The passing of former WWE Tag Team Champion Brian Christopher (Grandmaster Sexay) has saddened the professional wrestling world.
Christopher passed away at a Tennessee hospital after an apparent suicide attempt in prison. He attempted to hang himself and subsequently passed after his family got the opportunity to say their final goodbyes.
Earlier that week Christopher was arrested for a DUI and attempting to evade police. The Hardeman County Sheriff John Doolen revealed that, due to his notoriety, Christopher was placed in a cell by himself.
He also noted that Christopher wasn’t on suicide watch because the Sheriff’s Department “had no indication he was suicidal.” This has greatly upset former WWE star Sean “X-Pac” Waltman.
Waltman took to his podcast, X-Pac 12360, and expressed his frustration by the entire matter:
“I’m really pissed about this, really pissed,” Waltman said. “Because I’ve been in that situation in more than one way. And you don’t take someone that’s not done something violent or isn’t a danger to others.
“Even then, you don’t put somebody in solitary confinement. You don’t put people in solitary confinement for that long that didn’t do s–t and then go, ‘Oh, it wasn’t solitary confinement.’
“It’s f–king solitary confinement! I’ve been in it, if you’ve never actually been in it I don’t want to hear it from you at all. It’s torture.
“It drives you crazy, you don’t have to be suicidal, you become suicidal. You stay in there with no one to talk too staring at the walls for that long.”
Sharing Demons
He then dove into the similar issues he had to Christopher’s. Waltman revealed he once attempted to hang himself as well:
“I’ve been there and I’ve hung myself and so I know. I have a pretty good idea of where [Christopher] was and it’s just about the worst place you can ever imagine. Not only are you in the lowest possible place but you die that way.
“You never come up out of it… I love [Christopher], I was tight with Brian in WWE. He was crazy as f–k no doubt, but if you knew him like I did you would know he’s a real wonderful guy.”
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRTT1KvjVFQ]
Samoa Joe has found himself in the main event scene over on SmackDown Live.
The former NXT Champion will challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam later this month. The event goes down on pay-per-view (PPV) from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on August 19, 2018.
“The Destroyer” spoke to Sportskeeda about his WWE Championship opportunity. During their conversation Joe also discussed having worked on both the RAW and SmackDown Live brands. Joe explained the differences in backstage environments between the two shows:
“Well, backstage, I do my own thing and have my own spots in the locker room so environmentally it’s not very different for me. But, the backstage environments are vastly different, but that is mainly because of the personalities.
“You’ve got some very unique individuals in the WWE and it’s a completely different nexus on SmackDown than it is on Raw.”
Joe also talked about possibly winning the WWE Title, who he’d like his first defense to be against and who has the best chance to shine on the main roster from NXT. You can read the full interview here.
The G1 Climax 28 has completed 13 shows so far. There are still another 6 to go. With the A-Block only having two matches left and the B-Block just 3, we can start to see who could realistically win this thing.
G1 Climax tie-breaker rules:
A tie between two wrestlers is broken based on the result in their 1-on-1 match.
If 2 or more wrestlers are tied at the end of round-robin the winner is determined based on which wrestler has the most points in only the matches against the other wrestlers they are tied with.
G1 Climax 28 A-Block (2 nights remaining)
The A-Block is likely coming down to the Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi match on the final night of the round-robin on August 10th.
Jay White holds the tie-breaker over both Okada and Tanahashi, however, so if he wins his remaining two matches and Okada beats Tanahashi on the final night, then he’d move on to the finals. White would move on to the finals with most multi-person tie situations as a result of his victories over both Okada and Tanahashi early in the tournament. Suzuki lost to both Okada and Tanahashi (although he did beat Evil and Jay White), so I believe he is mathematically eliminated at this point (there is a lot of math here and I’m no Scott Steiner)
If Evil wins his remaining two matches against Jay White and Okada and Okada beats Tanahashi on the final night, then he’d move on.
With a record of 5 wins and 0 losses, Kenny Omega is just 2 wins away from clinching the B-Block. He’s only got 3 matches left, however, meaning he could clinch the block before the final night of the round-robin.
If Omega defeats Tomohiro Ishii tomorrow, he’d only need to defeat Toru Yano on August 8th to win the group. Naito would need Omega to lose 2 of his final 3 matches due to Omega having the tie-breaker over him. Ibushi needs Omega to lose to either Ishii or Yano otherwise he would be mathematically eliminated by the time he faces Omega on the final night.
Kenny Omega (12pts)
Tetsuya Naito (10pts)
Kota Ibushi (8pts)
Sanada (6pts) – eliminated
Zack Sabre Jr (6pts) – eliminated
Hirooki Goto (4pts) – eliminated
Tomohiro Ishii (4pts) – eliminated
Juice Robinson (4pts) – eliminated
Tama Tonga (4pts) – elminated
Toru Yano (2pts) – eliminated
Night 14 (B Block)
August 4th, 2018
Juice Robinson vs Zack Sabre Jr
Hirooki Goto vs Tama Tonga
Tomohiro Ishii vs Kenny Omega **
Toru Yano vs SANADA
Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi ***
** If Omega wins he only needs to win his next match (against Yano) to clinch the block
*** If Naito loses and Omega beats Ishii, Naito is eliminated.
Night 16 (B Block)
August 8th, 2018
Juice Robinson vs Tomohiro Ishii
Hirooki Goto vs Zack Sabre Jr
Toru Yano vs Kenny Omega **
Kota Ibushi vs Tama Tonga ***
Tetsuya Naito vs SANADA
** If Omega beats Ishii on Night 14 and defeats Yano here, he clinches the block.
Taya Valkyrie has cleared up her status with IMPACT Wrestling.
The near-10 year veteran has worked for promotions such as WWE, AAA, Lucha Underground and IMPACT. The 36-year-old Canadian, and wife of former WWE Intercontinental Champion John Morrison, recently spoke to Interactive Wrestling Radio.
She discussed her current status with IMPACT Wrestling and revealed she’s still working with the promotion:
“I’m still working with Impact. There’s nothing wrong or whatever. It just is the way that it is right now. I look forward to getting back there very shortly and continuing to do some great work with them.”
Valkyrie also put over the IMPACT Knockouts division, saying the roster is made up of some of the best wrestlers she has ever worked with:
“The female locker room, the Knockouts division, are some of the best female wrestlers I’ve ever encountered. I’m just really honored to be working with them.
“I’m just doing what I’m doing right now which is promoting Lucha Underground and all the projects I’m involved in. So, don’t you worry! I will be back in the Impact Zone! (laughs)”
As we’ve reported, WWE Superstar Kane has won his mayoral campaign in Knox County. “The Big Red Machine” is now the mayor elect of Knox County in Knoxville, Tennessee. He defeated Democratic adversary Linda Haney.
This makes Kane the third person in WWE history to acquire a position in political office, behind Jessie Ventura and Linda McMahon. Kane’s former WWE Tag Team Championship partner, The Undertaker, took to Instagram and congratulated his WWE storyline brother:
Another NWO Member Visits The WWE Performance Center
Scott Hall visited the WWE Performance Center this past week to help train the talent. PWInsider reports that Hall wasn’t the only member of the NWO who stopped by the Performance Center. Kevin Nash was also in attendance to share a thing or two with the young talent of WWE.
It looks like the WWE could make it a habit to continue to nab UFC stars from the MMA world.
After acquiring Ronda Rousey, holding a special Performance Center workout with ex-UFC champ Cain Velasquez and rumors of inking Matt Riddle to a deal – this could become the norm for WWE. Now WWE could possibly get their hands on Paige VanZant.
VanZant, a UFC strawweight contender, is one of the more beautiful fighters on the promotion’s roster. The WWE has shown interest in working with her before. VanZant opened up on the possibility in a recent interview with Fightful.
The 24-year-old is currently nursing an injury but says she’d still love to make a WWE appearance in the future:
“Yeah, definitely. Even before my career’s over, I’d love to make an appearance in WWE. I love the organization and it’s such a different form of athleticism, I think I’d have a great crossover because of my Dancing With The Stars Experience, and MMA experience, and athletic background.
“I’m focused right now on just healing my arm, I can’t really do anything until that’s done. I wouldn’t say necessarily there’s a specific person I like watching. I’m really into the WWE Divas, whenever the women are on, I focus on them.
“I pay attention (to Ronda) as much as I can. I would love to go to the live show,” said VanZant. “I have a lot of things in the works, I’m still building up my career while I can.”
If you ever wanted to smell just like the members of Bullet Club, now is your chance. A special Bullet Club cologne will be released by New Japan Pro Wrestling tomorrow.
NJPW has previously released “King of King” and “Fighting Spirit” scents in the past as well.
Although we are currently unaware of what this cologne smells like, a few potential odors seem possible:
The Bullet Club Cologne might smell like:
ProWrestling Tees packaging.
Bad Luck Fale’s post-match scent.
It smells like nothing but 5 minutes after you put it on you are attacked by Tanga Loa and win your G1 match by disqualification.
Cody’s ego.
WCW Nitro Cologne
WCW released a cologne late in their existence. There are still Amazon listings for it online. WWE released both a cologne and a perfume during their Attitude Era. Currently, John Cena is the spokesperson for a line of Axe Body Sprays as well. So, there is a history of wrestling companies promoting similar products.
NJPW G1 Climax 28
The G1 Climax tournament has a day off today but they are back in Osaka tomorrow for B-Block action.
Tetsuya Naito vs Kota Ibushi
Kenny Omega vs Tomohiro Ishii
Juice Robinson vs Zack Sabre Jr
Hirooki Goto vs Tama Tonga
Toru Yano vs SANADA
As Omega is still undefeated he needs just two more wins to clinch the block. Meaning if he beats Ishii and then Yano, he’ll have already clinched the block when he faces Kota Ibushi. If he was to lose to Ibushi still, however, it would set up a future title match between the two.
Of note here is that if Omega defeats Ishii tomorrow it would mean his match against Toru Yano would be to clinch the block. Only one wrestler, Tetsuya Naito, trails Omega by only 2pts and Omega has the tie-breaker over him.
Impact Wrestling’s second episode since Slammiversary aired last night. It was the 2nd episode of the 12 which will air before Bound for Glory on October 14th, 2018.
Impact has two more shows from the recent Toronto tapings before they film 4 more episodes from Rebel Nightclub on August 12th and 13th.
Here are 9 Takeaways From Impact Wrestling 8/2
Allie Pinned the Knockouts Champion & Tessa Blanchard Was Not Happy About It
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch_PdL4gfT4
Last week on Impact Wrestling, Allie said she was going after Su Yung to make sure she never locked anyone in a coffin again. Kiera Hogan volunteered to help her in this task as well.
This week Allie and Hogan teamed up to take on Yung and an Undead Bridesmaid in tag action. Yung gave the Panic Switch to Hogan but the momentum knocked the Girl on Fire out of the ring. Allie then hit a codebreaker on Yung and pinned her for the win.
A win over the champion often puts the wrestler in a position to challenge for the title but Allie lost a match at Slammiversary to Tessa Blanchard. Perhaps this was what Blanchard was thinking about when she attacked Allie after the match.
Blanchard cut a backstage promo afterward stating that Allie was trying to weasel her way into a title shot by taking on Yung under the premise of wanting to protect others from the Undead Bride’s actions.
Ortiz Was Going To Hit Homicide With An Ax!
After King’s OGZ won a squash match against two local competitors, they cut a promo running down LAX, believing Konnan and company were still on the shelf. Santana, Ortiz, and Konnan rushed the ring, however, and took out the OGZ.
Things took a bit of a turn when Ortiz brought out an ax and looked to strike Homicide with it. This brought out additional security and Konnan separated his boys from the fight. Konnan told them in the back that timing is everything and when the timing is right the OGZ will “kiss the ring.”
Ortiz and Santana were this week’s guests on the Impact media call. We asked them what it’s like to go from watching LAX as teenagers 11 years ago to being LAX now in Impact.
“LAX has been something we’ve watched since when we were kids,” Santana said. “The fact that two Latinos out there not like playing a gimmick but being them and being proud of who they are and what they represent.”
KM & Fallah Ball Aren’t On The Same Page (The Desi Hit Squad Are)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ugd3NOGAtE
Impact was telling two stories this week when the Desi Hit Squad defeated the team of KM and Fallah Bah.
The first story was how the Great Gama Singh is guiding Rohit Raju and Gursinder Singh to being an old-school heel-style tag-team. They win their matches either through clever tag-team work or dirty under-handed tactics.
The second story is the team of KM and Fallah Bah not being on the same page. KM had been trying to teach Fallah when to distract the referee but evidently, Bah’s not the greatest student. Fallah tried to enter the ring when KM was in control of the match. KM tried to tell him “this isn’t when you distract the ref!” but the distraction allowed the Desi Hit Squad to hit a combination knee to the face and a flatliner for the win.
Johnny Impact Is Looking For Kongo Kong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDF6oXqJDN8
“You know, for a big guy, Kongo Kong is a pretty hard guy to find these days,” Impact said to Alicia Atout.
Jimmy Jacobs interrupted his interview and looked to begin a promo when Johnny just wound up and punched him in the mouth. He let Jacobs know he wants Kongo Kong and he doesn’t appear to be playing around on this one.
Eddie Edwards Will Challenge Austin Aries For the Impact World Championship Next Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQW6q6vYgbE
Austin Aries defeated Dustin Cameron this week via corner stoppage. The champion had the challenger beaten but opted not to pin him in favor of giving him another brainbuster. That’s when Anthony Carelli threw in the towel to prevent his Battle Arts Academy student from taking any more punishment.
After the match Carelli kicked Aries in the groin, causing the champion to stumble back on the entrance ramp. That’s where he was greeted by Eddie Edwards and a Singapore cane. Edwards hit him with the cane but Aries was able to escape before receiving more punishment.
Josh Matthews then announced Edwards will face Aries next week for the Impact World Championship.
Scarlett Bordeaux Really Had An Impact on Bobo
Alicia Atout was not assigned to interview Scarlett Bordeaux this week. Atout was likely not impressed at how she was treated by Bordeaux last week.
Instead of Atout, a guy named Bob was given the task of interviewing Bordeaux. He was left a little tongue-tied by Bordeaux’s antics. After dismissing who Josh Matthews thought was a horribly aged Jeremy Borash, Bordeaux reminded us she plans to bring sexy back to wrestling.
“I think that people will be pleasantly surprised as we move forward,” Callis said. “She’s actually a very good wrestler and I think it got people talking in a good way.”
Eli Drake and Trevor Lee defeated Grado and Joe Hendry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39dkwMbFQ60
Drake pinned Grado after giving him the Gravy Train this week. Grado was distracted by the actions of Joe Hendry and Katarina on the outside. Katarina was getting into an argument with Caleb Konley and Hendry was restraining her.
There was more speculation from Callis and Matthews at commentary that Hendry and Katarina have something going on behind Grado’s back.
Matt Sydal Accepts Losing the X-Division Championship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JflTo5tli0I
“The X-Division championship chose him,” Sydal said. “Who am I to question what that belt has done with itself? Because its history speaks for itself. I’m really proud of all the time I put in as X-Division Champion.”
He would continue to say his loss to Brian Cage taught him something. He said he still has much to learn and still needs to go deeper into his consciousness and “question everything”. The X-Division title was once his destiny but not anymore.
The Lucha Bros Took Out oVe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d50dB48baXw
In an exciting main event, Pentagon Jr and Fenix fended off outside interference from Sami Callihan and repeated unmasking attempts in order to get the victory over oVe this week.
Sami Callihan has responded to having his head shaved by descending further into madness. His minions from Ohio losing to Pentagon and Fenix isn’t going to help that situation at all.
Callihan’s attempt at revenge was thwarted this week but he likely isn’t finished with Pentagon or Fenix.
Impact 8/2 Quick Results:
Allie & Kiera Hogan defeated Su Yung & An Undead Bridesmaid
The OGZ (Homicide & Hernandez) defeated 2 Local Competitors
The Desi Hit Squad defeated KM & Fallah Bah
Impact World Championship
Austin Aries (c) defeated Dustin Cameron via corner stoppage
Eli Drake & Trevor Lee defeated Grado & Joe Hendry
The Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr & Fenix) defeated oVe (Jake & Dave Crist)
Matches scheduled for next week:
Impact World Championship
Austin Aries (c) vs Eddie Edwards
Darren Young never won a singles title in WWE but it turns out there was a time when he had the opportunity to do so and his opponent was ready to drop the title as well, only for things to fall apart.
Young was recently a guest on Two Man Powertrip of Wrestling Podcast, where he talked about his post-WWE life, being paired with Bob Backlund and more.
While talking about his 2016 feud with the Miz, he revealed that the Miz who was the Intercontinental Champion at the time was ready to drop the title to him but the creatives decided against it:
“He was actually for me beating him for the Intercontinental title at Battleground. Miz was all about saying to give the title to Darren and then I’ll take it back from him. I guess I wasn’t a favorite to someone under Vince and eventually it got kiboshed.”
Darren Young was paired with Bob Backlund back in May 2016 and not too long after this, he won an 18 man Battle Royal to become the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship.
However, he failed to capture the title at Battleground and after this; he started a rivalry with his former partner Titus O’Neil. This feud didn’t go anywhere and Young was released by the company in January the next year.
While almost everybody expects Daniel Bryan to resign with WWE, the fact that he hasn’t done it yet is surprising to many and is slowly becoming a topic of discussion.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Bryan has not re-signed with the company as of this week and his current contract expires on September 1st.
He has also been removed from some Live Events in near future to lighten his schedule which Bryan had asked for and the officials are working with him to make him happy.
However what’s interesting to note here is that according to Meltzer, the promo Miz cut on him during this week’s episode of SmackDown is proof that the Officials are not happy with Daniel for not resigning yet.
Not only that but while the Wrestling Journalist himself expects the former World Champion to resign, he says that “there’s a lot of weird stuff going on”. Though he didn’t explain this comment further.
Daniel Bryan is currently involved in a rivalry with the Miz and while it hasn’t been announced officially yet, it’s very likely that these two will meet each other in a match at SummerSlam.
It’s believed that the outcome of this bout will be heavily dependent on Bryan’s contractual status and so we should get an idea about his future with the company from how they handle this bout at the PPV.
While the card for the upcoming NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV looks to be all set, it appears that the company has stumbled upon a roadblock on their way to the event.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer is reporting that the former NXT Champion Aleister Black got injured during a recent Live Event and had to undergo a surgery.
The Live Event in question took place in Las Vegas this past weekend and it saw Black challenging the NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa for his title in the main event of the show.
He suffered the injury after being crotched by the Champion. It has been noted that Aleister would be ok but the spot was described to be quite scary when it happened.
As of this writing, WWE has not released any official word on Black’s injury and the announced triple threat match among him, Ciampa and Johnny Gargano at the upcoming Takeover event is still on.
No word yet on how long the former NXT Champion will be out of action or how his surgery will affect this announced bout but we’ll keep you posted.
NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV will take place on August 18, 2018, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The shoot fight between Batista and Booker T from 2006 is one of the most famous backstage incidents from WWE of the ruthless aggression era.
Hannibal TV recently caught up with the former WCW Star and during the interview, he recalled that incident with the Animal among some other things.
T said that in combat sports, there is always going to be disagreement between the people working together and that’s what he and the Guardians Of The Galaxy Star had.
However, continuing on the topic, the former World Champion said that he has settled his disagreement with Batista and if he saw him today, he’d give the Hollywood Star a big hug and ask him what’s going on.
For those who don’t know, Batista and Booker T had a real-life backstage fight back in 2006 and T reportedly got the upper hand in their brawl due to his street fighting experience.
Batista had developed an attitude after moving to Raw from SmackDown and winning the World Championship. He was rubbing people the wrong way.
Booker T got into an argument with him after Dave made some bad comments and it developed into a 30 seconds shoot fight between the two before being broken by other stars. You can check out the full interview of Booker in the video below:
We noted before how Brock Lesnar cut a short promo on Roman Reigns after his appearance during this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw and the Beast said that he’ll kick Reigns’ ‘a*#’.
Now Roman has also commented on his upcoming match with the Universal Champion, while also calling out the Brooklyn crowd in the process.
The Big Dog sent the following tweet from his twitter account where he talked about the negative crowd reaction and hoped that the Brooklyn crowd is ready to get loud:
Whenever I’m in the ring, I hear the noise. It doesn’t shake me. It doesn’t anger me. I don’t run from the noise. I thrive in it. I hope Brooklyn’s ready to get loud because I’m ready to give them a show. And take the #UniversalTitle. #SummerSlam
Roman Reigns is set to challenge Brock Lesnar for his Universal Championship once again at the upcoming SummerSlam PPV on August 19th.
Tommaso Ciampa Reignites Old Feud With NXT Grandma
It was 5 months ago when Tommaso Ciampa got into an argument with a grandma during an NXT episode. He was quick to turn the whole thing into an angle by calling out all the grandma’s in the world to fight him:
Interestingly, Ciampa found the same grandma during the August 1st episode of NXT and being the great heel he is, the NXT Champion was quick to reignite this old feud:
The Big Red Machine is now the mayor of Knox County in Knoxville, Tennesse.
Glenn Jacob’s (Kane) win comes from the defeat of Democratic participant Linda Haney. After polls ended after 8 p.m. ET, Jacobs had a 2-1 win lead according to absentee votes and a win was inevitable.
Jacobs is the third person from the WWE to acquire a position in a political office. First being Jessie Ventura when he won the mayor position for Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in the ’90’s and then becoming governor from ’99-2003. Second being Linda McMahon as she is currently apart of Trump’s cabinet as head of Small Business Administration.
Congratulations to the new mayor of Knox County, The Big Red Machine Kane.
Unlike his former tag-team partner, Enzo Amore, Big Cass is not retiring from pro-wrestling. The match will take place just days after Cass’ 90-day no-compete clause with WWE finishes.
Cass will be going under the ring-name “Big Cazz” for the show. Big Time Wrestling has added Cass to their event on September 21st in at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium in Spartanburg, SC.
Haku, Barbarian, James Ellsworth, Tommy Dreamer, Jim Duggan, Tenille Dashwood, and Mick Foley are all booked for the show. The promotion also frequently books Scott Steiner, Kevin Nash, and Jake Hager (FKA Jack Swagger).
Big Cass On The Indies
Jim Ross commented on Big Cass’ release shortly after it happened in June.
“I saw where Big Cass got released. I don’t know what it was, I have no idea and it’s none of my business,” Jim Ross said. “Hey look, I have had three sabbaticals from that company. Did I like it? Nope. Did it ruin my life and my career? Hell no.”
Ross would continue to say Cass’ future is still in his hands.
“So all he’s gotta do is figure out how I can get better how I can cure the perceived ills that I may or may not have. Your world’s not over. Don’t say anything stupid, don’t do anything stupid just get better. You’re too damn young with too much of an upside to not be able to resurrect yourself without question. Let’s keep an eye on how Big Cass progresses.”
At All In on September 1st, the Young Bucks will team with Kota Ibushi to face Rey Mysterio, Fenix, and Bandido. According to the Bucks, however, they were originally supposed to face a different team.
According to Nick Jackson, the Bucks were originally to face the Best Friends at All In. The team of Beretta and Chuck Taylor were evidently forgotten about, however. Only Cody was able to confirm they are booked for the show.
“Hey man what about best friends?” An All In ticket holder Tweeted. “I just want to see @trentylocks and @SexyChuckieT at all in tbh.”
Nick Jackson responded:
Originally we had them booked against us in a 6 man but we completely forgot about that match.
Cody then explained how the Best Friends were forgotten about.
Sorry if you don’t like your match. After Trent got hurt I was fairly certain he retired and then I saw him in the locker room last week all jacked up.
Former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch is in favor of the company introducing women’s tag team titles.
She made her feelings known while during a recent appearance on The Wrestling Compadres Podcast as she continues to push for that idea as the WWE star has tried to get over that could be used on both brands, RAW and SmackDown Live.
Lynch stated that she is constantly thinking about it and brainstorming and pitching for it as she thinks that it would be a wonderful step in the women’s progression. “It wouldn’t come as a shock if the WWE were to eventually create a women’s tag team division,” Lynch stated. She would continue by saying that they have a bloated roster of women and no shortage of resources to recruit the top international and indy wrestling talent.
She would go onto say that although they have a depth of women wrestlers in all three brands and Mae Young Classic, WWE needs more women on the main roster for RAW and SmackDown Live to make it work such but believes that it’s possible to do.
The big all-women’s event, WWE Evolution, takes place on Sunday, October 28th from Long Island, New York. The PPV will stream live on the WWE Network. In the mean time, Lynch is slated to challenge for the SmackDown Women’s Title when she wrestles Carmella and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match at SummerSlam.
What are your thoughts on Lynch pitching this idea? Sound off in the comment section.
Sheamus is no stranger to talking about former UFC Featherweight and Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor as the two stars have exchanged words in the past through interviews and the power of Twitter.
The former WWE champion spoke with TMZ about how the fact that former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey has opened opens to the door for UFC stars such as Mcgregor to sign with the WWE in the future.
“I think anything is possible now with Ronda in the WWE … Ronda’s killing it, so the door’s open for anybody.”
Rousey is slated to challenge Alexa Bliss for the WWE RAW Women’s Championship at the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view event that takes place on Sunday, August 19, 2018 in Brooklyn, New York at the Barclays Center and will air on the WWE Network.
On the flip side, McGregor is working on a deal that will see him not only make his UFC return but also challenge Khabib Nurmagomedov for the UFC lightweight title. This fight is being targeted for either the UFC 229 pay-per-view event is slated to take place on Saturday, October 6, 2018 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada or the UFC 230 show will go down on Saturday, November 3, 2018 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York City.
Revolution Pro Wrestling (Rev Pro) has announced more competitors for their upcoming British J Cup.
This will be the second iteration of the tournament, the debut field in 2017 included Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger, Kushida, Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, Kyle O’Reilly, Josh Bodom, Ryusuke Taguchi and Tiger Mask IV. This year’s tournament will be taking place from the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, England on September 8th and 9th.
The newly confirmed competitors include:
Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Rich Swann
SHO
YOH
Taguchi
Chris Ridgeway
Rocky Romero
El Phantasmo
Kyle Fletcher
Already announced for the competition is the inaugural winner of the tournament: Jushin Thunder Liger.
With the wealth of talent at Rev Pro’s disposal through their NJPW affiliation we could see a number of Junior division stars make their way into this increasingly prestigious field of competitors. Hopefully the likes of Hiromu Takahashi, Will Ospreay, Marty Scurll, KUSHIDA et al can be booked for the two nights, we’ll be updating the field as and when it is announced.
Rich Swann joins the field of 16 looking to become the winner of the 2nd Annual British J Cup!
“A Ghetto Soap Opera” is how Santana and Ortiz describe the LAX vs OGZ rivalry. The backstage scenes often resemble more of an HBO drama than a pro-wrestling show. Although LAX defeated the OGZ at Slammiversary, King’s team stole the belts, tagged them and are claiming them as their own.
Santana and Ortiz recently took part in an Impact Wrestling media call.
When the original LAX first hit the pro-wrestling scene over 10 years ago, Santana and Ortiz were only teenagers. We asked Santana and Ortiz how the original version of the faction influenced them when they were younger.
“LAX has been something we’ve watched since when we were kids,” Santana said. “The fact that two Latinos out there not like playing a gimmick but being them and being proud of who they are and what they represent.”
“It’s pretty surreal, it’s a pretty cool thing,” he continued. “I never would have thought when I was 14-15 years old that when I was watching them on tv, I never would have thought ‘hey I’m going to be at Slammiversary XVI wresting the original LAX and putting on one of the best matches in Impact history.”
Ortiz would say his background as a wrestling fan is different from Santana’s. He got into wrestling more in the early 2000s boom when Homicide was first making his mark.
“Homicide was definitely one of the dudes that was just killing it on the indies,” Ortiz said. He’d continue to say watching Homicide’s growth as a performer had an impact on him.
“This is a dude from where we come from and he’s killing it having these insane matches,” Ortiz continued. “Then putting him together with Hernandez and Hernandez is just a truck!”
“We can’t ask for a better position,” he continued. “We are carrying the ball and are going to take it to the moon.”
Santana and Ortiz have come from idolizing LAX to being LAX. Not only that, they are feuding with the original LAX over the Impact tag-team Championships.
LAX vs the Young Bucks on Chris Jericho’s Cruise
The OGZ aren’t the only tag-team LAX need to worry about, however. They have a big match coming up this October on Chris Jericho’s “Rock N Rager at Sea.”
Konnan challenged the Young Bucks to a match during a recent episode of the “Keepin’ it 100” podcast. The match was made official later the next day.
WoS has announced that they will be crowning the first ever Women’s Champion in World of Sport history this Saturday.
Three of the UK’s top independent Women’s performers will be colliding on mainstream British television for the brand new Championship. ICW and Mae Young Classic competitors Viper, Kay Lee Ray and Stardom performer Bea Priestley will face off on August 4th.
WoS will be available to view on ITV every Saturday night at 5pm throughout the Summer and all the way through to October. This Saturday will also feature a Ladder Match and the continuation of the Tag Team Championship tournament which will feature UK legend Doug Williams as well as Nathan Cruz and Adam ‘Flex’ Maxted.
SEScoops recently spoke to Viper and you can check out the full interview here.
PROGRESS will be heading to the United States for their #CoastToCoast tour this weekend and their first stop is at the legendary ECW Arena in Philadelphia this Saturday (08/04).
Here’s the full card for Saturday night:
ECW Rules Match – Rickey Shane Page vs Jimmy Havoc
Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) vs CCK
WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne vs Eddie Dennis
Jinny, Natalia Markova and Solo Darling vs Toni Storm, Ashley Vox and Jordynne Grace
TK Cooper and Shane Strickland vs Moustache Mountain
EVOLVE returns this weekend with two new shows. EVOLVE 108 is scheduled to take place on Saturday in Philadelphia, PA at the 2300 Arena and EVOLVE 109 on Sunday in Melrose, MA at the Melrose Memorial Hall.
The promotion has stacked the lineups for these upcoming events. The main event for Saturday’s show features Matt Riddle defending the EVOLVE Title against Shane Strickland while Sunday’s event will have Joey Janela defending the WNN Title against Darby Allin.
EVOLVE 108
EVOLVE Championship Match – Hardcore Rules Matt Riddle defends vs. Shane Strickland EVOLVE Tag Team Championship Match Chris Dickinson & Jaka with Stokely Hathaway & Dom Garrini defend vs. Tracy Williams & TK Cooper Non-Title Special Challenge Match WWN Champion Joey Janela with Penelope Ford vs. AR Fox with Ayla & The Skulk Grudge Match Darby Allin vs. Austin Theory with Priscilla Kelly Four Way Freestyle JD Drake vs. Jon Davis vs. Josh Briggs vs. Odinson with Parrow & Drennen Special Attraction Match Anthony Henry vs. Saieve Al Sabah
EVOLVE 109
WWN Championship Match Joey Janela with Penelope Ford defends vs. Darby Allin Non-Title Champion vs. Champion Match EVOLVE Champion Matt Riddle vs. FIP World Heavyweight Champion Austin Theory No Holds Barred EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Chris Dickinson with Stokely Hathaway vs. Tracy Williams Special Challenge Match EVOLVE Tag Team Champion Jaka with Stokely Hathaway vs. Josh Briggs Special Attraction Match Shane Strickland vs. Saieve Al Sabah
What are your thoughts on this lineup? Do you plan on watching? Sound off in the comment section
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual G1 Climax is widely regarded as the greatest tournament in pro wrestling today. Two blocks of competitors are competing in a round robin format to determine the number 1 contender to Kenny Omega’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship at January 4th’s Wrestle Kingdom. The tournament has now begun and here are the results from Night 13:
Michael Elgin b. Bad Luck Fale – Elgin took the disqualification win after Tama Tonga interferes and beats Elgin with a chair
Hangman Page b. Togi Makabe – Page took the pinfall win with Rite of Passage
“Switchblade” Jay White b. YOSHI-HASHI – White took the pinfall win with Blade Runner
Hiroshi Tanahashi b. EVIL – Tanahashi took the pinfall win with High Fly Flow
Kazuchika Okada b. Minoru Suzuki – Okada took the pinfall win with the Rainmaker
Alicia Fox will welcome Ronda Rousey to the Monday Night RAW ring next week.
Fox will go one-on-one with “The Rowdy One” in her first match on the program. Fox is one of the more rambunctious female characters in WWE. While most would describe her character as “crazy,” Fox prefers using words such as “sassy” and “firecracker.”
She recently spoke to Void Magazine and described her TV character. Fox also revealed some pointers she received from Vince McMahon. “The Chairman Of The Board” told Fox to go crazy, tear things up and mess with the announcers:
“My character, well, she’s I guess kind of sassy. Her thing is like, “fancy as a fox.” [laughs]. I’ve developed into this like off the wall, firecracker. The word ‘crazy’ might not capture it. But I came back from injury and turned into a heel [bad guy].
“We’ve been reintroducing the character. I’ve been bullying people. It’s really fun to play the bad guy, the coward. I get the crowd riled up, throw drinks at them [laughs]. It started in one match, where they told me just to throw a fit. [WWE Executive] Vince [McMahon] told me to just go crazy, tear things up, knock the announcer’s hat off his head.
“Throw iPads in water. So after my match, I didn’t know how it was going to go, but I just did it. And the crowd really reacted. It was this whole mood swing. It really worked.”
