After Pat McAfee previously addressed WWE World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk’s show-opening promo on “WWE Raw” on Monday, where he tore into the former commentator and ESPN personality after he was revealed to be Randy Orton’s mystery ally, McAfee took to his show to respond. He revealed on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday he hadn’t been keeping up with “Raw” live, but when he logged into social media, he was surprised. He also took the opportunity to put Orton over, all while running down Punk.

“Come downstairs, about 8:30, 8:40ish. Open my phone. Go to the X. Go to trending. ‘Is that me? Pat MAGA-fee. What?'” he said. “‘What is that about?’ CM Punk [Monday] night called me ‘Pat MAGA-fee’ and attacked a lot of things. Then he’d lay out why he’s not worth the price of admission to WrestleMania. ‘Lower the prices now! I’m not worth that much!’ But, no worries, Mr. Punk. Randy Orton is here to save everything. It’s been an exciting time.”

While Punk started off his promo addressing his feud against WrestleMania opponent Roman Reigns, he quickly switched gears about halfway through and veered into “pipe bomb” territory. He called on TKO to lower the prices to WWE events, after McAfee expressed distaste during his “WWE SmackDown” promo that tickets to WrestleMania were still available despite Orton’s match against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes.

Punk took further shots at McAfee and referenced the fact that TKO CEO Ari Emanuel was reportedly behind bringing the former NFL punter back into the fold. Emanuel is notably McAfee’s agent, who recently got McAfee a role on a Paramount+ series.

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

Dominick Reyes returns to the octagon this weekend for UFC 327 when he takes on the ever unpredictable Johnny Walker. Reyes is currently sitting at number ten in the UFC Light Heavyweight rankings, two places above Walker in 12th, having just about hanging on to his top ten position after losing to Carlos Ulberg in September. With that said, Reyes is confident that the loss to Ulberg is just a blip on his quest back to the top of the division, telling MMAJunkie that a win will put him right back in the conversation for a title fight.

“I was on a three-fight win streak, [if] I win this fight I’ve won four of the last five, so it’s pretty damn good.” Reyes also noted that he is fighting on the same card as the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship fight between Jiri Prochazka and Carlos Ulberg, which helps his case. “The cool thing about fighting on the title fight card is like, it’s like a relevancy thing. You know, we live in a world of ‘what have you done for me lately?’ and everything’s kind of like short-term memory. So if I go out there and put on a hell of a show against Johnny and the main event is a couple of fights later, I’ll be in the conversation. Whether I have to fight one more time or whatever, I’m relevant you know?”

Reyes has not had a title fight since losing to Jan Blachowicz at UFC 253 in September 2020 when the title had been vacated by Jon Jones due to Jones’ wanting to move up to heavyweight. “The Devastator” earned that fight after his previous title challenge against Jones at UFC 247 in February of that year, where Reyes not only pushed Jones to the limit to where many fans and journalists believe Reyes actually beat Jones, but he also became the final man to challenge Jones for the title before it was vacated.

Please credit MMAJunkie when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

Despite months of rumors that he would be heading to WWE, Chris Jericho returned to “AEW Dynamite” in his hometown of Winnipeg, Canada last week after being absent from the show for a full year. At first it seemed like the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania 42 was going to be one of the destinations for Jericho’s return to WWE, but according to AEW President Tony Khan on “Behind The Turnbuckle Studios” with Jonathan Coachman and Vince Russo, the “Lionheart” ultimately made the Jacksonville-based promotion a priority when deciding his future.

“I do know Chris had a choice and he wanted to be in AEW … he definitely told me he wanted to be at AEW, and very specifically in Winnipeg on that date. We’ve had that circled for a long time going back to last year. And it was a choice that Chris made that he’d rather be in AEW than wrestling anywhere else.”

Khan continued by highlighting Jericho’s importance to AEW, stating that the company would’ve never reached the success it has today without his involvement and believes his return will only add to the recent increase in viewership for the promotion.

“Chris Jericho is always a part of AEW. We would not have gotten into this position without him. He’s instrumental in the launch of AEW. So, I was really excited for Chris to be able to return to AEW in his hometown Winnipeg and get a great reaction and help us get I think some good buzz for what has been really strong viewership for us. Our biggest viewership in a couple years.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit “Behind The Turnbuckle Studios” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.

With TNA firmly entrenched in a partnership with WWE, it’s left little room for any sort of relationship between TNA and AEW, despite the two promotions being partners a few years ago. Nevertheless, AEW and TNA talents have continued to have matches against each other on the independent circuit, something that may be changed based on recent movement from TNA’s end.

Fightful Select reports that TNA star Moose has been removed from Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling’s upcoming Multiverse event, taking place next week during WrestleMania weekend. While TNA sources indicated there was a scheduling conflict that prevented Moose from working the show, it was also noted that Moose had previously gained clearance from TNA to work the event, suggesting something else was behind the change.

That something else may be TNA moving to prevent their talent from working shows where they’d be wrestling AEW talent altogether. Those within TNA expressed growing concern that talents like Leon Slater and Nic Nemeth would be unable to compete in upcoming matches against AEW’s Ricochet and MJF. Both matches are incorrectly listed as being part of Multiverse, but are in fact taking place elsewhere; Slater vs. Ricochet is currently scheduled for WrestleCon’s Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow next Thursday, while Nemeth vs. MJF is scheduled for May 1 at Create-A-Pro Wrestling’s Monumental Moment.

As to what called the change, TNA personnel suggested that President Carlos Silva may have been inspired by “AEW Collision” running head to head with “TNA Impact” one week ago. Silva was believed to be unhappy about this, despite the change likely being caused by WBD and not AEW. Meanwhile, PWInsider reports that the move was done because TNA didn’t want their talents facing other promotion’s wrestlers on either live or taped events, fearing it could lead to talents looking bad by losing. It was unclear whether TNA’s broadcasting partner AMC, WWE, or neither had anything to do with the change.