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Kurt Angle Q&A: His WWE Accomplishments, Favorite Women’s Wrestler

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WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle recently did a Q&A on Facebook and commented on a number of interesting topics.

Right off the bat, one fan asked him what he thought was the best thing he accomplished in WWE. This is when is noted that it was proving that a shooter or real wrestler could be the best entertainer of his era. He added, “I was very proud of what I was able to accomplish, whether I was loved or hated.”

In recent years, the company has pushed women’s wrestling heavily and treated them the same as the male superstars. To the point where they will hold their first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view event, Evolution, on Sunday, October 28, 2018 in Long Island, New York at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and will air on the WWE Network.

Angle was asked about his favorite all-time women’s wrestler. He responded by stating, “Chyna. She broke the barrier for women to not only show their wrestling skills, but she competed with men. She’s the true pioneer.”

There has been a lot of speculation has to why WWE decided to remove Angle from television as Raw General Manager for the time being and have Baron Corbin take over that role.

It’s been reported that there is no heat on Angle and he’s not being written out for any reason beyond the storyline itself. He was backstage at RAW in Toronto last week. Angle has been training very hard a return to in-ring action that is being planned.

What are your Angle’s comments? Sound off in the comment section.

Big Cass Breaks Silence On WWE Firing

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In a recent interview on Booker T’s podcast, Heated Conversations, William Morrissey, or better known as Big Cass, finally broke his silence on why he was released from the WWE.

Life After WWE

“I’m doing good, just living my life right now,” Cass said. “Hitting the gym, waiting for my 90-day [no compete clause] to end. Anticipating what’s next on my schedule, trying to get myself in the best shape possible. Just living life, I don’t know how else to say it.” 

Cass On Being Released

“If I’m going to be honest with you, I made a lot of mistakes. I made a lot of mistakes in a very short period of time,” Cass admitted. “I did some things that I shouldn’t have done. I guess the company couldn’t rely on me and couldn’t trust me. Look, I’ll just be honest with you, in my opinion, they made the right decision for them.”

“It was the right decision to get rid of me at that point in time – not to say I won’t be back – but at that point in time, they definitely made the right decision for them. To be honest with you, looking at it they made the right decision for me. Everyone makes mistakes, but when you make that many mistakes in that short of a period of time then you lose people’s trust and you’re not reliable anymore.”

“Yeah, I would have, [fired myself]. I definitely would have fired myself. If I was in Vince McMahon’s position, I would have fired myself for sure, one-hundred percent.”

Back From Injury

A little after Wrestlemania 34 Big Cass made his return back from injury now on the Smackdown brand. He was immediately placed into a feud with Daniel Bryan in where Bryan would be victorious through the feud. It wouldn’t be until June of this year that Cass would get released. Numerous sources are stating that Cass’s backstage attitude and not following orders from WWE personnel was the reason for his release. More on Big Cass release can be read here.

 

Pro Wrestling: EVE Announce Huge London Show

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London based company Pro Wrestling: EVE has announced a huge show taking place Saturday September 29th. EVE will be joining the Time Out 50 event. Time Out is one of the World’s biggest travel magazines with a circulation of over 6.5 million. Time Out 50 will mark the magazine’s 50th birthday and EVE will be joining several art/culture companies on the day.

Pro Wrestling: EVE is becoming one of the biggest underground prospects in pro wrestling. The company has amassed a diverse fan-base outside of the ‘wrestling crowd’ by becoming one of the hottest attractions in London. Several of the company’s stars have appeared on mainstream UK television on WoS, ITV’s morning programming and BBC Documentaries. News outlets across the globe have featured EVE in the past year including New York Times, The Mirror, The Independent and The Metro.

Check out EVE’s on demand library here. You can sign up now for a free 7 day trial and check out their recent events such as Slayers in Spandex, Nasty Women and RIOT GRRRLS.

You can find more information on the Time Out event here.

https://twitter.com/ProWrestlingEVE/status/1036698743607894022

British Strong Style Announced for ICW Fear & Loathing

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Insane Championship Wrestling has announced that British Strong Style will be heading to ‘Fear & Loathing XII.’ This will be first time that the BSS stable has appeared as a unit in ICW. Trent Seven is a former ICW World Champion. More interesting is that Pete Dunne actually defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship in the company previously.

British Strong Style are arguably the most popular stars from the thriving UK scene. All three are featured heavily on the WWE UK brands and NXT television.

Fear & Loathing XII will be taking place on December 2nd at the SSE Hydro. If you’re an ICW fan you know that the ‘Loathing event is ICW’s biggest in the calendar year and last year’s iteration featured Rey Mysterio, Kevin Nash and Rob Van Dam amongst the homegrown talent.

https://twitter.com/InsaneChampWres/status/1035965383474335745

Tickets are available to purchase via Ticketmaster now.

You can check out Pete Dunne’s WWE UK Championship 4-Way match from 2017 below. The ‘Bruiserweight’ defends against Trent Seven, B.T. Gunn? and Wolfgang?. Gunn was not actually contracted to WWE and was the first challenger to the title without being signed to WWE.

Japanese Legend Open To Joining WWE

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Japanese wrestling legend Naomichi Marufuji recently spoke to Tokyo Sports on his bout with the returning Hideo Itami/KENTA in Pro Wrestling NOAH. The bout took place this past Saturday for Marufuji’s 20th Anniversary show.

During the interview Marufuji expressed his pleasure at being able to face his longtime foe once again. The former GHC Heavyweight Champion claimed that is “grateful” to Triple H for allowing Hideo Itami to return to Japan. Marufuji also stated that if he “hears a voice” he would “definitely go to WWE for one match.”

Marufuji defeated Itami at Saturday’s event after hitting the Pole Shift Emerald Flowsion for the three-count at around the 34 minute mark. This came after Marufuji kicked out of the Go 2 Sleep.

After the bout Marufuji was greeted in-ring by the entire NOAH roster, this was lead by Go Shiozaki. The former GHC Champion thanked Itami personally for returning and also thanked the fans in attendance.

The idea of a Japanese star heading to WWE for a special one-off appearance is not unprecedented. Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger appeared at NXT Brooklyn in 2015 and faced Tyler Breeze in a special attraction match.

Who would you like to see Naomichi Marufuji face in WWE/NXT? Let us know in the comments

DEFIANT Announce The Return of ‘Loaded’ on YouTube

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DEFIANT Wrestling has announced the return of ‘Loaded’ on YouTube. The show is a free-to-air programme 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:

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.”

Defiant Wrestling promoter, Peter Willis, said this of the return:

Over the past 9 months we have worked hard behind the scenes to build a solid foundation with Defiant Wrestling. We are now looking forward to being able to bring back free weekly episodes of Loaded to YouTube. A lot of lessons have been learned over the past two years, and we’re confident we are now in a position to deliver a truly exciting weekly show that fans around the world will really enjoy.”

Fight Forever (UK) Announce Debut Show with ALL IN/NJPW Stars

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UK based promotion Fight Forever has announced a huge debut show that will be taking place this December. The new promotion will be bringing the co-creator of ALL IN Cody Rhodes and New Japan’s Will Ospreay to Birmingham’s Pryzm Nightclub on December 6th.

‘Phenomena’ will be the first of Fight Forever’s huge tour. With dates also lined up for London (7th), Bristol (8th) and Liverpool (9th). Other names confirmed for the upcoming tour are:

  • NXT UK Star Zack Gibson
  • Brandi Rhodes
  • Flip Gordon
  • MLW Star Jimmy Havoc
  • NXT UK Star James Drake
  • 205 Live Star ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster
  • NXT UK Star El Ligero
  • IMPACT/WoS star Joe Hendry
  • WoS Star Rampage Brown
  • NXT UK/PROGRESS Star Travis Banks

The company has also confirmed that there will be a ‘Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard’ live podcast and The Godfather’s ‘Pimp Party.’ Here’s some info from the company’s press release:

“Brand New UK Professional Wrestling Promotion ‘Fight Forever Wrestling’ Announce Debut Tour featuring ‘Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard Live’, ‘The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes’, WWE UK Tournament Winner Zack Gibson. WWE Hall of Famer, Charles Wright, will also be appearing on the tour as a special guest and the host of after show party events, ‘Papa Shango’s Voodoo Party’ and ‘The Godfather’s Pimp Party’.”

Report: WoS Ratings for Episode 6, Did The Time Change Affect The Number?

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WoS/World of Sport held their sixth episode this weekend on ITV. The ratings for the show appear to have now been released.

Here’s the reported number:

  • 400k (4.8% share)

Compared to last week’s number:

  • 700k (6.7% share)

There’s no way of sugar coating of it, that’s a huge drop.

We reported over the weekend that WoS would be going on a UK tour in 2019. This skews the idea that WoS would be prematurely meeting its demise with such forward planning.

The Time Change

It’s clear that the change from 5pm to 4:30pm played a huge role in the ratings drop. With the ITV Evening News changing by 30 minutes the rest of the schedule had to follow suit and this appears to have hurt WoS by around 300 thousand viewers. 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. TV audiences are creatures of habit, if you have prepared for a specific timeslot and this gets changed then this affects your routine.

The numbers for WoS WERE steadily increasing, last week 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.

Is This The End?

This isn’t the death knell for WoS as other sites are reporting. The upcoming tour and options for ITV to move the show across their wealth of channels are numerous and extremely likely. Will pro wrestling be featured on Saturday evenings going forward? Likely not, but a more realistic slot on an ITV 2 with a good lead in like previous weeks (the Scorpion King broadcast helped the show massively) could make a huge difference.

Main Event for PROGRESS ‘Hello Wembley’ Confirmed

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PROGRESS has now made the Wembley Arena main event official. Inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate will challenge PROGRESS World Champion WALTER for the coveted title.

Bate contested as part of the ‘3 And In’ series over the past month to determine who the Number 1 contender would be. Super Strong Style 16 winner Zack Sabre Jr was originally scheduled to participate in the Wembley bout but could not due to his pre-existing NJPW contractual obligations. ZSJ will be taking part in a New Japan show in Los Angeles on September 30th, this is also the reason that the planned Will Ospreay vs Jimmy Havoc match was pushed to this past week.

Tickets are still available to purchase via AXS. This will be the biggest English Independent show in years and the following bouts are already signed:

  • Eddie Dennis vs Mark Andrews
  • Jimmy Havoc vs Paul Robinson
  • Thunderb*stard Tag Team Title Match
  • Ilja Dragunov vs Pete Dunne
  • PROGRESS Women’s Title Match – Jinny (c) vs Millie McKenzie

PROGRESS has also announced a ‘warm up’ show on Saturday 29th featuring the following live shows:

NEVER MIND THE WRISTLOCKS
Doors 12.30pm; show 1-2.30pm

TUESDAY NIGHT JAW LIVE
Doors 3pm; show 3.30-5pm

JIM SMALLMAN – I’M SORRY, I LOVE YOU
Doors 5.30pm; show 6-7.30pm

Tickets are available now, and the event itself will take place out of The Phoenix, London.

Lanna Poffo Launches The Genius Cast Podcast

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Lanny Poffo is the latest wrestling legend to launch his own podcast, The Genius Cast. Episode 1 is now live and looks at his brother Macho Man Randy Savage’s posthumous induction to the WWE Hall of Fame.

Poffo announced on Twitter, “Behold, it is Lanny Poffo, brother of Macho Man Randy Savage, and I am proud to proclaim: The Genius Cast is here! Listen to the inaugural episode where I open up about my brother in the WWE Hall of Fame against his wishes, those rumors (you know the ones), and so much more! Let me know your thoughts.”

In addition to Randy Savage’s 2015 Hall of Fame Induction, Lanny also speaks about his resentment towards Jerry “The King” Lawler and Pat Patterson, the urban legend about Randy and Stephanie McMahon and much more.

“You’ll feel moved and be left with goosebumps by the end of this uniquely quirky and nostalgic show. Don’t miss out!”

The Genius Cast with Lanny Poffo and JP Zarka is presented by ProWrestlingStories.com and drops each Monday.

Listen to Episode 1 of The Genius Cast below or at this link of the embed does not display.

RAW Preview: Bella Twins In Action, Shawn Michaels Returns

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Tonight’s Memorial Day edition of WWE RAW takes place from Columbus, Ohio at the Schottenstein Center.

The Raw crew is coming off a grueling tour schedule last week. Following last week’s Raw broadcast from Toronto, the Raw brand had live events from London, England (Wednesday) Osaka, Japan (Friday) and Shanghai (Saturday).

WWE.com is advertising the following items for tonight:

– The Bella Twins return to action against The Riott Squad.

– The B-Team defends the Raw Tag Team titles against The Revival.

– WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels returns. HBK will be at Raw to hype the upcoming match featuring Triple H vs. The Undertaker at WWE Super Show-Down.

– Braun Strowman aligned himself with Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre at the conclusion of last week’s show. How will this new trio deal with The Shield, the group WWE calls the Greatest Faction in History?

– Alexa Bliss has a date with destiny at Hell in a Cell. Bliss will get her rematch against Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey. How is she preparing for this battle? Is she ready?

Joins us here later tonight for our weekly WWE RAW Results & Live Coverage.

Batista: I Don’t Know If I Want To Work For Disney

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Dave Bautista is one person who is very vocal about his feelings and recently on the Johnathan Ross Show, the Animal didn’t hold back when the question arose about his current situation with Marvel/Disney.

“It’s a bitter-sweet conversation — um, no it’s a bitter-bitter conversation because I’m not really happy with what they’ve done with James Gunn.”

“They’re putting the movie off,” he added. “It’s on hold indefinitely. To be honest with you I don’t know if I want to work for Disney.”

You can watch the entire segment below:

The Animal Doesn’t Fear Poverty

In a recent interview for promoting his recent film, Final Score, Bautista was once again on the hot seat when asked about Guardians and his feelings towards Gunn’s firing. To put it simply, Bautista answered with full conviction as he has great loyalty for Gunn and is not one to hold his tongue when expressing his feelings. While he has not received any backlash for expressing his opinion, he does know that his job may be on the line.

“It is what it is and if it cost me my job then— you know— you can’t threaten a poor man with poverty and I grew up poor and know what its like to be poor and losing money and it means nothing to me. I will wrestle in backyards in front of ten people to make a living if I have to.”

That interview can be viewed below:

GOTG V3 On Hold

Currently, Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3 is on hold due to there not being a director and Gunn’s replacement has not been chosen yet. Many reports have stated that Gunn’s script for the film will be used for shooting but Gunn himself will have no involvement with the third film. With GOTG V3 on hold indefinitely the actors on the film were told to pursue other projects as there is no telling when production will pick up again.

Alberto El Patron Discusses CM Punk, Paige No Longer Wrestling In WWE

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Alberto El Patron, better known as Alberto Del Rio from his time in the WWE, recently spoke with Chair Shots to the Cranium to talk about various topics.

CM Punk

El Patron worked with CM Punk during his time with the company while battling for the WWE Title on numerous occasions. He recalled one match with Punk in Japan where he thought that they had a masterpiece of a match despite being jet lagged. He brought up how he is good friends with Punk and have nothing but respect for everything he’s done in his career and his MMA career. The reason for that respect is due to Punk needing “to be a real man to take that challenge to go inside the cage and fight.”

Paige

El Patron dated former WWE Divas Champion and current SmackDown General Manager Paige. Although they no longer date, he did keep an eye on her career and the fact that she is no longer medically cleared to wrestle in the WWE. He stated that he closed that book a long time ago and wishes nothing but the best to Paige.

“It’s too bad she cannot wrestle anymore,” El Patron stated as he noted that she has a lot of talent and believes she could have been the most successful Diva of all-time.

Early Betting Odds For Top WWE Hell In A Cell Matches

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The early betting odds for some of the matches that take place at the upcoming the WWE Hell in a Cell PPV have been released.

According to 5 Dimes, Roman Reigns is favored at -210 to retain the Universal Title over Braun Strowman at +160 meanwhile AJ Styles is favored at -160 over Samoa Joe +120 to retain the WWE Title.

The Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event takes place on Sunday, September 16, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas at the AT&T Center and will air on the WWE Network and some traditional pay-per-view outlets.

The company has yet to reveal which match will serve as the main event but it will most likely be Reigns vs. Strowman with the Universal Title being on the line. WWE will be officially announcing more matches for this show in the coming weeks.

The Odds

WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns -210 vs Braun Strowman +160

WWE Champion AJ Styles -160 vs Samoa Joe +120

WWE RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey -650 vs Alexa Bliss +420

Jeff Hardy +140 vs Randy Orton -180 – Hell In A Cell Match

Daniel Bryan and Brie Bella -350 vs The Miz and Maryse +250 – Mixed Tag Match

What are your thoughts on these early betting odds being released? Sound off in the comment section.

NJPW Upload Post-Dominion Chris Jericho Interview

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New Japan Pro Wrestling has uploaded a video to their YouTube account today featuring an interview with their current IWGP Intercontinental champion, Chris Jericho.

The sit-down interview with Jericho took place the day after his victory over Naito at Dominion on June 9th.

During the course of the interview, he discusses a range of topics, including his thoughts on Naito, a potential rematch with the ex-champ, Naito’s Los Ingobernables stablemate, EVIL, his feelings on winning the IWGP Intercontinental championship, as well as what he enjoys about wrestling in Japan and NJPW.

Reflecting on his performance from the previous night where he became the 19th IWGP Intercontinental champion, Jericho said, “it’s very exciting and very important to the legacy of Chris Jericho.”

On accepting a rematch with Naito, Jericho states, “Absolutely. I think Naito is an excellent opponent for me.” He goes on to emphatically declare, “I’m better, and that’s okay. It’s okay for Naito to lose to me.”

He does admit, however, that his thoughts already go past Naito somewhat.

“I would wrestle with Naito again in a second. But I also want to wrestle with Okada, Tanahashi; I want to challenge Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. EVIL needs to mind his own f*****g business, I don’t know why he came down last night. So there’s a lot of opponents in New Japan that I would like to wrestle with.”

EVIL Thoughts

Elaborating his thoughts on EVIL, Jericho says, “ EVIL is – when I look at the New Japan roster and see who are the next superstars of the company – the next Okada, the next Naito, the next Tanahashi – I think EVIL is one of those candidates.” He continues, “But he made a big mistake coming down to save Naito. I know Naito is his friend, I know Naito is his senpai, but he needs to mind his own f*****g business. That really made me mad. But he’s going to pay price. I don’t know when, but I hold grudges very deeply. I don’t forget. And I don’t live and let die.”

He promises, “I will get my revenge on EVIL at some point. And only I know when. So congratulations EVIL, you made a name for yourself. I didn’t know your name before, now I do. And now I can’t think of anything else other than getting my revenge on EVIL. So watch out for that.”

It’s a NJPW World, We Just Live In It

On New Japan as a company, and its place within the wrestling industry at this point in time, Jericho had this observation: “New Japan is not a Japanese company anymore. It’s a world-wide company.”

It’ll be interesting to watch Jericho’s New Japan experience continue to evolve, especially as he continues to reinvent himself, embroiling himself with major storylines across multiple promotions.
Whether it’s against Naito/EVIL in NJPW or his recent appearance at All In setting up a deeper feud with Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho continues to be wrestling’s renaissance man.

NJPW Break 1997 Sales Record; All In Available Now On NJPW World

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According to an interview with PIA, New Japan Pro Wrestling allegedly did 4.9 billion Yen (44.1 million USD/34.2 GBP) in sales this year. This reported number easily outstrips their last previous record, which has stood for over 21 years since 1997.

This swell in interest in NJPW, and the subsequent spike in revenue can be linked to the promotions recent business savvy in diversifying their content, embracing and catering to an international audience that was more than ready to accept their product.

Mr. Kizutani, who is the founder and current director of the Bushiroad Group, the parent company of New Japan, had this to say (please note the interview, originally in Japanese, has been translated via Google Translate):

“It is the best sales ever. It is the second largest scale in the world’s professional wrestling organisation. The best is America’s WWE, as you know.”

He goes on to reflect that “[the spike in sales] is about 20 times the sales ratio.”

The cross-promotion work we see via the beneficial New Japan Pro Wrestling/Ring Of Honor/Revolution Pro Wrestling relationship is another key step in getting new eyes onto NJPW’s product. This, coupled with the power of social media and outlets like Reddit, has brought about a perfectly timed resurgence in interest for something different from WWE, not only in production value and presentation but in terms of in-ring style and storytelling, something that NJPW provides.

All In On NJPW World

With that in mind, the dust has barely settled from All In and the weekend of action it provided, but for those who weren’t able to enjoy the event live on September 1st, they are now able to catch up with the history-making event via New Japan’s subscription service, NJPW World.

The turn around to uploading the show was surprisingly quick, so those of you who have an NJPW World subscription and haven’t caught up with All In yet (whether that was via the FITE app, ROH HonorClub, or via PPV) should log in as soon as possible in order to catch up with the event.

The card for the event was as follows:

NWA World Heavyweight Championship
Nick Aldis (c) vs. Cody Rhodes

ROH World Championship
Jay Lethal (c) vs. Winner of The Over Budget Battle Royale

Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll

Kenny Omega vs Pentagon Jr.

Adam Page vs. Joey Janela (with Penelope Ford)

Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix vs. The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi

Stephen Amell vs. Christopher Daniels

Madison Rayne vs. Tessa Blanchard vs. Britt Baker vs. Chelsea Green

The Over Budget Battle Royale (Winner will get a future ROH Title shot) – All In: Zero Hour

The Briscoes vs. Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky

WWE Ranks The Shield As The Greatest Faction Of All Time

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WWE has ranked The Shield as the Greatest Faction of All Time, which is sure to get fans debating the topic. A graphic posted on the company’s Instagram account lists Seth Rolins, Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns in the top spot of the Top 10 Greatest Factions of All Time.

The account doesn’t detail what went into the WWE Instagram accounts’ voting process in order to determine the order of these factions, nor does it highlight the number of stables that were in contention before being eliminated or the range of promotions they could stem from.

WWE’s Top 10 Factions Of All Time

WWE ranks the following groups as the ‘greatest’ of all time:

10. Undisputed Era
9. Freebirds
8. Nexus
7. Hart Foundation
6. The New Day
5. Evolution
4. nWo
3. DX
2. Four Horsemen
1. Shield

A post like this, based so much on subjective taste and opinion, was always going to be divisive amongst fans – and has been, given the Instagram comments section for the photo. Still, what’s controversial for some aligns with others.

With that in mind, who would be your top factions of all time?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BnPOk5hHL9k/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Nick Aldis Reveals Why Jeff Jarrett Was Part Of His Entourage At All In

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Both Nick Aldis and Cody were accompanied to the ring by “fight teams” at All In. In Cody’s corner was Diamond Dallas Page, Brandi, Pharoah and a few others. There was one face which jumped off the screen in the corner for Nick Aldis, however. Jeff Jarrett, who had a public falling out with Aldis not long ago, helped walk Aldis to the ring for the match. Today, Aldis released a statement on his decision to have Jarrett in his corner.

In the statement, Aldis admitted he and Jarrett have had a falling out. Aldis also said he believes in second chances, however, and decided to give one to the man who gave him his first chance to be a World Champion.

Aldis has won both the Impact World Championship and the Global Force Wrestling World Championship as well.

Nick Aldis and Jeff Jarrett

Jarrett and Aldis had a falling out as it concerns Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling. Aldis opted not to sign a new contract with the promotion in 2017 as Jarrett was asking for 10% of all money GFW talent earned on the independent scene. Jarrett was looking for similar deals from Impact Wrestling talents when he was briefly in charge of the company again last year.

Aldis agreed to lose the GFW World Championship to Alberto El Patron last summer. He wrestled in one other match for the promotion and then left. Jarrett would eventually lose his position with Impact Wrestling and has since filed a lawsuit against the company. Jarrett is primarily wrestling for AAA in Mexico these days where he recently lost the AAA Mega Championship to Fenix.

Joey Mercury Arrested

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This past Saturday in Illinois was home to the big indy event, “All In”. While a lot of indy talent attended and performed at the event, a producer for the show couldn’t make due to the fact that he got arrested.

The Schaumburg police department of Illinois has reported that Adam Carlson Birch, aka Joey Mercury, was arrested outside the Marriot Schaumburg (the location of Starrcast this past weekend).

Wrong Place At The Wrong Time

Police arrived on the scene after getting a notice that a male was sleeping in a vehicle at the Marriot. They approached Mercury and ran his information and discovered that he was wanted for an outstanding warrant in Orange County, Florida. Thus getting arrested for the warrant.

At this time there is no word on what were the chargers of Mercury’s Orange County warrant but is being held on a $2,500 bail in Cook County Correctional Facility. Mercury has a court date on 9/4/2018 and is expected to be extradited back to Florida by then.

WWE Career

Joey Mercury signed with WWE back in 2002. He would later debut as one half of the tag team known as MNM in 2005, where he would be paired with then, Jonny Nitro, and Melina.  Mercury would be released in 2007 but would return back in 2010 to work the Straight Edge Alliance angle with CM Punk. After his 2010 run, Mercury would work as a producer for the company and received praise for his innovational ideas and finishes for many matches. Unfortunately, Mercury would be released from WWE in 2017 and found work as a producer in ROH.

Two Superstar Ratings For WWE 2K19 Revealed, Cool Jeff Hardy Face Paint Time-Lapse Video

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Two Superstar Ratings For WWE 2K19 Revealed

The WWE Superstar ratings are slowly but surely coming out for the upcoming release of the latest edition of WWE video games, WWE 2K19. The publisher revealed the ratings and in-game screenshots for Braun Strowman and Velveteen Dream on Twitter over the weekend. As a result, they join the Riott Squad and AJ Styles as the superstars that have had their ratings announced thus far.

The game will be released on October 9, 2018 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. As noted, WWE Champion Styles will be on the cover of the game while Rey Mysterio and WWE RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey will be featured as the pre-order bonus characters.

Jeff Hardy Face Paint Time-Lapse Video

Former WWE United States Champion Jeff Hardy is known for his creativity and one way of showing that off is by doing a different style of face paint each time he competes inside of a WWE ring whether that be on television, pay-per-view or live events. WWE released this cool time-lapse video of Hardy applying the paint for an episode of SmackDown Live, which you can see here:

Hardy is slated to take on Randy Orton in a Hell in a Cell match at the upcoming pay-per-view event on Sunday, September 16, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas at the AT&T Center and will air on the WWE Network.

Naomi Teases Potential Opponent At WWE Evolution

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WWE Evolution is getting closer by the week and the company has teased another match that could take place at the show. That match is a contest between Naomi and former WWE Women’s Champion Melina. WWE released this video of Naomi talking about who she wants to face at this event, which you can see here:

The only match that has been confirmed for this show is WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, who is coming out of retirement once again, to face former RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss.

The Evolution pay-per-view event takes place on Sunday, October 28, 2018 in Long Island, New York at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum and will air on the WWE Network.

WWE Hall of Famer Lita, WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella, Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Asuka, Nia Jax, Ember Moon, Natalya, Shayna Baszler, Bayley, Sasha Banks and NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane are all advertised for this show.

It should be noted that WWE’s original announcement for the show advertised that the RAW, SmackDown, and NXT Women’s Titles would be defended at this show. The Nassau Coliseum website mentioned an NXT UK Women’s Title bout for the show, so we could see this new championship defended on October 28th.

Who do you want to see Naomi wrestle against at this upcoming show? Sound off in the comment section.

Indie Show Nearly Shut Down After Sami Callihan Match

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There was a situation at the AAW show in the Chicago area at the Logan Square Auditorium over the weekend that had some drama. It all started once Jimmy Jacobs and Sami Callihan had a match together that at one point saw management step in and nearly shut down the show. PWinsider.com is reporting that Callihan ended up being tossed from the show.

It all started once the match took place and during it, Callihan decided to put Jacobs under a drum riser, which is part of the stage, then stacked hard plastic chairs on top of him. This is when one member of the building’s management got so upset to the point where the person got on the microphone to tell Callihan not to break the venue’s chairs. The two wrestlers ended the match with Callihan winning.

Following the match, Callihan was told to be removed from the venue and security asked him to leave. It was noted in the report that Callihan thought it was part of the angle which led to him shoving and cursing until one of the security guards told him they had a gun as well as threatened to shoot if he didn’t stop. As a result, Callihan was removed from the building.

Even though they had a break to allow the fans to cool off, the show continued on after the incident and was allowed to finish. It should be noted that there was one point where AAW as a whole was nearly thrown out of the venue because of the incident. The show continued because of the two sides coming to an agreement to keep things running for the fans.

After the show, Callihab took to his official Twitter account where he wrote the following, “Got into a fight with security tonight @AAWPro, and almost started a riot. Typical Friday night for #TheDRAW.”

What Happened After All In Went Off Air?

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The pay-per-view feed for All In cut out shortly after the 3-count in the night’s main event. Live inside Sears Center Arena, however, an extended celebration took place.

Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix thanked the crowd as Kenny Omega and Cody came out to join them. The Massie family along with some of their small children also filled the ring as confetti drifted down from the ceiling.

Omega gave his standard “Goodnight and Goodbye speech” while Cody reiterated that WWE does no own pro-wrestling.

Cody, Kenny Omega, the Young Bucks, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page

The group reiterated that they will not be splitting up when their contracts come due in 2019. This likely means they will not be going to WWE next year as Scurll’s contract commits him to ROH past then.

What happens when Omega, Cody and the Bucks are all free agents in a few months should be interesting. Both WWE and Sinclair should have the money to keep the stable but its also possible multiple non-WWE promotions could work together to provide the team with a joint offer. What this new era of non-WWE promotions working together means should become more apparent during what is looking to become the hottest free agent period in wrestling since the Monday Night War era.

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Next up for most of the crew will be NJPW’s Destruction tour. Omega’s next IWGP Heavyweight Championship match is on September 15th versus Tomohiro Ishii.

Chris Jericho Reveals Mad Dash Between All In and Fozzy Concert

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Fans of Chris Jericho’s rock band, Fozzy, were likely surprised to see him appear at All In last night. The event happened to fall within a set of dates that the band had 4 straight shows to perform.

It is believed Jericho arrived at All In show shortly before it began. He then stayed hidden in the Young Bucks dressing room until it was time for him to appear. Jericho then left the building and hopped on a plane to get to a Fozzy show in Meriam, KS.

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Following his attack on Omega, Jericho boarded a plane while still wearing Pentagon makeup in order to make it to Fozzy’s show later that night. Jericho is back on the road with Fozzy again tonight and has a show in Madison, WI.

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Chris Jericho At All In

Jericho’s appearance at All in is significant for a few reasons. Although he didn’t wrestle a match, Jericho did contribute in a significant way on a non-WWE pro-wrestling show held in the United States. He had previously said he would not do as such but then more recently stated he had changed his mind on the matter.

After attacking Omega, Jericho challenged Omega to a match on his upcoming cruise at the end of October. On Twitter, Jericho said there are under 100 cabins left to be sold on his cruise and he is probably hoping the marquee matchup is what sells the boat out.

All In Main Event Cut Short, PPV Almost Went Off Air Before Finish

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During the main event of last night’s All In pay-per-view, voices could be heard yelling “Go home!” as the wrestlers scrambled to ensure the match ended before the feed cut out.

The main event Trios match featuring the Golden Elite vs Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix had to be cut short. The match was supposed to go just under 30 minutes but ended up going less than half that time.

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“The main event got cut from 28 to 12,” Bryan Alvarez said on Wrestling Observer radio. “I guess the Hangman Page match went long and the Marty Scurll match went long.”

All In Main Event Cut Short

As the match was on traditional pay-per-view in addition to streaming services, the show had a strict window within which to work. During the match, it was said they were hoping to get the finish in with 2 minutes to spare but in the end, the finish came with only seconds to go.

Alvarez and Meltzer lamented that had the 6 performers had the full 28 minutes to perform, it would have been a heck of a match.

“It’s too bad because there was an incredible amount of talent in that match,” Meltzer said. “They didn’t get a chance to show what they can do by any means.”