— According to a report from Pwinsider, Shinsuke Nakamura has been spotted in Ohio, where Friday’s episode of WWE SmackDown will be held in Toledo.
Nakamura last competed on the June 13th episode of SmackDown, taking part in a Fatal Four Way match in the King of the Ring tournament. He is also currently advertised for WWE’s upcoming Japan tour in October.
— Seth Rollins says he doesn’t regret faking an injury to set up his surprise Money in the Bank cash-in at SummerSlam 2025. Rollins pretended to injure his knee during his match on July’s Saturday Night’s Main Event, setting the stage for what WWE dubbed “the Ruse of the Century” when he cashed in on CM Punk to capture the World Heavyweight Championship. Rollins discussed the storyline on the “SI Media Podcast” with Jimmy Traina.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On how many people knew the truth: “You can probably count on two hands.”
On whose idea it was: “I’m not exactly sure where it was hatched. It was presented to me in advance, quite some time, which in our business is a few weeks. I thought the idea was brilliant when I first heard it. Obviously, the execution was going to be important, and the details were going to need to be ironed out. I felt the crux of the idea was brilliant. I was the guy to be able to pull that off. I was very excited at the prospect of it. My level of commitment to our industry is second to none. I was the guy for the job.”
On if it was hard for him to pull off: “I’m a professional, so I feel like I can do anything. All you need in our industry is a little shred of doubt, just a tiny bit of mystery and you get the magic. I thought as soon as Saturday Night’s Main Event went off the air, you saw everybody asking questions, ‘Oh, we’re in. It’s over.’ I don’t think it was too difficult. I think people are maybe smarter than they are sometimes.”
On if he has any guilt about the matter: “I didn’t feel guilty. I let my wife [Becky Lynch] take all the guilt. She has the Irish guilt anyway. She steps on an ant and feels like she’s going to hell. If someone did this to me, I wouldn’t feel bad in the slightest. I would totally get it. Even my closest friends. Maybe John Cena. John reached out and I had to do my best to wiggle around it. John and I are cut from the same cloth, so when John saw the final outcome, he was very happy and proud.”
— Scott D’Amore has confirmed that Brock Lesnar held discussions with TNA Wrestling in 2007, aligning with Kurt Angle’s recent claim and their IGF Bom-Ba-Ye clash over the IWGP Third Belt during Lesnar’s WWE absence.
As you can imagine, Lesnar signing with TNA in 2007 might have altered both his UFC breakout and TNA’s trajectory.
In his ‘D’Amore Drop’ blog, the former TNA President wrote,
“Kurt Angle revealed this week that Brock Lesnar was in talks with TNA back in 2007. This is absolutely true — I was the producer of almost all Kurt’s early matches in TNA and he came to me saying Brock wanted to come over.
Kurt was very excited about this and, obviously, it would have been a huge, maybe trajectory-altering signing for TNA. I passed it on to Dixie Carter, who owned TNA at the time. But, as you already know, it didn’t happen.
It’s a huge what-if, not just for TNA, but for Lesnar. If he came to TNA on a big contract in 2007, would he have still debuted in MMA that year? Would he have felt the need to go fight in the UFC in 2008 and help usher in a legion of new fans for the UFC? I suppose we’ll never know.”
Lesnar will battle John Cena this Saturday in the opening match of WWE Wrestlepalooza.
— NBC has announced that Bad Bunny will return to host Saturday Night Live early next month. The rapper, actor, and WWE star is set to host the October 8th episode, with Doja Cat appearing as the musical guest.
This marks Bunny’s second time hosting SNL, having previously hosted the October 21st, 2023 episode where he also served as the musical guest. He has appeared as a musical guest on two other occasions as well.
Bad Bunny’s most recent WWE appearance came in May 2023, when he faced Damian Priest at Backlash in Puerto Rico.
— Lola Vice has competed in AAA several times this year and says she’s thankful for the opportunity to perform for the promotion. Vice, who will challenge Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT No Mercy later this month, spoke with “Good Karma Wrestling” in a new interview.
You can check out some highlights from the podcast below:
On the NXT vignette with her family: “Our fights were not normal [growing up in her family]. We’re still not normal. My family is definitely crazy. I don’t know if you guys saw the vignette that they did of me with my father in it. He stole the show. Oh my God, as we were filming, I had to tell him, ‘Papá, calm down a little bit’ but he’s so passionate, he’s so excited. That’s where I get it from and it’s a big deal for them to see me in this position and all their sacrifices paid off so I’m just grateful that I could represent our family.”
On working dates with AAA: “I’m so grateful to have had these moments. My first one was the one with Natalya in the Underground that we did, the first female Underground match. That was the first one that I was like, ‘Wow, I’m getting trusted with a match style like this,’ and against Natalya, a legend. That was the first one, and then, the first Worlds Collide with Stephanie (Vaquer) in the ring, and it was basically like her last NXT match. That was another one. Nikki Bella, I was in the ring and I couldn’t believe it was happening and then more so now that I’ve been working AAA, I think doing these shows with AAA and NXT at the same time have really shown me, like, wow, you’re doing this and you can do it.”
