Category: WWE

Becky Lynch Invited To This Week’s WWE RAW By The McMahon Family

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WWE announced today Becky Lynch has been invited back to this week’s RAW by the McMahon Family, despite being suspended by Stephanie McMahon earlier this week.

Stephanie told Lynch she needed to get clearance on her knee injury before she could face WWE RAW Women’s Champion Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 35, and until she did so Lynch would be suspended.

On RAW, Lynch punched Stephanie McMahon and the very next night on SmackDown Live, slapped Triple H after he tried to convince her to do the same in regards to getting her knee injury cleared.

WWE Confirms “Superstar Shake-Up” In April

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Earlier this week, a commercial aired in Canada during RAW for the upcoming RAW and SmackDown tapings in Montreal on April 15 and 16. The promo said that “the first international Superstar Shake-up” will occur at each show.

In the video below, WWE has confirmed those dates are indeed when this year’s Superstar Shake-up will take place.

Last year’s took place on April 16 and 17. The Shake-up saw Jeff Hardy, Samoa Joe, R-Truth, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Asuka, Sheamus & Cesaro as the top stars moved from RAW to SmackDown. Kevin Owens, Dolph Ziggler, Jinder Mahal, Sami Zayn, The Riott Squad, Natalya, Baron Corbin, Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, Mojo Rawley and Zack Ryder were among the names moved to RAW.

Source: WrestlingINC

AEW Announce Signings And More At Ticket Party In Las Vegas (Video)

Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and more hyped up their Double or Nothing pay-per-view during a ticket release party at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas — watch footage of the livestream below.

What happened at the party:

  • On the pre-show livestream, MJF confronted Conrad Thompson.
  • Sonny Kiss arrives and confirms he will present at Double or Nothing
  • AEW EVP Cody Rhodes comes to the stage, confirms partnership with AAA.
  • Cody announces Double or Nothing pre-sale ticket opportunity (now through Feb 11th) and general public ticket sale date (Feb 13th)
  • AAA cruiserweight champ Sammy Guevara enters the stage, plugs his YouTube channel and confirms Double or Nothing appearance
  • Hangman Page arrives, only to be interrupted by PAC “via satellite”
  • PAC vs. Page confirmed for Double or Nothing “I’ll bring my cowboy boots because in your home country of England they may have to give a knighthood to the doctor who can pull ’em out of your ass,” Page says
  • The Bucks hype up AEW’s tag division and bring the double-denim clad Best Friends to the stage, Trent says that he and Chuck want to change the world “through the power of friendship”
  • The Lucha Bros. arrive and attack the Young Bucks
  • AEW’s Chief Brand Officer Brandi comes to the stage and confirms that Japanese wrestlers Aja Kong and Yuka Sakazaki will be at Double or Nothing
  • Brandi brings new AEW signings Kylie Rae and Nyla Rose to the stage, the pair confront each other as Brandi attempts to keep them apart
  • Excalibur brings SoCal Uncensored to the stage to announce the Double or Nothing after party — SCU: All Night
  • CIMA and representatives of Oriental Wrestling Entertainment take to the stage, SCU request a match with CIMA and two of OWE’s best men at Double or Nothing
  • KENNY OMEGA ARRIVES!!
  • Chris Jericho interrupts Omega, the pair scuffle briefly before being pulled apart
  • Kenny has stolen Jericho’s hat and is wearing it
  • Omega/Jericho 2 confirmed for Double or Nothing
  • Goodbye and goodnight, bang!

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

AEW Announces Partnership With Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide

All Elite Wrestling has confirmed it will be joining forces with one of Mexico’s biggest promotions — Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide!

AEW took to Twitter to announce the partnership: “We are an hour away from the Ticket Announcement Party but the news is breaking now!,” the tweet read. “[AEW]and [AAA] are teaming up to ”

The tweet included a video featuring AAA’s General Manager Dorian Roldán Peña talking about what the relationship between the two promotions will entail.

“Unfortunately we could not attend the present day. But we are very happy to be able to make this announcement with you,” Roldán says. “The announcement is that AAA Lucha Libre Worldwide and All Elite Wrestling come together in a new alliance that will present new surprises to the fans,” he continued, adding that the relationship would involve “exchange of talent,” and “surprise people.”

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE Co-President Comments On All Elite Wrestling

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WWE Co-President George Barrios commented on the launch of a “new wrestling organization” during today’s fourth quarter 2018 WWE earnings call. The caller was presumably asking about All Elite Wrestling, wondering if AEW has caused an impact on the market for talent, and if WWE is seeing more cost inflation due to their launch.

“Yeah, too early to tell. We wouldn’t talk about specifics of that,” Barrios said. “From our perspective, we think we are the premiere global organization with the greatest wrestlers in the world, one of the greatest platforms. We have a lot of confidence in our ability to manage that.”

Source: WrestlingINC

Analysis: WWE Earned Millions From Saudi Arabia Deals In 2018 (Crown Jewel And Super Show-Down)

WWE fourth quarter earnings showed the company brought in tens of millions in additional revenue for its Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia and Super Show-Down in Australia.

While the earnings report didn’t specifically break down numbers for each event, it noted the revenue jump from $20 million in the final quarter of 2017 to $64 million in Q4 of 2018 was “primarily due to the distribution of certain live, in-ring programming content in international markets as reflected in ‘other.’”

If you’re trying to do the math in your head, that means an additional $43 million — the bulk of which likely came from Crown Jewel and Super Show-Down.

Back in the second quarter of 2018, we reported The Greatest Royal Rumble generated an additional $40 million in revenue for WWE. Q2 earnings showed $60 million in “other” revenue versus $12 million in Q2 of 2017.

While we’d presume Crown Jewel generated more revenue that Super Show-Down, it doesn’t appear to have brought in the same amount as WWE’s original event in Saudi Arabia.

Crown Jewel took place November 2 in Riyadh amid a cloud of controversy over whether or not the show should be produced. The event followed the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Stars John Cena and Daniel Bryan requested to not appear at the show. The broadcast instead featured the in-ring return of Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels and WWE comeback of Hulk Hogan.

For 2018, the “other” category in WWE’s media segment saw nearly $100 million in additional revenue.  The bulk of that would’ve come from Greatest Royal Rumble, Crown Jewel, and Super Show-Down.

It’s worth noting WWE saw year-to-year growth in all major media segments including network, core content rights fees, and advertising and sponsorship.

WWE continued to see revenue drop for live events, however. In Q4, WWE brought in $34 million compared to $35 million in the same time period the preview year. Full 2018 live events were off roughly $8 million from 2017.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

 

2018 was the first year of the announced 10 year partnership with WWE and the Saudi Arabia. WWE is expected hold events in Saudi Arabia in May and November of this year.

Source: WrestlingINC

Former Colts Punter Pat McAfee Reveals New Multi-Year Contract With WWE

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Former NFL player (Indianapolis Colts Punter) Pat McAfee has officially signed with WWE.

McAfee tweeted the following video and revealed that he has signed a multi-year deal to work as a WWE Digital correspondent. He thanked Triple H and Michael Cole, and wrote, “Good morning beautiful people.. today’s a pretty massive day for me. I can officially say I’m a @WWE employee. A real lifelong dream coming true thanks to @MichaelCole and @TripleH.. This opportunity means the world to me. Let’s. Go.”

The video includes footage of McAfee mixing it up at an indie event in 2008 or 2009. He teases an interest in returning to the ring, noting that signing with WWE is his childhood dream as he grew up during the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars. McAfee said he and WWE go side-by-side with each other.

The video also includes audio from Cole, who confirms that as of February 1, McAfee is officially a WWE contributor.

Source: WrestlingINC

AJ Styles Shoots Down Report Of Hernia

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As previously noted, AJ Styles missed WWE live events this past weekend and has been out of action since facing Daniel Bryan at The Royal Rumble pay-per-view.

It was reported that Styles is suffering from a hernia, however Styles shot down those reports on Twitter. In response to a user asking, “WHAT ARE U DOING WRESTLING WITH A HERNIA!!?????” Styles replied, “Yeah, about that. I don’t have a hernia.”

https://twitter.com/AJStylesOrg/status/1093270762142789642

Styles also recently shut down reports that he had signed a new contract with WWE.

Styles is scheduled to compete at WWE Elimination Chamber in a six-man Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. Elimination Chamber takes place on February 17, 2019 from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

Source: WrestlingINC

FOX CEO Says WWE SmackDown Is On Friday Nights “Short Term”, Confirms Deal Includes Wrestling Content Outside Of SmackDown

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It’s now confirmed by a network executive that WWE SmackDown will air live when it moves to Fox on Friday, October 9. However, it sounds like Friday nights may not be a permanent timeslot for the blue brand.

Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier spoke about SmackDown during the Fox executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour this week. He confirmed that SmackDown will air live, which we had reported previously.

“It’s live, and what’s remarkable [is] these are people that know their audience,” said Collier, who admitted he is a longtime pro wrestling fan. “They’re great storytellers and I think it fits beautifully with what we’re doing.”

Gamespot’s Chris Hayner covered the speech and revealed on Twitter that Collier said WWE is on Friday nights for the “short term,” indicating that it could be moved to another night. Hayner tweeted: “‘Short term, Friday night is going to WWE,’ Collier says when asked about Last Man Standing. That show could go elsewhere. But WWE being ‘short term’ Fridays tells me they may move it around.”

https://twitter.com/ChrisHayner/status/1093233580216438785

It was also confirmed that more WWE content is planned for the new partnership with Fox as they look to treat wrestling more as a sport than a weekly, episode TV series.

“The Fox sports networks, FS1, and others, will have some other wrestling–not live Smackdown, not Raw, but other ties to the WWE world,” Collier revealed.

There’s no word yet on what kind if content they have planned but it was speculated that we will see recap shows and “talking head series” on FS1.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE NXT Preview 2/6/19

NXT, streaming tonight at 8 p.m. ET on WWE Network.

* Johnny Gargano kicks off NXT

* Belair & The Sky Pirates battle Baszler, Shafir & Duke

* Drew Gulak’s campaign comes to NXT

* The Forgotten Sons’ heavy hitter storms the ring