Rumors on Hurt Business Breakup, Sting's AEW Debut and Jushin Liger at WWE HOF

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

Details on The Hurt Business Breaking Up

On Monday's episode of Raw, The Hurt Business seemed to officially breakup, as WWE champion Bobby Lashley and MVP disowned Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander.

Lashley and MVP called Benjamin and Alexander out for losing to Drew McIntyre in a handicap match the week before and getting themselves banned from ringside at WrestleMania 37. That led to Lashley assaulting both of them.

Benjamin and Lashley faced each other in an official match later in the night, which Lashley won, and a match between Lashley and Alexander was teased for next week.

MVP said Benjamin and Alexander are done in The Hurt Business, which suggests Lashley and MVP are the only ones left standing in the group.

According to Fightful Select (h/t Felix Upton of Ringside News), the decision to break up The Hurt Business was made by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon despite objections by those in the group.

Lashley and MVP reportedly met with McMahon in an attempt to "talk some sense into him," but Vince just "dug his heels" in and moved forward with the plan.

The timing of the move was somewhat surprising since Lashley could use some backup at WrestleMania against McIntyre.

As part of the storyline, Lashley has offered a WrestleMania title match to anyone who is able to take McIntyre out. Multiple Superstars tried to take Lashley up on his offer, including King Corbin, who helped Lashley attack McIntyre to conclude Raw.

While the angle is intriguing, it is difficult to rationalize why WWE would want to break up what has been arguably the best stable in the company over the past several months.

TNT Was Reportedly Upset with Sting's AEW Debut

Chris Jericho said on a recent episode of his podcast that TNT was not happy about AEW's decision to keep Sting's debut in December a surprise.

On Talk Is Jericho (h/t Upton), Jericho said:

"When Sting was a surprise, [TNT] was like, 'Don't do that again.' That's why Paul Wight was announced on social media because TNT said, 'We don't want surprises, we want to take advantage of the ratings.' We had a big surprise, a big announcement, and we used the big announcement to announce the next big surprise. I think that's one of the reasons too, to spread it out a little."

AEW did not announce Sting's debut ahead of time, which made for a memorable moment. While wrestling fans enjoy surprises, it is understandable why a network like TNT would prefer for something to be announced ahead of time due to the impact it could have on television ratings.

To Jericho's point, AEW announced the shocking signing of Paul Wight on social media and advertised his first appearance on Dynamite following the Sting situation.

AEW then used Wight's Dynamite debut to set up a surprise for Revolution, which ended up being the debut of another former WWE Superstar in Christian Cage.

It is important for wrestling companies to find the right balance between what should be a surprise and what should be advertised, but from a wrestling fan's perspective, Sting being a surprise was undoubtedly the best choice.

Some anticipated Sting joining AEW at some point, but the fact that he did without any prior clues added to the excitement and hype, and likely aided in AEW getting a ratings bump for Dynamite the following week anyway.

Jushin Liger Reportedly Not Part of WWE HOF Ceremony

Jushin "Thunder" Liger reportedly won't be part of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, which will stream Tuesday on Peacock.

According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (h/t Upton), Liger will not appear in any capacity, and it is unclear why.

WWE announced Liger as part of the 2020 WWE Hall of Fame class last year, but no ceremony was held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, this year's Hall of Fame special will see members of both the 2020 and 2021 Hall of Fame classes honored.

Liger was announced as part of a class with Batista, John Bradshaw Layfield, The Bella Twins, The British Bulldog the nWo and William Shatner.

The 2021 class includes Kane, Eric Bischoff, Molly Holly, Rob Van Dam and The Great Khali thus far.

Batista announced that he would not take part in this year's ceremony due to a prior engagement, but plans to accept his spot in the Hall of Fame in the future:

It is possible Liger is in a similar situation, although no specifics have been provided.

The 56-year-old Liger is one of the most legendary Japanese wrestlers of all time, and he enjoyed an in-ring career that stretched from 1984-2020.

Liger's last match before retiring was a tag team match at New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 14 in 2020, which saw him and Naoki Sano lose to Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee.

In addition to being arguably the greatest junior heavyweight of all time in Japan, Liger was a Light Heavyweight champion in WCW and he wrestled one match for WWE, beating Tyler Breeze at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in 2015.

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