Much like her husband a few days before, Becky Lynch couldn’t contain her emotions at Raw and finished the show crying while holding up a black armband with Bray written on it.
Lynch wrestled Zoey Stark in a falls count anywhere match which included the use of a lot of tables, a subject which came in handy after Raw went off the air.
When the cameras stopped rolling, Lynch sat on the security barricade and addressed the fans in Memphis, telling them a story about when she came to the main roster for the first time and she had a tables match.
Lynch said she had no idea how to set up a table and while they make it seem easy, it is not, especially for the women who are not as strong as the men. It was Bray Wyatt who pulled her aside and asked her if she knew what to do and she replied in the negative.
At a non-televised live event, Wyatt took Lynch to the ring and showed her everything she needed to do and on the pay-per-view, he spent time with her even though he was busy with his own match to go over everything and made sure she got everything right.
“That is the kind of person that Windham was. And that night I went crushing through a table, but tonight I sent two dopes crushing through tables,” Lynch said. “This one is for Windham, thank you guys so much, you’ve been awesome. We love you Windham, get home safe, and hug the ones that you love!”
TMZ.COM is reporting that according to police records, Windham “Bray Wyatt” Rotunda had heart complications in the weeks leading to his death and was hospitalized a week before he passed away due to a heart issue.
Rotunda had a doctor’s appointment the morning he passed away to follow up on the condition.
The police report states that Rotunda told his fiancé that he was going to take a nap and when an hour later his alarm rang and it wasn’t stopped, she became concerned and went to wake him up.
JoJo found him blue and not breathing in bed and her mother attempted CPR on him as she called 911. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
It’s interesting to note as well that in the report it was written that Rotunda was told by doctors to keep wearing an external heart defibrillator, a device that could restart his heart in case of a cardiac arrest. Rotunda was not wearing the device when he passed away and it was found in his car parked in his driveway instead.
Last Friday’s Smackdown with tributes to both Bray Wyatt and Terry Funk drew 2,647,000 viewers, up a whopping 553,000 viewers from the prior week. This was the most-watched Smackdown since December 25, 2020 which had an NFL lead-in. In the 18-49 demo, Smackdown drew another huge 0.78 rating, up 0.23 from the previous show. It was #1 on all of network and cable television for the night. (Ratings credit: SpoilerTV)
Jerry “The King” Lawler made a surprise appearance during Raw which was solely for the in-house crowd as he was brought out during a commercial break.
It was Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens who introduced the Memphis legend and WWE Hall of Famer to a big standing ovation from the crowd. This was Lawler’s first appearance at a WWE show since he suffered a stroke in February of this year.
This was his second stroke in a couple of years, having previously had one in 2018. In 2012 he had a heart attack during a live episode of Raw as well.
Lawler came out sporting a beard and still didn’t look 100% but shook Sami and Kevin’s hands, thanked the crowd as they chanted “Jerry, Jerry,” and then slowly walked to the back.
Raw opens with memorials of Terry Funk and Bray Wyatt.
Sami Zayn VS. Damian Priest
JD McDonagh comes out and grabs Sami’s leg and after the distraction, Priest hits the South of Heaven chokeslam and gets the win.
Winner: Damian Priest
Priest then tells JD to stay out of his business and walks out of the ring and JD turns and gets a stunner from Kevin Owens and then an Helluva Kick from Sami.
Drew McIntyre is holding a picture and Tozawa walked by and said you look great with a funny look on his face and Matt Riddle comes and says they need matching ring gear and Drew said let’s see how this works before we go any further.
The Miz comes out dressed like LA Knight and to Knight’s theme song. The Miz says he is going to put an end to LA Knight this Saturday at Payback.
The New Day VS. The Viking Raiders
Ivar throws Kofi into the laps of Riddle and McIntyre who are watching the match from ringside. Drew gets up and starts throwing chairs and he threw one intended for Erik but ended up hitting Xavier Woods. With Woods down, Ivar gets Kofi back in the ring and the Raiders pinned Kofi.
Winners: The Viking Raiders
In the back, Finn yells at Damian about getting it together, Damian says they need to concentrate on business not people like JD who don’t matter. As Priest starts telling Finn to take a walk, Rhea starts yelling at them and says her and Dom are the only one’s handling Judgment Day business.
A video package of Bray Wyatt is shown.
In the back, Kofi comes out of the trainer’s office from checking on Woods and Matt Riddle and Drew McIntyre are there. Kofi says it’s all good and he knows Drew didn’t hit Woods on purpose. Drew says he needs to talk to Adam Pearce to take care of the Vikings Raiders next week.
Imperium is out next and Gunther says Gable beat him last week, but he is still the Intercontinental Champion. Gunther then says next week Gable will challenge him again on Monday Night Raw for the Intercontinental Championship.
Gable comes out and says Gunther has been on the main roster for a few years now and it was him Gable who handed him his first loss and next week he is taking the Intercontinental title.
Chad Gable VS. Ludwig Kaiser
Gable goes for the pin, but Giovanni Vinci comes in and breaks up the 3 count also causing the disqualification.
Winner by DQ: Chad Gable
After the match all three members of Imperium beat down Alpha Academy.
Seth “Freakin” Rollins is out next and talks about his match with Shinsuke Nakamura and says he is going to beat Nakamura this Saturday at Payback.
After a video package of Nakamura is shown, Seth says he is ready for Saturday and Nakamura attacks him.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens are shown and are tired of the Judgment Day and Saturday in Pittsburgh their match will now be a Steel City Street Fight for the Tag Team titles.
Tommaso Ciampa VS. Bronson Reed
Reed attacks Ciampa during Ciampa’s entrance. Ciampa gets the upper hand, In the end Ciampa was able hold Reed down for the 3 count.
Winner: Tommaso Ciampa
Becky Lynch is interviewed.
Rhea Ripley comes out and talks about her match with Raquel Rodriguez. Raquel comes to the ring and takes out Rhea and is left in the ring with Dominik. As Raquel was distracted, Rhea attacked Raquel but Raquel countered and took Rhea from the ring.
Trish and Zoey Stark talk about the match with Becky Lynch and Zoey takes on Lynch tonight in falls count anywhere and Trish takes on Becky Saturday at Payback.
A video package celebrating the life of Terry Funk is then shown.
Becky Lynch VS. Zoey Stark in a Falls Count Anywhere
Becky pins Stark on the floor after a Manhandle Slam even after Trish was involved in most of the match.
Bryan Alvarez with F4Wonline.com is reporting that many believe that both CM Punk and Jack Perry have been suspended pending the results of an internal investigation stemming from their backstage altercation on Sunday night before All In started.
There are conflicting stories over what exactly happened backstage at gorilla position just minutes before the pay-per-view. Some say it was Punk who went to confront Perry and put him in a chokehold and others say it was Perry who shoulder tackled Punk first.
The different versions of the stories all agree on one thing though: things got physical and there were concerns that Punk would not go out for his match and some were scrambling to come up with a plan to either stall the start of the first match or else change the order of the matches so Punk wouldn’t go out first.
Both Perry and Punk were told to leave Wembley Stadium, with Perry heading out first after the incident and Punk doing the same after his match.
If this suspension ends up being true there’s a chance that neither of them will be able to appear at All Out this Sunday in Chicago.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting through his Select service that Jordynne Grace has signed a new, two-year deal with Impact Wrestling.
During Sunday night’s Emergence show, Impact plugged Grace’s return at next month’s Victory Road but it wasn’t clear if it was a one-time return or a full-time return.
The 27-year-old left Impact Wrestling in May following the Under Siege event, losing a match against Deonna Purrazzo with the stipulation being that if she loses, she could never challenge for the Impact Knockouts title as long as Purrazzo was the champion.
According to Fightful, Grace got a decent pay-rise in her new deal and also the ability to take time off to participate in bodybuilding competitions.
WWE today announced that John Cena will resume his WWE duties for the next two months and will be part of the Smackdown brand.
Cena’s first appearance will be this Friday, September 1, at The Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania and will then appear on every episode of Smackdown from September 15 until October 27. The only reason he is not appearing on the September 8 Smackdown is because he will be flying to India to wrestle on Superstar Spectacle.
Cena’s appearances are on September 15 in Denver at the Ball Arena, September 22 in Glendale and the Desert Diamond Arena, September 29 in Sacramento at the Golden 1 Center, October 6 in St. Louis at the Enterprise Center, October 13 in Tulsa at the BOK Center, October 20 in San Antonio at the AT&T Center, and October 27 in Milwaukee at the Finserv Forum.
Throughout his SmackDown return, Cena in partnership with Make-A-Wish will host children and their families in each of the eight cities to experience a WWE event in-person. Cena is the most requested wish granter of all time, having granted more than 650 wishes for children across the globe.
With the Hollywood strike still ongoing it made it easier for Cena to return since he has no other movie commitments for now.
John Cena’s match for India’s Superstar Spectacle was announced and the 16-time world champion will team up with the current WWE World Heavyweight champion Seth Rollins to take on Imperium’s Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci.
This will be Cena’s first match since his WrestleMania 39 loss to Austin Theory, a match which kicked off the broadcast of night one.
Superstar Spectacle in Hyderabad is sold out at an arena that holds a maximum of 5,000 fans.
The other match announced so far is Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn putting the Undisputed WWE Tag Team titles on the line against Indus Sher.
The National Football League and WWE today announced a multi-year licensing deal to create NFL-inspired WWE legacy title belts featuring the official colors and branding of all 32 teams.
The line of officially licensed NFL products launches today on NFLShop.com, WWEShop.com and Fanatics.com. This marks the first-ever licensing agreement between WWE and the NFL.
One of the 32 teams of the NFL is the Jacksonville Jaguars, which is owned by the Khan family, who also happen to own All Elite Wrestling!
All Elite Wrestling announced last night that All In shattered multiple records across the professional wrestling industry.
81,035 fans from more than 70 countries descended upon Wembley Stadium, marking the largest crowd in history to ever attend a pro wrestling event in Europe.
In addition, All In became AEW’s highest grossing event ever and one of the largest pro wrestling gates of all time, generating more than $10 million.
“AEW: All In London marked a monumental achievement, and showed the world that AEW is not only here to stay, but also a formidable force worldwide,” said Tony Khan, CEO, GM and Head of Creative of AEW. “This success wouldn’t have been possible without our incredible roster and talented staff, as well as our colleagues at WBD, who passionately believe in the AEW brand as much as I do, and our amazing partners at Wembley Stadium, Live Nation UK and ITV who worked tirelessly to make this dream a reality.
“Most importantly, we thank AEW’s incredibly loyal fans, many of whom travelled to London from around the world to be part of the event, and have been with us from the beginning. We celebrate this long-awaited moment with all of you and look forward to our return to Wembley Stadium in 2024, where we will once again make history.”
Two matches were announced for All Out this Sunday during the All In post-show press conference, including one for a title.
Jon Moxley will get a crack at the AEW International title and will face either champion Orange Cassidy or his challenger this Wednesday Penta El Zero Miedo. The Cassidy/Penta match was set up during the press conference so Moxley will have to wait until Wednesday to find out his opponent on Sunday.
Also, Don Callis is getting his wish as Konosuke Takeshita will finally go one-on-one against former AEW World champion Kenny Omega.
The show, airing this Sunday from the United Center in Chicago, has five matches on the card so far and more will be added on Dynamite and Collision.
Four new champions were crowned last night at All In with only two title holders leaving London still with their gold.
The night started with Adam Cole and MJF defeating Aussie Open to become the new ROH Tag Team champions. This is the first run with the titles for both Cole and MJF. MJF later went on the defend his AEW World title against Cole in the main event of the evening.
Immediately following that match, Hook defeated Jack Perry to regain the FTW title. This ended Perry’s 39-day reign as champion, having defeated Hook last year after 357 days with the belt. It’s safe to say that it was not a good night for Jungle Boy last night.
In front of her home crowd and with her family in tow, Saraya became the new AEW Women’s champion after beating Hikaru Shida, Toni Storm, and Britt Baker in a four-way match. Saraya came out to Queen’s “We Will Rock You” along with her whole family. Her mom even got involved in the action and got nailed by mistake by Toni Storm. The whole family celebrated in the ring after Saraya won the match.
And The Acclaimed and Bad Ass Billy Gunn became the AEW World Trios champions after beating House of Black in the penultimate match of the evening. House of Black came out with a tribute to Bray Wyatt, with a lantern in the entrance way and fireflies surrounding Wembley. This is the first trios title for Acclaimed and Gunn who ended HOB’s 175-day reign.
Here are the results from last night’s Emergence event which took place live from the Rebel Entertainment Complex, in Toronto, Canada, and aired on the Impact Plus streaming service.
Mike Bailey defeated Alan Angels in the pre-show; Yuya Uemura and Joe Hendry defeated Jason Hotch and John Skyler in the pre-show; Eric Young defeated Deaner in a no disqualification match; Killer Kelly and Masha Slamovich defeated Courtney Rush and Jessicka, Jody Threat and KiLynn King, and Gisele Shaw and Savannah Evans in a four-way tag team match to retain the Knockouts Tag Team titles; Kenny King defeated Johnny Swinger to retain the Impact Digital Media Championship; Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz defeated Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster to become the new Impact Tag Team champions; Eddie Edwards defeated Frankie Kazarian in a back to school match; Sanada defeated Jake Something; Bully Ray, Brian Myers, Lio Rush and Moose defeated Josh Alexander, Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin, and Kushida in an eight-man tag team match; Trinity defeated Deonna Purrazzo to retain the Knockouts title.
A new show will join the AEW pay-per-view calendar from this year as Tony Khan revealed the news that WrestleDream will be held on Sunday, October 1 from the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington.
The show coincides with the one-year anniversary of the death of wrestling legend Antonio Inoki. The name WrestleDream is not the first time that it will be used in wrestling as it was a co-branded show between WWF and Super World Sports in 1981 held in Japan.
The company applied to trademark the name WrestleDream with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in late April of this year.
Full Gear will follow WrestleDream on pay-per-view on November 18 live from the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California.
All In is returning to Wembley Stadium in 2024 as AEW announced August 25 as their next stop in London with the hopes of matching this year’s attendance record which stands at 81,035.
AEW President Tony Khan said in the press conference following the conclusion of All In that he wants to run the bank holiday weekend in the UK in London with All In followed by the Labour Day weekend in the United States with All Out in Chicago for the foreseeable future.
While All In was not originally scheduled to be a pay-per-view, it ended up being one and was in the top two pre-ordered with over 90,000 advanced purchases. AEW will run All Out next week in Chicago, another pay-per-view for $49.99, marking the first time the company held back-to-back pay-per-views a week apart.
A physical altercation took place at All In just a few minutes before the pay-per-view portion of the show went live on air.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Wrestling reported that the altercation involved Jack Perry and CM Punk and things got physical. A few weeks ago it was noted that Perry had an argument with Punk over the use of real glass at a Collision taping.
During his match against Hook on the Zero Hour show, Perry was heard telling the camera, “It’s real glass, cry me a river,” when the two were fighting next to the limousine.
Multiple insiders added that the confrontation happened as Punk was getting ready to go out for his match against Samoa Joe which opened the show. Perry was told to leave the building following the incident.
Asked about what happened during the press conference, Tony Khan said, “I can’t comment on it at this time beyond what I’m about to say: Yes there was an incident backstage before we went live on tonight’s show.”
Mercedes Mone appeared in the stands at All In and on camera twice during the broadcast.
The former Raw, Smackdown and IWGP Women’s champion posted photos from London on social media this morning sparking several rumors of an appearance. And while she did appear, it was not what most thought it would be!
Mone, who had a black armband with Windham written on it, stayed for the whole show starting from the Zero Hour portion and the announcers acknowledged her and even a graphic with her name popped up on screen. She was mentioned again after Saraya won the AEW Women’s title and later shown on screen during the AEW World Trios title match.
She has been out of action since May with a broken foot and it is believed that she was supposed to be part of the AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door pay-per-view before she was injured.
During the post-show press conference, AEW President Tony Khan said that Mone has not been cleared yet but wanted to invite her to the show.
Here are the results from the All In pay-per-view which took place live from Wembley Stadium in London, England.
ZERO HOUR: Adam Cole and MJF defeated Aussie Open to become the new ROH Tag Team champions; Hook defeated Jack Perry to become the new FTW champion.
PPV: CM Punk defeated Samoa Joe to retain the “real” AEW World title; Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Konosuke Takeashita defeated Kenny Omega, Adam Page, and Kota Ibushi in a six-man tag match; FTR defeated The Young Bucks to retain the AEW Tag Team titles; Orange Cassidy, Trent Baretta, Chuck Taylor, Penta El Zero Meido, and Eddie Kingston defeated Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Santana, and Ortiz in a Stadium Stampede match; Saraya defeated Hikaru Shida, Britt Baker, and Toni Storm in a four-way match to become the new AEW Women’s champion; Sting and Darby Allin defeated Swerve Strickland and Christian Cage in a coffin match; The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn defeated House of Black to become the new AEW World Trios champions; MJF defeated Adam Cole to retain the AEW World title.
After posting a heartfelt message about Bray Wyatt on social media website X two days ago, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson followed with another post on Instagram, adding also the video of him confronting Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 32.
“You will be missed, my friend. Deeply missed. I’m heartbroken for the Rotunda family over Windham Rotunda’s (Bray Wyatt) passing. What an incredible shining star he was in our squared circle,” Johnson wrote to his 389 million followers.
“I LOVED his presence, promos, in ring work and most importantly – his connection with the @wwe universe. Bray Wyatt was a very unique, cool, rare, ORIGINAL and AUTHENTIC character — which is actually very hard to create in our crazy world of pro wrestling,” he continued. “Very few have done it. Bray was one of them.”
The Rock then wrote that at WrestleMania 32 Bray and him decided to “go for it” and “test the waters” to see how the crowd would react to a potential Rock vs Bray Wyatt future WrestleMania match.
“Needless to say, we got our answer,” he added. “As always, Bray…’thank you for the house.'”
