Bray Wyatt Update; Matt Cardona Eyes John Cena's Final Match; WWE Rumors on LA Knight
August 15, 2023
Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from the WWE Universe.
Latest on Bray Wyatt
It's been nearly six months since Bray Wyatt was last seen on WWE television with no official update from the promotion or former WWE champion about his status.
Wyatt's father, Mike Rotunda, said on the Wrestling Binge podcast (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), his son "will return to WWE hopefully shortly, and we'll go from there."
Wyatt was originally scheduled to wrestle Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania 39. Even though the match wasn't officially announced, the two superstars had started to build up a feud that was going to culminate with a showdown at the biggest show of the year.
Instead, the Eater of Worlds was taken off television after the Feb. 24 episode of SmackDown. Fightful Select (h/t Nick Tylwalk of Wrestling Junkie) recently reported Wyatt was dealing with an illness described as "both career and life threatening," but he has "improved significantly" and is "getting closer" to returning.
Wyatt made his return to WWE at Extreme Rules on Oct. 8. His only televised match was the Pitch Black match against LA Knight at the Royal Rumble.
Matt Cardona Wants John Cena's Final Match
The artist formerly known as Zack Ryder wants to be John Cena's final opponent in WWE.
In response to a prompt on Twitter about who fans would like to see in the ring for Cena's last match, whenever that happens, Matt Cardona offered a simple one-word response.
Cardona spent 15 years in WWE from 2005 to '20. The Ryder character was generally buried on television throughout his tenure, but he had a moment around 2011 and 2012 where the fans rallied behind him.
The fan support led to Ryder being booked in segments with Cena, but the storyline ended with Zack getting beaten up by Kane and Eve, who was in a storyline relationship with Ryder at the time, leaving him when she made out with Cena.
Somehow that didn't turn Cena heel, which further proves how little WWE actually thought of the Ryder character at that point. He did have a crowning achievement at WrestleMania 32 when he won a ladder match for the intercontinental championship.
Since being released by WWE in 2020, Cardona has worked for multiple promotions throughout the country. He had a brief stint in AEW and a run with Impact Wrestling.
Cena's wrestling schedule has been extremely limited in recent years. He lost to Austin Theory in a match for the United States championship at WrestleMania 39.
LA Knight Among Top WWE Merchandise Sellers
LA Knight's strong crowd reactions are indicative that he's making himself and WWE a lot of money.
Per Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select (h/t Upton), LA Knight is moving a lot of merchandise in WWE with his individual shirts ranking "right up there" with top sellers like Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.
Sapp also noted there was an internal "point of contention" with WWE about how little LA Knight merchandise made available at live events:
"However, the lists we often see emerge from the best sellers aspect doesn't factor in live events, where Cody, Roman and the names mentioned above see their merchandise move heavily. In fact, we'd learned that there was a point of contention internally recently regarding the lack of merchandise for LA Knight at certain live shows of late."
Ryder is actually a good point of comparison for why Knight is different. Zack was over with a portion of the crowd for a brief period of time, but there was no indication he was doing anything to move the financial needle.
Knight, whose popularity grew gradually since getting called up to the main roster in January 2022, has evolved into one of the biggest babyfaces in WWE and is genuinely over because fans are spending money to buy his stuff.
WWE has clearly listened to the audience because Knight is in the midst of the biggest push of his career. He's been featured in high-profile matches at each of the last two premium live events, including winning the 25-man battle royal at SummerSlam.
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