Home Blog Page 351

Australian star Delta signs with WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Fightful Wrestling’s Corey Brennan reports through the Select service that WWE has signed Australian star Delta to a deal.

Delta, who was one of the standout stars at the tryouts during Elimination Chamber week in Perth, is believed to have been signed for a while but was allowed to finish her remaining indie dates and is expected to report to the WWE Performance Center in the next few weeks.

Also known as Delta Brady, the Aussie has been wrestling professionally since late 2020 for Melbourne City Wrestling and Riot City Wrestling.

Delta wrestled her last match in Australia – against her brother – on July 6 at RCW’s Heavy Is The Crown event.

Tony Khan on an AEW/WWE supershow: “I would love if that were possible”

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Appearing on The Rich Eisen show, AEW President Tony Khan said that he would “love if it were possible” to have a joint AEW and WWE supershow.

“I don’t know if it is (possible), but it would be great if it was possible for the fans,” Khan said answering the question of what are the chances of something like this happening.

“There are challenging business things in the world of pro wrestling that I think would make that a very challenging thing to do,” Khan then admitted.

This declaration comes a few months after Khan labeled WWE as the evil juggernaut, the enemy they’re at war with, and the “Harvey Weinstein of professional wrestling” in an interview on the NFL Network during the NFL draft.

Royal Rampage match returning this week with high stakes

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The Royal Rampage match will be returning this Friday with the winner receiving an AEW World title match at the Dynamite: Grand Slam episode from Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 25.

The match was announced by AEW President Tony Khan on X.

The Rampage episode will be taped tonight immediately following the conclusion of Blood & Guts Dynamite and will air this Friday on TNT.

There have only been two Royal Rampage matches in the past, one in 2022 and one in 2023. Brody King won the first one while Darby Allin won the second one and a TNT title shot in the process.

WWE on A&E block (2024) ratings for week 19

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Week 19 of WWE on A&E featured one episode of Biography: WWE Legends, this time concentrating on former World Heavyweight champion Mark Henry.

The episode drew 208,000 viewers, up from the 160,000 viewers the previous episode with The Miz drew. In 18-49, the show had a 0.05 rating, up 0.01 from the previous episode. This was the second least-watched episode of the series.

Collision rating for 07/20/2024

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Collision had a nice big bump in the viewership this past Saturday, drawing 472,000 viewers, up 110,000 from the prior week. The show had a 0.15 rating in 18-49, up 0.01 from the previous show. This was the most-watched episode since May 18. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)

Melissa Santos joins AEW’s broadcast team

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Melissa Santos has joined All Elite Wrestling as the newest member of the broadcast team and will be doing announcing and backstage interviews.

“Did you miss me? Thank you @aew for the opportunity and to those who helped make this happen. Grateful. Now let’s get to work,” Santos wrote on Instagram.

The 40-year-old star worked for Women of Wrestling and Lucha Underground in the past. She also had a stint with TNA in 2019.

Santos is the wife of AEW star Brian Cage.

Joe Hendry concert announced for Great American Bash night one

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Wrestling fan favorite Joe Hendry will be appearing on night one of NXT Great American Bash next week live from the WWE PC in Orlando.

The TNA Wrestling star will host a “concert” for the fans as WWE and TNA continue their partnership with talents crossing over.

Hendry so far is the only TNA star announced for the show although it would not be a surprise if more are added.

A three-minute video on Hendry aired on NXT last night, with TNA plugging it writing, “The world believes in @joehendry!”

All the cars at the NXT parking lot were also left with flyers of Hendry advertising next week’s concert. Gallus’ car received extra flyers, enough to cover the whole windshield!

NXT title match set for night two of The Great American Bash

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The main event of night two of The Great American Bash was set last night on NXT with NXT champion Ethan Page defending his title against Oro Mensah.

The contract signing will be held next week on night one of The GAB. This is the only match so far announced for night two. Both episodes will air on SyFy due to the Olympics coverage on USA Network.

Night one will be headlined by Roxanne Perez defending the NXT Women’s champion against Thea Hail. Another title match will take place, with Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn vs Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles and then Tony D’Angelo defends his NXT Heritage cup against Tavion Heights.

WWE Superstars and crew in Japan for tour

By
Colin Vassallo
-
WWE logo

WWE Superstars and crew traveled to Japan after Raw last night and will be in town until Saturday night as they perform in three non-televised live events.

After a couple of days off and sightseeing, the first event will be on Thursday in Osaka at the Edion Arena. It is followed by two back-to-back shows on Friday and Saturday in Tokyo and the Ryogoku Kokugikan.

The event on Friday in Tokyo is sold out and the other two have sold really well. It’s the company’s first tour in the Land of the Rising Sun in five years.

Due to the tour, this Friday’s Smackdown has already been taped last week.

Blood & Guts Dynamite gets unexpected competition from President Biden’s address

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Tomorrow’s episode of Dynamite’s Blood & Guts got some unexpected heavy competition on U.S. television.

President Biden announced that tomorrow evening at 8PM ET, he will address the nation from the Oval Office on his decision to drop from the U.S. presidential race and what lies ahead.

Biden’s address will go head-to-head with Dynamite on TBS although the Blood & Guts match will start in the second hour of the show, long after Biden’s speech will conclude. However, news and commentary is expected to dominate the airwaves after Biden is done with his speech which will probably eat into AEW’s viewership.

All shows from next week will get additional competition in the form of the 2024 Olympics from Paris, France.

Rampage rating for 07/19/2024

By
Colin Vassallo
-
Rampage

Rampage had just 284,000 viewers last Friday on TNT, down 55,000 viewers from the prior week. This was the lowest number since June 7. The show had a 0.10 rating in 18-49, down 0.02 from last week. No cable rankings are available for Rampage at this time. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)

Cody Rhodes and Rhea Ripley lead Fanatics Fest pre-sales

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Tons of sports personalities, athletes, and other celebrities will be part of the first-ever Fanatics Fest in New York City next month and with WWE being a big part of Fanatics, several WWE Superstars and Legends will be on hand for the three-day event.

While other MLB, NBA, NFL stars will be appearing, Cody Rhodes was the hottest ticket in town and sold the most tickets. Second most popular overall? None other than mami herself, Rhea Ripley!

Scheduled to be part of the Fanatics Fest apart from Rhodes and Ripley from WWE’s side are Hulk Hogan, LA Knight, Bayley, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan, Rey Mysterio, Drew McIntyre, Paul Heyman, The Miz, Bianca Belair, Jey Uso, Jade Cargill, and CM Punk.

Charlotte Flair was also scheduled to be there at one point but here appearance was pulled.

For more information and to buy tickets go to https://www.fanaticsevents.com/ffnyc.

AEW teams up with Southland Conference for AEW World title presentations

By
Colin Vassallo
-
AEW logo

AEW announced that it is partnering with Southland Conference sports league to present custom AEW World title belts to winners of upcoming Southland Conference Tournaments in multiple sports throughout the rest of the year.

The AEW/SLC title presentation will take place at every SLC Championship event.

Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR will be appearing for a special message tomorrow on Southland Football Opening Drive on ESPN+ at 11AM.

The Southland Conference was founded in 1963 and comprises 12 schools within a driving range of the states of Louisiana and Texas. The conference has produced countless players who have made major impacts on the NCAA, NFL and MLB, with many capturing championships and awards.

Smackdown rating for 07/19/2024

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Smackdown last week drew 2,313,000 viewers, down 42,000 viewers from the prior week. In 18-49, Smackdown had a 0.65 rating, down 0.05 from the previous show and was #1 on network television by more than doubling the nearest competitor and was #1 in overall in all of TV. (Ratings credit: Programming Insider)

Raw to move to SyFy for the next two weeks due to Olympics

By
Colin Vassallo
-
Raw

With the Olympics starting this weekend, USA Network will be focusing on the coverage from Paris and the Olympics will take priority over every other broadcast on NBCUniversal’s network.

For the next two weeks starting on July 29, WWE Raw will broadcast on SyFy, which also means the post-SummerSlam fallout will also be on SyFy instead of the more popular USA Network.

Raw and NXT ratings suffer a bit when they are moved from USA Network and NXT will also air on SyFy for the next two weeks starting next week. NXT will have a two-night Great American Bash to try and soften the blow.

CM Punk cleared, SummerSlam match announced

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Two new matches were announced for SummerSlam last night on Raw, including CM Punk’s first singles televised match in WWE since his return at the Survivor Series last year.

Punk, who is now cleared for action after six months out, will be taking on his nemesis Drew McIntyre on the show. The match will also have the involvement of Seth Rollins, who while not wrestling, will be the special guest referee for the match.

The former WWE and AEW champion suffered a triceps injury at the Rumble and has been out of action ever since. Apart from two non-televised singles matches, Punk has only been in the ring on TV at the Rumble.

Also announced last night was a match for the Intercontinental title, with Sami Zayn defending his gold against Bron Breakker in a rematch from Money In The Bank. Breakker earned his spot after he beat Ilja Dragunov via referee stoppage last night on Raw. Zayn beat Breakker in their first one-on-one encounter.

Collision to avoid SummerSlam head-to-head by airing earlier

By
Colin Vassallo
-

The Collision set for August 3 will not air head-to-head with SummerSlam but will instead hit the airwaves at 5PM ET.

Collision has suffered greatly when going against WWE premium live events in the past, with the latest one against Money In The Bank drawing only 306,000 viewers.

The show will not be live either as AEW will tape this episode of Collision on Thursday, August 1 at the Esports Stadium in Arlington as part of its month-long residency.

Damian Priest Live event added to SummerSlam weekend

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Another live event has been added to the SummerSlam weekend, with Damian Priest Live set to take place at Noon ET on Friday, August 2 at The Agora Cleveland.

The event will feature the screening of the WWE 24 documentary on Priest and a live panel discussion afterwards along with Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio.

This is the third show at The Agora Cleveland as Sami Zayn will take the stage later in the night for his comedy show and then The Undertaker will host his 1deadMAN SHOW the following day.

Tickets for Damian Priest Live go on sale on Wednesday, July 24 at 10AM ET at agoracleveland.com and are priced $43 to $63.

Bobby Lashley and MVP are on the way out of WWE

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Former two-time WWE champion Bobby Lashley and MVP are expected to leave WWE when their contracts expire very, very soon.

The news was originally broken by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful and also confirmed by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.

Lashley’s contract is over in a matter of weeks and will not sign a new one. He has not wrestled since May 5, winning against Santos Escobar at a non-televised live event in France. His last televised appearance was on April 12 when he lost a triple threat match against LA Knight and Santos Escobar on Smackdown.

MVP recently wrote in public that Triple H did not want to reassemble The Hurt Business and the company had no interest in going that direction. He too has not appeared on television in months after Omos was taken off TV as well.

The Hurt Business reuniting somewhere else is not a far-fetched idea. Shelton Benjamin, a former member of the group, remains a free agent, although Cedric Alexander is still part of WWE wrestling for NXT.

Bianca Belair vs Jade Cargill on Hot One Versus today

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Bianca Belair will be taking on Jade Cargill today, although it won’t be in a wrestling ring, but in a face off on Hot Ones Versus.

Hot Ones Versus pits two individuals against each other in a battle to tell the truth, or suffer the wrath of the Last Dab. Whoever eats the most spicy wings, loses.

The episode will premiere at 1PM ET on the First We Feast YouTube channel.

This is the second episode featuring WWE stars on the series, with Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch having played the game in March.

1...350351352...1,677Page 351 of 1,677