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WWE to announce Q4 and full year 2019 financial results on February 6, 2020

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE will report its fourth quarter and full year 2019 results on Thursday, February 6, 2020 before the opening of the market.

Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and Co-Presidents, George A. Barrios and Michelle D. Wilson, will host a conference call beginning at 11AM ET to discuss the results. A live web cast will be hosted through the corporate web site at corporate.wwe.com/investors.

Last time around, Wall Street was not impressed at all with the numbers, driving the stocks down. WWE stocks are currently trading in the low 60s at the moment, down from the high 90s from last year.

Impact holding one night only TNA show during WrestleMania weekend

By
Colin Vassallo
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Impact Wrestling will be using the TNA name for one night only during WrestleMania week for a show part of WrestleCon.

The TNA show will be taking place on Friday, April 3 at The Ritz Ybor City in Tampa starting at 7PM ET. Tickets for this show will be on sale on Monday, January 20 at Noon ET. For those who are unable to attend the live event, it will also be broadcast on FITE TV for a fee.

The Friday night show will be going head-to-head with the live Smackdown and many other shows that will be held during that weekend.

The company used the TNA: Total Nonstop Action name from its inception in 2004 till March 2017.

XFL launches new rules

By
Daniel Street
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The relaunch of the XFL is now less than a month away, and the final details are becoming known. The latest of these has been the announcement of new rules that will differentiate the XFL from the dominant NFL.

Just like the original XFL in 2001, the 2020 season has been designed to make the game more exciting. While the original league innovated with new camera angles to help get fans closer to the action, the 2020 XFL will feature changes in the rules that address fan complaints of NFL games.

The XFL surveyed 6,000 football fans to understand what they liked and didn’t like about the game so that they could make football as exciting as possible.

The new rules, which were announced on January 7, are designed to speed up games and stop them from dragging on. At least initially, they will make the games more unpredictable as teams and players develop strategies to make the most of these new rules.

 Wagering on the XFL

 This unpredictability could make betting on the XFL more exciting due to the higher number of unknowns. Las Vegas-based bookmakers allowed fans to bet on the games of the original XFL back in 2001, so it is likely wagering will occur again in the relaunched league.

While it is not yet clear which sports bookmakers will accept wagers on the games, the fortuitous timing of legislation changes that have made online sports betting legal in parts of the US will likely mean fans will be able to place bets through their smartphones or computers.

What are the New Rules?

The newly announced rules are:

  • Double-forward pass: allowing a player to attempt a second forward pass after their first, provided that the ball has not crossed the line of scrimmage.
  • Points after a touchdown: after scoring a touchdown, teams will have three options to get extra points. These will be a one-point play from 2-yards out, two-points from 5-yards, or three-points from 10-yards.
  • Overtime: there will be five rounds of overtime, putting more pressure on players to succeed. The XFL hopes it will have a similar effect to a penalty shootout in soccer. The two teams will alternate between five single-play possessions, with the team that scores more points becoming the winner.
  • Timing: half-time will be cut to just 10 minutes and a 25-second play clock instead of 40 seconds in the NFL. These are so that games can be faster paced and more exciting for fans.

Other rules that have been announced have been designed to maximize the health & safety of players, without compromising on sporting excitement.

Only time will tell whether these new rules will be a success, but the XFL seems confident based on its research and rigorous “beta testing.” We’ll have to see how it works for ourselves when the league launches on 8th February.

NXT rating for 01/15/2020

By
Colin Vassallo
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NXT suffered another big defeat in the ratings this week, drawing 700,000 viewers, down 21,000 viewers from last week’s show. NXT had a 0.21 rating in the 18-49 demo and placed #31 in the top 50 cable chart. The rating was almost half of what AEW achieved in that category. The difference between the two shows was of 240,000 viewers, which is up from the 226,000 viewers difference they had last week. Apart from the January 1 taped show, this was one of the least watched episodes of NXT. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Dynamite rating for 01/15/2020

By
Colin Vassallo
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AEW enjoyed another big win in the ratings on Wednesday night as Dynamite did 940,000 viewers for the Bash at the Beach themed episode, down just 7,000 viewers from last week’s episode. Dynamite did 0.38 in the 18-49 demo and placed #5 in the top 50 cable chart. Dynamite beat NXT in every demo and came close of actually matching the over 50 rating as well, something that NXT usually wins by a good margin. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Kacy Catanzaro and Shayna Baszler return on NXT

By
Colin Vassallo
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Kacy Catanzaro and Shayna Baszler were the two surprise entrants during last night’s women’s battle royal on NXT.

Catanzaro has been away from NXT for quite a few months and in September it was reported that she has departed WWE. Her boyfriend, WWE Superstar Ricochet, dismissed the rumors and said that she’s still with the company. The 29-year-old New Jersey native who achieved fame during the American Ninja Warrior series, was also suffering from a back injury. Her last match was against Io Shirai in mid-July during an non-televised NXT live event.

Baszler also returned for the first time since losing the NXT Women’s title to Rhea Ripley on the December 18 episode of NXT on USA Network. The only two-time NXT Women’s champion took a few weeks off and was looking the favorite to win the battle royal but she was surprisingly eliminated by newcomer Shotzi Blackheart.

The battle royal was eventually won by Bianca Belair. Io Shirai was the other person in the final two. Belair will now take on either Ripley or Storm at the NXT Takeover: Portland event in February.

AEW Dark moving to TNT this year

By
Colin Vassallo
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Tony Maglio of TheWrap.com is reporting that AEW Dark will be moving to TNT this year. The news was confirmed by Turner President Kevin Reilly, who spoke exclusively to the website after his executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour.

AEW Dark currently airs on YouTube every Tuesday night and is taped after Dynamite and airs the following week. Reilly said that the show might be rebranded and renamed but will be a weekly series on TNT, although he admitted that it might not have 52 episodes per year.

“We’re going to embellish and put some additional material, kind of behind-the-scenes, kind of docu-follow stuff, if you will, about the athletes and the stories,” Reilly said. “We think that’s going to end up being a really good, robust, different kind of show.”

Reilly said that some portions of Dark might still make it on YouTube to “build that bridge” but the whole show will not be ending up there as it is right now.

WWE Backstage rating for 01/14/2020

By
Colin Vassallo
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This week’s episode of WWE Backstage with The Usos as special guests did just 84,000 viewers, down 40,000 viewers from last week’s show. Xavier Woods and Ember Moon were on the panel while former WWE creative writer Freddie Prinze Jr was on the promo class segment. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Number one contender for AEW World title to be decided next week

By
Colin Vassallo
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A number one contender for AEW’s World title will be decided next week on a cruise ship as Dynamite takes place during the Chris Jericho Rock’n’Wrestling Rager cruise.

Former WWE champion Jon Moxley, who overcame Sami Guevara last night on Dynamite, will be taking on Pac, who himself had to go through Darby Allin last night, with the winner going to face Chris Jericho at the upcoming AEW pay-per-view Revolution, taking place in February.

The Moxley vs Pac encounter will be a rematch from October with the two going to a time-limit draw the first time around on Dynamite.

Major news outlets cover the death of Rocky Johnson

By
Colin Vassallo
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The death of Rocky Johnson made headlines around the world, with major news outlets covering the story.

The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, Toronto Star, The Guardian, Sky News, The Sun, TGCom, Spiegel, CBC, The New Zealand Herald, TMZ, Yahoo! News, Daily Mirror and tons of other stations, newspapers, and online outlets all carried the story.

WWE.COM posted a story about the death of Johnson along with some photos and videos from his career. Several within the wrestling community such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Booker T, Mick Foley, William Regal, Triple H, Natalya, Jim Ross, Matt Hardy, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, Vince McMahon and many others tweeted their condolences to the family and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The NWA Twitter account also posted a tribute to Johnson.

NXT started the night with a tribute graphic for Johnson and a wider tribute is also expected on Smackdown and Raw.

The Rock has yet to publicly address the loss of his father.

Semi-final matches for the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic set

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament semi-final matches will take place next week on NXT with two NXT teams and two NXT UK teams remaining.

Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish of The Undisputed Era will take on The Grizzled Young Veterans team of Zack Gibson and James Drake while the second match will pit Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne taking on Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner of Imperium.

Yesterday, Riddle and Dunne beat Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster and Gibson and Drake beat Shelley and Kushida to advance to the tournament.

No date has been revealed for the final.

Worlds Collide card continues to take shape with more announced

By
Colin Vassallo
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The Worlds Collide special continued to take shape with a couple of more matches added to the card.

As previously reported, the NXT Cruiserweight title will be on the line in a fatal four-way match with champ Angel Garza defending against Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and two from NXT UK. Qualifying matches to determine who will be the other two entrants will take place on next week’s NXT UK featuring Jordan Devlin vs Liger and Travis Banks vs Brian Kendrick.

Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano will be teaming up again to reform DIY for one night as they take on Moustache Mountain, the team of Trent Seven and Tyler Bate.

The other matches announced so far are Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov, Rhea Ripley vs Toni Storm for the NXT Women’s title, and an eight-man tag team match featuring The Undisputed Era vs Emporium.

Worlds Collide takes place on January 25 from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on the eve of the Royal Rumble.

Taz officially joins the AEW broadcast team with new deal

By
Colin Vassallo
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Former Smackdown and Impact commentator Taz has joined the AEW broadcast team, officially signing a multi-year deal.

The contract was signed yesterday in Miami at the Bash at the Beach themed episode of Dynamite in the presence of Cody Rhodes and Chris Harrington, AEW’s Vice President of Business Strategy.

“Well, looks like I’ve joined a revolution…again,” Taz said after signing his new deal.

Taz made his first AEW appearance back in October when the company worked Philadelphia and the former ECW champion was brought in to do commentary for the AEW Dark episode. He also did commentary for the January 1 episode of Dynamite from Jacksonville.

On Twitter, Taz said that he’s beyond proud to be on the awesome team of driven and talented people at AEW. He also said that the Taz Show will be “on hold for quite some time” and thanked his fans for supporting him.

Rocky Johnson passes away at age 75

By
Colin Vassallo
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Rocky Johnson, the father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, passed away last night in Lutz, Florida at the age of 75.

Johnson began his wrestling career in 1965 and wrestled mostly for the National Wrestling Alliance during his career. In 1982, he jumped to the World Wrestling Federation where he feuded with the likes of Adrian Adonis, Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, and others. He then started tag teaming with Tony Atlas, winning the Tag Team titles once from the Wild Samoans in 1983. Johnson wrestled for WWE till 1985.

After his retirement in 1991, Johnson started training his son and took a trainer role with WWE at Ohio Valley Wrestling but that assignment did not last long and was removed a few months later.

In 2008, WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame with Dwayne Johnson doing the honors for his father. Last year he published his autobiography Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story, with his son writing the foreword.

Rocky was married to Una but divorced in 1978 and married his second wife Ata just a few days later. Ata was the daughter of High Chief Peter Maivia and the mother of Dwayne. He divorced from his second wife in 2003 and later married speech pathologist Sheila to who he was married to until his death.

Cauliflower Alley Club’s Brian Blair noted that Johnson had been ill over the last couple of weeks but did not specify what he had. No cause of death has been released.

Madison Square Garden advertising DX reunion for WWE’s return on March 22

By
Colin Vassallo
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Madison Square Garden is advertising a DX reunion for WWE’s return to the arena on March 22. This will be the first time that Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, and X-Pac have appeared together at the world’s most famous arena in over a decade.

The show, set for a 3PM start time, has two matches announced so far including Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and The Big Show vs Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain, and Becky Lynch vs Asuka for the Raw Women’s title. This will be a Raw branded show.

VIP Experience packages including ringside seats and meet and greets are available now, with the pre-sale ending on Thursday, January 16 at 11:59PM ET. Use code WWEMSG at Ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets.

AEW deal with TNT worth $175 million over four years

By
Colin Vassallo
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Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that WarnerMedia is paying AEW approximately $45 million per year for the new four-year television deal that will keep Dynamite on TNT through 2023.

The deal is worth $175 million in total and WarnerMedia has the option to extend in 2024 for more money if they want to eventually keep the show. Meltzer said that this deal will make AEW profitable in 2020 and beyond.

As part of the extended deal, AEW will get another hour on television sometime this year although no date has been announced yet. The third hour is likely to be also taped on Wednesdays, making it a long day of television considering AEW also tapes Dark for YouTube after Dynamite wraps up filming.

Triple H publicly apologizes to Paige after “terrible joke” sparks controversy

By
Colin Vassallo
-

Triple H, WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, has publicly apologized to Paige for a “terrible joke” he made last week while speaking to the media prior to the NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II event.

Triple H was asked about the rumors of Edge and Paige returning to the ring and he said that he would like for them to live a healthy life rather that come back and something happens again, adding that Edge has kids and Paige “probably has some she doesn’t know of.”

The joke didn’t go down well with the former NXT and Divas champion who in the past revealed she cannot have kids. Today, Triple H issued a public apology on Twitter, writing, “I’ve reached out to @RealPaigeWWE to apologize. I made a terrible joke and I’m sorry if it offended her or anyone else.”

Speaking to Sportskeeda, Paige said she was surprised by what Triple H said and she was confused why he would make such a joke.

“Obviously I was a little bit perplexed…a little bit taken aback because he’s someone that I truly look up to and he’s always been very respectful, so I feel like he got caught up maybe in a joke that I just don’t think was appropriate to joke about,” Paige said. “I don’t know…I feel like it’s something that I don’t need to continually keep talking about because I feel like people have done a pretty good job of that.”

Paige confirmed that Triple H did reach out to her and that they’re going to be talking about some things moving forward.

Nikki Bella also addressed the bad taste joke on her Twitter, saying that “change in a company starts from the top” and their leaders help set the example. “For us women we need all the help we can get. Help with respect from our co workers and fans. We are all one.”

Renee Young also jumped to Paige’s defense who said that Paige has been to hell and back “but still some people wanna make jokes.” Young then called for real change.

Four matches set for NXT tonight plus fallout from The Undisputed Era attack at NXT UK

By
Colin Vassallo
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Four matches have been announced for tonight’s NXT on USA Network. Fresh off a sizable ratings defeat last week, NXT is looking to get back on track after two weeks of taped shows somewhat derailed the momentum.

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament matches tonight will feature Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne vs Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan while Kushida and Alex Shelley battle the Grizzled Young Veterans.

Lio Rush, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Tyler Breeze will be in a triple threat match with the winner advancing to Worlds Collide in the planned fatal 4-Way match for the NXT Cruiserweight title.

A battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women’s title will also take place while the WWE.COM preview also suggests the fallout from The Undisputed Era’s attack on Imperium at NXT UK Takeover.

WWE Superstars in transformational series Fight Like A Girl revealed

By
Colin Vassallo
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Quibi and WWE today announced the WWE Superstars participating in the transformational series Fight Like a Girl. Leading individual episodes of the upcoming series are WWE Superstars Sasha Banks, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Sonya Deville, Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax, Becky Lynch and Natalya.

In each episode of Fight Like a Girl, Stephanie McMahon pairs a WWE Superstar with a young woman struggling with a personal issue that has been holding her back. The WWE Superstars draw from their own life experiences to help their trainees overcome obstacles and become tougher, stronger and healthier versions of their former selves inside and out.

“This strong cast of Superstars are leaders and role models who each have personal stories of challenge, perseverance and triumph,” said Stephanie McMahon, WWE Chief Brand Officer. “We are thrilled to have them on board to help young women find both their inner and outer strength and overcome adversity in their lives.”

Shot at the world-famous WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, each episode features a stunning transformation and heart-pounding reveal as the women change their lives forever.

Produced by WWE Studios and Critical Content, the Executive Producers are Stephanie McMahon, Susan Levison and Ben Zierten for WWE Studios, and Tom Forman, Jenny Daly and Jon Beyer for Critical Content.

Elias signs new multi-year WWE deal

By
Colin Vassallo
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WWE Superstar Elias has signed a new multi-year deal with WWE. The news was reported yesterday during WWE Backstage.

The 32-year-old has been working for WWE since 2014, first appearing in NXT under the name of Elias Samson. In April 2017, he was moved to the main roster where was was filmed multiple times walking through the crowd with his guitar during matches and playing the guitar in the background during different backstage segments. In July of that year, WWE dropped the Samson part from his name and he has been known as just Elias ever since.

The Pittsburgh native has been wrestling professionally since 2008 and worked for various independent promotions before signing with WWE.

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