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Smackdown! TV report for 06/16/2016

By
W-O Staff
-

Thursday Night Smackdown! TV Report for June 16th, 2016

Introduction Segment: Video Promo and Welcoming

The regular Smackdown! opener starts, and we then go to the arena. Mauro Ranallo hails us and talks about Money In The Bank this Sunday.

Segment #2: Arena Promo

Lillian Garcia asks us to welcome Chris Jericho; he is in the ring and his Highlight Reel is setup. He repeats “quiet” numerous times, then launches his “new” Highlight Reel, with a “Jeri-Tron 6500,” and a “$20,000 carpet.” Jericho proclaims he’s going to win the Money In The Bank Ladder Match, which he reminds us that he made up, and defeat Dean Ambrose.

The “Lunatic Fringe” meets Jericho in the ring with a cup of coffee in hand; he compliments Chris on the upgrade, but “Y2J” is more concerned about the potential spillage of the drink. Both talk about winning M.I.T.B., as does Kevin Owens who walks out next. Alberto Del Rio joins, then Cesaro, and lastly Sami Zayn. All six argue until Ambrose breaks it up by dumping the coffee; this infuriates Jericho and they all brawl until referees break them apart. A Six-Man Tag is scheduled for later tonight.

Up next, a singular-Fatal-4-Way between partners of the teams involved in the Fatal-4-Way Tag-Team Championship Match at Money In The Bank!

Commercials.

Match #1: Fatal-4-Way (Singular) – Aiden English (with Vaudevillians partner Simon Gotch) VS. Luke Gallows (with The Club member Karl Anderson) VS. Cass (with Enzo Amore) VS. Tag-Team Champion Kofi Kingston (with Tag-Team Champions/New Day partners Big E. and Xavier Woods)

(Note: Xavier is on commentary.) Kofi and Luke wrestle while Cass and English do. Gallows puts Kingston to the outside and goes after Cass, who hits back and clears the ring of English! Luke dumps him over the ropes, and Aiden slugs Cass; both he and Gallows hurl Cass into the corner barricade. All four teams faceoff now with the referee in the middle.

Ads.

English is kicking away at Kofi in the corner, and both he and Gallows double-team Kingston for a bit. Luke holds Kofi up on his shoulders as Aiden goes to the top turnbuckle, but Cass gets back in and boots Gallows. He puts English to the canvas too, and chucks Gotch to the aisle side. Gallows pulls Cass from the ring and the two punch it out, but Kingston breaks that up with a top-turnbuckle splash!

In the ring, Kingston ducks a swing from Aiden and hits his Trouble-In-Paradise spin-kick and covers for the victory!

Winner via Pinfall: Tag-Team Champion Kofi Kingston (with Tag-Team Champions/New Day members Big E. and Xavier Woods)

Segment #3: Backstage Promo

Rene Young interviews Natalya and Charlotte about Nattie’s match with Women’s Champion Charlotte tonight and their tag-team match with Charlotte and Dana Brooke at Money In The Bank. Charlotte and Dana join, and they all bicker.

Commercials.

Match #2: Single – Zack Ryder VS. Baron Corbin

(Note: Dolph Ziggler is on commentary and it is announced that he and Corbin will wrestle on the Kickoff Show Sunday.)

Baron dominates most of this, and completes with End of Days!

Winner via Pinfall: Baron Corbin

Post-match, Dolph and Baron square off, but Corbin walks away.

Ads.

Match #3: Single – United States Champion Rusev (with Lana) VS. Lucha Dragon partner Kalisto (Non-Title)

Rusev begins aggressive, belly-to-belly suplexing Kalisto right as he was hopping over into the ring during his entrance; Rusev locks on The Accolade on both Kalisto and Sin Cara, who ran out trying to help. Titus O’Neil charges out and evens up, pounding away on Rusev and slamming him into the barricade; Rusev manages to escape up the aisle.

Winner: None due to No Official Start

Segment #4: Video Promo

A recap of John Cena and A.J. Styles’ Contract Signing for their Money In The Bank match from Raw is shown.

Segment #5: Backstage Promo

The Club are questioned by Rene Young about A.J. Styles’ match with John Cena at Money In The Bank; he doesn’t get far into his response when The New Day walk in and make fun of “The Phenomenal One.” A.J. challenges Xavier to a “tune-up” tonight, and Woods accepts; both agree to leave their crew behind.

Commercials.

Match #4: Single – Tag-Team Champion/New Day member Xavier Woods VS. A.J. Styles

A.J. ducks at first and mocks John Cena’s hand signal, and then complete takes over a bit later following a Pele Kick.

Ads.

Both are in the corner and A.J. is trying to suplex Xavier from the top turnbuckle; Woods battles back and soars with a crossbody! Xavier makes a comeback with fast hits; he turns him over with a backward-suplex, then elbows him to the floor. Woods follows with a senton-dive over the ropes, and then a springboard elbow-drop from the top rope into the ring! 1 – 2 – A.J. just raises his shoulder!

Xavier tries a top-turnbuckle move, but Styles fights him off and springboards with the Phenomenal Forearm. A.J. rolls Woods into the Calf-Crusher, making him give in!

Winner via Submission: A.J. Styles

Post-match, Styles kicks Xavier out of the ring and insists “that is just a taste of what I’m going to give to John Cena.”

Up next, Natalya takes on Women’s Champion Charlotte.

Commercials.

Segment #6: Video Promo

Another “Make Darren Young Great Again” video airs, with Coach Bob Backlund giving Darren orders, not advice, which Young confuses.

Match #5: Single – Natalya (with Becky Lynch) VS. Women’s Champion Charlotte (with Dana Brooke) (Non-Title)

They lockup and Charlotte takes down Natalya with a side headlock. Natalya reverses and rolls-up Charlotte; she chops hard and catches a kick, slamming Charlotte face-first to the mat! Natalya traps the Women’s Champ in a surfboard-stretch, and then front-dropkicks her. She tries something else, but Charlotte escapes. Natalya hits a baseball-slide, but as Natalya climbs back in the ring, Charlotte rolls out and boots her on the floor.

Both go back-and-forth, and as Charlotte climbs the turnbuckle, Natalya forearms her and sit-down powerbombs her from the turnbuckle! 1 – 2 – Charlotte gets her shoulder up! On the outside, Becky and Dana brawl into the ring, and the Women’s Championship is in the ring. The referee thinks Natalya was going to use it, and takes it away; Charlotte takes advantage with a chop-block and the Figure-8, forcing Natalya to tap!

Winner via Submission: Women’s Champion Charlotte (with Dana Brooke)

Ads.

Segment #7: Video Promo

A montage of the history between Seth Rollins and WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns airs; the two will wrestle at Money In The Bank for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship

Dean Ambrose, Cesaro and Sami Zayn make their entrances for the main-event!

Commercials.

Match #6: Six-Man Tag-Team – Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, and Sami Zayn VS. Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio, and Chris Jericho

Both sides fight in and around the ring, and then it is left to Del Rio and Cesaro for a while. Cesaro governs Alberto throughout this, almost taking the bout with a top-turnbuckle crossbody! He manages to Swing Del Rio a few times, then Owens, and then Jericho! Cesaro turns Chris over into the Sharpshooter, and Jericho taps, but he was not the wrestler tagged in, so his tap doesn’t count. Del Rio is back in with a hard kick!

Ads.

Jericho and Cesaro are now wrestling, with Jericho in control. All three heels triple-team Cesaro in their corner, and Alberto is back at it. Cesaro counters and hits him with a dropkick that sends Del Rio tumbling to the floor. both Jericho and Zayn get tags, and Sami is all over Chris! He spins him around with the Blue Thunder Bomb, and then makes the hot-tag to Ambrose!

Dean clotheslines Del Rio repeatedly and hits Kevin off the apron. He avoids Del Rio diving, and dives his own way through the ropes! Ambrose jumps off the top turnbuckle, and Alberto kicks him hard. He drives him down with a backstabber, and gets out of a Dirty Deeds DDT.

All fight it out again, and it breaks down between them. Kevin kicks his teammates aside, but turns is rolled-up into Dirty Deeds! “The Lunatic Fringe” covers and receives the victory!

Winners via Pinfall; Dean Ambrose, Cesaro, and Sami Zayn

End of Smackdown!

Sasha Banks on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE Superstar Sasha Banks is gracing the cover of the July-August 2016 Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine. The super-fit Banks poses with a black and pink Tapout gear with the Legit Boss hand rings and the text “WWE Superstar Sasha Banks – The plan that got her into super shape” as the headline.

Apart from a pictorial with a workout routine there’s also a full page interview with the 24 year old former NXT Women’s champion. You can see the cover and the pages in which Banks appear in below.

Previous WWE Superstars who appeared on the cover of Muscle & Fitness Hers magazine are Eva Marie, The Bella Twins, and more recently Charlotte.

Jerry Lawler speaks from jail on arrest and what led to it

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler spoke with WMC Action News 5 from jail to discuss the events that led to his and his girlfriend’s arrest in the early hours of Friday morning.

Lawler said that he came home to find Lauryn completely drunk after a party where she and her friends watched game 6 of the NBA Finals. Funny enough, Lawler was just returning from a wrestling event titled A Night In The Slammer, a title which turned out to be the perfect name for his weekend.

“When she drinks we get into a little bit of a shouting match and then she wants to leave. I was not going to let her leave in the car, because she was not in any condition to drive. She got more and more upset,” Lawler said on the phone.

Lawler called the whole thing an unfortunate situation where “nobody was hit and nobody was hurt,” even though he told the police earlier that she scratched him in the face, threw a candle at him and kicked him in the groin. “It’s just something that happened as a result of drinking too much.” Lawler said.

“I’m saddened by it and hope we can get past this,” Lawler said when asked to give a message to his fans learning about the arrests.

Predictions for Money in the Bank 2016

By
W-O Staff
-

It’s that time of year again. We’ve had the random promos of people atop ladders, and now it’s time for six of the best to re-learn how to climb up a ladder and grab a briefcase. This Sunday is Money In The Bank time!

As of Friday evening, WWE had announced four different matches for the pre-show – so don’t be surprised if any of these are shifted up to the main show or dropped entirely. But since they’ve been announced… we may as well give our picks!

Pre-Show: Golden Truth (R-Truth & Goldust) vs. Breezango (Fandango & Tyler Breeze)
The ultimate slow-burn storyline saw R-Truth and Goldust finally become a tag-team – but they really have done little since then, save for an interminable feud with Fandango and Tyler Breeze, who at least should be happy that they’re getting TV time. This is the kind of wacky, mixed tag team match we’d expect to see after the brand split… and really, as this is on the pre-show, there’s little riding on this. Prediction: Golden Truth

Pre-Show: Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley & D-Von Dudley) vs. Lucha Dragons (Sin Cara & Kalisto)
After losing the United States title a few weeks ago at Extreme Rules, Kalisto makes it… onto the pre-show here, for a pretty meaningless tag-team affair. The Lucha Dragons were forgotten about during Kalisto’s singles run, and since he lost the belt, not much has changed! The Dudleys’ last outing on “pay-per-view” came at Extreme Rules, as Big Cass made short work of them in a promo-come-attack segment, and I can see WWE using the Dragons to get the Dudleys some heat back. Prediction: Dudley Boyz.

Sheamus vs. Apollo Crews
One of the forgotten WrestleMania call-ups, Apollo Crews has floundered badly on the main roster. Sheamus, since the break-up of the League of Nations, has gone down a similar path, but at least he’s had the excuse of a movie to promote for his disappearance. I’m tempted to go for Crews here, as WWE surely are looking to make a new squad of stars after the split. Then again, it’s a sign of how far Sheamus has fallen – from winning last year’s Money in the Bank… to this! Prediction: Apollo Crews.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Baron Corbin
Seriously?! After a couple of matches on the pre-shows, with the storyline well and truly wrapped-up, they’re back? Although he’s edged out Ziggler, Baron Corbin’s NXT call-up has gone so well, he ended up on their UK tour this week, so you can tell he’s largely remained an afterthought. After next month’s split, it’d be hard to see Corbin not get a better push, and for that reason I can see him going over Dolph for much the same reason that I’m picking Crews on the pre-show – to “create a star”. Prediction: Baron Corbin.

WWE United States Championship: Rusev (c) vs. Titus O’Neil
After missing out on WrestleMania for that innocuous incident at Daniel Bryan’s retirement ceremony, Titus O’Neil has learned that holding back Vince McMahon has earned him a delayed shot at the US title. Sadly, he’s the first one to get a crack at Rusev following his flattening of Kalisto (who doesn’t even make the main show card this time around!). No matter how much Titus O’Neil gets pushed for his outside-of-wrestling stuff, the celebrity dad of the year isn’t going to be adding to his trophy cabinet on Sunday. Prediction: Rusev.

WWE Tag Team Championship: The New Day (c) vs. The Vaudevillains vs. Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
By the time Sunday rolls around, the New Day will have held the tag titles for over 300 days – but since WrestleMania they have badly run out of steam. Had Enzo Amore not been injured, I really feel that Enzo and Cass would have been at the forefront of the division, whilst Club members Gallows and Anderson are an obvious addition to the title scene. That being said, there is no clear storyline here – it’s not like we’ve had a main set of challengers with two other teams piling on. So I’m going for the New Day to retain and enter the new brand split as the team. Prediction: The New Day.

Natalya & Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte & Dana Brooke
So, last month, we had Dana Brooke come out as a fake Ric Flair and distract Natalya for long enough to cost her a win. Now, we’re already teasing a split in the Charlotte/Dana partnership. Typical rush-job booking. At least it’s nice to see Becky back in anything resembling a storyline, and given what happened on Raw with the teased split, I can see Natalya and Becky get the win as the focus conveniently shifts away from the women’s title. Prediction: Becky and Natalya.

AJ Styles vs. John Cena
Admit it, when AJ signed with WWE, this was one of the big matches you wanted to see. One of the top faces of the indy scene in the last decade, versus the face of WWE from the past decade. AJ’s not exactly been on a winning run, losing to Roman Reigns in his two title shots, and failed to make the Money in the Bank ladder match. Then again, WWE’s been flagging this up to no end, and that usually tips their hand. As much as we criticise WWE booking, they’re not stupid enough to call someone out for losing the big matches and then have them lose once more. Prediction: AJ Styles.

Money In The Bank Ladder Match: Kevin Owens vs. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn vs. Dean Ambrose vs. Alberto del Rio vs. Chris Jericho
This is an interesting pick, especially with the brand split coming up. There’s still unanswered questions over what’s going on with the world titles – will Raw and SmackDown have separate world champions, like in 2002, or will it revert to the NWA-style format and have a “travelling” champion floating across the two shows? Nevertheless, this is probably not the year for WWE to take a gamble on a winner and hope they grow into the role of champion – nor go for such a safe bet that they’re virtually guaranteed the title when they cash in. So in my eyes, that limits us to Kevin Owens or Dean Ambrose, and with Ambrose already having had a tilt at the title this year, I’m going for the other option. Prediction: Kevin Owens.

WWE World Heavyweight Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Seth Rollins
I’m curious over the whole Seth Rollins comeback – especially with the documentary they made over his recovery, why is WWE insisting on locking in in as a heel, and not even toying with a brief babyface run? The stars have been aligned for a while, but for whatever reason, WWE is staying stubborn with their casting. For much the same reason I went with the New Day, WWE is not about to switch their champion as they go into the “true” new era, but I can’t see Seth losing his first televised match back… so here’s to a cheap DQ finish and a teased cash-in! Prediction: Seth Rollins by disqualification.

  • Reproduced from BackBodyDrop.com, where we’re currently running through PROGRESS Wrestling shows in our #BACKFILL series, along with reports and commentaries on the latest from WWE, New Japan and the best of independent wrestling – check us out!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ian Hamilton has been a wrestling fan since 1992, and when he’s not watching WWE, New Japan or his latest wrestling love, PROGRESS, he’s usually suffering through Sunderland AFC and the New York Jets. He’s got a couple of books out on Amazon – “Wrestling’s Sinking Ship” and “Gone Too Soon”, and can be reached via his website, BackBodyDrop.com, or on Twitter @theianhamilton

Jerry “The King” Lawler spending the weekend in jail

By
Colin Vassallo
-

It’s going to be a rough weekend for both Jerry “The King” Lawler and his girlfriend Lauryn – assuming they are still a couple – as they will be spending the weekend behind bars.

Their first court date is scheduled for Monday at 8:30AM as part of the first session at the Shelby County court. Both of them can receive visitors at jail with special approval according to the Shelby Sheriff website. The duo are charged with domestic assault—bodily harm, a misdemeanor.

Lawler was supposed to be part of the Money In The Bank WWE Network Kickoff panel but of course that is now not happening since WWE suspended him earlier today.

Brock Lesnar allowed to use WWE theme song at UFC 200

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Jeremy Botter from FloSports.TV is reporting that as part of the deal with WWE that will see Brock Lesnar return to UFC 200, there’s also the rights to use Lesnar’s WWE theme song.

UFC fighters choose whatever song they like to make their entrance for their respective fights assuming the UFC can get proper clearance to use the song on the pay-per-view and on-demand broadcasts.

Lesnar has never used his WWE theme song as an entrance song for any of his previous UFC fights but will be able to use it this time around. The theme is titled Next Big Thing and it is composed by WWE’s resident music guru Jim Johnston.

WWE suspends Jerry Lawler indefinitely following arrest

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE took swift action over the Jerry Lawler incident and immediately suspended the Hall of Famer after the news broke that he was arrested.

“WWE has zero tolerance for matters involving domestic violence, and per our policy, Jerry Lawler has been suspended indefinitely following his arrest,” WWE said in a statement on its website.

The company acted the same when Adam Rose was arrested last month and also suspended Kevin Nash from his Legends deal when Nash was arrested for domestic violence a few years ago. After Nash got cleared, he was reinstated. Rose requested his release from WWE after he got out of jail.

Jerry “The King” Lawler and girlfriend arrested

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Several news outlets in Memphis, Tennessee are reporting that WWE Smackdown announcer and Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler and his girlfriend Lauryn McBride were arrested early this morning with both facing domestic assault charges.

Lawyer, 66, and McBride, 27, were booked into Shelby County Jail at 1AM.

McBride is claiming that Lawler struck her in the head and then pushed her against a stove. She also said that he got an unloaded pistol, put it on the kitchen counter and told her to “kill herself.”

The story that Lawler told the police differed from McBride. Lawler said that McBride was intoxicated and she was the one who got the pistol and threatened to kill herself. He said she scratched him in the face, threw a candle at him and kicked him in the groin. He added that the reason he held her was because she was trying to leave with her car while she was drunk.

Memphis police officers were unable to determine the primary aggressor in the case, so they arrested both of them.

You can see the mug shot of both of them below.

Impact rating for 06/14/2016

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The 10:50PM airing of Impact Wrestling on POP TV did 210,000 viewers on Tuesday night. The show was hit by several technical difficulties and missed its regular time slot due to weather issues. POP did an encore of Impact yesterday at 9PM however the show did not seem to break the 150 cable shows for the night and POP did not make the chart at all. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Chris Melendez announces his departure from TNA Wrestling

By
Colin Vassallo
-

TNA star Chris Melendez, the United States Army vet who lost his leg in combat, announced on his Twitter that he has departed TNA Wrestling.

“I’ve decided to move on to the next chapter of my life. I learned a lot in & out of the ring. Thank you for the opportunity,” he wrote. “Special thanks to the locker room & everyone that has embraced me & helped me along the way….You all know who you are!”

The 29 year old Melendez made his TNA debut in August 2014 and wrestled his last match for TNA during the January television tapings. He had not be used on television since.

Melendez lost his leg thanks to an improvised explosive device that struck his platoon while serving in Baghdad, Iraq. He had to be resuscitated three times following the explosion and suffered several injuries. He is the recipient of the Purple Heart.

6PM start time for fans attending SummerSlam 2016

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Ticketmaster issued an e-mail to all fans who purchased a ticket for SummerSlam on August 21 saying that the start time for SummerSlam has changed and it will kick off an hour earlier.

“The new start time for WWE SummerSlam will now be 6PM, and all fans are advised to arrive early to not miss a moment of the action. Your tickets are still good – see you there,” read the e-mail. The previous start time was listed at 6:30PM.

The 6PM start time is probably for the Kickoff show and not the actual start time of the pay-per-view. Last year WWE expanded SummerSlam to a four hour show with a 7PM start time, joining WrestleMania in one of those marathon shows. Unless WWE decides to do an overrun for the show, there will be five hours of continuous live broadcasting.

Bin Wang becomes first Chinese developmental talent for WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
-

As part of the historic announcement in China, WWE also announced that it has signed Bin Wang to a developmental deal, giving him the opportunity to train to become the first-ever Chinese Superstar in WWE history.

The 22 year old Wang is 6’3” and weighs 220lbs and comes from Anhui. He has been training for the past two years in Japan at Inoki Genome Federation,  a wrestling and MMA promotion founded by WWE Hall of Famer Antonio Inoki.

Wang will relocate to Orlando, Florida this Sunday, June 19, where he will begin training at the WWE Performance Center.

“It is an honor to be the first-ever Chinese talent in WWE history,” said Bin Wang. “There are no fans in the world that show the same passion as the WWE Universe, and I look forward to training and developing my skills so I can perform for them in the future.

New WWE TV deal and live event announced in China

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE today announced a landmark deal in Chia, with an exclusive multi-year content distribution agreement with PPTV. the return of a WWE live event to Shanghai, and the first-ever Chinese talent signed to a developmental contract.

The historic announcements were made today at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai by WWE Chief Revenue & Marketing Officer Michelle D. Wilson, WWE Superstar John Cena, WWE Vice President & General Manager of Greater China Jay Li, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events & Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Vice President of PPTV, General Manager of PPTV Sports Stephen Zhang and CEO of Shanghai Expo Development Ltd. Ding Hao.

“Today’s historic announcements further demonstrate WWE’s long-term commitment to China,” said WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon. “Partnerships with PPTV and Expo Group, as well as the signing of Bin Wang, will enable us to engage our fans in China like never before.”

PPTV will be airing Raw and Smackdown in Mandarin starting June 28 and will also be available on demand exclusively on PPTV Sports. Fans can download the PPTV App and watch Raw and SmackDown on Smart TV’s, set-top boxes, mobile devices and tablets, as well as on PPTV.com and Sports.PPTV.com.

WWE returns to China for the first live event in more than three years on Saturday, September 10 at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. Tickets for WWE Live 2016 China will go on sale this Saturday, June 18 at Noon and can be purchased online at www.gewara.com and www.wesai.com.

WWE running tryout camp in China

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE is currently holding its first tryout camp in China, headed up by WWE Performance Center coaches.

Triple H, the brain behind NXT and the WWE Performance Center, joined the festivities as well, flying in from England following the Download Festival in the weekend. NXT head coach Matt Bloom is running the camp along with Robbie Brookside and William Regal. Canyon Ceman, WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Development, is present as well. John Cena is rumored to be joining the group today or tomorrow.

China, one of the world’s biggest markets, remains largely untapped by WWE and is the last remaining big country without the WWE Network. Several regulations imposed by the communist government prevents many companies from doing business, or better yet, limits what one can do, in China. WWE has an office in Shanghai to help facilitate making business there.

Case closed and all charges against the former Adam Rose dropped

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The case against Raymond Leppan, the artist formerly known as WWE Superstar Adam Rose, has been closed and all charges have been dropped.

Leppan was arrested on May 11 in the very early hours of the morning and charged with tampering with a witness and battery domestic violence after his wife dialed 911 to report him. He spent a couple of days in jail until he was formally charged in front of a judge. By then his wife came to his support and pleaded with the judge to go easy on him and grant him bail. He eventually made bail and was ordered to attend counseling to control his anger.

On June 7, Judge John Conrad requested proof of satisfactory counseling and ordered him to continue his weekly meetings. The case was closed on June 10 with all charges dropped.

Leppan was indefinitely suspended by WWE when the incident happened and was still serving his 60 day suspension from his Wellness Policy second strike. The former Social Outcasts member then requested his release from WWE, a wish which was granted, and will now be wrestling under the name Aldo Rose.

New logo for sold-out NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Triple H confirmed today via a post on Twitter that NXT Takeover: Brooklyn has sold out.

“Last year’s event was historic, a stamp in time..and when #NXTTakeOver comes Back to Brooklyn..it is S O L D O U T!”

Earlier this week we reported that Ticketmaster.com was out of tickets for the show and the majority of them were snapped during the pre-sale which kicked off on Wednesday. The rest of the remaining tickets went on sale on Saturday morning to the general public.

WWE also put a cute spin to the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn logo, adding a gold chain around the NXT logo with the Roman numbers II in diamonds hanging below. You can check out the new logo below.

Gail Kim announced as TNA’s newest Hall of Fame inductee

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Gail Kim was announced yesterday as the newest – and first female – inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame.

The 39 year old veteran has been working for TNA since 2011 and had her first stint with the company between 2005 and 2008. Prior to joining TNA, Kim worked for WWE between 2002 and 2004 and from 2008 to 2011.

While in the WWE she won the WWE Women’s title in her first televised match, it was in TNA where she really shined and given more opportunity to excel. During her time in TNA she won the Knockouts title five times, the Knockouts Tag Team titles once with Madison Rayne, and was voted the 2007 Knockout of the Year.

She now joins Sting, Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Earl Hebner, and Team 3D in the TNA Hall of Fame. Usually TNA holds the Hall of Fame ceremony on the eve of Bound For Glory but last year it was different and for its two Hall of Fame inductees, one was presented with the award on Impact and the other during a non-televised live event. It’s not been announced yet when Kim will be inducted.

POP TV to re-air Impact tonight after technical difficulties during “live” broadcast

By
Colin Vassallo
-

While TNA managed to survive the weekend after Billy Corgan came to the rescue with an injection of cash, their Impact broadcast on POP TV last night wasn’t so lucky as technical issues from POP TV’s side caused several problems.

Impact is not really live whenever it is advertised as live as the show is taped a few hours before. TNA successfully beamed the show back to POP TV headquarters, located in Atlanta, fully edited and in time but what seems to be weather issues prevented POP TV from relaying the broadcast via satellite to cable and satellite providers. Instead, several commercials and blank screens aired in Impact’s time slot.

“We apologize for the technical difficulty. Please stay with us. We will be airing the entire #ImpactWrestling event,” a tweet from POP read while the whole mess was going on.

Eventually the show did air but only around 11PM and POP TV has promised to replay yesterday’s broadcast tonight at 9PM. Last night’s broadcast aired delayed without commercials.

Trish Stratus’ new movie Gridlocked available for purchase

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The movie Gridlocked, which features WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, is now available on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital Download.

Joining Stratus in this movie are Dominic Purcell, Stephen Lang, Danny Glover, and Saul Rubinek. It had its premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas on September 26 last year. The movie is about a former SWAT leader and an arrogant movie star who must cut their ride-along short when a police training facility is attacked by a team of mercenaries.

The movie also debuts in Asia this week at the 19th Shanghai International Film Festival.

Raw rating for 06/13/2016

By
Colin Vassallo
-

WWE Raw got absolutely slaughtered in the ratings yesterday with the show failing to get past the 3 million viewer mark for the first time since November 23, 2015. Last night, facing stiff competition, Raw did just 2,970,000 viewers, one of the worst non-holiday number in over two decades.

Hour one started with 3,043,000 viewers, then increased slightly to 3,109,000 in the second hour, before dropping off 2,758,000 in the third and final hour. Raw lost 351,000 viewers from hour two to hour three.

Raw’s competition had the NBA Finals doing monster ratings on ABC with 20.52 million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

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