UK based Independent promotion World Association of Wrestling (WAW) have announced that Jack Swagger will be performing for the company at their March 11th TV tapings in Norwich, England.
WAW is owned by Ricky Knight, father of WWE Superstar Paige. The Knight family have a close relationship with some big names in the industry, most notably Scott Hall & of course Alberto Del Rio/El Patron. There are currently no further bookings for Swagger in the UK and his opponent for March 11th is yet to be named, however for his first stint on the UK scene since his WWE departure it is likely that he will make some more appearances over the weekend.
Former WWE World Champion Jack Swagger called into Chael Sonnen’s podcast today and announced that he’s leaving WWE. You can listen to the audio above.
Swagger said he requested his release this week after the two sides were still far apart on a new contract. Swagger also talked about being unhappy with the lack of opportunities that he was receiving.
Swagger said he will continue to wrestle as he looks forward to competing in Mexico, Japan and the U.K. He also expressed interest in doing MMA.
Swagger first signed with the company in 2006 and later won the World Championship in 2009. He has been off TV for several months now.
– Jack Swagger defeated local wrestler Danny Duggan in the dark match prior to Tuesday night’s SmackDown Live from Green Bay. For Main Event, WWE taped Curt Hawkins vs. Apollo Crews and American Alpha vs. The Vaudevillains.
– WWE power couple Stephanie McMahon and Triple H are celebrating their 13th anniversary today. The RAW Commissioner wished The Game a Happy Anniversary with this tweet:
Baron Corbin vs. Jack Swagger in a No Mercy rematch has been added to next Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown. The match was made by SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan on Talking Smack.
Next Tuesday’s show from Denver is shaping up as the following matches have been announced:
– Corbin vs. Swagger
– James Ellsworth vs. WWE World Champion AJ Styles
SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan has announced Jack Swagger vs. Baron Corbin for Sunday’s WWE No Mercy PPV. With that match set, here’s the final card:
– Triple Threat for the WWE Championship: AJ Styles (c) vs. John Cena vs. Dean Ambrose
– Career vs. Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler
– The dark match before Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown in Cleveland saw Jack Swagger defeat Aiden English.
– Below is the latest Curt Hawkins vignette from last night’s SmackDown. Hawkins says he has a big announcement to make on next week’s show.
– It’s worth noting that WWE is promoting the next Jim Ross “RINGSIDE” event during Survivor Series weekend in Toronto, as seen below:
See ‘RINGSIDE with Jim Ross’ on Nov. 20 in Toronto
WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross is coming to Toronto during Survivor Series Weekend!
J.R.’s one-man show, “RINGSIDE with Jim Ross,” will hit Toronto on Nov. 20 from 2 to 4:30 p.m. at The Second City on 51 Mercer St. in Toronto, which is only a 15 minute walk to and from the Air Canada Center. The show features a Q&A with Ross about his over four-decade career in sports-entertainment, as well as an available VIP session beginning at 12 p.m. with the chance to meet Good Ol’ J.R.
Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, Sept. 28 at 10 a.m. and are available for purchase at TicketMaster Canada and LiveNation.
There’s talk of forming a new stable on the SmackDown brand that would feature talent with collegiate wrestling credentials, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
The group would be similar to the classic Varsity Club group that competed in the NWA/WCW in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Names discussed for this new group include Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin recently underwent shoulder surgery and will be out 5-6 more months.
Chad Gable is the most accomplished amateur wrestler on the roster and actually headed up a ‘shooters’ stable in NXT at one point. It was eventually dropped because Vince McMahon has never been a fan of those types of gimmicks.
– WWE’s website reports that Rusev suffered bruised ribs at the hands of Roman Reigns during their brawl at SummerSlam on Sunday, according to the WWE ringside doctors. The WWE United States Champion worked RAW last night but had his ribs taped up.
– WWE taped Jinder Mahal vs. Jack Swagger and Golden Truth vs. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas on Monday night in Brooklyn for this week’s Superstars episode.
– Following his win over Sami Zayn at last night’s RAW, Seth Rollins cut a promo for the live fans inside the Barclays Center. Video is above. Rollins takes shots at the fans for their rejection of the Universal Championship on Sunday and at the injured Finn Balor. Rollins says Balor may have won the battle but Rollins won the war and will go on to win the championship next week.
Former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Jack Swagger says WrestleMania will take place in the United Kingdom sooner or later. In an interview with TheSportBible.com, Swagger said that the UK is WWE’s second-biggest market outside of the United States, and it only makes sense to host their biggest pay-per-view of the year there.
“I’d say it’s a case of not if, but when,” Swagger said. “When WrestleMania goes international the first place we’ve got to go is the UK, definitely.”
When asked about his dream opponent, Swagger chose someone not currently on the WWE roster. He says Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle is someone he wants to face, and shared a story about meeting the former WWE headliner.
“I recently met Kurt Angle. We were in Pittsburgh and I was working out with R-Truth and Kurt was in the same gym. So Truth knows him, and he told him I was here and wanted to meet him,” he revealed. “It was just before he did the match at that event with Mysterio with all the boxing and MMA fights on the card (laughs). When I first started watching wrestling, he was the guy I watched ‘cos he was an amateur and an Olympian, and that’s why I watch wrestling, for the technical aspect so yeah, I’d choose Kurt Angle.”
– Although he noted on social media that he checked out fine and suffered no fractures, WWE kept Stardust out of the ring again this week. As noted last week, Stardust appeared to suffer an injury during his match against Jack Swagger on the December 7th edition of RAW, and was taken to a local hospital immediately after the show to be evaluated.
– A fan hit the ring at the NXT live event in Sheffield, England as part of the NXT U.K. Tour this past Sunday, December 13th. One of the NXT crew members, possibly Ryan Katz, stopped the fan before anything serious happened. The fan run-in spot took place during a tag-team match that featured The Mechanics vs. Jason Jordan and Chad Gable.
Jack Swagger recently spoke with Philly.com to promote the WWE’s Tribute To The Troops. During the interview, Swagger spoke about his own return to WWE television, Alberto Del Rio re-joining the company, Seth Rollins’ injury and more. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On how it feels to be back on WWE television again:
“It’s always exciting. When a character is exposed to weekly live television shows, it’s sometimes necessary to be off for a little bit and reboot and just come back fresh in the minds of our audience. Coming back is exciting. Hopefully, we can build a nice run into a championship title maybe going into WrestleMania, have a good showing at the [Royal] Rumble. It’s a fun time of year to come back because every show from here on out is going to have a heightened importance to it because, believe it or not, WrestleMania is just around the corner.”
On WWE re-signing Alberto Del Rio and feuding with him:
“Alberto Del Rio is an incredible talent. He’s an incredible superstar. I think he has gotten better since the last time he was here. I see a big difference in the way he handles himself, the way he’s wrestling and just a general look about him. It’s going to be a big test. Him and I have a lot of history together. We know each other very well. I’m definitely going to have to raise my level of competition in order to come out successful against him. Now, we’ve got a big chairs match for the United States championship coming up at TLC. Adding an x-factor like a chair into the mix is really going to change the outlook.”
On what it’s like when top WWE Superstars go down with significant injuries:
“You know, no matter how technically sound a superstar is, injuries are going to happen. The physicality is very real inside that ring, and it’s a part of the sport. It just reinforces the fact that we need a great medical squad so we can actively take care of our bodies and prevent pain becoming actual injuries or much worse. For Seth Rollins, to his credit, that man is a tough one — still being able to power-bomb Glenn [Jacobs, aka Kane] after that.”
As seen on Monday’s RAW, WWE officially began the storyline when Del Rio tripped over Colter’s scooter during a segment with Jack Swagger. This led to Del Rio scolding Colter backstage and declaring he “doesn’t need” him anymore. The segment ended with Colter driving off in his scooter while Del Rio threw steel chairs at him.
Del Rio and Swagger will go one-on-one in a Chairs Match for the WWE United States Championship at this Sunday’s WWE TLC pay-per-view. There is currently no word on Colter’s involvement in the match or what he will be doing going forward if he and Del Rio are officially done after tonight’s show.
– The Gobbledy Gooker returned on Thursday’s Thanksgiving edition of WWE SmackDown. Featured above is a SmackDown Fallout video with The Usos backstage, with one of them in the Gobbledy Gooker costume.
– Also featured on SmackDown Fallout this week, as seen below, is Jack Swagger promising that “We The People” isn’t dead.
– As we reported as a spoiler earlier this week, Dean Ambrose defeated Dolph Ziggler and Tyler Breeze in a triple-threat match on this week’s SmackDown to become the number one contender to the WWE Intercontinental Championship. With the win, Ambrose earned himself a shot at Kevin Owens and the I-C title at next month’s WWE TLC pay-per-view.
– On Monday’s post-Survivor Series edition of WWE RAW in Nashville, Tennessee, a match between the current and former Zeb Colter guys was announced as WWE United States Champion Alberto Del Rio will go one-on-one with Jack Swagger in a non-title match. Featuring a Thanksgiving theme this week, WWE SmackDown will be taped on Tuesday evening at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.
– The following matches were taped on Monday night at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee prior to RAW for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
* R-Truth def. Adam Rose in one-on-one competition in the first of two matches taped for this week’s show.
* The Miz def. Zack Ryder in the main event of this week’s WWE Superstars taping. The crowd in Nashville was actually pretty hot for this match, which The Miz ended up winning to finish up the taping.
– There has been some speculation going around that new Wyatt Family member Braun Strowman may have injured Jack Swagger at the WWE live event in Bangor, Maine on Saturday night. The match ended last night with Strowman picking up the win via choke, however past that, not a lot of specifics are available. We hope to have an update for you in the near future.
– In the following backstage video interview from Saturday’s WWE MSG live special in New York, WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens talks about retaining his title over Chris Jericho, taking shots at Kyle Edwards’ hair and Jericho’s milestone in the process.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event prior to the WWE SmackDown television tapings on Tuesday night in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Dark Match:
– Hornswoggle def. Heath Slater in the dark match for the live crowd. The Wisconsin native Hornswoggle actually picked up the “W” after hitting a top-rope tadpole splash.
WWE Main Event:
– Charlotte def. Alicia Fox in Divas action to kick off the taping. Charlotte won via the Figure Eight. A solid match with good pop from the crowd.
– Stardust def. Jack Swagger in the second match taped for Main Event. Stardust won with Dark Matter. A below average match, writes Shane. “I didn’t really see the point of having them wrestle. Barrett had no impact on the match. It really just seemed to be a time filler. The crowd wasn’t really into it either.”
– The Prime Time Players def. The Ascension in tag-team action. Titus O’Neil got the win via Clash of the Titus. Decent match. The first half was slow, but it picked up and ended well., according to Shane. The finish was pretty quick and didn’t have much build up.
– Fandango def. Adam Rose in the final match taped for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event. Rose performed his heel act before the match. Very short match. Apparently, Fandango is a babyface again? This concluded the Main Event taping.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event prior to the WWE SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Portland, Oregon.
– Becky Lynch def. Sasha Banks in Divas action in a dark match taped prior to the start of the WWE Main Event television taping.
– Rusev def. Fandango in the first match taped for Main Event. This match basically amounted to a one-sided squash match, with Rusev picking up the “W” by way of his Accolade submission finisher.
– Jack Swagger def. Adam Rose in singles action in the second of three matches taped for this week’s broadcast. This match was given a little bit of time, but the crowd never really got into it.
– Stardust & King Barrett def. Mark Henry & R-Truth in tag-team action as the headline match taped for Main Event. There was more crowd heat for this match compared to the others taped for the show. After this match, the set was switched to prepare for the SmackDown television taping.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars prior to Monday night’s edition of WWE RAW in Everett, Washington.
– The Ascension def. Jack Swagger & Fandango in tag-team action to kick off the taping. There were some comedy spots in this match, which was kept relatively short. In the end, however, The Ascension was too much for Swagger and Fandango, as they finished the duo off with their finisher for the clean pinfall victory.
– Bo Dallas def. R-Truth in the second of two matches taped for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars, which airs on Wednesday evening. This was pretty much you’d expect, with the Everett, Washington fans giving Dallas a hard time in spots until ultimately, Dallas managed to get his hand raised.
WWE taped only two matches for this week’s edition of Main Event prior to the SmackDown taping in Sacramento, California on Tuesday night. Below are spoiler results for this week’s show.
– Big Show comes out to kick off the show. He cuts a promo on Ryback, but while he’s talking, Jack Swagger’s music hits. Swagger comes out, interrupting the giant, which leads to a match.
– Big Show def. Jack Swagger in one-on-one action in the first of only two matches taped for this week’s Main Event. This match was actually given a lot more time than you’d think. In the end, Big Show was able to hit his finisher on Swagger and score the 1-2-3.
– The Lucha Dragons def. The Ascension in tag-team action in what was the final match taped for this week’s show. This match was also given a decent amount of time. The crowd was into the action, as it was fast-paced and featured a lot of high-flying moves and big spots. In the end, The Lucha Dragons managed to pick up the “W.” After this match, WWE began taping this week’s SmackDown.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars prior to Monday night’s edition of WWE RAW in San Jose, California.
– Fandango def. Heath Slater in one-on-one action to kick off this week’s WWE Superstars taping in San Jose. There were a lot of comedy spots in this match, which the crowd seemed to get a kick out of. In the end, Fandango hit his finishing move on Slater to secure the pinfall victory.
– Jack Swagger def. Bo Dallas in the second of two matches taped for Superstars. The crowd was super into boo’ing Bo Dallas. In the end, Swagger caught Dallas in his Patriot Lock submission finisher. Dallas eventually tapped out, giving Swagger the submission victory. That is how this week’s Superstars ended.
WWE taped the following matches prior to Monday’s WWE RAW in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma for this week’s edition of WWE Superstars.
– Bo Dallas def. R-Truth in a quick match to kick off the evening in Oklahoma City. The fans were alive early on, and into boo’ing Dallas. In the end, Dallas picked up the clean victory over Truth.
– King Barrett def. Jack Swagger in the second of two matches taped for this week’s Superstars. Although Swagger is a hometown boy in Oklahoma, and was cheered as such inside the arena, the “King” still pulled off the “W” to close out the taping.
– WWE Intercontinental Champion Ryback’s family was sitting at ringside during the WWE live event in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday evening. The family of the I-C champion witnessed their son defeat Bray Wyatt in singles competition in the opening match, and saw him again as he made a run-in to make the save after the main event later in the show.
– As reported earlier, there was some confusion due to the ring attire, pre-match promo and the work style during the match against Jack Swagger used by WWE performer Brad Maddox on Saturday night that led fans to believe he was CM Punk making an unannounced, surprise appearance. We can confirm that Punk was not at the show, as you can clearly tell in the photo of Maddox below, although one could see how lesser educated fans could make that mistake.
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of Main Event prior to the SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Houston, Texas.
– Dolph Ziggler def. Adam Rose in singles action to kick off the show. Lana was in Ziggler’s corner and Rosa Mendes was in Rose’s. Jimmy Uso was on commentary for this one. In the end, Ziggler picks up the “W” after blasting Rose with a superkick.
– Paige def. Alicia Fox in Divas action. It’s worth noting that Jimmy Uso was still on commentary for this match. Paige picked up the win with the PTO.
– King Barrett def. Jack Swagger in the final match of the show. R-Truth was on commentary for this one. Truth distracted Barrett a few times by stealing and wearing his crown, however in the end, Barrett managed to score the pin after hitting Swagger with his Bull Hammer Elbow.
The Huffington Post’s Royal Ramblings blog has released part two of their interview with TNA World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle. Below are some of the highlights.
On how he is holding up physically: “I’m fine. I’ve adapted. It’s a tough schedule. Even though I have been reduced to a certain amount of dates a year, it’s hard. When you’re a world heavyweight champion, you’re in demand to wrestle almost every single week on TV. And the way that we structure our TVs right now, there’s a possibility of Kurt Angle wrestling eight main event matches in four days. That’s hard on the body. Especially at my age and at this point in my career. I believe at the last sets of TVs, I did seven matches in four days and I was hurting for a few days. I think anybody would. However I do have the ability to have five or six weeks off when I don’t have to wrestle. So there’s a give and take but I rather enjoy it. The challenges of wrestling guys like Eric Young to Bobby Roode to Austin Aries, Spud, Bobby Lashley… it’s been very challenging but I’ve had a lot of fun.”
On if we’ll see him in the WWE Hall Of Fame: “I don’t know. You never know what they’re thinking. It would be nice. Would it kill me if I wasn’t? No. I know who I am and I know what I was and I know the impact I made on wrestling. I don’t need a WWE Hall of Fame to tell me what that is. It’s not that important to me. What’s important to me is I’m in the National Wrestling Hall of Fame for Olympic wrestling and that’s my legacy. But it’s always nice to be recognised as a Hall of Famer. TNA Hall of Fame was great. WWE Hall of Fame would be great but if they decide not to, its not going to kill me. That’s their option. I did leave them in 2006 and went to TNA and I don’t know if that has any bearing but I’ve been happy with my career. I can tell you nobody made as much noise as I did, the six years I spent in WWE. Nobody did that in that short a period of time like I did. That legacy will be set in stone forever. I will tell you I had a better career in TNA than in WWE and that’s scary. Im very grateful for that and at the same time it kind of sucks because the hardcore WWE fans that only watch that, won’t see my best matches. They think they saw my best matches in WWE but they haven’t seen TNA. I’m hoping more of them will turn on to it.”
On Jack Swagger using his Ankle Lock as a finisher and if it upset him: “You know what, no. Because I didn’t come up with the Ankle Lock. Ken Shamrock did. When he retired, I took it. And when I left WWE, Jack Swagger decided to take the Ankle Lock. And I’m sure it wasn’t his idea. Someone went over and said “Hey, Kurt Angle wants to leave, we’re going to replace him with this guy”. And I think Jack Swagger’s done a great job. I think he’s a great talent. Is he a Kurt Angle? No, no I don’t think he is but I think he’s very good. I have a lot of respect for him, I think he’s done a great job. I don’t have any problem with him doing the Ankle Lock; I might have tweeted it five or six years ago, like “Hey! He stole my move” but it was meant in more of a jokey sense. He’s a great talent and I like watching him wrestle. He’s a big boy too!”
WWE taped the following matches for this week’s edition of WWE Main Event prior to taping WWE SmackDown on Tuesday night in Norfolk, Virginia.
– Luke Harper & Erick Rowan def. Zack Ryder & Fandango in tag-team action to kick off the show. This was said to be a pretty basic tag-team opener.
– Bo Dallas def. Jack Swagger in a singles match to follow up. The crowd had a good time ragging on Dallas throughout this one.
– Alicia Fox def. Summer Rae in Divas action. This was said to be the same as any other Diva match you’ll see. The crowd wasn’t super-into this one.
– The New Day def. The Prime Time Players in tag-team action to close out the taping. The crowd did the New Day-sucks chant many times during this match.