Monday Night Raw drew an average of 2,405,000 viewers this week with no NBA competition but head-to-head with NHL finals which drew 5.2 million viewers on NBC. Raw did 215,000 viewers more than last week.
Hour one started with 2,308,000 viewers, followed by 2,558,000 viewers in the second hour, and 2,349,000 in the third and final hour.
Raw was #1, #2, and #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #6 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
In his first match with New Japan Pro Wrestling, Jon Moxley won the IWGP United States title during yesterday’s Best of the Super Juniors finals at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan.
Moxley defeated Juice Robinson in the second-to-last match of the show with a modified version of the Dirty Deeds. He made his entrance through the crowd just like The Shield used to do and wore shorts with a gold trim, knee pads, and amateur wrestling shoes, a very different look from his Dean Ambrose WWE days.
The former WWE champion will be full-time with All Elite Wrestling once the company starts the weekly television show on TNT but until then he is free to take outside bookings.
Despite being a Raw Superstar, Alexa Bliss became the number one contender for the Smackdown Women’s title last night thanks to the wildcard rule introduced several weeks ago.
Bliss, returning to action after a few months out, defeated Charlotte and Carmella in a triple threat match to become the number one contender. Bliss was originally advertised to be wrestling at Money In The Bank as part of the ladder match but was not cleared by doctors.
And with no women allowed on the Super ShowDown event from Saudi Arabia this Friday, Alexa vs Bayley becomes the first one on the card for the Stomping Grounds pay-per-view which takes place on June 23.
A couple of years ago, WWE hired ESPN’s Peter Rosenberg and Sirius XM’s Sam Roberts to join in on the Kickoff shows and do some freelance work for the WWE Network.
But now, one of those two, Rosenberg, finds himself out of WWE’s good graces and in the latest episode of his Cheap Heat podcast on ESPN, Rosenberg spilled the beans on everything and why he’s not working for WWE anymore.
Rosenberg revealed that he had been dealing with personal issues lately and informed WWE that he needs a break from traveling. When he was ready to get back to work and do WrestleMania, Michael Cole, who is in charge of most on-air talent behind the microphone, informed him that his services are no longer required.
“WrestleMania came to New York City where I’ve been promoting it for four, five months prior, even when I was no longer traveling,” Rosenberg recounted. “And they said, ‘We don’t have a place for you on WrestleMania.’ They couldn’t even squeeze me on that Watch Along show with 80 people talking at the same time. Still didn’t have room for me there. Couldn’t put me anywhere.”
Rosenberg said that he is not mad at Michael Cole as the two were never “super tight” but then ripped on the Watch Along format saying that the show is an embarrassment to WWE and to the WWE Network. “That’s not a shot at Pat McAfee. I do not think anyone can do that show and make it good. You cannot have ten people talking at the same time. It’s not good.”
With him no longer working for WWE, Rosenberg said that he’ll be able to give more of an honest assessment of the product now and doesn’t intend to show all the love that he was restricted to since he doesn’t have to be on any of those shows any more.
In the final segment to close out Monday Night Raw, The Undertaker told Goldberg that he’s next and at Super ShowDown this Friday, he will claim his soul.
During the short in-ring promo, Taker said that he doesn’t want the family man Goldberg that smiles with his wife and son, he wants the unstoppable, mythical, icon Goldberg. “I promise you this, if you bring anything less, our first match will be your last!”
He then continued, “When the reaper beckons, you answer his call. I will claim your soul for all of eternity.” After the show went off the air, Taker then did the usual rest in peace line to send the crowd home happy.
The former WCW, World, and Universal champion will be responding to The Undertaker tonight on Smackdown Live and the arena is also promoting an appearance by The Undertaker. If that happens on or off camera remains to be seen.
Rey Mysterio is no longer the United States champion after he relinquished the title on Raw last night and gave it back to previous champion Samoa Joe.
Mysterio won the title at Money In The Bank in a controversial fashion after Joe’s shoulder was not on the mat when the referee hit the three-count. Despite that, the ref’s decision was final and Mysterio walked out of the pay-per-view the new champion…and with an injury.
Rey suffered a legit shoulder injury during the very short match and separated his AC joint. His two matches against Joe, the first one at WrestleMania, were both quick matches as even at WrestleMania, Mysterio walked in with a leg injury and Joe made quick work to retain the title.
Despite giving the title back to Samoa Joe last night, Joe was not in a good mood and placed Mysterio in the Coquina Clutch.
As expected, WWE pulled a bait-and-switch on the Brock Lesnar MITB briefcase cash-in which was originally advertised for Raw yesterday.
Lesnar was indeed in attendance and beat up Seth Rollins after the Universal champion was taken out by Baron Corbin. A referee was there ready to make the match official but despite being urged by Heyman, Lesnar decided not to cash in and said he’ll do it at Super ShowDown this Friday in Saudi Arabia.
Rollins did not have a good night and ended up doing the stretcher job complete with an ambulance trip out of the arena.
The Universal champion will be taking on Baron Corbin with the title on the line this Friday.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com is reporting that Impact World champion Brian Cage was set to be a surprise at the All Elite Wrestling Double or Nothing pay-per-view last week but the plug was pulled by Impact when he was backstage at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
While it was not revealed what role he was going to have, Johnson reports that when he was backstage, officials at Impact Wrestling found out that he was there and quickly got in touch with Cage and told him that he cannot appear because of his contract with the company.
Cage has been out injured ever since he won the Impact World title at the Rebellion pay-per-view and has not wrestled since. He will be back at the next PPV, Slammiversary, in July.
Cage was not the only Impact star to be at Double or Nothing. Tommy Dreamer, who works for Impact but has no contract, appeared and wrestled during the Casino Battle Royale.
Former WWE champion Jinder Mahal won the 24/7 title yesterday…on a golf course we have never seen something like this. But his title reign lasted mere seconds as R-Truth, thanks to help from Carmella, regained the title.
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But as Mahal grabs the title and the referee lifts his hand up as the winner, Carmella stops him from escaping and Truth then returns the favor, rolling Mahal up from behind and regains the title. Truth then punches Mahal and runs on the cart as Carmella drives away.
WWE has appointed Andy Warkman as Vice President and General Manager, WWE UK & Ireland. He will be reporting directly to Stefan Kastenmüller, who was recently promoted to WWE Senior Vice President & Group General Manager EMEA.
In his new role, Warkman will lead WWE’s strategic business initiatives and day-to-day operations in the UK and Ireland, and work with partners across all of WWE’s lines of business, including television, live events, marketing, sponsorship, advanced media, licensing and merchandising.
Warkman is a seasoned executive with more than 20 years of experience working across the UK, Europe and Middle East. He spent the past 14 years at OSN where he was most recently Senior Vice President, Sport & Production, responsible for overseeing the network’s sports business, including rights negotiations, business development, distribution, digital, sponsorship and production. During this time, he worked extensively with WWE, helping grow and build the brand across MENA.
“We’ve been in business with Andy for more than a decade and he knows the WWE brand extremely well,” said Kastenmüller. “We have the utmost confidence that he will be able to build upon an already substantial business in this important region for WWE.”
The Sames Auto Arena in Laredo, Texas, which will host this Tuesday’s Smackdown Live, is now advertising that The Undertaker will also be appearing on the show along with Goldberg.
Earlier this week, WWE announced that Taker would be appearing on Raw while Goldberg would be on Smackdown as the two promote their first-ever match against each other for Super ShowDown. Super ShowDown takes place on Friday, June 7 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The arena is also advertising a dark match featuring Kofi Kingston vs Kevin Owens vs Dolph Ziggler although these don’t always happen.
Tons of tickets are still available including ringside seats which are just over $100. Tickets can be purchased from Ticketmaster.com.
August 31 will be a good day for wrestling fans because there will be three shows running on the same day, two of which will be going on during the same time.
New Japan Pro Wrestling was the first to announce their Royal Quest show at the Copper Box Arena in London on that date. This will be NJPW’s first major show in Europe. All Elite Wrestling will hold their second pay-per-view, All Out, at Hoffman Estates, Illinois and the Sears Center. And now, WWE announced yesterday that NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff will also be held on the same day.
The NXT UK Takeover and NJPW Royal Quest shows will be going on at the same time but thanks to time difference, both shows will end way before All Out begins. NXT UK Takeover will start at 3PM ET, which is 8PM local time. All Out is set to start at 8PM ET, or 1AM in the United Kingdom.
Speaking to the press after NXT Takeover: XXV, Triple H shot down the rumors that WWE booked that day on purpose and said that the date was booked way before WrestleMania 35.
“Contrary to I’m sure some of the buzz, the date of August 31 is a date we’ve had for along time. That building has been booked with us in Cardiff…geez…long before WrestleMania 35 I think,” Triple H said.
He added that they didn’t announce it before because it was not the right time and they didn’t want to announce something which was six months out.
“Tonight was the right night to do it, it had nothing to do with anybody else, to be honest. We will take place live in prime time in the UK and be on in the afternoon here in the United States, so, it is what it is.”
WWE announced that NXT UK will get their second Takeover special on August 31 in Cardiff, Wales.
Titled NXT UK Takeover: Cardiff, this show will air at 3PM ET or 8PM local time exclusively on the WWE Network. No ticket information has been released yet.
WWE usually runs at the Motorpoint Arena while in the city but it’s likely that a smaller venue will be chosen for this show.
The first NXT UK Takeover event took place on January 12 earlier this year from Blackpool, England.
Here are the results from last night’s NXT Takeover: XXV which took place from the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Matt Riddle defeated Roderick Strong; The Street Profits defeated The Undisputed Era, The Forgotten Sons, and Oney Lorcan and Dunny Burch in a four-way ladder match to win the NXT Tag Team titles; Velveteen Dream defeated Tyler Breeze to retain the NXT North American title; Shayna Baszler defeated Io Shirai to retain the NXT Women’s title; Adam Cole defeated Johnny Gargano to become the new NXT champion.
In a wide-ranging interview with Wade Keller of the Pro Wrestling Torch, Jon Moxley said that WWE would be better off with Triple H at the helm rather than Vince McMahon.
Moxley did not mince any words about the current bad WWE product and put the blame solely on Vince McMahon’s shoulders. He said that he used to give McMahon the benefit of the doubt because of what he had done for the wrestling business, but in 2019, Vince doesn’t know “what the f**k is going on.”
He also mentioned that everybody likes NXT and the big difference between WWE and NXT is the person running the show: Triple H. Vince is not involved at all with NXT and Triple H is the one calling the shots in Orlando.
While admitting that there’s no one else who could probably run the ship apart from Triple H, he said that HHH is at least more open and more cooperative than Vince and could turn the product around. The former WWE champion even went as far to suggest giving Triple H the reigns for a month, let him do the work without Vince, and evaluate what happens after that.
The main event of Impact’s next pay-per-view, Slammiversary XVII, has been confirmed to be Brian Cage defending his Impact world title against Michael Elgin.
Cage has been out of action ever since winning the Impact World title at the previous PPV Rebellion. He was rushed to a nearby hospital due to a back injury he suffered in his match against Johnny Impact. Following the match, Elgin made his debut and attacked Cage.
That alone was not enough to secure a number one contender spot for the title though as Elgin still had to win a triple threat against Johnny Impact and Pentagon Jr to secure his spot.
The show takes place on Sunday, July 7 at Gilley’s Dallas in Dallas, Texas.
Live tonight from the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, WWE presents NXT Takeover: XXV exclusively on the WWE Network. The full card is as follows:
Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole for the NXT title; Shayna Baszler vs Io Shirai for the NXT Women’s title; Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs The Street Profits vs The Undisputed Era vs The Forgotten Sons in a ladder match for the vacant NXT Tag Team titles; Velveteen Dream vs Tyler Breeze for the NXT North American title; and Matt Riddle vs Roderick Strong.
You can watch NXT Takeover: XXV for free if you’re a first-time subscriber to the WWE Network. To start your 30-day free trial, go to http://w-o.it/wwentwrk. Signing up today will also give you the Super ShowDown and Stomping Grounds pay-per-views which will take place on June 7 and June 23 respectively.
The WWE 24 episode on Ronda Rousey will finally air this coming Monday immediately following the conclusion of Monday Night Raw on the WWE Network.
The episode was supposed to air months ago but it was postponed several times. It has been in production since Rousey first arrived at the Royal Rumble in 2018.
Titled WWE 24: Revolutionary: The Year of Ronda Rousey, this documentary will chronicle Rousey’s arrival, her first WrestleMania, chasing the Raw Women’s title, life in WWE, and the first ever all-women WrestleMania main event.
The former champion, who lost the title to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania in her first WWE singles loss, has since departed WWE in hopes of starting a family, with her wrestling career on hold until a decision is taken following the “baby-making” period.
WWE 24 documentaries often receive rave reviews from fans due to the unprecedented backstage access and filmography. The last WWE 24 focused on Becky Lynch and aired just a few weeks ago.
Netflix has announced that season three of the popular series GLOW will be returning on Friday, August 9.
A total of 10 episodes will make up the third season as the GLOW ladies pack their bags and head to Las Vegas! All 10 episodes, in 4K, will be made available at one go for binge watching.
The series has become one of Netflix’s most popular and the company picked up another season soon after season two was uploaded.
The synopsis for the third season reads, “Season 3 follows the ladies of GLOW as they take the Las Vegas Strip by storm. Now headliners at the Fan-Tan Hotel and Casino, the women quickly realize that Sin City is much more grind than glitter. Ever the team cheerleader, Ruth’s passion for the show begins to take a backseat to her growingly complicated personal life. Debbie is making headway as a producer but continues to be consumed with guilt over the distance between her and her son. As their residency wears on, the lines blur between performance and reality, and the cast find themselves struggling with their own identities both in and outside of the ring.”
GLOW features Alison Brie as Ruth “Zoya the Destroya” Wilder, Betty Gilpin as Debbie “Liberty Belle” Eagan, Sydelle Noel as Cherry “Junkchain”/”Black Magic” Bang, Britney Young as Carmen “Machu Picchu” Wade, Marc Maron as Sam Sylvia, Britt Baron as Justine “Scab” Biagi, Kate Nash as Rhonda “Britannica” Richardson, Gayle Rankin as Sheila “the She Wolf”, Kia Stevens as Tammé “The Welfare Queen” Dawson, and Jackie Tohn as Melanie “Melrose” Rosen as the main cast.
Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch, Jenji Kohan, and Tara Herrmann serve as executive producers.
Speaking to ESPN, Chris Jericho said that Vince McMahon knew about All Elite Wrestling the whole time and actually consulted with him before signing with the new promotion.
Jericho, considered to be one of the greatest company men for WWE, said that he shares a great relationship with WWE and with Vince McMahon after nearly two decades there.
“Vince knew about [AEW] the whole time. I didn’t just show up in AEW and say, ‘Here I am, guys.’ It was a conversation that we had, we discussed it and both of us agreed. He was happy for me for taking the contract and I was happy to take it,” Jericho told ESPN.
Jericho wonders now though that probably Vince didn’t realize how much of a “juggernaut” AEW was going to be and might take a different approach about someone doing the same thing as him. “But at the time, he was very happy for me and very agreeable to me going and taking this chance.”
The former Undisputed champion also talked about Jon Moxley and their podcast, saying that a lot of WWE Superstars contacted him and said that they can’t wait to do a similar podcast with him when their deal expires. Jericho’s podcast with Moxley became the most downloaded podcast ever of Talk Is Jericho in a matter of hours.
Jericho put over the man formerly known as Dean Ambrose about how he exited WWE, not burning bridges and finishing up his work there rather than requesting to be released.
“You finish up your work, you finish out, you do what they want to do, you put over who needs to be put over and you move on to the next territory,” Jericho said. “That’s the best way to do business. You don’t walk out, you don’t ask for your release. You don’t quit. You finish out the job that you were contracted and expected to do as a professional. Once that’s done, then it’s up to you. You go where you want to go and do what you want to do. And that’s exactly what Moxley did, and he seems quite happy right now. So hopefully that’s inspirational to other talent in the business.”
