WWE Unhappy With SummerSlam Card, Kenny Omega Plans, NXT Star Returns After Nine Months – News Bulletin – July 20, 2022

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WWE appears to be unhappy with the card for SummerSlam, plans for Kenny Omega’s AEW return have been revealed, an NXT star is back after being out for nine months, and more.

It’s Wednesday morning, and what better what to start the week than getting caught up on all the latest wrestling news – I’m Liam Winnard for WrestleTalk.com, and this is our news bulletin for July 20, 2022.

I promise I’m trying to get better but I’m still ill so no audio version again today.

WWE Unhappy With SummerSlam Card

We’re now just 10 days away from SummerSlam and there are eight matches confirmed – if you looked at the lineup and thought it was a bit disappointing, you’re apparently not the only one.

According to reliable source WrestleVotes, even WWE itself isn’t happy with the card. That’s a good sign considering they’re the ones that booked it.

WrestleVotes wrote:

In the most WWE of ways, I had a source tell me this morning “they really don’t like the SummerSlam card” “They” being the people who put it together. Um, what?!

There have been a number of injury issues for WWE that have led to some big names not being available, most notably Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton, the latter of whom was supposed to challenge Roman Reigns.

Still, there are people like AJ Styles and Kevin Owens who aren’t on the card and seemingly have no real direction towards a big match.

We’ve actually done a list of the 23 biggest names who don’t have a spot on the SummerSlam card, which you can find at this link.

Kenny Omega Plans

Kenny Omega has been out of the ring since Full Gear last November as he’s been taking time away to get numerous injuries treated, but it might not be too long before we see him back.

Dave Meltzer reported this past Friday that there was a “major angle” planned for the Young Bucks soon that did NOT involve FTR, and it turns out that angle may be something to do with Omega.

According to Fightful Select, “certain staff” were made aware of tentative plans for Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks to be involved in a trios program heading into All Out.

Before Omega took time away, it appeared the direction was Omega and the Bucks vs Adam Cole and reDRagon, but that wasn’t specifically mentioned as being the plan.

Tony Khan has said in the past that he’s been holding off on an AEW Trios Championship because he wanted Omega to be involved with it, so perhaps that’ll end up happening here.

As a side note, Britt Baker provided a bit of an update on Adam Cole, saying he “definitely has to take some time to recover”.

Dave Meltzer previously reported that Cole was choosing not to undergo surgery for his torn labrum.

Zoey Stark Returns To NXT

Speaking of people who have been out since last November, Zoey Stark returned to action on last night’s episode of NXT 2.0.

Stark suffered a torn ACL and Meniscus in a six-woman ladder match on last year’s Halloween Havoc show, and she returned back to multi-woman action last night in a 20-woman battle royal.

She actually won said battle royal, last eliminating Cora Jade, to earn a shot at Mandy Rose’s NXT Women’s Championship.

Before her injury, Stark was in a tag team with Io Shirai – and it was actually that very ladder match that Rose’s proteges Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne won the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship from Stark and Shirai.

Shirai has also been off NXT for months now. She’s been injured, but her contract is also coming due and as of last word, she hadn’t re-signed and could be on her way back to Japan.

Other Stuff

In other little bits of news…

Joe Gacy’s Dyad were indeed revealed to be James Drake and Zack Gibson, now under the names Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler, and also completely clean shaven.

Dave Meltzer explained on Wrestling Observer Radio that Jeff Jarrett’s contract with WWE is not a talent contract, which is why he can wrestle in Ric Flair’s final match along with AEW stars Jay Lethal and Andrade El Idolo, despite being WWE’s SVP of Live Events Booking.

Ric Flair said he has plantar fasciitis on the bottom of his foot heading into his last ever match. He also said his daughter Charlotte Flair, Rey Mysterio, Apollo Crews, Pat McAfee and Kid Rock would be in attendance for it.

Grayson Waller said he’d happily slap Logan Paul in the face, with The Miz being his dream opponent and tag team partner. Similarly, Tiffany Stratton said her dream opponent is Charlotte Flair.

Seth Rollins took to Instagram to apologize to fans for his “very harsh” reaction when they approached him because he was in the middle of a workout. He invited them back so he could apologize in person.

Brian Pillman Jr admitted he wishes his feud with MJF could have been longer.

And set for tonight’s AEW Dynamite, which is week two of Fyter Fest, is Chris Jericho vs Eddie Kingston in a barbed wire everywhere deathmatch with the Jericho Appreciation Society in a shark cage, Christian Cage & Luchasaurus vs the Varsity Blonds, Darby Allin vs Brody King, Best Friends vs Jon Moxley & Wheeler Yuta, and the Baddies (with Leila Grey filling in for Red Velvet) vs Kris Statlander, Athena, and Willow Nightingale.

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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• Zoey Stark
• audio news bulletin
• SummerSlam
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