Date: 02/24	11:00 PM
Views: 634

Thurs. #2 is HERE. To help out the site subscribe to Mistah MegaManFan or support us on Patreon. With the cheap plugs out of the way here's Friday's latest wrestling news.

Cesaro and WWE have parted ways. (PWI) Both sides were reportedly in negotiations for a new contract after his previous one expired, but Cesaro turned down the offer that they made him. (FF) As a result the man once known as Claudio Castagnoli is now an unrestricted free agent who can go anywhere he wants and work for anybody he wants, so keep your eyes open.

In this interview Shane Strickland (Sw3rve the Realest) says Roman Reigns spoke to him after B-Fab's WWE release: "As far as the act of Hit Row, it kind of lost all the soul to it. The heart was gone. You took the heart out of us. Without the heart, everything else kind of falls apart a little bit more. They also didn't give us the direction or a good enough amount of time to find our next heartbeat and get in the rhythm with everything. So it kinda just was like, 'Let's just do what they want, and see how long we can go with this before they make their next decision and move, and we can only adapt from there'. And I remember Roman Reigns talking to me about that, he hit me up in the hallway, he was like, 'Man I'm sorry about what happened, y'all losing the girl in your group man, that's heavy'. And I was like, 'Yeah man we just gotta find ways to adapt and overcome.' He's like, 'That's all you can do really.' And it was a real short conversation, it was just like that."

Jonathan Gresham says he may not be with ROH after April: "I have to wait until April to find out what Ring of Honor is going to do going forward. Are we going to be contracted to salaries again, or is it gonna be pay-per-appearance? I have a loyalty to Ring of Honor because it changed my life. I was going in a very bad direction for so many years, and me having tunnel vision on Ring of Honor saved my life. I don't know where I would be if it wasn't for Ring of Honor. So, if it could do that for me, I can only imagine that Ring of Honor can do that for others around the world - and also give the boys another place to make a living. So I definitely wanna wait see what Ring of Honor does, but at the end of the day I have to be honest and have to move on if they're not gonna be willing to contract talent."

In this interview Rhea Ripley talks about changing her look after the Mae Young Classic: "I went through a lot, mentally, behind the scenes. I was having troubles at home, at work, I hated myself. Very mentally weak at that point. I didn't feel like I was good enough. I was constantly being told I wasn't good enough and I had to do something to improve it. I was on the chopping block a couple of times and I nearly got booted. I just had a lot going on and I was very down. I want to say, I had a six month period and I was like, 'Eff this, I don't care what anybody thinks about me.' All they're going to do is judge me anyway and I can't listen to everyone because everyone's advice is clashing with other people's advice. I had to change my mental game completely. I started going to a gym, I signed up to an actual gym." Another Ripley interview is HERE.

New WWE related videos are available below.

In addition new AEW videos can also be found below.

In this interview Drew McIntyre talks about coming back so fast from his neck injury: "I think everybody, including the doctor, was surprised at how soon I was able to come back. They told me, 'You're not making the Rumble. WrestleMania is possible, but let's say it's unlikely right now.' 'Okay Doc, no problem. I went straight to rehab and I've always had the John Cena approach to rehab with every injury. What's the most I can do for maximum benefit? 'Well, you could come twice a day for six days a week, but that would be crazy.' 'Done.' I did that, rehab-wise, twice a day, six days a week, while also working out, so three times a day, six days a week, take Sunday off. When I saw the doctor a few weeks later, they were like, 'Alright, wow, you're a cyborg, probably why you were called the Scottish Terminator. I guess you're ready to go."

Mojo Rawley talks about being released from WWE while he had COVID-19: "We're doing mass firings, you know, left and right. You know, there seems not necessarily to be a rhyme or reason for it. I gotta get my ass back to work or else I'll be in the next group. You know? I gotta go back and prove my worth and show them why I should still have a contract and I just was not in a position to do that. And then part of me too, was like, 'I don't want to go back until I'm ready. Because if I go out there and my lungs give out in a match and I'm dragging it and my whole thing is I stayed hyped and I'm the hype man and I got all the energy and now I'm the guy that's blown up'. Exactly, so I was like, I don't know what's better, to try and go back with them knowing that I'm recovering, or just to do something or to wait until I'm 100 and get back to business as usual."

Dax Harwood says FTR turned down a "big money offer" to stay with WWE: "Money is incredible, but I talked to my grandma and I was telling her my issues, 'I'm not happy, but the money is great.' Her exact words to me were, 'How much money do you really need?' That was such an eye-opening experience for me. I'm college educated, two degrees, 'yeah, you're exactly right.' It sounds like I'm bitter, but I'm not at all, we just weren't happy. Not just us, but they weren't giving any of the tag teams the opportunity that we thought it deserved. We knew we would be stuck in a certain position if we stayed there. For years and years, I have prayed every night to be a professional wrestler and I take it very seriously. Knowing they weren't going to give us the opportunities that we thought we deserved, we had to get out of there. We talked about it and they kept throwing more money at us and more money, I called my wife and told her, 'This is the amount of money they offered us, I don't think we're going to take it.' She said, 'No money is worth your happiness, do what you want.'"

EC3 explains why he came back for another stint in WWE: "I would have loved to be in the ring with John Cena and Randy Orton. That's the only reason I came back. Because I remember seeing that promo between Roman and Cena before Cena left for a good while. I remember, I knew how John worked, he's very much in the moment. They're not writing for him. Speaking from here, I'm like, 'God, if this was me, it would be, this would be electric,' because I kind of work the same way. But it wasn't, and it was good. But that's what made me want, I've got to give it a shot to go back and do that. That never happened. Now, I mean maybe, because seeing Control Your Narrative's not really a wrestling promotion, maybe call the Peacemaker's agent, have him come down to the Narrative and I could kick his ass. What a great show."

AEW has reportedly picked up the one year option to renew Brian Cage's contract. (WO)

WWE and A&E Network will reportedly be announcing a new season of Biography soon featuring more WWE superstars. (PWI)

This week's episode of Dynamite did 1.01 million, a 16% increase from last week's 869,000 viewers. The 18-49 demo was a 0.40 rating, up 27% from 0.31 the week before. (Wrestlenomics)

Here's the lineup for NXT Level Up this week. (WWE)

* Jacket Time vs. Joe Gacy and Harland
* Xyon Quinn vs. James Drake
* Sarray vs. Elektra Lopez

Angelico says he suffered a torn ACL and meniscus at the end of 2021. Our best wishes to him on his rehab and recovery.

Jeff Hardy says "nothing is official" yet regarding him going to AEW.

The card for next week's NXT UK is below. (WWE)

* NXT UK Championship Match: Ilja Dragunov vs. Nathan Frazer
* Mark Coffey vs. Sha Samuels
* Pretty Deadly vs. Jack Starz and Dave Mastiff

Here's a new Street Profits interview.

Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey will be night one of WrestleMania 38. (WWE)

Here's a new Davey Richards interview plus the latest Before The Impact and MLW Fusion.

The announced SmackDown lineup is below. (WWE)

* Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns WrestleMania contract signing
* Sami Zayn's Intercontinental Championship celebration
* Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss

Here's a new Sean Waltman (X-Pac) interview.

Eddie Edwards will face Rhino and Moose will face Heath (Slater) at Sacrifice. Here's the updated card. (IW)

* Impact World Championship Match: Moose vs. Heath
* Impact X Division Championship Match: Trey Miguel vs. Jake Something
* Impact World Tag Team Championship Match: The Good Brothers vs. Violent By Design
* Impact Knockouts World Tag Team Championship Match: The IInspiration vs. The Influence
* Jonah vs. PCO
* Eddie Edwards vs. Rhino
* Alex Shelley vs. Jay White

To the surprise of no one Bobby Lashley is no longer listed for the MSG show. (WWE)