Kevin Owens Reportedly Dealing With Legitimate Injury

The hard knocks for Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champion Kevin Owens during Monday night’s “Raw” are reportedly more than just a storyline.

Owens was in the corner of his tag team partner Sami Zayn as Zayn challenged Dominik Mysterio for the “NXT” North American Championship. Various shenanigans eventually led to Owens being ejected from ringside by the referee. Moments later, Mysterio’s Judgment Day cohorts Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest were also ordered backstage. However, all three reappeared at the end of the match as Owens was taken out by Ripley and Priest on the entrance stage. That was the distraction that led to Mysterio’s pinfall victory over Zayn.

Later in the show, Owens was seen backstage being tended to by medical personnel. It appeared to be nothing more than another chapter in the story leading to a future tag title defense for Owens and Zayn against some combination of The Judgment Day. However, there’s reportedly more at play.

Later in the night, Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that Owens is legitimately injured. Sapp added that he did not have any details on the severity of the injury or when Owens will be able to return to action.

Owen’s most recent match took place on the July 17 episode of “Raw,” where he and Zayn retained the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship against The Judgment Day’s Priest and Mysterio. 

UPDATE:

Dave Meltzer provided further details about the setback while speaking on the “Wrestling Observer Radio” show. 

“It’s a fractured rib,” Meltzer said. “So the story, he’s actually been working on it for a while and it was just one of those things where they were waiting for a time to finish up with everything he’d finish up….He’s gonna get rest. I don’t know how long, and I don’t know what the status of the Tag Team Titles are. I’m sure that that will probably all be addressed in the next couple of days, but it was legit, he’s been working on a legit injury. So that’s the basic gist of the story there.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Preview 7/24/2023

Tonight’s episode of WWE Raw airs live on the USA Network from the Amalie Arena Tampa, Florida.

  • Becky Lynch vs. Zoey Stark. If Becky wins she will then get her rematch with Trish Stratus
  • Drew McIntyre and WWE Intercontinental Champion Gunther are set to go face-to-face
  • Logan Paul will make his return to respond to Ricochet
  • Cody Rhodes will respond to Brock Lesnar
  • Tommaso Ciampa vs. Bronson Reed
  • Seth Rollins and Finn Balor will sign the contract for their WWE World Heavyweight Title Match at SummerSlam

Billy Gunn Leaves His Boots In The Ring On AEW Collision

After The Acclaimed and Billy Gunn were unsuccessful in winning the World Trios Titles on Saturday night’s AEW Collision, Gunn unlaced his boots, took them off and left them in the center of the ring. Gunn was pinned after Malakai Black hit him with a side kick to the head.

After being pinned, Black whispered something in Gunn’s ear, before the House of Black themselves made their own exit from the ring. It was after this, Gunn began to unlaced his boots.

As Gunn was beginning to unlace his boots, the fans started a “You still got it!” chant, while Max Caster and Anthony Bowens looked on with confusion. After Gunn walked off, Anthony Bowens grabbed Gunn’s boots from the center of the ring.

Source: eWn

I believe it’s just a story line angle. Whether or not Gunn has wrestled his last match, it’s very likely that we will learn more about this development in the coming weeks on AEW television.

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1682917945746259968

Alicia Fox Reveals The Meaning Behind Her New ‘Vix Crow’ Ring Name

Alicia Fox departed WWE back in May of this year and is now going by the name “Vix Crow” on the independent scene.

Speaking during a recent interview with “MuscleManMalcom,” the former WWE Divas Champion revealed that her new ring name is inspired by her real name of Victoria Elizabeth Michelle Crawford. In only a way she can attempt to explain, Fox stated:

“It’s a weird transition just because of — I think it’s in my innermost self that’s strangely transitioning because in my mind I’m like, ‘What was the last match I had? Was I good? Did I look like I could perform?’ All these things. But in that particular chapter in my life [with WWE], it wasn’t really expected to get much feedback. So, in this chance, I feel so inspired for many, many reasons.”

She continued, “I feel so inspired that this is an independent sphere. I can create here, and it’s okay. So it makes me, in my innermost self, wonder, ‘Well, what was my problem before and how am I going to fix it going forward?’ Because regardless if it’s the business, … am I going to perform to the best of my ability? I’m going to do my best. So, I need to just get it out of it.”

Source: eWn

AEW Collision Preview 7/22/2023

Tonight’s AEW Collision Live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey tonight at 8/7c on TNT.

  • Ricky Starks celebrating his Owen Hart Cup win in the opening segment
  • CM Punk will be on-hand looking for a fight
  • Taya Valkyrie vs. Skye Blue
  • FTR appearance
  • Action Andretti & Darius Martin vs. Bullet Club Gold (Jay White & Juice Robinson)
  • AEW Trios Champions House of Black (Malakai Black, Brody King & Buddy Matthews) defend against The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn

Cody Rhodes – ‘I Was Adamant My Peacock Documentary Covered All In’

The Cody Rhodes documentary that is airing on the Peacock network features some footage of The American Nightmare’s involvement in All In. Of course, that show led to the debut of All Elite Wrestling.

Speaking to Denise Salcedo of “Instinct Culture,” Rhodes revealed that he pushed hard for All In to be featured. He said,

“I had really minimal requests. Here’s why I had minimal requests. I’ve done enough reality TV where you think, ‘Oh, you’re a producer. Please, ask for this and you’ll get it.’ Then you’ll find out they’re not interested in what you have to say. They’re gonna run their show and that’s their job. So now my expectations are really low.”

He continued, “So I have, ‘Hey, these are two things I’d like to see in there.’ They were really small. I wanted to see if they found any footage of me wrestling when I was in high school or younger. Found it. I was adamant that All In be covered. You cannot tell the story unless you cover All In, and All In is not mine, it’s someone else’s. That’s a troublesome but also beautiful thing, in the spirit of it. So for it to be covered here, I was really happy, and for WWE to allow it to be covered kind of goes along with how WWE has treated me since I’ve come back. The song says, ‘Wrestling has more than one royal family.’ It doesn’t say sports entertainment has more than one royal family. There hasn’t been a revision to me. Kevin Dunn and Vince (McMahon) and Bruce (Prichard) and Stephanie (McMahon) and Hunter [Triple H] have just tried to make me bigger, and I thank them greatly for doing that because they haven’t changed me in the process.”

Source: eWn

ROH Death Before Dishonor 7/21/2023 (Results)

ROH Death Before Dishonor: Zero Hour Pre-Show:

  • Pure Rules Match: Josh Woods def. “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams
  • Darius Martin and Action Andretti def. The WorkHorsemen (JD Drake and Anthony Henry)
  • “Legit” Leyla Hirsch def. Trish Adora in a Singles Match.
  • AR Fox def. Shane Taylor

ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023 PPV:

  • Gravity def. Komander in a Singles Match.
  • Samoa Joe (c) def. Dalton Castle to retain his ROH World Television Championship.
  • ROH World Tag Team Championship – Four Corner Survival Match: Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher) def. The Lucha Brothers (Rey Fenix and Penta El Zero Miedo) (c), Best Friends (Chuck Taylor and Trent Beretta) and The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Mike Bennett) to become the new ROH World Tag Team Champions
  • ROH World 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Mogul Embassy (Brian Cage, Bishop Kaun and Toa Liona) (c) def. Ryusuke Taguchi, Leon Ruffin and Master Wato
  • ROH Pure Championship: Katsuyori Shibata (c) def. Daniel Garcia
  • 6-Man Tag Team Fight Without Honor Match: Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds and John Silver) def. The Righteous (Stu Grayson, Vincent and Dutch)
  • ROH World Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (c) def. PAC
  • ROH Women’s World Championship: Athena (c) def. Willow Nightingale

Eric Young On WWE Exit: ‘I Can’t Take Instruction And Work For A Person Like That’

It was recently reported that Eric Young left WWE in April because he didn’t want to work with Vince McMahon. The longtime wrestling promoter returned to the Stamford-based promotion as executive chairman earlier this year after retiring last summer due to allegations of sexual misconduct. Young, who returned to Impact Wrestling at the promotion’s Slammiversary event this past weekend, addressed his WWE exit in a recent interview with Denise Salcedo. 

“I can say that I signed up for one thing and then was presented with a completely different thing,” Young said. “Personally, professionally, and for me, more importantly, morally, I can’t take instruction and work for a person like that. 

“And if you would have said that nine months ago, six months ago, I would probably would have said, ‘No. I wouldn’t be back at Impact.’ Fates got a funny way of doing things.

“Like I said, I didn’t really wanna leave [Impact] in the first place, but business is business, and an opportunity had presented itself that I just couldn’t say no to. I made the move, and I don’t regret it at all. Nine-month vacation, there’s worse things that can happen to a person, for sure.”

Young went on to say that he was “very lucky” to be in a position where he had a choice to leave WWE, acknowledging that not many people within the promotion would have that same ability. The former Impact World Champion believes it was the right option for him to walk away from a “massive opportunity” and “life-changing money.” Young said that he doesn’t regret the decision he made. 

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Rampage Preview 7/21/2023

Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT

  • TBS Championship: Kris Statlander defends against Marina Shafir
  • Royal Rampage battle royal to earn a TNT Title shot at All Out 
  • The Acclaimed & Daddy Ass vs. QTV

WWE SmackDown Preview 7/21/2023

WWE SmackDown will air live tonight on FS1, due to FOX’s coverage the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be the Unites States vs. Vietnam. Tonight’s SmackDown takes place from the Amalie Arena in Orlando, FL.

  • Rules of Engagement with Roman Reigns and Jey Uso. Jey has challenge Reigns to an Universal Championship Match at SummerSlam.
  • United States Championship Invitational Fatal 4-Way Tournament with Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, Cameron Grimes and LA Knight