WWE: Aleister Black vs. LA Knight Set for 6/6 WWE SmackDown Show, Shotzi Confirms Alexa Bliss Took Her 2025 Women’s Royal Rumble Match Spot & Bliss Apologizing Afterwards, More News

Jun 6, 2025

Aleister Black vs. LA Knight Announced for Friday’s WWE SmackDown Show

WWE announced one new match and one new segment for the card of tonight’s WWE SmackDown show at the Dignity Health Arena in Bakersfield, California.

In regards to the new match, this was announced to be a singles match of Aleister Black vs. LA Knight.

TONIGHT on #SmackDown:@RealLAKnight goes one-on-one with @Aleister_Blxck 24 hours before he competes in the #MITB Ladder Match! 👀🔥

📺 8ET/7CT on @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/Caa2Rjqp8O
— WWE (@WWE) June 6, 2025

In regards to the new segment, this was announced to be a promo segment featuring WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes confronting Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena and Logan Paul.

It was also announced that every Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank Ladder matches participants will be appearing on the show.

Current card for June 6th WWE SmackDown show:

Six-Woman Tag Team match – Rhea Ripley, Alexa Bliss, & Stephanie Vaquer vs. Naomi, Roxanne Perez, & Giulia
Aleister Black vs. LA Knight
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jey Uso and Cody Rhodes to confront Undisputed WWE Champion John Cena and Logan Paul
Every Men’s and Women’s Money in the Bank participants to appear

Shotzi Confirms Alexa Bliss Took Her 2025 Women’s Royal Rumble Match Spot & Bliss Apologizing Afterwards

As noted before, Alexa Bliss made her surprise return to WWE at this past February’s Royal Rumble 2025 event. Bliss made her return during the Women’s Royal Rumble match which was later revealed to not have been the original plans for Bliss and Bliss’ spot in the match was originally meant to be for Shotzi instead.

A recent episode of the Daria & Toni Unwrapped podcast featured former WWE talent Shotzi as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Shotzi confirming that she was replaced by Bliss for this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match.

“I heard mixed messages. A couple of producers said I was always in the Rumble. Then they told me last minute. I don’t know. I was very confused by it, but they didn’t relay anything to me until the day before. It was like 3 PM the day before Rumble and they were like, ‘Can you get on a flight in a couple of hours?’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not ready for this.’ I packed my bags. I don’t even know what I put in the bags. Got to the airport in an hour and it led to nothing.”

In response to comments made by co-host Daria Beranto, former Sonya Deville in WWE, about Shozti being involved in the rehearsals, Shozti gave her thoughts about when she found out that she was being replaced in the match.

“The day of, I got told while I was in the makeup chair that I wasn’t in it.
Honestly, if you’re going to take me out for anyone, at least make it be the biggest pop for the night. I have to say, Alexa had no idea someone was getting replaced. She had no idea any of that was going on. She felt so bad and she came up to me after and was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize they were taking someone out to get me in.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WWE News & Notes

As noted before, WWE is currently believed to be very close to finalizing a deal with Las Vegas officials to bring WrestleMania 42 to the city. WrestleVotes reported that their sources stated that WWE is finalizing the remaining details of their move to Las Vegas for WrestleMania 42. It was reported that one key hurdle was WWE officials was hoping to secure the Las Vegas Convention Center due to them wanting to replicate the exact event model from this past April’s WrestleMania 41 weekend festivities. It was also reported that TKO officials were not sold on using the available convention space at the Mandalay Bay which added to the delay in an official announcement being made for WrestleMania 42’s new location.

Deadline reported that their sources stated that Mariah May recently signed a deal with Paradigm Talent Agency to represent her in the entertainment industry and focusing on her branding.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources the reason why some talents who sign with WWE get a ring name change is simply just due to the company wants to own the rights to the names they want changed. Sapp reported that more often than not, WWE officials wants to just use a trademarked name for a wrestler and this is one main reason for the name changes. Sapp also reported that another reason is due to WWE officials does not realize at times that a wrestler’s name isn’t always their real name and changes them as well for these situations.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that WWE officials still have plans to hold a new WWE Draft this year. Johnson reported that the reason why it has not happened yet is due to WWE officials have yet to decide where and when to do a new WWE Draft.

This past Wednesday’s WWE Speed show on Twitter featured Berto defeating Kit Wilson to advance to the next round of WWE’s newest #1 Contender’s tournament for the WWE Speed Men’s Championship. Berto will be facing off against the winner of Noam Dar/Lexis King in the Finals of WWE’s current tournament.

As noted before, Zoey Stark has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to a knee injury and surgery. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources stated that the current expectation within WWE is that Stark’s will likely be out of action until after WrestleMania 42 event in April of 2026. Sapp reported that WWE officials had initially expected Stark to be out of action for the rest of this year.

In a recent SEC filing, TKO Group stated that WWE President Nick Khan will be selling 28,557 shares of TKO stock for a total market value of $4,506,580.17.

WWE RAW General Manager and official Adam Pearce recently responded on Twitter to fans who had alerted him to a person on a now deleted Twitter account named “Isroxd3adyet” who had been making threatening tweets directed at Roxanne Perez about wanting to kill her. Pearce stated “It has been reported. If you know what I’m talking about, then you know what I’m talking about. Thank you to everyone that made me aware.“

In a recent episode of WWE Tattooed, CM Punk gave his thoughts about the origin and significance of his iconic Pepsi tattoo on his arm. Punk stated “I guess I’d be remiss to not mention the Pepsi tattoo. I think maybe that one probably historically over time has gotten the most attention. The story with the Pepsi tattoo is there is a band called Minor Threat that started in the early 80s in Washington, D.C. that’s widely known to have started the straight edge subculture, and the guitarist Brian Baker was asked in an interview I read while I was in detention, do you have a Coca-Cola tattoo? Why do you have a Coca-Cola tattoo, and his response is, I like Coca-Cola. I was like, that’s just punk rock right there. I don’t like Coke. I like Pepsi. I’m a Midwest kid at heart, so I got a Pepsi tattoo. That tattoo represents me being straight edge, and that’s really kind of it. I know it seems silly to put a corporate logo on yourself, but it really has a deeper meaning, and it means so much more to me than just soft drink.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard podcast, WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield gave his thoughts about how R-Truth’s unceremonious exit from WWE is one of the most bizarre releases he has ever seen in WWE. JBL stated “I don’t understand this with Ron Killings either. I mean, it’s the same perplexing thing to me. I thought it was a joke. Brian Armstrong (Road Dogg) had something on his Twitter… He goes, ‘I’m really bummed. I can’t believe they released R-Truth,’ or something like that. I looked it up and [thought] it’s got to be a storyline. I mean, the guy just main-evented Saturday Night’s Main Event. He’s selling a ton of merch. It’s absolutely perplexing to me. One of the most bizarre releases that I’ve seen. Ron, Truth, has had a great career, and of course, he’s still got years left. I know he’s 53 years old, I think is what I read on the internet, but he’s in tremendous shape. He’s a great athlete. He’s still just as athletic as, at least he looks like he is. I’m sure he doesn’t feel like he’s 28 years old, but he looks like he’s 28, he moves like he’s 28 again, he’s got years left, because he hasn’t aged. He doesn’t look like an older guy.” JBL also gave his thoughts about his belief that R-Truth will be an even bigger star a year from now than he is today. JBL stated “He’s had a great run, and he’s not near done yet. He’s gonna make a ton of money somewhere. I don’t know where he goes, but he’s gonna. Ron is as entertaining a guy as there is. He’s gonna do fine. No run goes in perpetuity. I’m just surprised it ends so suddenly, and that it ended when it did. He’s unbelievably talented. There’s nothing he can’t do. It takes a smart guy to play a dumb guy; that’s what they always say. Wrestling, the guys who played the dumb guys are usually very smart because they have to be smart to be able to play the dumb guy. Look at Santino Marella, a very smart guy who used the broken English together and make things happen. Killings is a very smart guy. He can get anything over. I would imagine he’s going to be a massive star, a bigger star. You’re right, a year from now? I’ll take that bet with anybody, a bigger star a year from now than he is right now.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)