WWE Superstar CM Punk was at the Rousey vs Carano fight in Inglewood yesterday, and was interviewed during the broadcast, his first televised appearance since the Raw after WrestleMania 42 Sunday.
Punk was asked about his prediction for the main event and backed Ronda Rousey 100%, saying she’s gonna march forward, she’s gonna clinch, she’s gonna throw, and she’s gonna armbar.
Asked if he wants to say hi to his fans before cutting away, Punk said hello to his beautiful wife April.
“Honey, I’ll be home in…I don’t know…20 minutes!?” Punk said.
One thing is for sure: Ronda Rousey does not get paid by the hour!
In her first MMA fight since 2016, the baddest woman on the planet submitted fellow MMA legend Gina Carano in just 17 seconds with her armbar.
It’s a fight that followed most of Ronda’s history in the cage: a fast start and straight for the kill, a method which has worked for a majority of her career apart from her previous two fights.
The fight between Rousey and Carano headlined MVP’s first foray into MMA and took place at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The show was not sold out, but was around 90% full by the time the main event kicked in.
In the post-fight interview, Rousey said that was it for her MMA career and there was no way she could have ended better than this and wants to go home and “make some more babies.”
In interviews leading up to the fight, Rousey hinted that this was going to be her last MMA fight of her career.
Rousey took a reported $2.2 million payout while Carano had a $1 million payout for the fight according to figures released.
Tonight’s Collision will take place from the same location of last night’s ROH Supercard of Honor event at the Wicomico Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland.
As it has been customary for the past several weeks, the AEW World title will be defended on the show, with Darby Allin continuing to defend pretty much every week. Announced matches are:
Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara for the AEW World title
Willow Nightingale vs Red Velvet for the TBS title
Megan Bayne and Lena Kross vs opponents TBD in an AEW Women’s Tag Team title eliminator match
The Conglomeration vs Shane Taylor Promotions in an AEW Trios title eliminator match
Samoa Joe and Anthony Bowens vs Lee Johnson and Jay Lethal
Collision airs at 8PM ET on TNT and also streams live on HBO Max.
Former Raw and Smackdown Women’s champion Ronda Rousey will be returning to the cage tonight in a much-anticipated fight against another MMA legend and pioneer, Gina Carano.
The event, airing live on Netflix everywhere, will be held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California and will also have Nate Diaz, Francis Ngannou, Philipe Lins, Junior dos Santos, and others in the 11-match card.
The show is promoted by MVP Promotions, with the primary card airing on YouTube, followed by the main show on Netflix.
Rousey, the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight champion, has not fought an MMA bout since December 30, 2016. She suffered a loss to Amanda Nunes on that night, signing off with a 12-2 career record.
Carano has not entered the cage since August 15, 2009. She had her first career loss that night against Cris Cyborg and finished off with a 7-1 record.
The match was originally offered to the UFC and while Dana White was interested in having it under the UFC banner, Rousey and Carano were not offered a good deal after the UFC moved from pay-per-view to Paramount+.
Rousey has used much of her time promoting this show blasting the UFC and TKO for the way they handle payouts for the fighters under their contract.
Former WWE Superstar and one half of The Rockers, Marty Jannetty, had one of his legs amputated. The news was revealed by his friend and fellow former wrestler Eddy Mansfield during an appearance on the Monte and The Pharaoh YouTube channel.
“One of my dearest friends ever on the face of this earth, and was a great wrestler, had his foot amputated, and his name is the ‘Rocker’ Marty Jannetty,” Mansfield said.
Mansfield blame WWE for letting Jannetty’s physical condition deteriorate even though Jannetty has not been associated with the company for decades. He said that his injuries all occurred in a WWE ring and he, along with Shawn Michaels, made WWE “a ton of money” during their Rockers days.
“Where in the hell was WWE to help Marty Jannetty? Hell, he made them millions of dollars, and you can’t help him when he is in the biggest need of his life, fighting for his life?” he continued. “These guys at WWE can get all these pay raises, but you can’t take care of the guys who make you the money.”
Apart from blaming WWE, Mansfield also blamed Shawn Michaels for not doing more to help Jannetty throughout the years when Michaels’ career took off and Jannetty was left behind.
“If you made it together and you go separate ways, don’t hurt your partner, help your partner. Make sure he eats well,” he added.
Blake Monroe wrestled a dark match before Smackdown last night, defeating Jordynne Grace as she nears her WWE main roster debut.
Monroe is believed to be making her Smackdown debut on next week’s episode, a month after she wrestled her final match for NXT, losing a casket match against Tatum Paxley.
The former AEW Women’s champion will be the latest star from NXT to make the jump to the main roster following WrestleMania 42 and joins talent such as Ethan Page, Sol Ruca, Joe Hendry, Ricky Saints, and Fatal Influence.
Backlash 2026 did not register in the Netflix top 10 global chart and it looks like it wasn’t one of the most-watched WWE premium live events on the streaming service either.
The show only charted in 11 different countries, including Bolivia, Canada, Egypt, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, and United Kingdom.
The United States is not factored in these charts as it aired on ESPN.
The exact numbers will not be known until Netflix releases its bi-annual figures of all their shows in June for the first six months of 2026.
Ring of Honor announced the next Global Wars event, titled Global Wars: Cincinnati which will take place on Thursday, June 18.
This event will feature the participating of wrestlers from Mexico’s CMLL and Japan’s Stardom. It will be available to stream live via WatchROH as well as MyAEW.
The last ROH Global Wars was held fairly recently, in March of this year, with ROH teaming up with Canada’s Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling for the event.
WWE is hosting a SummerSlam Kickoff party at the Javitz Center during Fanatics Fest in July, weeks before the actual PLE takes place…in a different state.
Set to be held on Sunday, July 19, the SummerSlam Kickoff party will be hosted by Michael Cole and will feature the appearance of several WWE Superstars who happen to be at Fanatics Fest that weekend.
The Javitz Center is in New York City and SummerSlam is on August 1 and August 2 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
SummerSlam has so far bombed when it comes to ticket sales, with the two-night combo tickets barely moving on Ticketmaster.com.
Tickets for Fanatics Fest are available at fanaticsfest.com.
Another match was booked for next week’s Saturday Night Main Event, a show which looks like there will be no world title being defended on it.
The new match will have Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss team up with WWE Women’s champion Rhea Ripley to take on Jade Cargill, Michin, and B-Fab in a six-woman tag match.
The only other two matches so far on the show are The Vision vs The Street Profits for the WWE World Tag Team titles and Penta vs Ethan Page for the WWE Intercontinental title, a match which is apparently headlining the broadcast.
One more match is expected to be added on the show in the next week.
This will be the first WWE televised event in Fort Wayne since 2014 and tickets are available on Ticketmaster.com starting from $66.80.
AEW star Buddy Matthews made a surprise appearance at the Rise Against event promoted by World Series Wrestling in Australia.
Matthews, sporting all black attire including a mask, blasted Dijak with a chair from behind before he unveiled himself to a big pop from the crowd. Matthews then removed the hoodie and curb stomped Dijak.
Looking all jacked and taking in the reception from the crowd who chanted “Holy shit,” Matthews grabbed the mic for a few words.
“In case you forgotten, my name is Buddy Matthews. And I am the guy who kicked down the door for every Australian to make it overseas,” he said.
He added that he might not be cleared to compete now, but in October, he will be.
Matthews has been on the sidelines with an ankle injury since February 2025, an injury he suffered during the Grand Slam: Australia show while making his entrance for his match against Kazuchika Okada.
Dynamite this week drew 585,000 viewers, down 5,000 viewers from the previous week and the fourth week in a row that the show had a decline in viewership. In 18-49, Dynamite had a 0.10 rating, the same number of last week. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
The Cody Rhodes vs Gunther match for the WWE title at Clash in Italy was made official last night on Smackdown, although Gunther had to work for it.
During the broadcast, Gunther took his time to sign the contract and that eventually led to Royce Keys to come out and almost put his signature on the paper. Smackdown General Manager Nick Aldis told Gunther that he lost his privilege to just sign the deal and get the match and made Keys vs Gunther as the main event, with the winner advancing to Italy.
Keys nearly had the match won but Solo Sikoa interfered, sliding him a chair after a referee bump to “help” him win. Keys, instead, blasted Sikoa with the chair, allowing Gunther enough time to recover and win the match following a powerbomb.
After the victory, Cody Rhodes came out and hit the Cross Rhodes on Gunther, ending the show celebrating with the fans.
Here are the results from last night’s ROH Supercard of Honor 2026 which took place live from the Wicomico Youth and Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland.
ZERO HOUR:
Sammy Guevara defeated Action Andretti
Rush defeated LSG
Mina Shirakawa and Queen Aminata defeated Janai Kai and Lacey Lane
The Rascalz defeated Premier Athletes
MAIN SHOW:
Nigel McGuinness defeated Josh Woods in a Pure wrestling rules match
Red Velvet defeated Viva Van to retain the ROH Women’s Television title
AR Fox defeated Lio Rush to retain the ROH Television title
Dalton Castle and The Outrunners defeated Shane Taylor Promotions in a six-man tag team match to become the new ROH Six-Man Tag Team champions
Deonna Purrazzo defeated Diamante in a Pure wrestling rules match to retain the ROH Women’s Pure title
Lee Moriarty defeated Ace Austin in a Pure wrestling rules match to retain the ROH Pure title
Mark Davis defeated Xelhua to retain the AEW National title
Bandido defeated Blake Christian to retain the ROH World title
Athena defeated Maya World, Trish Adora, Yuka Sakazaki, Billie Starkz, and Zayda Steel in a Survival of the Fittest match to retain the ROH Women’s title
A replay of the show is available to watch on MyAEW and Watch ROH.
Mercedes Mone was at the Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu world premiere yesterday at TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
The former TBS champion played the character of Koska Reeves in The Mandalorian, a Star Wars series which airs on Disney+.
Mone looked absolutely stunning, donning a green and black dress, keeping with the theme of the movie.
She has not wrestled in an AEW ring since the December 31 episode of Dynamite, losing the TBS title. Since then, she has lost six more independent titles she had been carrying in 2025.
Joe Hendry sat down with Chris Van Vliet at Insight LIVE in Tampa, Florida to discuss his latest parody song “Fire Logan Paul”, future plans for more parody songs, how he hilariously messed up a WWE tryout, why he decided to dye his hair blonde, making his WWE main roster debut, his WrestleMania 41 match with Randy Orton, how close he got to wrestling John Cena, which Championship he has his sights on next, and more!
Where are you actually recording these songs, are you recording them in your apartment, your house?
“Actually, I could drop an exclusive right here for people. Because this is actually very relevant. So this is an exclusive. I haven’t told anyone anywhere, but I have recorded an album with WWE Music, and it’s going to drop this summer. We recorded most of that in New York at the WWE Studios. So what I’ve done now is the microphones that we have there, I have basically replicated the setup back home now, so I don’t need to fly to New York to do it. I can send stuff in, and we can work on it back and forth. So that’s one of the things that makes these songs work, is because they’re fast and they’re topical, so we can basically, we obviously did the Logan Paul song on TV, but we were able to just get it done that week, because we could send files back and forth. But yes, there is an album coming out.”
Is it an album full of all original songs, or have we heard some of these songs already?
“Well, I will say, they are all original songs. I won’t say any more than that; they are all original songs.”
Well, you’ve been the TNA World Champion. You’ve been the NXT Champion. What’s the next one you have your sights set on?
“That’s such a tough question to answer, because you have different focuses at different points. I used to be like, I have to sign with WWE. I have to be there by this year, and I have to do that. Actually, when I was on the Indies, that got quite exhausting, that way of thinking, and I shifted my focus. I remember the day it happened. I was wrestling for a company called North Wrestling in Newcastle, England, and I did a parody video of Bon Jovi on Scotty 2 Hotty. I remember the audience just went nuts. There was like 200 people there, but they all went nuts. I thought, You know what? If this is as big as it gets, that’s cool. This is my job. I’m committed. I am a pro wrestler. If it never gets bigger than this, I know I killed it. I know I entertain those fans, and I’m going to give my best to entertain the fans no matter what I’m doing. When I shifted my focus to delivering value for the fans, rather than I want this belt. I want this. I want that. That’s when things really took off. I feel like now I’m in a phase where I feel like if I just commit to entertaining the audience as best as I can, and doing the absolute best job I can, all those things that I want will come to me. That said, Intercontinental Championship, please.”
You made it really clear that you wanted to have a match with John Cena before he retired. How close were you to having that match with John Cena?
“I mean, I don’t know. I think the thing is, to me, it’s something either happens or it doesn’t. Ultimately, I have to put the responsibility on myself. I didn’t wrestle John Cena because I didn’t do enough to make me an obvious choice to wrestle John Cena. So I didn’t do enough somewhere along the way, and that I feel led into the motivation that I needed in NXT, because it made me realize. Because if you think about it, I’m going, ‘I’ll wrestle at the Royal Rumble, I’ll wrestle at WrestleMania…’ and I’m saying this crazy stuff, and it’s happening. So I think that gave me a reminder that you just can’t take progress for granted. You have to work for everything. I was like, All right, okay, I got to take things up another level now, and I think it inspired me to work harder. So again, I have no regrets, because I look back and go, yeah, maybe could have been stronger in this area, this area, this area, but I won’t let that happen again. The next thing I want to put out there, I’ll make sure I get it.”
Owen Hart Cup tournament participant Sareee announced on social media that she would be taking one month off due to a neck problem.
AEW President Tony Khan said during the ROH media conference call yesterday that her match against Persephone would be taking place sometime in June, allowing enough time for the Japanese star, and even her opponent, to recover from their current injuries.
Sareee apologized for having to miss matches that she was already scheduled for.
“I was more afraid of not being able to step into the ring anymore,” she wrote. “I made this decision so that I can continue fighting as a professional wrestler from here on out!”
Sareee pleaded with her fans to give her “just a little time” to recover.
Rusev and former WWE star Gangrel have officially launched their new wrestling school, titled KECH Pro Wrestling, in Nashville, Tennessee.
“The mats are down. The ring is up. The doors are open. Thank you to everyone who showed up, trained, watched, asked questions, and believed in what we’re building,” a post on the KECH Pro Wrestling social media account read.
They also uploaded a photo of the students sporting the school’s t-shirt and Rusev and Gangrel in the middle.
“This is only the beginning. KECH Pro Wrestling Academy is officially underway. Train like a pro. Trained by a pro,” the post continued.
The school will train both kids and adults.
Rusev said in the past that he chose Gangrel as he’s been screwed a lot by other people promising him things but never delivering. He noted how Gangrel took a Bulgarian kid under his wing and helped him train down in Florida and is now moving to Nashville for this project with him, praising his teaching methods on being a real guy with hard training on the basics of wrestling.
The first hour of Backlash on ESPN2 drew 998,000 viewers according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics. The numbers do not include those streaming on the ESPN app with unlimited plan and is strictly for the first hour on linear television. The broadcast registered a rating of 0.33 in 18-49.
WrestleMania 42 Saturday, which also aired the first hour on ESPN2, had 1,616,000 viewers and a 0.62 rating.
In an interview on the Smash Cast YouTube channel, Jake Paul claimed that TKO has banned him from attending WWE shows to see his brother, Logan, perform.
Paul said that TKO has a “major beef” with him and won’t allow him to be there because they hate him.
“It’s pretty wild how much under their skin we are,” Jake said.
Jake leads MVP Promotions and has now entered the business of MMA, promoting the fight between Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano. Paul, along with Rousey, have been pretty vocal about UFC President Dana White and the UFC in general.
