Author: John Bass

Keith Lee Signs With AEW, Debuts On Dynamite

Former WWE Superstar Keith Lee made his AEW debut on last night’s edition of Dynamite.

BASK IN HIS GLORY! The rumors were true. Keith Lee is officially ALL ELITE!

The former WWE Superstar made his AEW Dynamite debut on the February 9 edition of Dynamite on TBS. It all went down at the Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Keith Lee was revealed as Isiah Kassidy’s mystery opponent in a Face Of The Revolution qualifying match just moments before the match began.

https://twitter.com/WrestlingSheet/status/1491590521478778880

The crowd went absolutely wild when Lee’s music hit, and kept that energy going throughout the entire bout, popping for every move and taunt. The match probably went on slightly longer than necessary, but it was obvious that Lee – who got married to fellow wrestler Mia Yim over the weekend — was having the time of his life. It was Lee’s first match since October of last year (when he defeated Cedric Alexander on Raw under the name “Bearcat” Lee) but he looked as good as ever as he tossed Kassidy all over the place.

The former NXT Champion was able to overcome interference from Kassidy’s Private Party partner Marq Quen to secure the win and book his spot in the Face Of The Revolution Ladder Match at Revolution next month.

After the match, AEW president Tony Khan took to social media to reveal that Keith Lee had officially signed an AEW contract.

https://twitter.com/TonyKhan/status/1491591759159345153

Source: TheSportster

AEW Dynamite Preview 2/9/22

Tonight’s AEW Dynamite on TBS will take place from the Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

AEW President Tony Khan is promising a major debut on tonight’s show. The newcomer will sign his AEW contract tonight, and then face Isaiah Kassidy in a qualifying match for the Face of The Revolution Ladder Match.

* Tony Khan will make a huge talent announcement. Who will walk through the forbidden door?

* First qualifying match for the Face of The Revolution Ladder Match at the AEW Revolution PPV with Khan’s new signing vs. Isaiah Kassidy

* MJF will speak on his win over CM Punk

* Chris Jericho has called an Inner Circle Team Meeting

* AEW World Champion “Hangman” Adam Page defends against Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match

Tony Khan Says “Huge” AEW Signing Sets Up Friday’s Rampage

With only a day away from AEW Dynamite, speculation continues to grow over who the free agent walking through the Forbidden Door Tony Khan was referring to last Friday following AEW Rampage. In an interview with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated, Tony Khan provided some more details regarding the signing, calling it huge and saying it would set up this week’s episode of AEW Rampage.

“It’s a huge signing for us,” Khan said. “I have created some debate about what it means to open the ‘Forbidden Door’ and that’s what we are going to do on this show. The fans are going to get a great night of wrestling, and I hope everyone is surprised—and comes back for the matches this sets up.

“It’s going to be a big reveal on Dynamite. It sets up this week’s Rampage and puts a lot of irons in our fire. We have created an environment in AEW where people routinely expect great wrestling matches, and we have the wrestlers to live up to those high expectations.”

Following last Friday’s AEW Rampage, Tony Khan announced that Isiah Kassidy would wrestle a new free agent signing on AEW Dynamite to determine who would qualify for the Face of the Revolution ladder match taking place at AEW Revolution. He would later elaborate that the signing would be the same person who Khan earlier in the night said would be walking through the Forbidden Door, a term usually used for talents from New Japan working in AEW or vice versa.

Since then, several names on the free agent market, New Japan and even WWE have been rumored as being the potential signing. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reported on Friday that free agent Keith Lee was either in talks or had already signed a deal with AEW, making him a potential candidate. Yesterday, AEW star Matt Hardy teased that Tony Khan had bought out the rest of Jeff Hardy’s 90 day noncompete clause, suggesting Hardy could be the surprise signee.

All questions will be answered tomorrow night on the next episode of AEW Dynamite. In addition to the signing, Hangman Page will defend the AEW World Championship against Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match and the Inner Circle will have a mandatory meeting to discuss recent dissension within the group.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE NXT Preview 2/8/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode will be the go-home show for next week’s Vengeance Day special.

NXT will air on Syfy for the next two weeks starting with tonight’s show. It’s believed that there will be limited commercial interruptions with more picture-in-picture commercial breaks.

Matt Hardy Teases Tony Khan May Have Bought Out Jeff Hardy’s WWE Contract

Since Friday night’s episode of AEW Rampage, speculation has run rampant about an upcoming announcement on AEW Dynamite that will see a brand new signee make their debut and challenge Isiah Kassidy in a Face of the Revolution Ladder match qualifier.

On his Monday Twitch stream, AEW star Matt Hardy talked about the big announcement and AEW President Tony Khan’s use of the term Forbidden Door when hyping it on social media.

“Tony Khan has been teasing a big announcement, and then he made the big announcement, that the Forbidden Door is going to be opening up again on Wednesday,” Hardy said. “Sometimes people think the Forbidden Door is when someone comes from another promotion into your promotion and they can go back in. And the way he referenced this is, somebody is going to walk through the forbidden door, which means they’re coming from another promotion, and they’re going to slam the Forbidden Door. This means they’re not going back to the other promotion. That’s what that means.

“Tony is one who coined this phrase ‘the Forbidden Door.’ And it opened up whenever the Good Brothers came over from Impact Wrestling and Kenny Omega was going over to Impact and he was coming back to AEW as well. And then there were some people who came in from New Japan Pro Wrestling. People came from NWA, Billy Corgan’s organization in AEW.

“That’s kind of what the Forbidden Door was, it was basically like ‘we can all work together because there’s a big company that’s kind of monopolized wrestling for a while. So let’s all work together and try and make all of our companies as exciting as possible.’ So now there’s a lot of speculation. ‘Is this Forbidden Door prospect that he’s talking about going to show up Wednesday night in Dynamite? Is he from WWE?’ And it sounds like it’s because they say they’re going to be slamming the door behind them. So that means they’re not going back to wherever they came from.”

One name that has been floated around as the potential new AEW star is Matt Hardy’s brother Jeff Hardy, who was released from WWE in December under controversial circumstances. At first Matt Hardy suggested that Jeff would not be the guy to wrestle Kassidy, who currently is aligned with Matt Hardy in the AHFO. He quickly however clarified that it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

“As far as an update on Jeff and what’s going on, I don’t think he’s the guy that’s coming in this Wednesday against Isiah Kassidy,” Hardy said. “Although who knows? Tony Khan, Papa Khan’s got a lot of money. Maybe he bought out his contract. And maybe it is happening early. Who knows?”

Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to Matt Hardy’s Twitch 

WWE Announcers Were Not Allowed To Say Impact Wrestling Or Knockouts During Royal Rumble

In case you haven’t heard, wrestling has a forbidden door and apparently, it’s wide open. AEW wrestlers are competing in New Japan, Impact stars are showing up in WWE, and pretty much everyone is appearing for GCW. The most shocking of all was that middle one. Mickie James returning to WWE for one night only even though she is currently the Impact Knockouts World Champion.

James made an appearance in the women’s Royal Rumble and even though she isn’t a WWE Superstar, she had quite a good showing. She was even allowed to wear her Knockouts Title to the ring. However, eagle-eyed fans might have noticed the bottom third referred to the championship as the Impact Women’s Title. Not what it’s called, and this was no accident.

During a recent episode of Fightful’s Grapsody, which you can check out below, Will Washington reveals a few of the words WWE’s announcers were not allowed to say when discussing James during the Rumble. The big one was the ability to say Impact, but not Impact Wrestling. Not a slight on the rival wrestling company, but rather the hang-up Vince McMahon has with the word wrestling. It’s sports entertainment.

The title being given an entirely different name is also linked to words WWE didn’t want said on the air. Knockouts was one, and world was another. Unclear what WWE’s problem is with the word knockouts. Perhaps it doesn’t want fans to think wrestlers might get legitimately knocked out. As for the word world, maybe since its own Women’s Titles don’t have the word world in them, McMahon feared fans would think the Knockouts Title would be thought of as better than by more casual fans.

The ban on those words for Royal Rumble also extended to the social media team. As for the announcers, dodging words and phrases McMahon doesn’t like being said on his TV shows is an almost untraversable minefield at this point. The longer the list gets, the more respect we should all have for Michael Cole. The man gets a lot of stick from fans, but to be doing that job as long as he has with McMahon constantly in his ear, he deserves more credit than he gets.

Source: TheSportster

WWE RAW Preview 2/7/22

Tonight’s WWE RAW will air live from the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado with more build for Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38.

RAW will air on Syfy tonight due to USA Network’s coverage of the Winter Olympics. The show will reportedly air with limited commercial interruptions.

Bryan Danielson To Be Inducted Into ROH Hall Of Fame

Bryan Danielson is about to become a two time Hall of Famer. The AEW star, who was inducted into the 2016 class of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame, will now be inducted into the Ring of Honor Hall of Fame. ROH announced Bryan Danielson’s induction in a press release on their website.

“Ring of Honor is proud to welcome Bryan Danielson, the embodiment of fighting spirit and technical wrestling excellence, into the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame,” ROH’s statement read. “‘The American Dragon’ played a major role in establishing ROH as the Best Wrestling on the Planet, beginning with his performance in the main event on ROH’s debut show, The Era of Honor Begins, in 2002. Whenever ‘The Final Countdown’ blared throughout the building as Danielson made his entrance to the ring, fans knew they were about to witness a true master of his craft at work. A superior technician, striker and submission specialist, Danielson cemented his status as the best wrestler in the sport when he won the ROH World Title in 2005. His 462-day reign as ROH World Champion is the third-longest, and he made a record 38 successful title defenses. Danielson made history in 2006 when he defeated arch rival and ROH Pure Champion Nigel McGuinness in Liverpool, England to merge the titles. He also won the inaugural Survival of the Fittest in 2004 and main-evented ROH’s first pay-per-view in 2007.

“Danielson had many impressive victories in ROH, but one of his most memorable performances came in defeat. Just over four minutes into his match against then-ROH World Champion Takeshi Morishima in 2007, Danielson suffered a detached retina as a result of the Japanese powerhouse’s clubbing blows. Morishima targeted Danielson’s injured left eye throughout the match, but Danielson showed incredible toughness and heart and came within a fraction of a second of winning before Morishima ultimately prevailed after more than 20 dramatic minutes. After leaving ROH in 2009, Danielson would gain world-wide fame in WWE, where he main-evented WrestleMania in 2014 before more than 75,000 fans at the Superdome in New Orleans. Danielson is currently one of the top stars in AEW.”

Bryan Danielson is the second announced inductee into the ROH Hall of Fame, following The Briscoe Brothers (Jay and Mark Briscoe). More inductees are expected to be announced, with the ceremony airing the weekend of March 5, according to the statement. Bryan Danielson hasn’t commented on his induction at this time.

In the meantime, Bryan Danielson is keeping busy for AEW, recently starting a program with former rival and recently returned star Jon Moxley. In an in ring confrontation last week on AEW Dynamite, Danielson offered Moxley the opportunity to unite and take over AEW as a unit. Moxley has yet to give Danielson an answer.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Stars Teases Jeff Hardy Debut In Upcoming Ladder Match

Is Jeff Hardy on the verge of making his AEW debut?

As we’ve noted, Tony Khan announced last Friday that Isiah Kassidy will wrestle a mystery opponent in a Face of The Revolution Ladder Match qualifier on Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite.

Khan confirmed that Kassidy’s opponent “will walk through the Forbidden Door” and sign a contract with AEW on Wednesday.

The announcement has fueled a lot of speculation on social media, with fans throwing out names such as Hardy, Keith Lee, Karrion Kross and John Morrison, among others.

Over the weekend, Kassidy seemingly teased that he would be wrestling Hardy in the ladder match. While responding to a tweet from Tony Khan praising his performance against Sammy Guevera on Rampage, Kassidy mentioned how he doesn’t want to be forced to “put this dude out for good.” He also asked Matt Hardy, the older brother of Jeff, to get him ready for the ladder match.

I was good, but Sammy was better on Friday. Respect g.

But aye man, this better not be who I think it is… Y’all gonna force me to put this dude out for good 💯

By the way. I’ve called you 4 times @MATTHARDYBRAND. I gotta get ready for this ladder match.

#AEWDynamite

The Young Bucks have also continued to tease Hardy’s AEW debut. On Sunday, they changed their Twitter bio to “Bring us Jeff Harvey,” seemingly poking fun at a moment where Mike Adamle incorrectly referred to Hardy as “Jeff Harvey” at Royal Rumble 2008.

WWE released Jeff Hardy last December after a strange incident at a live WWE event where the Charismatic Enigma abruptly exited a six-man tag team match. The legendary wrestler is presently serving his 90-day non-compete clause with WWE, and won’t be a free agent until March 9.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Kurt Angle Reveals Scrapped Plans For His WWE Return

On his podcast, Hall of Famer Kurt Angle revealed that WWE canceled plans for his return to the company.

WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle revealed on his podcast that there were indeed plans for him to return to television.

Before last week’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, it was reported that Angle would be traveling to St. Louis, Missouri — the host city of the event. Royal Rumble was held inside The Dome at America’s Center. This naturally led to speculation that Angle would be a surprise entry in the 30-man Royal Rumble match. That never wound up taking place, however.

Speaking on a recent episode of The Kurt Angle Show (h/t WrestlingNews.co), the Olympic gold medalist explained that he went to the Royal Rumble as the company wanted him “to do a short program that they ended up canceling it at the last second.” Angle added they “had a great time”, as they got to visit Kim Orton, who’s close friends with his wife, Giovanna.

Angle added that he did some interviews for documentaries and took photos with fans. The former WWE Champion stated that his canceled program was scheduled to last three weeks, emphasizing that he isn’t signed to WWE right now.

The men’s Royal Rumble match greatly lacked in surprise entries. Shane McMahon was an unannounced “surprise” return, though many reports stated ahead of time that he would be back. Drew McIntyre had been out of action for almost a month with a neck injury before showing up unexpectedly as the No. 21 entry.

Source: TheSportster