– TNA is set to return to Orlando, Florida next month for another round of Impact Wrestling and One Night Only PPV tapings, according to PWInsider. While the company has yet to announce anything, the tapings will take place from Universal Studios in Orlando from Saturday, March 12 through Tuesday, March 15th. This will be TNA’s first tapings in Orlando since last July.
– Former TNA tag team champion Davey Richards underwent reconstructive knee surgery last week to repair a torn ACL. The Wrestling Observer notes that he will be out for most of 2016 (some time between August-November).
Tuesday’s TNA Impact Wrestling on Pop TV featured a special “Lockdown” steel cage theme, but that wasn’t enough to maintain the audience from last week.
The 2/24 episode of Impact Wrestling drew a total of 297,000 viewers for both airings, making it (by far) the least-watched episode since they moved to Pop TV. The first airing did 210,000 viewers (way down from 273,000) while the replay stayed steady at 87,000 viewers.
– Rolling Stone Films has published a short documentary focusing on TNA creative team member Billy Corgan titled, “Billy Corgan: Babyfaced Heel.” It can be viewed at RollingStone.com.
[Corgan] is taking fans behind the scenes at TNA – and talking about his lifelong love of pro wrestling – in Rolling Stone Films’ Billy Corgan: Babyfaced Heel. From a childhood spent watching Dick the Bruiser on Chicago TV to stepping inside the ring with Steve Corino and Justin Credible in ECW, Corgan has been steeped in the history of the sport, and now at TNA, he’s helping shape its future. All while remaining true to the spirit that has thrilled him throughout his life.
TNA Lockdown 2016 airs next Tuesday in place of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV. Lockdown is TNA’s annual all-cage match event, with their signature six-sided steel cage.
Here’s the final card for Tuesday’s show:
– TNA champion Matt Hardy vs. EC3.
– TNA X-Division champion Trevor Lee vs. Tigre Uno.
– Beer Money vs. Bram & Eric Young.
= TNA Knockouts champion Gail Kim & Madison Rayne & ? vs. The Dollhouse: Lethal Lockdown.
– Eli Drake vs. Odarg.
Lockdown was taped on January 30, 2016 at the Wembley Arena in London, England.
Joey Ryan recently spoke with Donald Wood of Ring Rust Radio to promote his in-ring debut for Lucha Underground, which airs tonight on the El Rey Network. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
His Perception Of Lucha Underground: “To be honest, my perception changed in between Season 1 and Season 2. They had approached me about joining Season 1, but I had some reservations given the fact that the product was unknown. I have seen companies with similar model plans come before like Wrestling Society X. So a lot of things did look similar at the time and the contract terms I was a little unsure about. I passed on the first season, but the second season they approached me with another idea.
This was after I talked to some of my friends like Brian Cage, Jack Evans and Ricochet. They told me my reservations were unfounded, and it’s not the same thing I would have dealt with before. They are a straight up company and not trying to restrict you or hold anyone back. They are trying to put out a great product and the product itself is really great. They really connected with the wrestling audience, so I was all gung ho about them wanting me for Season 2.
Wrestling Society X’s Influence On Lucha Underground:“The similarities are they both want something different and new and they are striving for that. They didn’t want to rehash WWE or whatever the mainstream idea of wrestling is. That is what I fell in love with when they signed me to Wrestling Society X way back in 2006. The execution is a big difference. Not that we didn’t have great agents or match makers or great production team in Wrestling Society X, because we did. It was the fact that we didn’t have MTV 100 percent behind the product. Obviously, they are a huge network and El Rey is an up and comer and building its base.
El Rey is a lot more invested in the product and wants to see it succeed. That’s where MTV could afford to give a million dollar budget to Season 1 of Wrestling Society X and didn’t need to worry about building the product because they could afford to just throw that kind of money away because they were MTV. With El Rey, more than any other place I have wrestled in, they make it feel like a family. You know that not only the network and owners and production team are all invested in it, but they really do want to see it succeed. Not just for the wrestlers to be successful, not just for the show, but for the network. It feels like we are all in for one big goal and we are team going for that one goal. I think El Rey’s investment in the product as well as the talent and wrestlers and all of us pushing forward.”
Why TNA Didn’t Use Him Better Than They Did: “I think they had an idea. When I came in, they obviously felt my fan support and put me in with Matt Morgan who they were really high on and had big plans for. I think that they just didn’t have much direction for us. That’s fine and you can flounder around for a little bit, but then when you go aimless for a while, it feels dead and runs its course. We just kind of start to do the same thing all the time and we lost interest with the management. Hindsight is always 20/20, and I came in with the fans supporting me. My whole shtick there was 87 percent of their audience wanted me on the show and then management would say no.
They thought I should have come in like a rebel and babyface-ish because I was representing the people. Their idea was I was being a trouble maker, so I had to be a heel. Which is fine by me, I am a team player and that what the writers wanted at the time. I feel like I would have had more length and story if I would have come in representing the people. Almost like a Steve Austin or a Diamond Dallas Page in WCW feel to it, but that’s not the direction they wanted to go. I didn’t leave on bad terms with them at least. When they started taking the show out of Orlando and started touring different arenas, I think the expenses got high and they weren’t drawing the way they thought they would. So they started losing a lot of money and cut me with about 10 or 12 of us. They cut RVD’s contract and didn’t renew Matt Morgan contract in an attempt to save money. It wasn’t like I did anything wrong or they didn’t like my work or that we were angry with one another, it was just budget cuts plan and simple, it’s just business.”
The following matches are scheduled for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV. This show was taped last month from England’s Manchester Arena.
– TNA Champion Matt Hardy & Tyrus vs. EC3 & Rockstar Spud.
– Monster’s Ball: TNA Tag Team champions The Wolves vs. Abyss & Crazzy Steve.
– Knockouts champion Gail Kim & Madison Rayne vs. Jade & Marti Belle.
– Mike Bennett vs. Mark Andrews.
– Mahabali Shera & Odor vs. Eli Drake & Jesse Godderz.
Brooke Adams (known in TNA as Brooke, Brooke Tessmacher and Ms. Tessmacher) is pregnant.
In this video about her love story, it is revealed that the former TNA Knockouts Champion is expecting a child.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BBx2DWRlixy/
There is uncertainty regarding Adams’ status with TNA. She is still listed as an active roster member on the company website, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything since Austin Aries and Taryn Terrell are still on the page. PWInsider.com says her pregnancy is why she parted ways with the organization ‘several months ago.’ Adams has yet to publicly give a direct answer regarding her TNA status.
TNA has posted a video of World Champion Matt Hardy reading mean tweets about himself, a takeoff on the popular segment Jimmy Kimmel does on his late night ABC show.
TNA Knockout Raquel claims she was assaulted during a match at an independent wrestling event in Miami, Florida over the weekend.
Speaking to TMZ Sports on Wednesday, the Brazil-born former model — whose real name is Gabi Castrovinci — described the incident that occurred at a World Xtreme Wrestling (WXW) event on Saturday involving a woman wrestler named Regina.
“I really got assaulted, I didn’t expect it,” Raquel said. “Although I was warned that it was going to happen, but I never thought that it would be at that level.”
She continued, “I cracked my tooth and I had to get a root canal and a crown on my tooth … and I have a little hairline fracture on my jaw.”
Raquel believes the reason for the attack was jealousy that she was signed by TNA early in her wrestling career. She also said that she does not plan on pursuing legal action out of respect for her trainer, WWE Hall of Famer Afa, who runs WXW.
Kurt Angle is scheduled to be inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame next month in Columbus, Ohio. The ceremony takes place during the Arnold Sports Expo, which will also be attended by over 20 NXT talents. Angle will be inducted by the man the festival is named after, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Triple H usually attends the Arnold Expo and Sports Hall of Fame ceremony every year, and is expected to be in the house this year. This could be the first time Triple H and Kurt Angle see each other since Angle’s departure from WWE in 2006.
Related: Kurt Angle Tells Untold HHH & McMahon Stories, Says He Entered His Prime In TNA
Other inductees in the 2016 Hall of Fame class are Royce Gracie and Dolph Lundgren.
The Arnold Sports Expo takes place March 3-6 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and tickets can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com/Arnold.
This week’s episode of Impact Wrestling averaged 243,000 viewers on the first run episode. This is down from the 295,000 viewers last week. The replay of the show drew 110,000 viewers, down from 112,000 viewers for last week’s replay.
Between the first run and the replay, Impact drew a total of 353,000 viewers. This is down from the previous week’s 407,000 total viewers.
The show aired on Pop TV and was ranked #126 in the top 150 cable shows for the night. The Young and The Restless aired before Impact and drew 478,000 viewers.
Following a physical altercation with Matt Hardy’s wife Reby Hardy (real name Rebecca Hardy) prior to last Friday’s Impact Wrestling taping at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, United Kingdom, Awesome Kong (real name Kia Stevens) has parted ways with TNA.
Following a physical altercation in the locker room last week during IMPACT WRESTLING’s UK Tour, TNA announces today the release of Awesome Kong (Kia Stevens).
“We conducted an investigation and determined releasing Awesome Kong is the appropriate action in this case,” said TNA Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Television John Gaburick. “Kong has been a great contributor to TNA and helped solidify the Knockouts as the best female division in professional wrestling. We thank her and wish her well.”
Kong addressed her departure from TNA via Twitter, stating, “My time this round in TNA was fun. Time for me to move on to other things. #Released #HeadHeldHigh.”
My time this round in TNA was fun. Time for me to move on to other things. #Released#HeadHeldHigh
It was reported Wednesday in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the altercation stemmed from bad blood the two had dating back to 2013.
Both women were assigned to the same locker room at the event after changing in separate rooms at shows they both worked. Kong got upset with Hardy and threw her belongings outside of the room. This led to a profanity-laced argument between the two, with Hardy saying she won’t be bullied and for Kong to “f*** off.”
This infuriated Kong, who allegedly attacked Hardy. She drove her into a concrete wall and began choking her in front of her son, who was only a few feet away.
The altercation was broken up by security personnel and producer Pat Kenney. There were reports that Hardy had visible marks on her neck.
– The 2/2 episode of Impact Wrestling on POP TV drew a combined audience of 407,000, down from last week’s 442,000. The first airing drew 295,000 viewers (down from 339,000) while the midnight replay did 112,000 viewers (up from 103,000).
– Davey Richards had his knee examined after injuring it at Sunday’s Impact tapings in Birmingham, England it’s worse than previously expected, according to Bryan Alvarez of f4wonline.com. No word on exactly how long he’ll be out, but it’s going to be a while.
– The latest TNA Breakview video looks back at this week’s Impact and previews next week’s show:
The February 2, 2016 edition of Impact Wrestling on Pop TV averaged 295,000 viewers on it’s first run. This is down from the previous week’s 339,000 viewers. The show was headlined by Matt Hardy vs. Kurt Angle.
The replay averaged 112,000 viewers, up from the previous week’s 103,000 for the replay.
Impact was ranked #129 in the top 150 shows on cable for the night. The episode of The Young & The Restless before Impact averaged 445,000 viewers.
Trevor Lee defeated Tigre Uno on last night’s Impact Wrestling to become the new X Division Champion. Lee previously held the TNA Tag Team Titles with Brian Myers (Curt Hawkins), but this is his first singles run with the company. Lee had former WWE and WCW star Shane Helms in his corner.
Helms, who also works backstage for TNA, tweeted the following after last night’s win and says he’s here to fire up the X Division:
And just like that … People are talking about the X-Division again!! @TLee910 is gonna dominate!
Jim Ross has posted his latest blog entry at JRsBarBQ.com covering some of the biggest stories in the pro wrestling world. As always, he gives his thoughts from his unique perspective as a wrestling announcer and executive with decades of experience. Here are some of the more notable comments from Ross this time out:
On Shinsuke Nakamura and discussions of whether or not WWE will change his name:
I have no issues with WWE changing Shinsuke Nakamura’s ring name if they choose. WWE should own the talent’s names and/or have the legal rights to protect their intellectual property in the show biz world of pro wrestling. It’s sound business and won’t adversely affect how Nakamura gets over with the fans. In the eyes of many, mine too, Nakamura is one of the most gifted talents in the world and brings as much natural charisma to his presentation as any one in the business today.
On Awesome Kong being sent home from TNA’s UK tour due to an incident with Reby Sky:
Sorry to see one of my favorite female grapplers, Awesome Kong, involved in controversy in the UK that saw TNA send Kong home from the tour there. I don’t know the complete story but It’s regrettable nonetheless. Kong has the ability to help any company IMO. Let’s hope that this matter is addressed and all parties can move positively forward. One has to ask if TNA knew that there were lingering issues between the two ladies in question here why didn’t they address such and attempt to clear the air if they didn’t?
On the fans dressed up as past stars at Raw:
Don’t understand why WWE is allegedly not pleased that some fans dressed up as WWE stars no a recent RAW which saw @TheRock interact with them. I thought it was entertaining.
And of course, he extends some well-wishes to Bret Hart:
Best wishes to @BretHart on his upcoming battle with Prostate Cancer. I’d lay my money on The Hitman to kick Cancer’s ass.
The full blog post includes thoughts on Braun Strowman, some vague notes on a meeting Ross has this weekend, NXT vs. Raw, and more.
Beer Money (James Storm and Bobby Roode) were interviewed by The Huffington Post while in the UK for TNA’s latest tour. When asked about WWE trying to lure away TNA talent, they made it clear they feel wrestlers don’t need to be in WWE to be successful. Here’s what they had to say about WWE signing TNA wrestlers:
James Storm: “For me, it only makes smart business. If they’re able to do it because they have the financial backing then so be it. However, it’s also big props to the guys that don’t go. A lot of people are always hating on the guys that don’t go or leave or something. It’s like you don’t have to wrestle in WWE to be successful. A lot of people can’t live with that.”
Bobby Roode: “The one thing that you learn in this business is that perception is reality. What you see on TV or what you read about the business isn’t always true. As James said, you don’t have to go to WWE to make money or to be happy. I’ve been in TNA for nearly fifteen years. I’m very happy, financially I’m doing well and it’s been very successful. In this business were all one big happy dysfunctional family. It doesn’t matter which company you work for, everyone wishes everyone else the best. Nobody ever wants to see a company fold. I don’t know why some fans want to see the company do badly. On social media, people are bashing TNA. Why? If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. When I was a kid, I would have wanted wrestling on every singly night. It didn’t matter what it was.”
JS: “If the company does go out of business, WWE might not pick up your favourite wrestler you were watching on the other company. Now you don’t get to see the guy you wanted to see.”
When asked if they have any advice for TNA’s creative team on how to improve their television, they had similar ideas: Don’t rush the storylines.
JS: “Just consistent storylines. There’s been a lot of times here in TNA where things have been hot-shotted or just rushed. When I was growing up watching wrestling, story’s took a while. In this day and age, with TV and TNA not running as many Pay-Per-Views as other companies, storylines are kind of rushed. I think when they’re really good and drawn out that keeps the audience involved.”
BR: “The storylines are really important. Wrestling has changed so much with TV – its wrestling for the ratings now. So it’s hard not to hot-shot an angle sometimes but it would be nice for a story to evolve. James and I, our story lasted over a year and it was an intriguing one. If it lasts over a year and a half people can sink their teeth into something. Already people are saying they want to see us wrestle the wolves but that’s something you can build up to and get to that point.”
– Gabi Castrovinci, who competed on Tough Enough over the summer and recently debuted on Impact Wrestling in a character role, wrestled her first match on Saturday.
Challenging Santana Garrett for the Wonder of Stardom Championship at an I Believe in Wrestling event in Orlando, Florida, she lost in a little over two minutes. Castrovinci was a last minute replacement for Barbi Hayden, who did not make the show.
– Former WWE Diva Dawn Marie doesn’t think today’s Divas are “stars.”
Over the weekend, Chyna tweeted a highlight video of herself in WWE. Dawn Marie wrote in response, “Thats the difference between a STAR and the Girls Today.”
Kurt Angle wrestled his final match for TNA at Sunday night’s Impact Wrestling tapings from Birmingham, England. The Olympic Gold Medalist followed the time-honored tradition of putting over his opponent on his way out and was defeated by longtime rival Bobby Lashley.
Afterwards, Lashley beat down Angle. Both Drew Galloway and Eddie Edwards ran out to make the save, but were unable to chase off Lashley until EC3 ran down and helped Angle clear the ring. Angle then addressed the crowd with an emotional speech, thanking them for supporting him throughout his 15+ year career.
Angle’s TNA contract was reportedly set to expire at the end of January, effectively making him a free agent as of this writing.
Ive only been in #TNA for a month, but in that short time it was an unbelievable honor to share a locker room w @RealKurtAngle#ThankYouKurt
It was an eventful evening in Birmingham, England on Sunday. In addition Kurt Angle wrestling his final TNA match and Davey Richards going down with an injury, the Impact tapings also featured a title change.
Beer Money cashed in their “Feast or Fired” briefcase and defeated The Wolves for the TNA Tag Team Championships. The match is expected to air on the March 8th episode of Impact on Pop TV.
TNA announced on Twitter that Davey Richards suffered a knee injury on Sunday during the final leg of their ongoing UK tour. He will be undergoing an MRI soon to determine the extent of the damage.
Tonight in Birmingham on #ImpactUK Tour @RichardsWesley injured. Initial diagnosis: "meniscus issue." An MRI is scheduled, details to come.
By all accounts, TNA’s latest Maximum Impact tour was a big success, drawing hot crowds and featuring some of the best in-ring work TNA has put on in quite some time. Apparently there have been reports going around about bad morale in TNA, with Davey Richards and denying:
TNA taped Impact Wrestling TV taping on Sunday in Birmingham, GB at the Birmingham Barclaycard Arena. They taped content for multiple weeks worth of Impact, including Kurt Angle’s final match under TNA contract. Here’s what happened at the taping:
– Joker’s Wild: Drew Galloway and Mike Bennett defeated Jimmy Havoc and Big Damo.
– There was a promo segment between Gail Kim and Maria Kanellis. Gail wanted to fight Maria, but Maria refused because she was a lady. This led to Gail going after Maria, but she was taken out by Jade before she could get to Maria.
– EC3 defeated Rockstar Spud in a street fight.
– TNA President Dixie Carter walked out for Kurt Angle’s retirement ceremony. She thanked him for everything he has done for TNA. Angle cut a promo about his time in TNA.
– Kurt Angle’s TNA farewell tour almost ended prematurely on the first night of the tour. Angle appeared to be in bad shape after his match with Drew Galloway, and there was a fear that he had suffered a concussion while in the ring with Galloway. Angle began feeling better about 35 minutes after the match, and he was officially cleared by a doctor before wrestling Bobby Roode on Saturday.
Angle is scheduled to have the final match on his TNA contract at the Impact Wrestling tapings tonight against Bobby Lashley in Birmingham. We will have a spoiler report from the taping later tonight.
– Mark Andrews was also banged up yesterday after he took a stiff shot to the heads during his tag match. There was fear he may have been seriously hurt, but like Angle, Andrews recovered and has been cleared by a doctor to compete again.
– Rafael Morfi, who was a WWE executive on the live touring side, served as the tour manager for TNA’s events in the UK.