NXT UK, streaming today at 3 ET/8 GMT on WWE Network.
Kassius Ohno to battle the undefeated Ilja Dragunov
Just less than three weeks before NXT UK TakeOver descends on Cardiff, the outspoken Kassius Ohno will lock horns with the full fury of Ilja Dragunov.
Plus, Flash Morgan Webster will take on Gallus’ Mark Coffey in the first of two possible contests to prove to NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint that he and Mark Andrews are worthy of an NXT UK Tag Team Title Match at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, Travis Banks will battle Kenny Williams, and Isla Dawn will go one-on-one with Nina Samuels.
As noted, Paige revealed over the weekend that she missed her SummerSlam Meet & Greet because she had to visit her doctor, where it was determined that she needs to undergo neck surgery to fix a new hernia, which is related to the original career-ending neck injury that she suffered during the December 2017 WWE live event in Uniondale, NY. Dr. Uribe has also worked on the necks of Tyson Kidd and Nikki Bella.
WWE has reportedly signed top indie women’s wrestler Santana Garrett, according to Squared Circle Sirens.
There’s no word yet on when Garrett will begin working with WWE at the Performance Center in Orlando, but the deal will see her become a member of the WWE NXT roster.
Garrett, formerly known as Brittany in Impact Wrestling, has held titles in several promotions, including the NWA World Women’s Title, the Shine Title and Shine Tag Team Titles, the Wonder of Stardom Title, the WOW World Title and WOW Tag Team Titles, among others. She has been wrestling professionally since 2009.
The 31 year old from Florida has made several appearances for WWE since 2013, working as an enhancement talent in NXT. She also participated in the 2017 Mae Young Classic, losing to Piper Niven in the first round.
Garrett is a second-generation wrestler as her father, Kenny Garrett, worked as “TNT” Kenny G during the territory days.
As noted, WWE deleted the original video of Bray Wyatt’s entrance for “The Fiend” at SummerSlam and re-uploaded it after taking out the visuals of the head lantern that he brought to the ring.
In an update on the head lantern, it looks like the piece wasn’t totally nixed from The Fiend’s gimmick. Bryan Alvarez noted on Wrestling Observer Live yesterday that he reached out to multiple sources on the matter and none of them had heard anything about the lantern being dropped. Furthermore, the head lantern is going to be a part of Wyatt’s upcoming Mattel action figure for The Fiend. It was also said that WWE is producing more of the lanterns, apparently for other merchandise items.
It will be interesting to see if The Fiend is still carrying the Wyatt head lantern the next time he appears on WWE TV. Wyatt defeated Finn Balor at Sunday’s SummerSlam pay-per-view, but he did not appear on last night’s RAW.
For those who missed it, below is a screenshot of the lantern from Sunday’s match:
WWE seemingly confirmed that the head lantern is here to stay, at least for now. WWE tweeted the photo below on Wednesday of Wyatt with the lantern intact, as seen below.
As previously reported, WWE cancelled an upcoming RAW weekend tour later this month, with shows scheduled in Louisiana and Alabama. WWE has confirmed that the events that weekend have been postponed, below are the new dates:
* Friday, August 23 in Bossier City, Louisiana postponed to Sunday, March 22, 2020.
* Saturday, August 24 in Lafayette, Louisiana postponed to Friday, January 17, 2020.
* Sunday, August 25 in Mobile, Alabama postponed to Thursday, March 19, 2020.
WWE will be presenting SmackDown live events in South America that weekend with shows in Lima, Peru on Saturday, August 24th and Panama City, Panama the following night. WWE added several RAW stars to those events this week, so the cancellations may just be to strengthen those shows. RAW stars AJ Styles, Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Samoa Joe, Sami Zayn and Rey Mysterio are scheduled for those shows in South America. SmackDown talent booked for those events include WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, Roman Reigns, Daniel Bryan, Charlotte Flair, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens and Andrade, amongst others.
As noted, PWInsider reported that WWE also cancelled RAW live events on Friday, August 30 in Bangor, Maine and on Saturday, August 31 in Portland, Maine. It should be noted that there were no SmackDown live events scheduled that weekend.
Next Monday’s WWE RAW from St. Paul, Minnesota will feature the return of the King of the Ring tournament. The rest of the competition will play out over the next few weeks.
The finals of the KOTR tournament will take place at the WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view on September 15 from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com. The tournament matches will be held on both RAW and SmackDown until the finals are determined. WWE should be announcing the KOTR brackets soon.
The sixteen-man tournament will feature 8 Superstars from RAW and 8 Superstars from SmackDown – the red brand will be represented by Baron Corbin, Cesaro, Cedric Alexander, Drew McIntyre, Ricochet, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, and The Miz. The blue brand will be represented by Ali, Andrade, Apollo Crews, Buddy Murphy, Chad Gable, WWE 24/7 Champion Elias, Kevin Owens, and Shelton Benjamin.
The last KOTR tournament took place in April 2015, and was won by Bad News Barrett. Before that the last tournament was held in November 2010, won by Sheamus.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that Roman Reigns recently signed a new WWE contract.
According to their sources, Reigns signed on the dotted line last month for a deal that will keep him with WWE for at least a few more years — though the exact length is unclear.
Roman returned to WWE programming in February and announced his leukemia had gone into remission. After a reunion with The Shield, Reigns once again began competing in singles action by facing-off against Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania 35.
Reigns is currently in the midst of a whodunnit angle playing out on WWE TV and is scheduled to wrestle against Buddy Murphy on SmackDown tonight to further the storyline. He’s also in the #1 movie in America — “Hobbs and Shaw” — and on the cover of WWE2K20 alongside Becky Lynch.
WWE has canceled 5 upcoming RAW live events, according to PWInsider. The following events have been nixed:
* Friday, August 23 in Bossier City, Louisiana
* Saturday, August 24 in Lafayette, Louisiana
* Sunday, August 25 in Mobile, Alabama
* Friday, August 30 in Bangor, Maine
* Saturday, August 31 in Portland, Maine
The RAW live event scheduled for Sunday, September 1 in White Plains, New York is still on the schedule, at least as of this writing.
In another interesting note on WWE live events, there are currently no more Monday SmackDown live events on the schedule. As noted, once SmackDown moves to FOX in October, the SmackDown brand is expected to be touring from Thursday – Sunday while the RAW brand will stick to Friday – Monday.
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown and WWE 205 Live episodes will take place from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with more fallout from Sunday night’s WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view.
* Roman Reigns to clash with Buddy Murphy tonight on SmackDown LIVE
* Will Randy Orton respond to Kofi Kingston’s Kendo stick attack?
WWE re-posted Bray Wyatt’s SummerSlam entrance as The Fiend and edited out a part where he used a Wyatt head as the lantern holder. The original video featured an up-close shot of the head.
Wyatt debuted “The Fiend” at SummerSlam on Sunday night and defeated Finn Balor. This was one of the most-talked about happenings coming out of the pay-per-view, and received a “that was awesome!” chant from fans in the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Social media indicates mostly positive feedback to the entire presentation, from entrance to post-match exit.
WWE previously released Wyatt’s TitanTron entrance video on YouTube but deleted it after it was online for about an hour on Monday. They have not re-posted the video as of this writing.
“The Fiend” is also drawing big for WWE’s YouTube channel. As of this writing, the re-posted video of Wyatt’s SummerSlam entrance has 2.356 million viewers while a clip from the Wyatt vs. Balor match has 915,332 views.
To compare, a clip from Randy Orton vs. WWE Champion Kofi Kingston has 637,000 views while footage from Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins has 3.2 million views, Charlotte Flair vs. WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus has 337,000 views, and Dolph Ziggler vs. WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg has 1.7 million views.
Hardcore punk band Code Orange scored the new theme song for Wyatt. This “Let Me In” song was their remix/cover of Mark Crozer’s “Live In Fear” single. The band wrote on Twitter, “LET. HIM. IN. @WWEBrayWyatt proud to set the tone for THE FIEND from here on out. #HURT #HEAL”
Wyatt then gave the band props on Twitter, writing, “Big props to @codeorangetoth For successfully creating a soundtrack to the technicolor pit that is my mind. Damn it feels good to be a Gangsta #YowieWowie”
Code Orange previously played Aleister Black’s “Root of All Evil” entrance at the WWE NXT“Takeover: Brooklyn III” event in 2017, before Black’s win over Hideo Itami. Their “Bleeding In the Blur” single was used as the Takeover theme song that night, and the event opened with a live performance by the band.
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