Here is the lineup for tonight’s episode of WWE NXT in Orlando, Florida at the Performance Center on the USA Network:
While it hasn’t always been an easy road getting there, Billy Corgan was able to find the NWA a home, with the promotion’s flagship show, “NWA Powerrr,” currently airing on the CW app. It won’t be the only bit of content Corgan has airing on the app, however, as his long-anticipated reality show, “Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland,” is finally ready to see the light of day this Tuesday.
As such, it’s only right that there would be a trailer, which dropped earlier this afternoon via The Smashing Pumpkins’ account on X. Perhaps the biggest revelation from the trailer is that the show will not just focus on Corgan running the NWA, but on Corgan’s overall life, from him continuing to tour with the Pumpkins, to his marriage to long-time girlfriend, Chloe Mendel, which occurred last September.
There was still plenty of wrestling content to be featured, however, with highlights from NWA events sprinkled all around, as Corgan could be seen jokingly questioning his decisionmaking in entering the wrestling business given his “day job” with the Pumpkins. Corgan also noted the lack of interest in wrestling from those close to him, including Mendel and his Pumpkins bandmates James Ilha and Jimmy Chamberlain. Several wrestlers were seen being interviewed, including former NWA Women’s Champion Kamille, who departed the promotion earlier this year, and has since reportedly signed with AEW.
“Adventure in Carnyland” will be the first docuseries on Corgan’s foray into wrestling to be completed, though it is not the first attempt to chronicle it. The Pumpkins front man had previously attempted to put a reality series together regarding his ownership of Chicago indie promotion, Resistance Pro Wrestling, back in the early 2010s. The project was ultimately never completed.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
The latest in a series of mysterious QR codes on WWE programming led followers down their most complex path to date, with a landing page and 20 images to sift through. The code itself led to wwe.com/121212, which mimicked the look of a basic index page with the slug “/DOOR/” up top and a list of .jpg files, numbered 01-20, each tagged with a unique, six-digit number as well as precise time stamps for each, all purportedly captured yesterday, 5/12/2024, between 12:37:54 and 2:22:42 PM (with no specific time zone indicated).
The series of images contained various visuals and messages, including:
“DO YOU WANT TO MEET THEM?”
“I SET THEM FREE.”
“I REMINDED HIM OF WHO HE WAS. I SHOWED HIM HIS LIES. NOW HE SHOWS ME HIS VISION. IT IS BEAUTIFUL.”
“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN.”
“THEY WERE TRAPPED. I SHOWED THEM HOW TO OPEN THE DOOR.”
“THEY WERE LEFT ALL ALONE. I OPENED THE DOOR. NOW THEY ARE NOT ALONE ANYMORE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”
“CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?”
“IF YOU ASK WHAT YOU AREN’T SEEING THEN YOU AREN’T LOOKING”
“YOU DON’T SEE IT, DO YOU?”
“WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?”
“I AM ALL OF US.”
“DO YOU SEE? I AM ALREADY FREE.”
“How are you doing? I CRAWLED OUT OF THE CAVE. SO I COULD SET THEM FREE. What challenges are you facing? I’M AFRAID THEY WON’T UNDERSTAND. How do you feel? I FINALLY KNOW MY PURPOSE & SOON EVERYONE WILL SEE.”
A newspaper clipping featuring the story of a woman gone missing, written by WENDY LUCHO (an anagram for Uncle Howdy)
An undecipherable, shadowy image in the dark
Several thumb drives and floppy discs, one of which labeled as “5.16.24 4 PM WITCH”
Notably, the “WWE Raw” announce team acknowledged this week’s glitch, perhaps indicating that a reveal is coming sooner than later. With Howdy’s name hidden this time in plain sight, one would think that could certainly be the case.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Tonight’s WWE RAW live on USA Network from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC.
Bryan Danielson is in his final full-time year as a pro wrestler, closing the chapter on one of the most storied careers in history. With his run set to wind down, Danielson told “Casual Conversations” that he still has a few things to check off his bucket list, including an appearance at All In 2024 at Wembley Stadium. However, he confirmed that his current contract is due to expire before the London event in August.
“The big one is Wembley. I want to make it to Wembley,” he said. “My contract actually expires before. But I want to make it to Wembley.”
Danielson opined that Wembley differs from other iconic wrestling venues, such as Arena Mexico or the Tokyo Dome, in that it’s not one typically synonymous with the sport. He reasoned that it held a different energy to the others he has wrestled at, and given that he was unavailable for last year’s All In event, he wants to cross off that goal this year. Furthermore, he might stick around longer, as he feels that October’s WrestleDream event would be a great curtain call.
“I’m not sure if I’ll make it. But one thing that’d be a nice way to close everything out for me is to do my last match as a full-time wrestler at WrestleDream at the Tacoma Dome. Because that’s the first wrestling show I ever saw [at the Tacoma Dome]. It was WWF and it was Ultimate Warrior versus Rick Rude.”
Bryan Danielson joined AEW in 2021 months after departing WWE, signing a three-year deal with the promotion. He confirmed that this would be his final year of full-time competition ahead of the Continental Classic late last year. However, Danielson has not been seen on TV since losing to Will Ospreay at AEW Dynasty.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
If WWE is planning to re-sign reigning Women’s World Champion Becky Lynch, they might want to do it soon. A new report from Fightful Select on Saturday claims Lynch has approximately three weeks left on her current deal, and as of this writing, she has not signed a new one.
The news comes less than a month after Lynch won the vacant Women’s World title in a 14-woman battle royal on “WWE Raw” and eight days after it was reported that Lynch’s husband, former World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, signed a lucrative new contract with WWE. Lynch had previously confirmed that her deal was up this summer and that she hadn’t been approached about a new one, but WWE’s new leadership under the auspices of TKO Group Holdings has been getting a lot of last-minute contracts drawn up lately, re-signing Rollins, Finn Balor, and Drew McIntyre over the last few weeks. Fightful reports that talks between Lynch and WWE have been ongoing, but nobody has put pen to paper yet.
Given Lynch’s stature in the company — she’s arguably the most popular female star in WWE history and the winner of the first women’s WrestleMania main event — one would assume WWE will make keeping her under contract a priority in the coming days. It’s also worth noting that Lynch is scheduled to defend her championship against Liv Morgan at King & Queen of the Ring on March 25, days before her deal expires.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
– Salina de la Renta is stopped by masked men trying to enter the build. Cesar Duran welcomes everyone to the show.
– Atlantis, Jesus Rodriguez, & Guerrero Mayo Jr. def. Felino, Virus, & Villano III Jr
– Cesar and Salina chat.
– MLW National Openweight Championship: Bad Dude Tito def. Rickey Shane Page (c) to win the title.
– Mads Krugger slams Bill Alfonso’s head against the wall.
– Atlantis Jr. def. Ultimo Guerrero
– MLW Tag Team Championships: CozyMAX (Satoshi Kojima & Okumura) def. Second Gear Crew (1 Called Manders & Matthew Justice) to win the vacant titles.
– Matt Riddle def. Joshua Bishop
– Sami Callihan attacks Riddle. They continue to fight until separated by officials.
– Averno & Magnus def. Star Jr. & Fuego
– Salina tries to open the door of the secret to lucha libre, but it’s locked.
– MLW Middleweight Championship: Mistico (c) def. Barbaro Cavernario
– Salina steals the key from Cesar and opens the door to find two masked men.
Source: Fightful
* Kickoff: STRONG Survivor – Matt Vandagriff def. Adrian Quest
* Kickoff: Lio Rush vs Mustafa Ali def. Lio Rush
– Ali put his feet on the ropes for the Backslide pin. They brawled momentarily. The lights went out and Lio emerged behind Ali, spewing mist as his Blackheart persona shined through.
* House Of Torture (EVIL, Jack Perry & Ren Narita) def. CHAOS (Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii) & The DKC
*The West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) def. Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor
* NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championship: Guerrillas Of Destiny (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo) def. TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) (c)
* NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) def. Alex Windsor
* Los Ingobernables de Japon (Yota Tsuji & Tetsuya Naito) def. BULLET CLUB (David Finlay & KENTA)
– A vignette announced that an American version of FantasticaMania, the joint show between New Japan Pro-Wrestling and CMLL Lucha Libre would be coming to the San Jose Civic Auditorium on July 13.
* Zack Sabre Jr. def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
* NJPW World TV Championship: Jeff Cobb (c) def. Lance Archer
– Tomohiro Ishii came out to declare that he wanted the next shot at Jeff Cobb’s title.
– HENARE appeared in a vignette to declare his desire to face the winner of the NEVER Openweight Championship match.
* NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) def. Yuya Uemura
* NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship No-Rope Last Man Standing Match: Gabe Kidd def. Eddie Kingston (c)
– After the match, Jack Perry came down to attack Eddie Kingston but it was Matthew and Nicholas Jackson, The Young Bucks, who would blindside and attack him in their first appearance in New Japan in 5 years. The attack continued. The Young Bucks made jokes about no longer living in the area because they were no longer poor. They challenged Kingston to a match at Forbidden Door but the challenge itself wasn’t actually clear. They hit Kingston with an EVP Trigger and left the ring.
* IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jon Moxley (c) def. Shota Umino
– The show goes off the air with EVIL attacking Jon Moxley and declaring himself to be the next challenger for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. EVIL and Ren Narita attacked Moxley and Umino and EVIL spray painted the championship.
Source: Fightful
AEW Collision & Rampage live on TBS from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Collision:
Rampage:
Kenny Omega will be undergoing surgery for diverticulitis in the very near future.
On his latest Twitch stream, Omega revealed that he’ll be undergoing surgery “very, very soon.”
You can check out some highlights from the stream below:
On his health: “I did have to go back to the hospital. The good news is that I was able to get some pre-op stuff done. It’s a double-edged sword, it’s good news and bad news. The good news is, I have a wonderful doctor and he is someone who is the top of his field. He is very hard to get appointments and surgeries with. However, he’s done me a solid. I will actually be getting surgery very, very, very soon. Unfortunately for me, it means I have to leave town again. However, again, this guy is the top in his field. Even though it’s a major surgery, I do feel the most comfortable with this individual. So, even though there are always worries going into a major surgery, if there is one person I feel the most confident with, it’s this dude.
“Bad news is, it’s like an end of an era because sadly this may be my last stream in a while. I’d like to say that I can get it done and appear in front of a computer, but it probably won’t work that way. When I feel good and can travel up a flight of stairs or whatever, I’d love to hop in front of a monitor and maybe hang out and chat. That’s coming up right away. Right away, right away. A couple of days. I’m looking forward to it. A little bit of nerves, but to have such a capable doctor that I was able to have take care of this as quickly as he is, I do feel fortunate and that luck was on my side a little bit. There is good and bad. I’m feeling good about it and I’m optimistic.”
On dealing with the potential that he may not return: “There was a moment when I was dealing with this stuff where I wasn’t sure if I could come back. I was actually leaning towards, not leaning towards, but heavily considering the possibility that I might not ever (return). Had I needed to announce my retirement, I felt like I was in a place where I could have done with a smile on my face because I feel I’ve had a wonderful career and I’ve had fun doing this and I’ve met a lot of great people and I’ve been able to do things I never thought I would be able to do.”
On being optimistic about his chances: “However, now I feel like, with the individual I’m going to see and the rundown he’s given me on the way he will do the procedure, it’s so much different than what I was told here in Orlando. It opened up the door for the possibility for not only a comeback, but I might, you never know, but I might be able to come back about as good before my title run. We’re talking early days AEW level of Kenny Omega where, a little beat up from past injuries. I do believe that’s when the diverticulitis started was the beginning days of AEW. Before the broken nose, hernia, shoulder, knee, all that stuff. Those aches and pains, a lot of them still exist. I always thought the diverticulitis was my hernia. I thought the mesh had burst. It was something else completely.
“I guess it dates back to early 2020 when I started making appearances for Triple A. I’ve been fighting this thing, in the early stages, for about four years. When I actually had a herniation, I thought, ‘We got it, we nailed it, that’s the reason why my stomach hurts.’ That was just one of many problems. It’s given me a chance to consider a new Kenny Omega, repackaging, and sort of rebranding before I come back. To what degree? I don’t know, I guess we’ll see how I feel. In a perfect world, I would like to come back better than I was before. It’s not my prime; those days are done, but I want to come back differently and bring something new to the table. A lot of same these days. It’s making me sick.”
We send our best wishes to Omega for a quick and full recovery.
Source: eWn
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