WWE World Championship: (C) Dean Ambrose vs AJ Styles
SmackDown Women’s Championship – Six-Pack Challenge: Nikki Bella vs Natalya vs Becky Lynch vs Naomi vs Alexa Bliss vs Carmella
SmackDown Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals: Heath Slater & Rhyno vs Winner of The Usos vs The Hype Bros
Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton
Intercontinental Championship: (C) The Miz w/Maryse vs Dolph Ziggler
The Usos vs The Hype Bros – Winners advance to SmackDown Tag Team Championship Tournament Finals
WWE announced the following today:
Scotty 2 Hotty joins WWE Performance Center as a coach
The WWE Performance Center coaching staff has added another former champion to the team.
Attitude Era favorite Scotty 2 Hotty — aka, Scott Taylor— began coaching NXT recruits full-time this week in Orlando, Florida. A former WWE Tag Team and Light Heavyweight Champion, Taylor visited the Performance Center as a guest coach in June, and has competed in WWE and NXT as recently as 2014.
Famous for his outstretched hair and crowd-pleasing “Worm” taunt, Taylor became one of the most popular WWE Superstars of The Attitude Era, teaming regularly with Too Cool partner Grandmaster Sexay and WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi.
He joins another former teammate at the Performance Center in the form of Head Coach Matt Bloom. Bloom and Taylor partnered in 2001-2002, while Bloom competed under the moniker of the “Hip Hop Hippo” Albert.
Source: WrestlingINC
Deadline reported on Thursday that WWE Superstar Eva Marie will co-star in a new thriller titled “Inconceivable” with Nicolas Cage and Faye Dunaway.
It’s worth noting that Deadline’s updated report does not mention Eva’s role but their original report referred to her as Natalie Eva Marie from Total Divas, and Entertainment Weekly is still reporting that she’s involved.
The movie will also co-star Nicky Whelan and will be directed by Jonathan Baker with Chloe King writing the script. It appears WWE Studios is not involved.
The movie follows Whelan, who stars as an abused mother named Katie, as she moves into a new neighborhood to start her live over with her young daughter. She befriends a married woman named Angela, presumably played by Eva, and her husband Brian, played by Cage. Angela begins to notice odd behavior from Katie that causes her to question whether Katie’s intentions are as innocent as she makes them out to be, of if something darker is lurking beneath the surface.
Filming begins in October. Eva is due back from her first WWE Wellness Policy suspension on September 18th.
WWE announced the following:
STAMFORD, Conn. — WWE and Jose Rodriguez (Alberto Del Rio) have mutually agreed upon the terms of his release as of today, September 9, 2016.
Del Rio returned to the company less than a year ago, but his run had been lackluster to say the least. His final match was against John Cena.
Del Rio was suspended last month for 30 days along side his girlfriend Paige for violation of the WWE Wellness Policy. Paige is rumored to be possibly on her way out of WWE as well.
Source: WrestlingINC
Paige’s WWE future is said to be up in the air right now, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter. While also dealing with injuries, she is still serving a 30-day suspension for her first violation of the WWE Wellness Policy and is under contract until 2019 but there has been a lot of heat over her relationship with Alberto Del Rio, and other issues, leading to speculation on her not coming back.
We noted last week via MLW Radio’s “MSL & Sullivan” podcast that WWE’s Mark Carrano approached Paige and Del Rio individually and harassed them about the relationship. It was indicated that the office wanted them to end the relationship, which is why they were split up in the WWE Draft. It was also reported that the company threatened to fire Paige if she didn’t break up with Del Rio.
The Observer reports that WWE is denying the story – the harassment to Del Rio and Paige, and the threat to fire her. Apparently there is also a claim going around that Del Rio called Carrano on the subject but Carrano just went silent during the conversation.
For what it’s worth, Paige has now reportedly retained legal representation and there’s speculation on if she will stay with WWE or leave.
On a related note, it’s believed that WWE will be announcing Del Rio’s departure any time now.
It was announced on Talking Smack that American Alpha has been pulled from the finals of the tournament (American Alpha was pulled from the match due to a storyline injury suffered by Chad Gable on last night’s SmackDown Live at the hands of The Usos) and instead a match between The Usos and The Hype Bros will take place Sunday at WWE Backlash. The winners will face Heath Slater and Rhyno in the finals to crown the first ever SmackDown Tag Team Champions.
It was said that Gable will be out for 2-4 weeks after injuring his ACL.
The following is set for tonight’s 9/7 WWE Cruiserweight Classic on the WWE Network:
* The quarter-finals conclude.
* Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Noam Dar
* Rich Swann vs. TJ Perkins
The following is set for tonight’s 9/7 WWE NXT on the WWE Network:
* NXT Women’s Champion Asuka makes her first appearance since TakeOver: Brooklyn II
* TM-61 in action.
* Ember Moon in action.
* NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura in action.
Source: WrestlingINC
TMZ reports that Scott Hall was ejected out of a T.G.I. Friday’s restaurant in the Atlanta airport last Friday.
According to a witness, Hall was at the bar drinking Coors Lights and tequila shots. He allegedly hit on the bartender and called her a b—h, which caused problems with the bartender’s father, who was at the bar. Hall reportedly didn’t believe that the man was the bartender’s father, and refused to leave when the manager asked him to. Police were called, and Hall left without further incident. No police report was filed.
Scott Hall posted the following on Twitter this morning:
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Joanie Laurer’s tragic passing is still shrouded in mystery … but based on information that Chyna‘s mother has re-evaluated since it happened, she’s now asking police to take a closer look.
Pro Wrestling Sheet spoke with Chyna’s mom, Jan LaQue, who says she talked to the Redondo Beach detective handling the case earlier this afternoon about her new request, and he was very cooperative.
Jan claims she doesn’t believe Chyna’s manager Anthony Anzaldo was completely honest in the wake of Laurer’s death, and now that time has passed, she believes some of his moves need to be further looked into. Most notably, LaQue points out that her daughter seems to have fired Anzaldo weeks before passing away.
In emails obtained by The Sheet … Chyna wrote her mom saying the manager stole money from her, so she was taking a break from the guy. Joanie added, “Please refrain from talking to Anthony at the moment.” At the time, Jan says she was worried her daughter was just dealing with personal demons.
Upon further thought in the time that has passed, LaQue fears that maybe wasn’t the case. Which is why she’s now speaking up about it.
And even worse, we’re told the manager gave away Joanie’s cello — the news of which was first brought to our attention via the Chyna for The WWE Hall of Fame Facebook page — and he’s been confrontational each time her mother has tried getting answers on who received it, where the rest of her stuff has been placed, or how the money that was donated to her estate is being used.
Chyna’s official cause of death is still pending further investigation, and Jan tells us the detective said they’d have to wait for the official toxicology report to come back before they can make any further investigative decisions.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reached out to Anzaldo for comment. So far, no word back.
