Three matches and a huge announcement are set for tonight’s episode of NXT on USA Network as WWE tries to regain some ground it lost last week.
The show will be headlined by Karrion Kross taking on Dominik Dijakovic with the two other matches revealed so far include Shotzi Blackheart versus Aliyah and Dexter Lumis versus Killian Dain.
NXT General Manager William Regal will also make an appearance for a supposedly huge announcement.
For the first time in three weeks, Dynamite will not feature a particular theme after two episodes of Fyter Fest and a hugely successful Fight For The Fallen.
Four matches have been announced so far including Chris Jericho and Jake Hager vs Luchasaurus and Jungle Boy, Hangman Page vs The Dark Order’s Five, a falls count anywhere match between The Young Bucks and Butcher and The Blade, Ivelisse vs Diamante, and Cody vs a mystery opponent for the TNT title.
Jon Moxley hinted yesterday that there is a surprise for the “hardcore fans” who follow the worldwide indie wrestling scene and this is apparently Cody’s opponent in the TNT title match.
The Chris Jericho Rock N’ Rager at Sea: Triple Whammy cruise has been postponed from February 2021 to October 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The new dates will now be October 21 to October 25 sailing from Miami, Florida to Grand Bahama Island onboard the Norwegian Jewel ship.
Guests who have already booked their cruise will receive an email on how to proceed with the option to retain the same room for the October 2021 cruise, receive a future cruise credit, or submit a request for a full refund. Those who will choose the option to keep their reservation for October will receive a photo with Chris Jericho along with their cabin mates plus an exclusive Pro Wrestling Tees shirt on board.
Booked guests have until August 5, 2020 to submit their initial selection, but can make or change their selection any time before October 15, 2020. Refund requests made by August 5, 2020 will be processed and received within 45 days of the August 5 deadline. Refund requests made after August 5, 2020 will be processed in November.
In a story on the New York Times, Nikki and Brie Bella discussed how they were still able to film for their show Total Bellas while pregnant and during a pandemic.
The new season of Total Bellas, which premieres later this year on E!, will cover the twins giving birth.
Nikki and Brie said that they live right next to each other in Arizona and there’s “zero property line” between their homes, with the two roaming freely between the two properties. Brie described it as a “mini compound” and like this, they never feel alone.
Describing her mornings, Nikki said, “I literally just walk over, the majority of the time in my robe and slippers, just walk into Brie’s,” she said. “If she’s cooking food, I guess I have the expectation that there’s some for me.”
Having to properties adjacent to each other helped with the filming, with a skeleton film crew living nearby in Airbnb rentals.
Producers and camera crew are required to wear a mask while in the presence of the twins and they have their temperatures checked multiple times a day and maintain proper social distance from behind the camera.
The majority of the filming wrapped up earlier this month but two crew members remained there in anticipation of the twins giving birth.
The NYT remarked that E! cameras will be banned from the delivery room and any footage that will eventually end up on Total Bellas from there will be taken by the twins’ respective partners.
EC3 showed up on Impact Wrestling last night as promised and took out the self-proclaimed TNA World champion Moose during the broadcast.
Moose had just got a victory over Fallah Bahh and while he was posing with the title, EC3 entered the ring, removed his hoodie and then dropped Moose.
“That’s EC3! What is he doing? He doesn’t even work here,” Josh Mathews screamed on commentary. “We knew he was going to show up tonight,” Mathews continued, seemingly contradicting himself in the space of five seconds.
EC3 did not cut any promos and left the ring just as quickly as he arrived, leaving Moose staring at the lights.
.@therealec3 JUST ATTACKED @TheMooseNation! #IMPACTonAXSTV pic.twitter.com/SV2GaUWjGr
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 22, 2020
In what could be a sign of what’s going to happen for WrestleMania, the Los Angeles Rams announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the brand new SoFi Stadium will be will be at limited or no capacity in 2020 and season tickets will not be possible for this year.
Previously, the mayor of Los Angeles declared that sports with full stadiums are not on the list for around a year which might force WWE to move WrestleMania to a different location for the second year in a row.
The coronavirus pandemic has spread havoc around the world, leaving many sports either canceled or back with no fans. You can read more about canceled or postponed events.
This year’s Mania was supposed to be held at the Raymond James Stadium, the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but eventually the show was moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
“In hopes of having fans at the opener, the Rams ask that fans please join them in wearing a mask to help stop the spread of COVID-19,” a statement from the Rams read. The first NFL game at the SoFi Stadium is scheduled for Sunday, September 13 with the Rams taking on the Cowboys.
The SoFi Stadium had its own fair share of delays with some workers testing positive for COVID-19 but a few weeks ago it was reported that the massive stadium is at 97% completion.
Brian Myers, the man formerly known as Curt Hawkins in WWE, showed up during Impact Wrestling on AXS TV yesterday, becoming the latest former WWE Superstar to move to Impact.
His arrival came in the form of a 15-second vignette and Impact wrote in a tweet, “Did you think we were done?”
Myers was one of the many who got chopped by WWE in April after the company took drastic measures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
He worked for WWE between 2006 and 2014 and then again between 2016 and 2020. In 2015, he wrestled for TNA as part of the Global Force Wrestling invasion and had a few matches on Impact as well as on pay-per-view. He and Trevor Lee even won the TNA World Tag Team titles but lost them quickly back to The Wolves.
The 35-year-old now joins Eric Young, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, and EC III at Impact Wrestling as the promotion looks to continue beefing up its roster.
Did you think we were done at #Slammiversary? #IMPACTonAXSTV @Myers_Wrestling pic.twitter.com/aMrCC64mNK
— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) July 22, 2020
Not even a pay-per-view bump and an unsanctioned match managed to attract an audience for Raw as this week’s episode was the second least-watched episode in history, trailing only last week’s episode.
The show did an average of 1,628,000 viewers, up only 67,000 viewers from last week’s record-breaking episode.
Hour one started with 1,740,000 viewers, then dropped to 1,609,000 viewers in the second hour, before finishing off the night with just 1,535,000 viewers in the third hour.
Raw was #3, #6, and #7 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and was #21 in overall viewership for the night on cable. Things will get ugly from next week as sports returns on television and that usually takes another chunk of the audience which if it does, will reach new scarier numbers for WWE during this pandemic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Impact Wrestling issued a press release announcing the successful social media impact that Slammiversary had on Saturday night, trending number one in the United States on Twitter during and after the show.
“Impact Wrestling captured the world’s attention on Saturday night,” said Impact Wrestling Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore. “Slammiversary 2020 was the result of two-and-a-half years of hard work by our incredible team and talented roster, along with new additions who have decided to bet on Impact.”
On Twitter, Slammiversary 2020 smashed Impact’s record for single-day total impressions (Slammiversary 2018), nearly doubling the previous record by 97 percent. Leading the day was the exclusive midnight video announcement of The Good Brothers, which quickly became Impact’s best performing tweet of all time, while tweets showcasing Motor City Machine Gun’s return and Purrazzo’s title win now rank as their fifth and sixth best, respectively.
Instagram engagement for Slammiversary 2020 saw a 172 percent increase in single-day total likes compared the previous record (Hard To Kill 2020), as video posts about Eric Young’s return and Heath Miller’s debut grew into Impact’s top two most-liked posts ever.
During the month leading up to Slammiversary 2020, Impact’s YouTube Channel saw its total views rise by 26.5% and total watch time grow by 32 percent. The channel, which already ranks as the No. 2 most-subscribed wrestling account on the platform, added over 100 thousand new subscribers, marking a 20% rise in monthly subscriber rate.
Speaking on The Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN, AEW World champ Jon Moxley has hinted that there will be a “big surprise” tomorrow on Dynamite, a surprise geared more towards the “hardcore fans” who follow wrestling from all corners of the globe.
“This Wednesday night is going to be an awesome show. I’m not going to spoil it,” Moxley told Le Batard. “I will tell you, I will give you this information…tomorrow night on Dynamite there will be a big surprise and one that made me exceedingly happy.”
Moxley called this “absolute kick-ass match” which is part of the surprise “an absolute treat to watch” even for the more casual fans or first-time viewers.
Tomorrow’s Dynamite was taped last week.
Video game company Wargaming is teaming up with WWE to offer WWE-themed tanks for their new update to World of Tanks Console. The tanks will feature the likeness of WWE Superstars and Legends and the first set will launch with Season 1 of World of Tanks Console, titled SummerSlam.
The WWE inclusion will be part of World of Tanks Console Update 5.0 and the first set starts with the launch of five new Superstar Collector Tanks featuring the likes of Undertaker, Becky Lynch, Andre the Giant, Sgt. Slaughter, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. In August, more tanks featuring the likes of Ric Flair, Roman Reigns, Rowdy Roddy Piper, Macho Man Randy Savage, and Shawn Michaels as well as new garages featuring SummerSlam will be introduced.
This partnership with WWE and Wargaming’s World of Tanks is to promote the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view.
The question of who is the Raw Women’s champion will be solved on next week’s episode of Monday Night Raw as Asuka and Sasha Banks will go one-on-one for the red brand’s title.
Last night on Raw, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon appeared on the show via video and said that Sasha didn’t win the match at Extreme Rules…but neither did Asuka.
To settle the score once and for all, the title match next week will have the stipulation that the title can change hands even if there’s a count-out or disqualification.
McMahon’s announcement made it sound like the Raw Women’s title is vacant again although Asuka is still listed as the champion on WWE.COM.
Sasha is chasing her eighth title in WWE which so far includes winning the NXT Women’s title, four times the Raw Women’s title, and twice the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles. Even though she won the Raw Women’s title on four other occasions, her record with the title is not really good and has only kept it for a combined 82 days over her four different reigns. It will be interesting to see what happens if Sasha wins it again and what the odds are that she has a longer title reign this time around with a good choice of bets surely to come from different bookmakers. In fact, out of the eight different title holders of the Raw Women’s title, Sasha is sixth in terms of overall combined days, beating only Bayley and Nia Jax, both of whom have one title reign each.
Her four title reigns came by beating Charlotte three times and Alexa Bliss once. Banks’ first reign was in July 2016 when she beat Charlotte in Pittsburgh during an episode of Raw. That title reign was only 27 days. She then lost it to Charlotte at SummerSlam but won it back in October 2016 on an episode of Raw from Los Angeles, another reign that lasted 27 days. Losing it to Charlotte again at Hell In A Cell, Banks regained it in November 2016 during an episode of Raw from Charlotte in a falls count anywhere match. Her third reign ended after 20 days, losing it to Charlotte again at Roadblock in December 2016. Her final title reign came in August 2017 when she beat Alexa Bliss but she had the shortest reign with just eight days, losing it to Bliss again on Raw in Memphis.
WWE will be making another big announcement on tomorrow’s episode of NXT.
A commercial which aired during Raw said that NXT General Manager William Regal will be appearing on the show to make this announcement. No other information was released.
The last time WWE used this tactic was to announce the NXT Takeover: In Your House WWE Network event.
Usually when WWE plugs “huge announcements” for their television broadcasts, they always fall short of expectations, with the term largely used to announce, well, nothing major.
Wrestling is a sport that pertains primarily to combat. This involves various types of grappling techniques including pins, joint locks, takedowns, throws, and clinch fighting. Other variants like Sombo, Judo, Greco-Roman, Freestyles and Folkstyle are considered theatrical and are purely for entertainment.
Generally, wrestling is all about physical competition. Unlike group sports, this only involves two participants serving as competitors or sparring partners. A continuous event, matches are held when a challenger attempts to snatch a level to gain a superior position; the titleholder must then compete to maintain his position.
There’s a huge range of styles and scores used in wrestling. As such, below are snippets to guide those who are planning on committing in such sport.
The fundamentals
The success in wrestling is a result that comes directly from the expertise of the participants in the sport’s fundamentals. Once, the players can master such aspects, they will then be able to build on them and expand their wrestling repertoire. In particular, most fundamentals used are stance, level changes, neutral position, takedown, escape, reversal, breakdown, and finish.
The score
The main objective of any wrestling match is to beat down the opponent. Specifically, the match will end once a player was able to pin his opponent. However, just like in boxing, the scores differ depending on the execution of the moves in the match.
To be specific, a pin will be an automatic victory, a takedown will take 2 points, an escape is 1 point, a reversal is 2 points, a near fall is 2 points, an illegal hold is a -1 point, unsportsmanlike conduct is -1 point, an unnecessary roughness is -1 point, and a stalling is -1 point after receiving a warning.
However, such scores do not apply to game sites like IDN Poker because only the pin or the win will matter.
The mentality
To win any wrestling event, the physicality and mentality should work hand in hand. Since the journey is no easy path, people must find their inspiration, continue a positive attitude, have strength in fundamentals, develop a style, develop a desire in competition, and have mental toughness. Although these seem a lot, people will be able to succeed once they have fully committed and continue achieving.
This same mentality can also be applied when betting in sites like IDN Poker. Since participants will be handling a huge amount of stress and pressure, it is better to stay in balance and keep having sanity in check.
Ali made his long-awaited return to WWE television last night on Monday Night Raw after seven months out.
This marks his first time on television in 2020 and yesterday, he was announced as the mystery partner of Ricochet and Cedric Alexander in their match against MVP, Bobby Lashley, and Shelton Benjamin.
There was big speculation that Ali would be revealed as the Smackdown hacker but that angle has gone absolutely nowhere for the past few months with WWE seemingly dropping it without ever mentioning it again.
Ric Flair’s wife, Wendy Barlow, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently isolating herself at home. The Nature Boy, who has been on WWE television regularly, has denied a story that he has tested positive too.
The story, carried out by the New York Post, said that Flair is also coronavirus positive and was photographed at a Georgia Starbucks drive-through Friday without a mask.
“That is absolutely incorrect,” Flair told The Post. “My wife does…we live in a 5,000 square foot home. I live in the basement. She lives upstairs on the third floor and she got sick.”
A source of the NY Post claimed that Barlow is very ill but Flair is “mostly asymptomatic aside from some coughing.”
The two-time WWE Hall of Famer did not appear on Monday Night Raw last night.
PWInsider.com is reporting that the Raw taping for tonight has been delayed and as of 2PM ET it had not started filming yet. Filming was set to commence at 1PM with WWE taping two episodes of Raw, two episodes of Main Event, and two episodes of Raw Talk.
The website also reveals that it’s believed that the original plans for tonight’s show seem to have gone out of the window and there are several re-writes of the script ongoing. PWInsider says that the re-writes, according to their sources, is because some of the talent that were supposed to be part of the show are “no longer available to perform.”
Tonight’s broadcast was supposed to be headlined by Randy Orton vs Big Show in an unsanctioned match.
During his Saturday Night Special YouTube show, former AEW champion Chris Jericho revealed the original plan for his confrontation with Orange Cassidy on this past Wednesday’s Fight For The Fallen themed episode of Dynamite.
Jericho and his Inner Circle team confronted Orange Cassidy on the show, a week after Cassidy and The Demo God headlined night two of Fyter Fest. Cassidy didn’t do much last week, with first coming out with thumbs up…and then thumbs down, the signal to drop several gallons of orange juice on The Inner Circle in the middle of the ring.
But the original plan was similar to the one that Steve Austin and Kurt Angle did in WWE years ago, with Austin spraying beer and Angle spraying milk, both coming out with trucks.
“I originally wanted Orange to come into the venue in an orange juice truck, kind of like Kurt Angle did with the milk truck,” Jericho said. Citing limitations of the Daily’s Place, he added, “You can only get to a certain area and then you have to stop. You couldn’t get a whole orange juice truck, even if there’s such a thing. But I’m sure we could have made one, and he would have sprayed orange juice on us.”
Jericho said doing the OJ bath from the top, similar to what The Brood used to do in WWE with blood, was more logistically doable than the truck even though they were still somewhat skeptical because it required everyone be in the right spot.
Kayla Braxton, the WWE backstage interviewer and host of The Bump, uploaded a long statement on Twitter to address those people who have been bullying her and being nasty to her online due to her health issues, namely the two bouts with coronavirus.
Braxton said she wanted to set the record straight because “some of you have been super unkind” and said that she tested positive for COVID-19 in late March and quarantined for four weeks. She was then tested positive again a few months later despite taking necessary precautions and while she had no symptoms, she still got the virus again, which required to quarantine for another 14 days.
“Last night you all were tweeting super insensitive things regarding my health. A couple of you even said you thought I had died and maybe that woulda been for the best,” Braxton wrote. “Guys. This isn’t okay. When I said don’t be stupid like me I meant, don’t make the mistake of thinking you can’t test positive twice. I did everything I could. And this can happen to you.”
The 27-year-old then urged people to to stop online bullying, especially for something concerning health.
“It’s so gross and you should be embarrassed. Let’s all be better. This is a hard time for everyone and we’re all experiencing a state of the world we’ve never experienced before. Build each other up. Help people. Just be good to people. And to all of you who hove lent your support, I’ve seen you. And thank you. We need more people like you,” Braxton wrote.
When we are talking about WWE the first country that comes to our mind with the abundance of wrestlers is the United States. It is not surprising, however, that European countries also tend to be popular. A lot of people in Europe are active viewers of wrestling.
Nordic countries cannot boast plenty of wrestlers, but one of them, Erick Rowan, who is technically American, has roots in Norway and is still loved in his native country. In this article, we will talk about his exotic and “weird” career.
At the very end of 2012, Erick Rowan, whose real name is Joseph Charles Ruud, (he has recently changed his name to Erick RedBeard) joined the Wyatt Family, in which he teamed up with Luke Harper. In January, they participated in the tournament for the first NXT Team championship where they reached the final but lost to Adrian Neville and Oliver Gray. However, a few months later, Rowan and Harper took revenge on the Britons, taking away their team championship at the NXT show in early May.
The end of May brought the Family a debut on RAW. On May 27, their debut gloomy promo was shown on the air of the red brand show.
For 6 weeks, video promos were shown on WWE broadcasts in which Eric began to appear in a sheep mask.
Meanwhile, on the NXT, the team managed to win several victories over the grouping of faces that included Corey Graves, Adrian Neville, and Kassius Ohno, but then still lost their titles to the Neville and Graves team on the show on June 20.
The Family debuted on RAW on July 8, 2013, when the Wyatt Family attacked Kane. Within a few weeks, they made several more attacks on the mid and low card wrestlers, which invariably culminated in Wyatt’s prowls facing Kane. The result of this short feud was a match at SummerSlam, where Bray defeated the opponent in the Ring of Fire gimmick match, after which Rowan and the Family took him backstage, and Kane disappeared from WWE stories for a long time.
We have mentioned at the beginning of the article, that even though Rowan is a US citizen for a long time, he never forgot his true origins and roots. If you look at him he is an obvious example of a Viking. And Norwegians adore vikings. His career and style sparked interest in Norway among youngsters to start watching the WWE. Supposedly, because of his influence, even the gambling industry was affected and best betting sites in Norway, known among local citizens as beste betting sider, decided to offer sponsorship opportunities to the American. You will agree that it is truly an incredible move from such a massive industry.
On Smackdown which aired on October 11, the team’s small winning streak was interrupted by a loss to Cody Rhodes and Goldust.
Afterward, Wyatt began a feud with Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, which led to the match at the PPV Survivor Series, in which Luke Harper and Eric Rowan lost to Punk and Brian. On December 2 RAW, Rowan lost the match to Daniel Bryan. On SmackDown on December 13, he lost to Daniel Bryan, but now in DC. At TLC, the Wyatt family as a whole defeated Daniel Bryan in a handicap match. On SmackDown on December 20, Eric Rowan and Luke Harper defeated the Rhodes Brothers. On RAW on December 30, he again lost the match to Daniel Brian.
Eric Rowan made the face turn by joining John Cena’s team at Survives Series. Cena’s team almost lost, until Sting intervened, who conducted a reverse DDT on Triple H and helped to win the match.
On January 5, a team from Ryback, Dolph Ziggler, and Erick Rowan defeated the boss’ team again. In Royal Battle 2015 Rowan came out at number 6 but was almost immediately knocked out by Curtis Axel. On January 22, at SmackDown, Bray Wyatt wanted to reunite the Wyatt Family. A week later, on January 31, he defeated Curtis Axel on Main Event and at Fastlane, he joined the team with Dolph Ziggler and Ryback against Seth Rollins, the Big Show and Kane in a team battle, but lost.
He also participated in the Andre Giant Memorial Battle in WrestleMania but was taken out.
In May 2015, he reunited with Luke Harper on the team when he attacked Fandango after his match with Harper, making a heel turn.
In 2017, Harper, along with his longtime teammate and rival Erick Rowan, made his debut in the new gimmick – The Bludgeon Brothers. At first, defeating only local wrestlers, Harper and Rowan gradually ascended to the top of the Blue Brand team division. At Fastlane 2018, Harper and Rowan intervened in the title fight between The New Day and the current team champions at the time, The Usos, beating all five participants in the confrontation, which obviously meant that The Bludgeon Brothers were seriously involved in the race for the belts. At WrestleMania 34, Harper and Rowan, without any particular problems, dealt with the New Day and The Usos in a three-way team match, taking away the championship belts from the latter.
On January 27, 2019 at the Royal Rumble, Rowan returned after an injury and attacked AJ Styles, which helped Daniel Bryan win and defend the title.
On May 7, 2019, at SmackDown, he fought in a team with Daniel Bryan against the Usos for the vacant SmackDown team titles, which the Hardy Boyz vacated a week earlier, due to Jeff’s injury. Brian and Rowan defeated the Usos and became SmackDown team champions. For Rowan, this was the second time with the title.
He also participated in the Norwegian reality show Alt for Norge, in which he took third place. In 2014, made his WWE 2K15 debut as a playable character.
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