DATE: April 16, 2022 8:00 pm LOCATION: Odeum Expo Center, Chicago, IL, United States AVAILABLE ON: FITE
CARD
Jon Moxley vs. Will Ospreay
NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: Tom Lawlor (c) vs. Yuji Nagata
Bullet Club (Chris Bey, Good Brothers, Hikuleo, Chris Bey El Phantasmo, and Scott Norton) vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, TJP, Mark Davis, and Kyle Fletcher)
Jay White Open Challenge
Team Rosser (Fred Rosser, Chris Dickinson, Ren Narita, Alex Coughlin & Josh Alexander) vs. Team Filthy (Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs, JR Kratos & Black Tiger)
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki
CHICAGO STREET FIGHT Brody King and FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste, JONAH, and Bad Dude Tito)
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will take place from the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
* Ricochet will defend the WWE Intercontinental Title against Jinder Mahal
* Drew McIntyre will face Sami Zayn in a rematch from last week’s bout that ended in a count out win for McIntyre
The WWE Events website has RAW Tag Team Champions RK-Bro advertised for tonight’s SmackDown. There’s no word on if they will be there to continue the feud with SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos, or if they’re just working a dark main event.
RAW Superstars Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins are also advertised by the WWE Events website. The arena website has Rhodes vs. Rollins advertised, which is likely a dark main event.
It’s interesting to note that The Usos and Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns are not being advertised to appear, by the WWE Events website or the arena. Ronda Rousey is also not listed by either website, but SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair is.
The Bloodline ended last week’s show by taking out Shinsuke Nakamura, so it will be interesting to see if they miss this week’s SmackDown for whatever reason.
Tonight’s AEW Rampage on TNT will be a live episode that takes place at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, Texas.
Rampage is airing live at a special start time of 7pm ET instead of 10pm, due to NBA coverage on TNT.
* Gunn Club (Billy, Austin, and Colten Gunn) vs. Blackpool Combat Club (ROH Pure Champion Wheeler Yuta, Jon Moxley, and Bryan Danielson with William Regal)
* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier Ruby Soho vs. Robyn Renegade
* Texas Deathmatch for the AEW World Heavyweight Championship Adam Cole vs. ‘Hangman’ Adam Page (c)
WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly issued a recent decree on Superstar ring names.
There have been recent changes to WWE Superstar ring names, and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that the roster recently received a memo that included a decree from Vince, who doesn’t want anyone new using their real names anymore, or names they’ve used before on the indies.
The former WALTER became Gunther because WALTER was his real name and a name he used on the indies. Marcel Barthel’s name change to Ludwig Kaiser is interesting as this was a WWE-owned name that he never used before WWE.
Raul Mendoza was changed to Cruz Del Toro this past week, but there’s no word on if he is being called up from WWE NXT. Pete Dunne was re-named to Butch. Raquel Gonzalez was re-named to Raquel Rodriguez this past week when she was brought to SmackDown, but she kept her real first name.
There are obvious exceptions to this rule, like every rule. It was noted that the decree applies mostly to people just coming to the main roster, but obviously does not apply to Cody Rhodes, or Gable Steveson.
It was announced this past week that Austin Theory is now going by just Theory. There was speculation on this name change being related to WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin, but that’s not the case. The Observer notes that Theory’s name was changed because his real name is Austin White.
The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) joined SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio for an hour-long discussion.
Karl Anderson reflected on the night they were the headline dark match at Madison Square Garden with WWE in September 2019. After the bout, there was an in-ring segment involving “Stone Cold” Steve Austin and AJ Styles, which resulted in Styles asking Anderson if he should drink the beer handed to him.
“When we got to do The Garden and the dark main event — this is a good story,” Anderson said. “We’re in there with ‘Stone Cold; Steve Austin, me, Gallows, and AJ [Styles]. ‘Stone Cold’ hands AJ a beer. AJ doesn’t drink, and AJ looks at us and AJ goes, ‘shall I drink this?’ and I go, ‘yeah, just have a sip.’ He takes the sip, he takes the Stunner, and people react. We get to the back and he looks at us and he goes, ‘you guys lied to me. That is the worst thing I’ve ever tasted in my life! How do y’all drink those things?’”
Luke Gallows discussed the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and The Undertaker at WrestleMania 36. Gallows noted The Deadman cut open his arm when smashing the window of the hearse. It resulted in filming being stopped every few minutes to attend to the wound.
“I remember at the time, I remember us saying – because AJ was our best buddy, like, it’s hard not to be in a stadium with a match like that,” Gallows said. “They wanted that. They deserved 80,000 people and they didn’t have it. So everyone made the best of a rotten situation and the match was cool as sh*t, I thought.
“You talk about an old-school badass dude too at the very beginning of that, because it took all night to shoot it. He punches the window out of the hearse, right? And his arm is bleeding profusely. You can see tendons. A lot of people – Karl would have quit. I mean every fifteen minutes we would stop, ice, towel, hold it on to get the bleeding to stop. Alright, let’s start going. For 8-9 hours just bleeding.”
Source: Wrestling Inc – credit SiriusXM’s Busted Open Radio
The card for next week’s AEW Dynamite was revealed last night and it is filled to the brim with action and announcements. It was promised that Tony Khan, the Founder and President of AEW, will be appearing to reveal a major announcement for All Elite Wrestling.
When it comes to the matches, the ongoing feud between Andrade El Idolo and Darby Allin looks to be coming to a head when they face each other in a coffin match. This will only be the second coffin match ever in AEW and Darby’s second time competing with such a stipulation.
Rising AEW star Hook will also be making his way to Dynamite to compete for the first time. On the show Rampage and on pay-per-view buy-in shows, Hook remains undefeated, so it will be interesting to see if he can keep up the winning streak with a new wave of challengers.
You can see the full card for next week’s AEW Dynamite below:
Wardlow vs. The Butcher
Hook makes AEW Dynamite in-ring debut
* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier Britt Baker vs. Danielle Camella
* Owen Hart Foundation Tournament Qualifier Jungle Boy vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Major League Wrestling FUSION tonight at 8pm ET features a 4-way for the National Openweight Championship, streaming worldwide for free on MLW’s YouTube channel and Saturday nationwide on cable and dish on beIN SPORTS.
National Openweight Championship: Alex Kane (champion) vs. ACH vs. Myron Reed vs. Puma King
Shazza McKenzie vs. Holidead
TJP vs. Matt Cross
Approaching the half year milestone for his reign as the National Openweight Champion, Alex Kane has demanded challengers with a variety of fighting styles step up and challenge him for the championship. Tonight Kane gets exactly that as grapplers with diverse fighting styles step up to knock off the champ and take his belt.
The high risk, high reward high-flying Myron Reed looks to become a double champion and add gold to his World Middleweight Championship reign.
But what about the unpredictable and unorthodox lucha libre fighting style? Puma King looks to pounce the champ and bring gold back to Mexico as the first Mexican to hold the National Openweight Championship.
Last but not least, the technical finesse of ACH could overwhelm Kane’s explosive suplexes if ACH dictate the speed of the title fight.
Shockingly, “The Suplex Assassin” is not happy. He has demanded even MORE competitors step up for tonight’s title bout. Not only does he want to prove his hybrid wrestling technique is beyond all on the roster, but he wants fighters from different weight classes to make their move… but will a fourth challenger enter the fray? Tune in to find out.
After the shocking news that Cesar Duran was under investigation, what is the latest on the fate of the ruthless proprietor of Azteca Underground?
The road to crowning the inaugural women’s world featherweight champion heats up as Australia’s top ranked Shazza McKenzie makes her MLW debut against Strange Sangre’s Holidead.
Fatu rages against his former CONTRA co-conspirator Mads Krugger and sets the stage for a monumental showdown at Intimidation Games.
Plus: two of the league’s top Middleweights go toe to toe as TJP goes one on one with Matt Cross!
Richard Holliday and Alicia Atout dish on The Dynasty, Hammerstone and more. Could The Clout Couple be laying the groundwork for their next move against the World Heavyweight Champion?
Join Rich Bocchini and Joe Dombrowski as MLW presents Fusion!
Less than two weeks away from Rebellion, buckle up for an all-new IMPACT! tonight at 8/7c on AXS TV and 8:30pm ET on YouTube for IMPACT Insiders!
* Jonah vs. PCO
* Steve Maclin vs. Alex Shelley
* Deonna Purrazzo Champ Champ Challenge
* Jonathan Gresham vs. Rocky Romero
* The action begins Before the IMPACT, streaming this Thursday at 7:30pm ET exclusively on IMPACT Plus, YouTube and Facebook. The struggle for dominance between Knockouts World Tag Team Champions The Influence and The IInspiration rolls on as Madison Rayne battles Jessie McKay in singles action! Plus, Gia Miller, Josh Mathews and George Iceman get you ready for all things IMPACT on the road to Rebellion.
The AEW console video game may be released much earlier than originally expected.
AEW first announced their video game back in, but no timeframe was provided. Now Fightful Select reports that there has been internal talk of the game being released in September, but that is tentative and not official.
It was noted that there is plenty of work to be done on the game, but the plan for some time has been to release this year, and that September is widely regarded as the target timeframe as of this week.
An AEW source stressed that this is a tentative release date, and there’s a publisher involved. It was also said that fans can expect the game fairly soon if all goes well, but a lot of things can change between now and September.
It was revealed back in mid-March that there will be a story mode for the game, and that some of the AEW wrestlers were giving input into the 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, but this new report notes that a publisher is working with the AEW video game team. 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 official AEW video game is scheduled to be released on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One.
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite on TBS will air live from the UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Tony Khan on Busted Open Radio says TNT/TBS is very happy with AEW ratings and that’s why they are getting an overrun tonight. Tony says he’s not saying they will go “super long” tonight. It could be just an extra couple of minutes.
AEW has announced the following line-up for tonight:
* CM Punk vs. Penta Oscuro
* Marina Shafir makes TV debut vs. Skye Blue
* MJF vs. Shawn Dean
* Santana, Ortiz and Eddie Kingston vs. Chris Jericho, Jake Hager and Daniel Garcia of The Jericho Appreciation Society
* Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland vs. Powerhouse Hobbs and FTW Champion Ricky Starks
* AEW World Tag Team Champions Jurassic Express defend against reDRagon
* ROH World Television Champion Minoru Suzuki defends against Samoa Joe
* Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt have a “big surprise” for Samoa Joe
