WWE: LA Knight on The Rock’s WWE Return, Goldberg on WWE Having a “Girl Beat My Undefeated Streak” & Bret Hart’s Issues with Him, More News

Mar 22, 2024

LA Knight on The Rock’s WWE Return & WWE’s Business Has Been Good Both With or Without The Rock

A recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast featured LA Knight as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Knight’s thoughts about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s recent return to WWE and WWE’s business has been good both with and without The Rock being around.

“In this regard, I think you could look at it both ways. Because like you said, you’re looking at one of the most recognizable faces in the world as far as television, movies, media in general. So there is something to be added there. I guess at the same time, you do have to look at your audience and say, ‘Hey, look, we’re moving in this direction. The audience wants this [Reigns vs. Rhodes]. And now to do this [Reigns vs. The Rock], is really going to be – it’s going to look self-serving. It’s gonna probably peeve a lot of people.’ So there’s a lot of different ways to look at it.
My personal opinion, without going too deep into it, is that there is some merit to having him there. And at the same time, as you said, we were doing very well selling out and all that stuff even without him. So he can only add to it – or I guess some people could say he could only take away from it, you never know. But as far as business is concerned, business is good. It was good with him. It’s good without him. It’s been good either way. I hear him say wrestling is cool again and he’s right, but I just want to make sure that everybody knows that it started getting cool again, I’m gonna say about six, seven months before he got there.
I’m not saying that he can’t add to that cool factor – and I’m not saying that he won’t. I’m just saying, wrestling is cool again, and wrestling was cool again before he even came back. So I just don’t want it to seem like all of a sudden it happened because of him. Nah nah.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

Goldberg on WWE Having a “Japanese Girl” Beat His Undefeated Streak in Wrestling & Bret Hart’s Longtime Issues with Him

A recent episode of the Nothing Left Unsaid with Tim Green podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Goldberg’s thoughts about if there was any ill will towards him by others within WWE during his time in the company over his career in WCW.

” A girl beat my winning streak… beat my undefeated streak. Yeah, I can’t even remember… ‘A-soo-ka’ is her name. Some Japanese girl. And they touted her as being the one to have the longest winning streak.
And it just so happened that that culminated when I got there. And then, it just so happened that every single wrestler uses the spear in their moves. Pretty ironic that happened when I got there, right?
The fact that I didn’t get along with Paul Levesque (Triple H), which is Vince’s son-in-law, I think had everything to do with it.
I think a lot of that between Hunter and myself was real…
We had an interaction when I was at WCW leading the charge in New York, at a press event… So I hurt myself, and I know some people that were friends that worked with me were talking to him when he was working at WWE.”

Goldberg also gave his thoughts about WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart’s longtime animosity towards him.

“They put us (Bret Hart & I) together and I did learn from the guy. I wouldn’t trade that for the world. Then we had a match and unfortunately, during the match, something went wrong and I kicked him in the head and it was very stiff and it was an accident. I never maliciously would try to hurt anyone… Let me rephrase that. I would never hurt anyone in a situation like that where they give me their trust, because wrestling is like a dance. You can’t perform properly if both people aren’t doing their thing and I didn’t do the thing right and he caught it in the end and it ended his career and I’ve never lived it down, and I suppose Tim (Green), you could probably speak on this more than anybody. You know me. You’ve known me in situations to where I had to fight (Bill) Fralic just about every day to survive and I’m not a malicious person and I would never take advantage of anybody, especially in a physical sense like that and so it was a complete accident but to this day, he thought — he thinks that I either did it on purpose or I was so horrible at what I did that it just happened. So, that’s the Bret Hart story. I’ve heard it for 15 years and I’ve heard about him b*tching and moaning about me kicking him in the head and you know, I can only say I’m sorry so many times and I can only be remorseful for so long. So, that’s where we are. I still wanna kill him (he joked).”

Transcript h/t: WrestleTalk.com, PostWrestling.com

WWE News & Notes

SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis recently announced on Twitter that the Rey Mysterio vs. Santos Escobar match at Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will feature the stipulation of the LWO and Legado del Famtasma being barred at ringside.

As noted before, Charlotte Flair suffered a torn ACL, a torn meniscus, and a torn MCL injuries this past December and underwent surgery this past January. Flair recently provided an update on Twitter posting a video of her rehab training marking the eleven week of her recovery.

As noted before, CM Punk has been out of action for WWE since this past January’s Royal Rumble 2024 event due to a torn triceps injury. CM Punk recently provided an update on Instagram posting a video of him working out without a sling on his arm for the first time since his triceps surgery.

WWE recently announced that they are currently selling new MLB-inspired WWE Championship belts for all thirty teams in MLB at MLBShop.com, WWEShop, and Fanatics online store.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that NXT referee Darryl Sharma, former Adrian Butcher, was the identity of the mystery hooded person who made an appearance at this past Tuesday’s NXT show during Trick Williams post-match promo segment about Carmelo Hayes.

TNA Wrestling talent Trey Miguel recently revealed on Twitter that he did motion capture work for Cody Rhodes for 2K Games’ WWE 2K24 video game. Miguel stated “@CodyRhodes was one of the funnest Superstars I had the honor of doing Mocap for! This move was probably my favorite to do!” in response to a clip of Rhodes performing a Cody Cutter to Brock Lesnar.

As noted before, Shawn Spears made his official return to WWE for their NXT brand this past February. In a recent interview with Fightful, Spears revealed that he originally wanted to make his return to WWE at this past January’s Royal Rumble event but timing-related issues prevented that from being a possibility. Spears stated “I love me some Carlito, too. All I will say is that I shot my shot. I just don’t think I got it in early enough. I think I was too late. But I did shoot my shot. I tried. All I can do is, ‘Hey, how about this?’ and then I let it go. I let the rest play out as it can. I think I was a little late to the party. So you never know. That’s what they tell you, right? You never know.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

NXT talent Brooks Jensen recently apologized on Twitter over a Ole Anderson shirt he wore at a recent NXT show. Jensen stated that the shirt that was meant to be his tribute to Anderson’s passing but he did not know beforehand of the past allegations of Anderson being a racist. Jensen stated “I will never support any racism, hate, or bullying. While I respected Ole for his wrestling it was news to me after wearing the tshirt that he was associated with these allegation’s. Ive noticed my “looks” and where I’m from are frequently stigmatized with the underbelly of our society (i.e racists) but this mullet just likes to give love and party. My apologies to anyone who knew the allegations prior and were offended by the shirt. I’m learning and this was noted.“

In a recent interview with LiveSigning, Becky Lynch gave her thoughts about what would be her current dream match scenario for her wrestling career. Lynch stated “I think it’s got to be in Dublin, Ireland. It’s got to be in Croke. I think my opponent, and this is a match I’ve been trying to get for a long time, would be Beth Phoenix. I’ve been trying to get her in the ring and whoop her ass for a long time. Now. It’s just not happening. I wan to know why is that? Why is that Beth Phoenix? Why won’t you fight me?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent Barrett Summit Media event, Paul Heyman gave his thoughts about how Roman Reigns’ Tribal Chief character in WWE was inspired by Marlon Brando’s character in the Apocalypse Now film. Heyman stated “The character of Roman Reigns as the Tribal Chief is inspired by Marlon Brando in ‘Apocalypse Now.’ When we first started talking about the presentation of the Tribal Chief, I had Roman Reigns watch ‘Apocalypse Now’ multiple times. To me, that was the heart and soul of the character of the Tribal Chief. A warrior so great that he conquered his own island. We call it the Island of Relevancy. Someone who now, all the natives, which is the WWE Universe, all the fans and performers on the roster, look to for guidance because he’s the top star. In ‘Apocolypse Now,’ Brando presented himself as a pseudo-God. We call it a Tribal Chief. Then, as everyone relies on Brando on this island for guidance, for wisdom, for substance, for food, for shelter, ‘You will lead us to the promised land to the Island of Relevancy.’ He feels the burden of the responsibility, of the obligation, of the accountability to be the leader of all these people. He resents them so much that when Martin Sheen kills him and opens up the book, Kurtz [Brando’s character] had written, ‘Drop the bomb, kill them all.’ He resented those that looked to him for guidance that he wanted to give them in the beginning and then that obligation became too much for him to bear. That’s where the villainry of Roman Reigns comes in because he says ‘Acknowledge me,’ and once you acknowledge him, he says, ‘Someone else I’m responsible for.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)