Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo will not be leaving Impact Wrestling anytime soon. Impact announced during Impact Press Pass on Wednesday that the 26-year-old has signed a long-term deal with the promotion. Specific terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Purrazzo returned to Impact Wrestling in May this year and immediately attacked then-champion, Jordynne Grace. She won the title from Grace at Slammiversary and then successfully retained it in a 30-minute Ironman match on night 2 of Emergence.
Purrazzo took to Twitter to comment on the news:
I’ve been waiting to be able to talk about this publicly!!!
Purrazzo spoke with Chris Van Vliet in June about her decision to go to Impact Wrestling. She mentioned that other promotions had contacted her but Impact was where she ultimately decided to go.
“I mean like, some people had reached out, but it was all kind of like fleeting, there was no like, ‘You’re gonna have a meeting’ or, ‘We’re gonna sit down and do this.’”
“Luckily, I had been to Impact before, I know the people there and it was right away like, ‘We’d like to have you, let’s talk about it when we can.’ It was just more of a secure thing.”
Purrazzo is scheduled to defend the Knockouts title against Kylie Rae this Saturday at Bound For Glory.
NXT Superstar Drake Maverick recently joined Alexa Bliss for an episode of her new podcast, Uncool with Alexa Bliss. During their conversation, Maverick opened up about being a team player in WWE and why he is so willing to do things others may balk at.
Reflecting on how he was bullied when he was younger, Maverick noted how the experience helped make him tougher in the long run.
“Now, you’re talking to the guy when asked to pee himself on worldwide PPV in front of millions of people, I said, ‘yea, I’ll do it.’ A lot of people would be walking around today embarrassed that they did that. Did it entertain people? Did people think it was stupid? Maybe. Did people react to it? It’s the badge of honor of doing something like that. I do stuff that makes other people happy at the expense of myself because I can take it.”
Maverick explained how he may be the “little guy” but it doesn’t stop him from being mentally and physically tough because of his upbringing. He believes these challenges helped to shape him and make him a better person.
“This is my shield. You aren’t ever going to get past that. I’m fine. Nothing you can do can harm me because I have no problem doing it myself,” Maverick said. “I remember toasting a bunch of friends at a Comic-Con and Woods (Xavier) was there as well. I told him, here is a comic convention and all of us thought we were uncool when we were younger and I said, the nerds won.”
Drake Maverick and Killian Dain competed on last night’s episode of NXT, losing their bout against Ever-Rise via disqualification.
Aleister Black has shared how he believes he and “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt “radiate the same energy.”
Speculating at what a potential matchup with Wyatt might look like, Black stressed how it didn’t matter whether they teamed up or faced-off. He promised he’d be “ready for it” regardless.
It’s a level of preparedness he maintains, no matter who may be standing opposite him in the ring:
“I’m willing to fight anyone. Like, I’m not someone who backs down. I’ve never backed down of anything. I took on AJ Styles and his goons a couple months ago all at the same time because, you know, that’s what they want,” Black told Sportskeeda Wrestling.
Black explained how he doesn’t care if he gets beat down. He stressed he’ll always find a way to get back up. It’s this resilience that he likens to Wyatt.
“I’ve always been resilient and even for someone like Bray Wyatt, who is obviously a very ominous individual, you know, I feel at times we radiate the same energy. So whether that becomes the focus, of that same energy as a cooperation or an engagement, that remains to be seen. But I’m ready for it.”
When asked to list a few other names he may be interested in feuding with, Black was quick to point to NXT Superstar Damian Priest. He stressed how he looks at a Superstar like Priest and just knows, “I can compete with this guy. I can have matches with this guy.”
Former WWE Superstar EC3 has claimed that WWE “stole” the Raw Underground concept from him. EC3 was let go from the company earlier this year. He subsequently released a shoot-style video that bore a lot of resemblance to what Raw Underground would ultimately present.
Joining the ROHStrong podcast, EC3 claimed he “knew it was going to be stolen, so I was prepared for it. I didn’t know it’d go to that length, and I know mine played to a minor bubble of the professional wrestling audience while majority of it saw whatever the hell they put out there.”
He went on to compare the situation to the 1992 movie Wayne’s World. EC3 explained how he was “[…] producing this show in Aurora, my basement with my buddy Garth. We’ll call him J.C. in this instance, and then Rob Lowe came in, bought us and when I saw Shane McMahon in the ring, not in a real underground, mine was a real underground.”
EC3 described WWE’s take on the underground shoot-style presentation as a “[…] manufactured, heartless, desolate studio, I’m looking at Shane and it felt like when Noah was rapping on Wayne’s World after they bought him out. It was just inauthentic and like I said, it had no heart.”
He stressed that, although he “knew something would’ve been taken from it,” he didn’t expect WWE to simply replicate the “whole aesthetic.”
EC3 noted that it’s always a challenge to do something different. That being said, he stressed he plans on doing bigger and better things in ROH.
The Undertaker hinted at being done with pro wrestling during the final episode of his The Last Ride documentary but Ric Flair believes that the Dead Man will return to the ring.
The 16-time world champion recently had an interview with ITRWrestling where he talked about a number of things and also discussed the future of the former World Champion.
Flair praised the documentary series featuring the Last Outlaw saying that it was fabulous but the wrestling legend predicted that Taker will be back:
“I thought The Last Ride was fabulous—there’s not a finer man that has ever been in our business and I’m looking at that from every possible aspect. But I think he will be back.
I think he wants it and I think the fans deserve to see him go out in front of 80 or 90,000 people live.” said Ric Flair “I think he needs to wrestle again once we get this COVID under control and I would think it will be at ‘Mania.”
Ric also appreciated the cinematic match between Undertaker and AJ Styles but said that he can see them going at it again inside the ring. He also claimed that AJ Styles would jump off the top of a building to get back in the ring with Taker.
Would you like to see The Undertaker returning to the ring for one more match against AJ Styles in the presence of fans? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
WWE’s treatment of its wrestlers has been a topic of discussion recently and on the latest episode of Talk Is Jericho, American politician Andrew Yang joined wrestling veteran Chris Jericho to discuss the matter in detail.
Yang first discussed how he can be in position to bring a suit against WWE telling them that they are misclassifying their employees if he wins in the upcoming elections.
Jericho agreed to Andrew’s agenda and the former WWE star then talked about not getting the royalties for his matches that are on the WWE Network:
“In my opinion, this really does have to change, and this is no ill will towards the WWE, it’s just the way it is. You just said all of these things. The fact, even, that they can show all of my matches on their Network that people pay for and I don’t get a dime of a royalty, it makes no sense. It’s not how normal business, normal entertainment [or] the normal world works.”
Chris continued by revealing that he still gets small residual checks from a movie called MacGruber he did ten years ago in which he had a very small role. Jericho said that he doesn’t see the fairness in the fact that he doesn’t get anything for the 100s of matches he has on WWE Network.
Young then discussed the idea of pro wrestling joining the Screen Actors Guild mentioning how wrestling shows get higher ratings than many other shows on TV. You can check out the full episode featuring their discussion at this link.
After Seth Rollins moved to SmackDown a lot of people hoped that his long-running feud with Rey Mysterio would finally come to an end and it appears that the former Universal Champion hoped for the same as well.
The former World Champion recently appeared on The Bump where he talked about things like being drafted to SmackDown, leaving the Raw roster and more.
Discussing how Rey Mysterio was also drafted to the Blue Brand, Rollins admitted that he was hoping that SmackDown would be a fresh start for him:
“Yeah. You know, I was hoping that SmackDown would be a fresh start for me, but they [the Mysterio Family] don’t seem to feel that way, I guess we’re gonna have to handle that unfinished business before I move on to the next chapter, or whatever the first chapter of ‘The SmackDown Savior’ will be.”
We saw the tease for another interesting future feud for Seth Rollins during this week’s episode of SmackDown when he had a confrontation with the returning Daniel Bryan.
The two have a long history that goes back to their days in ROH and the former Shield member mentioned that he felt a bit insulted when Bryan didn’t take his name during his promo.
Apart from this, Seth Rollins also talked about his plans for SmackDown and more. You can check out his full interview in the video below:
WWE recently confirmed the news that WWE Backstage will be returning to FS1 for a special episode this Friday but it wasn’t the original plan.
According to reports from PWInsider, the original plan was to air a special episode of Talking Smack right after SmackDown but the company nixed the idea for some reason.
The decision was then made to bring back the canceled WWE series for one night and it was a very late decision from the officials, according to the site.
This week’s episode of SmackDown will be airing on FS1 due to the MLB World Series airing on Fox and the special WWE Backstage episode will follow the broadcast of the Blue Branded Show.
WWE Backstage which debuted after SmackDown moved to Fox last year was cancelled this past June after the production of the show had been halted for some months due to coronavirus.
Talking Smack on the other hand originally premiered after the return of Brand Extension in 2016. It has been brought back recently and the show currently airs on Saturday mornings on the WWE Network.
WWE has not confirmed the names who will be hosting the special episode of WWE Backstage this Friday and it would be interesting to see if they confirm the personalities for the episode beforehand.
Lillian Garcia spent more than a decade in WWE as a ring announcer and during her time, the female star received some interesting advice from the Boss Vince McMahon.
The former WWE announcer recently appeared on WWE’s The Bump to promote the return of her Chasing Glory podcast which will now be broadcasted on the WWE Network from next Monday.
During the interview, Garcia discussed a number of things and she also revealed the advice she received from Vince McMahon after she had made a mistake:
“One of the things I remember about Vince is him telling me not to take myself too seriously, I would be so into wanting to be perfect; if something didn’t go right, I would beat myself up. I remember I was in the back and he came up to me – I didn’t realize I messed up on something.
When he told me about it, I started to tear up.” recalled Lillian Garcia “He told me, ‘Hey Lil, relax. I just want to make you better, so I’m going to give you some advice.’ That really did stick with me. I started taking things less personally.”
Apart from this, the former MMA announcer also talked about her WWE return. She said that it’s just awesome to be coming back home and claimed that her show has been a labour of love for her.
Lillian Garcia also talked about things like where the inspiration for her show came from and more. You can check out her full interview in the video below:
AEW Dynamite aired from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville. It was announced that Jon Moxley will defend the AEW World Championship against Eddie Kingston in an I Quit match at Full Gear.
DYNAMITE EXCLUSIVE "I'm gonna beat & torture you until I get my friend back or I end you" – @JonMoxley.
"I never quit and NOTHING in my life, and I'm not gonna quit on the 7th. You're gonna have to go to a very very dark place…and you know what Jon…I live in that place" – @MadKing1981
Wardlow def. Jungle Boy to advance in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Kenny Omega def. Sonny Kiss to advance in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Fenix def. Pentagon to advance in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Hangman Page def. Colt Cabana to advance in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Britt Baker def. Kilynn King
Young Bucks def. Private Party, Reynolds & Silver, Butcher & Blade to earn a shot at the AEW Tag Team Championships at Full Gear
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Wardlow Advanced In The AEW World Title Tournament
Wardlow battled Jungle Boy in the first round of the AEW World Title eliminator Tournament.
Match Recap: Wardlow started off the match in control and sent Jungle Boy flying across the ring. Jungle Boy slapped Wardlow in the face and followed it up with a Dropkick to the knee. Jungle Boy sent Wardlow outside and went for a Crossbody. Wardlow caught Jungle Boy and Powerbombed him into the steel ring post.
Back in the ring, Wardlow stomped Jungle Boy down and went for the cover but he was able to kick out at two. Wardlow showed off his power and launched Jungle Boy across the ring a couple more times. Wardlow connected with a Gutwrench Powerbomb for another near fall.
Wardlow turned Jungle Boy inside out with a Clothesline but he once again was able to kick out at two. Jungle Boy sent Wardlow out of the ring and connected with a Suicide Dive. Jungle Boy followed it up with a Tornado DDT in the ring for a near fall.
Jungle Boy connected with a Hurricanrana off the top rope and then hit a Backstabber. Jungle Boy made his way back to the top rope and hit a Knee Drop for another two count. Wardlow hit Jungle Boy with the F10 and followed it up with another one for the pinfall victory. Wardlow advanced in the tournament.
Kenny Omega Advanced In The AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Kenny Omega (Photo: AEW)
Kenny Omega was originally supposed to face Joey Janela in the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament but Janela couldn’t compete due to coming into contact with someone with COVID-19. Sonny Kiss replaced Joey Janela in the match.
Match Recap: The bell rang and Kenny Omega immediately hit Sonny Kiss with the One Winged Angel for the pinfall victory. After the match, Omega shared a hug with Sonny Kiss and exited the ring.
Fenix Advanced In The AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament
Rey Fenix faced Pentagon Jr. in the first round of the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament. Eddie Kingston joined commentary for the match.
Match Recap: Fenix and Pentagon shook hands and then locked up in the middle of the ring. Fenix and Pentagon traded Arm Drags and then Pentagon applied an Ankle Lock in the middle of the ring. Fenix escaped but Pentagon caught him with a boot to the midsection.
Pentagon and Fenix then traded chops in the middle of the ring. Pentagon took off his glove and hit Fenix with a chop that echoed throughout Daily’s Place. Fenix went for a springboard Splash but Pentagon caught him with a Superkick. Fenix rolled to the ring apron and Pentagon joined him.
Fenix escaped and booted Pentagon to the outside. Rey hopped to the top rope and hit a corkscrew Splash. Back in the ring, Fenix ran across the top rope but Pentagon tripped him up as Dynamite went to a commercial break.
When Dynamite returned, Pentagon hit Fenix with a boot to the face and followed it up with a Slingblade for a near fall. Fenix battled back and hit a Hurricanrana off the middle rope. Pentagon went for a Powerbomb but Fenix escaped and hit a Superkick for a near fall.
Pentagon crotched Fenix on the top turnbuckle and joined him up there. Fenix connected with a Spanish Fly and went for the cover but Pentagon was able to kick out at the last moment. Fenix then connected with a Destroyer for the pinfall victory.
The October 21, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
KUSHIDA def. The Velveteen Dream and Tommaso Ciampa
Ember Moon def. Jessi Kamea
Bronson Reed def. Austin Theory
Legado del Fantasma def. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Ashante “Thee” Adonis and Jake Atlas
Ever-Rise def. Drake Maverick and Killian Dain via DQ
Kacy Catanzaro def. Xia Li
Timothy Thatcher def. Anthony Greene
Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan def. Breezango to win NXT Tag Team Titles
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Title Match
Photo Credit: WWE.com
The Undisputed Era vs. WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Breezango was supposed to take place.
If you recall, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong beat Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan in a #1 Contender’s Match on last week’s show to earn this title match.
However, throughout the show, Fish and Strong were attacked. NXT GM William Regal held a backstage meeting with Kyle O’Reilly telling him that he has to book a title match tonight because it’s advertised, but O’Reilly decided not to go at it alone. Thus, Lorcan and Burch agreed to take their spots.
As expected, this title match was solid with all of the stars working well together. The finish saw a mystery man interfere that allowed Lorcan and Burch to win the NXT Tag Team Titles.
Post-match, McAfee revealed himself as the mystery man. He mocked The Undisputed Era, which appears to continue his feud with Adam Cole, to close the show.
Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza) faced off against Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Ashante “Thee” Adonis and Jake Atlas.
WWE has started to add new stars to the feud between Scott and Legado del Fantasma. The cruiserweight division on NXT has only involved Escobar and Scott so why not just throwing them all together in a match again.
While it seems like a replay of an endless matches, WWE is evolving this storyline yet it does seem that they will need to make a decision as to whether to have Scott finally dethroned Escobar as Cruiserweight Champion or just move on. It seems like it’s been months that these guys have been feuding.
The heels went over in the contest in what turned out to be a wild contest.
Tommaso Ciampa, Kushida, and Velveteen Dream battled in a Triple Threat Match. This was the biggest match to be advertised along with the title match.
The three stars have been feuding with each other for the past few weeks. In fact, Dream made his return to NXT TV and started a rivalry with Kushida, who went over in their match at NXT TakeOver 31.
It seems as if Ciampa doesn’t have major plans for Ciampa to go after a title so he was booked into this feud, which is fine. Not only does it give him the chance to continue to be showcased as a top heel, but also gives some shine to the rest of the stars.
The match was good and that was expected given the quality of work these guys have. It started out as a brawl only to turn into a near fall fest near the finish. Kushida got the win in the opener.
Bronson Reed took on Austin Theory in a singles match. While Theory got some offense, it was mostly a squash match with Reed going over.
After the match, Theory took the microphone and said that he is the future of NXT and WWE. He said that he’s just 23 and has done in this business more than Reed has in his 15 years of experience.
He said that he wasn’t going anymore until he beats him. A second match began only for Reed to hit a samoan drop for the win. A second straight win.
WWE does realize that they don’t have to job out Theory literally on every episode to get him over? He’s done jobs since returning to NXT. WWE did a storyline where theory quit WWE after the second match.
.?bronsonreedwwe's winning streak over ?austintheory1 continues, but @austintheory1 wants another match… RIGHT NOW! #WWENXTpic.twitter.com/AoiO2ABlGP
The card for AEW Full Gear is starting to take shape. During Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite, three new matches were confirmed for the upcoming pay-per-view.
First, the main event is now set. AEW Champion Jon Moxley will defend against Eddie Kingston. This won’t just be a traditional singles match. The rule book will be out the window for this one, as the two men will square off in an “I Quit Match.”
Jon Moxley cut this promo on Dynamite talking about his longstanding relationship with Eddie Kingston:
Next up, we now have #1 contenders to the AEW tag team titles. AEW held a fatal 4-way tag team match on Dynamite featuring Private Party vs. John Silver and Alex Reynolds vs. The Butcher and The Blade. In the end, Nick and Matt Jackson were victorious. The Bucks will now go on to face FTR for the AEW Tag Team Titles at Full Gear in what’s been billed as a “tag team dream match.”
Finally, the feud between Matt Hardy and Sammy Guevara continues. They’ll battle once again at Full Gear – this time, in an “Elite Deletion Match.”
The following matches are now confirmed for AEW Full Gear:
AEW World Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley vs.Eddie Kingston (I Quit Match)
AEW Tag Team Champions FTR vs. The Young Bucks
AEW World Heavyweight Title Tournament Finals
Matt Hardy vs. Sammy Guevara – Elite Deletion Match
Darby Allin challenges for the TNT Championship
Full Gear pay-per-view will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2020, at the Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place. The event will stream live on the BR Live platform in the United States and on FITE internationally.
The semi-finals of the World Title Eliminator tournament are set.
The first batch of matches in this tournament took place on Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place on TNT.
Those matches saw Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix, Kenny Omega vs. Sonny Kiss, Colt Cabana vs. Hangman Page, and Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy.
The winners of those bouts were Fenix, Omega, Wardlow, and Page.
AEW World Title Eliminator Semi-Finals
Now, Fenix will battle Omega while Wardlow is slated to take on Page in the semi-finals of the tournament. The purpose of this tournament is to crown a new number 1 contender for the AEW World Championship.
AEW has already announced when the semi-finals will take place. It will take place next week on Dynamite, which is on October 28th.
The AEW All Out pay-per-view event will take place on Saturday, November 7th, 2020 in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place.
The finals of this tournament will go down at this show although there’s been no word yet on when AEW will actually book the tournament winner against the champion, who is currently Jon Moxley.
All Elite Wrestling has announced the main event for their upcoming Full Gear pay-per-view.
During Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite, it was confirmed that Jon Moxley will put his AEW World Championship on the line in his next defense against Eddie Kingston. To add to the bad blood, it will be an I Quit Match.
The match booking comes after Kingston attacked Moxley on last week’s episode of Dynamite. Moxley had successfully retained the World Heavyweight Title against Lance Archer.
AEW ended the show with Kingston explaining his actions only for him to continue it on this week’s show. He basically explained that his problem with Moxley comes down to Moxley leaving him behind so he could go work for a sports entertainment company, which is WWE. He noted that he never quit when he lost to Moxley a couple of weeks ago on Dynamite.
AEW announcer Jim Ross mentioned how it was Moxley who demanded to defend his title against Kingston at the pay-per-view.
IT'S OFFICIAL Saturday, Nov 7th at Full Gear. It's @MadKing1981 vs. @JonMoxley for the AEW World Championship in an 'I QUIT' MATCH!
The AEW Full Gear pay-per-view event will take place on Saturday, November 7, 2020, at the Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place and has already sold out.
Joey Janela was scheduled to work this week’s episode of AEW Dynamite, but was pulled at the last minute.
About an hour before the show went live on TNT, All Elite Wrestling announced in a post on social media that Janela had been removed from his scheduled bout against Kenny Omega due to COVID-19 concerns.
“AEW and Joey Janela learned today that he had exposure to a known COVID-19 positive person at an independent show. For that reason we are pulling him until such time as he is cleared to return consistent with our protocols.”
This bout was part of several planned matches as part of the World Title Eliminator tournament. AEW later announced that Janela would be replaced by Sony Kiss in this contest.
Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix, Colt Cabana vs. Hangman Page, and Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy were also part of the first round matches on this show.
The news comes after Janela faced AJ Gray at Game Changer Wrestling’s The Last Resort show in Silverado, California this past Saturday.
Also on Wednesday, Gray announced that he tested positive for COVID-19. Gray wrote that his positive COVID-19 test was taken on Monday.
Last year, there were some fans curious why WWE didn’t give Triple H and Stephanie McMahon the positions as Executive Directors of SmackDown and RAW.
Instead, Eric Bischoff took the role on SmackDown and Paul Heyman on RAW. Fightful Select reported today that the married couple wasn’t given the roles for different reasons.
It was stated that many people backstage were “shocked” that Paul Heyman was put into this role as he was under Vince McMahon. It was noted that Heyman had been “the loudest voice in the RAW writer’s room” before getting the Executive Director position.
It was said that Stephanie “didn’t want that spot” as she is happy with her current role in WWE. On the flip side, Triple H didn’t get the spot as most believed that “if Triple H wanted the role, he’d have it.” Thus, he wasn’t interested as he’s in charge of the NXT brand.
Of course, both Heyman and Bischoff are no longer in these roles. In both cases, Vince McMahon made the decision to remove them.
After a few months of Heyman being on the sidelines, he was paired with Roman Reigns while Bischoff hasn’t been in WWE or on television since his departure.
The early betting odds for all of the matches that will take place at the WWE Hell In A Cell pay-per-view event have been released.
The card for the show that takes place this weekend (Sunday, October 25, 2020) from Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center has not been finalized as only four matches have been announced.
As of this writing, there is only one title change expected at this show. That would be Sasha Banks challenging WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley. According to oddsmakers, Banks will walk out with the strap.
Make sure to join us this Sunday for match recaps and our takeaways from this latest pay-per-view event held by WWE.
Hell In A Cell Betting Odds
The favorites to win are listed as – while the underdogs are listed with +. Odds call for all three titles to change. Here are the final betting odds courtesy of BetOnline:
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (-2500) vs. Jey Uso (+800) – Hell in a Cell I Quit Match
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre (-135) vs. Randy Orton (+100) – Hell in a Cell Match
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley (+150) vs. Sasha Banks (-200) – Hell in a Cell Match
Elias (-137) vs. Jeff Hardy (+100) – Singles Match
Bryan Alvarez talked during today’s Wrestling Observer Live about the statement issued by WWE about local officials looking to investigate venues in the Orlando area that could be COVID-19 hotspots.
As noted, the WWE Performance Center and the Amway Center aka the WWE ThunderDome were among the places listed as potential hotspots.
Alvarez read the statement, which noted “Aventus Labs have administered more than 10,000 PCR tests to WWE performers, employees, production staff and crew resulting in only 1.5 percent positive cases as compared to the current national average of more than 5%.”
Alvarez stated that while no official numbers are known due to WWE not releasing them, he had heard around 38 for the big outbreak and then additional people testing positive during another outbreak. The second outbreak was in the double digits.
He stated that after this outbreak, there were a lot of people who disappeared. He noted that some of those who did disappear were due to contract tracing disappearances. This means that they didn’t have the virus, but had been around people who did have it.
He pointed out how WWE’s own statement noted there were essentially 150 positive tests. He added that he knows for a fact that there have been people in WWE who tested positive and the people who lived with them that ended up getting COVID-19, but not counting in WWE tests.
Alvarez stated that there is a crazy number of people that have contracted coronavirus as a result of WWE TV tapings.
Paul Heyman continues to speak about his alliance with Roman Reigns on WWE television.
He did so yet again in an interview with Metro.UK. This is where Heyman noted that this partnership has been something in the works dating back to Reigns’ main roster debut in 2012 when he was a member of The Shield with Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.
“So this has been in the works ever since Roman Reigns debuted on the main roster and I would dare say this has been in the works since the day Roman Reigns was born.
So, what do I like about it? Every single solitary thing about it, I like. How long has it been in the works? Really since the beginning of time, as Roman Reigns knows it to be.”
WWE first started this pairing on the SmackDown episode following the SummerSlam pay-per-view event in August. Since that time, Reigns has become WWE Universal Champion.
Reigns will make his next title defense against his cousin, Jey Uso, this Sunday at the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event in Orlando, Florida at the Amway Center. This will be a rematch from the Clash of Champions event.
Peyton Royce recently spoke to Kayla Braxton for her Braxton Beat online show. During the discussion, Royce spoke about WWE’s decision to break up the popular IIconics tag tam.
Royce admitted that she is still adjusting to the abrupt split. The two of them got called up to the main roster at the same time and this is the first time they’ve worked on different brands.
“It’s so strange,” she said. “I’ve never had to be at TVs without her. She keeps me sane. She’s just like my safety blanket and I’m not going to have that and I’m going to have to put on my panties and work it out for myself.”
“So we both have our phones ready to go on Mondays and Fridays if we need anything, just emotional support or anything. So we’re pretty much both working Mondays and Fridays.”
After years working as part of a tag team, Peyton Royce now finds herself as a singles competitor. She again said it’s a “strange” situation that she will have to get used to.
“The singles division is completely different to the women’s tag team division. I know it’s the same for the men, too, but there are so many people who, you know, I will hopefully have the opportunity to get in the ring with now that I’m in the singles division. But again, it’s going to take some getting used to even just doing my entrance without her. It’s just strange.”
You can watch Peyton Royce on Kayla Braxton’s show in the video player embedded below:
The following are previews for tonight’s AEW and NXT broadcasts:
AEW Dynamite
Chris Jericho and MJF will meet for a steak dinner in a segment dubbed, Le Dinner Debonair.
Fatal 4-Way Tag Title Match: The Young Bucks vs. Private Party vs. Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver) vs. The Butcher & The Blade. The winners face FTR for the AEW World Tag Titles at Full Gear.
AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament (1st Round):
Penta El Zero M vs. Rey Fenix
Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela
Hangman Page vs. Colt Cabana
Wardlow vs. Jungle Boy
NXT
AEW Tag Team Champions Breezango vs. Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish)
Triple Threat: Kushida vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Velveteen Dream
Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza vs. Isaiah Scott, Jake Atlas, and Ashante Adonis.
Ken Shamrock won the NWA World Heavyweight Championship on the 1st ever TNA Wrestling show back in 2002. The UFC Hall of Famer and MMA pioneer is set to be inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame this weekend.
The promotion just announced that Shamrock’s induction will air live and for free on AXS TV and Impact’s digital channels. Impact took to Twitter to announce the news:
BREAKING: @ShamrockKen's Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place THIS SATURDAY during the LIVE Countdown to Glory pre-show at 7pm ET on @AXSTV and IMPACT's digital channels. #BFG2020pic.twitter.com/yg9gLul0e1
Last month, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson said that he would film a video for Shamrock’s induction. The Rock and Shamrock were rivals during the Attitude Era in WWF.
Congrats, my brother. Awesome news. I will take care of this and get it to you by this weekend. ???
Ken Shamrock is set to become the 9th person inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame. Previous inductees are listed below:
2012: Sting
2013: Kurt Angle
2014: Bully Ray & Devon (Team 3D)
2015: Jeff Jarrett
2015: Earl Hebner
2016: Gail Kim
2018: Abyss
Shamrock commented on his pending induction recently during an interview with Yahoo Sports.
“It’s a moment you’re going to cherish for the rest of your life and beyond,” Shamrock said. “You have been recognized by your fans and your peers. Obviously life’s not over, but for a career that you’ve started and that you tried to achieve many goals in, this is a story that comes to a good ending. I’m honored. There’s not enough words to even say.”
Kris Statlander tore her ACL during a tag match on AEW Dynamite back in June. At the time, the alien from the Andromeda galaxy had become one of the top-ranked competitors in her division. She spoke to the Wrestling Inc Daily podcast recently and gave an update on her condition. Unfortunately, Statlander believes she’ll be out of action for another 8 months or so.
“I’m doing pretty good. I think from what I’ve heard overall is that I might be a little bit ahead of others where I’m at right now, but I still have a real long way to go before I can re-debut basically and get back in the ring before I’m debuting again obviously, and I’m going to want to be training a little bit before,” Statlander said. “So I’ll be able to get in the ring before you’ll see me back on TV. It could be another eight months or so.”
Statlander also spoke about her injury which occurred during a suicide dive attempt. She was teaming with Hikaru Shida and taking on Nyla Rose and Penelope Ford.
“I just did a suicide dive, and the way I landed, I guess, was not perfectly right. You can actually see the dive on TV when I heard it, but all you see is me quickly grab my leg when I go down, and then the camera’s off of me. But it doesn’t even look like I did anything super insane, or it doesn’t look very noticeable. ‘Oh, she messed up her leg there.’ You cannot tell at all. So I had no idea what happened. I just kind of felt a little ‘pfft’ in my leg. It didn’t even hurt that bad either. I was just like, ‘oh boy.'”
Statlander had just defeated Penelope Ford in singles competition at the Double or Nothing PPV the previous month before her injury. She unsuccessfully challenged Nyla Rose for the title at the Revolution PPV in February as well.
AEW has released new top-5 rankings ahead of tonight’s episode of Dynamite.
AEW Men’s Singles Division
AEW World Champion: Jon Moxley (20-0) TNT Champion: Cody (19-2-1)
Brian Cage (9-1) (+1)
MJF (9-1) (+1)
Lance Archer (13-2) (-2)
Brodie Lee (8-2)
Shawn Spears (14-2) (previously unranked)
After Jon Moxley successfully defended the AEW World Championship last week on Dynamite, his opponent dropped 2 spots in the rankings. Lance Archer had been ranked #1 before his title shot, but he drops to #3 with the loss.
Archer dropping in the rankings moves both MJF and Brian Cage up one spot. Cage now sits in the #1 spot in the division.
Several unranked wrestlers will compete in a tournament beginning tonight on Dynamite. Fenix, Pentagon, Colt Cabana, Jungle Boy, Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, and Joey Janela are all unranked but with a chance to earn a shot if they can win the upcoming tournament.
TNT Champion Cody retained the title last week after going to a time limit draw with unranked Orange Cassidy. They will meet again on next week’s show.
#5 Shawn Spears has also replaced Scorpio Sky in the final ranked spot. Spears and Sky seem to have a bit of a rivalry going on Dark as well. Spears defeated Christopher Daniels on Dark last night but continued the attack after the match until Sky made the save. Spears would also come to the ring during Sky’s match on Dark last night as well.
AEW Women’s Division
AEW Women’s Champion: Hikaru Shida (18-1)
Nyla Rose (11-2)
Penelope Ford (9-5) (+1)
Abadon (5-1) (+1)
Big Swole (10-5) (-2)
Dr. Britt Baker (5-6)
After dropping a title match to Hikaru Shida last week, Big Swole drops from the #2 spot to the #4 spot. Her drop in the rankings moves Penelope Ford and Abadon up one spot each.
#5 Dr. Britt Baker DMD is in action tonight Dynamite. Her opponent has yet to be announced, however.
On Dark last week, #1 Nyla Rose and Vickie Guerrero let it be known that they want another crack at the title.
AEW Tag Team Division
AEW Tag Team Champions: FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (12-0)
Young Bucks (7-3) (+1)
Best Friends (17-7) (-1)
The Natural Nightmares (8-2)
Butcher and the Blade (10-5)
Santana & Ortiz (8-5)
After FTR successfully defended the tag belts against the Best Friends on Dynamite last week, Trent and Chuckie T drop one spot in the rankings to #2.
#1 The Young Bucks will have a chance to earn a tag title shot tonight on Dynamite. They take on Private Party, Silver & Reynolds, and #4 The Butcher and the Blade tonight with the winner facing FTR at Full Gear.
Impact Wrestling 10/21 was the go-home show for Saturday’s Bound For Glory PPV. The North faced The Good Brothers, a 5-way would determine who enters last in the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at BFG, and Havok took on Rosemary with James Mitchell’s possible reincarnation on the line.
Impact Results 10/20:
Winner Enters At #20 In Call Your Shot Gauntlet Hernandez defeated Rhino, Heath, Alisha & Cousin Jake
Rosemary defeated Havok
Sami Callihan defeated Eddie Edwards
Willie Mack, TJP & Trey Miguel defeated Chris Bey, Jordynne Grace & X-Division Champion Rohit Raju
The North (Ethan Page & Josh Alexander) vs The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) – No-Contest
The Good Brothers Stand Tall To End The Show
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRmCfwIF5WU
Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows appear to have all the momentum heading into Bound For Glory. They met Josh Alexander and Ethan Page, the North, in the night’s main event. The Good Brothers appeared to have the match won when they hit the Magic Killer on Page but Alexander was able to make the save. Shortly after this, all 4 men began brawling in the ring, causing the ref to call for the bell.
The chaos brought out the other two teams in the tag title 4-way match on Saturday. The MCMG and the Good Brothers cleared the ring of Austin & Fulton and the North. The Good Brothers then delivered a Magic Killer on Sabin and stood tall to end the show.
Ken Shamrock Assaults Eddie Edwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fslgptf80xE
At Bound For Glory, Ken Shamrock will face Eddie Edwards. In recent weeks, Shamrock has been under the control of Sami Callihan and seems more vicious than ever. This week it would be Edwards and Callihan rekindling their rivalry. Edwards appeared to have the upper hand but right when he went for the Boston Knee Party, Callihan pressed that button he has which turns the lights out in the building. When the lights came back on, Shamrock was at ringside. The distraction allowed Callihan to roll up Edwards for the pin. Shamrock then attacked his BFG opponent to soften him up before the PPV.
Eric Young and Rich Swann Brawl Days Before Bound For Glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6xOT51fUO4
Eric Young and Rich Swann will clash for the Impact World Championship on Saturday. Young has attacked Swann numerous times but the former X-Division Champion keeps training hard and getting cleared by Impact’s medical team. Young was cutting a promo stating that he’ll continue to attack people if they get in his way when Swann attacked him.
EC3 Says Moose Is Becoming Who He Is Supposed To Be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KysbLTEhv1Q
Jimmy Jacobs had the unfortunate task of interviewing both Moose and EC3 this week. Moose was his normal pleasant self, having recaptured the TNA title seemingly having done little to improve his mood. After Moose stormed off set during the interview, EC3’s minions put a hood over Jacobs and took him to an undisclosed location to meet with EC3.
EC3 said that when he was fighting Moose on the bridge last week (when Moose repossessed the title) he saw the kind of guy he wants to fight. He saw the version of Moose that he should always be. EC3 called Moose a false idol but has potential to be something more.
“Lessons not learned in blood are lessons you will forget,” EC3 said. “Moose needs to learn who he has to become but he also must learn at my hands.”
Rosemary Earns James Mitchell’s Reincarnation With Win Over Havok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaP7rbmndR4
This may take some explaining. Rosemary is getting married to John E Bravo on next week’s show. Since she is a demon, however, she needs someone like Father James Mitchell to officiate the wedding. That would be all fine and good but Mitchell was killed by Rosemary and Havok in the undead realm in a previous storyline. Rosemary needs Havok to agree to help bring back Mitchell to officiate the wedding. Havok agreed to this match with the stipulation that if Rosemary won, she’d help bring back the Sinister Minister. Rosemary picked up the victory with two spears, meaning Father James Mitchell may return to both Impact and the living realm next week for the wedding.
Hernandez To Enter Last In Call Your Shot Gauntlet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4njCE9cIDM
A 10-person tag last week was held with the winning team facing each other this week. The winner of this match would then be granted the #20 entry into the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at Bound For Glory. The winner of the Gauntlet match can challenge whichever champion in the promotion they want. Also, Scott D’Amore has said to Rhino and Heath that if one of them doesn’t win the match, they are both gone from Impact.
Hernandez would pick up the victory here and earn the final entry at BFG. The finish of the match came when Rhino attempted to gore Hernandez, missed, hit Alisha, and then Hernandez rolled him up for the pin.
Everyone’s Gunning For Rohit Raju’s X-Division Championship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69tKYo1GDP4
X-Division Champion Rohit Raju has done everything he can to avoid facing the top challengers for his title. He’s in tough at Bound For Glory, however, as he’ll have to defend his title in a 6-way match. All 6 competitors in the match were in this tag-team match but the champion’s team failed to get along.
Raju and Chris Bey began arguing over who should pin their opponents and it became clear they were not on the same page. The champion attempted to attack Bey but took a springboard cutter for his trouble. Trey Miguel then kicked Bey in the head and pinned Raju to win the match for his team.
Bound For Glory Lineup
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R2-IB099AM
Here is the lineup for Saturday’s Bound For Glory PPV:
Impact World Championship Eric Young (c) vs Rich Swann
Knockouts Championship Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs Kylie Rae
Impact Tag Team Championships The Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs the Good Brothers vs The North vs Ace Austin & Madman Fulton
X-Division Championship Rohit Raju (c) vs Jordynne Grace vs TJP vs Chris Bey vs Trey Miguel vs Willie Mack
