DEBUNKATHON NEWS UPDATE: CM Punk, Recent Returns, AJ Styles, Nyla Rose, Jack Perry, Athena, Raw Writers/Producers (Patreon)

Welcome to the Fightful news update and DEBUNKATHON today we have news on:

Scott Steiner

AEW extras

Nyla Rose

AJ Styles

Jack Perry

CM Punk

Blake Monroe

Scott Steiner's Twitter account is run by a manager with Scott Steiner's permission. That isn't actually Scott Steiner begging for follows.

Wrestling Observer reported that Jeff Cobb/JC Mateo was backstage at NJPW Dontaku.

Brian Cage returned on AEW TV. He's been cleared for well over a month.

Brittany Jade, Leah Knight, Amanda Kiss, Ori Gold, Emily Jaye were among the extras at AEW in Asheville.

AEW sources echoed Jon Alba's SI report that they have interest in working with Mick Foley.

Blake Monroe is on the travel schedule to Lexington, Kentucky for Smackdown next week.

CM Punk's dates being adjusted this summer are just being referred to as a "schedule change" among those in WWE we spoke to.

Thekla confirmed Fightful Select's report about her signing a new contract.

AJ Styles was working out and scouting at an indie show in Georgia this week.

Nyla Rose was announced for an upcoming Marigold show. She is still under AEW contract, although she hasn't wrestled on AEW TV since 2024. She is not injured and hasn't had any issues being cleared.

We asked about the rumors of Jack Perry's contract coming up, but people in AEW had not heard that until it emerged online. We've heard nothing additional on that.

Fightful will have a couple of team members at next week's Smackdown in Lexington, Kentucky, ROH Supercard of Honor, as well as at AEW Double or Nothing.

For some reason there were accounts acting like the Young Bucks just confirmed that they were in talks with WWE in 2018. They confirmed it in their book years ago, and also confirmed it to Fightful's Sean Ross Sapp during an interview.

Athena

Fightful interviewed Athena ahead of ROH Supercard of Honor.

She spoke about how proud she was of Billie Starkz running GirlFight shows, but warned her she may have gotten in over her head. She was so proud of how well Billie ended up running the show and said she did a fantastic job.

Athena spoke about her chemistry with Asuka and said that they always had that unique chemistry in the ring. She hopes that Asuka isn't done wrestling, and says she's actually been trying to get in touch with her to reconnect.

We spoke about the unusual Goldberg question that she was asked after All In Texas. She said she wasn't offended by it, she was just confused why she was being asked about Goldberg. She didn't intend to come off rude about him, and always liked his work growing up and did a Jackhammer once upon a time, but just thought the question was out of left field and would have preferred to talk about their show.

She said that Kairi Sane hit her the hardest in the ring. She said that Alicia Fox surprises a lot of people with how strong she is and is one of the strongest women pound for pound in pro wrestling.

She got the O-Face finisher from Jiggle-O James Johnson, which is where the name came from. She said Johnson was winding down a lot of his regular wrestling and she asked if she could use the move. He still works Metroplex Wrestling, which Athena has had a part in. She said Booker T was probably the first person to take a top rope O-Face. She said Alicia Fox and Mickie James are her favorite sells of the move

WWE RAW Writers, Producers and Other Notes

Writers:

- Roman Reigns/Jimmy Uso/Jey Uso segments: Michael Kirshenbaum

- IYO SKY and Asuka backstage segment: Kirsten Koedding and Ben Saccoccio

- Dominik Mysterio backstage promo: Jon Baeckstrom

- Street Profits and Seth Rollins backstage interview: Brian Parise

- “Original” El Grande Americano backstage promo: Jon Baeckstrom

- The Vision backstage promo: Brian Parise

Producers:

- The Vision promo and match vs The Street Profits and Joe Hendry: Shane Helms

- Je’Von Evans vs Rusev: Abyss

- Paige and Brie Bella and The Judgment Day segment: TJ Wilson and Jason Jordan

- IYO SKY vs Sol Ruca: Jason Jordan and TJ Wilson

- Oba Femi open challenge: Abyss

- Finn Balor ambushes JD McDonagh: Bobby Roode

- “Original” El Grande Americano vs Dominik Mysterio: Bobby Roode

- Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu segment: Bobby Roode

Other Notes:

- The show was internally titled ‘Unceremonious’

DEBUNKATHON

No insiders have heard that Teddy Long is coming back to Smackdown. Aldis continues to be very popular within WWE for his work on Smackdown

Wrestling Ocean sucks. They're clickbaiting "CM Punk quietly being removed" in a vague way.

"Ruthless attitude" is a Sportskeeda slop page. When they start out with "Okay Triple H, I owe you an apology," or "man if I was Triple H, I'd be mad" it's just bait.

Wrestle Everest is another Sportskeeda slop page. We'll be pointing these out because they're incentivized by Sportskeeda referral programs to create clickbait.

Asuka has not retired.

Fightful Select did not report that WWE is imminently releasing more NXT talent.

Jacob Fatu is not leaving WWE.

New Day were not "pitched to sign with AEW" before returning to WWE. Sportskeeda just sucks, man.

R-Truth shut down a claim that he doesn't expect to finish his current deal in WWE.