Two additional stipulation matches were added to this Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view last night on Raw.
After both going through the video wall last week, Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley will wrestle in a last man standing match. The match last week was a falls count anywhere bout but ended in a no contest.
Meanwhile, the Smackdown Women’s champion Bayley will be defending her gold against Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a handicap match. Since this is not a triple threat match, it was not announced what would happen if Cross beats Bayley with the assumption being right now that if the duo win, Alexa will be the new champ.
WWE has e-mailed a select number of former WWE Network subscribers to get them to resubscribe to the service for three months for the price of just 99 cents.
Yes, that’s right. 99 cents for three months, a nice discount of $28.98.
Taking this offer, these potential new subscribers would get Extreme Rules, NXT Takeover: Toronto, SummerSlam, and Clash of Champions with their 99 cent subscription which would run out in the first week of October.
WWE Network ended Q1 2019 with 1.58 million paid subscribers, a 2% increase over the prior year quarter but 100,000 less than Q4 2018. The day after WrestleMania 35, WWE had 2 million subscribers. The outlook for Q2 2019 is 1.7 million subscribers by company estimates which would represent a year-over-year decline of 5%.
Tessa Blanchard made Impact Wrestling history last night by becoming the first Knockout to main event a pay-per-view in her intergender match against Sami Callihan.
Despite a fantastic effort and match, the former Mae Young Classic competitor lost the bout to Callihan after a piledriver but she was clearly the star of the match, even judging by the reaction from the crowd.
Tessa, the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, made her debut for Impact Wrestling at the Redemption pay-per-view doing commentary and had her first match for the company on Impact a few weeks later.
The 23-year-old is considered to be one of the best female wrestlers at the moment.
Former ECW champion Rhyno showed up at the Slammiversary XVII pay-per-view yesterday, wearing a mask and a hoodie and spearing Michael Elgin after Elgin lost his Impact World title match against Brian Cage.
The surprise appearance finished with Rhyno doing his usual taunt and exiting the ring quickly and going through the fans. “What the hell did we just see?” screamed the announcer as fans chanted “Gore! Gore! Gore!”
The former WWE star revealed yesterday in a tweet that he was in Texas, spending the 4th of July there and it was “time to get back to work.”
Rhyno, who last wrestled for WWE at the WrestleMania 35 pre-show at the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, said in an interview that his last day officially with WWE would be on July 17 but it looks like he got special permission to appear at Slammiversary.
The relationship between WWE and Impact Wrestling is cordial and the two sides had meetings in the past and WWE also pays for Impact footage to be used on WWE Network documentaries.
Rhyno was last seen wrestling for Impact in 2014 having previously worked there for five years between 2005 and 2010.
Here are the results from the Slammiversary XVII pay-per-view which took place from Gillie’s Dallas in Dallas, Texas.
Willie Mack defeated TJP, Jake Crist, and Trey Miguel; The North defeated LAX and The Rascalz to retain the Impact Tag Team titles in a triple threat tag team match; Eddie Edwards defeated Killer Kross in a first blood match; Moose defeated Rob Van Dam; Taya Valkarie defeated Rosemary, Havok, and Su Yung in a monster’s ball match to retain the Impact Knockouts title; Rich Swann defeated Johnny Impact to retain the X-Division title; Brian Cage defeated Michael Elgin to retain the Impact World title; Sami Callihan defeated Tessa Blanchard in an intergender match.
In the latest episode of The Bellas Podcast titled ‘You Can Be the In-Law or You Can Be the Outlaw,’ Nikki Bella goes in-depth on the plan that was supposed to get them back in the ring and what eventually happened.
Nikki said that she and Brie were set to return to WWE immediately after WrestleMania to feud with The IIconics for the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles. But she had a weird feeling about her neck and she had been feeling “off” since Evolution in October and decided to do some check-ups.
On the Thursday before WrestleMania while the two were in New York, her surgeon called her and told her he needs to talk to her. Nikki said that with the tone in his voice, she knew that this wasn’t good.
The doctor explained how she has another neck injury and a cyst on her brain and told her it’s not good at all. She was told to get a second opinion and the second opinion was to get a double fusion which would be game over anyway.
Nikki said that the doctor told her, “One hit…you’re either paralyzed or it’s lights out for good.”
The Bellas expressed how they really wanted to work with The IIconics for a few months and even with Sasha and Bayley but that will not ever happen now.
“I can’t go and prove them wrong. I can never go back to that ring,” Nikki said.
Live tonight from Gilley’s Dallas in Dallas, Texas, Impact Wrestling presents Slammiversary XVII on pay-per-view. The full card is as follows:
Brian Cage vs Michael Elgin for the Impact World title; Rich Swann vs Johnny Impact for the X-Division title; The North vs LAX vs The Rascalz in a triple threat tag team match for the Impact Tag Team titles; Taya Valkyrie vs Rosemary vs Su Yung vs Havok in a Monster’s Ball match for the Knockouts title; Sami Callihan vs Tessa Blanchard in an intergender match; Eddie Edwards vs Killer Kross in a first blood match; Rob Van Dam vs Moose; and TJP in an X-Division open challenge.
The pay-per-view will be streaming live globally exclusively on the FITE.tv app. Anyone who purchases the pay-per-view on FITE.tv will receive a coupon code to redeem a free three-month subscription for Impact Plus.
Rey Mysterio will be returning to Monday Night Raw in two days after a shoulder injury sidelined him for the past several weeks. WWE.COM announced the return of the masked Superstar today.
Mysterio was last seen on Raw in late May after he vacated the United States title, handing it over back to Samoa Joe due to the injury he suffered at Money In The Bank and the controversial way he won the title on the pay-per-view as well. Joe has since lost the title to Ricochet.
His shoulder injury was not said to be very serious although he required a month and a half off from the ring to rehabilitate it.
During a Reddit AMA session on the SquaredCircle forum, EVOLVE’s Gabe Sapolsky discussed the upcoming 10th anniversary live special on the WWE Network, Kenny Omega’s angry tweet, and the future relationship between EVOLVE and WWE.
Sapolsky said that Omega’s tweet was “a little disparaging to all the work and sacrifice” that everyone at EVOLVE has done to get this opportunity. He claims that the date was booked before AEW announced their Fight for the Fallen event. Sapolsky then discussed how the first idea to do an EVOLVE special on the WWE Network came up in 2016 but this was the perfect timing as they are running the 2300 Arena in Philly the night before WWE has Extreme Rules just 3 miles away.
“We are in a great building at the 2300 Arena that is tailored made to go right on the WWE Network. Everything just came together to do it on this date. It’s been a long process,” Sapolsky wrote.
Regardless of the tweet by Omega, he said that he has not talked to him in a very long time but he always thought they had a positive relationship and he’s glad all his hard work has paid off.
When asked if EVOLVE will be part of the rumored new WWE Network tiered subscription, Sapolsky said that time will tell about that and that’s something that he doesn’t think anyone has the answer to right now.
Sapolsky also added that he doesn’t see July 13 as the “end game” but rather a “start of a new chapter one way or another” in terms of them being on the WWE Network more in the future.
In an interview with The Sportster, former WWE and Universal champion Roman Reigns shot down the idea of All Elite Wrestling being a competitor to WWE, saying there’s absolutely no comparison between the two.
“I’ll just say this. It’s all so new and it was what it was with Ambrose leaving and popping up over there… Competition? No, there’s no competition,” Reigns said. “WWE, we know exactly what we’re doing. We have the best talent in the world. There’s no comparing, I say that with firm confidence, all the way from the top to the very bottom. We are world class all the way through.”
His former Shield tag team partner Seth Rollins has also been very vocal on Twitter about WWE being the best in town and even got into an argument with Will Ospreay. Rollins eventually apologized to Ospreay after he told him to compare the bank accounts of the two.
But while Reigns denounced AEW as a competition, he said that the promotion is another option and another place to get a check. “I’m never against optimism but I think you have foolish thoughts if you really think there’s a comparison or actual competition. Just an option, which isn’t a bad thing.”
Reigns was interviewed by The Sportster over his new marketing deal with Brisk and his role in the upcoming film Hobbs and Shaw.
There are new Impact Tag Team champions in town as The North – the team of Josh Alexander and Ethan Page – dethroned LAX yesterday at the Bash at the Brewery Impact Plus event in San Antonio, Texas.
LAX had been champions for 68 days, winning the titles from The Lucha Bros in a Full Metal Mayhem match at the Rebellion pay-per-view back in April. Ortiz and Santana have four tag team title reigns together with a combined 663 days as champions, making them the most successful tag team in Impact history and one title reign short of Beer Money Inc and The Wolves.
Alexander and Page have been tag teaming for a long time in the indies and after Alexander came to Impact, the company paired both of them up again to form The North.
Here are the results from last night’s Impact’s Bash at the Brewery event which aired on Impact Plus in association with River City Wrestling in San Antonio, Texas.
The Rascalz defeated Andy Dalton, Mattew Palmer, and Steve O Reno; Fallah Bahh defeated Anthony Andrews to retain the RCW Heavyweight title; Jordynne Grace defeated Jessicka Havok via DQ; Rosemary and Jordynne Grace defeated Su Yung and Jessicka Havok; Rich Swann, Willie Mack, and Tessa Blanchard defeated oVe; Michael Elgin defeated Moose and Eddie Edwards in a triple threat match; The North defeated LAX to become the new Impact Tag Team champions; Rob Van Dam defeated Sami Callihan in an extreme rules match.
The show is available to stream on plus.impactwrestling.com.
WWE Hall of Famer Booker T has refuted a report by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer that he “pulled out” of appearing at Starrcast III in August during the All Out weekend.
Meltzer yesterday wrote that Booker T had agreed to be part of Starrcast but pulled out after “he found out the WWE vs AEW war was very real and he didn’t want to be in the middle of it.”
But the former five time WCW champion did not agree with what was written about him and tweeted, “I will be setting the record straight within the next 24 hours regarding the story going around about me “pulling out” of @StarrcastEvents.”
Meanwhile, Starrcast show runner Conrad Thompson also shot down Meltzer’s report, claiming it’s inaccurate. “We enjoyed Booker’s appearance in Las Vegas. I will miss him this time in Chicago but look forward to working with him again sometime in the future,” Thompson wrote, adding that he doesn’t work for AEW and Starrcast is an independent company.
California Pizza Kitchen’s (CPK) locations in New York and New Jersey will host a five-day fundraiser Monday, July 8 through Friday, July 12 to benefit Connor’s Cure, a WWE initiative benefitting the V Foundation to support pediatric cancer research.
Guests can support the organization and enjoy pizza with a purpose by presenting the flyer (below) or simply mentioning the fundraiser to their server and 20 percent of participating food and beverage checks will be donated to the V Foundation to support Connor’s Cure. The fundraiser can be applied to dine-in, take-out, online, catering or delivery orders placed directly with CPK.
To kick off the fundraiser, WWE Superstars, Alexa Bliss and Braun Strowman will visit the CPK location at Willowbrook Mall (1400 Willowbrook Mall, Wayne, NJ 07470) on Monday, July 8 from 11:30AM to 1PM. This will be limited to the first 250 people on line only. Talent subject to change without notice. Any questions in regards to this appearance can call (201) 757-7686.
Fundraiser valid only on 7/8/19 -7/12/19 at participating New York and New Jersey locations listed below. Tax, gratuity, gift card and retail sales are excluded from the donation. Not valid for third-party delivery.
New York:
• CPK Atlas Park (Queens)
• CPK Scarsdale (Scarsdale)
• CPK Westbury (Long Island)
• CPK Walt Whitman Shops (Long Island)
• CPK Smith Haven Mall (Long Island)
New Jersey:
• CPK Garden State Plaza (Paramus)
• CPK Willowbrook Mall (Wayne)
• CPK Bridgewater Commons (Bridgewater)
• CPK The Mall at Short Hills (Short Hills)
This Monday’s Raw already has two tag team matches announced, one of which is a mixed tag team match.
The Universal and Raw Women’s champions, Seth Rollins and his real-life girlfriend Becky Lynch, will be teaming up to take on Andrade and Zelina Vega. This will be Rollins’ and Lynch’s second mixed tag team match in a row after last week they took on Mike and Maria Kanellis. The Wildcard rule will bring Andrade and Vega this week after the duo challenged the champs earlier this week.
Meanwhile, the feud between Roman Reigns, Drew McIntyre, and Shane McMahon continues on Raw even though they are all Smackdown Superstars. McIntyre and Shane will be teaming up to take on Reigns and a partner of Shane’s choosing. The Undertaker will be tagging with Reigns at the upcoming Extreme Rules pay-per-view against Drew and Shane.
Impact Wrestling will present its Impact Plus live special tonight from the Freetail Brewery in San Antonio, Texas titled Bash at the Brewery. The full card is as follows:
Brian Cage vs Moose for the Impact World title; Rob Van Dam vs Sami Callihan in an Extreme Rules match; LAX vs The North for the Impact Tag Team titles; Michael Elgin vs Eddie Edwards; Madman Fulton and oVe vs Tessa Blanchard, Rich Swann & Willie Mack; Havok vs Jordynne Grace; and Rosemary vs Su Yung.
A pre-show will air live on Impact’s Twitch channel at 7:30PM ET while the show will officially kick off at 8PM ET. Apart from airing at plus.impactwrestling.com, the sho will also air on FITE.TV.
WWE Network is airing its fourth WWE 24 episode for 2019 with a new edition titled Batista: Dream Chaser. This will air on Monday, July 8 immediately following the conclusion of Monday Night Raw.
The preview for the Batista episode reads, “Batista chased his dreams of becoming a WWE Legend and Hollywood megastar. At WrestleMania 35, he returned for the last match of his career.”
WWE has already aired WrestleMania: New Orleans, Becky Lynch: The Man, and Revolutionary: The Year of Ronda Rousey as episodes of WWE 24 this year. Usually, WWE airs four episodes of the popular series during one year.
Batista’s WWE 24 episode is not the only new show that will air over the next few days as a new episode of Chronicle will also stream on Saturday, July 13. Airing right after the end of EVOLVE’s 10th year anniversary episode, WWE Chronicle: Ricochet will take a look at the high-flying Superstar as he captures his first title.
Impact Wrestling’s main pay-per-view, Bound For Glory, will be taking place from the Odeum Expo Center in Villa Park, Illinois on Sunday, October 20.
Villa Park is around 20 miles west of Chicago and the Odeum Expo Center features two large halls with over 40,000 square feet of space combined. One of the halls, the South Hall, can seat up to 5,500 fans in a wrestling setting. The building was opened in November 1981.
This is the 15th Bound For Glory pay-per-view. Last year the show was held in Astoria, New York. This is the second time that the show will be held in the state of Illinois after the 2008 event was held at the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows have agreed to a new, five-year deal with WWE and are staying put.
The duo were rumored to be leaving the company at the end of their contract in September but this week they were put back in the spotlight and reunited The Club with a heel AJ Styles on Raw.
Gallows and Anderson made their WWE debut in April 2016 and while they came to the company following their big stint in New Japan Pro Wrestling, they were never really pushed to their full potential on WWE television. They won the Raw Tag Team titles once and also spent most of the past three months off the road after they turned down a new deal back in March.
Ronda Rousey uploaded a hilarious video from home doing wrestling things as she goes around the house while her husband looks confused.
Rousey, who has not appeared on WWE television since WrestleMania 35, cuts a promo on an object in the fridge, climbs a ladder thinking it’s MITB, comes out from behind the shower curtain to her theme song, pins her husband, and more in a hilarious skit.
“Babe, you know you can go back to pro wrestling whenever you want,” her husband Travis Browne tells her as she’s on the top of the ladder hanging to her light fixture. “Babe, I know that, I love you, and I appreciate that, but really, I’m happy here at home with you,” Rousey says back. “All right,” Browne says, looking very unconvincing.
At that point, while Rousey is still on the ladder, Browne calls for D-Von to “get the table.” And sure enough, D-Von is there, as Browne gets himself ready on the table. “Testify!!!!” Rousey screams as she leaps off the ladder with a flying elbow!
