WWE RAW Preview 8/21/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the Centre Videotron in Quebec City, Quebec Canada.

  • WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: Gunther (c) vs. Chad Gable
  • Drew McIntyre and Matt Riddle vs. The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods)
  • Shinsuke Nakamura will reveal what he whispered in the ear of Seth Rollins
  • WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus is scheduled to appear

Report Indicates Santana And Ortiz May Soon Be Returning To AEW

It appears that two AEW wrestlers are close to returning — Santana and Ortiz. 

In the latest report from Fightful Select, they have confirmed that Santana is healed up and ready to return to the ring. Santana has been out of action since he tore his ACL on June 29, 2022, in the Blood & Guts match, where he, Eddie Kingston, the Blackpool Combat Club, and Ortiz defeated The Jericho Appreciation Society.

Per the report, Ortiz could be returning to the ring as soon as next Sunday for AEW’s All In event. Fightful was told that Ortiz was pulled from a Limitless Wrestling show because of a prior commitment to AEW. If he does show up at Wembley Stadium, it wouldn’t be surprising if it was during the Stadium Stampede match. The match is between Kingston, Orange Cassidy, the Lucha Brothers, and the Best Friends versus Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, and three others that have yet to be announced. Ortiz was last in an AEW ring back on the March 1 episode of “Dynamite,” where he was part of the Face of the Revolution Ladder match.

Sources within the industry also reportedly told Fightful that Ortiz and Santana are still not on friendly terms and that this situation developed way before Santana was injured. Their relationship was discussed last week on Konnan’s podcast, “K100 with Konnan & Disco Inferno,” after a fan had asked if Konnan would ever bring LAX to AEW and it was implied in the question that the former tag team was on talking terms. Konnan admitted he wasn’t aware that they were talking. He was the one that confirmed that the two weren’t on good terms back in July.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

John Cena’s WWE TV Return Revealed

John Cena is slated to make his return to WWE television next month. 

The last time the former WWE Champion competed, he went up against Austin Theory for the United States Championship but fell short in April at WrestleMania 39 on the opening night of the event.

The last time Cena appeared in front of fans was at the Money in the Bank PLE in London last month. During his promo segment, he encouraged WWE to bring WrestleMania to Europe. When Grayson Waller interrupted him, Cena laid him out. 

Cena sent in a pre-recorded video to talk about his feud with Edge, who celebrated his career with the company last week on SmackDown. 

Ryan Satin of FOX Sports reports Cena is set to appear on the September 1st episode of SmackDown from The Giant Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He’s also set to travel to India with the company for the upcoming WWE Superstar Spectacle show at the GMC Balayogi Indoor Stadium on Friday, September 8th.

Source: eWn

OVW’s Netflix Docuseries ‘Wrestlers’ To Premiere Next Month

‘Wrestlers’ is set to premiere on September 13, 2023, on Netflix, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at OVW (Ohio Valley Wrestling). 

It comes from director and executive producer Greg Whitely, who is responsible for past Netflix projects such as ‘Cheer’ and ‘Last Chance U.’

The trailer features Al Snow, Matt Jones, Cash Flo, and Haley J. The official synopsis for the series reads:

“Once a proud finishing school for aspiring pro wrestlers, the gym has since hit hard times. Acclaimed wrestler Al Snow clings to an old school wrestling philosophy with a heavy emphasis on storytelling, but in spite of the love of a few diehard fans, the gym struggles week to week to stay relevant enough to keep its doors open. Things have become so dire financially that Al has to sell a majority stake to a group of local businessmen including Matt Jones, the most popular radio personality in the state of Kentucky. Matt and the new ownership group have infused the struggling gym with much-needed cash but it still operates at a staggering loss. The new owners have given Al the summer to turn things around. Wrestlers chronicles the efforts Al and his band of aspiring wrestlers make as they struggle with their personal ambitions and each other while they attempt to come together to save this historic gym.”

Source: eWn

WWE Breaks Gate Record With WrestleMania 40

WWE touted WrestleMania 40, breaking its all-time gate record in just one day of selling tickets. WWE issued the following:

WrestleMania 40 Breaks WWE® All-Time Gate Record in One Day

WrestleMania 40 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia Sells More than 90,000 Tickets and Surpasses the WrestleMania 39 Total Gross of $21.6 Million

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that WrestleMania 40 broke the company’s all-time gate record in one day. The previous total gross record – $21.6 million – was set earlier this year at WrestleMania 39 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.

WrestleMania 40, which takes place at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia on Saturday, April 6 and Sunday, April 7, sold more than 90,000 tickets when it went on sale last Friday.

The record gate comes on the heels of unprecedented ticket sales demand for WWE in 2023, which to date has produced the highest-grossing gates of all-time for premium live events such as SummerSlam, Royal Rumble and Money In The Bank. SummerSlam, which emanated from Ford Field in Detroit earlier this month, generated a record gate of $8.5 million, the largest gate for any non-WrestleMania event ever.

Additionally, On Location has sold more fan experience packages for WrestleMania 40 than all of WrestleMania 39 and broke the all-time revenue record for a single WWE event in this area.

Limited tickets for WrestleMania 40 are still available via https://www.ticketmaster.com/. In addition, limited exclusive ticket packages are available for WrestleMania 40 via On Location. WrestleMania 40 Priority Passes offer the WWE Universe the chance to be ringside for every exhilarating moment, including premium seating, pre-show hospitality with WWE Superstar appearances, ringside photo opportunities, exclusive merchandise and more.

About WWE

WWE, a publicly traded company (NYSE: WWE), is an integrated media organization and recognized leader in global entertainment. The Company consists of a portfolio of businesses that create and deliver original content 52 weeks a year to a global audience. WWE is committed to family-friendly entertainment on its television programming, premium live events, digital media and publishing platforms. WWE’s TV-PG programming can be seen in more than 1 billion homes worldwide in 25 languages through world-class distribution partners including NBCUniversal, FOX, BT Sport, Sony India and Rogers. The award-winning WWE Network includes all premium live events, scheduled programming and a massive video-on-demand library and is currently available in more than 180 countries. In the United States, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock, is the exclusive home to WWE Network.

Additional information on WWE can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com.

Forward-Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements include statements regarding our outlook regarding future financial results, the impact of recent changes to management and our board of directors (the “Board”): the timing and outcome of the Company’s media and other rights negotiations including major domestic programming licenses before their expirations through 2024: the Company’s pending business combination with UFC, our plans to remediate identified material weaknesses in our disclosure control and procedures and our internal control over financial reporting, and regulatory, investigative or enforcement inquiries, subpoenas or demands arising from, related to, or in connection with these matters. The words “may,” “will,” ·could,” ·anticipate,” “plan,” “continue,” “project,” “intend,” ·”estimate,” “believe,” ·expect,” ·outlook,” “target.” “goal,” ·”guidance” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such words. These statements relate to future possible events, as well as our plans, objectives, expectations and intentions and are not historical facts and accordingly involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results or the performance by us to be materially different from expected future results or performance expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainties relating to, without limitation, the consummation of the pending business combination with UFC in the expected timeline or at all; diversion of management’s time and attention due to the pending business combination with UFC: the availability of sufficient cash at the close of our transaction with UFC to distribute to shareholders of the new public company in line with current expectations; possible disruptions in our content delivery and online operations and our those of our business partners; privacy norms and regulations; our need to continue to develop creative and entertaining programs and events; our need to retain and continue to recruit key performers; the possibility of a decline in the popularity of our brand of sports entertainment: possible adverse changes in the regulatory atmosphere and related private sector initiatives: the highly competitive. rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented nature of the markets in which we operate and/or our inability to compete effectively, especially against competitors with greater financial resources or marketplace presence; uncertainties associated with international markets including possible disruptions and reputational risks; our difficulty or inability to promote and conduct our live events and/or other businesses if we do not comply with applicable regulations; our dependence on our intellectual property rights, our need to protect those rights, and the risks of our infringement of others’ intellectual property rights; potential substantial liability in the event of accidents or injuries occurring during our physically demanding events; large public events as well as travel to and from such events; our expansion into new or complementary businesses, strategic investments and/or acquisitions; our accounts receivable; the construction and move to our new leased corporate and media production headquarters; litigation and other actions, investigations or proceedings; a change in the tax laws of key jurisdictions; inflationary pressures and interest rate changes; our indebtedness including our convertible notes; our potential failure to meet market expectations for our financial performance; our share repurchase program; the impact of actions by Mr. McMahon (our controlling shareholder, whose interests could conflict with those of our Class A common stockholders); the substantial number of shares are eligible for sale by the McMahons and the sale, or the perception of possible sales, of those shares could cause our stock price to decline; and the volatility in trading prices of our Class A common stock. In addition. our dividend and share repurchases are dependent on a number of factors, including. among other things, our liquidity and historical and projected cash flow, strategic plan (including alternative uses of capital, our financial results and condition. contractual and legal restrictions, general economic and competitive conditions and such other factors as our Board may consider relevant.

Forward-looking statements made by the Company speak only as of the date made and are subject to change without any obligation on the part of the Company to update or revise them. Undue reliance should not be placed on these statements. For more information about risks and uncertainties associated with the Company’s business. please refer to any documents filed, or to be filed, by the Company with the SEC, including, but not limited to, the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and “Risk Factors” sections of our annual reports on Form 10‑K and 10‑K/A and quarterly reports on Form 10‑Q/A and Form 10‑Q.

Impact Wrestling x NJPW MultiVerse United 2 8/20/2023 (Results)

Pre-Show – Countdown to Multiverse United 2

Joe Hendry, Heath & Yuya Uemura def. Master Wato, Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi

Impact Digital Media Championship Match:
Kenny King (c) def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Multiverse United 2: For Whom the Bell Tolls

X-DIVISION Scramble Match:
Chris Sabin def. YOH, Frankie Kazarian, BUSHI, Kevin Knight, Rich Swann, MAO & El Desperado

After the match, BUSHI blinds Sabin with the black mist

IMPACT (Moose & Eddie Edwards) def. TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr & Shane Haste)

NJPW Strong Women’s Championship Match:
Giulia (c) def.. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Momo Kohgo

After the match, Kohgo blindsides Giulia but gets taken out with a Glorious Driver from the champ.

SOUTH PHILLY STREET FIGHT:
Sami Callihan def DOUKI 

Catch 22 (TJP & Francesco Akira) def TMDK (Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Alex Coughlin, KENTA & Clark Connors) def. The World (PCO, Josh Alexander, Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, The DKC & ELP)

After the match, Bullet Club clears the ring of their adversaries before standing tall.

Lio Rush & Trey Miguel def Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey

After the match, Lio Rush sets his sights on the IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship. Takahashi appears to accept his challenge but Bailey is concerned because he believes that opportunity should be his.

Impact World Championship Match:
Alex Shelley (c) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi

AEW Collision ‘Fight For The Fallen’ Preview 8/19/2023

Tonight’s AEW Collision ‘Fight For The Fallen” live on TNT from the Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.

  • Darby Allin vs. Christian
  • Powerhouse Hobbs in action
  • Willow Nightingale vs. Diamante
  • Jay White vs. Dalton Castle
  •  Ricky Starks addresses his comments from last week
  • We’ll hear from FTR
  • We’ll hear from Miro

AEW ALL IN 2023 Passes WrestleMania 32 Paid Attendance Record

AEW ALL IN 2023 is breaking records left-and-right.

Wrestle Tix is reporting that the highly-anticipated premium live event has sold 80,846 tickets for the show scheduled for Wembley Stadium in London, England on August 27, 2023.

The mark passes WWE’s record that was established at WrestleMania 32 in Texas for paid attendance.

AEW is currently set up for 85,000 seats for their ALL IN 2023 premium live event, however it is expected that they will continue to open up as many additional seats as they can.

Source: Rajah.com

Impact Wrestling x NJPW MultiVerse United 2 8/20/2023 (Card)

LIVE THIS SUNDAY, August 20th at 5pm ET streaming exclusively on FITE, IMPACT and New Japan Pro-Wrestling join forces for another co-branded mega event, Multiverse United 2: For Whom the Bell Tolls from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Tickets are on-sale now at 2300arena.com.

CARD

Impact World Championship Match:
Alex Shelley (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

NJPW Strong Women’s Championship Match:
Giulia (c) vs. Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw vs. Momo Kohgo

Impact Digital Media Championship Match:
Kenny King (c) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

X-DIVISION Scramble Match:
BUSHI vs. Chris Sabin vs. El Desperado vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Kevin Knight vs. Mao vs. Rich Swann vs. YOH

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Ace Austin, Chris Bey, Alex Coughlin, KENTA & Clark Connors) vs. The World (Josh Alexander, PCO, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, El Phantasmo & the DKC)

Lio Rush & Trey Miguel vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Mike Bailey

Zack Sabre Jr. and Shane Haste vs. Moose & Eddie Edwards

DOUKI vs. Sami Callihan

Joe Hendry, Heath & Yuya Uemura vs. Master Wato, Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi

TJP and Francesco Akira) vs. Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita

Edge To WWE SmackDown Crowd In Toronto: ‘This Is My Last Time In Front Of Y’all’

WWE fans still don’t have a concrete answer as to whether the “Rated R Superstar” is officially retired from the company, but Edge cut a promo to the “WWE SmackDown” live crowd after the broadcast went off the air following his match with Sheamus — a match many believe could be the star’s final match with the company — shedding at least a little bit of light on the situation.

In a video posted to  Twitter by a user named Dylan Melanson, Edge is seen speaking in the middle of the ring following his victory. “What I can say, is this is my last time in front of y’all,” he said, to a chorus of boos from his hometown crowd of Toronto. “I don’t think I could make it a full… to get here again for another match. I’m just being honest with you.”

Edge also instructed the crowd to “not let that be a downer,” because the fans gave him an amazing experience. He said he will never forget it.

“And when I’m 84-years-old and don’t remember much, you’re damn sure I’m going to remember this,” he said before thanking the crowd and walking out of the ring to his theme music.

Later, WWE’s official Twitter account would post a snippet of the speech, in which Edge says he doesn’t know what the future holds and needs to ask his family, who were sitting ringside, what they want him to do.

Before the match, Edge addressed the retirement rumors, saying “SmackDown” was the final match on his current WWE deal. As of this writing, neither the star nor WWE have commented on any official retirement.

Source: Wrestling Inc.