Already the Mayor of Longwood, Florida, Matt Morgan is throwing his hat in another political race. The former wrestler filed his paperwork at the elections office last week and is officially running for the Seminole County Commission District 1 seat. He was elected Mayor of Longwood in 2019.
“I want to be this county’s 7-foot 300-pound backbone,” Morgan said to News 13 Orlando. “And give them back the power and the decision-making process in Seminole County.”
“Not the jury, judge and executioner, I say that with all respect, I get along with Bob,” Morgan continued to say about the current seat-holder Bob Dillari.
Matt Morgan wrestled with WWE from 2002-05. He was then with TNA from 2007 to 2013 and returned briefly to the company in 2015 and 2017. Morgan spoke to Spectrum News about his decision to run.
“I go where I feel that the residents of, whether its Seminole county or Longwood before that, call,” Morgan said. “Right now I feel I can be a bigger service to a bigger amount of people. Again, it goes back to my entire thesis behind being a public servant. If you are a true public servant you don’t make a career out of this. It’s about legit serving the public and being the people’s conduit and I am a living breathing 7-foot 300-pound conduit for Seminole County residents. That’s what I’m looking to do here.”
Triple H is quick to point out that Matt Hardy didn’t invent cinematic matches but he does recognize the impact he has had on them. He also noted the importance of Jeremy Borash’s contributions to the growing genre of pro-wrestling during a recent interview with Metro UK.
“It’s a funny thing, that people say all of a sudden there’s this moment with the cinematic thing that happened,” Triple H said. “But people were doing that 20 years ago.”
HHH would continue to use Mankind vs the Rock’s Halftime Heat match and Booker T vs Steve Austin in a grocery store as examples.
Matches filmed like movies have been taking place for decades, but recent years have seen science fiction and fantasy-inspired elements creep into such segments. This was the case with both Matt Hardy’s Broken Universe in TNA and with Lucha Underground and its head writer, the recently-released Chris DeJoseph.
Jeremy Borash’s work behind-the-scenes with the Broken Universe in Impact before he was hired by WWE was praised by Triple H during the interview.
“Jeremy’s an incredible talent with an eye for storytelling and an eye for image and everything like that. Man, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy working with him.”
Finally, Triple H certainly wants to correct people who say Hardy and Borash invented the genre but he is also willing to admit the two took cinematic matches to another level.
“That’s not to negate the Matt Hardy, Jeremy Borash thing that you mentioned,” he said to the Metro reporter. “That took it to another level. There’s all steps to this – but to say it all started there, to me, I’d say it’s not accurate.”
All Elite Wrestling’s debut in Newark, New Jersey has been rescheduled once again.
AEW Dynamite from the Prudential Center in Newark was originally booked for Wednesday, March 25th. This was set to feature the first Blood and Guts double steel cage match between the Inner Circle and The Elite.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Newark show was bumped to July 22nd.
Ticketmaster sent out an email Thursday afternoon announcing the show has been postponed once again. Dynamite from Newark will now take place Wednesday, February 24, 2021.
Ticket holders have the option of keeping the same seats for February 2021 or getting a refund if they are unable to attend.
It’s worth noting that Ticketmaster.com has a full listing of AEW’s upcoming touring schedule. As of this writing, the first AEW Dynamite outside of Jacksonville, FL is scheduled for Wednesday, August 5th from Boston, MA.
Other cities still scheduled to host Dynamite this year include St. Louis, Milwakee, Houston, New Orlean and Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Of course, this is all subject to change, based upon the status of the pandemic in the months ahead.
Here’s the current AEW road schedule from Ticketmaster:
Viewership data is in for this week’s battle in the WWE NXT vs. AEW Dynamite Wednesday Night War.
AEW won the night in total viewers and in the key 18-49 demo, but both shows were down. Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
WWE NXT Viewership
NXT on the USA Network averaged 715,000 viewers, down from last week’s 731,000 In the 18-49 demo, they drew a 0.20 rating, up from 0.19 last week.
The episode featured Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae, Drake Maverick vs. El Hijo del Fantasma in the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament Finals, two NXT TakeOver: In Your House Prime Target videos to hype the NXT Title and NXT Women’s Championship matches.
AEW Dynamite on TNT was watched by 730,000 viewers, down from the 827,000 viewers last week. In the 18-49 demo, Dynamite pulled in a 0.29 rating, down from the 0.32 rating that the show did last week.
AEW Dynamite featured bouts such as AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Jungle Boy, AEW Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega vs. Kip Sabian and Jimmy Havoc, Chris Jericho in action against Colt Cabana, FTR doing an interview, and Big Swole vs. Nyla Rose.
Unlike last year, AEW Fyter Fest will not be a stand-alone event but rather a special that will take place over the course of two Dynamite episodes spanning two weeks.
The promotion has already confirmed the first week will be on July 1st and the second week on July 8th on TNT.
Dave Meltzer reported on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that Fyter Fest will be held on July 1st and 2nd, which means the first show will be live while the other will be taped.
Per the report, everything from now until Fyter Fest has written out by AEW President Tony Khan with the idea that this event is being booked like a pay-per-view show. Fans can expect matches to run longer in length and having PPV quality bouts on their weekly television show.
Every title is expected to be defended. Meltzer also speculated that this special could be one of a few that will fill in the gaps a bit between actual pay-per-view events since AEW only holds four specials per year.
The company’s next ‘traditional’ pay-per-view event is AEW All Out, which takes place on Saturday, September 5th.
AEW Commentator and WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently discussed the segment between Mike Tyson and Chris Jericho on a recent episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT. Good Ol’ JR would talk about the importance of having such a mainstream figure like Tyson on the programme, and address some of the ‘controversial’ elements of the moment on Grilling JR.
“Mike Tyson is a very polarising figure, he garners publicity” Jim Ross would begin on the podcast. “I think that’s why anybody…when we used him in WWE back in the day? When Tyson was there and he did the thing with Austin and Shawn and all that stuff? Mike got the company a great deal of publicity. Like I said, he’s polarising. He’s a lightning rod and people are so interested in what he does.”
Jim Ross would then discuss one of the controversies of the segment. Both Tyson and Jericho were flanked by their entourages during the in-ring promo, and Tyson in particular had some big names from the MMA world with him. Unfortunately, the AEW commentary team were not made aware that the mixed martial artists were there, and subsequently they did not mention them on the broadcast.
Jim Ross on ‘Controversy’
“So, that I will say this, there was a controversy in the show a few weeks ago” Jim Ross could continue. “Tyson came out to confront Chris Jericho and with him there were some MMA legends. And we didn’t mention them.”
Jim Ross would elaborate further, saying “Rashad Evans? He was not mentioned because we didn’t know he was part of the entourage, you know? Vitor Belfort? Same deal. They were in a mass group. And they were kind of camouflaged. I heard [Dave] Meltzer talking about it, all these guys talking about it; about the fact that we didn’t mention them and we basically ‘no sold’ them. Well it wasn’t our intent to ‘no sell’ anybody, right? The intent was to get everybody over. But no one told me, Excalibur or Tony who all was in the entourage.”
Are you looking forward to a potential Tyson vs Jericho match? Let us know in the comments
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Arn Anderson will be part of the AEW family for several years to come.
The Four Horsemen alum made the announcement during a special edition of his Coach’s Corner web series. Anderson said that last year, he told himself that he does not want to be anywhere that he’s not wanted. This was a reference to his time as a backstage producer in WWE. Today, he does feel wanted in AEW.
“I am absolutely thrilled to be here with all this young talent and watch this company blossom into being the platinum of all of our industry,” he said.
Anderson feels the next few years will see some big changes in the world of professional wrestling. They plan to ‘mix some old in with the new’ and the AEW product will shine as a result of having capable people working towards their goals.
Anderson currently serves as the personal advisor and ‘head coach’ to AEW TNT Champion Cody Rhodes.
In addition to working for AEW behind the scenes, Arn Anderson hosts is the host of the popular Arn Show podcast along with Conrad Thompson.
AEW Dynamite aired from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Cody put his TNT Championship on the line against Jungle Boy in the main event. FTR sat down with Tony Schiavone for an interview following their AEW debut last week. It was also announced that this year’s Fyter Fest will be a two week event (July 1, July 8) on TNT.
Kenny Omega & Hangman Page def. Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian to retain the AEW Tag Team Championships
Brian Cage def. Shawn Dean
Chris Jericho def. Colt Cabana
Nyla Rose def. Big Swole
Cody def. Jungle Boy to retain the TNT Championship
Here are 5 takeaways from this week’s show:
Omega & Hangman Page Retained
Kenny Omega & Hangman Page defended their AEW Tag Team Championships against Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian. Penelope Ford was ringside for the match.
Match Recap: Omega and Havoc started it off and Kenny drove Jimmy to the corner. Penelope tripped up Kenny and Havoc capitalized with an elbow to the face. Sabian tagged in and continued to beat Omega down.
FTR was shown in the crowd watching along as Hangman tagged in. Page leveled Havoc with a Clothesline and tagged Omega in. Sabian went for a Crossbody but the champs caught him and tossed him across the ring.
Penelope went for a Hurricanrana but Hangman caught her. Page dropped her and the referee kicked her out. Jimmy Havoc brought a wrench into the ring and hit Hangman and Kenny in the back of the head while the referee was arguing with Sabian and Penelope.
Kip Dropkicked Page out of the ring and Havoc rolled him back inside. Sabian Dropkicked Omega off the apron and then booted Hangman in the face. Omega tagged in and hit Havoc and Sabian with a Hurricanrana.
Kenny planted Sabian with a Backstabber for a two count. Page tagged in and hit a Shooting Star Press on Kip for a near fall. Havoc hopped on the apron with saw but Hangman hit him with a Clothesline.
Page followed it up with a Crossbody out of the ring. Hangman leveled Sabian with a Clothesline and went for a cover but Havoc broke it up. Omega tagged in and Sabian hit a DDT before tagging in Havoc.
Jimmy slammed Omega on top of Hangman with a Death Valley Driver. Havoc connected with a DDT on Omega but Hangman broke up the cover. Sabian hit Omega with a reverse Hurricanrana and tagged Havoc back in.
Omega planted Havoc with a Snap Dragon Suplex and then the V-Trigger to Sabian. Hangman connected with a Powerbomb and Kip rolled out of the ring. Page and Omega hit Jimmy Havoc with the Last Call (V-Trigger/Buckshot Lariat combo) for the pinfall victory. Omega and Hangman Page will defend the AEW Tag Team Championships against Best Friends at Fyter Fest.
Opinion: Dynamite kicked off with a very solid tag team championship match this week. AEW’s tag team division has become one of the biggest strengths of their product and the titles feel important as a result of that.
Brian Cage picked up an easy win against Shawn Dean tonight on Dynamite. After the match, Taz cut a promo on Jon Moxley and claimed that Cage was going to kick the living shit out of Moxley. Taz was pissed about Moxley smiling and laugh last week and said that this is not a game. He added that if Jon doesn’t get his head on straight it will get taken off at Fyter Fest.
“You need to get your head on right, or your head is gonna get taken off at FyterFest” – @OfficialTaz
AEW Champion Jon Moxley interrupted and made his way to the ring. Taz warned Moxley to think and be careful before he entered the ring. Moxley laughed and got in the ring with Cage.
Jon stated that the reason he is smiling is that going to war with Brian Cage makes him happy. Moxley added that Brian Cage is impressive but it will take Cage all night long to defeat him.
Moxley said that Brian Cage will be in over his head at Fyter Fest and will realize he is swimming with a different breed of shark. Jon told Taz that if he brings his name up again he should remember who he is talking about.
Match Recap: Colt Cabana dominated early and hit Jericho and Hager with a Moonsault off the ring apron. Cabana was already bleeding from the mouth and showed off the blood to the camera before bouncing Le Champion’s face off the barricade. Jake Hager got in a cheap shot while the referee was distracted as Dynamite went to a break.
When Dynamite returned, Jericho was in control and hit Cabana with an elbow to the face for a near fall. Cabana and Jericho traded shots and Colt got the better of the exchange with a Clothesline. Cabana hit the Flying Apple in the corner and followed it up with a Splash off the second turnbuckle for a near fall. Jericho locked in the Liontamer but Cabana was able to reach the ropes to break the hold. Colt battled back for a moment but Jericho caught him with the Judas Effect for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Jericho grabbed a microphone and told everyone in the crowd to “shut their ass”. Chris called Mike Tyson a piece of shit and claimed that last week’s confrontation was the most talked about event in sports history. Jericho stated that he wanted to taste blood of Tyson when he shoves Mike’s head up his stupid ass. Chris called out Mike Tyson and demanded that he come to the ring right now.
Orange Cassidy interrupted and took his time getting to the ring. Cassidy put Jericho’s hands in his pockets and avoided the attack from Hager and Jericho. Cassidy hopped over the barricade and left with Best Friends as Inner Circle shouted at them from the ring.
Opinion: A match between Jericho and Orange Cassidy sounds fun as hell and I cannot wait to see it. Sammy’s horrific singing was one of the highlights of this week’s show.
FTR sat down with Tony Schiavone and said that AEW now has the world’s greatest tag teams now that they are here.
Cash and Dax went down the list of the teams in the division and joked that Omega and Hangman Page aren’t even a real tag team. Tony wondered why FTR didn’t mention the Young Bucks and said that it would be a dream match if they competed in the ring.
FTR said that it wouldn’t be in a dream match because they would rather just punched them in the mouth and beat them in three seconds. Dax and Cash added that when they finally get in the ring with the Young Bucks they will prove that they are the best by beating them. Butcher & The Blade interrupted and wanted a fight but the two teams were separated. FTR challenged them to a match and it will go down next week. Tony also joked that he always thought FTR meant “f*ck The Revival”.
#FTR@DaxHarwood & @CashWheelerFTR run down the names of tag-teams they want to face here in #AEW. However, one team specifically didn't make their list.
Cody defended the TNT Championship for the first time against Jungle Boy in the main event of this week’s Dynamite.
Match Recap: Jungle Boy hit Cody with a Hurricanrana and rolled him up for a two count. Jungle Boy hit Cody with a couple chops in the corner and Cody battled back with a forearm to the face. Cody connected with a Powerslam and went for the cover but Jungle Boy kicked out at two. The action spilled outside the ring and Cody sent Jungle Boy into the crowd as Dynamite went to a break.
When Dynamite returned, Jungle Boy started arguing with MJF ringside as Cody was busted open after missing a headbutt. Back in the ring, Jungle Boy went right for the wound on Cody’s head and hit a few punches. Jungle Boy turned Cody inside out with a Clothesline for a two count.
Cody connected with a Superplex and went for the cover but Jungle Boy was able to kick out at two. Jungle Boy and Cody traded punches on the top turnbuckle and wound up falling through the table below. Cody brought Jungle Boy back in the ring and hit Cross Rhodes for the victory. Cody will defend his TNT Championship against Marq Quen next week.
Opinion: Cody and Jungle Boy put on a very good match tonight and it capped off another solid edition of Dynamite. It wouldn’t be a Cody match if he didn’t wind up bleeding profusely from his head. I’m looking forward to Cody vs. Marq Quen for the TNT Title and FTR vs. Butcher & Blade next week.
The June 3, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from the Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University.
The show was headlined by Drake Maverick vs. El Hijo del Fantasma in the finals of the tournament to crown a new Interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion.
WWE NXT Results (6/3)
Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae def. Keith Lee & Mia Yim
Isaiah “Swerve” Scott def. Tony Nese
Breezango def. Burch & Lorcan and The Undisputed Era – Triple Threat #1 Contender’s Match
Santana Garrett def. Aliyah
Cameron Grimes def. Bronson Reed
El Hijo del Fantasma def. Drake Maverick to become the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae Not As Advertised
Image Credit: WWE.com
After a few weeks of build, WWE booked Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae in a singles match.
It was a fun back and forth affair while it lasted. The match started the show but it ended in a double count-out finish. After the match, a brawl broke out with the likes of Teagan Nox, Shotzi Blackheart, and more joining in. Johnny Gargano came out to get the referee off his wife and Keith Lee ran out to even things out.
Some fans thought that WWE might save this contest for the NXT TakeOver: In your House special or even have a mixed tag team match with Yim teaming up with Lee and LeRae teaming with her husband, Gargano, at this show.
However, WWE decided to split them up and have the women work the go-home show for the special while at the special, Lee will make his next title defense against Gargano.
In between a commercial break, a mixed tag team match with all four stars did take place. Gargano and LeRae went over when Gargano used his car keys to rake the eyes of Lee and get the pinfall.
Drake Maverick vs. El Hijo del Fantasma in the finals of the tournament to crown a new Interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion is in the books.
The match was fine with Fantasma going over in the main event. The finish saw two masked men come down to the ring but Maverick took them out with an outside dive.
Back in the ring, Fantasma hit his finisher for the win. After the match, Triple H came out and offered Maverick a new deal to re-sign with the company.
The whole storyline of Maverick being allowed in the tournament despite his public release was still something weird. However, NXT officials managed to pull a good thing out of a bad situation.
It also allowed Maverick to show more of his personality and work rate on a bigger stage compared to 205 Live.
Well, instead of turning it into a WWE Network special, WWE decided to air on NXT TV to further build Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream.
Cole will defend the NXT Title against the challenger at NXT TakeOver: In Your House. There were various stars talking about the match and it was simply a hype piece.
They did do a segment with The Undisputed Era being taken by limo with everyone in suits being taken to a fine restaurant.
There’s a stipulation to go along with this contest as Dream can’t challenge for the title as long as Cole is champion should he lose with a setting to be determined, which will be a ring in the middle of a parking lot.
A Triple Threat Match to determine the new #1 contender’s for the Tag Team Titles took place as Tyler Breeze & Fandango battled The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong) and Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.
As expected with these three teams, it was a really good match with them getting plenty of time to work and tell the story that they wanted. This marked the return for Fandango, who had been previously sidelined with an injury.
As seen on the show, Breeze and Fandango went over to become the new #1 contender’ to the straps, which are currently held by Imperium.
Fandango won the contest when he pinned Fish with a leg drop off the top rope. Indus Sher made their presence known post-match as they had a staredown with the champs and the new contenders.
Fandango and Breeze are two guys who can go in the ring and will put on a good match with Imperium but also a tag team who can eat the loss and still be over.
El Hijo del Fantasma is the interim WWE NXT Cruiserweight Champion and Drake Maverick is staying with WWE.
Maverick battled Fantasma in the finals of the tournament to crown a new champion on Wednesday’s episode of NXT on the USA Network.
The back and forth bout took place in the main event. The finish saw two masked men, who had been attacking various stars over the last few weeks, come down to the ring but Maverick took them out with an outside dive. Moments later, Fantasma hit his finisher for the win.
Post-match, Triple H came out and offered Maverick a new deal to re-sign with the company. Of course, Maverick was released back in April due to budget cuts but allowed to work through July due to a clause in his deal.
The tournament was done due to current NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin being stuck in the UK over travel restrictions from the coronavirus pandemic. It started back in April.
Group A consisted of Kushida, Drake Maverick, Tony Nese, and Jake Atlas while Group B had Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, El Hijo del Fantasma, Akira Tozawa, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher.
With the travel ban preventing Devlin from making it to the United States, Devlin is expected back on NXT television in the near future.
A new match has been announced for the upcoming WWE NXT TakeOver: In Your House special.
Teagan Nox, Shotzi Blackheart & Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez in a Six-Woman Tag Team Match has been booked.
During Wednesday’s episode of NXT, WWE confirmed the match booking after a brawl broke out featuring all of the talent mentioned above occurred in the opening segment following the Yim vs. LeRae contest that ended in a no contest.
WWE presents the NXT TakeOver: In Your House event on Sunday, June 7, 2020 in Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University and will air on the WWE Network.
Updated WWE NXT TakeOver: In Your House Card
NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. The Velveteen Dream – Dream can’t challenge for the title as long as Cole is champion should he lose, Backlot Brawl
Karrion Kross vs. Tommaso Ciampa – Singles Match
NXT Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Io Shirai – Triple Threat Match
Finn Balor vs. Damian Priest
NXT North American Champion Keith Lee vs. Johnny Gargano
Teagan Nox, Shoti Blackheart & Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez – Six-Woman Tag Team Match
The fallout on television from WWE’s next pay-per-view event, Backlash, will be taped in advance.
Wrestling Inc has a new report that states WWE is going back to their previous idea regarding upcoming episodes of their weekly television shows – Monday Night RAW and Friday Night SmackDown.
WWE will be taping two weeks of television next week, which means the episodes airing after this PPV event will be filmed before the actual event takes place.
The company did the exact same thing with WrestleMania 36 back in April as they filmed the TV episodes before recording most of the pay-per-view.
After next week, stars will get the following week off. The current plans call for the next set of TV tapings after that will be the week of June 22nd.
Updated WWE TV Tapings Schedule
NXT Takeover: In Your House pay-per-view – Sunday, June 7th
RAW on the same night, SmackDown episode airing on June 12th and that week’s 205 Live & Main Event – Monday, June 8th
RAW for June 15th and SmackDown airing on June 19th in addition to that week’s 205 Live & Main Event – Tuesday, June 9th
WWE will tape two weeks of NXT for the same night and following week’s show – Wednesday, June 10th
WWE Backlash pay-per-view live – Sunday, June 14th
AEW Fyter Fest will be a 2-night event taking place next month.
Fyter Fest Night 1 takes place on the Wednesday, July 1st edition of AEW Dynamite. Night 2 is scheduled for the following week, Wednesday, July 8th.
There are two confirmed title matches for AEW Fyter Fest:
AEW World Champion Jon Mxoley vs. Brian Cage. Cage earned the title shot by winning the Casino Ladder Match at Double or Nothing. He is not currently ranked in the Top 5 of AEW Rankings.
AEW Tag Team Champions Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Best Friends
AEW President Tony Khan commented:
AEW Fyter Fest, 2 nights on @tntdrama! I’m excited to bring Fyter to @AEWonTNT on July 1 + July 8. Thank you to all of the great fans who’ve supported our pay-per-view shows and #AEWDynamite every Wednesday night! This one’s on the house! Or these two rather.
WWE and AEW may have gotten one step closer to having fans attend their shows in the state of Florida.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus in March, WWE has been holding TV tapings in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center and Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University. The same goes for AEW from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida for Dynamite shows.
On Wednesday during a press conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that bars, movie theaters, and other entertainment venues are re-opening. They’ll do so in 64 counties beginning this Friday.
The reason for this is due to the state moving into Phase Two of DeSantis’ three-step plan to re-start the economy. Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach are not included in this plan as they’ve been some of the hardest-hit counties in Florida.
DeSantis will allow businesses such as movie theaters, bowling alleys, and concert halls to run at 50% capacity with his new Executive Order. Of course, they’ll have to do social distancing.
Bars are allowed to open at 50% capacity indoors, and at full capacity outside with proper social distancing of 6 feet between tables. This is the same as restaurants and retail spaces.
These new guidelines could let pro wrestling promotions be allowed to have fans attend their shows in the near future as the state is allowing the re-opening of venues such as concert halls.
Impact Wrestling has blocked its contracted talent from appearing in Virtual Basement’s upcoming pro wrestling video game.
Virtual Basement is an indie video game studio developing a 3D wrestling game for mainstream consoles. They have not yet released gameplay footage. However, they have been making noise on social media this year with announcements of wrestlers signing on to be playable characters in the game.
The untitled Virtual Basement wrestling game will featured a wide variety of wrestling stars. Popular wrestling names signed on to appear include Ken Shamrock, nZo, Matt Taven, Brian Pillman Jr, Matt Sydal, Brian Cage, Lio Rush, Eli Drake, Nick Mondo and more.
YouTuber VikingSizeGamer released this video on June 3 saying that Impact Wrestling has pulled its contracted talent from backing out of agreements to appear in Virtual Basement wrestling. VSG says Impact sent a memo to their contracted talent asking them to refuse to be in the game, even if they already agreed.
Virtual Basement commented on the situation and said the news is “sadly true.”
It's sadly true – but we're moving forward and have a fantastic roster we believe in and lots of new surprises on the way! https://t.co/suSq8IHmAI
— Virtual Basement® (@VirtualBasement) June 3, 2020
It appears that some stars who were released by WWE in April could make a return but there’s a catch.
Due to the financial hit of the coronavirus and WWE needing to keep profits up, the company decided to do mass talent and staff cuts.
Bryan Alvarez noted on Wednesday’s Wrestling Observer Live that several stars were contacted by WWE and offered new deals to return to the company. However, they wouldn’t be making the same amount of money that they had been before.
Alvarez stated that the money offered is a fraction of what they were making. This came after the interesting video package that aired on Tuesday’s episode of Impact Wrestling to promote Slammiversary.
Alvarez noted that the offers that he’s seen make him think there will be a fair number of people showing up in Impact rather than return to WWE. He added that there are definitely people that would definitely go to Impact Wrestling.
AEW Rankings have been released for June 3, 2020. There was not much movement this week, aside from the Dark Order being bumped from the top 5 tag teams due to inactivity.
AEW Men’s Single’s Rankings
AEW World Champion: Jon Moxley (12-0) TNT Champion: Cody (10-1)
MJF (6-0)
Lance Archer (5-1)
Brodie Lee (5-1)
Kenny Omega (4-0)
Darby Allin (6-4)
Maxwell Jacob Friedman is still the top ranked men’s competitor in All Elite Wrestling. He is in a strong position to challenge for either the AEW World or TNT Championships.
AEW newcomer Brian Cage remains unranked, despite wins at Double or Nothing and a squash match last week on Dynamite. Cage will be in action on Dynamite this week. Expect to see him break into the Top 5 in the weeks ahead.
Cody defends the TNT Championship against Jungle Boy this week on Dynamite. After that, his weekly Open Challenge begins. Keep an eye on Cody’s record. By wrestling each week on Dynamite, this presents a unique opportunity to add significant wins in the weeks and months ahead.
AEW Women’s Division
Champion: Hikaru Shida (11-1)
Nyla Rose (5-2)
Kris Statlander (4-4)
Britt Baker (4-4)
Yuka Sakazaki (1-1)
Penelope Ford (3-3)
This week’s Women’s rankings remain unchanged. Top-ranked athlete Nyla Rose wrestles Big Swole this week on Dynamite. The result of that match could be a factor in how long she holds on to the ace position.
Britt Baker is out of action due to injury, which puts her #3 spot in jeopardy. #4 ranked Yuka Sakazaki has also been inactive, so she will probably slide as well.
AEW Tag Team Division
Champions: Kenny Omega & Hangman Page (6-0)
Best Friends (9-3)
The Natural Nightmares (5-0)
Private Party (4-2)
Jimmy Havoc & Kip Sabian (3-1)
Young Bucks (2-2)
Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian broke into the Top 5 rankings this week with and landed in the #4 spot. They will face tag champions Kenny Omega and Hangman Page this week on Dynamite.
Havoc and Sabian bumped the Dark Order out of the weekly rankings. Evil Uno and Stu Grayson have been inactive due to travel complications related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Best Friends are sitting pretty as the top ranked tag team in All Elite Wrestling. Expect to see them challenge for the gold soon.
Keep an eye on QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes, better known as the Natural Nightmares. They’ve been racking up wins and are also in contention for a title match.
– Christian returns to WWE programming next week on Raw. Captain Charisma will be on hand to host a special edition of The Peep Show. His guest will be longtime friend and former tag team partner, Edge.
WWE is hyping the segment by teasing what Edge will say just 6 days before the “Greatest Wrestling Match Ever” against Randy Orton at Backlash.
– WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg will appear on this week’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves. He will be on hand to discuss NXT Takeover: In Your House. WWE is teasing that Road Dogg will reveal which NXT stars he’s got his eye on.
The DX alum and 6-time WWE tag team champion competed at the first WWE In Your House pay-per-view 25 years ago.
– The following matches are advertised for tonight’s edition of NXT on the USA Network:
El Hijo del Fantasma vs. Drake Maverick in the finals of the NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament.
Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae
Catch up on the Top 10 moments from last week’s NXT:
Impact Wrestling is teasing surprise appearances from former WWE talent at the upcoming Slammiversary pay-per-view.
Slammiversary is one of Impact’s signature events. This year’s installment takes place Sunday, July 18th.
A promo aired during this week’s Impact TV letting fans know to expect some familiar faces in attendance.
The promo, embedded below, shows a shadowy figure watching a news report about WWE’s mass wave of releases that occurred in April. Footage is shown of EC3, Rockstar Spud, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson and more.
We already know that former NXT star Deonna Purrazzo is joining Impact. It will be interesting to see which of the stars shown in this promo will be joining her.
LaRae says she is very excited for Takeover. She remembers watching WWE’s In Your House pay-per-views with her brothers during the mid/late 1990’s.
NXT Takeover takes place from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Even though fans are still not permitted to attend these shows, WWE has placed contracted talent in the audience to simulate crowd noise.
Candice LaRae gave her thoughts about WWE’s approach to live wrestling shows without fans in the audience.
“I am always trying to be aware of the fact that there are people watching at home,” she began. “So once I’m in a match and I’m physically in that moment, they don’t have to physically be there for me personally.”
She initially thought it was going to be very difficult to perform without fans in attendance. However, during her recent ladder match, she was not bothered by the lack of fans because there was something meaningful on the line.
LaRae said the most uncomfortable thing for her about performing without fans is her ring entrance. “I’m a little bit of a socially awkward person, so having to do an entrance and nobody’s there is very uncomfortable for me,” she said.
Even though WWE having NXT wrestlers stand around is not the same as paying customers, Candice LaRae says it’s still better than performing in silence.
“It’s uncomfortable for me a little bit, I’ll admit, when there are fans there. So having the NXT talent all be there and being rowdy or responding how they respond, is just, it helps my entrance. Nothing else. I appreciate that. I feel less awkward.”
Back in March, tattoo artist Celeste from the Built 4 Speed Tattoo shop in Orlando, FL posted a photo of the ‘wendigo’ tattoo she was putting on the former NXT Women’s Champion.
The wendigo is a “mythological man-eating creature or evil spirit” from the folklore of the First Nations Algonquian tribes, according to Wikipedia.
Celeste posted an updated look at the new ink, which has come a long way since our first look a few months ago.
You can see Rhea Ripley’s new wendigo tattoo in the Instagram post embedded below. The post has a ton of positive comments. We agree with those sentiments – this looks absolutely badass.
All Elite Wrestling is back tonight with an all-new edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT.
AEW has a strong card booked as they look to capitalize off last week’s spike in viewership. The following items are scheduled for tonight’s edition of AEW Dynamite:
“The American Nightmare” Cody will defend the TNT Championship for the first time against Jungle Boy. The Jurassic Express star won a battle royal last week to earn the title shot.
AEW’s Tag Team Champion are back in action together. Kenny Omega & Adam Page will defend the gold against Jimmy Havoc and Kip Sabian.
Inner Circle leader Chris Jericho will face Colt Cabana.
Brian Cage will be in action. “The Machine” will have Taz in his corner as he looks to stack up another win. Cage won the Casino Ladder Match at Double or Nothing and challenges AEW World Champion Jon Moxley at Fyter Fest some time this summer.
Big Swole looks to climb the ranks of the AEW women’s division against former champion Nyla Rose.
Finally, Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood will sit down with Tony Schiavone for their first interview since joining All Elite Wrestling. Why has FTR come to AEW? Will they be allies or opponents of the Young Bucks?
Don’t expect to see Hulk Hogan or his ex-wife Linda at an AEW event any time soon.
Linda Hogan posted tweeted a message Tuesday afternoon that many are calling racist. In response to the ongoing protests about George Floyd’s death and police brutality towards African Americans, she tweeted:
“watching the looting , it’s all afro Americans, not sure how robbing and stealing set the record straight but if they want to be heard they need to be civilized.”
The tweet has since been deleted, but not before it made waves online and trended worldwide. AEW President Tony Khan was among the people who did not take kindly to Linda Hogan’s viewpoint.
Tony Khan replied to Linda and informed her she is now prohibited from attending AEW shows. In doing so, Khan also revealed that her ex-husband, Hulk, is also on the banned list.
You’ve now joined your husband in being banned from all AEW shows. Congratulations.
Hulk Hogan was persona-non-grata for a few years in WWE as a result of his 2015 racism scandal, but was welcomed back with open arms by the promotion late 2018.
Viewership data is in for Monday’s WWE RAW and Friday’s SmackDown. Here is the breakdown of the live and same-night DVR viewership, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
RAW Viewership
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW averaged 1.728 million viewers, which is down from the 1.735 million viewers last week.
SmackDown averaged 2.170 million viewers on FOX in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center. This is up from the 2.044 million viewers that the show did for the previous week’s episode of SmackDown.
The show averaged 2.150 million viewers in the fast nationals, which was up from the 2.040 million viewers a week ago. This number measured the top metered markets.
The first hour drew 2.143 million viewers while the second hour did 2.157 million viewers. For comparison, the first show of last week’s show did 2.076 million viewers while the second hour did 2.003 million viewers.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.60 rating in the 18-49 demos, up from the 0.50 rating as last week’s show.
Former WWE SmackDown Executive Vice President and WCW President Eric Bischoff recently discussed AEW Dynamite and a potential move to Mondays for the show on After 83 Weeks w/Christy Olson.
Bischoff was posed the question on the show, being asked if he felt AEW Dynamite could eventually make a move to Monday Nights and go head-to-head with WWE RAW. The reasoning behind the question was because Monday is regarded by ‘casual’ fans as ‘wrestling night’ and AEW could potentially capitalise on that audience.
TNA made the move to Monday nights back in 2010, eventually moving back to their usual time slot later in the week. Bischoff has previously said that the reason for that move was to get fans to ‘sample’ the product, but he doesn’t think that AEW should be moving anytime soon.
Eric Bischoff on Dynamite Moving Nights
“If I were there, and I had a voice in the room? I would probably be suggesting that they stay away from Mondays until their numbers start coming up every week,” Bischoff began.
“What we’ve seen, when they debuted they came in about 1.4 to 1.5 million viewers. And pre COVID? They were hovering in that eight or 900,000 viewers category,” he continued. “That means they went from here, to here, to here (motioning downwards). And now they’re kind of flatlining at almost 35 or 40% of their premiere audience.”
Bischoff then compared AEW Dynamite’s viewership trends to that of WCW Nitro.
“If you go back and you look at Nitro’s performance when we launched? That was September I guess in ’95? We started out in the low twos or mid twos, and we crept up to the high twos. Then we crept up to a three and then we crept up to a three three over a pretty long period of time. It didn’t happen overnight, It took a while.”
WCW Nitro
Eric Bischoff elaborated further, saying “But most importantly? If you looked at our ratings as a graph over the first year? It would be a slow but steady build up. What we’ve seen with AEW has been a slow but steady deterioration of the audience they seemed to have, pre-COVID. That’s now leveling out at about that 800,000 Mark 850,000 whatever it is.”
Bischoff finished by giving his own take on when AEW could even begin to consider moving their night to compete with a bigger WWE platform than they currently are with NXT on Wednesdays.
“That’s the risk, if the audience isn’t so into your product and you make a move to another night? They may or may not come with you. But if you can demonstrate by growing that audience and watching other indicators like licensing and merchandising and pay per view numbers? If you can say to yourself ‘okay for the last six months we’ve increased viewers by X percent. We’ve increased merchandise sales by X percent.’ When you can start filling in those blanks in, and it indicates an upward trend? Then I would start having a conversation about Monday nights.”
Do you agree with Bischoff? Let us know in the comments
