SEScoops

Author: Rayan Sayyed

  • Ronda Rousey Helping Open Suicide Prevention Center

    Ronda Rousey Helping Open Suicide Prevention Center

    Raw Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey is helping to open up a new suicide prevention center in Los Angeles.

    The center is a part of the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services and is set to open on 22 February. Rousey was present at the launch event and TMZ Sports spoke with her about her involvement in the building of the center.

    Rousey, along with Melissa Rivers, who was also present at the event, talked about eliminating the stigma attached with mental health issues, so that it will be easier for people to get help.

    My message that I would give is reach out don’t tough it out,” Ronda told TMZ Sports.

    Mental health awareness is something that Rousey has beeen involved with for years – she lost her own father and grandfather to suicide.

    She has worked with Hirsch for a long time and has been the recipient of the group’s Erasing the Stigma Leadership Award in 2014.

    You can check out the videos from the event below:

  • Seth Rollins On Why He Dyed Half His Hair Blonde

    Seth Rollins On Why He Dyed Half His Hair Blonde

    In a recent WWE Then and Now video the company uploaded online, Seth Rollins talked about his time in the developmental territories FCW and NXT before joining the main roster. He also talked about his earlier ring attire and revealed why he dyed half his hair blonde.

    The Architect says that the most often asked question he gets is about his blonde streak.

    “It’s funny I get more than anything now, the question I get more than anything is: When are you gonna bring the blonde streak back?’”

    Seth explains that the reason why he dyed his hair was to stand out from other competitors at FCW many of which sported long hair and beards.

    “Because at the time there were so many guys in FCW who had long dark hair and beards.”

    “And so I just wanted to do something to change it up, to stand out, you know? What’s it gonna hurt to just color half my hair and see what happens? And it worked!”

    It certainly did work. Seth Rollins’ half-blonde hair was one of his most prominent features when he debuted in the WWE. The look helped his gimmick a lot during his time with the Shield. The 2019 Royal Rumble has gone back to all black now, but it would be fun to see him return the classic look sometime.

  • Jimmy Havoc Joins AEW, Update On His Status With MLW

    Jimmy Havoc Joins AEW, Update On His Status With MLW

    Jimmy Havoc is the latest wrestler confirmed to be joining All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Havoc was featured in the latest episode of AEW’s Road to Double Or Nothing web series, which you can watch below. AEW and Havoc later confirmed the news on social media.

    https://twitter.com/JimmyHavoc/status/1092989324436688896

    The former PROGRESS World Champion has been making rounds in the American indie scene with his recent involvement with Major League Wrestling (MLW) and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW). This past weekend at MLW Superfight, it was announced that Jimmy Havoc is set to return soon to MLW. MLW CEO Court Bauer was asked how Havoc’s involvement with AEW affects his role in MLW.

    https://twitter.com/courtbauer/status/1093154562842783745

    The Road To Double Or Nothing: Episode 2

    The second installment of AEW’s Road To Double Or Nothing web series has been released and can be seen below.

    At the beginning of the episode, Cody Rhodes, Head of Talent Relations Christopher Daniels and AEW Coordinator Michael Cuellari were seen watching a Havoc promo. After watching the promo, Christopher Daniels mentions how Havoc is technically sound in the ring and is a good talker. Cody agrees, and says that he loves him and that “he’s great, he’s amazing. Absolutely, let’s make that call.”

  • Mustafa Ali Gets Black Eye From Match With Randy Orton

    Mustafa Ali Gets Black Eye From Match With Randy Orton

    Mustafa Ali suffered a gnarly black eye after a match with Randy Orton on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live.

    The 32 year-old showed off his injury on Instagram after last night’s show writing, “Just trying to catch your eye. #SDLIVE”

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Bth0s-snJes/

    Orton put Ali on the announce table early in the match but Ali was able to fight back and dropkicked Orton instead on the table.

    Ali went with the offensive to finish the match with the 054 Splash but Orton pulled him off the ropes for an RKO and won.

    Ali will be competing in the upcoming Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship against Randy Orton himself, Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, and champion Daniel Bryan. The event will take place from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on February 17.

  • Cruiserweight Title Match Set For WWE Elimination Chamber

    Cruiserweight Title Match Set For WWE Elimination Chamber

    Another title match has been set for WWE’s upcoming Elimination Chamber PPV.

    On this week’s edition of 205 Live, a fatal-four way elimination match was held in the main event to determine the number one contender for the Cruiserweight Championship.

    The match involved Akira Tozawa, Humberto Carrillo, Lio Rush, and former Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander.

    Cedric first eliminated Lio Rush by pinfall via the Lumbar Check. Humberto got eliminated next when Tozawa pinned him after hitting the diving senton.

    The winner and the number one contender came out to be Akira Tozawa when he eliminated Cedric Alexander last with another diving senton.

    https://twitter.com/WWE205Live/status/1092998790561320961

    Updated WWE Elimination Chamber Card

    WWE Cruiserweight Championship: Buddy Murphy (c) vs Akira Tozawa

    Tag team match for the WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship: The Miz and Shane McMahon (c) vs. The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso)

    WWE Championship Elimination Chamber Match: Daniel Bryan (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Mustafa Ali vs. Randy Orton vs. Samoa Joe

    Tag team Elimination Chamber match for the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship: Nia Jax and Tamina vs. Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville vs. The Riott Squad (Liv Morgan and Sarah Logan) vs. The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce) vs. Bayley and Sasha Banks vs. Naomi and Carmella

    The event will take place on February 17 from the Toyota Center in Houston Texas and will stream live on the WWE Network. As always, make sure to tune in to SEScoops for live coverage of the event.

  • WWE Halftime Heat Highlights & Results

    WWE Halftime Heat Highlights & Results

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8lRhDcsdSQ

    WWE Halftime Heat took place on February 3 on the night of the Super Bowl LIII at the WWE’s Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The event was brought back in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of WWE’s inaugural Super Bowl counterprogramming.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BtcJXrslKqH/?utm_source=ig_embed

    The card included a six-man tag team match between the team of Aleister Black, Ricochet and Velveteen Dream against the team of Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.

    The show was available everywhere, from WWE.com to YouTube to Facebook and Twitter.

    Shawn Michaels was also the guest commentator for the show.

    Before the match, Aleister Black said that he’s ready to put on an unforgettable show:

    The match went back and forth but the villainous team looked strong with the upper hand, with giving Meet in the Middle finishers and what-not.

    Gargano and Cole both ate the Black Mass from Aleister Black after a series of superkicks being given out to each other from all the wrestlers.

    In the end, Adam Cole took a Dream Valley Driver and a 450 splash from Ricochet, and the match ended when Dream pinned Cole after using the Purple Rainmaker.

    WINNERS: Velveteen Dream, Ricochet, and Aleister Black

    You can check out the highlight clips from the show below:

  • Killian Dain Unhappy With His Booking

    Killian Dain Unhappy With His Booking

    SAnitY’s Killian Dain, continues to express his frustration with his booking since making his transition to the main roster from NXT.

    Earlier Dain had publicly asked on Twitter why the stable was not being used on TV. He simply wrote, “Where Is SAnitY?!?”

    https://twitter.com/KillianDain/status/1090450934021251079

    Stablemate Alexander Wolfe retweeted the post and added, “Sick of this.”

    Now, Dain took it a step further by clearly asking if is something that he said that didn’t sit well with the WWE. He asked why he wasn’t booked when the rest of the stable where in SmackDown and his wife Nikki Cross was at Raw.

    “Last night my tag partners where with Smackdown in Vancouver and my wife with Raw in Regina. Whereas I’m….at home.

    Was it something I said? ?#WHEREISSANITY”

    https://twitter.com/KillianDain/status/1092098739878195202

    The group had moved to the main roster on SmackDown Live in July last year and they have been barely used since. The stable was doing quite well in NXT and it was expected that we would get to see more of them on the main roster, but it seemed like WWE had basically nothing for them.

    Dain’s frustration is understandable as the group has a lot of potential and can be quite entertaining on WWE TV if used correctly. We will have to wait and see if the company responds to Dain’s concerns in a positive way.

  • Sin Cara Teases Return, Future Tag Team With Rey Mysterio

    Sin Cara Teases Return, Future Tag Team With Rey Mysterio

    Sin Cara, who is currently signed to the WWE’s SmackDown Live brand, has been out with a knee injury since August 2018. He had to get scar tissue removed surgically from his joint and has been recovering since.

    The masked luchador has been getting close to an in-ring return, as he was spotted at the WWE Performance Center in Florida on 14 January. It was reported last month that Sin Cara was expected to work with Rey Mysterio when he returns.

    Recently, Sin Cara made a post on Twitter where he wrote that it is almost time to get back in the ring and posted a picture of his mask beside Rey Mysterio’s and teased a future tag team formation:

    “Almost time to be back and ready to be the best that I can be.
    Future Tag Team!?”

    The team of Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio can be a great addition to the tag-team division of SmackDown Live. This opens up opportunities for the masked superstars to later have a feud in the future which will be interesting to see too.

  • MLW SuperFight: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor Defeats Low Ki To Become New World Heavyweight Champion

    MLW SuperFight: “Filthy” Tom Lawlor Defeats Low Ki To Become New World Heavyweight Champion

    On Saturday night in the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, “Filthy” Tom Lawlor defeated Low Ki in the main event to become the new World Heavyweight Champion on Major League Wrestling’s SuperFight show.

    This marked the end of not only the six-month old reign, but Low Ki’s 15-year MLW undefeated streak.

    The early portions of the match saw the competitors go back and forth against each other, however, things took a turn when Low Ki brought a wooden door into the match from underneath the ring. Low Ki tried to put Lawlor through the door but it backfired as Lawlor sent Low Ki through the door instead.

    Towards the end of the match, Low Ki used the dragon sleeper to make Lawlor tap out but Lawlor was too aware to fall for it and reversed it into a rear naked choke to make Low Ki submit.

    You can check out Lawlor’s reaction after the match:

    https://twitter.com/mlw/status/1091880848339668992?s=12

  • MLW SuperFight: Hart Foundation Score Tag Team Gold

    MLW SuperFight: Hart Foundation Score Tag Team Gold

    At Major League Wrestling’s Superfight event from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania last Saturday night, The Hart Foundation (Teddy Hart and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) were able to secure victory over the Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix) to win the MLW World Tag Team Championship.

    The Foundation is riding high as this is their second reign of the tag team championship and Teddy already holds the MLW World Middleweight Championship.

    https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1091871757370298368

    After the match was over, the Lucha Brothers stormed out of the building in frustration over their loss. MLW said that they have no comment on the Lucha Brothers actions.

    “MLW has no comment at this time about @PENTAELZEROM and @ReyFenixMx storming out of @2300Arena following their World Tag Team Championship loss to the #HartFoundation

    https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1091904690466549760

    If you are unaware, the Lucha Brothers agreed to sign with AEW at the Come Hell or High Water PPV on Friday night via a handshake deal with the Young Bucks.

  • PJ Black Pens Exclusive Deal With ROH

    PJ Black Pens Exclusive Deal With ROH

    PJ Black, also known as Justin Gabriel in WWE, has announced on his Twitter account that he has officially signed with Ring of Honor. He would start working there from March 16 in Las Vegas.

    Black also mentions that independent promotions looking for him should contact him now, because he has signed an exclusive deal with ROH and won’t be able to appear anywhere else after March 16.

    “So I just officially signed with ROH! I start March 16th in Las Vegas. So any promoters running shows before that I could possibly make it!”

    PJ Black had previously signed for a number of dates with Ring of Honor last month and appeared at the ROH Honor Reigns Supreme event where he lost to Bandido.

    Black would make a great addition to the roster, as anyone who has followed his career would know. The 37-year old has made rounds over independent promotions around the world and was a major player in Lucha Underground. He has also captured the Tag Team Championship three times during his time in WWE.

     

  • Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix Agree To Wrestle For AEW

    Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix Agree To Wrestle For AEW

    All Elite Wrestling has been going all out and pulling no stops to acquire as much talent as possible from the independent scene and without much surprise Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page and SoCal Uncensored were present at McAloon Productions’ Come Hell or High Water event in Atlanta, GA last night.

    In the main event of the pay-per-view show, the current Impact Tag Champions The Lucha Brothers (Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix) defeated SCU (Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels), after which they were met with a thankful speech from The Young Bucks who said that they are grateful to the Lucha Brothers for keeping tag team wrestling alive.

    The Jackson Brothers then proceeded to offer an All Elite Wrestling contract to the Lucha Brothers. Although the offer did not involve any official paperwork, the Young Bucks said that a handshake agreement would do just fine for now.

    https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/1091556452232282112

    Before the Lucha Brothers could respond, they were met with an attack from local wrestlers who were part of the event. SCU came to the rescue of the Lucha Brothers and they along with the Young Bucks fended off the attacks.

    Pentagon Jr. and Fenix then agreed to join AEW, by shaking the Young Bucks’ hands.

    https://twitter.com/totaldivaseps/status/1091557240417513473

    Pentagon and Fenix are still wrestling for MLW and Impact Wrestling, where they are the current World Tag Team Champions.

    Chris Jericho has announced Pentagon & Fenix signed exclusive deals with AEW. The tweet was later deleted.

    https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/status/1091606185696997378

  • Bianca Belair Mocks Shayna Baszler Over UFC Losses

    Bianca Belair Mocks Shayna Baszler Over UFC Losses

    Bianca Belair recently took to Twitter to make fun of her rival Shayna Baszler. Belair will be facing Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship after she earned the opportunity by winning a fatal four-way match on NXT.

    Shayna had recently tweeted a picture saying “UFC IS FAKE” during UFC 232.

    UFC 232 featured a match between Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes and Women’s Featherweight Champion Cris Cyborg. Nunes won the match and became the Featherweight Champion, making her the first person to hold two championships from different divisions.

    These two women also happen to be Shayna’s opponents in the past in UFC, where she lost her matches against them. Bianca took this opportunity to get into Baszler’s head by mocking her losses in the UFC:

    Shayna responded with asking Belair how many fights she has been a part of:

    This continued until another former MMA fighter Jessamyn Duke came in:

    Shayna Baszler will be meeting face-to-face with Bianca Belair in the ring at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix on January 26 from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. The match up will be interesting to see after all that heated talk between the two. Make sure to check out SEScoops for the coverage.

  • Nia Jax Has Issue With WWE Tweet Not Including Any Women Of Color

    Nia Jax Has Issue With WWE Tweet Not Including Any Women Of Color

    Recently, WWE posted a message highlighting female wrestler moments from 2018. The pictures featured six female superstars, all of them white.

    Nia Jax took an issue with WWE not including any minorities and posted a short but strong response to the picture by tweeting out the hashtag ‘#WeHereToo’ and a few emoji of representing women of color.

    https://twitter.com/NiaJaxWWE/status/1079177655273119744

    Nia Jax was one of the three Raw Women’s Champions that were crowned in 2018. The other two being Alexa Bliss and Ronda Rousey. Jax, a woman of color, was not featured in the tweet.

    As for SmackDown, there were four champions this year: Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Asuka, the minority. Asuka was also not featured in the tweet.

    2018 has been a groundbreaking year for women’s revolution in the WWE as we witnessed a lot of ‘firsts’ happening in the company. Female superstars were featured in main events, had their own pay-per-views, with amazing matches. Nia Jax’s tweet has instilled a notion that WWE is still lacking with promoting racial equality somewhere. Do you agree with Nia’s views? Let us know in the comments below.

  • John Cena Says He Has No Brand Allegiance In WWE

    John Cena Says He Has No Brand Allegiance In WWE

    WWE Superstar John Cena recently was interviewed on his Facebook page, where he talked about his WWE return and revealed that he is not currently associated with any brand in the company.

    Cena said that he was busy recently with filming in China and promoting his film Bumblebee all around the world from Berlin to Hong Kong. WWE is cool with him being involved with other projects and not being able to give time to the company due to his busy schedule.

    “I’m very fortunate to be able to shoot my next project in Vancouver on January 20th and they said, ‘Well, you’ve been working hard. Why don’t you just take a month to breathe and then do this movie and show up after the movie’s done?’ I said, ‘I could do that or I could come back to WWE.’ So, starting December 26th at Madison Square Garden, I was able to return to a WWE ring…” John Cena said in the interview.

    Cena also said that he has no brand allegiance and that he has made a promise to the WWE Universe that he will not leave the WWE:

    “I have no brand allegiance…it’s gonna be RAW and the week after that it will be RAW and as soon as RAW is done I’ll head to Canada and hopefully start something else, but I made a promise to the WWE Universe that I would never leave. And I know it’s really difficult to understand because I’m not there every week and it truly breaks my heart, but there are some wonderful opportunities and with those opportunities come more acceptance from the world of what we do here in WWE and if you listen to anything I say to anyone, first and foremost is what I do here because what I do here is what I love and I’m so very proud that WWE.”

    John Cena was one of the three names announced for the first Raw of 2019. It is not known what kind of role Cena will have in the WWE in the future and how frequently he will appear given that he is busy with filming. However, WWE had announced which dates Cena will be working in the next month.

    Check out the full John Cena interview here.

    h/t to WrestleZone for the transcription.

  • Pete Dunne Says He Has Finished His Time In The British Indie Scene

    Pete Dunne Says He Has Finished His Time In The British Indie Scene

    WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne has said that he has finished wrapping up dates in the British independent wrestling scene.

    Dunne and Tyler Bate had a match on the PROGRESS Wrestling’s Chapter 92: Unboxing event, where Dunne defeated Tyler. After the match Dunne tweeted out a picture of him with Tyler Bate saying that this was his last match in the independent scene.

    “Finished my time on the British independent scene tonight,” wrote Dunne. “Closing out a week that saw me in New York, Germany, Spain and London. 13 years that I wouldn’t change for anything, on to the next chapter.”

    Drake Maverick, the 205 Live General Manager also tweeted out a message congratulating all the British wrestlers who have done their independent dates. He wrote, “Congratulations to the British wrestlers who wrapped up their final independent dates today. Very happy for you all. Enjoy what the future brings!”

    https://twitter.com/WWEMaverick/status/1079527937597161472

    PROGRESS Wrestling promoter Jim Smallman also tweeted out a message thanking Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate for their contributions in PROGRESS and the British wrestling circuit.

    There is no news on whether Dunne and Tyler will be working exclusively for WWE, but we will keep you updated when more information comes out.

    Meanwhile, in the WWE, Pete Dunne is set to defend his WWE United Kingdom Championship against Joe Coffey at NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool on 12 January from the Empress Ballroom. Make sure to check out SEScoops for coverage.

  • WWE Hall of Famer Returning To The Ring

    WWE Hall of Famer Returning To The Ring

    WWE Hall of Famer Booker T is making his in-ring return next month. The 53 year-old will be returning to action for his Reality of Wrestling promotion.

    ROW Heavyweight Champion Rex Andrews had issued a challenge to Booker at the Christmas Chaos 8 event, which he accepted. The two will face each other next month at the promotion’s event titled “The Last Stand” which will take place on 19 January. More details on that show can be found at the Reality of Wrestling website.

    Booker T’s wife (and former WWE personality) Sharmell also posted a video of him in the ring with Rex at ROW.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Br_njaEFCWb/?utm_source=ig_embed

    The last match Booker T was involved in was at the Preston City Wrestling promotion, where he defeated Lionheart at the SpringSlam event in April of 2016. Booker had also won the ROW Tag Team Title with Stevie Ray in February of 2015. As for the WWE, Booker T hasn’t wrestled any matches for the company since 2012, and his last televised singles match being against Cody Rhodes in December of 2011.

  • Johnny Gargano’s EVOLVE 119 Match Revealed

    Johnny Gargano’s EVOLVE 119 Match Revealed

    EVOLVE has announced which opponent Johnny Gargano will be facing at the upcoming EVOLVE 119 event.

    The company took to Twitter to announce that Gargano will be participating in a tag team match where he will team up with AR Fox.

    “We just signed it, so let’s just announce it….WWN Icons of Johnny Gargano & AR Fox vs. WWN New Generation of EVOLVE Champion Austin Theory & Josh Briggs#EVOLVE119 – Jan. 18th – Brooklyn, NY,” wrote the company on their official Twitter account.

    The match is set to take place on 18 January at the Saint Finbar Catholic Church Gym in Brooklyn, New York. EVOLVE 120 will be held the next night on 20 January, where Gargano will be facing EVOLVE Champion Austin Theory in a non-title match.

    Johnny Gargano has quite some history with the EVOLVE promotion as he worked there from 2009 to 2016. He teamed up with Drew McIntyre to win the Tag Team Championship as well as the Tag Team Championship Tournament in 2016 during his time in the promotion.

  • Tessa Blanchard Awarded Female Wrestler of the Year; Shayna Baszler Tweets “UFC Is Fake” Photo

    Tessa Blanchard Awarded Female Wrestler of the Year; Shayna Baszler Tweets “UFC Is Fake” Photo

    Tessa Blanchard Awarded Female Wrestler of the Year

    Tessa Blanchard has been announced the winner of the 2018 Apter Chat Female Wrestler Of The Year award. She received the plaque on a recent episode of Impact Wrestling, where she said that she was honored to gain the award.

    “Thank you guys so much. This is such an honor. You’ve known me since the beginning, Bill. Thank you so much,” Blanchard said. “Guys thank you so much, but I deserve this. I am the 2018 Women’s Wrestler of the Year, not only for The Apter Chat, but for all of wrestling.”

    Shayna Baszler Tweets “UFC Is Fake” Photo

    Former MMA fighter and NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler took to Twitter recently to tweet out a picture of a fan holding a sign in a WWE event which reads “UFC IS FAKE.” Baszler also added the #UFC232 caption to the picture, referring to the recent UFC 232 event that just took place last night.
    Shayna has tweeted similar statements in the past whenever a UFC event is taking place.

  • Jay White Explains Difference Between Bullet Club & CHAOS

    Jay White Explains Difference Between Bullet Club & CHAOS

    New Japan Pro Wrestling recently interviewed Jay White for the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom 13 event where he was in character, obviously, and looked back on his 2018 and explained the difference between being a member of the Bullet Club faction and CHAOS.

    Jay was asked by the interviewer whether meeting Bad Luck Fale was the reason he joined Bullet Club. Jay said that the history between him and Fale made it easier to work together. “It made a lot easier for us to talk about and come up with what we did at King of Pro-Wrestling. You know, none of this was because of that, but it certainly made it a lot easier because we knew each other prior to coming to New Japan.”

    Next, Jay was asked which group he prefers the most. According to him, Bullet Club is more comfortable as there were a lot of conflicting ideas in CHAOS:

    “The way Okada thought things should be done conflicted with how I thought things should be done. In BULLET CLUB, we are all on the same page. We showed that in our matches. I don’t think we’ve lost, I have never lost to anybody especially on the last tour. 7 win in a row against Okada and Tanahashi that shows we are on the same page. There’s no conflicting idea. Before, in CHAOS things were falling apart. You had Yoshi-Hashi getting hit verbally by myself and Okada getting hit sometimes in matches, people colliding. We were on the different page. I had to go through the whole G1 CLIMAX tour in those tag matches having YOH just not listen so he kept paying the price every single time. He just needed to listen to me. BULLET CLUB doesn’t need to be told like CHAOS guys did because we are on the same page, we have the same ideas so everything happens very naturally and easily.”

    Jay White’s History With Bullet Club And CHAOS

    Jay White had made his return to NJPW in 2017 at the Power Struggle event and teased that he will be joining Bullet Club before betraying Kenny Omega and aligning himself with CHAOS.

    After losing by the hands of Hiroshi Tanahashi at King of Pro Wrestling in October, White attacked Tanahashi with the help of Jado and Gedo. When Kazuchika Okada tried to interfere, he was also attacked in what turned out to be a set up by White and associates to deflect into the Bullet Club.

    On December 22, Jay White was named the new leader of the Bullet Club faction.

  • Impact Wrestling (12/27) Viewership Sees Increase From Last Week

    Impact Wrestling (12/27) Viewership Sees Increase From Last Week

    The 27 December episode of Impact Wrestling saw an increased number of viewers than last week’s episode.

    The episode was able to draw 135,000 viewers, which is an improvement from 20 December’s 116,000.

    The rating however, stayed the same at 0.04 in the 18-49 demographic.

    Impact Wrestling has been airing ‘Best of 2018’ episodes since the last two weeks showcasing, well, the best moments of Impact Wrestling from this year.

    This ‘Best of 2018 Part 2’ episode was actually the second most watched episode since Impact moved to the 10PM time slot in October. The most watched episode in this time-slot was the 13 December edition, which amassed 140,000 viewers.

    The company has announced that the show is going to move to Pursuit Channel next month. Impact Wrestling Executive Vice President Don Callis said that we can expect a “sexier and edgier” Impact on the primarily hunting and outdoor recreation focused channel.

    Here are the viewership stats for the last four episodes:

    • 27 December: 135,000
    • 20 December: 116,000
    • 13 December: 140,000
    •  6 December:  116,000

    Source: ShowBuzz Daily

  • Becky Lynch Confronts John Cena At SmackDown Tapings (Video)

    Becky Lynch Confronts John Cena At SmackDown Tapings (Video)

    During the taping of New Years Day SmackDown Live last night in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch came face-to-face with John Cena and confronted him.

    John Cena made his return after a long time away from WWE TV to the SmackDown audience and was unfortunately interrupted by for SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.

    She told Cena that she will take his face off of the posters just like she took off Charlotte Flair’s face. She also added that if Cena has a problem with this then Nikki Bella will not be the only woman dropping him this year.

    They were then interrupted by the duo of Andrade “Cien” Almas and Zelina Vega as both came down to the ring and a mixed tag team match was officiated.

    The match ended with Becky throwing Cena out of the ring before making Zelina Vega submit. Even after all that BMJ offered a handshake to Becky but she declined and mocked him by doing the “You Can’t See Me” taunt, before walking away.

    The episode is set to air on 1 January. You can check out the spoilers by clicking here.

  • Mustafa Ali Talks About Pinning Daniel Bryan, Move To SmackDown Live

    Mustafa Ali Talks About Pinning Daniel Bryan, Move To SmackDown Live

    In a recent WWE Day Of video released online, Mustafa Ali talks about his recent win over Daniel Bryan in a tag team match where he pinned him on SmackDown on 18 December.

    Ali took on the team of Andrade “Cien” Almas and Daniel Bryan while teaming up with AJ Styles. His team won the match when he pinned the WWE Champion after delivering the 054. The win was talked about by the WWE Universe and was a well received move.

    “I’m teaming with AJ Styles vs. Daniel Bryan and ‘Cien’ Almas, I’m just waiting to wake up. One week you’re facing Daniel Bryan and next week you’re teaming with AJ Styles. You’re in the ring with the best in the world. Part of me wants to tell myself they don’t just put anybody in the ring with them.”

    “I obviously want to be as good as them and I feel like I can be and I can hang with them. Trying not to make it bigger than it is. This is still a very cool moment for me. I’ve watched those guys, in particular Bryan and AJ. I’ve watched them my entire life, my entire career. Even on the independent scene, they were stars. Here they are stars and now my name is next to theirs.”

    As it was known recently that Ali has moved to SmackDown Live, however, he also said that he will always rep 205 Live and it will be in his heart because that’s where he started out in the WWE.

    “I will always rep 205 Live. I will always support 205 Live. I will always be the heart of 205 Live. I will always be watching because you will never know when the heart of 205 Live will beat again.”

    h/t to WrestlingInc for the transcription

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  • Harold Meij On His Dream To Connect The World To Japan Through Pro Wrestling

    Harold Meij On His Dream To Connect The World To Japan Through Pro Wrestling

    New Japan Pro Wrestling President Harold Meij recently spoke to Japanese Government’s online magazine, Highlighting Japan, where he talked about his dream to connect Japan and the rest of the world though pro wrestling and how he is taking steps to globalize NJPW’s content.

    Meij says that professional wrestling has the potential to become an integral part of Japanese culture as much as sushi, or Mount Fuji. His focus is to make it more popular in the promotion’s home country.

    “The strong point of pro wrestling is that it is not just a sport, but rather an encompassing experience. Every time a wrestler does a grand move, they change the atmosphere of the stadium and the crowd cheers for their favorite wrestler. When their favorite wrestlers win, there is a rush of applause, when there are foul moves the fans get angry, and when they lose they cry and get upset.”

    Meij also explained that his goal for the promotion is to make it popular and appealing to an audience worldwide.

    “We have over 100,000 subscribers on our video channel, and almost fifty percent of them are outside of Japan,” he said. “When foreign subscribers visit Japan and attend a New Japan Pro-Wrestling match, they tend to share their experience on social media. So that more people get a deeper understanding of the sport and connect with the wrestlers, we put matches up on YouTube, including videos of the wrestlers themselves, their training scenes and videos of matches with English-language versions of the stirring, perfectly-timed announcements made by the Japanese pro-wrestling announcers.”

  • Becky Lynch Lambasts WWE Legend Saying She Should “Back Off Of ‘The Man’ Thing”

    Becky Lynch Lambasts WWE Legend Saying She Should “Back Off Of ‘The Man’ Thing”

    Former WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Becky Lynch has gained massive popularity recently after a big slump in her career, when she got a change of character as ‘The Man’. The change has been well received by fans and critics alike.

    However, one WWE Legend and Hall of Famer is not really impressed with Becky Lynch’s gimmick.

    On the What A Rush podcast, Road Warrior Animal gave his thoughts on ‘The Man’ and said that she’s better off without the gimmick and should instead be a “pure white meat babyface that doesn’t quit.”

    “I would let her back off of ‘The Man’ thing and let her just be a pure white meat babyface that doesn’t quit. Those are the kind of babyfaces that work,” said Road Warrior Animal. “When you come out there with the attitude and strutting your stuff like she’s some kind of tough guy, come on! Jesus, Lord, anybody that’s ever been in a fight can see right through it and I’m just being realistic because that’s what works in this business.”

    Becky Lynch saw the article covering the podcast on WrestleZone and responded with the following:

    https://twitter.com/BeckyLynchWWE/status/1076995831121743872

    In the usual Becky way, she replied with “The first four words of your headline are a lie” implying that Road Warrior Animal doesn’t think.

    The tweet has since blown up and is now at 22,000 likes. It is safe to say that pretty much everyone here disagrees with Road Warrior. Becky has been riding a wave of success and popularity with her new character, and it has been pretty entertaining to see and a change in her career in the WWE was long overdue.

    h/t to WrestleZone for transcription