Last night on RAW in Los Angeles may have been the first official appearance for “Woken” Matt Hardy, as seen in the video above. Matt went all in with the “Broken” mannerisms while interrupting a backstage Bray Wyatt promo. We’ve noted how Matt began the “Woken” transformation after a singles loss to Bray on last week’s RAW.
Hardy and Wyatt interrupted each other several times during tonight’s promo before Matt ended it by sentencing Wyatt to “Deletion!” The two have since tweeted about The Great War, indicating that the feud is moving forward.
Below are tweets and the video from the big segment:
The Crash wrestling promotion in Mexico announced today that they’ve parted ways with Konnan and released a statement that sounds like things didn’t end on the best of terms.
The statement on Facebook reads: “The Crash Lucha Libre brand is known for the way we treat people and value each and every single person that works in this company. Bettering the economical and habitual needs. Showing the support for each element and giving opportunity to new talent. In this way, the value and professionalism shown between each of its partners.”
“Not being able to comply to the Crash Lucha Libre code of ethic, is something that we do not tolerate in this company. With that being said, We now announce that Carlos Santiago Espada “Konnan”, will no longer be working with The Crash.”
It’s unclear at this point what caused the two sides to split. There’s also no word on whether this will affect Konnan’s relationship with Impact Wrestling, who are affiliated with The Crash.
As we previously reported though, Konnan was recently announced as the head writer of the new startup promotion Aro Lucha — fronted by the production team who used to work with Impact.
WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler has some polarizing opinions on old sexual assault allegations being brought to light, PC culture and female wrestlers being treated the same as men.
On a recent episode of Dinner With The King, Lawler was asked if he thought there’d be any scandals coming out of pro wrestling following the recent wave of sexual assault allegations in Hollywood.
Jerry replied, “It appears that eventually anybody that’s ever flirted with anybody, or had any kind of sexual contact with anybody, is all of a sudden you could potentially be a target in the future.”
King’s co-host pushed his original question further and re-iterated that he was talking about serious accusations — like someone waking up to a sex act unwillingly being performed on them — to which Lawler started laughing. He then attempted to compare that to male wrestlers pranking each other by taking photos of their genitals next to a sleeping friend’s face.
“At the time, you’re thinking ‘this is totally harmless.’ But then all of a sudden, 15-years-later, that photograph shows up somewhere … it’s gonna offend somebody. That’s the way the country has become. Everything 99% of the people may think is done in jest, or whatever, and all of a sudden that 1% out there is gonna be offended by it. And that 1% can speak up as loudly as the other 99% cannot.”
Glenn Moore, the show’s co-host, once agains tries to explain his question and says he’s talking about someone using their authoritative position to entice someone into doing something sexually against their will. King finally responds saying he’s never heard of that happening.
Lawler then goes on a rant about not being able to say Attitude Era-like quips on commentary anymore, Bra & Panties matches being the highlight of the shows back in the day and how “we’ve gone so far now” that they have to treat women “the same as the men” by not calling them Divas.
WWE 205 Live to hold three special live events in January
The Cruiserweight division is ready to fly high and drop jaws as WWE 205 Live holds three special events in January. Don’t miss your chance to see Enzo Amore, Kalisto, Gentleman Jack Gallagher and all your favorite Superstars at 205 pounds and under in action three days in a row.
* Friday, Jan. 19, 2018 – Kingston, RI – The Ryan Center
Matt Hardy continued to tease his character being “woken” this weekend. Below are videos of Hardy at last night’s WWE live event in Salt Lake City, doing his new take on his “Broken” character:
NERIC is with me. My METAMORPHOSIS is rapidly occurring. I shall be more powerful than EVAH. https://t.co/6SWIUDVOtB
AXS TV has announced they will air Wrestle Kingdom 12 on January 6, 2018 at 8:00 p.m. ET (7:00 CT) for a special three hour re-airing of the PPV that takes place on January 4.
The show has gained a considerable amount of buzz in the United States for the addition of WWE star Chris Jericho vs. Kenny Omega of The Bullet Club.
You can check out the official press release below including a promo video clip.
AXS TV PREMIERES NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING’S BIGGEST SHOW OF THE YEAR—WRESTLE KINGDOM 12—ON SATURDAY, JAN. 6, 2018 AT 8pE IN A THREE-HOUR SPECIAL EVENT
Championship Battles Between Kenny Omega & Chris Jericho, Kazuchika Okada & Tetsuya Naito, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jay White Air Saturday Night
Additional Coverage of Wrestle Kingdom 12 Will Premiere as Part of AXS TV’s Weekly Series Friday Nights at 8pE Beginning Jan. 12
Los Angeles, CA (Dec. 3, 2017) – As the exclusive U.S. television home for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), AXS TV will premiere the promotion’s biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 12, in a three-hour special Saturday, Jan. 6 at 8pE/5pP. AXS TV FIGHTS CEO Andrew Simon made the announcement that the Wrestle Kingdom 12 national television broadcast marks the fastest turnaround time for the spectacular airing just two days after the event takes place at the Tokyo Dome. AXS TV’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 special will showcase the event’s three headlining championship matches: IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. G1 CLIMAX 27 Tournament Champion Tetsuya Naito, and IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White.
“While NJPW has delivered some of the greatest matches in wrestling history over the past year, we’ve seen viewership growth on AXS TV thanks to New Japan’s expansion in the U.S. and our commitment to air matches closer to when they take place,” said Simon. “With Wrestle Kingdom as their marquee annual event, we thank NJPW and TV Asahi for their support and are proud to kick off 2018 with this historic primetime Saturday night special featuring the dream match-up of Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho.”
AXS TV will continue its coverage of Wrestle Kingdom 12 following the special over five episodes Friday nights starting Jan. 12 at 8pE/5pP on the network’s award-winning weekly series, including the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship match between RPG 3K (Sho & Yoh) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson), the four-way IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship bout featuring Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi, and the ROH World Title Match between Cody and Kota Ibushi. The championship matches featuring Tanahashi vs. White, Omega vs. Jericho and Okada vs. Naito will also have an encore airing during this time.
Leading up to the Wrestle Kingdom 12 special on Jan. 6, AXS TV will air an eight-hour marathon of NJPW starting at 12pE/9aP. Episodes in the marathon will feature matches that set up the main card at Wrestle Kingdom, including Omega winning the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title versus Tomohiro Ishii at the G1 Special in USA; Omega vs. Naito in the G1 CLIMAX 27 Tournament Finals; Omega’s first U.S. Heavyweight Title defense at Destruction in Kobe; an encore of the three-hour King of Pro-Wrestling special headlined by Okada vs. EVIL; and two episodes from Power Struggle headlined by Omega vs. Beretta featuring a special appearance by Jericho.
AXS TV produces the English language version of “New Japan Pro Wrestling” in association with TV ASAHI CORPORATION, the distributor of NJPW.
Ex-WWE wrestler Rikishi launched a new series on Twitch today featuring wrestlers from his training school taking directions from people on the internet — and it’s pretty wacky.
The show is called Live Interactive Wrestling and is a take on the Twitch Plays style of gaming.
To those unfamiliar, that means viewers have the ability to dictate the “players” action in the game by typing in the chat room and things get pretty chaotic.
The press release explains, “You call it–We execute it! No more screaming at the TV or the computer without being heard. Yes, we can see all your posts live on Twitch chat and the wrestlers will respond from the squared circle. If you can’t take it, don’t dish it. You can also help your favorite wrestler win his or her match multiple times a week LIVE.”
The pro wrestling world has been buzzing about Ronda Rousey‘s recent training sessions and now she’s posted video of herself in the ring with Natalya.
In an advertisement for RondaRousey.com, the UFC star explains what she’ll be sharing on her site as clips of her life flash by. That’s when quick moments of Ronda’s wrestling training are shown.
This includes working out at the WWE Performance Center and learning technique at Santino Bros. Wrestling Academy with Natalya in Bell Gardens, California.
Andre The Giant‘s larger than life story will be told in a new documentary produced by Bill Simmons and HBO, who released the movie’s first trailer on Friday.
The flick will be called He Was a God and the 30-second teaser features a voiceover saying, “He was at once a real human, but at the same a mythological figure.”
Andre’s doc was announced back in February with Simmons attached as an executive producer on the project — WWE is involved as well — and will be utilizing “never-before-seen footage.”
