Daily Update: Nikkita Lyons, free agents, Chase Owens

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WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE

WWE

  • Raquel Gonzalez & Cora Jade will be teaming together in this year’s women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. After two weeks of Gonzalez refusing to team with Jade in the tournament, they faced each other on NXT last night. Gonzalez defeated Jade but then showed respect to her in a post-match angle and agreed to be her partner in the Dusty Classic.
  • A video aired on NXT last night announcing that Nikkita Lyons (real name Faith Jefferies) is coming to NXT. It focused on Lyons being a musician and having grown up traveling the country with her father being a bassist and her mother being a groupie. Lyons made her WWE debut on the December 31 episode of 205 Live. Before signing with WWE, she was known as Faith the Lioness in Women of Wrestling.
  • Doudrop told Wrestling Inc about an interaction she had with Vince McMahon when she was a babyface: “It was really funny because he wanted me to come out and dance. I was like, ‘I don’t know if you looked all up in that C.V., but it did not say dancer.’ I was kind of like, ‘what am I doing? I don’t like this.’ Then one day I got backstage and he goes, ‘goddamnit, I see you out there shaking your ass all afternoon, why can’t you do it out there?’ I was like, ‘you’ve absolutely got me over a barrel there,’ because seeing me when I am rehearsing. When he said that, he was like, ‘I just want the people to see your personality that we see back here.’ I was like, ‘oh man, you have completely stunned me with that.’ I totally got what he meant. And from that point on, that’s when I started to get more comfortable with jumping around and dancing.”
  • 2K Games released their first Ringside Report video for WWE 2K22. The video features a gameplay deep dive.
  • Bianca Belair and Summer Rae were guests on this morning’s episode of WWE’s The Bump.
  • WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar in a steel cage match from Extreme Rules 2013, Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus in a no holds barred match from Fastlane 2021, and Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett for the WWE Championship from the November 22, 2010 episode of Raw.

Other Wrestling

  • The wrestlers who were released by WWE on November 4 of last year are now free agents after their 90-day non-compete clauses expired. Keith Lee, Mia Yim, Nia Jax, Killer Kross (Karrion Kross), Eva Marie, Lince Dorado, Mascara Dorada (Gran Metalik), Harry Smith, B-Fab, Scarlett, Ember Moon, Taya Valkyrie (Franky Monet), Jessi Kamea, Katrina Cortez, Jeet Rama, Biff Busick (Oney Lorcan), Blake Christian (Trey Baxter), and AQA (Zayda Ramier) were the wrestlers released during that round of cuts, though some from NXT didn’t have 90-day clauses.
  • Keith Lee tweeted today: “Through Victory… My Chains are Broken. Time…. has freed me. And now… the Force shall guide me.”
  • Killer Kross released a vignette hyping his return.
  • Chase Owens announced that he’s signed a new long-term contract with NJPW.
  • Sean “X-Pac” Waltman spoke to Sports Illustrated about returning to the ring: “I did pretty well in this industry when I wasn’t clear-headed, so think of what I can do with a healthy mind and healthy body. I don’t know how many matches I have left in me, so I’m going to go out there and have some great f—ing matches.”
  • Waltman said he told WWE that he’d be ready for the Royal Rumble if they wanted him as an entrant, but WWE apparently wasn’t interested: “As far as the Royal Rumble, I gave them a heads up I’d be ready if they wanted me. I wasn’t actively campaigning for it. I wasn’t going to do that. But I let them know, and I guess they weren’t interested.”
  • On his Grilling Jr podcast, Jim Ross gave an update on how he’s feeling after radiation and being declared cancer-free: “I had a doctor’s appointment today. I’m going back in 30 days which is good because at one point in time, I was seeing the doctor daily. Then when I got my treatments all done, I started every other week and so today, we scheduled it in a month. So the doctor is pleased with my healing. My leg has not healed yet. I came back to work about 30 days too early according to the doctor. It wasn’t too early for me. I was ready to go, but yeah, he’s pleased with my progress. He said you can’t let yourself be tricked into thinking that you’re healed. You’re not.”
  • In an interview with Bleacher Report, Jade Cargill discussed winning the TBS title: “I felt as though the belt was always made for me. I’m very blessed. I’m very thankful. I feel like now the work has just kind of started. I feel like it is an honor to hold the belt. I feel like it’s a privilege to hold a belt in general. So, is there a lot of weight on my shoulders? Yes, but I always rise to the occasion. And one thing I love is a challenge. And I’m very thankful that Tony Khan has trusted me that I’m going to kill it because I’m going to do that.”
  • Tony Khan, Cargill, Adam Cole, Britt Baker, and Shawn Dean appeared at last night’s Chicago Bulls game. Tonight’s Dynamite is taking place at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago.
  • Abe Kanan has an interview with CM Punk.
  • The Highspots Wrestling Network noted that their new deal with PWG is for PWG shows to be uploaded on a six-month delay, which is faster than their previous agreement.
  • Jonathan Gresham’s match against Chris Ridgeway at PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 128 this Sunday will now be for Gresham’s ROH World title.
  • Daniel Garcia and Kenny Alfonso have been added to Terminus’ show in Atlanta on Thursday, February 24.
  • Denise Salcedo interviewed Kim Orton & Giovanna Angle about their new “The Wives of Wrestling” podcast.