Wrestling MediaCon has announced the first class for their brand new Hall of Fame. The Wrestling MediaCon convention will be taking place September 8th/9th from the Bowlers Exhibition Centre in Manchester, England.
The following names will be inducted to the Hall of Fame for their services to Wrestling media:
Dave Meltzer – Owner of the Wrestling Observer
Colt Cabana – Independent wrestling star with a history spanning Ring of Honor and WWE
Findlay Martin – Former head of PowerSlam magazine
Martin Goldsmith – Chairman of Event! Merchandising. One of the World’s leading & longest established events companies spanning over 30 years
WoS stars SoCal Val and Joe Hendry will be hosting the ceremony on Saturday 8th at 8pm GMT. You can check both days of the event on FITE.tv for $29.99.
WWE has sent out a new survey to fans detailing some potential new show concepts for the over the top streaming service. Here’s some of the new concepts on offer:
WWE Now LIVE! – Live morning show featuring the hottest topics and news in the WWE Universe.
History of FCW – While NXT is well known to the WWE Universe as a starting place for today’s WWE Superstars, many current Superstars started in pre-NXT, Florida Championship Wrestling. This is the story of the Tampa-based promotion and its transformation into NXT.
Xavier’s Arcade Challenge – Xavier Woods takes his love of retro gaming to the finest “Bar / Arcades” in the country and challenges the WWE Universe in one-on-one competition.
WWE Cheat Day with Becky Lynch – WWE Superstars work hard, and train harder. See what they do on their cheat day, as Becky Lynch and Charlotte indulge at one of Becky’s favourite breakfast eateries.
Fashion Police / Unsolved Mysteries – Tyler Breeze and Fandango attempt to crack the case of numerous unsolved mysteries that have eluded the WWE Universe over the years.
House Hardy: Halloween special – Go inside the WONDERFUL world of the Hardy family in this delightful short-form scripted sitcom, featuring Matt and Jeff Hardy!
The survey also asked fans if there was any interest in the NXT UK brand and if the Full Sail NXT programme going live would raise interest in the show and Takeover special events. The survey also asked fans to reveal which other promotions they currently watch, including:
Ring of Honor
Impact Wrestling
Lucha Underground
Pro Wrestling Guerrilla
New Japan Pro Wrestling
Are you interested in any of these show concepts? Let us know in the comments
PROGRESS has made the Women’s Title match for Wembley official. The ‘Queen’ of the Women’s division Jinny will be defending against Toni Storm and Millie McKenzie.
Toni Storm was the inaugural holder of the Women’s Title, holding the belt for 1 day off an entire calendar year. Jinny became only the second holder of the belt at Chapter 69: Be Here Now. Jinny will be joined by her House of Couture stable which features Chakara, Charlie Morgan and Sammii Jayne.
Millie McKenzie defeated Candyfloss, Chakara, Charlie Morgan and Laura Di Matteo to become the Number 1 contender at Chapter 75: These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends.
This will be the biggest English Independent show in years and the following bouts are now signed:
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s September scheduling is usually dominated by the DESTRUCTION shows – and 2018 is no different. This year’s lineup of shows will of course feature to ‘Road To’ shows, some of which will be available on NJPWWorld.
Here’s the full results for the September 5th show in Nagoya:
NJPW Road To Destruction Results (Night 1)
Yota Tsuji and Ren Narita b. Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino. Narita took the win after submitting Uemura with the Boston Crab
Yujiro Takahashi b. Ayato Yoshida. Takahashi took the win after hitting the Pimp Juice on Yoshida.
Taiji Ishimori, Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale b. Toa Henare, David Finley, Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson. Tama Tonga took the win after hitting the Gun Stun on Henare.
YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto b. Takashi Iizuka and Taichi. Goto took the win after hitting the GTR on Iizuka.
BUSHI, Sanada, EVIL and Tetsuya Naito b. TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Minoru Suzuki. BUSHI took the win for his team after hitting the MX on TAKA.
Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe and Hiroshi Tanahashi b. Gedo, Toru Yano and Kazuchika Okada. Makabe took the win after hitting the King Kong Knee Drop on Gedo.
Will Ospreay, Berreta and Tomohiro Ishii b. Chase Owens, Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega. Ishii took the win for his team after hitting the Vertical Brain Buster on Chase Owens. He challenges Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on September 15th at Destruction in Hiroshima.
Road To Destruction Schedule on NJPWWorld.com
The full G1 Climax tournament was available in English for the first time ever this year and now New Japan’s Destruction shows in September will be getting the ‘Western’ treatment. Play by Play commentator Kevin Kelly confirmed which shows be would be commentating live via Twitter.
The Road to Destruction shows on September 7th, 8th and 9th will only be available in Japanese live. The September 15th, 17th and 23rd events in Hiroshima, Beppu and Kobe will be available in English. Kelly will be recording commentary for the ‘Road To’ events in post production.
Revolution Pro (Rev Pro) announced recently that FreeSportsUK woyld be the home for their new TV show. FreeSportsUK made the announcement via Twitter and the channel will be airing the show “later in September.”
You may remember FreeSports as the channel that hosted the ill-fated 5 Star Wrestling earlier this year. Rev Pro is an extremely well established promotion comparatively and will relish the opportunity to be available in UK homes.
The first images of York Hall have appeared with a fantastic looking staging and ring setup for tonight’s taping, check them out below:
Several of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s stars will also be available for the TV tapings. You can check out our exclusive interview with Rev Pro owner Andy Quildan discussing the upcoming tapings and more here.
FreeSportsUK is available on the following UK platforms:
No one stays retired. It’s one of the running gags that is prevalent throughout wrestling history. Ric Flair, Terry Funk, Mick Foley…they all returned. One man who has kept his word? Shawn Michaels.
HBK is arguably the greatest superstar to ever step into a WWE ring. The legendary career of Michaels and his show-stopping performances at WrestleMania events throughout history can only be matched by one man: The Undertaker. This past week on RAW featured the return of both HBK and ‘Taker to our screens, the former to cement his opinion that Triple H would defeat his longtime rival, or “cerebrally assassinate” to steal a phrase. This brought out The Deadman who brought up the WrestleMania history of all three men, confirming his dominance at the Showcase of the Immortals.
Why Tease With No Payoff?
The way that the segment ran played out like a very elaborate tease. It has been reported in the past that Vince McMahon loathes segments that tease impossible scenarios. Such as the Steve Austin podcast incident where he was goaded by Paul Heyman into seemingly challenging Brock Lesnar to a Texas Deathmatch…so would a scripted show like RAW have this ‘tease’ without merit? It’s possible, but why would you try something like this if it leads to nothing? WWE does have history in this department so it IS possible.
The question is, should HBK return to the ring? Yes and no. Yes because he is one of the greatest ever. No because it would need to be against The Undertaker. We really don’t need to see that match again do we? After two of the greatest WrestleMania matches ever do we need to retread that well worn path?
Rumors were floating that Michaels and AJ Styles could have a match for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble in 2017. It caused a huge buzz and there at least a slim chance that it could happen. The hype for this potential match was unreal and it could’ve been a real crowning moment in Styles’ career. However as Michaels stated in his RAW promo, he is a man of his word and he would not come out of retirement.
What’s The Likelihood?
Triple H and Undertaker will battle for the final time at the Showdown event in Australia in October. Michaels will probably be involved in some way but will it lead to one final HBK vs Taker match? If Undertaker truly decides that he wants to hang up his boots at next year’s WrestleMania (how many times have you seen that phrase over the years?) then could Michaels be the man to retire him? It would make for a fantastic moment to see HBK back in the ring but would this best be served for a new up and coming Superstar to give Undertaker his last hurrah?
Whatever happens, if we get one more Shawn Michaels match then it would be a spectacle we never expected. Seeing one of the greatest ever go at it one final time can’t be considered a bad thing. If Undertaker wants to retire against Shawn Michaels then they can both ride off into the sunset.
Here’s to WrestleMania 35, a decade after the greatest match in Mania history…one final time.
Irish based promotion Over The Top (OTT) Wrestling has confirmed one of the top New Japan factions for their 4 year Anniversary show.
Los Ingobernables de Japon members Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, Evil and SANADA will be appearing alongside the following talents:
Will Ospreay
Shane Strickland
Bandido
Flamita
Kings Of The North
Angel Cruzers and many more TBA
The fourth anniversary show will be taking place Saturday October 13th from the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. Tickets are available to purchase now via Eventbrite.
Pro Wrestling: EVE has announced that Sendai Girls Champion Chihiro Hashimoto will be part of their Strong Women Style event on September 29th.
Hashimoto is a former three time Sendai Girls World Champion. She trained under Japanese wrestling legend Meiko Satomura as part of the Sendai Girls Dojo. Hashimoto made her professional debut in October 2015 and named the 2016 Rookie of the Year by the acclaimed Tokyo Sports publication. Thus becoming only the second female to win the award in history.
Hashimoto will be facing Mae Young Classic competitor Alpha Female in a first time ever match. Alpha (also known as Jazzy Gilbert) recently returned to action after being sidelined for 6 months with an injury.
EVE recently held the biggest event in the history of European Women’s wrestling at Wrestle Queendom. The event took place at the historic York Hall in Bethnal Green and saw the winner of last year’s SHE-1 event Charlie Morgan defeat Sammii Jayne to become the Pro Wrestling: EVE champion.
You can find out more information via the tweet below:
PROGRESS has announced who new NXT Superstar Matt Riddle will be facing at Wembley Arena. The ‘King of Bros’ will be making his final independent appearance against Mark Haskins for Chapter 75 ‘Hello Wembley’ on September 30th.
Haskins is one of the most well respected veterans in the UK scene. The former PROGRESS World Champion had to relinquish his belt and has been seeking a chance to regain it since. Haskins lost to Tyler Bate in their Chapter 74 match which meant that he wouldn’t get a shot at WALTER for this upcoming Wembley Chapter.
Matt Riddle recently appeared on camera at NXT Takeover and has been confirmed as a signee to WWE’s developmental system. Riddle has been one of the hottest ‘import’ talents to emerge from PROGRESS over the past few years having won the ATLAS title and defending the belt across the globe. This will be the biggest English Independent show in years and the following bouts are now signed:
PROGRESS Women’s Champion Jinny vs Millie McKenzie
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s September scheduling is usually dominated by the DESTRUCTION shows, 2018 is no different. This year’s lineup of shows will of course feature to ‘Road To’ shows, some of which will be available on NJPWWorld. Here’s the full lineup for the September 5th show in Nagoya:
Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino vs Yota Tsuji and Ren Narita
Ayato Yoshida vs Yujiro Takahashi
Toa Henare, David Finley, Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson vs Taiji Ishimori, Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale
YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto vs Takashi Iizuka and Taichi
BUSHI, Sanada, EVIL and Tetsuya Naito vs TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Minoru Suzuki
Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Gedo, Toru Yano and Kazuchika Okada
Will Ospreay, Berreta and Tomohiro Ishii vs Chase Owens, Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega
The full G1 Climax tournament was available in English for the first time ever this year and now New Japan’s Destruction shows in September will be getting the ‘Western’ treatment. Play by Play commentator Kevin Kelly confirmed which shows be would be commentating live via Twitter.
The Road to Destruction shows on September 7th, 8th and 9th will only be available in Japanese live. The September 15th, 17th and 23rd events in Hiroshima, Beppu and Kobe will be available in English. Kelly will be recording commentary for the ‘Road To’ events in post production.
Post #G128 blues got you down? Get ready for a September filled with Destruction! Live English commentary for the three Destruction shows and I'm heading to #TheStudio to record commentary for the "Road To" events. @njpwworldpic.twitter.com/YK61WzgyBZ
London based company Pro Wrestling: EVE has announced a huge show taking place Saturday September 29th. EVE will be joining the Time Out 50 event. Time Out is one of the World’s biggest travel magazines with a circulation of over 6.5 million. Time Out 50 will mark the magazine’s 50th birthday and EVE will be joining several art/culture companies on the day.
Pro Wrestling: EVE is becoming one of the biggest underground prospects in pro wrestling. The company has amassed a diverse fan-base outside of the ‘wrestling crowd’ by becoming one of the hottest attractions in London. Several of the company’s stars have appeared on mainstream UK television on WoS, ITV’s morning programming and BBC Documentaries. News outlets across the globe have featured EVE in the past year including New York Times, The Mirror, The Independent and The Metro.
Check out EVE’s on demand library here. You can sign up now for a free 7 day trial and check out their recent events such as Slayers in Spandex, Nasty Women and RIOT GRRRLS.
Insane Championship Wrestling has announced that British Strong Style will be heading to ‘Fear & Loathing XII.’ This will be first time that the BSS stable has appeared as a unit in ICW. Trent Seven is a former ICW World Champion. More interesting is that Pete Dunne actually defended his WWE United Kingdom Championship in the company previously.
British Strong Style are arguably the most popular stars from the thriving UK scene. All three are featured heavily on the WWE UK brands and NXT television.
Fear & Loathing XII will be taking place on December 2nd at the SSE Hydro. If you’re an ICW fan you know that the ‘Loathing event is ICW’s biggest in the calendar year and last year’s iteration featured Rey Mysterio, Kevin Nash and Rob Van Dam amongst the homegrown talent.
Tickets are available to purchase via Ticketmaster now.
You can check out Pete Dunne’s WWE UK Championship 4-Way match from 2017 below. The ‘Bruiserweight’ defends against Trent Seven, B.T. Gunn? and Wolfgang?. Gunn was not actually contracted to WWE and was the first challenger to the title without being signed to WWE.
Japanese wrestling legend Naomichi Marufuji recently spoke to Tokyo Sports on his bout with the returning Hideo Itami/KENTA in Pro Wrestling NOAH. The bout took place this past Saturday for Marufuji’s 20th Anniversary show.
During the interview Marufuji expressed his pleasure at being able to face his longtime foe once again. The former GHC Heavyweight Champion claimed that is “grateful” to Triple H for allowing Hideo Itami to return to Japan. Marufuji also stated that if he “hears a voice” he would “definitely go to WWE for one match.”
Marufuji defeated Itami at Saturday’s event after hitting the Pole Shift Emerald Flowsion for the three-count at around the 34 minute mark. This came after Marufuji kicked out of the Go 2 Sleep.
After the bout Marufuji was greeted in-ring by the entire NOAH roster, this was lead by Go Shiozaki. The former GHC Champion thanked Itami personally for returning and also thanked the fans in attendance.
The idea of a Japanese star heading to WWE for a special one-off appearance is not unprecedented. Jushin ‘Thunder’ Liger appeared at NXT Brooklyn in 2015 and faced Tyler Breeze in a special attraction match.
In this Tokyo Sports article Marufuji talks about how grateful he is that Triple H allowed Hideo Itami to participate in his show and that he wants to repay the favor. If he "hears a voice" he will definitely go to WWE for one match. #noah_ghchttps://t.co/XtTDXEDYDD
DEFIANT Wrestling has announced the return of ‘Loaded’ on YouTube. The show is a free-to-air programme that features many of the top talent from the UK independent scene.
The show has seen many iterations over the past few years. DEFIANT sent out the following press release for the return:
“Loaded previously ran for 33 episodes between July 2016 and October 2017, amassing over 25 MILLION views on YouTube. Loaded, at that time, ran under the WCPW (What Culture Pro Wrestling) banner, with WCPW since rebranded as Defiant Wrestling in late 2017 following a diversification from the What Culture brand.”
Defiant Wrestling promoter, Peter Willis, said this of the return:
“Over the past 9 months we have worked hard behind the scenes to build a solid foundation with Defiant Wrestling. We are now looking forward to being able to bring back free weekly episodes of Loaded to YouTube. A lot of lessons have been learned over the past two years, and we’re confident we are now in a position to deliver a truly exciting weekly show that fans around the world will really enjoy.”
LOADED is back! Free weekly series returning to YouTube this December!
UK based promotion Fight Forever has announced a huge debut show that will be taking place this December. The new promotion will be bringing the co-creator of ALL IN Cody Rhodes and New Japan’s Will Ospreay to Birmingham’s Pryzm Nightclub on December 6th.
‘Phenomena’ will be the first of Fight Forever’s huge tour. With dates also lined up for London (7th), Bristol (8th) and Liverpool (9th). Other names confirmed for the upcoming tour are:
NXT UK Star Zack Gibson
Brandi Rhodes
Flip Gordon
MLW Star Jimmy Havoc
NXT UK Star James Drake
205 Live Star ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster
NXT UK Star El Ligero
IMPACT/WoS star Joe Hendry
WoS Star Rampage Brown
NXT UK/PROGRESS Star Travis Banks
The company has also confirmed that there will be a ‘Something To Wrestle with Bruce Prichard’ live podcast and The Godfather’s ‘Pimp Party.’ Here’s some info from the company’s press release:
“Brand New UK Professional Wrestling Promotion ‘Fight Forever Wrestling’ Announce Debut Tour featuring ‘Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard Live’, ‘The American Nightmare Cody Rhodes’, WWE UK Tournament Winner Zack Gibson. WWE Hall of Famer, Charles Wright, will also be appearing on the tour as a special guest and the host of after show party events, ‘Papa Shango’s Voodoo Party’ and ‘The Godfather’s Pimp Party’.”
WoS/World of Sport held their sixth episode this weekend on ITV. The ratings for the show appear to have now been released.
Here’s the reported number:
400k (4.8% share)
Compared to last week’s number:
700k (6.7% share)
There’s no way of sugar coating of it, that’s a huge drop.
We reported over the weekend that WoS would be going on a UK tour in 2019. This skews the idea that WoS would be prematurely meeting its demise with such forward planning.
The Time Change
It’s clear that the change from 5pm to 4:30pm played a huge role in the ratings drop. With the ITV Evening News changing by 30 minutes the rest of the schedule had to follow suit and this appears to have hurt WoS by around 300 thousand viewers. Again the number isn’t pretty to look at but a time change affects most programmes across many genres. This isn’t uncommon for WWE either, when special time changes occur for RAW and Smackdown this affects their numbers. TV audiences are creatures of habit, if you have prepared for a specific timeslot and this gets changed then this affects your routine.
The numbers for WoS WERE steadily increasing, last week saw a height of 900 thousand viewers and an overall rating of 700k. Again The live tour for 2019 is an excellent sign of ITV investment in the show, both monetarily and in figurative terms.
Is This The End?
This isn’t the death knell for WoS as other sites are reporting. The upcoming tour and options for ITV to move the show across their wealth of channels are numerous and extremely likely. Will pro wrestling be featured on Saturday evenings going forward? Likely not, but a more realistic slot on an ITV 2 with a good lead in like previous weeks (the Scorpion King broadcast helped the show massively) could make a huge difference.
PROGRESS has now made the Wembley Arena main event official. Inaugural WWE United Kingdom Champion Tyler Bate will challenge PROGRESS World Champion WALTER for the coveted title.
Bate contested as part of the ‘3 And In’ series over the past month to determine who the Number 1 contender would be. Super Strong Style 16 winner Zack Sabre Jr was originally scheduled to participate in the Wembley bout but could not due to his pre-existing NJPW contractual obligations. ZSJ will be taking part in a New Japan show in Los Angeles on September 30th, this is also the reason that the planned Will Ospreay vs Jimmy Havoc match was pushed to this past week.
Tickets are still available to purchase via AXS. This will be the biggest English Independent show in years and the following bouts are already signed:
Eddie Dennis vs Mark Andrews
Jimmy Havoc vs Paul Robinson
Thunderb*stard Tag Team Title Match
Ilja Dragunov vs Pete Dunne
PROGRESS Women’s Title Match – Jinny (c) vs Millie McKenzie
Former WWE Intercontinental Champion and Hall of Famer Scott Hall appeared as part of Starrcast earlier today. The ‘Bad Guy’ joined nWo members Sean Waltman/X-Pac and Kevin Nash as part of the ‘1-2-360’ degrees panel.
Hall made some interesting points regarding his original WWE contract and how he ‘jumped ship’ to WCW. Hall joking remarked that “I got all the heat” when he and Kevin Nash left for the rival promotion, this led to the revelation that Hall “didn’t get a royalty [cheque] from WWE for 15 years.”
The Bad Guy followed up this revelation with a humorous story involving the Ultimate Warrior. Warrior is another star that left WWE on extremely bad terms in the mid 90’s and was also brought back into the fold in 2014. Warrior reportedly held Vince McMahon up for money before the Summerslam 1991 PPV event.
Hall had a conversation with Warrior at the 2014 Hall of Fame where he told Warrior “it feels great to be back, I didn’t get a cheque for 15 years.” Warrior looked at Hall and simply replied “EIGHTEEN.”
You can check out the full live podcast over at FITE.tv ahead of ALL IN. Speaking of ALL IN…
Here’s the full card for the historic event:
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes
Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll
Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix vs. The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi
Adam Page vs. Joey Janela
Stephen Amell vs. Christopher Daniels
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. The Winner of The Over Budget Battle Royal
Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne vs. Chelsea Green vs. Britt Baker
Cody and The Young Bucks’ vision of an independent PPV show is now less than a few hours away from fruition. The initial success of All In before the gates have even opened show how thriving the independent scene currently is. At the very least it shows how successful and influential the Bullet Club members actually are in 2018.
Former WWE World Champion and sure-fire Hall of Famer Daniel Bryan has taken to Twitter to congratulate Cody and The Bucks on their success. The Smackdown Live star tweeted “What Cody Rhodes, Matt and Nick Jackson have done to create a groundswell in the wrestling community is both incredible and inspiring. Not only is it great for fans but also for wrestlers and the industry as a whole. Congratulations on what will be an amazing event.”
Here’s the full card for the historic event:
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes
Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll
Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix vs. The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi
Adam Page vs. Joey Janela
Stephen Amell vs. Christopher Daniels
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. The Winner of The Over Budget Battle Royal
Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne vs. Chelsea Green vs. Britt Baker
WoS Wrestling has announced that the brand will be heading out on tour in 2019. The ITV show will be taking the stars of Saturday Nights across the UK starting January 18th.
This is an interesting move for the television brand. Whilst the current ratings for the Saturday Night broadcast are repeatedly below the 1 Million mark the numbers have been growing since week two and Episode 5 reached seven hundred thousand homes.
With dates across Southern England, Wales and Scotland the company appears to be hitting as much of Mainland UK as they can. Fans of the UK scene will be able to purchase tickets for the first WoS tour at 10am on Friday 7th September.
Friday, January 18 – Southampton O2 Guildhall
Saturday, January 19 – Newport Centre
Sunday, January 20 – Bournemouth International Centre
Friday, January 25 – Stoke Victoria Hall
Saturday, January 26 – Blackpool Tower Ballroom
Sunday, January 27 – Aberdeen AECC
Friday, February 01 – Scarborough Spa Grand Hall
Saturday, February 02 – Northampton Derngate
Sunday, February 03 – London York Hall
You can check out our Ratings reports for WoS via the following links:
Jeff Jarrett is currently hosting a TNA themed panel at Starrcast alongside Don West and Karen Jarrett. You can check out the full Starrcast event via FITE TV.
Jarrett was joined by Gail Kim and Velvet Sky during the panel. The discussion eventually turned to the success of the Knockouts division. The height of the division saw Awesome Kong and Gail Kim feud for the TNA Knockouts title. This secured the highest quarterly ratings for the IMPACT programme at the time. One of the more intriguing aspects of the discussion focused around a huge mainstream media campaign for the Knockouts division in MAXIM magazine.
Jarrett claimed that “Spike TV wanted to do a campaign in 2007-08 and the executive wanted to do a cover for MAXIM magazine.” Karen Jarrett then took the microphone and stated that “A certain owner canned it because she wasn’t on the cover.” After not specifically saying who this was (Dixie Carter) Karen went to say that “she chose not to renew AJ Styles’ contract, which was a really dumb move.”
Gail Kim and Velvet Sky seemed to mirror Jarrett’s sentiments before the discussion quickly moved on to the Ultimate X match, MMA Jarrett and Fox Sports.
Scott Steiner recently took part in the Starrcast Total Non-Stop Jarrett panel alongside Jeff Jarrett and Don West.
Steiner discussed his time in TNA alongside the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Robert Roode. Steiner talked about his role “putting over” the homegrown stars. He also dissuced how the Main Event Mafia was “the greatest stable of former World Champions ever.”
One of the more interesting aspects of Steiner’s time on the panel came when he talked Hulk Hogan’s time in charge of the company. Steiner brought up AJ Styles being told to dye his hair blonde and flat out refusing, this reportedly angered Hogan who apparently asked “who the f*ck is AJ?What has he done in the industry to not do this?” Steiner also recalled a time when Robert Roode was going to challenge Kurt Angle for the TNA Heavyweight title, Hogan reportedly stated that “Roode wasn’t ready” to be challenging for the World Title.
NJPW’s English language Twitter account confirmed earlier this week on Twitter that ALL IN would be available on the streaming platform. Stating that “New Japan Pro Wrestling is #ALLIN! We are pleased to announce that shortly after the live broadcast we will offer @ALL_IN_2018to our @njpwworld fans.”
Fans hoping to see ALL IN via their NJPWWorld subscription hours after the event may be out of luck. Interestingly the NJPW1972.com website confirmed that “NJPW World will stream 9 matches from this historic event. It is to be determined when SVOD will be made available. We will announce it later.”
If you’re considering watching the ALL IN event but are on the fence with the $40 PPV cost then this could be a great alternative if you don’t mind waiting. If you sign up to NJPWWorld on September 1st then you will get an entire month of New Japan content for fraction of the price including the DESTRUCTION shows.
Here is the full card for the historic ALL IN event:
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes
Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll
Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix vs. The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi
Adam Page vs. Joey Janela
Stephen Amell vs. Christopher Daniels
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. The Winner of The Over Budget Battle Royal
Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne vs. Chelsea Green vs. Britt Baker
Tomorrow night will see the long anticipated return to Pro Wrestling: NOAH for WWE 205 Live competitor Hideo Itami/KENTA.
We reported the new working agreement between WWE and NOAH a few months ago, this was around the NOAH Korakuen Hall show in June.
Hideo Itami in WWE
Itami has struggled to find his place in WWE. Expectations were high when he signed with the company in 2014 but injuries set him back and prevented him from moving up the card. He is now part of the 205 Live brand.
Rumors of Itami Going Back To Japan in 2017
Last summer there were rumors that Itami was going to go back to Japan full-time. The rumors started after Itami lost an NXT Championship match at Takeover: Chicago (the first one). Rumors were then that Itami had discussed giving up on WWE and going back to Japan. He then dispelled those rumors in the segment below which aired on NXT programming last summer.
Itami sent out a tweet hyping the match which you can see below, here’s a rough translation: “The best time to get distracted though. Finally tomorrow. Honestly, please call me like you want to call me. No good or bad sticking there at all. Anyway, it is the best one day. Let’s meet tomorrow.”
We’re just days away from the huge ALL IN spectacular from Chicago. The live PPV event will be available to purchase on FITE TV but fans of NJPW have been given a treat by Japan’s Number 1 promotion.
NJPW’s English language Twitter account confirmed earlier today that ALL IN would be available on the streaming platform. Stating that “New Japan Pro Wrestling is #ALLIN! We are pleased to announce that shortly after the live broadcast we will offer @ALL_IN_2018 to our @njpwworld fans.”
If you’re considering watching the ALL IN event but are on the fence with the $40 PPV cost then this could be a great alternative. If you sign up to NJPWWorld on September 1st then you will get an entire month of New Japan content for fraction of the price including the DESTRUCTION shows.
Here is the full card for the historic event:
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Pentagon
NWA World Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes
Kazuchika Okada vs. Marty Scurll
Rey Mysterio, Bandido, and Fenix vs. The Young Bucks and Kota Ibushi
Adam Page vs. Joey Janela
Stephen Amell vs. Christopher Daniels
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal vs. The Winner of The Over Budget Battle Royal
Tessa Blanchard vs. Madison Rayne vs. Chelsea Green vs. Britt Baker
