Author: John Bass

Tony Khan Says “Dream Signing” Coming To AEW Soon

AEW President, CEO, General Manager & Head Of Creative Tony Khan says a “dream signing” is coming soon to AEW.

Khan spoke to Josh Martinez of Z100 in New York City this week and was asked if there are any dream signings coming to AEW, and if so, if they are a North American talent.

“There is,” Tony Khan responded. “They are in North America, and they’re coming. And pretty soon, and it’s going to be awesome. I’m very excited.”

There’s no word on who the big talent acquisition might be, but rumored potential signings include Windham Rotunda (fka Bray Wyatt) and Johnny Gargano, but there’s no word on if AEW has been in recent talks with these wrestlers.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night Two Results 1/5/2022

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Flying Tiger (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) (c) defeated Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs. The Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero)

Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani defeated Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid

PROVISIONAL KOPW 2022 TROPHY
Minoru Suzuki defeated Chase Owens, Cima, and Toru Yano

NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
House of Torture (Evil, Yujiro Takahashi & Sho) (c) (w/ Dick Togo) defeated Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi & Yoh)

Sanada defeated Great-O-Khan

Tetsuya Naito defeated Jeff Cobb

NO DQ MATCH FOR THE IWGP UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated KENTA (New IWGP United States Champion)

IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Will Ospreay

Pro-Wrestling NOAH made its presence felt during New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s flagship event. Members of the NOAH roster briefly occupied the ring during Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom 16 on Wednesday.

A large contingent of NOAH wrestlers was led to the ring by Keiji Mutoh. Speaking during the English language broadcast on New Japan World, Chris Charlton said it was Muto’s first time in Tokyo Dome since Wrestle Kingdom 8.

Keiji Mutoh is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion from his years in New Japan. Early last year, Mutoh signed a contract with Pro-Wrestling NOAH, where he won the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Mutoh is currently one-half of the GHC Tag Team Champions alongside Naomichi Marufuji.

Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh took the microphone and addressed the crowd at the Tokyo Dome. They were eventually confronted by New Japan’s Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, and BUSHI. The trio exchanged words with the NOAH wrestlers inside the ring but left without any physical interaction.

Keiji Mutoh took a picture while the NOAH wrestlers were in the ring. He later posted it on Twitter, along with words explaining that NOAH had occupied the ring at New Japan’s biggest event of the year.

Members of the Pro-Wrestling NOAH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling rosters are preparing to meet in matches on Night 3 of Wrestle Kingdom 16. That card will be held at Yokohama Arena on Saturday.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night Two 1/5/2022

DATE: January 5, 2022 12:00 am
LOCATION: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World

CARD

– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles (c) vs. Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori

– Starlight Kid & Mayu Iwatani vs. Saya Kamitani & Tam Nakano

– KOPW 2022 Four Way

– NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship: SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL (c) vs. YOH, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto

– SANADA vs. Great-O-Khan

– Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb

– IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: KENTA (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in a No DQ Match

– IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay

WWE NXT ‘New Year’s Evil’ Preview 1/4/22

NXT Title Match
Bron Breakker vs. Tommaso Ciampa (c)

Triple Threat for the NXT Women’s Title
Cora Jade vs. Raquel Gonzalez vs. Mandy Rose (c)

Title vs. Title Unification Match: NXT North American Cruiserweight Championship
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong vs. NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes

AJ Styles appears live to confront Grayson Waller

Imperium (WALTER, NXT Tag Team Champions Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) vs. RAW Tag Team Champion Riddle and MSK (Wes Lee, Nash Carter)

Alexa Bliss Returning To WWE RAW Soon

Alexa Bliss is set to return to WWE RAW soon.

WWE announced this week that we will begin to see Bliss’ journey back to RAW next Monday night. It sounds like a series of vignettes will be released, leading up to Bliss making her return to the storylines.

Bliss has been away from WWE since losing to then-RAW Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view on September 26. It was reported after the pay-per-view that Bliss would be taking “a few months” off due to sinus surgery. She noted on Twitter in late November that she needed “time to heal” when a fan asked about her return.

There’s been speculation on Bliss possibly returning with a new gimmick, or her old character. She was wrapping up the Lilly storyline the last time we saw her. There’s also speculation on Bliss possibly making her return in the 30-Woman Royal Rumble Match later this month.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Paul Heyman Back With Brock Lesnar As His Advocate

Paul Heyman appeared with Brock Lesnar on Monday’s RAW and the two announced they are back working together as client and advocate.

Monday Night’s RAW confirmed that Paul Heyman is back working as Brock Lesnar’s advocate. No longer under Roman Reigns’ employ, Heyman has jumped back into the arms of the new WWE Champion and the two worked together Monday night, setting the stage for the Royal Rumble.

After WWE showed a highlight package from Saturday’s “Premium Live Event”, the lights went out and Heyman appeared in the middle of the ring to introduce his “client” Brock Lesnar. The new WWE Champion came to the ring and did confirm Heyman was, once again, his advocate. After sarcastically hoping Roman Reigns gets well soon, Lesnar turned the mic back over to Heyman who went on a long rant about every competitor in the Fatal 4-Way. He gave each props but said none would measure up.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1478173790530162690

Heyman really sold his client’s win on Saturday while Lesnar stood atop a self-made podium that was once being used as the ring steps. Lesnar didn’t talk much after going for a cheap pop with the South Carolina crowd and he let his advocate do the rest of the work.

This was as good a promo as one would expect from Heyman, but questions about where this leaves Lesnar as a heel or babyface are sure to follow. Is Heyman coming back to Lesnar a sign these two will go back to being heels? Or, is Heyman now a good guy too? Later on the show, WWE teased Friday’s SmackDown would offer more of Lesnar and Heyman, so potentially the WWE Universe will find out.

That Heyman is simply back with Lesnar could speak volumes when it comes to any future storyline that includes finishing off the Reigns/Lesnar/Heyman storyline. If a new No. 1 contender is crowned in the main event, perhaps the Lesnar vs. Reigns program will be pushed aside for quite a while and what Heyman was really doing all this time will take a back seat.

Source: TheSportster

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Night One) Results 1/4/2022

Yoh defeated Sho w/ Dick Togo

Bullet Club (KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and The Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero)

United Empire (Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Sanada & Bushi)

Katsuyori Shibata defeated Ren Narita

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Evil (with Dick Togo) defeated Tomohiro Ishii  (new NEVER Openweight Championship)

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
El Desperado defeated Hiromu Takahashi

IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
Kazuchika Okada defeated Shingo Takagi (New IWGP Heavyweight Champion)

WWE Hall Of Famer Jeff Jarrett Makes GCW Debut At Die 4 This Event

WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett made a surprise debut at last night’s Game Changer Wrestling’s Die 4 This show in Atlantic City, NJ.  The pro wrestling veteran appeared, attacking Effy and destroying him with a guitar to the head to set up a future grudge match.

It was reported in July 2021 that Jarrett was released from WWE along with other budget cuts made at the time. Jeff Jarrett, inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2018, was hired to work as a producer, but in March 2019, he was promoted to the creative team.

It was also determined last night who will be the new #1 contender for Jon Moxley’s GCW World Championship upon his return to the promotion. Homicide won the Do or Die Rumble to earn his spot to challenge for Moxley’s title at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City.

Homicide made his intentions clear as soon as he grabbed the microphone post-match, saying he was going to “f*ck up Moxley”.

Another pro wrestling veteran is also back on the indie wrestling scene — Scotty 2 Hotty. He announced his return to competing in the squared circle this past November and suffered a loss to Joey Janela at last night’s event.

You can see the full results for last night’s show below:

GCW Tag Team Championship
The Briscoes (Mark Briscoe & Jay Briscoe) (c) def. Blake Christian & Alex Zayne

Calvin Tankman def. Yoya

Joey Janela def. Scotty 2 Hotty

GCW World Title Number One Contender Do Or Die Rumble
Homicide def. Jordan Oliver, Tony Deppen, Jack Cartwheel, Dante Leon, Ninja Mack, Atticus Cogar, Nick Wayne, Dark Sheik, Matthew Justice, AJ Gray, Cole Radrick, Shane Mercer, PCO, G-Raver, Colby Corino, Allie Katch, Billie Starkz, Grim Reefer

GCW Ultraviolent Championship:
Alex Colon (c) def. John Wayne Murdoch

WWE RAW Preview 1/3/22

The first WWE RAW of 2022 will take place tonight from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina with fallout from WWE Day 1.

No matches or segments have been announced for tonight’s show but WWE is teasing that The Miz and Maryse will respond to what happened at Day 1 with WWE Hall of Famers Edge and Beth Phoenix. A mixed tag team match has been rumored.

Finn Balor vs. Austin Theory and AJ Styles vs. Omos are possible for this week after being nixed last week due to COVID-19 precautionary measures.

The next WWE pay-per-view is the Royal Rumble on January 29, so the build for that event should begin some time soon, if not tonight.

New WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will reportedly not appear on tonight’s post-Day 1 edition of WWE RAW. PWInsider reports that Lesnar returned home on Sunday, indicating that he will not be on tonight’s RAW from Greenville, SC.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Night One) 1/4/2022

DATE: January 4, 2022 12:00 am
LOCATION: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World

CARD

– New Japan Ranbo: Final Four Advance to KOPW 2022 Four-Way Match on Night Two

– YOH vs. SHO

– Rocky Romero, Ryusuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & KENTA

– BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb

– Katsuyori Shibata vs. X in a Catch Wrestling Rules Match

– NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. EVIL

– IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (c) vs. YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (World Tag League Winner)

– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi (BOSJ Winner)

– IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada (G1 Climax Winner)