Bookmaker bwin is taking odds on who will be the mystery partner tag teaming with Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose at this Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view.
Leading the pack as the odds-on favorite is Daniel Bryan with Randy Orton and Baron Corbin second and third respectively. Corbin was inadvertently placed on the WWE.COM graphic hyping this match which might lead to his removal from the show for the surprise factor.
Others who are being touted as possible mystery partner include Samoa Joe, Brock Lesnar, Mark Henry, Cesaro, The Rock, Erick Rowan, Seth Rollins, Kane, and Chris Jericho.
JBL will debut a new show on the WWE Network this coming Monday right after Raw ends starting at 11:06PM EST titled Legends with JBL.
JBL will be interviewing several wrestling of the wrestling business for this show and the first guest will be former WCW President and Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff.
The show will run for one hour and Bischoff’s interview with JBL to kick things off is pretty long and is split over two shows.
The third match on the card for the Bound For Glory pay-per-view was announced by TNA on the ImpactWrestling.com website.
The match is for the TNA Knockouts title and features champion Gail Kim taking on Awesome Kong.
The other two matches announced so far are EC3 vs Drew Galloway for the TNA World title with Jeff Hardy as the special guest referee and Bobby Roode vs Lashley for the TNA King of the Mountain title.
Bound For Glory takes place on October 4 from the Cabarrus Arena in Concord, North Carolina.
German TV station DMAX, which shows TNA Wrestling in Germany and Austria, announced that it will no longer carry TNA shows after October 15. The station is owned by Discovery Communications, the parent company of Destination America.
The October 15 edition will be the September 30 episode that will air on Destination America as DMAX airs TNA on a two week delay. TNA has not filmed any new Impact shows and the last one they filmed will air on September 30, just a few days before the Bound For Glory pay-per-view. As noted earlier, TNA President Dixie Carter said that the company is contracted to Destination America till the end of the year.
NXT will be in Texas for the next few days as WWE’s most popular brand at the moment hits three different cities for their first tour in the state.
The tour starts tonight with a live event at the Revention Music Center followed by a stop in Austin at the Austin Music Hall tomorrow night, and then on Saturday it’s San Antonio at the Aztec Theater. All three venues are relatively small and there are still tickets available for all the live events.
All your favorite NXT Superstars and Divas will be present including NXT champion Finn Balor, Tyler Breeze, Samoa Joe, Baron Corbin, NXT Tag Team champions The Vaudevillians, NXT Women’s champion Bayley, Emma, and more.
Episode 11 of season 4 of Total Divas, titled An Unwanted Proposal did the lowest number of the season so far, with just 804,000 viewers tuning in and a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demo. That is 339,000 viewers less from the previous week.
It was the lowest number since episode 9 of season 3 dating back to October 19, 2014. This week’s episode was mostly focusing on Paige’s engagement. (Ratings credit: TV By The Numbers)
In an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog, TNA President Dixie Carter admitted that the television deal with Destination America wraps up at the end of the year but there are discussions going to see where 2016 will lead them.
“The biggest challenge for us is building a brand in the U.S.,” said Carter. “That’s where we need to grow. We’re contracted to Destination America through the end of the year, and we are in discussions going on for 2016.” The article then states at the end that there’s no TV deal for TNA past February 2016.
TNA announced the deal with Discovery Communications’ Destination America back in November 2014 and started airing on the network on January 7, 2015. With Carter saying that their deal runs through the end of 2015 means that Destination America exercised their right to pull the plug on the show after one year.
In mid-May there were already rumors that the company was ready to axe TNA from its schedule after a memo from a Destination America executive was sent to the network’s staff. “Destination America is not renewing TNA Wrestling next year. While the ratings were strong, the audience was not large enough to justify the program investment. We plan to honor the current contract and continue to air original episodes of TNA Wrestling on Friday nights through the end of the third quarter 2015,” the memo read.
Just like Spike TV did for TNA when they allowed them to stay on the air till the end of December even though the deal ran out at the end of September, Destination America seems to have done the same, giving TNA a three month lifeline on their network as TNA scrambles to find a television partner or convinces Destination America to stick with them.
In the same month that the memo was made public, Dixie Carter denied the story and threatened to sue those who keep spreading false information about TNA and their broadcast partner.
There’s a little Rock on the way as Us Weekly has reported that Dwayne Johnson and his girlfriend Lauren Hashian are expecting their first child together.
This will be Johnson’s second child as he already has a 14 year old named Simone with his ex-wife and manager Dany Garcia. Simone has been at ringside lately every time her father makes a return to the WWE and he always goes over for a fist bump or a kiss.
The couple have been together for 9 years although she keeps a very low profile and does not attend a lot of red carpet events with her superstar husband.
Speaking to Rolling Stone while doing the media rounds for this Sunday’s Night of Champions, Sting said that he’s happy putting guys over at this stage in his career after he was asked if he feels like he’s been brought in the WWE to do the job for others rather than enhance his own legacy.
“I had my time. There’s no question about that. For a guy my age to be where I am right now is, to me, next to impossible. And yet, I’m here,” Sting said. “It’s not about Sting, not anymore. You’re asking a straight-up question, I’ll give ya a straight-up answer. That’s it, and I am just fine with that.”
Sting defended the Raw promo from a few weeks ago where he put over Triple H, the man who beat him at WrestleMania 31 earlier this year. “Triple H is Triple H, and he’s worth the put-over,” the former WCW champion said, adding that despite that, his focus remains Seth Rollins and no one will think about that come Night of Champions.
Addressing the different portrayals of his character over the year, he said some people like the Joker Sting and some people hate it but he practices what he preaches as he tells the younger guys to step outside their comfort zone and try something different. He said that people still ask him to go to the blond Sting, to which he said he does not have enough hair for that anymore! Some people want the Crow Sting but either way, you can’t please everyone.
It is being reported by PWInsider.com that Jeff Jarrett no longer owns a minority stake in TNA Wrestling and his return to the company and the exposure that Global Force Wrestling is getting on TNA television came at a price – his stake in TNA.
Despite leaving TNA a couple of years ago, Jarrett still held a minority ownership in the company that he and his father founded back in 2002. Now Panda Energy, the mother company of TNA Wrestling controlled by Dixie Carter’s family, is the 100% owner of TNA. He left TNA at the end of 2013 to work on GFW, a promotion that has been using past TNA wrestlers and other independent talent as part of its roster.
Jarrett made a surprise return to TNA in June 2014 and the GFW invasion storyline will climax during tonight’s Impact Wrestling show on Destination America as TNA battles GFW in a Lethal Lockdown with the winning promotion taking full control of TNA.
Hulk Hogan is the latest subject of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog, with an interview that covers everything that happened to Hogan ever since those audio recordings were released by the National Enquirer, ending his wrestling career perhaps once and for all.
Hogan explained how he never talked with Vince McMahon after the controversy erupted and it was Triple H who gave him the bad news. Hogan called Triple H as soon as he was aware that something was going to be released and Triple H called Vince and called Hogan back within the hour.
“He called me back a half hour later and he goes, ‘I’ve got some news and it isn’t good. Vince said that you need to resign.’ I never heard from Vince or talked to Vince. In the middle of the night, they just fired me,” Hogan said. “They had to do what was best for business,” he added. “Triple H was telling me the USA Network was reacting very badly, and they had to make a quick decision, and that was to put me out to pasture. They were under heavy fire and they were scrambling.”
Despite getting fired, Hogan holds no ill feelings towards the company, Vince, or Triple H even though he requested a meeting and was declined. He said he’d love to sit down and talk with Vince and said everyone makes mistakes and we are all judged by our weakest moment. “If I had a chance to work with Vince and help people, we could help fix a lot of things together.”
Hogan said that he doesn’t think WWE made the right choice in this case and believes that they should have chosen the rehabilitation and education route instead. He noted how WWE helps those who are addicts and they pay for their rehab. “So what’s so uncommon about this was they took the symptoms, said, ‘Oh my god, there’s a symptom of being a racist,’ and threw me away. They usually go to the source. They’ve known me for over 30 years and they know I’m not a racist, so they should have went to the source,” Hogan said.
The Hulkster knows he’s not a racist even though he admits saying those words during one of the lowest points in his life and he’s accountable for them. He mentioned that even Bret Hart, who said he’s glad something like this happened to Hulk, said that he’s never known Hulk to be a racist.
Asked if he would be willing to go work for some other wrestling company, Hogan shot down the idea. “The only place for me to be would be the WWE,” said Hogan. “That’s where my home is. I thought I’d go step-by-step, crawling uphill with WWE, to explain how wrong I was, but that opportunity wasn’t there.”
The season premiere of Monday Night Raw which went head to head with Monday Night Football for the first time this season drew 3,397,000 viewers and just a 1.1 rating in the 18-49 demo. Compared to last week Raw did 12,000 viewers more.
Hour one did 3,290,000 viewers, followed by 3,539,000 in the second hour, and then down to 3,363,000 in the third and final hour.
NFL easily took the night with 13,560,000 and 14,330,000 viewers on ESPN and a 5.3 and 5.9 rating in the 18-49 demo respectively. (Ratings credit: TV By The Numbers)
The upcoming NXT event on October 7 has finally been given a name with WWE choosing NXT Takeover: Respect as the title of the WWE Network show.
“More than money and fame…success is measured by one thing. RESPECT,” tweeted Triple H earlier today, revealing the name. This will be the seventh Takeover event coming off the successful Brooklyn event last month. The December show will be titled NXT Takeover: London.
The only match officially announced for the show so far is Bayley vs Sasha Banks in a 30 minute iron woman match for the NXT Women’s title which is going to be the main event of the show as well. The final of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament will also be taking place on this Takeover special.
PWInsider.com is reporting that Tough Enough finalist Zamariah “ZZ” Loupe was at the WWE Performance Center on Monday training and has signed a WWE developmental deal.
ZZ, one of the most popular figures on Tough Enough this year lost in the final to Josh, surprisingly only gathering 30% of the votes after wiping out the competition every time he was in the bottom three. Many thought he would be winning the competition with Sara Lee, who turned out to be the winner of the female contract.
Loupe got a lot of criticism during the show from his coaches and judges on the panel due to his physical condition and for running out of gas at everything he did.
The Louisiana native who grew up wrestling alligators joins Amanda, the other runner-up, signing a WWE developmental deal after the end of the competition. Amanda has been moved to the cast of Total Divas for the next series, replacing Naomi.
Three more title matches were made official last night on Raw as the Divas, Tag Team and Intercontinental titles will be on the line at Night of Champions.
As reported earlier, Nikki Bella will be defending the Divas title against Charlotte with the stipulation that if Nikki is disqualified or counted out, she will still lose the title. The Intercontinental champion Ryback will be putting his gold on the line as Kevin Owens gets his first crack at the IC title after his failed attempt at getting the United States title from John Cena. Also the Tag Team titles will be up for grabs as The New Day will be defending against The Dudley Boyz following their victory against The PrimeTime Players last night.
There are only two non-title matches on the card plus the pre-show match with 7 matches during the PPV.
Kiara Grindrod, the seven year old who was featured on Raw last night along with her dad during one of the pediatric cancer month segments, got to meet John Cena and Sting after Raw went off the air.
Grindrod got the best birthday gift ever as last Friday when she was told she was cancer free. She was being treated at the St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, the same place where yesterday Dolph Ziggler, Stephanie McMahon, the Bella Twins, and Alicia Fox visited to meet the kids.
Cena told the crowd that they had an amazing lady in the crowd who fought a hard battle and she won. At that time, the crowd started chanting ‘Yes! Yes!’
“On behalf of Sting, myself and every person behind that screen, we sincerely want to thank you for being our guest tonight, for being an inspiration to not only us in the ring, but every single person outside the ring around the world,” Cena told Kiara.
Cena and Sting then walked over to Kiara and her family and gave her hugs and Cena gave her his armband and Sting gave her his glove with the crowd making the experience a more memorable one by chanting “This is awesome!”
Nikki Bella broke AJ Lee’s record as the longest Divas champion ever with 296 days and counting after she was disqualified in her match against Charlotte last night on Raw, keeping the title despite losing the match.
Nikki won the title at the Survivor Series last November by defeating the then record holder AJ Lee. AJ was on her third title run back then and her record of 295 days was broken by Paige the night after WrestleMania 30 in New Orleans.
This is Nikki’s second run with the title. Her first title reign only lasted six days after winning a lumber jill match during an episode of Raw from Detroit. She lost the title to Layla at Extreme Rules after the twin magic trick backfired.
Nikki Bella has 302 combined days as Divas champion, placing second behind AJ Lee who has 406 combined days as champion over three different reigns.
Charlotte will have another opportunity to win the Divas title this Sunday at the Night of Champions pay-per-view and if Nikki gets counted out or disqualified she will also lose the title.
WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash is claiming that his Twitter was hacked over the weekend after a nude selfie of a woman was posted on his account.
The selfie shows a woman laying down on her bed with her legs spread as she holds the camera towards the mirror so she gets the full shot from behind. The person in the photo is Jennifer Micheli, a 53 year old fitness model and mother of 3. Micheli has since deleted her Twitter which was under the @RealJenMicheli account. Her Instagram under the account fitgirl4 is still active.
Nash tweeted, “It’s been brought to my attention my Twitter account was hacked. My apologies to anyone that was offended.” Nash has tweeted to Micheli before and even “welcomed” her to Twitter in March of this year when she joined while Micheli has been retweeting certain tweets from Nash.
The tweets were still visible on his WWE.COM profile page however WWE removed the Twitter feed from Nash’s page after realizing about the issue. A simple Google search of “Kevin Nash Twitter” brings up the thumbnail of the image as the first entry although the link leads to a page not found since the Tweet was deleted.
The fact that Nash has communicated with Micheli before is leading to speculation that his Twitter was not really hacked but it was just a mistake of Nash sending the photo public and now he’s trying to cover it up and play it as his account was hacked.
For those interested, the NSFW image can be found here. (Image not hosted by Wrestling-Online.com and can be taken offline without notice.)
Tonight’s Monday Night Raw is being touted as the season premiere and there will be two title matches on the card.
The Dudley Boyz already know they’re going to Night of Champions however their opponents are yet to be determined as The New Day will defend the Tag Team titles against The PrimeTime Players with the champions, whoever that might be, going to the NOC pay-per-view this Sunday.
Also, Nikki Bella will be hoping to break AJ Lee’s Divas title record tonight as victory against the number one contender, Charlotte, will enable her to go over the 295-day record as Divas champion. Win or lose, Charlotte will still face Nikki Bella at Night of Champions.
Sting will also be in the house for the go-home show before Night of Champions for his program with Seth Rollins.
TNA Wrestling has announced that veteran referee Earl Hebner will be inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame during the Bound For Glory weekend on Saturday, October 3. Smashing Pumpkins front man and TNA Senior Producer, Billy Corgan, will induct Hebner, with TNA Ring Announcer and Hebner’s dear friend, Jeremy Borash, emceeing. The induction will take place during the BFG tour live event in Salem, Virginia.
“Earl Hebner is not only one of the most recognizable personalities in professional wrestling, his passion for the sport, in-ring management skills, and ability to entertain audiences has set the standard by which all professional wrestling referees are measured,” said TNA President Dixie Carter. “ It is an honor to have Earl as part of the TNA family and as the newest member of the illustrious TNA Hall of Fame.”
Hebner has been refereeing since 1977 and was shot into stardom when he was unveiled as the “evil” Hebner twin, who was bribed by the Million Dollar Man to count the pin on Hulk Hogan and declare Andre The Giant as the new WWF champion during an episode of NBC’s The Main Event.
He was also part of the Montreal screw job as one of the few people who was in on the act to strip Bret Hart off his title. Hart often said that while he was sure something was going to happen, Hebner – who was one of his friends – always had his back and trusted him completely. It was Hebner who signaled for the bell that night and shot straight out of the arena to a waiting car outside.
“When I received the call from John Gaburick and he told me I am being inducted into the TNA Hall of Fame, I was stunned and my eyes welled up with tears,” said Hebner. “I’ve been working for 37 years for this incredible honor. It is rare for a referee in any sport to be recognized in this way, and I am proud TNA is recognizing me as the first referee to ever be inducted into a professional wrestling Hall of Fame.”
Hebner will be the sixth inductee into the TNA Hall of Fame, joining Sting, Kurt Angle, Bully Ray, Devon and Jeff Jarrett. He has been working for TNA since 2006 and his son Brian is also a referee for the company.
