John Cena, WWE NOC, Hikuleo, Kross, Claudio, 3MB, MJF-MLW, TNA Producers, More

News and notes from around the wrestling world!

• Regarding John Cena's promo in Lexington that he self-buried on the Breakfast Club, one WWE producer sent the article to Fightful and said that was Cena's self diagnosis, as opposed to backstage perception.

• WWE talent are slated to take off a bit after the show for Night of Champions in order to be back for WWE Raw and Smackdown tapings in Pittsburgh.

• Hikuleo is in Saudi Arabia for this weekend's shows.

• After the rumors of Karrion Kross not back bumping persisted, producers had reached out to Fightful to say they hadn't ever had that issue. After we published that, talent also reached out to say they've not had any issues.

• There was a ton of praise for Abyss/Chris Park coming from WWE talent internally after his 2K25 character release and media tour.

• Claudio Castagnoli has time off due to personal reasons. Those we spoke to said they think he will be back in time for All In.

• The WWE Smackdown feed cut out during the Randy Orton/Cody Rhodes feed on the international broadcast this afternoon. The outage lasted over 30 minutes. We have a full report up.

• A picture of 3MB reuniting emerged today. Jinder Mahal aka Raj Dhesi is getting married. Congratulations to him!

• There was a heavy buzz behind the scenes at MLW on Thursday as MJF made a shocking return to attack Mistico. Those we spoke to were very happy with how it played out and how the event went. MLW has been drawing really good houses over the last year and a half.

• The clip of Dijak and MJF going around is from about seven years ago.

• Shotzi Blackheart has unfortunately had to pull from some bookings due to her injury. She will still be working select dates.

• We've heard of a lot of confusion regarding an element of WWE contracts as it pertains to Saudi Arabia events. Nobody that we spoke to is "bonused" for Saudi Arabia events as was the tradition when they started. Every WWE talent that we've spoken to say that the contract guarantees encompass that now, whether they end up making the trip or not.

• We have a new interview with Hollyhood Haley J up on Fightful at this link

• We also interviewed Abyss this week!

• Shotzi Blackheart was on In The Weeds this week.

• See our recent interview with Joe Hendry.

• We're still working on our website migration, we apologize for the inconvenience and the glitches.

• We have a new episode of Fightful Presents featuring Public Enemy up now on Youtube

WWE NOC

• Bet on this week's Night of Champions at MyBookie.AG. Use the code FIGHTFUL to get a $50 bonus on a $100 Deposit, or a $100 bonus on a $200 deposit.

• John Cena, Cody Rhodes, Jade Cargill, Sami Zayn, Rhea Ripley and Jacob Fatu were all MyBookie favorites to win at Night of Champions. Those are the official Fightful picks as well.

• As of today, CM Punk vs. John Cena was set to close WWE Night of Champions.

Fightful Select has obtained a rarity -- a producer list for this Friday's TNA tapings. This is the first time we've been able to procure these.

This week's IMPACT

• Joe Hendry and Santino Marella promo: Tommy Dreamer & Delirious

• Zach Wentz vs. Ryan Nemeth: Sami Callihan

• Knockouts Battle Royal: Tommy Dreamer & Jazz

• Sinner & Saint vs. Hardys: Ace Steel

• Moose vs. Shane Saber vs. Jake Painter: Cody Deaner

• AJ Francis vs. Mike Santana: Lance Storm

Additional TNA notes

• Leon Slater vs. Brian Myers (produced by Cody Deaner) and Jake Something vs. Mance Warner (produced by Tommy Dreamer) had their order swapped.

• Elijah had factored into the tapings before his injury

• There were a number of indie wrestlers and WWE talent backstage for the show.

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