Ring of Honor announced the matches for ROH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s ‘War of the Worlds’ event that will take place in the old ECW Arena in Philadelphia on May 12 and 13.
War of the Worlds Night 1 on May 12:
Delirious VS Gedo
Roderick Strong VS KUSHIDA
Jay Lethal w/Truth Martini VS Takaaki Watanabe
Michael Elgin VS Tetsuya Naito
reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) VS Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jushin Thunder Liger
The Addiction (Daniels & Kazarian) VS The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) w/Maria Kanellis
AJ Styles VS ????????
The Briscoes VS Kazuchika Okada & Shinsuke Nakamura
War of the Worlds Night 2 on May 13:
Adam Page VS Takaaki Watanabe
Michael Elgin VS KUSHIDA
Kyle O’Reilly VS Tetsuya Naito
Roderick Strong VS Hiroshi Tanahashi
The Addiction VS Kazuchika Okada & Gedo
4 Corner Survival Match: Jay Lethal VS Shinsuke Nakamura VS Mark Briscoe VS Jushin Thunder Liger
ROH World Title: (C) Jay Briscoe VS Bobby Fish
The Kingdom (Adam Cole, Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) w/Maria Kanellis VS The Bullet Club (AJ Styles & The Young Bucks)
Mexico’s AAA promotion has confirmed that there will be a Team TNA in their Lucha Libre World Cup on May 24th in Mexico.
Dixie Carter posted on Twitter that Davey Richards will be chasing the TNA X-Division Title while his tag partner Eddie Edwards is out recovering from his injury.
Tommy Gilbert, the father of the late great “Hot Stuff” Eddie Gilbert, claims that WWE is cashing in on Eddie, so the Gilbert family is suing WWE to get a cut of the action.
According to docs … Tommy Gilbert is in charge of the estate and Tommy says the WWE is plastering his son’s image and likeness all over TV and other media platforms without permission and more importantly, without paying the Gilbert family a dime.
Tommy says old wrestling footage of Eddie, a pro wrestler from 1979 until his death from a heart attack in 1995, is being used to promote the WWE.
The Gilbert family isn’t suing to block use of the footage, they just want a judge to force WWE to pay them a share of its profits, plus damages.
A WWE rep tells TMZ – “Through the years, WWE has acquired the legal rights to library footage of various former wrestling organizations including Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Mid-Southern Wrestling among many others. WWE has made substantial investments to acquire these copyrighted works and has the legal right to use them.”
The WWE rep adds – “Similar cases in the past have been unsuccessful, and we expect this case to be dismissed,”
Last night on RAW, Michael Cole and JBL mentioned that the Intercontinental Championship: (C) Daniel Bryan VS Bad News Barrett at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view is in jeopardy due to Bryan’s ongoing health issues.
WWE noted on their website that Bryan is undergoing diagnostic testing to determine if he’s able to perform. WWE wrote the following:
Daniel Bryan rose above six other Superstars to capture his first Intercontinental Championship in a Ladder Match at WrestleMania. However, if the ever-popular “Yes!” Man hopes to hold onto the title, he’ll have to get past the Superstar who lost the championship that day, Bad News Barrett, at Extreme Rules. Bryan is undergoing diagnostic testing to see if he can defend his title at Extreme Rules.
One of the things that can be seen as troublesome when the WWE goes to the UK is that it is pre-recorded. When RAW is pre-recorded it more like SmackDown as opposed to WWE’s flagship show in RAW. The tapings take place early in the day due to the time difference and it’s as easy to get spoilers for the night’s taping as it is for SmackDown. While with a regular RAW, everything happens live, there’s no risk of spoilers, and the audience genuinely has no way of knowing what is going to happen next, a taped RAW does take away that live element that makes RAW stand out from the rest.
Even in today’s market where there seem to be more professional wrestling options than ever, most of them are pre-recorded. From TNA to Lucha Underground and Ring of Honor and even SmackDown itself, the matches were recorded weeks and maybe in some cases even months earlier so it’s easy to find out the winners by doing a simple Google search. That’s an advantage that RAW has in that it is almost always live and as unexpected as can be. While the other companies run differently due to their respective circumstances, the WWE is lucky to be in a position to have such a popular weekly episodic live professional wrestling program. It’s such a different experience when RAW itself is taped, but it also serves as a reminder to how spoiler we may be with RAW’s live television aspect and how it can easily be taken for granted. Wrestling is wrestling, but when the unexpected is added to the mix (such as forgotten lines, injuries, and events as dramatic as the fans interrupting one of the matches during Tuesday’s UK tapings of SmackDown) a new dimension is given to the show.
The Monday, April 13th edition of Monday Night RAW featured the Superstars and Divas from the O2 Arena in London and there was definitely a hometown pop for the British stars of the WWE. The show opened with John Cena battling against Bad News Barrett in a hard fought contest that ultimately led to Cena’s victory. The Divas were in a Battle Royal for the number one contender spot for the Divas Championship and hometown hero, Paige, won—only to be interrupted during her promo thanking her home by a now-heel Naomi. Neville continued his rise on the RAW roster, having established himself as a star while on NXT and also suffered a loss, in his case at the hands of Dolph Ziggler.
While all of the matches featuring British members of the WWE roster were exciting, it was interesting that the three main faces spotlighted suffered negative fates—the men losing and even though Paige won, the beating Naomi gave her resulted in her needing immediate medical attention. It’s an interesting take on the hometown crowd. It’s not uncommon for a Superstar or Diva to go over, win, etc. when they are in their hometown. However, for storyline sake, perhaps it is also best to keep certain story lines at a certain pace as well as a Superstar’s momentum. Looking at Neville as an example, he has his whole career ahead of him to become a Superstar. Beating Dolph Ziggler, a top talent, easy may come off as unrealistic. In return, the fans were treated with an excellent match and display of Neville’s athletic ability, The same applies to the match between Bad News Barrett and Cena. If Barrett were to win, does he get a push. If he defeated the United States Champion, why would he go after the Intercontinental title? It gave an opening for Rusev to announce the type of match he would have with Cena at Extreme Rules and gave the pop and proper spotlight to Barrett for the UK audience at the same time, all while staying within the confines of the direction of the Intercontinental and United States championship storylines.
The biggest pop of the night easily went to Paige, who the UK audiences have seen grow up through the years as she comes from a historic British wrestling family. From the cheers of the audience when her music hit to her victory and awarded spot in the next pay-per-view event, Paige was the hero of the night. She was even given mic time with an in-ring interview with Byron Saxton. The fans were able to see their hometown Diva be victorious, demonstrate her excellent athletic skills, and listen to her personally thank them as she described her journey this past year as a 2-time Divas Champion with a WrestleMania victory added to her resume.
While Paige and the fans were able to be satisfied and Paige was able to say what she had to say, the story line was still able to progress with Naomi’s heel turn and subsequent beating of Paige. While Paige has been on the main roster for just over a year and has won the Divas Championship twice, Naomi has been on the main roster for years now and hasn’t received that opportunity. Especially with AJ Lee out of the picture, Naomi is capitalizing on this opportunity to finally get the gold, having beaten Divas Champion Nikki Bella twice already.
In the end, the hometown heroes were able to do what they do best in the ring, Paige receiving special emphasis with a promo and victory as being one of the most successful Divas ever to come from the UK, and story lines were able to advance while still satisfying the hometown audience.
According to the Wrestler Observer Newsletter, WWE has offered Mexican wrestler Laredo Kid a deal. Now, he has to pass WWE’s medical testing. If he passes he will head down to Florida to start training at NXT in June.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter via Bleacher Report
Triple H announced that casting is now open for the new season of WWE Tough Enough. Talents can visit WWEToughEnough.com to submit their own videos for a chance to be on the show.
Triple H confirmed that there will be 10 men and 5 women on the new season that begins June 23rd on the USA Network. The WWE Universe will choose the winner.
Global Force Wrestling announced the following today:
Global Force Wrestling brings sizzle to hot summer nights at a ballpark near you
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – You might be able to buy peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and there’s sure to be a crowd. But this will be a whole new ballgame.
The historic first Global Force Wrestling show will be held on Friday night, June 12 at The Ballpark at Jackson in Jackson, Tennessee. as part of GFW’s “MiLB Grand Slam Tour.” The tour will feature stops from Florida to California and several points in between.
It’s grassroots approach building toward the first GFW broadcast event on Friday, July 24 at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. Minor-league parks operated by both private ownership and municipalities have agreed to play host to Global Force Wrestling shows when their baseball-playing tenants are out of town. It’s an easy win for the parks, which gain another great source for revenue. For GFW it’s a chance to build momentum, show off its roster and deliver on its mission statement to be the most fan interactive brand in sports entertainment.
“These ballparks are the center of attention in the summer in most of these cities, and we’re eager to get out there and mix with our fans and show them what the GFW brand is all about,” said Jeff Jarrett, Global Force Wrestling founder and CEO.
The stars of GFW will be appearing in such cities as Knoxville, Tennessee, Richmond, Virginia, and Clinton, Iowa. Dates for the summer ballpark tour are available on globalforcewrestling.com, and more will be added in the coming weeks.
“Global Force Wrestling presented us with a great plan, one that will be beneficial to us and all ballparks, teams and cities as well as to their burgeoning brand,” said Todd “Parney” Parnell, vice president and chief operating officer of the Richmond (Va.) Flying Squirrels. “We know GFW will generate a lot of interest and excitement, not only the night of the show but for weeks in advance.”
Atlanta Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski is excited about the alliance of his profession and his pastime.
“Wrestling and baseball make a great tag team, ” said Pierzynski, a wrestling aficionado. “And I’m thrilled to see so many minor-league parks, some of which I’ve played in, jump on board.”
Global Force Wrestling will roll out it’s talent roster in the next couple of weeks. It’s a lineup filled with speed and power, righties and lefties, starters and closers, sure to provide thrills at every ballpark.
Jeff Jarrett has started the process of contacting talent to appear at the upcoming Global Force Wrestling TV tapings in Las Vegas beginning in July. Jarrett confirmed in a interview that he was in talks with at least three networks regarding a TV deal. According to Dave Meltzer from Wrestling Observer Newsletter, of the talent being contacted for the tapings, Jarrett is reportedly offering better money than Ring of Honor.
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter via WrestleView
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