WrestleMania 38 ‘Surprise’ Spoiler, WWE Talent Leaving, Gable Steveson Plans – Audio News Bulletin – March 22, 2022

A spoiler has emerged for a WrestleMania surprise (nothing to do with Cody), a WWE talent looks to be leaving, news on WWE’s plans for Gable Steveson, and more.

It’s Tuesday 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 audio news bulletin for March 22, 2o22.

Listen to this morning’s round-up here:

Omos’ Planned ‘Surprise’ WrestleMania Opponent

The WrestleMania 38 card is beginning to take shape, and even some big names that don’t have matches announced yet, have a clear path and plan in place – the likes of Seth Rollins vs Cody Rhodes, and Finn Balor vs Damian Priest aren’t announced but are pretty much certainties to be on the show.

One man whose route to WrestleMania wasn’t locked in until yesterday was, Omos, until WrestleVotes reported that he was planned for a singles match and his opponent would surprise people.

That was followed up by a report from Fightful Select, which revealed who the planned surprise opponent is, with that name being Bobby Lashley.

We haven’t seen Lashley on WWE TV since Elimination Chamber over a month ago, and he hasn’t wrestled since suffering a shoulder injury against Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble at the end of January.

It was believed Lashley would be out for about four months as a result of the injury, so him being back so soon certainly is a surprise.

While Fightful reported the plan is Lashley vs Omos, the site didn’t actually get confirmation that Lashley has been cleared, so there’s still a chance that the plan could change.

Omos picked up a win in a handicap match over Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez on Raw last night and cut a promo pretty much declaring he was going to be at WrestleMania, but there was no hint at any particular opponent.

NXT UK Star’s Contract Expiring

A WWE talent could be on his way out of the company, as Flash Morgan Webster of the NXT UK brand rejected WWE’s initial offer to renew his contract.

According to Fightful, Webster’s deal was actually set to expire last month, but he’s currently under a short-term extension, but that ends very soon as well.

Webster hasn’t actually wrestled since he suffered a shoulder injury back in October, and he’s only expected to be back around June.

He’s been with WWE since 2018 and is a former NXT UK Tag Team Champion with fellow Welshman Mark Andrews.

Gable Steveson WWE Plans

The WWE arrival of Gable Steveson is imminent and we now know a little bit more insight into what WWE has planned for him.

Yesterday we mentioned that Steveson tweeted-then-deleted that he was going to be at WrestleMania.

Well, in an interview with Sports Illustrated, he said he does plan on being at WrestleMania, but a specific part of the quote is quite interesting, and that is: “That’s the first time WWE fans will see me and what I’m about. I’m going to put my heart out there”.

That makes it sound like he’s going to have some kind of noteworthy involvement and possibly even get physical or start some kind of beef with someone. He’s not just gonna stand there and smile and wave.

After WrestleMania, Steveson will be a “regular” on the Raw brand, and Dave Meltzer mentioned that he’s set to receive a push upon his arrival.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

Undertaker was a guest on the True Geordie podcast and we have some noteworthy quotes up on the site from that, including Taker doubling down on his controversial comments about the current WWE roster being soft, addressing the disastrous Saudi Arabia match with Goldberg, being nervous about switching to the American Badass gimmick, and more.

Dave Meltzer reported that AEW’s partnership with DDT won’t affected AEW’s relationship with New Japan, and will also include Tokyo Joshi Pro which is the promotion Maki Itoh came from.

Johnny Gargano’s first post-WWE wrestling appearance has been announced as he’ll be at WrestleCon for WrestleMania weekend.

A bunch of cut features and content from WWE 2K22 is being unearthed by people looking at the game’s files and stuff. There’s loads of stuff out there, but some of it that I’ve seen is a scrapped storyline in MyRise where Adam Cole was to win the Intercontinental Title, scrapped Rey Mysterio Showcase match against Jushin Thunder Liger, Bronson Reed’s character model, and a range of Fiend/Bray Wyatt-related stuff as well.

Kip Sabian tweeted that he could be getting closer to making an AEW return after sitting in the crowd with a cardboard box on his head for the past couple of months.

Recent AEW signing Paige VanZant revealed that she had talks with WWE about a year ago.

The Raw Tag Team Championship match with RK-Bro defending against Alpha Academy and the Street Profits in a three-way is now official for WrestleMania Sunday.

WWE announced during Raw that Veer Mahaan will come on April 4, which is the post-WrestleMania Raw in two weeks.

The dark match after last night’s Raw was actually a match that will take place at WrestleMania on the SmackDown side, with the Usos against Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs.

For next week’s Raw, which is the final episode before WrestleMania, WWE has announced The Miz vs Rey Mysterio; the Street Profits vs the Alpha Academy; Sasha Banks, Naomi, Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan vs Carmella, Queen Zelina, Natalya & Shayna Baszler, and appearances from both WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Universal Champion Roman Reigns.

And set for tonight’s NXT 2.0 is the women’s Dusty Classic final with Kay Lee Ray & Io Shirai vs Dakota Kai & Wendy Choo, two North American Title ladder match qualifiers for Stand & Deliver, which are Grayson Waller vs A-Kid, and Roderick Strong vs Solo Sikoa. And also Robert Roode’s first NXT singles match in over four years, as he takes on Bron Breakker.

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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• audio news bulletin
• gable steveson
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