Tonight’s WWE SmackDown live on FOX from the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.
The Wyatt Sicks made their chilling debut on this week’s episode of “WWE Raw” by laying out a path littered with incapacitated WWE officials and talents. Fresh off their introductory appearance, the quintet of Uncle Howdy, Nikki Cross, Dexter Lumis, Joe Gacy, and Erick Rowan now seems to be targeting “Raw” color commentator Pat McAfee.
On Thursday, “The Pat McAfee Show” welcomed on former U.S. Navy SEAL and New York Times bestselling author Jack Carr as a special guest. Amidst the conversation, McAfee, Carr, and show staff turned their attention to some obscure, offstage phenomena, to which McAfee uttered, “What the f*** is that?” Upon Carr’s subsequent mention of security, all the lights switched off, causing the studio to be engulfed in complete darkness. Seconds later, the broadcast came to an abrupt end. While it’s unclear if the Wyatt Sicks are the forces behind the “The Pat McAfee Show” power outage, McAfee has been notably absent from social media since then.
The Wyatt Sicks’ arrival comes on the heels of a two-month long series of mysterious clues and QR codes teasing the introduction of a new “family” in WWE. Four of the five reported members were broken away from their previous “families” in storyline, while Uncle Howdy, portrayed by Bo Dallas, is the real-life brother of the late Bray Wyatt, whom the Wyatt Sicks are paying homage to. Looking ahead, the faction is expected to have a “widespread” effect on WWE programming, with a number of storylines reportedly set to be impacted. Based on the aforementioned events, it seems that Pat McAfee may have been one of the first figures, aside from a bloodied Chad Gable, to find themselves caught in the crossfire.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Charlotte Flair’s ACL, MCL, and meniscus injury wasn’t going to heal overnight, but after a series of optimistic reports from close confidantes and Flair herself, WWE fans have been waiting in cautious anticipation for the return of “The Queen.” Flair recently gave fans some more reason to hope for an imminent return, as she took to Instagram to post an injury update.
The video features Flair in a Biodex testing machine, furiously kicking her injured leg. “The Queen”‘s face is red, and her knuckles are white as she grips the seat’s handles to stabilize herself as she pushes herself to the limit.
Today marked Flair’s first Biodex test, specifically an isokinetic test. Isokinetic tests are considered one of the most objective ways to determine a moving muscle’s endurance, strength, and rate of force development, or how fast Flair can develop force in her surgical leg. According to Flair, she needed to be “in the 40% or less deficit” compared to her non-injured leg. Essentially, her injured leg’s strength needed to be no more than 40% less powerful than her non-injured leg in order to be considered on track for recovery. Flair excitedly shared that the deficit in her quad strength was “20% or less,” and that in some measurements, her injured leg was actually stronger than her non-injured leg. These hopeful statistics imply that her recovery is well ahead of schedule, and is going smoothly.
Flair ended the post by expressing an excitement to resume in-ring activity. Several WWE stars extended their good wishes to Flair, with Carmella posting several applause emojis and Dakota Kai expressing her support with some choice muscle emojis.
As of writing, Flair has been out of action for six months. “The Queen” could resume in-ring action in September 2024, at the absolute earliest. There have been no reported plans regarding Flair’s return from a creative standpoint at this time.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Late last year, WWE announced that their development show, “WWE NXT,” would be making the jump from USA Network to The CW Network. As the date of transfer looms over the heads of WWE’s newest stars, PWInsider Elite has offered more information regarding the nature and magnitude of this broadcast home transfer.
Starting October 1 at 8pm Eastern, fans can expect to tune into an episode of “NXT” filmed not within the walls of the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, but “on the road in a major arena.” “NXT’s” debut episode on The CW is expected to be a high-profile event, with one internal source comparing it to the hallowed “NXT” Takeovers of the past in terms of significance to the overall brand. The reported spectacle comes from WWE’s desire to impress The CW as the two companies begin working together.
There are several locations being discussed for the location of “NXT’s” new network debut. As of writing, the most significant argument has been made for a Chicago-based show, as the Windy City is home to one of the Nexstar Media Group’s headquarters — Nexstar Media Group is The CW’s current owner, and the group that verified the “NXT” deal. However, it should be noted that the location for the October 1 episode of “NXT” is still in discussion, and may change in the coming months. There is also no announced special theme or premium live event planned in October for the developmental brand as of writing.
The shift in “NXT”‘s broadcasting home comes from an earlier deal to move “WWE SmackDown” off of Fox and onto USA Network. Despite gaining the rights to WWE’s Friday-based show, USA Network and parent company NBCU failed to outbid Netflix, who is slated to assume the broadcasting rights for “WWE Raw,” and The CW.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
In an interview with Busted Open Radio (via Fightful), Matt Hardy spoke about he and his brother Jeff winding down their careers and noted that he hopes they end up back in WWE. Here are highlights:
On how he wants their careers to end: “I would like to do TNA and have a hell of a run there, and then I almost feel like now, just the destiny has revealed itself in many ways, I almost feel Jeff and I, we end up returning to WWE, do something small and then go onto the Hall of Fame. That’s a best case scenario.”
On Jeff Hardy wanting to prove himself: “That’s a great question. I think Jeff really wanted to come back to TNA to continue to build equity, and he knows that TNA and WWE are working together. I have friends in the WWE, I have spoken with people in WWE. So I think Jeff just wants to once again just show people how he is a different human being. The way to put equity into that is to go to TNA, have a kickass run, and show people he’s on his best behavior.”
Source: 411Mania
Say his name and he appears – TNA Wrestling’s Joe Hendry appeared on this week’s episode of WWE NXT.
On this week’s edition of WWE NXT, a 25-man battle royal to determine Trick Williams’ challenger for the NXT Championship at NXT Heatwave took place in the opening match.
Both Joe Hendry and Frankie Kazarian from TNA Wrestling competed in the battle royal. Hendry wound up being quickly eliminated by Kazarian, which the crowd at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, FL wasn’t happy with.
WWE main roster stars Dragon Lee, Angel, Berto, Apollo Crews, and Tyler Bate all participated in the match.
Kazarian wound up making it to the final four, with Je’Von Evans taking out Shawn Spears to win the match. We’ll now see Je’Von Evans vs. Trick Williams taking place at WWE NXT Heatwave.
On Monday, WWE RAW ended with the return of Uncle Howdy alongside the brand-new Wyatt Sick6.
This group includes the real-life versions of Ramblin’ Rabbit, Huskus The Pig, Mercy The Buzzard, and Abby The Witch, with Nikki Cross playing the role of Abby and Joe Gacy playing Huskus. Eric Rowan and Dexter Lumis are also part of the group.
Cross and Gacy took to social media to share their reactions.
Tonight’s WWE NXT on USA Network.
While much of the audience in Corpus Christi and those watching along at home were likely anticipating an Uncle Howdy return, since the countdown clock that was propped up recently expired as “WWE Raw” hit the air, a different surprise kicked off the show as “Burn it down!” blared over the speakers. Seth “Freakin'” Rollins returned to WWE television for the first time since playing sacrificial lamb for Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania, quickly reminding the WWE Universe that this was still Monday Night Rollins.
After expressing his happiness to be back, Rollins quickly got down to business, stating his immediate intentions of reacquiring the WWE World Heavyweight Championship he lost to Drew McIntyre at WrestleMania, and eyeballing the Money In the Bank briefcase now hanging from high above the ring as the premium live event takes the “next up” place on WWE’s calendar. But before he could get into any briefcase aspirations, the current World Heavyweight Champion Damian Priest hit the ring, showing respect for Rollins before stating that “Raw” is no longer Monday Night Rollins but rather All Rise for El Campeon.
The two men jawed back and forth, with Priest reminding Rollins that he was the first to challenge for his then-newly created World Heavyweight Championship, and admitting that he lost then because Rollins was better. That, however, is not the case now, according to Priest, and ultimately, he told “The Architect” that he didn’t need to worry about ladders or briefcases and instead, challenged him to a championship match at Money In the Bank.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
The wait is over, and the stable paying homage to Bray Wyatt’s ideas and memory, which appears to be officially named “Wyatt Sick6,” arrived at the end of “WWE Raw” on Monday. The faction waited until the end of the night, though the countdown on the website which held the main clue to their debut date ended right as “Raw” began. The teases began right at the beginning of the broadcast, however, with glitches appearing during the “Then, Now, Forever, Together” opener and continued through various segments throughout the night.
Following Jey Uso’s victory over Finn Balor and Rey Mysterio in a Money in the Bank qualifier, the lights in the audience went dark, followed by the lights over the ring. Piano music began playing softly and a door appeared backlit on the stage. When the door opened, someone came slowly crawling out of it, down the dark ramp. The figure appeared to be Nikki Cross, and she crawled toward Wyatt’s signature lantern on the ramp. Cross pointed behind her, and the camera went through the door, and focused on various crew members and wrestlers laid out in the back, including Paul “Triple H” Levesque, “Raw” General Manager Adam Pearce, William Regal, Shane Helms, and TJ Wilson.
The first figure seen was presumably Erick Rowan, wearing a rabbit mask and holding a mallet that said “help.” The camera continued to gorilla position, where more people lay strewn all over the floor, with lights popping and smoke filling the area. The camera focused on a person in the corner in a buzzard mask, presumably Dexter Lumis, then someone else in a pig-like gas mask, potentially Joe Gacy. Previous clues on a Twitch stream from a QR code led many fans to the identities of the faction members, which had previously been reported by Pro Wrestling Insider.
Chad Gable was also seen taken out, with blood coming from his forehead. The camera then panned toward Uncle Howdy, who walked past Gable and the other figures followed him through the door onto the stage back to Cross. Howdy grabbed the lantern and the group posed as the copyright logo came up to end the broadcast. Howdy said “We’re here” and blew out the lantern to end the show.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
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