Category: WWE

WWE SmackDown Preview 12/3/21

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will take place from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas as the road to Day 1 continues.

What will happen when Brock Lesnar returns to SmackDown this Friday?

Last week’s SmackDown saw Sami Zayn win a Black Friday Battle Royal to become the new #1 contender to Reigns, and there should be a follow-up to that this week.

It’s also expected that Kofi Kingston will return to TV tonight to assist King Xavier Woods. Kingston had taken some time off to be with his wife for the birth of their third child, but he returned last week in a dark main event.

There’s no word on if the top blue brand match for WWE Day 1 will be announced tonight, but it’s possible after this week’s RAW led to Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins vs. WWE Champion Big E being announced for the New Year’s Day pay-per-view.

Beth Phoenix Reveals WWE NXT Announce Team Departure

WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix is moving on from the WWE NXT announce team.

Phoenix took to Twitter today to announce that Sunday’s WarGames event will be her final night on NXT commentary with Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett. She confirmed that she will remain a part of WWE, but she is stepping away from the weekly WWE gig to spend more time with family.

Phoenix thanked Joseph, Barrett, Nigel McGuinness, Tom Phillips, Mauro Ranallo, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Michael Cole. She also said the brand will always be a part of her.

“Ahead of WarGames, I wanted to share that this Sunday will be my final night in NXT,” she wrote. “While I will remain a part of WWE, I have made the choice to step away from the weekly broadcast booth to spend more time with my family. This was not an easy decision, as I have loved my three plus years and 135 episodes with NXT and am incredibly proud of the brand. I will forever be grateful to Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, Nigel McGuinness, Tom Phillips, Mauro Ranallo, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Michael Cole, and my entire NXT family both in and out of the ring for the amazing opportunity. NXT will always be a part of me and Auntie Betty will always be a part of NXT. Leave the porch light on for me!”

Phoenix, who is married to WWE Hall of Famer Edge, joined the NXT commentary team back on May 15, 2019. She recently got into the country music business, releasing her “Stone Rose & Bone” debut EP on November 12.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Announces Groundbreaking NIL Program

WWE has announced a new NIL program that will provide a pathway for athletes to go from college to WWE.

RAW Superstar and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson was signed to WWE’s first NCAA NIL (name, image, likeness) deal back in September, shortly after the NCAA began allowing athletes to make money from their own name, images and likeness.

Now WWE has announced their own NIL (Next In Line – name, image, likeness) program to enhance the talent development process through collaborative partnerships with college athletes.

WWE’s Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul “Triple H” Levesque noted in today’s press release that the WWE NIL program has the potential to change the business.

“The WWE NIL program has the potential to be transformational to our business,” he said. “By creating partnerships with elite athletes at all levels across a wide variety of college sports, we will dramatically expand our pool of talent and create a system that readies NCAA competitors for WWE once their collegiate careers come to a close.”

The first class of NIL partnerships will be revealed in the coming weeks.

All athlete partnerships will have access to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, along with other resources such as brand building, media training, communications, live event promotion, creative writing, and community relations. Some athletes will be offered a WWE contract after completing the program.

Stay tuned for more on the WWE NIL program. Below is the full press release issued to us today:

WWE® LAUNCHES NIL PROGRAM: NEXT IN LINE™

New Program to Provide Clear Pathway from Collegiate Athletics to WWE

STAMFORD, Conn., December 2, 2021 – WWE (NYSE: WWE) today announced the launch of a groundbreaking NIL (Name, Image & Likeness) program that will provide a clear pathway from collegiate athletics to WWE.

Following a historic new policy by the NCAA effective July 1, 2021, which ushered in the NIL era allowing college athletes the ability to monetize their name, image and likeness, WWE has constructed a comprehensive program to recruit and develop potential future Superstars. Dubbed “Next In Line™,” the NIL program aims to enhance the talent development process through collaborative partnerships with college athletes from diverse athletic backgrounds.

“The WWE NIL program has the potential to be transformational to our business,” said Paul Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Global Talent Strategy and Development. “By creating partnerships with elite athletes at all levels across a wide variety of college sports, we will dramatically expand our pool of talent and create a system that readies NCAA competitors for WWE once their collegiate careers come to a close.”

All athlete partnerships will feature access to the state-of-the-art WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Fla., in addition to resources across the organization including brand building, media training, communications, live event promotion, creative writing and community relations. Upon completion of the NIL program, select athletes may earn an exclusive opportunity to be offered a WWE contract.

In September, WWE announced its first NIL deal with heavyweight freestyle wrestler Gable Steveson who captured a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. The agreement allowed Steveson to return to the University of Minnesota for his senior season where he is defending his NCAA National Championship while beginning his Superstar training with WWE.

WWE will unveil the first class of NIL partnerships in the coming weeks.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Jeff Jarrett Has Joined The Ownership Group Of A Baseball Franchise

WWE Hall of Famer Jeff Jarrett has joined the ownership group for Capital City Baseball’s Springfield Slidders franchise in Springfield, IL. Jarrett was approached with the idea of coming on board as a co-owner and, as we were told, he “jumped at it.” The man who approached Jarrett was Jamie Toole, a long-tenured minor league baseball executive who recently served simultaneously as the General Manager for two other teams.

Jeff Jarrett’s role with the team will see him bring more entertainment to the games. The Slidders play around 30 – 32 games a season which leaves the park empty for more than 300 days a year. Jarrett will be infusing the Slidders’ games with music and other entertainment beforehand, between innings and afterward. It is not expected that Jarrett will have a hand in the day-to-day decisions of the actual team.

On the other 300 some-odd-days a year Jarrett is expected to present circuses, live music, and, of course, pro wrestling at the park. This position was described to us as “right in Jeff’s wheelhouse.”

In a recent The Wrestling Inc. Daily interview, Jarrett discussed the opportunity so many released WWE and ROH talent creates at the moment.

“I think there’s much more of an opportunity, an exponential more of an opportunity,” Jarrett said. “The reason I say that is, 2002, there was a bad taste.

“That is something that me and Conrad have gone in-depth on My World about it. Unless you really lived it and breathed it, like me and my team did at the time, you didn’t understand the backlash that the Attitude Era caused with the decision-makers.”

It should also be noted that the entire presentation of the team is expected to see an overhaul. That includes renaming of the team from the Springfield Slidders to something else.

A live stream of the launch press conference is expected for this afternoon and will be available via the My World Facebook page.

The Sliders play in the Prospect League, a wooden-bat, summer league of college baseball players who play for different schools and regions of the country but are united as a team by their love of baseball. For those just learning about the Sliders, a wooden-bat league allows players to use the bats similar to those used in the major leagues. Normally metal bats are used by college, high school and youth baseball because they rarely break. But they also strike baseballs far differently than wooden models. Major-league scouts welcome the opportunity to see how players handle wooden bats.

Click here for more information on the Sliders and the Prospect League.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 11/29/21

Tonight’s WWE RAW will air live from the UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

Nia Jax Gives Major Update On Her Pro Wrestling Future

Nia Jax has taken to social media to claim that it is “highly unlikely” she will ever wrestle again. The former WWE Superstar was released from the company on November 4 alongside 17 other talents.

The revelation came up after Nia had shared a link that some fans thought hinted at a new name. The link was previously to a fan-made website, NiaJax.com. However, that had been changed to LinaDanene.com, which some felt would be her new name.

Nia Jax took to Twitter to clarify this situation. In her post, she made it clear that a return to the ring isn’t on her mind right now.

Nia wrote:

“Lol! Newsflash…Lina is my real name. It’s not another “ring” name. It’s just MY NAME, the name given to me at birth. Calm TF down trolls. In all fairness, “Opponent Crippler” would be a SOLID front runner if I ever decide to wrestle again. but it’s highly unlikely”

If Nia Jax doesn’t step back into the ring, then her final ever match was against Shayna Baszler on the 9/20/21 episode of Raw. During her career, she was able to hold the Raw Women’s Championship and the Women’s Tag Team Titles with Baszler.

https://twitter.com/LinaFanene/status/1465333443726880776

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE SmackDown Preview 11/26/21

The post-Survivor Series edition of WWE SmackDown on FOX will air live tonight from the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, NC.

WWE previously teased SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Toni Storm for tonight’s show, but that match is not currently listed in the official preview.

Seth Rollins’ Attacker Apologizes, Claims He Was Just Trying To Help Finn Balor

The fan has given off mixed messages via his apology.

The biggest talking point coming out of this week’s Raw was an unplanned part of the show. As Seth Rollins made his way back to the locker room following an attack on Finn Balor, The Kingslayer was subjected to an attack of his own. The difference is the attack on Rollins wasn’t a part of the show as it was instigated by a fan who had jumped the barricade.

The fan has since been identified as 24-year-old Eliash Spencer. He has been charged with attempted assault for what he did, and since it happened it has become clear that the fan was catfished by someone masquerading as Rollins. In an interview with the New York Daily News (via ComicBook.com), Spencer explained that someone he believed to be Rollins had been asking him to send gift cards.

“He was asking me to send him gift cards in exchange for money, mostly $500 or more to see if I was loyal,” Spencer explained. Apparently, whoever it was pretending to be Rollins had asked Spencer to be a wrestling blogger for him and claimed it would get him into the business. However, after revealing he had apologized to WWE and “moved on”, Spencer started to give off mixed messages.

“My plan was to help Finn Balor … I jumped from where I was sitting at. I ran and speared Seth Rollins. I busted his lip open and he caught me in a headlock.” While Spencer may have apologized to WWE, and claims to have learned from what he did, the addendum that he was trying to aid a performer who had been laid out in an angle that was part of the show doesn’t paint the fan in the best light.

When asked about the incident by TMZ, Rollins said it was terrifying in the moment, adding that he believes the fan should be banned from future WWE shows. That Spencer believed Balor needed his help, and he jumped the barricade and attacked a performer to give him that help, is probably a sign that from now on, Spencer should stick to watching wrestling at home.

Source: TheSportster

Jerry Lawler Admits WWE Is Sometimes “Sort Of Hard To Watch”

WWE Hall Of Famer, Jerry Lawler, was a recent guest on Busted Open Radio. The former WWE commentator spoke about the current product, which he claimed is hard to watch at times.

“Sometimes it’s sort of hard for me to watch,” Lawler admitted. “I just got my schedule to be at Survivor Series, and so it’s almost like cramming for an exam back when you were at school. I really have to go back and watch some shows, and make some notes, and find out what is actually going on.”

Jerry Lawler went on to explain his thoughts on the product in greater detail. He admitted that the product is too short, stating it would be brutal to be a commentator now.

“I don’t see how the guys in the business — it’s so tough to be doing that on a daily basis,” he said. “Doing the commentary for Raw and SmackDown now, to me, it’s almost brutal to have to know and remember. The talent changes so fast and everything is so short now.

“It’s not the fault of wrestling, people love to talk about how wrestling has changed. Wrestling has not changed. It’s the fans, it’s the society that’s changed. We’ve got a short attention span now,” Lawler believes. “You have to, in the wrestling business, you have to realize there’s so much more stuff that fans can watch. So, you have to keep this here show so exciting every minute that people are watching or they’re going to switch over and start watching TikTok. It’s changed in that respect, and sometimes for me, it’s hard to follow.”

The King spoke about the variety of moves that are around nowadays with lots of names. He discussed the incident which saw him call a move the, ‘Ramen Noodle Moonsault,’ which he believes ended his commentary run.

“I really believe that may be one of the reasons I’m not doing commentary on Raw right now,” Lawler claimed. “I didn’t call a move a triple indie, I called a move a Ramen Noodle Moonsault. All of a sudden, I was the biggest racist ever for saying, ‘Ramen Noodle Moonsault,’ with a Japanese wrestler in the ring.”

Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to Busted Open Radio

Fan Who Attacked Seth Rollins Apparently Catfished By Fake Rollins Social Media Account

As per a report, the fan who attacked Seth Rollins apparently did so because he was scammed by a fake Rollins social media account.

It certainly doesn’t excuse a fan jumping over the railing at a WWE live event and attacking a performer, but according to a report, the reason one took aim at Seth Rollins on Monday night was that he was prompted to do so on social media.

According to wrestling reporter Sean Ross Sapp, “The guy who attacked Seth Rollins got scammed and catfish by a fake Seth Rollins account. Welp”. This news comes as an update after it was reported WWE was filing charges against Elisah Spencer, 24, who attacked Rollins as he was leaving the entryway post his segment with Finn Balor in the first hour of Monday Night Raw. Spencer has been charged with attempted assault and attempted violation of arts and cultural affairs.

It’s a strange development in a story that caught a ton of attention Monday evening and has been discussed on Tuesday after Chavo Guerrero took to Twitter and said, “Remember when the wrestlers were tougher than the fans? Ah, the good ol’ days.” The fact that Spencer might have been egged on by a fake social media account pretending to be Rollins is hard to wrap one’s head around. The suggestion here would be that someone posed as Rollins and dared the 24-year-old to try and get at him during the show. The alternative would be that he was upset he was scammed and took it out on the real Rollins.

While it cannot be confirmed, there are also reports that the fake account convinced Spencer to send them money and clearly took advantage of him and his being totally unaware he was being scammed.

Regardless of how this all turns out, the real Seth Rollins should be commended for how he reacted. Not only did he get the attacker in a choke until officials stepped in, but he didn’t do much more than drop a few choice words. From there, when he came back out to the ring, he jokingly looked around the arena as a good heel would do to see if anyone else might have had the same idea.

Source: TheSportster