Speaking to TVInsider.com regarding tonight’s huge announcement on Dynamite, AEW President Tony Khan said that this surprise will be different than anything they have promoted before.
“We’ve had a lot of great surprise moments in AEW. A lot of special nights on Dynamite. Without giving too much away, I think this is a unique announcement. I’m excited about this as anything we’ve worked on,” Khan said.
He continued to say that he thinks there will be a lot of interest in this particular announcement.
“Given the amount of intrigue I think it will create, I thought it would be good to promote a big surprise coming to Dynamite. This is the kind of announcement that deserves a lot of fanfare,” Khan said.
Meanwhile, PWInsider.com’s Dave Scherer added that the announcement will cater to the hardcore audience and everyone should tamper their expectations.
Seems like déjà vu, but tonight’s Dynamite on TBS is being hyped for another Tony Khan major announcement. What will it be? Khan has remained tight-lipped about it and the last time he made a major announcement last month, it was to unveil that he was the new owner of Ring of Honor.
Apart from the announcement, there are six matches scheduled for tonight’s show, two of which are Owen Hart Cup tournament qualifying matches. Those two matches will feature Jungle Boy vs Kyle O’Reilly and Britt Baker vs Danielle Kamela.
There will be also the Dynamite in-ring debut of Hook who takes on Tony Neese, the first-ever CM Punk vs Dustin Rhodes, Wardlow vs The Butcher, and Andrade El Idolo vs Darby Allin in the first AEW coffin match.
Tickets for the SummerSlam premium live event in Nashville, Tennessee, went on pre-sale today and you can secure your ticket by using the code UNIVERSE on Ticketmaster.com.
Tickets start from just $25 and go up to $3,000 for ringside seats which also include the commemorative chair. Most aisle seats will have to be purchased in pairs.
SummerSlam is being held at the Nissan Stadium on Saturday, July 30 and it’s a stadium event for the second year in a row. Judging from the seat map, there will not be a huge stage and instead they will be using an entrance similar to that of what we saw at the Royal Rumble.
The Nissan Stadium holds just over 69,000 seats and by the looks of it, only half the stadium is currently available in the pre-sale. WWE also used half the stadium for the Royal Rumble in St. Louis.
WWE will hold three stadium shows in a row with Money In The Bank in Las Vegas at the Allegiant Stadium, SummerSlam at the Nissan Stadium, and the UK show at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
Jack Evans, who has been with AEW since its inception in 2019, has announced that his contract will not be renewed once his deal ends on April 30.
“My time with #AEW has been a fun and enjoyable but it has come to an end as I will not be re-signed when my contract ends at the end of April,” he wrote in a post on social media. “I’d like to thank everyone at AEW and the AEW fans for the opportunity.”
Responding Twitter questions from fans, Evans said he thinks the release is largely because after the four-month COVID lay-off and the time off from the broken face, he had a performance drop off which he never really came back from. He admitted that he wasn’t giving “added value” to AEW and making cuts is “part of the business.”
Evans teamed up with Angelico to form The Hybrid2 but has not wrestled on AEW television in a while, although he did wrestle during the Dark tapings that aired last month on YouTube. Evans was lately part of the HFO.
AEW President Tony Khan did say that several contracts of AEW originals are coming to an end this year and he would not be renewing everyone’s deal due to other wrestlers coming in.
The May 3 episode of NXT on USA Network will be a themed episode titled Spring Breakin’. The show will air from the usual WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
Two title matches have already been announced for this broadcast, with NXT North American champion Cameron Grimes defending against Carmelo Hayes and Solo Sikoa in a triple threat match and Bron Breakker defending the NXT title against Joe Gacy.
This will be the fourth themed episode of the year following New Year’s Evil in January, Vengeance Day in February, and Roadblock in March.
The viewership for NXT 2.0 has stabilized in the 600,000 range but the themed episodes aren’t doing much to increase numbers. Only the New Year’s Evil show in January managed to draw 685,000 viewers and that’s the highest the show has seen so far in 2022.
This week’s episode of Raw felt the sting of the NBA Playoffs as the show did only 1,648,000 on average down 155,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. This was the least-watched Raw since February 14.
Hour one started strong with 1,804,000 viewers, but everything went downhill from there, with the second hour dropping to 1,685,000 viewers and the third hour even further to 1,456,000 viewers. The show dropped 348,000 viewers from the first to the third hour. Raw had competition from two NBA Playoff games which did 2.7 million and 3.2 million each on TNT.
The show ranked #3, #4, and #5 in the top 50 cable chart with 0.50, 0.48, and 0.44 ratings for an average of 0.47. That is the lowest since March 7. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Appearing on the Brewbound Podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin discussed his WrestleMania match and if he would be up for another round at next year’s show.
Austin said that if you would have told him that he would be wrestling in the main event of WrestleMania 38 night one, he would have said that’s crazy and full of sh*t…and yet here we are!
He said he was done wrestling but as part of WWE, he cannot imagine not being at SoFi Stadium for Mania 39 next year.
“And I’m not booking myself on the show because I didn’t book myself on 38. That’s a Vince thing and I have a great relationship with him and if I get the call, I’ll be there,” Steve said.
Commenting on his 38 experience, Austin said it was exciting to be back and truly an honor to headline one more WrestleMania.
He was glad that he got to drink his own lager this year after giving the rub to so many other beers along the years.
“I’ve been drinking beer my whole life and I don’t speak technical beer language, but we’ve given all those other brands a little bit of a rub by using their beers,” he said. “So to go out there and drink our own beer was very satisfying!”
Austin also said that he feels great physically even after getting in the ring following a 19-year hiatus.
The Battle of the Belts II broadcast on TNT this past Saturday drew a total of 527,000 viewers and a 0.18 rating in the 18-49 demo, placing it #10 in the top 50 cable chart for the night. The show also had competition from the NBA Playoffs. The number was down from the first Battle of the Belts show in January which did 704,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Speaking with The Athletic, Triple H said he liked all the people who left NXT to go to AEW and he’s happy for them, noting that he still keeps in touch with most of them.
“They helped us get where we needed to get, and I’m thankful for it. The truth is there was a period of time where we were trying to build NXT. We built NXT,” Triple H said, adding that transitioning those men and women to Raw and Smackdown wasn’t his sole decision, but mostly Vince McMahon’s.
“If they have great gigs, I’m happy for them. I stay in touch with almost all of them. I like to think they came into us here, we taught them a lot, got them to (a higher level) where they learned how to do television, how to be professionals and all that to be successful there,” he continued. “At some point, they might come back with us, or they might never because they don’t fit our brand as well, but that’s OK.”
Triple H commented how these individuals got the brand to certain places and he’ll be forever thankful and while they left, it “doesn’t stop the train,” noting how people leave football teams and move to different ones.
The Game also discussed the evolution of NXT and what is NXT 2.0. He said that there was a point where NXT had this cult following and they needed to get on television.
“We got them to that place. The pandemic (messed) it up a little bit because it was right when we went on TV and we had to shift our focus, doing it in front of no people. It completely altered what we were doing. We couldn’t recruit or train talent for almost two years,” Triple H said.
He talked how they all decided to eventually reboot NXT to go back to its roots.
“Some of these people won’t be ready for television, but we’re gonna put them on television, and we believe the audience is invested enough that the numbers might come down, but a core group of them will stay, and now you’re creating fresh stars all the time. That’s where we are now. The numbers have stabilized,” he said regarding the ratings.
In this same interview, Triple H also discusses All Elite Wrestling and what it does for competition, creating new stars, scouting new talent, and much more.
Friday Night Smackdown on FOX drew 2,142,000 viewers last week, down 82,000 viewers against competition from the NBA Playoffs. It was the least-watched Smackdown since February 25. The show was second in 18-49 on network television with a 0.48 rating, the lowest since July 2021. In the early overnight numbers, Smackdown had 2,101,000 viewers in the first hour and 2,008,000 viewers in the second hour. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The estate of Julian Lasseter, the man who was killed after Tammy “Sunny” Sytch crashed into late last month with a car, is suing her and her boyfriend fore more than $30,000 according to a story published by PWInsider.com.
Sytch caused the fatal car accident in Ormond Beach, Florida on March 25 after crashing into the 75-year-old man’s car which was stopped at a red light. His car eventually crashed into the other car in front of him as well.
Sytch’s boyfriend, James Pente, is also being sued because Sytch was driving his car at the time of the accident. According to a police report, Sytch seemed under the influence of alcohol and blood test results have not come back yet.
The Lasseter estate says in the lawsuit that the family had medical and funeral expenses due to Sytch’s negligence and his daughter will suffer from the loss of her father’s companionship, guidance, and mental pain and suffering as a result of her father’s death.
The WWE Hall of Famer is still out and about and was not arrested following the accident as police wait for toxicology reports. Sytch has no valid driver’s license.
Rampage, which was headlined by Page vs Cole in a Texas Death match for the AEW World title, drew 482,000 viewers, down 118,000 viewers from last week. The show aired at 7PM due to the NBA Playoffs broadcast on TNT. Rampage did 0.22 in the 18-49, finishing #9 on the top 50 cable chart for the night. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Sean Ross Sapp from Fightful Wrestling is reporting that Kushida has left WWE after his contract ran out and was not renewed.
The Japanese star started working for the NXT brand in 2019 and is a former NXT Cruiserweight champion. Lately, Kushida was teaming with Ikemen Jiro, forming Jacket Time. He was scheduled to wrestle Von Wagner last week on NXT but in a backstage segment, Kushida was taken out and Jiro took his place.
His profile has already been moved to the Alumni section of WWE.COM.
The 38-year-old from Tokyo spent most of his time in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is a former six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion, two-time former Junior Heavyweight Tag Team champion with Alex Shelley, and winner of the 2016 Super J-Cup.
Quoting numbers released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council, India.com is reporting that WrestleMania 38 was seen by 56.1 million people on Sony Sports in India, a new record for WWE.
The total viewership of WrestleMania 38 was up by 29% year-on-year compared with WrestleMania 37 in 2021. In day-by-day breakdown, the Saturday show was up 34% and Sunday was up by 33% compared to previous year.
BARC also said that the Raw After Mania saw a 9% increase in viewership, mainly due to the hype of the arrival of Veer Mahaan, who is also from India.
Jimmy Smith announces Byron Saxton and Jerry “The King” Lawler as Seth “Freakin” Rollins makes his way to the ring.
Rollins immediately calls out Cody Rhodes for a chat, Cody’s music hits and he comes to the ring. After playing with the crowd a few times every time Rollins started talking, Cody asks Seth to get to the point. Seth says he had an unfair advantage at WrestleMania because he was Mr. McMahon’s special opponent. Seth continues by saying he is better than Cody.
Cody says he learned something about mediation in his previous management position and says let the fans decide and he asks the fans if they think he is better than Rollins and they cheered.
Rollins then challenged Cody to a match later tonight against an opponent of my choosing. Cody says he did not come back to WWE to run from challenges so absolutely YES.
Naomi & Sasha Banks VS. Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Sasha and Naomi team up to do some double team maneuvers on Ripley and Sasha rolled her up for the pin.
Winners and still Women’s Tag Team Champions Naomi & Sasha Banks
After the match Ripley attacks Liv after an argument. Ripley ends with giving Liv a Riptide and walking out with Liv laying in the middle of the ring.
They show what Sonya Deville did to Bianca Belair last week.
Rhea Ripley is asked why she attacked Liv Morgan and Ripley says what intitles you or anyone else of an explanation? And walks away
Sonya Deville in the ring saying she heard some have been saying she has been abusing her power and she said she did not ask to be put in this position she was forced into it.
Sonya goes on to say she wanted to be in the ring with the best and Belair needed an opponent, so she gave her one. Belair comes out, Sonya stops her and reminds her that she is standing there as a WWE official and if she puts her hands on her there will be repercussions.
Belair says she is ready how about having their match right here tonight. Sonya says how about next week in your hometown of Knoxville. Sonya continues to talk down to Belair and Belair picked her up for the KOD, but Sonya yelled she would make sure she is stripped of the title and fined and Belair tossed her down.
Veer Mahon VS. Jeff Brooks
Mahaan dominated the match. Cervical Clutch and an immediate tap out.
Winner: Veer Mahaan
After the match Mahaan back on Brooks with the clutch and required multiple officials to break it up.
Adam Pearce is shown in the back on the phone. Sonya asked what he is going to do about it. Pearce said Belair is being fined and he personally handled it. But Pearce said she needs to worry about herself, and the higher ups are looking into her conduct. Belair comes in and Deville tells her to leave, and Belair said she is there to pay her fine and gets out and hands Pearce $1 and Deville looked at Pearce and said he went by the book and walked away.
Kevin Owens is out to conduct a lie detector test on Ezekiel. Chad Gable is in the ring with Owens.
Ezekiel came to the ring and said he really wants to take the lie detector test but has one question to ask the people of Buffalo “who wants to hear Zeke speak?”. Owens quickly shuts him down and Gable then begins asking him questions.
Gable asks if Ezekiel was his real name, he says yes, and Gable says he is telling the truth
Owens said he is going to admit he is Elias or else and Ezekiel says or Else what? And Gable attacks Ezekiel.
Ezekiel VS. Chad Gable
Gable went for a moonsault but got hit with Ezekiel’s foot, Ezekiel hits a spine buster then yells who wants to speak with Zeke and puts Gable in a one leg lock but is attacked by Otis.
Winner by DQ: Ezekiel
R-K Bro VS. The Street Profits
As Riddle was going for the RKO on Dawkins, Ford on the apron was waving his arms like calling someone out. The Usos’ music hit causing a distraction and both Orton and Riddle are now looking at the entrance. Ford comes in and dropkicks Orton off the apron. Dawkins gets the upper hand on Riddle and picks him up on his shoulders and tags Ford in who hits the off the top rope neck breaker for the pin.
Winners: The Street Profits
Edge and Damian Priest are shown, and Edge officially challenges A.J. Styles at Wrestlemania Backlash.
A.J. Styles is shown and accepts Edge’s challenge then the lights start to flicker, and he gets attacked by Edge and Damian Priest.
Finn Balor VS. Theory for the United States Championship
Balor clotheslines Theory over the top rope and then dove over the top rope after him but due to damage sustained in this match to his neck he was moving slowly and throws Theory into the ring and went for a Coup de Grace, but Theory moves and hits his A Town Down and pins Balor.
Winner and New United States Champion Theory
After the match A bunch of Superstars come to the ring and put Theory on their shoulders as the celebration continued, Mr. McMahon’s music hits and McMahon comes out to congratulate Theory who takes a selfie with Mr. McMahon as McMahon raises his arm in the air.
Seth Rollins is interviewed backstage and says yes, he has found an opponent for Cody Rhodes and is asked if he would share who it is with the WWE Universe and Rollins says no. “I waited in that ring at WrestleMania and had no idea until he came out, and Cody is going to feel that exact same way tonight.”
The double wedding ceremony is up next.
R-Truth welcomes everyone to the ceremony, as he first announces Dana, he calls her Dana Brookes and Dana stopped him by telling him it is just Brooke.
Dana begins by reading her own vowels, and the crowd did a lot of “What” chants during this. When it came to Tamina, she said “what she said,” Tozawa said “same.” R-Truth asks if there any objections or forever shut your trap. Tamina objected and pulled Reggie to her and pushed Tozawa toward Dana, then she pulled Tozawa to Reggie and went to stand beside Dana. Truth yells that he’s going to get fired because he don’t even know if that’s PG! They move back to where they were at the beginning and Truth says you are now all committed get your smooching on.
As they go to kiss Reggie rolls up Dana to win the 24/7 championship but is quickly pinned by Tamina. Tozawa pinned Tamina. Dana jumps off the top rope and hits Tozawa and pins him.
Dana ends up with the 24/7 championship and was given a piggy-back ride from R-Truth to the back.
Bobby Lashley is interviewed but MVP and Omos is shown and says Lashley wanted all the spotlight to himself and now he is on to bigger and brighter things. Then challenges Lashley to an arm-wrestling match. Lashley says to get to MVP, he needs to go through Omos. And Lashley accepts the arm-wrestling challenge for next week.
Cody Rhodes VS. Kevin Owens
As the match is going on and has spilled outside, Seth Rollins music hits and he makes his way back out. Owens hits a frog splash, Cody kicks out, then Owens hits a senton but again only got a two count. Owens goes for the pop up powerbomb, but Cody hits a hurricanrana then a superkick, Owens turns and hits a superkick of his own. Both go down.
Owens hits a sit down powerbomb again for only a long 2 count. After a few exchanges with Owens on the top rope, Owens hits a fisherman’s suplex off the top but again 2 count as Rhodes gets his foot on the bottom rope to stop the count.
Rhodes dumps Owens over the top rope and Rollins kept telling him to get back in there as the referee hit 7 Rollins says, “Get your fat ass back in there,” at which point Owens said this is your match not mine and walked out and Rhodes wins by count out
Winner by Count Out: Cody Rhodes.
After the match Cody gets on the ropes to look out at the crowd and Rollins strikes and dumps Cody over the top rope onto the floor. As we go off the air.
Wrestling weddings are always eventful as things rarely go according to plan and tonight on Monday Night Raw there will be not one, but two weddings!
The one and only R-Truth will be hosting the double commitment ceremony as Dana Brooke and Reggie and Akira Tozawa and Tamina tie the knot! What can go wrong in a ceremony hosted by Truth? A lot!
Also announced for tonight is Sasha Banks and Naomi defending their WWE Women’s Tag Team titles against Rhea Ripley and Liv Morgan, Finn Bálor defends his United States title against Theory, and Kevin Owens will make Ezekiel undergo a lie detector test!
One of the most popular WWE Network original series, Table For 3, is making a comeback this week.
In the latest schedule published for this week, Table For 3: Angle Academy is listed to be airing on Friday, April 22. This episode will feature WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle along with Chad Gable and Otis.
WWE has not aired a new episode of Table For 3 since December 2019, with the latest episode featuring D’Lo Brown, The Godfather, and Mark Henry in a Nation of Domination reunion.
The company typically films a whole season of the show during WrestleMania week where most of the stars are in the same place for various shows.
ImagineAR today announced the live launch of FameDays.com and the FameDays app, a new augmented reality platform that allows fans to virtually meet and interact with their favorite stars by stepping into the metaverse. FameDays delivers life-size holograms of famous athletes and other celebrities to any location, anywhere in the world to deliver celebratory greetings for life’s special moments.
Several wrestling stars, including Adam Scherr, EC3, Erick Redbeard, Ric Flair, Killer Kross, Scarlett Bordeaux, and Austin Aries, are part of the project.
Using FameDays.com or the FameDays app, fans can instantly deliver an e-greeting from top stars in sports and entertainment. Recipients can then take their photo or record a video with the virtual version of their favorite star as if they were standing alongside them in real life, and instantly share the content on social media.
FameDays greetings are available for a variety of occasions including birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, gender reveals and much more, all at an affordable price (most around $20 or under).
“Nothing beats meeting or receiving a celebration greeting from your favorite athlete in your home, and with FameDays, we can place a life-size hologram anywhere in the world to deliver this celebration video message for birthdays, anniversaries and more,” said ImagineAR CEO Alen Paul Silverrstieen. “Now, using FameDays, fans can then take a photo or record a video with the virtual version of their favorite star as if they are standing right next to them in real life, then instantly share the content on social media.”
One of the big rumors of the potential huge announcement by Tony Khan this Wednesday on Dynamite is an AEW/NJPW super show to be held in a couple of months.
The Super J-Cast podcast was the first one to hint it late last week, saying a date in Chicago for June has been potentially chosen, specifically June 23. That falls on a Thursday and it’s unclear if this will be a pay-per-view or televised on TBS or TNT.
The United Center, the same location where CM Punk made his return to AEW during an episode of Rampage back in August of last year, is the rumored host for this show.
Chicago has been super good to AEW except for the last time around when there was a snow storm, so holding a big show in the city would make the most sense.
Speaking to journalist Ruby Arora in a clip posted on her Instagram account, AEW’s newest arrival Satnam Singh said he did not go to WWE because “they already have Indian people” and wanted to go somewhere where there are no Indians and create history.
The 7’3″ Singh, who is currently training at the Nightmare Factory and made his AEW debut last Wednesday on Dynamite, said that he had trials with WWE at the Performance Center and liked it, but ultimately, the decision was taken to go with something newer.
“AEW is…like brand new. It’s only been a couple of years, right? And it’s really fire. I thought that if I go to AEW, I would be the first again. First wrestler from India. I will make another history for India in AEW.”
He said he wanted to go to AEW to create history not just for him, but for all the Indian wrestlers out there.
