MLW invites you to experience history in the making as the 2019 Opera Cup comes to a close with the tournament finals on this week’s MLW FUSION.
After 71 years the Opera Cup will be presented to a new winner as Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Brian Pillman Jr. clash in the finals.
Will Smith’s power, technique and sheer size be too much for Pillman? Or, will Pillman’s tenacity prove unstoppable? Tune in to see the Hart Foundation collide before a capacity crowd in New York City.
Complimenting Opera Cup finals is a World Middleweight Championship bout. In his first title defense, Myron Reed will take on Japan’s El Lindaman. Will the powerful middleweight from Japan bring gold back to the #StrongHearts? Will Injustice prevail as their momentum surges?
Following the heinous attack on Konnan, Savio Vega has challenged Gino “El Intocable” Medina to a New York Street Fight. The “Brawling Boricua” is not happy with the disrespect shown to his fellow hermano and looks to beat some respect into the newly minted member of the Dynasty.
A new Lifestyles of the Rich and Dynastic brings viewers into the rarified air of the tony 21 Club in midtown Manhattan. The Dynasty toast their newest member with champagne and caviar. Is this foursome now unstoppable?
Will Tom Lawlor feel the heat for his attack on the Von Erichs? You may be surprised to hear who he is in hot water with!
Will the Opera Cup alternates Injustice interrupt the historic Opera Cup?
Plus, Alicia Atout provides an exclusive with both finalists.
The Rock took to Instagram and Twitter today to pay tribute to his father, WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson.
“I love you,” The Rock wrote. “You broke color barriers, became a ring legend and trail blazed your way thru this world. I was the boy sitting in the seats, watching and adoring you, my hero from afar. The boy you raised to always be proud of our cultures and proud of who and what I am. The boy you raised with the toughest of love. The intense work. The hard hand. The adoring boy who wanted to know only your best qualities. Who then grew to become a man realizing you had other deep complex sides that needed to be held and understood. Son to father. Man to man. That’s when my adoration turned to respect. And my empathy turned to gratitude. Grateful that you gave me life. Grateful you gave me life’s invaluable lessons.
“Dad, I wish I had one more shot to tell you, I love you, before you crossed over to the other side. But you were ripped away from me so fast without warning. Gone in an instant and no coming back. Im in pain. But we both know it’s just pain and it’ll pass. Now I’ll carry your mana and work ethic with me, as it’s time to move on because I have my family to feed and work to accomplish. Finally, I want you to rest your trailblazing soul, Soulman. Pain free, regret free, satisfied and at ease. You lived a very full, very hard, barrier breaking life and left it all in the ring. I love you dad and I’ll always be your proud and grateful son. Go rest high. #ripsoulman #rockyjohnson [Goat emoji]”
As noted, the former WWE Tag Team Champion passed away at the age of 75 on Wednesday.
It was reported earlier today, via the Wrestling Observer, that Johnson had been sick in the weeks leading up to his passing. Brian Blair, head of the Cauliflower Alley Club who first announced the passing, told the Observer that Johnson had been sick for a few weeks and thought he h ad the flu. Blair advised Johnson to go to the doctor or hospital after he had been sick for a week, but he did not go to the doctor, and passed away at his home in Lutz, Florida on Wednesday. The cause of death has not been ruled as the autopsy was not completed as of Thursday.
Tessa Blanchard made Impact Wrestling history at Hard to Kill this past Sunday by becoming the first woman to win the Impact World Championship by defeating Sami Callihan. Booker T gave his thoughts on Blanchard’s title win on The Hall of Fame with Booker T & Brad Gilmore.
“Those guys look like they’re just trying to find their spot,” Booker said. “They’re still trying to find a niche.”
“I’m not holding my judgement on it. Big ups to Tessa Blanchard because she’s good. She’s really good at what she does, but this is the worst idea for Impact Wrestling in the history of the company,” Booker T said. “It really is that bad. It’s worse than paying me 10 grand for six-hour power commercial that never aired.”
Booker T gave his reason for why he thought the decision was bad. Gilmore also made a comment about having separation within the men’s and women’s divisions.
“Because now all the men in the company, if they wrestle her and she beats them it diminishes every guy in the company. I mean who’s the top guy in the company now? I cannot see ‘The Man’ Becky Lynch wrestling Samoa Joe or Brock Lesnar,” Booker T said. “I mean this is the worst idea in the history of wrestling. It really is. It makes me question and wonder if somebody tried to blow this thing up on purpose like somebody said, ‘let’s see how bad we can mess this up.’
“My thing is this, if Tessa Blanchard went back and wrestled the women, she should be able to beat all of them. The woman that beats her should be able to go out and beat the men too. The crossover intergender wrestling is something for independent companies. If they want to be looked at as an indie group, keep doing stuff like this.”
Booker T continued to explain why he thought Impact’s move was a bad one by bringing up Ronda Rousey vs. Jon Jones. He also talked about real-life implications like domestic violence.
“I don’t think this is what empowering women is meant to be. I really don’t think so because I’m not saying Ronda Rousey is not a tough woman, but if you put Ronda Rousey in there with Jon Jones, watch what happens. You put her in there with the lower level men, watch what happens to her or Amanda Nunes with the top [guys],” Booker T said. “You don’t want to start blurring those types of lines when it comes to performance especially when it comes to men and women these days. Normally, when a man hits a woman, he goes to jail. I don’t want to see a man put their hands on my sisters. Even as tough as my sisters are, I’m not gonna have that, and to actually see it play and to see someone think this is a good idea for television, for a man and a woman to be fighting, it’s ridiculous.”
Booker T addressed potential backlash to his reaction. He clarifies that his reaction comes from his experience in the industry and what he sought after.
“People can look at it and say what they want to say about it, but for me, it’s not something that I would ever have on my Reality of Wrestling. And people can say, ‘aw man he’s outdated. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ It’s not that at all,” Booker T said. “I look at it from what I’ve done in this business as a performance, but I try to make it as realistic as possible. I’ve never seen a female boxer fight a male boxer. I would take Roger Federer of Serena Williams. I’m serious. I’d take Novak Djokovic over Serena Williams just because the guy’s overpowering, and that’s what normally happens in a fight between a man and a woman.”
Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to The Hall Of Fame With Booker T & Brad Gilmore
Impact Wrestling World champ Tessa Blanchard has released another statement in which she denies a past alleged incident of calling another wrestler the n-word.
“Over the last week I have been accused of calling a fellow wrestler a racial slur. To read this allegation has been personally upsetting. To be clear, I absolutely did not use that word. That word is not in my vocabulary. That word is not in my heart. Racism is not in my heart.
Yet I know many people have to deal with racism in a way I will never have to. Racism is an awful part of American history, and it is equally awful that its still part of our society today. While I did not do what was claimed, I stand ready to use my platform to support the fight against racism however I can.”
As we previously reported, ex-Impact star Sienna aka Allysin Kay went public over the weekend about an incident that took place in Japan in 2017 involving Tessa and a wrestler named Black Rose. According to Sienna, Tessa called Black Rose the n-word in the locker room and spit in her face.
The woman in question has since done an interview backing Allysin’s claims.
Other women have also come forward saying they had knowledge of the incident, including AEW wrestler Big Swole who said she’s been trying to deal with the situation in private since last year.
AEW has added another announcer to the team, this time being former WWE and Impact Wrestling announcer Taz.
The company shared a video on Thursday of Cody, Vice President of Business Strategy Chris Harrington and Taz signing the contract backstage at Bash at the Beach.
Taz says in the video that his people already looked over the contract and “the coin looks right,” so he and Harrington both sign the paperwork to make it official.
The ECW legend’s first appearance in AEW took place back in October as a guest commentator for AEW Dark. As we previously reported, AEW Dark will soon be moving to TNT now that WarnerMedia has extended All Elite Wrestling’s TV deal through 2023.
After signing the documents in the video, Taz says, “Looks like I’ve joined a revolution … again.”
As reported on Wednesday, AEW and WarnerMedia have announced that their deal for AEW Dynamite on TNT has been extended through 2023. It was also announced that the two sides have agreed on a new AEW series to premiere at a later date. You can click here to read the full announcement with comments from AEW President & CEO Tony Khan, and you can click here to read insider details on the deal, including how much money it’s worth to AEW.
It looks like the second series will be AEW Dark, which currently airs Tuesdays on YouTube, but will be coming to TNT with some changes. It was noted earlier in another report that this second series would be an extra 4th hour of AEW programming each week, but it appears that may not be the actual story here.
The Wrap’s Tony Maglio spoke with Turner President Kevin Reilly at the Television Critics Association press event on Wednesday and Reilly revealed the news there. Dark will air weekly, on TNT, but it may not air for 52 weeks per year, likely due to other programming on TNT.
Reilly elaborated on the plan to add changes to AEW Dark before bringing it to cable TV.
“We’re going to embellish [AEW Dark] and put some additional material, kind of behind the scenes, kind of docu-follow stuff, if you will, about the athletes and the stories,” Reilly said.
Reilly later told Variety that the new-and-improved AEW Dark will not air on Monday nights against WWE RAW.
“We just figured, ‘Let’s bring it onto the network and make it a place where you truly plant up and coming talent,'” Reilly said. “I think we’ll start doing more packages there and filming some behind-the-scenes stuff, not for the matches that night but with other talent to plant stories and grow things that could eventually become another show in and of itself.”
Reilly also revealed that discussions to extend the deal for AEW Dynamite on TNT began over the holidays and noted that Dynamite has “over-delivered right out of the gate” for TNT.
“I just had this idea that this was the time to invest,” Reilly said. “This is a startup. It’s already over-delivered out of the gate. That’s really when you want to hit the gasoline a little bit. The guys already have ideas about additional talent and things they want to do and I wanted to incentivize them as a partner to do that. We also wanted to gave fans and talent who potentially want to come work with us the sense that this is here to stay. You can invest in it, it’s here to stay, and it’s only going to get better.”
WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson has passed away yesterday at the age of 75.
WWE NXT tapings and AEW tapings opened up with ten-bell salutes to WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson, who has passed away at the age of 75.
Below is WWE’s full video of the ten-bell salute from the NXT Arena at Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, which was led by Alicia Taylor.
Below is the graphic that was shown on the USA Network as NXT hit the air, and AEW’s Twitter graphic on Johnson, which was shown on TNT as last night’s Dynamite episode hit the air. AEW announcer Jim Ross also mentioned Johnson’s passing as Dynamite hit the air.
WWE issued the following statement on Johnson’s passing:
WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson passes awayWWE is saddened to learn that Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson (born Wayde Douglas Bowles), a WWE Hall of Famer, former World Tag Team Champion, and father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, has passed away at age 75.
Johnson’s sports-entertainment career began in the mid-1960s when he made a memorable impression in the National Wrestling Alliance. However, Johnson found his highest levels of success when he began his WWE tenure in 1983.
The physically imposing and wildly charismatic Johnson had several memorable rivalries with the likes of Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, Don Muraco and Adrian Adonis. He found his greatest success when he teamed up with Tony Atlas as The Soul Patrol. The two men became the first African-American World Tag Team Champions in WWE history when they defeated The Wild Samoans on Dec. 10, 1983.
The “Soul Man” retired from the ring in 1991, but his imprint continued to be felt on WWE for years to come. Post-retirement, Johnson had a hand in training his son, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. The Rock would become one of the biggest stars in the history of sports-entertainment and carried on his father’s legacy with pride.
In 2008, Johnson achieved the highest honor in sports-entertainment when he was inducted by The Rock into the WWE Hall of Fame where he will be forever enshrined as one of sports-entertainment’s most influential performers.
WWE extends its condolences to Johnson’s family, friends and fans.
WWE Chairman Vince McMahon took to Twitter today to pay tribute to WWE Hall of Famer Rocky Johnson.
Tonight’s WWE NXT episode will take place from the NXT Arena at Full Sail University with the end of the first round of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne face Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
Kushida & Alex Shelley battle Grizzled Young Veterans in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
What will be the fallout of Undisputed ERA’s surprise NXT UK takeover?
Battle Royal to determine NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley’s challenger next Wednesday
The Battle Royal participants are Mercedes Martinez, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Vanessa Borne, Kayden Carter, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Io Shirai, Shotzi Blackheart and Xia Li.
