The following is scheduled for tonight’s Impact on Pop TV:
* X-Division Championship: (C) Matt Sydal vs. Brian Cage
* Will the mystery attacker come forward?
* No DQ: Tessa Blanchard vs. Kiera Hogan
* Eli Drake vs. Mosse (winner faces Austin Aries in the main event at Slammiversary for the Impact world title)
* Jake Crist vs. El Hijo Del Fantasma
* Fallout from “The Fight in the Woods”
The WWE website and YouTube channel will begin airing first round matches from the WWE UK Title tournament today. These matches were filmed at the recent UK Download Festival. We posted the Drew Gulak vs. Jack Gallagher video yesterday but below are the rest of the match release dates. As noted, the rest of the tournament will be taped on Monday, June 18th in London and the winner will face WWE UK Champion Pete Dunne the next night. The two-day event from London will air on the WWE Network at 3pm EST on Monday, June 25th and Tuesday, June 26th.
Thursday, June 14
Flash Morgan Webster vs. James Drake – 12 p.m. ET
Ashton Smith vs. Joseph Conners – 3 p.m. ET
Friday, June 15
Kenny Williams vs. Dave Mastiff – 12 p.m. ET
Ligero vs. Travis Banks – 3 p.m. ET
Monday, June 18
Amir Jordan vs. Zack Gibson – 12 p.m. ET
Tucker vs. Joe Coffey – 3 p.m. ET
Tuesday, June 19
Jordan Devlin vs. Tyson T-Bone – 3 p.m. ET
Source: WrestlingINC
Joe Rogan discussed CM Punk’s UFC 225 loss to Mike Jackson on his recent The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. While calling Punk a nice guy and a hard-worker, Rogan feels that he “does not have athletic talent.” Rogan added that Punk was a showman in the WWE and “allowed to say, ‘I am the f–kin’ man!’, and WWE had it scripted so that Punk was the man.”
Rogan believes that Jackson had “zero fear” of Punk, and could have stopped him at any point in the fight. As a result of Jackson’s showboating, Dana White has kicked him out of the company, and said that he will never fight in the UFC again, despite winning the fight. Rogan feels that if Jackson would have stopped the match earlier, he would have still been fighting in the UFC. Rogan thinks everything about CM Punk in the fight was weird.
“The whole thing was very weird,” said Rogan. Like, right away, when you see CM Punk holding his hands up and moving stiff and throwing kicks, [I’m like], ‘oh Jesus.’ Like, I don’t like that being on pay-per-view. I understand that they are selling pay-per-view cards, but pay-per-view in the UFC should be the elite fighters.”
Instead of Punk vs. Jackson, Rogan felt that Alistair Overeem vs. Curtis Blaydes should have been on the main card. In addition, he felt that Punk’s sparring videos were “crazy,” and “it was like a guy you just showed how to spar.”
He added, “it’s like you took a dude [with] no wrestling background, no nothing, and you go, ‘alright, this is what I want you to do. This is a jab. This is a right hand. When you throw a kick, I want you to pivot your hips. Go in there and spar. I mean, he just doesn’t have the ability to move his body right. There’s a lot of guys that you could take out there—track and field guys, or football players, and you could get them to fight better than him in a couple of weeks. Easily. Because they’re athletes. They’re athletes. They would understand how to shift their weight, [and] throw a punch… he doesn’t have any talent. That’s all it is. He just doesn’t have any physical talent. For whatever reason. Whether it’s his approach, his intensity. It’s not his coaching. He’s with Duke f–kin Roufus.”
Rogan feels that Roufus did all he could do, but he has to have something to work with. He stated, “If Duke just grabbed some dude from a gas station that has been drinking beer and smoking cigarettes his whole life, and had him in a fight in six months, how much can you possibly expect?”
Sources: The Joe Rogan Experience podcast and WrestlingINC
POST Wrestling is reporting that Mauro Ranallo will not be on commentary for this Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: Chicago II special airing live on the WWE Network.
Ranallo had a scheduling conflict and will instead be calling the Showtime Championship Boxing card this Saturday night in Dallas instead.
Vic Joseph, who does commentary for WWE as part of 205 Live, will be replacing Ranallo on Saturday night. Ranallo is scheduled to fly to London, England after the Showtime boxing event to do commentary for the WWE United Kingdom Tournament at Royal Albert Hall.
Source: WrestleView
AXS TV announced on Wednesday that they will be airing a “Bullet Club is Fine” marathon that will be hosted by Cody and the Young Bucks. The eight-hour marathon will air July 7 beginning at 12:00pm ET as a lead-in to the “G1 Special” which will air live on AXS TV later that night from the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA beginning at 8:00pm ET.
The preview video courtesy of AXS TV can be seen above and the official announcement from AXS TV which includes the marathon schedule is below:
JOIN NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING STARS THE YOUNG BUCKS AND CODY AS THEY ASSURE VIEWERS ‘THE BULLET CLUB IS FINE’ WITH AN EIGHT-HOUR MARATHON OF BULLET CLUB ACTION ON SATURDAY, JULY 7 AT 12pE/9aP ON AXS TV
‘The Bullet Club Is Fine Marathon’ Leads Into AXS TV’s LIVE Broadcast of NJPW’s ‘G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO’ on July 7 at 8pE/5pP
Cody Faces IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks Defend the IWGP Tag Team Title in a Rematch Against EVIL andANADA
Los Angeles (June 13, 2018) – New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) superstars and leaders of the Bullet Club—The Young Bucks (brothers Matt & Nick Jackson) and Cody are teaming up to host an eight-hour marathon celebrating some of The Bullet Club’s greatest matches this year on Saturday, July 7 at 12pE/9aP. “The Bullet Club is Fine Marathon” will feature eight of the group’s best matches from this year leading into AXS TV’s live broadcast of NJPW’s biggest U.S. event ever – the G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO at 8pE/5pP from the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.
The rivalry between Cody and fellow Bullet Club member and newly crowned IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega comes to a head at the G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO as the two face off in the main event. Other matches announced so far include IWGP Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks in a rematch against former title holders EVIL & SANADA, IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White vs. Juice Robinson, and a special tag team match pitting Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs. Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI.
“The Bullet Club is Fine Marathon” is as follows (subject to change):
12pE – Kenny Omega vs. Jay White (New Beginning in Sapporo)
1pE – The Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) vs. Cody & Marty Scurll (Honor Rising 2018)
2pE – The Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks (Strong Style Evolved)
3pE – The Golden Lovers vs. Cody & Hangman Page (Sakura Genesis)
4pE – Cody vs. Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page (Wrestling Dontaku)
5pE – The Young Bucks vs. SANADA & EVIL (Dominion)
6pE (two hours) – Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada (Dominion)
8pE – G1 SPECIAL IN SAN FRANCISCO LIVE on AXS TV
Source: WrestleView
Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed Rusev filed a police report this week after $500, his wallet and a camera were allegedly taken from the hotel room in Memphis where he was staying.
Rusev tweeted on Monday, “Thank you [Sheraton Hotel] Memphis for “cleaning” the room and stealing my wife camera and my money from my wallet.”
The following day, Paige tweeted about the same hotel with similar accusations.
“If you’re in the Memphis area don’t EVER stay at the [Sheraton Memphis] it’s literally the worst,” the SmackDown Live GM wrote. “Things stolen, bad customer service and room service takes two hours just for a salad and WE are the inconvenience. Ugh. The worst.”
We reached out to the hotel due to the allegations made and a hotel operator told us “no comment” before a manager would get on the phone.
Rusev subsequently replied Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Ryan Satin’s tweet saying he filed a police report and plans to press charges. “Dig in. I’m prosecuting. Especially after the head of security said it’s my fault for living [leaving] my stuff in the room.” He also claims there was a “do not disturb” sign on the door.
According to the Memphis PD, Rusev told officers he and Lana left their room around 12:30 pm. When he returned around 1:10 pm, however, the money was missing from his wallet. Plus, Lana’s camera was gone. “The head of Security Kennen Brooks spoke with the victim and advised,” reads the statement from police. “No other Suspect information is available at this time. This is an ongoing investigation.”
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Tonight on the final show before TakeOver: Chicago
* Aleister Black addresses Lars Sullivan live on WWE NXT
* Kassius Ohno and EC3 duke it out on NXT
* Pete Dunne puts his United Kingdom Title on the line against Kyle O’Reilly
Lucha Underground returns tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern (7:00 CT) on the El Rey Network with their Season 4 premiere episode.
Preview synopsis for the premiere episode reads as the following:
“The Lucha Underground’s Temple moves to a new location and Pentagon Dark mut defend his Lucha Underground Championship for the first time. Dario Cueto’s fate is revealed.”
El Rey has also issued the following videos to hype up the Season 4 premiere. 22 episodes were shot for Season 4 back in March in Boyle Heights, California.
Impact Wrestling announced the hiring of Alicia Atout this week as their new backstage interviewer, officially replacing McKenzie Mitchell.
Mitchell was quietly released earlier this week after two years with Impact.
Atout commented on her hiring, while Mitchell commented on her departure via Twitter.
With Impact becoming more centered in Canada under the ownership of Anthem and more PPVs and TV tapings taking place in Canada, the hiring of Atout continues down that path as she is from Canada.
Prior to her hiring, Atout has done backstage interviewing for the Canadian independent promotion SMASH Wrestling and also hosts interviews with several performers in the wrestling and music fields on her website entitled AMBY.
Source: WrestleView
Tonight’s Money In the Bank go-home edition of WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee.
* Paige to host Women’s Money in the Bank Summit
* Daniel Bryan and Shelton Benjamin go one-on-one tonight on SmackDown LIVE
* Jeff Hardy to battle Shinsuke Nakamura after war of words on Twitter
