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DEBUNKATHON: Liv Morgan, Shane McMahon, Nick Hogan, Speedball/Shelton and MORE!
🕑 Added 2025-11-21 21:20:01 +0000 UTCWelcome to the Fightful Friday DEBUNKATHON. In addition to debunking weird social media rumors that somehow gain traction, we have a loaded news update.
Today:
Jody Threat
Cam Skattebo
Austin Theory
WWE MSG
Speedball/Shelton
Ratings
Nick Hogan
Wrestle Kingdom
Liv Morgan
Shane McMahon
We will have a loaded AEW scoops thread ahead of Full Gear
We'd reported earlier this week that Jody Threat told In The Weeds her TNA contract is up soon. Fightful Select has confirmed it's up on December 1.
Although he's not involved now, we're told that Austin Theory was legitimately an option to be used in WarGames before Seth Rollins' injury.
We are told the Cam Skattebo WWE spot was nailed down the day of WWE Raw. There was to be as little physicality as possible. Skattebo is a big wrestling fan. Those we spoke to in the sports media world claimed that the New York Giants didn't have an issue with the appearance.
Netflix and WWE hosted a Bodega pre-show party in New York City that was attended by a number of celebrities that were shown on WWE Raw.
Kazeem Famuyide was at the WWE Raw pre-show party. He is a former WWE writer who has become a top podcast host. Though Grayson Waller wasn't on Raw, he was at the pre-show party.
Tony Khan mentioned during the Full Gear media call that Kazuchika Okada was always planned as Hiroshi Tanahashi's opponent for Wrestle Kingdom. Kenny Omega was also discussed internally within New Japan Pro Wrestling. Shinsuke Nakamura was only considered a "pipe dream."
NJPW expects the remaining Wrestle Kingdom tickets that are set to be released to be sold very quickly.
The Undertaker's theme song was played in the closing seconds of the Buffalo Bills/Houston Texans game.
To clarify this week, Fightful only confirmed that Liv Morgan was set to travel in to New York around the time of WWE Raw. She was in the city early in the week doing some sort of work for WWE.
Nick Hogan has been training with NWA's Bryan Idol of late. When we spoke with WWE sources, they said they've not heard any discussion whatsoever of Nick Hogan wrestling in the company since the 2010s, and even then it was a "what if?"
We asked WWE sources why Shane McMahon wasn't shown in the crowd. The claim was that the people shown in the audience were promoting projects and Shane was just visiting. It was stressed to us that he was welcomed to the show.
WWE does not have traditional media junkets planned ahead of Survivor Series, which is standard for that specific PLE. The reason is that in order to get talent in for the Friday media junket, they'd need to fly them in on Thanksgiving, which nobody, including the media wants.
AEW Schedule Notes
AEW Collision on Saturday, December 13 will air at 4:30 PM Eastern. It won't be head-to-head with Saturday Night's Main Event.
Wednesday, December 17 has AEW Dynamite at 8 PM Eastern, AEW Collision at 10 PM Eastern & Countdown To World's End at 11 PM Eastern.
AEW Collision on Saturday, December 20 is slated to air at 2:30 PM Eastern.
AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, December 24 is listed at 6 PM Eastern.
AEW Christmas Collision is listed on Thursday, December 25 (Christmas Day) at 9 PM Eastern.
There is no Tailgate Brawl listed yet for Saturday, December 27 before World's End.
Elsewhere
Wrestlenomics has done some incredible work reporting on the pro wrestling discrepancies in regards to the new Big Data + Panel numbers. CW was not happy with the discrepancies. When Fightful asked Carlos Silva last month if this affected negotiations for their deal, it hadn't even hit his radar yet.
Bryan Alvarez mentioned on Wrestling Observer Live that the finish of Speedball Mike Bailey and Shelton Benjamin was messed up because that wasn't actually the finish. Shelton Benjamin tried to call an audible in the ring, and the ref didn't hear him, and it led to the awkward spot. We were told that was absolutely true.
ASH BY ELEGANCE
Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp spoke with former TNA Knockouts Champion Ash By Elegance.
They spoke about meeting over ten years ago at the Arnold Sports Festival and the NXT shows that happened there. She said that two of her biggest supporters when she left WWE were Bayley and Mercedes Mone, and both helped her out a lot. She also said that Shawn Michaels made her promise she wouldn't quit wrestling after being let go by WWE.
For Ash, she said it was very important to completely reinvent herself after leaving WWE, and wanted to be a different character. She was frustrated that initially she got comparisons to Toni Storm, because she wanted to be her own thing and thinks that she succeeded in doing so. She was very happy with how the Elegance brand ended up
DEBUNKATHON
Other notes
Fightful will have a presence at AEW Full Gear, WrestleCade, ROH Final Battle, and MLW in Orlando. If there are talent nearby who want to do interviews, let us know!
Comments
Bevan Shortridge
I'm very glad there is a Debunkathon, but I'm also very glad that the Debunkathon is usually the first I hear about most of these "reports".
Fightful Select
He didn't think it was getting any better than that lol
Matthew Hager
Can I ask for clarity on the Shelton/Speedball note? You say Shelton tried to call an audible, but I wanted to ask what made him want to call the audible? When I watched it live I thought maybe Speedball was KO'd and that's why he didn't kick. Is Shelton trying to call an audible because that was true? Might be a stupid question, but I figured I'd ask.
