One popular title which wasn’t available yet to purchase as a replica was the NXT UK title. The original version of it, the WWE United Kingdom championship, has been available for a while but ever since the NXT UK brand launched, the title was modified to also include the NXT logo and now the wait is over!
Starting today, the NXT UK title replica is available for purchase for a cool $429.99. It’s probably one of the nicest title belts you can actually purchase, with over five pounds of weight, zinc alloy plates, customizable side plates, etc. The main plate is 10.16″ wide and 0.28″ thick and features a stunning design.
Brian Pillman Jr, the son of the late Brian Pillman, will make his singles All Elite Wrestling debut this coming Tuesday on AEW Dark.
The 26-year-old who wrestles for Major League Wrestling will be taking on Shawn Spears on the YouTube-only show, a match which was taped on Wednesday.
Trained by former WCW and WWE Superstar Lance Storm, Pillman Jr is an exciting up-and-coming wrestler who has several similarities to his father. He was given the Rookie of the Year award by Pro Wrestling Illustrated magazine last year.
In May of last year, Pillman Jr participated in the Casino Battle Royale match at the inaugural AEW Double or Nothing pay-per-view. That was the only appearance for the promotion until now.
Candy Cartwright, the female indie pro wrestler who accused Matt Riddle of sexual abuse during the #SpeakingOut movement, has doubled down on her accusation and even posted a photo of the two kissing each other last year.
Riddle has denied the accusation and actually said that Cartwright has been stalking him for years and had to change his phone number multiple times and almost got a restraining order against her but did not want to ruin her career.
Now, Cartwright uploaded a photo of the two kissing each other on the lips in a car with the date on the iPhone clearly marked May 19, 2019. “If I’ve been ‘stalking for years’ then why is this from 2019? This was also taken after I went to see him on an nxt loop and he got me tickets to two shows,” Cartwright wrote in a tweet today.
In mid June, Cartwright shared a story of how she, along with Riddle and a few other stars were in a van and when the others fell asleep, Matt asked her to “hop on his dick.” When she refused, Cartwright said that Riddle grabbed her by the throat, choked her and said “what if I just made you?”
Cartwright, the former Shine NOVA champ, said she ended up giving him oral sex to get out of having sexual intercourse with him and was praying someone wouldn’t wake up. “It was incredibly humiliating. It is never ok to put your hands on a woman, it’s also not ok to not listen when she says no,” she wrote.
This is crazy. It’s been two weeks and I’m still getting hate messages/threats and seeing stuff like this. If I’ve been “stalking for years” then why is this from 2019? This was also taken after I went to see him on an nxt loop and he got me tickets to two shows… https://t.co/UpnnZwrGU1pic.twitter.com/4iZtwQx2Or
— Candy Cartwright (@CandyCartwright) July 4, 2020
Kairi Sane, who was originally advertised to appear in Asuka’s corner for tomorrow’s Monday Night Raw, has been pulled from the match graphic, extending her absence from WWE television for over a month.
It is believed that the former NXT champion is returning to her homeland of Japan to be with her husband once her contract is up soon and will no longer be part of the WWE roster. Sane arrived in WWE in 2016 and was part of the Mae Young Classic, winning the tournament before making her NXT debut in 2017.
Sane last appeared on WWE television on June 1 in a match against Nia Jax. Kairi was injured during the match, suffering a big nasty cut on her head after Jax threw her in the steel steps from a short distance.
How WWE handles her departure is yet to be seen although some industry insiders hinted that the plan was for someone to do a career-ending injury angle with her and then whoever that person would be would face Asuka at SummerSlam.
Sane, 31, married her husband in February of this year.
After letting the trademark lapse, WWE resubmitted payment and paperwork to keep the trademark of Cody Rhodes alive. Cody had submitted to trademark the name himself when he saw the rare lapse but the law allows some leeway to the trademark holder when it comes to renewals.
Addressing the status of the application after a fan brought it up on Twitter, Cody said that WWE renewing the trademark “is not as sultry/scandalous as reported” and said it’s just business.
“They’ve seen the same data we have, and they know they can make big money off the brand (even though it’s not in their house). Trying to license me is flattering, but it doesn’t stop this train from moving. No grudge,” Cody wrote.
The USPTO website displays the date of May 15 for the renewal and in a statement amended to the application, WWE wrote, “The delay in filing and payment was due to the COVID-19 outbreak.”
The application clearly states that “The name ‘CODY RHODES’ does not identify a living individual,” which is why the company can still trademark it. Cody’s last name is Runnels and WWE always had the Cody Rhodes trademark
On the eve of Independence Day where numbers were expected to be down, Smackdown drew 1,776,000 viewers, down 397,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show had 1,797,000 viewers in the first hour and 1,756,000 viewers in the second hour. The show tied second in both the 18-34 and 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
With coronavirus cases spreading like wildfire, especially in Florida, WWE has made it mandatory for those at the Performance Center to wear a mask during television tapings.
Those who will not wear a mask are those who will be performing in front of a camera, but once they are backstage they have to be wearing a mask. The same goes for all those in the crowd and any friends or family who will be joining, with all of them required to wear one as well.
The company is also introducing fines for those who do not wear a mask, with PWInsider.com reporting that there’s a $500 fine for their first violation and $1,000 for every other offense.
After an outbreak, WWE has started doing swab tests on all their Superstars and crowd a day before each show, allowing enough time for results to come back before taping the next day.
The SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, the planned host of WrestleMania 37, is now at 97% completion ahead of a Summer opening. Works were delayed a little bit due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The stadium installed the largest video board ever created for sports last week, with over 70,000 square feet of 4K LED screens, with the largest end of the board measuring a whopping four stories tall! 260 speakers with enough wattage power of around 1,500 home theater systems power the audio system of this massive video board.
Next year’s Mania, titled WrestleMania: Hollywood, will be the company’s first return to Los Angeles for their biggest show since WrestleMania 21 where the same tag line of “WrestleMania goes Hollywood” was also used.
But there are still doubts if WrestleMania will actually take place at the SoFi Stadium due to the coronavirus pandemic. Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti indicated a while ago that “large gatherings such as concerts and sporting events may not be approved in the city for at least one year.”
One thing is for sure though, if WrestleMania proceeds as planned at the SoFi Stadium, it will surely be a spectacular, showcasing a massive feat of engineering.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, WWE made plans to film at the Performance Center through mid-July. There were plans to move to a nearby arena with fans in July but with the recent spikes in coronavirus cases, especially in hard-hit Florida, those plans went down the drain.
Now, plans are to tape through SummerSlam inside the Performance Center and John Pollock of POST Wrestling published the list of taping dates which are scheduled to take place over the next several weeks. The dates could eventually change depending on the COVID-19 testing and if there are any more complications or outbreaks within WWE.
WWE will tape two episodes of NXT on July 15 that will air on July 15 and July 22 respectively. On July 17, Smackdown will tape and air later in the day. Extreme Rules will be live on July 19 with only one match set to be pre-taped for now. July 20 will have two Raw tapings, one which will air that day and the one airing on July 27. On July 21, two episodes of Smackdown will be taped which will air on July 24 and July 31 respectively. And on July 29, two episodes of NXT will be taped, to air on July 29 and August 5.
The August tapings so far have two episodes of Monday Night Raw on August 3, one which airs later in the day and one on August 10. Smackdown tapings on August 4 which would air on August 7 and August 14. NXT will tape two sets of shows on August 12, one which airs that same day and one the next week on August 19. On August 17, WWE will tape a Raw episode that will air on August 17 and Smackdown that will air on August 21.
SummerSlam weekend will see live NXT Takeover on August 22 and SummerSlam live on August 23. Both NXT Takeover and SummerSlam are supposed to take place in Boston but the chances of that happening is now pretty close to zero unless the pandemic gets under control in the United States.
WWE also originally were set to host the Hall of Fame induction ceremony during SummerSlam weekend but that is once again being postponed.
The NXT main event of Io Shirai vs Sasha Banks drew 900,000 viewers according to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, beating AEW’s main event featuring Kenny Omega and Adam Page vs Best Friends by a total of 255,000 viewers.
While last week the NXT triple threat match beat Dynamite’s main event by an even bigger 300,000 viewers, it’s a big accomplishment for both Shirai and Banks who went up against two of AEW’s most popular figures in Omega and Page. In the 18-49 demo, Meltzer wrote that AEW beat NXT in the main event by just 7,000 viewers.
The 900,000 audience for this week’s NXT main event was bigger than the triple threat match audience which had a total of 852,000 viewers.
Next week, WWE is looking to widen the gap with the much-hyped main event of Adam Cole vs Keith Lee with both titles on the line and the winner taking possession of the NXT and North American titles.
Glenn Jacobs, the Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, better known to wrestling fans as WWE Superstar Kane, got himself in the news after he voted against an order to mandate masks for anyone inside certain buildings.
The motion from the board of health in Knox County still went through with seven votes for and one against, with Jacobs being the only one who voted against.
The ironic thing is that Jacobs spent the majority of his WWE career wearing a mask and now the media is somewhat ripping him for voting against the motion.
With coronavirus cases once again on the rise and out of control in the United States, the use of masks in public places is being mandated in many different parts of the country to try and limit the spread of the pandemic.
WWE has completed a takeover of EVOLVE, buying the company and its most important asset, the tape library, marking WWE’s first acquisition since WCW in 2001. The news was originally broken by PWInsider.com and WWE has not put out an official statement yet.
There was news a couple of weeks ago that WWE was close to agreeing buying out EVOLVE, owned by Gabe Sapolsky and Sal Hamaoui, after the promotion encountered financial issues, mainly after COVID-19 hit. The last iPPV show was in January and not running anything during WrestleMania was deemed to be catastrophic in terms of finance.
Along with the purchase of all intellectual property comes the video tape library of EVOLVE and Dragon Gate USA. EVOLVE has 144 shows in the can, adding a couple of hundreds of hours of action to the WWE Network.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com also adds that several of EVOLVE’s talents will also be signed as part of the takeover and given developmental deals with NXT.
WWE and EVOLVE has shared a working relationship for the past five years and its co-owner, Gabe Sapolsky, is even a consultant for WWE in the NXT brand. WWE sent over their talent most of the time when EVOLVE had a show and EVOLVE has also provided a lot of its talent to the NXT brand.
Dynamite drew a total of 748,000 viewers this week for night one of Fyter Fest, a healthy increase of 115,000 viewers from last week’s record low. Dynamite drew 0.29 in the 18-49 demo and was #6 in the chart. Despite the big jump, Dynamite suffered a rare loss to NXT in the viewership with a total of 44,000 difference between the two shows, down from the 153,000 difference of the previous week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
NXT managed to beat AEW in total viewers for the second week in a row, something which only happened once before. This week’s episode, marketed as The Great American Bash night one, drew 792,000 viewers, up 6,000 viewers from last week and the best number since the February 19 episode. NXT did 0.22 in the 18-49 demo, landing in #13. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Kathy Laurinaitis, the mother of Nikki and Brie Bella and wife of John Laurinaitis, underwent successful brain surgery yesterday.
In a message on social media, Nikki said that the surgery was “very successful” and thanked fans for their prayers and words of encouragement. “Can’t wait for my Mom to see how loved she is. It’s going to mean the world to her. Now prayers for her recovery,” she wrote.
Kathy had to be operated after doctors found something similar to a tumor on her brain stem which has been paralyzing her face. Nikki also thanked the surgeons for taking care of her mother as well as her step father John for being the family’s rock. “We all couldn’t have gotten through today without you! Love you,” Nikki wrote.
Kathy will be spending the next few days in ICU before being moved for recovery.
On June 26, WWE applied to trademark the name Wrestle War, an old WCW pay-per-view name that has not been used since 1992.
Originally, the name was WrestleWar, with no space in between the two words but WWE has now trademarked it with a space in between.
The first two WrestleWar shows were marketed under the NWA in 1989 and 1990 and then in 1991 and 1992 under the WCW name. There were only four instances of the show, with the events in 1991 and 1992 being headlined by WarGames. Eventually the WarGames match got its own pay-per-view name and WCW dropped the WrestleWar event.
All four shows are available to stream on the WWE Network.
Sega Enterprises held a trademark on the name between 1989 and 1996 for their WrestleWar console video game which was released for Arcade in 1989 and Mega Drive in 1991. The game had no association with WCW despite using the name of their show.
TNT champion Cody had a dig at WWE during Fyter Fest, sporting a shirt which is an exact replica of the original Great American Bash logo.
The Great American Bash is an event created by his father Dusty Rhodes and has been a property of WWE ever since the company purchased WCW back in 2001. While Cody has been trying to get his hands on some old WCW trademarks, the particular trademark of this event remains part of WWE’s ever-growing list of intellectual property.
Cody replicated the original Great American Bash logo for his shirt yesterday but instead had The American Nightmare Cody written on it. WWE has not used the original logo and WCW used it up until 1998.
Last week Cody commented on WWE using the name again and said that while the event means a lot to his sister and himself but he’s not holding “much of a grudge on it.”
The AEW World title match between Jon Moxley and Brian Cage will not be taking place on next week’s Fyter Fest as originally scheduled and will instead be held on the July 15 episode of Dynamite.
Both nights of Fyter Fest were taped yesterday in Jacksonville but Moxley was not there as he remained at home after his wife, Renee Young, tested positive for coronavirus. Moxley missed last week’s Dynamite as well due to the same reason. Both Moxley and Young are isolating themselves in different parts of the house and it could take up to two weeks for the virus to show its symptoms on someone after infection. While Moxley tested negative for the virus last week, technically he would have to wait until next week for the all clear.
The July 15 episode of Dynamite is being billed as Fight For The Fallen, another name that AEW used last year as a stand alone event at Daily’s Place.
Tegan Nox became the new number one contender for the NXT Women’s title after winning a fatal four-way elimination match last night on NXT’s Great American Bash.
Candice LaRae was eliminated first from the match thanks to Mia Yim. Yim then was then eliminated next by Dakota Kai, leaving former best friends Kai and Nox as the final two. Nox won the match after hitting the Shiniest Wizard for the pinfall.
It’s unclear when her title shot against Io Shirai will be coming. Shirai defeated Sasha Banks in the main event of The Great American Bash last night which also had interference from both Bayley and Asuka.
Trying to keep momentum from last week’s ratings win, NXT will have the first night of The Great American Bash on USA Network presented with limited commercials featuring a stacked, five-match card.
Three of the five matches are all women and they will be also headlining the show with NXT Women’s champion Io Shirai vs Sasha Banks in a non-title match. The number one contender for that NXT Women’s title will also be decided in a fatal 4-way elimination match with Mia Yim, Tegan Nox, Dakota Kai, and Candice LaRae. The third women’s match is Rhea Ripley vs Aliyah and Robert Stone in a handicap match with the stipulation being that if Ripley loses, she joins the Robert Stone Brand. The two other matches are Oney Lorcan vs Timothy Thatcher and NXT’s first-ever strap match between Dexter Lumis and Roderick Strong.
Night two of The Great American Bash next week will be headlined by Adam Cole vs Keith Lee in a title for title match.
