Tonight’s AEW Dynamite on TBS will air live from the Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Illinois. This week’s AEW Rampage on TNT will also be taped tonight in Chicago.
AEW has announced the following line-up for tonight:
* Brian Kendrick debuts vs. Jon Moxley
* Malakai Black and Brody King vs. PAC and Penta El Zero Miedo
* Ruby Soho vs. Nyla Rose
* CM Punk vs. MJF
WWE Hall of Famer Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat is headed to MLW.
MLW announced today that Steamboat has signed on to be the matchmaker for the SuperFight tapings on Saturday, February 26 at the Grady Cole Center in Charlotte, NC, which will also serve as a MLW Fusion TV taping. This will be MLW’s Charlotte debut, and Steamboat lives in the city.
MLW noted, “Promising to give Charlotte fans a night of great wrestling action, Steamboat is actively putting together what promises to be a stacked card for a city Steamboat considers his hometown. How will the ruthless Cesar Duran react to Steamboat’s presence?”
Steamboat will also appear for autographs and photos before the show begins.
The MLW SuperFight show will be headlined by Davey Richards vs. MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alex Hammerstone with the title on the line. Other names announced to appear include MLW World Tag Team Champions 5150 with Konnan, MLW National Openweight Champion Alex Kane with Mr. Thomas, MLW World Middleweight Champion Myron Reed, Jacob Fatu, Cesaro Duran, nZo, Alicia Atout, Mads Krugger, Calvin Tankman, Pagano, Richard Holliday, Aramis, Arez, EJ Nduka, KC Navarro, Mat Cross, TJP and Ikuro Kwon, among others.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
As we’ve noted, WWE brought Shane back for the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match on Saturday. He worked the match as a competitor, but was also the lead producer and writer for the match. This led to major locker room heat for McMahon over the way he took charge of the booking and allegedly tried to make the match about himself.
In an update, Ringside News reports that Shane has been “quietly let go” by WWE. It was noted that WWE creative writers were told in a “semi-quiet way” that “there will be no more creative discussions about Shane McMahon” and that they have now “moved on to other creative discussions.”
There was reports about how Shane was scheduled to wrestle at WWE Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38, but now those plans have been 100% scrapped, according to the report. It was also reported earlier this week that plans called for Shane to work the RAW brand as a heel, but those plans have also been nixed.
The report also stated that WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon had no choice but to take action against his own son due to the heat from The Rumble. Shane has not been a WWE employee for some time, and was “supposed to be involved in the XFL but then COVID-19 hit” and the league went into bankruptcy. WWE then brought Shane back for another run that began at The Rumble, but the run has already ended.
“Vince had no choice. Shane created chaos, had everyone in an uproar, pissed off everyone in the Rumble, openly buried other producers, and was changing things that Vince wanted. Vince had no other choice but to send him home,” a WWE source said.
The report also noted that Vince is “quietly” using the term “let go” to describe the situation with Shane. While the term “blackballed” has not been used, word from within WWE is that Shane was “pretty much ‘let go.’”
McMahon entered the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match at #28 and was the 28th elimination, tossed out by Lesnar after 5 minutes and 38 seconds in. He picked up just one elimination and that was Kevin Owens. There is no confirmation on what WWE had planned for Shane at Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38.
Source: Wrestling Inc,
Weeks after parting ways with WWE, pro-wrestling veteran Brian Kendrick will make his AEW debut on this week’s edition of Dynamite.
The Brian Kendrick is about to perform inside an AEW ring for the very first time! On Tuesday, February 1 — one week after it was reported that Kendrick had requested his WWE release — AEW announced that the veteran wrestler would go one-on-one with former AEW Champion Jon Moxley on the February 2 edition of AEW Dynamite on TBS.
Wednesday’s match will be Kendrick’s first since October 2020 when he teamed up with Mansoor to defeat Ever-Rise (no known as 2point0 in AEW) on 205 Live. As you might recall, Kendrick seemingly announced his retirement back in April 2021 in a video filmed at the Performance Center and posted to WWE’s YouTube channel.
“Initially the idea of producing seemed like a good – not a retirement plan – but the next best thing to wrestling,” Kendrick explained during the clip. “It turns out it’s just as rewarding, in different ways. I love every bit of it. It’s a whole new way of looking at wrestling for me.”
Following the announcement, Kendrick began working at the WWE Performance Center as a coach/producer and occasionally appeared on-screen during NXT. Kendrick was briefly involved in a storyline with Harland (Parker Bordeaux) which was cut short as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak that affected several WWE staff.
Interestingly, Kendrick is a longtime friend and associate of AEW star Bryan Danielson, who has recently been teasing a match with Jon Moxley. Danielson and Kendrick were both students at The Shawn Michaels Wrestling Academy in 1999 and came up in the independent scene together.
On the January 21 edition of AEW Rampage, Danielson sarcastically congratulated Moxley on his victory over Ethan Page. On the January 28 edition of Rampage, Danielson was shown backstage watching Mox’s match with Anthony Bowens. A Danielson vs. Moxley feud seems inevitable at this point … whether Brian Kendrick gets involved or not remains to be seen.
Source: TheSportster
Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode will air live from the WWE Performance Center with more build for the upcoming Vengeance Day event.
According to a report, WWE morale was low backstage after the Royal Rumble largely because a plethora of changes were made before the event.
The backstage “morale” following Saturday’s WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view was reportedly low.
Before the Royal Rumble pay-per-view commenced, it was reported that Vince McMahon had made several changes to the Royal Rumble matches. As previously noted, Riddle was reportedly initially scheduled to win the men’s Royal Rumble match, but WWE ultimately went with Brock Lesnar.
According to a report from Mike Johnson of PWInsider, “the morale with the WWE locker room among talents was down” after the show. This was largely “due to the whirlwind of changes made to the Rumble matches in the days and hours” before the Royal Rumble event started.
It was noted by Johnson that Triple H (Paul Levesque) and producer Tyson Kidd (T.J. Wilson) usually play major roles at the Royal Rumble event. Specifically, Triple H would be used “in an advisory role of sorts”, which includes making adjustments “to accentuate certain talents”. Triple H remains sidelined as he continues to recover from a serious cardiac event back in September that required surgery.
Johnson added that Kidd often plays “a massive leading role in producing the women’s division”, but he wasn’t present for Saturday’s event in St. Louis, Missouri.
Kofi Kingston botched a spot and was eliminated from the men’s Royal Rumble match sooner than planned. It was also reported that Shane McMahon, who returned to WWE programming following a lengthy hiatus, has plenty of backstage heat for largely booking the Royal Rumble around himself.
There was plenty of hype around Saturday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, but in many ways, it did not live up to expectations. For one, why couldn’t Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley just win their respective matches cleanly? Why did Lesnar himself have to win the Royal Rumble when he’s already an established main event star? WWE missed several opportunities to piece together a top quality Royal Rumble event here, and it’s no wonder that so many fans were left greatly disappointed.
Source: TheSportster
The post-Royal Rumble edition of WWE RAW will air live tonight from the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
On the latest episode of The Kurt Angle Show, the former Olympic Gold Medalist revealed that he will be coming back to the WWE in time for the build up to WrestleMania 38. Angle was seen at this past weekend’s Royal Rumble with Shelton Benjamin and teased that he will be with the WWE for the “next month or so.”
“I did [receive a call] from WWE and they want me to be involved in the show for the next month or so,” Angle mentioned. “I’m really excited about it, so we’ll see what’s in store for me.”
After retiring at WrestleMania 35 in a loss to Baron Corbin, Angle was released by WWE back in April of 2020 and hasn’t been seen with the company since. After stating numerous times that he was offered several roles with AEW, Kurt Angle never appeared with the company and will seemingly make his return on-screen for WWE shortly.
During a previous episode of the podcast, Kurt Angle teased possibly coming out of retirement and wrestling again. It’s unclear what Angle will be doing during the lead up to WrestleMania 38,.
During the podcast, Kurt Angle also spoke about William Regal being released by WWE recently and why he was surprised by the move. Regal has been steady with the company for the last 20+ years, most recently recognized for his role as the NXT General Manager for the past eight.
“I was surprised, he was a huge asset to the company,” Angle said. “He was a great trainer and coach, one of the best technicians I have ever known. He was a big plus for the company. I was really shocked they let him go.”
Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to The Kurt Angle Show
ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes are headed to the Ring of Honor Hall of Fame.
ROH announced today that the first inductees into the inaugural class of the ROH Hall of Fame will be Mark Briscoe and Jay Briscoe.
The Briscoes have been with ROH since the start as 18 year old Jay Briscoe defeated The Amazing Red in the first-ever ROH singles match at The Era of Honor Begins on February 23, 2002. Jay was accompanied to the ring by Mark. Since then, The Briscoes have held the ROH World Tag Team Titles twelve times, the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles once, with WWE Hall of Famer Bully Ray, and Jay has held the ROH World Title twice. The Briscoes were also named the Tag Team of the Decade for the 2010s, and they were named Tag Team of the Year in 2019. Mark and Jay have also held NJPW’s IWGP World Tag Team Titles, and numerous indie titles.
The Briscoes won the ROH World Tag Team Titles this last time by defeating The OGK at Final Battle on December 11.
To celebrate The Briscoes, a career retrospective will air this weekend during the ROH TV episode. A YouTube special on The Briscoes will be released on Monday, February 7 via the official ROH YouTube channel.
ROH will air a special Hall of Fame episode of ROH TV during the weekend of March 5. The company will be announcing more inductees over the next several weeks.
ROH will return from their hiatus on April 1 with Supercard of Honor XV, live from the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX, during WWE’s WrestleMania 38 Weekend.
Former WWE and Impact Wrestling star Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy) has been accused of unprofessional business practices by students at his wrestling school in Minneapolis, MN.
On Sunday, a Reddit user, claiming to be a student enrolled in Anderson’s “The Academy: School of Professional Wrestling,” stated that the school has been closed for “quite some time now,” and hasn’t resumed activities unlike other gyms in the area. The post claimed that students enrolled in the school for nearly two years have yet to receive any semblance of training, “not even remote homework like tape study, character development or promos.” Furthermore, the user pointed out that the school’s website was deactivated a while ago.
The user noted that Anderson has “gone silent and his only update every 2-3 months is that they’re in talks with a realtor for a new facility but no real progress comes out of it.”
The post led to another Reddit user commenting on his experiences with Anderson’s school. They claimed to have signed up for a 30-minute free consultation, only to show up to an empty warehouse at the time of the scheduled appointment. The Reddit thread can be found here.
According to Bodyslam.net, while some students are still hopeful that the school will eventually reopen, one particular student has given up hope. The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, pointed out how the reopening of the school has been postponed several times in the last 18 months since they paid for the program. He also corroborated claims by users in the Reddit thread that Anderson’s school has yet to issue refunds.
The student revealed the reasons he’s been given – for not receiving training – range from the outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant to the lack of a building to train in. This specific student came to a conclusion about six months ago that the situation seemed “super sketchy based on the lack of communication.” They also noted their communication with Anderson himself to be very minimal, citing brief conversations via text messages.
The student issued the following statement via BodySlam:
In no way am I making any claims on Ken’s personal character as I’ve had minimal contact with the man, but I believe his business practices and professionalism speaks for themselves. I’m personally not out to ruin anyone’s career but simply trying to hold others accountable for their actions as well as preventing others from making the same mistakes I did.
The money I’m out may not seem like a lot to some but it was my entire savings as well as my dreams, and at the end of the day, that’s all I really want back. My dream is crushed but hopefully I can get my money back.
Mr. Kennedy’s wrestling school has trained talents such as Dante & Darius Martin of AEW, and once had trainers such as Molly Holly, Shawn Daivari and Arik Cannon.
Anderson has yet to respond to the allegations. As seen in the screengrabs below, the school has reached out to the students at regular intervals, but hasn’t provided any training in two years.
Anderson was last seen in a match at the NWA Powerrr tapings in December 2019. He was scheduled to compete at the NWA Hard Times pay-per-view in January 2020, but was pulled from match versus Tim Storm due to an injury.
UPDATE: Through their Facebook page, Anderson’s wrestling school reached out to their students on December 18, 2021. As seen in the screengrabs below, the school also previously expected to reopen on November 1.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
