The next challenger for Adam Cole’s NXT title will be announced this coming Wednesday on NXT on USA Network. The news was revealed by Triple H during the post-Worlds Collide interview on Facebook Live yesterday.
The challenger will be meeting Cole at the upcoming Takeover: Portland event on February 16 and Triple H said that NXT General Manager William Regal is working on something “pretty epic” for the match.
Former NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa has been eyeing a title shot since he made his return a few months ago. Ciampa vacated the title just before NXT Takeover: New York last year due to an injury which required surgery and a long time on the sidelines. It is widely believed that Ciampa will be the one taking on Cole in Portland.
Watch Along will return tonight for the Royal Rumble, a YouTube broadcast anchored by Cathy Kelley as she welcomes WWE Superstars and guests throughout the night to watch the show together.
Scheduled to appear are Xavier Woods, Rhea Ripley, Johnny Gargano, Tyler Bate and Trent Seven. The Bump’s crew of Kayla Braxton, McKenzie Mitchell, Evan T. Mack, Dan Vollmayer, Matt Camp and Ryan Pappolla will also be in the house at some point while other guests include Nina Wu from WWE Now China, former WWE backstage interviewer Todd Pettengill, and the crew from SMOSH GAMES.
Watch Along will air on WWE’s YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
Alexander Wolfe of Imperium was knocked out during the Worlds Collide main event yesterday and was removed from the match after the referee realized and put up the X hand signal to notify those in the back of a real injury.
The incident that knocked him out came after Wolfe was on the receiving end of the simultaneous kicks to the chest and back from Bobby Fish and Roderick Strong. Unfortunately, one of the kicks by Fish landed right on the jaw instead of the chest. Fish then went for the pin and actually broke the pin himself after Wolfe failed to respond. The referee then realized that Wolfe was in lala land and asked for help. The German was then helped out of the ring and taken to the back for further evaluation.
Addressing what happened on Twitter, Wolfe said it was his fault and added the hashtag #ChinUp. Wolfe’s head was indeed down when he got hit by the knee. “I’m fine. I wish I could have finished the match but safety first,” he wrote, while adding his thanks to WWE referee Drake Wuertz and the medical team for taking care of him. “You guys did an unbelievable great job today as always.”
Here are the results from last night’s Worlds Collide WWE Network special which took place from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Kay Lee Ray defeated Mia Yim in the pre-show; Finn Balor defeated Ilja Dragunov; Jordan Devlin defeated Angel Garza, Isiah “Swerve” Scott, and Travis Banks to become the new NXT Cruiserweight champion; Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano defeated Tyler Bate and Trent Seven; Rhea Ripley defeated Toni Storm to retain the NXT championship; Imperium defeated The Undisputed Era in an eight-man tag team match which was turned into a four-on-three match after Alexander Wolfe was legitimately injured during the match and taken out.
The final Smackdown before the Royal Rumble drew 2,469,000 viewers yesterday, down 111,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast off hours 2,548,000 in the first hour and 2,391,000 in the second hour. Smackdown beat all shows in all demographics but lagged behind in terms of viewership, losing also the figure skating on NBC. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
We’re just over 24 hours away from the Royal Rumble and just like every pay-per-view, we bring you the early odds for the show. Who will walk out victorious and a shot at the titles at WrestleMania?
Today we will take a look at the three of the top matches on the card – the men’s and women’s Rumble matches and the Universal title match.
In the men’s Royal Rumble match, Roman Reigns is the favorite to win with his odds at 4/7. A Reigns win would mean another Reigns/Lesnar match, something that has been done quite a few times over the past few years. Drew McIntyre is second favorite with odds of 10/3 and CM Punk, who is highly unlikely to be part of the match, is at 4/1. The WWE champion himself Brock Lesnar – who is entering at number one – has odds of 13/2 and Cain Velasquez has the same odds to wrap up the top five.
Former NXT champion Shayna Baszler is the favorite to win the women’s match with her odds of 1/3 to go all the way. Ronda Rousey, who has not been seen since WrestleMania last year, has odds of 9/2 despite no confirmation that she will be in it. Charlotte Flair has odds of 13/2 in third, Sasha Banks is at 9/1, and another Superstar who is most likely not going to feature, Paige, is fifth with odds of 10/1.
In the Universal title match, Bray Wyatt is the favorite by a good margin right now with his odds at 1/6 to retain the title while Daniel Bryan is at 7/2 for the upset.
A full list of odds will be presented tomorrow as the show gets closer.
Live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, WWE presents Worlds Collide tonight exclusively on the WWE Network. The full card is as follows:
The Undisputed Era vs Imperium in an eight-man tag team match; Rhea Ripley vs Toni Storm for the NXT title; Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa vs Tyler Bate and Trent Seven; Ilja Dragunov vs. Finn Balor; Angel Garza vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs Jordan Devlin vs Travis Banks in a fatal four-way match for the NXT Cruiserweight title; and Mia Yim vs Kay Lee Ray in the pre-show match.
The Worlds Collide pre-show will kick off at 6:30PM ET and will stream live on the WWE Network, WWE.com, the WWE App, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Charly Caruso, Sam Roberts and Andy Shepherd will be hosting the show.
Get ready to become part of the legend, the legend of El Dorado! Join Gonzo on his quest to find the lost city of gold and maybe he will feel kind and split the reward! With a solid story and beautifully animated graphics, Gonzos Quest is truly a gem of the online slot industry. Utilising all the graphical creativity they can muster to make it become a reality. The popularity of Gonzos Quest is shown through the dedication of its fans. This game at Umbingo.com has even gone on to influence other Game developers to think outside the box.
About the Developer and Other Games by the Developer
NetEnt Started out in 1999 as part of an offline swedish casino operator and since then has gone on to make waves in the online slot gaming industry. Since then Netent has grown into one of the most widely known slot game developers in the world!
As of now NetEnt boast over 200 thrilling games for you to sink your teeth into! These games include big names such as Starburst, Guns n’ Roses and Finn and the Swirly Spin. They make a point of creating slot games that relate to popular culture by adapting tv shows and even bands into their slots. This inclusion of popular culture in their video slots keeps them relevant in this constant changing industry.
About the Game and Bonus Features
Gonzos Quest starts out with an opening cinematic that gives you the basic premise of what Gonzo plans to do. His main goal is to find the lost golden city of El Dorado! Will he find it with your help? We sure hope so! This online slot game offers something different due to its implementation of mechanics rarely seen in slot games. They do this by introducing Avalanche. Avalanche changes the reels from spinning symbols into blocks of stone that you match together to win! This new style of slot gaming keeps you on your toes and helps you delve into the mindset of an explorer as you play on and find new special features.
Match three or more Free Fall symbols and you will start the bonus feature of Free Fall. During the feature you will receive ten free re-spins as well as having the multiplier increased. Bonus coins will also fall when you have won a spin and gonzo himself will help you catch your winnings in his helmet!
Overall, Gonzos Quest brings a much needed breath of fresh air to the world of online slots. Its innovative approach to storytelling and game mechanics will surely cement its name in the hall of fame. So why not have a spin and try and get some of the gold for yourself?
Rey Mysterio is up for anything for WrestleMania, including a big match which would see him put his mask on the line.
Discussing his latest feud with TVInsider.com prior to the Royal Rumble, the former champion said that following his ladder match against Andrade, he is ready to put his mask on the line against Andrade’s hair for a WrestleMania moment. “Whatever the case might be, whoever ends up winning, I think it would be a huge stepping stone for either of us,” Mysterio said.
Losing a mask is a huge deal for those who carry it and while Mysterio did wrestle without a mask for a period while in WCW, WWE has always protected his face. It was in 1999 when Mysterio was forced to remove it after losing a hair vs mask match at SuperBrawl IX where Mysterio and tag team partner Konnan lost to Kevin Nash and Scott Hall.
At the time, Mysterio was strongly against the idea of unmasking. “I don’t think WCW understood what the mask meant to me, to my fans and to my family. It was a very bad move on their behalf. The fans wanted Rey Mysterio with the mask and losing it hurt me a lot,” Mysterio said at the time. He also lamented the fact that it was a “throwaway match” and not a meaningful one with a climax to a feud with another masked wrestler. “I think the fans understand that I was in a position where I had no option. I either had to lose my mask or lose my job,” Mysterio recounted.
Former WWE backstage interviewer Todd Pettengill will be making a return to the company tomorrow to be part of the Watch Along YouTube series during the Royal Rumble. Pettengill will be one of the many guests who will be dropping by throughout the broadcast.
Up until recently, Pettengill was a DJ for New York-based WPLJ 95.5 and now runs his own web-based show at HeyTodd.com. The 53-year-old worked for WWE between 1993 and 1997, first as a backstage interviewer and then as a host of several WWE shows including Mania, Blast-Off, LiveWire, and Action Zone. When he left WWE in 1997, Pettengill was replaced by Michael Cole.
In 2013, the New York native worked with WWE to host segments for the DVD release of The Best of In Your House compilation.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that AEW’s debut at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, is looking like it will be an epic one as the company has already sold over 10,000 tickets.
Tickets for the March 25 Dynamite went on sale yesterday and were scooped up pretty quickly by AEW fans for the company’s debut in the state. Ticketmaster.com doesn’t have much tickets left as the near 20,000-seater arena is looking close to a sell out. Obviously, not all 20,000 seats will be used but even WWE has a hard time selling out for their television and pay-per-views in the same arena.
There are still tickets available in the $30 range which are in the upper section of the arena.
Online gambling’s expected to be worth a staggering $73.45 billion in 2024. Indeed, due to its remarkable rise over the past decade – thanks largely to mobile slots – many people are labelling this era the Golden Age of Gambling. So, let’s look at how slots and technology have combined to bring about this era at slotzo.com.
The Mechanical Slot
The slots of today are very different from the first slot machine invented by Charles Fey in 1895. His Liberty Bell mechanical slot boasted a lever, 3 reels, a coin slot and just five symbols: spades, hearts, diamonds, horseshoes and liberty bells. The highest value was the liberty bell and thus if you landed 3 of these on the reels, you were guaranteed the jackpot – $0.50. Many companies copied Fey’s design and mechanical slots were all the rage for the next 50 or 60 years.
Electromechanical Slots
Mechanical slots continued to dominate the slots industry until the 1950s, when the electromechanical slot was born. It contained levers and spinning reels like its predecessor, but it wasn’t powered by springs. In fact, electromechanical slots used electric motors, so they were able to provide bigger payouts and some even boasted multipliers. Money Honey was one of the most famous electromechanical slots and its fame was largely down to its revolutionary jackpot – 500 coins.
Video Slots
In 1975, Walt Fraley’s Fortune slot became the first video slot to hit casino floors. Though, it wasn’t really a hit with punters, it heralded a new era for slots. Motors were replaced by computer chips in video slots, and, as a result, paylines and bonus features increased dramatically. Therefore, video slots became the most popular machines in the 1980s.
Internet and Mobile Slots
Although online slots began to emerge in the 1990s, they didn’t really challenge video slots until the noughties. Home computing became extremely popular then and because internet speeds also improved, more and more people started to do their gaming online. Furthermore, software companies such as Microgaming started creating online slots with multi-million progressive jackpots like Mega Moolah. 3D slots with a myriad of bonus features were also born, yet despite these developments, online slots didn’t really become mainstream until the smartphone started to hold sway. Mobile slots made it possible for people to play slots 24-7 anywhere they please and these days more people play slots from mobile devices than any other medium.
Virtual Slots
Even though virtual reality slots have been available since 2017, they’re only starting to catch on now. NetEnt caused a stir when they turned their popular slot, Gonzo’s Quest, into the world’s first ever VR slot game. Since then, the first VR casino has also emerged and within the next few years, experts believe VR slots will be the most popular type of slots.
Final Thoughts
We hope you’ve enjoyed our rundown of tech advancements in the slot industry. Clearly, slots are getting better day by day, so why don’t you give them a spin?
Speaking with Sports Illustrated ahead of the NWA Hard Times pay-per-view, the promotion’s champion Nick Aldis said that working with All Elite Wrestling is brought up to him daily, revealing that he was offered a deal to go join the revolution but opted to stay with the NWA instead.
“If AEW wants to be involved in big, marquee matches, then they have two choices: go out and write some more big checks to some more guys, or they’re going to have to come to the table and work out some super fights with the NWA,” Aldis said.
NWA has been proving itself lately with the new YouTube studio show Powerrr and Aldis has been the face of the promotion for a while.
The champ did work with some of the folks at AEW for the All In pay-per-view back in September 2018 where he wrestled Cody Rhodes for the NWA title, a match which he lost. He regained the title at the NWA 70th Anniversary Show in a two-out-of-three falls match. Aldis has been champion ever since, a title reign which as of this writing is in its 459th day.
“I want to keep having really meaningful moments, like All In with Cody and me, as well as some of our other milestone matches,” said Aldis. “I’ve been able to make my matches feel like the most important thing that day.”
Impact Wrestling have confirmed the first two names who will be participating during the TNA one night only return at WrestleMania weekend in Florida.
D’Lo Brown and Ken Anderson will be part of the TNA: There’s No Place Like Home event representing the Aces & Eights stable which they were a part of during their time with the company.
Brown has two stints with Impact, one between 2003 and 2004 and the other between 2009 and 2013. He served as an agent in his second stint there as well as an on-screen character, eventually revealing himself as the Vice President of Aces & Eights.
Anderson worked for the company between 2010 and 2016 and joined the Aces & Eights in late 2012. Ironically enough, Anderson was the one who disbanded the group after beating Bully Ray at Turning Point in 2013 where the stipulation was if Ray loses A&E would disband but if Anderson loses, he must leave.
The TNA special will be held at The Ritz Ybor City on April 3 as part of WrestleCon. It will air live on FITE TV.
NXT on USA Network did 769,000 viewers this week, up 69,000 viewers from last week’s show. NXT was #35 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic with a 0.24 rating. The difference between the two shows was of 102,000 viewers, which is down from the 240,000 difference of last week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
AEW’s Dynamite, which was taped from the Chris Jericho Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager cruise, pulled in 871,000 viewers, down 69,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. Despite this, the show still beat NXT in the weekly ratings. Dynamite was #5 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and did a 0.35. This was the fourth week in a row that AEW beat NXT when it comes to viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE Backstage on Tuesday on FS1 drew 111,000 viewers, and while up 27,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast, it must be considered a disappointment considering Becky Lynch was the guest with CM Punk on the panel. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
It looks like WWE took one giant step towards equality, at least within NXT, as the promotion has dropped the specific gender when addressing their female champion.
Just 24 hours after Becky Lynch suggested on Backstage that using “women” is somewhat still holding them back on being on par with their male counterparts, NXT is now referring to their women’s champion as the NXT champion.
The change was pretty evident on television when Mauro Ranallo referred to Rhea Ripley simply as the NXT champion multiple times yesterday and the WWE.COM review of the NXT show also refers to Ripley as the NXT champion. The company does not refer to the males as “men’s champions” and the distinction was only done when it came to the women.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com adds to the story that WWE issued an internal decree that moving forward, the NXT Women’s title will be referred to as the NXT Championship.
So far, on the WWE.COM page showcasing all the champions, the women are still listed as women’s champions.
The Royal Rumble is one of WWE’s biggest events of the year. With the potential winners numbering almost in the hundreds, there is a lot of talk about who could win this year. The odds on the winners is changing all the time which means that it is the right time to find the best unibet online casino bonus code to make sure you get the best value from your pick. With some of the biggest names in sports entertainment entering this year, who do we think will grab the prize and guarantee themselves a spot at WrestleMania?
Roman Reigns
Reigns has been out of the main event picture since he had to take some time off for Leukemia treatment. Despite this setback, he is still one of the biggest stars that WWE has on their roster. The Big Dog is likely to enter the Rumble in order to have a chance at getting back into that picture. This could see him pitting himself against arguably the biggest star in the industry at the moment in Brock Lesnar.
While the two did have a match at WrestleMania two years ago, it was generally regarded as a disappointment. Whether WWE would want to make the move to have them face off again remains to be seen. There could be some worries because of how poorly the first match was received, but at the same time, they also might want to put right what went wrong with the original match.
Whatever happens, Roman Reigns has a good chance of being the last man in the ring when the Rumble has finished.
Brock Lesnar
Lesnar announced that he will be the first man in the ring for the Royal Rumble this year. It means that he will be vying to become the third man to win the Rumble from position number one. Brock won the event in his first year with the company way back in 2003, so it will not be the first time he has experienced it. The fact that he is the reigning champion does mean that if he wins it will create something new at WrestleMania. One of the main reasons behind believing that Brock will win the match is that it will give WWE something new to do. In a company that is starved of creativity, a new storyline will help them to push forwards.
What also leads people to believe he could win is that Brock does not have the distraction of the UFC calling him this year. He announced that he would be retiring from MMA in a talk with Dana White last year, so there will not be the same level of discussion around what he is going to do in the lead up to WrestleMania this year. Will Brock make the event special? There is a good chance that WWE could build him up here as an even bigger monster, just to have someone become a big star when they finally beat him. Perhaps it could even be the next man we talk about.
Keith Lee
This is a really out of the box choice. Keith Lee is currently working on the NXT brand within WWE but has received rave reviews for his performances, especially at Survivor Series. His loss to Roman Reigns was a big moment, the show of respect from Reigns at the end making sure that everyone was aware of how far Lee had pushed the Big Dog. He has a lot of momentum going forwards and has even had the public backing of a WWE legend in CM Punk. There are a lot of reasons why WWE should listen to their famous alumni and allow Lee to be the last man to throw someone over the ropes.
The first reason is that it will make Keith Lee a legitimate star. This will be even more the case if he is able to eliminate Brock Lesnar on the way to winning. Lesnar is undoubtedly the biggest name in the business at the moment, but as WWE discovered in the 90s when crowds became bored of Hulk Hogan, if you never make any new stars then the audience will turn away. If WWE gives Lee the win in this match, then it will make him a new potential star. This will then make the build to his WrestleMania match with Brock Lesnar interesting. It will also be very popular with fans who have taken to Lee and his high impact performances inside the squared circle.
The upcoming Impact Wrestling pay-per-view Rebellion now has an official date: April 19. While Impact announced the pay-per-view during the Hard To Kill show earlier this month, the date was never revealed except for a mention saying it will be held in April.
The show will be held at Terminal 5, a 3,000-seater music venue located 610 West 56th Street, close to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal.
This is the second time that Impact will hold Rebellion, a new pay-per-view which made its debut last year in Toronto at The Rebel Complex.
