AEW Dynamite Preview 5/22/2024

AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS from the Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield, California.

  • AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland vs. Nick Wayne
  • Orange Cassidy and Will Ospreay vs. Trent Beretta and AEW International Champion Roderick Strong
  • Konosuke Takeshita vs. Matt Sydal
  • AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm & Mariah May vs. Saraya and Harley Cameron
  • Kyle O’Reilly vs. Malakai Black
  • FTW Title Eliminator 3-Way: HOOK vs. Bryan Keith vs. Katsuyori Shibata
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Satnam Singh
  • Bullet Club Gold will appear

AEW Star Tay Melo Training For Return To The Ring

AEW star Tay Melo is training to make her return to an AEW wrestling ring.

Melo took to X on Monday noting that she is happy to be able to be in the ring again. She also said that with a lot of patience she will get ready to be back.

Melo has been out of in-ring competition for over a year due to a back injury and then her maternity leave. Last November, Melo and her husband Sammy Guevara welcomed their first child. She and Guevara made the announcement at last year’s Double or Nothing that Melo was pregnant.

Source: eWn

Brandi Rhodes Diagnosed With Stage 4 Endometriosis

Brandi Rhodes took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that she’s been diagnosed with endometriosis.

In her statement, which you can see below, Rhodes revealed that she’s been diagnosed with Stage 4 endometriosis after years of experiencing pain. She wrote,

“3 years of pain with no answers. @MaryseMizanin’s story encouraged me to press on. Many appts later, we found the answer. Stage 4 endometriosis. Successful surgery today. Ladies, listen to your bodies. We don’t have to live with pain. Advocate for yourself. Finally on the road to recovery we have to talk more about women’s health. Love you @CodyRhodes. I am so blessed with your love.”

Source: eWn

We send our best wishes to Brandi Rhodes on her journey in this battle.

WWE NXT Preview 5/21/2024

Here is the lineup for tonight’s episode of WWE NXT in Orlando, Florida at the Performance Center on the USA Network: 

  • Men’s North American Championship number one contender’s match: Wes Lee vs. Joe Gallus vs. Josh Briggs
  • Women’s North American Championship six-pack ladder match qualifier: Jaida Parker vs. Brinley Reece
  • Women’s North American Championship six-pack ladder match qualifier: Thea Hail vs. Fallon Henley
  • Natalya & Karmen Petrovic vs. Shayna Baszler & Lola Vice

Eddie Kingston To Undergo Surgery, Will Be Out 9 Months

Eddie Kingston will require surgery for his leg injury that he suffered during his match with Gabe Kidd at the NJPW Resurgence event. Kingston suffered a tibular fracture during the bout.

Kingston confirmed to Pwinsider that he suffered tears to his ACL and meniscus and will need surgery. It is said that Kingston will be out for around nine months.

Kingston said, “This part of the game. Injuries happen. I will be back.”

Source: eWn

Sonya Deville Returns In WWE Raw Backstage Segment After 10-Month Injury Hiatus

WWE might have lost Rhea Ripley to the injury bug, but reinforcements for the women’s division arrived on “WWE Raw.” Rumors from Pro Wrestling Insider on Monday alluded to former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sonya Deville being backstage. The rumors turned out to be true during Monday’s episode, and Deville was seen backstage propositioning Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark, introducing herself to the latter, with Baszler saying she wasn’t interested in what Deville had to say.

Deville tore her ACL in July 2023, in the midst of her tag title reign alongside Chelsea Green — she was replaced in the team by Piper Niven, who claimed one half of the championship without actually having won it. A late May/early June return would be about in line for the recovery time for an ACL tear. Deville has been a contracted WWE talent since 2015, but has never won a singles title in the promotion. Her former partner, Green, along with Niven, were recently drafted to “WWE SmackDown.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Newest Wyatt-Themed WWE Raw QR Code Unlocks Ominous Survey, Cryptic Series Of Puzzles

Another episode of WWE programming, another QR code leading to a lengthy trail of clues all seemingly pointing toward Uncle Howdy and, now more than ever, other members of his new faction. As the Chad Gable vs. Sami Zayn match that opened Monday’s “WWE Raw” went to a commercial break, the code quickly flashed on-screen, alongside the newspaper clipping that we’ve seen before about the missing therapist with a byline attributed to “Wendy Lucho,” an anagram for Uncle Howdy. Scanning the code takes viewers to the URL wwe.com/ecgpramstor, and deducing that the slug is an anagram for spectrogram will come in handy later down the path. The page itself says, “hello,” and then begins a survey featuring the following series of yes or no questions:

“Can you ever truly be free?”

“Have you ever lost your way?”

“Did you find your way back?”

“Do you want to be better?”

“Do you know that I’m proud of you?”

“Is love unconditional?”

“Have they been set free?”

“Do you believe?”

“Do you want to meet them?”

Once the questions are through (if you answer them correctly, that is) the page renders the message “soon.” Below that are 10 clickable, blank boxes that lead to even more content and clues, including a cipher that, when cracked, states, “A puppet is free as long as he loves his strings,” and three separate audio files that, when run through a spectrogram, reveal a file named “ICU2” that just shows the word “hello,” another named “North_Star” that contains the familiar Bray Wyatt/Wyatt 6 upside down moth logo, and another named “WITNESS” that very clearly shows Uncle Howdy’s face.

WhatsApp, Glassboro, and the Allegory of the Cave

From there, the links in the boxes only get more intriguing, bizarre, and downright creepy. One goes to a newspaper article, positioned adjacent to the “Wendy Lucho” piece, titled “STUDY SEES NEGATIVE RESULTS.” The story refers to a “cruel and evil experiment” that actually look place in 1965, when Josie Laures and Antoine Senni set new records for time spent alone in a cave. The text of the story includes lines such as “I saved them,” “Give me a little more time,” and “I must give them the opportunity to repent. I hope, for their sake, they do.” It also features an image that appears to refer to Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave.

Elswhere, a sheet of notebook paper with “LIAR LIAR” scratched out in red and black marker contains the words “WhatsApp 5.22” scrawled in the corner, likely suggesting another clue dropping Wednesday. There’s also a quick video showing the veiled visage of a mysterious female figure, source code that contains an anchor link to the word “DOOR” within an H1 tag, a piece of paper with the glyph for Pluto all over it, the coordinates 39.7100 N and 75.1192 W, which points to Glassboro, New Jersey, which happens to be the location of Rowan University — likely a not-so-subtle reference to rumored returning superstar and former Wyatt Family member, Erick Rowan — and a piece of paper with “WENDY LUCHO” written on it, along with tick marks in each letter, perhaps showing its author working out the anagram before attributing it to the byline in the newspaper article.

WWE Shop recently released two shirts that fit right in with this mysterious journey, with one labeled as “Cavebird 1” and the other as “Cavebird 2.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 5/20/2024

Tonight’s WWE Raw live on the USA Network from the Greensboro Coliseum Complex in Greensboro, North Carolina.

  • King of the Ring Semifinal Match: Gunther vs. Jey Uso
  • Queen of the Ring Semifinal Match: Lyra Valkyria vs. IYO SKY
  • WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable in a non-title match

Backstage Details On Why Some WWE NXT Names Were Recently Cut

WWE released several “NXT” talents during its latest round of mass cuts, and Fightful Select has revealed why some of those performers were let go. 

Valentina Feroz and Boa were reportedly cut as they spent a lot of time on the sidelines through injury, which ultimately derailed their progress as they weren’t given enough opportunities to show what they could do. Meanwhile, Trey Bearhill was released due to his perceived similarities with Eddy Thorpe, but his departure came as a shock to many WWE employees behind the scenes.

Despite joining the promotion as an established celebrity who was touted for big things, WWE released the controversial Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson during the mass cuts. However, this didn’t come as a shock to many backstage, as he wasn’t progressing at a decent rate. Booker T echoed these views when he reacted to Steveson’s WWE departure, noting that the former Superstar didn’t have the hunger or drive as he still had the amateur wrestling bug in his system.

Some “WWE: Next Gen” talents, including Julian Baldi, were also released during the wave of cuts. According to Fightful, the performers weren’t allowed to announce their contract status until after the show had aired, though their deals technically began after the reality series debuted. The report also claims that Drew Gulak is still employed by WWE, but he’s been informed that his contract won’t be renewed. Gulak was reportedly released in the wake of Ronda Rousey accusing him of grabbing the drawstring on her sweatpants backstage at a WWE show.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Collision & Rampage Preview 5/18/2024

AEW Collision and Rampage on TNT.

Collision:

  • Will Ospreay vs. Shane Taylor
  • Serena Deeb vs. Anna Jay
  • FTW Contender Series: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Rocky Romero
  • FTW Contender Series: HOOK vs. Johnny TV
  • Bryan Danielson & FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. Lance Archer & The Righteous (Vincent & Dutch)

Rampage:

  • Deonna Purrazzo vs. Robyn Renegade
  • Kyle O’Reilly vs. Lee Moriarty
  • Brian Cage vs. Anthony Bowens
  • Rush in action