Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that Jeff Hardy has a shoulder injury and might need to undergo surgery, putting him out of action for several months.
The former WWE, Intercontinental, and Tag Team title holder did not wrestle during the weekend non-televised live event in Sacramento, California and instead Matt Hardy went solo. Jeff was still at the event and appeared in front of the fans in Matt’s corner for his match against Karl Anderson.
Hardy will need to undergo further testing to determine the extent of the injury and what will happen next. It’s not exactly known when Jeff suffered the shoulder injury.
For a “B” show, No Mercy is sure packing a punch, especially in its two main events. The two matches headlining No Mercy are WrestleMania-material and feature Brock Lesnar vs Braun Strowman for the Universal title and John Cena vs Roman Reigns.
The odds are obviously not final and things will certainly change by the time tomorrow night comes around. We advise to check out websites such as BettingTips4you before making any bets and always gamble responsibly.
In the Universal title match, the current champion Brock Lesnar is the favorite to walk out of Los Angeles with his title. Lesnar is at 1/8 in the odds while his opponent Braun Strowman is currently at 4/1.
For Cena vs Reigns, the 16-time champion is the underdog at 3/1 while Roman Reigns is currently at 1/5 as favorite. With this outcome, it could be that Cena will be gone to film his Bumblebee movie before he comes back for round two with Reigns.
No Mercy takes place tomorrow on the WWE Network live from the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California.
WWE and Impact Wrestling stars will be just 30 miles away from each other on November 25 after Impact announced that they will be having several stars show up at the WrestleCade show.
On that day, WWE will be holding the Starrcade special in Greensboro, North Carolina. WrestleCade will be holding a show at Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Impact will be filming segments for upcoming episodes of their flagship show.
WrestleCade will have a big Thanksgiving weekend with three shows on November 24, 25, and 26. A big number of current and former wrestling stars will be there including Ryback, Alberto El Patron, Rockstar Spud, Tommy Dreamer, Rock ’N’ Roll Express, Tommy Dreamer, Jim Neidhart, Road Warrior Animal, Rocky Johnson, Rosemary, Angelina Love, Johnny Impact, Joey Mercury, and many more.
Jeff Jarrett is also scheduled to be there on Saturday which would make it the first time that he would be face-to-face with Impact stars ever since he was sent home.
WWE has added 21 videos to the newly-created Bobby “The Brain” Heenan Collection on the WWE Network in celebration of his life.
Videos in this collection include his matches against Lord Alfred Hayes and Greg Gagne, interviews, promos, some of his best commentary, clips from Prime Time Wrestling, his antics from the first-ever Monday Night Raw, his Hall of Fame induction speech, the WrestleMania X7 return, and more.
Bobby Heenan passed away at age 72 this past Sunday after a long battle with throat cancer.
Dave Bautista’s will return along with popular action movie star Sylvester Stallone for Escape Plan 3: Devil’s Station. Bautista joined the cast of the movie Escape Plan 2: Hades earlier this year, with the movie set for release in 2018.
Deadline.com reports that Bautista – who plays the role of Trent DeRosa – will be joined by Jaime King, Lydia Hull, Tyler Jon Olson, Max Zhang, Devon Sawa, Harry Shum Jr., Malese Jow, and Sergio Rizzuto in the third film, which John Herzfeld is directing.
In the third installment of Escape Plan, the characters of Stallone and Bautista must join forces in order to rescue one of their team members who is held captive at the penitentiary known as Devil’s Station, a prison where no one ever gets out.
The former WWE champion will also appear in the upcoming Avengers movie reprising his role of Drax The Destroyer.
The cast of the popular Netflix original series GLOW returned to training this week under the guidance of veteran wrestler Chavo Guerrero Jr. Filming is set to commence in mid-October.
The whole cast from the first season is set to return to the show including Alison Brie as Ruth Wilder, Betty Gilpin as Debbie Eagan and Marc Maron as Sam Sylvia. Netflix has ordered 10 episodes for season two, the same amount of episodes which aired in the first season.
A couple of weeks ago, four of the cast members – Kia Stevens, Kate Nash, Rebekka Johnson and Sydelle Noel – all walked the red carpet at the Mae Young Classic finals in Las Vegas and attended the show. Stevens is the only professional wrestler among the whole cast, having previously worked for TNA and WWE under the name of Awesome Kong and Kharma.
GLOW is created by Liz Flahive (Homeland, Nurse Jackie) and Carly Mensch (Nurse Jackie, Orange Is The New Black, Weeds). Orange Is the New Black creator Jenji Kohan and Tara Herrmann are executive producers alongside Flahive and Mensch who are serving as showrunners. Season two is set to start on Netflix in June 2018.
Daniel Bryan has often stated that it’s going to be when, not if, he’s going to wrestle again. It’s safe to say that as long as he’s under a WWE deal, that will not happen as WWE’s medical team refuse to give him the green light to get back in the squared circle.
But that does not mean that Bryan won’t be able to wrestle elsewhere once his WWE contract is up. And that’s what he intends on doing. Over the past several months he has dropped very obvious hints of what’s next and just recently he said he’d like to take out the Bullet Club members one by one.
One man who would really welcome him back is Ring of Honor Chief Operating Officer Joe Koff. In an interview with Fansided, Koff said that they welcome back to Ring of Honor any former star as this is their home. “We never chided anybody for leaving for what they thought were greener pastures. And look, a lot of them have succeeded on a far greater platform than we could have provided them at the time,” Koff said.
And if the Smackdown General Manager wants in on the fun too? “I didn’t work with him personally while he was here, but I would personally welcome him back,” Koff responded.
Bryan found fame in Ring of Honor and was one of the first stars to join the company in 2002, wrestling under his real name of Bryan Danielson.
Impact on Thursday drew 277,000 viewers, up 38,000 viewers from last week’s show. The next episode of Impact will be Victory Road, the former pay-per-view turned into a TV special. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The fight between FloSports and EVOLVE continued to get ugly late in the afternoon yesterday as the streaming provider decided to pull the two EVOLVE shows from its network from this weekend.
EVOVLE 92 and 93 were set to air on FloSlam but after the WWN attorney issued that statement, FloSports issued one of their own, effectively killing the relationship between the two companies.
“Planned coverage of WWN events will no longer be available on FloSlam. This includes EVOLVE, SHINE, FIP, Style Battle, and ACW events. We know fans are excited If about these events and we’re disappointed to share that we will no longer provide the coverage you deserve and expect,” a statement from FloSports said.
FloSports is also offering refunds to those who wish to get their money back by sending an e-mail to support@flosports.tv with the subject line Floslam Refund Request.
Meanwhile, EVOLVE’s Gabe Sapolsky put the whole blame on FloSports in a message on Twitter. “FloSlam is refusing to broadcast tonight’s EVOLVE event. We apologize, but this is their decision. Please contact them for customer issues,” he wrote in a tweet.
WWE.COM conducted an interview with former World and Universal champion Bill Goldberg to mark the 20th anniversary from his debut.
During the interview, Goldberg talks about starting in the business, football, his run in WCW, the character he portrayed on TV, his return to WWE, and more.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the interview came when Goldberg was asked if he was willing to return for another run. The night after WrestleMania 33, Goldberg did not completely shut the door on another run.
“Ask your boss,” Goldberg replied laughing. “Hey, man, never say never, dude. Stranger things have happened. I did sit for 13 years and then suddenly appear back in the ring,” the former WWE Universal champion added. “Let’s just say it ain’t gonna take nearly the effort to get me ready again that it did last time. So, I’ll see you on the rebound for damn sure.”
Goldberg’s return prior to the Survivor Series was successful and well-received by the fans and WWE opted to extend his short deal and make it last till WrestleMania. At WrestleMania, Goldberg lost the Universal title to Brock Lesnar.
On this episode of Total Bellas, Brie and his sister Nikki had a maternity dispute. For those of you who are concerned, no there is no doubt as to the maternity of Brie’s new baby with husband, Daniel Bryan, rather the two sisters were basically engaged in a custody battle over a dog.
That’s right, these two dueling divas literally argued over who was the rightful dog parent.
Apparently, since Nikki has been working so much lately, Brie and her husband Daniel have been watching over Nikki’s dog, Winston, while she’s away. However, since Nikki was staying in Phoenix in order to be around for the birth of Brie’s new baby, she thought that it was only right that her four-legged baby come and stay in the palatial villa that she and her boyfriend, WWE Superstar John Cena have rented for their stay in Phoenix.
Brie disagreed claiming that it would be better not to unsettle Winston who seems perfectly comfortable spending all his time with her and Bryan. In my opinion, the simple solution would have been for the two sisters to discuss the situation calmly and rationally, but apparently they can’t do rational discussion.
Instead, Nikki decided to remove Winston from Brie and Bryan’s home without telling them. So, the next time Nikki went out of town to watch John Cena host an award show, she dog napped Winston from Brie and Brian’s house, and left him with her mother, Kathy. This, of course, infuriated Brie who immediately went to her mother home to reclaim Winston.
While being visited by both of her irate daughters, Kathy tried to make peace by suggesting that the two women explain their feelings to one another rather than engaging in a doggy tug-of-war. So, eventually, the sisters were able to express themselves, with Nicole explaining how much she missed Winston and wanted to be near him, and Brie stating that she worried about upsetting Winston by disrupting his new routine. Personally, I don’t think that Winston cared much one way or the other, but I don’t speak canine. In the end, the sisters decided to focus on what would be best for the dog rather than what they both wanted.
Meanwhile, Brie was having another difference of opinion, this time with her husband.
We all know that Daniel Bryan is a big proponent of clean, simple, frugal living; however I didn’t realize that his frugal ways extended to being bothered by how other people spend their money. However, his beliefs were made clear when he tagged along to help Brie register for baby shower gifts. Apparently, WWE’s Yes-Man had no problem saying no when his wife wanted to register for a $400 baby monitor that tracks the baby’s activity level while snoozing. While $400 does seem a tad excessive, I feel as though someone should have reminded Daniel of a major perk about getting gifts, you don’t have to spend your money! I’ve also heard that it is impolite to discuss the cost of the gift!
Daniel eventually compromised, deciding that while he had a problem with friends and family spending $400 to purchase the monitor for Brie, he had no problem purchasing it for her himself while wrapping it in recycled paper of course. Since we’re discussing the baby shower, I have to say that if Nikki’s wrestling career takes a turn for the worse, and developing their new lingerie line doesn’t work out, she could certainly have a future in event planning.
The outdoor event hosted at an Phoenix restaurant had everything from individually labeled treat stations to a printed loveseat pillow monogramed with the new baby’s name. Hopefully little Birdie Jo will be able to look back on footage and appreciate her aunt’s hard work.
While the future parents celebrated, the other brand-new parents, Brie and Nikki’s brother JJ and his wife Lauren, tried to resolve their marital problems by attending couples counseling. Here’s hoping that if for no other reason than for the sake of their little daughter Vivian the couple can work it out.
The independent wrestling streaming service FloSlam, owned by FloSports, filed a $1 million lawsuit against WWN, the parent company of EVOLVE, after FloSports claimed that WWN misled the company about data they were provided on how many people usually order EVOLVE on iPPV.
WWN is denying the accusation and is ready to counter sue, saying that the streaming service has failed to live up to their obligations and WWN’s attorney called FloSlam a “failing subscription streaming platform.”
The attorney, Samuel Heller, in a statement said that WWN has never provided incorrect, false, or misleading data to FloSports when negotiating a deal to add EVOLVE and other shows on their network. Heller added that FloSports has not promoted WWN shows enough and they have been unable to successfully integrate the company into their “mismanaged” platform.
“This lawsuit is nothing more than a transparent effort to FloSports to avoid its responsibility to WWN, its talent and its fans. We are confident that the litigation will result favorably to WWN,” Heller added.
Meanwhile, this weekend’s EVOLVE shows will still air on FloSlam as advertised.
WWE cruiserweight Cedric Alexander will be participating at the two upcoming EVOLVE shows, one today, and one tomorrow.
Alexander will take on Zack Sabre Jr. on tonight’s EVOLVE 92 show from Livonia, Michigan, and tomorrow he will wrestle Fred Yehi at EVOLVE 93 in Summit, Illinois.
While both these shows will air on FloSports, Alexander’s matches will not be on the streaming service due to his WWE contract. The matches will be solely for those in attendance.
WWE and EVOLVE share a good working relationship together with head booker Gabe Sapolsky seen often at WWE and NXT events.
After well over a month in hospital, Ric Flair went home yesterday to continue his rehab process which is expected to take months.
Flair posed with his Space Mountain shirt in front of a car with left hand wrapped up and a Rolex watch on his right hand. The picture was posted by his fiancee Wendy Barlow on her personal Facebook page with the words, “Taking Ric home…” and a heart emoji.
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer still needs assistance to do basic things and cannot walk properly, requiring the help of others to walk or a wheelchair. But the Nature Boy is surely not complaining about the situation considering where he was last month, with death staring straight at his face.
Speaking to the CBS’ In This Corner podcast, Roman Reigns said that he and John Cena respect each other but other than that, they’re not really friends backstage.
Reigns added that he was not hurt by the words that John Cena said against him during their buildup for Sunday’s match as he doesn’t care much for him but gave him credit for allowing him to step up his mic skills during the past few weeks. The former champ said that he feels like he was able to get better on the mic since the Cena program started.
Regarding the zipper incident on Raw a few weeks ago, Reigns explained how it broke off just two minutes before he had to walk out. It was impossible for him to change the trousers in that timeframe and decided to just go ahead and pretend nothing happened.
However, John Cena picked up on it and swayed from the script, telling him, “For God’s sake you come out here with your zipper open!” Reigns was quick to reply, “I busted it actually…big dawg!” Reigns credited his long time in locker rooms for the quick wit but admitted that he was a bit shocked that Cena brought it up. “I thought I had it closed up the whole time, but apparently not. I was peaking at him I guess,” Reigns said.
Episode three of season two of Total Bellas did a total of 575,000 viewers for the episode titled Who’s Your Mamma? That is up 17,000 viewers from last week’s show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The Washington Post is carrying an article slamming WWE for its racist promo that Jinder Mahal cut on Shinsuke Nakamura earlier this week on Smackdown.
For the second week in a row, Mahal made fun of Nakamura and his facial expressions and how he talks. He referred to the former NXT champion as “Mr. Miyagi,” the Japanese karate trainer in The Karate Kid movies and made several stereotype jokes aimed at Nakamura.
WWE fans had enough and started a “That’s too far” chant as The Singh brothers tried to silence the crowd. “If you think that’s too far, wait till you hear what I say in my language in Punjabi,” Mahal responded.
The Post reached out to WWE for a statement, and WWE defended the scripted promo saying, “Just like many other TV shows or movies, WWE creates programming with fictional personalities that incorporates real world issues and sensitive subjects.” The statement continued, “As a producer of such TV shows, WWE Corporate is committed to embracing and celebrating individuals from all backgrounds as demonstrated by the diversity of our employees, performers and fans worldwide.”
Ric Flair and his fiancee Wendy Barlow sat down with PeopleTV for an 11-minute feature, his first one since he was admitted to an Atlanta hospital on August 12.
Barlow explained how Flair told her that he was having stomach aces, he wasn’t feeling good, and needed to go to the hospital. “It’s the day that saved his life because he was slowly dying,” Barlow said.
His fiancee continued to explain Ric’s alcoholic problem, where she spent a whole year trying to convince him to stop drinking, to no avail. Health problems started cropping up and doctors told Flair that he has heart problems. Unfortunately for him, he was in complete in denial.
It was certainly tough on the family especially when doctors informed them that Flair had 20% chance of making it and his daughter Charlotte was encouraged to go in to see him because her dad was not going out of that room alive.
While Flair weathered the first storm, he still has a long way to go as he needs a wheelchair to move around and cannot walk by himself. He needs assistance to do basic things and will be in for a long journey of physical therapy.
Wendy credited three people who helped her through the horrible experience: her oldest daughter Sophia, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Hulk Hogan.
Austin used to call every single day during the middle of filming and Wendy cried over the phone every day. And Hulk also called every day and then flew in to check out on Ric and pray with him. Hulk also left a note to Ric which read, “To Ric, the number of your days shall be filled. Now it’s the time to tell your story, now it’s the time to help millions of people. You are the greatest wrestler I have ever seen and have the honor to call a real friend. Love you my brother, you are The Man.”
This week’s edition of Smackdown drew 2,510,000 viewers, down 244,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast which featured the return of Vince McMahon. Smackdown was #2 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #7 overall in viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
A new survey commissioned today for the WWE Network once again lists the TNA video library as “potential new programming ideas” just weeks after Ed Nordholm shot down the idea of selling the TNA video tape library to WWE.
TNA is listed as “TNA: Historic and new programming from TNA / Impact / Global Force Wrestling,” suggesting that WWE is still interested in getting their hands on the video tape library that has footage dating back to 2002. Anthem is currently in process of launching its own version of the WWE Network.
WWE also suggested 12 other shows in the survey as well as many potential new features including alternate audio during live PPVs, offline viewing, social sharing, social viewing, and more which you can see below.
POTENTIAL NEW SHOWS:
WWE “Director’s Cut”: Shows that put a new twist on classic content such as WWE Legends narrating historic pay-per-views or current WWE Superstars providing their perspective and analysis of classic matches and events.
Original Scripted Dramas: Wrestling-themed series inspired by wrestling’s colorful and rich history such as WWE’s version of Game of Thrones.
Tournaments: New in-ring tournaments such as a Pro Am style tournament (WWE vs. NXT), a Lucha tournament, a tag team tournament, or King / Queen of the Ring tournaments.
TV-14 In-Ring Show: A “new” weekly version of ECW (Extreme Championship Wrestling) or other “edgy” new promotion rated TV-14.
Other Promotions: Historic and new programming from ICW, PROGRESS, New Japan Pro-Wrestling, or other regional Indie promotions.
New Reality Shows: Reality shows featuring life on the road for WWE Superstars, an insider’s view of WWE Superstars’ intense training and workout regimens, WWE Superstar “Cribs”, WWE-style “Apprentice” to win a job at WWE, or WWE Legends’ House Season 2 – Attitude Era
House Shows: For the first time ever, get a live, ringside view of select WWE house shows
Special Live Events: Special one-time live events from unique locations around the world featuring an unexpected main event
Original Scripted Comedies: Comedies such as WWE Superstar Roasts, Southpaw Regional Wrestling, or WWE’s version of “The Office”
Local Tournaments: Tournaments that take place in your home country featuring local talent similar to the WWE United Kingdom Championship Tournament which took place in England this year
Audio Channel: A section of WWE Network for “listening only” that provides audio play-by-play of pay-per-views, music playlists, “sports radio” style call-in shows and podcasts
Ring of Honor: Historic and new programming from Ring of Honor
POTENTIAL NEW FEATURES:
Download To Go: Ability to download content and watch “offline”
Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality: The ability to watch current or historic WWE content in a way that makes it seem as if you are actually sitting ringside and experiencing an event, such as WrestleMania, live and in person, using special computer generated effects and equipment like a headset
Social Sharing: Ability to share playlists, clips, or favorites on social media (Facebook, YouTube, etc.)
Personalization: Ability to create custom playlists and change the look and feel of your WWE Network interface with options that represent your favorite WWE Era and Superstars
Alternate Audio: Choose your favorite pay-per-view commentator team – for instance, you can hear “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and Jerry Lawler call a live pay-per-view
Ratings / Comment System: Ability to “rate” shows or matches (e.g. 0 – 5 stars), add comments, or mark “favorite” moments
Social Viewing: Set up a “movie theater mode” to watch virtually with friends or participate in a live event on Facebook where you can chat with other fans
Alternate Viewing Options: The ability to watch WWE in-ring shows using alternate camera choices (e.g. gorilla cam, drone cam, Go-Pro camera), 360 views or select higher or lower resolution options
