Big E Upset, ‘Forbidden Door’ Royal Rumble Entrant, NXT Call-Ups – Audio News Bulletin – January 11, 2022

Big E opens up about losing the WWE Championship, there could be a huge surprise in store for Royal Rumble, some big-time NXT call-ups seem to be imminent, and more. It’s Tuesday morning and it’s time to recap all of the wrestling news – I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com and this is the audio news bulletin for Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

You can listen to today’s bulletin here:

Big E Upset With WWE Title Run

Big E lost the WWE Championship at Day 1, where Brock Lesnar, who was only added to the match a few hours beforehand due to Roman Reigns’ absence, picked up the win and title in the five-way main event.

In a new interview with Sports Illustrated, Big E has spoken about his title reign, and he isn’t hiding the fact that he’s rather disappointed about how it came to an end.

He said:

“I wanted it to be a five-course meal, and it was more of an appetizer. I’m overly critical of my work to begin with, so I wouldn’t say I was happy with it. My hope was to knock it out of the park, and I fell a bit short. So it’s motivating to start that climb back.

“I’m not comfortable being just a guy on the roster. I’m not good with going back to the way it was before.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed to see it end that way. And it’s not anything against Brock. Brock is a very special athlete, human and performer. There is no shame in losing to Brock Lesnar.

“I took a moment to soak in the sadness. The highs of winning, like at Money in the Bank or cashing in, those are incredible. But the lows suck, too. And that’s motivation to fuel me.

“This is my chance to show another side of me. It’s time to turn up the intensity. My role with The New Day is so often comedic relief, but I don’t want to be one-dimensional. I want to be as well-rounded and as whole a performer as possible.”

Big E is many people’s pick to win the Royal Rumble and go on to challenge Seth Rollins at WrestleMania, and E said in the same interview that winning the Rumble would be “incredible”.

WWE Considering Huge Surprise Entrant For Royal Rumble

With WWE seemingly relaxing its policy about people working with other companies, evidenced by IMPACT Knockouts Champion Mickie James being an entrant in the Royal Rumble, it seems like the ‘Forbidden Door’ surprises may not stop there.

According to a tweet from WrestleVotes, sources believe WWE will try to get a quote “unexpected” ‘Forbidden Door’ entrant for the men’s Rumble match, and WrestleVotes can confirm that WWE is open to the idea.

There was no further information about who it could be or where they could come from, but as I mentioned yesterday, the fact that WWE has switched philosophy so much to even be open to the idea, is newsworthy in itself.

I’m gonna join in with everyone on Twitter getting carried away about who it might be, and say that if it was up to me, and there were no restraints at all, I think Cody Rhodes, with his full entrance and Brandi with him, would be quite fantastic. That’s not a prediction, I just think it would be hilarious.

As a ‘Forbidden Door’-related side-note, Ringside News is reporting that as part of the talks between AEW and WWE that Tony Khan revealed were happening in December about interviews for documentaries, Khan has specifically been in contact with WWE’s Head of Talent Relations, and the two have been able to get along so far.

Big-Time NXT Call-Ups Imminent

It seems like a couple of NXT’s biggest stars could be on their way to the main roster, as Tommaso Ciampa and Pete Dunne were once again in action last night at Raw.

Dunne and Ciampa had a dark match against each other before Friday’s episode of SmackDown, and then last night before Raw, they had separate matches that will air on this week’s episode of Main Event, with Ciampa picking up a win over T-BAR, and Dunne defeating Akira Tozawa.

As we’ve seen in recent months, these matches are likely being used as ‘tryout’ matches for Vince McMahon and his pals to figure out if they see anything in either guy, and there are two ways that could go – one being a main roster a call-up, and the other being a release. We’ve seen examples of both in recent times.

Another NXT star who has at least been getting a little bit more screen time on main roster TV is Grayson Waller, who appeared on Raw for a second time last night, to continue building up to his match with AJ Styles on tonight’s episode of NXT 2.0.

Obviously Waller’s recent appearances may have been solely with the Styles match in mind rather than a call-up, but we’ll just have to wait and see, because he’s clearly someone that WWE has high hopes for.

Other Stuff

In other news from Raw, we have new Raw Tag Team Champions, as the Alpha Academy – Chad Gable and Otis – beat RK-Bro – Randy Orton and Riddle – for a second straight week, this time for the title.

Many people were expecting Rhea Ripley to turn on her tag team partner Nikki ASH, but it was actually the other way around, as Nikki snapped last night, and it seems like that team is no more with Nikki likely being a heel moving forward.

Elsewhere on the women’s roster, Becky Lynch’s challenger for the Raw Women’s Championship at Royal Rumble has been decided, as it was Doudrop who beat Bianca Belair and Liv Morgan in a three-way match last night.

Rick Boogs revealed on Out of Character that WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura has been out of action recently due to a hand injury. We send our best wishes to Nakamura for his recovery.

Former WWE Tag Team Champion Charlie Haas suffered an injury during his first ever IMPACT match at the tapings this past weekend. PWInsider reported that Haas was stretchered to the back after being “knocked loopy” in a match with Josh Alexander, but he seemed to be doing better once he got backstage.

The announced card for tonight’s NXT 2.0 is the aforementioned Waller vs Styles main event, as well as Santos Escobar vs Xyon Quinn with Elektra Lopez set to leave with whoever wins, Pete Dunne vs Tony D’Angelo in a crowbar-on-a-pole match, Solo Sikoa vs Boa, and a six-woman tag team with match with Amari Miller, Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter taking on Indi Hartwell, Persia Pirotta and Wendy Choo, who was formerly Mei Ying and is now a woman who falls asleep a lot.

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