Liv Morgan Explains How Job At Hooters Led To Her Being Discovered, WWE Career

Nearly a decade before winning the “WWE SmackDown” Women’s Championship, Liv Morgan was a Hooters server that dreamed of one day making it in WWE. Luckily for Morgan, that dream would soon become a reality thanks to an unlikely connection to her Hooters location. During a recent interview on “Insight With Chris Van Vliet,” Morgan recalled the series of events that led to her WWE career, beginning with an introduction to a wrestler that previously managed the Hooters she worked for at the time.

“Apparently before my time, there was a wrestler, who will not be named, that used to manage this specific Hooters,” Morgan said. “So anytime they came around in town, they’d go to Hooters. Me being the big WWE fan that I was, I saw this wrestler come into Hooters, and I knew who they were exactly. I introduced myself. My manager was like ‘Hey we have this girl and she loves wrestling, and because you’re a wrestler, maybe talk to her.’ So I talked to this wrestler for a while, and I was like ‘I wanna wrestle.’ I kind of just spit all my wrestling knowledge to them and they were like ‘Okay, you really do love wrestling.'”

After speaking with the unnamed wrestler, Morgan was then put into contact with world-renowned strength and conditioning coach Joe DeFranco, who is also known for working with Paul “Triple H” Levesque. Seemingly impressed by Morgan’s resilience, DeFranco eventually reached out to WWE to gauge their interest in setting Morgan up for a tryout. WWE subsequently informed DeFranco that while their latest tryout camp had just passed, they were eager to fly out Morgan for their next one, six months later.

Highly motivated to sign with WWE, Morgan continued her strength and conditioning training with DeFranco every morning before clocking in for her Hooters’ shifts. This hard work ultimately paid off, as WWE offered Morgan a contract post-tryout.

Top Star Officially Re-Signs With WWE

Fightful Select reports that Judgment Day supremo Damian Priest agreed fresh terms with WWE this past February and quietly re-signed with the company during that period. Details of those negotiations have just been made public.

Sources inside the promotion told Fightful that WWE always wanted to keep Priest around and tie him down to a new contract. It seems the wrestler felt the same. However (this wasn’t part of Fightful’s write-up), it’d be interesting to find out whether or not his sudden Money In The Bank cash-in at WrestleMania 40 was already on booking sheets before Damian put pen to paper.

Perhaps that’ll come out in the wash eventually.

Back to things WWE told Fightful: Sources said there was a lot of negotiating before everyone was happy with the deal. It’s also understood that the World Heavyweight Champion has total autonomy over his entrance track, which is certainly a fun wrinkle to have written in.

Priest is currently signed to Paradigm Talent Agency. They represent him, and would’ve surely been privy to any negotiations with WWE.

Onwards and upwards for the champ then!

Current WWE Champion’s Contract Set To Expire In Weeks

WWE Women’s World Champion Becky Lynch is staring down more than a challenge to her title in the coming weeks.

Fightful Select reports that Lynch’s contract is up next month, “in roughly three weeks,” and no new deal has been finalized.

The news follows on reports in recent months that Becky, her husband Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre were among several big-name wrestlers who had not yet agreed to new contracts with WWE. Since then, McIntyre and Rollins have signed new deals, with Rollins agreeing to a multi-year contract.

Fightful notes that while there have been ongoing conversations about a new deal, The Man has not yet put pen to paper. Lynch is slated to defend her Women’s World Championship against Liv Morgan at King and Queen of the Ring, just before her deal is will expire. She won the title last month in a battle royal after Rhea Ripley surrendered it due to injury.

It’s highly unusual to hear of so many top stars getting just weeks of their contracts expiring with no new deal hammered out, and it’s said that this is one of the major reasons why the company released former EVP of Talent Dan Ventrelle last month, installing Chris Legentil and Matthew Altman in his place.

A seven-time women’s champion and Grand Slam Champion, Lynch has been part of the WWE system since 2013, working her way up through NXT to win the first women’s WrestleMania main event at WrestleMania 35.

The thought of Lynch leaving WWE — especially right after her husband signed a multi-year deal — seems extremely far-fetched, but in this TKO era, nothing is final until the ink has dried on a new contract. With only weeks to go, expect updates on The Man’s contract status sooner rather than later.

Bully Ray Explains What He Appreciates About WWE Star Chelsea Green

Chelsea Green has been enjoying some momentum as of late, closing out the May 7th edition of “WWE NXT” with a match against NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez. Prior to that match, however, Green has mostly been used on the undercard of WWE’s Women’s Division, but has nevertheless shined in the roles she’s been given. On “Busted Open Radio,” Bully Ray delved into what it is that makes Green such an underrated asset to the WWE brand. 

“I’m a massive Chelsea Green fan,” Bully said. “What I truly appreciate about Chelsea… nobody makes more with less than Chelsea Green. Chelsea gets about a minute of TV time, and she entertains me. They’ll give Chelsea a minute or two of TV time in a three hour show, and after that three our show, I’m thinking to myself, wow, Chelsea Green was the most entertaining part of that show. She’s not the main event, but she’s the one I’m talking about when the main event is over. She takes what’s dealt to her and she plays those hands to the maximum potential. I love the ditsy part of her, I like the annoying part of her. And the people that she interacts with, she makes more entertaining also, because they have to play off of her entertaining character.” 

Bully’s “Busted Open” co-host Tommy Dreamer added that in a fantasy booker situation, he would give this current version of Green a 10-year career in the WWE before transitioning her to more of a General Manager-type role.

“Everything that she bitched and moaned about would make her the greatest hypocrite of all time when she’s in that spot,” Dreamer said. 

Chelsea Green and her tag team partner Piper Niven will be moving from Raw to Smackdown thanks to the results of the 2024 WWE Draft. 

GUNTHER Looks Back On WWE Intercontinental Title Reign

Though his reign came to an end at WWE WrestleMania 40, GUNTHER broke the record for the longest WWE Intercontinental Championship run in the title’s history, with many impressive matches along the way. The WWE star did what any worthy champion hopes to do with a title reign — elevate the championship they’re holding. Appearing on the podcast “Gorilla Position,” GUNTHER looked back on his monumental run with the Intercontinental Championship.

“It feels very good,” GUNTHER said. “Looking back at it now, I’m very happy with how everything worked out. I think they gave me the freedom with it to do it my way, to a certain degree, and I’m very happy … people really found a liking in that — how I go about what I do in the ring and how I carry myself and how I carried the championship.”

The former champion said that it’s difficult to acknowledge your success when you’re in the midst of a title run like the one he was on, but now that it’s all over, he can look back on the journey with pride, feeling his reign came to the best possible end with his match against Sami Zayn. However, that doesn’t mean GUNTHER doesn’t have more big plans ahead in WWE. The performer said that he intends to move onward and upward, possibly hinting toward a world title chase in the future.

GUNTHER was selected as the first pick of the second night of the 2024 WWE Draft, with the Austrian set to remain on “WWE Raw” alongside Imperium stablemate Ludwig Kaiser. However, the group will be without Giovanni Vinci, as he was drafted to “WWE SmackDown” instead.

Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair Beat Kabuki Warriors, Capture WWE Women’s Tag Titles At Backlash

What began as a hot start for the team of Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, ended up being a much tighter contest when they challenged The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women’s Tag-Team Championships at WWE Backlash. The crowd in Lyon were very vocal throughout the entire match, especially during both Belair and Cargill’s entrance. After an ongoing beatdown from Kairi Sane and Asuka, Belair finally made the tag to Cargill allowing her to showcase her athleticism in the ring.

Cargill had a very impressive showing throughout the entire match, showing off her power and athleticism and hitting multiple double-team moves with Belair as well as a diving crossbody on the Warriors off the top rope when she tagged in. Jade eventually reversed Sane’s Insane Elbow into Jaded, followed by the EST of WWE hitting Asuka with the K.O.D. and pinning Sane to pickup the win and become new champions.

Belair and Cargill shared a moment with one another when the match ended, hugging it out in the middle of the ring. They are now eligible to appear on both “WWE Raw” and “WWE Smackdown” as the new WWE Women’s Tag-Team champions. This is Belair’s first ever WWE Women’s Tag-Team Championship victory as well as Cargill’s first ever championship win in WWE. The Kabuki Warriors’ title reign comes to an end after 99 days since defeating Katana Chance and Kayden Carter on “WWE Smackdown,” now leaving Damage CTRL without any gold.

Seth Rollins Signs ‘Big Money’ New WWE Deal

Seth Rollins has signed a new long-term deal with WWE.

This huge news was reported by Fightful Select, with it being revealed that this new multi-year contract was for “big money.”

The former World Heavyweight Champion’s last deal with the company was set to expire in June, but Rollins now seemingly joins his WrestleMania 40 opponent Drew McIntyre as another top WWE talent who has re-signed with the company recently.

Rollins’ wife Becky Lynch also revealed on the MMA Hour in March that she was in the final two months of her contract, but the chances of ‘The Man’ leaving WWE any time soon appear to be slim given that she’s currently their Women’s World Champion.

Rollins underwent knee surgery on his torn meniscus following an eventful WrestleMania 40 – wrestling twice and appearing in the main event of Night Two to help Cody Rhodes defeat Roman Reigns and The Bloodline – with it not being known precisely when the star will be back on WWE television.

Kurt Angle Weighs In On WWE Star Chad Gable As The ‘Rebirth’ Of The ‘Angle Formula’

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle has shared his perspective on Chad Gable’s recent heel turn and betrayal of current Intercontinental Champion, Sami Zayn. On “The Kurt Angle Show”, the Olympic Gold Medalist stated how he views Gable as the “rebirth” of the “Angle Formula,” and also mentioned the many similarities between the two in the ring.

“Well listen, the Kurt Angle formula worked the first time, the Kurt Angle formula will work today,” Angle declared. “I have noticed, I’ve been watching Chad and he’s doing a lot of actions that Kurt Angle used to do, different characteristics, different facial expressions, taking off his singlet before he does his finish, he’s been doing the angle slam, the ankle lock, so I feel like this is a rebirth of Kurt Angle … he has really stepped up and I don’t know if I could have done it any better than him, he’s doing really good right now.”

Angle also shared his thoughts on being a potential manager or advocate for Gable, explaining that it has always been an idea he’s interested in, but WWE never seemed to want to give it any consideration. “Believe it or not, they never considered that at least with Chad. I know that they made Jason my son, and that was cool, but for some reason they never decided to do another Team Angle or me team up with Alpha Academy. I’m not sure why, maybe they just felt like I might overshadow them I don’t know. I don’t think I would, I think that it would be a great idea, but you know, if I were going to do it, it has to be worth it to me.” Gable recently attacked Zayn once again after Zayn’s Intercontinental championship match with Bronson Reed on “WWE Raw”. 

Drew McIntyre Signs New Multi-Year Deal With WWE, Reportedly For Significant Money

WWE finally got a deal done with Drew McIntyre, and not a moment too soon.

The news first broke on the Instagram page of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who posted a video of McIntyre being delivered a Scottish claymore sword to congratulate him for re-upping with WWE. It was later confirmed by Fightful Select, who reported that McIntyre’s contract would have expired within a month, but he and WWE were able to negotiate a “multi-year, big money deal.” Fightful notes that more contracts are expected to be announced soon, many of which will also involve multiple years and significant sums.

PWInsider also confirmed the news in their Elite section, adding the detail that McIntyre and WWE arrived at a deal 2-3 days ago and that both sides are very happy with the result. They further confirmed the multi-year nature of the contract — once source believes McIntyre is now locked in for approximately the next three years — and reported that the video from Johnson was recorded a while ago in anticipation that a deal would get done. McIntyre isn’t expected back on television right away, as he’s nursing a hyperextended elbow that he worked through for WWE’s United Kingdom tour last week — something PWI reports has won him a great deal of respect within the company.

McIntyre returned to WWE in 2017, briefly spending time in “WWE NXT” before jumping up to the main roster the following year, where he’s been an integral part of WWE’s product ever since. Reports emerged in May 2023 that McIntyre was frustrated with lack of communication from WWE following the announcement of its merger with UFC, and that his contract was up in early 2024. The newly-formed TKO Group Holdings took its time re-signing him, only reaching out to him in March, but now it seems “The Scottish Psychopath” is with WWE for the long haul. If PWI’s report about a three-year deal is accurate, his new contract would take him into 2027, the 10-year anniversary of his return.

Update On Nikki Cross’ WWE Status

Having not competed for WWE at all in 2024 so far, there’s now an update on Nikki Cross’ WWE status.

Despite having not wrestled since November, PWInsider reports that Cross is still very much with the company and has been a regular presence at WWE TV events.

As for her last in-ring appearance, that was on the 6 November episode of Raw, where she was part of a battle royal to crown the #1 contender for the Women’s World Title then held by Rhea Ripley. Prior to that, she tagged with Natalya in a losing effort against Chelsea Green and Piper Niven in October.

On the WWE front, 2023 was a strange year for Nikki Cross. Discounting Main Event, the former Raw Women’s Champion wrestled just ten televised matches across the entire year. However, away from the squared circle, Nikki has been extremely busy, earning a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Edinburgh, and now studying for a PhD in History, in addition to training for her first ever marathon this coming November to raise awareness and funds for children’s Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Regardless of her studies and other real-life stuff, the Scot has made it clear on social media at several points that she still has a passion for wrestling and that she has no plans to hang up her boots.