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Ronda Rousey talks breaking her hand at WrestleMania on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Former Raw Women’s champion Ronda Rousey was a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert yesterday on CBS. Her appearance was tied to promote the video game of Mortal Kombat 11, which features Rousey voicing the character of Sonya Blade.

Rousey, still in cast due to breaking her pinky knuckle at WrestleMania, said that she threw a lot of fists at WrestleMania but after noticing that she broke her hand, she had to learn “how to fake it better” not to make the situation worse. Rousey mentioned that the break happened when she flipped over a table which was in the ring. Interesting to note that before she flipped the table, Ronda yelled at fans that “tables are for bitches.” Oops! Table 1, Ronda 0.

That was the only WWE-related segment during her appearance as the rest of her time was she talking about Mortal Kombat 11.

Roman Reigns says he’ll be on Raw this Monday

How do you fight the recent Raw ratings drop? You bring back Roman Reigns, of course!

The former WWE and Universal champion announced on Twitter that while he’s now part of the Smackdown roster, he still has unfinished business on Raw. “I’ll see y’all Monday,” Reigns tweeted, adding the hash tag #ProtectTheYard.

But the build more…suspense, WWE tweeted that while “WWE officials have learned of Roman Reigns’ desire to appear,” his obligations are now of a Smackdown Live Superstar and due to that, he would not be appearing on Raw.

Reigns was one of the biggest stars who crossed brands during the Superstar Shake-Up a few weeks ago and with the Raw numbers dropping to a scary level, WWE will be going all out to prevent the show from dropping below the two million viewer mark average. Last week’s Raw was the least-watched non-holiday Raw in history, dragged by the third hour which did less than two million viewers.

New Smackdown Tag Team champions to be crowned next week

The search for new Smackdown Tag Team champions will not take long as WWE announced that this coming Tuesday, Shane McMahon will be crowning new champs.

WWE gave no indication how these new tag champs will be crowned. The New Day, Heavy Machinery, The B-Team, and The Colons are the only proper tag teams on the brand, with Rusev and Nakamura also teaming up lately.

The titles were vacated by Matt and Jeff Hardy earlier this week after Jeff was deemed unable to wrestle due to a knee injury. The injury resulted in surgery and Jeff will be on the sidelines for up to nine months.

Scheduled also for Smackdown is a six-woman tag match between Carmella, Ember Moon, and Bayley versus Charlotte Flair, Mandy Rose, and Sonya Deville and Ali vs Andrade.

The Great Muta to wrestle at Impact special which will air on Impact Plus

Wrestling legend The Great Muta will be appearing at an Impact Wrestling special from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia next month, an event which will air exclusively on the Impact Plus streaming service.

The event, titled A Night You Can’t Mist, will see Muta returning to the company for the first time since 2015. Muta wrestled Mr. Anderson at the TNA One Night Only event which was titled USA vs The World back then.

The 56-year-old Japanese star, whose real name is Keiji Mutoh, still occasionally wrestles despite his age.

Impact will be doing monthly specials for their revamped Impact Plus service. This month’s special is taped tomorrow and is titled Code Red, a show held in association with House of Glory.

International air dates set for The Dark Side Of The Ring VICELAND series

The highly acclaimed VICELAND series The Dark Side Of The Ring will be making its debut in several countries over the next couple of months.

The six-part series, chronicling the subjects of Macho Man Randy Savage, The Montreal Screwjob, the murder of Bruiser Brody, The Von Erichs, the mysterious death of Gino Hernandez, and The Fabulous Moolah, has been airing on VICELAND in the United States over the past few weeks. Two more episodes remain – the Hernandez and Moolah ones – with the Von Erichs episode having just aired this week.

The series will start airing in Canada on May 17, June 3 in Australia, June 5 in the United Kingdom, July 4 in the Netherlands, July 10 in New Zealand, and August 22 in France.

The series is also available via VICELAND.COM although a cable login is required to watch past episodes and the videos are geo-locked to North American IP addresses.

Chris Jericho appears at NJPW Dontaku show via video, challenges Okada for IWGP title

In a pro wrestling world where keeping a surprise is extremely difficult Chris Jericho has done it again.

Jericho showed up via video during the NJPW Dontaku event today and challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title at the June 9 Dominion event in Osaka. Jericho told Okada that he’s known as the Painmaker, a dig at Okada’s nickname of Rainmaker. Okada had just successfully defended the title against SANADA.

The first-ever Undisputed champion is now part of All Elite Wrestling but his deal with the new promotion allows him to still wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling. He will be wrestling Kenny Omega in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom at the upcoming AEW Double or Nothing show later this month.

Jericho last wrestled for NJPW in January of this year where he lost the IWGP Intercontinental title to Tetsuya Naito.

WWE gets online criticism again for going to Saudi Arabia for third show

WWE has gotten some flack again, as expected, for the decision to go back to Saudi Arabia next month for their third show in the country. The announcement came via a press release issued yesterday.

So far, Wall Street has not reacted negatively to the news unlike last year when the company made the trip despite the gruesome murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi a few weeks before.

Apart from securing the services of The Undertaker and Brock Lesnar to be part of this third show, WWE also reached out to Goldberg to appear. Goldberg has accepted and already replied to some tweets online which mentions him and the Saudi show. Saudi Arabia is not very keen to Jewish people but they do allow them to work in the country and it’s interesting that Goldberg even accepted to be part of the show considering the history. Paul Heyman, also Jewish, appeared in both previous shows in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, while speaking with The Pro Wrestling Show podcast in the UK, WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley said that while he’s lucky he doesn’t have to make a choice of going or not going, “I can be had for a certain price!” Foley continued, “If they wanted a rematch of the Cell badly enough and were willing to pay for it, then my God they’d probably get it!”

Jeff Hardy undergoes successful knee surgery

Jeff Hardy underwent successful knee surgery yesterday, two days after appearing on Smackdown alongside his brother Matt to vacate the Smackdown Tag Team titles.

Hardy had the procedure done at Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopaedic Center in Birmingham, Alabama, the goto place for most major WWE surgeries.

The former WWE champion is expected to be out of action for up to nine months after his right knee had to be repaired due to extensive damage. Hardy vowed that he would return better than ever, especially compared to the past four years.

WWE has yet to announce what will happen with the Smackdown Tag Team titles.

Both he and Matt recently signed new WWE deals.

Chris Jericho hosts Jungle Boy, son of late actor Luke Perry, on his newest podcast

AEW’s Jungle Boy, the son of the late actor Luke Perry, was the guest on Chris Jericho’s Talk is Jericho podcast on the Westwood One Podcast Network.

Luke made it to his son’s Jack wrestling shows multiple times and was photographed cheering on his son on the independent scene.

Speaking about the last conversation he had with his father, Jack said, “My dad was supposed to come to PWG, and that was on a Friday and this was on like Tuesday or something. And he texted me and asked if I wanted to have Chinese food, and I said I probably won’t make it tonight because I am here training late with Jake but I’ll see you tomorrow or whatever. And then I woke up the next morning and it was already kinda going, full swing the whole thing.”

Jack also said that it is thanks to his father’s love for professional wrestling that he is now a wrestler as his dad used to take him to wrestling events that came to Southern California.

Jungle Boy signed with All Elite Wrestling in late January.

New episodes of Talk is Jericho are available every Wednesday and Friday. Listen and subscribe for free at Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The latest episode is available here.

Next NXT Takeover to take place on June 1

The next NXT Takeover show will be taking place on June 1 at a location still to be announced. The date was confirmed by WWE’s Cathy Kelly in a video.

The plan was to hold the June Takeover show in San Jose, California on June 8 but due to the close proximity of the Saudi Arabia show, the company decided to nix this date. WWE will be in Saudi Arabia on June 7 for the next installment of The Greatest Royal Rumble. There are rumors that it will still take place somewhere in the state of California but at this point it’s all up in the air.

More details about this show, which is now less than a month away, will be given on Monday on Triple H’s Facebook and Twitter including ticket info and location. The past two NXT television tapings were used to build for this upcoming June Takeover.

Rich Swann signs new deal with Impact Wrestling

PWInsider.com is reporting that Rich Swann has signed a new two-year with Impact Wrestling. Swann confirmed the news in an interview with the website, saying that Impact is the company that best fits him.

“Somebody would that say with AEW going on and WWE right now, they would say that Impact might be under the radar. But, from being inside the company, and seeing the roster and seeing everything, seeing how it’s grown over the last year, I feel that this is the company that is the best fit for me. I want to be a part of something that is growing right now. I feel like we’re going to make some moves,” Swann said.

Swann made his debut with Impact in June 2018 after a two-year stint with WWE. His departure came after he was arrested for domestic violence and the company quoted their zero tolerance policy to cover for his dismissal.

Swann is the current Impact X Division champion.

Brock Lesnar rumored to have asked for a big flat-fee for UFC return

In the latest episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer said that Brock Lesnar decided to call it quits from the UFC after he demanded a flat fee for his next fight, a fee which the UFC thought it was too much and refused his demand.

Ever the business man, Lesnar decided not to pursue a fight in the UFC anymore and told UFC President Dana White that he’s done. The way pay-per-views are now structured are completely different because the UFC ditched pay-per-view providers and are now only doing them with ESPN+.

Every pay-per-view has to go through ESPN+ and it’s online only, with sales likely taking a hit after eliminating the traditional PPV broadcast. Popular fighters usually get a cut from PPV sales and with less people now potentially getting the shows due to the switch to online-only, the cut would be much less.

Brock is already confirmed by WWE to be taking part in the next Saudi Arabia event in June.

Revamped Impact Plus streaming service debuts

The new Impact Plus streaming service made its debut yesterday, replacing the Global Wrestling Network, the last piece of business that Impact had using the name and colors of the failed Global Force Wrestling.

Powered by solutions provider Brightcove, Impact Plus features instant access to the 3,000-plus hour Impact Wrestling library, groundbreaking original series, reality shows and documentaries, exclusive events from international promotional partners and historical content from old territories. The 17-year library from IMPACT Wrestling includes every classic pay-per-view event.

A premium subscription is priced at just $7.99 per month with a 30-day free trial for new members. Annual subscriptions will also be available for $71.99.

Impact’s quarterly pay-per-views will also be available for purchase through Impact Plus, something which was not available before with GWN. Unlike WWE Network, these will not be part of the subscription price and need to be purchased separately.

“Anthem Sports & Entertainment is proud to partner with Brightcove on the development and launch of IMPACT Plus, the latest evolution of IMPACT Wrestling’s subscription video-on-demand service,” said Ed Nordholm, EVP of Anthem Sports & Entertainment and president of IMPACT Wrestling. “As our subscriber base has grown, we have established the need for a more robust back-end technology, while looking to enhance our user experience and content offering. Starting this Sunday, we will be delivering a live premium event every month exclusively for IMPACT Plus subscribers.”

Jeff Hardy out for up to nine months as whole right knee needs repair

In a short interview following Smackdown, Jeff Hardy said that he will be out from six to nine months.

Jeff said that he needs his whole right knee repaired and docs will hopefully fix everything in there that’s bad. He expects the next several months to be rough but in reality he needed a new knee and vowed to be back better than he has been recently.

Matt and Jeff vacated the Smackdown Tag Team titles on this week’s Smackdown just a few weeks after winning them on the post-Mania Smackdown. WWE has not announced yet what’s the plan for the titles now but if we go by history, a tournament will most likely be held to crown the new champions.

Miz & Mrs S1 E11 rating

Episode 11 of The Miz & Mrs on USA Network did 840,000 viewers, down 100,000 viewers from last week’s episode. It’s the least-watched episode of the whole series so far. This week it was not a very good week for WWE on television as all their shows reached new lows in terms of viewership. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Beth Phoenix joins the NXT commentary team

WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix has joined the NXT commentary broadcast team, replacing Percy Watson.

Phoenix worked her first television tapings at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida yesterday and was announced as the newest member of the broadcast team, suggesting the move is a permanent one. She joined Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness.

Phoenix has been doing a lot of commentary work over the past couple of years including the Mixed Match Challenge, the Mae Young Classic tournament, and the Women’s Battle Royal at WrestleMania.

The former Divas champion has also stepped back in the ring lately, teaming with Natalya and will be part of the upcoming European tour which starts next week.

Goldberg, Lesnar and Undertaker announced for next WWE show in Saudi on June 7

WWE officially announced the return to Saudi Arabia for another show at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Friday, June 7, at 8PM AST.

The yet-to-be-titled event will feature all the top WWE Superstars…including The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, and Goldberg, who will wrestle his first match since WrestleMania 33.

Additional details on the event’s matches, ticket availability and pricing, and regional broadcast information will be announced in the coming weeks. The show will air on the WWE Network.

This is the second of the 10-year deal between WWE and the General Sports Authority of Saudi Arabia where WWE is contracted to do one to two shows per year in the country. The lucrative deal is worth millions and millions of dollars the events there make more money to WWE than a WrestleMania.

Smackdown rating for 05/01/2019

This week’s Smackdown pulled in just 1,833,000 viewers, down 239,000 viewers from last week’s show. This was the least-watched Smackdown since the December 31, 2015 episode and is the lowest-rated non-holiday show ever.

The NBA game head-to-head with Smackdown did 4.4 million viewers. Smackdown was #7 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #13 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Kurt Angle inks new, five-year WWE deal and gets producer role

In an interview with WrestlingInc.com’s podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle said that he signed a new, five-year deal with WWE that will see him doing a variety of work, including backstage as a producer.

Angle said that he might do some part-time work in front of cameras as a manager but the most important part of his new job is being a producer and helping the Superstars with their matches.

“The most important thing is I’m going to be a producer. I’m going to help the wrestlers with their technique. I’m going to help them structure their matches. It’s something I’m very good at,” Angle said.

Angle, who wrestled his farewell match against Baron Corbin at WrestleMania, was pulled from his Starrcast II appearance by WWE along with The Undertaker after both of them signed new deals.

WWE has added a few former wrestlers as producers such as Shawn Daivari, Shane Helms, Steve Corino, and Jeff Jarrett while Arn Anderson was fired and Dean Malenko quit.

Meiko Satomura to be a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center

The website Squared Circle Sirens is reporting that Meiko Satomura will be doing a stint as a guest trainer at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Satomura appeared at the Mae Young Classic tournament last year and defeated Killer Kelly, Mercedes Martinez, and Lacey Lane before losing to the eventual winner Toni Storm in the semi-final.

The 39-year-old Japanese star is considered to be one of the best female wrestlers in professional wrestling and wrestled for Gaea Japan, WCW, Sendai Girls’ Pro Wrestling, World Wonder Ring Stardom, Chikara, and other independent promotions throughout her career so far.

She made her professional wrestling debut at the age of 15 and has nearly 25 years of experience as a wrestler.