Stuart Charles Tomlinson better known as NXT developmental talent Hugo Knox was released from his contract recently, the departure is said to be mutual.
Tomlinson was signed in December 2013, making his debut at a WWE NXT live event on November 8th, 2014.
He has confirmed the release by retweeting and commenting the following.
On the latest edition of The Ric Flair Show, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair discussed Dolph Ziggler’s future on WWE television. Following the news of Ziggler putting his career on the line in a match against The Miz at No Mercy, Flair took to his podcast to share a rumor he had heard about Ziggler’s status.
The Nature Boy revealed that he’s been told Ziggler’s contract expires after No Mercy. Flair said he hopes this isn’t the case as he’s a big fan of the former World Champion. Flair feels that Ziggler’s in-ring talent should secure him a spot on TV as long as he wants, but has also heard that WWE has a position for him behind-the-scenes.
Ziggler’s career is on the line against The Miz’s Intercontinental Title at No Mercy on October 9th in Sacramento. We’ll have live coverage of the event right here on SEScoops.com.
The speculation in question revolves around whether or not TNA will even be running Bound For Glory on Sunday and the subsequent TV tapings. Reportedly, being that banks will be closed for the weekend and TNA needs funding to run the week of shows (Billy Corgan largely confirmed the latter when he appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show), the company had until the close of business Friday to make a deal. With TNA based in Nashville, which is in the Central Time Zone (where it was still 4:41 .m.),if a deal was made before the tweet, then they would have barely made it.
If they did make a deal, it’s not yet clear who would be providing the investment, if not outright buying the company. In the Le Batard interview, Corgan said that his understanding as a TNA shareholder was that WWE was not in negotiations for the company.
WWE.com has confirmed that the WWE Royal Rumble will return to San Antonio’s Alamodome for the first time in 20 years in January.
The event will be held Jan. 29th, 2017. The last time the show came to that San Antonio venue, in 1997, a title bout between Shawn Michaels and Sycho Sid brought more than 60,000 fans into the Alamodome.
Tickets go on sale Friday, Oct. 14 at 11 a.m ET /10 a.m CT. through Ticketmaster. WWE superstars expected to compete include: John Cena, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, A.J. Styles, Randy Orton and Kevin Owens
It should be interesting to see what kind of card WWE plans out with the intent on selling out the Alamodome. It should be noted that while the 1997 event drew 60,525 fans it was 48,014 paid fans and it was built around the hometown hero in the main event.
WWE producer James Gibson, better known by his ring name of Jamie Noble, was stabbed Wednesday morning according to a report from Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin. According to what the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office relayed to Satin, Noble had just gotten home from the WWE loop and went on a short drive to get a snack. When he got home again, another motorist pulled up behind Gibson and accused him of cutting him off moments earlier. After Gibson tried to apologize, the other man continued to argue with him before “Noble eventually took the man to the ground when things got physical.”
That’s when two more men got out of the suspect’s car, with at least one of them stabbing Gibson in the back. He was taken to a local emergency room and treated, but his condition as of this writing is unknown past the point that he remains hospitalized. Satin also noted that WWE is aware of the whole situation.
Gibson had not appeared on TV as Jamie Noble since March, disappearing when The Authority storyline was largely blown off at WrestleMania. He retired as a wrestler in 2009, having already started as a road agent/producer a few years earlier when WWE wanted someone with a more “modern” in-ring style working back stage. One of his first contributions was teaching Shawn Michaels the reverse figure four leg lock that he used as a secondary finishing hold late in his career.
The second annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic begins next week on NXT and we now know 8 of the 12 teams competing in the single-elimination tournament:
Former NXT Champions Finn Balor and Samoa Joe made history last year by winning the inaugural event. The finals of this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic take place at NXT TakeOver: Toronto on Saturday night, November 19th.
As seen below, TNA has announced 9 of the 10 Bound For Gold participants that will do battle at Sunday’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view from Orlando. It’s believed the final spot will go to Cody Rhodes.
Here is the updated card for Sunday:
– No Holds Barred for the TNA World Championship: Lashley vs. Ethan Carter III
– The Great War for the TNA Tag Team Championship: The Decay vs. The Hardys
– Tournament finals to crown the first Impact Grand Champion: Drew Galloway vs. Aron Rex
– TNA Knockouts Championship Match: Maria vs. Gail Kim
– Bound For Gold: Braxton Sutter, Mahabali Shera, Jessie Godderz, Robbie E, Tyrus, Eli Drake, Baron Dax, Rockstar Spud, one other
Eric Bischoff says he’s looking forward to bringing legal action against Matt Hardy for comments made during a recent shoot interview.
RF Video released a video trailer for their new shoot DVD with “Broken” Matt. In the clip, which has since been DELETED, Hardy did not have kinds things to say about Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan’s tenure in TNA. Hardy said the duo “raped and pillaged” Impact Wrestling, setting off a downward spiral which may put the company out of business this weekend.
In response to Hardy’s remarks about Bischoff’s time in TNA, he tweeted:
The Bella Twins, John Cena and Daniel Bryan are in New York City this week doing the media rounds to promote the premiere of Total Bellas. During an interview with AOL’s BUILD series, Brie spoke about husband Daniel Bryan and her retirements from the ring.
“It was hard as a wife to see that, especially because I had two months left at WWE and I was trying so hard to enjoy the ending. It was hard for me because of what he was going through and I didn’t really want to retire. It’s kind of bittersweet for me because we want to be parents, and I can’t take back bumps and have a baby bump, unfortunately.”
Nikki commented on Bryan’s mentality during that challenging time, noting that she didn’t know the full extent of what Bryan was dealing with. She was focused on protecting her sister. Nikki felt like Bryan wasn’t supporting Brie in her last few months before Brie’s retirement and the two got in “a massive fight.”
“He [Bryan] cussed at me, and Bryan does not ever say a cuss word,” Nikki said. “But I drove him to get that angry.”
Total Bellas premieres next Wednesday, October 5th at 8pm on the E! Network.
– The 2017 Royal Rumble is scheduled to emanate from San Antonio, Texas, according to multiple sources. The joint-brand event will feature 15 Superstars from each brand battling for a right to face their brand’s champion in the main event of WrestleMania 33. An official announcement is coming probably next week.
– Goldust tweeted a cryptic message last night that seems to be hinting at retirement. The 47 year old veteran has had 5 stints with WWE and has been with the company since 2013. He’s a 3 time Intercontinental champion and a 3 time tag team champion.
Wrestling fans know there’s a great deal of certainty regarding the future of TNA Wrestling and we’ll know something definitive any time now over the next few days. Will Billy Corgan (by himself or with a team of investors) assume a majority stake in the company? Will a media company or another investor group make Dixie Carter and company an offer they can’t refuse? Would WWE buy their competition once again ala WCW/ECW 2001 and acquire the tape library while shutting the company down?
Controlling shareholder and former TNA President Dixie Carter checked in with a (minor) update on Thursday evening, doing what else but teasing a “big announcement.” If that’s not the TNA of the past several years, we don’t know what is.
Earlier today, Billy Corgan appeared on The Dan Le Betard Show to discuss TNA’s precarious situation right, and while there wasn’t a ton of new information, there were a couple interesting quotes.
With regards to WWE buying TNA or its intellectual property, Corgan said “No, as at this moment that has not happened.” He explained that “I have a piece of the company and so I have to be informed we hope to have to be informed — at least i would hope to be informed of that.” It sounded like he may have been joking about that last part and not doubting himself, but at this point, nothing would be surprising.
When asked of Bound for Glory is happening this Sunday, Corgan didn’t answer the question directly. Instead, he said that “I don’t expect anybody’s going to do anything too ridiculous to make sure that doesn’t happen; it would put a lot of people out of work.” That’s a strange answer: Even if you don’t blame him for not giving a direct answer, what’s something “too ridiculous” that someone would make sure to do to keep the pay-per-view and subsequent TV tapings from happening? The shows aren’t happening if TNA doesn’t get funding for expenses before the end of business tomorrow. That’s not “ridiculous,” that’s no funding coming through.
As he’s explained in his other interviews this week, Corgan does not want to fund the shows just to keep the company on life support again, something he strongly implied he’s done three times so far. But can he make a deal to outright buy the company with a day or so to go and a “standoff” (as he put it to Le Batard) going on between various interested parties?
Thanks to Dr. Uribe yesterday. One of the best doctors I’ve ever seen. Gave me two great surgery options. Makes you think about risks you have to take when it comes to this business, the things you put your body through to entertain the masses, Still wouldn’t change it for the world. Tanks to everyone for the continued support.
Paige, real name Saraya-Jade Bevis, has been out of action since the June 27th edition of Monday Night Raw. The nature of her injury had been kept somewhat quiet part of that time, which fueled speculation since she had some kind of undisclosed medical incident eight days before her last match. According to Las Vegas police, after Money in the Bank, civilians flagged down officers when Paige, in front of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, ran into oncoming traffic. She was subsequently taken to the hospital, but because it became a medical incident, the police couldn’t say any more than that.
Posted September 29th, 2016 in News, WWE. Tagged: Paige.
In a recent promotional interview for WWE 2k17 in The Sun, Paul Heyman talked about the possibility of his client Brock Lesnar meeting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in a WWE ring. Lesnar and Johnson are both much more famous now than they were when they had their 2002 SummerSlam match, and if they faced off again it would likely be the biggest match of the year.
Heyman noted that The Rock didn’t call out Lesnar during any of his recent returns, instead choosing Bray Wyatt and Rusev. After teasing that The Rock may not be ready for Lesnar, Heyman talked about Brock Lesnar’s star power and feels that his client is the biggest draw in wrestling.
“I think Brock Lesnar against anyone is an automatic sell-out,” he said of Lesnar’s drawing power. “Brock does not wrestle 52 Monday’s a year on Monday Night Raw, he does not come to your home town every week, his appearances are rare. They are unique and extraordinary. Which is why, whenever Brock Lesnar appears it is a rare and unique opportunity for the paying customer to see the greatest living athlete in the history of WWE appear live in an extraordinary event that only Brock Lesnar can deliver on. This is why he is the greatest box office attraction.”
You can read Heyman’s entire interview on TheSun.co.uk.
Would you like to see a rematch between Lesnar and The Rock at WrestleMania? Comment with your thoughts!
The prospects for TNA surviving as a wrestling promotion in time for Sunday’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view event and the subsequent TV tapings appear to be getting more and more grim by the hour. First, on Wednesday evening, a report from WrestlingInc revealed that according to “a veteran TNA talent,” a number of wrestlers’ flights to Orlando for next week have been cancelled. It wasn’t made clear if this was any of the advertised talent for Bound For Glory or just wrestlers set to be in matches not yet announced for the show.
In addition, the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscribers only), there are arguably some mixed messages. Dave Meltzer writes that “the feeling now is [Dixie] Carter is going to make the best deal for her[self],” but that at least as of press time late last night, WWE, who’s in the best position for a mercenary deal like that, is not at the negotiating table. Of course, it should be noted that when WWE bought WCW’s assets in 2001, WWE had already passed on a buyout and stepped in when it became clear there were no other buyers. Like with WCW, if WWE were to get TNA, it would be expected that they would buy only the assets and not the company outright.
Meltzer added that TNA’s debt “is in the millions of dollars” with creditors including Billy Corgan, Aroluxe, and others, and the debt may very well be greater than the value of the company at this point. That gap is even more pronounced if the company can’t get the ~$600,000 they need by Friday: TNA will be in breach of its TV deals, quite possibly lose them, and literally lose all value other than that of the tape library.
As of this writing, TNA has 30 hours or so to secure funding. If they don’t, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the company doesn’t need to file bankruptcy. Even if the tape library and trademarks are sold to WWE, that most likely won’t cover all of TNA’s debt. For WWE’s purposes, with no rush on their side and no competition for the intellectual property if it went it’s not ridiculous to suggest that they could get a lower price that way.
Matt and Jeff Hardy spoke with ESPN’s Extra Mustard blog this week to hype Sunday’s TNA Bound For Glory PPV. The “Boyz” from Cameron, North Carolina will face The Decay this weekend for the TNA Tag Team titles. Matt told ESPN that Decay “perpetrated blasphemy” when they visited his compound for the Delete or Decay spectacle. This Sunday, they’re out for revenge. “We are not only going to render Decay obsolete, we’re also going to delete them until their vessels have perished,” Matt said.
Whatever happens at Bound For Glory and whatever the future holds for TNA, a lot of fans want to see Matt and Jeff back in WWE. Their TNA contracts expire in February and Jeff says the possibility of him returning to WWE really depends on what happens between now and February with TNA.
“If it feels right and good, I don’t see anything wrong with staying,” said Jeff. “When you commit to a WWE contract, you’re committing to some serious time away from home. If it were under my terms, there might be a chance, but I’m really not sure. Of course it would be nice, but what we’re doing right now is so much fun. I don’t want to go back to WWE and burn out within four or five months, and having another run as TNA world champion would feel just as good.”
“Broken” Matt has essentially been given complete creative freedom in TNA. The results speak for themselves. Matt’s Broken Brilliance, Senior Benjamin, Vanguard-1, Baby Maxel and the”DELETE!” phenomenon have caught on in the pro wrestling world unlike anything we’ve seen out of TNA in a long time. In WWE, he might not have that freedom.
“I am very content at Impact Wrestling,” said Matt. “I don’t know if I trust that Meekmahan, or if he’ll try to stifle my broken brilliance. I’m able to live in my broken universe here at Impact Wrestling to the fullest extent, and Impact Wrestling needs me as their savior, so I’ll do everything I can to help them grow. They’ve had many setbacks in the last few years, but things are changing. I don’t have an end game. Being a celestial being, I live for the moment to fight the Great War, and that is to light the darkness. Right now, I’m able to do that at Impact Wrestling.”
Other topics discussed include Matt Hardy’s rebirth as Broken Matt, Jeff Hardy’s time away after his dirt bike incident last year and the creativity behind the Broken Matt persona and the universe he’s created around it. Check it out at SI.com.
TNA hasn’t yet announced what Cody will be doing at the show, but he’s stated that he’d like for her and his wife Brandi to work with Mike Bennett & Maria Kanellis. The 4 of them will most likely be working together at Bound For Glory and next week’s Impact Wrestling tapings, which are also up in the air pending additional funding.
While Brandi Rhodes has joined TNA and will be wrestling for the Knockouts division for the foreseable future, Cody is only scheduled to work for TNA over the next week through this upcoming round of television tapings. Cody will then move on to Ring of Honor. He’s scheduled to wrestle at December’s Final Battle PPV and will be working for ROH through May 2017.
Cody is the first person to work WrestleMania, Bound for Glory and Final Battle in a calendar year, which is a pretty impressive feat.
Former WWE Superstar Alberto El Patron has backed out of another upcoming booking.
El Patron had been scheduled to face Rey Mysterio for Lucha Ilimitado’s first show on on October 12th from Yakima, WA. Taking his place will be a man who recently learned the ways of Broken Brilliance, “Brother Nero” Jeff Hardy.
Lucha Ilimitado announced El Patron will be unable to appear due to a “non-wrestling commitment.”
Here’s the updated lineup:
Rey Mysterio vs. Jeff Hardy
Corazon de Oro Championship Match: Jeff Cobb vs. Jonathan Gresham vs. Sonjay Dutt vs. Fenix
El Hijo del Santo & El Santo Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera & Psicosis
A few weeks ago at Backlash, Bray Wyatt was supposed to face off against Randy Orton. Unfortunately, Orton was unable to compete due to the concussion he suffered during his match against Brock Lesnar at Summerslam. The WWE smartly had Wyatt attack Orton backstage as an excuse to not have the match. Wyatt came down to the ring and forced the ring announcer to proclaim him as the winner of a match that never took place.
A random No Holds Barred match was then made between Kane and Bray Wyatt. Bray Wyatt got in some offense but Kane actually controlled the majority of the match. The finish of the match saw Randy Orton coming down to the ring and hitting an RKO on Wyatt. Kane then followed this up with a Chokeslam and won the match. Kane was Chokeslamming someone named The Milk Man on Smackdown before Backlash, now he was defeating the “Eater of Worlds” on a PPV. Kane has also done absolutely nothing since defeating Wyatt.
Fast forward to today. No Mercy is on the horizon and Orton and Wyatt will finally have their match. Last night on the greatest Smackdown of all time according to the comment section, Wyatt tried to play mind-games with Orton. He set up a maze backstage with words on the arena walls. “Predator or Prey” and “I am a God” were written all over the place. Erick Rowan observed Orton as he walked around backstage. Orton almost opened a door. It was just riveting television.
Smackdown opened up with Orton stating that Wyatt was afraid of him. By the end of the night, that was proven to be true. Orton confronted Wyatt backstage with a sheep mask on and Wyatt took off running. Orton then sang that he has got the whole world in his hands and the crowd sang along. Thus, Wyatt was once again proven to be a coward. It would be astonishing if Wyatt somehow defeated Orton clean at No Mercy. If he does win it will be due to outside interference, which is fine. I just don’t understand how anyone can view Wyatt as a monster or a “God” anymore. The WWE seems to be booking Bo Dallas as a more dominant figure than Bray Wyatt.
Do you think Wyatt will win at No Mercy and finally get back on track? Or will Wyatt once again lose and go continue to cut ultimately meaningless promos every week? Dolph Ziggler obviously has the highest stakes at No Mercy but I think this is a match/feud that Wyatt really needs to win.
Bobby Lashley: “There’s a Tremendous Amount of Money” in Facing Lesnar at Wrestlemania
On November 10/11th, Revolution Pro and New Japan Pro Wrestling will co-host Global Wars. Several big matches have already been announced for both nights including Zack Sabre Jr vs Shibata on Night 1 and Will Ospreay vs Jushin Thunder Liger on Night 2.
Rev Pro have now announced a huge bout between two international standouts, Chris Hero and Tomohiro Ishii. Ishii comes off of a fantastic showing in this year’s G1 Climax tournament and Hero has impressed with strong showings in both the UK (PROGRESS’ Strong Style 16 Tournament) and the US. This should be a hard hitting bout that potentially could steal the show on Night 1.
Free Match Thursday this week sees new WWE signee Jack Gallagher taking on Pete Dunne in a CWC Qualifying match. Gallagher performed his final date for PROGRESS at this past Sunday’s Chapter 36 at the 02 Academy in Brixton.
Pete Dunne also appeared at Chapter 36 and won the PROGRESS Tag Team Titles alongside his British Strong Style partner; Trent Seven.
This week’s WWE SmackDown drew 2.340 million viewers, up from last week’s 2.292 million viewers. By comparison, Monday’s RAW did 2.478 million viewers.
SmackDown featured WWE World Champion AJ Styles defending against Dean Ambrose in the main event and The Miz’s Cleveland Homecoming Celebration.
SmackDown was #5 for the night in viewership and #1 in the 18-49 demographic.
This week’s rating and viewership for Monday Night Raw can be seen as a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. The problem is that there are a lot of ways to look at it.
The numbers for this week’s show, in and of themselves, don’t mean anything because Raw was airing opposite the most watched presidential debate in the history of television. We knew the show would not do well, and it ended up doing the second lowest rating (1.75; the record is 1.5) in the history of the show while pulling in what Dave Meltzer reported was the lowest average viewership (2.46 million) in the show’s history.
While Meltzer speculated that it could end up doing the lowest rating for Monday night wrestling on USA Network going back to the Prime Time Wrestling days, a cursory look at historical ratings information suggests that Prime Time most likely never went that low. The earliest number I could get, from July 1988 (which week wasn’t clear), was a 3. while when the show went off the air at the start of 1993 to make way for Raw, it was hovering in the low 2s. Suffice to say, based on how the cable universe shifted and the numbers we have, Prime Time dropping below a 1.5 seems unrealistic.
It was Wade Keller of PWTorch who probably made the most astute observation about Mondays rating:
WWE has an amazingly loyal audience, and that counts for a lot.
WWE’s audience has eroded to consist only of hardcores who don’t pay attention to world news.
The latter is admittedly a little extreme, but you have to remember that WWE programming and pro wrestling in general gets exceedingly low rates for its commercial time. That problem is twofold: While a lot of it is steeped in negative stereotypes about pro wrestling fans being idiots who think it’s a real sport, past research into wrestling fans have given critics (and thrifty advertisers) some ammunition.
For example, in 1999, SummerSlam was mainstream thanks to Jesse Ventura’s involvement, so Gallup did some polling of wrestling fans. “Not surprisingly,” Gallup’s Mark Gillespie wrote, “wrestling fans tend to be young males with high school educations who earn less than $30,000 annually.” Not surprisingly, for an article from 1999, he didn’t exactly word that tastefully. Other takeaways included wrestling fans largely being Democrats, 33% of black men and women surveyed calling themselves fans compared to 16% of whites, and, surprisingly, the east coast having the least wrestling fans of any region in the United States.
A 2013 poll from Scarborough had similar results: It showed the median household income of WWE fans as $35,229, well below the “average U.S. sports fan” median of $50,667 and even the UFC’s $47,238. On top of that, almost two thirds of WWE fans surveyed were high school graduates or less, Whatever you think of the data and whether you not you think it reflects you, these surveys were conducted by established pollsters that sponsors and potential corporate partners will listen to. The last thing WWE needs is more data the points in a similar direction, and it can definitely be argued that Monday’s rating does just that.
Of course, we know that WWE has tried to clean up their image over the years. Toning down the content helps, as does publicizing charity work and even the change in media perception of pro wrestling the last few years. Still, WWE programming is filtered through Vince McMahon’s aesthetic and we’re only a couple weeks removed from the last poop joke. The women wear so much makeup and have such ridiculous hair extensions that even without a “T&A”-heavy image, the company’s presentation of them is still questionable.
And even if all of that changed? Sponsors still have hard data that reinforces their most negative perceptions of wrestling fans.
I’m honestly not sure how WWE addresses this. But they have to try.
Posted September 28th, 2016 in News, WWE. Tagged: NBA.
Billy Corgan appeared on the SiriusXM Busted Open wrestling radio show on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the pending sale of TNA Wrestling. Corgan, currently a minority stake investor, is looking to become the majority shareholder when TNA’s imminent sale goes down over the next several days.
Corgan said there are many people “at the table” right now looking to purchase TNA and whatever happens, the face of the company will be changed forever by the time the opening bell rings at Sunday’s Bound For Glory PPV. “I am working very hard to acquire a majority share of this company and keep it going into the future,” he said.
One of the other potential investors looking to acquire TNA’s assets is WWE. Although WWE could buy TNA out from under him or be his main competition should he become the majority investor, Billy Corgan has no hard feelings towards the company. “I do not root against the WWE . I am a fan of the WWE and they are the gold standard of our business.”
We’ve heard that a lot of people in TNA are pulling for Corgan to be steering the ship come Bound For Glory. Corgan acknowledged he has a very strong show of support from involved parties and he feels strong about TNA’s relationship with PopTV moving forward.
TNA’s financial troubles are well documented. He acquired most if not all his stock by stepping in and opening his check book when TNA television tapings almost didn’t happen due to lack of funding. Corgan reveals exactly how dire things have gotten in recent months.
.@Billy "The last 3 tapings, I've had to step in at the last minute and walk to the ring as the ink is drying."
Corgan is a passionate wrestling fan with experience running a promotion before (Resistance Pro). He said he does not take his membership in the professional wrestling ‘fraternity’ lightly and feels we’re on the cusp of another wrestling boom – thanks to technology. “The TV on the internet era that is on the horizon will be the greatest era of professional wrestling we’ve seen.”
Catch Busted Open on SiriusXM channel 93 Mondays-Wednesdays from 2-4pm EST.