Tonight’s WWE NXT episode will feature more build for the upcoming “Takeover: WarGames 2020” event.
* Kevin Owens does guest commentary to fill in for Wade Barrett
* The storyline between Boa and Xia Li will continue
* Ember Moon vs. Candice LeRae
* Who will be picked for Team Candice LeRae vs. Team Shotzi Blackheart in WarGames?
* Ladder Match: A member of The Undisputed Era vs. a member of The Kings of NXT to determine who gets the advantage in WarGames
Former WWE and NWA Women’s Champion JAZZ will participant in the Impact’s Knockouts Tag Team Title Tournament as Jordynne Grace’s partner.
Last week, Grace made a phone call to an unknown wrestler at the time to see if they would like to team with her during the Knockouts Tag Team Title Tournament. Tonight she informed backstage interviewer Gia Miller that Jazz will now be her partner in the tournament.
Jazz originally announced her in-ring retirement just last month on The Chris Van Vliet Show, citing that she wanted to focus on her health and personal issues, which caused her to vacate the NWA Women’s Championship just last year. She held that title for nearly 948 days.
You can see her return on last night’s show in the images below:
With all the access we have to entertainers’ on-stage and off-stage personas, sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the two. For Shotzi Blackheart, her off-stage identity was focused solely on Lilian Garcia’s Chasing Glory when she revealed the childhood trauma she received from her uncle. In her interview, the daredevil of NXT revealed to the wrestling community for the very first time that for five years during her adolescence, she was a victim of sexual abuse. In order to let her past wounds heal, she mentioned how important it is for victims to talk about hardships like the ones she endured.
“I had a pretty rough childhood, to be honest,” Blackheart said with hesitation. “I bounced around from like, my mom’s to my dad’s and to my friend’s house at a real young age. I dealt with a lot of sexual abuse for like, years. When I finally came out about it – I came out to my middle school counselor – [my uncle] went to jail. He’s still in jail now. But when I came out about it, some of my family didn’t believe me. But my dad really helped me through it, and so did musical theater. That’s why I liked performing so much – it was a big outlet for me. That was my therapy.”
Blackheart hopes that her story will inspire fans, colleagues, and others to reach out to her in the future.
“I know that so many girls deal with this; it’s like a crazy amount. I encourage girls to come to me and talk about it because I’m so open with it,” she said with tears in her eyes.
Once she told her father what had happened to her, Blackheart channeled her troubles through musical theater, something she was pursuing for a while prior to her big break in WWE last year.
“I had to do a lot of therapy afterward,” she admitted. “I found like, a really awesome therapist, so that helped a lot. And like I said, performing was always just like therapy in itself. I think I always chased it, so I think wrestling is therapy for me too. I just need it.”
In high school, Blackheart found herself in another traumatic situation when she was sexually abused by someone else. After she came out about her abuse, classmates of hers began bullying her, which caused her to change schools during the beginning of her freshman year. Because of this, she decided to focus on her relationship with herself and her love for musical theater.
“I had fun in school, except for high school. High school was the worst. I was raped in high school during my freshman year,” she revealed. “I told my best friend and she got me to come out about it, and everyone at school did not believe me. They just labeled me as a slut. They’d say, ‘She’s lying, she’s a skank.’
“I’d come to school, and after one period, I would get bullied so much that I would just run back home. So like, I had to change high schools halfway through my freshman year. I told myself that I didn’t want friends, I just wanted musical theater.”
Now that she’s found ways to channel a more positive outlook towards her future, she is hopeful that she can become an inspiration to many like her idol, the former five-time WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James. When asked what her dream match would be in WWE, she said it would be a main event match with James.
“I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it,” she first mentioned. “Hmm, I mean, main event WrestleMania would be really awesome. Like, Mickie James! I’m obsessed with Mickie James. She’s the coolest!”
You can watch Shotzi Blackheart’s full interview here.
Source: Wrestling Inc. with credit to Lilian Garcia -Chasing Glory
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Amway Center in Orlando with fallout from last night’s WWE Survivor Series pay-per-view.
WWE has not announced any matches for tonight’s show but the fallout from last night’s pay-per-view should see Team RAW celebrate their win over SmackDown, 4-3. The men’s team has their clean sweep to follow up on, while Lana will be celebrating her win as the Sole Survivor of the women’s team.
RAW should also feature fallout from last week’s main event, which saw Drew McIntyre capture the WWE Title from Randy Orton. WWE is due to follow-up on the storyline between “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt and Alexa Bliss, among others.
DUAL-BRANDED BATTLE ROYAL (KICKOFF) Ricochet, Jeff Hardy, Elias, John Morrison, The Miz, Angel Garza, Humberto Carrillo, Shelton Benjamin, Cedric Alexander, Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio, Apollo Crews, Kalisto, Shinsuke Nakamura, Chad Gable, Robert Roode, Dolph Ziggler, Murphy
Miz wins the Battle Royal
MEN’S TRADITIONAL 5-ON-5 ELIMINATION MATCH
Team RAW(AJ Styles, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, and Riddle) defeated. Team SmackDown (Seth Rollins, Jey Uso, Kevin Owens, King Baron Corbin, Otis) – All of team RAW survive
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits defeated WWE RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day
WWE US Champion Bobby Lashley defeated WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks defeated WWE RAW Women’s Champion Asuka
We see how The Gobbledy Gooker captured the WWE 24/7 Title from R-Truth on the Kickoff. We see Gooker backstage now, following a trail of bird seed. This leads to Akira Tozawa pinning him for the title with his ninja referee. R-Truth then appears and pins Tozawa for the title to begin his 45th reign. Truth runs away with Gooker and Tozawa chasing him.
WOMEN’S TRADITIONAL 5-ON-5 ELIMINATION MATCH
Team RAW(WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler, Lacey Evans, Peyton Royce, Lana) defeated Team SmackDown(Bayley, Natalya, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott, Bianca Belair) – Lana is the sole survivor
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeated WWE Champion Drew McIntyre
THE UNDERTAKER’S FINAL FAREWELL
Mike Rome is in the ring for The Undertaker’s “Final Farewell” segment. Rome welcomes those who came to say goodbye to Taker. The music hits and out first comes Shane McMahon. Big Show is out next, followed by WWE Hall of Famer JBL, Jeff Hardy (who has Taker’s symbol painted on his face), WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley, WWE Hall of Famer The Godfather, The Godwinns, Savio Vega, WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash, WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, WWE Hall of Famer Shawn Michaels, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair, WWE Hall of Famer Triple H, and then Kane. We go to a video package on The Deadman.
The video features comments from Triple H, John Cena, Shane, WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin, and goes on for several minutes with highlights from Mark Calaway 30 years as The Undertaker. Fans in the virtual ThunderDome crowd chant “Undertaker!” now. WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon is introduced. The other guests are no longer in the ring. Vince talks about Taker’s 30 years in the company, striking fear in his opponents and entertaining a global audience, in WWF and WWE. Vince says this run will never be duplicated, so tonight we say goodbye, we say nothing lasts forever, which could be wrong, because the legacy of The Undertaker will live on eternally. So now Vince gives you… The Deadman, The Phenom… ladies and gentlemen… The Undertaker! The bells start to toll inside the Amway Center. The crowd goes black as the flame start to shoot up. Vince waits in the ring as The Undertaker’s iconic entrance begins.
Taker’s symbol appears high up in the arena as lighting strikes it and goes along with a MIDI-like version of his theme song. The bell tolls again and now The Undertaker begins his signature entrance to the ring.
Taker stops on the ring steps as more flames go off around the ring. Taker finally enters the ring and looks around for a minute or two. We hear “Undertaker!” chants apparently being piped in. Taker just stands there as crowd chants continue. The virtual crowd has not returned to the LED boards. Taker says for 30 long years he’s made that slow walk to the ring and has laid people to rest time and time again. He says and now his time has come. A “thank you Taker!” chant starts up. Taker says his time has come, it’s time for The Undertaker to… Rest.. In.. Peace. The ring fills up some with fog now as Taker tips his hat and drops down to one knee. Taker does his signature pose as we see a graphic of the late WWE Hall of Famer Paul Bearer on the wall, holding the urn. Taker looks up at the Bearer graphic and resumes his pose on his knee, looking down as the lights go out. The “Undertaker!” chants continue with just a single spotlight on Taker in the ring now. The bells start to toll once again as Taker’s music starts back up. He stands back up from his pose as the lighting and thunder start again. Taker stands tall in the middle of the ring and cuts his own throat. Taker exits the ring and marches up the ramp. He stops, turns back around to look at the ring, then faces forward again. Taker raises his fist in the air as the lightning strikes. The Undertaker’s “Final Farewell” ends as Taker heads to the back and the 2020 Survivor Series pay-per-view goes off the air.
Transcript via Wrestling Inc.
AEW World Champion Jon Moxley has confirmed that he and his wife Renee Young are expecting their first child together.
Moxley slipped the news into a promo during this week’s edition of AEW Dynamite on TNT.
Young — aka Renee Paquette — began dating Moxley in 2013 while the pair were working together at WWE. They married in 2017, and Renee parted ways with WWE in October of this year after an 8 year stint as a commentator/interviewer/jack of all broadcasting trades.
We here at The Sheet would like to congratulate Mox and Renee!
Check out Moxley’s AEW promo/pregnancy announcement below.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon reportedly passed on talking with Zelina Vega after she was released from her contract last Friday.
Vega was informed of her release last Friday by WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter adds that Vega asked to talk to McMahon, but Carrano told her that Vince did not want to talk to her, and she was then escorted out of the building.
As noted, Vega was released last Friday due to reasons related to WWE’s new edict on third party content with sites such as Cameo and Twitch, which Vega is active on. WWE later confirmed with Sports Illustrated that Vega was released due to a breach of contract.
McMahon was reportedly unhappy with Vega for opening up an OnlyFans account, which she was using for cosplay content under a different name, even after WWE issued the third party edict. The feeling was that Vega’s actions boxed the company into a difficult situation. It was noted that Vega’s release was done as a reminder to all talents that the new third party policy will be strictly enforced.
Vega appeared on the “Table Talk” podcast with WWE Hall of Famer & Producer D-Von Dudley back in September and recalled how Vince had previously told her that she was one of his favorite talents, comparing her to his daughter, WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon.
“It’s weird because I think that too and I’m like, you know what? If quarantine didn’t happen – not saying that I wouldn’t have had these opportunities – but maybe it would have taken a little bit longer,” Vega told Dudley. “And also, Becky’s having her baby so there are people that are not here so that just leaves spots to fill and for me, I’m like, ‘Give me the ball! If I drop it, screw me!’ But you lose nothing and I was always ready for that and I think it started with Drew [McIntyre] when we had that back and forth. I was like, ‘Man, he’s like my other promo half.’ It was just perfect.
“Whenever it happened, it was just magic with him and it’s interesting because before even quarantine happened, Vince would always say, ‘You’re one of my favorites. You’re one of the reasons that I watch RAW. I love your character.’ It was such an honor to hear that because one of the things that he used to say to me was, ‘You remind me of Stephanie because she was always working out there. You’re a cutaway machine. I love that about you’ and first of all, I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ Legit, I was going to cry. I love Stephanie. She’s a huge inspiration when it comes to me and the Zelina character, but it’s wild to think that if this quarantine didn’t happen, I wonder where I would be. I wonder if I’d be getting a RAW Women’s Title shot against Asuka.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
DATE: November 22, 2020 at 7:00 PM ET (Preshow at 6:00 PM ET)
LOCATION: Amway Center (WWE Thunderdome), Orlando, Florida
AVAILABLE ON: WWE Network (first month free for new subscribers)
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns
WWE RAW Women’s Champion Asuka vs. WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks
WWE RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits
WWE US Champion Bobby Lashley vs. WWE Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn
MEN’S TRADITIONAL 5-ON-5 ELIMINATION MATCH
AJ Styles, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman, and Riddle vs. Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins, and TBA
WOMEN’S TRADITIONAL 5-ON-5 ELIMINATION MATCH
Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, Lana, Lacey Evans, and Peyton Royce vs. Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, TBA, and TBA
The Undertaker’s Final Farewell
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown on FOX will be the go-home show for Sunday’s Survivor Series pay-per-view.
