The build to NXT Takeover: WarGames 2019 continued yesterday on NXT on USA Network with some changes to the card.
Matt Riddle, who was originally part of the WarGames match, has been taken out of that match and now has a singles match instead against former NXT champion Finn Balor. Balor turned heel and attacked Johnny Gargano a few weeks ago but Gargano was ruled out of Takeover due to a neck injury.
With Riddle out of the WarGames match, Dominik Dijakovic is stepping up to take his place. Next week on NXT, Dijakovic will be taking on Adam Cole in a ladder match with the winner getting an advantage for their respective team.
Speaking of ladder matches, Io Shirai defeated Mia Yim last night to gain the numerical advantage in the WarGames match for her team. And Team Baszler, which was one woman down, has added NXT UK Women’s champion Kay Lee Rae last night after Rae interfered to help Shirai beat Yim in the ladder match.
WWE Backstage on FS1 did 100,000 viewers on Tuesday night, up from the 49,000 that the show did the previous week. It will be interesting to see what numbers it does next week with the introduction of CM Punk as an analyst. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In a video posted on social media, NXT star Jordan Myles said that he “quit f**king WWE” as he refuses to “work with racists.”
Myles, who wrestled on the indie seen as ACH, caused a storm last month when he labeled WWE as a racist company for a t-shirt they produced for him that depicts blackface. WWE publicly responded to his outburst, saying that he approved the design but Myles said that he only saw the design on a white background and the racist connotations are there on a black t-shirt. Myles called out Vince McMahon and Triple H in his tweets, many of which were later deleted.
“I am no longer an employee. I refuse to work with racists. I f**king hate that company and everything they stand for,” Myles said in the video, adding that the name Jordan Myles is a “slave name” and he’s now back to his ACH name.
Several African American WWE Superstars didn’t want to have anything with his outburst and distanced themselves from the situation.
Myles, real name Albert Hardie Jr., won the NXT Breakout Tournament and had a shot at the NXT title against Adam Cole, a match which he lost. He last wrestled in late September and has been pretty much missing from the WWE Performance Center ever since.
NXT on USA Network tonight will be headlined by a women’s ladder match featuring Mia Yim and Io Shirai. The winner of this ladder match will earn an advantage for their team at WarGames which takes place during the Survivor Series weekend.
Another match announced also for tonight is an NXT Cruiserweight title defense with champion Lio Rush defending against Angel Garza.
The push for both Takeover and the Survivor Series continues and with NXT stars appearing on both Smackdown and Raw this past week, it remains to be seen if more Superstars will invade NXT this week.
AEW’s Dynamite is live from Nashville, Tennessee tonight from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium where tickets are still available for sale through Ticketmaster.com.
Only two matches have been advertised so far for the post-Full Gear pay-per-view show. These are the AEW Tag Team champions SCU taking on AEW champ Chris Jericho and Sammy Guevara and PAC taking on Hangman Page.
Last week, Dynamite won the Wednesday night war against NXT by just 9,000 viewers so it will be interesting this week if the pay-per-view will give AEW a bump like it usually happens for WWE.
The five WWE Superstars from Smackdown who will be participating in the traditional elimination tag team match were revealed on WWE.COM today.
Those representing the blue brand are Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, King Corbin, Shorty G, and Mustafa Ali, who just got his first name back! Their opponents so far consist of Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens for Monday Night Raw while the five from NXT are still not known and most likely to be revealed tonight.
Apart from the men’s elimination tag team match there will also be a women’s match with Superstars from Raw, Smackdown, and NXT as well.
FOX went to great lengths to keep CM Punk’s appearance yesterday on WWE Backstage a complete secret, with only a handful of individuals aware of what was going to happen according to PWInsider.com.
Just a couple of Backstage producers knew that CM Punk would be on the show and out of all those who were on stage for the show, only host Renee Young was in on the secret. Booker T, Paige, Samoa Joe, and Adam Cole had no idea that Punk was even in the building and their reaction was as real as it gets.
The decision to only let a few people know what was about to happen was to not spoil the secret and give everyone a huge surprise. The idea paid off as for a change, the internet wrestling community was in the dark and no leaks took place.
Punk’s arrival on the show has already over 2 million views on the @WWEonFOX Twitter account. He officially starts with Backstage next week.
His deal is with FOX rather than WWE as Backstage is a FOX Sports production rather than WWE, with FOX Sports picking their own cast.
As reported last night on WWE Backstage, both The Miz and Paige signed new WWE deals that will keep them around for the foreseeable future. Both are multi-year contract extensions.
Apart from a year at Ultimate Pro Wrestling, The Miz has basically spent his entire wrestling career in WWE. After appearing in Tough Enough, he was signed to a developmental deal in 2005 and has gone on to become one of the most popular stars in WWE, including having his own reality TV show with his wife Maryse. “WWE has been my home for 15 years & it’ll continue to be for years to come. I promise to work harder than ever to continue to give you MUST SEE TV. IT WILL BE AWESOME,” Miz wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, Paige is in her eighth year with the company, having wrestled for FCW and NXT till 2014 before being called up to the main roster the night after WrestleMania in 2014. Unfortunately, her career was cut short due to a neck injury but after some on-screen roles as Smackdown General Manager and managing the Kabuki Warriors, Paige has found a place as an analyst on the FS1 WWE Backstage show.
Monday Night Raw drew a new non-holiday record-low last night, drawing an average of 2,058,000 viewers going against a massive NFL game on ESPN which drew almost 16 million viewers. Raw was also taped last Friday from Manchester, England. The show was down 77,000 viewers from last week.
Hour one started with 2,358,000 viewers, then fell to 2,063,000 viewers in the second hour, before crashing to just 1,753,000 viewers in the third and final hour. Raw suffered one of the biggest drops ever from hour one to hour three, with 603,000 viewers tuning out as the show progressed.
Raw was #4, #5, and #8 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and was #10 in the overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
It is finally official: CM Punk has joined the cast of WWE Backstage.
The former multi-time WWE champion was introduced by Renee Young last night before the show went off the air. Coming out to his WWE theme song, Punk addressed the viewers at home, saying, “It’s as simple as this: just when they think they have the answers, I change the culture.”
A WWE/FOX press release stated that Punk will start with the show next week as an analyst and contributor, joining Booker T, Paige, and Christian. He will not be on every show at this point but that will obviously change as the show progresses.
News of Punk doing an audition for the show was leaked several weeks ago but he said he had not heard back on the outcome.
He had not appeared on any WWE-related programming since he walked out of the company after the 2014 Royal Rumble.
Tickets for WrestleMania 36 will begin the pre-sale tomorrow, November 13, at 10AM ET on Ticketmaster.com. Several codes that will unblock the tickets have already been leaked including TWEETS, PHENOM, ALLWWE, NXTLIVE, and CENA54. Radio stations are also running their own promo codes that will unlock tickets and three already out include SHARK, WILD941, and Q105VIP.
For those looking into having a better experience at the show, sections 201 to 220 and 226 to 245 all have club access. Club access are climate-controlled with club-one concession options and private bathrooms, and premium bar areas. Seats in sections 205 to 216 and 230 to 241 are extra-wide and padded for better comfort.
If you’re ready to splash the money, those who purchase $2,000 and $2,500 seats will get to sit in the first nine rows and will get an exclusive Gold Circle VIP stadium entrance and the commemorative WrestleMania chair. Those who purchase the $850 and $1,000 tickets will also get to take home the WrestleMania chair.
Ticketmaster.com will also sell a four-day ticket for The Hall of Fame, Smackdown, NXT Takeover, and Raw, all of which will be taking place at the Amalie Arena. This four-day package will enable you to sit in the same seat for all four shows.
Episode seven of season six of Total Divas returns on E! tonight with an episode titled I Will Prevail.
The synopsis for tonight’s show reads, “With WrestleMania just around the corner, Sonya learns she will be making history with the first ever LGBTQ storyline in the WWE, but her girlfriend’s jealous reaction puts a damper on Sonya’s excitement. Nia gets hit with more bad news regarding her injury and sets out to rectify her wrongdoings with Carmella before her career gets put to a halt. Natalya vies for her first WrestleMania moment in an attempt to honor her late father and the legacy he left behind. Meanwhile, Ronda wonders if her work is done at the WWE and if it’s time to focus on having a baby.”
WWE Backstage tonight on FS1 will have guests Mick Foley and NXT champion Adam Cole as WWE hopes to lure in more viewers than the just 55,000 that tuned in last week for the premiere episode.
Backstage airs live at the very late 11PM ET time slot with host Renee Young as she’s joined by Booker T, Christian, and Paige. It’s filmed from the FOX Sports studios in Los Angeles, California.
The men’s Team Raw for the Survivor Series has been completed and revealed on Monday Night Raw last night.
The five individual includes team captain Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens. These five will face off five Superstars from Smackdown and five from NXT in a Survivor Series traditional elimination tag team match but with two weeks out, the 10 remaining Superstars are still to be announced.
The Smackdown and NXT women’s teams are also not yet known while the Raw women’s team has Sasha Banks, Carmella, and Dana Brooke so far.
Meanwhile, another match was announced for this year’s Survivor Series featuring United States champion AJ Styles versus Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura versus NXT North American champion Roderick Strong in what could be match of the night.
WWE Superstar Sin Cara, who is currently portrayed by Jorge Arias, tweeted today that he requested his release from WWE after thinking about his family and doing what he thinks is right for him.
Arias, who prior to donning the Sin Cara mask wrestled as Hunico, has been wrestling for WWE since 2009 and took over the masked gimmick in 2011 after the original Sin Cara, portrayed by Luis Urive, left the WWE.
He wrote that he’s grateful for WWE for the opportunity that they gave him however he’s stuck in a place where he’s not valued. He lamented that the opportunity to showcase what he really can do never came and unless he moves, he will remain in his current position. Sin Cara added that he thinks that the best years of his wrestling career are yet to come and this is just the beginning of his new chapter.
The man behind the mask then thanked the WWE fans for their support all around the world.
The WWE Network is getting back its biggest “box office” star – apart from pay-per-views – and his name is Stone Cold Steve Austin.
The WWE Hall of Famer will be returning with Stone Cold Steve Austin: The Broken Skull Sessions, a monthly original series premiering Sunday, November 24 at 11PM ET.
Hosted and executive produced by Austin himself, The Broken Skull Sessions will feature no-holds-barred, one-on-one conversations with the biggest names in WWE history, including Legends, Superstars and celebrity guests.
On the debut episode, Austin welcomes The Undertaker for a rare long-form interview, giving the WWE Universe unprecedented insight into one of the most prolific and enduring WWE icons of all time. From his early days in the ring to the night his WrestleMania Streak ended, The Phenom opens up about his storied career like you’ve never heard before.
“I’ve raised hell all over the world inside the ring while with WWE. Now with The Broken Skull Sessions, I get to raise hell outside the ring, shooting the breeze with Superstars from the world of sports-entertainment,” Austin said.
Filmed at Austin’s home studio in Southern California, each episode of The Broken Skull Sessions will contain more than an hour of engaging, candid conversation with guests who’ve accomplished success similar to the decorated six-time WWE Champion.
All Elite Wrestling announced that Dynamite will be coming to Miami, Florida on Wednesday, January 15.
While not running at the AmericanAirlines Arena, AEW will be hosting the show from the Watsco Center, an 8,000-seater arena located on the campus of the University of Miami. Tickets will go on sale on November 22 starting from $20 at AEWTix.com.
The week before, AEW will hold Dynamite at another 8,000-seater arena, the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. Plenty of tickets are on sale for this January 8 television tapings.
WWE and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy today announced that WrestleMania 35 generated $165.4 million in economic impact for the New York/New Jersey region this past April, according to a study conducted by the Enigma Research Corporation. This marks a more than 60 percent increase from the $101.2 million generated for WrestleMania 29 in New York and New Jersey, and the eighth consecutive year that WrestleMania generated more than $100 million in economic impact for its host region.
The figure is $10 million less than what WrestleMania 34 generated for New Orleans in 2018.
Over the past 13 years, WrestleMania has generated more than $1.3 billion in cumulative economic impact for the cities that have hosted the event. WrestleMania 35 also generated approximately $27.1 million in federal, state and local taxes.
“New Jersey is proud to have hosted WrestleMania 35 in April, the fourth time our state has been host to this great event,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. “This data underscores what we already knew – bringing large-scale events that draw fans from all over the world brings significant economic benefits to our state and the region. I thank WWE for choosing New Jersey and hope to continue this partnership in the future.”
“We are thrilled that WrestleMania’s return to our ‘front yard’ generated a significant economic increase for our partners in New York and New Jersey,” said John P. Saboor, WWE Executive Vice President of Special Events. “This success would not have been possible without the tireless support of Governor Murphy, Barclays Center, NYC & Company, Meadowlands Chamber, New York Jets, New York Giants and the rest of our public and private sector partners throughout the region. We now turn our attention to next year for what will be a historic WrestleMania debut in Tampa Bay.”
A sold-out crowd of 82,265 fans from all 50 states and 68 countries attended WWE’s pop-culture extravaganza this past April, making it the highest-grossing entertainment event in the history of MetLife Stadium. Key highlights from the study include: $165.4 million in direct, indirect and induced impact derived from spending by visitors to the New York/New Jersey region for WrestleMania 35; 52% of fans that attended WrestleMania were from outside the New York and New Jersey region and stayed an average of 4.6 nights; $23.9 million was spent on hotels and accommodations within the New York/New Jersey region; The economic impact derived from WrestleMania Week was equal to the creation of 1,534 full-time jobs for the area; $6.6 million was spent by visitors to the region at area restaurants.
In 2001, a much hyped football league played its inaugural (and only) season. The XFL had been a heavily promoted football league that would “complement” the NFL. However, despite the hype and initial interest by fans, the XFL failed to return for a second season.
That is about to change though, as the man behind the original league, WWE’s Vince McMahon, has announced that the XFL will return in 2020 thanks to a $500 million relaunch. But what is the XFL, and what does it have to do with WWE?
What Does XFL Stand For?
Everyone knows that the NFL stands for National Football League. However, there was confusion over the XFL when it launched. It’s owners had planned to call the league the “‘Xtreme Football League”, but a league of that name already existed, so the official line was that the XFL did not stand for anything. Football is a sport that is always trending with a lot of people watching ผลบอลสด in every corner of the world. In fact, this is one of the many reasons why football is considered one of the most popular sports these days.
Why Do We Need Another League?
The idea for the XFL was conceived back in 1991 by Vince McMahon of the then World Wrestling Federation. It took him 10 years to turn the league into a reality, with the WWF forming it as a joint venture with NBC. The American TV network had recently lost some of its NFL broadcasting rights, and was looking for something to fill the gap.
Photo by Izaac Crayton
Xtreme Football?
The XFL was to differentiate itself from the NFL by playing a more aggressive form of football that would have fewer rules. While this would certainly change the dynamic of the games, the league being “xtreme” is up for debate. The league featured players who had not been able to get contracts with NFL teams, as players of the NFL rightly decided it was too high risk to jump to a new league. This led to criticism of the quality of the games.
Blending Football and Wrestling
The XFL would use some of WWF’s showmanship, and the TV coverage would feature some wrestling stars in punditry and commentary positions. It was hoped that this would allow the XFL to pick up fans of both football and wrestling. This resulted in some innovative camera angles, which are now used extensively in NFL coverage.
Wagering
Due to the outcome of WWE matches being predetermined, bookmakers will not accept bets on their outcomes. This is in contrast to boxing and the UFC, where bookmakers let fans place wagers on the outcome of each fight, the method of victory, or the number of rounds that the fight will last. Before the launch of the first iteration of the XFL, there had been speculation that the football games would also have predetermined outcomes.
However, this quickly went away when Las Vegas sportsbooks started accepting wagers on the games. The games in the re-launched XFL will also be competitive and therefore it is likely that bookmakers will again allow fans to place bets on the games.
Not a Rival to the NFL
The XFL was not the first league to compete against the NFL. Earlier in the league’s history it came up against several other rivals, including the American Football League, US Football League, and the most recent Alliance of American Football, which lasted eight weeks.
Vince McMahon planned for the XFL season to begin immediately after the end of the NFL’s. This would mean that football fans who were looking to continue watching the sport would not have to wait several months. While a clever idea, it was not enough to help the XFL survive.
Great Opening Night
Thanks to the marketing skills of McMahon, the WWE fan base, and the backing of NBC, the XFL opened with an impressive TV rating. However, they quickly began to dwindle, with NBC pulling the plug on the league after the first season due to its poor performance in the battle for viewing figures.
Second Time Lucky?
It’s difficult to say whether the XFL will succeed the second time around. The odds are stacked against it though; no rival football league has survived a battle with the NFL. It’s difficult to see what the XFL will do differently this time to ensure it is able to last longer than one season, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s probably Vince McMahon.
In an interview with British tabloid newspaper The Sun for SunSports, WWE Superstar Rusev said that he will be returning to Saudi Arabia when the company goes back next year and called Crown Jewel a big victory for WWE.
“I make a lot of money, I will definitely go back,” Rusev said bluntly. The Saudi trips are big money machines for WWE and the Superstars get a huge paycheck for their participation. “I love it, I love every single trip that we do there, I love how we break barriers with women wrestling there and Lana being able to go,” he continued.
Rusev said that this year’s Crown Jewel was a massive victory for WWE as a company for being able to hold the first-ever women’s wrestling match in the country. “Not just for that, but to open new doors and new opportunities to develop further, it’s just amazing. It’s a great opportunity for us to be ambassadors for entertainers.”
Asked about getting stuck in the country, Rusev said that frustrations grew by each passing hour but shot down the idea that they were held hostage by the Saudi government. “I don’t think anyone in their rightful mind is going to hold 170 people, American citizens, hostages, I don’t think that’ll reflect well anywhere,” he said.
