Shelton Benjamin is not happy with his current position on Smackdown. Benjamin had been paired with Chad Gable earlier this year on the brand but that changed when Gable was moved to Raw.
The former member of Suzuki-Gun sent out the following message on Twitter directed at Smackdown General Manager, Paige.
I Am a warrior I am a competitor & I am DAMN GOOD! Yet I have not had a match on #SmackDownLIVE in months. I’m here to compete I thrive on competition @RealPaigeWWE Its time you Got me off the bench & LET ME FIGHT!
“I Am a warrior I am a competitor & I am DAMN GOOD! Yet I have not had a match on #SmackDownLIVE in months. I’m here to compete I thrive on competition @RealPaigeWWE Its time you Got me off the bench & LET ME FIGHT!”
Shelton Benjamin On Smackdown
The 43-year-old Benjamin returned to WWE in August of 2017. Aside from teaming with Gable, he hasn’t really done much. He did appear on the Mae Young Classic recently as a supporter for Mia Yim.
He spoke to ESPN earlier this year and talked about how when he and Charlie Haas were first beginning in WWE, they learned a lot from the Guerreros.
“For the first eight months, we were working with Eddie and Chavo Guerrero, and they would hide from us during the live events,” Benjamin said to ESPN. “They didn’t want to call matches because that was old school, and that was how they came up.”
Cesaro and Chris Hero used to collectively be known as “the Kings of Wrestling.” Last night, Cesaro showed up at an NXT house show and the team reunited if only for a moment.
Kassius Ohno was wrestling Adam Cole when the Undisputed Era ran in. Cesaro showed up to help his old tag-team partner against the faction.
NXT’s house show last night was in Casselberry, Florida
Cesaro & Kassius Ohno – The Kings of Wrestling
Kassius Ohno and Cesaro were a tag-team from 2005-2011. They are 2x former Ring of Honor Tag Team Champions, former CZW tag champs, Chikara tag champs, and JCW tag-team champs. Additionally, Cesaro won the PWG Championship while a member of the team.
The team briefly reunited when they were both in NXT together in 2012.
NXT House Show
September 28th, 2018
Engelwood Neighborhood Center
Jessie Elaban won an NXT UK Women’s #1 Contender Battle Royal
Tony Nese defeated Stacey Ervin Jr.
Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan defeated Rinku Singh and Saurav Gurjar
Cezar Bononi defeated Boa
Lars Sullivan defeated Keith Lee
The Street Profits defeated The Forgotten Sons
NXT UK Women’s Championship
Rhea Ripley (c) defeated Jessie Elaban
Death Before Dishonor
September 28th
Orleans Arena
Las Vegas, Nevada
1. Kenny King defeated Jushin Liger
Liger appeared to suffer a back injury and it looked as though he wouldn’t be able to continue. As the ref was checking on Liger, King started to lead the crowd in chants for Liger. He then reached out to shake Liger’s hand but then gave him a spinebuster instead. King then covered him and got the pin.
As King was leaving he thanked Austin Aries and said he now “gets it.” Basically, he learned he should cheat from his rivalry with Austin Aries.
2. ROH World Tag Team Championships
The Briscoes (c) defeated SCU (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) w/Scorpio Sky
The Briscoes improved to 4-0 against Daniels and Kazarian when Jay pinned Daniels after multiple Jay Drillers.
The commentary team talked about how with the Addiction’s expiring contracts, they’ll need to win titles or Joe Koff won’t re-sign them.
3. WOH Championship
Sumie Sakai (c) defeated Tenille Dashwood
Dashwood came into the match with her shoulder heavily bandaged. She started favoring it after hitting Sakai with a punch midway through the match. Dashwood kicked out of Smash Mouth but ultimately tapped to an armbar from the champion.
Later in the show, Dashwood was shown beat up in the back and favoring her arm even further.
4. ROH TV Title
Punishment Martinez (c) defeated Chris Sabin
Sabin got a few near falls but ultimately Martinez retained the title with a South of Heaven Choke-Slam.
After the match, Martinez kept up the attack on Sabin. This led to Jeff Cobb making the save. Martinez looked like he was going to leave without incident but then attacked Cobb with a chair. Cobb then gave him a suplex and stood tall in the ring to end the segment.
5. Tables Match (Elimination Rules)
Bully Ray and Silas Young defeated Flip Gordon and Colt Cabana
Cabana was eliminated via powerbomb through the announce table for the first elimination. Bully then eliminated himself when he missed an attack on Flip Gordon. There was a ref bump and then Flip came off the top rope and put Silas through a table. Since the ref didn’t see it though, Bully made it look like it was Flip who went through the table and the ref called for the bell when he came to. Bully then continued to whip Flip with a chain after the match was over.
6. Cody, Marty Scurll, Adam Page, and the Young Bucks (Bullet Club) defeated Kazuchika Okada, Chuck T, Beretta, Rocky Romero, and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS)
Nick Aldis provided guest commentary for the match. While doing so he announced that his NWA title rematch with Cody will be contested under best 2 out of 3 rules.
This was a crazy 10-man but eventually, Marty Scurll was able to make Rocky Romero tap to the Chickenwing for the victory.
After the match, Cody joined the commentary team and said he accepts the best 2 out of 3 falls stipulation.
7. ROH World Championship
Jay Lethal (c) defeated Will Ospreay
Ospreay came into this match after gaining 20lbs. Riccaboni said Ospreay said the weight gain has made him a better wrestler. The commentary team mentioned how serious he looked in comparison to his usual fun-loving demeanor.
Lethal kicked out of the Oscutter and got the victory with Lethal Injection. The victory is Lethal’s 4th successful title defense since winning the title 91 days ago. It’s his second reign as champion. Lethal is now just over 4 months away from passing Samoa Joe has having spent more combined days as ROH Champion than anyone. He’s at 517 days between his two reigns and is behind Samoa Joe’s 645 days. Joe only held the ROH World Championship once.
Following the victory, the Kingdom’s Red Balloons floated to the roof and they attacked Lethal. Jonathan Gresham attempted to make the save but he too was taken out.
A new freshly mohawked Matt Taven then hit Lethal with a purple-strapped ROH World Title replica belt. The show closed with Taven claiming he was the real ROH World Champion.
Former NWA Champion, Nick Aldis, provided guest commentary for the 10-Man tag-team match between Bullet Club and CHAOS tonight. While doing so he announced the match stipulation for his rematch with Cody. The match will be contested under a best 2 out of 3 falls stipulation.
Cody vs Aldis II – NWA World Heavyweight Championship
NWA 70th Anniversary
October 21st, 2018
Nashville Fairgrounds
As of yet, no other matches have been announced for the show. Tim Storm, Jocephus, and a few other Championship Wrestling From Hollywood names will likely appear on the show, however.
“It’s such an honor to be leading this historic brand into its next chapter,” Billy Corgan said. “The enduring legacy of the National Wrestling Alliance — the men who forged it and the champions who defended it — illuminate our path in 2018. This event celebrates our first full year shepherding this brand while honoring the everlasting milestones, legends and champions of the NWA.”
“This will be an event no fan will want to miss, and I’m honored to work with Billy on a show of this magnitude,” Jeff Jarrett said regarding the event.
WWE has confirmed that Batista is returning at the upcoming SmackDown 1,000 special. The Animal will be back for a reunion of Evolution, the popular early 2000’s stable that also included Ric flair, Triple H and Randy Orton.
Evolution Faction in WWE
Evolution’s main run in WWE was from 2003 to 2005. This was during the original brand split era. Throughout their run, the faction won the World Heavyweight Championship a total of 5x. The world title of the Raw brand was won 4x by Triple H and once by Randy Orton.
Batista and Ric Flair also held the WWE tag-team Championships twice while members of Evolution. Randy Orton and Ric Flair each won the Intercontinental Championship while part of the faction as well.
The stable reunited briefly in 2014 as well minus Ric Flair. This was spurred on by Daniel Bryan defeating all 3 of them at WrestleMania 30. Following WrestleMania 30, Evolution entered into a feud with the Shield.
Batista’s inclusion in the Smackdown 1000th episode will be good news to him. He has been vocal as of late that he’s wanted to make a WWE return but the company hadn’t seem interested.
He Tweeted out the following regarding the upcoming Smackdown episode recently: “Surprise surprise!! I wasn’t invited! And it’s in my hometown.! .. guess by now I shouldn’t be shocked anymore.”
Brian Pillman Jr. recently took part in the new Hart Foundation’s attack on Kevin Sullivan. Pillman signed a multi-year deal with the promotion earlier this year. He has since aligned with Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Pillman was Chris Jericho’s guest on Talk is Jericho this week and spoke about being a “real person” before getting into the wrestling business. He said his famlly warned him about getting into wrestling and so he opted to get a more traditional job first.
Brian Pillman In The Real World
“I was more or less led to believe by my Mother and family that (wrestling) was bad for me and it was going to do all this harm to me, and it killed my father and all that,” Pillman said. “Then you meet guys like Lance (Storm) and guys like you (Jericho) that it didn’t kill you, you’re still making a good living.”
Pillman then mentioned he felt he succeeded at being a normal person. He went to college and got a real job. It was only after his co-workers began getting annoyed at him for dropping double ax-handles while at work that he decided to change course.
“I was working on databases for car dealerships all around the Western Hemisphere,” Pillman described his real-world job.
“I kept going to the top of the cubicles and coming down on people with double ax-handles. They were like ‘look, you got to get out of here’,” he continued.
You can check out Pillman and the new Hart Foundation Friday nights on MLW Fusion. The show airs on BeIN Sports Friday nights and is posted to YouTube Saturdays at 6 PM.
WWE Superstar Drew McIntyre has had a successful return to the main roster of RAW. McIntyre lost his NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: War Games in 2017. During the bout against Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas McIntyre suffered a bicep injury which kept him out of action for a lengthy period of time.
The Scottish Superstar recently spoke to Sky Sports on his return and why he ‘chose’ to go through NXT. McIntyre had a successful mid card run in his first stint including an Intercontinental Championship reign.
McIntyre stated “I didn’t see any other avenue than going to NXT first, I was doing a lot of work for different companies outside of WWE. My (contracts) would lapse and I was trying to decide what the next move should be.” This of course includes stints for ICW and IMPACT/TNA wrestling.
Drew then moved on to discussing a potential move to Japan and susequent discussion with WWE COO Triple H; “My wife and I were talking about the possibilities of Japan and being a free agent. During this period I had a conversation with Triple H and I let him know my feelings – I said ‘If I come back I feel like I should go to NXT first. He agreed to introduce the audience to who I am now rather than who I was prior as it is a similar audience, a very educated audience.“
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to talk about various topics to promote the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada where he is slated to headline the show by defending his title against Will Ospreay.
Lineage & Importance Of ROH Title
Lethal takes being the world champion of the Baltimore-based promotion seriously and has a lot of pride in being the champ but also part of the company. He stated that he doesn’t know if he has been doing a better job than the champions before him as he doesn’t think he has topped anyone that has held the title up to this point in his reign but he does know that ROH is much bigger than in the past. “The company is much healthier and bigger and better than it was when they were here, but I would never say I am better than they are. I do have a tremendous amount of pride for the company that had so much trust in me to make me the face of the company in and out of the ring—not just once, but twice. I still feel that I’m the face of the company whether or not I don the world title across my shoulder or around my waist.”
Potentially Joining Bullet Club
Lethal was also asked about joining the group, which he noted that if it’s up to him then he would say no. However, he did note that who knows what different opportunities will present themselves as he loves the fact that there is always that person to rival and go against them. He wants to be the one standing against them and everytime that he faces one of the members of the group, it’s always something special. “If I have my way, I want to go against them.”
Former WWE Champion John Cena got fans speculating after his latest post on his official Twitter account. He said, “Nothing lasts forever. When doing something you love make sure to be present and enjoy it. That way if and when it ends, you can look back with fond memories instead of regret.”
In recent years, he has reduced the number of events he works per year for the WWE as he focuses on his acting career.
Nothing lasts forever. When doing something you love make sure to be present and enjoy it. That way if and when it ends, you can look back with fond memories instead of regret.
Recently, there has been a lot of rumors that WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels could be working a few matches in the near future. WWE is keeping fans speculating that a potential match between DX and The Brothers of Destruction could happen in the near future. Those rumors have been Michaels teaming with Triple H to take on The Undertaker and Kane at WWE Crown Jewel that goes down on November 2nd, 2018 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the King Fahd International Stadium.
In the meantime, WWE has already confirmed that Triple H with Michaels in his corner would take on Taker with Kane in his corner at WWE Super Show-Down pay-per-view event takes place on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne, Australia. WWE posted the following on Instagram:
Chris Sabin has a goal in mind heading into the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that takes place this Friday (September 28th) as he is slated to challenge Punishment Martinez for the Ring of Honor TV Championship.
The former TNA World Champion spoke with Chris Featherstone of SportsDaily.com to discuss his opportunity at winning some ROH gold. He stated that if he wins the title then he can say that he’s at least the second best wrestler in Ring of Honor as the World Champion is obviously number one, but he can confidently say that he’s second best.
He hopes to win the title and if so then he is hopeful that it comes with some control over television, at least some influence. “You know, I’d bring back shows like The Office, make sure Michael Scott is in it, and you know, maybe have one more Saved by the Bell reunion or something. Who knows? Hopefully, I attain those powers.”
The Future Of The Motor City Machine Guns
Sabin stated that just for the foreseeable future, the tag team that he created with Alex Shelley is pretty much done. He made it clear that they are still friends outside of pro wrestling and thinks he’s going to be on his own and has been for quite a while now. He added, “I don’t see the Motor City Machine Guns reunited anytime soon.”
PROGRESS will be heading to Wembley Arena this Sunday for their biggest ever event. #HelloWembley will feature some of the top independent talent from the global scene as well as one of NXT’s hottest prospects.
WWE.com recently posted an article hyping the massive UK event with specific precedence given to their WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne, Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven), Toni Storm, Mark Andrews and of course NXT’s newest signee Matt Riddle. This Sunday will be Riddle’s final independent match before joining NXT in a full time capacity, he will be facing former PROGRESS World Champion Mark Haskins.
Tickets for the event, which is limited to attendees 14 years and older, can be found here.
Here’s the full lineup for PROGRESS Wrestling’s #HelloWembley event:
PROGRESS World Championship Match
WALTER (c) vs. Tyler Bate
PROGRESS Women’s Championship Match
Jinny (c) vs. Toni Storm vs. Millie McKenzie
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match(Two teams start, and a new team enter the match every two minutes. If a member of a team is pinned, submitted or disqualified, his team is eliminated. The last team standing wins).
Flamita & Bandido (c) vs. The 198 (Flash Morgan Webster & “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman) vs. Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs. The Calamari Thatch Kings (Chris Brookes & Timothy Thatcher) vs. The Anti Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr) vs. Connor Mills & Maverick Mayhew vs. Sexy Starr (Jack Sexsmith & David Starr)
PROGRESS Atlas Championship Match
Doug Williams (c) vs. Trent Seven (If Williams loses, he retires)
Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Dragunov
Matt Riddle vs. Mark Haskins
Tables, Ladders & Chairs Match
Mark Andrews vs. Eddie Dennis
No Disqualification Match
Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson
Former four-time WWE Women’s champion and WWE Hall Of Famer, Lita, appeared recently on Planeta Wrestling in the build-up to her return match at WWE Evolution. She is scheduled to take on Mickie Jame in a one-on-one encounter.
When asked whether there were any plans for future matches in the WWE, or if her appearance at Evolution marks the end of her in-ring days, Lita replied:
“If you follow WWE at all, I think the one thing that is consistent is: you never know.”
She highlighted that “As a fan and as a performer, I kind of look at it [returning to wrestling] as a mom,” before stating that she’s “happy with my second chapter, my chapter outside of wrestling,”
Despite this, Lita couldn’t help but admit that “[…] at the same time, every time I do go back, it feels like home and does feel like you jump right back in.”
“You go in with it being the idea of a one-time thing, but it’s very, very likely and potentially – the excitement of it or the crowd’s response of it could turn it into something more than a one-off. Like my life in general, I just take it all as it comes. So, we’ll see.”
The card for tonight’s (Friday, September 28, 2018) Ring of Honor Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event has been finalized.
The Baltimore-based promotion has announced that Jay Lethal defending the ROH World Title against Will Ospreay will serve as the main event of this event that takes place from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event can be purchased via traditional pay-per-view and the FITE app.
ROH Death Before Dishonor Card
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay
Bullet Club (Cody, Adam Page, The Young Bucks, and Marty Scurll) vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Chuckie T, Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii, and Rocky Romero)
ROH Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian
ROH TV Champion Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin
Jushin ”Thunder” Liger vs. Kenny King
Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Colt Cabana & Flip Gordon – Tables Match
ROH will be holding television tapings in the same venue the following night. Already announced for that show is Cody Rhodes’ first NWA World Championship defense against Willie Mack.
What are your thoughts on this card? Do you plan on watching it? Sound off in the comment section.
It’s become a bit of a running joke with interviewers and podcasters whenever it comes to Cody’s lack of a surname. Chris Jericho, in particular, has enjoyed referring to him as Cody ‘Don’t-Call-Him-Rhodes.’
Many believed that the lack of a surname, let alone one that carries so much clout within the wrestling industry, was due to some sort of WWE ownership over the name.
However, in a recent Twitter exchange with a fan, Cody cleared the air on the topic, providing an emphatic answer. He declared that he could actually “use it [Rhodes] whenever,” before explaining that “I will not be using it any time in the foreseeable future.”
He ended the explanation with a short but sweet assertion, stating, “I prefer just Cody.”
I can use it whenever. I will not be using it any time in the foreseeable future though…whether that’s w/roh, WWE, njpw, anywhere…
In another Cody update, “The American Nightmare” provided a tease as to the potential future of All In.
He has spoken previously about what he would do differently if an All In 2 event were to take place, and has added further fuel to the fire in a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, entitled “ALL US | Epilogue.”
In it, he addresses the fans’ clamoring for another event:
“There is a question of whether we do it again. And the best answer I can give you is, it could have been a great night of matches at Chicago, sure, that’s all it could have been. But it felt like more, it felt like a revolution. Revolutions aren’t just one night.”
Paige recently did an interview where she spoke about how being the SmackDown General Manager has helped her fill the void of no longer being allowed to wrestle in a WWE ring. Although she is no longer allowed to compete in the ring, she has made a great transition from being an active wrestler to being an authority figure on weekly WWE television.
The former WWE Divas Champion was recently interviewed by Jozef Raczka of Vulture Hound about her new venture under the WWE banner. “I’m so proud of all the work I do and looking forward to everyone seeing the film but right now, I am committed to being the best GM I can and it’s different because I’m not getting in the ring but I’m doing 4 or 5 promos a night sometimes and I’m mixing it up with the men and the women and I love getting to work with Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan, R-Truth, Miz.”
She continued to say that it’s the difference as she doesn’t have to think about matches in the same way but she’s still there all the time which she loves and that’s fun. It’s also pushing her to be out of her comfort zone but is loving every single minute of it. She added that she’s back for this season of Total Divas which after missing last season, Paige is excited to show people a different side of her.
She also talked about the development of Sonya Deville and Many Rose as well as needing to have women’s tag team titles in the WWE. “First off, I absolutely feel there should be Women’s Tag Team Championships, I really want that to happen. Sonya & Mandy are doing so well together and separate but, it’s just hard, they hadn’t been in NXT that long then they’re brought up and after I had to bow out with my injuries, I don’t think I’d had a chance to help them get established enough before they were sent out on their own. But Mandy’s great, she’s kind of an old-school diva and Sonia, she was killing it in NXT, working with Asuka and Ruby Riott.”
She thinks that they both have so much potential and when the time is right, they will get their shot that will be amazing as she can’t think of any teams that aren’t already together.
We are quickly approaching the 1,000th episode of WWE SmackDown. The historic event will take place on Tuesday, October 16th from Washington D.C. WWE has been running a number of features to promote SmackDown 1,000, including a recent look at potential dream matches that included the likes of Batista and Rey Mysterio.
WWE has now named the Top 15 Greatest SmackDown Matches from the show’s 19-year run. Check out this list. Do you agree with the top picks? Which of these matches do you remember? Let us know in the comments section.
15. Jeff Hardy vs. Triple H – Intercontinental Championship Match: April 12, 2001
14. Team Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero & Tajiri – WWE Tag Team Championship Match: May 29, 2003
Adam “Hangman” Page recently did an interview to talk about various topics as well as promote the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that takes place this Friday.
He spoke with Chuck Carroll of CBS Sports to discuss the pact made by some members of the Bullet Club (Cody, Page, and The Young Bucks). When asked how they came up with the decision that when their contracts expire in a few months, they will take the next step together as a unit. “I think as a collective, as a group, we have been able to change wrestling… I think, as a group, we are really on to something, and I think we wanna continue this. It would be a real disservice to everyone who has supported us and got us to this point if we were to abandon what we’ve built.”
Page continued by stating that it doesn’t mean it can’t evolve and change but he thinks that they have too much of a good thing going to try to abandon it. He also stated that they know that they have more leverage than they ever had and have more than anyone else has had in a very long time.
WWE Next Stop
The belief is that the group with either stay with NJPW and ROH or sign with the WWE. Paige thinks that they are not necessarily bound to where they work and he feels that the most feedback comes from fans who watch Being The Elite.
“Which could conceivably happen anywhere. It could happen … You catch my drift. So I don’t want to, at any point, rule anything out. If you kinda catch my drift on that one.” Paige continued by stating that right now, they have some time and weighing options together as there are some things that sound more or less intriguing than other options. He added, “those options have changed and will continue to change and evolve in the coming months.”
WWE Superstar Kofi Kingston has been named one of the Top 100 Coolest Dads In America by Fatherly.com. “Kofi is a fan favorite with adults who still keeps it PG for the kids,” the site wrote. “Part of this is no doubt because he’s a dad who wants to set an example for his two young sons, Khi and Orion, born in 2013 and 2016, who he’s raising with his wife Chi Chi in Tampa, Florida. Kingston has always played the good guy on the stage. We’re not sure he knows any other way.”
The listing of Kofi as one of the coolest Dads in America comes on the heels of him passing Billy Gunn as having held a WWE tag-team championship more combined days than anyone else in history.
The Dads which were named cooler than Kofi included:
LeBron James
Kelly Slater
Aaron Huey
Ashton Kutcher
Dwayne Wade
Neil Patrick Harris
Kofi will look to keep his string of accomplishments going when he travels to Australia early next month. Kingston, Big E, and Xavier Woods will be looking to defend their Smackdown tag-team championships at Super Show-Down against the Bar.
WWE recently confirmed the signing of Mae Young Classic competitor, Mia Yim. They have now announced the former Knockouts Champion will make her NXT debut on the house show circuit this weekend. She’ll debut on September 29th at NXT’s house show in Ft Pierce.
The NXT Twitter account was the first to break the news:
Speculation regarding Yim’s signing began last week when the 29-year-old appeared in a video filmed at the WWE Performance Center. It was later reported she had indeed signed with the company and reported to the Performance Center on September 16th, 2018.
Mia Yim WWE
Many expected Yim to sign with WWE after last year’s tournament but a leg injury set her back. Yim spoke to TV Insider in August about overcoming her injury last year and moving forward with her career.
“The hardest part of the recovery was the mental,” Yim said. “Going to physical therapy, learning how to walk again and run again, rolling around in the ring — it was all easy compared to the mental part.”
Yim also spoke about the competition in this year’s Mae Young Classic:
“There are a lot of good girls in this year’s competition. I’m actually happy for that people may think they know what to expect, considering what I did last year. I learned so much new stuff… I don’t want to be specific with it. I’m hoping people underestimate me and have an expectation of me from last year, so I can surprise them that much more.”
Impact Wrestling aired their second show from the Mexico City tapings held earlier this month. Two more episodes from Mexico City will air before Impact travels to New York City for Bound For Glory.
Here are 8 Takeaways from Impact Wrestling 9/27.
Impact Wrestling 9/27
Taya Valkyrie Challenges Tessa Blanchard For Bound For Glory
After Tessa Blanchard defeated Faby Apache to open the show last night, she cut a promo saying she’d run through the entire Knockouts division. Taya Valkyrie then appeared on the big screen and explained to Blanchard that she had never beaten her. The match was then made official for Bound For Glory.
The Lucha Brothers Kidnapped Dave Crist
Brian Cage defeated Jake Crist
Brian Cage defeated Jake Crist in single’s action last night. Following the victory, however, he was jumped by Callihan and Dave Crist. Not long after this started, however, the lights went out and when they came back on, Dave Crist was gone.
A video on the big screen showed Pentagon and Fenix with an already tied up Crist brother. The brothers beat him up and gave him a double super-kick. Then back in the ring, Cage delivered a double clothesline to the two remaining guys from Ohio.
Moose Pinned Eddie Edwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ46Ng1-us&t=5s
Moose & Killer Kross defeated Eddie Edwards & Johnny Impact
Moose and Killer Kross picked up the win in last night’s main event. With all four men down in the closing moments of the match, Austin Aries attempted to interfere but was thwarted by Johnny Impact. Unfortunately, the distraction allowed Kross to hit him with a Saito suplex, taking Impact out of the match. Moose then delivered a spear to Eddie Edwards and picked up the win.
The OGZ Burned Konnan’s Mask
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-z6zqW0wdQ
LAX defeated the Desi Hit Squad
LAX defeated Great Gama Singh’s Desi Hit Squad in a non-title match this week. After the match, however, King again tried to goad Konnan and LAX to break the ceasefire. This time King cut a promo saying of all the myths and legends of Mexican wrestling, Konnan was one of the biggest myths. They then burned his mask in the back.
Scarlett Bordeaux Is Holding A Global Talent Search
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ROhzc5MXVk
Scarlett Bordeaux announced she is holding a Global Talent Search for someone she can dedicate her full attention to. Bordeaux mentioned the success KM and Fallah Bah have had since enlisting her help as reasons why wrestlers from other the world should be crawling over one another to have Bordeaux on their side.
Kiera Hogan Pinned Su Yung
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHJ46Ng1-us
Kiera Hogan & Allie defeated Su Yung & Undead Bridesmaid
Kiera Hogan pinned former Knockouts Champion, Su Yung, with a spinning fisher-suplex. It’s arguably the biggest win of Hogan’s Impact career thus far. The win moves Hogan’s winning streak to 5 matches. Allie and Kiera Hogan are now 3-0 as a team and Hogan has defeated Alisha Edwards and KC Spinelli (ONO show) recently as well.
Shortly after this match, Impact announced Su Yung and Kiera Hogan will clash in single’s action next week.
Joe Hendry Has To Worry About MURDER Clown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB5qvVXcQxE
Katarina ran into Joe Hendry and Grado in the back. It appears Katarina is looking for revenge against the two. She announced she’d enlisted the help of Murder Clown, one of the murderous clown faction which also includes Psycho Clown and Monster Clown. Henry will have to take on Murder Clown next week.
Alberto El Patron (FKA Alberto Del Rio) recently took a crack at his former partner, Paige, during a social media post. El Patron was responding to a post from a fan on Twitter when he made the comments.
Alberto was found in the comments section of the post, taking a crack at his former love interest:
Paige and Alberto in 2018
Alberto has been wrestling sparingly thus far this year. His duties with Combates Americas keep him busy enough that he only wrestles about once per month. His last match was on August 7th, 2018. He defeated Savio Vega in a match for ICWA in Puerto Rico.
As for Paige, she announced WWE officials would no longer medically clear her for in-ring competition earlier this year. She made the announcement on the Raw after WrestleMania and then was announced as the new General Manager of Smackdown the following night.
Last night on Impact Wrestling, Taya Valkyrie returned after a short hiatus from the promotion. Fittingly, last night’s episode emanated from Mexico City, where Taya has been building a large following since debuting there in 2012.
Knockouts Champion, Tessa Blanchard, had just finished off Valkyrie’s old rival, Faby Apache, when she cut a promo saying she had gone through the entire Knockouts division. Valkyrie appeared on the big screen wearing a “Perros Del Mal” T-shirt, a nod to her longtime faction.
Valkyrie explained that Blanchard couldn’t say she’d gone through the entire division when she hadn’t yet beaten her. She then challenged the champ to a title match at Bound For Glory.
Tessa Blanchard (c) vs Taya Valkyrie – Bound For Glory
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxmRms-qybw
Newlyweds, Johnny Impact and Taya Valkyrie, both have title shots at Impact’s October 14th PPV from New York City. Johnny will take on Austin Aries for the Impact World Championship.
In 2018, the Knockouts division has arguably been the most talked about in the promotion. Blanchard’s performances on Impact Wrestling shows are often the most talked about matches. Valkyrie will be the tough test for Blanchard, who has already successfully defended her title against Su Yung, Gisele Shaw, and now Faby Apache. Blanchard defeated Allie, Rebel, Kiera Hogan, and Alisha Edwards in single’s action before winning the Knockouts title.
Frankie Kazarian recently conducted an interview to talk about various topics as well as promote the ROH Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada that takes place this Friday.
He recently sat down with Sporting News and during the interview, spoke about working with former WWE Champion John Cena early in their careers. He stated that fans can say what they want about John as a performer, but knows that he’s always been the most hardworking man in the room and has a work ethic like something he has never seen before. He added that Cena always wanted to be the best and it wouldn’t matter what was in his way. The X-Division Kaz was a big part of the X-Division in Impact Wrestling and stated when asked about it that it was a group of guys at the top of their game having unbelievable matches every single time they went out there. He name-dropped AJ Styles, Amazing Red, Chris Daniels, Petey Williams, Alex Shane, Chris Sabin, Sonjay Dutt, Low-Ki as being on the roster. He added that those days were really some of the happiest of his career and an absolute pleasure to be out there with those guys trying to be different and making a name for themselves. Growth Of Ring Of Honor “Even if I wasn’t wrestling for them, I could still admit that they had the best wrestlers having the best matches and it’s simply amazing to be a part of their team at the moment because they are hitting it out of the park. Everything seems to be falling into place for us and the guys we have working here are some of the hungriest wrestlers in the world. We want something really big to happen to Ring of Honor and you can see that is almost upon us with what’s happening at The Garden next year.”
World of Sport held their nineth episode this past weekend on ITV. The viewership data is in and again it’s not pretty. Episode 9 averaged 300,000 viewers (3.9% share), the same as last week but down a sharp 40% from Episode 7’s 500,000 viewers (5% share).
We need to revisit the sentiments from last week’s first show in the new 4:00pm time slot (this week was 2:30pm). It’s clear that the change from 5pm to 4:30pm played a huge role in the ratings drop from weeks 5, 6,7 to 8. With the ITV Evening News changing by 30 minutes the rest of the schedule had to follow suit. Again the number isn’t pretty to look at but a time change affects most programmes across many genres. This isn’t uncommon for WWE either, when special time changes occur for RAW and Smackdown this affects their numbers.
The numbers for WoS WERE steadily increasing, week 5 saw a height of 900 thousand viewers and an overall rating of 700k. Again the live tour for 2019 is an excellent sign of ITV investment in the show, both monetarily and in figurative terms. However yet another drop to the 2:30pm time slot is not something to celebrate.
Time Change to 2:30pm This Week
Once again air the time changed for the show. This has been extremely detrimental to the show over the past few weeks but does make sense given the commercial impact of Saturday nights in the UK. ITV have a huge ratings war on their hands when it comes to their X Factor show and the BBC 1 Strictly Come Dancing programme (Dancing With the Stars in the United States). Moving the WoS programme to a pre-Premier League timeslot (most games start at 3pm) could’ve been a bonus but again if you’re establishing a new show in it’s first season then multiple time changes are going to hurt.
As we’ve mentioned previously there will likely be a season 2…but it might not be on the mainstay ITV channel. Moving the WoS programme to an ITV2 could be ideal to establishing a more niche genre (to the mainstream) and helping build viewership amongst the younger demographic that ITV2 holds. Still, the numbers are low and the buzz behind the programme is at arguably it’s lowest since the premiere episode. Compare that to the fact that PROGRESS are heading to Wembley in just under a week…it’s quite the incredible situation.
Are you still watching WoS? Let us know in the comments
Pro Wrestling: EVE will be holding their ‘Global Women Strike’ event tonight from the Resistance Gallery in Bethnal Green, London. The show will be available to watch live in just under 30 minutes if you sign up on their On Demand service with a seven day free trial. Two of the announced bouts will be qualifiers for the upcoming ‘SHE-1’ tournament.
Here’s the full card for the upcoming event:
Meiko Satomura vs Toni Storm
SHE-1 Series Qualifier – Sammii Jayne vs Hana Kimura
SHE-1 Series Qualifier – Holidead vs Rhia O’Reilly
Killer Kelly vs Jordynne Grace
Millie McKenzie vs Chihiro Hashimoto
Here’s the already qualified names for the SHE-1
Millie McKenzie – defeated Addy Starr at “EVE Are The Weirdos, Mister” on June 9th
Charli Evans – defeated Laura Did Matteo on July 14th at “Slayers In Spandex”
Kasey Owens – defeated EVE Champion Charlie Morgan at “Slayers in Spandex”
Viper/Piper Niven – defeated Kay Lee Ray at “Riot, Grrrl” to earn her place
Madison Eagles – defeated Shazza McKenzie at PWA “Call to Arms”
Kris Wolf – defeated Bea Priestley on Sept 8th at “Maybe Wrestling Will Help”
