Top WWE Stars Contracts Are Up Soon – Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows’ contracts are all expiring soon according to Dave Meltzer. NJPW is super interested in bringing back Shinsuke apparently. That is an interesting idea because Shinsuke left Japan to prolong his career, as the NJPW style is far more wear and tear on the body.
Anderson and Gallows might be interested in leaving, as they went from a top tag team in NJPW to bottom feeders and jokes in the WWE. If they care more about their legacy, they’re gone. But something tells me they’re in this for the money before anything else. Nakamura will get a competitive offer, forcing the WWE to overpay for the aging New Japan legend that doesn’t have the same value to the Connecticut based promotion.
The interesting thing though will be AJ Styles. Styles is still a top ten competitor in the business but his style will catch up with him eventually. His ability to evolve (despite not believing in evolution) has prolonged his run at the top unlike many others, and while the rest of that 2002 class is tapering off, he’s in the midst of his best title reign in the WWE…which isn’t that good.
The question will be if IMPACT can make some more magic happen by drawing back their former icon. The management team has done amazing things in the last 12 months, reshaping that roster and getting to a point where it’s arguably the deepest-talent-wise ever. We’ll see what happens, because of those four should leave, that’ll drastically shake up the pro wrestling landscape.
Gail Kim Has No Desire to Wrestle for the WWE – No one would, or should blame Gail Kim for her stance. Her time in the WWE was near disastrous levels of bad. The first time the company forgot about her after her deubt win, and then when she returned, she was kept in the background for less talented wrestlers. Objectively speaking, Gail Kim is the greatest women’s wrestler of all time (full stop). She carved out that reputation though in TNA/IMPACT, not the WWE.
She has a fondness for the company she considers home. A love. A desire to see it grow around her, with her influence. It’s no surprise that since Kim has retired and transitioned to the back to help develop the Knockouts Division, that it’s the best it’s been since Dutch Mantell was calling the shots. So when asked on Twitter if she’d return to the WWE for their “Women’s Evolution” event, she politely declined; citing her love for the company she’s witch and reiterating her long stated belief that she’d only return to wrestle for IMPACT.
Happy for the women in the company but if I ever made. Return, it would only be for @IMPACTWRESTLING https://t.co/yillNFm9DT
— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) July 25, 2018
Bc I’ve been there twice. I have never been happy there. Life is about happiness. Impact Wrestling is my happiness. It’s not about money sometimes…. people just don’t understand that https://t.co/rOaehEimOH
— Gail Kim-Irvine (@gailkimITSME) July 25, 2018
Quick Hits – WWE is trying to co-op ‘All-In’ for their ‘Total Divas’ premiere date. WWE is interested in bringing back Juice Robinson to the promotion, despite Juice already saying he intends on retiring in NJPW. Congrats(?) to Abyss for “winning” the OVW Heavyweight Championship after former champion Amon gave him the belt. This is arguably the biggest name to hold the belt at the peak of their name value, alongside maybe Doug Williams.