– NXT GM William Regal has announced that The Revival will get their rematch against NXT Tag Team Champions DIY in two weeks and that the winners will then defend against The Authors of Pain at TakeOver: San Antonio next month during Rumble weekend.
– We noted before that Percy Watson returned to NXT to work the announce team but that addition was confirmed on tonight’s episode. He will call the show with Tom Phillips and Corey Graves each week. Here he is dancing to No Way Jose’s theme tonight:
– Based on what happened during tonight’s NXT episode, it appears Big Damo will be joining Sanity and Sawyer Fulton has been removed from the group. Damo has already been working house shows with Sanity members Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe and Nikki Cross. Below is video from tonight’s show, which saw Damo attack No Way Jose during a tag match against Sanity:
NXT Tag Team Champions DIY recently spoke with ESPN and still can’t get over their big championship win at the recent TakeOver: Toronto event. “It just doesn’t seem real yet,” Johnny Gargano said. “I don’t think we live in the moment like some people do. [But I think] we’re going to look back at how we got here and our story and everything that went into it, and we’re going to think it’s pretty cool.”
“I think [becoming] tag team champions, it gives you kind of a moment to hit the reset button and kind of look back at the year and appreciate it,” Tommaso Ciampa said.
Regarding the following they have gained in NXT, Gargano pointed to how they use their underdog status. He said, “I feel like that’s kind of been why we gained such a following. People feel they can live through us. They’re kind of watching us scratch and claw and work our way up the ranks.”
When asked to summarize his NXT experience, Gargano called it very surreal: “Very surreal. I think it’s something that we both wanted. You talk to any wrestler, and they want to be in this spot. NXT is the hottest thing going right now.”
Check out the full interview with DIY by clicking here.
– The opening segment for next Wednesday’s NXT episode will be new NXT Tag Team Champions DIY returning to Full Sail University as champions.
– There were complaints of offensive comments being directed at Andrade “Cien” Almas during Wednesday’s NXT tapings at Full Sail. At least one correspondent said the offensive chants were very quiet and not widespread, and another corredpondent did not hear them at all. It appears these two fans did hear the offensive comments:
– D-Von Dudley’s sons Terrence and Terrell are moving forward with their pro wrestling careers, seen in the video below from Conquer Pro Wrestling. D-Von tweeted about being proud of his sons, who are using the tag team name TNT.
Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano captured the NXT Tag Team Championships for the first time at TakeOver: Toronto. The Revival had been champions since the summer when the captured the gold at TakeOver: The End.
Meanwhile, Mickie James made her first ‘WWE’ appearance in 6-years at Takeover, coming up short against NXT Women’s Champion Asuka. Mickie is deeply disappointed by the loss, but returning to WWE, even if it was only for one night, was a victory for her.
– Now a full-time WWE Superstar, Johnny Gargano tweeted the following this weekend after working his last indie date for AIW:
My farewell had over 500 fans in my hometown, Boy Meets World quotes, a child doing a back flip and LOTS of Ecto-Cooler. The perfect end. pic.twitter.com/Y2hYSGdMaS
– As seen below, the latest WWE Top 10 is sponsored by Nickelodeon’s Jagger Eaton and features the best cage dives:
– Beginning later today, Enzo Amore will be taking over the Champs Sports Snapchat account for a new weekly series that will preview the sneakers he has lined up for RAW that night. He posted this video from backstage at Clash of Champions:
– There was no dark match or segment after WWE Backlash went off the air last night in Richmond. After new WWE World Champion AJ Styles left, Dean Ambrose walked to the back while his music played.
– In regards to reports on Tyson Kidd’s WWE contract expiring, MLW Radio says those reports are incorrect. They tweeted the following this weekend, revealing that WWE renewed Kidd’s deal months ago. Kidd has been out of action for more than 1 year with a neck injury.
https://twitter.com/MLW/status/774319455903944704
– Johnny Gargano spoke with the WWE website to discuss his EVOLVE farewell events from this weekend and commented on coming to the main roster for the RAW cruiserweight division later this month:
“I was actually at my bachelor party when the clip aired on Raw. My phone started blowing up with people saying they saw me. As a wrestling fan, Raw’s the flagship, what we tune into every single week. When you think of wrestling, you think of Raw. To think that there’s going to be guys like me, and when I say that, I mean the cruiserweights — I’ve known a lot of them and wrestled them before WWE. These guys are like me, they were told through their entire career that they were too small and would never make it or be on Monday Night Raw. For all of us to be coming there together is super cool. We’re all excited to show the world what we can do. There’s a New Era in WWE, and we’re going to prove that.”
– WWE’s new cruiserweight division is set to launch on the September 19th edition of Monday Night RAW. In addition to names such as Rich Swann, Noam Dar, Brian Kendrick and TJ Perkins, fellow Cruiserweight Classic competitors Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa will also be part of the division.
– As of this writing, the following matches have been confirmed for WWE Backlash, the first SmackDown-exclusive PPV scheduled for 9/11:
WWE World champion Dean Ambrose vs. AJ Styles
Tag Team Tournament Finals to crown new champions
Six-Pack Challenge to crown a new SmackDown Women’s Champion
It’s worth noting that local ads in Virginia are also promoting Randy Oron vs. Bray Wyatt for the show.
– For once a man of few words, Kevin Owens tweeted the following about his Universal championship win on RAW:
Finn Balor congratulated Kevin Owens on Monday night, telling his former rival, We have been through it all together. I’ve no doubt we will go through it all again.” The champ has since responded:
Speaking of that match, WWE Women’s Champion Sasha Banks speaks to WWE reporters in the video below and predicts that Bayley will defeat Asuka tonight. Sasha says Bayley is the best but she hopes she joins her on RAW soon.
No Way Jose talks about his match with Austin Aries in this new video and says Aries can no longer run after tonight:
WWE posted this video of Gargano and Ciampa arriving for Takeover. They call tonight’s match against NXT Tag Team Champions Dash & Dawson the biggest night of their lives. Bobby Roode makes an appearance as well.
– Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa will be revealing their new tag team name soon. The two will face NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival at Takeover on Saturday night.
– Enzo Amore went sneaker shopping earlier this week in New York City and the WWE cameras were with him. Footage will be released this weekend to promote SummerSlam. On a related note, Enzo and Cass also did a Tapout in Brooklyn today, seen below:
– WWE posted this video with Randy Orton daring Brock Lesnar to test him in their SummerSlam battle on Sunday night. Orton says there’s one problem with Lesnar trying to take him to Suplex City – the RKO.
Gargano and Ciampa vs. The Revival for the NXT Tag Team Championships looks to be official for the 8/20 Takeover: Back 2 Brooklyn event.
Ciampa and Gargano cut a promo on Dash and Dawson after their DQ win in Pensacola tonight, seen in the video below. The two teams also interacted on NXT TV this past Wednesday night.
Join us later this month for live Takeover coverage from the Barclays Center. Already confirmed for the event is Ember Moon’s debut, Samoa Joe defending the NXT Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka defending the Women’s Championship against Bayley.
– We reported before that Batista recently finished his work on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy 2, which hits theaters on 5/5/2017. Zap2It recently caught up with the former WWE Champion and published these comments on his Drax character:
“He’s not past it. This takes place not long after we left the first film. And also, how do you ever get past that kind of trauma? That’s what Drax lives for, that revenge. … We really explore, I think, we get more in depth with the relationships between the characters. We focus a lot more on that rather than his loss.”
– The latest WWE Superstar Ink episode can be seen below, with Paige and host Corey Graves:
– Fans and wrestlers have been praising the Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa match from last night’s WWE Cruiserweight Classic episode. Below are comments from SmackDown GM Daniel Bryan and RAW GM Mick Foley:
– WWE Backlash, which will be the first SmackDown-exclusive PPV of this new era, is scheduled for Sunday, September 11th at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA. Ticketmaster.com is running a ticket pre-sale this Wednesday at 10am EST.
– Reddit user @TD_70 astutely noticed that Paige has removed all photos of Alberto Del Rio from her Instagram page. The two have been romantically linked in recent months and as recently as July 9th, Paige posted a message about how inspired she is by Del Rio (also deleted). Earlier this week, the two were drafted to separate brands (Paige to RAW, Del Rio to SmackDown).
– NXT and Cruiserweight Classic competitor Johnny Gargano posted a message on social media on Thursday announcing that his his 12-year run as an independent wrestler is coming to an end on September 23rd in his home town of Cleveland, OH. After teasing an important announcement about his future, here it is:
– NXT star Johnny Gargano may have suffered a leg injury during a match at last night’s WWE Cruiserweight Classic tapings. Full spoilers are at this link. Gargano flipped out of the ring onto his opponent but his legs also hit the timekeeper table and chair. Gargano finished the match but was selling an injury. A trainer checked on him and then helped him to the back after the match. No word yet if it was a worked injury or not.
– WWE looks at professional athletes popping up in this new video:
EVOLVE has announced that Cody Rhodes vs. Johnny Gargano has been pulled from the 8/19 EVOLVE 66 event in Joppa, MD due to Gargano having a prior commitment. Cody’s new opponent for that night will be Zack Sabre Jr.
EVOLVE also announced that Cody’s opponent for EVOLVE 67 on 8/20 in Brooklyn will be Chris Hero.
They issued the following today:
July 5th: Johnny Gargano is now unable to attend the August 19th event due to another commitment. We apologize for having to change the scheduled Cody Rhodes vs. Johnny Gargano match. We will push this match back to September. This means that Cody needs a new opponent for his first post-WWE match. We’ve lined up one of the best going today….
July 5th: Cody Rhodes vs. Zack Sabre Jr. is now set for EVOLVE 66 on August 19th in Joppa, MD! This first-time-ever match will be a true test for both athletes.
July 5th: We all saw Cody Rhodes’ list on Twitter. Chris Hero’s name was on it. On August 20th, Cody can cross Hero off the list. It will be Cody Rhodes vs. Chris Hero on August 20th at EVOLVE 67 in Brooklyn, NY. This event has a special 3pm belltime so you can make it a double header with NXT at the Barclays Center that night!
– WWE has announced that Chromecast support is coming soon for the WWE mobile app.
– Last week, Cody Rhodes revealed that he’ll be wrestling for EVOLVE on August 19th from Joppa, Maryland. Late Friday night, NXT star Johnny Gargano revealed that he will be Cody’s opponent at EVOLVE 66. Cody will be available for pictures and autographs prior to the event, which will be broadcast at WWNLive.com on live iPPV.
PROGRESS recently announced a working partnership with Toronto based indy promotion Smash Wrestling. As part of the agreement NXT Star Johnny Gargano will be appearing at PROGRESS’ Chapter 32 ‘5000-1’ and issuing an open challenge for his Smash Wrestling title.
To add further intrigue, PROGRESS have stated that anyone from EITHER promotion can challenge for the belt at the Electric Ballroom on June 26th.
Super Strong Style 16 favourite Mark Haskins has been officially pulled from the tournament due to an undisclosed ‘serious illness.’ No further details have yet been given by PROGRESS officials:
BREAKING: @Mark_Haskins has been forced to withdraw from the #SSS16 due to serious illness. More shortly.
— PROGRESS Wrestling (@ThisIs_Progress) May 30, 2016
Canadian based promotion Smash Wrestling have agreed a deal with PROGRESS to co-promote some shows going forward, the first major announcement from this deal is that Smash Wrestling Champion Johnny Gargano will be defending his title at Chapter 32 – ‘5000-1’ (a joke for all you Leicester City fans out there):
– As noted, former NXT Champion Sami Zayn made a special appearance at the EVOLVE 49 iPPV event in New York City on Saturday night, addressing the live crowd after the main event. Zayn praised the efforts of Johnny Gargano, who competed in the main event of the evening, and teased big things between NXT and EVOLVE going forward. Zayn’s appearance helped set EVOLVE’s new all-time attendance record, and the NXT star was reportedly having a blast hanging out backstage at the show.
– Speaking of NXT talents, Tyler Breeze is expected to move to the main WWE roster “very soon,” according to a new report at F4WOnline.com. The current talk is that his official main roster debut could happen this week, but it could end up being bumped back one week.
There’s yet another development regarding WWE’s relationship with WWN Live & EVOLVE Wrestling.
[To catch up on everything, check out David Bixenspan’s latest article about WWE/EVOLVE, including an official statement from WWN about where things stand with the two promotions.]
The WWE website is running a feature looking at 5 EVOLVE wrestlers who could be the next breakout stars in NXT. Gabe Sapolsky is quoted in the article, noting that EVOLVE is a chance to see “the next wave of Superstars and be able to follow them from the start.” He mentions Daniel Bryan, Dean Ambrose, Kalisto, Solomon Crowe and Apollo Crews as current NXT and WWE talents who cut their teeth under the WWN banner.
The 5 EVOLVE wrestlers WWE is encouraging people to keep an eye on are:
EVOLVE comes to Queens, N.Y. this Saturday and Long Island, N.Y. this Sunday. Both shows will feature a special autograph signing and appearance from NXT Superstar Sami Zayn. For more information on the shows, including tickets, visit DGUSA.tv.
The duo also competed against the team of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan for the October 28th episode. Tommaso Ciampa is still a free agent, according to F4Wonline.com. No official word yet on Gargano.
– Evie from New Zealand faced Nia Jax for next week’s episode
– Shazza McKenzie from Australia faced Emma for the October 28th episode
– Kay Lee Ray from Scotland faced Nia Jax, also for the October 28th episode.
– Women’s MMA fighter Shayna Baszler, a friend of Ronda Rousey’s, recently made her professional wrestling debut with Quintessential Pro Wrestling in Reno, Nevada over the weekend. She wrestled Cheerleader Melissa.
– Johnny Gargano mentioned on Facebook that he’s issued a challenge to Ethan Page for the October 17th EVOLVE 49 iPPV. The challenge is that the match between the two would be in an “I Quit Match” and Gargano said if he quits, he will leave WWN Live.
This has led to speculation that Gargano will be leaving to sign with WWE full-time. He’s been working in NXT on a per-appearance deal and has gotten great reviews for his work thus far.
After making their first appearances on this week’s episode of NXT, indie stars Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa spoke with WWE.com about participating in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. WWE noted that both men are still free agents, despite online reports that they’ve signed with the company.
Here are a few highlights of what they said about:
Their Thoughts on NXT:
GARGANO: “Right now, I feel that NXT is the hottest thing in wrestling. There’s no doubt about that. The guys that they’re utilizing are some of the best talent in the world. I know a lot of those guys. I’ve been in the ring with Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens numerous times. You look at a guy like me, I’m not 6-foot-8, 300 pounds, but from what I’ve been able to do with my talent around the world, I can come to NXT and show the world what I have. Based on the past, that wouldn’t happen. NXT gives guys like me that opportunity, to do what we love to do and show the world what we’re capable of.”
CIAMPA: “It has an indie, underground vibe to it, but the production value and expertise of WWE leading it. It’s the best of both worlds. From the first live special they did, I think that was the first time that the masses saw that this was something special and the place to be. From that point on, seeing things like Sami Zayn and Cesaro’s 2-out-of-3 Falls Match, seeing Kevin Owens do so well, it’s seeing guys who were the top of the independent world going to NXT and getting a bigger platform to show themselves on. Seeing how well they’re doing gives you this drive to want to be a part of it. I just watched TakeOver: Brooklyn a couple days ago. When Triple H was in the ring introducing the show and it was dark, all you could hear was his voice. When he says, “You told us the future is now!” and throws his arms up and the cameras go wide [to show the crowd], you could feel this energy. I told my wife, “I want that. I need to be a part of that.”
Being Invited To Participate In The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic:
CIAMPA: “Make the most of the opportunity.” Getting a phone call from William Regal was surreal, hearing his voice on the opposite end of the line. Him asking me if I was interested was, to me, an interesting approach, because of course I was interested. How could I not be? We didn’t know right away what we would be doing. Getting to the building and slowly finding out more and more information and then hearing that we’re going to be a part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic was cool. I never worked under Dusty myself, but you hear so many stories and you know the respect he has in this business. To be a part of something that’s going to go down in history, it’s a cool feeling. The door’s being cracked open. It’s our job to push through and make the most of it.”
GARGANO: “It’s the opportunity of a lifetime. When I was younger, I watched WWE. If you get into this business, your main goal is to wrestle for WWE. To be able to do that and perform for NXT, which is the hottest thing going, is a dream come true. I’m extremely excited about it. I’ve been very, very lucky to do a lot of cool things in my career, but this is the pinnacle. Everything has led up to this match. I know that opportunities like this come around once in a lifetime. I’m not going to let it slip by me.”
While there was talk recently that Biff Busick and Rich Swann were waiting to pass physicals before signing with WWE, however that is apparently not the case as it is being reported that the two have signed with WWE and are expected to start with the promotion in October.
In addition to Busick and Swann, four-to-six additional talents are expected to start at the WWE Performance Center in the next month or two.
WWE is also looking for Latino referees. New Jersey independent talent Bandido Jr. has either signed with WWE already or is very close to doing so. He will be working with WWE as a referee.
Other independent stars expected to start with WWE soon are Johnny Gargano, Drew Gulak and Chuck Taylor. It’s possible that Tommaso Ciampa, who teamed with Gargano at a recent NXT taping, could be part of the group as well.