Former WWE Superstar Danielle Moinet, f.k.a. Summer Rae in WWE, will be returning to the ring for Battle Championship Wrestling in Melbourne, Australia on Friday, May 25th. She will face Ivelisse in the second half of the first round of the BCW Women’s Championship Tournament at the Whitehorse Function and Convention Centre. Moinet, who was released by WWE last October, hasn’t wrestled since August of 2016 after she suffered neck and back injuries. She was cleared to return to action by WWE in May of 2017, but was never used.
Just a month after signing a new television deal, Major League Wrestling announced on their website Thursday they have signed former NWA, WCW and WWE play-by-play announcer Tony Schiavone to a multi-year contract as the primary voice of the company.
Schiavone began his broadcasting career at Jim Crockett Promotions in 1984 before moving to Turner Broadcasting starting in 1984 until where he hosted World Championship Wrestling broadcasts along side David Crockett on TBS. In April of 1989 Schiavone left Turner Broadcasting after signing a one year deal with then the WWF. He would later return to WCW in 1990 as the lead announcer for WCW Saturday Night and was the main voice for WCW Monday Nitro and Thunder until the company was purchased by WWE in March 2001.
MLW CEO Court Bauer had the following to say about the signing:
“For three decades, Tony has been one of the most prominent voices calling the action. His work is the soundtrack that fans grew up listening to and today we are thrilled to know he will continue in this high visibility role for years to come. Tony’s standards, historical knowledge of the sport and enthusiasm for sharing the backstories of the wrestlers who enter the ring enriches the broadcast experience for the MLW and beIN SPORTS audience.”
You can read the full press release at MLW’s website.
Major League Wrestling will debut its MLW: Fusion one-hour TV series on Friday on BeIN Sports at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. The first episode is titled “Worlds Collide,” while the April 27th episode is titled “Havoc in Swerve City.” No match listings have been revealed at this time. Tony Schiavone and former WWE announcer Rich Bocchini are the hosts and announcers for the series.
In the same week as one of the biggest babyfaces of the 70s passed away, Bruno Sammartino, one of the biggest heels of the 70s has passed away as well.
Popularly known for his villainous faction that terrorized the NWA Mid-Atlantic territory, Paul Jones has died at the age of 75.
Trained by legendary promoter Paul Boesch, Paul Frederik debuted as Paul Jones in the early 1960s, and competed in promotions all over the country, as well as toured other countries such as Japan, Canada, and Australia.
In the 1970s, Jones began to grow popularity while competing for Mid-Atlantic Championship wrestling, commencing singles and tag-team feuds with names such as Ric Flair, Ricky Steamboat, and Jay Youngblood, among many others.
In 1982, Jones transitioned into being a heel manager, leading the Paul Jones’ Army stable to continue his heated feud with Jimmy Valiant. This stable was instrumental in developing names such as Rick Rude, The Barbarian, The Warlord, and superstar Billy Graham, and Manny Fernandez, as well as promote established names such as Ivan Koloff, Baron von Raschke and Abdullah the Butcher.
Jones retired from wrestling in 1991 after 30 years in the business. Jones will be fondly remembered as being a contribution to the success of many wrestlers over his 30-year career.
It is with great sadness that we learned this afternoon of the passing of Paul Jones. He was part of our childhood growing up watching Mid-Atlantic Wrestling and had become our friend. We send condolences to his son Paul Jr. and all of Paul's friends and family. Rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/limS7qVQzW
MLW has announced that they have agreed to a “multi-fight” deal with Jake Hager (Jack Swagger), here is the announcement:
JAKE HAGER SIGNS MULTI-FIGHT DEAL WITH MAJOR LEAGUE WRESTLING; TO DEBUT AT MLW’S MAY 3RD TV TAPING
ORLANDO – Major League Wrestling has reached a multi-fight deal with Jake Hager, the ex-World Champion formerly known as “Jack Swagger”. The deal will see Hager make his MLW debut on May 3rd in Orlando at MLW: Intimidation Games hosted by Gilt Nightclub.
A native of Perry, Oklahoma, the current Bellator MMA fighter was a decorated collegiate wrestler at the University of Oklahoma, where he was an All-American and set the school record for most pins at the 285-pound weight class in a single season with 30.
“A reckoning is coming to the heavyweight division of Major League Wrestling,” said Hager’s new manager, renowned southern promoter Colonel Robert Parker.
Tickets are on sale now at https://www.MLWTickets.com for Major League Wrestling’s May 3rd FUSION TV taping for beIN SPORTS.
Ticket prices range from $15-$45 with a limited number of “VIP Packages” also available.
Former WWE and WCW star “Big Van Vader” Leon White posted the following on Twitter over the weekend, giving fans an update on his health following his recent heart surgery.
I Am officially out of the HOSPITAL and in rehab Its a long ROAD BK from here to the RING WISH ME LUCK!!!!
Rey Mysterio is set to make his return to the ring for WWE at the April 27th Greatest Royal Rumble event from Saudi Arabia, according to PWInsider. This has not been confirmed but it’s believed that Rey will be working the 50-man Rumble main event.
In an update on Rey’s contractual status, The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Rey has not agreed to terms for a new WWE contract as of Thursday of this week, but both sides are still negotiating a deal. The appearance in Saudi Arabia is a one-shot deal.
It’s still expected that Rey will sign with WWE but if he does, he won’t be immediately returning to TV for a regular role as he’s committed to dates for Arolucha and New Japan Pro Wrestling through late summer at least.
Alberto El Patron was interviewed by Sporting News to promote tonight’s Combate Americas MMA event. Below are a couple of highlights:
No-showing last Friday’s Impact Wrestling vs. Lucha Underground card, which resulted in Impact releasing him:
“I had a family situation that I needed to attend (to). As you know, my family, my kids are my priority. The situation was involving them and that’s why I decided to take care of business and take care of my family situation. And that’s all that happened. And that comes to what I was just saying to you. I know people wanted to know absolutely everything. This only concerns my family: my parents, my sister, myself and my kids. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.”
How he is doing now following the events from last weekend:
“I’m fine. Of course, it’s difficult because it’s never good to go that way. Our relationship wasn’t pretty good or completely good. And this was just something that ended up breaking it. I’m fine, I guess. I’m going to do what I was planning on doing, as everybody knows I planning on leaving the pro wrestling business in the next year. I have said it several times over and over. And it’s because of some of these things where everybody thinks they can get their nose into your business. Is it right to know absolutely everything about you? It’s not.
“I’m just going to continue to do that and doing my stuff here, in Mexico like exactly how I was doing it and sometime next year and say goodbye to the pro wrestling business.”
Lucha Underground stars Angelico and Jack Evans both announced on Twitter they would be parting ways with the company. Angelico began his run in 2014 with the company and commented, “Now it is time to take another leap of faith.”
I would like to announce that I have decided to part ways with Lucha Underground. I would also like to say thank you to everyone at the company for the pleasure of the last three seasons. Now it is time to take another leap of faith. pic.twitter.com/7Lp1iBRgJU
Evans retweeted Angelico and also said he is finished with Lucha Underground after being with the company since 2015. A fan asked him why he was leaving and Evans said the main reason was being “lied to about the contract.” Although the company has now relaxing their restrictions, wrestlers weren’t able to work televised appearances outside of Lucha Underground, even between tapings. He also referenced an argument with Ivelisse as a catalyst, unclear if that was joke or not. Evans also noted he will make an appearance in the upcoming season.
proper spelling this time! I have also parted ways with lucha underground https://t.co/Err8ahP00c
Last weekend, it was announced via WDRB 41 that former WWE European and Hardcore Champion Al Snow is buying Ohio Valley Wrestling. OVW was founded by former wrestler “Nightmare” Danny Davis in 1997, and has been one of the longest-running televised wrestling shows ever since.
Over the years, OVW is also known for being the developmental territory for both WWE and Impact Wrestling creating WWE stars such as Brock Lesnar, John Cena, and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, among many others. For many years, Snow was a trainer in OVW, and helped build several successful WWE names.
After 21 years as the founder of OVW, Davis is now retiring to Florida, and Snow will take over as the lead executive. Currently, OVW features mostly indie talent. However, former WWE and Impact Wrestling star Elijah Burke is active in the company.
“What I have in mind is to create a great developmental center for wrestling talent to come find themselves, learn their craft, and learn it from truly experienced professional wrestlers,” said Snow in an interview with FITE TV. “I’ve always said that when you attend a wrestling school, or a wrestling training academy of any sort, that you take it much like if you were going to a university. If you want to go for accounting, you go in, you pay your tuition, you ask the Dean, ‘Ok, what’s my professor?’ and he goes, ‘this guy’s really good, he’s very talented.’ Well great! Who’s he work for? What’s he done? What kind of experience he has?
“Well, he’s never really went anywhere, he’s never really done anything, but he’s really good, he’s at the top of his class. That’s great, but if he doesn’t have experience, that means he has no real knowledge. If he has no real knowledge, there’s no way that he can communicate to you what you need to know. So you better take advance of any opportunities that may come up for you.”
The announcement of Snow taking over was well-received by both the current roster, as well as former Impact Wrestling stars, with names such as Hornswoggle and Madison Rayne sending their congratulations. As far as when the first show of Snow taking over will be, he stated, “it will be soon and I will let everyone know.”
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