- WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network from the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
- Night two of the 2024 WWE Draft
- The Judgement Day (Damian Priest, Finn Balor & JD McDonagh) vs. Jey Uso, Andrade & Ricochet
- United States Champion Logan Paul appears
Category: WWE
Nic Nemeth Captures Vacant AAA Mega Title At Triplemania XXXII
Nic Nemeth’s post-WWE career has found him uniting two unlikely promotions: NJPW and AAA. Already the IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Nemeth competed against Alberto El Patron for the vacant AAA Mega Championship at AAA Triplemania XXXII: Monterrey on Saturday.
Nemeth was successful in his challenge, capturing the title, despite being a champion in NJPW, who has a partnership with AAA’s rival promotion CMLL. The animosity between the two promotions has caused trouble with AEW in North America, as AEW has a partnership with NJPW, but has AAA contracted talent like Rey Fenix and Penta El Ciero Miedo on the roster, leading to those talents not being able to work cross promotional shows like AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door. The AAA Mega Championship was vacant because former champion El Hijo Del Vikingo underwent surgery for a knee injury in March, after holding the title for over 800 days. There is no word on when Vikingo will return.
Nemeth was released from WWE in September 2023, after WWE and UFC finalized the merger to become TKO Group Holdings. After his non-compete clause was expired, Nemeth appeared in NJPW and TNA before finding his way to AAA. The former World Heavyweight Champion dethroned IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion David Finlay earlier this year after debuting at Wrestle Kingdom 18, the second champion in the belt’s young lineage. The title was created to replace the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, which had been dubbed the IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Champion by Will Ospreay before the belt was retired in favor of the Global Title.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
2024 WWE Draft Night 1 Results, CM Punk Addressed The Fans After SmackDown
Current champions will remain on their brands (with the exception of Women’s Tag Team Champions Asuka and Kairi Sane)
Paul Heyman announced that Reigns has voluntarily withdrawn his name from the eligible pool of talent from the WWE Draft because he will not be returning in the immediate future.
Round 1:
- SmackDown – Bianca Belair
- RAW – Jey Uso
- SmackDown – Carmelo Hayes from NXT
- RAW – Seth Rollins
Round 2:
- SmackDown – Randy Orton
- RAW – Bron Breakker
- SmackDown – Nia Jax
- RAW – Liv Morgan
Round 3:
- SmackDown – LA Knight
- RAW – Ricochet
- SmackDown – The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa, Tama Tonga and Paul Heyman)
- RAW – Sheamus
Round 4:
- SmackDown – AJ Styles
- RAW – Alpha Academy (Chad Gable, Otis, Akira Tozawa, and Maxxine Dupri)
- SmackDown – Andrade
- RAW – Kiana James from NXT
Some additional WWE Draft picks took place on the “SmackDown LowDown” after Smackdown went off the air.
Round 5:
SmackDown:
- The OC (Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and Michin)
- Ashante “Thee” Adonis and Cedric Alexander
- Baron Corbin
RAW:
- Ivar
- Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre
- Zoey Stark
- Shayna Baszler
Following this week’s episode of WWE SmackDown, CM Punk came out to address the fans at the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, OH.
During his post-show promo, Punk revealed that while his triceps injury isn’t healed just yet, he said he’d be back “soon” to compete with all “the big tough badasses backstage.” He also went on to say that Pete Rose belongs in the MLB Hall of Fame.
Chad Gable and Alpha Academy interrupted the promo, with Gable calling Pete Rose a cheater/fraud.
You can check out some highlights from the post-show promo below:
CM Punk on his thank you to the fans and his injury update: “Big things going on here in the WWE. The Draft was today. The Draft continues Monday. I felt compelled to come out here and speak to my friends in Cincinnati. I have missed you. And take a moment to look around at this place. Y’all packed this house. We couldn’t do this without each and every single one of you, so on behalf of everybody backstage, in front of and behind the camera, we humbly thank you very, very much. I want to give a little update. My tricep is not 100% yet, but I am on track, and I promise, soon, I will be back, and I will be competing with all of the big, tough badasses backstage.”
On Pete Rose belonging in the Baseball Hall of Fame: “For me, it’s fun watching a lot of the young superstars mixing with the Hall of Famers out here to announce draft picks, but ladies and gentlemen, I am in Cincinnati. If we’re gonna talk about the Hall of Fame in Cincinnati, we’re gonna talk about Pete Rose! I’m going to use my platform to stump this. It’s not really a hot take. Pete Rose belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame!”
WWE SmackDown – WWE Draft Preview 4/26/2024
WWE SmackDown airs live tonight on FOX from the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
- 2024 WWE Draft begins.
- Contract signing between Cody Rhodes and AJ Styles contract signing for their Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match at Backlash on May 4.
Valhalla & The Viking Raiders’ Erik Expecting A Baby
Congratulations are in order for Valhalla and The Viking Raiders’ Erik.
In a joint statement via Instagram, Valhalla (Sarah Rowe) and Erik announced that they are expecting their second child together. Valhalla is pregnant with their second son, with the child set to enter the world in November.
Update On WWE Star Dominik Mysterio’s Injury Status
WWE star Dominik Mysterio has been the subject of much discussion as of late, after he appeared on the April 22 “WWE Raw” wearing a sling, implying that he had sustained an injury. Fightful Select recently reported that Mysterio’s injury was serious enough to take him off the company’s recent European tour, where he was replaced by Ricochet, but there was no word on how injured Mysterio was at the time. However, there has now been an update.
According to Dave Meltzer in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Mysterio suffered an elbow injury during his match with Andrade on the April 15 “Raw,” in what was described to Meltzer as a freak accident. While Mysterio did appear on TV the following week, it is believed that he will have to undergo ‘Tommy John’ surgery, a procedure which is typically used on baseball players.
Meltzer noted that baseball players who have the surgery are usually out of action for around nine months, but given that Mysterio isn’t going to be throwing fastballs anytime soon, his recovery time could be a little shorter. However, Meltzer was unable to confirm an official timeframe on how long Mysterio will be on the shelf, or when he will be going under the knife. Despite the injury, WWE are reportedly planning on keeping Mysterio on TV as a character to accompany The Judgment Day while not working any matches, something that has become common in WWE over the past few months with stars like Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre both remaining on TV despite having serious injuries.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Cameron Grimes Announces His Release From WWE
Following the recent string of releases from WWE, Cameron Grimes has taken to social media to confirm that he has been let go from the company.
Grimes shared his thoughts in response to the news, talking about how much he loved working for the company and thanking everyone who helped him along the way.
The former NXT North American Champion started with the company in 2019, with a featured run on NXT in a storyline that involved the Million Dollar Championship.
Grimes moved to the main roster in the 2023 WWE Draft, but largely competed at live events in his final months with the company before his last match against Bron Breakker on the 4/12 edition of SmackDown.
Source: eWn
Ex-WWE Chairman Vince McMahon Files Motion To Force Janel Grant Lawsuit Into Arbitration
As Janel Grant’s lawsuit against WWE, Vince McMahon and others continues, McMahon’s counsel has filed a motion to take the matter out of the public court.
According to a new filing, McMahon’s attorneys have cited a section of Grant’s Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) that states any grievances the two parties have should be settled in private arbitration, as opposed to public court. McMahon’s team also categorically denies Grant’s accusations, alleging that she couldn’t have been grieving the death of her parents in 2019, as they died much earlier, and also stating that Grant and her then-fiance’s ability to live in the same building as McMahon without incident, despite the sordid nature of the alleged affair, called Grant’s accusations and description of her relationship with McMahon into question.
According to Wrestlenomics’s Brandon Thurston, Grant’s attorney Ann Callis had the following to say: “Vince McMahon has never known a storyline that he doesn’t twist to fit his own shameful narrative. Her father was in in-home hospice during his final days where Janel continued to care for him around the clock. Prior to his death, she had been caring for her blind, wheelchair-bound mother. Using the grief of someone who lost both of her parents is an all new level of disgusting.”
Grant has accused McMahon, John Laurinaitis, and WWE of sexual harassment, abuse, and sex trafficking during her time as an assistant for McMahon between 2019 and 2022. The suit also mentioned various unnamed “Corporate Officers” as well as a “Former UFC World Champion” who was later revealed to be Brock Lesnar.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
WWE NXT Spring Breakin’ Night 1 (4/23/2024)
Tonight is Night 1 of WWE NXT’s 2 week special Spring Breakin’ in Orlando, Florida at the Performance Center on the USA Network:
- NXT Championship: Ilja Dragunov (c) vs. Trick Williams (If Williams loses, he leaves NXT)
- NXT Women’s Championship: Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Lyra Valkyriavs. Tatum Paxley
- No Quarter Catch Crew’s Charlie Dempsey, Damon Kemp & Myles Borne vs. The Family’s Tony D’Angelo, Stacks & Luca Crusifino
- Beach Brawl: Sol Ruca vs. Blair Davenport
- Natalya & Lola Vice contract signing
Dominik Mysterio Is Injured
Dominik Mysterio is reportedly dealing with an injury.
“Dirty Dom” was pulled from last week’s European tour and wound up being replaced by Ricochet.
On this week’s episode of RAW, Dominik appeared with his arm in a sling and he announced that he was banged up. Due to this, Santos Escobar would be taking his place in teaming with JD McDonagh.
According to a report from Fightful Select, Mysterio’s injury is legitimate. As of this writing, there is no word on the nature of the injury or how long he’ll be out of action.
Source: eWn
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