AEW Rampage on 10/7 will air live at 9pm, followed by Battle of the Belts IV

TNT has updated its programming schedule, and a change has been made to AEW’s upcoming TV slate.

AEW will air a live Rampage on Friday, October 7, in addition to taping Battle of the Belts IV at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.

Originally, Rampage was listed as airing at 9 p.m. ET followed by Battle of the Belts IV at 10 p.m. ET. This would’ve put Rampage head-to-head with the second hour of WWE SmackDown.

TNT now lists Rampage as airing at 10 p.m. ET followed by Battle of the Belts IV airing at 11 p.m. ET on Friday, October 7. The start time for the show is listed locally as 8 p.m. ET. 

Rampage typically airs at 10 p.m. ET on Fridays, while Battle of the Belts has been taped in the past and aired on Saturday nights at 8 p.m. ET.

If the Battle of the Belts special aired on October 8th, it would’ve gone head-to-head with WWE Extreme Rules on Peacock.

Source: WrestlingNews.co

Candice LeRae Returns To WWE On RAW

Former NXT Superstar Candice LeRae made her surprise return to WWE during Monday night’s episode of Raw.  LaRae squared off against Nikki A.S.H. and picked up a win over A.S.H.

This is LaRae’s first appearance on WWE television since May 4, 2021. She took time away from WWE due to her pregnancy. After her contract expired this past May, she was among including her husband Johnny Gargano that were speculated to sign with AEW. Gargano made his surprise return to WWE during the August 22 episode of Raw that took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Malakai Black Denies Reports Of AEW Release, Says He’s Received Death Threats

Malakai Black took to Instagram to make a statement about the recent reports he has been released by AEW.

Black said he will be back soon. He also noted that he has received death threats.

He had previously stated that he had asked for his release, saying that he need time off to recalibrate.

Black said the following in his live statement on Instagram.

“Some people can’t seem to just shut the fuck up and create things that are not there, so I have to go out here again and have a conversation with you guys. So guys, how many times do I have to tell people to not trust people that are not in this business? If you can’t even get the years of my contract right, which is a very minuscule detail, then how are you expecting or how are people expecting these guys to know very intimate and private detailing in regards to my private business? My contract’s not five years, my contract’s never been five years. This is all bullshit, it’s all lies. So you know, I posted a statement and you, of course all of you, have read my statement, because even if you read my statement, it clearly reads that even release is in quotations. Now, if you don’t know what quotation means, it means that the author does not agree with said quote or said word choice. Or it also means that it’s not his wording. Then it is followed by a bunch of multiple things, in regards to my marital stuff, but it even says that my stuff about my conditional release, that it’s false. So how are you guys still thinking like, why are people still writing that I’ve got my release? Guys, I don’t know, why do you trust these people to tell you the truth? Because it’s not true. In a time where I’m supposed to take care of myself and kind of wind down, I have to deal with this kind of stupid bullshit from people who are not in the business and pretending that they are in the business with all their sources. You know, the worst thing about it is, for the past three days, [I’ve been getting] hateful comments and today, even two death threats. Death threats? Death threats? You wish death upon a person because of what someone else had said, and then says that it’s confirmed. It’s not confirmed. Clearly it’s not confirmed. None of it’s confirmed. There’s no confirmation because I haven’t left. That’s what this whole thing was about. I’ve been given time off by Tony to take care of a bunch of stuff. All this stuff has been played up like weeks. All this stuff was weeks ago…

I posted that statement was a summary for you to understand why I’d take some time off. Again, it’s in the statement. It is in the statement. It’s mine-boggling, if this isn’t enough incentive for you to stop believing these people, then I don’t know what is. Because if you were part of this whole mob that, like I said, sending me a bunch of hateful comments based on the words of someone else, then sorry, but you’re dumb. You’re stupid. Does anyone understand that in the time where I’m going through this stuff and I’m kind of dealing with a bunch of stuff in a very productive manner, that exactly doesn’t help, and what I hate about it is that none of these dirt sheets will take responsibility, none of these guys will take accountability and say, ‘Oh shit, we fucked up, I’m sorry. We should have probably not said that. Oh he’s going through some stuff. Maybe we should not. Maybe we should not make all these baseless assumptions because again as it turns out, it’s not true. None of it’s true. Not one single thing of it is true.

So again, if you were part of this mob that felt the need to send me death threats, well, then thank you dirtsheets because they don’t care about my mental health. They don’t care about your mental health. They don’t care about your feelings, they don’t care about my wife, they don’t care about my family. They don’t give a shit. All they want is dumb clicks with stuff that they’re making up. Because they’re tying bridges between things that are no longer there, they’re tying things… that don’t exist. Because they want the narrative to exist. But again, I’m sure, tomorrow there will be a different narrative, and tomorrow it’ll be, ‘Oh, we got the wrong information. Oh we heard it from this. Don’t blame us, we’re just reporting.’ A real person will own up to their bullshit. They will own up to their words and then say, you know what? I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. If the words come out of your mouth, then you know, own it. Just own it. Anyway, I would like to very much go back to just working on my stuff, working on my private life, working on getting to the point of feeling good again. So I hope that this puts all this stuff to bed. I am definitely not going to be on my social media for a while because like my god. Again guys, stop believing these things. It is unbelievable. Anyway, I will see you guys in a couple weeks, maybe a couple of months, like I said, I’m only taking some time off. That’s it. Just taking time off. There’s no conspiracy to this. Just taking some time off. Alright. I will see you guys soon. Take care of yourself, stop believing any other narrative. Right now, I debunked it. There’s nothing going on. Don’t believe these people. Don’t write, don’t believe it, nothing. I’m fine, I’m going to be fine. Everything is fine. You’ll see me right back with AEW pretty soon. I’m just gonna take some time. That’s it.

Guys, last thing before I leave, don’t make me some instrument for this while tribalism, us versus them thing because I don’t do that stuff. I don’t do the whole Team AEW versus Team WWE. I don’t play that. To me, this is a business. This is genuinely like a business in the sense that it’s a business, it’s my job, it’s what I do for a living. This is how I’ve made my living for the past 22; 13 years of my life. I’ve been in this business since the 2000s. So thank you for those who have been supportive of me, thank you for your nice messages. Thank you for the people who clearly obviously did my statement and understood from the get-go that that means that I wasn’t released. So again thank you for the support. Thank you very much. Not true if it didn’t come from me. Even that’s said in the statement. If it doesn’t come out of my mouth, it’s not true. Now you’ve known me to be a pretty calm guy for the most part, but this shit is annoying as hell. So again take care of yourself, and we’ll see each other soon. Thank you very much.“

Transcript is courtesy of Fightful.

Source: WrestleView

New White Rabbit QR Code Appears On RAW, Leads To Tiktok Video

A brand new White Rabbit QR code appeared on Monday night’s episode of WWE RAW. The code leads to a TikTok from user _comewithme.

The video features the message “Who killed the world? You did” and features the coordinates 44.244273, 7.769737. These are the coordinates for the location in Prata Nevoso, Italy where the famous “Giant Punk Bunny” used to be. Ryan Satin also noted that when you go into the source code for the WWE.com location of the video, it features the lines “No man is every truly good, no man is ever truly evil,” from Aleister Black’s old WWE theme.

There’s also the number 40701, which is the zip code for Corbin, Kentucky, which is where The Fiend once defended the Universal Championship against The Miz back in 2020. The link to the video on WWE.com features “930YWG” which is the abbreviation for the airport in Winnipeg, which is where SmackDown will be this weekend on September 30.

Source: EWrestlingNews

WWE RAW Preview 9/26/2022

Tonight’s WWE RAW live from Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on USA Network at 8/7C.

Will we see the return of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt, who is believed to be behind the White Rabbit QR code teaser videos. Or will will just get another clue

https://twitter.com/WrestlingNewsCo/status/1573478559229923328

Vice TV Airing “Dark Side Of The Ring” Marathon Ahead Of “Tales From The Territories” Premiere

Vice TV will air a Dark Side of the Ring marathon on Tuesday, October 4th in advance of the premiere of Tales From the Territories that evening at 9 PM EST. 

Tales From the Territories is a new docuseries produced by The Rock and Danny Garcia’s Seven Bucks Products as well as the producers of Dark Side of the Ring. Here is the marathon schedule:

  • 7 AM – Chris Kanyon
  • 8 AM – The Fabulous Moolah
  • 9 AM – The Plane Ride from Hell
  • 10 AM – Herb Abrams
  • 11 AM – Collission in Korea
  • 12 PM – Randy Savage & Elizabeth
  • 1 PM – XPW
  • 2 PM – Dr. D David Schultz
  • 3 PM – Owen Har.
  • 4 PM – Bruiser Brody
  • 5 PM – Von Erichs
  • 6 PM – Chris Benoit
  • 8 PM – Ultimate Warrior

Buddy Matthews Gone From AEW, Malakai Black AEW Status Update – UPDATE (Nobody’s getting released)

There have been reports that Buddy Matthews(Buddy Murphy in WWE) is believed to be on his way out of AEW. Sources say that last week’s AEW Rampage Grand Slam was Matthew’s “last night” with the company.

According to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio, both Matthews and Malakai Black “want to go to WWE” and wish to leave AEW. Meltzer confirmed that Matthews is indeed gone from the company. As for Black, it was reported earlier this month that he was granted a “conditional release.” One of the conditions is that he can’t compete elsewhere, specifically in WWE, for quite some time.  In a post on Instagram, Black stated that he needs a “few months to recalibrate the last two decades of [his] life.”

Source: EWrestlingNews

UPDATE

Dave Meltzer revealed the news that AEW President Tony Khan will not be releasing anyone during his appearance on today’s episode of Wrestling Observer Radio.

“Nobody’s getting released, that’s the doctrine. [AEW President] Tony Khan made that very clear I guess in the last couple of days. So now it’s just, [Malakai Black’s] not being released, Buddy Matthews isn’t being released. Now they may be back sooner than before. They were wanting to go and trying to get a way out.

IMPACT Wrestling Victory Road 9/22/2022 (Results), Bobby Fish Debuts, Raven To Be Inducted Into IMPACT Hall Of Fame

– Bullet Club (Ace Austin, Chris Bey & Juice Robinson) def. Jason Hotch, Shogun & Jack Price

– Killer Kelly vs. Tasha Steelz ended in a no-contest when Killer Kelly choked out the referee with a chain introduced by Savannah Islands.

– X-Division Championship: Mike Bailey (c) def. Delirious

– Backstage, Honor No More members are getting hyped up for tonight, and Eddie Edwards berates PCO for losing to Heath.

– Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) vs. Vincent & PCO

– Mickie James def. Gisele Shaw

– Triple Threat Revolver: Frankie Kazarian def. Mia Yim, Kenny King, Black Taurus, Yuya Uemura, Alex Zayne, Trey Miguel, and Laredo Kid

– Backstage, it is confirmed that Taya Valkyrie and Jessicka will face VXT, Deonna Purrazzo and Chelsea Green, for The Knockouts Tag Team Championship at Bound For Glory.

– Bobby Fish debuts and is interrupted by Mahabali Shera and Raj Singh. Bobby beats them up.

During the show, the former WWE and AEW wrestler came out to cut a promo where he talked about being a lightning rod for controversy. At one point during the promo, he said, “I’m just not here for the bullsh*t.”

Fish went on to say that he can’t be fired because he doesn’t work for Impact Wrestling. Despite this, he’s been keeping an eye on the locker room. He said he recently called somebody out for being “less than legit” and said from what he’s seen, the locker room in Impact Wrestling is full of “legit dudes” who will give everything they have when they step in between the ropes. At one point, he talked about the talent in Impact Wrestling not “faking the funk.” It appears the “less than legit” line was a dig at CM Punk, who Fish hasn’t been fond of in recent interviews and even challenged him to an MMA fight.

Mahabali Shera and Raj Singh came out to interrupt the promo and tried to attack Fish, but the latter took them out and locked the fishhook into Singh until Shera pulled him to safety.

– Honor No More (Eddie Edwards & OGK) def. Josh Alexander, Rich Swann & Heath

– Mickie James challenged Mia Yim to a match at Bound For Glory

– Jordynne Grace def. Max The Impaler

– Jordynne Grace announces she’s bringing Allie Katch to face Masha Slamovich this Thursday.

– Raven will be inducted into the IMPACT Hall of Fame at Bound For Glory

– Barbed Wire Massacre: Steve Maclin def. Moose, Sami Callihan

The Great Muta Appears On AEW Rampage, Sting To Be Part Of The Great Muta’s Final Match 

Japan pro wrestling legend The Great Muta, who is in the midst of his retirement tour, made a surprise appearance on AEW Rampage: Grand Slam to assist Sting in his No DQ tag team match.

Muta hit Buddy Matthews with his trademark mist and then got him with a dragon screw. Sting then hit the Scorpion Death Drop for the win.

Sting and Muta had an epic rivalry in WCW and NJPW in the late 1980s and early 1990s, so this was cool to see.

https://twitter.com/AEW/status/1573496610440495114

Sting will be heading to Japan next year and will be involved in The Great Muta’s final match.

Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced that Sting “has decided to participate in the Yokohama Arena tournament” at the “Great Muta Final Bye-Bye” show on January 22, 2023.

https://twitter.com/noah_ghc/status/1573525621036425216

Source: EWrestlingNews

New White Rabbit Teaser Shown On SmackDown

A new White Rabbit teaser was shown on Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown.

In the background of Hit Row’s watch party, a QR code was shown, which leads to a new game.

Completing the game puts the rabbit in a warphole that shows the word “patricide” and reveals the coordinates for Monday’s episode of RAW,  Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

So, either we will get more clues or we will find out who is behind the White Rabbit teases. At this point, it seems as if the majority of fans who are following this believe that this is leading to the return of Bray Wyatt.

The song “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane was played again in between commercials during Friday night’s show.

https://twitter.com/WrestlingNewsCo/status/1573478559229923328
https://twitter.com/WrestlingNewsCo/status/1573507203721568267