Ryback-Ziggler NSFW Tweets; Bayley Eyes AEW Star; FTR on WWE Contract Offers

Bleacher Report catches you up on the latest news from WWE and AEW.

Ryback, Ziggler Feud on Twitter

It does not appear there is any love lost between former tag-team partners Dolph Ziggler and Ryback.

The two had a seemingly harsh exchange Sunday on Twitter, their second of the year:

Ryback has been a harsh critic of WWE and certain former colleagues since being fired by the company in 2016, while Ziggler is no stranger to social media back-and-forths.

The two previously had it out in May, with Ziggler saying he avoided Ryback matches because he was an unsafe worker.

Bayley Wants to Face Deeb

AEW has struggled to build a strong women's division in its first year of existence but may be hitting on a rising star in Serena Deeb. The NWA women's champion defended her title at AEW Full Gear in an impressive match against Allysin Kay, catching the attention of WWE's Bayley.

The overwhelming odds are Deeb and Bayley will never go head-to-head unless the former joins WWE. Bayley is arguably the best bet besides Charlotte Flair to be a WWE lifer, having grown up loving the company and having been given every opportunity to become a star since her arrival. There's little reason to think she'll ever want to leave, or that WWE would ever force her hand.

Deeb was briefly in WWE a decade ago as part of the Straight Edge Society and was signed again in 2018 to a developmental contract before being released earlier this year. She took the second release in her stride and has had the greatest success of her career in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Odds are she's going to want to see how far she can go in AEW and NWA before returning to a company that's already released her twice. 

FTR Was Offered NXT Deal Before Leaving

It's well known that WWE did not want FTR (formerly The Revival) to leave the company. WWE went over the top with several huge multi-year contract offers after the team requested its release before they ultimately left for AEW.

What wasn't known, until now, is that WWE also tried persuading FTR to stay by offering them a chance to go back to NXT.

"There were talks with us and Triple H to go back to NXT and they tried very hard to keep us," Dax Harwood said to Alex McCarthy of talkSPORT. "It was all professional and all respectful and we were very gracious to the offers we got and to what Triple H was going to provide for us, but ultimately, we knew that our time in WWE was over at that time."

The Revival had its greatest run of success, both as a team and creatively, in NXT while helping establish the brand as perhaps the best weekly programming in wrestling. AEW's Dynamite has overtaken NXT in that regard thanks in large part to its commitment to tag team wrestling, with FTR's run as champions being a strong factor.

Harwood said that the money being offered by WWE was tempting but the team felt the need to feel creatively fulfilled in a true pro wrestling environment. Much of The Revival's time on the "main roster" was filled with frustrating creative choices, including an attempt to make them a comedy duo—a move that hastened their exit.