More and more signs are pointing towards Braun Strowman (Adam Scherr) being on his way to join the Impact Wrestling roster, sooner rather than later.
According to a new report from PWInsider, the monster among men was recently spotted meeting with Imapact EVP Scott D’Amore. The two met at a hotel bar for the Motor City Comic Con in Detroit, Michigan on Saturday.
D’Amore arrived earlier and he waited for Strowman to show up.These two seem to have had an in-depth conversation as according to the site they were sitting ‘for a long time.’ Though detail of their exchange is not available.
Impact Wrestling is said to be working on several surprises for their Bound For Glory event this Saturday. Whether Braun Strowman turns out to be one of them remains to be seen.
The ongoing Queen’s Crown tournament has some interesting possibilities for the potential inaugural winner. Sasha Banks has named a strong contestant as her pick to win the competition.
The former women’s champion recently had an interview with New York post. She discussed things such as Bayley’s absence from WWE programming and more.
Banks was also asked for her prediction for the ongoing tournament. Sasha first mentioned how Doudrop is looking really impressive, but she then said that she will have to put her money on Shayna Baszler:
“That is tough. Doudrop just came on the scene. She is looking really impressive. Out of all of those girls I might have to put my money on Shayna Baszler. I think she has a lot to prove and she’s just one of the toughest competitors ever.”
Apart from this, Sasha Banks also discussed her mysterious absence from the SummerSlam PPV. She hinted that she was working on some other projects during the time, though the boss didn’t provide a lot of details.
Shayna Baszler will be facing Doudrop in the semifinals of the Queen’s Crown tournament on Raw this Monday. The winner will face Zelina Vega in the finals at the upcoming Crown Jewel PPV from Saudi Arabia.
Roman Reigns has made a number of significant changes to his character since his heel turn. One of the more visual changes is the golden glove he has started wearing on his right hand instead of his usual black one.
A lot of fans have speculated that it’s inspired by the Infinity Gauntlet donned by Thanos in Avengers. Though during a recent interview with Bleacher Report, the former Shield member revealed the real reason behind this change.
Reigns first claimed that while he has watched all the MCU movies, the similarity to Avengers is just a coincidence. He then explained what the glove represents:
“It’s more of a coincidence, I’m not going to say, ‘I’ve never watched The Avengers.’ No, I’ve seen all the movies, but honestly, I didn’t relate it to that. I just needed a change, and to me, the gold… it’s always been black, maybe a little bit of gray or blue.
I’ve said it before: Everything I touch turns into gold, and that was the mindset I wanted to have. That power, the design of all of it and the underlying theme of what we’re trying to do is display power at its maximum in every regard.”
Roman Reigns also discussed transitioning out of the Thunderdome era of wrestling. He revealed the one thing he misses about the pandemic era.
The tribal chief is set to defend his Universal championship against The Beast Incarnate Brock Lesnar at the upcoming Crown Jewel PPV from Saudi Arabia. Click here to check out the betting odds for the show.
Sasha Banks’ SummerSlam absence was a mysterious affair and the former women’s champion is intending to keep it that way at least for now. The boss recently had an interview with New York Post. She discussed things such as her upcoming Crown Jewel match, potential future clash with Charlotte Flair and more.
When asked if her recent small breaks from WWE programming help keep things fresh, Banks claimed that they are not really breaks. She explained that she is a big star outside WWE and according to Banks; she is always busy:
“I’m a big star outside of the WWE, if you didn’t know. So I’m really booked and busy. If I can’t make the jet on time, I can’t make the jet on time. I can’t just have the plane waiting for me on their hands and feet. I’m just really busy. To me it’s nothing. I’m just showing up to work when I’m booked for work.”
Sasha Banks On The Reason For Her SummerSlam Absense
Sasha Banks plays Koska Reeves in The Mandalorian
Her most recent break that created a lot of headlines was during the SummerSlam weekend. The SmackDown star was advertised for the show until the last minute but Becky Lynch ended up replacing her at the PPV. When inquired about the reason behind it, Sasha Banks said that there is no reason:
“There’s no reason. I’m not telling you anything. (Laughs). You’re not Oprah. You’re not the WWE Network; you’re not getting me the views. I’m not telling you my secrets. You can read my book. You can read my documentary when I want to speak about it. Thank you very much.”
There is speculation that this absence could have something to do with the reported filming of season three of The Mandalorian TV series. It was expected to go on floor towards the end of this year. When asked if we can see her in the spin-off series about Boba Fett, Sasha Banks once again explained that she cannot say anything because of the strict rules of Disney.
Carmella believes that fans cannot have their cake and eat it too when it comes to the SummerSlam return of the SmackDown women’s champion Becky Lynch.
The former champion recently appeared on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast. During the interview, she discussed how fans have started turning on The Man after what happened at SummerSlam despite rooting for her return for so long.
Carmella responded to the fans saying that they cannot have everything. She then also gave her prediction for the upcoming Crown Jewel triple threat match for the SmackDown women’s title:
“It’s insane. That’s Twitter for you. ‘We want Becky, we want Becky,’ now we have her, ‘Ah, we didn’t want her like that.’ Sorry, you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but that is wrestling Twitter. I’m excited for that match, those girls are going to tear it down, and I kinda want to see Bianca walk out as champion.”
The female star also discussed how her own presence at SummerSlam was crucial because Lynch wouldn’t have gotten the big reaction if Carmella hadn’t come out first.
Bianca Belair was supposed to defend her title against Sasha Banks at SummerSlam. Though Banks couldn’t make it to the show and instead, Becky Lynch made her return only to squash Belair for the title.
Lynch will now be defending her title in a triple threat match against Bianca and Sasha Banks at Crown Jewel. You can check out the betting odds for the show here.
The announced Peacemaker TV series featuring the 16 time world champion John Cena as the title character will be premiering next year in January.
The DC Fandome event featured a few big announcements. The show saw the debut of new footage for a number of upcoming projects such as Matt Reeves’ The Batman, The Rock’s Black Adam and more.
A new trailer for the upcoming series featuring the cenation leader was also released. It was revealed that the show featuring Cena will debut on HBO Max on January 13, 2022.
The eight-episode series is written by Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn. He has also directed five of the episodes.
John Cena’s Peacemaker originally made its debut in the 2021 Suicide Squad feature film also directed by Gunn. He appeared to have died during the movie but the post-credit scene revealed that Peacemaker was still alive.
FTR have become the new AAA world tag team champions after defeating the Lucha Brothers for the titles during this week’s episode of Dynamite.
Andrade had promised to bring in a team to face the duo of Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero Miedo for the championship match this week. The masked team was introduced as Las Super Ranas on the show.
When the challengers went after Fenix’s mask during the early stage of the match, the high-flying star countered. The Lucha Bros ended up removing the mask of Las Super Ranas, only for them to be revealed at FTR.
The ending of the bout saw Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler trying to use one of the title belts to their advantage. Fenix avoided a hit from the belt at first.
Though Dax managed to hit Fenix with the belt the second time while Tully Blanchard kept the referee distracted. Harwood then pinned Rey to win the AAA tag team championships for FTR.
Tony Schiavone caught up with the new champions after the bout asking how it felt ‘stealing’ the titles. However, MJF interrupted to celebrate with the new champions.
MJF then asked Andrade for his money. Upon being asked if he wanted cash or check, MJF said that he wanted both. The Pinnacle leader then not only got both but he also told Andrade that he had FTR only for one night.
AEW has revealed the brackets for this year’s edition World Title Eliminator Tournament. Looking at the landscape, we could very well be headed to a Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley showdown to crown the next #1 contender.
The main event of Saturday’s AEW Dynamite saw Danielson defeat Bobby Fish in singles action via submission. After the match, AEW ended the show by giving fans of glimpse of what’s in store.
This tournament will begin next week on Rampage where Orange Cassidy will face Will Hobbs. The following Dynamite episode will feature Bryan Danielson vs. Dustin Rhodes and Lance Archer vs. Eddie Kingston matches.
There is no word so far on when the match between number 10 of the Dark Order and the former AEW champion Jon Moxley will be taking place.
What’s interesting to note here is that the leaked AEW Full Gear card had Bryan Danielson facing Jon Moxley in a singles match. It seemed out of place at the time because these two haven’t been feuding.
Though now that the brackets have been revealed and both the stars are confirmed to be on the opposing sides, it wouldn’t be a surprise if they end up facing each other in the finals of the tournament at the upcoming show.
Which of these stars do you think should win the title tournament and get a shot at the world heavyweight championship? Let us know in the comment section.
Junior dos Santos has responded to the comments from the Universal champion Roman Reigns about throwing out the ‘little brothers’ of the AEW roster.
The former UFC heavyweight champion took on his twitter to respond to the tribal chief. He asked Reigns for the address of the club he is talking about:
“Hey @WWERomanReigns I heard your interview.” wrote Santos, “Please send the address of this club you will throw me and my little brothers out of #AEW”
The American top team member made his pro wrestling debut this Friday on Rampage. He teamed up with Ethan Page, and Scorpio Sky to defeat the Inner Circle in a tag team match.
Roman Reigns On CM Punk And The AEW Roster
The comments dos Santos is responding to came during an interview with Complex. Reigns was asked about a potential match with CM Punk and in response, he claimed that he can throw around the whole AEW roster:
“I mean, when it comes down to it, I’ll throw him and pretty much the rest of that roster out the club no problem. They’re just little brothers, you know?”
Buddy Matthews formerly known as Buddy Murphy in WWE has been announced for making his NJPW debut during next month’s Battle In the Valley event.
The show will be taking place from San Jose, California on November 13. The news was confirmed during Saturday’s NJPW strong taping from Philadelphia where the promotion aired a video package promoting his arrival:
'They say as one door closes, another opens… Maybe it was staring at me the entire time.'
After wrestling for various indie promotions for over half a decade, Buddy Matthews was signed to a development contract by WWE back in March 2013.
In NXT, he became known for his team with Wesley Blake. This duo known as Blake and Murphy had Alexa Bliss as their manager. They won the tag team titles once.
After the break-up of his team with Blake, Buddy Matthews made his made roster debut in 2018, competing on 205 Live. He won the cruiserweight championship there before being moved to the SmackDown brand.
The former SmackDown star was released from his WWE contract on June 2. He has already become a free agent after completing the 90 days non-compete period.
It’s unknown whether Matthews has signed a contract with the Japanese promotion or if his deal is on appearance basis. Though a contract with NJPW will still keep the door open for his AEW debut because of the partnership of the two companies.
There is no denying that Adam Cole is one of the hottest wrestling sensations right now. One of the most unique things about his persona is his catchphrase.
On the topic of his famous catchphrase, Cole said that he has been doing it since 2009. Revealing the origin of it, Adam recalled seeing Joey Matthews during an indie event of Maryland Championship Wrestling:
“Joey Matthews [Joey Mercury in WWE] was on the show, and he was in the finals of the Shane Shamrock Memorial Cup. He was the heel, and he was just walking around going “Joey Matthews!” and putting his fists up in the air, and he said it so many times.
I remember sitting there and thinking that is so smart. If you are not really a hardcore wrestling fan, if you remember one name from that show, it’s going to be Joey Matthews.”
Adam Cole Took Inspiration From Chris Jericho
Adam Cole then explained how he came up with the idea to incorporate this taunt into his own character, with some inspiration from Chris Jericho:
“So I thought how can I incorporate that into my own thing? I’m a huge Chris Jericho fan, and when he would stand on top of someone, flex and go “come on baby!” I was like oh, I will do “Adam Cole Bay Bay.””
Cole also talked about leaving WWE for AEW and how things came together very fast. He said that he wants to make it clear that he had a great 4 year run in WWE.
Podcaster Andrew Zarian was the first to report that The Rock would be appearing at Survivor Series, which will mark 25 years since his WWE debut in 1996.
To update this situation, The Rock is scheduled to be in Australia at the time of the upcoming show. The Rock could always record a video message to commemorate the occasion, but don’t look for him to be gracing the Barclays Center next month.
The Rock & Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns & The Rock
The Rock vs. Roman Reigns has long been talked about as a potential dream match for WWE. There were informal talks about this match taking place at WrestleMania 38, but sources close to the Great One indicate he won’t be wrestling in 2022.
Anyone can point out looking at the current WWE roster that the company has an age issue. The officials are reportedly aware of this too.
According to a new report from Wrestling Observer Radio, the WWE officials are very much aware that they have an age problem, with many of their current stars being close to or over 40 year old.
It’s one of the reasons for the recent revamp of NXT. Executives realize that they have to sign wrestlers in their mid-20s to get them ready for the main roster.
There is a belief among fans that WWE doesn’t care or is in denial about the current shape of the main roster and the lack of stars that can carry the company in future. Though the report suggests it’s not the case.
People within the promotion are “more than aware” of the problems they have. They are making changes to fix things in regards of their roster.
There are currently over 20 stars on the main roster who are over 40 years old. Some of them have been with the company for long such as the 41-year-old Randy Orton.
However, there are also many newly debuted stars who are in the age group, including people such as Damian Priest who is 39 years old, or Shayna Baszler who is 41.
All Elite Wrestling has announced another match for Friday night’s Buy-In special, which airs on AEW’s YouTube channel as a lead-in to Rampage on TNT.
Tay Conti will battle Santana Garrett in singles action live from Miami, Florida. The Buy-In will be headlined by Bryan Danielson clashing with NJPW legend Minoro Suzuki.
The bout was confirmed on the latest Road To Miami video on YouTube as seen below:
AEW Rampage Match Card
Buy In:
Tay Conti vs. Santana Garrett
Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty
Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki
Main Show:
CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny
Chris Jericho, Jake Hager and AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara vs. Ethan Page, Scorpio Sky and Junior dos Santos
AEW announced earlier that they will be airing a 1-hour buy-in pre-show on their YouTube channel this Friday night at 9 pm ET. It will serve as the lead-in for the Rampage episode on TNT at 10 pm ET.
This announcement came after WWE revealed that the final half-hour of this week’s supersized SmackDown will be running commercial-free. SmackDown will be airing on FS1 this week and the final half-hour will clash with Rampage.
Tony Khan seems to be excited about this confrontation. He has claimed that he can’t wait to beat SmackDown and the AEW president has confirmed a CM Punk match among others for Rampage.
Khan also explained how he got his ribs broken on the show. Per him, it happened during his run-in with MMA star dos Santos, in a spot that wasn’t pre-planned:
“He cracked them, I’ll be OK. But he legitimately cracked them. I’ll be OK. It’s been a few weeks, but I’m sleeping on my right side. It felt just right in the moment; it was just kind of improvised. He’s a very strong man. I love the gasp pop it got.”
The AEW Grand slam event saw the American Top Team consisting Jorge Masvidal, Junior dos Santos and Paige VanZant among others, attacking the team of Chris Jericho and Jake Hager after a tag team match.
Tony Khan came out to confront the MMA fighters as they were making their way back to locker room area. Though he was taken off his feet by the 6-foot-4, 238-pound Santos, leading to the injury.
Later in the interview, the AEW owner also revealed that he ‘no sold’ the injury backstage because he didn’t want the doctors pulling him out. Though he didn’t blame Santos for it and Khan claimed that he was ‘asking for it.’
Dos Santos will be making his in ring debut this week. He will be teaming with Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky to face the Inner Circle on this Friday’s episode of Rampage.
The release of Bray Wyatt was probably the most surprising one coming out of WWE in recent times, especially as it came in the face of the competition from AEW.
Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast recently discussed the former world champion’s departure from the promotion. He suggested that it wasn’t just one issue but multiple issues in conjunction that led to his release. Per Zarian, Wyatt was ‘being difficult’ towards the ending of his run.
The former world champion had some performance issues in the ring as well as weight issues. It’s not the exact reason why the Fiend was let go, but such things make the decision easier when the officials evaluate a talent considering their future plans.
Bray Wyatt’s WWE Departure
Most recently terminated talents have been told their releases are budget cuts. Though many fans don’t buy this excuse in the case of Bray Wyatt, since he is known to be a merchandise mover.
Additionally, finances were also a factor in the relationship souring, which is commonplace with business disputes. Though he again stressed that there is no one reason that led to his firing from the promotion.
The former WWE star himself wasn’t happy with the situation either. There were plenty of variables at work and the decision was not ‘cut and dry.’
Bray Wyatt was released from WWE back on July 31. Assuming a standard 90 days non-compete clause, he should become a free agent later this month on October 29.
Molly Holly had to shave her hair after losing her title vs. hair match against the then women’s champion Victoria at WrestleMania 20. According to the female star, she was the one who pitched the idea to WWE creative.
The WWE Hall Of Famer recently had an interview with Shoot Conversations. Reflecting on the match, she wished that they had a longer build for the bout.
Discussing the unique stipulation of their match, Holly revealed that she was the one who pitched the idea. She had to take the drastic measure because the alternative was not having a match at the show at all:
“It was just pretty much, they said they weren’t going to have a Women’s Title match at WrestleMania, they said there was no room for it. I was like, ‘drastic times call for drastic measures.'”
How Molly Holly Felt After Getting Approval
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP1EmdqVUaE
Molly Holly described how she made a plan and took photos of herself in a bald cap in hopes of convincing the management. She then recalled pitching the idea and revealed how she felt when it was approved:
“I think the photographs of me with the bald head helped. Like, ‘oh, this does look pretty dramatic.’ I pitched it and couldn’t believe that they were like, ‘yeah, that’ll work. I believe I walked into an office where there was like Stephanie, Vince, Brian Gewirtz, Ed Koskey, and a room full of people,”
The wrestling veteran later also described how she felt after getting her head shaved. She claimed that it was freeing. According to her, if completely shaving head was common for girls, it would be the hairstyle she would keep.
The massive expansion of social media has given people a platform to share their thoughts freely. Though it also means that anyone can say whatever they want, without checking its accuracy. It’s the thing that Tony Khan dislikes the most. The AEW president recently appeared on My Mom’s Basement podcast. He confirmed the main event for the upcoming Full Gear PPV among other things.
Discussing what he doesn’t like about wrestling twitter, Khan said that anyone can spread a lie or make up a rumor and everyone takes it as a fact:
“The biggest thing is, somebody says something on wrestling Twitter that’s a lie or make a rumor up and then everybody takes it as fact as this one person made it up as truth. People run with it and there are a lot of things that have gotten traction. If you, you’re like, ‘that’s not true,’ but one person said it and you can almost track it back. There’s a lot of stuff that isn’t true.”
Tony Khan On Advantage Of Social Media
Though Tony Khan also discussed the flip side of this expansion. He explained how there are cases where obvious lies are easily debunked by people. Tony gave the example of Bruce Prichard claiming he didn’t know Kenny Omega until 2019 during a recent episode of his Something To Wrestle podcast:
“The flip side of it is, the wrestling side is, you have these people who tell these obvious things like I heard the other day Bruce [Prichard] was saying he had never heard of Kenny Omega in 2019. Then literally, they played a clip from 2018 and Bruce is talking very intricately about Kenny. So it’s like, give me a break, man,”
Tony Khan’s AEW will be presenting two big shows in Rampage on Friday and Dynamite on Saturday night this week. The AEW president is hoping to top SmackDown during their expected clash on Friday. He has made some big announcements for the show which you can check out here.
The IInspiration will be getting a title shot during their debut for Impact Wrestling. They will be facing the current Knockouts tag team champions, Rosemary and Havok, at Bound For Glory for their titles.
The promotion had confirmed earlier this week that the former WWE stars will be making their debuts during the upcoming show. Though they hadn’t revealed what the duo will be doing at the PPV.
The company then announced via a tweet earlier that the team of Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay will not only be wrestling at the event, but The IInspiration will be getting a title shot at Bound For Glory:
Previously known as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay of The IIconics, the duo made their name wrestling for WWE. Both of them were released as part of the coronavirus budget cuts in April this year.
Bound For Glory Updated Card
This is the seventh match that has been announced for Impact Wrestling’s biggest show of the year. Here is the updated card for the show after the latest announcement:
Impact World Championship Match: Josh Alexander vs. Christian Cage
Impact Knockouts Championship Match: Mickie James vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Impact World Tag Team Championship Match: FinJuice or The Bullet Club vs. The Good Brothers
Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship Match: The IInspiration vs. Rosemary and Havok
Impact X Division Championship Triple Threat Match: Trey Miguel vs. Steve Maclin vs. 1 TBD
20-Man Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match: Brian Myers vs. Rich Swann vs. Moose vs. Eddie Edwards vs. W. Morrissey vs. 15 TBD
Pre show Inaugural Impact Digital Media Championship Tournament Finals: John Skyler vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Jordynne Grace or Johnny Swinger vs. 2 TBD
Impact Wrestling’s Bound For Glory will be taking place from Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas on Saturday, October 23. The show is scheduled to begin at 10:30 pm ET.
Veteran wrestler Bobby Fish is All Elite. Fish has wrestled around the world for many top promotions. Prior to joining AEW, he had a successful run with WWE & NXT.
Fish made his NXT debut in 2017 during the TakeOver: Brooklyn III event alongside Kyle O’Reilly. The two joined forces with Adam Cole later that night in what was one of the most impactful wrestling debuts in recent times.
The former WWE star recently had an interview with Chris Van Vliet. He discussed things such as his AEW debut, joining the MLW roster, and more.
Talking about the debut of their group which later became the Undisputed Era, Fish admitted that it was one of the highlights of his career. He discussed the big crowd reaction they got on their arrival.
Bobby Fish on Undisputed Era’s Debut
“Debuting in the Barclays Center, standing next to 2 of my best friends, and getting that reaction that is now somewhat estranged to us because of the lack of crowds recently, There’s all that, and as a whole,
I think when we found out that it was going to be Adam [Cole], Kyle and I.” recalled Bobby Fish, “That was NXT’s idea. It felt like we were just waiting for someone to come into the room and go ‘Ah! We were just screwing with you.’”
Sanity defeated Authors Of Pain to win the NXT tag team championships at the Takeover: Brooklyn III event. The AEW star alongside O’Reilly made his debut right after this match, attacking the new champions.
The duo then helped Adam Cole in taking out the newly crowned NXT champion Drew McIntyre after the main event, marking the beginning of a brand new era.
NXT’s attempt to attract a younger audience with the recent revamp seems to be failing so far. Sean Waltman believes it’s because the people in charge are much older. The former WWE star recently discussed the NXT revamp on his Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast. He commented on the intention behind this rebranding.
Waltman discussed how the people in charge of the show geared towards younger audience are all 60+ year-olds. He suggested that maybe they should let young people make the decisions for the show:
“Who’s in charge of the creative direction of NXT? You can’t have 60+ year-old people in charge of the creative direction of a show that’s geared towards young people, maybe oversee it but you got to let young, fresh blood make those decisions.”
Sean Waltman Says The Decision Makers Don’t Know What Young People Want
Sean Waltman continued his explanation saying that the company needs to be self-aware. The 49-year-old discussed how people like him think that they know what younger people want. Though In reality, they don’t:
We got to be self aware enough to know that we don’t and I’m including me too as a 50-year-old man, we don’t f**king know what they (young people) want. We might think we do or we might think we know what’s best for them, but we don’t f**king know. We need to f**king listen to people that do.”
Reports suggest that the 76-year-old Vince McMahon and 58-year-old Bruce Prichard are the people making the main decisions for NXT. Though they are not involved in the day-to-day. Per the last update, a 56-year-old Shawn Michaels was in charge of the operations in the absence of Triple H.
Alex Hammerstone has relinquished the MLW national openweight championship after winning the promotion’s world title last week during MLW Fightland. The 30-year-old faced the former MLW champion Jacob Fatu in a historic title vs. title match during the show. He won the bout and ended Fatu’s 819 days long reign.
Then on this week’s episode of Fusion: Alpha, Hammerstone informed Cesar Duran that he would now like to focus on defending the world title only:
The MLW national openweight championship was introduced back in April 2019. Alex won the title in a tournament to crown the inaugural champion. He defeated Brian Pillman Jr. in the finals.
Alex Hammerstone made his wrestling debut back in August 2013. He wrestled for a number of indie promotions in the early stages of his career. He made his MLW debut back in February 2019. The MLW champion made appearances for WWE as an enhancement talent around 2015.
He also attended a couple of WWE tryouts around the same time but nothing came out of it. This concludes Alex’s 866 days long reign as the national openweight champion. There is no word yet on what the company is planning for the title now.
Impact Wrestling has confirmed the signing of indie star Masha Slamovich after her recent match against the Knockouts champion Deonna Purrazzo.
The indie star faced the Impact champion during this past Saturday’s Knockouts Knockdown event. She delivered an impressive performance but failed to win the bout.
Impact Wrestling released post-show footage from the PPV yesterday. In the video, current Impact producer and Hall Of Famer Gail Kim is seen approaching Slamovich after her loss.
The Impact veteran offered her a contract to join the promotion. The 24-year-old accepted this offer and she then received a standing ovation from the crowd.
Masha Slamovich is then seen heading backstage where she receives applauds from the Impact roster. Backstage, she mentions how she has been doing it for long and claimed that she is very thankful for the journey:
One of the wildest moments of my career. Thank you @gailkimITSME ?
— Masha Slamovich ??????????? (@mashaslamovich) October 13, 2021
The ‘Russian Dynamite’ was trained by people such as WWE Hall of Famer Johnny Rodz and The Amazing Red. She began her career 5 years ago in Japan.
Masha made her Impact wrestling debut in June 2019. She had matches with the likes of Havok and Jordynne Grace but she wasn’t able to pick up a win.
Since then, she has wrestled for promotions such as CZW, Beyond Wrestling, GCW, and NWA. She also made her AEW Debut recently, losing a match to Hikaru Shida during the September 20 edition of Dark: Elevation.
Brock Lesnar’s strength has often been compared to a superhuman. The experience of JBL has been something similar and he believes that Lesnar should be an avenger. The former world champion recently held a Q&A session on YouTube. He discussed things such as Brawl For All, challenging Dusty Rhodes, and more.
JBL recalled the time he got to work with Lesnar during an event in his hometown. He said that the Beast Incarnate threw him like he was a child. Per the former APA member, the strength of Lesnar is like that of an avenger:
“He threw me like a child. The strength of Brock Lesnar is different. It’s like an Avenger. He should be an Avenger.” – JBL
JBL also detailed his conversation with the former Universal champion before their bout. He revealed that he was worried about Lesnar suplexing him because of his height. though Brock was not worried about it at all:
“I asked him for before, ‘Brock, are you sure you can do this? Not strength wise, just the logistics of throwing a guy that’s really tall’ and Brock said, ‘I’ve been suplexing people since I was five years old.’ He suplexed me so easily that I got up. I said, ‘Do it again.’
JBL also revealed that Brock Lesnar had offered to put him over during the show because his friends were in attendance. Though he told the former UFC star that it didn’t matter who won.
AEW Dynamite beating WWE Raw in the key demo rating for a couple of weeks has been one of the most talked pro wrestling stories recently. Chris Jericho thinks it was made possible because of their cool factor.
Commenting on their demo win in the interview conducted right after Dynamite: Grand Slam, Jericho described how AEW has a different attitude and a cool factor:
“The last three weeks, we have done bigger demo numbers than WWE RAW has done, which is the flagship show. I think our company came out of nowhere, basically, and really exploded because of a different attitude,
And you can see that when you watch our shows, It seems to me that we are the hottest wrestling company in the world,” said Chris Jericho, “And more importantly, we have the cool factor.”
During the same interview, Y2J also revealed some interesting backstage details on AEW’s initial TV deal with WarnerMedia. He detailed that they were originally not being paid a TV rights fee for airing their show on TNT.
The company was initially only getting a revenue share from advertisements. Though according to Chris Jericho their deal was upgraded after the first three months. You can check out his comments on the matter at this link.
