Daniel Bryan On Possibly Wrestling For WWE At WrestleMania 34, Getting Cleared To Return To The Ring

Image result for Daniel Bryan SmackDown Live

Daniel Bryan recently spoke with Sports Illustrated and commented on his WWE future and possibly returning to the ring at WrestleMania 34.

“I assume that if I don’t wrestle by WrestleMania, I probably won’t be wrestling with WWE at all,” said Bryan. “That’s my assumption.”

Bryan acknowledged that getting cleared to return to the WWE ring is complicated.

“It’s not a black and white answer,” said Bryan. “There are a lot of issues with me getting cleared by WWE. They have a very strict protocol, which is a good thing, but the timeline of all that happening was not the best for me. It’s an interesting situation that will develop.”

Source: WrestlingINC

Jim Ross & Jerry “The King” Lawler Confirmed To Be At WWE RAW 25th Anniversary

Image result for Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler RAW

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross confirmed on Twitter yesterday that he and fellow Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler are booked to be at the RAW 25th Anniversary episode on January 22nd in New York City.

 JR did not confirm that he and Lawler will be reuniting for TV but that has been the speculation. Lawler just noted on Twitter this week that he was still hoping to reunite with JR at the special event.

The RAW 25th Anniversary will air live from New York City at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, the original home of RAW. Superstars confirmed as of this writing include The Undertaker, WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash, Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, John Cena, WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar, WWE Intercontinental Champion Roman Reigns, RAW Tag Team Champion Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Asuka, Braun Strowman, RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss, Samoa Joe, Sheamus, Cesaro, Kane and RAW General Manager Kurt Angle. SmackDown Superstars are also advertised – WWE Champion AJ Styles, Randy Orton and Jinder Mahal.

Source: WrestlingINC

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 1/4/18

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In the U.S., the event starts with the pre-show late Wednesday night (11 p.m. PT) / early Thursday morning (2 a.m. ET) depending on your time zone. The pre-show match should start around 11:30 p.m. PT/2:30 a.m. ET with the main show kicking off shortly after.

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP United States Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Jay White

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship: Marty Scurll (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay

NEVER Openweight  Championship – Death Match – Hair vs Hair/ Nobody at Ringside: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto

IWGP Tag Team Championship: Killler Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) vs. EVIL & SANADA

Cody vs. Kota Ibushi

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship – Gauntlet Match: Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Bad Luck Fale (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson & Togi Makabe vs. Beretta, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii vs. War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) & Michael Elgin vs. Taichi, Takashi Iizuka & Zack Sabre Jr.

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Roppongi 3K (c) vs. The Young Bucks

(Pre-Show) New Japan Rumble

 

AXS TV will air Wrestle Kingdom 12 starting this Saturday night with a WK 12 special that will showcase the event’s three headlining championship matches: IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. G1 CLIMAX 27 Tournament Champion Tetsuya Naito, and IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White.

AXS TV will continue its coverage of Wrestle Kingdom 12 following the special over five episodes Friday nights starting Jan. 12 at 8pE/5pP.

 

I won’t post the Wrestle Kingdom 12 results until Monday.

Maria Kanellis Blogs About Recent Nude Photo Leak

maria kanellis nude photo leak comment blog facebook

WWE star Maria Kanellis has commented on her recent nude photo leak, calling it an “intrusion of privacy” and saying the people who stole them need to get help.

Kanellis posted a blog on Facebook today titled “Playboy, Leaked Photos, and Being Sexy” in which she states: “I have been asked on numerous occasions about Playboy, my leaked photos, and about being sexy. My answers may surprise you and hopefully give you some insight into what it means to me to be able to be sexy and still be a great mother.”

She continued, “I guess first you should know, every photo that I have seen leaked was something for my husband of over three years, who I have been with for 6 and a half. They were sent to or taken by Mike. So, you aren’t seeing anything salacious or forbidden. You are seeing our personal photos.”

“If my children asks about those photos, I will say mommy and daddy have a healthy relationship. We love each other. Daddy thinks Mommy is sexy. AND, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is the intrusion of privacy.” Maria adds, “The sad, sad humans that can not make a happy, healthy life of their own. I would tell my child to feel sorry for the people that do not have enough love of their own and have to steal it from others. Mommy and daddy, pity the people that have enough time on their hands to fish through our photos but no time to make a life of their own. To those people, I say get some help, try online dating, and stop breaking the law.

Maria Kanellis’ full post can be read below.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE’s Mixed Match Challenge Will Feature Beth Phoenix On Commentary

beth phoenix wwe mixed match challenge facebook commentary team

Mixed Match Challenge — WWE‘s upcoming show on Facebook — will feature a fresh face on the commentary team, Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix.

Renee Young and Byron Saxton appropriately announced the show’s commentary team on Facebook Live and revealed that Beth will be joined by Corey Graves and Michael Cole.

It’s unclear if the former Women’s Champion inked a full-time deal with the company or if this is just a guest-stint during the show’s 12-week run.

MMC premieres January 16 at 10 ET.

 

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE U.S. Championship Tournament Brackets Revealed, Winner To Be Crowned At Royal Rumble

united states championship tournament brackets revealed

Below is a new WWE Now video with Cathy Kelley revealing that the finals of the WWE United States Title tournament will take place at the January 28th Royal Rumble pay-per-view in Philadelphia.

 SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan announced the tournament on this week’s SmackDown after ruling that Dolph Ziggler had relinquished the title, just days after winning it at Clash of Champions.

Bobby Roode and Jinder Mahal won matches on this week’s SmackDown to advance to the second round. Other first round matches include Xavier Woods vs. Aiden English and Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley. You can see the tournament brackets below:

First Round

Bobby Roode defeated Baron Corbin

Zack Ryder vs. Mojo Rawley

Jinder Mahal defeated Tye Dillinger

Xavier Woods vs. Aiden English

Second Round

Bobby Roode vs. Mojo Rawley or Zack Ryder

Jinder Mahal vs. Xavier Woods or Aiden English

Finals

Bobby Roode or Zack Ryder or Mojo Rawley vs. Jinder Mahal or Xavier Woods or Aiden English

Finn Balor Says His Main Future Goal Is To Create Another Alter Ego

On the WWE Network’s Table For 3, The Hardy Boyz, Matt and Jeff, sat down for a meal with fellow WWE Superstar Finn Bálor. Among many other things, Finn and Jeff talked about the use of face paint in their presentations. Also, Finn discussed his future goals and Jeff discussed the possibility of facing off against ‘The Demon King’.

On the subject of face/body paint, Finn indicated that his demon persona helps him manage insecurities.

“It’s very hard to explain, but it’s almost like putting on a mask protects you from people’s judgments and lets you completely flow freely, like, with all your aggression and our animosity against anything. And I think everyone, deep down, has insecurities issues, especially in this business. And I find that maybe getting to hide behind the paint, so to speak, kind of protects you from those insecurities and helps me channel a different side of my personality that isn’t always available to me.”

Moreover, Finn noted that he did not know that the paint would change his body language and demeanor.

“I didn’t realize how much the paint was going to affect how I moved and how I walked. And it wasn’t something that consciously happened. It was because the first time I’d done it was a Tokyo Dome show, I want to say in 2013-14, and I walked out there and I was a completely different person. I hadn’t rehearsed anything, planned anything, but I remember walking to the ring almost in a limp and I was like, ‘why the hell am I limping?’ It was almost as though the paint took control and it changes the direction your mind moves in.”

Jeff agreed with Finn with respect to face paint, saying that it allows him to be free as a performer.

“Every time I paint my face, I’ve always thought of it as my alien skin, the reptilian inside me that makes me different. When I think of aliens, I think of the skin, like, the abstract piece I do on my face, it doesn’t matter. I’m just in such a free zone. I’m just so at peace with myself when I’m doing it. And then, when I do the deal when I close my eyes, and take a picture, I go, ‘tonight, that is my canvas. My face is my canvas.’ Then, I get that, man. You go out there and you’re just more somehow, like, because you’re not your normal self. And to me, it just feels artistically free to express yourself and don’t have a care in the world about what anybody else is thinking! And so, I would be, on purpose, I would be real messy, a lot of the time, with neon, glow-in-the-dark paint. Even after I’d paint my face, I’d go smear it all over my hands and give people confidence not to care at that point in time and just have faith and confidence in yourself and just roll with it.”

As for future goals Finn claimed that he would like to continue to evolve his character. The inaugural WWE Universal Champion stated that his main goal is to create another alter ego for himself.

“Obviously, seeing [the Hardys] continue to evolve the last 25 years, that inspires me to keep evolving my character. And I’m quite happy with how I’m doing at the moment, but I’m always trying to push myself to create something new and I think my main goal going forward over the next five, 10 years would be maybe create another alter ego like you guys have.”

Additionally, Jeff said that he hopes a match between ‘The Enigma’ and ‘The Demon King’ is “inevitable”.

“I’ve heard it a lot, man, and people are kind of waiting to see us, like, ‘I can’t wait to see ‘The Enigma’ and ‘The Demon’ in the ring at the same time’ with painted up faces. Hopefully, that’s inevitable, so we’ll see.”

Sources: WWE, Table For 3  with H/T to WrestlingINC

Paige Pulled From WWE Live Events, Video Of Paige Sustaining Injury

Below is footage of Paige sustaining an injury at last night’s RAW live event at the Nassau Coliseum. Paige was teaming with Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville against Sasha Banks, Bayley & Mickie James.

The start of the video shows Paige taking a kick to the back from Banks. Paige struggled to get to her feet before falling to the mat, causing the referee to throw up the “X” injury signal and stop the match. A stretcher was brought out, however Paige was able to walk to the back with the help of the doctors.

F4WOnline reports that Paige has been pulled from the rest of this week’s RAW live events as a precaution. She was scheduled for an evaluation and X-rays yesterday. As noted, Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that it is believed that she had just suffered a mild stinger from the kick.

Source: WrestlingINC

Impact Returning To Live Pay-Per-View With Lockdown In 2018

Impact Wrestling officials are currently planning the next live pay-per-view event to be held in late April or early May 2018, according to PWInsider. The first pay-per-view of 2018 will be the Lockdown event, which features all matches in a steel cage.

Lockdown had been a yearly pay-per-view, one of TNA’s biggest, until being re-branded as a special Impact episode in 2015. The last Lockdown Impact episode took place in January 2016 (televised on 2/23/16).

Impact is planning on running more live pay-per-views in 2018 but there’s no word yet on when those events might take place.

Source: WrestlingINC

Chrissy Teigen Invited By Stephanie McMahon To Attend WrestleMania 34

chrissy teigen wrestlemania 34 invite stephanie mcmahon wwe

Stephanie McMahon used Twitter to offer model/TV host Chrissy Teigen an official invitation to WrestleMania 34.

Teigen tweeted earlier today saying she’s “never had more fun” than she had at WrestleMania XXIV, but for some reason she had to leave early and is still mad about it.

This prompted a response from Stephanie, who tweeted: “We’re sorry you had to leave early! Consider this your official invitation to  in  this year!  said to let him know if anyone tries to make you leave early this time! They’ll have a whole locker room to deal with!”

Chrissy responded saying, “This is THE greatest gift I have ever received!!” She then asked when the event was so she can figure out how pregnant she’ll be.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet