Tonight’s WWE SmackDown will air on FOX and emanate from the OVO Hydro is Glasgow, Scotland.
Chad Gable is the latest in a long line of WWE stars who are all set to be out of contract over the summer. The former NXT Tag Team Champion has been enjoying his highest position on the card as of late, but recent reports have suggested he might technically be a free agent by the time he challenges Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Championship at Clash at the Castle on June 15.
According to Dave Meltzer in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, it seems that Gable’s days in WWE aren’t numbered, as the company is of the belief that he will be staying put. Like many high-profile free agents, there had been reported interest from AEW, with Meltzer noting that stars like FTR had pushed hard to try and bring Gable to AEW given their history with the Olympian and his former tag team partner Jason Jordan in American Alpha. However, it seems as if Gable was offered something that was too good to turn down, and that a new deal will be either be signed in the coming days, or has potentially already been signed.
This follows earlier reports from sources like Fightful Select and PWInsider that suggested that the Olympian would be staying with WWE, and that even though there was no official confirmation on whether he had put pen to paper, the belief within both WWE and AEW was that he wasn’t going anywhere. If Gable defeats Zayn in Glasgow, Scotland on June 15, not only will that be the ultimate sign that Gable isn’t going anywhere, but it will also be the first singles title he will have won in WWE, with his previous four championship wins all being as part of a tag team.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Jeff Hardy’s run with All Elite Wrestling seems to be coming to an end, with recent reports claiming that his contract is set to expire in the next few days. Hardy signed with the company in March 2022 but has had a stop-and-start tenure with the promotion due to legal troubles, personal problems, and injuries. The former WWE Champion is set to be a free agent on June 14, and it seems his next destination might have already been revealed.
According to PWInsider, Hardy is set to return to TNA Wrestling this weekend for the company’s Against All Odds event, as well as the upcoming TNA TV tapings in Cicero, Illinois. Against All Odds takes place on June 14, the day Hardy becomes a free agent, with the TV tapings taking place on June 15; PWInsider was unable to confirm exactly what role Hardy will play in the weekend’s festivities. Jeff’s brother, Matt Hardy, who originally revealed the approximate time Jeff’s contract with AEW was set to expire, is scheduled to main event Against All Odds, as he challenges Moose for the TNA World Championship.
Hardy has already spent a combined total of nine years in TNA Wrestling across two separate tenures. His initial run took place between 2004 and 2006, while his second run began in 2010 and didn’t end until 2017, where he and his brother left the promotion due to contract negotiations breaking down. During his time in TNA, he would hold the company’s World Tag Team Championships twice with his brother, and he TNA World Championship on three separate occasions, with only Kurt Angle, Bobby Lashley, and Sting having more reigns with that incarnation of the title than “The Charismatic Enigma.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
TNA Against All Odds – Friday – June 14, 2024 – Cicero Stadium in Chicago, IL.
CARD
TNA Knockouts World Championship – Open Challenge: Jordynne Grace (C) vs. ? (very likely that the challenger will be from WWE
TNA World Championship Broken Rules Match: – Moose (c) vs. “Broken” Matt Hardy
TNA X-Division Championship: – Mustafa Ali (c) vs. Trent Seven
TNA World Tag Team Championships: – The System (Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards) (c) w/Alisha Edwards vs. Nic Nemeth & Ryan Nemeth
Josh Alexander & Eric Young vs. ABC (Ace Austin & Chris Bey)
Joe Hendry w/Ace Steel vs. Frankie Kazarian
Mike Santana & Steve Maclin vs. The Rascals (Trey Miguel & Zachary Wentz)
PCO vs. Rich Swann
Pre-Show – Sami Callihan vs. “The Octopus” Jonathan Gresham
Pre-Show – TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championships: – Masha Slamovich & Alisha Edwards (c) vs. The Hex (Allysin Kay & Marti Belle)
ROH will air a new episode of its weekly television show tonight at 7 pm ET on HonorClub.
You can sign up for the streaming service here. Below is the lineup for the show:
It’s the final stop before Against All Odds on TNA iMPACT! Don’t miss out – tonight at 8/7c on AXS TV and TNA+.
Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion Marigold has kicked off with a bang following the Fields Forever event at Korakuen Hall on May 20, and is currently embarking on its Grand Opening Wars Tour. However, the company’s next major event, Summer Destiny, on July 13 has just gotten a lot bigger, as a former WWE Women’s Champion has been announced for the card.
At the end of the company’s most recent show, Ogawa took to the microphone to inform Utami Hayashishita that he had finally found an opponent for her on July 13, before playing a video on the Korakuen Hall big screen that revealed IYO Sky. The WWE star told Hayashishita that she wants to write history in a Marigold ring, and that she can’t wait for her return to Japan, before the official match graphic was revealed.
The match has been given the title of “Queen of Queen” given that both Sky and Hayashishita are both former leaders of the Queen’s Quest faction in STARDOM. Sky, then known as Io Shirai, was the founding leader forming the group back in 2016 with HZK and Momo Watanabe. Once she left to join WWE in 2018, Watanabe led the group and brought Hayashishita in as an associate, before making her an official member towards the end of 2018. Hayashishita would take charge as leader in 2022, and would remain in that position until her departure from STARDOM in April 2024. July 13 will also be Sky’s first match in her home country in six years, as she has not performed in Japan since joining WWE in 2018. WWE last traveled to Japan in 2019 for a pair of live events in Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, with Sky being part of the “NXT” roster at the time.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa.
TNA Wrestling’s Matt Hardy could find himself back in a WWE ring as soon as next week as part of an upcoming high-stakes 25-man WWE NXT Battle Royal.
During this week’s episode of WWE NXT, a battle royal was announced for a shot at the NXT Championship that will feature stars from ‘all locker rooms.’
Given the recent NXT-TNA collaboration, many saw this line by Cody Rhodes as a tease that TNA stars could be involved. On Twitter, Matt suggested he would be in the match.
Hardy served as a ‘pro’ on the original format of WWE NXT back in early 2010. He parted ways with WWE in 2020 and left AEW earlier this year.
Cody Rhodes made a special guest appearance on this week’s episode of WWE NXT, wherein he was imparted some words of wisdom to Trick Williams about being a champion, as well as a message about Trick’s next challenger.
Rhodes revealed that on next week’s episode of WWE NXT, there will be a 25-man battle royal to determine who is the rightful No. 1 contender for the NXT World Championship. He also put out a teaser that while some of those Superstars will be from NXT, there may also be some from “other locker rooms.”
This was just vague enough that it allows fans to speculate on what this means. Will this be a situation where RAW and SmackDown Superstars are in the mix? Could this be another crossover with TNA Wrestling, bringing in some wrestlers from that company?
We’ll have to tune in to next week’s edition of WWE NXT to find out.
Source: eWn
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