Corey Graves Invites Gable Steveson To RAW Following Second NCAA National Championship

Now that Gable Steveson has won his second NCAA National Heavyweight Championship, he will soon set his focus solely on WWE. As noted in the past, Steveson signed with the company shortly after his Olympic Gold Medal win in wrestling and has begun training for sports entertainment while finishing school.

But one person wants Steveson to show up on WWE television again sooner rather than later. As seen below, WWE announcer Corey Graves congratulated Gable Steveson on his second NCAA National Heavyweight Title and then invited him to WWE RAW.

“Congratulations @GableSteveson on an untouchable amateur career. Now, let’s get that next chapter started. You busy Monday? #wweraw,” Corey tweeted.

Steveson was actually a surprise pick for the 2021 WWE Draft, being chosen by the RAW brand. He officially signed with WWE back in September 2021 with a contract that allowed him to finish up his senior year at the University of Minnesota while training for WWE.

WWE set up a remote training facility for Steveson near the University of Minnesota campus, where he works with WWE coaches when he has time outside of class. He also has access to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, where his brother Bobby Steveson is training under his WWE contract.

Reports from September also note that Steveson’s multi-year WWE talent contract will officially begin once he graduates college in May 2022. The idea has been that he will be a full-time performer with WWE at that time, but will also appear on WWE TV as he finishes the school year.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE To Broadcast WrestleMania In Movie Theatres

WWE fans hoping to see The Showcase Of The Immortals will be able to do so while enjoying the big screen cinema experience.

WWE’s biggest show of the year is well on its way and for those wanting to view the WrestleMania 38 Premium Live Event in the best way possible, then a big-screen movie theatre experience might be the way forward!

WWE has announced a partnership with Fathomevents.com to bring both nights of this year’s ‘most stupendous’ ‘Mania to cinemas meaning that people will be able to see Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns in a winner take all, title unification match for the WWE and Universal Titles and Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey in the comfort of a movie theatre.

Theatre’s all over the United States will be taking part in this cinematic event so to find out if there’s one near you click this link to open a PDF of the full list of participating locations.

For more information, check out the WrestleMania 38 page on the Fathom events website.

This year’s WrestleMania takes place across April 2 and April 3 with two roughly four-hour-long shows.

Night one of WrestleMania 38 boasts two top women’s title matches with Charlotte Flair taking on Ronda Rousey for the SmackDown women’s championship, and Becky Lynch facing Bianca Belair for the Raw women’s championship.

We’re also getting Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs vs. The Usos for the SmackDown tag team titles.

In terms of non-title matches, we’re getting Drew McIntyre finally attempting to settle the score against Happy Corbin, The Mysterios taking on The Miz and Logan Paul and Kevin Owens coming face-to-face with Stone Cold Steve Austin on the KO Show.

And then on night two there will be the big Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns main event with both the WWE and Universal titles on the line.

Joining that match will be a Fatal Four Way for the WWE women’s tag-team titles with Carmella and Queen Zelina Vega taking on Naomi and Sasha Banks, Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley and the final team of Natalya and Shayna Bazler.

Johnny Knoxville and Sami Zayn will clash in an anything goes match, and Pat McAfee will take on Austin Theory.

Edge vs. AJ styles and the RAW tag-team title match between The Street Profits and RKBro have been confirmed but not announced for a day yet.

Source: TheSportster

NJPW Star SANADA  Out Of Action With Fractured Orbital Bone

New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s SANADA is out of action with a fractured left orbital bone. NJPW confirmed the injury on Friday.

The injury happened on Thursday, during his match against Will Ospreay in the third round of the New Japan Cup tournament. Late in the match, Ospreay executed a running shooting star press. His knee landed on SANADA’s head.

The referee immediately moved in to check on SANADA’s left eye. After a few moments, the match continued with SANADA locking on his Skull End submission hold and then attempting a moonsault. Ospreay got his knees up and followed up with his Hidden Blade running back elbow, which struck SANADA in the right side of his head.

Will Ospreay went for a cover, but SANADA kicked out. Ospreay responded by raining down a series of elbow strikes. He set up for another Hidden Blade but SANADA collapsed down to the mat. Ospreay paused momentarily, then moved in and delivered more elbow strikes until the referee stepped in and stopped the match.

SANADA was pulled from Friday’s card in Shizuoka. NJPW says there is no timetable for his return. SANADA himself posted his own statement on social media.

“SANADA will return,” he tweeted on Friday.

SANADA is the current IWGP United States Champion. He won the title last month from Hiroshi Tanahashi. which aired last not on AXS TV.

Ospreay’s win on Thursday moved him into the quarterfinals of the New Japan Cup where he will face Zack Sabre Jr. Sabre advanced with a win over Great-O-Khan on Thursday. The quarterfinal match between Ospreay and Sabre is scheduled for Monday.

The second quarterfinal match on Monday will see Shingo Takagi face his LIJ stablemate, Hiromu Takahashi. Takahashi advanced with a win Friday over EVIL. Takagi defeated Chase Owens on Friday.

The quarterfinals on the opposite side of the braket will be held on Sunday. IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada will face CIMA and Tetsuya Naito will go up against Jeff Cobb in a Wrestle Kingdom 16 rematch.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Rampage Preview 3/18/22

Tonight’s AEW Rampage was taped earlier this week from the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas. Rampage usually airs at 10pm ET on TNT every Friday night but tonight’s show will begin at 11:30pm or soon after the NCAA basketball Tournament coverage.

* The Butcher vs. Darby Allin

* Leyla Hirsch vs. Red Velvet

* House of Black’s Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews and Brody King vs. Bear Country and Fuego del Sol

* Keith Lee vs. Max Caster

WWE NXT Level Up Preview 3/18/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT Level Up episode is being billed as a “can’t miss edition” of the show.

Chen and Hayward to slug it out on thrilling edition of NXT Level Up

* Dante Chen vs. Bodhi Hayward.

*  Xyon Quinn vs. Damon Kemp (aka Bobby Steveson)

*  Lash Legend vs. Valentina Feroz

WWE SmackDown Preview 3/18/22

The Road to WrestleMania 38 will continue tonight as WWE SmackDown on FOX airs live from the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, NC.

Brock Lesnar to collide with Roman Reigns ahead of WrestleMania

It’s likely that King Xavier Woods will make his return to SmackDown tonight. Woods had been out of action since suffering a calf injury in January, but he returned at last weekend’s live events because Big E suffered a broken neck on last Friday’s SmackDown. WWE had plans for a six-man match at WrestleMania 38 with The New Day vs. Sheamus, Ridge Holland and Butch, but now we should find out if that will turn into a standard tag team match with Big E being out.

The WWE Events website has Ronda Rousey advertised for tonight’s show. There should be a follow-up to last week’s show-closing brawl with SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair.

Kenny Omega Recovering From Surgery, Update On His Status

Kenny Omega is reportedly recovering from knee surgery, and has other operations planned.

Omega has been out of action since dropping the AEW World Title to “Hangman” Adam Page at AEW Full Gear back on November 13. It was reported then that Omega had been in pain for a while, working with injuries that included shoulder, knee and abdominal issues, among others. It was also noted at that point how AEW President Tony Khan told Omega to take as much time off as he needed.

In an update, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter now reports that Omega is recovering from the arthroscopic knee surgery, and that will take around ten weeks.

Omega is set to go back under the knife at the end of March to repair a sports hernia. That recovery will take around two months.

Besides the hernia surgery, Omega has other issues that he is planning on taking care of before he returns to action. There is currently no timeframe for his return.

He originally hoped to be back in action by February, but noted that he was a little too optimistic. Now there is no timeframe for his return to the ring.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AEW Console Video Game Updates, Story Mode Confirmed

New details are being revealed on the much-anticipated AEW console video game.

A new report from Fightful Select notes that there will be a story mode for the game, and that some of the AEW wrestlers are giving input into the game storylines. It was also noted that several members of the Yuke’s team that helped create popular RAW vs. SmackDown video games are also a part of this story mode process.

While Yuke’s is known to be the developer of the AEW video game, no publisher has been announced. It’s believed that once the publisher is confirmed, there will be more information released, such as a release date and other details.

Kenny Omega is said to be determined for the AEW video game to be a success, and word is that he understands how integral a great showing could be.

The video game is reportedly coming along as AEW music producer Mikey Rukus recently stated that there was a soft deadline for some of the music for the story mode to be completed the week before the recent AEW Revolution pay-per-view. Furthermore, new AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa recently revealed that her prototype for the game has already been created, and was shown to her.

The official AEW video game is scheduled to be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.

Stay tuned for more on the AEW video game. For those who missed it, below are a few videos released last year:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Big E Gives Update On Broken Neck After Leaving Hospital

Big E was in good spirits, as usual, as he took to social media to update fans on his condition.

WWE superstar Big E has provided a further update on his status, having left hospital following a worrying injury. The former WWE Champion suffered a broken neck on last Friday’s episode of SmackDown, landing poorly off of a belly-to-belly Suplex from Ridge Holland outside the ring during a match between New Day, Holland, and Sheamus.

Big E landed directly on his head and was unable to continue fighting. The cameras panned off the 36-year-old, but subsequent reports claimed he was stretchered out of the arena.

Big E would reach out to fans via Twitter, posting a video in which he claimed to be alright. He later revealed he wouldn’t require surgery despite his neck being broken but also that his C1 and C6 vertebrae are fractured.

Former NFL team doctor David Chao reckons E is lucky to be alive and has cast doubt on a return to wrestling for the former champ.

“The C1 fracture is most dangerous as the top cervical vertebrae is a ring and is commonly associated with immediate death or complete paralysis. Thankfully the fracture was not displaced and he will not need surgery. However, this type of fracture often heals incompletely and it may mean the end of his wrestling career,” Chao wrote for Outkick.

“The C6 fracture is likely a compression injury to the vertebral body. This likely requires immobilization but not surgery. One would anticipate a minimum of three-month recovery with return to full function and activities for this lower cervical injury.”

Big E was back on Twitter on Thursday afternoon, this time walking around his neighborhood in some fine weather.

He wore a neck brace and was in good spirits, as has been the case throughout the whole ordeal.

“Life is good,” he said. “I got breath in my lungs, it’s a beautiful day. My neck might be broken, but my heart, it’s still in there, I think, yeah it’s in there.”

As noted above, E won’t be needing surgery. According to Chao, he could be back to his old self in three months, though he might not be able to wrestle again, at least not anytime soon.

Source: TheSportster

NJPW On AXSTV Preview 3/17/22

New Japan Pro Wrestling airs tonight on AXS TV following IMPACT at 10/9C.

This week’s NJPW on AXS TV includes an IWGP US Heavyweight Championship match from the Golden Series tour in Hokkaido, with SANADA vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi.