Dynamite is back live on TNT tonight with the fallout from All Out which included two shock arrivals in the form of Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson. Tonight’s episode is from Cincinnati, Ohio, and is billed as Jon Moxley’s homecoming show.
Set for tonight are Malakai Black taking on Dustin Rhodes, Jamie Hayter faces newcomer Ruby Soho, Dante Martin versus Powerhouse Hobbs, and Jon Moxley wrestles NJPW’s Minoru Suzuki.
Plus, CM Punk will have a promo and Bryan Danielson will address fans for the first time on Dynamite.
The Miz will be off WWE television for a while as he has been cast in the upcoming season of Dancing With The Stars, the 30th for ABC.
“I’m learning the Paso Doble, Argentine Tango, Waltz, and FoxTrot are very different moves than a Skull Crushing Finale or Figure Four Leg Lock,” Miz wrote on Twitter. “Honored and excited to be apart of the Season 30 cast of @DancingABC now let’s get to work.”
Miz is part of cast of 15 celebrities which also include country singer Jimmy Allen, Melanie C of the Spice Girls, Christine Chiu from Bling Empire, actor Brian Austin Green, actress Melora Hardin, social media personality Olivia Jade, Matt James from The Bachelor, The Talk co-host and dancer Amanda Kloots, Cobra Kai star Martin Kove, Olympic gold medalist gymnast Suni Lee, reality TV star and model Kenya Moore, fitness personality Cody Rigsby, NBA player Iman Shumpert, and YouTube personality JoJo Siwa.
The Miz is not the first WWE personality who participated in Dancing With The Stars. Previous competitors included Chris Jericho, Stacy Keibler, and Nikki Bella.
Season 30 will kick off on September 20, 2021 on ABC.
In a video posted on his Instagram, NXT Cruiserweight championship Kushida revealed that three weeks ago, he tested positive for COVID-19 and that is why he has been off NXT television for the past several weeks.
Kushida said that his family also tested positive but thankfully everyone is now okay. He said that both he and his wife were fully vaccinated but still got the virus and had symptoms, including losing the senses of taste and smell.
The champ said he is now in recovery as the coronavirus took a toll on him physically but is looking forward to return back to the ring.
AEW World champion Kenny Omega was voted #1 in the 31st annual Pro Wrestling Illustrated Top 500 list, getting his second number one rank of his career following the same placement in 2018.
Omega capped off a memorable year by being the AEW World champion, the Impact World champion, and the AAA Mega champion. While he lost the Impact title to Christian Cage on the first episode of Rampage last month, Omega is still both the AEW and AAA champion. The period that the list was compiled judged wrestlers from the period of July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021.
The top 10 list was comprised of two AEW stars, four WWE stars, three NJPW stars, and one from Impact Wrestling.
WWE Universal champion Roman Reigns was in #2, with PWI noting that “Roman would’ve been #1 in just about any other year” but 2021 belonged to Kenny Omega. WWE champion Bobby Lashley was in #3 and former WWE champion Drew McIntyre was in #4.
Kota Ibushi was in #5, last year’s number one pick Jon Moxley dropped to #6, fan favorite Will Ospreay placed in #7, Finn Balor was in #8, IWGP World Heavyweight champion Shingo Takagi is in #9, and Impact’s Rich Swann wraps up the top 10 list.
During a Q&A chat with AdFreeShows.com, former backstage interview and Raw commentator Jonathan Coachman slammed WWE for the way they treated him in the last run, saying that he has no intention of ever going back to professional wrestling and is focused only on sports.
The Coach was happy during his first WWE run but the death of Chris Benoit changed everything and when his dream job at ESPN came up, he took the opportunity to leave.
Coachman eventually returned to WWE in 2018 with the company knowing full well that he had signed a deal with the PGA to do commentary for the golf tournament that would conflict with several Monday Night Raw dates. While WWE insisted it would not be an issue, it eventually became an issue for them and they tried to force him to change his PGA contract so he does not miss any Raw shows.
Coach refused WWE’s request as he had told them before and they were okay with it but that did not go down well. He also mentioned how Corey Graves had no interest in working with him and made the commentary job that much more difficult.
He explained how he got them the exposure on ESPN after Kevin Dunn called him for a favor and that’s when ESPN was doing the weekly interviews with WWE Superstars and regularly covering WWE on ESPN.COM.
Coachman felt that despite doing everything that they requested of him, he was still being disrespected in the company and eventually left the promotion. He claimed that WWE still owes him several thousands of dollars in unpaid travel expenses.
The revamped NXT next week will kick off with two huge matches, one of them to determine the new number one contender for the NXT title and one for the NXT Women’s title.
NXT GM William Regal announced last night that LA Knight, Pete Dunne, Kyle O’Reilly, and Tommaso Ciampa will be facing each other in a fatal four-way match to see who will go on to face Samoa Joe next for the title.
Also set for next week is Raquel Gonzalez defending her NXT Women’s title against Franky Monet. This will be Monet’s first shot at the title since her arrival in NXT.
The Capitol Wrestling Center has been revamped over the past three weeks and will feature a completely new look, lights, graphics, etc as WWE tries to turn the page with NXT.
Kevin Owens stirred the pot yesterday when he sent a very curious tweet with some coordinates after Fightful Wrestling reported that his WWE contract will be expiring in January 2022, just a few more months from now.
Owens tweeted “43.8791 103.4591” and changed his Twitter location to “Almost there”. Putting the 43.8791N 103.4591W coordinates in Google Maps drops you in South Dakota, and more specifically, Mount Rushmore.
The tweet was eventually deleted but Mount Rushmore is the name of the faction that Kevin Owens, Adam Cole, and The Young Bucks had when they were all part of Pro Wrestling Guerrilla many years ago.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful added that the contract is expiring soon due to an exercise in restructuring of contracts done before the pandemic hit. It is believed that others are also in the same situation which might also lead to an exodus from WWE.
The Labor day episode of Monday Night Raw drew a total of 1,849,000 viewers, down 57,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast.
The show started strong with 1,958,000 viewers, then dipped to 1,842,000 viewers, before ending the night with 1,748,000 viewers.
Raw was #2, #3, and #4 in the top 50 cable chart with 0.54, 0.52, and 0.50 for an average of 0.52, down 0.02 from last week. ESPN’s coverage of college football was #1 with just over 3 million viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Smackdown color commentator Pat McAfee addressed Adam Cole’s departure and arrival in AEW during his Pat McAfee Show. The two, as you know, shared a lengthy feud on NXT which also resulted in McAfee taking on Cole in a one-on-one match at a Takeover.
“That was quite a big moment last night,” McAfee said. “But you know…he’s a piece of sh*t. I mean congrats to him, that’s a pretty big deal…but f*ck that guy! I can’t take this guy, you know dude?”
McAfee then continued, “He’s a terrible scumbag asshole, I can’t say it enough and he proved it again last night,” referring to Cole joining The Elite. “But that was a pretty f*cking big moment,” he admitted.
“A terrible guy, but congrats though and that was really f*cking cool to see and it was great to hear the [Bay Bay]…that f*cker was loud,” McAfee said, before saying to hell with him and changing subjects!
Last Friday’s Rampage on TNT with the go-home episode of All Out drew 696,000 viewers, down 26,000 viewers from the August 27 broadcast. The show did a 0.30 in the 18-49 demo, down 0.04 from the previous episode and finished #4 in the top 50 cable chart. Meanwhile, the Countdown to All Out which aired after Rampage did 361,000 viewers and a 0.18 in 18-49, ending #9 on the chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The last episode of the current version of NXT airs tonight on USA Network as next week’s broadcast will feature the revamped, more colorful brand.
Set for tonight’s broadcast are MSK defending the NXT Tag Team titles agains Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, Zoe Stark and Io Shirai defend their NXT Women’s Tag Team titles against Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro, Carmelo Hayes vs Santos Escobar, Ember Moon vs Kay Lee Ray, and the bachelor and bachelorette parties of Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell will air.
Next week’s episode will feature the wedding of Lumis and Hartwell in the newly re-designed Capitol Wrestling Center as the new era of NXT kicks off.
Netflix today announced Escape The Undertaker, an interactive movie starring The Undertaker and Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Big E of The New Day which will premiere on October 5 in time for Halloween.
The synopsis for this project reads, “The Undertaker has set a trap for the decorated tag team The New Day at his mansion. What they don’t know: The Undertaker’s mansion is an extreme Haunted House, packed to the brim with supernatural challenges. It’s up to viewers to decide the fate of these three poor souls trying to survive the wrath of The Undertaker.”
Taker also tweeted about the movie today, writing, “Be careful whose door you knock on… never know who is on the other side!”
The Netflix press room also released six photos as first look of the interactive movie which you can see below.
All Elite Wrestling announced another Dynamite and Rampage double taping at the brand-new UBS Arena located in Elmont, New York, next to the Belmont Park race track.
The tapings will be on Wednesday, December 8 with tickets going on sale this Friday, September 10 at 10AM ET at AEWTix.com.
The 17,000-seater UBS Arena is a $1.5 billion multi-purpose venue and will be the home of the New York Islanders once it starts operating in November.
In a short video posted on his Facebook, Hall of Famer Mick Foley explained how looking from what we’re watching on TV now, WWE is no longer the place that young talent aspire to be at because AEW is doing a great job attracting both young and proven talent.
“Part of the problem is of your own making,” Foley bluntly said, mentioning how developmental talent in WWE are looking at how they are treated when it comes to main roster. Foley name dropped Karrion Kross and how he’s portrayed on Raw and how he was made a joke when he made his main roster debut.
“If it ain’t broke…don’t fix it,” Foley said. “If I was an aspiring talent now, big league talent with a major decision to make, I’m not sure that I would trust WWE creative to do the right thing with my career.”
Foley admitted that they did wonders with his career back in the day but that was a different time and if it was him now, he wouldn’t trust the powers that be with his career in their hands.
“Until that changes, WWE, you’ve got a problem,” Foley concluded.
The card for Extreme Rules started to take shape with three title matches announced on Raw.
Bobby Lashley will be defending the WWE title against one half of the current Raw Tag Team champions Randy Orton. The two collided yesterday for the tag titles as Lashley teamed with MVP but were unsuccessful in dethroning the new champions.
The United States champion Damian Priest will be defending his title against former champion Sheamus in a SummerSlam rematch. Sheamus won the right to challenge for the title after he beat Drew McIntyre on Raw.
And the third match will be Charlotte Flair going against Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s title. Flair beat Nia Jax last night to retain but Bliss and Lilly showed up on screen to invite Charlotte to play. Charlotte refused, so Bliss appeared in the ring after the lights went out and requested a title shot.
The only previously-announced match for the show was Becky Lynch vs Bianca Belair for the Smackdown Women’s title.
Soccer – association football or simply “football” outside North America – is clearly the most followed sport in the world. Every country around the globe has a national soccer team (with the exception of the Marshall Islands that only has amateur teams). It’s not a rarity for popular soccer clubs to have a large international following. The most popular among Vwin soccer odds in Vietnam is the English Premier League teams – England is the birthplace of soccer, after all, and the home of the most-followed soccer league in the world.
Even if soccer is not the most popular sport in North America, it does have many local fans. What might sound surprising, though, is that professional wrestlers are also among them. Here are some of the WWE superstars who are avid soccer fans.
Drew McIntyre
A two-time WWE Champion, one-time NXT Champion, one-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, and a two-time WWE (Raw) Tag Team Champion, Andrew McLean Galloway IV – known by the ring names Drew McIntyre – is an avid soccer fan. His ancestry may be a reason for his tastes: he is Scottish, born in Ayr.
As you might expect, he is rooting for Scottish Premiership club Rangers FC – The Gers. And what a team he has chosen – the Gers won the Scottish Cup 33 times, and finally beat Celtic in the Premiership after a seven-year dry spell.
Triple H
Triple H, born Paul Michael Levesque, was born and raised in New Hampshire. After playing basketball and baseball in high school, he took up bodybuilding, then transitioned to professional wrestling at the age of 21. And he never left.
Surprising as it may sound, Triple H is a soccer fan – his favourite team is three-time FA Cup winners West Ham United. While he admittedly doesn’t know much about soccer, he continues to root for the London team in its campaigns. And he is vocal about his support for the team, both in real life and on social media.
Rey Mysterio
Rey Mysterio, born Óscar Gutiérrez, was introduced to wrestling at an early age – he was trained by his uncle Rey Mysterio Sr. He made his debut in Mexico at the age of 14 where he performed under several names before his uncle bestowed his current name upon him.
Although he has been a wrestler pretty much all his life, Mysterio is an avid football fan. His favourite is the Spanish club Real Madrid. Back in 2009, when WWE performed in Madrid, he even met with several of his favourite players – including Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká – to invite them to the performance in person.
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, WWE will release Never Forget: WWE Returns After 9/11, an original WWE Network documentary that takes a look at the Smackdown two days following the attacks.
Smackdown in Houston on September 13 was the first public assembly to take place in the United States after 9/11, and for the first time, the full story will be discussed in this documentary.
The near 3-minute trailer features comments by Vince McMahon, Edge, Bruce Prichard, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Paul Heyman, John Bradshaw Layfield, and Booker T.
“That was the most powerful, yet humbling, experience ever,” an emotional McMahon says in the trailer.
Never Forget: WWE Returns After 9/11 will stream on Peacock, WWE Network, and WWE’s YouTube channel starting on September 10.
WWE will also be in New York on September 10 for a special episode of Smackdown live from Madison Square Garden and will hold a non-televised show from Washington, D.C., the next day on the actual 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Bryan Danielson had the honor to close out the All Out pay-per-view yesterday with a passionate speech about why he chose to come to All Elite Wrestling.
Standing in the middle of the ring with Christian, Luchasaurus, and Jungle Boy, Danielson said he is going to keep this short, which wasn’t a popular decision as fans started chanting “No!” And “Talk forever.” He said he wasn’t going to talk forever and joked that he would go and punch each and every person who says otherwise in the face!
The former WWE champ then went on to list why he and others chose to come to AEW over the past months. He said this might get a few boos, but the truth is, “I truly loved where I worked before.” Cue the boos, but then the fans started clapping. He said that he knows a lot of people who loved where they worked before and still left. Cue the cheers!
Reason number one why he left was the incredible talent. He put over Jurassic Express and those who have been in AEW since day one because those are the ones who believed it could be done. Danielson mentioned Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley and “the young men and women who busted their ass on the indie circuit” who came here to deliver.
“The second reason I came here is because God damn you guys are the best fans in the world!” That prompted a few more “Yes!” chants from the fans and Danielson said that as a performer, they have no idea how much it means to them when they cheer and boo in every match.
The third reason he came to AEW is to wrestle. “I never left wrestling, I took wrestling where ever I went. I said wrestling whenever I was not supposed to say wrestling and now I am here to God damn wrestle,” he said as the fans chanted in approval.
“There’s some people around here who call themselves Elite. I’m gonna be here to see if they truly are…so AEW, let’s f*cking go!”
Following the conclusion of All Out, AEW President Tony Khan and the new arrivals faced the media for some questions.
CM Punk put over both Adam Cole and Bryan Danielson and mentioned that their arrival on the show was something bigger than when Hall and Nash made their WCW Nitro debut back in 1996.
Adam Cole mentioned how he knew a while ago that his heart was set on coming to All Elite Wrestling and didn’t have to think twice about it. He said that NXT was great for him and enjoyed it and his meeting with WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon went good and can’t say anything bad about him.
Cole said that he watched AEW while he was in NXT and all he wanted was his matches to be must-see television. Tony Khan said that AEW only lost once in the ratings war with NXT and that “one” was Adam Cole so he had to get him.
Bryan Danielson was next and unlike Adam Cole, he was torn whether or not to entertain the idea of going to AEW as he loved WWE and has a great relationship with McMahon. He said that Vince McMahon was very overprotective of him and limited him physically and being married with kids, his life took a “tamer” turn and needed something to kick it up a gear and that’s when AEW came into the picture.
Danielson mentioned that at WrestleMania, he was missing that connection but now it’s back and is ready to go out there and tear it up. He said that WWE offered him a great deal, calling it “generous” and said that they were also going to let him do stuff outside the company but ultimately decided to come to AEW. He said don’t expect his wife to follow though as she’s happy with WWE and it would be harder for her to leave.
He also said that he might not do the YES! chant himself as it’s a WWE thing and he respects WWE so he wants to move on from that, but obviously can’t stop the fans from doing it. The former WWE champ then put over Tony Khan and the talent in the locker room and said that AEW is true competition.
AEW has pushed their Full Gear pay-per-view by a week to avoid a busy sports schedule on the original November 6 date.
The new date is now November 13 with no location yet announced. The Chaifetz Arena in St. Louis, Missouri, was set to hold both Rampage and the pay-per-view but November 6 now has UFC 268 live from MSG and a boxing pay-per-view featuring Canelo Alvarez as well. When AEW held PPVs head-to-head with other major sports events, the shows suffered in buys so the decision was made to move it up by another week.
The Chaifetz Arena website is still advertising both dates and selling tickets for the Rampage show. Full Gear tickets were not on sale yet.
