AEW Star Approached By WWE Revealed?, Backstage WWE Changes, AEW Stars ‘Pissed’ About Booking – News Bulletin – August 24, 2022

AEW Star Approached By WWE Revealed?, Backstage WWE Changes, AEW Stars ‘Pissed’ About Booking – News Bulletin – August 24, 2022 AEW/WWE

The AEW star who was reportedly recently approached by WWE may have been revealed, news on some backstage changes in WWE, AEW stars apparently ‘pissed’ about their booking, and more.

It’s Wednesday morning and what better way to start the day than getting caught up on all the latest wrestling news – I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com, and this is our news bulletin for August 24, 2022.

Chris Jericho Implies He Was Approached By WWE?

It appears AEW star Chris Jericho may have claimed he was the one who was recently contacted by WWE about potentially making a return.

Fightful reported last week that an anonymous contracted AEW star had told management in the company that WWE had contacted him about a return, but he’s happy in AEW and doesn’t want to leave.

Fans have been speculating ever since then about who that person might have been, and it looks like Chris Jericho has stepped in to stake claim.

Chris Jericho in Barbed Wire Everywhere Death Match on AEW Dynamite

Chris Jericho has been embroiled in a feud with Eddie Kingston which included a barbed wire everywhere deathmatch

Replying to a tweet that said “Need a Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn & Chris Jericho faction. Make it happen Y2J!!!”, Jericho replied:

Hmmm…well some higher ups want that to happen sooner than later! #tampering

It’s important to point out that at this point, this would still just be a bit of a vague claim from Jericho, who, as great as he is, is known for trying to take advantage of hot topics to stay as talked-about as possible.

Basically, it would probably be advisable not to take this as absolute 100% confirmation that Jericho was the guy WWE apparently approached, but he certainly seems to be suggesting that was the case.

Backstage Changes In WWE

We’ve seen plenty of changes to WWE TV since Triple H came into power in the form of returns, or just the shows being a lot better in general, but it sounds like he’s making adjustments behind-the-scenes as well.

This past weekend, we learned that Jeff Jarrett had departed WWE and his role as Senior Vice President of Live Events Booking was taken over by Road Dogg, who was a member of Triple H’s backstage team in NXT before he was released in January 2022.

Similarly, another member of HHH’s team released at that time, Ryan Katz, is reportedly on his way back to the company.

Johnny Gargano smiling after laying out Theory

Johnny Gargano was the latest name brought back to WWE by Triple H, returning on Raw this past Monday

Don’t expect the changes to stop there though, as Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio that there’s gonna be a “changing of the guard”, and people who work backstage that aren’t favorites of Triple H have reason to be “nervous” right now.

Meltzer also pointed out that it doesn’t seem like doing a good job would be enough to persuade HHH not to replace you if he wants to bring in someone else, because Jarrett’s department (live events) had increased greatly since he took it over in May.

Shifting focus away from personnel changes and more to environmental changes, PWInsider reported yesterday that the production team is “massively night and day” compared to what it used to be, as there’s a lot less pressure coming from the new regime (HHH, Stephanie McMahon and Nick Khan) than there was coming from Vince McMahon, who, as you probably know, had a habit of shouting at people.

One quote from a source told PWInsider that they’re “allowed to feel like it’s fun to work here” now.

In another bit of related news, according to PWInsider, a lot of individuals in WWE believe Johnny Gargano returning with the name ‘Johnny Gargano’ means the infamous ‘name changes’ rule Vince McMahon imposed is no longer a thing. You can also look at Tyler Bate and the members of Gallus as examples of people who previously would have had to change their names following their recent debuts on NXT 2.0.

AEW Stars Apparently ‘Pissed’ About Their Booking

From a happy backstage environment in WWE to an apparently not-so-happy backstage environment in AEW, we’re once again hearing that people aren’t happy about how they’re being booked.

This time the claim comes from Konnan, which has led to some people refuting it, but he’s far from the first person to make this suggestion.

On his Keepin’ It 100 podcast, Konnan said: “Bro, you have no idea how many people came up to me and they were pissed about the booking”.

Hangman Page gives CM Punk the middle finger

The issues between Hangman Page and CM Punk spilled onto TV last week in CM Punk’s promo

He added that these people were “very, very vocal” about their displeasure, and one of them in particular was hoping that AEW would use Konnan to help backstage because he can “book logically”, but Konnan ruled that out.

With all the talk of people being unhappy with their booking, and the apparent drama between Adam Page’s group and CM Punk’s group, it was reported a few days ago by Dave Meltzer that people are close to their “breaking point”.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

Dave Meltzer reported that Gigi Dolin suffered a concussion in her match on SmackDown last week, which is why Toxic Attraction were ruled out of the Women’s Tag Team Title tournament.

On last night’s NXT, it appeared to be confirmed that Legado Del Fantasma will be called up to the main roster as a group rather than Santos Escobar being called up on his own.

Detxer Lumis also made an appearance on NXT last night as he reunited with Indi Hartwell to deliver her a love note, before he was arrested in a carry-over from his storyline from Raw where he abducted the Miz this past Monday.

Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell reunite on NXT 2.0

Dexter Lumis reunited with Indi Hartwell on NXT 2.0 in a feel-good moment… until he was arrested 🙁

In another note from NXT, the latest former NXT UK roster member to make the move to the US is Charlie Dempsey, the real-life son of William Regal. Dempsey came in as a special teacher for a class at Chase U, but he went too hard on the students, which led to him telling Andre Chase the students are “too soft”.

Two big title unification matches have also been confirmed for NXT Worlds Collide on September 4, as NXT Champion Bron Breakker will face NXT UK Champion Tyler Bate, and there will be a three-way for the unified women’s titles between NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose, NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura, and Blair Davenport.

Rey Mysterio, who is now 47, revealed in an interview with BT Sport that he plans to retire at the age of 50.

Rhea Ripley protecting Finn Balor from Rey Mysterio

It looks likely that Rey Mysterio will be on Edge’s side at Clash at the Castle against the Judgment Day

Bruce Prichard cleared up that he’s has NOT written one NXT show ‘in the history of his existence’. Shawn Michaels is the head guy in NXT, but there had been some reports that Prichard was heavily involved as well.

Fightful Select reported that plans seem to have changed and the WWE Draft will likely not take place after Clash at the Castle, but it’s actually a “lot likelier” that it’ll be after next year’s WrestleMania.

When a fan implied that Swerve Strickland could make a return to WWE, he emphatically replied: “Nope”. It’s been said that Strickland and HHH had some communication issues in NXT that would lead to Strickland likely not wanting to go back under HHH’s leadership.

And set for tonight’s AEW Dynamite is the huge title unification match between AEW World Champion CM Punk and interim champion Jon Moxley; Billy Gunn vs Colten Gunn; Daniel Garcia decides whether to side with Chris Jericho or Bryan Danielson; Death Triangle vs Will Ospreay & Aussie Open; Dax Harwood vs Jay Lethal; Britt Baker vs KiLynn King; and we hear from Ricky Starks.

Be sure to stay tuned to WrestleTalk.com throughout the day to keep up with all the news from the world of pro-wrestling, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning for another round-up.

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2 years ago by Liam Winnard

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