The WWE Summerslam tickets feature WWE superstars including Braun Strowman, Ronda Rousey, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins, The New Day, Shinsuke Nakamura, Roman Reigns and many others. Brock Lesnar does not appear on the tickets, as shown below by ESPN Reporter Arash Markazi. This has led to speculation that Lesnar won’t be returning to the company once his contract expires in April. There have been rumors that Lesnar is interested in one last UFC run for a few big money fights.
The first look at a WWE SummerSlam ticket featuring Ronda Rousey. The event takes place August 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. pic.twitter.com/Um9lfmVGsI
WWE NXT General Manager William Regal has announced that the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will return this year. The matches begin on the March 7th NXT episode and the winners will face NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish at “Takeover: New Orleans” during WrestleMania 34 weekend.
Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic returnsNXT General Manager William Regal announced that the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will be returning.
The tournament honoring the memory of WWE Hall of Famer Dusty Rhodes will begin in two weeks on the March 7 episode of NXT, and the winning tandem will challenge Undisputed ERA’s Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly for the NXT Tag Team Championship at TakeOver: New Orleans.
With NXT’s Tag Team division as crowded as it’s ever been, the competition to be a part of this epic tournament is sure to heat up. Who will join teams such as The Authors of Pain, Heavy Machinery, Street Profits and TM61 in this epic tag team tournament?
WWE shocked the wrestling world earlier this month when they confirmed TNA co-founder Jeff Jarrett for the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame class. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated reports that Triple H is the man who made the induction possible.
It was noted that Jarrett does have some supporters in WWE. The obvious allies would be WWE Champion AJ Styles and WWE United States Champion Bobby Roode but Jarrett is also close with WWE Hall of Famers Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, who are close to Triple H.
Barrasso also pointed to another possible twist in the Jarrett story – his future with WWE. There’s no word yet on if Triple H will try to bring Jarrett on to work with the WWE NXT brand, as he has done with Jeremy Borash, another longtime TNA employee.
As noted before, Jarrett revealed in a TMZ interview that WWE called him back in January to discuss the induction. The call came shortly after Jarrett completed WWE-sponsored rehab for alcoholism.
On last night’s WWE NXT main event we saw Johnny Gargano lose a Career vs. Title match to NXT Champion Andrade “Cien” Almas. Per the stipulation, Gargano must now leave NXT. The match saw interference by Tommaso Ciampa, Zelina Vega and Candice LeRae.
What’s next for Johnny Wrestling?
Below is post-match video of a somber Gargano leaving the arena with his wife as the roster and others look on, including NXT General Manager William Regal.
NJPWannounced one-half of the IWGP Tag Team Champions, EVIL, will miss the 46th Anniversary on March 6 due to a fractured orbital bone. EVIL and SANADA were originally going to take on YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto, but that has now been changed to SANADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI. The injury came during NJPW’s four-day Australian tour.
Jim Cornette was the former lead booker for Ohio Valley Wrestling, WWE’s former developmental promotion, so he has a keen interest in the company’s current developmental territory NXT. On recent episode of The Jim Cornette Experience, Cornette made some revelations about how much money NXT is losing.
Cornette said he was sent the yearly and quarterly reports that are available because the WWE is a publicly-traded company. He revealed that NXT lost way more many than it made in the last two years, a luxury he wishes he had when he was at the helm of OVW.
“NXT in 2016 sold $7 million in tickets and had $20 million in expenses. In 2017, NXT had let’s say $6 million in ticket sales and $25 million in expenses… In all honesty, 2016 they lost $13 million, 2017 they lost $19 million and that’s not a ton of money for that whole company and organization up there. But can you imagine what me and Danny Davis could’ve done with Ohio Valley Wrestling if they said, ‘OK guys, you can bring in anybody that you want that’s not on the main roster or signed to New Japan and you can lose $32 million over the next two years.’ Holy f**k!”
Cornette said OVW never was in that position even though it didn’t generate a lot of money on its own. Still, he believes OVW was successful in its own right and says it was never in a bad monetary situation.
“We already had the highest rated show on the station’s Saturday schedule we were on… We had numerous events that drew large houses at the Gardens and we drew at Six Flags and we produced a ton of talent. I don’t know what the percentages would be but I guarantee we didn’t lose $32 million,” he said. “That’s the thing, Ohio Valley Wrestling never lost money since it’s been in operation. There have been a few years it may not have made much, but at that point in time it was the only full-time company with television running regular events in the United States besides the WWE that was profitable.”
Cornette said he understands the WWE’s need to develop their future superstars, so it’s necessary for them to put a lot of money towards NXT. Still, he thinks the losses are very monumental, so he was surprised by the numbers.
“I understand they’re making the investment in training the future superstars and they have to, they’ve figured out that they have to because they’re not getting them from anywhere else,” he said. “So they have to train their own, but my God!”
Season 4 of Lucha Underground will begin filming on Friday of this week at a new location. The tapings are being moved from The Temple at the original building in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles to a warehouse that will hold more people. The warehouse is a part of Union Central Cold Storage on Industrial Street in downtown Los Angeles. The new location
The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that the promotion is looking to base talents in Los Angeles for the entire-five week season to save money on travel. Tapings are scheduled to be held Friday through Saturday but talents will film vignettes midweek.
No word yet on the full roster they will be going with for season 4 but some of the talents will not be brought back due to a smaller budget this time. The budget is another reason for the move to the new location as Boyle Heights location was a lot more expensive to rent.
It will be interesting to see what the roster looks like at the end of the season as a lot of the talents being used for this season are reportedly working with the agreement that they are there for their characters to be written out of the storylines, which would then allow talents to be released from their seven-year contracts.
There continues to be talk within WWE about Triple H taking over the main duties of the company from Vince McMahon, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. The talk is that Triple H has been assembling his team in WWE NXT to have them ready when the time comes. We’ve noted how Triple H recently took over the WWE 205 Live duties. It was also noted how Triple H and Stephanie McMahon negotiated Ronda Rousey’s WWE contract, not Vince. While Triple H made the announcement, The Observer reports that Vince is the one who negotiated the deal for WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar but there’s no word yet on if Vince will re-negotiate Lesnar’s deal when it comes up or if Triple H and Stephanie will handle the talks.
WWE NXT Superstar Buddy Murphy made his WWE 205 Live debut on last night’s show and defeated Ariya Daivari in a first round match in the WWE Cruiserweight Title tournament. The first round then wrapped with Mustafa Ali defeating Jack Gallagher in the main event.
The tournament brackets were revealed and they look like this:
First Round
* Cedric Alexander defeated Gran Metalik
* TJP defeated Tyler Bate
* Roderick Strong defeated Hideo Itami
* Kalisto defeated Lince Dorado
* Mustafa Ali defeated Jack Gallagher
* Buddy Murphy defeated Ariya Daivari
* Drew Gulak defeated Tony Nese
* Mark Andrews defeated Akira Tozawa
Quarter-Finals
* Cedric Alexander vs. TJP
* Roderick Strong vs. Kalisto
* Mustafa Ali vs. Buddy Murphy
* Drew Gulak vs. Mark Andrews
Semi-Finals
* Cedric Alexander or TJP vs. Roderick Strong or Kalisto
* Mustafa Ali or Buddy Murphy vs. Drew Gulak or Mark Andrews
Finals at WrestleMania 34
* Cedric Alexander or TJP or Roderick Strong or Kalisto
vs.
* Mustafa Ali or Buddy Murphy or Drew Gulak or Mark Andrews
