Ring entrances are shorter in NXT than on other WWE brands. According to a report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Shawn Michaels feels that longer ring entrances were giving fans a chance to switch over to AEW during the Wednesday Night Wars.

“One of the reasons the ring entrances have been cut back on as far as time on the NXT TV show is Shawn Michaels felt that long ring entrances gave the viewers more time to check out AEW,” wrote Dave Meltzer.

The brand has continued to run with that idea even since moving to Tuesday nights with the belief that it gives them more time for angles and matches. Although this has not been confirmed, there is also a rumour that it was HBK’s wife Rebecca who first suggested this.

“Whether this is true or not, within the company the story that has gone around is that it was Rebecca, Shawn’s wife, who was watching the show and told him she thought the ring entrances were too long and giving people too much time to switch stations, and he brought that up to Levesque,” Meltzer continued.

4 matches have been confirmed for NXT next week. KUSHDIA will face Kyle O’Reilly, while Adam Cole will face an opponent of his own choosing. Hit Row will take on Ever Rise and Franky Monet will be in singles action.

Azteca Underground is a faction in MLW but is also set to have its own show. Plans are in place to begin filming episodes of what will be something of an MLW spin-off project that will resemble Lucha Underground. Plans for the show were addressed recently in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

“They will also be taping content in Los Angeles for Azteca Underground and try and make it look like Lucha Underground,” wrote Dave Meltzer. “The plan is to start the Azteca Underground filming of matches in the fall and doing vignettes during the summer.”

It was also noted that some filming for the show will take place today in Los Angeles.

“They are doing some filming with Luis Fernandez-Gil (Cesar Duran, better known as Dario Cueto in Lucha Underground) on 6/18 in Los Angeles,” Meltzer continued.

Cesar Duran has also been announced as appearing in the 2300 Arena for the upcoming MLW Battle Riot event.

Other MLW News

It was also noted that MLW has opted out of its agreement with DAZN. The deal had once included a plan for live specials. The promotion has also announced they will be in Dallas for an event in September. on the 11th The Von Erichs will likely be featured prominently on that show.

Round 5 of the MLW Draft also took place last night. TJP and the tag-team of Violence Is Forever (Kevin Ku & Dominic Garrini) were confirmed as returning for the next season.

Impact Wrestling from 6/17 featured an episode-long story of Anthem sending a representative to deliver a message regarding Sami Callihan’s firing from Against All Odds.

Impact Wrestling 6/17 Quick Results:

1. TJP defeated Black Taurus
2. Josh Alexander defeated Madman Fulton
3. Steve Maclin defeated Jason Page
4. Tenille Dashwood defeated Rachael Ellering
5. Satoshi Kojima defeated Rhyno

Chris Sabin Returns To Confront Moose

After TJP defeated Black Taurus in the show’s first match, Moose attacked him from behind. Moose got on the microphone and berated Scott D’Amore for what happened to him at Against All Odds. Security came out to attempt to get Moose to leave but then Chris Sabin appeared out of nowhere and clocked Moose with a chair. Later, Sabin challenged Moose for a match at Slammiversary. The match was then made official.

Shera Takes Out The Entire X-Division

Josh Alexander defeated Madman Fulton this week. After the match, Austin attacked Alexander but this caused every member of the Ultimate X match at Slammiversary to come out for the save. Then Rohit Raju and Shera came out, however, and Shera took out everybody. By the end of the melee it was clear that Raju, Shera, Austin, and Fulton have reached some type of agreement. How their alliance will impact the Ultimate X match at Slammiversary is unclear.

Deonna Purrazzo Fires Kimber Lee & Susan

Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo is done with Kimber Lee and Susan as her run-in buddies. She fired them in a backstage segment this week. This caused Susan to call her a “degenerate millennial” and a match between her and the KO champ was made for next week.

W. Morrissey Doesn’t Believe In Friends

W. Morrissey cut a backstage promo this week about how many people in Impact Wrestling are of the belief that they have friends. Morrissey doesn’t believe in friends. He noted that he is the only person that he can trust.

Steve Maclin Impresses In His Debut

A very serious and angry looking Steve Maclin made his debut this week. He defeated Jason Page rather convincingly. D’Lo Brown noted on commentary that there is no wasted motion with Maclin, everything is very straight forward. He finished off Page with what look liked a reverse Michinoku Driver or Falcon Arrow type move.

Tenille Dashwood Picks Up Win Over Rachael Ellering

Rachael Ellering seemed like she could have used some help on the outside during this match. Her tag partner Jordynne Grace wasn’t at ringside. Ellering had things in control but when Kaleb Konley got involved on the outside to allow Dashwood to pick up the win with a crucifix pinning combination.

Fire N Flava Find Mickie James’ Gear In The Trash

Fire N Flava were causing problems in the back when Rosemary and Havok appeared. They tossed the tag champs into the trash where they discovered a bag with a label marked “Mickie James” on it.

Satoshi Kojima Defeats Rhyno

Kojima side-stepped the Gore and gave Rhino the Koji-Cutter to set up the finish of this match. Kojima then bounced off the ropes with a lariat and got the 3-count. Eric Young and Violent By Design were not happy on the outside as this means they will have to defend the tag belts next week against Edwards and Kojima.

Don Callis Is Fired, Sami Callihan Reinstated

All episode long fans were told that the Anthem board was sending a representative to the show to handle the Sami Callihan situation. That representative was revealed to be Tommy Dreamer in the night’s final segment. After teasing that he was going to fire D’Amore, Dreamer announced that Callis had been fired from the company. He also noted that Sami Callihan was reinstated and that Callihan’s match against Omega at Slammiversary will go ahead as planned.

Coming up in Impact Wrestling

Next Week:

• Impact Tag Team Championships
  Violent By Design (Rhino & Deaner) (c) vs Eddie Edwards & Satoshi Kojima
• Kiera Hogan vs Rosemary
• Rohit Raju & Shera vs Petey Williams & Trey Miguel
• Deonna Purrazzo vs Susan

Slammiversary:

1. Impact World Championship
   Kenny Omega (c) vs Sami Callihan
2. X-Division Championship
   Ultimate-X
   Josh Alexander (c) vs Rohit Raju vs Chris Bey vs Trey Miguel vs Ace Austin vs Petey Williams
3. Moose vs Chris Sabin

Mickie James will be the executive producer of the NWA’s all-women’s PPV this summer. James was recently interviewed by Chris Van Vliet and spoke about the show as well as her releases from WWE in both 2010 and 2021.

James made headlines shortly after her release this spring when she posted to social media that WWE had sent her items to her in a trash bag. As it turns out, WWE did the same thing to her when they released her in 2010 as well.

“This is the crazy thing, I posted that picture to kind of go yeah this still a thing. We have put up with so much crap in wrestling that we had become desensitized. We live in our own world and I forgot that the trash bag was offensive,” James said. “There was more to that too. I rewound back to the 2010 Mickie James, where I was mentally then when it happened the first time. It was like a stab in the heart to an open wound.”

The trash bag incident had major ramification in WWE. Longtime executive with WWE, Mark Carrano, was released from the company as a result. The entire department was shaken up not long after, with John Laurinaitis now taking on a major role.

James continued to say talk about how receiving her items in a trash bag impacted her.

“I took it then as they think I am trash,” she continued. “I was with the company for 4 years, and they think I am trash. All these thoughts were running though my head. If you are already broken, they can be devastating. I am thinking about all of that and all the people who also got released beside me. I see my name on the bag and it defines which bag is in which box. I’m thinking about the girls and they wouldn’t say anything, because you don’t want to mess up an opportunity for the future. But this Mickie James don’t give a sh*t. I am super grateful for my career and my ability; I couldn’t do it without WWE.”

Since her release, James has appeared on NWA programming. She announced that she would be the executive producer of the company’s all-women’s PPV in St. Louis this summer.

James also spoke about how she’s glad future released talent won’t receive the same treatment.

“But I am grateful that no one else will get that. This recent set of releases are getting theirs in Gucci [laughs].”

The full interview with Mickie James can be viewed in the player below:

AEW star Maxwell Jacob Friedman is the first pro wrestler to have his own cryptocurrency. MJF Coin ($MJF) is now live on the Rally platform.

You can purchase $MJF coin here at Rally.io.

“My crypto coin is better than yours and you know it. Check Twitter for random giveaways for whoever is holding the most $MJF,” reads a description for the currency.

Early investors in $MJF coin are making big returns. The cryptocurrency opened at $2.262 per coin. As of this writing, it’s trading at over $9.

The Rally platform allows celebrities and influencers to launch their own online currency. The idea is that celebrities can accept their own currency in exchange for exclusive content, as well as physical and digital products.

“Rally offers anyone with an online community the ability to launch their own coin without the complexity of coding on the ethereum blockchain. Rally is a decentralized platform completely governed by the community. This means that creators and their communities have unfettered control to use their social tokens across all social platforms.”

Impact Wrestling has announced that Josh Alexander will defend the X-Division Championship at Slammiversary next month in an Ultimate X match. Impact announced today that he’ll face Trey Miguel, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Rohit Raju and Petey Williams on July 17th.

Alexander recently successfully defended the title against TJP in a well-reviewed 1-hour Ironman match.

Sami Callihan is also scheduled to face Kenny Omega for the Impact World Championship at Slammiversary. Callihan was then fired from Impact by Don Callis at Against All Odds. Callihan had attacked Omega after the conclusion to his match against Moose in that night’s main event.

Previous Ultimate X Winners

This will be the 44th Ultimate X match in history. It dates back to 2003 when Michael Shane beat Kazarian and Chris Sabin in the first match. Since then, Sabin has gone on to win more Ultimate X matches than anyone else with 8.

Winningest Ultimate X match participants:

1. Chris Sabin (8 victories, 17 appearances)
2. Christopher Daniels/1st Suicide (5 victories, 8 appearances)
3. Alex Shelley (4 victories, 7 appearances)
4. Frankie Kazarian (3 victories, 8 appearances)
5. Doug Williams (2 victories, 2 appearances)
6. Eddie Edwards (2 victories, 2 appearances)
7. Michael Shane (2 victories, 5 appearances)
8. Petey Williams (2 victories, 5 appearances)
9. AJ Styles (2 victories, 5 appearances)

LA Knight defeated Cameron Grimes to become the new Million Dollar Champion at TakeOver: In Your House. According to former champion Virgil (aka Soul Train Jones, aka Vincent), Knight is just the latest holder of the title to rip off something of his.

“First Stone Cold steals my haircut now this dude? Is it just me or am I seeing this guy rip off my exact pose when I legitimized this title? May have to show up this week and put my foot in yo ass,” Virgil wrote on Instagram.

Million Dollar Championship History

Virgil defeated Ted Dibiase for the Million Dollar title at SummerSlam 91. He’d drop it back to Dibiase that November. Dibiase then abandoned the title after winning the tag belts along with IRS. He brought the title back in 1995 when he began managing Steve Austin as “The Ringmaster.” The title was then deactivated when Dibiase left for WCW the following year. It would be brought back briefly again in 2010 when Ted Dibiase Jr. held the belt.

LA Knight Comments On Match With Cameron Grimes

Knight was interviewed recently by PW Insider and spoke about his match with Grimes at In Your House.

“Well, hell, at this point, I think we’re both just trying to get our bodies in one piece after last night,” LA Knight said. “He took a hell of a spill at the end. And then, I took a couple of nasty spills in there. And I know if he’s feeling anything like I’m feeling today, we’re both feeling like complete crap. And at this point, it’s just take it a day at a time, and look, tomorrow’s another episode of NXT on USA. So, who knows what could happen if he shows up, if he doesn’t. Maybe he decides to take a little time off. Nobody knows, but I guess in the coming weeks, we’ll find out.”

Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson recently discussed the 1996 King of the Ring tournament on “Grillin JR.” The tournament was won by Steve Austin that year but the original plan had been for Hunter Hearst Helmsley to come out on top. The result is said to have been changed after Triple H took part in the Curtain Call at Madison Square Garden.

JR and Conrad discussed the infamous curtain call on the podcast.

“Everybody looks at things differently. I thought it was a lack of institutional control quite frankly,” said JR. “The guys shouldn’t have done it, in my view. But they loved each other so much, they had to say goodbye, it was the Garden, it was bulls**t. That’s what it was.”

JR continued to say that the Kliq wanted to show their defiance through their actions at Madison Square Garden that night.

“They’re so indebted to each other, they are such great friends, I wonder how often they talk now? So my point is, was it really that big of a deal? Or was it just for them to show their deviance? That they could do what they wanted, when they wanted, because of who (they) were. And you got to blame Vince for a lot of that because he let a lot of that s**t slip by.”

JR continued to say that Vince was possibly too talent-friendly at the time. This may have been because the company was losing talent to WCW during this period.

“That’s what they wanted to do and Vince was going to support those guys. Sometimes bookers, owners, whatever, can be too gracious in their quest to be talent friendly. I thought that was an example of that.”

Finally, JR said that he felt the curtain call was selfish and other wrestlers at the time felt similarly.

“I thought that thing in the Garden was kind of selfish. We’re going to defy tradition, we’re going to turn our back on kayfabe in this world’s most famous arena because we want to and we can and a lot of the other guys that I heard from were not happy about it.”

New AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker was recently interviewed by the NY Daily News. During the interview, Baker noted that she sees herself as one of the top stars in AEW.

“I don’t see myself as a woman anymore. I see myself as an AEW superstar,” Baker said.

“Maybe it’s not a humble statement, but I see myself as one of the top stars in the company and that’s not just because of my talent. It’s how I’ve been booked and how the fans have reacted.”

Baker has been involved in several high-profile matches and angles AEW. Her rivalry with Thunder Rosa led to a “Lights Out” match between the two headlining an episode of Dynamite. Baker says that if fans hadn’t responded positively to the angle, the main event match would not have been booked.

“The fans write the show. They dictate what happens next,” Baker continued.

“That feud with me and Thunder Rosa could have gone two months if the fans didn’t like it. But they loved it so they ended up getting a main-event, lights-out match that was arguably one of the best matches of the year.”

AEW announced yesterday plans for a show from Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. The tennis venue will likely provide a unique environment for a wrestling show. Baker continued to say fans are excited to get out of their houses and be there with them in person.

“The fans are on board for everything because they just want to get out of their house and stop watching wrestling on TV,” Baker continued.

“They want to be there with us and we’re going to ride that wave for a little bit.”

All Elite Wrestling is set to invade New York City for a very special edition of AEW Dynamite this September

AEW Grand Slam will take place Wednesday, September 22nd from the famed Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, NY. The venue hosts the annual US Open tennis grand slam tournament and accommodates nearly 24,000 people for tennis matches.

The venue opened in 1997 and features a lightweight retractable roof. It should provide a rather unique venue for professional wrestling.

Tickets start at just $25 and will go on sale July 16th.

AEW sent in a press release for the event, including these comments from AEW CEO, GM and Head of Create, Tony Khan:

“We wanted our first show in New York City to be extraordinary and epic in scale, and there’s no better venue to bring out the best in our talent and creativity than the iconic USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. We love the concept of wrestling in a non-traditional venue and placing our AEW ring on center court in the awe-inspiring Arthur Ashe Stadium. I can’t wait for fans to experience our live AEW DYNAMITE: GRAND SLAM show in one of the coolest venues on the planet.”

Tony Khan & Chris Jericho Comment

AEW President Tony Khan was quoted by NY Daily News about the event.

“No city is more synonymous with wrestling than New York City,” Khan said. “AEW is a new company and our company is in the business of both embracing tradition and trailblazing, trying to start new traditions and new history.”

Chris Jericho was also quoted.

“It’s a real cool end to the chapter of our lives that we all want to move on from,” Jericho said.

“We’ll be vindicated as the coolest wrestling company in the world today. What fans can expect is what we’ve been doing, just at a higher intensity level and a higher energy level because of the people in the crowd giving us more inspiration and more energy and more reward for what we’re doing.”

More Reactions from AEW Stars

NJPW has announced that Wrestle Grand Slam will now take place on July 25th from the Tokyo Dome. The event had originally been scheduled for May 29th. It was postponed following a COVID outbreak amongst members of the roster, however.

The main event for the show will feature Shingo Takagi defending his newly won IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against the former champion Kota Ibushi. The original main event of Wrestle Grand Slam on May 29th had been Will Ospreay defending the title against Kazuchika Okada. Ospreay then vacated the title due to injury and Takagi faced Okada for the title at Dominion earlier this month.

NJPW also announced that they were unable to reschedule the planned Wrestle Grand Slam event in Yokohama. That event had originally been scheduled for May 15th.

“Alternate dates for Wrestle Grand Slam in Yokohama Stadium on May 15 were carefully considered, but due to scheduling conflicts an alternate date could not be found for the immediate future. As a result, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has arrived at the decision to cancel the Yokohama Stadium card. All ticket holders will be refunded. We apologise to fans looking forward to the event and appreciate your understanding,” NJPW’s press release reads.

Jon Moxley took over the hosting duties of “Oral Sessions” from Renee Pacquette this week. He tried out his best radio/podcasting voice and answered questions fans asked him online. One of the questions asked was how his nickname of “The Titty Master” came about.

Moxley has sort of given his autobiography the tag line “The Book of Zero F***s. Tales of the Titty Master.”

Using his best podcaster voice, Moxley explained the story of the Titty Master. It was a fairly ridiculous tale.

“Here is the thing that you have to understand. That one does not simply wake up in the morning and put on the Titty Master. One does not come home at night and take it off. This is a life you live when you are bequeathed with the energy of the Titty Master,” Mox began the tale.

He then detailed the Titty Master origin story. Marvel couldn’t have written it better.

“I woke up in a cold sweat, cold sweat. I had a nightmare and I was given a message through the ether, I knew where I needed to go. Somehow I knew, the universe put me on this path and I set out on a journey to Mount Titicaca.”

Jon Moxley Climbs Mount Titicaca

“I climb to the top of this mountain, lightning crashing, wind, dust in my face, hot ash flying. I see the Titty elders at the top of the mountain standing around a tree and they all raise their hands in the air and then lightning strikes and it hits this big oak tree,” Moxley continued. He would then say that he was not sure if it was an oak tree or a ficus, however.

“Then out of this lightning strike I see red glowing, two pieces of wood. I’m called to them. I feel a pull and the elders look at me and I look at them and I look at the wood and I see it come into view. And I see it’s just a pair of nunchucks inscribed into the wood with the lightning. A ‘T’ is inscribed in the wood with burning fire and lightning and an ‘M.’”

Moxley continued to say he knows that these inscribed nunchucks mean he is the Titty Master.

“The elders they put their heads up and they walk away and they leave me alone on top of the mountain with these. I realized at that moment that I am the Titty Master.”

You can listen to this full and ridiculous story in the player below:

Renee Paquette and Jon Moxley are the proud parents of a baby girl. Paquette took to Twitter to announce the news this morning. She also stated that she will not be hosting her podcast for the next few weeks. Renee has lined up some guest hosts to cover for her, however.

“Baby girl is officially here, so I’m checking out and becoming a mom. (She’s absolutely incredible!!” Paquette Tweeted. “I have a bunch of guest hosts lined up for you guys and I started with none other than my baby daddy, cool dude husband.”

Several people from the wrestling world have issued congrats to her and Moxley online.

“Congrats Renee!!!! You’re going to be such a bad ass mom. Can’t wait to see your little girl!” wrote Kayla Braxton.

Nyla Rose also commented on Renee’s birth announcement:

The former Tom Phillips (Tom Hannifan) also commented:

Renee Paquette On The Negatives Of Working For WWE

Paquette was recently on Busted Open Radio and spoke about the negatives she experienced while working for WWE.

“For me it’s not the wrestling,” Paquette began. “The wrestling side of wrestling I love. It’s the production side of things that can be a kick in the lady d*ck. Just being micromanaged.” 

“I don’t like being micromanaged” Renee Paquette added. “I don’t like being under the magnifying glass as much as one is or can be in that world. You think you go through it once and ‘okay, I’m safe!’ and then like, another year later or so its ‘you’re back under the microscope again.’”

The father of AEW’s Tony Khan recently admitted that he thought his son starting a wrestling company was a bad idea. Tony and Shahid Khan were both interviewed recently by Forbes and spoke about how the decision to start AEW came about.

“I absolutely didn’t think this was a good idea,” Shad Khan said. “But I told Tony, ‘Look, when I’m dead and gone, I’m going to be leaving you and your sister a lot of money. Why don’t you blow some of that while I’m alive?’”

The elder Khan would be pleasantly surprised with the success of AEW, however. The father and son’s history with wrestling actually goes back to 1996. Tony was 13 at the time. His father wanted to incentivize him to go to the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. After Khan took the entrance exam for the school, Khan agreed to take Tony to an ECW show in Philadelphia. Tony spoke about his father’s reaction to seeing a live ECW show.

“My dad couldn’t believe what he was seeing,” Tony Khan said about the experience. “He was like, ‘This is a mix between an underground rock show and a cult.’”

Last year, Tony Khan’s AEW received $43.75 million in rights fees from Turner. Brett Weitz, general manager of TNT, TBS and truTV, spoke to Forbes about their investment in Khan’s company.

“It was very clear we put ourselves in the right hands,” said Weitz. “For someone to have the audacity to say, ‘I’m going to go take on the biggest wrestling league in the world and see if I can be a challenger brand,’ it takes chutzpah. And he nailed it.”

It has been more than 25 years since Scott Hall invaded WCW Nitro on May 27th, 1996. Nitro had just expanded to 2-hours and the show emanated from the Macon Coliseum in Macon, Georgia. Hall was a guest recently on Eric Bischoff’s 83 Weeks podcast and the two spoke about what happened backstage before the show.

According to Hall and Bischoff, Hall didn’t know anything about what he would be doing in the company until he met up with Bischoff earlier that day.

“I remember we hadn’t spoke until that time,” Hall said to Bischoff. “I remember we were driving to Macon, weren’t we E? Yeah, we were going to Macon and we were just kicking around some ideas. My last appearance had been the famous curtain call in Madison Square Garden so I’m really happy. My previous experience at WCW hadn’t been too satisfying but I was in a different spot now. Turner was giving out that guaranteed money and WWE wasn’t at that time. A lot of things changed that night at the Garden. When I left, when Kevin left, everyone started getting guaranteed money. Now, they have these 90-day can’t compete clauses, none of that was going on back in those days.”

Scott Hall On The Day He Invaded Nitro

Hall continued to detail what happened that day on May 27th, 1996.

“We hadn’t spoken at all at that time, everything was just business, it went through Barry Bloom, and we hadn’t talked creative at all,” Hall said after Bischoff pointed out the two had not spoken about creative plans before his debut.

Hall continued to say that there was talk that he would come out of the entrance way and possibly with music. It was then Larry Zbyszko who suggested that Hall come out through the crowd.

Hall came out during a match featuring Mike Enos vs Steve Dunn. Neither were informed ahead of time about what would happen.

“I remember Enos looking at me like ‘what are you doing, man?’ I think that was the start of it being kind of real,” Hall continued.

The full podcast episode can be heard here.

Roman Reigns went from the top babyface in WWE to the top heel when he turned on the fans last summer. It was a move many wondered if John Cena would make during his time as the top good guy in the company. It never happened, however.

Cena recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet about portraying a “bad guy” in Fast & Furious 9. According to Cena, his role in the movie shows it is possible for him to play the antagonist.

“I think this is a beginning to showcase the fact that it’s possible,” Cena responded when asked if F9 was the heel turn fans never saw in WWE. “Now as WWE invests and builds its roster and has a wealth of talent, it truly has many different anchors to the ship.”

Cena named Roman Reigns as being a “very marketable” and “definitive” star.

“I think the reason for me not exploring that side is because WWE didn’t feel confident that they had an alternative. I respect that business choice I really do. But now with them really laying the foundation for their future, I mean even for life in the next decade or so, maybe but I don’t know.”

Fast & Furious 9 premieres in the United States on June 25th. It was released for some international audiences, including the country of Taiwan, last month, however.

The full interview can be viewed in the player below:

Vanessa Borne was released from WWE last month after having been with the company since 2015. According to comments she made recently to PW Insider, she was set to be part of the Retribution angle last summer. Borne says she raised concerns about the angle possibly mirroring real events, however. Shortly after she did so, she was told she was not going to be part of the group and was being sent back to NXT.

“I was called in and they had a pitch where I was part of RETRIBUTION. I was excited about being on TV for something, but I had a lot of questions,” Borne said. “I wanted to know what the group was about and how I fit in. I had some concerns because, during this time, there was stuff around the country with violence and we’re watching this unfold and it’s not pretty.”

“I wanted to know if the group was mimicking that. I expressed those concerns, but ultimately, I wanted to do what I was told and tried to figure out how I could help. Within the week, I got a call from Mark Carano saying, ‘We’re not going to have you as part of RETRIBUTION and we’re going to pull your contract. You’re getting sent back to NXT.’”

Vanessa Borne in WWE

During her time in NXT, Vanessa Borne wrestled 15x in singles matches on WWE programming (i.e not including house shows). She only managed a record of 2-13 in those matches. Her victories were over Jessie Kamea on May 1st, 2019 and over Jayme Jameson in 2016.

Borne and Aliyah have wrestled 3x together as a tag-team on WWE programming. They had a 1-1-1 record. They defeated Xia Li & Tay Conti, went to a draw with Kacy Catanzaro & Lace Lane and then lost a match to Candice LeRae & Kacy Catanzaro. Those matches took place from February to April 2019.

Fred Rosser (FKA Darren Young in WWE) has officially signed with New Japan Pro Wrestling. He took to Twitter today to announce the news.

“I’m excited to officially announce I’ve signed W/ NJPW! All I can say moving forward is, don’t ever let your dreams just be dreams because as long as you’re patient & believe in your dreams, anything is possible. Patience is a talent,” Rosser Tweeted.

Rosser has been wrestling on episodes of New Japan Strong since September. He just finished a trilogy of matches with HIKULEO. Rosser defeated him in their first singles match in February. HIKULEO then defeated him in the 1st round of the tournament to determine the first New Japan Strong Openweight Champion. They then had a trilogy no disqualification bout last month which Rosser won.

In addition to wrestling with NJPW, Rosser has been with the NWA as well lately. He was defeated by JTG on the When Our Shadows Fall PPV last week.

Rosser had a 12-year career in WWE as Darren Young from 2005 to 2017. He was part of the NEXUS angle in 2010-11. Young and Titus O’Neil then wrestled as the Prime Time Players from 2012-14 and then again from 2015-16. They are 1x WWE Tag Team Champions having held the belts for 70 days in 2015.

Chelsea Green isn’t playing hard to get with the National Wrestling Alliance. She wants on their “Empowerrr” all-women’s PPV and is encouraging her fans to Tweet at Mickie James and the NWA to let them know.

“Mickie James is going for gold. She was just hired on by NWA to be an executive producer for the first-ever all women’s NWA PPV. I am so excited,” Green said.

“She is amazing. Clearly, she has pushed for this for years and has been overlooked so I’m so happy that she’s headed to NWA.”

“She is such an icon for all the women, not just women, but all the women in professional wrestling. She is the epitome of talent, character, wrestling ability, promo skill, everything.”

Green would continue to say that her Hot Mess character was influenced by James stalker character in her famous angle with Trish Stratus.

“Guys, Tweet NWA, Tweet Mickie James, let her know I want to be on the goddamn show, okay?” Green said. “I want to be the m***f*** main event of Empowerrr because that’s what I deserve dammit. Mickie, if you’re listening to this, I want to be on that PPV and I want to be the main event.”

Chelsea Green’s Injury Recovery

Green also noted during the podcast that she hurt her wrist again while training recently. She talked about how she was doing some light training with Santana Garrett when she heard a popping sound in her arm.

“I heard a nasty pop sound and guess where it came from? Surprise, surprise, my arm,” Green said.

“It hurt so much. I would say it almost hurt just as much as breaking it,” she continued.

She then went home and iced the injury. When she woke up this next morning she went to the ER because the pain was so bad. X-Rays reveal there was no fracture but doctors think she just has a lot of scar tissue build-up and that .

Green then said she reached out to WWE since her original injury happened in a WWE ring. The company allowed the recently released Green to come and work with their physiotherapist.

“I reached out to WWE and they were kind enough to let me come into the Performance Center and use their physical therapist and rehab my arm. Thank god, I’m very grateful for that.”

Green is Canadian and noted that looking at the cost of trips to the ER is kind of daunting.

“If you’re not American and you live in America, you know my struggle. The healthcare system is wild,” she said.

“I’ll be at the PC for the next couple of weeks, which is kind of funny and kind of awkward,” she continued.

Last night at NXT TakeOver: In Your House, Tian Sha (aka Mei Ying) rose from her seat and attacked Mercedes Martinez. The character is, or at least believes herself to be thousands of years old and trained by dragons. Triple H and Shawn Michaels were asked recently about their approach to supernatural characters on the NXT media call.

“So, I’m a big fan of a variety within the shows and having things that are different. You know, different characters, when you can get them, different characters, different personalities, different sides of performers, all of that, but also different characters in general,” Triple H said when asked by Gary Cassidy of Inside the Ropes.

Triple H then continued to talk about supernatural characters using Tian Sha as an example.

“To have characters like Tian Sha, I think you have to handle them slightly differently so that you can make them sort of make sense in your world, right?”

He continued to say what it takes to make a character make sense in NXT is different than RAW and Smackdown.

“All the shows are slightly different. I feel like even there’s a slight difference between even just RAW and SmackDown as to what works on one show, what doesn’t on others. I feel the same way. So having that good mix is great, but also how you handle them and making sure that they fit within the sort of the universe that you’re existing in.”

Triple H then used Marvel as an example of a company that does this particularly well.

“Marvel does a really good job with it of having serious, almost dramatic movies and then having moments where, you know, this guy’s a god and the other guy’s a robot and this guy’s from outer space.”

Shawn Michaels then spoke about the Undertaker and how the supernatural character felt larger than life.

“For me, I guess I always looked at it is there are some people and some characters, or some groups, that have the ability to look larger than life,” HBK said. “I’d argue that about me. Taker was somebody who was a little bit more larger than life, so it was a much bigger production when he was coming out, as opposed to the Heartbreak Kid who was just music and silly dancing, you know what I mean?”

Bray Wyatt, Alexa Bliss and her doll Lilly are all current examples of supernatural style characters on the main roster. Undertaker, Kane, Papa Shango, Gangrel and many others have had such powers in the past. The Ultimate Warrior also demonstrated some supernatural abilities during his WCW run as well.

Learn more about the Tian Sha origin story with the below video:

Last night’s TakeOver: In Your House event concluded with NXT GM William Regal giving some ominous comments about it being “time for a change.” Some fans are speculating this could mean a new authority figure for the brand. According to comments made on Wrestling Observer Radio, Samoa Joe has signed a deal with NXT and might be a perfect fit for the role.

“I think that’s the cue for Samoa Joe, I don’t know that 100%,” said Dave Meltzer regarding William Regal’s comments following TakeOver. “I was told today that Samoa Joe was in in a Regal-like role and then all of a sudden Regal’s talking like he’s stepping down. So, maybe the Regal-like role is Regal’s role.”

“If (Regal) is leaving, based on what I was told, Samoa Joe is definitely the favorite to be the new commissioner.”

Meltzer continued to say that Joe has signed a deal with NXT but in a non-wrestling role. He continued to speculate this could mean Joe is not medically cleared.

“Joe is in and he’s in as a non-wrestler,” Meltzer continued. “So, I think that tells you that he’s not cleared and so even if you want him to go to another company, if he’s not medically cleared…”

Joe’s last official match was on February 10th, 2020. He teamed with the Viking Raiders and Kevin Owens on RAW. They lost to Seth Rollins, Buddy Murphy, and AOP.

“He has taken a job in NXT and he’s doing something there,” Meltzer continued. “He may be the new authority figure on television, or he may not be, but he’s gonna be behind the scenes.”

Steve Austin toasted beers with Vince McMahon to close-out WrestleMania X-7, turning heel in the process. Austin’s heel turn was and still is quite controversial. Jim Ross spent some time on “Grillin JR” talking about how difficult it was to get Austin over as a heel at the time.

“We realized early on that we were swimming upstream. It was going to be very daunting to get Steve to the position that he wanted to be as the top heel,” said JR. He would continue to say that fans just didn’t hate Austin enough for it to work.

“Heel qualities include having enough heat on them that you will pay your money to drive to the arena to watch them get their ass whipped,” Ross continued.

“Nobody’s going to pay their money to come to RAW, a house show, live event whatever you want to call it, to see Austin get his ass whipped. They’re not mad at him. As much as they were uncomfortable with my little angle, the Lita situation, they still weren’t angry enough at Steve to turn on him. So, what else could we do?”

JR continued to say that he was against the heel turn. Austin was insistent, however, and Vince felt the company owed it to him to try.

“He was hell bent on it and as we’ve discussed, I was just as hell bent going the other way,” JR continued. “I’ve told you what Vince said, ‘JR he wants to do it real bad, he thinks it’ll work, and we owe it to him.’ After I heard that explanation my push back was less.”

JR’s comments can be heard in the player below:

WWE are heading back on the road starting next month. So far, ticket sales aren’t exactly what the company would have hoped for, however. According to comments made by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE’s ticket sales have not been good.

“They’re bad,” Meltzer said when asked about WWE ticket sales.

“People aren’t buying tickets. It’s a message, that’s the deal. I don’t want to hear any excuses because they are behind AEW in ticket sales now, as far as a per show thing.”

“There’s a lot under 2000 (tickets sold), a lot of shows,” Meltzer continued.

Some numbers aren’t so discouraging, however.

“They had a very good first week. Houston for the 16th with Edge and the first night back came out very strong. The Fort Worth PPV is almost sold-out, so they’ll have 10,000 people in there, so that’s good.”

The RAW in Chicago is selling somewhat well (over 6000 tickets) as are shows in Pittsburgh and San Antonio. Many markets have less than 2000 seats sold, however.

AEW Beating WWE In Some Markets

It was also noted that AEW is beating WWE in some markets that they are both running.

“They’re both running the Dallas market, WWE is definitely ahead big in that one,” Meltzer said. He also noted AEW is ahead in ticket sales in Jacksonville, but considering that is AEW’s home base that’s not that surprising. He also noted that AEW is selling more tickets in Miami and Charlotte.

“Miami: AEW is ahead. Charlotte: AEW is ahead. Charlotte is a big surprise because in those Carolina markets, WWE is way ahead in those Carolina markets,” he continued.

This week on Dynamite, it was revealed that Brock Anderson will make his debut on next week’s show. The son of Arn Anderson will team with Cody Rhodes to take on Aaron Solow and QT Marshall of the Factory.

According to comments made by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, both Brock Anderson and Hook have been training for months.

“Him and Hook, Taz’s son, have been training for months before TVs every week with Jerry Lynn, and Dustin (Rhodes), and the coaching staff basically,” said Dave Meltzer.

Meltzer continued to say that he’s been told both Hook and Anderson are ready to wrestle on television.

“I was told, I don’t know a month ago, that they are both ready to do a TV match. So we’ll see,” Meltzer continued.

That Hook is ready to wrestle on television comes as Team Taz seems to be having some internal conflict. Brian Cage chased Rick Starks to the back on Dynamite this week after once again refusing to cheat. Will Hobbs was left alone to drop the fall to Hangman Page and Ten from the Dark Order.

Cody Rhodes & Brock Anderson vs QT Marshall & Aaron Solow will preview the South Beach Strap match between Marshall and Rhodes on July 7th.

There are many rumors about what big stars will be returning to WWE in the near future. One is that John Cena will return to WWE at SummerSlam on August 21st, possibly for a huge main event match with Roman Reigns. Cena was asked what he is doing on August 21st during a recent media appearance to promote Fast & Furious 9.

Cena was asked if he has any plans for August 21st, the date of this year’s SummerSlam in Las Vegas.

 “Hopefully, enjoying the summer I don’t know,” Cena responded.

“In Vegas perhaps?” he was then asked.

“What’s in Vegas?” Cena asked in response.

“I heard there’s something called SummerSlam.”

“Oh *laughs* that was a good way to do that,” Cena admitted.

Will John Cena Be At SummerSlam?

WWE appears to be going full throttle trying to get big stars to appear at marquee events throughout the remainder of 2021. In addition to the rumored Cena vs Reigns match at SummerSlam, there are also rumors WWE is hoping for The Rock to return at Survivor Series. That could also possibly be for a match against Roman Reigns.

Cena missed WrestleMania this year due to his filming schedule. He noted during an interview this spring that his schedule opens up around July, however.

“Currently, I’m in Vancouver shooting Peacemaker, the series for HBO Max,” Cena said earlier this year. “Given the quarantine regulations, if I were to leave Canada, upon return I would have to quarantine for another two weeks. Essentially, that would shut production down. Strictly based on the letter of the law right now, there is no logistical way I can be there. We film now until July.”