WWE Contract News, Friday Rumor Roundup, News Update and DEBUNKATHON: Andrade, Sareee, Booker T-Jade Cargill, Smackdown Ref, Mercedes

Welcome to Fightful's new Friday tradition: the rumor roundup and DEBUNKATHON. Subscribers get access to this fun-filled extravaganza of shithousery. In the paid portion, we also have details on a WWE contract. Subscribe and support our original coverage

Welcome to Fightful's new Friday tradition: the rumor roundup and DEBUNKATHON. Subscribers get access to this fun-filled extravaganza of shithousery. In the paid portion, we also have details on a WWE contract. Subscribe and support our original coverage

WWE Contract

WWE is all in on Bronson Reed.

Bronson Reed returned to WWE in 2022 after a successful run in New Japan Pro Wrestling. What followed was an even more successful run in WWE, with him involved in the top angles on WWE Raw over the last couple of years, and winning Fightful’s Finisher of the Year award for 2024.

When asking around about contracts, we were told that Bronson Reed actually already re-signed with WWE “quite a long time ago.” Sources that originally let us know about the news said that he signed on a multi-year deal. This came about as people were discussing how long was left on his deal.

Even though time has already been ticking on the new deal, we’re told he’s worked himself to be in a position to get another new deal in the next year or so.

News

• We're told that Andrade's AEW contract was finalized in the last week, but some of the creative was planned out ahead of that.
  

• Sareee is expected to compete more in the United States in the near future.
  

• There were a number of talent across WWE, TNA, and AEW all baffled by Booker T's "fresh out of AEW" comment regarding Jade Cargill. Cargill has wrestled more matches in WWE than she has AEW.
  

• TNA has had a heavy media scheduled to promote next week's Bound For Glory.
  

• One source in wXw noted to Corey Brennan the situation involving Marius Al-Ani using a Nazi marching song on TikTok was "super frustrating after everything." wXw quickly acted, stripping him of the wXw championship and stating they would not be working with Al Ani going forward.
  

• Je'Von Evans and Darkstate are in Cincinnati, the site of tonight's Smackdown.

• This week MLW is going out to Nashville to do site surveys at a few buildings. They're exploring a possible residency.

• Expect a new face or two to pop up at the MLW LA show this Saturday night.

• Mads Krule Krugger masks will be hitting MLW merch soon. It’s one of the most requested masks in the company among fans, along with Mistico.

• MLW sold out the Long Beach show yesterday. They've arranged with Thunder Studios Arena to add standing room tickets.

  
  
  Notes
  
  

• Other outlets reported on Andrade's wellness violation, firing and lack of non-compete this week. However, Fightful Select and Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated reported these details over two weeks ago. Since it wasn't credited, there were conspiracy theories linking WWE to leaking this news after Andrade's AEW debut. That didn't happen. It was just a case of an outlet re-reporting that news and not crediting, and some attention spans being short.
  

Rumor Roundup

• Wrestling Observer noted that Kenny Omega's physical situation is not 100%. From everything we've heard, it will never quite be 100% again, and he'll pretty well always be wrestling through pain and issues.
  

• Observer reported that Tony D'Angelo asked for time off.
  

• PWInsider reported that Trent has been sidelined from AEW action for the last couple of months with an arm injury. We haven't confirmed the injury, but there are hopes for him to wrestle in the coming months as they're setting up a Big Boom AJ and Big Justice program for Full Gear.
  

Facebook Rumor Debunkathon

• There were unusual facebook claims going around that “WWE made the decision to not fire” the referee from the Smackdown botch. There was no decision. They were never going to. This wasn’t a thing that got brought up and was heavily discussed.
  

• There's a very stupid page called "Wrestling News Now" that everyone should block, claiming Mercedes Mone is pregnant. That isn't true. If you aggregate this rumor killer, you're also an idiot.
  

• There were many pages claiming Braun Strowman is scheduled to portray Jason Voorhees. This isn't true. He wants to, and said he hoped he could resume talks in order to do so.