TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella appeared on NXT Vengeance Day last night in a backstage segment with NXT General Manager Ava and his daughter, the NXTNA liaison Arianna Grace.
Marella has not appeared on WWE television since early 2020 when he came out to enter the women’s Royal Rumble with his Santina Marella gimmick.
“Look who it is,” wrote the WWE X account after his appearance. “Great to have you here, @milanmiracle!”
The Canadian star has been working for TNA since 2017 after a long stint with WWE.
“Timeless” Toni Storm became the AEW Women’s champion for a record-breaking fourth time last night at Grand Slam: Australia, defeating her arch rival Mariah May in the main event of the show.
This was their first match against each other since the All In: Wembley event in late August of last year where May beat Storm for the gold.
The Kiwi star defeated May with a small package, ending May’s 174-day reign as champion. She returned in December at the Winter is Coming episode of Dynamite pretending not to remember anything that happened over the past couple of years but later revealed she was just playing the part to get back to her former friend.
Here are the results from last night’s NXT Vengeance Day which took place live from the CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC.
Stephanie Vaquer defeated Fallon Henley to become the new NXT Women’s North American title; Nathan Frazer and Axiom defeated Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura to retain the NXT Tag Team titles; Eddy Thorpe defeated Trick Williams; Ethan Page defeated Je’Von Evans; Oba Femi defeated Austin Theory and Grayson Waller in a triple threat match to retain the NXT title; Giulia defeated Bayley, Roxanne Perez, and Cora Jade in a fatal four-way to retain the NXT Women’s title.
AEW will make its Australia debut with Grand Slam airing tonight on TNT and streaming on Max right after the NBA All-Star Weekend programming.
Over 10,000 packed the Brisbane Entertainment Centre earlier today on the other side of the world with five matches taped for tonight’s broadcast which replaces Collision.
Scheduled for tonight are Konosuke Takeshita and Kyle Fletcher vs Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, Mercedes Mone defends her TBS title against Harley Cameron, Jon Moxley and Claudio Castagnoli take on Jay White and Cop in a Brisbane Brawl, AEW Continental champion Kazuchika Okada defends his title against Buddy Matthews, and in the main event, Mariah May defends her AEW Women’s title against Toni Storm.
Former co-Divas champion Layla El reacted to the news that Michelle McCool will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2025 with a message on social media.
The now 47-year-old said that no one is more deserving of this recognition and accomplishment than her former bestie.
“I’m truly so happy for you, Chelle! Everyone, please show your love to Michelle — she’s incredible and so dear to me,” she wrote.
The British star teamed up with Michelle McCool in 2009 to form LayCool and together won the WWE Women’s and Divas titles. After two years working together, the duo fell apart and Layla later defeated McCool in a loser leaves WWE match.
McCool received the news that she is going into the Hall of Fame during her appearance on ESPN’s Get Up yesterday where Triple H surprised her and her husband The Undertaker with the announcement.
Live from the CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC, WWE presents NXT Vengeance Day live on Peacock in the United States and on Netflix everywhere else. The full card is as follows:
Oba Femi vs Austin Theory vs Grayson Waller in a triple threat match for the NXT title; Giulia vs Bayley vs Roxanne Perez vs Cora Jade in a fatal four-way match for the NXT Women’s title; Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura for the NXT Tag Team titles; Fallon Henley vs Stephanie Vaquer for the NXT Women’s North American title; Je’Von Evans vs Ethan Page; and Trick Williams vs Eddy Thorpe.
Vengeance Day will have a start time of 6PM ET, continuing the trend of WWE premium live events having an earlier start time much to the enjoyment of international viewers.
The Countdown to Vengeance Day will air on WWE’s social media properties an hour earlier starting at 5PM ET.
Following today’s very successful AEW Grand Slam: Australia event in Brisbane, AEW announced that it will be back Down Under in 2026.
Grand Slam: Australia has moved to become the third highest-grossing AEW event ever behind the two All In shows at Wembley Stadium. While originally this show was set for the 50,000-seater SunCorp Stadium, expensive tickets at the much smaller Brisbane Entertainment Centre contributed to a large gate of over $1.25 million.
Appearing in front of fans, AEW President Tony Khan was initially booed but then cheered when he said they will be coming back to the country.
No date or location were announced for AEW’s return but you can join the waitlist for tickets at https://spr.ly/6001Ii7mH.
AEW Grand Slam: Australia will air later tonight on tape delay on TNT after the All-Star Weekend programming as well as on Max.
Trish Stratus will be stepping back in the ring at the Elimination Chamber in her hometown of Toronto next month.
Stratus was ringside at Smackdown last night and was involved in an angle after Nia Jax and Candice LeRae continued their attack on WWE Women’s champion Tiffany Stratton.
Stratus, celebrating her 25th year in the business, made the save for Stratton but the heels quickly overpowered the WWE Hall of Famer, leaving her and Stratton out.
In a backstage segment a few minutes later, Tiffany and Trish agreed to team up to take on Nia Jax and Candice LaRae in a tag match at the Elimination Chamber which will take place from the Rogers Centre, the stadium formerly known as the SkyDome.
Two more WWE Superstars qualified for the Elimination Chamber last night on Smackdown, leaving just one more place in each match.
Naomi was first with her win over United States Women’s champion Chelsea Green, pinning her clean after a split-legged moonsault. Bianca Belair, who is also in the match, celebrated with her tag team partner following the match. Liv Morgan, Alexa Bliss, and Bayley are also part of the match.
Later in the evening, Damian Priest defeated Jacob Fatu and Braun Strowman in a triple threat match to book his place in the match. The match had interference from Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga, and Cody Rhodes, with the Bloodline members not on the same wavelength for the night, allowing Priest to finish off Strowman with his South of Heaven chokeslam finisher. Priest now joins John Cena, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Logan Paul in the match.
The last qualifying matches will come on Raw with Seth Rollins vs Finn Balor and Roxanne Perez vs Raquel Rodriguez.
Charlotte Flair has picked Tiffany Stratton and her WWE Women’s title for WrestleMania, with the match becoming the second one official on the card.
Stratton was involved in a title defense last night against Nia Jax and won via disqualification when Candice LeRae interfered. After a brawl which also involved Trish Stratus, Stratton was left lying in the middle of the ring and that’s when Flair entered.
She got a chair and sat next to Stratton who was still recovering, telling her to wake up because it’s still “Tiffy time.”
Flair then got serious and said, “The Queen chooses you. I’ll see you at WrestleMania,” before slamming the microphone.
The 14-time women’s champion also visited Raw and NXT before making up her mind and picking Stratton for her WrestleMania match.
Josh Alexander said his goodbyes to TNA Wrestling in a long statement after his final TNA match aired last night on Impact.
Alexander started with TNA in 2019 and won the TNA World title twice, the X Division title once, and the TNA Tag Team titles twice with Ethan Page as The North.
The Canadian wrote that he made lifelong friends during the past six years and was able to travel the world with his wife Jade Chung. He noted how his six-year-old son only grew up watching his dad the TNA wrestler.
“I am also eternally grateful for the mentoring and coaching that was so freely given to me over the years. I wouldn’t be half the wrestler I am today, without it,” Alexander wrote.
He thanked everyone from production to talent to fans for allowing him to live his dream.
“Thank you for all the memories. If it all ended today I’d be more than satisfied and that’s because of all of you. I will be eternally grateful for TNA and carry TNA with me in my heart for the rest of my career,” he added.
AEW President Tony Khan revealed that tomorrow’s AEW Grand Slam: Australia event will have one of the biggest gates in AEW history thanks to expensive tickets.
“Outside of Wembley Stadium in London, this is going to be, I believe, our biggest international gate of all time. So it’s a really very, very exciting event for us here in AEW,” Khan said in an interview with DownUnderTheRing.
The show is believed to be #3 as far as the gate is concerned behind the two All In: Wembley shows with over $1.25 million. All In: Texas will eventually surpass this show if it didn’t already.
The Forbidden Door 2023 pay-per-view from Toronto was the third highest-grossing event for the company up until now.
Tickets for Grand Slam: Australia remain available for purchase starting from $94.85.
TNA Wrestling announced that the next TNA+ streaming event will be called Unbreakable and will take place on Thursday, April 17.
The show will be held from the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, located on the campus of the University of Nevada. It’s expected that this event will start immediately following the conclusion of that week’s Impact Wrestling show.
Unbreakable being in Las Vegas is not by a coincidence as thousands of wrestling fans will be in the area for WrestleMania week. Officially, there’s no WWE events except for WWE World on that Thursday and considering that WWE and TNA have a working relationship, there might be some WWE stars popping up on the show.
Joe Tessitore will not be doing Smackdown play-by-play tonight as ESPN announced that he will be calling the action for the Top Rank Strictly Business boxing event tonight live from The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
The show will air live on ESPN starting at 9PM ET and according to the press release, Tessitore will call the action with Timothy Bradley, Jr., Mark Kriegel, and Bernardo Osuna.
In related news, WWE backstage interviewer Jackie Redmond will also miss Raw on Netflix next Monday due to NHL coverage.
“You assume correctly. No RAW for me this week,” Redmond wrote on X. “Got myself a #4Nations DOUBLE HEADER on @NHL_On_TNT.”
Dynamite this week drew 579,000 viewers, down 26,000 viewers from the prior week and the lowest number of 2025 so far. The show had a 0.16 rating in 18-49, down 0.01 from the previous show and was #6 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. The night’s main competition were the NBA and the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
It was confirmed this morning that Michelle McCool will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame class of 2025.
The announcement came during an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up where McCool along with The Undertaker were guests to promote the new WWE and A&E series LFG.
Triple H appeared via video in the studio and said that a couple of weeks ago, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels decided to surprise him and induct him in the Hall of Fame. He said being the boss is cool, because he gets the last laugh.
“Michelle, WrestleMania season is upon us, which means the Hall of Fame season is upon us,” he said, as McCool teared up at the hint. “And I would like to tell you right now that you’re being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, congratulations!”
Both McCool and The Undertaker were very emotional and Triple H said that it’s about time that she goes in.
“I’m speechless, I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know, it’s hard to believe that you can deserve that honor. It’s just…an honor,” McCool said.
The hosts also asked The Undertaker what he thought about that.
“Don’t make me talk man, I’ve been 35 years building the mystique and persona…and I’m gonna be crying like a baby,” Taker responded.
Triple H welcomes Michelle McCool to the WWE Hall of Fame on @GetUpESPN
PWInsider.com is reporting that Ax and Smash of Demolition have signed a Legends deal with the company, opening up the possibility of merchandise, inclusion in video games, and a potential Hall of Fame induction.
Bill Eadie, who performed as Ax, had a long legal battle with WWE over the Demolition name in the mid 90s, a battle which he eventually lost. Barry Darsow, who wrestled as Smash and Repo Man, then joined Eadie and others in the CTE class action lawsuit against WWE. That lawsuit was also dismissed by a judge with the plaintiffs getting absolutely nothing from it.
They wrestled for WWE from 1987 until 1991 and are former three-time WWF Tag Team champions. The team also had a third member, Crush, join them during their last tag team title reign.
Rita Chatterton, the first WWE female referee who claims that she was raped by Vince McMahon in the back of a limo and recently reached a multi-million dollar agreement with McMahon, revealed in an interview on the Power & Glory The Podcast that she was signed to an AEW contract for a whole year and did absolutely nothing.
The 68-year-old said that in 2021 when she received the International Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame Trailblazer Award, its President, Seth Turner, informed her that there was a guy with the name of Tony Khan who wanted her phone number.
Chatterton admitted that she had no idea who Khan was and was told that she should take his call if he rings. Khan rang, but she did not answer as she did not recognize the number but then she called back and it was indeed Khan.
“So Tony and I had a nice long talk, and I was under contract with him for a year. Very nice man. Gentleman. Very, very nice man,” she said.
Chatterton revealed that she was listed as a talent scout for AEW but said that she didn’t do one cent of work and the only thing she did was attend a couple of Jacksonville Jaguars games.
“You know what, I was under contract for a year and I did absolutely nothing. I did absolutely nothing,” she said laughing. “But he wanted me under contract, so I was under contract with him.”
Chatterton was back in the news in late 2022 when she and McMahon reached an agreement over the rape allegation, an allegation that McMahon continues to refuse to this day. He later said that he settled to avoid a costly litigation.
This week’s episode of NXT drew 801,000 viewers, up 35,000 viewers from the prior week and the third most-watched episode of 2025 so far. The show had a 0.18 rating, down 0.02 from the previous show, with the audience trending older than in previous weeks. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
There were some changes behind-the-scenes at TNA Wrestling, spearheaded by the arrival of new TNA Wrestling President Carlos Silva.
Silva has replaced Anthony Cicione, who assumed the role in February of last year after Scott D’Amore was fired from the company.
PWInsider.com also adds that John E. Bravo and Ingrid Isley have both been added to the Talent Relations department working under Gail Kim.
Bravo and Isley have worked with TNA for a while, with Bravo being well-liked backstage while taking on different roles while Isley was the floor manager at events.
