Tegan Nox, the artist formerly known as Nixon Newell on the independent scene, returned to the ring at a non-televised NXT live event yesterday in Orlando a year after breaking her leg at the 2018 Mae Young Classic tournament.
Nox suffered the injury when she went for a dive and landed badly in her quarter-final match against Rhea Ripley. When she tried to stand up, her leg basically gave out and the referee then stopped the match and declared her opponent the winner. Medical personnel attended to Nox, who was crying and in pain.
She completely tore her ACL and both meniscus, tore the MCL and LCL, suffered from bone contusions and a fractured her left tibia. Nox was also supposed to be part of the 2017 Mae Young Classic tournament but tore her ACL before the start of the tournament.
The 24-year-old from Wales signed a deal with WWE in April 2017 but serious injuries kept her away from the ring for most of these past two years.
Jimmy Uso will have to appear in court on August 15 after getting released on a $1,000 bond yesterday following his DUI arrest in Pensacola, Florida.
According to WEAR-TV, the former Tag Team champion was driving in excess of 100 miles per hour on Interstate 10 and was swerving from left to right. After a deputy stopped Uso, he noticed that he had slow and slurred speech and had trouble holding up his license along with bloodshot eyes.
The deputy put Uso in his car after repeated attempts to get him out of his car to drive to another location for a test, and while he agreed the first time, Jimmy became agitated afterward and was confused about the whole situation while barely able to stand on his feet. When he became uncooperative and trying to shove his phone into the police officer’s face, he was arrested and taken to booking.
In the report it was noted that the officer had to roll down the windows of the car because Jimmy reeked of alcohol.
PWInsider.com is reporting that WWE has hired Chris Resnick, the now former producer and editor of Ring of Honor.
Resnick was one of the main men in charge of the weekly ROH TV shows and pay-per-views, leaving a huge void for the already embattled company which has seen a big downturn in live events attendance. He is a three-time Emmy Award-winning video editor and filmmaker and had worked for Ring of Honor for the past eight years.
According to PWInsider, Resnick will join WWE in a new role working on WWE Network programming.
WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said he hired the two Executive Directors for Raw and Smackdown to allow him to “look at a longer-range story” and also spend more time on talent development.
Speaking to investors, McMahon said their appointment will also free him from “not get into the weeds” as much as he had to do in the past and considers the hiring a good thing both on short-term and long-term.
“Both of these individuals have extensive backgrounds in the business from various aspects and with the organizational aspects that they have and the depth of talent, executive talent we now attract is going to be really good for our business,” McMahon said.
When asked how much freedom both Bischoff and Heyman will have in their new full-time roles, McMahon said they’ll have “a lot of latitude” although he would still be doing supervision.
The new and visually-improved WWE Network began its worldwide roll-out yesterday with an interface similar that to Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming service providers and moving away from the out-dated design that has been in place since day one of the launch back in 2014.
The new design will also facilitate the introduction of the new multi-tier system and localization of programming that WWE Co-President George Barrios discussed about during the conference call with reporters on Thursday.
WWE is planning to have a free subscription tier where everyone can see certain content and then the regular paid tier and an additional premium tier. The premium tier will allow fans to watch events like the EVOLVE 10th anniversary show and similar events that WWE plans to carry on their Network.
“I think the cadence will be the free-tier first, which we’re really excited about, paid tier, premium tier, second, and then our first additional language we believe after that. I think you’ll start seeing things this year around that and probably all 3 gets done within the next 12 months or so depending on how the roll-out goes, but you begin to see those business this year,” Barrios said during the conference call.
In a wide-ranging interview with Marc Raimondi of ESPN, CM Punk talked about appearing at the upcoming Starrcast III event and the rumors of him showing up at the All Out pay-per-view from his home town of Chicago.
Punk said he got a text from Cody around a month ago and he didn’t know how to reply because if he replies, they were going to mention that they talked to him and if he doesn’t reply, well, it’s not nice either.
“I always think if somebody wants to do business with me, they can come talk to me. Texting offers isn’t really a way to do good business, at least,” Punk said.
When asked by Raimondi if AEW presented him an offer through a text message, Punk said that it was texted through three people and an offer came in through SMS.
“It was a just a general offer,” Punk said, when he was quizzed if it was about All Out. He said he “doubts” he will be involved in wrestling by the end of 2020, noting he’s still under contract to the UFC and is enjoying doing commentary for Cage Fury Fighting Championships.
Punk said if there’s an expectation for him by fans to be at All Out, it is certainly not his fault and his silence should mean something.
“They’re trying to read the tea leaves, but there’s nothing to read. I even feel like talking about it may feel like I’m putting some sort of negative slant on it, but I’m really not. The fact is I know they’ve teased me ad nauseam, and if anybody is gonna get mad it’s at me because I don’t show up. Well then, I don’t know what to tell you. That’s one of those things that’s none of my business,” Punk said.
During the conference call with reporters earlier today to discuss the latest financial results, WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon said that WWE programming will be moving towards the more edgier style but they will be remaining TV PG.
Vince said that the plan is not to go back to the Attitude Era type of “blood and guts” but will be pushing more the envelope while keeping their family-friendly rating.
McMahon mentioned that their “new competitor” will probably take the much more edgier approach and do blood and crazy stuff that they did 20 years ago but WWE will be staying away from that.
When also asked about All Elite Wrestling, McMahon said that competition is always good and it’s good for everyone. He said that he cannot see TNT agreeing to the much edgier stuff that AEW already did on their pay-per-view.
AEW President Tony Khan said in the post-Double or Nothing comments that while the company will do more hardcore stuff on PPVs and other events, they will tone it down for their weekly TNT shows.
Wall Street reacted somewhat positively – at least so far – to today’s WWE earnings results after profit that beat expectations but revenue that missed targets.
WWE stocks finished the day trading at $74.97, an increase of 9% over yesterday’s closing. Despite all this, WWE stock is down 20% over a three month period.
Overall revenue fell 4.5% with media revenue falling 3% and live events revenue down 7%. Live event attendance was down 2% and consumer products also down a whopping 13%. Despite all the negatives, WWE is still targeting a revenue of approximately $1 billion for the year 2019 which would be a record. A more in-depth look of their trading potential can be read on https://www.forex.academy. Many people are tuning in to learn how to trade these options properly.
Television ratings were not pretty either with Raw going down 14% and Smackdown 11% year-over-year.
Colby Covington is set to face off against Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC on ESPN 5 on August 3rd in Newark, New Jersey. There is a lot at stake for Colby in this fight, as he can get a ticket to a title fight against division king, Kamaru Usman, but he can also use this as an opportunity to take out the man who left his team a couple of years ago.
Betting Odds
Despite not fighting for over a year due to a sinus surgery, Covington is easily the betting favorite according to most bookies, coming in with odds of -250 on Betway, compared to +188 for Robbie Lawler. This might surprise some people, as Lawler is an all-time great fighter, but he is getting up there in age, so the younger and faster Covington is a clear favorite for most people including bookmakers. You can see all the UFC betting Canadaoffers to place a bet on the fight yourself.
Even though this is the main event, there are other fights going on that day that you should look at if you are looking to bet on UFC fights. Oezdemir and Latifi will face off with equal odds of winning at -115. Guida and Jim Miller will also fight, with the former being the favorite at -185 compared to +150. Another interesting fight could be Espinosa versus Schnell. In this all-American fight, Espinosa is the favorite with winning odds of -170, while Schnell comes in with +140.
Colby Covington
Colby “Chaos” Covington has never been one to shy away from trash talking his opponents. He didn’t back away from doing that leading up to this fight either, saying that he will leave Robbie Lawler in a pool of his own blood for leaving the American Top Team. However, he is a little contradicting in his statements this time around, as he has also stated that “there is no better fight to defend his title against than “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler”, who he also considers to be the last great champion of the division, besides himself of course.
Covington is known for his supreme confidence no matter who he faces, but from most of his statements, we can see that he has a lot of respect for Robbie Lawler and will make sure that he brings his A-game on August 3 if he wants to defeat him. And to be fair, if Colby Covington brings his A-game against anyone in the UFC, he has a very strong chance of winning.
Robbie Lawler
Lawler left American Top Teamafter the gym featured a photo of Tyron Woodley with his hands up after defeating “Ruthless” for the welterweight title. However, he has since moved past that and refused to reply to Colby after his comments, saying that he is “just talking” and that he is only focused on the fight, and not what anyone else says. He also praised Covington for his tremendous work ethic and ability in the octagon.
Lawler has held the welterweight title between December 2014 and July 2016, until he suffered a first-round knockout at the hands of Tyron Woodley, which as we mentioned, led to him leaving ATT. Since then, he has fought just three times, beating Donald Cerrone before losing to Dos Anjos and Ben Askren.
It is clear that both fighters have a lot of respect for each other, despite their somewhat rocky past. It will be a real pleasure to watch them go at it on August 3rd in Newark. It is also expected that members of the Trump family will be in attendance.
WWE Network ended Q2 2019 with an average of 1.69 million paid subscribers, a decrease of approximately 6% year-over-year.
For the third quarter 2019, the company projects average paid subscribers of approximately 1.53 million, representing a year-over-year decline of 8%. Given the actual and projected subscriber declines, WWE does not expect to achieve record number of subscribers for 2019.
The Network, along with traditional PPVs, contributed $51.8 million to this quarter, down from the $56.2 million it did last year. In a bid to boost subscribers, WWE offered a select number of former subscribers the ability to subscribe to the service for 3 months for just 99 cents.
During the quarter, WWE produced more than 90 hours of original network content, including live in-ring programs and talent documentaries.
The company is now rolling out the new version of the WWE Network with better features which should be available to all subscribers worldwide this week.
WWE today announced the Q2 2019 financial results ending June 30, 2019.
Revenues were $268.9 million as compared to $281.6 million in the prior year quarter due to lower Media, Live Events and Consumer Products business segments. Operating income was $17.1 million, down from $21.2 million in the prior year quarter. Adjusted OIBDA was $34.6 million, which exceeded the Company’s guidance.
“During the quarter, we made progress on key strategic initiatives,” stated Vince McMahon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We completed content distribution agreements in key international markets, prepared for the next phase of our WWE Network service, and achieved steady improvement in engagement metrics. As indicated previously, we remain excited about the future, particularly with our debut on Fox in October.”
George Barrios, Co-President, added “In the quarter, our earnings exceeded guidance, however we anticipate a portion of this to reverse and we continue to target full-year Adjusted OIBDA of at least $200 million. The guidance presupposes the staging of a second large scale international event and the completion of a media rights deal in the MENA region. As we optimize near-term results, we will continue to focus on content creation, localization and digitization, including the evolution of our direct-to-consumer network, to drive long-term growth.”
During the quarter, WWE announced new broadcast deals with BT Sport in the U.K., Fox Sports in Latin America and PP Sports in China, providing strong platforms for reaching WWE audiences.
A plastic surgeon who was sued by Bret “Hit Man” Hart is denying the allegations of negligence, filing a defense statement in the lawsuit brought forward by Hart.
The WWE Hall of Famer sued Dr. Justin Young in November 2017 after he alleged he lost the use of his right index finger and thumb after surgery and has severe and ongoing pain in his wrist and a decrease in range of motion.
Now, according to a story on CBC.CA, the surgeon is fighting back.
“Dr. Yeung denies any negligence on his part and states that the treatment provided to Hart was skillful, competent and careful and within the accepted standard of practice of plastic surgery in Calgary and elsewhere in Alberta,” reads the statement of defense.
“Dr. Yeung states, and the fact is, that Hart was at all times made aware of the nature and risks of the procedure performed by Dr. Yeung.”
Hart says he is unable to use his right hand to pick up and use objects, including pens and utensils, and is unable to properly dress himself without assistance.
The lawsuit by the “Hit Man” said that the surgeon advised him that surgery should repair his wrist by performing a partial fusion of the wrist bones and was told he would have no pain in his wrist and movement would be restored.
Hart underwent the knife in November 2015 and two months later he informed the doctor of the severe pain, saying that his complaints were ignored.
“Dr. Yeung ordered all appropriate investigations to address Hart’s post-operative concerns, including diagnostic imaging, urgent electrodiagnostic assessments, electrophysiologic evaluations and nerve conduction studies,” the legal team of the doctor wrote.
“Contrary to the allegations, Dr. Yeung made appropriate referrals to investigate all of Hart’s concerns, including to physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists, a neurosurgeon and a neurologist.”
Ever since rumors started swirling around in October of last year that Floyd Mayweather Jr was interested in a boxing match against Khabib Nurmagomedov after he defeated Conor McGregor to remain the UFC lightweight champion, fans have been wondering if something would actually come out of this. Thus far, nothing has happened, but it is believed that Floyd is heavily pushing for this fight to happen, and he is well known for getting what he wants.
Odds of Khabib Beating Mayweather
It should be no surprise that most bookies would heavily favor Mayweather if this fight was to happen. In fact, some bookies have already put out odds of winning, making Floyd the heavy favorite with odds of -2000, and Khabib the clear underdog with odds of around +900, which seems about right to us.
Many punters were blinded by the stardom of Conor McGregor, which led them to make outlandish bets that he can beat one of the greatest boxers of all time who is also undefeated. This time around, we expect them to be a little more conservative and realize that no matter how good a fighter is (and Khabib is certainly one of the best), you can’t expect him to be the best in all areas of fighting.
If this fight is ever scheduled, you can look to place a free bet with no deposit at freebets.uk. And don’t let Floyd’s age (41) fool you when placing your bet. He is the best defensive boxer of all time, meaning that he rarely gets hit, which allows him to prolong his career and perform at the highest level.
Floyd is “Desperate” to Fight Khabib?
Over the past weeks, reports have surfaced that Floyd is running low on money and he is essentially “begging” for a fight against Khabib, which will turn into millions of dollars for both of them. However, these are just rumors and you should take them with a grain of salt, as it is very unlikely that one of the richest men in sports (they don’t call him “Money” for no reason) would run out of cash less than two years after the fight that brought him millions of dollars.
Floyd’s statements from November seem to support our theory, as he said that he will only fight Khabib on his own terms, which means only in a boxing match. If Floyd was so desperate for money, wouldn’t he accept a fight in the octagon, where he would still earn an enormous amount, but will probably end up losing the fight?
Should Khabib Consider His Offer?
Even if a fight is set between Floyd and Khabib, it will probably be a little while before it actually happens, since Khabib is currently focused on defending his lightweight title against Dustin Poirier on September 7th. Even with a free schedule, the only reason why Khabib would consider a boxing match against Floyd is money, which is something that is not of the highest priority for a modest guy like Khabib, who can be seen fighting a bearin his hometown in Dagestan.
Khabib is a smart guy and I’m sure that he knows better than any of us that he will lose in a boxing match against Floyd. We are sure that even Conor realized this, but the amount of money he would earn from it was too much to pass on.
When it comes to a boxing match, we are relatively sure that Khabib will not heavily consider that, but if he is able to negotiate a fight in the octagon against Floyd, that’s a whole different story.
When it’s all said and done, it seems that a fight between the two seems relatively unlikely at this point.
Ahead of today’s earning report, seven of the top WWE executives sold thousands of shares according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The transactions were effected on July 22 and 23.
WWE is set to report another year-over-year decrease in revenue and last time it happened, WWE stocks went down from $99 to $82 overnight for the biggest drop in the company’s history. Yesterday, stocks finished the day trading at $68.50.
Vince McMahon sold 12,627 shares at $70.23, for a return of $886,794. Vince has the majority of shares of the company and remains in total control of voting shares.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque sold 17,563 shares at $70.23 each for a payout of $1,233,449. He remains in possession of 163,901 shares.
Stephanie McMahon sold 17,681 shares at $70.23 each for a payout of $1,241,736. Stephanie has 164,211 remaining WWE shares.
WWE Co-President Michelle Wilson sold 65,318 shares at $70.23 and took home $4,587,283. Wilson has 199,642 remains WWE shares.
WWE Co-President George Barrios had three transactions. 64,497 shares were sold at $70.23, 63,758 at $69.98, and 10,920 at $70.54. At the end of the day, Barrios walked out with $9,761,705. He remains with 143,027 WWE shares.
Kevin Dunn sold 68,628 at $70.23 and received $4,819,744. He has 149,059 WWE shares left.
Senior Vice President and Comptroller Mark Kowal sold 3,845 shares for a total payout of $270,034. He remains with 14,610 shares.
In total, these seven WWE execs cashed out $22,800,745 over two days.
Smackdown did 2,162,000 viewers on Tuesday, up just 40,000 viewers from last week’s show with no real after effects from Monday’s Raw Reunion.
The show was #1 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #6 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
After five-and-a-half years, the WWE Network is getting an extreme makeover with the new design rolling out this week.
In an e-mail blast sent to all WWE Network subscribers, the company said that the new simpler design with better navigation and smarter search tools will be updated this week and the rollout will happen at different times for different devices. Users will be required to sign in again – and not create new accounts – once the new design is live.
Vince McMahon is rumored to have been very hands-on with the design of the new Network, which has been the same since day one.
In a video hyping the new design, WWE is promising new features although no specific features were announced.
Multiple wrestling insiders are reporting that WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus will come out for retirement to have a match against Charlotte Flair at this year’s SummerSlam.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com first reported that the two sides were in negotiations for the match and the news was later confirmed by both John Pollock of PostWrestling.com and Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer.
Hints of the match were dropped on Smackdown when Flair announced that she would have a match at SummerSlam to show the world she is the greatest of all-time and called herself the Queen of All Eras.
This will be Stratus’ first match since the Evolution pay-per-view where she was originally set to face Alexa Bliss but it turned into a tag match with Trish teaming with Lita to take on Mickie James and Alicia Fox. She also was part of a 10-women tag match the next night on Raw.
But her Flair match, the first time that the two will be in the ring together versus each other, will see Trish wrestle her first solo match since she had her retirement match in 2006 against Lita where she won the title at the Unforgiven pay-per-view, coincidentally also in the same arena.
SummerSlam takes place from Trish’s home town of Toronto.
All Elite Wrestling today announced that they will officially start their weekly television programs on TNT on Wednesday, October 2.
The show will be airing every week live from different arenas across the United States at 8PM ET.
The historic first show will take place from the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. Ticket information will be released on Monday, July 29 at Noon ET on AEW’s social media accounts.
The name of the show was not announced today but AEW trademarked the name Wednesday Night Dynamite. It’s unclear if that’s the name they will be using for their weekly live shows.
This will be the first wrestling program on TNT since the last episode of WCW Nitro which aired on March 26, 2001.
SummerSlam got another match on the card with Finn Balor taking on the returning Bray Wyatt.
Wyatt appeared at the Firefly Funhouse on Smackdown and accepted Balor’s challenge on behalf of The Fiend. Wyatt, wearing The Fiend scary mask, attacked Balor on his first night back on Raw two weeks ago.
This match, or a similar version of it, was supposed to take place in December 2017 with Balor as Deamon Balor and Wyatt as Sister Abigail. Unfortunately, Wyatt got sick along with his brother and they were taken off the road.
One person who was happy that the match didn’t take place was Balor himself, who said that the “wacky storyline” eventually transformed into a match against AJ Styles.
“Obviously, it was unfortunate that three of the boys went down really sick, but I think that you know I was the one who kinda came out with the silver lining on that one,” Balor said at the time.
Balor is expected to take two months off after SummerSlam.
When we think of wrestling we think of gruesome sport where people need to get hurt in order to keep the audience entertained. And this is partially true. However, there is still a lot that we can get form the sport. That is why we look at some of the interesting wrestling quotes that we are sure that that you can us in your day to day life. Be it you area wrestler or not.
Wrestling Quotes
“Everything I do is to become better, the best ever and I’m not going to stop” – Dolph Ziggler. A few simple words to make sure that in all that we do, we should strive to be the best that there ever was. And to be a better person tomorrow than we were yesterday.
“The pain of preparation is nothing like the pain of losing”- John Smith. Basically teaches us that in life, the more you work on something the more painful it will be if it doesn’t come to pass. But that does not mean that you should give up.
“Never back down and never quit”- John Cena. Here we learn to never give up. Even when things are hard, we need to make sure that we carry on. According to New Zealand sports betting, WWE fans are always motivated by John Cena to do better while participating in WWE betting.
“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination”- Tommy Lasorda. Where we want to and who we want to be in future all lies in our hands. We have the power to change and be who and what we want to be tomorrow. As aforementioned, it all lies in our determination.
“Success isn’t always about greatness, it’s about consistency”-The Rock. If you want to be a great person, you need to be consistent. As an old saying, patience pays. Even if you want to win in online gambling in United States, you need patience.
“Wrestling teaches you that nothing comes easy. Nothing in life comes easy, so you have to work at it”- Mike Sullivan. We can’t sit around and expect things to just happen our way. We need to get up and work for them to happen on the way that we want to.
