WWE: AJ Lee Reveals She’s Writing New Movie for Toei Animation & Her Trepidatious Approach to Her WWE Schedule, Lance Anoa’i on Injuries Costing Him a WWE Career, More News

AJ Lee Reveals She’s Writing a New Movie for Toei Animation & Her Trepidatious Approach to Her WWE Schedule

A recent episode of the What’s Your Story with Stephanie McMahon podcast featured AJ Lee as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lee revealing that she is currently writing a new movie for Toei Animation.

“I love anime so much. One of my favorite companies growing up was Toei, they did Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z, and these things that raised me. We are writing a movie for Toei Animation. I think that’s all I can say. Just such a dream come true to be in their office and see the Dragon Ball Z figures everywhere. ‘Can I move in here?”

Lee also gave her thoughts about her current trepidatious approach to her WWE work schedule.

“There was this world in which it was just like a one-and-done. Where it was just like, come back and have fun and, like, see how you feel. And that’s been a big thing too, because of — I never wanted to feel how I felt mentally to where my last year was very hard for me. And so, I have been a little trepidatious in like what I’m committing to and what I can handle. And part of the appeal of, like, ‘Okay, let’s keep doing this’ was that group of women [in WarGames]. And being like, ‘Oh, I’m a fan of all of them. Like, I’ll be like so happy to just be surrounded by them and get to like work with them.’ To just like kind of hang out with them in that way of, okay, trust this group. I think — I give so much credit to the women [for making] it very appealing.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com

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Lance Anoa’i Comments on Injuries Costing Him a WWE Career

As noted before, Lance Anoa’i was released from WWE this past October as part of a larger batch of talent releases.

MuscleManMalcolm held a recent interview with Anoa’i. One of the topics discussed included Anoa’i’s thoughts about what went wrong with his time in WWE and his injuries being the main cause for his release.

“It was releasing me from my contract. I had another two years on my contract. I forget the day I found out because from that moment on, it was back to the grind. I was blessed to be there, I was happy to be there, I learned a lot. Unfortunately, injuries weren’t on my side, so it killed me. Do I think it was a missed opportunity at WWE? Yeah, I do. I also think it was a blessing.” 

Anoa’i also gave his thoughts about the reports of criticism about him at WWE’s Performance Center.

“The injuries are what cost me everything. It cost the company more money than what I was making them. I was one of the older ones there. First, I had a sports hernia in my first week at the PC. I got hurt in the Performance Center. It was something real dumb and maybe it was God telling me, ‘Maybe not yet.’ Got cleared for three weeks, and then tore my shoulder right after that. Got cleared end of September, released in October. There was no criticism. Everyone was rooting for me to come back and be ready. Unfortunately, things happen.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, Monday’s WWE RAW show in Oklahoma City, Oklahmoa featured a mini John Cena making a surprise appearance. This mini Cena was named “John Weena” by Wade Barrett and Joe Tessitore on commentary and was attacked by Dominik Mysterio during the show. Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that the identity of mini Cena was indie wrestler Syko from Micro Championship Wrestling.

As noted before, Chad Gable has been out of action for WWE since this past June due to a torn rotator cuff injury and surgery. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Gable was in attendance last week at WWE’s Performance Center to prep ahead of his return from injury. Gable reportedly was at the Performance Center for several days last week.

In a recent video interview with Complex, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque gave a tour of WWE’s new headquarters building showing off various pieces of memorabilia that are on display inside. Levesque’s tour also included a special tour of his personal office that features several historic championship belts on display in the room including a collection of WWE Championship belts dating back to 1963 and Intercontinental Championship belts dating back to the original belt in 1979.

Over recent weeks of WWE RAW shows, Becky Lynch has been involved in several notable storyline-related incidents with referee Jessika Carr. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that despite the recent teases his sources stated that WWE officials have not held any talks regarding plans for a feud between Lynch and Carr. Sapp reported that the opportunity for a feud to take place between the two is there if WWE officials were to choose to use Carr as a wrestler. Carr has competed as a masked wrestler named Kalyx for two matches on the WWE EVOLVE brand this year.

WWE recently released a teaser trailer for an upcoming new WrestleMania 42 commercial. This new commercial is currently set to air in full on Friday, November 28th.

WWE also recently released one new video to their WCW Vault channel on YouTube. This new video was a WarGames match of The Road Warriors (Animal & Hawk), Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, & Paul Ellering vs. The Four Horsemen (Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Tully Blanchard, & J. J. Dillon) from Jim Crockett Promotions’ Great American Bash 1987.

WWE also recently released two new videos to their WWE Vault channel on YouTube. The first new video was the full WWE Survivor Series 1991 event. The second new video was a Winner Takes All 5-on-5 Survivor Series Elimination match of Team WWE (The Rock, Chris Jericho, The Undertaker, Kane, & Big Show) vs. Team Alliance (Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Booker T, & Shane McMahon) from WWE Survivor Series 2001.