Ten Things You May Have Missed In Wrestling In September 2021

September 2021 was a huge month in professional wrestling, with several major shows, returns and debuts making the business feel as exciting as it has in some time.

It obviously helps that fans are properly back, but both WWE and AEW produced the goods this month. All Out was a triumph, as too were Dynamite and Rampage from a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.

WWE also returned to their home base, putting on a very strong SmackDown from Madison Square Garden. Then there was Extreme Rules, a show that definitely happened (malfunctioning top rope and all), you have to say.

CM Punk wrestled his first matches in over seven years, while Adam Cole left NXT for AEW and Bryan Danielson came back to prove why he is one of the best to ever do it.

Oh, and a plane full of wrestlers from two decades ago all got cancelled.

It was a major, newsworthy month, but there were a bunch of podcast appearances, tweets and tidbits that may intrigue you.

Or they may not. Either way, here's some stuff. Do with it what you will.

Or don't. Either way.

10. The Perception Killer

WWE.com

Randy Orton has been a WWE television mainstay for close to twenty years now, winning countless championships and other accolades and firmly cementing himself in the upper echelon of superstars.

He's a first-ballot WWE Hall of Famer and, in many ways, the blueprint for what the company looks for in contemporary talent.

According to Jim Ross on the Grilling JR podcast, however, Vince McMahon had to be convinced to sign the third-generation star in the first place.

According to Good Ol' JR:

"I had a hard sell to get Randy Orton hired because of his negative exit from the Marines, and Vince, being a strong patriot, didn't like how that worked out with Randy in the military. I said, 'Didn't you get a second chance, [Vince]? Well, what's the difference with this kid? He's third generation. If he hits, look what we have. If he doesn't hit, I can get rid of him in 90 days notice. What do we have to lose?'.

He's going to end his career as one of the greatest talents. Hall of Famer, no doubt, but also going to be regarded by his peers as one of the greatest in-ring workers. It worked out well". 

You know, having realised that Ross signed Orton, John Cena, Batista and Brock Lesnar at around the same time, I'm starting to think he might know what he's doing with this whole 'talent recruitment' thing...

9. A Man In The Know

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It wasn't too terribly surprising when AOL Time Warner sold WCW to WWE in March 2001. The company had been bleeding money and circling the drain for an age, with ratings and pay-per-view buyrates in freefall and executives felt it was better to cut their losses and move on.

It was sad, but it was inevitable.

However, according to former WCW Heavyweight Champion Lex Luger (who was a guest on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw), he had sussed that they wanted the promotion off the books as early as 1997, when WCW were enjoying much success and on top in the Monday Night Wars.

Per the Total Package:

"I went to this big event at the opening of the old Braves stadium at the time. It was opening like '97. They had all the big executives come in for TBS, TNT, all the big advertisers. They had this ice sculpture, shrimp, and lobster. They had it overlooking the Braves stadium. It was quite the setting. I was in there with all these suit and tie guys. I was kind of just like something for them to look at. They laid out the vision for TBS and TNT because AOL Time Warner had come in on the business merger there. We were like their black sheep. Pro-wrestling got really good ratings. The top guys at the top of CNN Tower with the big windows and the big desks were all there laying it out. They talked about where they were going with TNT and where they wanted to go with TBS. They were talking to the big advertisers, Coca Cola and all of them. 

They laid out Hill Street Blues and all these programs they were going to be putting on and what they were going to do with the vision of the networks. They didn't mention one word about wrestling. I went home to my wife that night and said, 'Peg, I don't think Turner' - and Ted was always the guy, but now it's AOL Time Warner, and I said - 'Peg, if our ratings ever drop, we're gone. They have no desire to carry wrestling on their program. That is not in their plan. I was a conversation piece at that event. They are not going to keep wrestling'.    

So I knew when push came to shove and it really went head to head, and this is just my personal feeling, that '97 event I was at, that I was privy to, they showed their hand. AOL Time Warner had no interest in keeping wrestling. Instead of fighting back and continuing the war, they sold all their content like a fire sale and gave it to Vince when Vince surged ahead. Really that glimpse I got back in '97, the guys in the towers way above the WCW brand that they had, I was convinced they were looking for a way to dump it the first chance they got.

Ted used to come see us at some of the television tapings and would say, 'You guys are my wrasslers'. He said, 'As long as I'm here, you're here'. At that point, he finally didn't have the final say so. He was not a majority shareholder anymore. He was still involved, but his role was more minor at that point. Once he wasn’t a majority shareholder anymore, he had no say so over the wrestling. They were looking to get rid of it. Our ratings were so high they couldn't get rid of us. We were kind of low-cost production, high ratings. Once they dipped, they were looking to unload it. That's why I was convinced Vince would end up winning because Vince, it's his life, it's his passion. He is going to stay with wrestling. We did not have that commitment from AOL Time Warner". 

So you knew AOL Time Warner were going to boot WCW off the air did you, Lex? Then why didn't you tell the rest of us?

WHY DID YOU KEEP IT A SECRET?!?

8. The Return Of The Big Bad Booty Daddy

WWE.com

No, that's not the name of my comeback rap album (that drops in early 2022), but news that Scott Steiner has returned to the ring!

Big Poppa Pump returned to the ring and wrestled for the first time in eighteen months, following a scary incident where he collapsed and stopped breathing backstage at an Impact taping on March 6, 2020.

The 59-year-old took on Jerry Lawler at a Wrestling Reunion event on September 18.

The King got the win after a short, basic match following a top-rope Canadian Destroyer*. But that's irrelevant, because the good news is Steiner is alive and well and screaming at innocent bystanders.

The Genetic Freak also cut a great promo* in order to hype the bout.

*not really

7. Y2J Tried To Get Daffney Signed By WWE

WWE.com

One of the saddest stories from September 2021 was the untimely death of former WCW, TNA and independent wrestling star Shannon 'Daffney' Spruill.

I personally have fond memories of watching Daffney and Crowbar together in latter-day WCW. I'm sure many UK viewers will remember them as one of the lone highlights of Channel 5's rotten WCW coverage.

Her passing lead to an outpouring of grief from the wider wrestling community, as it was clear that Daffney was loved by many.

One interesting piece of information relating to the Scream Queen came courtesy of Lance Storm, speaking on Figure Four Daily:

"I can't recall a time I didn't see her where she appeared happy, where she was smiling and making everyone around her smile and be happy as well. Not that I knew her that well, but there was also the connection in that Jericho knew her really well because she, at one point, was married to Jericho's bandmate from Fozzy. The one story about Daffney I think is funny is Jericho tried to get her into WWE post-Invasion.

I remember him telling me that he went and suggested her, and the response he got from whoever it was in the office that he talked to said, 'Yeah, we really don't like that screaming thing'. He said, 'Well then tell her not to scream'. It's like she doesn't have to scream. It'ss not the only thing she knows how to do".

It's a shame we never got to see Daffney in WWE at that time, as I'm sure she would have been an asset and worked well with the likes of Trish Stratus, Jazz, Molly Holly and Victoria.

6. Angle's Emotional WWE Exit

WWE.com

The Kurt Angle Show continues to be (along with My World with Jeff Jarrett) one of the best wrestling podcasts out there.

One of September's episodes dealt with the the events leading up to the Olympian's controversial WWE exit in the summer of 2006.

Angle has told the story in bits in the past, but this was probably the most in-depth recalling yet. The part where he emotionally talked about the fateful meeting he had with Vince McMahon at Titan Tower was especially revealing.

Kurt was completely worn down with injuries and struggling with addiction issues when he decided to demand the meeting and begged the company to release him.

What happened after that is quite the tale, as the Hall of Famer tells it:

 "When I went to TV the next day, I went to a production meeting and Vince is up front with some of the writers. The producers were all leaving. I walk in and look at Vince, and I pull my pants down to my knees. I said, this is what happened last night and my whole crotch is black – my hamstring, front of my leg, abdominal, everything was black. He's like, 'I guess you're not gonna wrestle in the triple threat ladder match tonight'. I said, 'No, Vince, we need to talk'. He said 'let's go talk right now and I said 'no, I need to come up to headquarters this week'. He set it up, not a problem. So, later on that week, I flew up to Stamford, and I've never told this story publicly – this is the first time ever. I went to Vince’s office, and I was with my manager. In the office were Shane McMahon, John Laurinaitis and Vince. They were sitting at a table.

I walk in and Vince tells us to sit down. I look in front of me, and there were seven pages of typed text messages and voicemails that I left Vince and people in the office. I was like, 'What the hell are these?'. I'm reading them, and they say 'Vince, I'm gonna kick your ass when I see you', 'Vince, if you don't call me back, I'm gonna beat the sh*t out of you', all these threats. I'm like, I don't remember doing this. Then I remembered the painkillers. I never wrestled high, not once, and I always took what I was supposed to. One painkiller every four to six hours. But when the show was over, that's when the addict Kurt Angle came in and I’d throw down 20 to 25 pills at a time. I wouldn't even know what I was doing. I was letting out my frustrations when I was texting Vince because Vince was distancing himself from me at this particular time. My behaviour was erratic, I was getting injured, I was pushing him to get the title, and I was pushing to get on pay-per-views to get paid. There were a lot of things going on.

I'm reading the text messages, and as I'm doing it, Vince says, 'You want to beat my ass?'. He stands up and takes his jacket off and says 'let's fight right now'. I'm like, holy sh*t, my boss, the man I look up to as a father figure, wants to beat my ass. I look around the room and Shane is halfway out of his seat because if I get up, Shane is gonna jump me. Vince is a badass and didn't need Shane to get involved. I'm like this isn't gonna turn out very well, and I didn't want to fight Vince. I was just angry at myself and angry at the company. I leave the room and go outside and start crying. I don't know what to do. The company wouldn't release me up to this point. They wanted to keep me and wanted me to go to rehab and take a break and come back. I come back in and said to Vince, 'I can't do this anymore'. I was crying.

I'm getting emotional right now… 

I said, if you don't release me, I think I'm gonna kill myself. I didn't mean I was gonna commit suicide, I meant I was accidentally gonna kill myself – OD on painkillers, wrestle myself to death, I didn't know. I had to get out. Vince looks at me and says, 'You're released. Take a break, go to rehab, come back, and we'll have a contract waiting for you. Just take your time'. I appreciated that and was very grateful. The thing is, I didn’t talk to him for 11 years. 

When I came back in 2017, the first thing he said to me was, 'Kurt, you were a real pain in the ass'. I really was. I was so hard to deal with and I couldn't do anything but apologize to him 100 times. I knew I was wrong. We made amends and the rest was history. I have a great relationship with him now. But this is the first time I've told that story, and it was really difficult to tell because I've never told anybody that before".

5. Either Bash 'Em Or Get Out Of Here

WWE.com

Doug Basham (now there's someone you don't hear from much these days) made a rare appearance to talk about his career with the Cheap Heat Productions Podcast.

The OVW alumnus, who performed on WWE television between 2003 and 2007 alongside storyline brother Danny, mentioned an interesting story about the time The Bashams got involved in the $1,000,000 Tough Enough competition, which took place on SmackDown in the winter of '04.

They were enlisted to participate in a game of capture the flag on the November 18, 2004 episode. Basically, they had to prevent the five remaining contestants from catching a flag on one of the top turnbuckles. Each contestant had thirty seconds to try and retrieve it.

According to Doug, he received a foreboding pep talk from Vince McMahon before they taped the segment, which gave the former Tag Team Champions extra impetus to perform well.

"Vince McMahon comes up to me and Danny. He goes, 'Now, boys, you see that flag's gonna be hanging over there underneath that turnbuckle? You see what's on that turnbuckle, right?'. You know, the WWE symbol. He goes, 'That's what you're representing tonight. Short of killing anybody, make sure nobody gets that flag'. And he hit me on the shoulder and walked off. And I went to Danny, 'We've just been put on notice. If anybody gets past us, we're fired’. Short of not hurting anybody, nobody got that flag".

Doug also revealed that Charlie Haas and Hardcore Holly (who were also teaming together at the time) were waiting in the wings in Gorilla, as WWE planned on re-taping the segment with them, should the Bashams fail in their task.

4. Hearzow Earzit Cearzould Hearzavearze Bearzeen

WWE.com

That's carny for 'how it could have been' (obviously).

And if we're talking in carny then we're quite clearly going to be talking about Kizarny, the shortlived SmackDown superstar portrayed by veteran journeyman Sinn Bodhi.

The gimmick was interesting but barely got a chance to get going before it was shelved.

WWE gave him the full vignette treatment and hyped his debut for an age, then had him beat MVP in his first and only proper televised match, only to release him not long after.

Bodhi recently appeared on the Dan and Benny in the Ring Podcast and spoke about the character, including how he would have handled the debut:

"My entrance in my mind's eye would have been, you know, instead of pyro or anything like that, one of those big green black pyres of smoke and soot, like, you know, like brimstone, kind of like, a Flash Gordon movie where they would have been a gas chamber you saw that all murky, cloudy, red and black and green smoke, I would have had that. 

I would add little people, little people juggling and stilt walkers and contortionists and all sorts of really creepy hard to look at things I would have had cats and penguins whatever the heck, I could get my hands on budget-wise, you know. I would have come to the ring in a little tiny clown car where you couldn't see what was in it. I would have had the clown car bump up against the ring, which underneath the ring I would have had loaded with clowns.

I would have a ton of clowns spilling out of a car that would come out of the ring. I would have stayed in the ring, kind of like Danny DeVito, playing Penguin and Batman (in Batman Returns) to where he had that big ducky, a big ducky. So I would have been in this really bizarre-looking clown car to have the babyface in the middle of the ring going like, 'What the heck is going on?'. He’s surrounded by clowns and there’s smoke and penguins and cats and jugglers and whatever the heck is all around. 

Then, I would have had the sunroof pop open and like a giant hot box just smoke come out of that car and have 'curiosity killed the cat' where the babyface you know, looks like kind of hops over the ropes, hops onto the hood of the car looks into the sunroof and have a big one of those big mechanical boxing gloves come up and knock them and have them go flying back into the ring and then out comes me like Danny DeVito in Batman. Boom, bada bing, 1-2-3, that's what I would have done".

And yet nobody asked him...

3. D-Generate Into Something Buff

Have you seen Sean Waltman recently?

I don't mean, like, have you seen him down the shops or anything. I mean pictures. The man is in the best shape of his life, amidst speculation that he may be due to make a comeback at some point in the near future.

He certainly wouldn't look out of place amongst the current crop of hardbodied WWE stars.

The two-time WWE Hall of Famer posted a picture showing his physique's progress, with his killer abs and impressive beard catching the attention of former WWE star Braun Strowman, who simply responded with 'Dad????' to which Waltman replied 'I miss you son!'.

Fellow nWo member Kevin Nash, meanwhile, wanted to know how much X-Pac charged people to watch him workout in his Speedos.

You know. For a friend.

2. Stone Cold Drip

WWE.com

While I was initially disappointed that John Cena's scheduled appearance on the Broken Skull Sessions had been postponed/cancelled in favour of an episode featuring Seth Rollins, the talk between Stone Cold and the Drip God turned out to be well worth a watch.

In a bid to promote the show, WWE released a video of an in-character Rollins presenting the Texas Rattlesnake with his very own audacious suit jacket, reflecting the beautiful scenery around the Broken Skull Ranch.

It's not much of a story, granted, but Steve Austin wearing a ridiculous piece of clothing is still, somehow, more entertaining than a good 65% of modern-day pro wrestling content.

2. Stone Cold Drip

WWE.com

While I was initially disappointed that John Cena's scheduled appearance on the Broken Skull Sessions had been postponed/cancelled in favour of an episode featuring Seth Rollins, the talk between Stone Cold and the Drip God turned out to be well worth a watch.

In a bid to promote the show, WWE released a video of an in-character Rollins presenting the Texas Rattlesnake with his very own audacious suit jacket, reflecting the beautiful scenery around the Broken Skull Ranch.

It's not much of a story, granted, but Steve Austin wearing a ridiculous piece of clothing is still, somehow, more entertaining than a good 65% of modern-day pro wrestling content.

1. The Strange Relationship Between Ryan Reeves And Rodback McMahon

WWE Network

A lot of people might not realise that Vince McMahon had a brother (Rod, who passed away in January).

Fewer people still may not know that Rod McMahon was, supposedly, good friends with former WWE star Ryback.

The former Intercontinental Champion was a recent guest on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast, and talked about his friendship with Rod and how it led to a truly bizarre situation with Vince and Linda McMahon.

"He used to buy Feed Me More Nutrition and subscribe to my weekly message of positivity with a discount. I met Rod. People don't know this. Rod and I used to text here and there, not a lot, but I always used to stay, no matter where TV was, I would always book a room 20 or 30 miles out so that I could go to a gym. The more guys that would go to a gym, the more fans would know that, so I always wanted to focus and get my workout, so I would always go to a gym a little outside of town so I could get my workout on TV days. 

At this gym, I did my workout. I was getting ready to go do the tanning beds. This guy was out by the front desk and he said, 'Ryback. I'm Vince's brother, Rod'. I'm thinking instantly that this guy is full of sh*t and he's lying to me. I had no idea Vince had a brother. He's talking to me and I'm thinking, 'God, who is this guy? What is his story?'. I'm looking at his face. He had the same nose as Vince. I could tell, so I said, 'You are Vince's brother'. He said, 'Yeah, I told you that'. 

We exchanged numbers. He's the nicest guy in the world, which might shock some people. We stayed in touch. He emailed me after I didn't hear from him in years after all this happened and I had been away. He started replying to my weekly newsletter messages from Feed Me More Nutrition, and he said he agreed with me on what I was talking about, whatever they were. He loved the supplements. He would buy them all the time. I would send him things, and say, 'Try this'. I wish I had the relationship with Vince that I had with Rod because it was so laid back and natural, and nice. He's such a nice human being. 

Anyway, true story, when I was with RybAxel with Curtis Axel, I call it the punishment period, in Houston we had a four corners tag match that day.  Vince comes up to me. We were walking down the hallway. I said, 'Hi. Vince, I met your brother Rod today'. He said, 'Oh yeah'. I said, 'Yeah. Man, you guys look a lot alike'. He got red in the face instantly. I'm talking like Brock Lesnar 15 minutes into a match with Kurt Angle beet red. He's like, 'We look nothing alike!'. He storms off like a child.

Later that night, Vince came back up to me, and by the way, the finish got put on me for the tag match. Vince said, 'I really want you to meet my mom'. I'm thinking he's going to have a bunch of talent to go meet his mom. His mom was 90-something at the time. I go into this room. Somebody brings me into this room. It's me and Vince's mom and nobody else. 

I'm thinking 'What's going on?'. She said, 'Nice to meet you'. The first thing she said was, 'My son's going to live for a long time'. I'm thinking, 'What the actual f*ck is actually going on?'. Did he put her up to this? It was so weird. She was a fantastic lady and a very nice woman. She looked great. She just got done playing tennis, but that was my Rod story that day in Houston because his mom lived there. I don't know if she still does. I was sad that he (Rod) passed. I talked to him not that long ago and I wasn't aware that there were even any health issues or anything. I saw that he passed and I'm like, that got me a little bit".

I'd personally like it if Ryback and WWE set their differences aside and he was able to return to the company and finish his career.

Sadly, Ryback is now officially retired.