The New Day made their long waited WWE TV return last night on SmackDown Live.
The trio had been off TV since the night after WrestleMania 33, when Kofi Kingston suffered an ankle injury during a match with The Revival.
The New Day made it known that they are coming after the SmackDown Tag Team Titles held by The Usos at the Money In The Bank Pay-Per-View on June 18th.
Tonight’s 205 Live will take place from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
* Can Austin Aries make Neville tap out at WWE Extreme Rules?
* “The Boss” Sasha Banks arrives on WWE 205 Live
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
* SmackDown Women’s Title No. 1 Contender’s Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match to take place tonight
* Will Sami Zayn be back in action?
* Can anyone stop The Usos?
* WWE Money in the Bank momentum at stake
* Will Mahal avoid The Viper’s fangs?
Pro Wrestling Sheet has confirmed with the L.A. County District Attorney’s office that they’ve dropped the case surrounding Sean Waltman‘s drug arrest at LAX last month over lack of evidence.
A rep for the DA’s office says the case was declined Thursday in court due to “insufficient evidence.”
As we previously reported, X-Pac was ADAMANT that he didn’t have meth in his possession — and during an interview done by Pro Wrestling Sheet’s Editor-in-Chief he swore that the facts would come out in court.
Looks like that won’t have to happen though, because the wrestler has been officially cleared by the DA.
Matt Hardy’s trademark application for ‘Broken Matt Hardy’ was reportedly refused by the U.S. Patent & Trademark office. Hardy has six months to respond before the application is abandoned. The reason for the refusal read in part:
“Registration is refused because the applied-for mark, as used on the specimen of record, identifies only the name of a particular character/personal name; it does not function as a service mark to identify and distinguish applicant’s services from those of others and to indicate the source of applicant’s services.”
Source: WrestlingINC
PWInsider reports that NXT star Tommaso Ciampa suffered another injury during last week’s NXT Takeover: Chicago match with the Authors of Pain. The injury will require surgery, and Ciampa is scheduled to go to Birmingham, Alabama for the operation and rebab.
Ciampa appeared at last night’s NXT television tapings wearing crutches. He vowed to be the most dangerous man in pro wrestling when he returns.
Ciampa originally suffered an ankle injury two nights before the Takeover match, but he worked the show anyway.
Source: WrestlingINC
WWE announced today that they are cancelling the June 4th NXT live event in Manchester our of respect to those affected by the terrorist attack in the city earlier this week. WWE issued this statement:
“Out of respect for all those affected by the Manchester tragedy, WWE is cancelling the NXT event on Tuesday, June 6 at the Manchester Arena, and giving fans who purchased tickets to the show a full refund and offering them the option to receive a free ticket at point of purchase to the NXT show on Wednesday, June 7 at First Direct Arena in Leeds.”Our Superstars will be in Manchester on June 6 visiting with those affected by the tragedy and WWE is making a donation to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. We look forward to returning to the Manchester Arena on Monday, November 6 for Raw and Tuesday, November 7 for SmackDown Live.”
WWE Shop is selling exclusive red “Untouchable” t-shirts for AJ Styles as he prepares to return home to Atlanta for next week’s SmackDown episode. AJ and WWE are asking fans to “rock the red” when they attend next week’s show. AJ speaks on the shirt in this new video:
Source: WrestlingINC
Photo from shop.wwe.com
Emma is expected to be cleared to return to action in mid-June, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Emma suffered a shoulder injury at a WWE live event earlier this month on May 7th in Liverpool, England. She was teaming with RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax against Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Mickie James. She took a bad landing on her right shoulder after a double knee drop from Sasha on the turnbuckle, which caused the referee to throw the “X” signal and have the match stopped early.
Emma had returned to action on television last month on the April 3rd episode of RAW. She had suffered a back injury last May, and was scheduled to return as “Emmalina” earlier this year. The gimmick was dropped the day it was scheduled to debut this past February, and she reverted back to her “Emma” name.
Source: WrestlingINC
Triple H announced that the tournament will be called the “Mae Young Classic.” The name honors Young, who the company has long held up as a legendary figure in women’s wrestling. She was 90 years old when she passed away in January 2014.
WWE announced the following:
WWE has announced that the first-ever Mae Young Classic women’s tournament will take place Thursday, July 13, and Friday, July 14, from Full Sail Live in Orlando, Fla.
Tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET via www.nxttickets.com.
The tournament, named after WWE Hall of Famer and one of the greatest WWE Superstars in history, Mae Young, will feature 32 of the top female competitors from around the world participating in a single-elimination tournament. The unprecedented event will stream later this summer exclusively on WWE Network.
“The Mae Young Classic will mark a significant moment in the evolution of WWE,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events and Creative. “We are proud to provide this unique opportunity for the best female talent from around the world.”
Additional information on the Mae Young Classic will be announced in the coming weeks.
Click here for additional information on the life and legacy of WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young.
The current plan is for the tournament to have a very strong female presence, besides the talent roster, according to PWInsider. There has been talk of using female announcers, something like 2 female announcers and 1 male. No word yet on who the female announcers would be but they could go with something like Renee Young and Charly Caruso or with a guest WWE Hall of Famer, perhaps Lita or Beth Phoenix. We already know that WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will be working the announce table that week.
There’s also been talk of using female referees for the tournament. We noted a few weeks back that indie women’s wrestler Kennadi Brink has been signed to work as a referee for the company. She will likely call at least some of the matches but there’s no word yet on if there will be another female referee brought in.
WWE has confirmed that the tournament will tape on July 13th and July 14th but they have not announced an air date yet. We do know that the tournament will air later this summer and as noted, the plan is to release 3 or 4 episodes at a time instead of one new episode each week. There are also plans to hold a live WWE Network special with the tournament finals on Tuesday, August 29th but that date could change.
Sources: WWE.com and WrestlingINC.com
