Nikki Bella suffered an ankle injury on the March 27 edition of “WWE SmackDown” during a tag match alongside her sister, Brie, against Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. The Hall of Famer’s status is still up in the air for WrestleMania 42, adding questions to the four-way match for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.

According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Nikki is working hard to rehab the injury, something that’s been mentioned on WWE TV numerous times, but as of this writing, it’s still not certain she’ll be able to do the match. Meltzer reported that if Nikki can’t wrestle on the “Grandest Stage of Them All,” WWE will have to figure out where Brie fits into things.

The sisters are set to face champions Nia Jax and Lash Legend, Flair and Bliss, and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria, with the match announced for night one of the event this week. Previous reports indicated that if Nikki can’t go, Asuka and Kairi Sane would take the place of the Bella Twins in the match.

The status of the Kabuki Warriors and the Bella Twins has a possible match between Asuka and IYO SKY also in flux for WrestleMania. The match was not made official before the official lineup was announced on ESPN Tuesday morning. Meltzer also reported on Friday that the match could happen at Backlash on May 9 in Tampa, Florida if it doesn’t go forward at WrestleMania.

WWE fans have heard the thoughts of Cody Rhodes and CM Punk, by way of scathing promos, on the addition of Pat McAfee to WrestleMania 42 as Randy Orton’s mystery ally. Now, WWE Tag Team Champion Damian Priest has offered his thoughts on “GABBY AF.” Priest didn’t hold back about McAfee’s promo on “WWE SmackDown,” where he brought up everything from low ticket sales to low ratings. Priest said he gets along with McAfee, but it wasn’t his taste.

“It sucks. I’m not a fan,” he said. “I don’t think that helps anything. He didn’t need it. For me, and I’m sure a lot of people aren’t going to be happy that I said that, in the locker room, specifically, a lot of us weren’t happy. That’s real. I was asked by some of the younger talent ‘What did I think?’ I thought it was bull.”

Priest explained that he didn’t like how McAfee could come in and drop “F” bombs on a PG show, as other talent could benefit from that in their promos. He said it “p***** him off” that someone who’s not there all the time got away with saying something like that. Priest said the locker room is in agreement that they wanted to take the microphone away from McAfee. He did say, at the end of the day, you want people to be talking about a segment.

“It is [garnering] attention, which is the whole point,” he said. “They’re trying to sell this match and obviously adding somebody like Pat McAfee does add, don’t get me wrong. He’s got a crazy following and he’s very popular, but I don’t agree with the way he went about it.”

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “GABBY AF” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Paulo Costa went into the UFC 327 pre-fight press conference with a lot of animosity for his opponent before calling out Khamzat Chimaev. 

Costa will be fighting Azmat Murzakanov at light heavyweight in the co-main event of Saturday’s show in Miami, looking to extend his record to 16-4 and become the 1 in 16-1 against an unblemished opponent. But he appeared to be unfazed by the resume of Murzakanov during the press conference on Thursday. 

“Look, I am in the co-main event for one reason. I am going to f*** up this fat Russian on Saturday,” said Costa. “I’m going to finish him very badly. He knows that. Look at him. He’s nervous. He’s shy. And I’m going to expose him Saturday.”

Costa said that he had no time for boring fights and was looking to make a splash for the Paramount+ and CBS audiences. And for a while he wouldn’t let his opponent get a word in edgewise. “He has nothing to say. He has zero to say. Nothing. Shut the f*** up. You’ve got nothing. Saturday, I’m going to f*** your fat a** up.”

When asked why he had so much vitriol, Costa refuted that and said he was cool before getting into why he takes issue with the man opposite him. 

“I have Latin blood in my veins. I represent Latin America and not this Russian. You know, I hate these f***ing Russians. This is the second in a row that I’m going to put on my record.”

He then turned to Dana White, “Maybe the third one. Chimaev, I want him next after I beat this fat guy.”

Murzakanov, for his part, said he was going to teach Costa some manners, believing him to be nervous and putting on an aggressive front. “Don’t be nervous. Everything will end quickly,” he said.

While many fans are aware that the divisive call to have Pat McAfee revealed as Randy Orton’s mystery ally against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes on “WWE SmackDown” was reportedly a TKO CEO Ari Emanuel decision rather than WWE creative’s, a new report indicates the content of the promo also wasn’t a call by the creative team, which includes Paul “Triple H” Levesque.

According to Dave Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the belief backstage is that McAfee was given permission, by someone, to come up with some of the scathing lines in the promo himself. There was a writer for the segment, however, but the promo McAfee ended up cutting in the middle of the ring was not what the writer told Levesque McAfee was going to say.

Meltzer wrote that multiple people said that McAfee’s comment about WrestleMania 42’s low ticket sales, as well as the line about the March 27 edition of the blue brand being “SmackDown’s” lowest rated show ever, were not written for him by WWE’s team. The “lowest rated” line is believed by some to be about the show’s Cagematch rating, which is currently rated a 2.39 out of 10 by fans. The Nielsen rating for the show was not the lowest rating ever. Meltzer noted that in his career, he had never had anyone bring up Cagematch ratings for an overall show.

Creative was also aware that the call for McAfee to be involved came from above Levesque. Key people, according to Meltzer, were aware that McAfee was in the mix. Meltzer previously reported that McAfee had been offered the opportunity, but turned it down. The details behind the deal that eventually got McAfee in the door have yet to be revealed. Just who okayed McAfee apparently coming up with his own lines for the promo has also not been reported. 

Jon Jones has been joined by accused human traffickers Tristan and Andrew Tate for Dirty Boxing’s event in Miami on Friday night. 

The Tate brothers, specifically Andrew, have seen multiple criminal and civil cases brought against them in Europe and the US for a manner of sex crimes, including rape and human trafficking, and had spent time in Romanian prison as well as having assets seized in the UK. 

The Tates have always categorically denied all allegations, and after pressure from President Donald Trump the Romanian authorities allowed them to fly to the US last year. Where a case was brought against them by Florida’s Attorney General, James Uthmeier, in March for an attack on a woman at The Beverly Hills Hotel. 

However, they were recently seen rubbing shoulders with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones ahead of Dirty Boxing’s latest event in Miami. Jones posted a gallery of pictures with the brothers, adding a caption that suggests they will be present for the event itself too. 

“Miami nights! Dirty boxing 6 is going down tomorrow night! We will see you guys there!” Jones wrote as a caption.

Jones was arrested in June 2021 for domestic violence after officers responded to a call placed at the request of his daughter. His fiancee was found by officers with blood and a bump on her lip. The charge was eventually dropped in December that year. 

Jones was only recently circulating on social media for purported road rage incident in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was claimed that he had almost crashed into another driver three times before following them into the parking lot, where an interaction was caught on film. Jones came out after the fact and said that he was the one being intimidated, and he was proud of himself for keeping his composure.