Four matches, two of which are for a title, will be part of tonight’s historic Dynamite, the first show outside North America and just days before the All In pay-per-view.
Cardiff in Wales will play host to tonight’s show which will have Toni Storm defending the AEW Women’s title against Saraya, Kazuchika Okada vs Claudio Castagnoli for the AEW Continental title, Hook vs Big Bill, Darby Allin and FTR vs The Elite in a trios match, and Chris Jericho vs Tommy Billington.
Plus, MJF and Will Ospreay come face-to-face ahead of their AEW American title match and AEW World champion Swerve Strickland and Bryan Danielson will have the final showdown moderated by Nigel McGuinness.
AEW President Tony Khan continued teasing an impending media rights deal announcement during interviews.
Last week, Khan wore a Warner Bros. Discovery cap, a cap which he said he wears proudly, and during an interview with Barstool Sports this week, he wore a Max baseball cap, the company’s streaming service.
Khan said that he was given the hat in Paris “as part of a great backpack of stuff” he found in his hotel room when he went for the Olympics to meet WBD President David Zaslav and other WBD officials.
“They were very kind to us,” Khan said.
The company is expected to remain part of the WBD family with the new media rights, a deal that is expected to be announced very soon.
WWE Raw this week suffered against night one of the Democratic National Convention, with the show doing 1,641,000 viewers, down a quarter of a million viewers from the previous week.
There are no hourly numbers available as of press time.
The show had an average 0.50 rating in 18-49, down 0.13 from last week and it was the lowest since June 10. Raw was #2 on the top 50 cable chart for the night behind CNN and its coverage of the DNC. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
WWE Women’s World champion Liv Morgan lit The Crow’s world premiere red carpet on fire last night!
The event, held at Village East by Angelika in New York City, had several celebrities in attendance and Morgan showed up in a black dress with her right leg completely exposed, black high heels, and the Women’s World title on her shoulder.
Daddy Dom was nowhere to be seen as Morgan flew solo for this event.
The Crow, from Lionsgate Films, features Bill Skarsgård, FKA Twigs, and Danny Huston in the leading roles. It comes out in theaters nationwide tomorrow, August 23.
Tonight’s Dynamite will be the first one outside North America and will come to you from the Utilita Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
The arena is now sold out, with just over 4,200 tickets sold and this will be the most attended Dynamite in several weeks. It was hoped that the show would sell out quicker since it’s a new market but the end game was reached just in the nick of time.
AEW will also tape Collision right after Dynamite.
The show will be on tape delay due to the different time zone and the company is hoping for a rowdy international crowd ahead of this weekend’s All In at Wembley Stadium in London.
Collision on TNT last Saturday drew 406,000 viewers, up 36,000 viewers from the prior episode. This was the most-watched episode since July 20. The show had a 0.13 rating in 18-49, up 0.02 from the previous week and was #16 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
His in-ring career will be over by the time 2025 comes to an end, but John Cena’s involvement with WWE will continue for years to come after that.
The 16-time world champion, appearing on the Club Shay Shay podcast, announced that he signed a contract extension with WWE which will keep him with the company for the foreseeable future.
“I have such a trustworthy relationship with them over two decades. I am a champion of the brand,” Cena said, adding that he loves the company and WWE is his home and everyone in it is part of his family.
“Even after 2025, I’ve already signed an extension to remain a member of the WWE family for the near, mid, and long-term future. I don’t think there will be a beat of my heart where WWE doesn’t come out of.”
John Cena will start his 2025 farewell tour with the first episode of WWE Raw on Netflix. He will work 36 dates throughout the year, including most of the premium live events, culminating with one final match in December 2025.
A TNA star is now the number one contender for the NXT title after Joe Hendry won a three-way match last night on NXT to earn the title shot at No Mercy.
The match featured Hendry, Pete Dunne, and Wes Lee. Ethan Page, who was on commentary for the match, got involved and distracted the referee as Hendry had the former NXT UK champion down and out. Dunne recovered and hit the Bitter End on Hendry but Trick Williams ran in and hit the flying knee on Dunne while the ref was still distracted.
The other referee then crawled his way back in the ring and counted to three, with Page unable to break the pinfall in time.
After the chaos died down and Hendry celebrated, Zachary Wentz, another TNA star, jumped his former tag team partner Wes Lee at ringside and the two brawled to end the broadcast with several referees and security trying to separate the two.
No Mercy takes place on Sunday, September 1 live from Denver, Colorado.
Hulk Hogan might be in hot water again after last night he asked a crowd at the Thirsty Cowboy in Media, Ohio, if he should leg drop Vice President Kamala Harris and then questioned her ethnicity and everything was caught on video published by TMZ.
Promoting his new Real American Beer, Hogan got into a “What?” shtick with fans, asking a bunch of questions to get the “What?” response ala Steve Austin.
“Want me to bodyslam somebody?” Hogan asked as the fans cheered instead of whatting. “Want me to bodyslam Kamala Harris?” he continued, receiving an even bigger cheer.
“Want me to drop the leg on Kamala?” Hogan asked again. “Is Kamala a chameleon? Is she Indian?”
Then a light bulb switched on and Hogan stopped.
“I’ll get the heat for that one, brother,” Hogan said. “That was not me, that was the beer talking!”
The Hulkster appeared at the Republican National Convention last month and made a speech before Donald Trump was introduced to the stage.
Rampage last Friday on TNT drew 295,000, up 76,000 viewers from the prior week. This was the best number since the week before the Olympics started. The show had a 0.10 rating in 18-49, up 0.01 from the previous show. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
In an interview with Chris Van Vliet promoting her newest graphic novel, former WWE Raw and Smackdown Women’s champion Ronda Rousey discussed what led to her departure and the match against Becky Lynch which never materialized.
Rousey said that she always wanted to wrestle with Shayna Baszler and the powers that be would have never allowed it to happen until she threatened to leave because they didn’t want to do the match against Becky Lynch.
“And I was like, fine…I’m gonna tag with Shayna and she’s going to turn on me, and then I’m gonna leave…or I’m gonna f*cking leave right now,” Rousey said in the interview. “That was the only reason we were able to do it, because they wouldn’t let us do any Four Horsewoman stuff.”
Rousey said that Vince McMahon was convinced that no one knew that she and Baszler were friends in real life and didn’t buy into any of the Four Horsewoman storyline.
Asked why the match against Becky Lynch never happened when she returned, Rousey was blunt in her answer.
“Because Vince is an 80-year-old asshole,” she said. “Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and Bruce Prichard…they can all suck a dick!”
Rousey is glad to hear that things improved under Triple H and had nice things to say about him and his wife Stephanie, calling them fantastic. She said that when she was about to start IVF, Stephanie gave her a necklace which had a locket with pictures of her daughters in it and told her to remove them and put hers instead when she had them.
“I never took her babies out. I put my baby on top and I’m gonna have to add some more pictures,” she continued.
Quizzed about her future in professional wrestling, Rousey shut the door on a full-time schedule again, but was open to doing bits and pieces.
“I might come back and have some fun here and there. But I can’t be leaving home and being on the road like that,” she concluded.
Bo Dallas will have his first WWE match since November 2019 next week on Raw under the Uncle Howdy gimmick.
Howdy will take on American Made’s leader Chad Gable on the show after last night on Raw, the Wyatt Sicks continued their targeting of the faction, with Ivy Nile ending up getting the worst from Nikki Cross.
The Uncle Howdy gimmick has never wrestled in WWE and the man behind the mask has not stepped between the ropes for nearly five years. Dallas’ last match in a WWE ring was on November 13, 2019 at a non-televised live event in Zurich, Switzerland where he teamed up with Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode against Kalisto, Lince Dorado, and none other than…Chad Gable!
His last televised match was at the Crown Jewel 2019 premium live event in October where he and his tag team partner Curtis Axel were part of the World Cup Tag Team turmoil match.
Smackdown drew 2,252,000 viewers on FOX last Friday, down 17,000 viewers from the previous episode which was Roman Reigns’ return. In 18-49, Smackdown had a 0.61 rating, down 0.03 from the prior week and was #1 on network and overall on all of television. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)
Pat McAfee wrapped up his WWE duties for the rest of the year but vowed to return to the company in January 2025 when college football ends.
McAfee will resume his role on ESPN’s College Gameday this weekend with a special broadcast from Dublin, Ireland, a broadcast which will also feature Sheamus as a guest picker.
On Raw last night, a highlight package of McAfee was shown and he thanked the fans, all the WWE personnel working backstage, and his broadcast partner Michael Cole for allowing him to be part of this dream job.
Earlier in the day during the Pat McAfee show, McAfee said that WWE is where he should be at, putting the company over big time, saying he can’t believe he gets paid to have fun there.
Cole and McAfee started on a very rough patch when McAfee showed up as a guest to his first WrestleMania in a jacket and shorts and Cole lost his marbles. Eventually, Vince McMahon OK’d McAfee’s choice of attire and then things turned around, with Cole now calling Pat one of his biggest friends in the entire world.
The CM Punk vs Drew McIntyre match at Bash In Berlin is now a strap match.
It was Punk who on Raw said that he asked General Manager Adam Pearce to make it official and McIntyre appeared to accept.
“Have you started drinking?” McIntyre asked Punk before accepting the terms of the new match.
The AJ and Larry bracelet remains a point of contention, with Punk willing to give up the strap in return of the bracelet, something that McIntyre refused, adding that both AJ and Larry are safer and happier attached to him.
This will be their second one-on-one match following SummerSlam, which McIntyre won.
Four matches have been already announced for tonight’s WWE Raw live from the FLA Live Arena in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The WWE Women’s Tag Team titles are up for grabs in a triple threat match as Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn defend their gold against Damage CTRL and the team of Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark, Sheamus takes on former stablemate Pete Dunne, The New Day team up with Odyssey Jones to battle The Final Testament, and Maxxine Dupri battles her former friend Ivy Nile.
Plus, CM Punk will be in the house to deliver a message to CM Punk and Randy Orton speaks after hitting the RKO to Gunther last week.
Tickets for Bash In Berlin have continued to move but large quantities of floor tickets remain thanks to the high prices.
With the show just two weeks away, WWE is still selling floor seats at €2,033, €1,990 and €1,695 each while the cheapest first raised floor tickets are at €312.
The Uber Arena is configured for over 13,000 seats and this show is still at just over 11,000 in terms of attendance, although it’s highly likely it will be a sell out once tickets start going down in prices in the last few days.
With extraordinary high tickets when it went on sale, this show will probably break the record for the highest-grossing arena show in WWE history.
WWE will also hold Smackdown in the same location on the eve of Bash In Berlin.
The AEW Stories documentary on last year’s All In pay-per-view from Wembley Stadium is now streaming on AEW’s YouTube channel.
The documentary is labeled a mini one, running just 12 minutes, and starts with old footage of Cody Rhodes high-fiving The Young Bucks detailing the first All In, with Tony Khan describing Rhodes, The Bucks, and Kenny Omega as pioneers.
Several interviews with stars who were part of last year’s show are part of the documentary as well as quick takes with behind-the-scenes personnel who made the show all possible.
And for those wondering, no, CM Punk is not featured at all.
All In returns to London’s Wembley Stadium this Sunday on pay-per-view.
Tonight’s Monday Night Raw will be the last one for now for Pat McAfee as he prepares to start College Gameday this weekend for ESPN.
McAfee returned to the company earlier this year after college football was over and was reunited with Michael Cole doing commentary for Raw.
“I’m fairly bummed out that tonight will be my last trip to that wonderful WWE family for a while,” McAfee said in a video posted on social media. “Football season is starting which is awesome, but the WWE family is where I’m supposed to be, and I know that.”
It’s not known who will replace McAfee for now, but new WWE Raw commentator Joe Tessitore will start fairly soon with the September 2 episode while Michael Cole switches to Smackdown.
Booker T’s Reality of Wrestling promotion announced that NXT star Tatum Paxley will be appearing at their non-televised Breakout event on Sunday, August 25.
In late July, the promotion also said that talent appearing on NXT Level Up will be able to appear on their Breakout events moving forward.
Kale Dixon, an trainee at the WWE Performance Center who appears on NXT Level Up, will also be on the August 25 live event which will take place at the Walker Texas Lawyer Arena.
Breakout shows are ROW’s non-televised live events which are free for the public and offer trainees at the school an opportunity to perform in front of a live audience and against wrestlers from the ROW roster.
