Impact on AXS TV drew 102,000 viewers for the Slammiversary go-home episode, down 19,000 viewers from the prior week. The show did the same 0.02 rating in 18-49 as it has done the previous two weeks. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
Three hours of AEW action tonight with Collision and Battle of the Belts VII on TNT
There will be three hours of AEW action tonight as not only there’s Collision from 8PM to 10PM but there’s Battle of the Belts VII as well immediately following the conclusion of Collision. Both broadcasts will be on TNT.
Collision will be all about the Owen Hart Cup tournament finals, with both men and women matches taking place to crown new winners. The show is being held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the home of Owen Hart. There’s also another match advertised so far with FTR vs Jay White and Juice Robinson in a best of three falls match for the AEW Tag Team titles.
Three matches are on Battle of the Belts, obviously all title matches. These are Luchasaurus vs Shawn Spears for the AEW TNT title, Toni Storm vs Taya Valkyrie for the AEW Women’s title, and Orange Cassidy vs Lance Archer for the AEW International title.
Slammiversary 2023 live on pay-per-view tonight
Live tonight from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, Impact Wrestling presents Slammiversary on pay-per-view. The full card is as follows:
Alex Shelley vs Nick Aldis for the Impact World title; Deonna Purrazzo vs Trinity for the Impact Knockouts World title; Chris Sabin vs Lio Rush for the Impact X Division title; Ace Austin and Chris Bey vs Brian Myers and Moose vs Rich Swann and Sami Callihan vs Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in a four-way tag team match for the Impact World Tag Team titles; Taylor Wilde and KiLynn King vs Killer Kelly and Masha Slamovich for the Impact Knockouts World Tag Team titles; Jonathan Gresham vs Mike Bailey vs Kevin Knight vs Alan Angels vs Kushida in an Ultimate X match to determine the #1 contender to the Impact X Division title; Eddie Edwards vs Frankie Kazarian; Bully Ray and Deaner vs Scott D’Amore and a mystery partner with Darren McCarty as the special guest enforcer; Joe Hendry vs Kenny King for the Impact Digital Media title in the pre-show; and Jody Threat, Courtney Rush, and Jessicka vs Gisele Shaw, Savannah Evans, and Jai Vidal in a six-person tag team match in the pre-show.
Slammiversary will be available on traditional pay-per-view as well as on FITE.TV.
WWE backstage correspondent Megan Morant donates her kidney
WWE backstage correspondent Megan Morant underwent a life-changing surgery earlier this week, donating one of her kidneys so the wife of her previous boss could get another one.
Morant, who detailed the story on her social media, originally was going to donate a kidney to her friend but she was not a match. She said she made a promise to herself that if the opportunity to donate a kidney ever comes up again in her life, she’ll do it.
As luck would have it, she got to found out in a group chat with her old co-workers at the Patriots that the wife of her previous boss was in kidney failure. It took five months of testing and even though she didn’t match, she advanced donated her kidney in return for her friend to get a kidney to save her life.
“I feel so blessed to be in a position to help Margrette and her family. It’s truly the honor of my life, and it reminds me why we are all here: to help and be there for each other,” Morant wrote.
Two days ago, Morant wrote that her surgery went well and her kidney was in flight to an unknown match.
“I know this will change my recipient’s (that is still a stranger at this moment) life forever,” she wrote. “As for me… I’ve been walking laps around the hospital floor every few hours… slowly of course, but 4 small laps at a time or ‘mile repeats’ as I call them, and all things considered, I feel good!”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CunmpTcMuF7/
Women’s Owen Hart Cup tournament final set
The Owen Hart Cup tournament women’s final has been set and it will feature Ruby Soho taking on former NJPW Strong Women’s champion Willow Nightingale.
Strong beat ROH Women’s champion Athena on last night’s Rampage to advance to the final while Ruby booked her place earlier in the week. This is Soho’s second tournament final as she also reached the last match in the inaugural tournament last year but lost to Britt Baker.
The men’s tournament final will feature CM Punk vs Ricky Starks and both matches will take place tonight from Calgary on Collision.
United States Championship Invitational kicks off on Smackdown
A United States Championship Invitational kicked off on Smackdown which will determine the number one contender for Austin Theory’s U.S. title, most likely getting the shot at SummerSlam.
The first four-way match featured AJ Styles, Grayson Waller, Butch, and Santos Escobar, a match which ended with the LWO member Escobar coming out on top after pinning the newest arrival, Grayson Waller.
A second four-way match will take place on next week’s Smackdown and that will feature Rey Mysterio, Cameron Grimes, Sheamus, and super crowd favorite LA Knight, who once again blew the roof off when he came out on the show last night.
The winner of this second match will then meet Santos Escobar to see who will face Austin Theory.
Bobby Lashley returns on Smackdown, takes The Street Profits for a talk
Bobby Lashley returned to WWE television after an absence of two months, and it looks like another faction is being cooked up.
His return started when The Street Profits were shown in the parking lot backstage waiting for someone, and then a limo showed up. Lashley, decked in a black suit, came out from the limo and greeted Ford and Dawkins and asked them if they were ready to talk.
The Profits responded in the affirmative and then got in the limo with Lashley and drove away.
The former two-time WWE champion was last seen on television on the May 12 episode of Smackdown, losing to AJ Styles in a match which determined who will face Seth Rollins for the inaugural WWE World Heavyweight title.
Lashley had another faction before, The Hurt Business, with MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Cedric Alexander.
Smackdown TV report for 07/14/2023
Arena: PNC Arena at North Carolina State University
City: Raleigh, NC
As the show opens, we see Jey Uso walking backstage.
Bianca Belair is out to the ring first and it is announced that she will face Asuka for the Women’s Championship tonight in the main event.
Bianca says she had to jump through all kinds of hoops to get what she should have had all along. As she says she will beat Asuka tonight she is interrupted by Charlotte Flair. Charlotte says she predicts a win for Bianca tonight and she will be the first to challenge her.
Bianca tells Charlotte if she wins tonight, it will be Belair VS. Flair at Summer Slam.
The Brawling Brutes were shown getting hyped up for tonight.
Sheamus & Ridge Holland VS. Pretty Deadly
After loosening the corner pad, Prince throws Ridge into the corner throat first with an already injured throat and Pretty Deadly scores the victory.
Winners: Pretty Deadly
Grayson Waller talks about being in the United States Championship picture so early in his career and he says he isn’t surprised because he is getting noticed by everyone including The Rock.
After showing a review of the Bloodline from last week they announce Jimmy Uso will be out of action for the foreseeable future.
Charlotte is shown pushing her bag and walks up to Adam Pearce and says, “what you doing?” Charlotte tells him she feels good about tonight and she knows she can’t let go so she is leaving for the night because she fells good about Bianca and looks forward to her match with her. As Pearce turns around Bayley is there and says Charlotte isn’t the only one that feels good about tonight and laughs. Iyo holds up the briefcase and Charlotte says well on second thought maybe I will be staying now.
Zelina Vega VS. Bayley
As Bayley rolls out of the ring, she drops Vega’s neck over the ropes and then runs in and gives Vega a rose plant for the win.
Winner: Bayley
A video of Shotzi is shown talking crazy saying she is in control and says she is not scared as she buzzes her hair off.
Jey Uso is out next. As Jey talked he is interrupted by Paul Heyman who comes out with Solo Sikoa who is there to keep the peace. Next week Jey and Roman Reigns go face to face for rules of engagement.
Paul then goes on to say the reason Jimmy got the beating he did was because of Jey.
Paul then says Jimmy will never forgive you, your father will never will forgive you, your mother will never forgive you, I love you and Jimmy and I will never forgive you, The Tribal Chief will never forgive you. Solo then asks for the microphone and says what happened to Jimmy that’s on you but I will never forgive you either.
Jey and Solo then began fighting. Jey then superkicks Solo out of the ring and Paul Heyman is left in the ring with Jey. As Jey inched toward Heyman, Solo recovered and attacked Jey again. But Jey counters the Samoan Spike and Solo rolls out of the ring again, Heyman comes back in the ring and gets a superkick from Jey. Jey then dives out on Solo.
A chair is now in the ring with Heyman down and Jey staring at Heyman, Jey picks up the chair, but Solo gets back in the ring and takes the chair shot intended for Heyman and Jey then hits Solo in the back again and Heyman and Solo retreat to the back. Jey stands with the chair raised in the air.
Austin Theory comes out next to watch the next match. The United States Invitational is next with a fatal four way.
Butch VS. Grayson Waller VS. A. J. Styles VS. Santos Escobar
As Styles goes for the Styles Clash, Karrion Kross is shown on the screen choking out Karl Anderson with Luke Gallows lying on the floor in the back. Waller knocked down Styles, rolled in, hit a move on Butch, but it was Escobar who jumped with a splash from the top onto Waller to get the win.
Winner: Santos Escobar
In the back Styles and Mia Yim are checking on Anderson and Gallows.
Out in the parking lot the Street Profits are waiting for someone, and a huge SUV style limo pulls up and Bobby Lashley gets out and says are you ready to talk and the Street Profits get in the limo with Lashley.
Rey Mysterio, Cameron Grimes and Sheamus all talked about the United States Invitational they are apart of.
LA Knight comes out and talks about being everywhere these days. He then tells Austin Theory he is coming for the United States Championship. When he faces Rey Mysterio, Cameron Grimes and Sheamus in the next fatal four-way match next week.
Asuka VS. Bianca Belair for the WWE World Women’s Championship
As the match was getting ready to start, we are shown Bayley and Iyo Sky with Bayley holding a ticket up in the air and heading to ringside.
While both Belair and Asuka are down in the ring, we are shown Charlotte Flair also coming to the ringside through the crowd holding a ticket in hand.
Belair gives Asuka a KOD onto the announce table. Bayley, Iyo and Charlotte all jump the barricade, Bayley gets a boot from Charlotte, Iyo runs Charlotte into the corner post and holds her Money in the Bank briefcase in the air. Charlotte recovers and goes for a spear on Iyo but Iyo moves and Charlotte spears Belair instead causing the disqualification. Iyo then hits Charlotte with the briefcase. Bayley recovers and they then look at Asuka and they roll Asuka into the ring.
Bayley screams at the referee that Iyo is cashing in the briefcase, but Asuka jumps to her feet and blows mist in the face and grabs her title and runs out of the ring.
AEW bans several moves and actions in new directive to its wrestlers
After nearly four years of wrestling without any enforcement which led to dangerous moves and excessive blood, AEW has finally put a stop to all the madness with new directives, banning several moves.
First reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select and PWInsider, the directive prohibits wrestlers from performing a number of moves “under any circumstances” due to their safety, the safety of the fans, crew, and other staff. The memo issued to everyone says that those who violate any of the rules will be fined.
Moves which are banned include unprotected shots to the head; shots to the back of the head; buckle bombs or blind moves backward into the turnbuckle; fencing response or seizure sells; spitting; blood in the crowd which includes no bleeding while in the crowd, no throwing bloody gear, tape, or other objects in the crowd; weapons or projectiles in the crowd; taking drinks or food from fans in the crowd; and physical contact with the crowd.
The company also listed several moves that have to be approved by the medical team and producers before performed.
These moves include spots and bumps on the ring apron and outside; table, ladder, and chair spots in and out of the ring; any elevated spots outside of the barricades; all piledriver/tombstone variations; high-risk dives or top rope moves including 450, 630, double moonsaults, shooting star press; intentional bleeding; throwing people into/through/over ring steps, commentary table, bell table, or guardrails/barricades; usage of chairs, pipes, kendo sticks, hammers, ring bells, bats, chains, title belts, thumbtacks, skewers, barbed wire, and other sharp/puncturing objects, powders, sprays, or liquids; throwing any weapons or objects; choking/strangling with hands or a weapon or hanging spots; injury spots or angles, whether or not medical is involved or called to the ring; any physicality in the crowd or crowd brawling; any physicality involving referees, managers, extras, celebrities, or special guests.
Dark Side of the Ring S4 E6 rating
The Dark Side of the Ring episode on Adrian Adonis, which is episode six of the fourth season, drew 152,000 viewers, down 77,000 viewers from the previous episode on Junkyard Dog. The show drew a 0.04 rating in 18-49, down 0.02 from the last episode. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
Undertaker going on tour with 1deadMAN SHOW in six cities
The Undertaker is going on tour with his 1 deadMAN SHOW with stops in Louisville, St. Louis, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in the coming months.
The tour will start on Thursday, August 24 at The Kentucky Center-Bomhard Theatre in Louisville. The next day on Friday, August 25 the show moves to St. Louis at The Pageant and then wraps up the weekend with a show at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City on Saturday, August 26.
The tour resumes in November, with a show on Thursday, November 9 at the Murat Egyptian Room at the Old National Centre in Indianapolis. On Friday, November 10 it’s off to Cleveland at The Agora, and then on Saturday, November 11 it’s the final show at the Byham Theater in Pittsburgh.
Tickets for the 1 deadMAN SHOW tour will be available Friday, July 21 at 10AM local time. Pre-sale opportunities will be available beginning Thursday, July 20 at 10AM local time. A limited number of VIP tickets, which includes premier seating and a meet-and-greet with The Undertaker, will also be available for each show.
Tournament to determine Samoa Joe’s opponent for ROH TV title
Samoa Joe’s ROH Television title will be up for grabs at the Death Before Dishonor show next weekend but his challenger will be decided next week following a mini tournament which started on last night’s ROH TV.
The four-person tournament saw Dalton Castle defeating Tony Nese in the first semi final and then Shane Taylor defeating Shawn Dean in the second semi final. Castle and Taylor meet one-on-one next week to see who will take on Joe the next day on Friday live on pay-per-view.
Both Castle and Taylor held the ROH TV title previously.
ROH Death Before Dishonor takes place at the CURE Insurance Arena in Trenton, New Jersey.
Dynamite rating for 07/12/2023
This week’s Dynamite drew 825,000 viewers, down 30,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show was hyped for the reveal of the final two members of the Blood & Guts match. Dynamite drew a 0.29 rating in the 18-49 demo, the same as last week. No cable rankings are available. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
Jushin “Thunder” Liger to appear on Collision tomorrow
Jushin “Thunder” Liger has posted on Twitter that he’s on the way to Calgary, Canada to be a guest of AEW at tomorrow’s Collision for the Owen Hart Cup tournament final.
Liger posted a photo from his gate at Tokyo International Airport where he was about to board a United Airlines flight to San Francisco, with another connecting flight to Calgary.
The former NJPW star shares a history with Owen Hart, having competed for Stampede Wrestling in the late 80s and the two wrestled each other multiple times in Japan.
Liger was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 Class at a ceremony held a year later due to the pandemic.
Mark Briscoe injured, out of the Death Before Dishonor ROH pay-per-view
The number one contender for the ROH World title, Mark Briscoe, has been taken off from his upcoming match against Claudio Castagnoli at Death Before Dishonor next week due to an injury.
Briscoe reportedly suffered a knee injury and will be out of action for months, leaving the ROH pay-per-view without a main event for now.
AEW President Tony Khan said that they will address the situation and a new title challenger next week following the Blood & Guts Dynamite. Khan wished Briscoe the best in his injury recovery.
Castagnoli will also be part of the Blood & Guts match on Wednesday so it will be a busy week for the ROH champion.
Report: Warner Bros. Discovery wants more AEW pay-per-views
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Wrestling is reporting through his Select service that Warner Bros. Discovery is proposing that AEW expands its pay-per-view offering to one a month rather than the just five they run every year.
Currently AEW has Revolution in March, Double or Nothing in May, Forbidden Door in June, All Out in September, and Full Gear in November.
This year, AEW will also present All In, although at this point it’s not known yet if this will be a pay-per-view or a TV or streaming special.
Sapp adds that there has been nothing finalized as of yet as talks remain ongoing between the two companies over a new television deal.
AEW’s current TV deal with WBD expires at the end of the year but WBD has an option year they can trigger.
Lynch, Rollins, Belair, and Ford at the 2023 ESPY Awards
Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, Bianca Belair, and Montez Ford were at the 2023 ESPY Awards last night which were held at The Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
The two WWE couples walked the red carpet, with Lynch and Rollins having some outlandish attires while Belair and Ford opting for the more traditional type.
Former Smackdown color commentator Pat McAfee was also in the house and took the stage at one point to put over the women athletes.
“I look around this theater and is packed to gills with badass women in here,” McAfee said. “Tonight there are champions. Bianca Belair from the WWE is here. Becky Lynch is here from the WWE,” McAfee said.
There's A LOT of BAD ASS women in here pic.twitter.com/6UgSnuV0kM
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 13, 2023
NXT rating for 07/11/2023
NXT this week drew 671,000 viewers, fueled by an appearance by The Judgment Day, up 163,000 viewers from the July 4 episode. This was the third most-watched NXT of 2023 so far. The show drew a 0.20 rating in 18-49, up 0.07 from last week. (Ratings credit: Wrestlenomics)
PAC and Kota Ibushi to enter Blood & Guts
The final two members of the Blood & Guts match were revealed last night on Dynamite.
PAC was the first one to be unveiled as Blackpool Combat Club’s fifth and final member, joining Jon Moxley, Konosuke Takeshita, Claudio Castagnoli, and Wheeler Yuta. PAC, who has not wrestled for AEW since January of this year, joined the BCC in the attack of Kenny Omega.
PAC was part of the Death Triangle when they lost the AEW World Trios titles to none other than The Elite in a best of seven series.
As Omega was trapped with a chair around his neck and PAC ready to pounce from the top rope, the arena went black and a video introduced Kota Ibushi to a big pop from the crowd. When the lights came back up, Hangman Page and The Young Bucks were in the ring and attacked the BCC.
This will be Ibushi’s AEW debut and his first match since March. The Japanese star shares a long history with Kenny Omega, with the two known as The Golden Lovers in Japan.
All Out 2023 pay-per-view tickets on pre-sale now
The pre-sale for AEW’s All Out pay-per-view at the United Center in Chicago went on pre-sale this morning on Ticketmaster.com using the codes JBVDW2 or RLTPBC.
Collision is also being held at the United Center on the eve of All Out and tickets for that show will be available this morning. There will be separate tickets for Collision, All Out, or else a combo ticket for both Collision and All Out.
Tickets, at least for All Out, are expected to be hot and a quick sell out is being eyed. Chicago is typically a good territory for AEW and the city has always showed up for the company.
The public on sale for both Collision and All Out starts Friday, July 14 at 10AM CT.