PROGRESS Wrestling will be presenting Chapter 124: Cakehorn! This Saturday from the Theatre Peckham in London.
The main event of the show will see Kings of The North make their return to the company for the first time since 2019 to challenge for the PROGRESS Tag Team Championships against Smokin Aces.
The Revelations of Divine Love tournament will also be continuing, with Laura Di Matteo vs Skye Smitson and Rhio vs Lana Austin rounding out the first round.
ELIJAH will also be getting a second chance to face NorthWest Strong member Ethan Allen, after losing to the Manchester-based performer on Chapter 123: The Taking of Peckham.
PROGRESS Chapter 124
Here’s the full card for the show:
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match: Smokin’ Aces vs Kings Of The North
Revelations Of Divine Love Round 1: Laura Di Matteo vs Skye Smitson
Ethan Allen vs Elijah
Dan Moloney, Man Like Dereiss & Jody Flesich vs Warren Banks & Lykos Gym
Revelations Of Divine Love Round 1: Rhio vs Lana Austin
Sunshine Machine vs LK Mezinger & Sandy Beach
Gene Munny vs Danny Black
Luke Jacobs vs KEINEN Krishna
Raven Creed vs Lizzy Evo
The show will be available to watch this Saturday, October 16th at 5PM GMT on Peacock, WWE Network and demandPROGRESS.
MLW star and GCW Tag Team Champion Mance Warner is reportedly set to be leaving Major League Wrestling as of the end of January 2022.
Cassidy Haynes of BodySlam.net recently reported that Warner’s contract is set to end early next year, and that AEW are extremely interested in bringing in the tenured independent star.
“In an update on Mance Warner’s contract status with MLW I have confirmed after speaking with multiple sources that his contract is set to expire at the end of January 2022.”
BODYSLAM
Mance Warner has reportedly made multiple requests to be released from his MLW contract over the past year, but these have been turned down.
Warner is now quietly awaiting free agency before he makes his next move, and apparently, All Elite and WWE’s NXT brand are looking at bringing in the ‘Southern Psycho.’
As mentioned, Warner is one half of the GCW Tag Team Champions with Matthew Justice.
The team is set to defend their GCW Tag Titles against The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) at GCW War Ready on October 23rd.
AEW’s play-by-play ace, Jim Ross doesn’t see Rampage moving to two hours permanently.
Rampage is a new weekly AEW show that is only two months old. It’s a one-hour show that has received one two-hour special thus far. Many have enjoyed Rampage being just one hour as it feels the show simply breezes by without filler.
Jim Ross Dismisses Two Hours For Rampage
During an episode of his Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross shared his belief that Rampage won’t be moving to two hours anytime soon.
“That one-hour show on Friday night seems like it flies by. I think that the one-hour format still has its place. Two would be my absolute limit unless you’re doing a PPV where people are paying more, and you get more on a PPV. I think the one-hour thing still works. I don’t see Rampage going to two hours. I don’t see any of Tony Khan’s over-the-air content ever going to three hours. Who the hell knows for sure, but I would be surprised if that ever happened. I think we’ve all learned good lessons about these three-hour RAWs. It’s not done for artistic benefit. It’s done for the money. USA is paying a lot more money for that third hour of prime time television that’s live every week, but to me, it’s a little bit long.”
Rampage has already had some memorable moments. In the show’s debut, Christian Cage defeated Kenny Omega to capture the Impact Wrestling World Championship. On the Aug. 20 edition of Rampage, CM Punk made his return to the wrestling industry and received one of the loudest ovations you will ever hear.
AEW star Brian Cage has shared his thoughts on working with Team Taz and his time as the FTW champion. The Machine appeared on Dynamite Download this week and discussed his feud with his former faction.
Cage says he’s ready to move on from the rivalry and admits that he didn’t love working with Taz when he was a member of the group. When asked by host Sean Downey if he felt misused during his time with Team Taz, Cage gave his honest opinion.
“…I’ve said it to you, I was like look Taz you don’t really care about me. You don’t really care about how I’m being looked at or represented,” said Cage. He continued, “You just care about how it makes you look. You just trying to live vicariously through me and that’s why you gave me the FTW title.”
Brian Cage Rivalry with Team Taz
Cage made his AEW debut on May 23, 2020, at AEW Double or Nothing after winning the Casino Ladder match with Taz as his manager. On July 8, 2020, Taz gave Cage the FTW Championship, which Taz made famous. However, Cage felt he didn’t need it.
“…The FTW title too, which I never asked for Obviously. It was just gifted to me,” said Cage. While being appreciative, he also shared he was indifferent to being the FTW champion.
“…We never really did that much with it. It was cool, I was indifferent on the whole thing. And obviously how it all ended, how I lost it and, everything else it exactly doesn’t sit well with me,” said, Cage.
Cage lost the FTW championship to Ricky Starks this year on the July 14th episode of AEW Dynamite. Team Taz turned on Cage, which led to him feuding with the group. During their time together, Cage shared that his issues with Taz affected other members of the group.
He shared that he and Taz would critique each other, which led to disagreements. “…I don’t want to say we were butting heads, but it wasn’t working out and then it kind of fell through with everyone else,” said Cage.
While he didn’t have issues with Will Hobbs or Hook, he admitted that disagreements with Taz led to issues with Starks. “…I didn’t really butt that many heads with Will or Hook actually. It was more with Ricky trying to steal the spotlight and Taz kind of trying to live vicariously through me said,” Cage.
What’s Next for Cage
The feud with Team Taz seemed to have ended at AEW Rampage on October 8th. Starks defeated Cage in a rematch for the FTW Championship. While Cage is ready to move on from the feud, he doesn’t know what AEW has planned for him. He also made a case for him being the number one contender for the AEW World Championship, if Adam Page defeats Kenny Omega at Full Gear.
Regardless of AEW’s plans, Cage is looking forward to a fresh start after dealing with Team Taz.
AEW President Tony Khan has big respect for Bray Wyatt and could see them working together at some point.
Wrestling fans were stunned upon receiving the news that Wyatt had been released by WWE. After all, Wyatt was in a main event role as The Fiend and is a former WWE Champion and a former two-time WWE Universal Champion.
Khan recently told the folks over at WFAN that he hasn’t spoken to Wyatt yet but he seemingly left the door open.
When speaking to the New York Post, Khan showed more optimism in a conversation with Bray Wyatt (Windham Rotunda) taking place at some point in the future.
“Yeah. I really like Windham,” said Khan. “I know him a little bit and I really enjoy him. The last time I saw him was at Chris Jericho’s birthday party and that was a long time ago.”
Khan continued by heaping praise on the former WWE Superstar and could see them working together in the future.
“I like him as a person very much and he’s a really talented person. At the right time and place, sure I’d be interested to talk to him. I’m interested to talk to him in general because he’s a great person.”
Wyatt competed at WrestleMania 37 earlier this year, losing to Randy Orton. He appeared in a backstage segment on Monday Night Raw the following night. This marked his final appearance on WWE TV.
Many have speculated what kind of role Wyatt can be put in if he ends up signing with AEW. The most popular direction seems to be filling the late Brodie Lee’s shoes and taking over as the leader of The Dark Order.
Whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.
Molly Holly had to shave her hair after losing her title vs. hair match against the then women’s champion Victoria at WrestleMania 20. According to the female star, she was the one who pitched the idea to WWE creative.
The WWE Hall Of Famer recently had an interview with Shoot Conversations. Reflecting on the match, she wished that they had a longer build for the bout.
Discussing the unique stipulation of their match, Holly revealed that she was the one who pitched the idea. She had to take the drastic measure because the alternative was not having a match at the show at all:
“It was just pretty much, they said they weren’t going to have a Women’s Title match at WrestleMania, they said there was no room for it. I was like, ‘drastic times call for drastic measures.'”
How Molly Holly Felt After Getting Approval
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1EmdqVUaE
Molly Holly described how she made a plan and took photos of herself in a bald cap in hopes of convincing the management. She then recalled pitching the idea and revealed how she felt when it was approved:
“I think the photographs of me with the bald head helped. Like, ‘oh, this does look pretty dramatic.’ I pitched it and couldn’t believe that they were like, ‘yeah, that’ll work. I believe I walked into an office where there was like Stephanie, Vince, Brian Gewirtz, Ed Koskey, and a room full of people,”
The wrestling veteran later also described how she felt after getting her head shaved. She claimed that it was freeing. According to her, if completely shaving head was common for girls, it would be the hairstyle she would keep.
The massive expansion of social media has given people a platform to share their thoughts freely. Though it also means that anyone can say whatever they want, without checking its accuracy. It’s the thing that Tony Khan dislikes the most. The AEW president recently appeared on My Mom’s Basement podcast. He confirmed the main event for the upcoming Full Gear PPV among other things.
Discussing what he doesn’t like about wrestling twitter, Khan said that anyone can spread a lie or make up a rumor and everyone takes it as a fact:
“The biggest thing is, somebody says something on wrestling Twitter that’s a lie or make a rumor up and then everybody takes it as fact as this one person made it up as truth. People run with it and there are a lot of things that have gotten traction. If you, you’re like, ‘that’s not true,’ but one person said it and you can almost track it back. There’s a lot of stuff that isn’t true.”
Tony Khan On Advantage Of Social Media
Though Tony Khan also discussed the flip side of this expansion. He explained how there are cases where obvious lies are easily debunked by people. Tony gave the example of Bruce Prichard claiming he didn’t know Kenny Omega until 2019 during a recent episode of his Something To Wrestle podcast:
“The flip side of it is, the wrestling side is, you have these people who tell these obvious things like I heard the other day Bruce [Prichard] was saying he had never heard of Kenny Omega in 2019. Then literally, they played a clip from 2018 and Bruce is talking very intricately about Kenny. So it’s like, give me a break, man,”
Tony Khan’s AEW will be presenting two big shows in Rampage on Friday and Dynamite on Saturday night this week. The AEW president is hoping to top SmackDown during their expected clash on Friday. He has made some big announcements for the show which you can check out here.
Adam Cole and AEW Women’s World Champion Britt Baker have been dating since 2017. With Cole now a member of the AEW roster, there is potential for them to be involved in a storyline together. Cole was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet and stated that he would be happy to take part in an angle involving both of them.
“I do love the idea of eventually doing something on-screen with Britt. I know I have been asked that before, and I know some people are like ‘Oh maybe you want to keep it separate’ or ‘Maybe you want to work together.’ I love the idea of that,” Cole said.
Cole and Baker’s relationship has come up on AEW programming, most notably when Cole dressed down Baker’s friend Tony Schiavone on-air.
Cole continued to say that he enjoyed working with Britt on the independent scene when they were briefly able to do so. Baker and Cole teamed together twice for Wrestle Circus in 2017.
“There was a small phase when I was done with Ring of Honor, where for like 3 months I was doing independent shows. I remember doing shows that she was also booked on, and in a couple of those matches we got to do some mixed tags, or she had run in or I had run in, it was really fun to work with her. Eventually, doing something like that on the big stage that is AEW, I’m all for it.”
On June 24th, 2017, Baker and Cole defeated the now-engaged team of Sami Callihan and Jessica Havok. They later defeated Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero) that August.
The headliner for the Nov. 6 MLW event in Philly has been revealed.
MLW has announced that Alex Hammerstone, EJ Nduka, Richard Holliday, and a mystery partner will be taking on CONTRA Unit (Jacob Fatu, Mads Krugger, Josef Samael & Ikuro Kwon) in a War Chamber Match.
What Is The War Chamber?
The War Chamber match is described by MLW as participants being, “locked in a carbon steel chamber with the perimeter of the top fortified with barbed wire, two teams of four will clash in combat that only the War Chamber can contain.”
Here are the rules of the War Chamber match.
A coin toss determines which team enters first.
1-on-1 for 5:00 in stage 1 of the War Chamber.
The winner of coin toss comes out for 2-on-1.
Alternating teams have wrestlers enter every 2 minutes.
Once all combatants are in the War Chamber, victory is won by submission, surrender or pinfall.
History Between MLW World Champion Hammerstone & Jacob Fatu
The Nov. 6 MLW show will be held inside the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA. “Your Boy Hammer” clearly has some unfinished business with Jacob Fatu and the rest of CONTRA. Hammerstone ended the 819-day MLW World Heavyweight Title reign of Fatu at FIGHTLAND.
It looks like WWE is ditching a December PPV this year.
Back in July, WWE announced that it would be holding a PPV event on New Year’s Day. The following month, it was revealed that the PPV will be called Day 1. It’ll be held inside the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA.
Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio is reporting that Day 1 will take the place of a December PPV for WWE. This leaves WWE with two PPV events in the month of January. Royal Rumble will take place on Jan. 29 inside The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.
Initial Plans For End-Of-The-Year PPV
WWE had plans in place for a PPV on Dec. 12 inside Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. The company then wanted to have TLC take place on Dec. 19 at a location to be determined. It should be noted that the Dec. 17 episode of WWE SmackDown will be held inside Allstate Arena.
With WWE deciding against running a December PPV this year, Survivor Series will be the promotion’s final PPV event of 2021. That’ll be held inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Nov. 21.
nZo, the former Enzo Amore in WWE, is being teased as a new addition to the MLW roster. In MLW storyline, Cesar Duran (the former Dario Cueto from Lucha Underground) is the match-maker for the show. Duran stated this week that he is in talks with the former WWE Cruiserweight Champion.
The 34-year-old has been wrestling with the NEW (Northeast Wrestling) promotion as of late. The promotion regularly draws over a 1000 fans to its shows. Content from Northeast Wrestling’s shows are available on their YouTube channel here.
nZo was released from WWE in early 2018 after he was accused of sexual assault in Phoenix in October 2017. It was announced in May 2018 that the Phoenix Police Department had ceased their investigation due to insufficient evidence, however.
Along with his often partner William Morrissey, a.k.a. Big Cass, the two appeared at the G1 SuperCard in Madison Square Garden in 2019. It’s was played up as a worked shoot invasion angle, however Ring of Honor never followed up on the segment and the two never appeared in promotion again.
He debuted for Northeast Wrestling in June of 2019 and has been a regular for the promotion ever since.
The rocky road continues for WWE’s video game franchise. The game was initially scheduled to be released this fall, but has been delayed to early/mid 2022.
Back in August, reports surfaced regarding tensions between WWE and game developer 2K. WWE has released dozens of wrestlers this year, which led many fans to wonder what this would mean for the WWE 2K22 roster. The drastic talent cuts have in fact caused problems with the game’s development, according to a report at Sports Gamer Online.
Plans for at least one Downloadable Content pack had to be scrapped. The DLC pack was going to revolve around former NXT star Bronson Reed.
Other wrestlers that had been expected to be DLC for the game included Mercedes Martinez, Tyler Rust, and Leon Ruff. Nothing has been confirmed as to how WWE 2K22 will handle DLC releases for the game. There is talk of scrapping them altogether, however.
Back in August, a source to SGO commented that the releases are likely to cause a very outdated roster. “This is shaping up to be the most outdated roster a game has seen,” the source revealed.
It was also noted that WWE was against the idea of delaying the release of the game. The studio felt they needed to go that route, however.
“Most of those within WWE wanted the game to release in its normal Survivor Series window. Those from 2K Sports and Visual Concepts, on the other hand, pushed hard for a delay of the launch,” wrote Michael Straw from Sports Gamer Online.
The IInspiration will be getting a title shot during their debut for Impact Wrestling. They will be facing the current Knockouts tag team champions, Rosemary and Havok, at Bound For Glory for their titles.
The promotion had confirmed earlier this week that the former WWE stars will be making their debuts during the upcoming show. Though they hadn’t revealed what the duo will be doing at the PPV.
The company then announced via a tweet earlier that the team of Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay will not only be wrestling at the event, but The IInspiration will be getting a title shot at Bound For Glory:
Previously known as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay of The IIconics, the duo made their name wrestling for WWE. Both of them were released as part of the coronavirus budget cuts in April this year.
Bound For Glory Updated Card
This is the seventh match that has been announced for Impact Wrestling’s biggest show of the year. Here is the updated card for the show after the latest announcement:
Impact World Championship Match: Josh Alexander vs. Christian Cage
Impact Knockouts Championship Match: Mickie James vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Impact World Tag Team Championship Match: FinJuice or The Bullet Club vs. The Good Brothers
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match: The IInspiration vs. Rosemary and Havok
Impact X Division Championship Triple Threat Match: Trey Miguel vs. Steve Maclin vs. 1 TBD
20-Man Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match: Brian Myers vs. Rich Swann vs. Moose vs. Eddie Edwards vs. W. Morrissey vs. 15 TBD
Pre show Inaugural Impact Digital Media Championship Tournament Finals: John Skyler vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Jordynne Grace or Johnny Swinger vs. 2 TBD
Impact Wrestling’s Bound For Glory will be taking place from Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas on Saturday, October 23. The show is scheduled to begin at 10:30 pm ET.
Veteran wrestler Bobby Fish is All Elite. Fish has wrestled around the world for many top promotions. Prior to joining AEW, he had a successful run with WWE & NXT.
Fish made his NXT debut in 2017 during the TakeOver: Brooklyn III event alongside Kyle O’Reilly. The two joined forces with Adam Cole later that night in what was one of the most impactful wrestling debuts in recent times.
The former WWE star recently had an interview with Chris Van Vliet. He discussed things such as his AEW debut, joining the MLW roster, and more.
Talking about the debut of their group which later became the Undisputed Era, Fish admitted that it was one of the highlights of his career. He discussed the big crowd reaction they got on their arrival.
Bobby Fish on Undisputed Era’s Debut
“Debuting in the Barclays Center, standing next to 2 of my best friends, and getting that reaction that is now somewhat estranged to us because of the lack of crowds recently, There’s all that, and as a whole,
I think when we found out that it was going to be Adam [Cole], Kyle and I.” recalled Bobby Fish, “That was NXT’s idea. It felt like we were just waiting for someone to come into the room and go ‘Ah! We were just screwing with you.’”
Sanity defeated Authors Of Pain to win the NXT tag team championships at the Takeover: Brooklyn III event. The AEW star alongside O’Reilly made his debut right after this match, attacking the new champions.
The duo then helped Adam Cole in taking out the newly crowned NXT champion Drew McIntyre after the main event, marking the beginning of a brand new era.
NXT’s attempt to attract a younger audience with the recent revamp seems to be failing so far. Sean Waltman believes it’s because the people in charge are much older. The former WWE star recently discussed the NXT revamp on his Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast. He commented on the intention behind this rebranding.
Waltman discussed how the people in charge of the show geared towards younger audience are all 60+ year-olds. He suggested that maybe they should let young people make the decisions for the show:
“Who’s in charge of the creative direction of NXT? You can’t have 60+ year-old people in charge of the creative direction of a show that’s geared towards young people, maybe oversee it but you got to let young, fresh blood make those decisions.”
Sean Waltman Says The Decision Makers Don’t Know What Young People Want
Sean Waltman continued his explanation saying that the company needs to be self-aware. The 49-year-old discussed how people like him think that they know what younger people want. Though In reality, they don’t:
We got to be self aware enough to know that we don’t and I’m including me too as a 50-year-old man, we don’t f**king know what they (young people) want. We might think we do or we might think we know what’s best for them, but we don’t f**king know. We need to f**king listen to people that do.”
Reports suggest that the 76-year-old Vince McMahon and 58-year-old Bruce Prichard are the people making the main decisions for NXT. Though they are not involved in the day-to-day. Per the last update, a 56-year-old Shawn Michaels was in charge of the operations in the absence of Triple H.
Alex Hammerstone has relinquished the MLW national openweight championship after winning the promotion’s world title last week during MLW Fightland. The 30-year-old faced the former MLW champion Jacob Fatu in a historic title vs. title match during the show. He won the bout and ended Fatu’s 819 days long reign.
Then on this week’s episode of Fusion: Alpha, Hammerstone informed Cesar Duran that he would now like to focus on defending the world title only:
The MLW national openweight championship was introduced back in April 2019. Alex won the title in a tournament to crown the inaugural champion. He defeated Brian Pillman Jr. in the finals.
Alex Hammerstone made his wrestling debut back in August 2013. He wrestled for a number of indie promotions in the early stages of his career. He made his MLW debut back in February 2019. The MLW champion made appearances for WWE as an enhancement talent around 2015.
He also attended a couple of WWE tryouts around the same time but nothing came out of it. This concludes Alex’s 866 days long reign as the national openweight champion. There is no word yet on what the company is planning for the title now.
Impact Wrestling has confirmed the signing of indie star Masha Slamovich after her recent match against the Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo.
The indie star faced the Impact champion during this past Saturday’s Knockouts Knockdown event. She delivered an impressive performance but failed to win the bout.
Impact Wrestling released post-show footage from the PPV yesterday. In the video, current Impact producer and Hall Of Famer Gail Kim is seen approaching Slamovich after her loss.
The Impact veteran offered her a contract to join the promotion. The 24-year-old accepted this offer and she then received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Masha Slamovich is then seen heading backstage where she receives applauds from the Impact roster. Backstage, she mentions how she has been doing it for long and claimed that she is very thankful for the journey:
One of the wildest moments of my career. Thank you @gailkimITSME ?
— Masha Slamovich ??????????? (@mashaslamovich) October 13, 2021
The ‘Russian Dynamite’ was trained by people such as WWE Hall of Famer Johnny Rodz and The Amazing Red. She began her career 5 years ago in Japan.
Masha made her Impact wrestling debut in June 2019. She had matches with the likes of Havok and Jordynne Grace but she wasn’t able to pick up a win.
Since then, she has wrestled for promotions such as CZW, Beyond Wrestling, GCW, and NWA. She also made her AEW Debut recently, losing a match to Hikaru Shida during the September 20 edition of Dark: Elevation.
Brock Lesnar’s strength has often been compared to a superhuman. The experience of JBL has been something similar and he believes that Lesnar should be an avenger. The former world champion recently held a Q&A session on YouTube. He discussed things such as Brawl For All, challenging Dusty Rhodes, and more.
JBL recalled the time he got to work with Lesnar during an event in his hometown. He said that the Beast Incarnate threw him like he was a child. Per the former APA member, the strength of Lesnar is like that of an avenger:
“He threw me like a child. The strength of Brock Lesnar is different. It’s like an Avenger. He should be an Avenger.” – JBL
JBL also detailed his conversation with the former Universal champion before their bout. He revealed that he was worried about Lesnar suplexing him because of his height. though Brock was not worried about it at all:
“I asked him for before, ‘Brock, are you sure you can do this? Not strength wise, just the logistics of throwing a guy that’s really tall’ and Brock said, ‘I’ve been suplexing people since I was five years old.’ He suplexed me so easily that I got up. I said, ‘Do it again.’
JBL also revealed that Brock Lesnar had offered to put him over during the show because his friends were in attendance. Though he told the former UFC star that it didn’t matter who won.
AEW Dynamite beating WWE Raw in the key demo rating for a couple of weeks has been one of the most talked pro wrestling stories recently. Chris Jericho thinks it was made possible because of their cool factor.
Commenting on their demo win in the interview conducted right after Dynamite: Grand Slam, Jericho described how AEW has a different attitude and a cool factor:
“The last three weeks, we have done bigger demo numbers than WWE RAW has done, which is the flagship show. I think our company came out of nowhere, basically, and really exploded because of a different attitude,
And you can see that when you watch our shows, It seems to me that we are the hottest wrestling company in the world,” said Chris Jericho, “And more importantly, we have the cool factor.”
During the same interview, Y2J also revealed some interesting backstage details on AEW’s initial TV deal with WarnerMedia. He detailed that they were originally not being paid a TV rights fee for airing their show on TNT.
The company was initially only getting a revenue share from advertisements. Though according to Chris Jericho their deal was upgraded after the first three months. You can check out his comments on the matter at this link.
An AEW star will be sticking around with the company for years to come.
AEW has only been around for two years but the company has already had substantial success. In fact, the promotion has been able to offer contract extensions to its talent. One of those talents is current AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker.
Baker isn’t the only one who has gotten some extra love from AEW. During an interview with PWInsider, Scorpio Sky revealed that he has signed his own contract extension.
“He’s always shown faith in me, and it’s something that I’ve really truly appreciated. He saw something in me very, very early on. He still sees it, evident by the contract extension that I just signed so I’m going to be with AEW for a long, long time. A lot of that comes down to Tony Khan and his vision. There’s nothing more I can say about it. Nothing but good things to say about working for a guy like that.”
Scorpio Sky went on to reveal how long the extension is for.
“I did that right around the time of the Pay-Per-View. I’m happy to be with AEW for at least five more years.”
Sky is in the midst of quite the push on AEW TV along with Ethan Page and their manager, Dan Lambert. The two defeated Chris Jericho and Jake Hager in New York City. On the Oct. 15 episode of Rampage, Sky and Page will team with former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos to take on Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, and Sammy Guevara.
Sky, Page, and dos Santos will be accompanied by UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal.
CM Punk encouraged his wife, AJ Mendez, to take that meeting with Jeanie Buss.
Mendez got the wrestling world buzzing with the announcement of her return to the industry. Mendez will serve as an Executive Producer for Women of Wrestling and she’ll also be providing color commentary.
It’s not every day that the owner of the LA Lakers wants to get ahold of you. CM Punk told Robbie Fox on My Mom’s Basement that once he heard Jeanie Buss wanted to speak to AJ, he was all for it.
“I had somebody reach out to me, saying, ‘Hey, Jeanie Buss wants to talk to April.’ I was like, ‘What?’ April doesn’t know anything about sports, like nothing, you know? So I took the idea to her and I was just like, ‘You have to at least take this meeting. Jeanie Buss is the most powerful woman in sports.’ You know, I think in my mind, I was just doing cartwheels thinking of my wife talking to Jeanie Buss. I thought that was super cool.”
Mendez doesn’t plan on wrestling for WOW, at least not now. In an interview with Izzy on the official WOW YouTube channel, Mendez said that while she can technically make a return to the ring, she’s content with stepping aside and allowing this current generation of talent to shine.
WOW is expected to begin its relaunch in the fall of 2022. The company has agreed to a syndication deal with ViacomCBS. Older episodes of WOW are expected to start airing on CW Seed and Pluto TV in Dec. 2021.
Jeff Cobb has talked about the possibility of making his way to AEW again.
Back in Feb. 2020, Cobb appeared on AEW Dynamite. He served as a bounty hunter for Chris Jericho and The Inner Circle, taking out Jon Moxley. Moxley ended up pinning Cobb the following week.
Jeff Cobb has been making his mark in NJPW as a member of Will Ospreay’s United Empire faction. During an interview with Sports Illustrated, Cobb said that while NJPW is his main focus right now, a return trip to AEW isn’t off the table.
“New Japan is the right decision for me. I have a lot of unfinished business here in New Japan—tons of guys I have yet to suplex and tons of championships to win. I also respect what Tony Khan is doing, especially the level of excitement he has brought into the pro wrestling community and all the amazing crossovers going on.
“Having said that, will I show up in AEW? Right now, I have my sights set on the G1 and the IWGP world heavyweight championship. But if there’s something that interests me or the United Empire, you never know.”
Cobb is currently in the G1 Climax tournament and he has been running through his opponents. At the moment, Cobb has 14 points. That’s tied with Kazuchika Okada for the most points in the tournament. Both Cobb and Okada are undefeated in the tourney and are set to collide on Oct. 20.
Kurt Angle has looked back on the first time he knew how to bleed in wrestling.
Back in Aug. 2001, Angle challenged Stone Cold Steve Austin for the WWF Championship at Summerslam. Angle was the face while Austin was the heel going into the PPV. Angle won the match on that night but he didn’t win the title because he defeated Austin via disqualification.
Fans who remember that match know that Kurt Angle donned the crimson mask as he was bleeding quite a bit. He explained why that was the case during an episode of The Kurt Angle Show.
“Steve made me a blade. So I had it, I put tape around my wrist and put the blade inside of it. And when the time came to do it, I kept slicing my head and nothing was working. I was barely scratching the surface and it was hurting, killing me. It starts getting painful when you keep trying to gig yourself.
“Austin was like, ‘Shit, kid. Give me that razor.’ He dug it in my head and twisted, and I bled like a sieve. I didn’t stop bleeding the whole entire match. It was horrible. He taught me how to bleed [laughs]. And from then on that’s how I did it, I just didn’t do it as hard as he did. He dug it in real hard and twisted real hard. He probably got the blade in there a good half-inch right up against my skull and I bled profusely. But that’s how I learned how to bleed, how to gig. Austin taught me the hard way [laughs].”
Angle would end up defeating Austin for the championship at the Unforgiven PPV the following month. Stone Cold won back the title back and Angle wouldn’t hold the gold again until Dec. 2002.
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Batista isn’t afraid to say that the WWE locker room was toxic when he first started.
There was a lot of uncertainty with Batista when he first got his start in WWE. He had been a bouncer and didn’t really have much going for him when he entered the wrestling business. Despite his impressive look, the Deacon Batista gimmick was going nowhere and Batista thought he’d be out of a job for sure.
Luckily for the big man, he was taken under Triple H’s wing and competed in the Evolution faction along with Randy Orton and Ric Flair. Batista would end up becoming a big star, winning multiple world titles in WWE before finding success in Hollywood.
Still, Batista will never forget his humble beginnings. He admitted to Men’s Health that the environment in WWE at first was tough to deal with.
“I couldn’t get comfortable. People didn’t like me, I was doing something wrong, the company wasn’t going to do anything with me, they didn’t know what to do with me, they didn’t know where I fit in. It was just a very toxic atmosphere. Wrestling is very competitive. It’s very cutthroat. You’re put in a position where you have to posture up all the time, and it’s exhausting. It’s just exhausting.”
Batista said that when he first entered the world of acting, he wanted to prove that he was more than a meathead whose only purpose was to play the tough guy in an action movie. He’s been able to score over 20 film roles since leaving WWE. Not bad for someone who once only knew how to be a bouncer.
MMA champion Arjan Bhullar has been teasing a pro wrestling run for a while. He has now revealed that he is in talks with both WWE and AEW about it.
The One Heavyweight World Champion recently spoke to Calf Kick Sports. He discussed things such as his title defense against Anatoly Malykhin and more.
When asked if AEW or WWE are on his radar for a pro wrestling run, Bhullar said that they both are. He revealed that he has been engaged in talks with both companies and claimed that people can expect an announcement soon:
“I’ve been engaged with both companies and we should have something coming down the pipe very soon. I picked a fight with both companies and everyone out there, it’s something I’m going to do and I’m just looking to get the business case in order and the right approach.”
Arjan Bhullar previously called out both WWE and AEW stars earlier this year. The reigning champion said that he has reached the pinnacle of his sport and he is coming for the stars within these companies next.
He is also friends with former WWE champion Jinder Mahal. Mahal walked him to the octagon for a UFC fight back in 2015. So it won’t be a surprise if we see him being paired with the modern day maharaja if he signs with WWE.
