A new episode of #205 Life has been released and it focuses on WWE’s Hideo Itami. As noted last week, Itami had reportedly asked for his release from the WWE. The final scene in the video features Itami saying goodbye to the WWE locker room and hugging Shinsuke Nakamura and Asuka. You can watch the episode below:
The next Superstar Shakeup finally has a confirmed date!
WWE aired an advertisement in Canada stating the first-ever “International Superstar Shakeup” will take place on April 15 and 16 at the Bell Centre in Montreal.
If it’s anything like the last Shakeup that took place, there’s sure to be some shocking changes to the rosters. Hopefully a few NXT call-ups as well.
Watch the announcement below.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon as we move towards the Elimination Chamber PPV on February 17.
* Stephanie McMahon invites Becky Lynch to the red brand.
* Kurt Angle will address his future with WWE.
* Sasha Banks and Bayley vs. Alicia Fox and Nikki Cross (Qualifier for Tag Team Elimination Chamber Match)
* Does Seth Rollins regret choosing Universal Champion Brock Lesnar as his WrestleMania opponent?
* Will Braun Strowman get payback against Drew McIntyre and Baron Corbin
* WWE Intercontinental Champion Bobby Lashley (with Lio Rush) vs. Finn Balor (Title Match)
* Jeff Jarrett comes swinging for Elias – Jeff Jarrett (with Road Dogg) vs. Elias
Last week, All Elite Wrestling met up with some potential television networks to negotiate the TV deals that have been offered to AEW, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
Although no deal has officially been signed, Meltzer notes that the consensus behind the scenes and among those involved is that the final decision will be from one of two “legitimate” TV deals offered. So legitimate, in fact, that Meltzer claims it is the best TV deal any non-WWE wrestling show will have secured since WCW days.
In the wake of AEW developing further, Meltzer explained that there is a lot of interesting maneuvering going on in WWE, specifically in the realm of foreign markets.
As previously noted, PWInsider reported that WWE officials were backstage at this past week’s SmackDown, meeting with any WWE Superstars who’s contracts were going to expire within the next two years in an attempt to sign them to new deals. This was likely set off by Ambrose’s decision to exit from the company this upcoming April. WWE has been attempting to sign their Superstars to five-year deals for awhile now, like recent examples, Kevin Owens and The Miz.
On February 7 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, All Elite Wrestling will hold a Ticket Announcement Party for their next event, Double or Nothing, which will take place on May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. The party gets started at 6 pm PT and will be streamed on all of the promotion’s social media accounts. An excerpt from the party’s press release reads, “Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Brandi Rhodes will reveal spectacular new signings, exciting new partnerships, ticket on-sale information and a surprise special guest.”
Source: WrestlingINC
Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed Pentagon Jr and Fenix are not locked down to exclusive AEW contracts at this point.
In case you missed it, The Young Bucks made an appearance at Friday night’s “Come Hell or High Water” event in Atlanta after the Lucha Bros defeated SCU.
The AEW VPs stated Pentagon and Fenix are the second best tag team in the world, but they’d have to join All Elite Wrestling if they want to prove they’re number one. The Bucks then said they didn’t have formal AEW contracts to offer, but a handshake agreement would work.
Before that could happen though, the group were attacked from behind by local wrestlers. SCU, The Young Bucks and Lucha Bros fought them off … then the two tag teams shook hands.
Things got confusing hours later, however, after Chris Jericho tweeted saying the tag team had signed exclusive agreements with AEW — which would call their statuses with AAA, CMLL, Impact and Lucha Underground into question.
According to Lucha Central, Pentagon and Fenix will work dates for AEW but they’ve yet to sign an exclusive agreement. This means they’ll continue to fulfill promised dates in 2019 and work for a multitude of companies.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Yesterday, MLW CEO Court Bauer thanked Pentagon and Fenix for their time in MLW, reigning as tag champs for over seven months. Bauer continued, “Wherever you go next always know you both are 1000000000% leyendas de Lucha Libre!” so it looks like the duo is finished up with MLW.
Tomorrow night live from Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena Major League Wrestling will present a live beIN SPORTS network broadcast featuring 2 big championship title fights.
The live card from the 2300 arena has a bell time of 7:30pm. The live beIN broadcast begins at 8pm ET on beIN SPORTS.
Don’t get beIN? Subscribe to MLW’s YouTube channel for free and stream binge on MLW FUSION anytime anywhere!
You can see a full list of matches for Saturday’s card here.
*MLW Champion Low Ki (with Salina de la Renta) vs. Tom Lawlor.
*MLW Tag Team Champions Pentagon Jr. & Rey Fenix (with Konnan) vs. The Hart Foundation’s Teddy Hart & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
The rest of the show will be taped for future episodes of Fusion and includes:
*Aerostar vs. Rey Horus
*Mystery Partner Tag Team Bout: Tommy Dreamer & ??? vs. Brian Pillman Jr. & ???
*Puma King vs. Gringo Loco
*Rich Swann vs. Ace Austin
*Ace Romero vs. Simon Gotch
*Kotto Brazil vs. Ricky Martinez (with Salina de la Renta).
*DJZ vs. Myron Reed.
*The MLW debuts of Mance Werner, Jacob Fatu and Alexander Hammerstone, plus MJF, Lance Anoa’i and more.
Impact Wrestling issued the following on their website on Wednesday:
TORONTO | NEW YORK CITY – IMPACT Wrestling, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp., and Major League Wrestling (MLW), announced today that they will be collaborating for their events on April 4 by coordinating talent and schedules to ensure that fans can attend live events presented by both organizations when virtually the entire professional wrestling world descends upon the New York metropolitan area.
April 4 show details for both organizations are below:
Major League Wrestling
MLW will host “Rise of the Renegades” tapings on April 4 at 7:00 p.m. ET for its weekly television program “Fusion” airing on beIN Sports. Tickets start at $20 and are already on sale at MLWTickets.com. The live event will take place at Melrose Ballroom (36-08 33rd St.) in Long Island City, NY.IMPACT Wrestling
IMPACT Wrestling presents “United We Stand” on Thursday, April 4 at Rahway Recreation Centre (275 E. Milton Ave.) in Rahway, NJ. The event, in partnership with WrestlePro, begins at 11:00 p.m. ET and streams live on Twitch. Tickets are on sale at www.IMPACTWrestling.com and start at $40. The event will stream live on IMPACT Wrestling’s official Twitch channel – www.twitch.tv/impactwrestling – which also features the flagship weekly show IMPACT!, simulcasting on Pursuit Channel across the U.S. on Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET.
“This arrangement eliminates talent booking conflicts and ensures that loyal and passionate fans of both IMPACT Wrestling and MLW are able to attend our respective live events on April 4th,” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling.
“Both promotions believe in putting the fans first,” said MLW COO Jared St. Laurent. “Fans will be traveling from all over the world in hopes of seeing the best of the best. MLW and IMPACT Wrestling agreed without hesitation that the fans deserved to be able to see both of these amazing events without having to choose one over the other.”
IMPACT Wrestling executive vice-president Scott D’Amore added: “Due to the New York curfew preventing us from starting at 11:00 p.m. ET, we have moved our live event to New Jersey. We want to thank our partners at WrestlePro for facilitating this collaboration on April 4th and also thank House of Glory and stress that we couldn’t make this happen for our great fans without their cooperation. We look forward to working with House of Glory in the near future and will have an announcement coming soon about a future event together.”
The two venues are roughly 30 miles apart and travel time between the two is generally about an hour.
Directions from Melrose Ballroom to Rahway Recreation Center can be found below:
By Transit or Subway
• Walk approximately 3 minutes from Melrose Ballroom to 31st & 36th Ave. to the W Train
• Take train approximately 17 minutes to 34th St. – Penn Station.
• Alternate route: N Train also goes direct to 34th St. – Penn Station.
• Take NJ Transit 7 stops approximately 35 minutes to Rahway, NJ.
• Cross the street and enter Rahway Recreation Center on 275 E. Milton Ave.By Car
• Drive through Manhattan via Lincoln Tunnel or Holland Tunnel.
• Drive through Staten Island via Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
• Both routes will bring you to NJ Turnpike South to Rahway, NJ.
Impact tonight on Pursuit Channel and on Twitch – 10/9c
* Lucha Bros & Taurus vs. LAX & Daga
* Psycho Clown vs. Fallah Bahh
* Su Yung & Dark Allie vs. Kiera Hogan & Jordynne Grace
* Update on the suspended Tessa Blanchard
* Rascalz vs. Eddie Edwards & Eli Drake
* Friend or Foe? What is the history between Sami Callihan and Rich Swann? Will we ever know the real story? What will happen when the truth comes out?
* Killer Kross & Moose vs. Brian Cage & Impact World Champion Johnny Impact
Watch MLW FUSION Friday nights on beIN SPORTS at 8pm ET/5pm PT. Don’t get beIN? Subscribe to MLW’s YouTube channel for free and stream binge on MLW FUSION anytime anywhere!
Tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion on BeIN Sports will feature an Empty Arena match between Tommy Dreamer and Brian Pillman Jr. It was taped a month ago in Miami.
WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes has been widely viewed as one of the best minds in pro wrestling history. Throughout his career, in addition to being a top name in the NWA, Rhodes was also a head booker for many years during his time with the company. Rhodes would go on following his retirement from full-time competition to be a head creative mind for both TNA, FCW, and NXT. Despite his highly acclaimed creative abilities, one person, former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ronnie Garvin, feels much different. Garvin shared his thoughts on the latest episode of Under the Mat Radio.
“Dusty Rhodes was overrated. He was the booker most places he went, Florida, Carolinas,” said Garvin. “I didn’t like what he done a lot of times. A lot of politics, he put himself in places he should’ve been, he didn’t draw the big of money. When he was in the main event, he booked 30 men on the card and had more gimmick matches. Rock n’ Roll Express, those kids were so over. So over, that they would sell out and Dusty Rhodes would book them in small towns because he didn’t want them on the same card as him because he wanted the thunder.”
Garvin reached the pinnacle of his career on September 25, 1987. In a steel cage match, Garvin defeated Ric Flair to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. Although Garvin stated that he made more money in a short period of time than he ever had, he also admitted that he “didn’t go crazy” when he won the title.
“You know I’ve had a lot of title matches, I don’t want to diminish the World Title, it was great,” said Garvin. “But I guess with luck and staying healthy long enough, I got to the very top. To me, and I’m being honest, wrestling was a job, pure and simple. I didn’t go crazy because I was the world champion. I’ll tell you, the World Title is probably the most money I made in a short period of time.
“I was in wresting five years before Flair showed up. I don’t know the guy, I mean I know him (speaking as in working with him), but I never visited with the guy, never had a meal with the guy, never traveled with him. I ran into him a few times in the dressing with and said hi and [bye], but know nothing about the guy. We had two different lives. He had the party life which is fine and I don’t begrudge it. One thing about Flair no matter how I hard I hit him he never complained.”
Garvin also discussed Randy Orton using his signature stomps, and more. You can listen to the full interview here.
Source: WrestlingINC
