The former Ring of Honor star Donovan Dijak is going to make his debut on WWE NXT under a new ring name: Dominik Dijakovic.
WWE had signed Donovan last year in September where he made a few appearances in NXT under the name Chris Dijak, where he was mostly used as an enhancement talent.
WWE aired a vignette on the 28 November edition of NXT introducing Chris Dijak as Dominik Dijak and on the vignette aired this week WWE has revealed that he would be making his debut on the very next episode.
The 270 pounder was a force to be reckoned with in ROH where he went on to win the Top Prospect Tournament in 2015. If you want to see his performance in the WWE, just check out this clip of his televised match on NXT with Ricochet:
Not only is his agility impressive for his 6 ft 7 in height and size, he is pretty athletic as his moonsault showed. The point is, he has a lot of potential and it looks like WWE wants to give him a chance with this new character.
While some people criticized WWE’s decision, most agree that the night Roman Reigns relinquished the Universal Championship was the best night to turn Dean Ambrose heel.
During his recent interview with Rock 105.3 in San Diego prior to this week’s Raw, Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins talked about a number of things and also discussed his Shield Brother turning on him.
Rollins said that it’s very unfortunate because of the real-life situation with Roman Reigns, but at the end of the day he understands why Dean Ambrose did what he did on that night.
According to The IC Champion, there was no if or but and they knew that Reigns was going to be gone. So if you were going to strike out on your own then he understands doing it on that night.
Seth explained his comments saying that you would want to make the biggest impact you can. If you are going with the story that the Shield has made you weak, then that’s the best time to do it, because you’d have the most eyes on you that night.
Later the Architect also discussed his WrestleMania 33 match with Triple H and his Night Of Champions bout against the Icon Sting in 2015.
Seth Rollins is currently scheduled to defend his Intercontinental Championship in a TLC match against Dean Ambrose this Sunday. You can check out his full interview in the video below:
Many consider Seth Rollins to be the current workhorse for WWE’s Raw brand, and it appears that one such vocal supporter is none other than Good Ol’ JR.
Speaking recently on his podcast, The Ross Report, the WWE Hall Of Famer discussed the current WWE Intercontinental Champion and his journey back into the main event. He shares that he believes Rollins deserves a major push that would firmly establish him as Raw’s top babyface superstar.
Given WWE’s current roster imbalance of top heel vs top babyface, segueing Rollins into the top of the main event scene against a horde of heels might solve the babyface crisis, if only temporarily as Braun Strowman and Roman Reigns remain unable to compete at this point in time.
“Seth Rollins is a great wrestler, and when the company makes a firm commitment to get behind him at every turn of the road so that they got their next Cena on site, then we’ll see Seth continue to go up the ladder and finally reside in that promise land of legitimate WrestleMania level year-in year-out main eventers,” Ross said.
“That’s a whole team effort as I said earlier. I don’t feel the commitment that Rollins is our next guy,” he declared. “Are they just waiting for Roman Reigns to come back after he’s kicked leukemia’s ass? Are they just waiting for Braun Strowman to get back into the picture? I think the thing to do is give the guy the chance to be the guy.”
What do you think of this? Is Rollins the right guy to step into that major babyface role? If not him, who?
As we gear up towards The Road To Wrestlemania, rumors of what will be eventually hosted at WWE’s mega show are invariably going to begin circulating.
One such rumor revolves around a projected match between Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson squaring up against Roman Reigns.
The supposed plan was to have The Rock enter and win the 2019 Royal Rumble. The Brahma Bull would then challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at Wrestlemania 35 in New Jersey. These plans, however, were reportedly scuppered once Reigns sadly announced his renewed battle with leukemia.
According to Dave Meltzer, that report was completely unsubstantiated. He proceeded to shut it down on the F4WOnline Message Board. When asked about these apparent plans, Meltzer admitted that it sounded false, claiming that it “[…] didn’t sound believable.” After checking with a source, he confirmed that “[This rumor is] Not true at all.”
The Rock hasn’t performed in a main event capacity for the company since his feud with John Cena in 2013. This would culminate in a showdown between the two at Wrestlemania 29 where Cena would win back the WWE Championship.
He did, however, have a minor role at Wrestlemania 32, setting a Wrestlemania record for the fastest victory in ‘Mania history, pinning Erick Rowan in an impromptu match in only six seconds.
Would you have liked to have seen this match go down? Who do you think would have won, if it had?
While Mustafa Ali wasn’t able to win his match against Daniel Bryan on the latest episode of SmackDown Live, his debut on the Brand was by no means a failure.
Ali won a lot of hearts with just one match against the WWE Champion and as we noted before, a number of stars praised his performance on the show this past Tuesday.
Now Mustafa has also reflected on his debut against Bryan via the following tweet, recalling how he has gone from being an alternate for Cruiserweight Classic to competing against one of the greatest:
So far there is no word yet on if Mustafa Ali was brought in to the Blue Branded Show just for one night or if he will be wrestling there frequently.
Though seeing how WWE has been using some other 205 Live Stars like Lio Rush on Raw, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Ali ends up being a regular on the show.
Mustafa started his wrestling career in 2003 and wrestled for a number of indie companies for more than a decade. He found his way into the spotlight in 2016 when Brazilian wrestler Zumbi was unable to compete in CWC and Ali was brought in by WWE as his replacement.
John Cena hasn’t been on a full-time WWE schedule in the past few years, and he has been spending less and less time in the ring as every year passes by.
During a recent interview with ESPN, John talked about his acting career and explained why he can’t wrestle while being an active part of a movie project.
Cena first discussed his reduced WWE schedule in recent years and claimed that even before he found out about his passion for being on the screen, he had made himself the promise that he will walk away when he can’t keep up with the pace.
Continuing on the topic, he said that he doesn’t want to take a ticket buyer’s money and have them sit down thinking that he is not good enough in his craft anymore.
Explaining the reason why he can’t do WWE and movies at the same time, The Leader of Cenation said that the biggest difficulty he has is trying to juggle stuff.
While he is trying to fight the system, he has learned that he is losing because once you are in production for a movie, they don’t allow you to wrestle.
The 16 Time World Champion detailed his comment further saying that he can’t go to a WWE taping, get his nose over and then go back to the shooting. It will force them to shut down the whole movie, affecting a good number of people involved with the project.
Even if the shooting continues, such incident will increase the insurance cost and as a result, the whole budget of the movie significantly, putting it behind an eight ball of possibly being a financial success.
Apart from this, Cena also talked about his feud with the Rock and how he was wrong to target Dwayne for not being an active performer. You can check out his full interview in the video below:
WWE has been experimenting with their PPV schedule in the past couple of years and with 2019 approaching, fans wondered how the company’s PPV line up will look like in the upcoming year.
While we still don’t know how many special events the company plans to hold throughout the year, thanks to an update we now have an idea about their plans for the road to WrestleMania.
Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland revealed recently that they will be holding the Fastlane PPV on March 10th, confirming that there will be 2 PPVs between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania:
Mark your calendars!
WWE Fastlane is coming to Cleveland & The Q on Sunday, March 10th. The Q Insider Presale starts TODAY at 10AM ? pic.twitter.com/tTz2qQoWuY
After the confirmation, here is the updated WWE PPV schedule for the first quarter of 2019, leading to the Biggest Wrestling Event of the year:
Royal Rumble, Jan. 27 at Chase Field in Phoenix
Elimination Chamber, Feb. 17 at Toyota Center in Houston
Fastlane, Mar. 10 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland
WrestleMania 35, April 7 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey
This will be the fifth annual Fastlane PPV. While it doesn’t bear the same excitement as Royal Rumble, Fastlane usually revolves one or two major WrestleMania angles every year and it’s only after this PPV that we get a clear idea of the company’s plans for the event.
ROH Star Christopher Daniels recently sat down with CageSideSeats and he discussed a number of things during his interview, like maintaining his performance at the age of 48 and more.
When asked about the recent report on his future which stated that Christopher hasn’t signed a new contract offered to him by ROH yet, the former World Champion said that they are just deciding what’s best for them:
“It’s just a situation where we’re (him and fellow SCU member Frankie Kazarian) deciding what the best avenue is for us. It’s not a matter of disappointment with Ring of Honor at all. It’s just a matter of the end of our contract is coming up and we’re trying to see what’s best for our families. So, I’m sure we’ll make a decision soon and figure it all out. But at this point, nothing is set in stone.”
Later in the interview, Daniels was also asked about the elephant in the room – what the future holds for the members of the Elite and he said that he can’t go into a lot of details.
Continuing on the topic, the ROH Star explained his comments by saying that he doesn’t know what they are going to do as the group is ‘playing their cards close to the vest’.
Where do you expect to see Christopher Daniels in 2019? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
EC3 & Heavy Machinery Sent A Message To Undisputed Era
Bobby Fish squared off against EC3 tonight on NXT. Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong accompanied Fish to the ring. Cole cut a promo before the match and claimed that Bobby Fish was about to embarrass EC3. Cole added that NXT is Undisputed Era’s world and everything revolves around them. Adam promised that the four members of Undisputed Era will be draped in championship gold in 2019.
Fish rolled out of the ring to start off the match and took his time getting back inside. Fish hopped up onto the ring apron and EC3 brought him into the ring with a Hip Toss. EC3 planted Fish with a massive Powerbomb and then followed it up by Clotheslining Bobby to the outside.
The crowd chanted “NX3!” as Fish tried to regroup on the floor outside the ring. Back in the ring, EC3 connected with a couple of loud chops and then another Hip Toss. Strong and O’Reilly hopped on the ring apron for a distraction and Fish capitalized with a chop block to EC3’s injured knee.
Fish connected with an Exploder Suplex and went for the cover but EC3 kicked out at the last moment. EC3 battled back with a Suplex and both Superstars crashed to the canvas. EC3 sent Fish to the ropes and Bobby’s neck bounced off the top rope. Strong and O’Reilly once again distracted EC3 and Fish capitalized with another chop block. EC3 shrugged it off and rolled up Fish for the pinfall victory.
After the match, Undisputed Era attacked EC3 and Heavy Machinery ran down to the ring for the save. Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight cleaned house and isolated O’Reilly in the ring. EC3 hit O’Reilly with the One Percenter. Otis did the worm across the ring and hit O’Reilly with a giant Elbow Drop.
The Mighty (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne) battled Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch on this week’s show. Lorcan and Burch defeated The Mighty two weeks ago but Miller and Thorne attacked them from behind following the match.
Burch and Lorcan started off the match in control. Lorcan hit Thorne with a couple of uppercuts and then a Powerbomb. Thorne battled back with a Belly to Back Suplex and tagged Miller into the match. Miller hit a Spinebuster and went for the cover but Lorcan kicked out at two.
Burch tagged in and connected with a Dropkick off the top rope. Lorcan tagged in as Burch and then turned around into a Clothesline from Thorne. The Mighty hit Lorcan with a Superplex/ Powerbomb and went for the cover but Burch broke it up at two.
Miller planted Lorcan with a Powerslam and then Thorne hit Burch with a Cannonball in the corner of the ring. Lorcan hit The Mighty with a double DDT and tagged Burch back in. Lorcan and Burch connected with a DDT to Thorne for the pinfall victory.
Mia Yim Earned A Spot In The #1 Contender Fatal 4-Way Match
Reina Gonzalez and Mia Yim battled to earn a spot in the Fatal 4-Way #1 Contenders match. Gonzalez controlled the match early and hit a big boot to the face for a two count. Reina lifted Yim up in the Torture Rack but Mia broke free with a couple elbows to the face. Mia followed it up with a flurry of chops and then the Eat Defeat for the pinfall victory. Yim now joins Bianca Belair and Lacey Evans in the Fatal 4-Way match.
Ricochet Retained The North American Championship Against Tyler Breeze
Ricochet defended his NXT North American Championship against in a mystery opponent in the main event of this week’s NXT. Tyler Breeze was revealed to be the opponent and he got a great reaction from the crowd.
Breeze and Ricochet locked up to start off the match. Tyler shoved Ricochet away and took a break to pose in the corner of the ring. Ricochet responded with a Dropkick that sent Breeze out of the ring.
Tyler got back into the ring and connected with a boot to Ricochet’s midsection. Ricochet Clotheslined Breeze out of the ring and went for a Crossbody off the ring apron but Tyler countered with a Dropkick.
Breeze brought Ricochet back inside the ring and stopped on him in the corner. The referee broke it up as Breeze shouted: “don’t touch me!”. Breeze perched Ricochet up on the top rope and joined him up there.
Ricochet hit Tyler with a punch to the and followed it up with a Dropkick. Ricochet hit an awesome springboard uppercut and then a standing Shooting Star Press for a near fall. Breeze and Ricochet traded shots and then both hit a Crossbody on each other at the same time.
Breeze hit the Supermodel Kick and then a reverse Hurricanrana for a two count as the crowd chanted “this is gorgeous!”. Breeze hit a knee to Ricochet’s face and then an Enziguri but Ricochet wouldn’t go down. Ricochet then lifted Breeze up in a Fireman’s Carry and connected with a Michinoku Drive for the pinfall victory. After the match, Ricochet and Breeze shook hands in the middle of the ring.
Announced for next week’s show:
Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir vs. Io Shirai & Dakota Kai
WWE Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins has responded to fans who have voiced their criticism about the current product that is being showcased on both Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live.
It all started once former WWE creative writer Jimmy Jacobs fired out a few tweets defending the company, which we covered and you can see here.
Now, Rollins has chimed in on this situation when he wrote, “That’s the one thing I don’t think people understand. 5 hours of live TV every week. EVERY WEEK. Add in all the extraneous variables that affect the final outcome….and it’s a modern miracle that the shows come together as well as they do.”
That’s the one thing I don’t think people understand. 5 hours of live TV every week. EVERY WEEK. Add in all the extraneous variables that affect the final outcome….and it’s a modern miracle that the shows come together as well as they do.
Jacobs also continued to talk about the topic when he sent out the following messages:
“This is the most common response I’ve gotten. While as a fan, I agree, the bottom line says differently. WWE gets paid way more to have 3 hours of RAW than for 2. So that seems to be off the table.”
“I know very little & what I do know is bounded on all sides by infinite ignorance. I can only speak to my experiences. In those experiences I’ve found writing a wrestling tv show isn’t an easy task. Thanks to all that engaged in meaningful dialogue with me! I love the passion!”
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch got fans talking over a recent tweet that she sent out towards WWE color commentator Corey Graves, who calls both Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live.
Lynch is preparing to make her next title defense against Charlotte Flair and Asuka in the first-ever TLC Match at the TLC pay-per-view event on Sunday, December 16th, 2018 in San Jose, California at the SAP Center that will air on the WWE Network.
This is the latest step in her career under the WWE banner as she continues to be one of the biggest stars that the WWE has right now not only on SmackDown Live but on the entire roster.
On Wednesday afternoon, Lynch decided to have some fun at the expense of Graves when she mocked him in a tweet that appeared to be random. She wrote, “So Graves has been saying I’m too cocky, and I talk too much on social media – like that’s a bad thing. I drum up more interest in 1 tweet than you do with 5 hours of your Heenan-lite routine every week. Listen, I’m here to make history, you’re just here to observe me do it.”
This is when Graves responded to her message by writing, “I’ll admit it. It’s tough to go FULL-Heenan when the boss is actually paying attention to your work. You’ll realize that someday.”
I’ll admit it. It’s tough to go FULL-Heenan when the boss is actually paying attention to your work. You’ll realize that someday. ????@BeckyLynchWWEhttps://t.co/8nyd5BzkB5
On Wednesday afternoon, the WWE unveiled the design for the NXT UK Tag Team Championships. This was during the latest episode of the TV series on WWE’s streaming service, WWE Network, by Triple H, NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint and Saint’s new assistant, Sid Scala. You can check out the video of the design of the titles here:
WWE will hold the finals of the NXT UK Tag Team Tournament at the first-ever special for the brand, NXT UK “Takeover: Blackpool. Moustache Mountain and Grizzled Young Veterans will battle it out in order to crown the inaugural champions.
Other teams in the NXT UK tag team division include Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven and Tyler Bate), Gallus (Wolfgang and The Coffey Brothers), Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson and James Drake), Kenny Williams and Amir Jordan, Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews.
NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool goes down on Saturday, January 12 at the Empress Ballroom and will air on their streaming service, the WWE Network. The company will be announcing matches for this show in the coming weeks.
WWE has also announced that they’ll be holding post-TakeOver TV tapings at the Empress Ballroom on Sunday, January 13, 2019.
Tuesday’s edition of WWE SmackDown Live from Las Vegas, NV at the T-Mobile Arena on the USA Network averaged 1.977 million viewers, up from 1.948 million the previous week that was the second-lowest audience since the blue brand moved to Tuesday nights, according to ShowbuzzDaily. This was the go-home show for Sunday’s TLC pay-per-view event. SmackDown had some notable moments including Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali, Shane McMahon & The Miz vs. The Vegas Boys, Jeff Hardy & Rusev vs. Samoa Joe & Shinsuke Nakamura, and Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair in the main event.
WWE hyped the upcoming TLC PPV and the matches taking place at that show. In case you missed the show, you can check out the results 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 was Hannity Rachel Maddow Show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Last Word, The Five, The Ingraham Angle, Special Report and The Story. WWE will attempt to bounce back starting with next week’s episode. Watch: Top 10 Moments from Tuesday’s SmackDown Live (12.11.18)
What are your thoughts on this show? Did you watch or skip it? Sound off in the comment section.
Former WWE creative writer Jimmy Jacobs has come to the defense of the company over the criticism from fans about their product and the current state of Monday Night RAW.
Over the last few weeks, fans have voiced their take about how WWE is booking their programs. Every year in the Winter time, it’s known as a dead period for the company as they get through the Holidays and gear up for the road to WrestleMania.
However, the last two episodes of RAW have been heavily criticized by fans and it has shown up in its ratings. In fact, Monday’s edition of RAW averaged 2.193 million viewers, down from 2.285 million the previous week. As a result, this episode marks the worst viewership of all-time since records began.
Jacobs recently defended WWE from criticism when he wrote the following on his official Twitter account:
“Writing a 3 hour wrestling tv show every single week is fuckin hard.”
Jacobs followed up with a second tweet when he wrote, “Everybody is allowed to their opinion. I take zero offense to it. But one of the 1st things I learned writing is that it’s easy to point out the problems. The job is to come up with solutions.”
Former WWE star Fred Rosser (better known a Darren Young) has been keeping busy since his WWE release in 2017. Young has been doing a lot of speaking engagements this year, which has cut into his professional wrestling career a bit. However, he’s hoping to turn all that around with 2019 right around the corner.
Young was recently interviewed by “The Roman Show” to talk about several professional wrestling topics. During their conversation, Young expressed interest in working for various promotions in 2019. He named Ring Of Honor (ROH) specifically, as well as expressing interest in working around Japan too:
“2019 for me is going to be a big year. 2018, I spent a lot of time doing speaking engagements, very little wrestling, but 2019 is going to be a big year for me. Hopefully [I will wrestle in] Japan, and hopefully [Ring of Honor].”
Back in 2005 Young signed a developmental deal with WWE and competed in their Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) territory, before it became known as NXT. In 2010 he made his main roster debut as a member of the Nexus. He’d briefly return to NXT in 2011 and eventually formed the “Prime Time Players” alongside Titus O’Neil.
In 2014 Young began a singles career, which included a run with WWE Hall Of Famer Bob Backlund as his manager for a brief period of time. Young was released from his WWE deal in October of 2017. It will be interesting to see how his career progresses working the indy scene, and potentially getting booked for promotions such as New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) or ROH.
Check out Young’s interview on “The Roman Show” below:
What do you think about Young wanting to work for ROH in 2019?
Current NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa continues to make a case for being the best heel in wrestling. Ciampa’s social media is one of the most entertaining to follow on WWE’s roster. He continuously stirs up controversy by engaging with fans, fellow Superstars, and even blocking company Twitter pages.
Recently, NXT’s Twitter account issued out a post asking fans who poses a bigger threat to Aleister Black – Johnny Gargano or Ciampa. Ciampa took issue with how the question was presented and voiced his frustration on Twitter:
“Umm…I’m The Champ…what the hell does Aleister Black have that I want? Fairly certain the question should be rephrased: Who poses a bigger threat to The Champ? Answer: Neither. The Champ already beat both.”
Ciampa is currently scheduled to defend his NXT Title against Black at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix. The show goes down on Saturday, January 26, 2019, from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. It will stream live on the WWE Network and more matches for the card are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
Next week on NXT, Black is actually set to face Gargano in a Steel Cage match. Black hopes to settle his issues with Gargano once and for all before focusing his full attention to Ciampa and reclaiming the NXT Title.
What do you think about Ciampa’s response to WWE’s post?
Last night’s episode of SmackDown Live went down from Las Vegas, Nevada, and was the go-home show before this weekend’s Tables Ladders and Chairs (TLC) pay-per-view (PPV). In the main event of the night, Charlotte Flair and Asuka went one-on-one in a preview of what’s to come this weekend. They’ll be involved in the first-ever female TLC match. Asuka, Flair, and Becky Lynch will compete in a Triple Threat TLC bout for the SDL Women’s Title.
After SDL, WWE held its tapings of the second season of its Mixed Match Challenge tournament. This saw the teams of Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox, and R-Truth and Carmella punch their tickets to the tournament finals. The finals will also take place at this weekend’s TLC PPV in San Jose, California. The winners will earn the 30th entry spots in the men and women’s Royal Rumble matches this year.
Finally, after the conclusion of the SDL and MMC tapings, WWE held a dark match to send fans home happy. Rey Mysterio defeated Randy Orton after hitting a 619 and splash off the top rope. Mysterio and Orton will face off in a Chairs match at TLC this weekend as well. Check out a video from their dark match here below:
The WWE Network will air 205 Live and NXT in primetime tonight. The cruiserweight division gets going at 7 PM featuring matches taped yesterday in Las Vegas. NXT was filmed in Full Sail University on November 28th.
NXT 12/12 Preview
Ricochet Defends North American Title Against Mystery Opponent
Ricochet told NXT GM, William Regal, he wants to defend his North American title the next time he was in Full Sail and that’s exactly what will happen tonight. Regal has yet to announce to Ricochet or the NXT Universe who Ricochet’s opponent tonight will be, however.
EC3 vs Bobby Fish
When Bobby Fish returned to action in late October, he took a chair to EC3 and put him out of action for several weeks. Now EC3 has a chance for revenge against Fish but he should probably be looking over his shoulder for the other members of the Undisputed Era.
Aleister Black vs Johnny Gargano Segment
Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano will go one-on-one inside a steel cage next week. This week, the two will build towards the match with a segment. Tommaso Ciampa might be watching this part of the show closely.
Mia Yim vs Reina Gonzalez
The winner of this match will punch their ticket to a 4-way match to determine a #1 contender for Shayna Baszler’s title. Lacey Evans and Bianca Belair have already been confirmed for the match.
Danny Buch & Oney Lorcan vs The Mighty
Burch and Lorcan came out the victors in their last tilt with the Mighty. The Australian tag-team then attacked them after the bell, however, leading to tonight’s rematch.
205 Live 12/12 Preview
Cedric Alexander vs Tony Nese
Before he challenges Buddy Murphy in an attempt to regain the Cruiserweight Championship at TLC, Alexander will take on the champion’s training partner, Tony Nese, tonight.
Buddy Murphy vs Noam Dar
The champion will also be in action tonight. Before he defends his title against the former champion on Sunday, Buddy Murphy will take on Noam Dar tonight.
Ring of Honor star Bully Ray is widely regarded as one of the greatest tag team wrestlers in history. As part of the legendary Dudley Boyz tag team, he and (current WWE producer) Devon would hold tag team gold in virtually every major league promotion across the world.
The former Bubba Ray Dudley rebranded himself as Bully Ray back in 2010 when he was wrestling for Impact Wrestling (formerly TNA). During his reign as Impact World Champion, many fans wondered how that character would fare on the big stage in WWE. When the Dudley Boyz returned to WWE in 2015, he reprised Bubba Ray Dudley for one last run.
Responding to a fan on Twitter, Bully Ray revealed that he was “real close, 48-hours-away-close” to portraying the Bully Ray character in WWE back in August 2016.
“As I’ve stated in the past, we came close…real close…48hrs away close. It was suppose to happen on the night we said goodbye on Raw. Oh well…their loss. And I am having a blast destroying young boys @ringofhonor”
Although we never got to see Bully Ray unleashed on the WWE roster, he’s still doing must-see work in Ring of Honor all these years later. Bully Ray challenges Flip Gordon in an “I Quit” match this Friday night at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle pay-per-view, the promotion’s biggest show of the year.
Bully Ray co-hosts Busted Open Radio, which airs weekday mornings on SiriusXM Channel 93.
As we reported earlier, Dakota Kai suffered an injury during a match at a recent NXT live event in Green Bay on Friday, 7 December. Details were not available at the time but now the Wrestling Observer has provided some information on the incident.
Kai was a part of a six-woman tag team match where she teamed up with Kairi Sane and Candice LeRae against the trio of NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke, and Marina Shafir.
The referee threw up the X symbol when Kai suffered the injury. She was limping and had to be helped to the backstage by trainers.
Dave Meltzer revealed that Kai went through an MRI scan and while not confirmed by doctors yet, it is being said that she is suffering from a torn ACL.
A torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) would mean that we can expect Kai to be out of action for six months to ten months.
Nothing has been confirmed officially by WWE or Dakota Kai herself so we’ll just keep our fingers crossed and update as more news comes out.
Kenny Omega who was nominated for the Favorite Celebrity Gamer (Athlete) category for the 2018 Gamers’ Choice Award recently spoke with Geek.com where he discussed video-gaming and revealed which games have given him inspiration.
Speaking about video game heroes, Kenny named characters from Smash Bros.! like Kirby, Ness, Luigi, Mega Man, Zack Fair, and (maybe) Sans.
Kenny Omega revealed that Street Fighter has been a very big inspiration for him. But it’s not just limited to fighting games, as he takes inspiration from different types of games like the action horror Resident Evil.
“For wrestling, I had some obvious Street Fighter ties. Most of them might be from Street Fighter, actually. Hmm, but there are actually a few moves based off of Mother as well. I take inspiration from all sorts of games though –Resident Evil for example. Even though it’s a horror game, I’ve found inspiration in Albert Wesker’s character. Persona and Chrono Trigger too. I tend to try to draw inspiration from games that are timeless, so that way when I apply it to matches they may (hopefully/luckily) end up that way too.”
The IWGP Heavyweight Champion named Undertale and Monster Hunter World as his favorite games. While on the topic, he also shared his thoughts on the stigma attached with gaming and what advice he has for people who look up to him.
“Once you focus on your dreams, really home in on your goal, the negativity around you just becomes faint background noise. The journey may be lonely at first, but you’ll meet new friends with the same motivations and the world of ridicule and doubt that you came from won’t even exist anymore.”
While it doesn’t look very likely in near future, there is always a chance that Chris Jericho will return to WWE for another run, but even if he does so, we won’t be seeing ‘the list of Jericho’ anymore.
Jericho recently had an interview with Impact Backstage Interviewer Alicia Atout where he discussed a number of things including his cruise and more.
While discussing a potential WWE return, Chris claimed that he hates to say it but even if he returns to the company in future, there won’t be a list.
Explaining the reason behind it, Y2J said that the gimmick doesn’t feel right anymore. You have to reinvent yourself so for him to walk out there and put someone on the list again will make people feel like it’s 2016.
Continuing on the topic, Chris said that while it was a huge thing and he knows that people want to see it, he can’t allow himself not to be creative and that’s why he loves working with New Japan.
Apart from this, Chris Jericho also discussed the evolution of his character in NJPW, the one time his attempt at evolving his character fell flat and more. You can check out his interview in the video below:
This week’s episode of SmackDown Live saw the brand debut of Mustafa Ali in a bout against Daniel Bryan. This match had become a dream match for many after seeing Ali performing on 205 Live in last few months. While Mustafa was not able to win this bout, his debut performance was still praised by not only the fans who have been following him but various WWE superstars as well.
Reacts to Mustafa Ali’s SmackDown Debut
Below is a photo Jack Gallagher posted where a number of 205 Live Stars are seen watching Ali’s debut on the Blue Brand and some other tweets from various WWE Stars on his arrival:
Correction: Earlier this week, Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks posted a photo on Instagram hyping their upcoming match at WrestleKingdom 13 against the Guerrillas of Destiny and EVIL & SANADA. The caption included the line, “Try to enjoy us while we’re still here. We don’t have much time left!” Our original article stated that Jackson was referring to the Bucks’ time in New Japan. This was an error on our part – Jackson clarified on Twitter that he was referring to their careers, not just their run in NJPW. We have edited the article to reflect this sentiment and apologize to the Young Bucks and our readers for the misinterpretation.
Didn’t mean that at all. I was actually referring to our careers.
The Young Bucks were recently added to the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match at the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 13 event. This decision from NJPW management caused some backlash from fans.
The match was originally expected to be between the champs and Bullet Club Members Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa and World Tag League winners EVIL & SANADA.
Since the Bucks did not participate in the World Tag League, a lot of people showed their frustration on this decision online, calling their inclusion to the bout unfair.
Nick Jackson responded to this backlash from his Instagram account recently and he explained that their inclusion in the match was not their decision. He also advised fans to enjoy while they are still here cause they don’t have much time left:
The Young Bucks still haven’t confirmed what the future holds for them after Wrestle Kingdom. The Elite has vowed to stick together in 2019. Cody recently revealed that he declined an offer by WWE, a strong indication that the Bucks are not WWE bound either. Stay tuned.
Prior to this week’s SmackDown Live Naomi and Mandy Rose had been exchanging words on Twitter and Paige had announced that these two will compete against each other on the Blue Branded Show.
However, this bout was not featured on the show despite being officially announced and it left a lot of people wondering why the company decided to remove it.
While the real reason behind it has not been revealed yet, it appears that this decision was made very late as Naomi was still talking about the bout as late as 8:23 pm ET:
She finally acknowledged her match being cut after the show was over and Mandy Rose also responded to her announced opponent claiming that she had a photoshoot:
I’m not sure if my match got cut or if @WWE_MandyRose just didn’t show regardless I’m over it I’ll let the fans handle this 1 for me #sdlive ??
The real truth is that I was too busy to wait around and had a photoshoot, something @NaomiWWE doesn’t know anything about. You should be glad bc I was going to embarrass you tonight SIS! #Priorities ? #SDLivepic.twitter.com/abPbXIc5M7
For what it’s worth, WWE for once actually explained the situation later on. While they didn’t reveal the actual reason, they gave a storyline explanation to it.
In the following post-SmackDown video, Paige explained it storyline wise, saying that the Miz’s unsanctioned match caused them to remove this bout from the show:
Although it’s not confirmed, it’s possible that the late addition to the card like Daniel Bryan vs. Mustafa Ali and the tag match featuring Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura caused the company to change the script.
Though from what it appears, we can say that this is not the end of the feud between Naomi and Mandy Rose. It’s likely that we’ll get to see their match next week on SmackDown.
