Back in 2011, when CM Punk was the coolest thing on the planet, he demanded WWE bring back their old school ice cream bars as part of his kayfabe contract negotiations. The gimmick even ended with its own t-shirt.
The New Day have since taken this ice cream task upon themselves, but their quest took a dark turn yesterday: bringing out possibly the most horrifying piece of WWE merchandise this side of Daniel Bryan’s beard hat.
The sickeningly green colour, the way they’re all vacantly smiling despite their slowly melting faces – this is a nightmare printed to t-shirt. Perhaps it’s all a clever ‘I Scream’ pun on ‘ice cream’. But that’s no excuse for bringing such horror into this world.
The main news this week has been various wrestlers leaving TNA Impact Wrestling. Not to be outdone, WWE now have one too.
Former World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger – yes, I forgot he was on the main roster, too – has requested his release from WWE. This comes from the All-American American himself speaking on Chael Sonnen’s Beyond the Fight podcast.
Apparently Swagger and WWE had been negotiating a new deal, but he felt the company didn’t value him as much as he values himself. His release in an “ongoing process”, but he’s already looking forward to working in Mexico, Japan and the UK.
Swagger has been with WWE for over a decade, first signing in 2006, and he won the World Heavyweight title once back in 2009. Despite being drafted to Raw last year, unceremoniously jumping to Smackdown in September, he’s only briefly feuded with Baron Corbin since.
It’s also looking increasingly more likely that someone else is backing off from WWE – 7 foot 1, 325 lb Shaquille O’Neal, who’s been building to a Wrestlemania 33 fight with The Big Show.
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Show did an interview with WWE just last week calling out Shaq for not taking their match seriously. Shaq has since responded on his podcast:
“It’s not going to happen? That’s probably right. It’s not my fault, that’s all you need to know…it’s not totally off yet but it’s not looking good…I’m still doing it like it’s going down.”
Big Show shed a little light on who’s fault it might be when talking to Sporting News:
“…it’s above my paygrade. It’s between Shaq and WWE.”
Big Show has been training hard, arguably getting into the best shape of his career. And it might all be for nothing:
“It is a little frustrating because my contract ends in February 2018. So I don’t know what’s going to happen between now and then. I don’t know if there will be an opportunity for me next year at WrestleMania or not.”
The currently injured Naomi is also looking doubtful for Wrestlemania 33, after her rehab status tweet:
It’s going well just not at fast as I’d like still don’t know if I will be healthy in time for mania
https://t.co/NbQfmUC9zr
— Trinity Fatu (@NaomiWWE) February 28, 2017
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