Tonight’s episode of WWE NXT in Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center on the USA Network:
Cassie Lee – former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Peyton Royce – will be returning to the ring later this year. Australia’s World Series Wrestling promotion has confirmed that Lee will be a part of their Full Throttle shows in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, and Sydney in October. The Australian-born wrestler seemingly revealed on social media that she would be wrestling on the tour. She wrote, “Let’s grapple! @WSWWrestlingAUS.” Lee posted those words along with a GIF saying “I’m back in the game.”
Lee’s most recent match came in April 2022 on Impact Wrestling’s Countdown to Rebellion show, where she and former IIconics teammate Jessie McKay — formerly Billie Kay in WWE — unsuccessfully challenged The Influence’s Tenille Dashwood and Madison Rayne for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championship. A few days after that title clash, Lee and Kay announced that they would be stepping away from the ring. Later that summer, Lee and AEW’s Shawn Spears – real name Ronnie William Arneill — revealed that they were expecting their first child. The married couple welcomed their son Austin Jay Arneill to the world earlier this year.
Lee began her pro wrestling career in February 2009. She signed for WWE in April 2015 following a tryout in Australia. Lee debuted as Royce on “WWE NXT” later that year before moving to the main roster with IIconics partner Kay in April 2018. The duo went on to capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 35 in a Fatal Four-Way match. Lee and Kay joined Impact Wrestling a few months after being released from their WWE contracts in April 2021. The pair departed Impact the following year after announcing their decision to step away from the ring indefinitely.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
It is being reported that Dakota Kai‘s injury is to her ACL and she will be on the shelf for an extended period of time.
According to the Wrestling Observer, it is being reported that Kai suffered the injury on the Women’s Tag Team Championship match on May 12. This is the same match that Liv Morgan has suffered a shoulder injury. Kai is scheduled to have surgery today.
As for Morgan, she may require surgery, but it has not been confirmed at this time. Kai’s injury is said to have occurred when she was trying to protect an already injured Morgan. Most ACL injuries take at least nine months to require if not longer.
Kai is one-third of Damage CTRL, and it appeared as if the group may have been leading to a breakup with IYO SKY being the one to leave the trio. However, with this injury it is not known what is next in the long run. With that being said, Bayley and SKY will be in the Fatal Four Way tag team bout on May 29 that will determine new tag team champions since Morgan’s injury.
Source: Diva Dirt
Andrade El Idolo is on his way back, just in time for the launch of AEW Collision on June 17.
Andrade has been out of action since September due to torn pec that he had surgery for in November. Also around this time, he was involved in a backstage fight with Sammy Guevara, leading to them sending him sent home.
Andrade is slated to make his in-ring return soon. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, Andrade is returning to the ring two days before Collision premieres for a show in Mexico.
Source: eWn
Tonight’s WWE Raw is the final show before this Saturday’s Night of Champions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
AEW Collision will premiere on June 17 on TNT as a two-hour program. AEW President Tony Khan will announce the location of the first episode this Wednesday on Dynamite.
It was believed to be in Chicago at the United Center, but if they don’t work things out with CM Punk for him to return on the show, they will go to Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL.
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that AEW is off to a rough start with selling tickets to the Collision shows as none of them have sold out and is in a challenging situation with these being the first events of a show that is about to launch.
Here is AEW’s updated touring schedule:
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: May 24 – MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
AEW Double or Nothing: May 28 – T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: May 31 – Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA
AEW House Rules: Friday, June 2 – Cadence Bank Arena in Tupelo, Mississippi
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: May 24 – MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
AEW Double or Nothing: May 28 – T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: May 31 – Viejas Arena in San Diego, CA
AEW House Rules: Friday, June 2 – Cadence Bank Arena in Tupelo, Mississippi
AEW House Rules: Saturday, June 3 – Von Braun Center Propst Arena in Huntsville, Alabama
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, June 7 – Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs, CO
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, June 14 -Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
AEW Collision: Saturday, June 17 – TBD
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, June 21 – Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL
AEW Collision: Saturday, June 24 – Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
AEW Forbidden Door: Sunday, June 25 – Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, June 28 – FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario
AEW Collision: Thursday, June 29 – FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, July 5 – Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta
AEW Collision: Saturday, July 8 – Brandt Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
AEW Dynamite: Wednesday, July 12 – SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
AEW Collision: Saturday, July 15 – Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
AEW Dynamite/Rampage: Wednesday, July 19 – TD Garden in Boston, MA
AEW Collision: Saturday, July 22 – Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey
AEW All In PPV: Sunday, August 27 – London, England at the Wembley Stadium
Source: eWn
Mercedes Mone appears to have suffered an injury.
At Sunday night’s NJPW Resurgence pay-per-view event, the former Sasha Banks faced off against AEW wrestler Willow Nightingale in the finals of the one-night NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship tournament.
The end of the match came when Nightingale hit her Doctor Comb finisher on Mercedes for a two-count. She then hit another one immediately after for the pinfall. Following the match, Mone was carried out of the arena.
As of this writing, there is no word on Mone’s current condition.
Pwinsider and Bryan Alvarez report that the word going around is that Mone suffered a broken ankle in a spot where she fell off the top rope, which you can see below:
Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Mone was supposed to win the title, but the decision to put the title on Willow was made on the fly due to the injury.
Source: eWn
Dear wrestling enthusiasts, I wanted to take a moment to address an important change regarding Wrestling News Blog’s presence on Twitter. Unfortunately, due to recent modifications in Twitter’s sharing policies, we find ourselves with limited options moving forward. In light of these circumstances, we have made the difficult decision to no longer share content directly to the official Wrestling News Blog Twitter account.
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After more than a few delays, the long wait for AEW’s first console video game — AEW Fight Forever — is nearing its end. According to Fightful Select, the game is set for a June 27 release date — two days after the cross-promotional Forbidden Door pay-per-view with NJPW; the official announcement is expected in the next week.
This morning, GameRanx had flagged that French retailer Just For Games had switched the release day to June 27, and now it looks like that was not in error. It had become clear earlier in the week that the release was imminent when the Xbox store started listing the game’s achievement trophies and allowed players to start the pre-installation process. Now we know why.
AEW announced the formation of AEW Games and the console game project in November 2020. Additionally, the key details offered then were that longtime wrestling game developer Yuke’s would be involved, something along the lines of 2000’s WWF No Mercy game was the target, and No Mercy director Hideyuki “Geta” Iwashita was on-board in some capacity.
A preview version of the game was available to play at industry trade shows like GamesCom last summer and retailers started taking pre-orders for the game, but no release date was ever claimed on the calendar.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Wrestling News Blog 