The rumours and reports from around the wrestling world today include details on AJ Lee's WWE contract, WWE's counter-programming, and more
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Sep 7, 2025
As the weekend draws to a close on a newsworthy week in wrestling, more rumours continue to circulate with some backstage news on the nature of AJ Lee’s brand new WWE contract, WWE’s intentions when it comes to future counter-programming AEW, and a potential return for a long-absent member of the AEW roster.
On Friday Night SmackDown this week, AJ Lee made her highly-anticipated return to WWE programming in a moment that got the internet buzzing. Following the show, WWE released footage of AJ Lee and Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque finalising her brand new WWE contract and putting pen to paper on her officially becoming a part of the WWE roster for the first time since 2015.
BodySlam.net have learned more on her new WWE deal, revealing that she has signed a multi-year full-time deal with WWE, meaning that she won’t just be around for one-offs or on a part-time basis, but likely will be on WWE programming most weeks.
The expectation over the last week has been for AJ Lee and CM Punk to team up at WWE Wrestlepalooza on September 20 to take on World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins and Intercontinental Champion Becky Lynch.
2025 has seen more and more cases of AEW announcing PPV dates and WWE soon joining them with both NXT events, episodes of Saturday Night’s Main Event, and even some main roster PLEs. The most recent example has seen WWE announce their Wrestlepalooza event for the same time as AEW All Out, leading to Tony Khan announcing that All Out’s start time was changing to the afternoon to avoid conflict between the two shows. WWE's counter-programming of AEW is believed to be a push to put AEW out of business.
On Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez noted that changing times would not be stopping WWE, and it was only to be a matter of time before WWE follows AEW in changing the times of shows.
“I’ve pretty much been told this from people in WWE, it’s like, that’s it. They’re gonna go after them and they’re gonna keep it up. I don’t think it’s going to happen for this show. The day is gonna come where WWE counterprograms, AEW moves a show, and then WWE moves their show. It’s gonna happen at some point. They’re gonna screw with [Tony Khan] because now they know this guy’s gonna blink, he’s gonna move his show.”
AEW also recently announced that PPVs would also be aired on the HBO Max streaming service.
H/T WrestlingNews.Co
Eddie Kingston has been absent from WWE programming for over a year after picking up an injury at NJPW’s Resurgence show in May 2024 in a match with Gabe Kidd that left him with a broken leg, torn meniscus, and torn ACL.
Kingston has provided updates during that time about his condition and recovery, recently revealing that he’d be missing Forbidden Door 2025, but was getting closer to an eventual return. His most recent update detailed that he was feeling ready but had not yet been cleared. It seems as though a comeback is very much on the horizon after the events of AEW Collision.
In a backstage segment on Collision last night, Big Bill stated that he wanted to fight another tough New Yorker, and there was someone he hadn’t seen in a while… Eddie Kingston. It appears Kingston may be back very soon in order to answer Bill’s challenge.
TNA held their most recent set of tapings for episodes of IMPACT for September 18 and 25 ahead of Victory Road last night in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it held the notable return of a former two-time TNA World Heavyweight Champion.
Spoilers follow for future episodes of TNA Impact, courtesy of ProWrestling.net’s Chris Vetter.
Frankie Kazarian emerged for a promo on TNA IMPACT, and he took this time to introduce Ken Anderson (also known as Mr. Anderson and Mr. Kennedy in TNA and WWE respectively). Kazarian decided to mock Steve Maclin’s military service, which was something that Anderson did not like given he is in the National Guard. Before he could do anything, Jake Something attacked Anderson from behind, leading to Maclin making the save.
In the main event of the tapings, Ken Anderson & Steve Maclin teamed up to defeat Frankie Kazarian and Jake Something. Anderson has been wrestling in the independent scene across the last few years, but this was his first appearance in TNA since January 2016. His last in-ring appearance was a dark match against Eric Young.
