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BY SACNILK

JBL has opened up about the start of his rise to the WWE Championship, explaining that while he finally received the opportunity he had been waiting for, having Eddie Guerrero across the ring from him gave the newly created JBL character exactly what it needed. JBL and Guerrero became one of WWE’s central rivalries in 2004 after Bradshaw was repackaged as the wealthy and outspoken John “Bradshaw” Layfield. Guerrero was WWE Champion at the time, while JBL was attempting to establish himself as a singles star following the end of the APA. Their rivalry eventually led to JBL defeating Guerrero for the WWE Championship at The Great American Bash. While speaking on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet about how the opportunity came together, JBL admitted he knew WWE was giving him a chance, but repeatedly credited the timing and Guerrero for helping everything fall into place. “I knew I was going to have the opportunity. Yeah, absolutely. I knew I’d have the opportunity. I knew because they made the character for Eddie Guerrero. So, I knew I had the opportunity. They called me specifically for—we got a match at Staples Center in six weeks, eight weeks, whenever it was. And I just got lucky.” Ron Simmons immediately pushed back against JBL describing himself as lucky. Simmons argued that his longtime APA partner had spent years preparing for the opportunity, including working around the world before eventually finding his place in WWE. “No, he didn’t get lucky, man. Listen, he didn’t get lucky. Too humble. No, no, he didn’t get lucky. Like I said before, okay, and which is cool, I understand where he coming from. Well, he had put his work in. Okay. Germany, Japan, traveling all around, doing the things that people don’t get to see, living in and out of a car, sleazy ass hotels and motel and that kind of thing, right?” Simmons believed everything lined up at exactly the right point in JBL’s career. The APA had reached its conclusion, and WWE suddenly needed someone to work opposite Guerrero. “It was a absolute perfect moment for that. Any other phase, I believe, would have altered that run that he had. The timing was perfect. He was prepared for it.” JBL agreed that the way the APA ended helped put him in position for the opportunity. However, he again credited Guerrero when discussing whether the new character would actually succeed. “Ron had set me up perfectly with the way that the APA quit, you know, and all of a sudden you needed somebody for Eddie Guerrero and Vince called me and asked me if I wanted to take a shot at it and so I knew I had the chance. Now whether he was going to be successful or not, you know, was up to what was going to happen in that match.” Guerrero’s involvement extended beyond simply being JBL’s opponent. JBL recalled that Guerrero enjoyed the character and would even call him with ideas for things JBL could say or do during their rivalry. “Eddie loved the JBL character. You know, he called me one time. He’s like 2 o’clock in the morning. He goes, ‘Essay, I got something for you.’” The partnership between the two ultimately helped turn JBL from one half of the APA into a WWE Champion. JBL may still describe himself as fortunate to have received the opportunity, but Simmons made his position clear: the years of work had prepared JBL for it, and the timing of the APA ending and Guerrero needing a new opponent allowed everything to come together.

BY SACNILK

Pat McAfee appears to have closed the door on another WWE run. After spending years as a commentator, wrestler, referee and manager, McAfee has now made it clear that fans should not expect to see him back on WWE television. The former NFL punter addressed his WWE future on Instagram Stories, after a fan asked whether he could return within the next year. McAfee pointed back to his WrestleMania 42 storyline involving Randy Orton and said there was only one scenario in which things could have been different. “If Randy had won, maybe, but I made a promise that I would never, ever. I would never be seen on WWE television ever again, and Cody Rhodes won. He is the one. Wow, what a donkey he turned out to be. Maybe I was wrong with what I was saying.” McAfee said. At WrestleMania 42, McAfee was involved in Orton’s story against Cody Rhodes. Rhodes defeated Orton to retain the Undisputed WWE Championship, meaning McAfee’s storyline ended with him following through on his promise. McAfee then made his position even clearer when discussing Rhodes, saying, “And Cody Rhodes won. He is the one. Wow, what a donkey he turned out to be. Maybe I was wrong with what I was saying.” Despite leaving the door open hypothetically if Orton had won, McAfee insisted that he has no plans to return. “But no, wrestling fans can sleep soundly understanding that I will never be back over there,” he stated. McAfee had already spoken about his WWE career shortly after WrestleMania 42, explaining that he felt he had completed everything he wanted to do in wrestling. He pointed to his time on the independent scene, his NXT developmental run, commentary work and his appearances as a wrestler, referee and manager.

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Paul Heyman has opened up about a private moment involving Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker following Lesnar’s latest WWE appearance, revealing why a phone call between the two meant so much to the legendary wrestler. Brock Lesnar’s latest WWE chapter came to an end at SummerSlam 2026, where he faced Oba Femi inside Hell in a Cell in what became his final match. After the bout, Lesnar raised Femi’s hand and called him the future, adding another memorable moment to the closing chapter of his WWE career. The loss came after Lesnar and Femi had already met twice, making their SummerSlam encounter the deciding match in their rivalry. Femi ultimately defeated Lesnar by pinfall inside Hell in a Cell, with the victory being presented as a passing-of-the-torch moment for the younger WWE star. During an appearance on Six Feet Under, Heyman joined The Undertaker and discussed Lesnar’s WWE journey, his relationship with the former WWE Champion, and what he believes makes Lesnar’s connection to the wrestling business different from how many fans perceive it. The conversation eventually turned to a phone call Lesnar made to The Undertaker shortly after SummerSlam. Heyman then explained why he felt the phone call was necessary. “There is a code of honor in this industry that if you are in there with someone that you can't even stand on a personal level, but you stand on the chair and you fall backwards, you know that person is going to catch you.” Heyman said that, in his view, the wrestling business has an unwritten code of trust between performers. Even when wrestlers may not have a close personal relationship, they still understand the responsibility that comes with sharing the ring and putting their safety in each other’s hands. “That phone call was a must,” Heyman said. “And I couldn't imagine the day going by without that phone call being placed.” The Undertaker appeared to agree with Heyman’s assessment, saying the gesture meant a great deal to him as an “old timer.” He also suggested that the moment showed another side of Lesnar that fans do not always get to see. The discussion came while Heyman and The Undertaker were reflecting on Lesnar’s career and his recent chapter in WWE. Heyman noted that Lesnar has often been portrayed as someone motivated primarily by money, contracts or his own schedule, but he believes that view overlooks Lesnar’s genuine respect for professional wrestling. Heyman pointed specifically to the phone call as evidence that Lesnar understands the traditions of the business. “I think he genuinely had to love this business,” The Undertaker said during the conversation, explaining how the call reinforced his view of Lesnar’s passion. Heyman also connected Lesnar’s relationship with current WWE star Oba Femi to the way he once worked with Lesnar himself. According to Heyman, Lesnar has now reached a point in his career where he understands the responsibility of passing knowledge and guidance to the next generation. The conversation also revisited Lesnar’s most famous WrestleMania accomplishment: ending The Undertaker’s undefeated WrestleMania streak at WrestleMania 30. Heyman argued that, regardless of everything else Lesnar achieved in wrestling and combat sports, that victory will always remain one of the defining moments of his career. He pointed out that Lesnar was an NCAA Division I heavyweight champion, became a WWE Champion, won the UFC Heavyweight Championship and competed in multiple WrestleMania main events. Yet, according to Heyman, none of those accomplishments compare with defeating The Undertaker at WrestleMania 30. “It’s the greatest claim to fame,” Heyman said. “And it always will be when it comes to Brock Lesnar.”

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Booker T has weighed in on the controversy surrounding Avery Styles, arguing that the young wrestler should not have been criticized for refusing to help set up a wrestling ring before a match. The WWE Hall of Famer discussed the situation on The Hall of Fame podcast after Avery became involved in an online dispute with a promoter over his alleged refusal to help with chairs and other event setup. Avery Styles, 19, wrestled Marcus Mathers at a GCW event in Minneapolis on August 1. The situation later spilled onto social media after promoter Arik Cannon criticised Styles for allegedly not helping with the show's setup. Booker T said the entire situation made little sense to him, especially because Styles was being brought in as talent rather than as a student. “I got a wrestling promotion. I hire talent to come in every month. Even talent that live in Houston, and they don't set up a damn thing. Now, we got a crew. We got students that's coming up, that's trying to make their way in the business, and perhaps they were one of those students once upon a time that did that. But if they're talent on the show, they're well past that.” Booker then explained how he handles outside talent at Reality of Wrestling. “If I'm hiring out someone from another state and they're coming in, they're flying in or they're driving in or whatever, they're just coming in for the show. They're not coming in to set the ring up and take it down. That's ridiculous.” For Booker, there is a clear difference between a wrestling student learning the business and a wrestler who has already been booked to perform on a show. He went even further when discussing what he expects from wrestlers appearing at Reality of Wrestling. “As far as somebody coming to Reality of Wrestling, I would not be expecting them to show up to set the chairs up or take them down or bust a ring or any of that. And it's never been that way at Reality of Wrestling.” Booker also questioned why the dispute became a public issue in the first place. In his view, disagreements over backstage responsibilities should not have turned into an online controversy. “I don't want to, you know, bash anybody's company or anything like that, but for this to be a story out there, somebody's ass should be fired. That's the way I look at it.” The two-time WWE Hall of Famer acknowledged that some parts of the wrestling business have traditionally viewed helping with setup as a way of “paying dues.” However, he does not believe that should automatically apply to booked talent.

BY SACNILK

Mumbai, August 18 - Ektaa Kapoor is set to take her hugely popular Naagin franchise beyond television, with the iconic supernatural series now reportedly being developed for the big screen. The filmmaker teased the development on August 17, marking a major new chapter for a franchise that has dominated Indian television for more than a decade. The announcement comes on the occasion of Nag Panchami and has immediately sparked curiosity among fans about what a theatrical version could look like. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) The Naagin television franchise began in 2015 and has since completed seven seasons, establishing itself as one of the country's most recognisable supernatural properties. The series, produced by Ektaa Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor under Balaji Telefilms, revolves around shape-shifting serpents and has featured several leading television actresses in its various seasons. Balaji Telefilms has itself described Naagin 1 through Naagin 7 as an extremely successful mystical-fantasy franchise. For now, the big-screen project remains shrouded in mystery. Details regarding the cast, director, storyline and others have not been revealed. This leaves the biggest question unanswered — who will play the next Naagin on the big screen? Given the franchise's popularity, speculation about a major Bollywood actress taking on the iconic role is already expected to intensify. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) Interestingly, the idea of turning Naagin into a feature film is not entirely new. Ektaa Kapoor has previously spoken about wanting to develop a cinematic version of the property, with reports suggesting that she had even approached major Bollywood names in the past. However, this latest announcement appears to signal that the franchise is finally ready to make the transition from television to cinema. The timing could also make the project particularly interesting. Bollywood has increasingly embraced fantasy, supernatural stories and established IPs, while Naagin already comes with a massive audience and years of built-in recognition. A theatrical adaptation would allow the makers to significantly expand the scale of its mythology, action and visual effects compared with television. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}) View this post on Instagram A post shared by EktaaRkapoor (@ektarkapoor)

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Solo Sikoa made a shocking decision on Monday’s episode of WWE Raw, refusing to fall back in line with Roman Reigns before turning against his former Bloodline leader. Sikoa then left the ring alongside LA Knight after helping take down Roman and The Usos. The segment had been set up by Jey Uso’s victory over Sikoa the previous week. As part of their agreement, Jey was supposed to deliver Solo to Roman Reigns, leading to the long-awaited meeting between the two family members on Raw. WWE had promoted the confrontation throughout the week. Roman eventually came face-to-face with Solo and made it clear that he expected Sikoa to return to his side. The situation broke down when LA Knight entered the picture, bringing the Usos and Jacob Fatu into the confrontation. Roman ordered Solo to deal with Knight, but Sikoa refused to follow the order. Instead, Solo hit Roman with a Samoan Spike, turning the confrontation against The Bloodline. Knight then joined Solo as the fight spread around the ring. Solo and Knight eventually cleared the ring and walked away together. Knight offered Solo a fist bump, which Sikoa accepted before telling him, “Thank you.” Jacob Fatu remained in the corner and did not help Roman or The Usos during the final moments. The ending leaves Solo Sikoa on his own rather than returning to Roman Reigns, while LA Knight now appears to have an unexpected ally against The Bloodline.

BY SACNILK

A Hindi release in 2026 ran its entire final promo push through Instagram stories. Cast reactions from the trailer launch, a choreographer walking through a hook step, three days of city-by-city footage, a producer's voice note the morning tickets opened. Roughly forty story frames across eight accounts. None of it survived the week. Stories expire in 24 hours, and whoever was supposed to archive them was busy running the campaign. This is now a routine problem for anyone who tracks film publicity, runs a fan account, or writes about box office and needs the promo trail intact after the fact. Why highlights do not solve it Highlights look like the answer. Save a story to a highlight and it stays on the profile indefinitely. Two things break that. First, only the account owner can create a highlight, so a fan page or a trade writer has no control over what gets kept. Second, highlights get pruned. Publicity teams routinely clear them out between releases so a profile does not carry last film's campaign into the next one's. Content that sat in a highlight for three months can vanish in an afternoon. The archiving habit that works Pull the frames the day they go up. Not the week they go up, the day. An instagram story saver takes a username, loads whatever stories are currently live on that profile, and lets you save the frames as files. Video comes down as MP4, stills as JPG. No login involved, which matters if you are monitoring twenty accounts and have no business signing into any of them. Three tools handle this. Ranked by how little they get in the way: 1. FastDL. Loads the full current set on one screen, saves at whatever resolution was uploaded, no account prompt. 2. iGram. Works, though it wants the link pasted a second time often enough to notice across a long session. 3. StoriesIG. Gets the frames, then spends your patience on redirect tabs. The ordering matters less than the habit. Any of them beats discovering on Thursday that Monday's content is gone. What the resolution actually depends on The file you get back matches what was uploaded. Instagram stories cap at 1080 by 1920 pixels, and a lot of promo content lands well below that because it was exported for speed on a launch day. If a frame came out of a phone editing app at 720p, that is what saves. Worth knowing before you blame the tool. Nothing reconstructs pixels that were never uploaded. The line that matters for anyone publishing Archiving a public story for reference is one thing. Republishing it is another, and which tool pulled the file makes no difference to that distinction. Promo material is usually intended to travel, which is why studios put it on Instagram in the first place. That still is not a licence to lift a frame and post it as original content. Credit the account. And if you are using footage rather than a still, check what is playing underneath it: a promo clip cut over a released track carries the label's rights as well as the studio's, and the label is the party that files complaints. This trips up fan pages more than trade coverage, because fan pages are the ones reposting video. A still frame with a credit line rarely causes anyone trouble. A 15-second clip with a chart single over it can. Restricted profiles sit outside all of this. Where an account has closed its audience, those stories are not served to outsiders at all, and any site advertising otherwise wants your password rather than your traffic. What to actually set up If you cover releases regularly, the workflow is dull and takes four minutes a day. Open the saver, run through your list of tracked accounts, pull anything new, drop it in a folder named for the film. By release week you have the entire promo trail sitting locally while everyone else is searching for a reel that expired on Tuesday. Two details make the difference between a folder that helps later and one that does not. Name files by date and account at the moment you save them, not afterwards. A folder of forty clips called video_1 through video_40 is almost as useless as no folder. Two seconds of typing while the download completes turns it into something searchable in six months. And pull the whole set, including the frames that look like nothing. Story sequences make sense as sequences: the frame that seemed like filler on Monday often turns out to be the first time a release date appeared on screen. Storage is cheap and judgment on launch day is bad. The accounts that keep this discipline end up with better archives than the studios whose campaigns they are tracking, which says something about how the industry treats its own material.

BY SACNILK

Chad Gable vs. Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship is officially set for tomorrow night's WWE Raw. The title match headlines a stacked card that also features tournament action, a Roman Reigns appearance, and fallout from the Jey Uso–Solo Sikoa stipulation match. WWE Raw General Manager Adam Pearce announced it in an Instagram post ahead of Monday's show, which airs live from the KeyBank Centre in Buffalo, New York. The match itself came together after Gable won the Intercontinental Championship at SummerSlam by defeating Penta. On the following episode of Raw, Gable approached Mysterio backstage, calling him "the greatest luchador of all time" and offering him the first shot at the title. Mysterio, currently balancing in-ring competition with his role as General Manager of AAA, accepted the challenge on the spot, and Gable said he'd get Pearce to make it official — which he has now done for tomorrow's show. It marks just the second-ever singles meeting between the two, with their first coming back in October 2022. The rest of the card is loaded around the ongoing World Heavyweight Championship picture. Two first-round matches in the No. 1 Contender's Tournament are set, with Dragon Lee taking on El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., and Rey Fenix squaring off against El Fiscal, as WWE continues narrowing the field for a future shot at Roman Reigns' title. Reigns himself is advertised to appear on the show. Also on tap is a women's division matchup between Sol Ruca and Lyra Valkyria, along with continued fallout from Jey Uso's win over Solo Sikoa, as the Bloodline storyline moves toward Reigns' return.

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Roxanne Perez has opened up about her transformation from a young WWE hopeful into one of the company's most confident villains, revealing how her mindset completely changed after she stopped looking up to the stars she once idolized. Perez discussed her character evolution during an appearance on Not Sam Wrestling Live, where she explained that she was once simply happy to be a WWE Superstar. However, she eventually realized that admiring other wrestlers would not help her achieve the level of success she wanted. “I went from being someone that was just happy to be here. I was just like all of you guys sitting in the crowd, just hoping to be a WWE Superstar one day, and looking up to all the wrestlers,” Perez said. Perez specifically mentioned AJ Lee, Bayley and Paige as wrestlers she looked up to when she was younger. Her attitude toward those stars has changed considerably, though, as she now sees herself as someone capable of surpassing the women who inspired her. That change in mindset has also played a major role in her current heel character. Rather than trying to win over the WWE Universe, Perez has embraced her arrogance and believes she is already operating at a different level. “This is the best I've ever felt in my entire career,” Perez said. Her transformation has coincided with her run as a member of The Judgment Day. Perez joined the faction in 2025 and became part of its women's division alongside Raquel Rodriguez. The group has given her a prominent role on WWE's main roster, and Perez believes it has helped her avoid becoming another young talent who gets lost in the shuffle. Perez also defended The Judgment Day against the constant speculation that the faction is heading toward a breakup. She argued that the group's internal disagreements should not be confused with a lack of loyalty. “Families fight, right? Brothers, sisters, parents, kids, we all fight. But that doesn't mean that we won't stick by each other when we need each other,” Perez explained. “We're family. And a win for one is a win for all.” Perez's confidence has now reached the point where she is openly challenging WWE legends. She pointed to her victories over Nikki Bella and made it clear that she wants to face more established names. “Bring me all the legends. Bring them all,” Perez declared. One legend in particular remains on Perez's radar: AJ Lee. When asked why she did not include Lee among the wrestlers she believes she is better than, Perez made it clear that she wants an opportunity to prove herself against the former Divas Champion. “I need my match and then I can prove that I am better than her,” Perez said. Perez's comments show just how far her character has evolved. The wrestler who once watched AJ Lee and other WWE stars as heroes now wants to stand across the ring from them and prove she has surpassed them. Despite her current position in The Judgment Day and her growing confidence, Perez insists that fans have not seen her best yet. “This is not my peak at all. I have so much more to show you guys,” she said.

BY SACNILK

Rey Mysterio has explained why Dominik Mysterio was not included in the ongoing tournament that will determine who gets a chance to face Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship in Mexico City. The tournament features wrestlers from WWE's RAW and SmackDown brands, along with stars from AAA. Rey, who is the general manager of AAA, helped set up the tournament to give young luchadores a chance to compete for a major opportunity. Dominik Mysterio was one name that stood out as an omission. He is currently the AAA Mega Champion, but Rey explained that his son does not have the same lucha libre training as the wrestlers taking part in the tournament. “Well, I could say for one, he has never trained lucha libre,” Rey said. “He could say he's the best luchador. Yeah, he does a couple moves here and there, but his training was always on the American side. He trained in Tampa, he trained in Canada, and he trained, you know, in San Diego.” Rey said that being a luchador means more than simply using lucha libre moves. He believes the training and experience that wrestlers go through from the beginning are an important part of becoming a luchador. “So when you speak about luchadores, you know, born and raised, that's your bread and butter. That's where you began. That's where you got your ass kicked,” Rey explained. “Every time you stepped into the ring, they made you sweat, you threw up, you wanted to get out of the ring, but no, they pulled you back in.” Rey also made it clear that he and Dominik have different views on what makes someone a luchador. “I think my concept of a luchador is completely different from Dom's concept,” Rey said. The interviewer then asked Rey if he was basically saying that Dominik was a fraud. Rey did not agree with that description. “I never said he was a fraud,” Rey said. “But I don't consider him. Let's just say this. I don't consider him the greatest luchador of all time.” The comments are interesting because Dominik has become a major WWE star and is currently the AAA Mega Champion. However, Rey believes that his son's wrestling training is different from that of wrestlers who were trained in lucha libre from the start. For Rey, the tournament is about giving wrestlers with a lucha libre background the chance to prove themselves. That is why he believes Dominik was not the right fit for this particular competition. Rey and Dominik have had a complicated relationship on WWE television in recent years, but this time the issue is not about their family history. Rey was simply explaining why he believes Dominik does not meet his definition of a luchador.

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Paige and Nikki Bella’s feud has become increasingly personal following a shocking betrayal at SummerSlam. At SummerSlam, Paige teamed with Nikki and Brie Bella against Fatal Influence in a six-woman tag team match. Fatal Influence won when Jacy Jayne pinned Paige with the Rolling Encore. After the match, Paige appeared to believe the situation was over and raised the Bellas’ arms in a show of respect. Instead, Nikki attacked Paige from behind. Brie Bella then joined Nikki in the assault before Nikki hit Paige with the Rack Attack 2.0. Nikki made it clear that she believed Paige had taken her place, telling her not to take her spot again. The betrayal stemmed from a much longer story. Nikki and Brie had originally returned to WWE with the goal of capturing the Women's Tag Team Championship. However, when Nikki was unable to compete at WrestleMania 42, Paige returned to WWE and replaced her, teaming with Brie to win the titles. The Bellas later lost those championships to Fatal Influence, further increasing Nikki’s resentment toward Paige. At SummerSlam, that tension finally boiled over into the post-match attack. Nikki subsequently explained that she blamed Paige for the tag team title loss and believed Paige had taken advantage of her opportunity with Brie. She also threatened to make Paige’s remaining WWE career miserable. In an EXCLUSIVE(WWE's YouTube Channel), Paige sets the record straight for Nikki Bella following this week's SmackDown episode, accusing Nikki of trying to change the story surrounding their relationship. “Nikki, since you decided to try and rewrite history last week, let's set the record straight.” Paige rejected Nikki’s claim that she was responsible for revitalizing her career, pointing out that she spent eight years working to make her WWE return happen. She also strongly denied Nikki’s accusation that she had been using the Bella family for her own benefit. Paige explained that Nikki was actually the person who contacted her before WrestleMania and asked her to help Brie. “Did I come begging to be an honorary Bella for my big return after being gone for nearly a decade? No, you called me.” Paige said she agreed because she cared about Brie and wanted to be there for her. She also accused Nikki of not being there for her sister when Brie needed her. The SummerSlam loss became another major point of disagreement between them. Nikki blamed Paige for what happened, but Paige argued that she had actually saved Nikki from being pinned twice during the match. Paige then suggested that Nikki’s actions were not really about protecting Brie. Instead, she believes Nikki is angry because Paige has taken the position Nikki once held alongside her sister. “You act like you're doing this to support your sister, but really, you're just jealous that someone else took your spot, and did it.” Despite Nikki’s warning that she would make her career miserable, Paige refused to back down. She made it clear that she believes she has earned her place in WWE and intends to remain there. “This is my house, and I plan on being here for a very long time.”

BY SACNILK

It has been widely expected, ever since The New Day decided to leave WWE after turning down a 50% pay cut to stay, that Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods would be winding up in AEW. The Young Bucks have wanted to do a program with them for years — and now, months after the split, that dream match feels closer than ever. The New Day's exit wasn't a typical release — it was the result of a stand. Kingston and Woods had signed five-year contract extensions with WWE back in 2025, doing so without even shopping around for offers from AEW or other promotions, widely seen as a genuine show of loyalty to the company. Just a year later, TKO came back and asked them to restructure those deals at a reduced rate, reportedly giving them only two days to decide. Both men chose to walk instead, leaving millions on the table from the remaining four years of their contracts. The New Day's situation wasn't isolated. Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer confirmed reports that at least one major-name WWE wrestler agreed to a 50% pay cut around the same time, with sources noting the wrestlers being targeted were often those earning well into seven figures — talent who "simply couldn't earn anywhere near $1 million elsewhere," limiting their leverage to push back. Multiple reports indicate the number of wrestlers approached about cuts was under half a dozen, largely veterans, including some recovering from injury, whom the company reportedly would have released outright had they refused. How WWE handled the departure reportedly stung people behind the scenes. The company quietly moved both Kingston and Woods to the alumni section of its website without any public acknowledgment of their contributions — no farewell, no statement. One WWE source told Fightful Select they were "disgusted" by the lack of recognition. A joint statement marking the departure had apparently been planned internally but never materialized. Interest from AEW's side has been an open secret. Multiple people within the company reportedly pushed for New Day to be signed, with insiders noting frustration among talent over how WWE handled the exits of players like New Day and Santos Escobar — wrestlers who'd signed extensions in good faith within the past year. The Young Bucks haven't been subtle about their excitement. AEW's Dynamite has featured Matt and Nick Jackson wearing light blue shirts with pink-and-white accents — an unmistakable nod to New Day's classic color scheme. Matt Jackson has since confirmed publicly that a Young Bucks vs. New Day dream match is "at play," calling it something he'd "counted off as a possibility" until now. As of mid-August 2026, the deal isn't officially confirmed, but nearly every signal points the same direction. The New Day's 90-day non-compete clause was expected to expire around the start of August, with some reports suggesting a debut as early as AEW Collision on August 1, or shortly after SummerSlam if not. Speculation continues to swirl around a possible arrival tied to a Young Bucks/Christian Cage & Adam Copeland trios angle, with several outlets floating AEW All In: London at Wembley Stadium as a potential landing spot for the big reveal.