Daily Update: Rick Steiner, Allison Danger, Cody Rhodes

WWE

  • After last night’s NXT went off the air, WWE uploaded video of Rick Steiner celebrating Bron Breakker’s NXT Championship win in the ring with him.
  • Rick Steiner told Sports Illustrated that watching his son win the NXT Championship was one of the best moments of his life: “I hope he’s even more successful than myself and his uncle. We had such a special time traveling the road as brothers, but this tops all of that. This is his time and his chance to carry the torch. Watching that match was one of the best moments of my life. As his father, I couldn’t be prouder, and so is our whole family.”
  • Breakker spoke to CBS Sports and said he doesn’t think his win against Tommaso Ciampa was the nail in the coffin for the veterans in NXT: “I don’t think it’s a nail in the coffin or anything like that. We’re just shifting from black and gold to 2.0. Tommaso is going to be around. I’m sure that he and I will cross paths again. That will happen at some point in time whether it’s now or later. It’s going to happen again. I’m looking forward to it. It’s just a shift. Those guys are going to be here. I’m fully aware that they’re here. It ain’t going anywhere.”
  • Also in an interview with Sports Illustrated, Goldberg addressed having one match left on his WWE contract: “I’m focused on what’s next. If they want to come back to me with something, we’ll talk. You never know what the future holds.”
  • WWE backstage interviewer Sarah Schreiber announced that she and her boyfriend Chad Dunbar have gotten engaged: “My forever buddy, Mr. Chad! I SAID YES! I love you! My Team!”
  • This morning’s episode of WWE’s The Bump featured appearances by Chad Gable & Otis, Beth Phoenix, and Grayson Waller.
  • WWE’s YouTube channel uploaded Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels for the World Heavyweight Championship from Taboo Tuesday 2004, Victoria vs. Trish Stratus for the Women’s Championship from the November 25, 2002 episode of Raw, and Dolph Ziggler vs. Bad News Barrett for the Intercontinental title from the January 5, 2015 episode of Raw.

Other Wrestling

  • Johnny Gargano tweeted after news broke that William Regal has been let go by WWE: “If it wasn’t for William Regal a lot of your favorite guys wouldn’t be on television. He got so many of us ‘indie guys’ an opportunity. He will never take credit for that, but he deserves his flowers for helping and molding this generation of wrestlers. #ThankYouRegal”
  • Cathy Corino (Allison Danger) posted after being released from the WWE Performance Center coaching staff: “Thank you @NXTMattBloom. Thank you @ShawnMichaels. Thank you @WWE. The ride was short but absolutely amazing. I’ll forever be grateful for your warmth and giving this old gal a shot at living her dream.”
  • Lenny Leonard posted a Twitter thread about Cathy Corino’s firing. She was released just three months after moving across the country to take the job with WWE. Leonard wrote that today was Corino’s child’s first day at their new school.
  • During an appearance on Barstool Sports’ Rasslin’ podcast, Cody Rhodes said he regrets almost everything about his angle with Anthony Ogogo, including his promo about race relations in the United States:

I can, on record, just go ahead and say I regret that [promo], and almost everything about the Anthony Ogogo angle. Almost everything about it… I’m good now, and comfortable now… [Walker says he didn’t hate the angle] I didn’t hate it either. I was having a good time, Anthony is a former Olympian, he’s definitely someone who’s a developmental talent who’s gonna be – we’re training him, and we recruited him, and we’re bringing him up through the ranks…

What ultimately – I’ve never gone on record saying this, but this is the perfect time. I stood by what I said in the promo… I stood by it because I thought the content was good, and I thought the intentions were good. However, a white guy talking about race relations, who has an American flag tattoo on his neck… I can see why people would use the terms ‘tone-deaf’ when it came to that. And then trying to defend it and all — and again, intentions were good, and sincere, and I was so excited about Brandi and the baby.

But it just… that should have just been one where I went out and almost just winged it. Because everything in wrestling I work really, really, really hard on – like meticulous. You hear about Randy Savage, about his matches and his promos… there are wrestlers who tend to be more like Randy in terms of their preparation, and then there are wrestlers who are more like my dad, just cutting a promo on the produce at the grocery store, and it’s better than most stuff you’ll hear on television. But I tend to be more of the big-time thinker, planner, workshopper – all that stuff. I’d worked on that one really hard. That’s what made it even more like, ‘Damn, every now and then you’re going to come up to the plate and strike out’ … over-planned it and just struck out.

Although I stand by it. I don’t have any problem with the content, but once that had happened, it set the angle in a way that Anthony, as far as wrestling age is concerned, he’s like 18, he’s a baby. He doesn’t know what’s going on. It set the angle in like a tailspin where it just wasn’t a classic, UK vs. USA, fun-spirited deal. I was going to go over to the UK, we have the return match. Now I just never want to think about it again.

  • The New York Post interviewed Ruby Soho ahead of tonight’s Dynamite. She was asked about watching Liv Morgan’s growth in WWE: “I couldn’t possibly be more proud of that girl. I’m going to get emotional if I start talking about it. She was kind of put into a position where she is now on her own when she always had one of us next to her to kind of guide her. She has taken that ball and run with it so fast, nobody can see her because she is thriving right now. She is coming into her own. She is finding herself. She‘s finding her voice and her in-ring ability is at the top of its game. I told her that after her match. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be able to watch and be able to say I was a small part of her journey to see where she’s at now because she’s a star.”
  • AEW announced its pre-Dynamite set of roster rankings.
  • AJ Francis (formerly known as Top Dolla in WWE) tweeted that rumors of there being heat between him and Shane Strickland (Isaiah “Swerve” Scott) are false. Francis noted that they’re shooting a music video together next week.