Pro Wrestling: EVE have confirmed that there will be a showcase event for the company taking place on April 26th. Several of EVE’s top stars have tweeted their followers hyping the announcement including NXT UK’s Kay Lee Ray, Nina Samuels and Killer Kelly.
We spoke to EVE co-owner Dann Read and he confirmed that this will be an “important” event for the company. The official company statement for the show confirmed that this would be “not a ‘one time only in the UK.’ A ‘one time only’ no matter where in the world you are that you would quite probably seriously regret missing.”
The company has been on a roll since their Wrestle Queendom show last year at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London.
EVE will be heading to the Resistance Gallery on March 8th for ‘She Fights On Fridays.’ The main event for that show has already been confirmed. Kay Lee Ray will be teaming with legend Command Bolshoi to take on Leon and Emi Sakura.
WWE will be showcasing a new documentary on Hall of Famer Ric Flair at some point in the near future. WWE Network cameras were on hand for last night’s RAW show in Atlanta. The Network team were filming material for the new Nature Boy documentary as Flair celebrated his 70th birthday, according to PWInsider.
WWE reportedly conducted sit-down interviews with several personalities during the afternoon. Several top names were brought in for the Flair birthday celebrations, including Sting, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and Shawn Michaels. Others who would likely appear on the documentary are Batista and WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle. Regular roster members will also likely be playing a part in the upcoming programme. Although we do not have confirmation of who will be taking part as of writing.
Speaking of ‘The Animal’ Batista, he appeared in a backstage segment and attacked Flair. This was to kickstart the feud between Triple H and Batista, which will likely lead to a bout at this year’s WrestleMania. Both men appeared in an Evolution segment for Smackdown Live’s 1000th episode back in October.
Former WCW Champion David Arquette was also at this week’s show. Flair tweeted an image with Arquette and his wife Wendy Barlow backstage.
‘The Big Dog’ Roman Reigns returned to RAW this past Monday and confirmed that his leukaemia had gone into remission. Reigns also appeared alongside former Shield stablemate Seth Rollins to aid Dean Ambrose in a segment later on in the show.
Following RAW, Roman Reigns spoke to WWE’s Charly Caruso backstage. He said, “Tonight’s been incredible. You know, I feel like I sat around and thought about how this would go for a long time. What I would say. To be honest, I was nervous and I was so choked up, so emotional at the time. I just hope it came off well and I hope that everyone knows exactly how grateful I am.”
Reigns also discussed getting physical during the show. “The second half of the night was cool because I felt like we were able to show the through action, exactly how much better I’m doing,” he said. “Hopefully after seeing me go through some physicality, and kick some ass. Hopefully they can tell that yeah, he is much better. He’s doing better. He’s looking better, he’s moving better.”
He added, “Hopefully it’s just a snowball effect and people will stop worrying about me and we’ll just deflect all of this beautiful energy that has been sent to me, and just use it to help others.”
WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett made a surprise appearance at the recent ICW Square Go event. The Scottish based company held the event at SWG3, Glasgow on Sunday 24th. The main event would be the annual Square Go! bout. A rumble styled bout with weapons. Kay Lee Ray would also be taking on NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm.
Jarrett appeared during the Square Go! match. The former TNA World Champion appeared at number 29 in the bout in a complete surprise to the crowd. Jarrett appeared recently for the company as part of the Fear & Loathing event in the SSE Arena, Glasgow.
The Square Go was eventually won by Rudo Lightning, who eliminated Joe Hendry last. Lightning becomes the first performer to win two Square Go bouts, he won the inaugural contest back in 2012.
Rudo entered the Royal Rumble styled match at number two. Along with Liam Thomson, who entered in the first spot, lasted over an hour. Some high profile competitors in the bout included NXT UK Superstar Wolfgang and a returning former ICW World Champion, ‘Just Justice’ Jackie Polo.
Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) has announced the next bout for their upcoming March 10th event. ‘Drippin Like a Knackered Fridge’ will be taking place at The Assembly in Aberdeen, Scotland.
The company has announced that Bad Company (Wolfgang, B.T. Gunn, Krobar & Stevie James) will be taking on Joe Hendry, Ravie-Davie, The Fresh Prince Of Drumoyne Square, Kez Evans & Leyton Buzzard. This 8-man tag team match joins the already confirmed bout of Aaron Echo taking on Scotty Swift.
IMPACT Wrestling star Grado, The Kinky Party and Mark Coffey have also been confirmed to be appearing.
ICW recently held their Square Go! event in Scotland. The Royal Rumble style event saw a surprise appearance from WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett. Rudo Lightning eventually won the 30 man rumble bout. Rudo entered the Royal Rumble styled match at number two. Along with Liam Thomson, who entered in the first spot, lasted over an hour. Some high profile competitors in the bout included NXT UK Superstar Wolfgang and a returning former ICW World Champion, ‘Just Justice’ Jackie Polo. Rudo eliminated Joe Hendry last to win the bout.
PROGRESS Wrestling has announced the full card for their upcoming Chapter 85 event ‘PROGRO.NAUT.’ The company had announced several matches for their Chapter 85 and 86 weekender, but have now confirmed the full card. Former IMPACT Tag Team and 2 time X Division Champion DJ Z will be appearing for the company and taking on Angelico as part of the PROGRO.NAUT event. Chapter 85 will be taking place on Saturday March 9th from the O2 Academy in Bournemouth and Chapter 86 will be taking place on Sunday 10th from the O2 Academy in Birmingham.
The full card for PROGRO.NAUT is as follows:
Jimmy Havoc, Mark Haskins and Eddie Dennis vs Spike Trivet, Chuck Mambo and William Eaver
Trent Seven vs Jody Fleisch
‘Session Moth’ Martina vs Millie McKenzie
Austin Theory vs Jordan Devlin
Anti-Fun Police vs Wild Boar and ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster
Travis Banks vs El Phantasmo
Angelico vs DJ Z
AEW Star Jimmy Havoc recently made his return to the company. The former PROGRESS Champion appeared following the Mark Haskins vs Do Not Resuscitate bout to help his former tag team partner Mark Haskins.
The working relationship between WWE and EVOLVE has long been publicised. WWE’s ties to PROGRESS are also now more in the limelight than ever before, with PROGRESS co-owner Jim Smallman apparently being groomed to run the NXT UK territory. Theory heading over to the UK might well be an opportunity to get him working with NXT UK Superstars and get more seasoning before moving up to NXT in either North American or the United Kingdom.
“Top UK independent star Kip Sabian recently said farewell to one of the top UK brands. Sabian recently signed for the new All Elite Wrestling (AEW) promotion and is finalising his time on the UK independent scene.
Sabian took to Twitter and wrote “Tonight I wrestled my last match for World Association of Wrestling (WAW). Couldn’t of asked for a better send off sharing the ring with Brad Slayer. 9 years after we first teamed together! Big love to Zak Bevis, Saraya Knight, Ricky Knight, Roy Knight for everything over the years.”
WAW is the promotion owned by the Knight Family in the UK. The promotion is featured in the new ‘Fighting With My Family’ film based on WWE Superstar Paige. Sabian was a big part of the company’s presentation, particularly at their Epic Studios shows in Norwich, England.
IPW:UK also confirmed that Sabian will be leaving the company. The company tweeted the following: “So #TuesdayNightGraps fans we can officially confirm Tuesday 16th April, Kip Sabian will be saying bye to the Frog and Bucket.” Again Sabian was a big part of the IPW:UK presentation, having recently won and held their top championship.
Over it the weekend, news broke that Bruce Prichard has been rehired by WWE. The man formerly known as Brother Love is returning to the WWE creative team on a full-time basis. His first show back with WWE will be tonight’s live Raw from Atlanta, GA.
Prichard’s new role with WWE has been described as being “as important as possible.” The man who once served as Vince McMahon’s ‘right hand man’ will once again be a key player on the writing staff.
Bruce Prichard has regained notoriety in recent years via the wildly popular Something to Wrestle podcast with Conrad Thompson. The podcast got so big that Bruce and Conrad have been doing live stage shows for their loyal listeners all across the world.
We reached out to Conrad Thompson, who confirmed he and Bruce will fulfill all of their outstanding commitments for the Something To Wrestle Live tour.
Those dates include:
1st March – Montville, CT
9th March – Crown Point, IN
10th March – Cleveland, OH
22nd March – Sydney, Australia
23rd March – Melbourne, Australia
24th March – Brisbane, Australia
6th April – New York City, NY
8th April – Brooklyn, NY
Tickets for Something To Wrestle Live are available to purchase at BrucePrichard.com.
As we announced recently, WWE has rehired former employee and personality Bruce Prichard. The company has brought back the former ‘Brother Love’ for a role in the creative team.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Prichard has been travelling with WWE and working as a backstage consultant since January. It is being reported that Prichard’s new deal to advance him to a top creative position was finalised as soon as this past Friday.
Apparently the idea to bring Prichard back as a full time employee was first mentioned last week. This was instantly well received backstage and the idea gained traction leading to the new signing. Prichard will apparently be Vince McMahon’s ‘right hand man’ and a “very key guy” in the WWE creative team.
This evening’s RAW show will be the first with Prichard in his new role working directly alongside Vince McMahon. Already advertised for tonight’s RAW is Ric Flair’s 70th Birthday Celebration. Former WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns will also be making his return to Monday Night RAW.
Several new hirings have been made backstage for WWE over the past few months. These include Steve Corino, “Hurricane” Shane Helms, Sonjay Dutt, Shawn Daivari, “Abyss” Chris Parks and WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett.
British promotion WoS/World of Sport has made their first announcement in quite some time. The Twitter account for the ITV brand stated that the company has signed a new deal to bring WoS to fans in India.
The company confirmed that DSport will be showing the programme. DSport is premium sports TV channel launched by Discovery Networks Asia Pacific, for the Indian subcontinent.
There is currently no confirmation on WoS and their status on ITV. The ratings for the show dropped dramatically week on week and were well below what is expected for the channel. ITV is one of the ‘big four’ channels in the UK and is available in every home with a television set. WoS started as an evening programme and gradually moved timeslots throughout the ten episode run. Another issue with the show was the scheduling in terms of times of year.
The company recently finished a live event tour that stretched across the UK. Shows were held in Scotland and throughout England, although some shows were cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Whilst there’s no confirmation there’s a chance that the show does return but on a different channel under the ITV banner. World of Sport still has a strong brand name in terms of British culture.
PROGRESS held their 84th Chapter event this past Sunday. The event was held at the company’s spiritual home, the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London.
Here’s the full results for the show
Pre Show Match – NIWA b. Sugar Dunkerton
Mark Haskins (w/Vicky Haskins) b. Do Not Resuscitate (Chuck Mambo & Spike Trivet) – Haskins took the win via DQ after Drew Parker interfered. This led to Jimmy Havoc making his return to the company
Millie McKenzie b. Bea Priestley – The former NXT UK Superstar defeated one of the top stars in the WoS Women’s Division
Nina Samuels b. Jinny (w/ Laura Di Matteo) – Samuels took the win in a battle of the NXT UK Superstars
Jordan Devlin b. Travis Banks – Another match between two NXT UK Superstars saw Devlin take the win via DQ
PROGRESS World Tag Team Championship Match – The Swords of Essex (Will Ospreay and Paul Robinson) b. Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) – Ospreay and Robinson took the win to return their titles
PROGRESS Atlas Championship Open Challenge – Trent Seven b. Timothy Thatcher – Seven took the win to retain his title
PROGRESS World Championship Match – WALTER b. Chris Ridgeway – NXT UK Superstar WALTER took the win to retain his title. Trent Seven appeared after the bout to challenge WALTER to a unification match at the upcoming Super Strong Style 16 shows
Insane Championship Wrestling (ICW) held their Square Go! event this past weekend. The Scottish based company held the event at SWG3, Glasgow on Sunday 24th. The main event would be the annual Square Go! bout. A rumble styled bout with weapons. Kay Lee Ray would also be taking on NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm.
Here’s the full results for the show:
ICW Tag Team Championship Match: The Kings of Catch (Aspen Faith & Lewis Girvan) b. The P.O.D. (Rampage Brown & Ashton Smith) – Faith and Girvan took the win to become the new ICW Tag Team Champions
ICW Women’s World Championship Match:Kay Lee Ray b. NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm – Kay Lee Ray took the win to retain her Championship. KLR will be heading to the NXT UK brand shortly
ICW Zero G Championship Match: Joe Coffey (c) b. Ilja Dragunov – Coffey took the win over Dragunov to retain his Championship. Dragunov has recently been touted for a move to NXT UK
ICW World Heavyweight Championship Match: Lionheart b. Angelico – ICW World Heavyweight Champion Lionheart took the win to retain his Championship. Angelico was previously one of the top stars of the Lucha Underground promotion. LU is likely going to be cancelled as of writing
Square Go! Match – Rudo Lightning was the eventual winner of the annual Square Go! bout
Posted February 25th, 2019 in Results. Tagged: ICW.
German based promotion wXw will be holding their prestigious 16 Carat Gold tournament in March. The company will be heading to Oberhausen on March 8th, 9th and 10th for the 2019 iteration of the event.
The company has now announced the opening matches for the tournament. These are as follows:
David Starr vs WALTER
Rey Horus vs Fenix
Axel Dieter Jr vs Marius Al-Ani
Mark Davis vs Pentagon Jr
Lucky Kid vs Timothy Thatcher
Ilja Dragunov vs Daisuke Sekimoto
Shigehiro Ire vs Chris Brookes
Avalanche vs Jurn Simmons
The big matches lined up include David Starr taking on NXT UK Superstar WALTER. Starr has never beaten WALTER in a one on one contest, a story that stretches multiple companies worldwide and one of the most intriguing on the independent scene. Mark Davis vs Pentagon Jr could also be a sleeper match with the Aussie Open star getting a shot at one of the best performers on the planet. in Pentagon Jr.
The show on Friday March 8th will also be featuring two World Championship bouts. The wXw Unified World Championship will be defended by Absolute Andy when he takes on Bobby Gunns.The wXw Women’s Championship will also be on the line when Champion Toni Storm defends against Killer Kelly.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently made some interesting comments regarding the new AEW promotion. Good Ol’ JR spoke about the new upstart company on his Ross Report podcast.
When discussing the new company Ross began to explain how he feels they should run the business. Ross was mainly looking at how the company could build and ‘avoid becoming the next WCW.’ Alluding to how the last company to truly contest WWE ended up going out of business.
JR said that “Well, they’ve got to continue to create stars. They’ve got to continue to provide something new and exciting and talented to the fanbase. They’ve got to have a great television clearance as they start their weekly run this fall, I am told or as I read. So I think that’s important. They’ve struck a chord with many on social media.” Ross elaborated further, saying “their footprint, thanks to their social media expertise, is serving them well. But the main thing is they’ve got to cultivate a talented roster. They can’t get stale or predictable and continue to produce great episodic, hard-hitting, no eye-rolling content every week. It’s a hell of a big job and it ain’t going to be easy.”
Credit to the Ross Report and WrestlingINC for the transcription
As we reported earlier this week TJP, WWE Hall of Famer Arn Anderson, Tye Dillinger, and Hideo Itami were all released from their WWE contracts. Itami had publicly announced that we would be leaving. Dillinger also made some comments this week on social media confirming his release.
There appears to be some reasoning for the recent releases. According to the Wrestling Observer Arn Anderson was constantly in conflict with Vince McMahon. The actual details are few and far between but apparently a recent house show involved an incident which the WWE CEO was not happy about. Anderson took full responsibility for the incident and was subsequently terminated from the company.
TJP’s release is reportedly for disciplinary reasons. WWE are quite reluctant to ‘fire’ anyone currently due to the new landscape of professional wrestling (see: AEW). Again details are scarce but WWE felt firing TJP needed to be done.
Itami and Dillinger asked for their releases from WWE. With the aforementioned change of landscape both clearly feel that there are opportunities for them elsewhere.
Bruce Prichard, Steve Corino, “Hurricane” Shane Helms, Sonjay Dutt, Shawn Daivari, “Abyss” Chris Parks and WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett have all recently joined the company in backstage roles.
NXT UK Superstar Wolfgang recently spoke to the UK’s Mirror and suggested that he would like to see some WWE Superstars on the UK brand.
The newspaper asked the Gallus member about the upcoming ‘Superstar Shakeup.’ Wolfgang mentioned what he would like to see happen for the UK brand. The Scottish Superstar stated “It would be great to see new faces, but also some established ones coming over to NXT UK. Just like Noam Dar did recently.”
The Gallus stable member gave some specific names, saying “it would be great to see Jack Gallagher, Drew McIntyre and some of the heavyweights come across.” Wolfgang also mentioned that “people like Sheamus would be good. I know these guys are megastars now, but given where they came from, it would be good to see them back.”
Finally Wolfgang also mentioned “Killian Dain, get him back here if not permanently, but at least for a few episodes. I’m not sure he’s getting the platform he would wish for right now and I think he would jump at the chance.”
NXT UK recently taped their latest batch of episodes for the WWE Network. You can check out the full results for the taping here.
Posted February 24th, 2019 in News, NXT. Tagged: Sheamus.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that the upcoming G1 Supercard event will be streamed on the NJPWWorld.com platform. The company wrote the following on their English language site NJPW1972.com. “New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honor are pleased to announce that G1 Supercard will stream live on NJPW World and HonorClub worldwide on April 6, 2019 for all subscribers.”
G1 Supercard will be taking place on Saturday April 6th from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The show is a co-branded event alongside Ring of Honor.
New Japan recently announced IWGP Champion Jay White’s match. The company said that 68th IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White will be defending his title against the New Japan Cup winner. Previously, the winner of the Cup was able to receive a title shot of their choosing. This year, the winner can only challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
The New Japan Cup is a single-elimination tournament held annually since 2005. Zack Sabre Jr. was the winner of the 2018 cup and he went on to challenge Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title at Sakura Genesis in a losing effort.
White won the title at the from Hiroshi Tanahashi on February 11th at the New Beginning in Osaka show. The win came as a shock to NJPW fans and saw White ascend to the top of the company.
Earlier this month saw Revolution Pro (Rev Pro) Wrestling present their High Stakes 2019 event. The show took place from the world famous York Hall in Bethnal Green, London.
The main event featured an independent dream match with NEVER Openweight Champion Will Ospreay facing Dragon Gate star PAC. The match featured a run in from CCK’s Chris Brookes and Jon Gresham. The bout ended in a time limit draw, with the contest going the allocated 30 minutes.
PAC took to the top rope and counted along with the fans in the final seconds, opting not to hit his Black Arrow finishing move. The contest was a critical hit with fans in attendance but many were questioning the finish, blaming ‘politics’ between New Japan and Dragon Gate.
Rev Pro has now announced that Ospreay and PAC will be teaming to take on CCK. The company will be heading to the Hilton New York Midtown Ballroom this WrestleMania weekend on Friday 5th April. Tickets for the show are available to purchase now.
There were rumors that Ospreay and PAC would be involved at the New York showing following their time limit draw. Initial reports indicated that it would be another singles match however CCK’s involvement in the original bout makes much more sense.
NEW YORK: OSPREAY & PAC combine for the first time ever to take on CCK: Gresham & Brookes
Can they co-exist? Can Ospreay finally earn the respect of one of his heroes? Can CCK spoil the party?
NJPW has announced three of the stars who will be appearing at the upcoming Royal Quest event.
The company confirmed earlier this month that “Three of our top Japanese wrestlers have confirmed they will be on the card and they will be bringing New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s fighting spirit to the heart of the UK’s capital.” Those three stars are Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi.
NJPW aren’t strangers to the United Kingdom. They have held numerous events in conjuncture with other promotions. Most notably Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) and Ring Of Honor (ROH). ‘Royal Quest’ will be their first major solo show in the UK.
You can find more information on their website, NJPW1972.com.
We’re still working out a few final tweaks to the seating, but we have great news!
Tanahashi, Okada and Naito are wresting at NJPW Royal Quest!
WWE’s UK division will be airing its latest show tonight on WWE Network. The brand has been on a roll since the Takeover: Blackpool show and this week’s show is set to be another gem.
Toni Storm will be defending her NXT UK Women’s Championship against Rhea Ripley in the main event. Ripley was the inaugural NXT UK Champion and Storm took her Championship at the recent Takeover: Blackpool event. This highly anticipated rematch could see the belt change hands once again.
Mark Andrews and ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster will also be taking on Gallus’ Joe & Mark Coffey. The Coffey Brothers have been engaged in a feud with WALTER alongside their Gallus stablemate Wolfgang. Andrews and Webster have been used sparingly on the show so far, this could be their opportunity to show the NXT UK fans what they can do.
NXT UK Tag Team Champions Zack Gibson & James Drake will also address the WWE Universe in Phoenix. This week’s show took place at the Royal Rumble Axxess shows back in January.
PROGRESS ATLAS Champion Trent Seven will also be stepping into singles competition against the debuting Shane Thorne. Seven is one of the biggest Superstars on the NXT UK brand alongside Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne of British Strong Style.
WWE has announced that NXT UK will be heading to the Download Festival later this year. The UK brand will be heading to Donnington on June 14th to 16th. NXT UK will be taping episodes for the WWE Network show at the annual metal festival.
Superstars currently announced for the weekend shows include WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne, NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm, NXT UK Tag Team Champions James Drake and Zack Gibson, WALTER, Tyler Bate, Trent Seven, Jinny, Jordan Devlin, Rhea Ripley, Travis Banks and Gallus.
The Download shows are part of the next NXT UK tour. WWE announced that “NXT UK will visit Scotland for the first time ever with two nights of tapings on Friday, April 19, and Saturday, April 20, at the Braehead Arena, beginning at 7:30 p.m. GMT. Tickets for the Glasgow shows will be available Friday, Feb. 22, at 10 a.m. GMT”
NXT UK also announced that the brand “returns to the Plymouth Pavilions for two nights of action on Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20, beginning at 7:30 p.m. GMT. Tickets for the Plymouth shows will be available beginning Wednesday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. GMT at www.theticketstore.co.uk/.”
NXT UK returns this Wednesday on the WWE Network. The main event will see NXT UK Women’s Champion Toni Storm defend against Rhea Ripley.
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross recently appeared on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. The former WWE commentator was asked about The Undertaker and the significance of him taking bookings outside of WWE.
“He’s done many Comic Cons in the past and WWE has booked him at like World Of Wheels or some of those type things,” JR said of The Undertaker. “He’s done those and I’m sure he’ll do more of them but when you are in his position and you’ve got young children, he’s not on the road and I’m sure he doesn’t want to be on the road all the time and I wouldn’t at his age and his obligations and the miles on the car.”
JR continued, “I’m not surprised about it and to me it’s just a third-party booking. He’s still under contract to WWE and I’m sure WWE gave him the blessing to go make a payday. When I had and was working on (NJPW) I had a contract with WWE and at the same time I was working for AXS TV. Now figure that out? I had a contract with them too and WWE had never allowed that but they changed.”
WWE and Outside Bookings
Ross also discussed how WWE had changed their view of outside WWE commitments. JR said “they were easing up on some things, so basically it was just a matter of me going and doing the thing that I love and keeping my rhythm and making damn good money on the side and they like that and I like it so that is what we did for the first two or three years of that AXS TV deal and it was all with the blessing of WWE and Vince.”
JR also discussed the significance of Taker leaving. Ross said, “The thing with Taker is not and I don’t see it as a sign of anything changing or he’s branching out or he’s going to start wrestling. Because he’s not going to wrestle anywhere else I can guaranf*ckingtee you that.”
You can listen to JR’s comments about The Undertaker here:
WWE recently teased a segment on RAW where Kurt Angle looked to be announcing his retirement from in-ring competition. It looks as though this was done for an upcoming angle at WrestleMania.
There has reportedly been talk of doing a retirement bout for Angle within WWE for some time. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Radio show recently claimed that the match is being heavily considered for WrestleMania 35 in April. There’s unfortunately no word on who Angle may be facing at the show of shows as of writing. Meltzer did claim that there’s been talks with Angle for a him to appear at WrestleMania in-ring.
Kurt Angle has worked in a number of multi-man matches since his return. Angle’s first being at TLC 2017 where he teamed with Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. This saw Angle defeat The Bar, Kane, The Miz and Braun Strowman in a TLC Match. Kurt also appeared at the 2017 Survivor Series pay-per-view in a traditional 5-on-5 match. Angle’s biggest return bout saw him teaming with RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey for WrestleMania 34 against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
One of the performers who could be considered for the match is John Cena. The former WWE Champion’s first ever WWE match came against Angle and this could be a way to round out the Olympian’s career. Cena has been working sporadically for WWE since last year’s WrestleMania, where he lost to The Undertaker.
Following his impressive showing on Smackdown Live and the Elimination Chamber it seems that Kofi Kingston may still be in the WWE Championship picture.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Kofi was originally not in line to get the shot at Fastlane. However, plans as of Monday afternoon alluded to Kofi being heavily considered as the front runner for the WWE Title match. Dave Meltzer mentioned that Kofi’s performances in the Gauntlet match and Elimination Chamber essentially forced WWE’s hand.
The Q Arena has been advertising a Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship at Fastlane in local markets. This match would’ve seen AJ Styles and Samoa Joe joining Daniel Bryan in the main event. There’s currently no information on what Styles and Joe will be doing at Fastlane as of writing.
There’s currently no concrete plans on how Kingston vs Bryan will affect WrestleMania. Kofi has impressing over the past few weeks. However it is highly unlikely that he takes the title off of Bryan this close to the big event. WrestlingINC have been reporting that Bryan is scheduled to face someone not on the full time roster. There’s no confirmation on who this may be, however the likes of Batista could be on WWE’s radar.
UK based promotion RIPTIDE Wrestling has announced that tickets for their RIPTIDE Rumble event are now on sale. The event will be taking place on April 12th from the Brighthelm Centre in Brighton, England.
This is the second annual Rumble show and will once again feature a 30 person rumble. AEW star Jimmy Havoc will also be teaming with Jinny to take on Paul Robinson and Chakara.
The main event of the show will see Chuck Mambo defend his Brighton Championship against TK Cooper. Cooper appeared at the recent Deep Six show against former NXT UK Superstar Candyfloss. Mambo defended his Brighton title against ROH Star Mark Haskins at the same event.
The Deep Six event took place this past weekend and featured a litany of top draw UK bouts. Alongside the aforementioned contests Spike Trivet defeated NXT UK Superstar Wild Boar and Ashmore defeated Cara Noir.
The participants for the Rumble match have not yet been disclosed. Although it likely that at least a few of the following RIPTIDE stars may be included in the bout: