Tonight is Night 2 of WWE NXT’s 2 week special Spring Breakin’ in Orlando, Florida at the Performance Center on the USA Network:
“The Monster Among Men” has returned to WWE after being on the shelf for almost a year, due to a serious neck injury that required fusion surgery. Braun Strowman was drafted to “WWE Raw” during Night Two of the WWE Draft, going to the red brand in the second round. Strowman was last seen on WWE television at the beginning of May 2023, when he was seemingly being poised for a tag team push alongside Ricochet.
Strowman was not just drafted on “Raw,” but also appeared to help Jey Uso against United States Champion Logan Paul and The Judgment Day’s Finn Balor and JD McDonagh. Paul and friend and streamer IShowSpeed announced the second round picks before Paul headed to the ring, cutting a promo on Uso before Balor and McDonagh showed up, entering the ring while Uso’s back was turned. As The Judgment Day’s Irish contingent beat down Uso, Paul headed ringside to Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who had been seen greeting Paul at the beginning of the show. Paul took Mahomes’ three Super Bowl rings and tried to attack Uso while wearing them, but hit McDonagh instead.
As the men looked at each other in the ring following Paul’s mistake, Paul and Balor looked to team up on Uso. Strowman’s music then hit and he stormed down to the ring. The former Wyatt Family member chased Paul out of the ring and delivered a chokeslam to Balor. He then got in the face of Mahomes at ringside, who was flanked by two Chiefs linemen, but was calmed down by Uso before things got physical.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Round 1:
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Round 5:
Round 6:
No different than the first night of the 2024 WWE Draft, there was a pool of wrestlers still remaining from those eligible to be selected on night two who were not chosen on television. This time around, the promotion made clear those picks would be coming via social media after Monday Night Raw.
RAW:
SmackDown:
AEW star Darby Allin is known for taking a lot of risks, both in and out of the ring. When he’s performing in All Elite Wrestling, he is diving off ladders through panes of glass, and when he gets some free time, he jumps over his own house in a car and does stunts on a tricycle. Allin has been out of action since the “Big Business” edition of “AEW Dynamite” in March after he broke his foot during a match with Jay White, which ultimately cost him his chance to climb Mount Everest. Now Allin has yet another injury to deal with
Allin took to Instagram to say that he had been hit by a bus. Despite the severity of the situation, Allin was still able to catch a show on Broadway with American artist Raymond Pettibon.
“That awkward moment when your crossing the street in New York with a broken foot and get hit by a bus,” he wrote. “Least I can have a good time with @raymond_pettibon_ and catch a broadway show lol”
Before his broken foot, Allin was on course to have one of his most successful years. He won the AEW Tag Team Championships with Sting on February 7 by defeating Big Bill and Ricky Starks in a Tornado Tag Match, before successfully defending the titles against The Young Bucks in the main event of AEW Revolution on March 3. With their win over Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, Allin and Sting ended their run as a team with a 100% win rate as Sting would officially retire from wrestling following the event. Allin was gifted Sting’s bat after The Icon had called it quits, but that bat is now in the possession of Jay White, who has been parading around with it on TV since injuring Allin at “Big Business.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
The injury list for All Elite Wrestling has just gotten a little bit larger as it has been confirmed that a former champion has been sidelined for the foreseeable future.
Fightful Select has learned that former AEW TBS Champion Julia Hart is set to be out of action for an undisclosed amount of time. Hart had been out of action during the build up to AEW Revolution in March, but did make it back in time to be featured on the Zero Hour pre-show. However, Hart picked up another injury in the lead-up to her match with Willow Nightingale at AEW Dynasty, which not only saw Hart drop the belt to Nightingale, but was the short match on the entire card by some margin. Hart is not planned to be on TV for a while as early indications have pointed Hart needing surgery, but that has not been confirmed as of yet.
Hart isn’t the only former champion dealing with a serious injury. On the April 24 edition of “AEW Dynamite” during his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match with Jon Moxley, former AEW TNT Champion Powerhouse Hobbs suffered a knee injury, which Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Radio confirmed the following day. Fightful Select has learned that Hobbs’ injury is in fact a serious one and that he will be out of action for the foreseeable future.
Hobbs and Hart join a variety of AEW stars on the shelf such as Kenny Omega, MJF, and Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., all of which AEW President Tony Khan hopes to have back in the near future. Omega will be the first major star to return to the company as he will make a special appearance in his hometown of Winnipeg on the May 1 edition of “AEW Dynamite.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Nic Nemeth’s post-WWE career has found him uniting two unlikely promotions: NJPW and AAA. Already the IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Nemeth competed against Alberto El Patron for the vacant AAA Mega Championship at AAA Triplemania XXXII: Monterrey on Saturday.
Nemeth was successful in his challenge, capturing the title, despite being a champion in NJPW, who has a partnership with AAA’s rival promotion CMLL. The animosity between the two promotions has caused trouble with AEW in North America, as AEW has a partnership with NJPW, but has AAA contracted talent like Rey Fenix and Penta El Ciero Miedo on the roster, leading to those talents not being able to work cross promotional shows like AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door. The AAA Mega Championship was vacant because former champion El Hijo Del Vikingo underwent surgery for a knee injury in March, after holding the title for over 800 days. There is no word on when Vikingo will return.
Nemeth was released from WWE in September 2023, after WWE and UFC finalized the merger to become TKO Group Holdings. After his non-compete clause was expired, Nemeth appeared in NJPW and TNA before finding his way to AAA. The former World Heavyweight Champion dethroned IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion David Finlay earlier this year after debuting at Wrestle Kingdom 18, the second champion in the belt’s young lineage. The title was created to replace the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, which had been dubbed the IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Champion by Will Ospreay before the belt was retired in favor of the Global Title.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
AEW presents another double-header of Collision and Rampage live tonight on TNT. There will be two hours of Collision followed by an hour of Rampage at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida.
AEW announced that there will be a medical update on the condition of company president and CEO Tony Khan later tonight on Collision. Tony Khan was attacked by The Elite earlier this week on AEW Dynamite. He’s since appeared at the NFL Draft, selling the attack by The Elite and wearing a neck brace.
AEW Collision:
AEW Rampage:
Current champions will remain on their brands (with the exception of Women’s Tag Team Champions Asuka and Kairi Sane)
Paul Heyman announced that Reigns has voluntarily withdrawn his name from the eligible pool of talent from the WWE Draft because he will not be returning in the immediate future.
Round 1:
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Some additional WWE Draft picks took place on the “SmackDown LowDown” after Smackdown went off the air.
Round 5:
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RAW:
Following this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, CM Punk came out to address the fans at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, OH.
During his post-show promo, Punk revealed that while his triceps injury isn’t healed just yet, he said he’d be back “soon” to compete with all “the big tough badasses backstage.” He also went on to say that Pete Rose belongs in the MLB Hall of Fame.
Chad Gable and Alpha Academy interrupted the promo, with Gable calling Pete Rose a cheater/fraud.
You can check out some highlights from the post-show promo below:
CM Punk on his thank you to the fans and his injury update: “Big things going on here in the WWE. The Draft was today. The Draft continues Monday. I felt compelled to come out here and speak to my friends in Cincinnati. I have missed you. And take a moment to look around at this place. Y’all packed this house. We couldn’t do this without each and every single one of you, so on behalf of everybody backstage, in front of and behind the camera, we humbly thank you very, very much. I want to give a little update. My tricep is not 100% yet, but I am on track, and I promise, soon, I will be back, and I will be competing with all of the big, tough badasses backstage.”
On Pete Rose belonging in the Baseball Hall of Fame: “For me, it’s fun watching a lot of the young superstars mixing with the Hall of Famers out here to announce draft picks, but ladies and gentlemen, I am in Cincinnati. If we’re gonna talk about the Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, we’re gonna talk about Pete Rose! I’m going to use my platform to stump this. It’s not really a hot take. Pete Rose belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame!”
WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX from the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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