Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will air live from the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee with more build to Extreme Rules.
WWE Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul “Triple H” Levesque is reportedly doing well after his recent heart surgery.
As noted, WWE announced back on September 8 that Triple H underwent successful heart surgery the week before at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT. WWE noted that the operation was needed after Triple H suffered a cardiac event, which was caused by a genetic heart issue. WWE also said Triple H was expected to make a full recovery.
In an update, word is that everything remains quiet regarding Triple H’s condition, but he’s in good enough shape that he’s taking phone calls, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE talents have been told that they can call Triple H and wish him well, but that they are not to talk about any WWE business with him.
Triple H missed this week’s WWE NXT 2.0 reset taping, and there’s no word yet on when he will be back to work full-time.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Brock Lesnar vs. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns has been announced for the 2021 Crown Jewel event in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
WWE just announced Lesnar vs. Reigns for their return to Crown Jewel on Thursday, October 21. Paul Heyman is advertised to be in Reigns’ corner.
The WWE Universal Title will be on the line for Lesnar vs. Reigns if Reigns retains over “The Demon” Finn Balor at WWE Extreme Rules on September 26. Regardless of what happens at Extreme Rules, Lesnar vs. Reigns will still happen in Saudi Arabia.
WWE has also announced that Crown Jewel will air at 1pm ET on October 21. The event will air live via Peacock and the WWE Network.
WWE Crown Jewel will reportedly feature the finals of the 2021 King of the Ring tournament and the finals of the first-ever Queen of the Ring tournament, but that has not been announced as of this writing.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Bron Breakker was one of many new talents that made their debuts in the launch of NXT 2.0. Breakker defeated Eli Drake and later confronted new NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa.
Breakker is the son of Rick Steiner and nephew of Scott Steiner. However, he was not acknowledged as a second-generation superstar nor were Rick and Scott ever named.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that the announcers were not allowed to say Rick Steiner’s name. Vic Joseph, however, did get in the line “Dog Faced Gremlin” as a reference to Rick Steiner.
It was noticeable that Brooks Jensen, the song of Bull Buchanan, was refereed to a second-generation star, though Bull Buchanan was also not referred to by name. Jensen made his debut tagging with Josh Briggs.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
With Victory Road just 48 hours away, last-minute pushes and pulls are bound to happen tonight on Impact Wrestling’s final stop before Saturday.
* Victory Road go-home show
* Impact World Champion Christian Cage, X Division Champion Josh Alexander, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin & Sami Callihan vs. Ace Austin, Madman Fulton, Moose, Brian Myers, & W. Morrissey
* John Skyler vs. Laredo Kid
* TJP vs. Petey Williams
* Matthew Rehwoldt vs. Trey Miguel
* Decay (Crazzy Steve & Black Taurus) vs. Violent By Design (Rhino & Deaner)
* And, Johnny Swinger & Hernandez vs. Fallah Bahh & No Way will kick things off on Before The Impact at 7 PM ET!
Former ROH World Champion PCO has confirmed that he will be leaving the company this fall.
It was reported earlier this week that PCO plans to leave ROH when his contract expires at the end of November. In an update, PCO appeared on the Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast this week and told WWE Hall of Famer Sean Waltman that he has given his notice to ROH, and will not be signing a new deal.
PCO revealed that his last contractual date with ROH is Tuesday, November 30. He will be a free agent as of Wednesday, December 1.
PCO spoke with PWInsider today and confirmed that he will be fulfilling all contractual obligations and dates with ROH before departing. He said he’s very thankful for his time with ROH.
ROH taped two days of TV earlier this week in Philadelphia and will tape more content from Baltimore in November, which look to be PCO’s final dates with the company.
There’s no word on if PCO has had talks with WWE, AEW, Impact Wrestling or the NWA. He noted in previous interviews that he had talks with AEW, but still had a year left on his original ROH contract. He also had talks with WWE Director of Talent Development & Head of Global Recruiting William Regal before re-signing with ROH, but no offer was made.
PCO, who turns 54 at the end of December, originally signed with ROH on December 1, 2018. Since then he has held the ROH World Title once, the ROH World Tag Team Titles once, and the ROH World Six-Man Tag Team Titles once.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Former WWE Champion Bray Wyatt has assured his fireflies, or fans, that they will all be seeing him “very soon” inside a pro wrestling ring.
While responding to a fan on Twitter on Wednesday, Wyatt wrote the following:
Everything will be clear.
I’ll see you all very soon.
Revenge is a confession of pain.
Through another tweet, Wyatt mentioned how fans have “NEVER seen the real me,” a possible reference to the way he was booked during his WWE career.
Wyatt is expected to start with AEW soon, and could potentially make his debut on the Sept. 29 edition of AEW Dynamite, which will be held in Rochester, NY. Rochester is the hometown of the late Brodie Lee.
The potential date for Wyatt’s AEW debut contradicts earlier reports that his 90-day non-compete clause with WWE would expire on Friday, Oct. 29, a week before AEW’s Full Gear pay-per-view on Nov. 6.
The report also noted that, If Wyatt ends up with Impact Wrestling, he could debut at the Oct. 23 Bound For Glory pay-per-view in Las Vegas.
As noted, Wyatt also had a brief Twitter exchange with new WWE Champion Big E on Wednesday.
Wyatt’s latest tweets can be seen below:
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Paige has got some fans convinced she’ll be back in the ring in 2022 thanks to a one-word tweet.
Paige has continued to fuel rumors that she may be preparing for an in-ring return, hinting that she could be back as soon as January 2022.
The word retirement has never really meant much in wrestling. Wrestlers often have multiple retirement matches. However, more recently, even those who have been forced into retirement thanks to injuries have been stepping back into the ring. Edge and Daniel Bryan are the two biggest examples of wrestlers who were, at one point, told they could never wrestle again.
Paige appears to have been inspired by Bryan and Edge to try and get cleared to wrestle herself. The former Divas’ Champion has been hinting that she is training for an in-ring return, and her latest tweet appears to have confirmed when she is expecting to wrestle again. Paige simply tweeted “January” which has got fans thinking that is when she’ll be back.
Paige wrestled her last match right at the end of 2017, suffering a scary-looking injury when she was kicked in the back by Sasha Banks. The Norwich native had recently returned to the ring after more than a year off. During that time Paige had surgery on her neck and it seems the damage was more extensive than initially feared.
However, three years later, Paige’s injuries may have been rested enough that they have recovered so that she can wrestle again. Either that or medicine has progressed to a point that there are more ways her body can be helped and fixed. The January tweet could also mean nothing, of course, or could be in relation to something entirely different. Perhaps a wrestling project that doesn’t involve her stepping back between the ropes.
Whether it’s in the ring or out of it, it will be interesting to see where Paige shows up next. Although she hasn’t appeared on WWE TV for a while, it’s assumed she is still under contract with the company. January might even be an indicator as to when Paige’s contract comes to an end. It has been reported WWE has been going through contracts checking dates and clauses after what happened with Adam Cole and Malakai Black. Perhaps an upcoming end date for Paige’s contract was discovered in the process.
Source: TheSportster
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite episode airs on TNT at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Tonight shows features the AEW in-ring debut of Adam Cole.
* CM Punk does commentary
* Bryan Danielson addresses AEW World Champion Kenny Omega
* Matt Hardy continues his feud with Orange Cassidy
* Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki issue a challenge to Jon Moxley
* Adam Cole makes AEW in-ring debut vs. Frankie Kazarian
* Shawn Spears vs. Darby Allin
* Leyla Hirsch vs. Jade Cargill
* Dan Lambert hosts a Tough Guy Challenge
* Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley vs. 2point0
For those who don’t know about Bron Breakker, The Sportster did an article about him.
Breakker is the son of Rick Steiner and the nephew of Scott Steiner.
You can see below the article from The Sportster about Bron Breakker.
Bron Breakker made his NXT debut and beat LA Knight this week, but who is he?
Bron Breakker will forever be known as the man who won NXT 2.0’s first match ever, and there are a few reasons why WWE will be hoping he becomes a very big deal.
After weeks of teasers and trailers, NXT 2.0 officially launched on Tuesday night. A revamp a lot of NXT Superstars have reportedly been worried about, and one many fans still seem to be on the fence about, even with show number one in the books. It was a jam-packed two hours that included NXT’s first-ever wedding, and the crowning of a new NXT Champion.
Even though LA Knight was one of the four men chosen to compete for the vacant title, he was goaded into a match at the start of the night by an unfamiliar face. Bron Breakker interrupted Knight backstage, telling the former Million Dollar Champion that he wanted to make a name for himself.
Knight obliged, marching to the ring to teach Breakker a lesson. The trouble is, he didn’t. The debuting Breakker hit Knight with a press slam and pinned him for the win. WWE clearly has high hopes for Breakker, and there’s good reason for that. The young wrestler is a second-generation star. The son of Rick Steiner, and the nephew of Rick’s fellow Steiner brother, Scott.
Breakker played football in college and was actually signed by the Baltimore Ravens after going undrafted in 2020. He was cut before the season started. That’s when he decided to follow in his dad’s and uncle’s footsteps, joining WWE’s Performance Center as a member of the class that was recruited in February of this year. It actually seemed as if Breakker would be carrying on the family name in WWE, changing it to Rex Steiner on Twitter just last week. Plans must have changed between now and then.
Beating Knight wasn’t the only indicator on Tuesday night that WWE has big plans for Breakker. After watching Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell tie the knot, the cameras cut to backstage and showed Breakker bumping into new champion, Tomasso Ciampa. The pair shook hands and WWE appears to foreshadow a future title match between them.
Below is video of Breakker from last night’s NXT from WWE’s YouTube:
