Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will air live from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas with the final build for Sunday’s Money In the Bank pay-per-view.
This show marks WWE’s official return to touring since the COVID-19 pandemic shut things down last year. WWE is expected to have several surprises this weekend, and a new set will debut on tonight’s SmackDown.
The September 17 edition of WWE SmackDown on FOX will no longer take place at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
The arena announced today that the event has been canceled. No reason was given, but refunds are available at the point of purchase.
WWE has not announced a new location for the September 17 SmackDown as of this writing, but we will keep you updated. The WWE website still has the Atlanta event listed as of this writing, but that will likely be removed soon.
Fans on Twitter expressed frustration with the cancellation as the arena was still selling tickets as of yesterday.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
On tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling, several more hints were dropped on which stars might be returning or debuting at Slammiversary this Saturday.
In one of tonight’s segments, the Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo, who is set to defend her championship against an opponent she won’t find out about until Saturday night, and Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore, sat down to sign Purrazzo’s side of the contract going into Slammiversary. Just before she signed the contract, D’Amore told The Virtuosa, “I know sometimes things around here get to be a little bit of a hot mess, but Slammiversary is truly going to be iconic. We’re in Nashville here…might be a little hardcore country.”
In the first part of D’Amore’s statement, “hot mess” was in reference to Laurel Van Ness (fka Chelsea Green in WWE). Ness spent two years in TNA/Impact from 2016 – 2018. She held the Knockouts Championship one time. Her title reign lasted 65 days before dropping it to Allie (aka The Bunny in AEW). Green was one of several who was, unfortunately, let go from WWE in April, which means her non-compete clause has expired. Just recently, Green made an appearance at Ring of Honor’s Best in the World, where she will become one of the participants scheduled to compete in the Women’s World Championship Tournament that will begin soon.
The second phrase mentioned was “iconic,” which belongs to Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay (fka as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay, collectively known as The IIconics in WWE). Like Green, Lee and McKay were released by WWE in April and are now free from their 90-day non-compete clauses. The former WWE Women’s Tag Team champs have mentioned that they would like to remain a team going forward. In a recent interview with Renee Paquette, they both mentioned they would like to compete in Impact, along with other promotions, if given the opportunity.
Lastly, the “hardcore country” reference was made toward Mickie James’ music single, “Hardcore Country,” which was released on her 2013 album, Somebody’s Gonna Pay. James spent roughly two decades on and off with TNA (2002 – 2003, 2010 – 2015). She racked up three separate reigns with the Knockouts Championship and is looked at as one of the founding mothers of the Knockouts division. Currently, James is working as an executive producer and in-ring talent at NWA. She will be in charge of the first-ever all-female event for the company called NWA EmPowerrr on August 28.
It’ll be interesting to see if some or all of these women mentioned on tonight’s program will appear at Slammiversary. Slammiversary will take place this Saturday on FITE TV and traditional pay-per-view.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Goldberg’s last match took place against Drew McIntyre at the Royal Rumble. A new report gives us an idea on when he’ll return to WWE.
Goldberg will reportedly make his return to WWE programming very soon.
According to Fightful Select (h/t Ringside News), Goldberg will return to television on Monday Night Raw next week. Apparently, the plan is to run a program between the Hall of Famer and WWE Champion Bobby Lashley for SummerSlam, which will take place at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on Aug. 21.
Last year, Goldberg revealed that his WWE contract consists of two matches annually, and it runs through 2023. The 54-year-old has already wrestled one match this year, losing to Drew McIntyre in a WWE Championship bout at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
SummerSlam is one of WWE’s marquee pay-per-views, so this would obviously be a smart time to use up Goldberg’s second match of 2021. Lashley will defend his title against Kofi Kingston at Money in the Bank (at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth) this Sunday. Even if the former were to lose the title, it doesn’t mean WWE can’t run a non-title program between Lashley and Goldberg.
Next week’s episode of Raw will take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. This will be the first Raw show to feature fans since March 9, 2020. WWE spent over five months at the Performance Center in Orlando before launching the ThunderDome technology in August, which they used up until this week. WWE will return to touring this Friday, with SmackDown taking place at the Toyota Center in Houston.
Monday Night Raw suffered its lowest viewership ever last week. Clearly, WWE has some work to do when it comes to fixing the product and regaining the interest of fans. Goldberg remains a giant fan favorite and main event draw, and a program with Lashley could go a long way in enhancing the television product. Simply put, Goldberg’s is coming back at a very opportune time.
Source: The Sportster
In two days, Impact Wrestling’s world will change once again at Slammiversary. With all the titles on the line and possibly new and former faces emerging, anything can happen on Saturday. But that’s 48 hours away. Tonight, witness the go-home edition of Impact leading up to this altering event.
This week, the main event will showcase a Battle of the Hosses as Fallah Bahh, Willie Mack, Doc Gallows and the current Impact World Tag Team Champion Joe Doering from Violent By Design collide in a four-way match. Before these men and their tag team partners duke it out in a four-way matchup for the tag team titles on Saturday, one man from each team listed will test the waters on tonight’s program.
Last week, the men mentioned above saw their partners compete in the same structure, with Karl Anderson, a former Impact tag champion, win the entire thing. Will Gallows do the same thing his partner did last week, or could we see a new man step up and stake a claim for their team heading into this career-defining matchup this weekend?
Tonight on Impact on AXS TV:
* Havok vs. Tasha Steelz
* Moose vs. Hernandez
* Eight-Man Tag Team Match: X-Division Champion Josh Alexander, Chris Bey, Trey Miguel & Petey Williams vs. Ace Austin, Madman Fulton, Rohit Raju & Shera
* Mixed Tag Team Action: Tenille Dashwood & Kaleb (With A “K”) vs. Jordynne Grace & Rachael Ellering
* Chris Sabin vs. Johnny Swinger will kick things off on Before The Impact at 7 PM ET!
Becky Lynch is reportedly scheduled to be at the WWE Money In the Bank pay-per-view.
There is no word on if Lynch will make her return at the pay-per-view, but PWInsider reports that as of this morning she is scheduled to be in attendance at Money In the Bank.
Lynch was working out in the ring with Indi Hartwell at the WWE Performance Center a few weeks back, as part of the process of getting cleared for her return to action.
Lynch gave birth to her first daughter, with Seth Rollins, back in December. She has been out of action since WrestleMania 36, where she retained the RAW Women’s Title over Shayna Baszler. She then relinquished that title to Asuka a few weeks later, announcing her pregnancy.
It’s believed that WWE is saving some of their bigger returns for when they return to the road later this week, beginning with Friday’s SmackDown on FOX from Houston. Money In the Bank will take place from the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Tonight’s AEW Dynamite: Fyter Fest (Night One) episode airs on TNT from the HEB Center in Cedar Park, Texas.
* Brian Cage (c) vs. Ricky Starks (FTW Championship)
* Ethan Page vs. Darby Allin (Coffin Match)
* Matt Hardy vs. Christian Cage
* Penelope Ford vs. Yuka Sakazaki
* Hangman Page to speak
* Jon Moxley (c) vs. Karl Anderson (IWGP US Championship)
* Sammy Guevara vs. Wheeler Yuta
WWE NXT is scheduled to be bumped from the USA Network by coverage of The Olympics later this month.
NBC Universal’s broadcast schedule for The Olympics currently shows that the USA Network will be airing coverage of the games on Tuesday, July 27.
NXT will air on Syfy that night at 8pm ET instead of USA, according to PWInsider.
There’s no word yet on if additional NXT episodes will be bumped from USA to Syfy as NBCU continues their coverage of the games.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
Mandy Rose’s move to NXT is a permanent one, and apparently Raw will be getting a Superstar from the black and gold brand in return.
The appearances of Shotzi Blackheart and Tegan Nox, and the video package hyping Toni Storm, on SmackDown last week were somewhat expected. The three of them and other NXT stars have been competing in trial matches ahead of potential call-ups. However, Mandy Rose moving the other way will have taken most people by surprise on Tuesday.
Rose appeared on the ramp during a match on NXT this week, and again later during a backstage segment. It has since been reported that Rose’s move to NXT is a permanent one and she will no longer be appearing on Raw. Bad news for the red brand whose roster is somewhat lacking already.
Fear not, as according to WrestleVotes, Raw will be getting an NXT Superstar in return. A WWE source has told the Twitter account that Aliyah will be taking Rose’s place on Monday nights. That might be considered an odd choice by some. Aliyah hasn’t been reported to have competed in any recent trial matches on Raw or SmackDown, neither can she boast a lot of screen time in NXT. Aliyah has been in NXT longer than you might think though, debuting as Jasmin more than six years ago.
The news that Aliyah will be moving on over to Raw also makes sense after what happened to her on NXT this week. She and Jessi Kamea lost a match to Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter, at which point she snapped and blamed the loss on their manager Robert Stone. Frankie Monet swooped in to pick up the pieces, declaring that the Robert Stone Brand won’t have to worry about Aliyah anymore.
When exactly Aliyah will debut on Raw remains unclear. She technically has a couple of main roster matches under her belt already. Aliyah lost to Carmella on a 2017 edition of SmackDown, and also wrestled and lost to Natalya on Main Event last year. However, as has been proved by Karrion Kross, appearances on Main Event don’t seem to count.
Source: The Sportster
Tonight’s WWE NXT episode on the USA Network will feature fallout from last week’s Great American Bash special.
![[Report] Possible Major Spoiler On When Goldberg Will Return To WWE](https://wrestlingnewsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/goldberg.jpg?w=777&h=1&crop=1){kind=small}
