WWE: Trish Stratus on Criteria For Her To Make WWE Return In Future, Pat McAfee Reiterates He Will Not Be Returning To WWE In Future After WrestleMania 42 Stipulation Promise, Sean Legacy, Noam Dar, Romeo Moreno, & Dorian Van Dux vs. BirthRight in Eight-Man Tag Set for 8/25 WWE NXT Show

WWE

Aug 20, 2026

Trish Stratus on Criteria For Her To Make WWE Return In Future

Post Wrestling held a recent interview with WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus. One of the topics discussed included Stratus’ thoughts about her criteria that needs to be checked off in order for her to consider accepting pitches for a potential return to WWE in the future.

“You know me, John, that’s exactly the only way I would do it, right? Like it really- there’s many boxes that must be checked in order for me to do this, and it’s everything like, I don’t want it to be self-serving. There’s- what’s the point in that, it has to give back. It has to- like when I went back and work with Zoey (Stark), like I wasn’t, I’m not like doing much for Becky, so to speak, except for giving, a neat storyline or something for fans to see that they hadn’t (seen), oh my God, fantasy matchup or things like that. So we were giving that to the fans, but like, I’m not giving her the rub. She’s Becky Lynch for God’s sakes, right.? But having- when I got to bring Zoey on board, that was cool because I’m like, okay, and then, you know, teaching her promos. I mean, when I left, she would still- she’s like, ‘okay, this is my problem.’ Like, alright, let’s work on it. We would still be working on the promos and stuff like that. So I love being able to do that. I love the opportunity to work with people that- I remember, even the match in Toronto with Nia and Candice. I was so excited with Candice. I’m like, ‘dude, you’ve been actively wrestling so much longer than me. I’m so excited that we get to share the spotlight and people can be like, damn, look what she can do.’ I’m excited about that. I think she deserves so much more of a spotlight, to be honest. But yeah, so there’s a lot of stuff. It can’t be self-serving. I want it to mean something. So like last year was like my 25th anniversary. We had the, it was very strategic. The Tiffy and Trish thing was started way back in Money In The Bank in Toronto, that seed planted was not a coincidence. It was like, let’s just plant that seed, and we’ll just- just so we have it, and that’s what I am about, long-term story planning. So if you look right here, like, oh, you know what I mean? You can look back at these things. Then we have the tag match in Toronto, great moment by baby face moment, and then we have the face off, and then where could it go? So I mean, I’d love to have a finale match. So sort of like where we were going with that, you know, coming with part of my 25th and you know, my mom got sick, obviously she passed. But it was that long-term story that I was so excited to bring about. So people are like, ‘oh, are you going to go back?’ and it’s like, I got some boxes to line up first, if that’s going to happen, you know? So, definitely, I do go, ‘let me see what purpose am I serving? What are we being fulfilled? Are the fans being fulfilled? Is it serving a purpose?’”

Stratus last competed for WWE at Evolution 2025 in July of 2025.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Pat McAfee Reiterates He Will Not Be Returning To WWE In Future After WrestleMania 42 Stipulation Promise

As noted before, former WWE commentator Pat McAfee confirmed this past April that he is completely done with the wrestling business following Randy Orton’s loss to Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania 42. This match was notable for the stipulation of if Orton lost, then McAfee promised he would leave the wrestling business since he was that confident that Orton would win the title.

In a recent response to a fan on Instagram Stories, McAfee stated that maybe he was wrong to make the stipulation but he will stick to it and will never be back in WWE.

“If Randy had won, maybe, but I made a promise that I would never, ever. I would never be seen on WWE television ever again. Cody Rhodes won. He is the one. Wow, what a donkey he turned out to be. Maybe I was wrong with what I was saying. But no, wrestling fans can sleep soundly understanding that I will never be back over there,” he stated.

Sean Legacy, Noam Dar, Romeo Moreno, & Dorian Van Dux vs. BirthRight in Eight-Man Tag Set for 8/25 WWE NXT Show

WWE announced one new match for the card of next week’s WWE NXT show on August 25 at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

This new match announced was an Eight-Man Tag Team match of Sean Legacy, Noam Dar, Romeo Morena, & Dorian Van Dux vs. BirthRight (Lexis King, Uriah Connors, Stacks Lorenzo, & Charlie Dempsey).

8 Man Tag Set. In. Stone. NEXT WEEK!!!!

This one is gonna be wild… https://t.co/IS7qZHjm9Q
— Robert Stone (@MrStoneWWE) August 19, 2026

Current card for August 25th WWE NXT show:

AAA World Cruiserweight Championship – EK Prosper vs. Rey Fenix (c)
Weaponized Steel Cage match – Dion Lennox vs. Saquon Shugars
Eight-Man Tag Team match – Sean Legacy, Noam Dar, Romeo Moreno, & Dorian Van Dux vs. BirthRight (Lexis King, Uriah Connors, Stacks Lorenzo, & Charlie Dempsey)
Kali Armstrong vs. Zaria