WWE Steal AEW Stars, Rhea Ripley Win, Joe Hendry NXT | WrestleTalk

Coming up... Top free agents might be choosing WWE over AEW A controversial WWE return  Joe Hendry returns to NXT and more. I’m Luke Owen and this is the WrestleTalk News.  Motor City Machine Guns Heading To WWE? Back in January, Impact Wrestling successfully  rebranded itself back to its TNA name,   and although went through a tumultuous  few weeks of bad news following the firing   of Scott D’Amore - the man credited with  much of TNA’s successful rebranding - it   now feels like the company is as hot as it was  in 2007-2010 due to its partnership with NXT.  But it wasn’t just D’Amore that left shortly  into the rebrand, as it was reported that   long-time TNA tag team The Motor City Machine  Guns were finishing up with the promotion. Both   Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin were also former  TNA World Heavyweight Champions, and thought   to be cornerstones of the promotion, having been  there since those early hot days in the mid-2000s.  The two have also been credited for changing  the tag team game. Many of the world’s best   tag teams currently have taken cues from  the work that Shelley and Sabin did in TNA,   ROH and various indie promotions around the  world. Fun fact about me, they were among the   first bits of wrestling merch I ever bought,  here’s a pic of me wearing my Machine Guns   t-shirt at a TNA house show in 2008. And if  we zoom out a bit you can see I’m holding the   TNA Tag Team Championships, and if you zoom  out a bit further there’s me with former TNA   president Dixie Carter. I was a big TNA mark. Back in April, Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam   reported that Shelley and Sabin,  now that they were free agents,   were finalising a deal with All Elite Wrestling. The pair had a long-standing on-screen rivalry   with The Young Bucks - dating back to TNA -  and they’d even featured on AEW’s All Out 2022,   teaming with Jay Lethal in a losing effort to The  Pinnacle of FTR and Wardlow. We all remember that,   of course, because there’s nothing else about  All Out 2022 that overshadowed the wrestling.  Haynes wrote in April, “I can now confirm that  the Motor City Machine Guns are headed to AEW.   Sources have told me that AEW and The Motor  City Machine Guns are working on finalizing   a deal. It was noted that the deal is not  going to be finalized for a bit. However,   the decision has been made and  a deal will be worked out.”  Well, it’s now July. And there hasn’t been  any Motor City Machine Guns debut in AEW,   nor any other news about them coming in. Which is why PWN’s recent report that   the pair might instead be heading  to WWE all the more interesting.  PWN - who recently reported the news of the  women’s midcard titles in WWE - posted on   Twitter on July 6th that Shelley and Sabin had  been in talks with WWE. Fightful Select have   since reported, “While we can't confirm  that Motor City Machine Guns have signed   anywhere, we have heard that there had been  conversations between them and major companies.”  While Sabin has never wrestled with WWE,  Shelley had a brief cameo with NXT reuniting   his TimeSplitters tag team with Kushida  in the 2020 Dusty Classic, losing in the   first round to the Grizzled Young Veterans. Alex Shelley has also posted on Instagram   that he is seemingly done with his indie dates,  which has led to speculation that the pair are   indeed signing with WWE over All Elite Wrestling.  However, PNW noted on Twitter: “Whether they end   up in WWE or AEW is still up in the air, there  has been nothing further told to us yet… This   seems to be the end of their Indie run though.” What do you think, would you like to see The   Motor City Machine Guns end up in AEW or  WWE, where if they go to NXT they would   hilariously be working with TNA again. And speaking of that NXTNA partnership.  Rascalz Reunite on NXT The last few months of NXT have seen various TNA  crossovers, with Frankie Kazarian featuring in the   battle royale, Jordynne Grace challenging for  the NXT Women’s Championship at Battleground,   and of course - say his name and  he appears - Joe Hendry [CLAP].  And one of the cameos that many  expected took place last night.  Last month Wes Lee was attacked backstage by  Gallus, meaning he would need some back-up. This   led to a lot of fan speculation that this would  be how his former Rascalz teammates of Zachary   Wentz and Trey Miguel would make their steps  through the NXT prohibitive portal. However, NXT   announced that Lee would be teaming with New Catch  Republic, and the reports from the time said this   was done to squash the Rascalz reunion rumours. But on last night’s NXT, we got just that.  After opening up about his loss to  Oba Femi at Heatwave, Lee teased the   idea of leaving NXT entirely, until he was  interrupted by his former Rascalz teammates,   and Wentz and Miguel came out to reunite their  group. They later had a segment with Gallus to   set up a six-man tag for next week’s show. When it was first rumoured that the Rascalz   might cameo in NXT, many pointed out that the  likelihood was low, given how Zachary Wentz   was the former Nash Carter in WWE, and was  released under controversial circumstances.  Carter and Lee were the tag team MSK in NXT in  2020, even winning the NXT Tag Team Championships   twice, but that second title reign were  shortened in 2022 when Carter’s ex-wife,   Kimber Lee, posted allegations of domestic  abuse, and posted a photo of him dressing up   as Adolf Hitler with Nazi imagery. Carter was released from WWE,   and went back to TNA under his Zachary Wentz  name. He was scheduled to be DLC for WWE2K22,   but that was removed following his release. Since then, Kimber Lee has spoken out about her   struggles during this period of time, speaking  with Piers Austin that she was struggling with   alcoholism, her bipolar disorder, and the  death of her friend Daffney. She also showed   some regret for getting Wentz fired saying, “Were  the consequences he had to face because of some   of the stuff I did pretty sh**ty? Yeah. Again,  like I said, I should have behaved differently,   I fully admit that.” AEW’s MJF also  called out Kimber Lee for her actions.  And this might be why, when reporting that The  Rascalz were coming in for last night’s NXT show,   Fightful Select reported, “WWE's stance on Wentz  appearing had softened well over a year ago.”  Wentz is also dating NXT’s Gigi Dolan, who  posted an emoji on Twitter about his NXT return.  But Wentz and Miguel were not the only  NXT cameos from TNA on last night’s show.  Joe Hendry Returns To NXT After going viral for his brief cameo in  the NXT battle royale a few weeks ago,   it had been reported that WWE were interested in  bringing Joe Hendry back for more appearances.   Fightful Select reported recently that  the plan was to feature Hendry “heavily”   on NXT shows over the next weeks and months. And on last night’s NXT, Joe Hendry was the   surprise tag partner for Trick Williams to take  on Team Ex-AEW of Ethan Page and Shawn Spears.  Hendry picked up the win over Spears after Page  bailed when he was chased off by Meta Four.  Hendry will also be part of a six-way match for  the TNA World Championship at Slammiversary,   with Moose, Frankie Kazarian, Nic  Nemeth, Steve Maclin and Josh Alexander.  Rhea Ripley Update Joe Hendry wasn’t the only one to return  to WWE this week, as Rhea Ripley made her   long-awaited return to WWE following  her injury just after WrestleMania.  The clip of Ripley’s return has now  passed 2 million views on YouTube.  And what will be a surprise to basically  no one, PWInsider are reporting that   Ripley is now officially listed as a  babyface on WWE’s internal reports,   which was not the case leading into WrestleMania. Speaking of Judgement Day, Fightful Select report   that Carlito is officially not part  of the group, as he’s not listed on   WWE’s internal documents with the faction. Lastly from notes from this past Raw, and Pat   Pat McAfee Heat McAfee returned to commentary this week after  taking a few weeks off to be with his family.  And it didn’t take long for Pat to do Pat things,  as during the broadcast he called Bron Breakker “a   brick s**t house”, fully swearing on commentary  which needed to be censored by USA Network.  While many thought this would get him  in trouble, Fightful Select report,   “There wasn't any heat on Pat McAfee for the  "Brick s**t house" line about Bron Breakker.”   Fightful also noted that not only did the line  get a chuckle from the Gorilla Position, but there   was even a joke that they ‘can’t wait to go to  Netflix’. Man, Pat’s lips will be loose once they   move to Netflix and there’s less restrictions. And speaking of the commentary team for WWE,   WWE’s New Commentator and The New York Post reported yesterday that  veteran ESPN voice Joe Tessitore was set to join   WWE. Hilariously, the Post didn’t know which  brand of Raw and SmackDown he’d be joining,   just that he’ll be leading a three-man booth with  Corey Graves and Wade Barrett. So, SmackDown then.  The New York Post also noted that this  was something of a full circle moment,   as Tessitore was a former media client  of current WWE president Nick Khan. He   also reportedly has a great relationship with  Triple H, and is a life-long wrestling fan.  WWE later confirmed the news, and confirmed that  he would be taking over as the lead commentator   for a three-man booth with Graves and Barrett.  Graves had previously stepped up to the lead   commentator role following the departure of  Kevin Patrick, and fans were quick to praise   how well he transitioned from colour commentary  to lead announcer, which is not an easy task.  WWE also confirmed in their press release that  Michael Cole and Pat McAfee will remain a team.  And while I made the joke about SmackDown  earlier, WWE’s own press release doesn’t   specifically state that the three-man booth  will be on SmackDown or Raw, or if Cole   and McAfee will move back to the blue brand. And today is the day! Today is the day where I   Gripebombs! finally prove once and for all that Steiner Maths  is a better promo than the CM Punk Pipebomb on our   new debate show over on partsFUNknown. We’re doing  this live, so click the link below to either get   ready for it or watch it unfold live depending  on when you watch this video. I am going to do   a huge debate all over Oli. Massive. A mass  debate, if you will, and I will handily win.