Randy Orton Set For First WWE Match In 18 Months; November 21st Live Wrestling News Round-Up

CM Punk remains unlikely to make his WWE return at Survivor Series this weekend.

Sean Ross Sapp reports via Fightful Select that the company’s stance on Punk returning has not changed and as such, he will not be appearing at the Premium Live Event as things currently stand. The report also notes that the reveal of Randy Orton’s impending return on Raw was done to kill any speculation that Punk could be the fifth member.

Additionally, talent backstage have not been told who Shinsuke Nakamura’s promo on Raw was aimed at following speculation from many that the unknown figure could be Punk.

Cody Rhodes has rizz, at least according to former WWE champion Lex Luger.

On the latest episode of his Lex Expressed podcast, Luger shared his hopes that Rhodes gets another chance to dethrone Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns as The American Nightmare has “that rizz.”

“I hope so. I’m not sure when it’ll happen, but I’d love to see it. I am a huge Cody Rhodes fan. He has a sense of the history of the business from his upbringing being a multi-generational wrestler, he respects it, and the way that he carries himself. He’s just got, the modern-day term for the new generation, he’s got the rizz. He’s got it. He’s got the confidence and the charisma.”

“He’s got that rizz, man. From his gear that he wears the time and effort that he puts into it… Cody reminds me of the certain guys who just put all that together. So, I’m a huge Cody Rhodes fan.”

h/t to Fightful

WWE have released a video of last year’s Men’s WarGames match to their YouTube channel with a unique twist!

On top of showing the entirety of The Bloodline vs The Brawling Brutes, Drew McIntyre, and Kevin Owens inside WarGames at last year’s Survivor Series, the video also features many facts relating to WarGames and the competitors in the match itself.

Check out the match above and let us know your favourite Wargames or Survivor Series fact here!

Former NXT UK star Dani Luna has claimed that her release from WWE has led to the greatest year of her in-ring career.

Luna signed with WWE in early 2020 and was best known for being part of the Subculture faction alongside Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster. However, her time with the company unfortunately came to an end in August 2022 when she and many NXT UK stars were released.

Taking to X yesterday, the 24-year-old reflected on the past year of her career following her WWE release and recovering from an ACL injury. Luna claimed that the past 365 days, which have included an ongoing stint in IMPACT Wrestling, have been the peak of her career.

1 year ago today I came back from tearing my ACL and getting released from the WWE (a bad year lmao)

I truly believe the last 365 days have been my best body of work in my entire career.

Work don't stop. More to do🫡 pic.twitter.com/zOeBUHQOwq

— Dani Luna (@DaniLuna_pro) November 20, 2023

AEW WrestleDream drew the smallest live gate of any AEW pay-per-view this year, according to new statistics.

Pollstar data for the event, provided by Wrestlenomics, revealed that WrestleDream sold 7,108 tickets and drew a live gate of $533,717. This means the Seattle event drew the lowest live gate figure of any 2023 AEW pay-per-view on top of being the lowest-attended AEW pay-per-view of the year.

The former statistic can likely be attributed to its ticket prices as Wrestlenomics calculates that the average ticket was sold for $75. This is an 18% decrease from both Revolution and Double or Nothing which both had calculated average tickets sold at around $92.

Similar data for Forbidden Door, All In, All Out, and Full Gear has yet to be independently verified by Pollstar or any other third party. AEW previously announced that Forbidden Door’s live gate was $1,200,000 whilst All In’s set a company record at $10,000,000.

The live gate figure for All Out has not been disclosed at the time of writing and the only Full Gear figure so far is a claim by Tony Khan on the Pre-Show Media Call last week that its live gate was “hovering” around $900,000.

Shayna Baszler has expressed her interest in potential match-ups with two of Stardom’s biggest names.

Prior to joining WWE, Baszler competed in Stardom in both 2015 and 2017. Her most notable moment in the company came when she unsuccessfully challenged then-World of Stardom Champion Io Shirai (now IYO SKY) in what became her final match there.

In a new interview with Tokyo Sports, Baszler revealed her interest in someday facing two of Stardom’s biggest current talents: Giulia and Utami Hayashishita. She also reacted to Hayashishita’s newly-adopted finisher, named ‘Shocking Baisler’ after the former NXT Women’s Champion herself, which she taught her.

“I’m looking at [competitors] who I think might be my opponents someday. I’m interested in Giulia, and Utami [Hayashishita] uses a technique named after me called Shocking Baisler. She has been to the jiu-jitsu and catch wrestling classes I teach, and I taught her that move.”

h/t to Fightful

The man who will challenge MJF for the AEW World Champion at Worlds End next month has seemingly been revealed.

On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer reported that MJF suffered a legitimate injury during the main event of AEW Full Gear this past Saturday. Thankfully, the 26-year-old is not expected to miss any TV time and will be able to return to the ring in time for the promotion’s inaugural Worlds End pay-per-view.

Meltzer also noted that as it stands, MJF will defend his title against Samoa Joe on December 30th. Joe earned an AEW World Championship opportunity when he helped Friedman retain his ROH World Tag Team Championship over The Gunns on the Full Gear Buy-In.

“But, you know, yeah, he’s dealing with a lot of pain and you know, but yeah, I mean, he’ll be apparently he’ll be ready for the Pay-Per-View, with Samoa Joe, which looks like that’s the December show in Queens or in Nassau Coliseum.”

If you use any quotes from this article please credit Wrestling Observer Radio and leave a h/t to Inside The Ropes.

Chris Hero has explained why it took him almost four years to return to the ring following his WWE release in 2020.

Hero, formerly known as WWE’s Kassius Ohno, competed at a West Coast Pro Wrestling event last Friday where he was victorious over Timothy Thatcher. This marked his first match since competing in a Battle Royal in the now-defunct NXT UK over three and a half years ago.

Speaking on The Masked Man Show, Hero opened up on the reason behind his lengthy absence from in-ring competition. He admitted that he always knew he’d return to the ring but didn’t want to risk contracting COVID-19 by traveling during the pandemic and in the months following.

“I never felt like I wasn’t going to have another match. There was never a point in me that I thought, ‘Well, I’m done.’ So that would be why I would get a little irritated when people were like, ‘Yeah, he retired…’ It just…I got fired during a pandemic. That’s awesome. And I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to travel now.’ I thought everyone was being a little bit irrational and a little reckless. I’m like, ‘I’m not getting on a plane with strangers. I’m not traveling. I just don’t want to be around people.’

“I love fans, I love being around them, but I don’t want to be around fans where I’m constantly thinking, ‘Man, am I going to get sick?’ It’s scary. So I refused to travel for a while…that’s why I didn’t come right back immediately.”

h/t to WrestlingInc

Spoilers from the taping of tonight’s episode of WWE NXT have emerged.

Due to Thanksgiving, tonight’s episode of NXT was taped last week to allow talent and crew to spend the next few days with their families. While backstage segments were not shown during the taping, complete spoilers for all in-ring matches and segments are available.

Spoilers below courtesy of PWInsider, you have been warned!

• Lyra Valkyria was jumped by Xia Li as she was making her entrance and had to be helped to the back.
• Los Lotharios defeated Malik Blade & Edris Enofe.
• Josh Briggs defeated Carmelo Hayes to qualify for the Men’s Iron Survivor Match. Lexis King distracted Hayes which allowed Briggs to get the victory.
• Wes Lee cut a promo about wanting to regain the North American title. Dominik Mysterio came out and seemingly set up a match for next week in which the winner will challenge him for his belt at NXT Deadline.
• Blair Davenport defeated Thea Hail to qualify for the Women’s Iron Survivor Match.
• Eddy Thorpe defeated Charlie Dempsey. Dempsey, Drew Gulak, and Myles Borne beat down Thorpe after the match.
• Noam Dar defeated Chad Gable to retain the NXT Heritage Cup. Maxxine Dupri and Lash Legend had a confrontation post-match.
• Lyra Valkyria defeated Xia Li to retain the NXT Women’s Championship. Li attacked Valkyria during the in-ring introductions.

After more than a year and a half away from the ring, Randy Orton is officially set to return to WWE.

Orton was confirmed as the fifth member of the Cody Rhodes’ WarGames team to close out last night’s episode of Raw. The Viper will team with Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, and Sami Zayn to take on Drew McIntyre and The Judgement Day’s Finn Balor, JD McDonagh, Damian Priest, and Dominik Mysterio at Survivor Series.

This marks Orton’s first WWE match since he and Matt Riddle lost the RAW Tag Team Championship to then-SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos on the May 20th 2022 edition of SmackDown. Following that match, Orton was put on the sidelines due to a major back injury and has not wrestled for the past 18 months.

What did you think of the reveal of Randy as the fifth member? Let us know using the thumbs down below!

Welcome back to the ITRWrestling live blog! I’ll be with you from 12pm to 6pm BST (7am – 1pm ET) covering all the biggest stories from WWE, AEW, NJPW, IMPACT, and more.

Today’s top stories are:

• Randy Orton Set For First WWE Match In 18 Months
• Spoilers For Tonight’s Episode Of WWE NXT
• Chris Hero Explains Three-Year In-Ring Absence