Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri.
* WWE Champion Bobby Lashley responds to Goldberg’s SummerSlam challenge
* New RAW Women’s Champion Nikki A.S.H. celebrates
* Mansoor and Mustafa Ali will team up
* RAW Tag Team Champions AJ Styles and Omos defend against The Viking Raiders
* WWE has Randy Orton advertised to appear tonight. Orton has been out of action since late June, and was recently on the disabled/inactive list internally.
The feud between Karrion Kross and Jeff Hardy will have to be delayed as Hardy has tested positive for Covid-19 and is being pulled.
If WWE is planning to have Karrion Kross feud with Jeff Hardy, it looks like that feud is going to have to wait. Reports are that Hardy has had to pull out of events after testing positive for COVID-19, which may or may not derail immediate plans for Monday Night Raw.
Kross debuted last week on Raw. He came out with no fancy entrance and no manager, going up against the veteran in Hardy, who picked up a surprising win over the NXT Champion. Fans were split on the decision to have Kross lose clean to a mid-card talent like Hardy, but the belief was that a storyline would be starting right away where Kross came out and destroyed Hardy, starting him on a warpath through the Raw roster.
If that’s the plan, it will have to wait as Hardy has pulled out of an event in Kansas City after he tested positive for COVID-19. The news of his positive test was announced by the recordBar venue in Kansas City. They posted the following on Facebook:
“We regret to inform you that the event with Jeff Hardy to take place on Monday July 26, 2021 at recordBar in Kansas City, MO will have to be postponed to a later date.” They added, “Jeff Hardy just tested positive for covid this morning, and will have to quarantine for the next two weeks, and will not be participating in any live events for the next two weeks.” They provided a link for refund requests.
Source: The Sportster
KOPW 2021 CHAMPIONSHIP (RANBO MATCH – PRE-SHOW)
Chase Owens wins and becomes the provisional KOPW 2021 Champion
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo (c) defeated Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Robbie Eagles defeated El Desperado (c) to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada defeated Jeff Cobb
IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tetsuya Naito and SANADA (c) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship
IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Shingo Takagi (c) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi
DATE: July 25, 2021 3:00 am
LOCATION: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World
CARD
IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Kota Ibushi
IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Tetsuya Naito and SANADA (c) vs. Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.
Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
El Desperado (c) vs. Robbie Eagles
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo (c) vs. Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi
KOPW 2021 CHAMPIONSHIP (RANBO MATCH – PRE-SHOW)
Toru Yano (c) vs. TBA
Major League Wrestling presents Battle Riot III tonight at 10pm eastern exclusively on MLW’s YouTube channel and simulcast nationwide on cable and beIN Sports.
40 men! 1 Ring! It’s time to riot. It’s time for the BATTLE RIOT presented by newlawoffice.com!
Witness the biggest MLW match of the year! Featuring a who’s who in the sport, including: surprises, legends and more!
Having been denied a title shot, Alex Hammerstone’s only hope for a dream title vs title match is winning the Riot. Will it be Hammertime or will CONTRA Unit’s threats to terrorize the Riot mean the end of the road for Your Boy Hammer?
The rules are simple: this is a no disqualification bout, meaning weapons ARE permitted. A new man enters every 60 seconds. Elimination is by pinfall, submission or throwing a wrestler over the top rope… and the winner gets a title shot anytime, anywhere! The challenger has the key to unlock an instant title shot against whoever the champion is.
The best fighters are traveling from around the world fans for the Battle Riot and a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, including:
Azteca Underground’s King Muertes!
Ross & Marshall Von Erich!
The hunt is on as Davey Richards looks to get into instant title contention by winning the Riot!
Tom Lawlor vows to be the first ever 2-time Battle Riot winner. Can Filthy Tom pull it off?
Journeying from Mexico, Aramis, Arez and the legendary LA Park all look to claim a guaranteed title shot!
355 pound Calvin Tankman has been nearly unstoppable. Now the Heavyweight Hustle looks to steamroll over 39 other men.
World Middleweight Champion Myron Reed looks to ignite some hot fire as Injustice riots in South Philly.
6’8” “The Judge” EJ Nduka promises justice will be served as he makes his MLW debut.
Who will outfight, outlast and outwit 39 other men? Tune in to find out!
PLUS: Rumors are swirling that Cesar Duran will be in attendance at the marquee event. Is “El Jefe” simply quenching his thirst for violence, or could the devious proprietor of Azteca Underground be looking to use the Battle Riot to scout potential fighters to add to his rank?
Join Rich Bocchini, fight analyst Saint Laurent, and broadcast journalist Alicia Atout as MLW presents Battle Riot III!
AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker has revealed that she sustained a legitimate broken wrist during her match with Nyla Rose on the July 21 Dynamite.
All Elite Wrestling Women’s Champion Britt Baker has revealed that she suffered a broken wrist during her match with Nyla Rose on the most recent Fyter Fest edition of Dynamite, which went down in Dallas on Wednesday, July 21.
On Friday night, Baker took to social media to share a photograph of herself alongside mixed martial artist Paige VanZant. In the image, Baker is wearing a hefty-looking cast on her right forearm.
“With [Paige VanZant],” Baker captioned the image. “And oh yeah, I retained the title on Wednesday night at [AEW Dynamite] with a broken wrist,” she added.
Baker claimed that despite the injury, she wouldn’t be taking any time off. Whether or not this means she intends to wrestle with a broken wrist remains to be seen, as it’s possible she will just continue to appear on AEW programming without participating in any matches.
Baker’s no stranger working while injured. As you might recall, she continued to appear in weekly Dynamite segments despite suffering an anterior lateral tibial fracture, a partial lateral collateral ligament tear, and a small degree tendon tear during a tag match on an episode of Dynamite in May of last year. Ironically, that match also featured the aforementioned Nyla Rose, although Rose was Baker’s tag partner that night, not her opponent.
Following her 2020 injury, Baker appeared regularly on Dynamite in a wheelchair and cut promos on her colleagues in the AEW women’s division.
Source: The Sportster
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will feature fallout from Money In the Bank as the Road to SummerSlam kicks off.
This will be a special edition of SmackDown, airing as a dual-site broadcast. Some of the matches will air live from the Rolling Loud rap festival in Miami, while the rest of the show will air live from the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, Ohio.
* Toni Storm debuts on the main roster
* John Cena returns to SmackDown
* Big E vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews, from Rolling Loud in Miami
* Carmella vs. SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, from Rolling Loud in Miami
* Fallout from Money In the Bank and build for SummerSlam
WWE reportedly has interest in bringing Braun Strowman back.
It was noted in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE is interested in bringing Strowman back to work for the company, especially with the recent AEW signings and the expected signings of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.
Strowman was released from WWE on June 2, and is reportedly under a 90-day non-compete clause that will make him a free agent on Tuesday, August 31. There has been talk of Strowman signing with AEW as there is interest from both sides
There is no word yet on if Strowman is interested in going back to WWE.
Strowman merchandise was added to the WWE Shop website, but it remains to be seen if that was some sort of error, or miscommunication, or if it could be related to WWE wanting to bring him back.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
While details are sketchy, reports are that WWE is planning to hold a Queen of the Ring Tournament later this year.
As per an exclusive report via Wrestling Inc., WWE is bringing a popular tournament back, only this time for the Women’s Division with a Queen of the Ring tournament. The report explains this won’t be a pay-per-view and it won’t be part of either Raw or SmackDown.
The tournament is tentatively scheduled to be a main roster show that airs exclusively on Peacock. No dates have been confirmed, only that this is supposed to happen at some point as part of the 2021 calendar.
There were also no details on how big the tournament bracket would be, if it would include only certain stars from certain brands or which names were going to be featured. WWE’s Women’s main roster division current includes about 17 women who aren’t either already champions or aren’t on the injured list. That means, most of the females on the main roster could be included if the brackets start with 16 competitors.
What’s interesting about this is that WWE hasn’t really put much emphasis on a King of the Ring Tournament in quite some time. It’s not a regularly featured pay-per-view and from year to year, it’s never quite known if WWE will hold the historic event or not. King of the Ring had previously been one of WWE’s signature spectacles with the winner often going on to do big things. Perhaps WWE is hoping the winner of a female version of the tournament could skyrocket in popularity.
NWA recently announced an all-women pay-per-view titled EmPower. It will take place on Aug. 28 at Chase Park Plaza in St. Louis. During a media call in June, Triple H was asked and all-women’s event and seemed to brush off the idea, saying it was a possibility, but not “the must-have of the moment.”
Could WWE have changed their mind or felt pressure to put something on? Or, was this in the works already and Triple H just kept it quiet.
Source: The Sportster
AEW has been mentioned as the likeliest landing spot for CM Punk. Here is the latest.
It sounds like CM Punk and AEW are closing in on a contract that will change the professional wrestling landscape.
On Thursday, it was reported that CM Punk has engaged in talks regarding a return to the ring, and that AEW is the most likely promotion to land him. More details have emerged on this story.
Ringside News heard that an agreement between AEW And CM Punk is practically a “done deal”, and that they’re simply “waiting until they are in person to sign the contract.”
Also, Dave Meltzer reported on a Wrestling Observer Forum (h/t WrestlingNews.co), that the two sides have held “talks about certain dates.” Meltzer believes that even if they haven’t signed a deal yet, CM Punk and AEW “they have an understanding and unless (there is) a blow up, it’s happening.”
On his Instagram page, CM Punk posted a story of the song Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project, and some are interpreting this as a hint that he’ll be joining AEW soon. Sirius has been played at Chicago Bulls home games since the Michael Jordan dynasty days. The AEW All Out pay-per-view will be held inside the Now Arena at Hoffman Estates, Illinois on Sept. 5. Hoffman Estates is a suburb of Chicago, CM Punk’s hometown.
Signing CM Punk, who left the WWE seven and a half years ago, would be a massive game changer for AEW. And yet, he may not be the only former WWE Champion who’s about to arrive in the company. Recent reports have also stated that Daniel Bryan is about to join AEW. Apparently, the company’s partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling was a significant factor in Bryan’s decision to sign with AEW. His contract with WWE expired nearly three months ago.
If AEW signs both CM Punk and Bryan, that promises to quickly change the competition with WWE. These are two of the most popular and accomplished wrestlers of the past decade, after all. We’ll just have to wait and see how everything plays out over the coming days or weeks.
Source: The Sportster
