Author: John Bass

Rey Mysterio Returns To WWE On SmackDown

Rey Mysterio has returned to WWE following knee surgery.

During this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, Mysterio made his return during Santos Escobar’s Street Fight match against Carlito.

As Escobar got the upper hand in the match, Mysterio came out to the ring on crutches. Mysterio wound up throwing down the crutches and took out Angel and Humberto Carrillo. This allowed Carlito to get the win over a distracted Escobar following a Backstabber, a 619 from Mysterio and then a slam through a table.

Prior to Friday night, Mysterio hadn’t been seen since the November 10th, 2023 episode of WWE SmackDown.

Source: eWn

Fox Blacks Out WWE SmackDown Bloodline Segment In Reported Effort To Avoid Crowd Sign

The Bloodline were once again the focal point of “WWE SmackDown” this week, as The Rock declined Cody Rhodes’ recent challenge for a match at WrestleMania. Instead, Rock thought it would be a better idea to have himself and Roman Reigns face Rhodes and Seth Rollins in a tag team match as one of WrestleMania 40’s main events. “The Great One” has been playing up his heelish antics as of late, so much so that Fox had to work around the crowd who weren’t happy to see Rock on “SmackDown.”

PWInsider reports that the random blackouts fans in the United States kept experiencing on the March 1 “Smackdown” wasn’t a technical problem, but was Fox themselves trying to censor a sign in the crowd that read “Die Rocky Die.” The fans also chanted “Die Rocky Die” at the former WWE Champion, causing the crowd to be dubbed over, and in some cases, completely muted due to the hostility of the chant.

The “Die Rocky Die” chant became infamous not too long after Rock’s 1996 WWE debut, as the fans didn’t respond well to the bland Rocky Maivia character being forced upon them. The chant would eventually lead to Dwayne Johnson shedding his babyface persona of Rocky Maivia and evolving into The Rock. He would join The Nation of Domination in 1997 to revolt against the WWE fans who booed him, deciding to forge his own path of not caring about anyone but himself. However, his natural charisma and attitude proved too much for the fans to remain against, and his entertaining villainy launched him into WWE’s main event scene and eventually becoming one of the most popular stars of all time.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

The Rock Acknowledges Roman Reigns, Lays Out WrestleMania Challenge On WWE SmackDown

Cody Rhodes, World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns may be pulling double duty WrestleMania 40 weekend, following Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson issuing a challenge with set stipulations during the opening of Friday’s “WWE SmackDown.” The Rock also acknowledged his cousin, Reigns, as his Tribal Chief during the segment after Reigns interrupted Rock’s iconic “if you smell” catchphrase.

Rhodes had previously challenged the Rock to a one-on-one match during “The Grayson Waller Effect” at Elimination Chamber. Rollins did him one better and said he would team with Rhodes to take on the Rock and Reigns. On “SmackDown,” Rock said he wouldn’t be facing Rhodes one-on-one because everyone wants to challenge “The Great One.” He did challenge both Rhodes and Rollins to the tag team match the World Heavyweight Champion previously suggested at the premium live event, but with added stipulations.

Rock said that if Rhodes and Rollins win on WrestleMania Night One, the Bloodline would be barred from ringside during Rhodes’ match for Reigns’ title on Night Two. However, if the babyface team loses, Rock said the title match would be a “Bloodline Rules” match where anything goes. Rock said he was giving Rhodes the option to accept the challenge, but if he doesn’t, he said he is going to make sure Rhodes does not win the title.

There’s currently no word on if Rollins and Rhodes will acknowledge the challenge on “WWE Raw” on Monday, but Rhodes is scheduled to appear on the next three episodes of “SmackDown” alongside the Rock on the “Road to WrestleMania.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Backstage Update On When Kazuchika Okada Will Debut With AEW

The rainy season is coming to All Elite Wrestling, as “The Rainmaker” will be landing in the promotion very soon.

Fightful Select is reporting that there are tentative plans to have the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion “in the fold” by March 6, the date of next week’s “AEW Dynamite.” On today’s pre-Revolution Media Call, AEW President Tony Khan alluded to having a big surprise planned for next week’s “Dynamite” in Atlanta, GA. If the surprise is Okada, that would mean he’d be debuting after Will Ospreay’s fullt-ime AEW debut against Konosuke Takeshita at Revolution and before “AEW Dynamite: Big Business” on March 13, which is when former IWGP Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone is likely to debut.

Okada has been the franchise face of NJPW for much of the last decade — a multi-time heavyweight champion and G1 Climax winner — but decided to leave the promotion when his contract expired in January. Okada finished up his scheduled dates with NJPW over the course of February, including a match with old rival Hiroshi Tanahashi, with his last match taking place on February 24 at NJPW New Beginning In Sapporo Night 2, where he teamed with Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI and Toru Yano to defeat Matt Riddle, United Empire’s Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman and Francesco Akira. As of his retirement, Okada was NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champion alongside YOSHI-HASHI and Hiroshi Tanahashi. The reign lasted 266 days and was Okada’s first non-world title in NJPW.

Okada marks the third former NJPW free agent AEW has signed for a March debut.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Backstage News On Why Meat Madness Match Was Pulled From AEW Revolution PPV Card

Ever since the match between Miro and Powerhouse Hobbs at AEW All Out 2023, All Elite Wrestling fans have become accustomed to hearing the word “meat” during matches where two of the company’s heaviest hitters go at it. That love of meat was going to be taken to another level at the upcoming AEW Revolution pay-per-view as Tony Khan announced that a “Meat Madness” would take place between Hobbs, Lance Archer, and Wardlow. However, just before the February 28th edition of “AEW Dynamite,” Khan took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to announce that the match was cancelled due to injuries to the participants, with the new All-Star Eight-Man Scramble announced in its place. Oddly, Hobbs, Archer, and Wardlow were all quickly announced for the scramble, leading to questions about who, exactly, had been injured.

Fightful Select dug a little deeper in to the matter and reported that, contrary to an injury to any of the announced participants, Khan had planned to add other wrestlers to the mix, but they ended up being unavailable for Revolution. As of this writing, the names of the planned additions and the reasons for their unavailability remain unknown. Fightful also reported that more elements were going to be a part of the “madness,” but those elements will have to wait for another time.

 later on this year. Joining the original three participants in the All-Star Eight Man Scramble, the winner of which receives a shot at the AEW World Championship, are Chris Jericho, FTW Champion Hook, and Brian Cage, with the final two spots to be filled on the upcoming episodes of “AEW Rampage” and “AEW Collision.” CMLL’s Magnus will face Matt Sydal on “Rampage” for one spot, while Penta El Zero Miedo, Bryan Keith, and Dante Martin will fight it out for the final spot this Saturday on “Collision,” the night before Revolution.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Rampage Preview 3/1/2024

Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT.

  • Claudio Castagnoli vs. Rugido
  • Riho vs. Trish Adora
  • Magnus vs. Matt Sydal, winner gets added to All-Star Scramble at Revolution
  • Lance Archer & The Righteous in action

WWE SmackDown Preview 3/1/2024

WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FOX from the sold out Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

  • Fallout from Elimination Chamber
  • The Bloodline to appear with The Rock and Roman Reigns
  • Cody Rhodes to appear
  • Non-Title Match: Women’s Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors ((Kairi Sane and Asuka) vs. Bayley and Dakota Kai
  • Street Fight: Santos Escobar vs. Carlito
  • I would expect LA Knight retaliate against AJ Styles for his assault on Knight at Elimination Chamber

MLW Intimidation Games Results (2/29/24)

Major League Wrestling (MLW) held its ‘Intimidation Games’ pay-per-view event on Thursday night from the Melrose Ballroom in New York City.

You can check out the complete results from the show below:

* MLW World Middleweight Championship: Mistico def. Rocky Romero.

* Street Fight: Rickey Shane Page & Sami Callihan def. AKIRA & Jake Crist. Jimmy Lloyd saved AKIRA and Crist from a post-match assault. Raven appeared on the screen and said there will be a war.

* Timothy Thatcher was announced for MLW War Chamber.

* Alex Kane def. Bobby Fish. AJ Francis came out and said that some of the Bomaye Fight Club members might not be as loyal as Kane believes.

* MLW World Tag Team Championship Match: Tom Lawlor & Davey Boy Smith Jr. def. Second Gear Crew.

* Mads Krugger appeared and cut a promo.

* NJPW World TV Championship Match: Matt Riddle def. Bad Dude Tito.

* Cesar Duran challenged Salina de la Renta to bring a top luchador at MLW War Chamber.

* Five Minute, $5000 Challenge: Janai Kai def. Zoey Cannon.

* MLW World Championship Match: Satoshi Kojima def. Minoru Suzuki.

Alex Hammerstone Signs With TNA Wrestling

On Thursday night’s episode of TNA Impact on AXS TV, it was announced that the former MLW World Champion has signed with the promotion and will face off against Josh Alexander at Sacrifice 2024 on March 8th.

ROH TV Preview 2/29/2024

ROH will air a new episode of its weekly television show tonight at 7 pm ET on HonorClub. 

You can sign up for the streaming service here. Below is the lineup for the show: 

  • Blake Christian vs. Komander
  • We’ll hear from ROH Women’s World Champion Athena, Billie Starkz and Lexy Nair
  • Mike Sydal vs. ‘Big Shotty’ Lee Johnson
  • ROH Women’s World TV Title Tournament Quarterfinal: Queen Aminata vs. Taya Valkyrie