Category: TNA

Impact Wrestling Reached Out To Former WWE Stars About Bound For Glory

Impact Wrestling made attempts to beef up Saturday night’s Bound for Glory PPV by reaching out to a couple different former WWE stars, according to Fightful Select.

Braun Strowman (Adam Scherr) was expected to debut for Impact soon after meeting with Impact EVP Scott D’Amore. Talent even expected him to show up at the PPV, but he has not signed a contract with the company as of yet.

Bray Wyatt was also asked about coming in, but a deal between the two sides was never said to be close. Wyatt’s 90-day non-compete clause with WWE isn’t quite over yet (October 31) anyways, so a PPV appearance was out of the question.

Lastly, former NXT North American Champion Bronson Reed was actually booked for the show. His appearance was then cancelled for unknown reasons.

The PPV featured some big moments, such as Mickie James winning the Impact Knockouts Championship. Also, Josh Alexander defeating Christian Cage for the Impact World Championship, then promptly losing it after Moose cashed-in his title shot that he won earlier in the night.

Source: Wrestling Inc,

Lance Archer Gives Update After Injury Scare On AEW Dynamite

On Saturday night’s AEW Dynamite, Lance Archer wrestled Eddie Kingston in a Title Eliminator Tournament Match.

During the match, Archer went for a moonsault off the top rope and landed on his head. He was checked on at ringside by the referee and Dr. Sampson, got back in the ring, and Kingston rolled him up for the win.

Archer commented afterwards, thanking AEW for taking care of him and letting the fans know he’ll be back.

“Listen. We choose to do this and take our health n lives in our hands every night,” Archer wrote. “I’ve done that move hundreds of times over my career. Just under rotated. Coulda been MUCH worse. Thank you to ALL at @AEW for taking AMAZING care of me and protecting me. I’ll BE BACK!”

This morning, Archer joked “Ice for the MiniHawk, too!” showing an action figure of himself laying on an ice pack.

On the latest Wrestling Observer Radio it was reported he passed all of his tests backstage. AEW even did a concussion check during the match and wouldn’t have bothered with a finish if it was any worse. Archer apparently wanted to keep wrestling, but was “upset backstage” that they couldn’t give the match a proper ending.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Rampage Preview 10/22/21

Tonight’s AEW Rampage will be at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida. This event was part of AEW’s tapings from last week.

* AEW World Women’s Championship: Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. (c) vs. Anna Jay

* World Title Eliminator Tournament Commences: Orange Cassidy vs. Powerhouse Hobbs

* PAC vs. Andrade El Idolo II

* TBS Women’s Championship Bracket Announced

Impact Wrestling Bound For Glory 10/23/21

DATE: October 23, 2021 10:00 pm
LOCATION: Sam’s Town Live, Las Vegas, Nevada
AVAILABLE ON:FITE and Traditional PPV

CARD

IMPACT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Christian Cage (c) vs. Josh Alexander

IMPACT KNOCKOUTS CHAMPIONSHIP
Deonna Purrazzo (c) vs. Mickie James

IMPACT X DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP (VACANT)
Trey Miguel vs. Steve Maclin vs. El Phantasmo

IMPACT WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Good Brothers (c) vs. FinJuice vs. Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Hikuleo)

IMPACT KNOCKOUTS TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Decay (Havok and Rosemary) (c) vs. The IInspiration (Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay)

CALL YOUR SHOT GAUNTLET MATCH
Rich Swann vs. Brian Myers vs. Moose vs. W. Morrissey (#20) vs. Chris Sabin (#1) vs. 15 TBA Entrants
Winner receives trophy and contract for a title shot of their choosing within one year.

Heath and TBA vs. Violent By Design

IMPACT DIGITAL MEDIA CHAMPIONSHIP (INTERGENDER SIX-WAY MATCH — PRE-SHOW)
John Skyler vs. Crazzy Steve vs. Fallah Bahh vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Chelsea Green vs. Tenille Dashwood

Impact Wrestling Preview 10/21/21

It’s the last stop on the road to IMPACT Wrestling’s biggest event of the year, Bound For Glory! Don’t miss an all-new IMPACT! tonight at 8/7c on AXS TV.

* Pick Your Poison Match: Mickie James vs. Savannah Evans w/ Tasha Steelz

* #1 Contenders Match: Finn Juice vs. Bullet Club (Chris Bey and Hikuleo)

* Alex Zayne vs. Trey Miguel 

* Jordynne Grace and Fallah Bahh vs. Tenille Dashwood and John Skyler vs. Chelsea Green and Crazy Steve

* W. Morrissey vs. Jake Something – Before the IMPACT at 7/6c on AXS TV

Impact Stars Ace Austin and Gia Miller Lose Home In Apartment Fire

Impact Wrestling stars Ace Austin and Gia Miller lost their home in an apartment fire on Monday morning in Dayton, Ohio.

Austin and Miller took to Twitter on Monday to let fans know they were alright, as is their pet cat. Miller noted that she woke up at around 9:30am from the smell of smoke, realizing that their second story apartment was on fire.

Miller noted on their GoFundMe account how the fire originated on their front porch, nearly trapping them inside. They ran through the flames and were met by neighbors and firemen rushing to get them to safety. She noted that they were just a few seconds from being trapped, but escaped as their home was engulfed in flames and smoke. They lost all of their belongings, but later found their pet cat, alive but buried under the collapsed ceiling.

“We are physically okay. Our little family is reunited. As for our home, it is gone. Something we worked so hard to build over the last year and a half, gone in minutes. We do not know what was able to be saved if anything. Now, we have to rebuild. Like a phoenix, from these ashes we will rise. Any help, even the smallest amount, is appreciated,” she wrote.

You can access Austin and Miller’s GoFundMe campaign at this link. You can also access Austin’s Pro Wrestling Tees store at this link. TheGoFundMe campaign has raised $14,027 as of this writing, of a $5,000 goal. As of this writing they have had 205 donors to the campaign. Top donors include Ryan Barkan of PW Tees with $2500, WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page with $500, Cody Rhodes with $500, Nick Jackson with $500, Mark Madden with $250, Matt Cardona with $250, D’Lo Brown with $200, and Impact Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo with $100, among many others.

Below are related posts from Austin and Miller:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Rampage Numbers Vs. Supersized SmackDown, Tony Khan Excited

AEW Rampage tied SmackDown in the key 18-49 demographic last week, and they drew more viewers in the 30-minute head-to-head competition.

The first 30 minutes of AEW Rampage went head-to-head with WWE’s “Supersized” edition of SmackDown last week, and the two shows wound up tying in the key 18-49 demographic.

Not only that, but according to PW Torch, Rampage actually drew higher viewership than SmackDown during the 30 minutes of head-to-head competition. The report stated that in the 18-49 demographic, Rampage recorded 328,000 viewers compared to 285,000 for SmackDown.

According to Showbuzz Daily (h/t WrestlingInc.com), SmackDown averaged 866,000 viewers, and Rampage averaged 578,000 viewers. Both shows recorded 0.24 ratings in the 18-49 demographic. It’s important to note that the Supersized show aired on FS1, as Game 1 of the 2021 ALCS between the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros aired on FOX, and it recorded 6.136 million viewers (via WrestlingInc.com).

Following the release of the numbers for Rampage and SmackDown, WrestleVotes reported “the numbers news is a HOT topic right now backstage” in WWE.

WWE greatly attempted to stack up the Supersized edition of SmackDown, which featured a singles match between Sasha Banks and Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch. The match was won by the former thanks to assistance from Bianca Belair . Those three will face off for the Raw Women’s title in a triple threat match at Crown Jewel.

Zelina Vega defeated Carmella in their Queen’s Crown tournament semifinal, and Vega will face the winner of Doudrop and Shayna Baszler at Crown Jewel. Finn Balor got past Sami Zayn in the King of the Ring semifinal, and he’ll challenge the winner of Jinder Mahal vs. Xavier Woods at Crown Jewel. The show closed with Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns signing their Universal Championship match contract for Crown Jewel.

Though SmackDown predictably finished with far more total viewers than Rampage, this was a giant win for AEW. Their “B” show was able to outdraw the final 30 minutes of SmackDown, which has enjoyed much greater viewership than Raw in recent years.

AEW already soundly defeated NXT in the “Wednesday Night Wars”, and now they’re starting to gain momentum against WWE’s main show. It’ll be interesting to see if WWE reacts to this, and if we’ll see more direct competition between SmackDown and Rampage before long.

Tony Khan Excited:

Tony Khan is pretty happy on Monday after learning how AEW Rampage fared in the numbers while up against WWE SmackDown this past Friday.

Tony Khan is a pretty happy camper on Monday after learning that AEW Rampage not only kept up with WWE SmackDown in the ratings this past Friday, but actually beat the blue brand in some of the key demos they use to measure the successes and failures of a professional wrestling television program. While SmackDown was boosted by the over-50 demo and won in total viewers, the argument being made is that advertisers care most about the areas where AEW Rampage won.

Heading into Friday night, there was a lot of talk about how AEW was going to compete head-to-head with WWE for the first real time since they became a company a couple of years ago. This wasn’t NXT versus AEW Dynamite. No, this was one of AEW’s top shows versus one of WWE’s top shows and AEW President Tony Khan was hyped for it. He called out Raw by saying “it sucked” and he added a buy-in show to AEW while going commercial-free for the first 30 minutes to counter SmackDown’s commercial-free last 30 minutes. In some cases, Khan was criticized for calling out the competition so much, but it’s clear his strategy paid off.

The complete demographic breakdown for last Friday were as follows:

  • People 18-49 – 0.24 (SmackDown), 0.24 (Rampage)
  • Females 18-49 – 0.16 (SmackDown), 0.14 (Rampage)
  • Males 18-49 – 0.32 (SmackDown), 0.34 (Rampage)
  • People 18-34 – 0.15 (SmackDown), 0.17 (Rampage)
  • Females 12-34 – 0.10 (SmackDown), 0.10 (Rampage)
  • Males 12-34 – 0.20 (SmackDown), 0.16 (Rampage)
  • People 25-54 – 0.28 (SmackDown), 0.28 (Rampage)
  • People 50+ – 0.43 (SmackDown), 0.21 (Rampage)

Kahn said in a tweet before the numbers were revealed, “I’m only estimating but this suggests to me that we probably did pretty well in the yet-to-be-released head-to-head ratings from 10 pm-10:30 pm, a fight that I didn’t ask for or start, but one for which I was more than willing to show up and in which I was thrilled to participate.” When the numbers were revealed, he was clearly excited about it.

The ratings were extremely close and the demos tight, but this is a big victory for AEW in some respects.

While this was a one-time thing and SmackDown will shift back to its regular time and channel this Friday, one has to wonder if Khan is feeling good about his product and wondering if it’s time to try and take on WWE a bit more often. It is interesting how the supporters for each promotion have come out in droves to back both AEW and WWE. It certainly goes to show that competition in the wrestling industry certainly gets the fans going.

Source: TheSportster

AEW Dynamite Preview 10/16/21

Saturday night’s AEW Dynamite from the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.

Below is the card as of this posting:

* Bryan Danielson vs. Bobby Fish

* Malakai Black vs. Daunte Martin

* The Lucha Brothers (Fénix & Pentagon Jr.) (c) vs. TBA (AEW World Tag Team Championship)

* World Title Eliminator Tournament Bracket: AEW will reveal the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament. The final of this tournament will take place at Full Gear PPV

AEW Rampage Preview 10/15/21

Tonight’s AEW Rampage will be live at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.

The Buy-In pre-show at 9pm ET on YouTube:

* Tay Conti vs. Santana Garrett

* Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty

* Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki

AEW Rampage at 10pm ET on TNT:

* CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal

* Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny

* Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager & AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara) vs. Men of the Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) & the debuting former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos (w/Dan Lambert & Jorge Masvidal)

Minoru Suzuki Coming Soon To Impact Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling icon Minoru Suzuki is coming soon to Impact Wrestling.

Impact announced his soon-to-be arrival through a career highlight video package. This will be the first time Suzuki has worked for the company.

Known for his vicious poise in the ring, the “King of Pro Wrestling” has made his rounds in America recently by competing New Japan Strong, PWX, West Coast Pro, GCW, and AEW.

Tonight, Suzuki will return to AEW to face Bryan Danielson on Rampage‘s Buy-In event at 9 pm ET on YouTube.

Suzuki is the fifth member of the New Japan roster to have worked with Impact this calendar year. He follows Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Jay White, Satoshi Kojima and El Phantasmo.