Cesaro Leaves WWE Details, Jeff Hardy Addresses AEW Comments, Cody Rhodes Update – Audio News Bulletin – February 25, 2022

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Cesaro is gone from WWE, Jeff Hardy has addressed his comments about joining AEW, an update on Cody Rhodes, and more.

It’s Friday and what better way to close out the week than getting up to speed with all the latest wrestling news – I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com and this is our audio news bulletin for February 25, 2022.

Details On Cesaro Leaving WWE

PWInsider broke the news yesterday that Cesaro is no longer under contract with WWE after his deal expired and the two sides couldn’t come to terms on a new one.

They had been in negotiations but couldn’t come to an agreement and WWE did offer Cesaro an extension of his existing deal and a new contract but he turned it down.

Now, Cesaro’s deal actually came up last year, but he signed a one-year extension instead of a full new contract, which is why it came up again so soon.

According to Fightful Select, there was no long-term creative planned for Cesaro because WWE didn’t want to commit to something before he re-signed. This is similar to what happened last year when WWE had planned to showcase Cesaro in a SmackDown gauntlet match, but opted to showcase Shinsuke Nakamura instead because Cesaro hadn’t agreed to a new deal at the time. Then, after that, he signed the one-year extension, which is what has just expired.

There were plans for him to be used on upcoming shows, including tonight’s SmackDown, but nothing in the way of long-term creative.

Select mentions that the reaction backstage is that of quote “disappointment and dismay” as Cesaro was one of the most well-liked members of the roster.

It was also added that there was “reasonable disappointment” on behalf of Cesaro for how he was being used in WWE, notably being left off big shows such as not even being in the Royal Rumble match. He had lost seven straight matches before his departure.

Another important thing to note is Cesaro and WWE could always still come to terms on a new deal and he could still re-sign, like Drew Gulak did two years ago. Fightful said it was told the door isn’t completely closed and it isn’t a burned bridge.

As of now though, he is officially a free agent, and because it was a contract expiry rather than a release, there is no non-compete which means he can show up anywhere he wants from right now.

Plenty of WWE stars reacted to his departure on social media, and so did AEW’s Eddie Kingston, who said Cesaro “doesn’t have the balls” to join AEW. Those two are, apparently, not very fond of each other.

Jeff Hardy Addresses Saying He’s Joining

Speaking of WWE departures, Jeff Hardy has now addressed his comments from a couple of days ago when he said in an interview that he’s joining AEW.

Hardy is still under a non-compete until March 9, so if we’re talking legally, he isn’t even allowed to talk with AEW yet, let alone agree anything.

Hardy took to Twitter to backtrack on his comments a little bit, saying: “Nothing is official, SocialMedia. It can’t be right now. I’ve simply set a goal for myself & I will achieve it…eventually? The main thing is, ”Don’t get excited!”.

Well, I think it’s a bit too late for that Jeff, we are already excited, but even with him saying that, it still seems inevitable considering how much his AEW arrival has been teased throughout the past few weeks.

The Latest On Cody Rhodes

One man who is seemingly going in the opposite direction is Cody Rhodes, and an update – or actually more like a lack thereof – has emerged on what’s going on right now.

As soon as Rhodes’ AEW departure was announced, there were reports from various outlets that he was set to join WWE, but things have been pretty quiet on that front and no reports have been able to actually confirm a deal had been signed.

WWE did tease Rhodes’ return a number of times during Raw on Monday, but WWE isn’t AEW and you can’t always guarantee they’re going to deliver on what they seem to be teasing us with.

The Fightful Select Q&A provided the latest comments, with Sean Ross Sapp saying: “I haven’t gotten confirmation that he’s signed yet, or anything beyond that. It has been eerily silent since probably Friday or Saturday”.

We all know Cody is a strange human being, and I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on in that man’s head other than himself, and half the time, he probably doesn’t either. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

Fightful reported that Brian Cage has told those close to him that AEW has picked up the option to extend his contract by another year, which is pretty surprising as the general consensus was that he’d be one of the names who was almost a lock to be let go.

Following MJF’s promo on AEW Dynamite in which he presented himself as a sympathetic character talking about his days at school being bullied and then feeling betrayed by CM Punk when Punk left wrestling, some comments MJF made in 2015 have emerged which prove that the story he was telling is indeed true.

AEW seems to be looking at doing a trios match at Revolution between Death Triangle and the House of Black – which now includes Buddy Matthews (formerly Murphy) – but Rey Fenix might not be back in time so that idea may have to be postponed.

Shane Haste, the former Shane Thorne and SLAPJACK, mentioned some of the pitches that were made for RETRIBUTION’s leader, which included Edge, Shane McMahon and even Vince McMahon himself.

John Morrison has another new name – in GCW he’ll be going by the moniker Johnny Caballero.

WWE confirmed Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair will take place on night one of WrestleMania 38, which is Saturday, April 2.

AEW’s Angelico revealed that he suffered a torn ACL at the end of last year and that’s why he’s been out of action for a couple of months.

Fightful reported that NXT 2.0 talent actually have more input on their characters than NXT stars used to.

On WWE’s The Bump, Damian Priest challenged Edge to a match at WrestleMania, but whether that actually means anything remains to be seen because The Bump blurs the lines somewhat between reality and storylines.

And, on that note, WrestleVotes (I misspoke and wrongly credited Ringside News in the audio recording) reported that WWE is purposely being vague with WrestleMania stuff in case plans change. The Edge promo on Raw being a prime example, because he teased Priest, AJ Styles, Finn Balor and even Cody Rhodes as potential opponents. There’s a very good choice WWE itself hasn’t actually 100% decided yet.

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• Jeff Hardy
• Cesaro
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