While promoting the new “Bumblebee” Transformers spin-off movie, John Cena opened up on working with WWE Films and the learning curve that came from the experience.
This was before he was a household name in the WWE and getting into acting full-time. While working with the movie division of the WWE, he starred in The Marine and 12 Rounds.
The former WWE Champion recently spoke with Gorilla Position to talk about various topics and how he had to make some changes to the way he goes about his acting career.
He recalled doing movies with WWE Films, he never looks back on his experiences with regret but rather looks back on them to try to learn from them and how he could make the process go faster because that’s the environment he was familiar with. Cena stated during the time of 2004-2009 was his prime years when things were catching fire, and the place he wanted to be which was in the ring due to it being the place he was most comfortable.
“And I was still trying to learn and define who I was. Went through a character shift from the ruthless aggression guy, to the rap guy, to the non-rap guy, to the superman guy.”
He brought up how that period was such a thriving environment because of the instant gratification. Once he was put on a set and waiting 8 hours for a giant stunt, it makes you understand that the reason he’s in the stunt business and just want to fall down but that’s not the way it works.
Major League Wrestling presents matches from their recent Miami shows tonight on Fusion. Tonight’s main event features an MLW World Championship match pitting champion, Low-Ki, against Konnan.
2 other matches are scheduled for tonight.
MLW Fusion 12/28 Preview
Simon Gotch $20,000 Prize Fight Challenge
Last week on BeIn Sports, Gotch lost in the main event to Tom Lawlor. While Lawlor will shift his focus to his MLW title shot at SuperFight, Gotch will be back in action tonight. Eager to prove he is still a dominant force in MLW, Gotch will bring back his Prize Fight Challenge tonight. He’ll offer someone a $20,000 prize if they can defeat him on tonight’s episode.
Andrew Everett vs Ariel Dominguez
Andrew Everett defeated Dezmond Xavier on last week’s episode. He’ll look to make it two in a row against middleweight competition this week when he takes on Ariel Dominguez, a wrestler trained by Afa the Wild Samoan and Lince Dorado. Dominguez is aligned with Tom Lawlor’s “Team Filthy”.
MLW World Championship
Low-Ki (c) vs Konnan
Salina de la Renta’s Promociones Dorado would love to get Konnan out of MLW. They’ll have that chance tonight when Konnan challenges MLW World Champion, Low-Ki. The current champion has taken out Shane Strickland, and Konnan’s allies, Fenix, and Daga. Tonight, Konnan will have a chance to write the comeback story of the ages. The 54-year-old will attempt to win one last championship in his long and storied career.
Also tonight:
An update on Kotto Brazil, who was assaulted recently at a nightclub.
Tommy Dreamer comments on his match against the Hart Foundation from last week.
Speaking of the Hart Foundation, the faction debuted H2tv recently, a YouTube series following Teddy Hart, Brian Pillman Jr., and Harry Smith/Davey Boy Smith Jr.
MLW recently announced that their middleweight champion, Teddy Hart, has signed a new deal with the promotion.
“I love a good comeback story,” said MLW CEO Court Bauer in a company press release announcing Hart’s signing. “Teddy has lived up to his end and has brought it in every match. He’s hands down one of the most talented wrestlers of his generation and his commitment to MLW has been exceptional so we’re committing to him.”
If you missed it, MLW released a special Christmas Day special on YouTube only featuring previously unaired matches from their Chicago tapings.
The latest details on the start time for the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Wrestle Kingdom 13 event has surfaced. This is considered the biggest event of the year for promotion and it features a stacked card.
This event is slated to air live NJPW World and Fite TV as it goes down on January 4, 2019, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan.
Chris Charlton noted the start time for the show in a recent message on his Twitter account. First up is the pre-show, which starts at 4pm JST/2am EST. The main show will kick off at 3am EST.
If you’re watching Wrestle Kingdom 13 on World: 4pm JST: NEVER gauntlet 4:50pm JST: opening and announcements for big 2019 cards 5pm main card start. Adjust your viewing plans accordingly! #njwk13https://t.co/p83vbz6McO
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori
IWGP United States Champion Cody vs. Juice Robinson
IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny vs. The Young Bucks vs. EVIL and SANADA
RevPro British Heavyweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI and Shingo Takagi
IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Kota Ibushi vs. Will
Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White
Pre-Show
Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano, and Togi Makabe vs. David Finley, Jeff Cobb, and Yuji Nagata vs. Best Friends and Hirooki Goto vs. Killer Elite Squad and Minoru Suzuki vs. Marty Scurll, Adam Page, and Yujiro Takahashi – Gauntlet Match to determine #1 Contenders for NEVER Six-Man Titles
Tuesday’s edition of WWE SmackDown Live from Fresno, CA on the USA Network averaged 1.904 million viewers, down from 2.214 million the previous week, according to ShowbuzzDaily.
The episode was expected to draw poor viewership due to it failing on Christmas night and being pre-taped. Some of the matches that took place include The Usos & The Club vs. Sanity & The Bar, Mustafa Ali vs. Andrade Almas, Jeff Hardy vs. Samoa Joe, and Rusev vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States Title. It also featured an appearance by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon where he was attacked by AJ Styles.
WWE will attempt to rebound with next week’s episode but with this being the New Year’s Day episode, the expectation is that this episode will door poor ratings. It will also be a taped show.
WWE also hyped the Royal Rumble and the matches taking place at that show In case you missed the show, you can check out the 6 takeaways from it here.
Despite WWE putting some together some intriguing segments for the show, this episode faced some solid competition. The show had to go up against the NBA game between Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors on ESPN that pulled in 2.237 million viewers.
Watch: Top 10 Moments from Tuesday’s SmackDown Live (12.25.18)
John Cena wrestled WWE Champion, Daniel Bryan, last night at a WWE house show in Unionville. Cena replaced a sick AJ Styles, who is said to be suffering from some type of cold or flu bug.
The following Twitter user posted some videos of the steel cage match between Bryan and Cena.
Here are the results from last night’s house show in Unionville:
Mustafa Ali defeated The Miz
R-Truth and Carmella defeated Andrade Almas and Zelina Vega
Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson and Shelton Benjamin defeated The Colons and Aiden English
Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated “Sanity” Eric Young and Killian Dain
Rey Mysterio defeated Randy Orton
Smackdown Tag Team Championships
Sheamus and Cesaro defeated The Usos and “New Day” Kofi Kingston and Big E
Jeff Hardy defeated Samoa Joe
WWE Championship Steel Cage
Daniel Bryan (c) defeated John Cena
John Cena To Miss 2019 Royal Rumble
John Cena may be back but he’s not going to be participating on WWE programming much. We reported yesterday that Cena’s upcoming schedule does not include the Royal Rumble:
12/26: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
12/27: Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, NY
12/28: Royals Farms Arena, Baltimore, MD
12/29: PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
12/30: Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL
1/4: Columbus Civic Center, Columbus, GA
1/5: Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, Tallahassee, FL
BJ Whitmer recently left Ring of Honor, a company he had been with for the majority of his career. According to a recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Whitmer is expected to join All Elite Wrestling in 2019.
“Whitmer did a little bit of everything behind the scenes,” Dave Meltzer wrote. “Helping produce matches, was part of the booking team, trained wrestlers, did commentary at times, ran the Gorilla position and at some points was Bernard the Business Bear. He’s expected to be headed to AEW in a similar role.”
BJ Whitmer Leaves Ring of Honor, Expected In All Elite Wrestling
We previously reported that Whitmer left Ring of Honor this month amidst frustrations with the promotion. Whitmer was frustrated when ROH wouldn’t let him accept an invitation to be a guest coach at the WWE Performance Center. Instead, ROH asked him to sign a non-compete agreement after being informed of his invitation to WWE’s developmental facility.
Whitmer is reported to have sent an email to all ROH employees prior to leaving.
“In leaving ROH, I want to say thank you and it’s been a pleasure working with all of you,” Whitmer wrote. “I wish everyone nothing but the best and I’m certain I’ll cross paths with most of you again.”
ICW has announced a top bout for their February Square Go! event. ICW Zero-G Champion and NXT UK Superstar Joe Coffey will be defending against Ilja Dragunov.
This follows the news that Toni Storm has been announced for the same event. ICW are believed to be one of the companies on WWE’s ‘greenlit’ list alongside PROGRESS, OTT and Fight Club: Pro. Whether or not Storm and Coffey appear on the company’s On Demand service remains to be seen. This was reportedly a caveat of the NXT UK contract changes.
The Australian star Toni Storm and Joe Coffey are of course two of the top Superstars from the NXT UK roster, so allowing both to participate and potentially appear on ICW’s On Demand service is a big deal if allowed. Storm would most likely face a fellow NXT UK Superstar at this event, Coffey is facing Dragunov who is a free agent.
ICW recently held their biggest event of the year in Fear & Loathing XI. The card featured some top international names including 205 Live’s Noam Dar, NXT UK’s Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven and James Storm. You can check out the full results for that show here.
DEFIANT Wrestling has announced that PAC will be taking on an international standout in January. PAC will be facing David Starr as part of the tapings for the returned ‘Loaded’ show. Loaded is a free-to-air programme on YouTube that features many of the top talent from the UK independent scene.The show has seen many iterations over the past few years. DEFIANT sent out the following press release for the return back in September:
“Loaded previously ran for 33 episodes between July 2016 and October 2017, amassing over 25 MILLION views on YouTube. Loaded, at that time, ran under the WCPW (What Culture Pro Wrestling) banner, with WCPW since rebranded as Defiant Wrestling in late 2017 following a diversification from the What Culture brand.”
In other PAC news Revolution Pro (Rev Pro) announced that ‘The King’ will be heading to Bethnal Green in February. The company’s ‘High Stakes 2019’ event takes place on February 15th from the world famous York Hall in London. PAC will be facing Will Ospreay as part of the event. Tickets for the show sold out in record time with just the one match being announced.
This comes after Rev Pro announced that PAC would be facing Zack Sabre Jr in 2019. The former WWE Superstar will be heading to ‘Live at The Cockpit’ at The Cockpit Theatre in London on January 6th. PAC recently appeared for Rev Pro at their Portsmouth show, where he faced Mike Bailey.
We noted before how the former WWE Champion AJ Styles missed a SmackDown brand Live Event on December 26th and The Miz and Mustafa Ali replaced Styles in his scheduled bout against Daniel Bryan.
Styles didn’t appear on last night’s Live Event from Uniondale, New York and this time, John Cena replaced the Phenomenal One and wrestled the WWE Champion Daniel Bryan in a steel cage match.
AJ has reportedly been dealing with flu which has caused some other stars to miss events in recent times as well though currently there is no news on how long he will stay out of action.
Zack Ryder On Not Being Used
While his year started with a feud on SmackDown Live, Zack Ryder has not been featured much on WWE Programming since then and he haven’t been part of any match on Raw since being drafted to the show back in April.
The former Intercontinental Champion took on his twitter to comment on this as the year-end approaches and said that he is still here and always ready for a match:
I haven’t had 1 match on Monday Night Raw in 2018 yet. 1 more Raw left…#AlwayzReady#StillHere
So far there is no news of WWE’s announcement of freshening things up affecting Zack’s status but with Royal Rumble approaching it’s possible that we may see him return to TV to announce his entry in coming weeks.
Raw Superstar Bray Wyatt made his in-ring return at Thursday night’s WWE Live Event from Columbus, Ohio. The former member of the Whyatt Family had been off television for most of the past several months. He defeated Baron Corbin in his return bout, with some help from Seth Rollins.m
Bray has been kept off TV since September this year when Matt Hardy took time off to rehab from his injury and effectively broke this team of the former Raw Tag Team Champions.
Prior to yesterday, Bray Wyatt last wrestled at the Starrcade event on November 24th last month which took place in Cincinnati, Ohio. He had faced Baron Corbin at that event as well.
It’s worth mentioning that Starrcade was a special event while last night’s show was just a regular live event so Wyatt’s return at the event is more interesting.
Considering Vince McMahon’s recent announcement of freshening things up on WWE programming it’s possible that the company may be planning an on-screen return for the Wyatt Family leader for the coming weeks.
So it’s possible that this Live Event return might be a preparation for the former Champion’s on-screen comeback.
Though it might still be a one-off deal like Starrcade and we’ll have to see if he wrestles on more shows after this event to know if the company is actually planning to bring him back on TV.
Former WWE Star Chyna is probably the most controversial female star in the history of the company and a possible Hall Of Fame induction for her is one of the most discussed topics among wrestling fans.
While her achievements in the ring provide more than enough reasons to earn her a spot into the prestigious group, the career path she chose after leaving the company puts officials in a tough place to make a decision on the same.
Since yesterday was the birthday of the deceased star, this topic was bound to find its way back into the spotlight and it was none other than her former teammate X Pac who brought it back into the people’s attention.
X Pac, real name Sean Waltman belongs to the group of stars who knew Chyna personally. He remembered the former IC Champion on her birthday via the following tweet, while also hoping that she will be honored the day before WrestleMania this time:
With WWE promoting women’s revolution strongly on their programming, X Pac’s comments about this being the right time to induct Chyna make a lot of sense.
However, the big question is if the company will be able to forget the issues related to her past since moving on from wrestling to be able to finally induct her into the Hall Of Fame this time?
Monday’s edition of WWE RAW from in Sacramento, CA averaged 1.775 million viewers, down from 2.547 million the previous week. It hit a new historic low in viewership. Here is the hourly viewership breakdown, courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
Hour 1: 1.752 million viewers
Hour 2: 1.789 million viewers
Hour 3: 1.784 million viewers
The episode was expected to draw poor viewership due to it failing on Christmas Eve and being pre-taped. Some of the matches that took place include Elias vs. Bobby Lashley in a street fight, WWE RAW Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode & Chad Gable vs. The Revival, Finn Balor vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler, WWE RAW Women’s Champions Ronda Rousey vs. Natalya, and Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin in the main event. Also, Vince McMahon made an appearance dressed as Santa Claus to announce the Women’s Tag Team Titles.
WWE also hyped the Royal Rumble and the matches taking place at that show. WWE will attempt to keep rebound its viewership for RAW next week, which will be tough as it will be taped again and air on New Year’s Eve. In case you missed the show, you can check out the six takeaways here.
The show had to go up against ESPN which was averaging 8,597 million viewers for the Denver Broncos vs. Oakland Raiders game.
Watch: Top 10 Moments from Monday’s RAW (12.24.18)
It was a Christmas Eve special this week on Being the Elite. While much of the episode focussed on the cast’s memories of 2018, Cody also sent out a message regarding where they plan to go in 2019.
“I know a lot of people think what we’re getting ready to do is a big gamble. Some people think it’s very stupid but I’m not filled with false-hope,” Cody said on the episode. “You the fans have given me real hope and that’s what it takes for a revolution.”
In this week’s episode, members of the Elite shared their favorite and least favorite memories from BTE in 2018.
Matt Jackson Watches Scorpio Sky Eat A Candy Cane
Members of the Elite and SCU are enjoying the holidays at the Young Bucks house. Scorpio Sky then announced he was going to make a toast. He said this was the best year of his career and he owes it to everyone there. This led to Matt Jackson slowly walking up to Sky and offering him a candy cane. Jackson has been gifting Sky candy bars for several weeks now on the show. Then Jackson just watched Sky eat the candy cane for several awkward moments.
Hangman Page Shares His Favorite and Least Favorite Moments Of 2018
Adam “Hangman” Page was shown sitting by a Christmas tree. He shared several of his favorite stories from BTE in 2018. He enjoyed the episode where Cody got “the Money Shakes” and also the one where Marty Scurll sang “Complicated” when the rivalry between Kenny Omega and Cody had broken the faction apart.
Marty Scurll Shares His Favorite BTE Episodes
Scurll then shared a few of his most notable ups and downs from Being the Elite this year. He mentioned getting fired from his recording contract as particularly memorable.
Cody On His Favorite And Least Favorite BTE Moments In 2018
Cody is shown smoking a cigar while holding his front door open, seemingly because someone doesn’t want him smoking in the house. He listed his favorite moment from BTE this year as having been when the words “Bullet Club is Fine” were first uttered. Cody said he felt that saying defined the rivalry he was in at the time.
He also mentioned an unaired bit from BTE that was apparently filmed on the Chris Jericho cruise as his low point on BTE This year.
Cody then addressed the Elite’s future in 2019 with the quotes referenced above.
Kazarian Gets His Holiday Bonus
Kazarian was concerned he didn’t get his holiday bonus. Then, Christopher Daniels found a letter addressed to him. When he opened up what was his holiday bonus, however, it was only a one-year subscription to Honor Club.
Kazarian then chugged a Monster Energy drink and said he wished his boss was there so he could tell him off. I’m pretty sure this was from the Christmas Story movie.
Kenny Omega In An Ugly Sweater
Omega shared a message on Christmas Eve from Winnipeg. He calmly spoke of his favorite moments on the show. Omega then asked the fans to comment on their favorite episodes.
The Young Bucks Tease A Big Announcement
The Young Bucks reminded everyone that the next episode is due to be released on New Year’s Eve. It seems as though next week’s episode could be a particularly interesting one. Earlier this week, Matt Jackson posted a countdown clock on Twitter that expires on January 1st.
This past November, former WWE star Enzo Amore stole headlines when he crashed the Survivor Series pay-per-view (PPV) from the Staples Center. Amore purchased a ticket in the front rows of the show and sat there in secret for the first few matches of the night. He later got up on his chair and started to rile up the crowd, causing a scene before event security escorted him out.
Amore had recently released a song about his ex-girlfriend and WWE star Liv Morgan. Many believed it was all a publicity stunt to help promote his new music career. However, it turns out Amore had other motivations for his actions. He recently held an appearance in New York, near WWE’s Madison Square Garden show, and answered some questions. Of course, one of those questions was to explain his reasoning for his Survivor Series fiasco.
The former Cruiserweight Champion revealed that he did it because he knew it would anger Vince McMahon, and wanted to prove he could beat “The Chairman Of The Board” at his own game:
“Why did I do it? It had nothing to do with my music. I’ll tell you why I did it – cause I knew for a fact Vince McMahon would be heated more than anything in the world – but he’d respect the f*ck out of it. That’s why I did it.
“Because it was about one person, and that was it. Because I proved to him that I could beat him at his own game of statistics and numbers, and this that and the other, and I don’t even work for your company. I broke no laws, I bought a ticket.”
Some fans believed that former WWE Champion AJ Styles would emerge as Baron Corbin’s opponent for the WWE’s house show in Madison Square Garden last night. However, that wasn’t the case. The reason for the speculation was because Styles was abruptly removed from SmackDown’s live event the same day in Chicago.
The Chicago crowd was told that Styles would not be appearing due to an illness. He was scheduled to face Daniel Bryan in a Steel Cage match for the WWE Championship. Instead, The Miz and Mustafa Ali were added to the match in Styles’ place. Fans were reportedly very into the bout, which saw Bryan retain his title when it was all said and done.
Styles is still advertised for tonight’s live event in Uniondale, New York, but if he’s still sick, that could change.
WWE Fans Leave Live Event At Intermission (Photo)
Speaking of last night’s SmackDown live event in Chicago, it turns out some fans missed the main event of the night during intermission. Many fans began to leave after Bryan defended his title over Ali and Miz.
They didn’t realize Asuka was main eventing with a title defense against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. WWE did not announce the main event ahead of time, thus the likely reason for the confusion. The following is a fan photo of the Chicago crowd leaving the arena after Bryan’s WWE Title defense:
Professional wrestling fans can’t stop raving about the rise of Becky Lynch in WWE this year. Lynch captured the SmackDown Live Women’s Championship from best-friend-turned rival Charlotte Flair at the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view (PPV) this past October. She was then set for a massive showdown against RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series the following month.
Unfortunately, an injury suffered during the RAW invasion angle forced her off the card. Lynch dropped the SDL Women’s Title earlier this month. She was defeated in a Triple Threat TLC match thanks to some interference from Rousey. Given the current three-way rivalry between Rousey, Flair, and Lynch, WWE could have something massive planned for the feud.
With 2018 coming to a close, it’s hard to spot a more impressive Superstar from the year other than Lynch. She was recently named CBS’ Wrestler Of The Year after an amazing 2018. Along with her Wrestler Of The Year award, Lynch also took home two more. She was awarded Match Of The Year with her involvement in the Triple Threat TLC bout in which she lost her title.
Lynch also received Moment Of The Year for her attack on Ronda Rousey on RAW, before subsequently suffering a concussion and broken nose at the hands of Nia Jax. “The Irish Lass Kicker” recently took to Twitter to react to being named CBS’ Wrestler Of The Year for 2018:
“Start of 2018, I couldn’t even get on TV. You’re never truly down, you’re never truly out. Stand up and fight. Keep swinging even if you don’t know what you’re swinging for, or at. If you’re like me you’ll eventually slap a head that deserves it and the whole world will notice.”
World Association of Wrestling (WAW) announced earlier this year that former Premier League football (soccer) player Grant Holt would be swapping his studded boots for wrestling boots and entering the squared circle for the very first time. Holt made his singles debut against Brad O’Brien on 22nd December.
The 37 year old who previously played for the likes of Aston Villa and Norwich recently finished his career professionally for National League side Barrow. The former football star will be headlining a huge stadium show for WAW at Norwich City’s Carrow Road on June 2nd. Holt recently spoke to the BBC regarding the upcoming show, saying that “The club have been fantastic and embraced it from the first moment I walked through the door. They’ve bent over backwards to help us. I’m trying to get people who loved wrestling back in the day back involved in it. I’m hoping everyone comes to enjoy the show and comes to see me in action back at Carrow Road in a different capacity.”
If WAW are successful in filling the stadium they could be looking at a 6,000 strong house. PROGRESS held an event at Wembley earlier this year that drew 4,750 fans, so this could be the biggest event in the country for well over 30 years.
Before emerging as one of professional wrestling’s top stars, Cody Rhodes was a product of WWE. The son of WWE Hall Of Famer Dusty Rhodes was signed to the company in 2006 and competed in Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVW). Eventually, he’d make his main roster debut in 2007 when he began a brief alliance with Hardcore Holly on Monday Night RAW. For the next decade, Rhodes would spend his career in WWE, learning, evolving, and growing great aspirations within the business.
His time with WWE ended in 2016 when his creative goals simply weren’t in line with what WWE had in mind for him. Instead, Rhodes ventured off to promotions such as Ring Of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), becoming one of the industry’s hottest stars outside the WWE umbrella. He has since captured a pair of World Titles for ROH and NWA, and is currently reigning as the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion.
Now, Rhodes is rumored to be involved with the upstart All Elite Wrestling (AEW) promotion. Over nearly three years away from WWE, it’s amazing to see how much Cody has grown away from the company. Some believe that WWE “squandered” Cody during his time with the professional wrestling juggernaut. He recently addressed this on Twitter, and noted it’s a notion he disagrees with:
“They didn’t squander me at all. It was a great place to learn, travel, and grow-up across TV sets. Helped shape the business side of me forever. I just had different aspirations and saw a different path I wanted to take.”
They didn’t squander me at all. It was a great place to learn, travel, and grow-up across TV sets. Helped shape the business side of me forever. I just had different aspirations and saw a different path I wanted to take.
Becky Lynch lit the WWE on fire in 2018. “The Irish Lass Kicker” emerged as a huge WWE fan favorite back in August when she turned on Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam. While it might not have been what WWE was planning for, they made a star with Lynch’s post-match beatdown of Flair at “The Biggest Party Of The Summer.” Lynch went on to win the SmackDown Live Women’s Title from Flair at the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view (PPV).
This set up a big match between Lynch and RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey at Survivor Series. Unfortunately, Lynch suffered an injury that forced her to miss the card. However, she’s expected to be a big part of the plans for WrestleMania 35’s main event. Lynch recently dropped the SDL Women’s Title to Asuka at the Tables Ladders and Chairs PPV.
She and Charlotte Flair were sabotaged by Ronda Rousey, who interfered in the match by pushing both women off a ladder. This allowed Asuka to climb the ladder and grab the title for herself. The issues between Lynch, Flair, and Rousey could be leading to something big in the future. But with that being said, the Irishwoman has emerged as one of WWE’s biggest stars in 2018. Her stardom has even attracted the attention of UFC mega-star Conor McGregor.
Lynch recently took to Twitter to reflect on her amazing year, and looked ahead at what’s to come in 2019:
“2018: Even the other wrestlers couldn’t take their eyes off me. 2019: I finish this job I started.”
RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey made WWE history last night. WWE held its house show from Madison Square Garden, which featured a stacked card with great match-ups. However, in the main event of the evening, Rousey defended her title against Nia Jax. The bout was the first-ever women’s wrestling match to main event a show at Madison Square Garden.
Rousey has been a huge factor in WWE’s Women’s Evolution and has been reaching milestones in WWE since debuting back in April. Having already accomplished so much in mixed martial arts (MMA), what Rousey has been able to do in sports is nothing short of incredible.
Shortly after the show, Rousey took to Instagram to reflect on making history at MSG. Here’s what she had to say:
“Another day, another glass ceiling shattered. I’m so incredibly honored to share the ring with these amazing women in the first ever WWE women’s main event at @thegarden”
You can check out the full results from WWE’s MSG house show last night here:
John Cena def. Baron Corbin
WWE Intercontinental Title #1 Contendership Battle Royal: Apollo Crews def. Curt Hawkins, Heath Slater, Jinder Mahal, Konnor, No Way Jose, Rhyno, Titus O’Neil, Viktor, and Zack Ryder
Bayley & Sasha Banks def. Alicia Fox & Dana Brooke
Ten Man Tag Team Match: Aleister Black, Matt Riddle, Pete Dunne, Ricochet & The Velveteen Dream def. Johnny Gargano, The Undisputed ERA (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Roderick Strong) & Tommaso Ciampa (w/Bobby Fish)
Guitar On A Pole Match: Elias def. Bobby Lashley (w/Lio Rush)
Ember Moon & Natalya def. The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan & Ruby Riott)
Triple Threat Match: Finn Balor def. Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre
Triple Threat Match: WWE RAW Tag Team Champions Bobby Roode & Chad Gable def. AOP (Akam & Rezar) (w/Drake Maverick) and The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson)
Steel Cage Match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship: Dean Ambrose def. Seth Rollins
WWE RAW Women’s Championship: Ronda Rousey def. Nia Jax (w/Tamina)
Don Callis, Impact Wrestling Executive Vice President, has commented on Impact moving to the Pursuit Channel next month. On the latest episode of his Killing the Town podcast, Callis put a positive spin on Impact leaving Pop TV and dropped some hints about what to expect from the promotion in 2019.
“This week we announced our move from Pop TV, which was a great partner for us,” Callis said. “A lot of fans thought, ‘wow, you guys should be on a different network with a different demographic,’ so we announced we’re moving to Pursuit, which is an exciting thing for me. When you talk about how you deal with your content as a company because our parent company, Anthem, owns not only the Fight Network and Game TV, they also own a significant stake in Pursuit, so it’s a great strategic move for us.”
With a new television home comes yet another adjustment to Impact’s approach to producing content. The Pursuit Channel caters to an audience that is interested in hunting, fishing and the outdoors. With that backdrop, Callis says the product will be “sexier” and edgier.
“I think people are gonna love to see a sexier, edgier, maybe a little more hardcore Impact Wrestling. I’m really really pumped about that, so I’m pretty excited.”
The parties behind the All Elite Wrestling upstart promotion have reportedly turned down an offer to purchase Impact Wrestling, according to the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter. “It is not a secret that there were forces attempting to sell Impact to AEW a few months ago,” wrote Dave Meltzer. “But that proposal was turned down.”
We’ve reached out to Impact Wrestling for their comment on the matter.
Impact Moving to Pursuit Channel
Impact Wrestling recently announced they will be moving to the Pursuit channel in 2019. Anthem owns a minority stake in the channel as well. The promotion will debut on their new channel on Friday, January 11th, 2019 at 10 PM. Once WWE Smackdown moves to Fox Sports in October, Impact’s new timeslot would air right after it.
One possible outcome of the switch to the Pursuit channel is the potential for edgier content. This was addressed in a recent company press release.
“With IMPACT Wrestling coming off a tremendous year of audience growth globally and positive fan engagement,” an Impact press release reads. “We look forward to leveraging our respective resources to bring fans more of the wrestling content they want to see: tougher, edgier action.”
The latest on the current plans for the top match at WrestleMania 35 has surfaced online. According to Dave Meltzer, he reported in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey is slated to take on Becky Lynch.
This is the plan as of this week and a decision regarding if it will serve as the main event won’t likely be decided until the show gets closer. There’s always a chance that this will be turned into a Triple Threat match to include Charlotte Flair.
Also, the original plan was not for Rousey to be in the main event but rather was saved for Roman Reigns who was going to get the headliner role on the show but that changed when he got his leukemia diagnosis. The belief is that his opponent at Mania would have been Dean Ambrose. Also, having Ambrose turn heel would have probably been on Reigns and not Seth Rollins.
The opponent for Rousey at this show has gone through some changes over the last few months. At one point, Natalya was supposed to face Rousey at Mania but that got scrapped once Jim Neidhart died and Vince didn’t want to turn Natalya heel on Rousey any time soon.
Then it was switched to Flair vs. Rousey for the RAW Women’s Championship as the headliner but those plans changed once Lynch got mega over with the fans.
Moving along, WWE had to nix plans for Lynch to face Rousey at this year’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event in Los Angeles, California once Lynch suffered a broken nose and concussion during the RAW invasion angle. Instead, Rousey faced Flair at the show. Thus, the reason they want Rousey vs. Lynch at Mania.
WrestleMania 35 is scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 7, 2019, in East Rutherford, NJ at MetLife Stadium. This event airs on pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network.
A new match has been added to the first-ever WWE NXT UK TakeOver special. NXT UK Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley will be defending her title against Toni Storm at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool. WWE made the match announcement during this week’s episode of the television show.
NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool goes down on Saturday, January 12 at the Empress Ballroom and will air on their streaming service, the WWE Network. In the headliner, WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne will defend his title against Joe Coffey.
WWE has also announced that they’ll be holding post-TakeOver TV tapings at the Empress Ballroom on Sunday, January 13, 2019. WWE will likely be announcing more matches in the coming weeks. Here’s the updated card:
WWE NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool Card
NXT UK Champion Pete Dunne vs. Joe Coffey
NXT UK Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Toni Storm
Vacant NXT UK Tag Team Title Match: Zack Gibson and James Drake vs. Moustache Mountain
Eddie Dennis vs. Dave Mastiff – No DQ Match
What are your thoughts on this match being added to the card? Is this the right opponent for Ripley at this show? Sound off in the comment section.
UK independent promotion Fight Club: Pro will be heading to Japan in January for their Project Tokyo event. The company announced earlier this year that they would be debuting in Korakuen Hall. The show takes place on January 7th with a huge card of international stars.
205 Live Superstar Akira Tozawa had previously been announced for the event. Fight Club: Pro is owned by NXT UK Superstar Trent Seven. Seven was originally confirmed for this card but was recently pulled. Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne were also pulled from the event.
Tozawa’s opponents for the show have now been named. The team of Kid Lykos and Chris Brookes (CCK) will be taking on Tozawa and Japanese legend Meiko Satomura.
There had been speculation that FCP was part of the ‘greenlit’ promotions for NXT UK talent. The cancellation of British Strong Style’s involvement seemed to change this but with Tozawa on board as a potential ‘make good’ for the Japanese fans who really knows at this point. NXT UK will be holding a taping within 7 days of this event, that is why British Strong Style were reportedly pulled.
?PROJECT TOKYO?
Capping off our first event in Japan we have two very special matches.
