WWE: Banks vs. Belair SummerSlam Match in Doubt, New Talent Hirings, Triple H on Rumored Changes to NXT

Sasha Banks Reportedly Missed Friday’s SmackDown Show, SummerSlam Match Currently in Doubt

As noted before, Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair missed this past weekend’s WWE house show events due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Both Banks and Belair were medically cleared earlier this week and their upcoming match at SummerSlam was expected to go on ahead as scheduled.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that while Belair had traveled to Phoenix and was backstage for Friday’s SummerSlam go-home SmackDown show, Banks was not seen backstage during the show.

Johnson reported that his sources within the company stated that the word going around backstage on Friday was that Banks might have been pulled from SummerSlam and her match against Belair might no longer be taking place at the event.

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WWE Holds New Tryouts in Las Vegas, Several New Talent Signed

WWE reportedly held a new set of talent tryouts this past Friday in Las Vegas, according to PWInsider.

Mike Johnson reported that Paul “Triple H” Levesque, John Laurianaitis, Drew McIntyre, William Regal, Matt Bloom, Robbie Brookside, and Samoa Joe were the main people overseeing these tryouts. Johnson reported that Alison Danger, former wrestler and co-owner of Shimmer, was invited by WWE to help run their tryouts in Las Vegas.

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE made some changes to their signing policy for talent starting with Friday’s tryouts. Instead of talent having to wait several weeks to learn if they were approved for a contract, WWE officials handed out contracts on the spot to several talent after their tryouts.

Following the tryouts, WWE announced that Faith Jefferies, Isaac Odugbesan, Natalie Holland, Chase Crews, Jamara Garrett, Sydney Zmrzel, James Barron Jr., Jaylen Williams, Inyene Umor, Brooke Vawter, Jacoby Brooks, Kellie Morga, and Randy Beidelschies have been offered NXT developmental contracts with the company.

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Triple H Comments on Reports of NXT Brand Changing Its Philosophy

Triple H held a media scrum on Friday as part of WWE’s newest set of talent tryouts in Las Vegas, Nevada. One of the topics discussed included Triple H’s thoughts on the recent reports of major changes being planned for WWE’s NXT brand and NXT having to change its philosophy as a result.

“It’s funny that people talk about the shifting of what it is, it never really shifted. If you go back, and you look at the hiring process, it’s not the hiring process of a television show. It’s the hiring process of who we are looking to train and make WWE Superstars, long term. If you go back [in history], that hasn’t shifted. It’s been the same process. I don’t negate anybody. From a standpoint of like, Well, ’I wrestled some independent stuff,’ that’s not a factor to me. But it’s also not the factor that makes me go, ‘Okay, you’re in.’

When they get here today, If somebody hits the ropes perfectly every time, does every role perfectly, does all the stuff look cheesy because they’ve been training? They should be able to. If you’ve been training, working indies, you should be able to do all that. It’s, to me, ‘what is the potential long term? Are they willing to do the work to live up to that potential? Again, not saying we haven’t hired people for different reasons. Vince has always said, we’re a variety show, right? We are in some manner, you need a little bit of everything. I think that’s the key to all of this. It’s all of it. It always has been.”

Full media scrum:

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com