On today's wrestling news, the real reason Leon Slater wasn't at TNA. Got an update on Roman Rain's return. Two big matches planned for WWE. And WWE taking big steps to counter criticisms. Are you ready? Are you ready for the news times? My name is Bill Chambers. No Gareth here today. So let's get right into it. The first one up is the real reason why Leon Slater wasn't at those TNA tapings. Now, he is

the TNAX Division champion, so you would expect him to be on the first TNA TV show on a new network.

But he wasn't, and he was actually on Smackdown last night instead. Now, there was lots of

sort of speculation about whether this was WWE pulling him from the event so that they could use him, but this is not the case. This is coming

from Fightful Select. It was reported that the real reason was because he had visa issues and so

he couldn't work the tapings because of that. So he was then home in the UK, which is obviously

where he lives. And that's why WW used him on Smackdown. So he came out on Smack the UK, which is obviously where he lives. And that's why

WW used him on Smackdown. So he came out on Smackdown. He answered to Comello Hayes' open challenge for the US championship. He was unsuccessful in that, but still made a really, really good showing. Lance Lee is super talented guy. He's going to go a long way in this business. But that is the reason why he wasn't at the TNA TV tapings.

It wasn't that WW pulled him from TNA so that they could use him on WWE or anything like that. It wasn't like a tip-for-tat deal for AJ Stiles. It was just simply that he didn't have the visa so he couldn't work the shows. He also won't be working the next TNA, pay-per-view Genesis, So we'll have to wait and hope for those visa issues

to get sorted so we can get back on TNA TV. But I would not be surprised if this is definitely

not the last time we see him on WW TV. It seems like they are definitely angling to get him

on board down the line. He is contracted with TNA through up till the end of the year,

but I wouldn't be surprised if he makes the jump to WWE very soon after that.

Next up, we have an update on Roman Rains' return to WWE now that reports are saying

that the reason that Cody dropped his belt to Drew on Smackdown last week was a bit of a late decision,

but it was there to avoid audience fatigue about Roman Raines versus Cody for a third time in four years at WrestleMania.

Now Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer newsletter is reporting that Roman Raines is scheduled to return at the Royal

Rumble where his WrestleMania creative plans will apparently become more clear.

Now, I've not seen him since Survivor Series at the War Games match when he was kind of heavily hinting at the end of the match

that he would want to challenge either Cody or CM Punk for either one of their title belts. Obviously, Cody doesn't have the belt anymore, so that's not on the table. But they could still do Roman versus Cody, just a bit lower down on the card maybe, or like an opening match instead of a main event. Or they could go down the CM Punk mode. Who the hell knows? But it seems like Dave Meltz is at least saying that he will be at the Royal Wumble

and he will be at WrestleMania, therefore, and the sort of creative plans of what that

is going to look like will become clearer as we move on.

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