John Cena Announced For WWE SmackDown 2/28/20

On this week’s WWE Backstage it was announced John Cena will be appearing on the February 28 episode of SmackDown in Boston, Massachusetts.

Cena’s last WWE TV appearance was back in July on the RAW Reunion where he had a rap battle with The Usos.

As noted, Cena reportedly wants to have a more significant role on this year’s WrestleMania.

“Those spots are very coveted. There are performers who work all year, 250 shows a year, they earn those spots,” Cena said. “I would love to earn one, at least. And the way you do that is by Vince McMahon, the head of creative, calling you up and being like, ‘Hey pal, I’d like you to do this.’ And then I say yes sir, and then I kind of put my own spin on it.”

Last WrestleMania he showed up as his Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick in a segment with Elias.

XFL Opening Weekend TV Ratings And Attendance

The opening weekend of the revamped XFL is now history, and the ratings for the four games are in.

The first game airing on ABC on Saturday featuring the D.C. Defenders defeating the Seattle Dragons averaged 3.3 million viewers and scored a 2.07 rating. The attendance for the game was 17,163 fans.

FOX aired the second game on Saturday between L.A. Wildcats and the Houston Roughnecks, which averaged 3.29 million viewers and a 1.91 rating and drew 17,815 fans.

The first game on Sunday taht aired on FOX drew the biggest audience of the weekend with 3.385 million viewers and a 2.10 rating, and drew 17,634 fans.

The final game of the weekend was the Dallas Renegades facing the St. Louis BattleHawks on ESPN on Sunday, which scored the lowest audience of the weekend with 2.495 million viewers and a 1.43 rating with 17,026 fans at the stadium.

Between the four games, the XFL averaged 3.12 million viewers and a 1.0 rating in the 18-49 demo.

The now-defunct AAF drew similar ratings on its opening weekend in February of 2019, averaging 3.25 million viewers and a 0.9 in the 18-49 demo between two games on CBS. However, Darren Rovell of the Action Network reported that even before the first game started, the XFL had already topped the revenue from ticket sales for the entire season of the AAF.

AAF ratings dropped sharply in the second week, and the league folded before it could complete one season after it lost financial backing.

The Washington Times noted that while the XFL debut numbers are nowhere near the 16.5 million viewers that the NFL averaged per game during the 2019 regular season, is does top the 1.99 million viewers per game that the NBA averaged last year during the regular season.

Week two of the XFL kicks off this Saturday with the NY Guardians facing the DC Defenders. The game will air on ABC at 2 pm ET.

Impact Wrestling Preview 2/11/20

Tonight on Impact at 8/7c on AXS TV

* Impact Knockouts Championship: (c) Taya Valkyrie vs. Jordynne Grace

* Joey Ryan vs. RVD

* Best of 5 Series (Match 2): Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards

* Madman Fulton vs. Daga

* Fallah Bahh vs. Ethan Page

* Willie Mack vs. Shera

AEW Dark Preview 2/11/20

The following was taped for tonight’s AEW Dark episode on YouTube at 7pm ET:

* AEW Women’s World Champion Riho vs. Shoko Nakajima

* Jimmy Havoc vs. Sonny Kiss

* Cassandra Golden vs. Hikaru Shida

* Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy and Marko Stunt) vs. The Dark Order (Evil Uno and Grayson)

AJ Styles Returning To Action At Super ShowDown In Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match

Looks like AJ Styles’ recent injury at the Royal Rumble won’t keep him out of action for long, as WWE has announced he’ll compete in the Tuwaiq Trophy Gauntlet Match at Super ShowDown.

The gauntlet match match was announced during Raw and additional competitors include Andrade, Bobby Lashley, Erick Rowan, Rusev and R-Truth.

As we previously reported, Styles suffered a separated shoulder while taking a spear from Edge during the Men’s  Royal Rumble Match.

This will also be Andrade’s first match since being suspended for violating WWE’s Wellness Policy.

WWE Super ShowDown takes place February 27.

tuwaiq trophy gauntlet match wwe super showdown aj styles andrade

Matt Hardy Reportedly Done With WWE

WWE did an injury angle on this week’s RAW that saw Randy Orton take out Matt Hardy after Matt confronted Orton over the recent attack on WWE Hall of Famer Edge. They had words and Matt blocked the first RKO attempt, but Orton ended up connecting and dropping him. Orton then smashed Matt’s head between two steel chairs, just like he did with Edge a few weeks ago. It was speculated that WWE did this angle to write Matt off TV as his contract reportedly expires on Sunday, March 1.

Matt tweeted a goodbye message to his fans after RAW and linked them to the latest “Free The Delete” episode on YouTube, which includes a possible teaser on him being “The Exalted One” for The Dark Order in AEW.

https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/1227076312864415744

There has been no word on a possible last minute deal between WWE and Matt, but it’s been reported that creative differences are a “major hurdle” in the contract negotiations, not pay.

Below is video from the abgle on RAW and video of Hardy receiving medical attention and making his exit during the commercial.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Backstage Update On Jeff Hardy’s WWE Status

Jeff Hardy could be returning to action soon as he’s scheduled to be at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando next week.

Hardy is set to visit the Performance Center to have his progress towards an in-ring return checked on, according to PWInsider. Jeff has been out of action with a leg injury since shortly after WrestleMania 35 in April 2019. It was originally reported that he would be out of action for 6-9 months.

Regarding Jeff’s WWE contract, it was scheduled to expire on Sunday, March 1 but WWE would add extra time to the contract to make up for the time he’s been out with the injury.

Matt’s WWE contract is still scheduled to expire on March 1. PWInsider reports that the talks between Matt and WWE continue, but his status has not changed beyond that. As we’ve noted, the “major hurdle” between the two sides on a new deal is not money, but how Matt would be used creatively moving forward.

As noted before, Jeff is scheduled to be back in court on Monday, April 6, the day after WrestleMania 36, for the charges related to his DWI arrest from October 3, 2019 in Moore County, NC. Jeff was also arrested in Myrtle Beach, SC on July 13, 2019 for public intoxication, but there’s no update on that court case as of this writing.

It was reported back in early January that WWE officials have pushed Jeff to address his personal health in the wake of those arrests, and that he has been working hard at doing that.

Stay tuned for updates on The Hardys.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

XFL – What A Beginning

Hi readers of Wrestling News Blog!

Let me give you a little background before starting my take on the opening weekend of the reboot of the XFL.

I’m Ed Boston and I am the co-founder of this website. As a veteran of the United States Army, I have chosen to boycott the National Football League for the past 3 seasons due to the league not mandating that all players must stand and be respectful during the Nation Anthem. That said, I’ve been hungry for some professional football and was guardedly optimistic about the all-new XFL kicking off their season.

After week 1, take the word guardedly out of the equation. Leauge owner, Vince McMahon, appears to have found a winning formula and along with league Commissioner Oliver Luck, and they must be beaming with optimism after the first 4 games are in the books.

Here are the results from week 1:

DC DEFENDERS 31, Seattle DRAGONS 19

Houston ROUGHNECKS 37, Los Angeles WILDCATS 17

New York GUARDIANS 23, Tampa Bay VIPERS 3

St Louis BATTLEHAWKS 15, Dallas RENEGADES 9

And here is the schedule for Week 2 of the XFL.

FEB 15: Guardians @ Defenders; FEB 15: Vipers @ Dragons;FEB 16: Renegades @ BattleHawks and FEB 16: Defenders @ Wildcats.

The quality of play in the games was definitely better than I expected. These weren’t future Hall of Famers playing, and there is much room for improved play, but it was good football.

I really enjoyed the XFL’s unique rules. Click here to read the complete set of rules. The rules were put in place with fan interest and player safety as the top priorities. The rules for the pace of place and the extra point opportunities of 1 pt with the play started at the 2-yard line; 2 points started at the 5-yard line, and 3 points started at the 10-yard line make for interesting decisions from the teams after each score.

Commissioner Luck and the league pulled off a great PR move and gave the league legitimacy by hiring well-known coaches to lead the teams.

Look at this line-up:

DALLAS RENEGADES – Head coach: Bob Stoops

DC DEFENDERS – Head coach: Pep Hamilton

HOUSTON ROUGHNECKS – Head coach: June Jones

LOS ANGELES WILDCATS – Head coach: Winston Moss

NEW YORK GUARDIANS – Head coach: Kevin Gilbride

ST. LOUIS BATTLEHAWKS – Head coach: Jonathan Hayes

SEATTLE DRAGONS – Head coach: Jim Zorn

TAMPA BAY VIPERS – Head coach: Marc Trestman

When you look at the list of Offensive and Defensive Coordinators that were hired, you can see that the league is bound to be taken seriously.  Here is a full list of all head coaches and coordinators.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention all of the praise being handed out over the weekend with little to no negative reaction. Troy Aiken was interviewed on the sideline by Pat McAfee. Both respected NFL greats had totally positive things to say about the start of the league. Twitter exploded and XFL trended for most of the weekend, and factor in Sunday night was The Oscars.

One concern I have had from when the announcement was made that the XFL was going to start up again was that they would give the impression that they were too gimmicky, like XFL round 1 was.

CONCERNS RELIEVED!!!

This was real football, played by players who have something to prove, coached by coaches who know the game, and the entire package is fan-friendly.

My very favorite part of the fan experience watching from home was the transparency with letting us see what goes on with the play calling and replay decisions. Watching Chuck long calling plays from the booth and seeing the team execute the calls to near perfection late in the St. Louis game was awesome.

Watching and listening to the replay officials in the booth interact with the head referee on the field was must-see if you are a fan of the game. The fact that they did their jobs quickly and effectively along with the fans getting to watch the process was described by one announcer as this needs to be implemented everywhere -STAT!

I know I’m looking forward to week 2. If you didn’t see week 1, you missed some good football.

WWE RAW Preview 2/10/20

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California with what WWE is billing as two “epic main events” for the show.

WWE has not posted an official preview for tonight’s RAW.

Matches announced:

* RAW Women’s Championship: (C) Becky Lynch vs. Asuka

* The Authors of Pain and RAW Tag Team Champions Seth Rollins & Murphy vs. Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe and The Viking Raiders.

The arena is also advertising Bobby Lashley, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Rusev, Natalya, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and others, but no appearance by WWE Champion Brock Lesnar.

Impact Wrestling Announces King Of The Mountain Match For Their TNA Themed ‘There’s No Place Like Home’ Event At WrestleCon

Impact Wrestling announced Sunday on Twitter (view below) that a King of the Mountain Match will take place at their TNA themed There’s No Place Like Home event that will be part of WrestleCon during WrestleMania 36 weekend.

The event will take place at The Ritz in Ybor City, Florida on Friday, April 3, with tickets ranging from $60 to $150.

Impact has previously announced for the event an Ultimate X Match, and appearances from past TNA stars Scott Steiner, “Wildcat” Chris Harris, Disco Inferno, Petey Williams, Chris Sabin, The Amazing Red, and Aces & 8’s, which will be represented by D’Lo Brown and Ken Anderson.

Participants for the King of the Mountain Match have not yet been announced.

The event will stream live on FITE TV beginning at 7:00 pm ET.

https://twitter.com/IMPACTWRESTLING/status/1226657029508329472

Source: WrestleView