— Adriana Rizzo believes a matchup with Rhea Ripley could be a major boost for her career. The WWE NXT star shared her thoughts during an appearance on the “Stuck In My Thoughts” podcast, calling Ripley one of her dream opponents. She said,
“I’ve always really liked the idea of wrestling Rhea Ripley. Rhea Ripley, she’s insane. I think she’s so good and I feel like she would just level me up so quick. I’m like, just you and me, and then boom. The potential would show.”
Rizzo is currently sidelined following knee surgery in August. Ripley, meanwhile, has promised to challenge whoever emerges victorious from the Women’s Worlds Championship match between Stephanie Vaquer and IYO SKY at Wrestlepalooza tomorrow.
— Jimmy Uso has expressed interest in pursuing a singles title run in WWE. Although he is a multi-time tag team champion, he has yet to hold a singles championship in the company. In an interview with Fox News Digital, Uso said capturing a singles title is an accomplishment he would love to add to his resume. He said,
“I would love to have a singles title, just to say that I’ve done it. I’ve been in tag team, still in tag team. Even when my brother went to Raw, I went with Solo (Sikoa). We tagged together and I kinda just stayed with them. I’ve always been in the tag-team scene with anybody, with everybody, especially lately, especially after me (and my) brother split brands. That would definitely be a bucket list for me just to say I’ve held a singles championship.”
He continued, “By WrestleMania, our baby should be here. So, that’s another thing I’m excited about. The world is a lot more different to me these last months. With my wife, with the big announcement and where (we) are today, how life really changed in the blink of an eye for us and our family. So, by April, I’d love to have a singles run, if not, it’s all love. But my favorite part is ‘Mania because I know our little, whatever we’re having, he or she, will be here and I’m excited. This ‘Mania is going to be very exciting for me.”
— Rob Gronkowski is a Slammy Award winner — but he only just found out what that meant. The former NFL star earned the 2020 Slammy for Celebrity of the Year, yet he didn’t learn of the honor until his recent appearance on Stephanie McMahon’s “What’s Your Story” podcast.
During the conversation, McMahon brought up his past win, prompting Gronkowski to ask, “What’s a Slammy Award?” You can see a transcript of the back and forth below:
McMahon: “We have something in common cuz we’re both Slammy Award winners. I don’t even know if you know that you’re a Slammy Award winner, but during COVID you won Celebrity of the Year, and I myself won a Slammy, which is a big deal in our business for WWE. And I was [a winner for] Best Heel Moment, I believe, and it was for slapping the crap out of Big Show. Many times, actually, I got a little carried away.”
Gronkowski: “We’ve gotta go back. What’s a Slammy Award?”
McMahon: “Oh my god! It’s like the Oscars or Grammys for WWE.”
Gronkowski: “He [the producer] should have given me the Slammy Award before I came on the podcast and told me about it. Like, this isn’t good that I didn’t know it, but it might bring more awareness. Yeah, Slammy Awards. So it’s just WWE Awards?”
McMahon: “Yeah. It’s just — and they used to be at the end of the year.”
Gronkowski: “Is it in LA?”
McMahon: “It has been in many different places.”
— CM Punk shared his thoughts on AJ Lee’s recent WWE SmackDown return, describing the moment as perfect in his eyes. Lee returned to WWE on the September 5th episode of SmackDown after a decade away, and Punk spoke about the occasion during an interview with ESPN.
You can check out some highlights from the interview below:
On AJ Lee’s return: “It’s not often that I say nights that happen in this business are perfect, but for me is was. You’d have to ask her, her opinion on it. For me, it was perfect. It needed to happen in Chicago. Luckily, it was right on the calendar; there it was. Perfect. I do not say that often.”
On if he thought it would ever happen: “I think it would have been a hard no. I never bothered her about it. I never asked her. We never watched wrestling, we didn’t talk about it. The ball was always going to be in her court, it just needed to be a conversation. Timing was super important. Timing, in this business, is everything. She’s so busy with everything else, that’s one of the bigger reasons why I just assumed, ‘Ten years, it’s long gone,’ and she has so many irons in so many different fires with production companies, so many different scripts, re-writes, doing her own acting. I just figured she was too busy and it would never happen. I guess timing is everything.
“One day she asked me, ‘I’m so busy doing stuff, but I have this time coming up. If I were to come back, what would you do? Talk to me. Book it.’ That’s what I do. My brain never shuts off and I said, ‘I would do this, this, and this.’ ‘That’d be fun. That sounds cool.’ The fact that she didn’t say no right away and wasn’t turned off by it, there was a hint of a spark.”
(h/t – Fightful)
