Ronda Rousey‘s first match on Raw has been booked.
Rousey will face-off against Alicia Fox next week.
RAW General Manager Kurt Angle made the announcement after Fox defeated Natalya with help from Alexa Bliss and a brawl broke out which ended with Alicia/Ronda getting physical.
Watch Ronda’s return to Raw and the announcement from Angle below.
Sting vs. The Undertaker is a match that will likely never happen … but “The Icon” believes he’s still physically capable enough to put on a good match with “The Deadman.”
As you may recall, Sting was forced to retire from the ring due to medical issues. However, the wrestler told Lilian Garcia on the latest Chasing Glory podcast he feels like he and Taker would tell an incredible story if they were somehow given the opportunity.
“It’s sad to, because even at my age, I feel like I could still go — I could still have a real good Undertaker match, for example,” said Sting. “I think we could tell an incredible story with the gimmicks and the mystique of both of them.”
Sting said he’s always yearned for the showdown with Undertaker. Missing out on that match is one of the few regrets he has for not coming to WWE sooner.
“You know, I’ve had these ideas for 20 years — some of the ideas I have in my head,” he added. “It would be something I think people would talk about for a long time.”
Despite those desires, don’t get confused: Sting says he has no plans to return to the ring. After being diagnosed with spinal stenosis, he made it clear he’s done.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Listen Garcia’s interview with Sting at the link below:
Jerry Lawler is breaking his silence following the death of his son — saying he was able to be at Brian Christopher‘s bedside during his final moments on Sunday.
“The King” spoke to Memphis’ FOX13 by phone about the tragic events of this past weekend. He says he can take comfort in the fact he held his son’s hand when his heart stopped beating.
Lawler said he was in North Carolina when he learned about the hanging incident. On Monday, it was revealed Christopher was in solitary confident due to his “notoriety.” After making the discovery, the jail employees performed CPR and paramedics then flew him to Regional One hospital.
Lawler rushed back to town early Sunday to be with his son. Christopher died later that afternoon.
Jerry says the family is appreciative of all the people who’ve reached out since Brian’s passing.
In regards to the death investigation being conducted by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Lawler said there’s “more than this than meets the eye.” He told FOX13 he couldn’t elaborate until the police investigation was complete.
The visitation and funeral service will be held Friday at Memphis’ Hope Church. Visitation will be at noon, and the service will take place at 2 p.m.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
The NBC affiliate in Memphis reports that Hardeman County Sheriff John Doolen has released a statement on the death former WWE Superstar Brian Christopher Lawler. Lawler passed away at the age of 46 on Sunday after trying to hang himself in jail the night before. Lawler had been incarcerated since his July 7th arrest for DUI, driving on a revoked license & evading arrest.
Doolen noted that Lawler was placed in a cell by himself because of his “notoriety” and that the department had no indication that he was suicidal. Lawler was not on suicide watch. Lawler was given CPR and rushed to the hospital where he later passed, surrounded by family, including his dad, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler.
At the request of 25th District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI Special Agents are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident involving an inmate at the Hardeman County Jail.On Saturday evening, Brian C. Lawler (DOB 1/10/72) was found hanging in his cell. Corrections officers administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Lawler was transported to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis where he died Sunday afternoon.
Preliminary information indicates the incident does not involve foul play. However, the investigation remains active and ongoing.
Lawler was booked into the Hardeman County Jail on July 7th on charges of DUI, Driving on Revoked, and Evading Arrest.
Source: WrestlingINC
WWE started the process Sunday of honoring two of its stars who passed away — Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff and Brian Christopher.
At Sunday’s NXT show in Phoenix, both men were recognized before the show with a ten bell salute. The crowd stood in absolute silence during the tolls.
During the NXT ceremony, Volkoff was described as one of the greatest villains in the history of sports entertainment. Throughout most of his WWE run, Volkoff was a heat magnet — often singing the national anthem of the Soviet Union to rile up crowds. He participated in the original Wrestlemania tagging with the Iron Sheik under the management of Freddie Blassie.
Volkoff’s career spanned more than 30 years. Even after his retirement in the mid-90s, he’d make the occasional one-off appearance. He was inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame in 2005.
Here’s a look at how NXT paid tribute to the pair of performers.
https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1023733455647997953
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
The road to WWE SummerSlam continued tonight with RAW from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.
* The Conqueror cometh: Brock Lesnar returns
* Finn Bálor sizes up The Constable
* The Baddest Challenger on the Planet: Ronda Rousey returns
* The Architect looks to deconstruct Drew McIntrye
The Rock’s WrestleMania 29 encounter against John Cena was Dwayne Johnson’s last WWE match except for an extremely brief contest with Erick Rowan at WrestleMania 32. The People’s Champ reportedly wants to wrestle once again at next year’s WrestleMania and WWE might have a big opponent for him.
Dave Meltzer spoke about The Rock’s desire to perform at WrestleMania 35 during Wrestling Observer Radio. WWE wanted The Rock to tag with Ronda Rousey against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at this year’s show in New Orleans, but they substituted Kurt Angle in Johnson’s place. If The Rock can find time in his busy schedule, then WrestleMania 35 could be a possibility.
“[The Rock] wants to wrestle at WrestleMania,” Meltzer said. “You know [WWE] wanted him last year. He was originally in the Kurt Angle position, he had filming stuff.
“If there’s a movie project or something [The Rock] has to film at that time or a week later or something it makes it difficult because of the injury risk. If he doesn’t have anything much going on I would think that he would. My impression is that he wants to wrestle, you know The Rock loves wrestling.”
The Rock suffered a pectoral injury during his WrestleMania 29 contest which caused shooting for Hercules to be delayed costing the Paramount and MGM film a considerable amount of money. Movie studios have since been leery of allowing The Rock to wrestle due to the amount of money they have invested in him.
The Rock’s name is known on a global scale and having him back in WWE could help the company in foreign markets where his movies are extremely popular. Johnson’s age could also play a factor on whether he chooses next year to wrestle once again, but at any age, he will still be The Rock.
“If there’s no movie project on the table that he wants to do and he wants to do WrestleMania I’m sure Vince isn’t gonna go, ‘hey we don’t need you, we don’t want you,” Meltzer said. “Especially [WWE] is trying to break into China because The Rock’s movies are doing just giant business in China. Even if they weren’t [doing well in China] he’s The Rock and he’s one of the biggest movie stars in the world, some say he’s the biggest, I don’t know if he’s the biggest, but he’s up there.
“Time will tell, it’s up to offers and schedules, you know? It’s not like WrestleMania is going to be the number one thing but I think at 46 [years old], he’ll almost be 47 next year, I think in [The Rock’s] mind he’s probably going, ‘if I’m gonna do another match next year might be a good time.’ Because do you really want to do it at 48, 49? Maybe, but I know he doesn’t want to go in there when he doesn’t have his speed anymore and when he’s not as good as he once was. I don’t see him wanting to be that guy… maybe he would.
“Because let’s face it he can get through anything just based on the fact that he’s technically sound and he has incredible charisma and he’s The Rock. It’s not like he has to go in there and do a bunch of really quick armdrags and things like that. He can just talk his way through a match or just basic his way through a match. But I don’t see him as a guy who wants to go in there when he’s diminished.”
“Someone suggested to me the idea of [The Rock] and Roman Reigns in a match. At first, I thought, ‘eh it doesn’t really appeal to me,'” Meltzer said the more he thought about it, Rock vs Reigns makes sense. They have a built-in storyline due to their family heritage, and The Rock would have no problem giving his cousin the win. It would also be a huge moment in Reigns’ career as WWE keeps pushing him as the next face of the company.
“I feel like that could be something that could appeal to [The Rock],” Meltzer continued. “Again, for Roman Reigns, if they’re trying to get Roman Reigns over something big, I mean The Rock will do the job for him that’s not even a question. In [WWE’s] mind if they want to get Roman over as a big Superstar, you know that’s a match that makes sense from everyone’s perspective.”
WrestleMania 35 will take place on April 7th, 2019 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Source: WrestlingINC
Brian Christopher’s father, Jerry “The King” Lawler tried on several occasions to help his son and had plans of getting him into a drug rehab before the time of his death. He also encouraged his son to stay clean in hopes of assisting him to land a possible job with WWE.
Dave Meltzer spoke about Christopher during Wrestling Observer Radio where he said Lawler hinted at helping his son get a job at the WWE Performance Center if he could stay sober long enough.
“Jerry had told [Christoper] many times that if you can clean yourself up for a year I’ll get you a job,” Meltzer said. “You know whether it’s a trainer at the Performance Center which is kind of like what he was hinting or something, but ‘you’ve got to clean yourself up for a year.’ There would be periods where he would get clean to a degree, but it never lasted a year. I know one of his friends told me a couple of months and another one said that you know, his version of clean — the ‘wrestler version of clean’ is that he was on methadone and things like that.”
“I think there was a suicide attempt before that not too many people know of, I didn’t even know of until today, three or four years ago,” Meltzer said.
Brian Christopher was pulled over at 1:00 am on July 7th after police observed he was swerving and speeding. The former WWE Tag Team Champion was booked for DUI and evading arrest before being held on a $40,000 bond. Lawler was found in his jail cell on July 29th after he hung himself and following being rushed to the hospital, he was kept on life support until he was pronounced dead at 4:40 pm EST.
Source: WrestlingINC
Former WWE Tag Team Champion Brian Lawler aka… Brian Christopher has passed away Sunday morning at the age of 46.
Christopher is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler.
Competing in the WWE as Brian Christopher, Lawler popularized himself in the Light Heavyweight Division as “Too Sexy” Brian Christopher after being a staple for the USWA promotion, following the footsteps of his father Jerry Lawler. Christopher ditched his cocky character before donning a hip-hop style persona as Grandmaster Sexay. Christopher started teaming with Scott Taylor as Too Much, and the change in character also gave them a new team name, Too Cool. The success of the team led them to a reign as WWE Tag Team Champions in 2000.
Since his release in 2001, Christopher has mostly competed for independent promotions, but made a short appearance with Taylor (Scotty 2 Hotty) in 2014 in an attempt to win the NXT Tag Team Championships.
Christopher was hospitalized after hanging himself in jail Saturday night, and he was not expected to recover.
F4WOnline reported that Christopher was pronounced brain dead earlier Sunday morning and put on life support for a period of time. The decision was then made to pull him off life support and he officially passed away around 4:40pm ET, according to PWInsider and Brian’s brother, Kevin Lawler.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced at the request of Mark Davidson, the 25th District Attorney General, they have an ongoing investigation into the events surrounding the death of Brian Christopher. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also released a statement earlier today.
“Corrections officers administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Lawler was transported to Regional One Medical Center in Memphis where he died Sunday afternoon.”
Our condolences, hearts and prayers go out to the Lawler family.
WWE remembered Christopher with the following announcement on their website:
“WWE is saddened to learn that Brian Christopher Lawler, who is best known in WWE as Too Cool’s Grandmaster Sexay, has passed away. Lawler, who is the son of WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler, competed during the height of the Attitude Era. WWE extends its condolences to Lawler’s family, friends and fans.”
F4Wonline is reporting Brickhouse Brown has passed away Sunday morning at the age of 57 after his battle with cancer.
According to the report, nine days ago Brown flatlined on July 20 and was pronounced dead by the hospice nurse. Family and friends were notified, but while Brown’s Mother, Victoria Timmins, slept next to him she heard Brown say, “Mom, I’m hungry” and continued speaking with her. The coroner was traveling to take the body at that time. The news of his passing was initially reported by close friend of the family and President of the Cauliflower Alley Club, Brian Blair.
Earlier this year, the Cauliflower Alley Club honored Brown with a Courage Award, which you can see in the video above.
Debuting in 1982 in Texas, Brown worked for multiple promotions in the 80s and 90s including AWA, USWA, and the CWA where he would feud with Terry Funk, Scott Steiner, Jerry “The King” Lawler, and others. Brown reintroduced himself to a new generation of wrestling fans through shoot interviews about his time in pro wrestling.
Our condolences to the family and friends of Brickhouse Brown.
