Braun Strowman Backstage Heat Update, CM Punk Returns To MMA, Potential WWE Returns – News Bulletin – November 11, 2022

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An update on the backstage heat on Braun Strowman, CM Punk has returned to the MMA world, news on some potential WWE returns, and more.

It’s Friday morning, so what better way to kick off the last day of the week than getting caught up on all the latest wrestling news with our news bulletin for November 11, 2022.

Braun Strowman Backstage Heat Update

A new update has emerged on the backstage heat on Braun Strowman after his Twitter antics a few days ago.

After he and Omos had a match that was actually praised by the majority of fans, rather than simply thanking people for their support, Strowman decided to take to Twitter to undermine “grocery baggers” and “flippy floppy” wrestlers, as well as star ratings, AEW and the “IWC”.

This drew him public responses from many wrestlers telling him in no uncertain terms what they thought, including Will Ospreay, and WWE’s own Nathan Frazer, Ricochet and most notably Mustafa Ali.

Fightful Select has provided a new update on how things have been going since then, reporting that WWE management is aware of the situation and at least one member of said management branded it as “immature”.

It was made clear that Strowman’s tweets weren’t part of any kind of angle and probably wouldn’t be turned into one, but Strowman may end up being “ribbed” during shows on-screen or by commentators for what happened.

One wrestler, who claimed he’d “never do a flip in his life” so isn’t even someone Strowman was aiming his comments at, said:

“We need them, and they need us. Wrestling is everything. There’s very little truly right and wrong. He didn’t come up in the business doing the things that a lot of those people did, so he probably doesn’t understand.”

Other than that, the report actually stated that WWE sources said Strowman had been on his “best behavior” backstage, but branded “social media Braun” as a different story.

CM Punk MMA Return

Last night, CM Punk made his first public appearance since the drama in AEW blew up in early September after All Out.

Punk appeared on UFC Fight Pass doing commentary for the Cage Fury Fighting Championships 114 card.

There’s been no clarification on exactly what this means in terms of an update on his AEW status, but Punk hadn’t done any MMA commentary since joining AEW until now.

As of last word, Punk and AEW were negotiating a buyout of his contract, but talks had apparently stalled as the parties were trying to come to an agreement on a non-compete clause as part of that deal, most likely an attempt to prevent Punk from going straight to WWE.

Of the others involved in the post-All Out backstage fight, Ace Steel was fired, but Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks look to be making their returns at Full Gear next Saturday.

Potential WWE Returns

Some updates on numerous potential WWE returns, including even more released stars that could be brought back to the company.

First though, an update on Robert Roode who hasn’t wrestled on WWE TV since the beginning of April and has been out with injury issues.

PWInsider reports that WWE is hoping Roode will be back soon, and has talked about his return taking place on the SmackDown brand, which would seemingly split his tag team with Dolph Ziggler who’s on Raw.

On some potential released names that could be brought back – according to WrestleVotes via GiveMeSport, Bray Wyatt wants Paul Levesque (Triple H) to bring back Wyatt’s real-life brother Bo Dallas, and former Wyatt Family member Erick Rowan.

Also, there’s been a lot of talk about Chelsea Green lately, and there was an angle on last night’s IMPACT that looked like it could potentially write her out of the promotion – she specifically said she was “leaving” and “going home”.

Other Stuff

WrestleVotes also told GiveMeSport about a plan that was eventually scrapped for Drew McIntyre to win ONE of Roman Reigns’ championships at Clash at the Castle, with the idea being Austin Theory would cash-in Money in the Bank which would make the match a three-way for just one of Reigns’ titles rather than both, and McIntyre would have won that.

Thunder Rosa, who is officially still AEW Women’s World Champion, said in a video on Instagram Live that she “doesn’t have” a timetable for when she could return to AEW from injury.

Dave Meltzer reported that he was told NXT’s Cameron Grimes was set for a call-up to the WWE main roster when his program with Joe Gacy had finished. Gacy beat Grimes on NXT earlier this week, so it seems like we may be at that point now.

R-Truth confirmed he’d undergone surgery for his torn ACL and that it “went well”, which is obviously great to hear.

Saraya talked to Renee Paquette on The Sessions about several things regarding her return, including saying she’s planning to take it easy to begin with and do one match a month, gradually building it up.

She also said she told Sasha Banks (who was involved in the spot that ultimately led to Saraya having to retire due to injury in 2017) that she’d been cleared before she told anyone else, and that Tony Khan had suggested her returning in a tag match to combat potential over-exposure, but Saraya told him she wanted to return in a singles match.

Fightful reported that a Darby Allin match was planned but scrapped from this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite, likely against Cole Karter.

WWE announced its latest class of Performance Center recruits featuring names that were signed after SummerSlam weekend tryouts in Nashville in late July.

Announced for tonight’s WWE SmackDown is:

• The Usos (c) vs. New Day – Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship (if the Usos win, they will break New Day’s record as the longest reigning tag team champions in WWE history)
• Santos Escobar vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – SmackDown World Cup Quarter-Final
• Lacey Evans vs. Liv Morgan vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Shotzi vs. Sonya Deville vs. Xia Li – SmackDown Women’s Championship #1 Contender Match

Tonight’s AEW Rampage has:

• Christian Cage & Jungle Boy face-to-face
• Nyla Rose open challenge
• Brian Cage vs. Dante Martin – AEW World Championship #1 Contender Tournament Quarter-Final
• Bandido vs. Rush – AEW World Championship #1 Contender Tournament Quarter-Final
• Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Lee Johnson – AEW All-Atlantic Championship

And rounding things out, NXT Level Up tonight will see:

• Edris Enofe, Malik Blade & Odyssey Jones vs. Bronco Nima, Lucien Price & Xyon Quinn
• Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley vs. Jakara Jackson & Lash Legend
• Ikemen Jiro vs. Javier Bernal

That wraps up this morning’s bulletin, but be sure to stay tuned to WrestleTalk.com for all the news during the day.

Check out WrestleShop.com for all your favorite WrestleTalk merch, the WrestleTalk Magazine, wrestling shirts for grown-ups, and more!

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