Pat McAfee Says He was Behind Adam Cole Attack; WWE Plans for The Usos and Lana | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Daniel Santos Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
McAfee Admits to Orchestrating Attack of Cole
Former NFL All-Pro punter Pat McAfee admitted Monday that he was the brains behind the attack of Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver 31 earlier this month.
McAfee explained how and why he orchestrated the attack in a video he posted on Twitter:
Pat McAfee @PatMcAfeeShowWho do you think bought that Mercedes? Whatever’s left of the Undisputed Era and whoever else from #WWENXT that wants some can come get some at #HalloweenHavoc on Wednesday if they got a problem with it. Remember.. We’re the greatest. You suck. Cheers.
After Kyle O'Reilly fell short in his NXT Championship match against Finn Balor, Ridge Holland showed up and dumped a beaten Cole over the guardrail. Holland later suggested that someone paid him to do the deed.
Holland suffered a significant injury that required surgery, but WWE decided to move ahead with McAfee's involvement regardless by having him show up on NXT TV last week.
After Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish were taken out by mystery attackers, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch replaced Undisputed Era in an NXT Tag Team Championship match against Breezango. During the match, a masked mystery man interfered, leading to Lorcan and Burch winning the titles.
The masked man revealed himself to be McAfee, which made it fairly clear that he was the one behind what happened to Cole at NXT TakeOver 31.
McAfee said that with Holland out, he contacted Lorcan and Burch to see if they would do his bidding. They initially refused, but after losing a No. 1 contender's match to Undisputed Era, they changed their minds and aligned themselves with McAfee.
McAfee made his in-ring debut at NXT TakeOver XXX in a losing effort against Cole. Although McAfee fell short, he was highly impressive and proved that he has a future in the business.
Now that he is working alongside Lorcan and Burch, it looks like McAfee's rivalry with Cole and Undisputed Era is far from over.
The Usos Reportedly Staying Together as Team
While Jey Uso has recently been receiving a huge singles push on SmackDown, his future is reportedly still as a tag team wrestler.
According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), there are no plans for Jey and Jimmy Uso to break up, and they will continue to be a tag team moving forward once Jimmy returns from injury.
With Jimmy on the shelf, WWE decided to do something unique by thrusting Jey into the Universal Championship scene and having him feud with his cousin, Roman Reigns.
Reigns beat Jey at Clash of Champions when Jimmy threw in the towel, which led to a Hell in a Cell I Quit match at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view on Sunday.
Jey refused to quit until he saw Reigns put Jimmy in a guillotine choke. Reigns said before the match that if Jey quit, then he and Jimmy would either have to fall in line and listen to him or leave the family.
That situation will likely be addressed on Friday night's episode of SmackDown.
Assuming The Usos agree to fall in line and be at the mercy of Reigns, perhaps they will join forces with Reigns and Paul Heyman to form a stable moving forward.
A Reigns-led stable with him holding the Universal Championship and The Usos potentially winning the SmackDown Tag Team Championships would make for a formidable unit and add even more intrigue to arguably the most compelling storyline in wrestling.
Lana in Line for Big Babyface Push?
Lana's recent run of success on Raw is reportedly due to a plan that is in place to push her as a major babyface.
According to Meltzer (h/t Upton), the running gag of Nia Jax putting Lana through the announce table is WWE's way of getting Lana over as a face as well.
Although Lana has been on the receiving end of many Samoan Drops from Jax, she has also been winning some big matches in recent weeks on Raw.
Lana won a battle royal to become No. 1 contender for the Raw Women's Championship, and although she lost her title match against Asuka, she put up a good fight and wasn't the victim of a squash.
Then, on Monday night's episode of Raw, Lana competed in a Fatal 4-Way match against Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce and Nikki Cross for a spot on the Raw women's Survivor Series team for the Five-on-Five Elimination Match.
Lana has a long way to go as an in-ring worker, but she has shown in the past that she can excel on the mic, so there may be hope for her to become the babyface star WWE wants her to be.
It remains to be seen if Jax destroying her regularly will lead to that, but a strong performance at Survivor Series could go a long way toward Lana getting some detractors on her side.
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