DEBUNKATHON: Rousey, Styles, Toni, EVP, Ricochet, Lexis King, Santos Escobar, Bear Bronson (Patreon)

Welcome to the Fightful Debunkathon and NEWS UPDATE

News on

- AJ Styles

- Toni Storm

- Ronda Rousey

- EVP

- Ricochet

- Carlos Silva

- Lexis King

- Santos Escobar

Also, farting fans.

AJ Styles was at a Georgia indie show (ROAR) giving advice to talent last weekend.

Toni Storm's absence is for an indeterminate amount of time and there are no creative plans for her to return any time soon or wrestle. There is a creative plan in order for her attacker story already.

When we asked AEW sources about Ronda Rousey's status, nobody told us she was signed by the company. AEW hasn't confirmed if she's planned for additional appearances, but we're told they're open to it. A lot creatively changed for the immediate future with Toni Storm's injury.

Unfortunately, it does appear Josh Alexander sustained an injury last week at the Collision tapings.

Karen Jarrett did confirm to Fightful that this fan farted in front her. Farty Jannetty over here.

For those asking, Swerve and Will Ospreay did not win the Young Bucks' EVP status last year. That was made clear during the story.

Those that we spoke to in AEW say that Chris Hero was the person who reached out to Ricochet to give him advice on the disrespectful MS tweet.

Carlos Silva was at the Thursday night OVW show checking things out.

We're told that the Tama Tonga fine from WWE was in the five figure territory.

We are told that Brian Pillman aka Lexis King is feeling okay after a rough spot at an NXT live event this past weekend. We wish him the best.

Santos Escobar is expected to be out until late into the summer at least after his triceps surgery.

Chris Van Vliet announced Maven for his live show at CircaMania, while Denise Salcedo has added CJ Perry to her slate. We interviewed Naomi Rosenblum ahead of her art exhibition at CircaMania as well!

Bear Bronson

Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful spoke to Bear Bronson for a new interview ahead of TNA in New Orleans.

Bronson said that he and AEW came to an agreement for him to leave as they didn't have plans to use him in the company. He said that he was very grateful for his time and experience there, but wanted to work a busy indie schedule and didn't want to have to get them approved by anyone. He ended up working over 100 indie matches over the next year, as one of the busiest unsigned wrestlers in the world. His partner Gabby Forza maintains a similar schedule.

He said Brian Myers let him know TNA might be interested in him, and then Tommy Dreamer called him to make the signing happen. Dreamer presented a creative plan and it meant a lot to Bronson. He wanted to make sure he could fulfill his prior obligations, which Dreamer was fine with. Bronson said he actually had spoken with Gabe Sapolsky before signing, who he said was very helpful.

The full interview is out on Monday publicly, and is up now for early access subscribers

DEBUNKATHON

John Laurinaitis absolutely AI'd a crowd for his signing at Big Time Wrestling.

If you see accounts like this, report them if you see them posting hurtful shit on Youtube, Facebook or any platform. Mercedes has expressed how uncomfortable it makes her.

You know engagement pages are down bad when they are copying AIRGold posts bar for bar. Smackdown was not "canceled." The contract expired and WWE moved elsewhere

There was a hilarious claim online that wrestlers paid media to post or repost their nice tweets. I can't speak for anyone else, but Fightful has never accepted money or accommodations from any promotion or wrestler.

No, Mya Lesnar isn't wrestling, and there haven't been internal conversations we've heard of regarding that as of yet.

We can't speak to anyone that other outlets talked to, but nobody in WWE seemed shocked about Ronda Rousey appearing in AEW, and most thought she would never come back to WWE considering her approach regarding TKO.

I've never met a wrestler who feels comfortable with people posting weird AI images of their families.

Lets' be clear -- SPORTS BASH IS NOT REAL AND HAS NO SOURCES.

Here's another example of the goofy shit happening in engagement bating. If you see someone crediting just "initials," it's not real.