With her popularity skyrocketing every week, WWE has quickly filmed an episode of the WWE Network original series Chronicle featuring Becky Lynch.
Lynch is the fourth subject – and first woman – in the series which previously took a look at Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, and Dean Ambrose. The episode will premiere tomorrow, Saturday, December 15 on the WWE Network and also on WWE’s YouTube channel.
The description for the episode reads, “Smackdown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch was gearing up for her highly anticipated match at Survivor Series against Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey, but after taking a punch from Nia Jax, the champion found herself in “doctor jail,” and the dream match was called off. Follow Becky as she looks back on her evolution into becoming “The Man,” and join The Irish Lass Kicker on her journey back to the ring at WWE TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a new edition of WWE Chronicle.”
PWInsider.com is reporting that Kurt Angle is booked for the December 17 Monday Night Raw for the TLC fallout.
The WWE Hall of Famer was last seen on television last month as he tried to get on Team Raw for the Survivor Series but was unable to win his place after losing to Drew McIntyre. Angle, for storyline reasons, is still on “vacation” after Stephanie McMahon sent him home in August, temporarily replacing him with Baron Corbin.
Corbin’s fate as acting Raw General Manager will be decided this Sunday at the TLC pay-per-view. If Corbin defeats Strowman, he will become the permanent Raw GM but if he loses, it’s game over for him in the authority role.
On their website, Sky Sports in the UK announced that WWE programming will be moved to a different channel during the Christmas period due to Sky Sports Arena being rebranded Sky Sports Darts for the duration of the World Championship.
Those who ecord the WWE shows on their Sky DVR will have to make changes as Series Links will not track the changes. The channel move will last for three weeks until the conclusion of the Darts World Championship.
The December 17 Raw will be on Sky Sports Mix at 1AM; The Smackdown on December 18 will be on Sky Sports Action at 1AM; Christmas Eve Raw will air on Sky Sports Mix at 1AM; Christmas Day Smackdown will air at 1AM via On-Demand and at 10PM on Boxing Day on Sky Sports Mix; New Year’s Eve Raw airs at 1AM on Sky Sports Action; and New Year’s Day Smackdown airs at 1AM on Sky Sports Action.
WWE programming will resume on Sky Sports Arena from January 7 onward.
Impact Wrestling is expected to keep airing on POP TV even after their contract expires this month.
The two sides have apparently agreed to continue on a simple agreement where Impact keeps its slot on POP until a new television home is found. The network bumped Impact from the 8PM time slot and the show now airs at the less-desirable 10PM time slot. The change has pretty much halved the Impact audience as the company continues to struggle to get viewers.
Impact moved to POP in January 2016, first airing on Tuesdays but then moved to Thursday in July of the same year after WWE decided to move Smackdown to Tuesdays as well. The last time Impact ran against Raw for a few weeks, its audience vanished so avoiding direct head-to-head competition against WWE programming was the best way to survive.
POP renewed Impact on a yearly basis but the partnership looks like it will be ending once the company identifies a new TV outlet.
MGM released the first official poster and stills from the upcoming movie Fighting With My Family, the movie which takes a look at former WWE Divas champion Paige and her family.
Fighting With My Family is produced in association with WWE Studios, Seven Bucks Productions, Misher Films Production, Film4, and The Ink Factory and is scheduled to be released nationwide on February 22, 2019. The movie features Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, with Vince Vaughn and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The PG-rated flick is a comedy based on the incredible true story of WWE Superstar Paige. Born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Paige and her brother Zak are ecstatic when they get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to try out for WWE. But when only Paige earns a spot in the competitive training program, she must leave her family and face this new, cut-throat world alone. Paige’s journey pushes her to dig deep, fight for her family, and ultimately prove to the world that what makes her different is the very thing that can make her a star.
You can check out the first artwork released by MGM below.
16-time world champion John Cena received the Sports Illustrated Muhammad Ali Legacy Award yesterday in recognition of his philanthropic efforts.
The ceremony was held at the Beverly Hills Hilton in Los Angeles, California and Cena was there to accept the award in person. In a video recorded after the ceremony, Cena said that it’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as Muhammad Ali and said that he accepted the award on behalf of all WWE Superstars “because I believe if put in my shoes, they would all make the exact same choice.”
Cena added that this might not have happened a few years ago so he’s glad to see the culture change and being a sports entertainer getting this award, calling it a “wonderful night for WWE.”
He said that he is sending the award to the WWE corporate headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut where it can be displayed there and because after all, that’s where it belongs.
The former champ has granted well over 500 wishes for Make-A-Wish kids and on December 20 will host 20 other kids and their families in New York.
The WWE pay-per-view Fastlane will be taking place at The Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio next year. The show will happen on Sunday, March 10, less than a month away from WrestleMania 35.
The announcement was made by the arena itself in a tweet. Pre-sale for Q Insider members started yesterday.
WWE is back having three pay-per-views prior to WrestleMania: Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and Fastlane. The addition of the third pay-per-view happened in 2017 as prior to that the company only had two pay-per-views heading into their biggest show of the year, with March typically having no shows apart from television.
Smackdown drew 1,977,000 viewers this week, up slightly by 29,000 viewers from last week’s show. It’s the second week in a row that Smackdown didn’t crack the 2 million viewers. The show was #3 on the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic but #12 in overall viewership for the week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The website MilitaryTimes.com is carrying an article explaining how the late President George H.W. Bush was secretly a big wrestling fan.
At an event following the funeral services for “41” in Texas, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie described how Bush’s secretary once called him while he was a young staffer at the Foreign Relations Committee telling him that that President wanted to see if Ric Flair was available when they were going to Charlotte in a few days.
Wilkie described what the secretary told him as, “We don’t talk about this very much, but the President and Mrs. Bush watch Mr. Flair every Saturday night. They’re going to Charlotte, and they’d like to know if Mr. Flair could accompany them on Air Force One.”
Wilkie said that he called the NWA’s office and asked for Flair and his request was immediately accepted.
“So, there he was, at Andrews Air Force Base, platinum hair, three-piece suit, gold watch, and the first hug Ric gets is from Barbara Bush when she gets out of the limousine,” Wilkie continued. “We fly down to Charlotte, we get in the reception line (at the airport), and Barry Goldwater is there, too. Goldwater gets up and asks the president, ‘Where is Barbara?’ And the president tells him, ‘Barry, after 48 years of marriage, I just lost her to someone called Nature Boy!’”
Flair wrote a tweet on December 2 offering prayers to the Bush family, adding, “I’ve known the Bush family since 1992. I cannot explain how honored I was to ride on the Spirit Of America and spend time alone with the President.”
The semi final matches of this year’s Mixed Match Challenge tournament took place last night in Las Vegas.
In the first match, Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox defeated Apollo Crews and Bayley and in the second match, R-Truth and Carmella managed to overcome last season’s winners The Miz and Asuka.
Both matches ended in a somewhat controversial method as The Singh Brothers interfered to help Mahal and Fox win and Asuka turned on The Miz after he put her in front of him to take a super kick from Carmella. Asuka beat up The Miz and then left, leaving him alone.
The two winning teams now wrestle in the final match this Sunday at TLC. The winners will enter in #30 in their respective Royal Rumble match next month.
Monday Night Raw continues to break all the wrong kind of records, with this week’s episode getting only 2,193,000 viewers, a new all-time low record. It was down 91,000 viewers from last week.
Hour one started with 2,347,000 viewers, followed by 2,186,000 viewers in the second hour, and then 2,048,000 viewers in the third and final hour.
Raw was #5, #6, and #7 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #9 in overall viewership for the night. NFL on ESPN did over 11 million viewers to win the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
A bunch of WWE Superstars took part in another episode of the “Try Not To Laugh Challenge” on FBE’s React YouTube channel.
Apollo Crews, Big E, Charlotte Flair, Drew McIntyre, Elias, Jimmy and Jay Uso, Kalisto, Kofi Kingston and Sasha Banks all took part in the challenge which involves the playing of a collection of funny clips and tasked with not laughing.
This is the second episode featuring WWE Superstars as in October, Alexa Bliss, Alicia Fox, Mickie James, and Smackdown Women’s champion Becky Lynch all participated in the challenge.
USA Network announced the annual WWE Holiday Week which will kick off on Monday, December 17.
Apart from Raw and Smackdown on Monday and Tuesday, USA will also air a new special on Wednesday at 10PM EST titled The New Day’s WWE 2018 Pancake Powered New Year Super Spectacular, hosted by the popular trio as they take a fun look back at all the outrageous and unforgettable moments in 2018.
On Thursday, a two-hour presentation of the 2018 Tribute to the Troops will air featuring appearances by Jon Stewart and country music star Morgan Wallen. The show will start at 9PM EST. A Miz & Mrs. marathon will air at 11PM EST immediately following the conclusion of the Troops show.
The WWE Holiday Week wraps up on Friday with a screening of San Andreas, the disaster movie featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson starting at 6PM EST.
Additionally, “Talk Stoop” will be getting into the WWE spirit as Nessa Diab hosts special episodes of the series featuring interviews throughout the week with WWE Superstars The Miz and Maryse, Ronda Rousey, the Bella Twins, Natalya, Nia Jax and Lana.
The website PWInsider.com is reporting that the lawsuit by Colt Cabana against CM Punk was thrown out by Cook County Circuit Court judge Daniel Kubasiak.
The lawsuit, which Cabana filed seeking $200,000 in legal fees, stems from the outcome of the lawsuit that WWE doctor Christopher Amann filed against both Cabana and Punk a few years ago. Cabana stated in the lawsuit that he only went along because Punk offered to cover all the expenses, a statement which Punk denied.
Judge Kubasiak ruled that Cabana, real name Scott Colton, failed the prove that Punk, real name Phil Brooks, gave a credible offer that was “definite enough” to be a contract and since there was no signed deal between them, the court could not side with Cabana.
Cabana filed a second lawsuit for the same amount of money, repeating the fact that the only reason he cooperated with Punk in the lawsuit against Amann was because he was told that his legal fees would be covered 100%.
The two former best friends had a huge fallout over the past few years and do not speak to each other anymore. Cabana was using the services of Punk’s lawyers during the Amann trial until Punk pulled the plug and told him to get his own legal team.
Despite winning the lawsuit against the WWE doc, Cabana still had $200,000 in fees to his new legal team.
Chad Gable and Bobby Roode became the new Raw Tag Team champions last night on Raw after they defeated The Authors of Pain in 3-on-2 handicap match. AOP were joined by Drake Maverick for the match.
It was Maverick who cost AOP the match as he wanted to secure the pinfall victory for the team but as AOP celebrated outside with their backs turned, Bobby Roode pinned Maverick who just seconds earlier taunted Roode with the Glorious pose.
This is Gable’s second run with a WWE Tag Team title and Roode’s first tag team success in the company. The Authors of Pain lasted just over a month as champions after they defeated Seth Rollins on Raw last month for their first titles on the main roster.
Finn Balor has been taken out of the Mixed Match Challenge, leaving Bayley with a new tag team partner for the semi final match.
Balor has now been replaced by Apollo Crews and the two will take on Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox tonight on the show.
No reason was given why Balor was replaced but the former Universal champion went back home after the first day of the South American tour last week, wrestling only in Chile.
This season of Mixed Match Challenge has been hit with several replacements as the majority of the teams had a member switched throughout the past three months.
Balor is set to take on Drew McIntyre at TLC this Sunday.
Smackdown Women’s champion Becky Lynch joined Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN’s live Twitter Sports channel today to talk about her evolution, Ronda Rousey, and other topics.
Lynch said it’s a bit surreal to see where she is at now but this is what she has always worked for and what she always envisioned throughout her wrestling career. Becky said that it took a lot of self-belief to get to this point and wondered if it ever was going to happen at times.
When asked why it happened now, Becky said that the fans always backed her but it’s obviously more evident now. She thinks that people can relate to her as she was being constantly overlooked and trying everything in her power to fulfill her dream. She said that there’s a mutual respect with the fans and puts them over.
When the discussion turned to Ronda Rousey, Becky said that the goal was always to make women’s wrestling the best thing on WWE television so when Ronda came in it was time for everyone to step up and show this world class athlete “who the man is.” She said that Ronda is doing “amazingly well” and mentioned that there was a lot of resentment from different people when she came over as she never paid her dues. Becky pointed out that she wasn’t the one intended to be the champion and she wasn’t the one intended to be on billboards and posters but her arrival has lit a fire and everyone wants to do better.
Talking about getting injured on Raw by Nia Jax, Becky said that she completely blacked-out when she got punched in the face and her autopilot kicked in to finish the segment. She said she doesn’t remember at all being among the fans with her hands wide open and a bloody face to wrap up the show. She was transferred to a hospital where she spent the night and then checked herself out and showed up at Smackdown but they didn’t let her do anything.
Asked what are the chances of her headlining WrestleMania against Ronda Rousey, Lynch said that it’s what she’s working towards and that’s her ultimate goal. “That’s all I’m thinking about,” she told Helwani. She thinks that the match that fans want to see the most should be the one headlining WrestleMania.
Becky added that she respects Ronda Rousey for what she did for women in MMA and said that she talks to everyone backstage at shows and is very driven, wants to do good, but pointed out that she doesn’t know if she can handle losing a WWE match, similar to what happened to her in MMA.
To finish the interview, Becky hinted that she might do something with Conor McGregor and said that she’s going back to Ireland for the holidays and who knows what might happen. Helwani said that even just a simple photo of the two together would send the fans crazy online.
Los Angeles (Dec. 10, 2018) – Join IWGP Heavyweight Champion and “Best Bout Machine” Kenny Omega as he revisits his journey toward becoming the champion and defending the belt at Wrestle Kingdom 13 as host of the 10-hour “Kenny Omega-thon” special on Friday, Dec. 28 starting at 2pE/11aP on AXS TV.
The marathon kicks off with Omega’s historic feat as the first non-Japanese wrestler to win the G1 Climax tournament in 2016, which set him on the path to the heavyweight title, and also features Omega’s acclaimed trilogy of matches with Kazuchika Okada; his run as IWGP U.S. Champion, including the highly publicized match with Chris Jericho at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom; and his current reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
Leading up to AXS TV’s premiere of Wrestle Kingdom 13 on Jan. 4 at 8pE/5pP, the network will air a late-night strip of the best of Wrestle Kingdom on weeknights at 5aE/2aP starting Friday, Dec. 7. Highlights include headlining matches from the last five Wrestle Kingdom Events including: Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi’s trilogy from 2013, 2015 and 2016; Okada’s battles with Tetsuya Naito from 2014 and 2018; Naito vs. Tanahashi from 2017 and many more.
“Kenny Omega-thon” Schedule (subject to change) – Friday, Dec. 28 at 2pE/11aP:
2pE – G1 Climax 26 Final – Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto
John Cena will be hosting over 20 Make-A-Wish families along with his Bumblebee co-star Hailee Steinfeld to light up the Empire State Building in New York City yellow to celebrate the commitment of brightening kids’ lives on December 20.
The light-up is also in conjunction with the release of Bumblebee which takes place the next day and the color yellow is obviously a big part of the movie.
“A wonderful opportunity to bring the magic of @bumblebeemovie and the spirit of the holiday season with @MakeAWish. Excited to light up the NYC sky with the help of these young men and women,” Cena wrote in a tweet.
Cena has granted over 500 wishes to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and has the record for the person with the most wishes granted.
Becky Lynch will be appearing on the Ariel Helwani MMA show tomorrow on ESPN’s live Twitter account.
The Smackdown Women’s champion is one of the many guests that Helwani has lined up for the show which kicks off at 1PM EST. Certainly on the agenda is her feud with Ronda Rousey considering this is usually a show that only covers mixed martial arts.
Helwani is also a wrestling fan apart from being one of the best MMA journalists around. He recently signed a deal to be part of ESPN’s team of reporters covering the sport.
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