Matt Cardona, the artist formerly known as Zack Ryder, made his Impact Wrestling debut last night at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view in an unscheduled match against Ace Austin.
Cardona briefly appeared for AEW late last year but the company opted not to sign him to a full-time deal and he has not appeared on TV since then. Cardona was one of the many who were released by WWE in April due to the coronavirus pandemic cost-cutting measures.
“I needed tonight. Thanks @ScottDAmore for the opportunity. Thanks @IMPACTWRESTLING. Thanks to all my fans! I’m #AlwayzReady…I’m #HardToKill…and I’m NOT DONE with @The_Ace_Austin & @FultonWorld,” Cardona tweeted after his appearance on the show.
His former WWE tag team partner Brian Myers has just recently signed a new deal with Impact.
Here are the results from last night’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view which took place from the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Brian Myers defeated Josh Alexander in the pre-show; Rosemary and Crazzy Steve defeated Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K in an intergender match; Eric Young, Deaner, and Joe Doering defeated Cousin Jake, Rhino, and Tommy Dreamer in an old school six-man tag match; Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz defeated Havok and Nevaeh to win the Knockouts Tag Team titles; Matt Cardona defeated Ace Austin; Manik defeated Chris Bey and Rohit Raju in a triple threat to retain the X Division title; Deonna Purrazzo defeated Taya Valkyrie to retain the Knockouts title; The Karate Man defeated Ethan Page; Eddie Edwards defeated Sami Callihan; Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers defeated Rich Swann, Chris Sabin and Moose in a six-man tag match.
After they missed out on WrestleMania 37, Inglewood and the Los Angeles area will get their WrestleMania in 2023.
The city was scheduled to host this year’s WrestleMania but local officials had already said last year they would not be holding mass events due to the coronavirus pandemic. That forced WWE to go back to the WrestleMania 36 original plans and hold this year’s Mania in Tampa Bay.
In the WrestleMania Report video that WWE did, it was John Cena who made the announcement, first appearing in a full tuxedo but then ripping it off to show his usual wrestling gear.
“The City of Inglewood looks forward to the opportunity to host WrestleMania in 2023 and celebrates the deferral of this year’s event to Tampa Bay so they can have their rightful WrestleMania moment. Our time will come,” said Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr.
WrestleMania 39 will take place on Sunday, April 2, 2023 from the SoFi Stadium and just like next year’s Mania in Arlington, the hope is to have a full crowd at the brand-new facility.
WrestleMania 38 in 2022 already has a host and WWE is thinking big as the show of shows will be returning to Arlington’s AT&T Stadium in Texas.
Host of WrestleMania 32, the AT&T Stadium currently holds the WrestleMania indoor attendance record of over 100,000 fans and with hopefully the coronavirus pandemic in the rearview mirror by April 2022, just as many fans will be able to pack the stadium once again.
The date will be Sunday, April 3, and unlike this year’s Mania, it’s listed only as a one-night event. The news of the event was given by Sasha Banks in a spoof news video.
“We are elated for WrestleMania’s return to Arlington’s AT&T Stadium and look forward to building upon the success from 2016 when more than 101,000 fans were in attendance for WrestleMania 32,” said Arlington Mayor Jeff Williams.
WWE has announced the location of the next three WrestleManias in an unprecedented move, assigning this year’s WrestleMania 37 to Tampa Bay, next year’s WrestleMania to Arlington, Texas, and WrestleMania in 2023 to Inglewood, California.
The official announcement made by John Cena, Roman Reigns with Paul Heyman, Sasha Banks, Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque in a video.
This year’s WrestleMania will once again be a two-night affair taking place on Saturday, April 10, and Sunday, April 11 at Raymond James Stadium.
“Florida is excited to welcome back WrestleMania to Tampa in April at Raymond James Stadium. Florida has continued to work with professional sports and entertainment to safely operate while generating revenue and protecting jobs. WrestleMania will bring tens of millions of dollars to the Tampa area and we look forward to hosting more sporting and entertainment events in Florida this year,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
“The opportunity for Tampa Bay to host WrestleMania in April is, in true WWE fashion, the perfect comeback story and marks a clear indication that our beautiful city is poised to bounce back stronger than ever. We can’t wait to once again showcase all that team Tampa Bay has to offer,” added Tampa Mayor Jane Castor.
In coordination with local partners and government officials, WWE will announce ticket availability and safety protocols for WrestleMania 37 in the coming weeks. Information on additional WrestleMania Week events is forthcoming.
In figures released by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, the Dynamite main event of this week did nearly 400,000 more viewers than that on NXT and nearly 275,000 more viewers in the 18-49 demographic.
Dynamite had a TNT title match featuring Darby Allin defending the title against Brian Cage, a match which pulled in 811,000 viewers and 425,000 in 18-49. Over at USA Network, NXT presented The Undisputed Era vs Breezango in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic as its main event, but the match failed to gather any interest, with only 496,000 viewers tuning in and just 152,000 in 18-49.
Meltzer also noted that after Dynamite ended, only 36,000 viewers tuned in to USA to watch the overrun, which is probably the lowest ever since the two shows started competing against each other.
Live from the Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, Impact Wrestling presents its first pay-per-view of 2021, Hard To Kill. The full card is as follows:
Rich Swann, Chris Sabin, and Moose vs Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers in a six-man tag team match; Deonna Purrazzo vs Taya Valkyrie for the Knockouts title; Manik vs Chris Bey vs Rohit Raju in a triple threat match for the X Division title; Havok and Nevaeh vs Kiera Hogan and Tasha Steelz for the vacant Knockouts Tag Team titles; Eddie Edwards vs Sami Callihan in a barbed wire massacre match; Eric Young, Deaner, and Joe Doering vs Cousin Jake, Rhino, and Tommy Dreamer in an old school rules six-man tag team match; The Karate Man vs Ethan Page; Rosemary and Crazzy Steve vs Tenille Dashwood and Kaleb with a K in an intergender tag team match; and Brian Myers vs Josh Alexander in the pre-show match.
The show is available to stream via Fite.TV for $39.99 in North America and $19.99 for the rest of the world.
Friday Night Smackdown on FOX drew 2,152,000 viewers in the overnight ratings, an increase of 150,000 viewers from last week’s overnights. The final rating for last week ended up being 2.12 million viewers.
The show started strong with 2,200,000 viewers in the first hour and then had 2,105,000 viewers in the second hour. Smackdown tied first in 18-34 with a 0.3 rating, tied second in 18-49 with a 0.6 rating, and tied third in 25-54 with a 0.8 rating. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The WWE Network in India is no longer available through the usual website and is now controlled via Sony Pictures Network and running on their OTT platform SonyLIV.
Offered for 299 Indian Rupees for 12 months, equivalent to $4, the plan will offer the usual WWE pay-per-views, NXT, and over 29,000 hours of WWE action. Ads will run during live events. Offline watching is available as well and the access is restricted to only one user per account.
An e-mail sent to WWE Network subscribers in the country last month gave a warning on the upcoming changes, saying, “We’d like to inform you that beginning January 2021, WWE Network in India will exclusively be available via Sony LIV. As a result, your current WWE Network subscription will not renew. You can still catch your favorite WWE action on Sony Ten 1 and Sony Ten 3 channels. Please check out local listings for more details about when this programming is scheduled in your local area.”
Former WWE Superstar Michelle McCool reveled in a post on Instagram that she has tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week.
McCool, who is married to The Undertaker, said she has no clue where or how she got coronavirus and what she thought were allergies turned out to be a positive test.
“Blessed to have mild symptoms…super blessed I’m the only one in our home who has it,” she wrote, adding that she’s also super blessed that her daughter made an 8-foot long “COVID communication telephone” while also attaching the hilarious photo.
“I’d give anything to hug & love on her right now! Y’all stay safe & healthy,” she concluded.
Young Rock, the new comedy series from NBC based on the life of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, will premiere on February 16 at 8:30PM ET.
Production on the newest NBC series kicked off in October in Australia and will focus on the childhood years of Dwayne Johnson, growing up surrounded by professional wrestling and football. He will also be starring in the show as himself and will appear in every episode.
Adrian Groulx, Bradley Constant, Stacey Leila, Joseph Lee Anderson, Uli Latukefu, and Ana Tuisila are set for the other leading roles as 10-year-old Dwayne Johnson, 15-year-old Dwayne Johnson, Ata Johnson, Rocky Johnson, 20-year-old Dwayne Johnson, and Lia Maivia respectively.
The official synopsis from NBC reads, “Young Rock focuses on different chapters of Dwayne Johnson’s life. From growing up in a strong and resilient family, to being surrounded by the wild characters of his professional wrestling family, to playing football at the University of Miami, the show will explore the crazy rollercoaster that has shaped Dwayne into the man he is today and the larger-than-life characters he’s met along the way.”
Young Rock is co-written by former Fresh Off the Boat showrunner Nahnatchka Khan and her longtime collaborator Jeff Chiang. Both will exec produce alongside Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions’ Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz and Jennifer Carreras.
The 11-episode season one was announced in January 2020 by NBC Entertainment Chairman Paul Telegdy.
Adam Pearce is not lacing up his wrestling boots again as the man in charge has managed to find himself a way out of wrestling Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble.
There was a contract signing segment held last night on Smackdown between Reigns and Pearce but after both signed on the dotted line, Pearce said that he has an old knee injury that prevents him from getting in the ring and since the card is subject to change and he has the power to do so, well, he’s going to find a replacement to take on Reigns instead.
Pearce then introduced Reigns’ challenger for the last man standing match at the Royal Rumble…none other than Kevin Owens! Owens came out with a smile, signed the contract and the show went off the air.
Last time we saw Owens on Smackdown, Reigns and Uso destroyed him and Reigns threw Owens from where the video walls are set up.
Alex Shelley, one half of the Motor City Machine Guns, has been taken off from tomorrow’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view main event.
Shelley was set to team up with Chris Sabin and Impact champion Rich Swann to take on AEW champion Kenny Omega and the Impact Tag Team champions The Good Brothers.
A press release issued by Impact Wrestling stated that “due to unavoidable circumstances,” Shelley will be unable to travel to Nashville for the show.
Replacing Shelley will be Moose, who will now tag team with Swann and Sabin instead.
“When we got the news from Alex there was no question what we needed to do. Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures,” said Impact Wrestling Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore. “I personally contacted Moose and he accepted the match immediately. I know Rich Swann in particular has his issues with Moose, but this is time to put personal issues and egos aside.”
WWE will be soon announcing that this year’s WrestleMania is moving dates – and probably even locations – as the original date of March 28 is being scrapped.
Sean Sapp of Fightful Wrestling reported today that the new date will be Sunday, April 11, making this year’s WrestleMania the latest on the calendar in the history of the event. The idea behind the move is that WWE is hopeful to allow some fans in the location wherever it will be held and pushing the event back a few weeks will increase those chances.
Originally set for the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the show is also expected to be moved to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium. Tampa Bay lost out on hosting the show last year due to the pandemic and WWE ended up having the show inside the small Performance Center instead.
With the Royal Rumble just two weeks away and the build towards WrestleMania starting after the show, it is expected that WWE announces the new details over the next couple of weeks.
Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for, the highly anticipated Bella babies have arrived.
First, came Nikki’s and Artem’s baby, Matteo, on July 31, 2020. Nikki actually began laboring on July 30, but, didn’t end up having the baby until the next day. In fact, Nikki was nearly forced to have a cesarean section. However, she managed to pull strength from somewhere deep within, and, give birth to her baby boy naturally.
I am amazed that she actually pushed for two whole hours! Good job, Nicole!
Nicole’s sister, Brie, followed quickly on her heels giving birth via cesarean on August 1, 2020. She also gave birth to a healthy baby boy named Buddy Danielson, after his paternal grandfather who passed away. An extremely special part of both births was that the sisters were both in the hospital the time, and therefore, were able to visit one another, and, hold each other’s babies. As both couples remarked, it’s almost as though they are brothers from different mothers. They will certainly grow up as friends for life.
One thing that made the birthdays all the more special was that the twins’ mom, Kathy, was able to hold both her grandbabies while recovering from brain surgery. She said that holding both boys at the same time, brought back memories of holding her twin baby girls, Nikki, and Brie. She also said that she was glad that she had done the brain surgery prior to the boys’ births. This way she was able to hold the boys which certainly helped in her healing. Here’s hoping that she continues to recover, and can spend time with her grandbabies for years to come.
Congratulations to both families and best wishes for the continued health and safety of their boys.
Fueling more rumors that Jay White is departing New Japan Pro Wrestling, his profile on the official NJPW website has been completely removed and is nowhere to be seen.
It is believed that WWE is trying their best to land the signature of the popular 28-year-old from New Zealand who spent most of his wrestling career wrestling for NJPW. Known also as Switchblade, he is a former IWGP Heavyweight, Intercontinental, and United States champion, and has never competed for WWE.
During the Wrestle Kingdom post-show press conference earlier this month, White expressed his desire to leave New Japan after the New Year Dash event, an event which took place on January 6. White teamed up with his Bullet Club team mates to lose to CHAOS in a 10-man tag team match at New Year Dash.
White main evented Wrestle Kingdom 15, losing to Ibushi in a match for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles.
This week’s episode of Impact Wrestling on AXS TV drew 161,000 viewers, up 13,000 viewers from last week’s number. The show had a 0.05 rating in the 18-49 demo, placing #126 on the cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
World Wrestling Entertainment will be reporting its fourth quarter and full year 2020 results on Thursday, February 4, 2021 after the close of the market.
Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Kahn, Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon, and Chief Financial Officer Kristina Salen will host a conference call beginning at 5:00PM ET to discuss the results.
WWE stocks have risen 7.5% since the start of the year, closing the trading day yesterday at $53, giving the company a market cap of $3.9 billion.
Dark Side of the Ring will kick off its third season with an episode covering the death of Brian Pillman.
The news was announced during the Cari & Jemele (Won’t) Stick to Sports show on VICE, which had Stone Cold Steve Austin as the special guest. Austin also revealed that he was interviewed for the Pillman episode, his first appearance on the highly-acclaimed series.
Austin and Pillman share a rather long history together, having teamed up in WCW as the Hollywood Blonds and then had an epic rivalry in WWE which culminated with Austin storming Pillman’s home with a gun. Ah, the Attitude Era!
Pillman passed away on October 5, 1997, the day he was supposed to wrestle Dude Love at the In Your House: Bad Blood pay-per-view. Pillman was found dead in his hotel room in Bloomington, Minnesota and an autopsy revealed that a heart attack was the cause of his death.
Season three of Dark Side of the Ring will be the biggest one yet, with 14 episodes.
Dynamite comfortably won the night on Wednesday against NXT, getting a total of 762,000 viewers, up 100,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast, bringing a successful end to the two-night New Year’s Smash broadcasts. Dynamite did 0.30 in the 18-49 demographic and placed #31 in the top 50 cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
