Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California, with the final build for Thursday’s Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.
One half of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions, Rhea Ripley, took to Twitter earlier today hoping to spread the word that her luggage has gone missing. Among the lost items is the Women’s Tag Team Title belt that Rhea travels with for press and appearances.
“*LOST GEAR BAG* My MosherZ of Albuquerque I know this is a stretch but, if any of you have seen a black travel suitcase around Office Boulevard & Montaño rd please hold onto it and let me know. It has all my gear in it, including my title. Cheers!”
It’s been noted in the past that WWE will give a replica title belt to their stars when traveling and doing press. They also have a series of championship titles made specifically for television that appear best on camera.
Rhea and Nikki A.S.H. (known as “Super Brutality”) have been defending their tag titles both on television and at WWE Live Events against Natalya and Tamina. They have been champions since September 20, 2021 when they defeated Natalya and Tamina in Charlotte, NC.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Lacey Evans has given birth to her second child, sharing photos from her home birth on Instagram.
Evans shared the news on Instagram, attaching photos of her home birth. The wrestler explained in the post why she had opted to give birth at home, citing COVID restrictions in hospitals as the reason for her decision. “Due to covid my family wouldn’t get to fully be a part of welcoming our second child into the world,” Evans wrote.
“Born 4:20 am in my recliner. 7lbs 8oz. With my Lil lady and husband by my side.” Evans and her husband have one other daughter together who is shown alongside her mom in the photos of the birth. Evans admits it was one of the hardest things she has ever done, but also incredibly rewarding. She signed off by writing, “she is perfect. I’m going to take a nap now.”
Saturday night’s AEW Dynamite from the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.
Below is the card as of this posting:
* Bryan Danielson vs. Bobby Fish
* Malakai Black vs. Daunte Martin
* The Lucha Brothers (Fénix & Pentagon Jr.) (c) vs. TBA (AEW World Tag Team Championship)
* World Title Eliminator Tournament Bracket: AEW will reveal the AEW World Title Eliminator Tournament. The final of this tournament will take place at Full Gear PPV
Tonight’s AEW Rampage will be live at the James L. Knight Center in Miami, Florida.
The Buy-In pre-show at 9pm ET on YouTube:
* Tay Conti vs. Santana Garrett
* Bobby Fish vs. Lee Moriarty
* Bryan Danielson vs. Minoru Suzuki
AEW Rampage at 10pm ET on TNT:
* CM Punk vs. Matt Sydal
* Ruby Soho vs. The Bunny
* Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Jake Hager & AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara) vs. Men of the Year (Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky) & the debuting former UFC Heavyweight Champion Junior dos Santos (w/Dan Lambert & Jorge Masvidal)
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California will be a special Supersized edition that airs on FS1 due to the MLB airing on FOX. The episode will air for 2 hours and 30 minutes with the last half hour airing commercial-free.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling icon Minoru Suzuki is coming soon to Impact Wrestling.
Impact announced his soon-to-be arrival through a career highlight video package. This will be the first time Suzuki has worked for the company.
Known for his vicious poise in the ring, the “King of Pro Wrestling” has made his rounds in America recently by competing New Japan Strong, PWX, West Coast Pro, GCW, and AEW.
Tonight, Suzuki will return to AEW to face Bryan Danielson on Rampage‘s Buy-In event at 9 pm ET on YouTube.
Suzuki is the fifth member of the New Japan roster to have worked with Impact this calendar year. He follows Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Jay White, Satoshi Kojima and El Phantasmo.
With Tony Khan mostly staying behind the scenes of AEW, an injury would seem unlikely. And yet the AEW President has recently found himself on the AEW Injury Report. In an interview with the New York Post, Khan revealed he had been hurt in an off camera incident at AEW Grand Slam, where American Top Team’s Junior dos Santos injured Khan’s ribs.
“He cracked them (my ribs),” Khan said. “I’ll be OK. But he legitimately cracked them. I’ll be OK. It’s been a few weeks, but I’m sleeping on my right side.”
The incident occurred following the match between Inner Circle members Chris Jericho and Jake Hager take on the Men of the Year (Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky), where American Top Team members (including dos Santos) laid Jericho and Hager out. Khan would confront American Top Team on the ramp right after, where the two, according to Khan, improvised a spot that led to the injury.
“It felt just right in the moment,” Khan said. “It was just kind of improvised. He’s a very strong man. I love the gasp pop it got. I was definitely asking for it.”
Khan doesn’t hold any ill will towards dos Santos, and even revealed that he no sold the injury to those in the back, returning to his seat in the GO position as if everything was fine. He’s also thrilled with the work dos Santos and American Top Team have put in thus far, both in giving AEW attention in helping to elevate Sky and Page.
“We built something very strong now with American Top Team and AEW,” Khan said. “We’ve gotten great crossover media opportunities because of dos Santos, (Jorge) Masvidal, Paige VanZant and Andrei Arlovski. It’s given good visibility and credibility to AEW and also Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page.”
dos Santos, accompanied by fellow MMA star Jorge Masvidal, will make his in ring debut for AEW this Saturday on a special AEW Dynamite, teaming with Sky and Page to take on Chris Jericho, Jake Hager and AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara. Given his experience with dos Santos, Khan expects him to be a handful for the Inner Circle members.
“I’m fine. I’m a not wuss,” Khan stated. “But he did break my ribs. So he’s going to be a handful in the ring for sure. I can tell you.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
WWE officials are reportedly looking at getting more younger talents ready for the main roster.
A new report from Wrestling Observer Radio noted that WWE officials are very much aware of the idea that they have a lot of 40 year old Superstars on the main roster.
This is said to be the reason for the recent WWE NXT 2.0 brand changes as the company absolutely realizes they have to get wrestlers in their 20s ready for the main roster.
While there might be a feeling among some fans that WWE is in denial over the shape of the main roster, especially when it comes to the age of current talents and the lack of younger stars for the future, that is reportedly not the case as officials are “more than aware” of the problem, and are making changes to fix it.
WWE currently has 22 main roster Superstars who are 40 or older – Asuka (40), Cesaro (40), Finn Balor (40), Kofi Kingston (40), RAW Tag Team Champion Randy Orton (41), WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (41), Shayna Baszler (41), The Miz (41), Dolph Ziggler (41), John Morrison (42), Sheamus (43), Tamina Snuka (43), AJ Styles (44), Jeff Hardy (44), Titus O’Neil (44), Bobby Lashley (45), Robert Roode (45), Rey Mysterio (46), Shelton Benjamin (46), MVP (47), WWE Hall of Famer Edge (47), R-Truth (49). Furthermore, part-timers like Brock Lesnar (44), John Cena (44) and WWE Hall of Famer Bill Goldberg (54) are also used. There are also dozens of Superstars in their mid-30s and who are pushing 40, such as Natalya (39) and WWE United States Champion Damian Priest (39).
Source: Wrestling Inc.
WWE reportedly isn’t planning to hold the annual TLC pay-per-view in 2021. The company has performed the show every year since 2009.
The WWE TLC pay-per-view runs annually in the month of December, but it sounds like the show won’t be happening this year.
Previously, an unnamed pay-per-view was scheduled to run on Dec. 12 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. Several weeks ago, it was reported that TLC 2021 would actually run on Dec. 12.
However, Dave Meltzer reported on Wrestling Observer Radio (h/t WrestlingNews.co), that WWE isn’t actually running a pay-per-view in December. Meltzer added “the feeling is now” running 12 pay-per-views annually. Instead of a TLC December show, WWE will have the “Day 1” pay-per-view on Jan. 1 (a Saturday) at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
With that, there are only two WWE pay-per-views remaining for 2021. Crown Jewel will be held next Thursday at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Barring a change of plans, Survivor Series will be the final PPV event of 2021 — at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York on Nov. 21.
Regarding other WWE pay-per-views that were held in 2020 but excluded this year include Payback (Aug. 30 of last year), and Clash of Champions (held in 2019 and 2020). Backlash was renamed “WrestleMania Backlash” this year, having featured several WrestleMania 37 rematches.
WWE performs two shows in Saudi Arabia annually, but they were only able to run the one in 2020 (Super ShowDown on Feb. 27) because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crown Jewel 2021 will be the lone WWE pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia this year.
WWE performed TLC every year from 2009 to 2020, but it looks like they’re keen on changing things up this year. Instead of a December pay-per-view, there will be two PPVs in January — the aforementioned Day One event on Jan. 1 and the annual Royal Rumble. That show will be held on Jan. 29 inside The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
Source: TheSportster
