Smackdown started with a chaotic scene that led to the removal of Jeff Hardy from the Intercontinental title tournament because he was arrested, playing off the real life issues that Hardy had in the past.
The show started with Elias down outside the Performance Center and EMTs attending to him. It was then revealed that Elias was a victim of a car crash and the person who was driving was wearing a black pants and shirt and ran away.
The car ended up being owned by Jeff Hardy and Hardy was found passed out close to the scene. He was arrested and removed from the semi final tournament match later in the night.
Jeff was supposed to take on Daniel Bryan but was replaced by Sheamus, who last week lost to Hardy in the tournament. Sheamus advanced by winning a 10-man battle royal which also featured Drew Gulak, Jey Uso, Gran Metalik, King Corbin, Cesaro, Shorty G, Cesaro, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Dolph Ziggler.
Elias, who was supposed to wrestle AJ Styles, also did not wrestle since he was taken to a medical facility and AJ Styles chose to take the bye instead and go straight to the finals.
Later on Smackdown, Daniel Bryan defeated Sheamus to advance to the finals of the tournament and will now meet AJ Styles in two weeks time to determine the new champion.
The recently-ended season two of Dark Side Of The Ring will start airing in the United Kingdom on June 8 at 10PM on VICE TV while After Dark will start on June 15.
Season two, with nine new episodes, received rave reviews from fans and critics alike and averaged 258,000 viewers per episode in the United States, up from the 201,000 average of season one. The most-watched episode was the season finale on which tackled Owen Hart’s death with 349,000 viewers.
The episodes which form part of season two are Benoit parts one and two, The Life and Crimes of New Jack, The Brawl For All, Jimmy Snuka and The Death of Nancy Argentino, The Assassination of Dino Bravo, David Schultz & The Slap Heard Round the World, Cocaine & Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story, The Last Ride of The Road Warriors, and The Final Days of Owen Hart.
Speaking to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi, Chris Jericho discussed the angle with Mike Tyson from this week’s Dynamite and the extra eyeballs the segment brought with it to their show.
Jericho described Tyson as a “firecracker” and a “loose cannon” as an entertainer and performer and he’s not the guy you just give a script to. “You don’t rehearse something with Mike Tyson. You just go out there. He’s gonna do whatever the f*ck he wants to do no matter what,” Jericho said, adding that even that is alright because he has 30 years of experience being in the ring and can work with people like him.
Jericho refuted the idea that this was a continuation of a WWE angle and the former AEW champ said that this was a continuation of a Chris Jericho angle. “Last time we were in the ring together, he knocked me out. There’s the story. Whether you’re into wrestling that much or you’re not, it’s very cool,” Jericho said.
Dynamite this week was the most watched in a couple of months and that was certainly helped by the addition of Mike Tyson to the show. Jericho said that Tyson draws people that he couldn’t get because no one is as mainstream as Mike Tyson. He called the segment a “home run across the board” for AEW as a company because every major sport website covered Tyson’s segment.
Asked if there will be a match between the two, Jericho said he can do a wrestling, street fight, or boxing match with Tyson. “I’m not Mike Tyson. I’m not 1/1,000th of Mike Tyson, but I’ve been boxing for six years. I know how to box. I could win fights on my own against people of my skill level. So if that’s what he wants to do, that works too,” Jericho said. “Whatever he feels comfortable with, I can make it good. That’s what I do for a living. That’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years.”
Answering a question about criticism of using other well-known athletes to pop a rating, Jericho admitted that they brought in Mike Tyson to expand the AEW brand’s awareness and told ESPN that if there wasn’t Tyson on their show, they wouldn’t be even having this conversation now.
“We were focusing people to know what AEW is, to grow the audience, to grow our fan base. And that’s how you do it,” Jericho concluded.
Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that WWE announcer Nigel McGuinness was also furloughed by the company last month during the mass layoffs stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
McGuinness was doing NXT commentary with Mauro Ranallo and Beth Phoenix and also doing NXT UK commentary with Andy Shepherd. While there have been no new episodes of NXT UK due to travel restrictions, Ranallo and Phoenix have been doing commentary remotely from their own home for NXT while Todd Phillips joins in-person from Full Sail University.
The British star had been performing pretty good in his roles on the microphone and helped call some of the most memorable NXT matches over the past few years. McGuinness was brought in to WWE by Michael Cole in 2017.
It’s unclear when those furloughed will be returning to the company, if they return at all. Their work will mostly depend on when WWE will be able to run live events again as the majority of them were producers and some were trainers at the WWE Performance Center.
Ross said Muhammad Hassan had a great potential, had a good look, was a smart guy but was saddled with the wrong character at the wrong time. He mentioned that Shelton Benjamin was the best pure athlete that he had signed during his entire WWE tenure. He thought Benjamin’s promos were good because he was himself but needed a manager to convey that message better. Tyson Tomko got stuck in the secondary role, was a nice guy, but didn’t have the charisma. Chris Masters had a lot of potential, but did not improve his ring skills, so the gimmick ran its course. At this time, John Laurinaitis replaced Jim Ross as head of talent relations. Ross said John wanted his own team, even though John was part of the team Ross created. Ross had 5 minutes to tell the roster, who had already been assembled over the years by John, to tell them John now has the job. Ross said there was no reason after signing all these talents and working his ass off, to give the job to “smiling John”. Ross asked how many talents did John sign that was trained and raised in the WWE system. He said John signed CM Punk, but Punk was already a big star before he got there. John said he had a completely different management style. Ross said that he had a more hands and talent friendly than John. Writer John Gerwitz was burned out at this time. Gerwitz was the writer for Raw, in particular for The Rock, whom he still works with to this day. Ross feels Gerwitz was a very good writer, understood the business, and was able to get close to Vince McMahon, which was a good thing. Ross heard wrestlers tell him that Viscera would take Viagra in his hotel room and watch porn. Ross like the announce desk being at ringside as opposed to further away.
SCHOOL OF MORTON: RICKY STARKS 05/28/20
Ricky Morton said he and his son, Kerry, has been operating their wrestling school. They make sure everybody is in good health. After they are done wrestling, the use Lysol and different sprays to wipe down the ropes and the mats. They clean the showers and make sure they do everything they can do remain healthy. Today’s guest was Ricky Starks. Starks has been wanting to wrestle since the age of 7. Mr. Mexico #2 trained him. Starks’s contract with NWA ended this past April. They ended their relationship amicably and has nothing but great things to say about the NWA and enjoyed his time there.
AEW UNRESTRICTED: DARBY ALLEN 05/28/20
When Allen turned 18 years old, he was only 120 pounds. He dropped out of film school. He wanted to make documentaries based on Craig List fetishes. His goal was to interview these people who had strange fetishes and why they were seeking these out. It never came to fruition as the other person he was going to work with, his neighbor, went to jail. Allen lived in his car for 3 years, stating he didn’t want to buy anything he couldn’t afford, and wanted to stay focused on his goal of making it big in wrestling. He described having a girlfriend while homeless was weird. They would go for a ride or to a concert, come back, and sleep in the car. Allen was offered a tryout at the WWE Performance Center but turned it down. He said the people that asked him to come already knew about him and seen his work, so they should either want him or not. He did not want to play the game of trying out, then sent to 205 Live never to be heard from again. He came up with the name Darby Allen using the first name Darby from Darby Crash and Allen from GG Allen, both of which are punk rock singers who are both dead. Even though they both died of drug overdoses, he said they were both captivating personalities. Darby Allen is straight edge. Allen’s next goal is to main event a Pay Per View.
Former Raw ring announcer JoJo and her partner Bray Wyatt welcomed their second child named Hyrie Von Rotunda.
The couple announced the birth of their newborn on their social media accounts yesterday. The two are already parents to Knash Sixx Rotunda who was born in May 2019. This is Bray’s fourth child as he has two from his ex-wife.
The 26-year-old JoJo has not announced for a couple of years and went off the road when she got pregnant with her first child. She said she would eventually return to work but that has not happened and obviously with a second child it’s probably not going to happen any time soon.
NXT this week suffered another defeat with the show getting 731,000 viewers, an increase of 139,000 viewers from last week’s show. NXT did 0.19 in the 18-49 demographic, placing it #24 for the night. This was the most-watched episode of NXT since February 19. Despite the large increase in viewership, the difference between the two shows this week remained very high and was of 96,000 viewers, down 13,000 from last week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The post-Double or Nothing Dynamite, fueled by an appearance from Mike Tyson, pulled in a very good 827,000 viewers, an increase of 126,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. This was the most-watched Dynamite since March 18. The show did also a 0.32 in the 18-49 demographic, placing it #4 in the top 50 cable chart. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
The Dark Side Of The Ring series has become the highest-rated show for Vice TV since it launched four years ago according to a story on Deadline.
Apart from smashing viewing numbers throughout the season, Dark Side Of The Ring was also up 73% on the first season in the 18-49 demographic.
Morgan Hertzan, the EVP & General Manager of Vice TV told Deadline that the network is looking at other ways to explore and expand the franchise. “We are using it to inform other shows that we’re greenlighting. The audience is telling us they love this kind of storytelling so we want to keep delivering on that over and over again,” he said.
The network was also obviously happy about the viewership that the series got throughout the second season. “I am very proud to partner with the incredible creatives at Vice Studios, and tag team executive producers Evan Husney and Jason Eisener who have so skillfully crafted this show. It is in every way the no holds barred type of programming that you can expect to see on Vice TV. Looking forward to the next KO.”
On Twitter, Eisner wrote, “Holy smokes! Thank you to everyone who tuned into our show and made this happen,” reacting to the story by Deadline while his producing tag team partner Evan Husney added, “Cheers to our incredible crew, my tag partner Jason Eisener and all who tuned in to make this possible. I’m floored.”
Another season is all but confirmed and scheduled to air sometime in 2021.
Arn feels that the sky is the limit for Brodie Lee. He said he has all the tools. He is smart, durable, has a head for the business and can have a match with anybody. Arn said that the Undertaker is the most respected man that has ever been in the business. He does not feel the WrestleMania streak should have ever come to an end because it was more special than who is winning the world title. He said this is especially true because Brock Lesner did not need the win to elevate him. Arn did not want to take the Doomsday from the Road Warriors as he felt he had no control over his fall, especially after seeing J.J. Dillon broken arm taking the move in the War Games. When the deal for Arn and Tully Blanchard fell through to come back to WCW because Tully failed a drug test, Arn had to take a pay cut from WCW’s original offer. He said he would not have gone back to WWF when this happened because WWE could have done whatever they wanted and it could have ruined his career. He does not believe Ric Flair would have got the Spartacus gimmick over Jim Herd suggested, even if Ric tried. Arn’s Mount Rushmore for wrestling towns are Chicago, Manchester, Greensboro and Atlanta.
CHASING GLORY: JTG 05/26/20
JTG and Shad Gaspard texted each other every day. When Shad’s wife texted JTG that Shad drowned, he thought it was a prank. When JTG was 19 years old, he went to OVW. He took the Greyhound Bus from New York to Louisville, which was an 18 hour trip every weekend. He was working at AMC at Times Square at this time. The buses started breaking down in the winter time. OVW told him he needs to move down to Louisville. When he moved there, he lived in a hotel. Shad, who was moving out of his apartment, told JTG to move in there. They became good friends at that point as they had very similar backgrounds. When JTG was one a one year old, he got third degree burns on his back from hot water. He said he soiled his diaper and the babysitter gave him a bath and didn’t realize the water was too hot. He spent 6 months in the hospital because of this incident. He never took his shirt off for as he was self-conscience of his burns. He questioned whether he wanted to get into the wrestling business because he knew he would have to take his shirt off in public, which he didn’t do until going to OVW. Shad told him on the day of TV that he was not going out with him until he takes his shirt off. Finally, he did and they told him and nobody noticed. When JTG was in the amateur class in OVW, he was one of the top students. In promo class, he said I am JTG, Just Too Good. When he went to WWE, they asked him what JTG stood for. He knew there were unspoken rules to be humble and saying Just Too Good may get him in the doghouse. He told them it stood for Just Too Gangsta, so they kept the JTG name.
TWO MAN POWER TRIP OF WRESTLING: TONY GAREA 05/26/20
Tony Garea said Jay Strongbow did not do much in the ring but got an amazing reaction because he was such a great seller. When Strongbow made his comeback, the people exploded. In 1973, Ray Stevens and Nick Bockwinkle were supposed to come in to fight Toru Tanaka and Mr. Fuji for the WWWF Tag Team Titles. Stevens and Bockwinkle cancelled. Vince Sr put Garea and Haystacks Calhoun together as a replacement team and they won the tag team titles. Tanaka and Fuji couldn’t do anything with Calhoun, so Garea worked most of the match selling and eventually making the hot tag to Calhoun. Tony Garea spent his career as a babyface. He doesn’t feel he would have made a good heel because he said was not good using heel psychology in the ring. His favorite tag team partner was Rick Martel. When Garea retired from the ring, he became an agent. He said there was a primary and secondary agent. The primary agent at the time was Jay Strongbow, whom he learned under. Garea started as a secondary agent that reported the box office numbers. Garea, between working as a wrestler and an agent, worked for the WWE from 1977-2014.
WRESTLING FRIENDS WITH FLASH MORGAN: RICOCHET 05/26/20
Ricochet said he loved working for Lucha Underground. After seeing the look of the temple and talking with Konnan, he made the decision to work there. He has a lot of friends and good memories from his time there. He loved the look and the feel of how the show was shot. At the time, he was not making good money, so he was happy how much they were paying him per match, while still being able to work the U.K., Japan and pwg. In season 3, they filmed 36 episodes. He had to wait until they aired before he was able to do anything else. Without telling anybody, Lucha Underground took a 3 month break during the season, so he had to wait an additional 90 days before signing elsewhere. He tried to get the 90 days taken down to 30 or 60 days and they said no. He believes the NXT Takeovers were better than any PPV anywhere. He loved his time at the Performance Center. HHH and Shawn Michaels knew how to use him and develop his character.
During the USA Network broadcast yesterday, NXT commentator Mauro Ranallo mentioned Hana Kimura, the 22-year-old Stardom Japanese wrestler who passed away on May 23 of an apparent suicide.
Ranallo made the note during Io Shirai’s entrance before the tag team match started.
“Speaking of social media, cyber bullying is never justified, let’s be better as members of the human race, rest in power joshi puroresu wrestling star Hana Kimura,” Ranallo said.
Shirai was with Kairi Sane when Sane called Stardom founder Rossy Ogawa after noting the tweet that resembled a suicide note appear on her Twitter feed.
Shirai also wore a black armband during the show in honor of Kimura.
The Memorial Day episode of Monday Night Raw pulled another abysmal number of 1,735,000 viewers, down 22,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast and the second least-watched episode in the history of the show.
Hour one started with 1,806,000 viewers, then dropped to 1,726,000 viewers in the second hour, before rounding up the night with 1,673,000 viewers.
Raw was #1, #3, and #4 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #14 in overall viewership for the night on cable. Last year’s Raw on Memorial Day did 2,190,000 viewers. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler, the two members formerly known as The Revival, made their debut on Dynamite last night on TNT using the name of FTR.
Harwood and Wheeler drove in to the Daily’s Place in a black pick-up truck and attacked The Butcher and The Blade after the two jumped on The Young Bucks. Matt and Nick Jackson offered a handshake to show their thanks for getting saved but FTR refused and walked out instead.
FTR – for the moment – stands for “F*ck The Rest” and they will not be using The Revolt name due to a trademark battle with another independent tag team which has been using that name for a few years.
Harwood and Wheeler were released from their WWE contracts on April 10.
Mike Tyson and Chris Jericho reignited their WWE feud 10 years later inside an AEW ring as the two recreated the famous Tyson and Austin pull-apart segment from Raw.
Tyson was accompanied by Henry Cejudo, Rashad Evans, and Vitor Belfort, all recognizable names from the UFC as well as with a couple of other individuals and interrupted The Inner Circle pep rally that was taking place during the main event.
Jericho told Tyson that he had been waiting for this moment for 10 long years, referring to the night that Tyson knocked him out with a punch live on Raw. After a few war of words, Tyson pushed Jericho and Jericho retaliated as the two teams accompanying each star started brawling too.
The locker room emptied as well as everyone tried to separate the two groups.
Mike Tyson then said backstage that he would be back and coming for Jericho and the former champ would get his ass kicked.
The NXT title will be defended at Takeover: In Your House as the longest reigning NXT champion ever Adam Cole goes one-on-one against Velveteen Dream again but this time, there’s an added stipulation.
Last night on NXT on USA Network, Cole “negotiated” with GM William Regal over a Zoom meeting and got Regal to agree that if Dream does not win the title at Takeover, he would never wrestle for the title again as long as Cole remains the NXT champion.
Dream and Cole already wrestled for the title on NXT a few weeks ago but Dream was unsuccessful in winning the big one.
The bigger story here is that Adam Cole’s contract will be expiring in a few months and there are rumors that he has not signed a new deal yet.
Drake Maverick scored an upset victory last night on NXT and managed to advance to the final of the interim Cruiserweight title tournament.
Maverick was part of a triple threat match that also included Kushida and Jake Atlas and the ending came when Kushida had Atlas in an armbar and before he could even tap, Maverick covered him for the victory while he was still locked in Kushida’s submission hold. However, replays showed that Atlas actually tapped out before the third count but the decision was not changed regardless.
Maverick, who was released last month by WWE and is now working his 90-day clause, will now wrestle El Hijo del Fantasma in the final match of the tournament.
The Cruiserweight title tournament was held because its current champion, Jordan Devlin, is stuck in his home country of Ireland due to COVID-19 travel restrictions and could not defend it. He was not stripped off the title so once travel opens up again it’s probably a lock that Devlin will meet whoever is the interim champion at the time.
NXT is a loaded show tonight with a huge main event featuring Timothy Thatcher taking on Matt Riddle in a cage fight with WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle as the special guest referee. The match can only end in a tap-out or knock-out and Angle shared a photo of the impressive structure that the two will fight in. This is not your ordinary cage and will have a platform around the top so they can walk around on it.
The current NXT champion Adam Cole will also be having a “negotiation” with NXT General Manager William Regal regarding the Velveteen Dream, who keeps being a thorn in the side for The Undisputed Era.
Two other matches have been announced in addition, featuring Rhea Ripley teaming up with Io Shirai to take on Charlotte Flair and a partner of her choosing, and a triple threat to determine who will face El Hijo del Fantasma in the interim NXT Cruiserweight title final with Kushida vs Drake Maverick vs Jake Atlas.
The Chris Jericho Rock ‘n’ Wrestling Rager cruise will be returning in 2021, titled Triple Whammy.
Set to sail to the Grand Bahama Island from Miami between February 1 and 5, the cruise will feature a ton of wrestling personalities from past and present along with musical performances from Fozzy, and a taping of AEW Dynamite from the ship.
Announced so far for the cruise apart from Jericho are Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Bully Ray, and Candice Michelle.
The cruise will be onboard the Norwegian Pearl from Norwegian Cruises. A lot of different prices are available depending on type of rooms and amount of people sharing the same room.
SITTING RINGSIDE WITH DAVID PENZER: D-LO BROWN 05/25/20
D-Lo Brown was David Penzer’s guest this week. He started using the name D-Lo Brown in honor of a high school friend who passed away, whose nickname was D-Lo. He enjoyed his time in Smokey Mountain Wrestling and realizes that the heat was real because the wrestling was presented as real. He said there are stories on New Jack he would never tell. When he went to WWF, he was happy to have a role and said riding in the car with Ron Simmons was like getting a degree. D-Lo had so much respect for Simmons he made sure to do everything asked of him so as to not let Ron down. Brown said the day after the match he had with Droz, he was scared to do anything in the ring. He told Jim Ross that he wanted to quit. Ross told him it was an unfortunate accident, but let’s not have two careers come to an end because of this. Brown continued to wrestle and said he altered his style and never did a running power bomb again. He left WWE amicably in 2003 when they couldn’t agree on a new contract. He went to TNA and they wanted to change his name and make him a Matrix character. Brown said he is one of the few that was able to keep his WWE name thanks to Jim Cornette when Brown came to WWF from Smokey Mountain and he was not going to change it after having name recognition from WWE going into TNA. He believes the Aces and Eights storyline ended too early and said if you go back and watch the shows, you will see Bully Ray gave hints that Bully would be the leader while he was still a babyface. He believes that now no company has a live audience, it is very evident that TNA has the best product because of good storylines.
83 WEEKS WITH ERIC BISCHOFF: AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING 2019 05/25/20
Conrad Thompson and Eric Bischoff reviewed AEW Double Or Nothing from 2019 on today’s podcast. Bischoff expected AEW to do well because of their previous show in Chicago but was amazed they sold out so quickly in Las Vegas for this show because of so many options that there are in Las Vegas every day. He said the difference between AEW starting up compared to when TNA starting up was TNA started small and hoped they would find something to become big. AEW went all in with the idea they were big and were perceived as big because they believed in themselves. Bischoff thinks the world of Dean Malenko. Malenko, as a producer, understands the art of communicating and teaching wrestlers what needs to be done. Bischoff said Alex Marvez did a horrible job on commentary. He liked the Cody vs Dustin Rhodes match saying he thought it had a great story, timing, and psychology, but could have done without all the blood. He thought somebody younger, fresher and more relevant than Bret Hart should have presented the AEW title to the winner because the company is promoting something new and something fresh and the Bret comes who came out doesn’t look the Bret Hart as we remember him. Bischoff felt the best match on the show was the Young Bucks vs The Lucha Brothers.
THE BIG GUY: RYBACK 05/25/20
Ryback feels that the comments made by Jim Cornette on Cornette’s podcast about Becky Lynch’s pregnancy was terrible. He feels Cornette stoops to that level to continue to amass a listening audience. Ryback said the angles in wrestling would mean more if the wrestlers didn’t go on social media as friends after the angle is shot. He complimented the Undertaker for never breaking character, and it is ok for him to do this now that he is at the end of his career and may give him even more longevity. He said the only ones staying in character are Baron Corbin and MJF.
TAKING YOU TO SCHOOL WITH TOM PRICHARD: 05/25/20
On today’s episode of Taking You To School, Tom Prichard talked about his time in NWA Hollywood. He enjoyed his time there, as the trips were short, and liked being around the over the top personalities there such as Roddy Piper, Pampero Firpo, and Ox Baker. Baker used to paint his toe nails red and sing opera in the shower. Chris Adams made his first United States appearance for this company. They hit the town a couple times and had a lot of fun. Prichard said Adams was a good guy who was looking for fame and fortune and eventually found it in Dallas.
Tonight’s Dynamite will feature the fallout from Double or Nothing but only two matches have been announced so far.
The first match is a six-man tag match featuring Joey Janela and Private Party taking on Matt Hardy and The Young Bucks. The second is a battle royal with the winner getting the first crack at the TNT title held by Cody.
In addition, Dr. Britt Baker will address her injury, Jon Moxley will appear, new AEW Women’s champion Hikaru Shida will be in action, and Mike Tyson will also be in the house. The Inner Circle will also host a pep rally following their loss to The Elite last Saturday at the stadium stampede match.
