WWE: Bayley Competes at 7/25 WWE Live Event, AJ Styles Reveals Several Wrestlers He Brought In For WWE Tryouts During SummerSlam 2026 Weekend, CM Punk Teases Making Potential Appearance At WWE x AAA Worlds Collide Event In Chicago

Jul 26, 2026

Bayley Competes at July 25 WWE Live Event

As noted before, this past Monday’s WWE RAW show in Detroit, Michigan featured Valkyria announcing in a Netflix exclusive ad break interview segment that she had dropped the dead weight and ran Bayley out of WWE after her victory over Bayley and post-match attack at the July 18th WWE Saturday Night Main Event show. Bayley’s contract with WWE is currently set to expire at the end of this year. Bayley was recently removed and replaced with Ivy Nile for WWE’s advertisement for their upcoming talent tryouts package during SummerSlam 2026 weekend.

Saturday’s WWE Summer Tour 2026 house show event in Stockton, California featured Bayley competing in her first match since her recent loss to Valkyria at the WWE Saturday Night Main Event show.

Bayley faced off against Valkyria and Sol Ruca and Lyra Valkyria in a Triple Threat match at the event.

Andddd there’s footage (filmed with a toaster) https://t.co/HKwHb4jybD pic.twitter.com/EFj0JUdfRI
— Danny (@dajosc11) July 26, 2026

AJ Styles Reveals Several Wrestlers He Brought In For WWE Tryouts During SummerSlam 2026 Weekend

A recent episode of The Phenomenally Retro podcast featured WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles revealing that he has brought in several indies wrestlers for WWE’s upcoming new talent tryouts during SummerSlam 2026 weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“I have yet to be able to get to a tryout because I want to know exactly what goes into this. I’m just curious. How do we go about picking cause it’s not just independent workers who are going to get in this tryout. It’s athletes from college, D1 athletes normally, getting tryouts, too. I want to see what goes on. I want to see what they see when they decide this is the person that we want. I know that I have brought in certain guys and girls that may not meet the standards of height and weight that they’re looking for. But it’s what I see that I think that makes them special and I think they deserve an opportunity to be looked at …
As far as I know, as far as the tryout, as far as independent workers who had some time in the ring, they will have matches just like a show. Conan Lycan is definitely one that I just took a picture with him. We got to have a little workout with him the other day when I was down in Florida. CTB (Colton Theron Vaught), he’s another one. Colton, he’s a pro wrestler/MMA guy. So, in fantastic shape. Not the biggest guy, but he looks a little crazy to me and I like that about him. Joe Lando is a high flyer, reminds me very much of the Amazing Red. If you don’t remember Amazing Red, then just think of Rey Mysterio. He reminds me of that. He can do almost anything. Then I got some girls. Monica Ladybird that I that I saw and I was like, ‘Wow, she’s super athletic.’ So just a just a couple of these men and women that I have. … Brooke Havoc is my last one. … She looks so different than everything that I’ve seen in wrestling right now because a lot of what I see especially down in the PC, I’ve been blonde hair blue eyes [guy] where she is kind of that emo look to her. She’s dark haired, just different. I like that about her. She was, I think, actually the first one that I wanted to get on trial. She was my first pick. I was just on an indie show checking out other talent and she was on it. I was like who is this? So I’m really excited.”

In response to a question from co-host Tony Giles about what advice he would give to the wrestlers who don’t get selected during the next WWE tryouts, Styles responded stating:

“I’m so glad you asked that, too, because that’s a reality. That is a reality of what could happen. But, like you and I have talked about so much, what a great time to be a wrestling fan, cause there’s so much of it going on. So many opportunities to go and do this for a living that I think that, you know, TNA, AEW, you name it. Like, Japan, there’s other places that we’re able to go and do this. It’s not over.
You’re still young. There’s still opportunities. So, I just hope that people realize that don’t freaking let it break you, cause they didn’t pick AJ Styles up, either. When WCW got bought out by WWE, they did not pick up my contract. I went back to the Indies. A couple months, WCW went out of business or got bought in 2001. By 2002, TNA had started up, June of 2002, and I was able to get a job there and was there for 11 years. We know the rest of the story.
So, it’s not over. Everything happens exactly the way it’s supposed to. I promise you that. So, don’t stress about the trial. Go out. Here’s what I’ve told some of my guys, ‘I didn’t want you because I thought you could be something that WWE wants you to be. I selected you because I liked you, the character. So, be you when you do this trial. Don’t be what you think WWE wants you to be.’”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

CM Punk Teases Making Potential Appearance At WWE x AAA Worlds Collide Event In Chicago

As noted before, WWE is currently scheduled to be holding their next WWE x AAA Worlds Collide event on September 26 in Chicago, Illinois. This upcoming event is notable for taking place on the same date and city as AEW’s All Out 2026 event.

Ringside Collectables held a recent interview with Undisputed WWE Champion CM Punk at this week’s San Diego Comic-Con 2026 convention. One of the topics discussed included Punk’s thoughts about him making a potential appearance in Lucha Libre AAA in the future.

“I think it’s super cool. I think it’s also really timely because we uh you know, our sister promotion, AAA, is branching out and they’re doing stuff. I think TripleMania is going to be partly in Las Vegas this year. We just announced a show for them at the Allstate Arena. So it might be the perfect time for me to kind of dip my toe in the AAA pool. I’ve worn a mask before. I’ve gotten my head shaved in a mask versus hair match before. We can set the table and we can do it all over again in 2026.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com