During the latest episode of The Road to Double or Nothing on YouTube, Cody Rhodes confirmed that the Over The Budget battle royal will be returning for their May pay-per-view.
The winner of the battle royal will be receiving a great incentive but he stopped short on announcing what the incentive involves.
The Over The Budget battle royal was part of the Zero Hour pre-show of All In this past September and aired on WGN America. The first OTB came about after Cody said at the time it was “too good to pass up a one-hour free event on television” leading up to their pay-per-view. They did have a budget though and didn’t want to go over it because they were personally financing the show so to cover it, the aprons, canvas, turnbuckles, and everything “soft” from the All In pay-per-view had to be pre-sold to collectors and that money helped finance the extra hour on WGN America.
The winner of the first Over The Budget battle royal – Flip Gordon – received an ROH World title match on the pay-per-view later in the evening.
NXT UK will hold television tapings in Scotland, at the Download Festival, and in Plymouth over the next few months.
Glasgow’s Braehead Arena in Scotland will play host to NXT UK on April 19 and 20. These will be the first NXT UK tapings held in Scotland.
The Download Festival, held in June at Donington Park in Leicestershire, will also be the site of three days in a row of television taping for NXT UK. Tapings will be held on June 14, 15, and 16. WWE had a presence at the Festival for the past three years now with NXT.
Another round of tapings will be held in Plymouth at the Plymouth Pavilions on July 19 and 20.
Tickets for the Glasgow and Plymouth shows go on sale on February 22 and 27 respectively. Download Festival tickets are available now.
Kofi Kingston’s recent surge earned him a one-one-one WWE title match at the upcoming WWE pay-per-view Fastlane.
The former multi-time Tag Team title holder pinned the champion twice in as many weeks on television. Yesterday, Kofi was part of a six-man tag team match, teaming up with AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy to take on Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, and Randy Orton. Kofi picked up the win for his team after hitting his Trouble in Paradise finishing move for a clean pin on Bryan.
After the match, Shane McMahon then announced Kofi as the new number one contender for the WWE title.
Last week, Kofi also pinned Bryan in the gauntlet match heading into the Elimination Chamber and came very close to winning the title on the pay-per-view. After the match, the fans gave him a standing ovation and the show did not close with the champion, but rather with Kofi getting showered by cheers and claps from fans.
Kingston was not even supposed to be in the match in the first place and replaced Mustafa Ali who got injured a week before the Elimination Chamber.
An eight-man elimination tournament was announced on 205 Live yesterday where the winner will be facing the Cruiserweight champion Buddy Murphy at WrestleMania.
The first two matches of this tournament will take place next week on 205 Live, featuring Kalisto vs Tony Nese and Brian Kendrick vs Drew Gulak.
The remaining participants of the tournament were never announced but during last night’s show, there were two matches that 205 Live GM Drake Maverick said would have big implications on the tournament.
In those two matches, Humberto Carrillo defeated TJP and Mike Kanellis defeated Cedric Alexander. They were not tournament matches but from what it looked like, the winners will be somehow involved as well, as these seemed like they were qualifying matches for the tournament.
Tye Dillinger wrote in a social media post that he has requested his release from WWE.
He wrote that he wanted to address the issue before rumors started to spread online. The WWE Superstar asked WWE to be let out of his contract yesterday, noting that he had done several great things in WWE during his time, including working with some of the best talent in the world.
“I feel at this time this decision, as extremely difficult as it was, is what is best for myself and WWE,” Dillinger wrote. “I wish to continue to grow as a performer and offer those paying hard earned money to watch a show I’m performing on, a little more of myself.”
While he did not specify if WWE granted his release, he continued as if it was a done deal, thanking the whole WWE locker room, coaches, producers, ring crew, the management, and the fans.
“I wish you all the very best from the bottom of my heart for everything,” he concluded.
The 38-year-old Dillinger worked for WWE between 2006 and 2009 in developmental and also appeared on the revived version of ECW. He returned in 2013 in NXT before being called up to the main roster in 2017. He never won a title during his time with the company.
Both 205 Live tonight and NXT tomorrow will feature special announcements which WWE is hyping on social media.
The tease for the NXT announcement reads, “Get ready, because this week’s NXT will feature a special announcement. With no additional details currently available, speculation about what’s in store for the black-and-gold brand is running wild.”
The timing is interesting since four of NXT’s top stars – Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Ricochet, and Aleister Black – all showed up on Raw last night. Their call-up is not known yet if it’s permanent or just temporary to spice things up.
Meanwhile, 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick wrote on Twitter that tonight’s broadcast will feature a huge announcement concerning the brand and WrestleMania.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team titles will be defended across all three WWE brands – Raw, Smackdown, and even NXT.
The brand-new champions, Sasha Banks and Bayley, announced last night on Raw that they will accept all challengers from “past, present, and future.” With the women’s roster not deep enough, the new WWE Women’s Tag Team titles are the only titles which will be cross-brand and whoever the champions are will be appearing on different shows to defend them.
The idea was always to have one set of champions for the women unlike the men’s where there are tag team titles for Raw, Smackdown, and NXT.
More tickets were made available for AEW’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Floor tickets, selling for $102, and level 200 tickets, selling for $37, are now available on the AXS.COM website. The extra tickets were made possible after a production hold was lifted according to AEW Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes.
“Let’s break more records. As we make production changes, it’s possible we will free even more space,” Cody wrote on Twitter.
According to sources, over 40,000 requests for the pre-sale were made and tickets to the general public sold out in just four minutes. The arena will hold more than 12,000 people in this setting.
In a post on Facebook, Joanie “Chyna” Laurer’s mother Jan LaQue wrote that she is very, very happy about her daughter finally being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year.
“Of course my husband Paul, and I are absolutely thrilled. We will be going to the ceremony and will be so very proud to honor her. She richly deserves this,” Jan said.
Jan thanked the fans and also Chyna’s social media manager Rob Potylo who she labeled as the “driving force” in leading the campaign to induct Chyna into the Hall of Fame. “And of course, thank you to the WWE for recognizing her and inducting her. What a happy day for so many of us.”
Potylo wasn’t overly happy at the beginning because he campaigned so she can have a solo induction. “We’re fighting for that solo recognition because it’s way overdue, and I’m sorry but this was a compromise,” he wrote on Twitter. “We can cheer on all her wonderful antics in DX all we want but until there’s a light shined on her legacy I will continue to campaign.” He softened his stance over the past 24 hours, thanking WWE and mentioning that sooner or later she will be a two-time Hall of Famer as well.
Mick Foley, who also advocated for a very long time to get his close friend Chyna inducted, wrote “I am particularly happy for Joanie, for whom the Hall may serve as a final resting place for a kind and gentle soul who left us way too soon.”
The number one contender for the WWE title will be announced tonight on Smackdown Live where he will get a match at Fastlane. The winner of that match will go on to WrestleMania to defend the title at MetLife Stadium.
With WWE in full gear towards the road to WrestleMania, there’s no clear picture yet on who will be in this title match. Last Sunday at the Elimination Chamber, Kofi Kingston had one hell of a showing so it wouldn’t be surprising if he is named the number one contender. Kofi also got huge backing from the WWE fans who gave him a big standing ovation following the match.
The “new” Daniel Bryan also got himself out of a big hole and reinvented himself as an awesome heel WWE champion. After the big hype of his return last year, Bryan’s big-time status in WWE started diminishing until he turned heel in November.
NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa, NXT North American champion Johnny Gargano, Ricochet, and Aleister Black all made their man roster debut last night on Raw.
Triple H tipped everyone off at the start of the show saying the four NXT stars would be there tonight for their debuts but it’s not known if it will be a permanent move to the main roster or if they will be pulling double duty with NXT as well at this point.
Ricochet made his presence felt first, coming to the aid of Finn Balor who was getting attacked by Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush. The altercation eventually turned into a tag match where Ricochet picked up the victory for his team.
Ciampa and Gargano revived an old NXT classic feud against The Revival and had a tag team match. The recently-crowned Raw Tag Team champions lost their match to their former NXT colleagues.
And Aleister Black interrupted Elias later in the broadcast. Another match was set up between the two with Black getting the victory.
With viewership dwindling despite no sports competition, WWE is trying different methods to try and get casual viewers back.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that Corey Graves has been separated from his wife Amy Polinsky for months and the two are close on finalizing their divorce.
According to the report, it has been six months that the couple filed for divorce and for the past two months, Graves has been living in a different home. His soon-to-be ex-wife accused him on social media of sleeping with Carmella but according to sources, the relationship with Carmella began after Graves moved out.
Polinsky eventually deleted the post after Graves told her that WWE is going to sue her unless she takes it down. She even went as far as deleting her Instagram account following a barrage of feedback that came after she accused her husband. Both Graves and Carmella were part of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view yesterday and it was business as usual for both of them.
Impact Wrestling finished three days of television tapings in Las Vegas yesterday which amount to around six weeks of television. All three tapings were held at Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall.
During the tapings, the “Smokeshow” Scarlett Bordeaux finally made her in-ring debut for the company after weeks of hype. Bordeaux already wrestles for other promotions but this was the first time she laced up her boots for an Impact match.
Impact will have two more days of television tapings next month at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario before the big United We Stand live show in New Jersey during WrestleMania weekend.
Tickets for the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this year will go on sale this coming Friday, February 22 at Noon EST. This is around a month later than usual as WWE took its time to announce the headliners for this year’s event.
This year, the Hall of Fame will revert to Saturday night on the eve of WrestleMania and will take place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past couple of years, the Hall of Fame and NXT switched days, allowing WWE to leave the setup for NXT, Raw, and Smackdown intact rather than doing NXT first, redo the arena for the Hall of Fame, and reassemble for Raw and Smackdown.
But due to the ROH/NJPW show at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, WWE switched NXT back to Friday and moved the Hall of Fame to Saturday. Pretty much every year, the Hall of Fame runs very late and last year, the majority of Superstars and their dates vanished from their floor seats leaving the headliner, Goldberg, to talk to many empty seats in front of him.
One of the most popular factions in the history of professional wrestling will be getting inducted – and headlining – the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2019.
WWE today announced that all members of D-Generation X – including Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, and Chyna – will become WWE Hall of Famers and in the case of Shawn Michaels, he becomes a two-time Hall of Famer like Ric Flair.
The group was formed in 1997 with original members Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chyna, and Ric Rude. After Bret Hart labeled HBK as a “degenerate,” the name of D-Generation X was officially given to the faction in October of that year.
In 1998, after Shawn Michaels left following his loss to Steve Austin at WrestleMania, Triple H took over running the group and was joined by The New Age Outlaws and X-Pac, who was just fired from WCW.
While DX had a few other members come in and out of the group, it’s most famous for those five, who throughout the Attitude Era, raised hell with outrageous skits, in-ring promos, and some excellent feuds such as with The Hart Foundation, The Nation of Domination, Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind, and many others.
In the later years, DX reunited with just Shawn Michaels and Triple H but all of them reunited on the 1000th episode of Raw and the Raw 25th anniversary episode as well.
The inclusion of Chyna is a breakthrough so to speak as WWE had for years refused to acknowledge her due to her transition in the adult industry and the bad breakup with Triple H and her animosity towards Stephanie McMahon. Chyna tried to patch things up before she sadly passed away and WWE the company softened their stance on her after her passing.
Three new champions were crowned last night at the Elimination Chamber as 50% of the titles on the line went to new hands on the show.
The Elimination Chamber featured six title matches out of seven matches on the card with the first five matches on the show – including the Kickoff match – all for a title.
The first title change, or in this case, the crowning of new champions, went to Bayley and Sasha Banks who collectively go by the name of The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection. The former NXT Women’s champions started the Elimination Chamber match against Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville and the two teams outlasted the other four before Banks made Deville tap out. The popular duo became the first WWE Women’s Tag Team champions since 1989, with The Glamour Girls being the last team to carry the titles.
The second change came in the Smackdown Tag Team titles match. While it wasn’t a very happy week for Jimmy Uso, who ended up arrested on Valentine’s Day, things got better for him and his twin brother last night as they regained the Smackdown titles after he pinned The Miz. This is their fourth title reign with the Smackdown Tag Team belts.
The third title switch in a row was the Intercontinental one, as Finn Balor overcame the team of Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a handicap match. Lashley didn’t have to be pinned to lose the title, a scenario which happened last night as Balor pinned Rush instead. This is Balor’s first reign with the Intercontinental title and only his second title win on the main roster following the one-day reign as Universal champion.
Ronda Rousey debuted a new look yesterday at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view based on the Mortal Kombat character of Sonya Blade.
Rousey revealed in one of her latest video diaries on YouTube that she was planning a Sonya Blade outfit for Fastlane but then decided that she would also be donning the Blade gear for Elimination Chamber as well before returning to the regular Rousey outfit for WrestleMania.
The Raw Women’s champion voiced the character of Sonya Blade for the Mortal Kombat 11 video game, hence the association with the character.
Unfortunately for Rousey, although she quickly disposed of Ruby Riott last night, she was on the receiving end of a crutch attack by Becky Lynch, who also destroyed Charlotte Flair. Rousey was also busted open on the side of the head the hard way after Lynch hit her with the crutch. “Lesson learned. Never trust the #FauxHorsewomen,” Rousey wrote on Instagram before adding in another post that you should “never trust a ginger on crutches.”
The Miz and Maryse announced yesterday at the Elimination Chamber that they’re expecting their second baby.
The Miz introduced his wife before the start of the Smackdown Tag Team title match and the French-Canadian came out in a smart outfit and a baby bump visible. The Miz said that the two have an announcement to make and Maryse told the world that baby number two is on the way to a big cheer from the crowd.
Their first child, Monroe Sky, was born in March 2018 and the preparation for her arrival was the subject to the Miz and Mrs reality show on USA Network. The show was so popular that it was quickly renewed by USA. In terms of viewership, Miz and Mrs has double the audience – and sometimes triple – that of Total Bellas and Total Divas.
Here are the results from the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view which took place from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Buddy Murphy defeated Akira Tozawa to retain the Cruiserweight title in the Kickoff match; Sasha Banks and Bayley defeated Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, Sarah Logan and Liv Morgan, Tamina and Nia Jax, Carmella and Naomi, and The IIconics in an Elimination Chamber match to become the new WWE Women’s Tag Team champions; The Usos defeated Shane McMahon and The Miz to become the new Smackdown Tag Team champions; Finn Balor defeated Bobby Lashley and Lio Rush in a handicap match to become the new Intercontinental champion; Ronda Rousey defeated Ruby Riott to retain the Raw Women’s title; Baron Corbin defeated Braun Strowman in a no disqualification match; Daniel Bryan defeated Kofi Kingston, Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles in an Elimination Chamber match to retain the WWE title.
Hello everybody! We’re continuing the 2019 Pick’em Season with the ELIMINATION CHAMBER! Unfortunately, Renegade’s got some catching up to do, because we don’t have his picks! Hopefully, he’ll join us for the next one. As for tonight, ON WITH THE PICKS!
WWE Cruiserweight Championship – Pre-Show Match
Buddy Murphy (c) vs. Akira Tozawa
WWE Raw Women’s Championship
Ronda Rousey (c) vs. Ruby Riott
Magnum: Ronda Rousey
Colin: Ronda Rousey
Heel Turn Tom: Ronda Rousey
Tricky Don: Ronda Rousey
Brother Bull: Ronda Rousey
WWE Intercontinental Championship – Handicap Match
Bobby Lashley (c) and Lio Rush vs. Finn Bálor
Magnum: Finn Balor
Colin: Lashley and Rush
Heel Turn Tom: Finn Balor
Tricky Don: Lashley and Rush
Brother Bull: Finn Balor
WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship – Elimination Chamber Match
Nia Jax and Tamina vs. The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan) vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville vs. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) vs. Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Naomi and Carmella
Magnum: Nia Jax and Tamina
Colin: Nia Jax and Tamina
Heel Turn Tom: Bayley and Sasha Banks
Tricky Don: Bayley and Sasha Banks
Brother Bull: Nia Jax and Tamina
WWE Tag Team Championship (SmackDown Live)
The Miz and Shane McMahon (c) vs. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)
Magnum: Shane and The Miz
Colin: Shane and The Miz
Heel Turn Tom: Shane and The Miz
Tricky Don: The Usos
Brother Bull: Shane and The Miz
WWE Championship – Elimination Chamber Match
Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton vs. Samoa Joe vs. Kofi Kingston
Magnum: AJ Styles
Colin: Daniel Bryan
Heel Turn Tom: Daniel Bryan
Tricky Don: Daniel Bryan
Brother Bull: Daniel Bryan
Wow! Those are tonight’s picks! Who knows what will happen between now and WrestleMania? You can count on the Pick’em Crew letting you know their predictions on the Road to WrestleMania! @TheMagnumDA, signing off.
