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Jon Moxley says “never say never” about future return to WWE

During an AMA with Bleacher Report, former AEW champion Jon Moxley said he would not rule out a return to the WWE in the future and in this business, it’s best to say ‘never say never.’

“Because you don’t want to run back what you said years later because you don’t know what’ll happen,” Moxley explained. Mox said that the creation of All Elite Wrestling was vital to the industry of professional wrestling and that’s one of the reasons that he decided to join and be part of the revolution, saying he was proud of it.

Asked if he would take a call from WWE if they ever rang, Moxley said that he would definitely pick up and listen although he doubts they would ever be on the same page. “I’d be open to an idea. I don’t not like money. I got a kid on the way and gotta put it through college, so ya know? I would take a phone call, but I highly doubt anything would materialize,” he continued.

The 35-year-old left WWE in 2019 after an eight-year stint with the promotion, where he won the United States, Intercontinental, Raw Tag Team, and WWE titles.

He made his AEW debut on May 25, 2019 at the company’s Double or Nothing pay-per-view in Las Vegas.

Becky Lynch shows first post-pregnancy photo with baby Roux!

Former Raw and Smackdown Women’s champion Becky Lynch uploaded her first post-pregnancy photo yesterday on Instagram, showing her support to fellow Irish Conor McGregor ahead of his UFC 257 fight while also holding her baby.

“All of us Irish champs stay ready,” Lynch wrote, showing an incredible glow and looking like she’s fit and ready to step back in the ring at a moment’s notice!

The post amassed nearly 600,000 likes in the span of nine hours with many WWE Superstars showing the love in her comments feed.

Lynch has been absent from WWE television since May 2020 when she surrendered her Raw Women’s title to Asuka and revealed live on TV that she’s pregnant.

It’s not known when The Man, now also The Mom, will be returning to the ring.

WWE issues statement on the passing of Larry King

WWE logo

WWE issued a statement on the passing of Larry King, a gigantic figure in television and one of the most sought-after interviewers. King passed away yesterday at the age of 87.

“The talk show titan reimagined possibilities in the world of television with his iconic “The Larry King Show.” Prominent figures from the entertainment, sports and political worlds graced his show nightly, but King made a special impact on the national coverage of wrestling,” WWE’s statement said. “WWE extends its condolences to King’s family and friends.”

The statement also included a quote which King once gave to Sports Illustrated regarding WWE. “They are incredible athletes, their fan following is amazing, but their results are never in the paper. To me, if someone is interesting, then I am curious. And wrestlers — and wrestling — are interesting,” King said at the time.

King was also a friend of WWE, welcoming several guests on his Larry King Show on Ora.TV in 2012 such as John Cena, The Miz and Maryse, Big Show, The Bella Twins, and others. He was named the Social Media Ambassador for Raw in 2012 and brought his show to Raw for a segment, a segment which was crashed by The Miz.

Jinder Mahal returns to the ring after seven months

Jinder Mahal, who has been out of action since late April 2020, returned to the ring on Friday afternoon to participate in the main event of the Superstar Spectacle, a two-hour broadcast which will be airing in India on Tuesday.

The former WWE champion had just returned from 10 months on the sidelines due to a knee injury when he got injured again after just one match on Raw against Akira Tozawa. Mahal had to undergo surgery again on the same knee to fix the issue hopefully once and for all.

Mahal, although Canadian, is of Indian descent and was used in the main event of the show teaming up with The Bollywood Boyz to take on Drew McIntyre and Indus Sher. This was also McIntyre’s first match since being diagnosed with the coronavirus three weeks ago.

The show will air on the WWE Network at 9:30AM ET for those who do not live in India.

Smackdown rating for 01/22/2021

Friday Night Smackdown yesterday did 2,282,000 viewers in the overnight ratings, up 130,000 viewers from last week’s overnight number. Last week’s show ended up with 2,262,000 viewers eventually so this week’s will top even that.

Hour one did 2,284,000 viewers and the second hour did 2,280,000 viewers so the audience remained throughout the whole show. Smackdown was tied #1 in 18-34, tied second in 18-49, and fourth in 25-54 with 0.3, 0.6, and 0.7 ratings respectively. It was last among the major networks in terms of viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Impact rating for 01/19/2021

Impact Wrestling this week drew 147,000 viewers for the post-Hard To Kill pay-per-view, down 14,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show did a 0.03 in the 18-49 demographic and placed #145 in the cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Quarter finals for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic 2021 tournament set

With Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament matches happening on both NXT and 205 Live, the quarter finals have already been set.

The left side of the bracket has The Undisputed Era vs Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher, and Kushida and Leon Ruff vs Grizzled Young Veterans.

The right side of the bracket consists of MSK vs Drake Maverick and Killian Dain, and Lucha House Party vs Legado Del Fantasma.

Meanwhile, over at the women’s tournament, Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell advanced to the next round after beating newcomers Gigi Dolin and Cora Jade also on 205 Live.

Updated names for the 2021 Royal Rumble match

Names for the Royal Rumble over-the-top rope match continued to be added this week on both Raw and Smackdown and with one week to go for the show, there are 13 men and 12 women announced so far for the match.

The men who will be entering the match so far are AJ Styles, Big E, Bobby Lashley, Cesaro, Daniel Bryan, Dolph Ziggler, Jeff Hardy, Jey Uso, Otis, Randy Orton, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, and The Miz. That leaves 17 open spaces, many of which will be filled next week and some left as surprise entrants.

The women in the match include Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair, Dana Brooke, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Nia Jax, Peyton Royce, Ruby Riott, Shayna Baszler, and Tamina. That leaves 18 other empty spaces which will be also filled by NXT stars and some other WWE Legends since the pool is not deep enough to support 30 main roster women.

The winner of each individual match will get a title shot at WrestleMania. Last year, Drew McIntyre chose the WWE title held by Brock Lesnar while Charlotte Flair chose the NXT title held by Rhea Ripley.

NBCSN shut down could affect NXT’s Wednesday night time slot on USA

NBC Sports Network, the channel which carries many live sports, announced that it is shutting down the service at the end of 2021 and moving its live sports to USA Network and it’s streaming service Peacock.

Why this could be of an interest to WWE is that NBCSN airs the NHL on Wednesday nights right now and if the NHL decides to renew its deal with NBCUniversal, it’s pretty much nearly a lock that NHL would move to USA Network on Wednesday nights. Despite being in around 6 million less homes, NHL on NBCSN draws far more viewers than NXT does on USA Network, which is available in 86 million homes.

Taking everything in consideration – the younger audience, the lucrative contract, a larger audience, and more advertising money – NXT would have to be bumped to a different day. WWE’s deal with NBCU regarding NXT expires this year and negotiations are ongoing for a renewal. With Monday, Wednesday, and Friday being occupied with Raw, NHL, and Smackdown, Tuesday would be the other day where NXT could air as Thursday there’s NFL as well and WWE would want to avoid running against the NFL as well on Thursday nights.

Raw’s place on Monday nights has been safe since its inception and it is highly unlikely that any other broadcast will move Raw to a different night.

NBCSN has not said which sport is going to which station yet. The channel owns the rights for NHL, NASCAR, the English Premiere League, and the Olympics among others.

Superstar Spectacle to air on WWE Network next Tuesday

The Superstar Spectacle show which is being taped today for the Indian market will air on the WWE Network at the same time that it will air in India. The show in the United States will stream at 9:30AM ET on Tuesday, January 26, which also happens to be India’s Republic Day.

In India, the show will air on Sony Ten 1, Sony Ten 3, and Sony MAX and will feature matches involving Indian talent who are currently under a WWE developmental contract as well as Jinder Mahal and The Bollywood Boyz.

Set at the WWE ThunderDome, Superstar Spectacle will incorporate elements of traditional and contemporary Indian culture among matches featuring WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, Rey Mysterio, WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Charlotte Flair, AJ Styles, Bayley, The New Day, Shinsuke Nakamura, Cesaro, Smackdown Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, Natalya, Ricochet and many more plus an appearance by WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair.

NFL’s Super Bowl LV attendance details serve as preview for WrestleMania

In what could be a sign of things to come for WrestleMania, the NFL announced that the Super Bowl at the Raymond James Stadium will have 22,000 fans in attendance, 7,500 of whom will be vaccinated health care workers from Central Florida.

Raymond James Stadium holds 65,000 fans and is expendable up to 75,000 fans if needed, with the 2017 CFP National Championship Game holding the attendance record of 74,512 so far.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that the 7,500 health care workers will be getting free tickets for the event as a thank you for putting their own lives at risk to serve others. The other 14,500 fans will be ticketed and there will be mandatory mask-wearing, social-distancing, podded seating, touchless concession stands and other security checkpoints.

WWE has so far refused to say how much fans they’re planning to allow inside the stadium for WrestleMania but you can bet it will be more than 22,000, making it the largest-attended sports and entertainment event in a year.

The company is supposed to announce ticket details as well as safety protocol in the next few weeks. Fans from several countries, including those within the European Union as well as the United Kingdom and Ireland, cannot travel to the United States due to a ban in place to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. President Trump had signed an order to lift this ban on January 26 but now President Biden’s administration has said that the ban will remain in place.

WWE Backstage returns during Royal Rumble weekend on FS1

FOX Sports announced that WWE Backstage will be returning with a special for the Royal Rumble, airing in primetime at 8PM on Saturday, January 30, on the eve of the Rumble.

Renee Paquette will return to anchor the show along with Booker T and Paige. Paige has not done anything WWE-related since Backstage stopped airing in June of last year. Despite Renee leaving WWE, she still has a contract with FOX and WWE Backstage is a FOX Sports production rather than a WWE one so they can use whoever they want to a certain extent.

Backstage was set to return for one night in October when Smackdown aired on FS1 but it was replaced by a live episode of Talking Smack instead.

The FOX Sports announcement also showed that Backstage will be replayed at Midnight ET and the next day at 5PM ET on Royal Rumble Sunday.

Sting announced for a street fight at AEW Revolution pay-per-view

Sting will be lacing up his wrestling boots one more time as the WWE Hall of Famer and former multi-time champion will be teaming up with Darby Allin to take on Brian Cage and Ricky Starks at the upcoming AEW Revolution pay-per-view, set to air on February 27.

This is Sting’s first official match in the promotion and his first since that Night of Champions pay-per-view against Seth Rollins. During that match, Sting suffered a career-ending injury – or so it was thought at the time – when Rollins delivered a buckle bomb on him. Sting was visibly injured and could barely stand up. It was his final match in a WWE ring and his injury led to a diagnosis of spinal stenosis. It will be interesting to see how the betting odds line up for this match next month and websites such as bethard will offer deals.

Sting has said a few weeks ago that he would like to be involved in cinematic matches for AEW but the company didn’t announce if this match will follow that style yet. With this being a street fight, it could very well be a cinematic match and even if it’s not, it will still protect Sting since there’s an unlimited number of ways to work such a match versus a traditional wrestling match in a ring.

The Stinger has somewhat aligned himself with the TNT champion since his arrival in early December and has been a thorn in Team Taz from day one. His surprise appearance at the Winter Is Coming themed-episode of Dynamite left many fans excited of the prospect of watching Sting wrestle again, especially on TNT where he spent the majority of his career while wrestling for the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling.

Now 61 years of age with a career spanning over three decades, it’s certainly a big ask if he’s put in a position where he needs to go one-on-one in a regular wrestling match against a current AEW star. While he certainly looks fit to do it, his neck problem is still somewhat there and one wrong move could be catastrophic.

His first match for WWE came almost six years ago at WrestleMania 31 where he lost to Triple H in his Mania debut despite the assist from the nWo. After WrestleMania, he disappeared from television but returned in August on Monday Night Raw, challenging the then-WWE champion Seth Rollins at Night of Champions. He wrestled Big Show, winning via DQ, and later in the night he teamed up with John Cena to take on Big Show and Rollins. Adding the Night of Champions match, Sting only had four matches in WWE and called it quits at the Hall of Fame ceremony the next year in 2016.

Sting made sporadic appearances on WWE television after that but in May of last year, his deal with WWE expired and in October, the merchandise deal expired as well and WWE ended all business with him.

Dolph Ziggler’s brother Ryan to make AEW debut next week

Ryan Nemeth, the brother of WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler, will be making his AEW debut this Wednesday night on Dynamite in a match against Hangman Page.

The match was announced on AEW’s social media and is obviously getting a bit of attention due to the fact that Ryan is Ziggler’s brother. Ziggler even replied to the AEW tweet with the announcement of the match, posting eyes emojis.

The 36-year-old Nemeth wrestled for Ohio Valley Wrestling for a year before moving to WWE’s Florida Championship Wrestling in 2011, wrestling under the name of Briley Pierce. He also wrestled on NXT a couple of times but was released from the promotion in 2013. He is a former FCW Tag Team champion with Brad Maddox.

Nemeth has not wrestled for a promotion in a couple of years so this could kick-start his career again.

NXT rating for 01/20/2021

NXT suffered another heavy defeat this week, even though it increased greatly from last week’s number. This week, the show did 659,000 viewers, up 108,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. It had a 0.15 rating in the 18-49 demographic and placed #67 on the chart, once again outside the top 50. The difference between the two shows was of 195,000 viewers, down slightly from last week’s 211,000 viewers difference. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Dynamite rating for 01/20/2021

Despite competition from the Biden Inauguration, AEW scored big in the ratings, getting a total of 854,000 viewers, up 92,000 viewers from the previous week. The show did a 0.36 in the 18-49 demographic, landing in #33 for the night on the top 50 cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

Private Party gets Impact Tag Team title shot at No Surrender

Private Party will get their Impact Wrestling Tag Team title shot against The Good Brothers at the No Surrender Impact Plus special on Saturday, February 13.

Impact Wrestling announced the show this week, a show which will air only for those fans who have an Impact Plus subscription. No Surrender is a name that has been used as a TNA pay-per-view from 2005 to 2012 before it was turned into themed episodes of Impact in 2013, 2014, and 2015. The company brought the name back in 2019 for a show from Dayton, Ohio.

Private Party, the team of Marq Quen and Isiah Kassidy, won a number one contenders match against Chris Sabin and James Storm on this week’s episode of Impact.

This match is a continuation of the relationship between Impact Wrestling and All Elite Wrestling with wrestlers – and executives – from each promotion appearing on both shows.

The Undertaker ruffles a few feathers with comments on Joe Rogan podcast

During the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, The Undertaker ruffled some feathers, comparing the men backstage during his time to today’s generation…and it was not pretty.

“In the era of guys, too, those were men. You go into a dressing room nowadays and it is a lot different,” Taker told Rogan. “I remember walking into my first real dressing room and all I saw were some crusty f*cking men, half of them had guns and knives in their bags. Shit got handled back then.”

Then came the zinger at today’s crop of WWE Superstars. “Now you walk in, there are guys playing video games and f*cking making sure they look pretty,” Taker added, holding nothing back. “It’s evolution, I guess. I don’t know what it is, but I just like those eras, man. I liked when men were men.”

Xavier Woods, who is known to be one of those men playing video games backstage, didn’t appreciate the comment much.

“I wouldn’t be the person that I am without the guidance and lessons of a few key people from the previous generation of wrestling,” Woods wrote in a tweet. “They taught me about the business, to save my money, & that having video games in the locker room is healthier than having [redacted]. Thank you guys.”

The Undertaker also said that he tries to follow everything WWE but it’s tough for him right now because the product “is kinda soft.” He admitted that he’s probably going to piss a lot of people off for saying this but they need to hear it one way or another.

“I just think the product is a little soft. There’s obviously guys here and there that have an edge to them, but there’s too much pretty and not enough substance I think right now,” he said.

AEW announces tournament to determine new challenger for Women’s title

A 16-woman tournament will determine the new number one contender for Hikaru Shida’s AEW Women’s title. The tournament was announced on Dynamite yesterday but no other information was given.

The image used to promote the eliminator tournament shows the empty bracket and the United States flag on the left side and the Japanese flag on the right side. The placement of the flags on the respective empty brackets was not explained.

After the announcement, Japanese wrestler Emi Sakura tweeted that it’s her time to get another title match for the AEW Women’s title and this time, it’s coming home to Japan with her. Sakura wrestled for AEW in 2019 and unsuccessfully challenged Riho for the title at Full Gear that year.

Hikaru Shida has been the champion for nearly 250 days, winning it last year at Double or Nothing.

Taya Valkyrie departs from Impact Wrestling

Former Impact Knockouts champion Taya Valkyrie has wrapped up her commitments with Impact Wrestling and is no longer with the promotion according to PWInsider.com.

Valkyrie was revealed as the one who shot John E. Bravo on Impact Wrestling and was arrested during Tuesday’s show, effectively writing her off the show. Tommy Dreamer, who was part of the segment, took a dig at both AEW and WWE, wondering if she was going to be taken to the Jacksonville Penitentiary or to the Stamford Prison, where she would be jailed for two years with an option to extend for a third year!

Valkyrie’s contract apparently expired in December according to PWInsider.com but she stayed on to finish the angle and put over Impact Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view.

Valkyrie, who is 37 years old, joined Impact in 2017 and remains the longest-reigning Knockouts champion in the history of the promotion, keeping it for 377 days.