PROGRESS will be heading to Wembley Arena this Sunday for their biggest ever event. #HelloWembley will feature some of the top independent talent from the global scene as well as one of NXT’s hottest prospects.
WWE.com recently posted an article hyping the massive UK event with specific precedence given to their WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne, Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven), Toni Storm, Mark Andrews and of course NXT’s newest signee Matt Riddle. This Sunday will be Riddle’s final independent match before joining NXT in a full time capacity, he will be facing former PROGRESS World Champion Mark Haskins.
Tickets for the event, which is limited to attendees 14 years and older, can be found here.
Here’s the full lineup for PROGRESS Wrestling’s #HelloWembley event:
PROGRESS World Championship Match
WALTER (c) vs. Tyler Bate
PROGRESS Women’s Championship Match
Jinny (c) vs. Toni Storm vs. Millie McKenzie
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match(Two teams start, and a new team enter the match every two minutes. If a member of a team is pinned, submitted or disqualified, his team is eliminated. The last team standing wins).
Flamita & Bandido (c) vs. The 198 (Flash Morgan Webster & “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs. The Calamari Thatch Kings (Chris Brookes & Timothy Thatcher) vs. The Anti Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr) vs. Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew vs. Sexy Starr (Jack Sexsmith & David Starr)
PROGRESS Atlas Championship Match
Doug Williams (c) vs. Trent Seven (If Williams loses, he retires)
Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Dragunov
Matt Riddle vs. Mark Haskins
Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match
Mark Andrews vs. Eddie Dennis
No Disqualification Match
Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson
Former four-time WWE Women’s champion and WWE Hall Of Famer, Lita, appeared recently on Planeta Wrestling in the build-up to her return match at WWE Evolution. She is scheduled to take on Mickie Jame in a one-on-one encounter.
When asked whether there were any plans for future matches in the WWE, or if her appearance at Evolution marks the end of her in-ring days, Lita replied:
“If you follow WWE at all, I think the one thing that is consistent is: you never know.”
She highlighted that “As a fan and as a performer, I kind of look at it [returning to wrestling] as a mom,” before stating that she’s “happy with my second chapter, my chapter outside of wrestling,”
Despite this, Lita couldn’t help but admit that “[…] at the same time, every time I do go back, it feels like home and does feel like you jump right back in.”
“You go in with it being the idea of a one-time thing, but it’s very, very likely and potentially – the excitement of it or the crowd’s response of it could turn it into something more than a one-off. Like my life in general, I just take it all as it comes. So, we’ll see.”
The card for tonight’s (Friday, September 28, 2018) Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event has been finalized.
The Baltimore-based promotion has announced that Jay Lethal defending the ROH World Title against Will Ospreay will serve as the main event of this event that takes place from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event can be purchased via traditional pay-per-view and the FITE app.
ROH Death Before Dishonor Card
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay
Bullet Club (Cody, Adam Page, The Young Bucks, and Marty Scurll) vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Chuckie T, Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii, and Rocky Romero)
ROH Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian
ROH TV Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin
Jushin ”Thunder” Liger vs. Kenny King
Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Colt Cabana & Flip Gordon – Tables Match
ROH will be holding television tapings in the same venue the following night. Already announced for that show is Cody Rhodes’ first NWA World Championship defense against Willie Mack.
What are your thoughts on this card? Do you plan on watching it? Sound off in the comment section.
It’s become a bit of a running joke with interviewers and podcasters whenever it comes to Cody’s lack of a surname. Chris Jericho, in particular, has enjoyed referring to him as Cody ‘Don’t-Call-Him-Rhodes.’
Many believed that the lack of a surname, let alone one that carries so much clout within the wrestling industry, was due to some sort of WWE ownership over the name.
However, in a recent Twitter exchange with a fan, Cody cleared the air on the topic, providing an emphatic answer. He declared that he could actually “use it [Rhodes] whenever,” before explaining that “I will not be using it any time in the foreseeable future.”
He ended the explanation with a short but sweet assertion, stating, “I prefer just Cody.”
I can use it whenever. I will not be using it any time in the foreseeable future though…whether that’s w/roh, WWE, njpw, anywhere…
In another Cody update, “The American Nightmare” provided a tease as to the potential future of All In.
He has spoken previously about what he would do differently if an All In 2 event were to take place, and has added further fuel to the fire in a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, entitled “ALL US | Epilogue.”
In it, he addresses the fans’ clamoring for another event:
“There is a question of whether we do it again. And the best answer I can give you is, it could have been a great night of matches at Chicago, sure, that’s all it could have been. But it felt like more, it felt like a revolution. Revolutions aren’t just one night.”
Paige recently did an interview where she spoke about how being the SmackDown General Manager has helped her fill the void of no longer being allowed to wrestle in a WWE ring. Although she is no longer allowed to compete in the ring, she has made a great transition from being an active wrestler to being an authority figure on weekly WWE television.
The former WWE Divas Champion was recently interviewed by Jozef Raczka of Vulture Hound about her new venture under the WWE banner. “I’m so proud of all the work I do and looking forward to everyone seeing the film but right now, I am committed to being the best GM I can and it’s different because I’m not getting in the ring but I’m doing 4 or 5 promos a night sometimes and I’m mixing it up with the men and the women and I love getting to work with Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, R-Truth, Miz.”
She continued to say that it’s the difference as she doesn’t have to think about matches in the same way but she’s still there all the time which she loves and that’s fun. It’s also pushing her to be out of her comfort zone but is loving every single minute of it. She added that she’s back for this season of Total Divas which after missing last season, Paige is excited to show people a different side of her.
She also talked about the development of Sonya Deville and Many Rose as well as needing to have women’s tag team titles in the WWE. “First off, I absolutely feel there should be Women’s Tag Team Championships, I really want that to happen. Sonya & Mandy are doing so well together and separate but, it’s just hard, they hadn’t been in NXT that long then they’re brought up and after I had to bow out with my injuries, I don’t think I’d had a chance to help them get established enough before they were sent out on their own. But Mandy’s great, she’s kind of an old-school diva and Sonia, she was killing it in NXT, working with Asuka and Ruby Riott.”
She thinks that they both have so much potential and when the time is right, they will get their shot that will be amazing as she can’t think of any teams that aren’t already together.
We are quickly approaching the 1,000th episode of WWE SmackDown. The historic event will take place on Tuesday, October 16th from Washington D.C. WWE has been running a number of features to promote SmackDown 1,000, including a recent look at potential dream matches that included the likes of Batista and Rey Mysterio.
WWE has now named the Top 15 Greatest SmackDown Matches from the show’s 19-year run. Check out this list. Do you agree with the top picks? Which of these matches do you remember? Let us know in the comments section.
15. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H – Intercontinental Championship Match: April 12, 2001
14. Team Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri – WWE Tag Team Championship Match: May 29, 2003
Adam “Hangman” Page recently did an interview to talk about various topics as well as promote the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that takes place this Friday.
He spoke with Chuck Carroll of CBS Sports to discuss the pact made by some members of the Bullet Club (Cody, Page, and The Young Bucks). When asked how they came up with the decision that when their contracts expire in a few months, they will take the next step together as a unit. “I think as a collective, as a group, we have been able to change wrestling… I think, as a group, we are really on to something, and I think we wanna continue this. It would be a real disservice to everyone who has supported us and got us to this point if we were to abandon what we’ve built.”
Page continued by stating that it doesn’t mean it can’t evolve and change but he thinks that they have too much of a good thing going to try to abandon it. He also stated that they know that they have more leverage than they ever had and have more than anyone else has had in a very long time.
WWE Next Stop
The belief is that the group with either stay with NJPW and ROH or sign with the WWE. Paige thinks that they are not necessarily bound to where they work and he feels that the most feedback comes from fans who watch Being The Elite.
“Which could conceivably happen anywhere. It could happen … You catch my drift. So I don’t want to, at any point, rule anything out. If you kinda catch my drift on that one.” Paige continued by stating that right now, they have some time and weighing options together as there are some things that sound more or less intriguing than other options. He added, “those options have changed and will continue to change and evolve in the coming months.”
WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston has been named one of the Top 100 Coolest Dads In America by Fatherly.com. “Kofi is a fan favorite with adults who still keeps it PG for the kids,” the site wrote. “Part of this is no doubt because he’s a dad who wants to set an example for his two young sons, Khi and Orion, born in 2013 and 2016, who he’s raising with his wife Chi Chi in Tampa, Florida. Kingston has always played the good guy on the stage. We’re not sure he knows any other way.”
The listing of Kofi as one of the coolest Dads in America comes on the heels of him passing Billy Gunn as having held a WWE tag-team championship more combined days than anyone else in history.
The Dads which were named cooler than Kofi included:
LeBron James
Kelly Slater
Aaron Huey
Ashton Kutcher
Dwayne Wade
Neil Patrick Harris
Kofi will look to keep his string of accomplishments going when he travels to Australia early next month. Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods will be looking to defend their Smackdown tag-team championships at Super Show-Down against the Bar.
WWE recently confirmed the signing of Mae Young Classic competitor, Mia Yim. They have now announced the former Knockouts Champion will make her NXT debut on the house show circuit this weekend. She’ll debut on September 29th at NXT’s house show in Ft Pierce.
The NXT Twitter account was the first to break the news:
Speculation regarding Yim’s signing began last week when the 29-year-old appeared in a video filmed at the WWE Performance Center. It was later reported she had indeed signed with the company and reported to the Performance Center on September 16th, 2018.
Mia Yim WWE
Many expected Yim to sign with WWE after last year’s tournament but a leg injury set her back. Yim spoke to TV Insider in August about overcoming her injury last year and moving forward with her career.
“The hardest part of the recovery was the mental,” Yim said. “Going to physical therapy, learning how to walk again and run again, rolling around in the ring — it was all easy compared to the mental part.”
Yim also spoke about the competition in this year’s Mae Young Classic:
“There are a lot of good girls in this year’s competition. I’m actually happy for that people may think they know what to expect, considering what I did last year. I learned so much new stuff… I don’t want to be specific with it. I’m hoping people underestimate me and have an expectation of me from last year, so I can surprise them that much more.”
Impact Wrestling aired their second show from the Mexico City tapings held earlier this month. Two more episodes from Mexico City will air before Impact travels to New York City for Bound For Glory.
Here are 8 Takeaways from Impact Wrestling 9/27.
Impact Wrestling 9/27
Taya Valkyrie Challenges Tessa Blanchard For Bound For Glory
After Tessa Blanchard defeated Faby Apache to open the show last night, she cut a promo saying she’d run through the entire Knockouts division. Taya Valkyrie then appeared on the big screen and explained to Blanchard that she had never beaten her. The match was then made official for Bound For Glory.
The Lucha Brothers Kidnapped Dave Crist
Brian Cage defeated Jake Crist
Brian Cage defeated Jake Crist in single’s action last night. Following the victory, however, he was jumped by Callihan and Dave Crist. Not long after this started, however, the lights went out and when they came back on, Dave Crist was gone.
A video on the big screen showed Pentagon and Fenix with an already tied up Crist brother. The brothers beat him up and gave him a double super-kick. Then back in the ring, Cage delivered a double clothesline to the two remaining guys from Ohio.
Moose Pinned Eddie Edwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ46Ng1-us&t=5s
Moose & Killer Kross defeated Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact
Moose and Killer Kross picked up the win in last night’s main event. With all four men down in the closing moments of the match, Austin Aries attempted to interfere but was thwarted by Johnny Impact. Unfortunately, the distraction allowed Kross to hit him with a Saito suplex, taking Impact out of the match. Moose then delivered a spear to Eddie Edwards and picked up the win.
The OGZ Burned Konnan’s Mask
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-z6zqW0wdQ
LAX defeated the Desi Hit Squad
LAX defeated Great Gama Singh’s Desi Hit Squad in a non-title match this week. After the match, however, King again tried to goad Konnan and LAX to break the ceasefire. This time King cut a promo saying of all the myths and legends of Mexican wrestling, Konnan was one of the biggest myths. They then burned his mask in the back.
Scarlett Bordeaux Is Holding A Global Talent Search
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ROhzc5MXVk
Scarlett Bordeaux announced she is holding a Global Talent Search for someone she can dedicate her full attention to. Bordeaux mentioned the success KM and Fallah Bah have had since enlisting her help as reasons why wrestlers from other the world should be crawling over one another to have Bordeaux on their side.
Kiera Hogan Pinned Su Yung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ46Ng1-us
Kiera Hogan & Allie defeated Su Yung & Undead Bridesmaid
Kiera Hogan pinned former Knockouts Champion, Su Yung, with a spinning fisher-suplex. It’s arguably the biggest win of Hogan’s Impact career thus far. The win moves Hogan’s winning streak to 5 matches. Allie and Kiera Hogan are now 3-0 as a team and Hogan has defeated Alisha Edwards and KC Spinelli (ONO show) recently as well.
Shortly after this match, Impact announced Su Yung and Kiera Hogan will clash in single’s action next week.
Joe Hendry Has To Worry About MURDER Clown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB5qvVXcQxE
Katarina ran into Joe Hendry and Grado in the back. It appears Katarina is looking for revenge against the two. She announced she’d enlisted the help of Murder Clown, one of the murderous clown faction which also includes Psycho Clown and Monster Clown. Henry will have to take on Murder Clown next week.
Alberto El Patron (FKA Alberto Del Rio) recently took a crack at his former partner, Paige, during a social media post. El Patron was responding to a post from a fan on Twitter when he made the comments.
Alberto was found in the comments section of the post, taking a crack at his former love interest:
Paige and Alberto in 2018
Alberto has been wrestling sparingly thus far this year. His duties with Combates Americas keep him busy enough that he only wrestles about once per month. His last match was on August 7th, 2018. He defeated Savio Vega in a match for ICWA in Puerto Rico.
As for Paige, she announced WWE officials would no longer medically clear her for in-ring competition earlier this year. She made the announcement on the Raw after WrestleMania and then was announced as the new General Manager of Smackdown the following night.
Last night on Impact Wrestling, Taya Valkyrie returned after a short hiatus from the promotion. Fittingly, last night’s episode emanated from Mexico City, where Taya has been building a large following since debuting there in 2012.
Knockouts Champion, Tessa Blanchard, had just finished off Valkyrie’s old rival, Faby Apache, when she cut a promo saying she had gone through the entire Knockouts division. Valkyrie appeared on the big screen wearing a “Perros Del Mal” T-shirt, a nod to her longtime faction.
Valkyrie explained that Blanchard couldn’t say she’d gone through the entire division when she hadn’t yet beaten her. She then challenged the champ to a title match at Bound For Glory.
Tessa Blanchard (c) vs Taya Valkyrie – Bound For Glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxmRms-qybw
Newlyweds, Johnny Impact and Taya Valkyrie, both have title shots at Impact’s October 14th PPV from New York City. Johnny will take on Austin Aries for the Impact World Championship.
In 2018, the Knockouts division has arguably been the most talked about in the promotion. Blanchard’s performances on Impact Wrestling shows are often the most talked about matches. Valkyrie will be the tough test for Blanchard, who has already successfully defended her title against Su Yung, Gisele Shaw, and now Faby Apache. Blanchard defeated Allie, Rebel, Kiera Hogan, and Alisha Edwards in single’s action before winning the Knockouts title.
Frankie Kazarian recently conducted an interview to talk about various topics as well as promote the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that takes place this Friday.
He recently sat down with Sporting News and during the interview, spoke about working with former WWE Champion John Cena early in their careers. He stated that fans can say what they want about John as a performer, but knows that he’s always been the most hardworking man in the room and has a work ethic like something he has never seen before. He added that Cena always wanted to be the best and it wouldn’t matter what was in his way. The X-Division Kaz was a big part of the X-Division in Impact Wrestling and stated when asked about it that it was a group of guys at the top of their game having unbelievable matches every single time they went out there. He name-dropped AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Chris Daniels, Petey Williams, Alex Shane, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Low-Ki as being on the roster. He added that those days were really some of the happiest of his career and an absolute pleasure to be out there with those guys trying to be different and making a name for themselves. Growth Of Ring Of Honor “Even if I wasn’t wrestling for them, I could still admit that they had the best wrestlers having the best matches and it’s simply amazing to be a part of their team at the moment because they are hitting it out of the park. Everything seems to be falling into place for us and the guys we have working here are some of the hungriest wrestlers in the world. We want something really big to happen to Ring of Honor and you can see that is almost upon us with what’s happening at The Garden next year.”
World of Sport held their nineth episode this past weekend on ITV. The viewership data is in and again it’s not pretty. Episode 9 averaged 300,000 viewers (3.9% share), the same as last week but down a sharp 40% from Episode 7’s 500,000 viewers (5% share).
We need to revisit the sentiments from last week’s first show in the new 4:00pm time slot (this week was 2:30pm). It’s clear that the change from 5pm to 4:30pm played a huge role in the ratings drop from weeks 5, 6,7 to 8. With the ITV Evening News changing by 30 minutes the rest of the schedule had to follow suit. Again the number isn’t pretty to look at but a time change affects most programmes across many genres. This isn’t uncommon for WWE either, when special time changes occur for RAW and Smackdown this affects their numbers.
The numbers for WoS WERE steadily increasing, week 5 saw a height of 900 thousand viewers and an overall rating of 700k. Again the live tour for 2019 is an excellent sign of ITV investment in the show, both monetarily and in figurative terms. However yet another drop to the 2:30pm time slot is not something to celebrate.
Time Change to 2:30pm This Week
Once again air the time changed for the show. This has been extremely detrimental to the show over the past few weeks but does make sense given the commercial impact of Saturday nights in the UK. ITV have a huge ratings war on their hands when it comes to their X Factor show and the BBC 1 Strictly Come Dancing programme (Dancing With the Stars in the United States). Moving the WoS programme to a pre-Premier League timeslot (most games start at 3pm) could’ve been a bonus but again if you’re establishing a new show in it’s first season then multiple time changes are going to hurt.
As we’ve mentioned previously there will likely be a season 2…but it might not be on the mainstay ITV channel. Moving the WoS programme to an ITV2 could be ideal to establishing a more niche genre (to the mainstream) and helping build viewership amongst the younger demographic that ITV2 holds. Still, the numbers are low and the buzz behind the programme is at arguably it’s lowest since the premiere episode. Compare that to the fact that PROGRESS are heading to Wembley in just under a week…it’s quite the incredible situation.
Are you still watching WoS? Let us know in the comments
Pro Wrestling: EVE will be holding their ‘Global Women Strike’ event tonight from the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, London. The show will be available to watch live in just under 30 minutes if you sign up on their On Demand service with a seven day free trial. Two of the announced bouts will be qualifiers for the upcoming ‘SHE-1’ tournament.
Here’s the full card for the upcoming event:
Meiko Satomura vs Toni Storm
SHE-1 Series Qualifier – Sammii Jayne vs Hana Kimura
SHE-1 Series Qualifier – Holidead vs Rhia O’Reilly
Killer Kelly vs Jordynne Grace
Millie McKenzie vs Chihiro Hashimoto
Here’s the already qualified names for the SHE-1
Millie McKenzie – defeated Addy Starr at “EVE Are The Weirdos, Mister” on June 9th
Charli Evans – defeated Laura Did Matteo on July 14th at “Slayers In Spandex”
Kasey Owens – defeated EVE Champion Charlie Morgan at “Slayers in Spandex”
Viper/Piper Niven – defeated Kay Lee Ray at “Riot, Grrrl” to earn her place
Madison Eagles – defeated Shazza McKenzie at PWA “Call to Arms”
Kris Wolf – defeated Bea Priestley on Sept 8th at “Maybe Wrestling Will Help”
Another Canadian wrestler has received a 5-year ban from entering the United States. A similar ban was given to Montreal’s “Speedball” Mike Bailey in 2016. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Nicole Matthews will be unable to cross the American border for 5 years.
Canadian Wrestlers Crossing American Border
In the past, wrestlers have received similar punishments when they have been turned away from the border and then tried to cross again within a 24-hour period. Usually, this has to do with the wrestler not having a work VISA and/or trying to cross the border multiple times.
It is not clear what led to Matthews’ ban, however. We reached out to Matthews for comment. She offered up the following on Twitter:
Unfortunately, things are about to get a whole lot weirder at the border soon as well. Canada will legalize recreational marijuana on October 17th, 2018 and immigration lawyers are warning Canadians this will drastically increase the number of people turned away when trying to cross into the United States.
Nicole Matthews
31-year-old Nicole Matthews is a 12-year pro out of British Columbia. She’s a former SHIMMER Champion and 2x SHIMMER Tag-Team Champion along with Portia Perez. Matthews was ranked #32 in the 2017 Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 50 Female single’s wrestler’s category. She’d ranked in at #16 the previous two years.
New UK promotion Fight Forever has announced the main event for their first ever show. The company will be heading to the PRYZM Nightclub in Birmingham on December 6th. NJPW star Will Ospreay will be taking on the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Cody Rhodes in a huge international bout. This will not only be a bout featuring two of the hottest stars on the independent scene but will also be a Bullet Club vs CHAOS showcase.
In an interview with FightBooth Fight Forever Wrestling’s Co-Director Simon Kay said “Cody is on top of his game, he has never been better than he is right now. Will Ospreay, arguably the best wrestler in Britain will not want to lose on home soil. This could very well be the match of the year”.
You can purchase tickets for Phenomena and all upcoming events over at fightforeverwrestling.com. Fight Forever will also be heading to London on December 7th with a co-branded show alongside ‘Something to Wrestle’ starring Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard.
WWE will be heading back to Madison Square Garden on December 26th. MSG is one of WWE’s home bases for Holiday shows and this Boxing Day event will continue the trend. In terms of ‘house show’ events Madison Square Garden is one of WWE’s best buildings to draw in and traditionally Christmas week is extremely lucrative for live events.
It has been confirmed that WWE will taking the Smackdown Live crew to run the event. Several matches have already been announced including AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe for the WWE Championship in a Steel Cage. Daniel Bryan vs The Miz and Becky Lynch vs Charlotte Flair.
It is interesting that WWE has chosen to use Smackdown for this booking. Smackdown is generally regarded as the ‘lesser’ crew when it comes to live events. On previous occasions where WWE has run an MSG house show they add some RAW talent to help boost the draw of the event and generate more revenue.
MSG will also be the home for ROH/NJPW’s upcoming event on WrestleMania weekend 2019. There were several reports of WWE attempting to block the event from happening but now the show has sold out. The G1 Supercard is set to be New Japan’s biggest event outside of Japan and potentially their most important as they look to expand globally.
While some fans from the late-90s may never be able to forgive Arquette for winning the WCW World Championship, Arquette is chasing his pro-wrestling dream all over again at 47-years-old.
Arquette announced his return on the Wendy Show back in March. He explained his history in wrestling and then said he wanted to bring back respect to his name.
“I was promoting a movie I did called Ready to Rumble and it just so happened that I won the championship,” Arquette said. “(Fans) blamed me for ruining WCW, it’s no longer around and maybe I did have something to do with it.”
“For 18 years, I’ve been trolled on the internet,” he continued. “And I just want to bring some respect back to my name!”
Impact World Champion, Austin Aries, has taken a shine to Arquette it seems. Perhaps Arquette will even be the next name after Killer Kross and Moose to join his stable.
Why? I’m keen on @DavidArquette. Passion for pro wrestling, well connected, first hand experience during a dominant NWO faction era, former World Champion, heat magnet, and he doesn’t care what you think of him. Fits right in with what I’ve begun assembling in @IMPACTWRESTLING… https://t.co/eWTeG07Grd
“Why? I’m keen on @DavidArquette,” Aries said in a response to a fan on Twitter. Passion for pro wrestling, well connected, first-hand experience during a dominant NWO faction era, former World Champion, heat magnet, and he doesn’t care what you think of him. Fits right in with what I’ve begun assembling in @IMPACTWRESTLING…”
Arquette can be seen on Championship Wrestling From Hollywood on the FITE App. Most reviews of his work thus far have been positive, noting he’s not exactly a star-studded athlete but he sells well and understands wrestling. Arquette has also earned praise from within the industry for just being a likable guy. In his previous run with WCW, Arquette famously donated all of his earnings to the families of Brian Pillman and Owen Hart.
Randy Orton attacked Tye Dillinger last night on Smackdown. Dillinger was wrestling Shinsuke Nakamura when Randy Orton made a run-in and attacked Dillinger.
When WWE correspondents caught up with Orton later in the show, they asked him why he targetted Dillinger. Orton simply responded that he is not fond of Tye’s “Perfect 10” gimmick.
Dillinger’s response to Orton was just a succinct as Orton’s reasoning for attacking him:
Prior to attacking Dillinger on Smackdown Tuesday night, Orton had been involved in a feud with Jeff Hardy. The rivalry led to Orton pulling a screwdriver through Hardy’s stretched earlobes during Hell in a Cell.
Orton’s rivalry with Jeff Hardy also began after Orton attacked Hardy while he was wrestling Shinsuke Nakamura. In fact, he would attack Hardy multiple times during his matches against Nakamura. It’s possible that Nakamura and Orton could be revealed as having a spoken or unspoken alliance. Neither Orton nor Shinsuke Nakamura has a match scheduled for Super Show-Down in Australia on October 6th.
As for Dillinger, his match against Nakamura on Tuesday was his first match on Smackdown in nearly two months. Prior to Tuesday, his last match was a loss to Samoa Joe on a Smackdown from July.
WWE Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live color commentator Corey Graves recently took to his official Twitter account to praise a match that took place on this week’s episode of WWE 205 Live in Denver, CO at the Pepsi Center on the WWE Network. The match saw Hideo Itami battle Mustafa Ali in a singles match.
He wrote the following, “Go out of your way to watch @WWE205Live tonight. @MustafaAliWWE & @HideoItami tear the freaking house down. I promise.”
Go out of your way to watch @WWE205Live tonight. @MustafaAliWWE & @HideoItami tear the freaking house down. I promise.
The first details about the Universe Mode in the upcoming WWE 2K19 video game have been released. In these details that were made public through 2K Games on Thursday, there have been some changes made to the mode for the latest installment of the franchise. Those changes include the championship system being expanded to allow six championships per show, new customization options to make it possible to assign multiple women’s titles or tag titles to a show, and Money in the Bank briefcases, which are now fully customizable, will take a championship slot.
The game will be released on October 9, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As noted, WWE Champion AJ Styles will be on the cover of the game while Rey Mysterio and Ronda Rousey will be featured as the pre-order bonus characters. Here are some other changes made to the game but you can see the full list here:
– Managers are now available to assign to Superstars. In fact, you can assign up to three of them for any given Superstar. Managers will appear alongside the Superstars in One on One and normal Tag Team matches.
– Promos now incorporate recent events. A former champion will talk about losing the title and ask for a rematch. Rivals will talk about wins and losses, interferences or blindside attacks that happened last week. Many new promo animations have been added. While every Superstar comes with a pre-set “Promo Attitude,” you can customize any of them so that they behave the way you want.
– Last but not least, you can go through matchups in your Universe and decide the winners and losers of the matches without having to play the match yourself or rely on a random result!
WWE continues to make changes in order to improve and draw more viewers for the 205 Live brand. The latest change made was moving the show after Smackdown Live on Tuesday nights to Wednesday nights prior to NXT.
Part of the reason for this was due to WWE airing Mixed Match Challenge live on Facebook after SmackDown ends. Whether this is a permanent change for good remains to be seen. By doing this, the belief was that it would help boost viewership numbers. Also, many fans were calling for it due to the audience that attends the live shows leaving before 205 Live starts.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the change of nights has helped so far as he noted the September 19th episode “did significantly better than the live version on Tuesday”.
It also ranked in the fourth spot in the list of the top 10 WWE Network shows of the week. This episode was just behind the September 19th episode of NXT as well as episode 3 of the Mae Young Classic and the Hell in a Cell pay-per-view replay.
205 Live lost its way shortly after premiering. The show featured a “WWE sports entertainment” vibe and not the sports-based feel that made the tournament such a hit when it was a special tournament. Since Triple H took over the creative for it earlier this year, fans have been more prone to praise the show and tune in.
Abyss continues to make the media rounds to promote the brand of Impact Wrestling, which has taken great strides in improvement with not only their storylines but the in-ring product this year, as well his latest accomplishment.
Abyss recently spoke with SportsKeeda to talk about various topics including who he thinks should be inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame next year. This is when the TNA Original stated that there are a lot of people who are deserving but the first name that comes to mind is Mike Tenay because he believes Tenay was the heart of this company for a lot of years and is a dear friend of his. He added that Tenay has helped him so much and put him over strong throughout his career in pro wrestling.
Staying Loyal
Abyss will be celebrated and honored for his contributions to Impact Wrestling next month as the promotion has chosen him to be this year’s Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame inductee. The ceremony will take place on October 13th in New York City at McHale’s Pub. He’s a former World Champion, X-Division Champion, and World Tag Team Champion. When asked about why he stayed loyal to the brand, he brought up how they gave him a chance and took a gamble on him. “And I was hired immediately afterwards. And they invested in me personally and professionally. Sure, the ups and downs are well documented that this company has gone through. Some of the lows and some of the trials and tribulations that occurred under past regimes. And I must emphasize past when I say that. We fought through a lot. A lot of people were betting against us. We pulled through it together. The talent did. We did. The company did. The office did. This company has always treated me well. This company has always treated me with respect. I was one of the founding members of this company. I was one of the cinder blocks that it’s sitting on top of.”
He continued to state that it always carried a lot of weight in him as being one of the original members of this company and that the promotion has been home to him for over 16 years now.
Rusev, Sheamus, and Lana all participated recently in the WWE 2K19 roster reveal. During their live stream of the roster reveal, Sheamus took a crack at Total Divas. He said something to the effect of “we’re not watching that s**t!”
Evidently, Rusev and Lana asked Sheamus to housesit for them recently. Sheamus posted the following to his Instagram followers, insinuating he’s changed his mind about the show.
Former WWE Champion, Sheamus, is currently part of the Bar with Cesaro. The team recently celebrated their 2-year anniversary, having wrestled their first match together on September 16th, 2016. Originally, the team was a mismatched pair, as fans would cheer for Cesaro and boo Sheamus. Over time, however, they just became a regular team.
Now known as the Bar, Cesaro and Sheamus are 4x former Raw Tag Team Champions. They have yet to win the belts since moving to Smackdown, however. They will have their chance to earn gold for the first time on the blue brand in Australia at Super Show-Down, however. The Bar will take on current champion, the New Day.
Impact Wrestling confirmed today what had only been alluded to previously: the company will film 3 nights worth of television tapings from Las Vegas in November. The venue will be Ring of Honor’s old Las Vegas venue, Sam’s Town Casino. The tapings are scheduled from November 11th, 2018 to November 13th, 2018.
Fans can purchase front row tickets for all 3 nights for just $75. Previously, Impact has been running just 2 nights of tapings per month.
Impact Wrestling 2018 Schedule
The promotion owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment has made international expansion a key part of their year. Anthem owns the Fight Network which is located in Toronto but works internationally. The company was just able to strike a deal to have the Fight Network aired in the UK.
Impact is said to be the second-highest ratings earner for the Fight Network, which is what led to Anthem being keen on purchasing the promotion.
So far in 2018, Impact has run shows in the UK, Mexico, the United States, and Canada. They have also worked with promotions in Australia as well. The Global Wrestling Network, the Anthem-owned streaming services, features many of the promotions Impact has partnered with so far this year. World Series Wrestling, Destiny, Smash, RISE, and others are all featured on the Global Wrestling Network.
