Airports are not a meet and greet. If I have to ask you to please stop following me multiple times you have crossed a line. Please stop this. Thank you. (And stop using your children as a shield or an excuse.)“

In a recent Comic-Con Northern Ireland 2024 event earlier this month in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus gave her thoughts about what she would do differently to improve WWE’s Women’s division if she was in charge. Stratus stated “I think I would like to have a little bit more focus on characters. I feel like for sure now, there’s way more opportunities for women, obviously. We see them main eventing all the time, we see them in high-profile matches, but I think what we had back in the day was a lot of more character stuff, and you got to know these characters, the fans could really resonate with the character a little bit more. Now, they’re just having these great matches, but there’s no backstory as much as there was back in the day, so I think character development would be one thing I’d like to focus on.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)