WWE Backlash 5/6/2023 (Card)

  • Date: May 6, 2023
  • Location: Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico

CARD

Cody Rhodes vs. Brock Lesnar

Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn vs. The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa , Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso) (with Paul Heyman)

SMACKDOWN WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Zelina Vega

Seth Rollins vs. Omos

UNITED STATES CHAMPIONSHIP TRIPLE THREAT MATCH:
Austin Theory (c) vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Bronson Reed

SAN JUAN STREET FIGHT:
Bad Bunny vs. Damian Priest

RAW WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Bianca Belair (c) vs. Iyo Sky

Impact Wrestling Preview 5/4/2023

Impact Wrestling from Chicago, tonight at 8/7c on AXS TV and 8:30pm ET on YouTube for IMPACT Insiders.

  • The debut of Trinity Fatu
  • Impact World Champion Steve Maclin, Champagne Singh and Shera vs. PCO and two partners of his choosing
  • Part Two of the Frankie Kazarian sit-down interview
  • Moose & Brian Myers vs. Yuya Uemura & Bhupinder Gujjar
  • Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham 
  • Alisha Edwards vs. Jody Threat
  • Sami Callihan has accepted Deaner’s challenge to meet him in the ring tonight on Impact
https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1653402637545480193

ROH TV Preview 5/4/2023

ROH will air a new episode of its weekly television show tonight at 8 pm ET on HonorClub. 

You can sign up for the streaming service here. Below is the lineup for the show: 

  • ROH Women’s World Championship Proving Ground Match: Athena (c) vs. Angelica Risk
  • Claudio Castagnoli vs. Robbie Eagles
  • Preston Vance vs. Rich Adonis
  • Robyn Renegade vs. Skye Blue
  • Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Beretta), Stu Grayson, Darius Martin, & Action Andretti vs. The Varsity Athletes (Josh Woods & Tony Nese & Ari Daivari) & The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
  • Brian Cage vs. Brock Anderson
  • Willow Nightingale vs. Steph De Lander
  • Rocky Romero vs. Lee Moriarty
  • Angelico vs. Komander
  • ROH TV Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Christopher Daniels

AEW Dynamite Preview 5/3/2023

AEW Dynamite will air live tonight on TBS and emanate from the CFG Bank Arena in Baltimore, Maryland.

  • The Elite (Kenny Omega, Young Bucks) to speak
  • Four Pillars Tag Team Match: AEW World Champion MJF and Sammy Guevara vs Jungle Boy and Darby Allin
  • Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Bandido & Orange Cassidy vs Angelo Parker, Matt Menard, Jake Hager, and Daniel Garcia of the Jericho Appreciation Society.
  • Saraya vs Willow Nightingale
  • Ricky Starks vs Juice Robinson
  • Tres de Mayo Trios Battle Royal – Dark Order (Evil Uno, Alex Reynolds, & John Silver) vs. The Acclaimed (Billy Gunn, Anthony Bowens, & Max Caster) vs.Powerhouse Hobbs, QT Marshall, & Aaron Solo vs. Lucha Bros & Vikingo vs. Kip Sabian, The Butcher & The Blade vs. Ari Daivari & The Varsity Athletes (Josh Woods & Tony Nese)

Triple H: ‘WWE Is Focused On Character Development’

While taking questions during WWE’s first quarter 2023 earnings call today, Triple H wanted everyone to know that WWE is focused on character development at a time when the company is about to be acquired by The Endeavor Group. Here are the highlights: 

What they’re doing to boost ratings: 

“That really comes down to us just having assembled the right team. Across the board, we have world class superstars and that continues to grow every day through our developmental system, through NIL, through international and domestic recruit, so the pipeline coming in is very strong. You just saw that in the recent draft and the amount of talent we had to draft and coming up from NXT, and through that pipeline. The writing team is world class and Kevin Dunn’s production team, there’s nothing like it in the world.”

Focus on character development: 

“As far as what we’re focused on, we’re focused on character development. I think you see that across storylines where our fans are super engaged in the talent. Let’s take Sami Zayn and the Bloodline over the last, couple of years really, but especially in the last six to eight months, where that story and the character development has reached a whole new level. It has our fans invested and excited in the content like they haven’t been in a long time. For us, extending the planning of the event horizon. Looking out year over year, where we want to be next year and then back tracking from there, so that we’re always ahead of the curve and always thinking ahead. That allows us to have better planning and then it’s just trying new things and getting outside of a box of what we do and seeing what works and what doesn’t. I don’t consider something not working a failure, I consider it learning. Really excited about the future and where we can take all of this.”

Source: eWrestlingNews

WWE NXT Women’s Championship Vacated 

The WWE NXT Women’s Championship has been vacated.

During Tuesday night’s episode of NXT, Indi Hartwell came out during the main event segment to announce that there will be a tournament to crown a new champion now that she’s been called up to the RAW brand.

During her promo segment, Hartwell spoke about the importance of the NXT Women’s Championship, and went on to reveal that a tournament will begin next week. The finals will take place at NXT Battleground, which takes place on May 28 in Lowell, MA.

Hartwell’s title reign comes to an end at just 31 days. She is currently sidelined after suffering a high ankle sprain on last week’s episode of WWE NXT. Hartwell was also drafted to Raw during the first night of the 2023 WWE Draft this past Friday on SmackDown.

Complete 2023 WWE Draft Results – Who Switched Brands?

The 2023 WWE Draft is in the books following Monday’s episode of RAW.

Triple H came out to open RAW and announced that Brock Lesnar was exempt from the Draft and will be able to appear on all WWE brands. The storyline given is that Lesnar renegotiated his status as a free agent and was excluded from the draft.

You can check out the complete results from the 2023 WWE Draft below:

RAW:
* SmackDown Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley
* WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER
* NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell
* Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
* WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez
* Cody Rhodes
* Becky Lynch
* Matt Riddle
* Drew McIntyre
* The Miz
* Shinsuke Nakamura
* Seth “Freakin” Rollins
* Imperium (Luwdig Kaiser, Giovanni Vinci)
* The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio)
* Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston
* Trish Stratus
* Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
* Braun Strowman and Ricochet
* Bronson Reed
* Alpha Academy
* Katana Chance & Kayden Carter
* Dana Brooke
* Nikki Cross
* Johnny Gargano
* Los Lotharios
* Akira Tozawa
* Piper Niven
* Xia Li
* Tegan Nox
* Emma
* Riddick Moss
* Indus Sher
* Odyssey Jones
* The Viking Raiders (Erik, Ivar, and Valhalla)
* Candice LeRae
* Dexter Lumis
* The Maximum Male Models (ma.cé, mån.sôör, and Maxxine Dupri)
* Natalya
* Apollo Crews
* Chelsea Green
* Sonya Deville
* Zoey Stark
* JD McDonagh

SmackDown:
* Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns & Paul Heyman
* RAW Women’s Champion Bianca Belair
* WWE United States Champion Austin Theory
* Solo Sikoa
* The Street Profits
* Edge
* Bobby Lashley
* The OC (AJ Styles, Michin, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson)
* Damage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai, IYO SKY)
* Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn
* Charlotte Flair
* The Usos
* The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Zelina Vega, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde)
* Asuka
* The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Butch, Ridge Holland)
* Karrion Kross and Scarlett
* LA Knight
* Shotzi
* Pretty Deadly
* Rick Boogs
* Cameron Grimes
* Tamina
* Hit Row (Top Dolla, B-Fab, Ashante Thee Adonis)
* Lacey Evans
* Grayson Waller

Free Agents:
* Brock Lesnar
* Omos & MVP
* Baron Corbin
* Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
* Elias
* Mustafa Ali
* Dolph Ziggler
* Von Wagner
* Xyon Quinn

WWE NXT Preview 5/2/2023

WWE NXT returns on the USA Network at 8/7c this evening from the Capitol Wrestling Center inside the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The road to WWE Battleground.

2023 WWE Draft Night 2 Results

Round One

  • 1. Rhea Ripley, Raw
  • 2. Austin Theory, SmackDown
  • 3. Seth Rollins, Raw
  • 4. Charlotte Flair, SmackDown

Round Two

  • 5. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn, Raw
  • 6. The Usos, SmackDown
  • 7. The Judgment Day (Finn Balor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio), Raw
  • 8. The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Cruz Del Toro, Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde & Zelina Vega), SmackDown

Round Three

  • 9. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez, Raw
  • 10. Asuka, SmackDown
  • 11. New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods), Raw
  • 12. Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland & Butch), SmackDown

Round Four

  • 13. Trish Stratus, Raw
  • 14. Karrion Kross (w/ Scarlett), SmackDown
  • 15. Shayna Baszler & Ronda Rousey, Raw
  • 16. LA Knight, SmackDown

Round Five

  • 17. Braun Strowman & Ricochet, Raw
  • 18. Shotzi, SmackDown
  • 19. Bronson Reed, Raw
  • 20. Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson), SmackDown from NXT

Round Six

  • 21. Alpha Academy (Otis & Chad Gable), Raw
  • 22. Rick Boogs, SmackDown
  • 23. Katana Chance & Kayden Carter, Raw from NXT
  • 24. Cameron Grimes, SmackDown from NXT

Supplemental Draft Picks, Raw Talk

  • Dana Brooke, Raw
  • Nikki Cross, Raw
  • Johnny Gargano, Raw
  • Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo, Raw
  • Akira Tozawa, Raw
  • Piper Niven, Raw
  • Xia Li, Raw
  • Tegan Nox, Raw
  • Emma, Raw
  • Madcap Moss, Raw
  • “Indus Sher” Jinder Mahal, Veer Mahaan & Sanga, SmackDown from NXT
  • Odyssey Jones, SmackDown from NXT
  • Tamina, SmackDown
  • Grayson Waller, SmackDown from NXT

Free Agents:
* Brock Lesnar
* Baron Corbin
* Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
* Elias
* Mustafa Ali
* Xyon Quinn from NXT

WWE RAW Preview 5/1/2023

WWE Raw will air live tonight on the USA Network and emanate from the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

  • The Raw go-home show for Saturday’s Backlash
  • Brock Lesnar returns
  • WWE Draft continues

The following is eligible to be drafted tonight on Raw

  • Akira Tozawa
  • Alpha Academy (Otis & Chad Gable)
  • Angel Garza & Humberto Carrillo
  • Asuka
  • Austin Theory
  • Baron Corbin
  • Braun Strowman & Ricochet
  • Brock Lesnar
  • Bronson Reed
  • Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin
  • Charlotte Flair
  • Dana Brooke
  • Elias
  • Emma
  • Johnny Gargano
  • Judgment Day (Finn Bálor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio)
  • Karrion Kross (w/ Scarlett)
  • Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn
  • LA Knight
  • Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez
  • Nikki Cross
  • Piper Niven
  • Rhea Ripley
  • Rick Boogs
  • Riddick Moss
  • Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler
  • Seth Rollins
  • Shotzi
  • Tamina
  • Tegan Nox
  • The Brawling Brutes (Sheamus, Ridge Holland & Butch)
  • The LWO (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro, Joaquin Wilde & Zelina Vega)
  • The New Day (Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods)
  • The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso)
  • Trish Stratus
  • Xia Li
  • Select NXT Superstars