Author: John Bass

The Revival Reportedly Asks For Their Release From WWE

Image result for The Revival RAW

After their match with Lucha House Party on Monday night’s episode of RAW, “The Revival”, Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder asked for their release from WWE management, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

As you can see in the video below, in storyline, The Revival have recently been outspoken regarding a “conspiracy theory” against them. They claim that, regardless of the effort they’ve shown and no matter what they do, there are numerous controversies that somehow keep them from finally winning tag team gold in the WWE.

The Revival have been on the main roster since April 2017 and have yet to hold any WWE Championship gold. In comparison, fellow NXT alumni and current WWE superstars, Authors of Pain, arrived on the main roster in April of 2018 and became the RAW Tag Team Champions later that same year.

Dawson & Wilder saw much more success in NXT, where they are two-time NXT Tag Team Champions, and won Year-End Awards for Tag Team of the Year and Match of the Year for their match against Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa in a 2-out-of-3 falls match for the NXT Tag Team Championship at NXT TakeOver: Toronto.

While The Revival requested their release, Meltzer added in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the release has not been granted yet. He noted that no releases are being granted to anyone asking for them “for obvious reasons.”

As previously noted, WWE superstars Maria and Mike Kanellis have also requested a release from WWE.

Source: WrestlingINC

Cody Rhodes Says AEW Won’t Be Hiring Writers Anytime Soon

Image result for Cody Rhodes AEW

Over the last week, we’ve heard many of the names that will comprise All Elite Wrestling’s active roster. From Cody and The Young Bucks to Hangman Page and Chris Jericho, the roster is taking shape and fans can expect a solid product in the ring.

But there hasn’t been as much discussion about the behind-the-scenes personnel involved with AEW. Outside of Billy Gunn being a producer, we haven’t heard much else about the agents, production staff or writers.

There’s a good reason for that as Cody Rhodes said that the promotion isn’t looking to hire writers any time soon. Cody had an interview with sescoops.com where he said the “wrestlers are the writers” and talent doesn’t need to be micro-managed.

“We’re talking bullet points, we’re talking an overall knowledge of the business, and hey, let them go out and play,” said Cody. “Take a look back at the wrestling you and I love. For the most part, they’re all grown men and women doing what they were hired to do. They’ve cut their teeth, they’ve paid their dues and now they’re going to go out there and play their music. I would very much like a presentation that mirrors that. We don’t need to micro-manage and we certainly don’t need to script a great deal of the product we’re planning.”

Cody said he has good relationships with lots of available writers/producers out there including Eric Bischoff, Bruce Prichard and Jim Cornette. But for now, he plans on keeping things in-house and let the talent be the driving forces behind AEW Creative.

“This is probably going to be an unpopular thing to say, but I will say it. There won’t be a writer hired for All Elite Wrestling any time soon,” admitted Cody. “Because wrestlers are the writers. We’re the writers. Like I said with guys going out there and playing their own music, believe me – the day comes that I see ‘this is something we can really benefit from’ – absolutely, but I knew 40 writers in WWE and about four of them actually did anything. The reason I remember them and value them, they helped produce pre-tapes, they were team players, so right now that’s one thing we’ve gotten a lot of questions about. We’re keeping it very in-house for now.”

Some of this could be due to budget concerns or it could be, as Cody said, many writers don’t actually do much to impact the product. As of now All Elite Wrestling has just one event on its schedule with Double or Nothing in May, so there is also not likely a need for a writing team at this time.

Source: WrestlingINC

The Elite Make Surprise Appearance At Bar Wrestling Event (Video)

bar wrestling the elite surprise appearance video

Members of The Elite made a surprise appearance at Bar Wrestling in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

It all happened at the Bootleg Theater during the main event after SCU laid out an open challenge which was answered by RockNES Monsters and Watts.

Both referees got knocked out at one point in the match and Joey Ryan intervened to stop Watts from hitting Scorpio Sky with a chair. Joey got attacked for doing so and Hangman Page came out to save him. The two rivals then put their differences aside  … by making Watts grab their penises.

RockNES Monsters returned to the ring afterward and attacked Joey/Page from behind, but Cody and Brandi Rhodes came out to make the save. Brandi hit the Bionic Spear and Cody hit an outside dive while wearing his dress clothes.

Watts re-emerged and hit Cody with a big boot … then The Young Bucks hit the ring.

The full match showing SCU end things with a victory will be available soon on Pivot Share.

According to SoCalUncensored.com (where the group’s name came from), Cody told the crowd during a post-match speech that they were all signed to AEW … then Brandi made him fire them.

This appearance is the first for the group after announcing their new promotion All Elite Wrestling.

Watch the video below.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Mike And Maria Kanellis Recently Requested Releases From WWE

Image result for Mike And Maria Kanellis 205 live

Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that Mike and Maria Kannellis recently asked for WWE officials to release them from their contracts.

According to Pro Wrestling Sheet, the Kanellis’ have been unhappy with the way they’ve been used in WWE for awhile and finally made the decision a few weeks ago to request their releases.

Mike Kanellis has also once again started selling new shirts on Pro Wrestling Tees.

Mike and Maria Kannellis signed with WWE in April of 2017 and debuted in June at Money in the Bank. Months later, Mike revealed he had been battling addiction and Maria announced she was pregnant. The duo weren’t used much on TV after that, until recently resurfacing on 205 Live.

According to CageMatch.net, Mike Kanellis wrestled on SmackDown Live a total of four times since signing with WWE. The rest of his appearances were largely relegated to Main Event and live events.

WWE doesn’t always grant release requests, so it’s possible nothing comes of this and the couple are simply paid to sit at home until the deal expires.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

AJ Styles Impersonates “Stone Cold” Steve Austin

Image result for AJ Styles Impersonates "Stone Cold" Steve Austin

The dark main event after last night’s WWE 205 Live tapings at the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama saw WWE Champion Daniel Bryan retain over AJ Styles by disqualification. Bryan reportedly cut a strong heel promo, which poked fun at Alabama for losing to Clemson in the College Football Playoff National Championship earlier this month. AJ came back and laid Bryan out, also stopping to celebrate with a young fan in the crowd. AJ then impersonated WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin, switching out the beer cans for water bottles, after hitting a Phenomenal Forearm on Bryan. You can see video from the segment below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsr0BdOlxD6/

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE NXT Preview 1/16/19

NXT tonight at 8 ET on WWE Network.

* Keith Lee and Kassius Ohno gear up for seismic clash

* Bianca Belair prepares for NXT Women’s Title clash with Shayna Baszler

* Johnny Gargano in action

* The Streets Profits ready 2019 conquest

* Dominik Dijakovic returns

WWE NXT UK Preview 1/16/19

NXT UK, today at 3 ET/8 GMT on WWE Network.

* Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster vs. Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel

* One week after Jinny attacked Isla Dawn from behind, The White Which will attempt to conjure up payback against The Fashionista of NXT UK.

Impact Wrestling On Twitch Peak Viewership, Overall Ranking Compared To AAA

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Although IMPACT Wrestling has been streaming programming through Twitch for some time, there was a special curiosity regarding the promotion’s new distribution strategy: to air on domestic television via the Pursuit Channel and stream concurrently on Twitch on Friday nights.

In numbers available on SullyGnome (a Twitch statistics and analysis website) for the 7 day period of January 8th-14th, IMPACT Wrestling peaked at 10,422 viewers (at some point on Friday night). The channel is programmed nearly 24/7 and over 155 hours in the last week averaged 318 viewers for a total watch time of 51,662 hours. IMPACT gained 4,816 followers for the week (and now has 67,320 followers on the platform).

IMPACT was the most watched program in the Wrestling category. In comparison, AAA was ranked second. The AAA promotion had no specific destination programming this week but did stream 144 hours of content. It peaked at 194 viewers and averaged 60 viewers with a total watch time of 8,731 hours.

Over the last 365 days, the most watched 5 promotions were the following:

1. IMPACT
2. AAA
3. Rocky Mountain Pro
4. House of Hardcore
5. Capitol Wrestling

Source: WrestlingINC

Rush Signs With Ring Of Honor, Pulled From MLW Event

rush roh mlw signing pulled

Popular Mexican wrestler Rush has been forced to pull out of an upcoming MLW event after signing an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor.

Rush’s signing was announced on Tuesday with a video from the Los Ingobernables founding member in which he says ROH is his new home.

MLW confirmed shortly after that Rush had been pulled from his scheduled match against La Park during WrestleMania weekend and would be replaced by Pentagon Jr.

“With great reluctance Rush has been forced to withdraw from his April 4th match against LA Park,” MLW wrote. “Despite efforts by MLW, Rush was pulled due to the insistence of a third party promoter.”

MLW CEO Court Bauer added, “This is a match and organization Rush wanted to be a part of, but sometimes politics get in the way and that’s what this comes down to: politics.”

Watch the signing announcement below.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Joey Ryan Supports Ivelisse In Contract Dispute With Lucha Underground

joey ryan lucha underground ivelisse contract dispute

Ivelisse isn’t the only wrestler looking to get out of their Lucha Underground contract, as Joey Ryan released a statement which implies he’s going through a similar battle.

As we noted, Ivelisse says she’s been requesting a release from her Lucha Underground contract for over a year and now feels like she’s being “legally held hostage.”

Joey echoed similar sentiments in a tweet on Tuesday saying,

“I back Ivelisse 100% on this. Prior to S4, we were told anybody who requested a release would be granted one. Some did and left after the tapings. Others showed faith in the product and now seems are being punished for it. With no S5 in sight, it’s petty to keep anyone locked up.”

https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/1085301692961181697

Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that the creative team behind the show are all for the cast working as much as possible and feel terrible about Dorian Roldan not granting release requests. One source says if it were up to the creative team making the show, talent would be allowed out of their contracts.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet