Former WWE star Kaitlyn is proud of having a part in paving the way for women’s wrestling today. Though she felt like she didn’t fit the mold of what women wrestlers were supposed to be like during her tenure from 2010-2014, she owned it. Another woman who felt the same way was AJ Lee, who would become one of Kaitlyn’s friends before deceiving her on-screen and capturing her Divas Championship at Payback in 2013. Of all the matches that Kaitlyn has wrestled in, she recalls that pay-per-view classic as her favorite match, as it was a “look how far we’ve come” moment for her and Lee.

“My favorite match ever was when I lost the title,” she said in her interview on “Rewind Recap Relive.” “That match meant so much because number one, how far her and I had come together. All the things that only her and I knew…Having to prove ourselves over and over and over and over again to eventually start getting more time to getting crossover segments, to, like, all this cool stuff that we had accomplished. We did the first-ever women’s contract signing…She was the first one to have merch. I was second. So, we had done so much cool and historical stuff.”

One unwritten rule in the business is to never go over your time in the ring, especially at pay-per-view events. With the fiery passion from the Chicago crowd fully behind them, it fueled Lee and Kaitlyn to go past their allotted time and cut into then WWE Champion John Cena’s main event time. Though he didn’t seem too upset by it, Kaitlyn recalls the utter fear she had when facing him behind the curtain after her match.

“What’s funny about that match is we went over on our time, and you never do that on a pay-per-view. So, the ref was like, ‘Take it home…’ AJ’s like, ‘No.’ So we were both down selling when…she was like, ‘Let’s keep going.’ I was like, ‘Okay,'” she laughed. “And when we got back into Gorilla, Cena was back there. Cena’s match was still up, and so we cut into Cena’s match…Cena was always so cool…He’s like, ‘Never do that again, but great match.'”

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Naraku defeated Mason Rook to earn number one contendership to the NXT Championship during “WWE NXT.” 

Although the win came with a little help from Kam Hendrix, fresh off of his unsuccessful challenge for the title last week. 

Rook dominated much of the bout, with Naraku finding short bursts of success only to eventually become undone by the power, strength, and size of his opponent. Towards the closing stretch of the match it appeared to be that strength-first focus that would cost Rook, going for a bodyslam to finish only to get caught in a rear choke. 

Though he looked to be fading, he ultimately maneuvered Naraku back into a slamming position, and that’s when fellow NXT Championship chaser Kam Hendrix appeared on the apron. The momentary distraction allowed Naraku to roll Rook up for a two-count, with Rook then clattering into Hendrix on the apron and turning into the closing seconds with Naraku taking the win.

Naraku will now challenge Tony D’Angelo for the NXT Championship at Great American Bash, while after the match Rook and Hendrix continued to stare one another down, indicating they will be in one another’s sights for the foreseeable. 

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Brie Bella has joined PETA in a new campaign against SeaWorld. 

PETA announced that the WWE star, from San Diego, would be present for SeaWorld’s virtual annual meeting asking executives when they plan to stop breeding dolphins and release them to seaside sanctuaries. 

As part of the campaign, Bella did a photoshoot illustrating the constrictive habitat that a tank is to orcas and dolphins like the ones seen at SeaWorld. For proportion, she did the shoot from within a bathtub. 

“When you look at these huge orcas that are in these tanks, it’s like a human being living in a bathtub for their whole lives,” she said in an unlisted video of the shoot. “These mammals can swim for 150 miles a day. How do you do that in here? You can’t.”

She continued, “So if you ask me about going to SeaWorld, I’m just going to tell you no. We are miseducating our children when we taken them to places like that. We are telling them it’s okay for animals to be treated this way. Instead, we should be teaching them compassion. See them living in their habitat with their families. Animals are no different than us. So let’s teach our children that. Always remember to boycott SeaWorld.”

PETA reported that more than 40 orcas and over 500 other dolphins and whales have died in SeaWorld’s tanks. The longest-held captive orca in the world, Corky, remains a resident at SeaWorld San Diego having been taken from her mother off the coast of British Columbia in 1969. 

She had been used as a breeder at another facility, PETA states, and none of her calves survived past 47 days; her last pregnancy ended in a miscarriage when her dead baby was found at the bottom of a concrete tank at SeaWorld. 

AEW World Champion Maxwell Jacob Friedman confirmed on Tuesday via a social media post that he is indeed injured, though he hopes he doesn’t have to take any time away from the ring. MJF took to Instagram to post a video explanation of what’s going on with him, from his Nordic Wave cold plunge tub, which he promoted throughout the video, to confirm he hyperextended his left knee on Wednesday’s edition of “AEW Dynamite,” where he opened the show with a title defense.

“I hyper-extended it in a match against Rush, who is a bad person. I think we can all agree on that,” MJF said. “This match happened on Wednesday, it is now, I believe, Tuesday, and my inflammation in my knee has drastically gone down. Obviously, there’s still a s*** ton of inflammation and pain, but being honest with myself, without this cold plunge, I do believe it would have took me a lot longer to start feeling like myself.”

The champion said he believed the cold plunge tub is going to be a big part of ensuring he doesn’t have to take any time off. He said that’s not only good for his career, but for all of AEW, from ticket sales to ratings.

MJF and Rush opened the June 3 episode of “Dynamite” with a no count out match. The following day, the champion was pulled from an independent booking due to a reported injury. Beyond Wrestling confirmed in its post that MJF had hyperextended his knee, but Tuesday was the first time fans heard it from the champion himself.

The champion is still expected to be on “Dynamite.” According to Dave Meltzer, his creative plans for AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, which have yet to be revealed, are also not in danger.

WWE Hall of Famer AJ Styles may have wrapped up his in-ring career at the 2026 Royal Rumble, the same event where he made his WWE debut in 2016, but he’s not done helping other talent. While Styles, who was retired by GUNTHER at the Rumble, initially described his new role in WWE as more of a talent scout, he revealed on an episode of the “Phenomenally Retro Podcast” that he is also helping out in WWE EVOLVE and taking on an even different role.

“When I’m at EVOLVE, I will produce a match if you need me to,” he said. “Which is what I did. I produced more than one match. I did two of them, actually. I enjoy it. I like doing that, throwing all these ideas. It’s good for EVOLVE, because we’re taking our ID talent, putting them on the shows, showing them where cameras are, which is very important, and then why we do certain things. It is a taped show of course, but I don’t like re-doing something, I’m not going to do that. You still get one shot to do it. But, it just gets them ready for ‘NXT’ whenever the time is that we call them up. It gets them ready… EVOLVE is a very important show for the WWE ID crew.”

On a previous episode of the podcast, Styles said he thought he’d have more time to himself in retirement, but he still remains busy with his new role in WWE. He is sometimes on the road, traveling to “WWE Raw” or to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida to keep helping the stars of today and tomorrow.

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