Wrestling Roundup: September 5, 2020

The Wrestling Roundup is here to bring you all the news and rumors you need to know in one place.

WWE SmackDown Results

This week’s SmackDown was notable for one big thing: Roman Reigns breaking his silence. The Big Dog started off the show and stated that this is his island. He will show up, wreck everyone and leave. Listen to the promo here:

Here are the full results from Friday’s SmackDown:

• Heavy Machinery def. Miz & Morrison
• Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax (c) def. Bayley & Sasha Banks to retain the Women’s Tag Team Championships
• Jey Uso def. King Corbin, Sheamus & Matt Riddle to become #1 Contender for the WWE Universal Championship

Also on the show, it finally happened. Bayley turned on Sasha Banks. After losing in their quest to regain the tag team championships, Bayley blamed Sasha. Banks had injured her leg during the match, and when she pushed away medics Bayley looked to help her. Instead, she wiped out her former best friend. She even Pillmanized Banks with a steel chair. This feud is going to be intense.

WWE Restricting Superstars Work With “Third Party Companies”

Vince McMahon is threatening to punish talent who work with third party companies like TikTok, Twitch or Cameo. According to WrestlingInc, WWE had a call on Sunday with talent where they said they owned talent’s legal names and not just their gimmick names. This was followed by a letter from Vince that gave wrestlers 30 days to stop engaging with third parties. Vince said that wrestlers “are engaged with outside third parties using your name and likeness in ways that are detrimental to our company,” and threatened them with suspensions, fines, or termination.

This is likely against the law, based on the fact that WWE wrestlers are still considered independent contractors. It’s also monumentally stupid. The work of WWE stars on other avenues like TikTok and Twitch likely bring more viewers to WWE’s product. While they are not as controlled on those separate avenues, WWE is shooting themselves in the foot by saying they have full control over these wrestler’s lives. A terrible move by WWE overall.

AEW All Out Card

AEW is presenting All Out on Saturday night, and the card is fully stacked. It should be an incredible show, and we’ll have coverage of it here on the site. Here is the full card:

• Private Party vs Dark Order
• Britt Baker vs Big Swole – Tooth & Nail Match
• The Young Bucks vs Jurassic Express
• Matt Hardy vs Sammy Guevara – Broken Rules Match, if Hardy loses he leaves AEW
• Dark Order vs Matt Cardona, Scorpio Sky & Natural Nightmares
• Casino Battle Royale Match
• Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy – Mimosa Mayhem Match
• Kenny Omega & Adam Page (c) vs FTR – AEW Tag Team Championship Match
• Hikaru Shida (c) vs Thunder Rosa – AEW Women’s Championship
• Jon Moxley (c) vs MJF – AEW World Championship

AOP Released

WWE has released Akam & Rezar, the tag team known as Authors of Pain. The two were one-time Raw Tag Team Champions and one-time NXT Tag Team Champions. WWE releasing these two is a bit of a surprise, but both have struggled with injury concerns. Should they want to continue on in wrestling, both could have a great number of opportunities available to them. They’d be a great addition to the already stacked Impact tag team division.

One for the Road:

This teaser played during SmackDown this week. Who is the mystery person in heels, and how excited are you for Eva Marie’s return?

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🤔 🤔#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/a1Wcy667Rc

— WWE (@WWE) September 5, 2020