Sammy Guevara’s return to the ring as part of Ring of Honor has led to some fans to speculate on social media that he wasn’t brought back to the AEW brand because of an issue he had with one of the top stars in the company.
In 2020, a video went viral online from 2016 where Guevara was heard saying about Mone (then Sasha Banks) that he “wanted to just go f–king rape that woman.”
Guevara apologized after the video surfaced and said “2016 me is not me today” and what he said in 2016 was his attempt to use “shock rumor” to get a reaction. Guevara added that he “understand[s] now that the words I say can impact people more than I’ll ever understand.” Guevara also said that he spoke with Mone (in 2020) and she helped him “learn a gigantic lesson.”
On today’s Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez said he was told that Guevara being used in ROH has nothing to do with the situation from 2020. Alvarez said the following:
“I know that everybody has immediately jumped to the following conclusion [that] he was moved to Ring of Honor because Mercedes Mone is on the main AEW television show.” Alvarez continued, “I was told that him being on Ring of Honor has absolutely nothing to do with Mercedes. I mentioned that to some people and they were like, ‘There’s no way, it has to be.’ All I can tell you is this, “Sammy has been ready to go for a little while and they did have a storyline for Sammy Guevara that would have brought him back to the main roster…But there was an aspect of the storyline that he was not cool with. I think it involved him turning heel and he didn’t want to turn heel, whatever it was. They did have a storyline and they decided well, he doesn’t want to do that aspect of the storyline [and] so they ended up coming up with a storyline where he’s a babyface in Ring of Honor. So, there were plans to bring him back to the main roster when Mercedes Mone was there and it didn’t happen. So, I’m sure he’ll be back on the main roster. I would bet you anything that by the end of the year he’s back doing Dynamite, Collision, etc.”
Alvarez said that in regards to speculation about Guevara being part of Chris Jercho’s Learning Tree, that was never the plan.
Guevara has been out of action after he was suspended in February after a match with Jeff Hardy where he did not follow the concussion protocols. Guevara’s suspension ended long before his return to action this weekend but up until this past week, there was no word on his status until he let fans know on X that he and Tay Melo were training to get back in the ring.
Sammy Guevara made his return at the ROH tapings today!
It might be perfect for him to start in and become a top guy in ROH before moving back to AEW. pic.twitter.com/dQBU4fpEff
— AIR (@AIRGold_) July 28, 2024
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit F4WOnline.com with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
