WWE Friday Night SmackDown Preview 10/25/19

Tonight’s WWE Friday Night SmackDown  -and WWE 205 Live will air live from the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri with the final blue brand hype for WWE Crown Jewel.

  • WWE Champion Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez come face-to-face this week on Friday Night SmackDown
  • “Miz TV” heads to FS1 as Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair preview the WWE Crown Jewel showdown
  • The New Day take on Dolph Ziggler & Robert Roode ahead of largest Tag Team Turmoil Match in history at WWE Crown Jewel
  • Nikki Cross looks to continue SmackDown Women’s division ascent against Mandy Rose on FS1
  • Friday Night SmackDown heads to FS1 for one night only

WWE 205 Live will feature appearances by WWE NXT Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush, Raul Mendoza and Angel Garza, but no matches have been announced.

Backstage Updates On WWE NXT TV Possibly Airing From Arenas Outside Of Florida

There has been talk of taking the weekly WWE NXT TV show out of Full Sail Live in early 2020. Now it looks like NXT will continue to run Full Sail Live at times, just not every week.

The current talk going around is that NXT will continue to run Full Sail Live in 2020, just not weekly, with the idea of doing the other shows in arenas outside of Florida, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Full Sail is a lot more cost-effective for the show, but the location and the look is believed to be part of the reason for the drop in viewership, especially with head-to-head competition with AEW Dynamite, according to the Observer.

WWE officials have reportedly had discussions with arenas for NXT TV starting in January 2020. The Observer adds that the main reason for doing the weekly USA Network NXT TV show from Full Sail Live was because they rushed to get the show on the air so they could get the jump on AEW, and didn’t have time to book arenas.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Jimmy Uso Arrest Video Released From July DUI Incident

TMZ Sports has released video from Jimmy Uso’s July 25 DUI arrest in Escambia County, Florida.

The footage shows Uso swerving while speeding before police pulled him over in his Cadillac Escalade. Police caught up with Uso and found him going from side to side in his lane, crossing over the double yellow line at one point. The officer clocked Uso going 86 MPH in a 45 MPH zone at one point.

Uso is visibly intoxicated as the officer tried to take him to a nearby parking lot for field sobriety tests. Uso kept asking what was happening and aggressively asked why he couldn’t have his lawyer present. The officer eventually arrested Uso for DUI.

TMZ notes that the police report said Uso reeked so much of alcohol that he had to roll down his cruiser window on the ride to the county jail.

Jimmy has been fighting his misdemeanor DUI charges in court over the past few months and has another hearing scheduled for next week.

As noted back in July, Uso was booked into jail at 3:04am ET that night and bonded out at 10:15am on a $1,000 bond. He was also hit with a speeding charge.

This was Jimmy’s second arrest in 2019 as he was hit with charges after being pulled over with wife Naomi in Detroit back in February. Bodycam footage from that night can been seen at this link.

Below is the video released by TMZ of Jimmy’s July 25 DUI arrest in Escambia County, Florida.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Corey Vereen Leaving XFL Over Salary Concerns

One of the key goals of the XFL leading up to 2020 was to sign high-profile players. 24-year-old Corey Vereen was one of them. Picked in the eighth round of the XFL Draft, Vereen was supposed to be a huge star for the Los Angeles Wildcats.

That doesn’t appear to be the case anymore. Vereen has decided to forgo the opportunity to play in the XFL due to the salary being lower than what he claimed was discussed.

It was recently reported by The Action Network’s Darren Rovell that a standard XFL contract is $1,040, while NFL players make $495,000. ProFootballTalk had the average salary as $55,000, with some contracts depending on skill. Players can become full-time employees of the XFL on December 4, 2019. If they are able to stay on the roster, those players will be employed until May 31, 2020.

The defensive end is the first player to go public with this issue. Via Logan Brown Sports, a statement was made talking about how talks between players and the XFL were different compared to the recent salary structure.

“The salary schedule did not come close to matching what was talked about rampantly throughout the XFL combine workouts and was discussed online by many different sources.” Logan Brown Sports stated. “…We wish the upstart league the best and would be open to the idea of playing when salaries reach an appropriate minimum.”

Vereen will now continue to develop his skills while also working in the career field he worked towards while with the University of Tennessee, Computer Science. It is unknown if others will step forward against the XFL as well.

The launched XFL season is expected to start in February of 2020, the weekend after the Super Bowl. The Wildcats face the Houston Roughnecks in Houston on the 8th at 5 p.m. ET on FOX.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Some AEW Inner Circle Members To Be In Attendance For Jake Hager’s Fight At Bellator 231

Bellator 231 takes place tonight where Jake Hager (2-0) will take on Anthony Garrett. In AEW, Hager is a member of the stable, Inner Circle, which also consists of AEW World Champion Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz.

According to Marc Raimondi of ESPN, Guevara, Santana, and Ortiz will be in attendance for the fight and then get in the cage for a post-fight photo op.

Hager recently spoke to Wrestling Inc.’s Dan Yanofsky about being able to work for both Bellator and AEW at the same time.

“Honestly, it was such a breath of fresh air. Both of those guys were so willing to work with me,” Hager stated. “AEW loves what I’m doing with Bellator and Bellator loves what I’m doing with AEW. I don’t think 10 years ago you would see that happen where an MMA fighter would go work on a pro wrestling TV show right in the middle of camp.

“For Scott and Tony to be willing to work with each other and understand that this is something really cool and cross-promote, among other things, the sky’s the limit. I feel like that’s the mindset with it. Entertainment is a big part of MMA and it is unique.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Special WWE Backstage Episode Announced For Friday Night

FOX has announced a special edition of WWE Backstage for this week.

The special episode will air tonight, on FS1, right after the weekly WWE SmackDown episode goes off the air on FOX.

Hosts Renee Young and WWE Hall of Famer Booker T will be joined by WWE NXT Superstar Finn Balor, who turned heel on this week’s show.

The WWE on FOX tweeted this video yesterday of Renee announcing the special edition of Backstage. She also reveals that Paige and Christian will join them. This looks to be a regular role for Paige and Christian as they were also on the original WWE Backstage preview show that aired earlier this month.

This is the second WWE Backstage preview show to air. The official premiere of the show will air at 11pm ET on Tuesday, November 5. The studio show will then air each week in that same time slot.

https://twitter.com/WWEonFOX/status/1187498287365910528

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Start Time Changed For Next Week’s WWE NXT UK Episode, Debut And Match Announced

Next Thursday’s WWE NXT UK episode on the WWE Network will have a special start time of 11am ET.

The usual start time for the show is 3pm ET on Thursdays.

The time change for next week is due to the WWE Crown Jewel event. NXT UK will serve as the Crown Jewel lead-in as the Kickoff pre-show is scheduled to begin at 12pm ET, live from Saudi Arabia. The Crown Jewel main card is scheduled to begin at 1pm ET.

The following matches have been announced for next Thursday’s NXT UK episode on Halloween:

* A-Kid makes his NXT UK debut

* Jordan Devlin vs. Dave Mastiff

A-Kid is a 22 year old indie star from Spain. He recently signed with WWE and won a dark match over Joseph Conners for his debut, at the October 4 TV tapings in Brentwood, Essex, England. He then faced Kassius Ohno the next night, which could be the match that will air as his official debut next week.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

 

Rock ‘N’ Roll Express To Present AEW Tag Team Titles To Tournament Winners

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express will be appearing on next week’s episode of Dynamite to crown the first-ever All Elite Wrestling Tag Team champs.

The legendary tag team will present the winners of the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament with the title belts at Wednesday’s show in Charleston, West Virginia.

Despite most of their success coming in the ’80s, Robert Gibson and Ricky Morton are still active in-ring competitors who made their New Japan Pro Wrestling debut just last month!

They were inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame at the 2017 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony by their former manager Jim Cornette.

In case you missed it … The Lucha Bros. defeated Private Party to reach the AEW World Tag Team Championship Tournament final on this week’s episode of Dynamite, while SCU were victorious against The Dark Order.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Diamond Dallas Page Makes Surprise Appearance On AEW: Dynamite (VIDEO)

Diamond Dallas Page had Cody Rhodes’ back tonight during a surprise appearance on All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite.

Chris Jericho’s Inner Circle were shown throughout the show in a suite and during an interview segment involving Cody they began to interrupt AEW exec.

Rhodes didn’t budge, however, and told Jericho, “This isn’t like the other wrestling company we came from, this isn’t an invisible wall right here. I could easily step through and I could easily come up there and we can fight right here.”

Jericho attempted to call Cody’s bluff and pointed out how the numbers were on his side.

This prompted Dustin Rhodes, MJF and DDP to come out to make things even. The foursome walked up to the suite, but Inner Circle locked themselves in a room behind a glass door and Jericho began to mock Team Rhodes. Cody was two steps ahead though and wrapped his hand with MJF’s scarf though so he could punch through the door, causing a brawl to breakout.

Watch two videos showing these parts of the segment below.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Finn Balor Turns Heel On WWE NXT

The closing segment of last night’s WWE NXT saw Finn Balor turn heel.

Last night’s main event saw Roderick Strong retain his NXT North American Title in a hard-hitting Triple Threat over Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic. After the match, the rest of The Undisputed Era (NXT Champion Adam Cole, NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) hit the ring to celebrate with Strong and attack Lee.

The beatdown stopped when the music hit and out came Tommaso Ciampa with his crutch. Ciampa stood in the ring and faced off with The Undisputed Era until Johnny Gargano came out next to join him. DIY reunited to face off with The Undisputed Era until Balor’s music hit and then he came out to an even bigger pop. Balor, Gargano and Ciampa faced off with The Undisputed Era in the middle of the ring until Balor turned heel out of nowhere and dropped Gargano with an overhead kick.

The crowd and the announcers were stunned as the rest of The Undisputed Era attacked Ciampa and beat him down while Balor watched from the corner. Cole traded a quick stare with Balor, then dropped Ciampa with a running knee to the back of the head. Balor then left the ring, to a mixed reaction, and dropkicked Gargano into the barrier. Balor pulled Gargano over to the bottom of the ramp after that, and spiked his head into the steel.

At first it looked like Balor was joining The Undisputed Era but that was never made official. After Balor dropped Gargano on the ramp, he pointed down at Gargano and looked up at The Undisputed Era, as if he was offering Gargano to the group. The group stood in the ring with their signature poses while Balor offered the beaten Gargano to them. This may have been an indication that Balor turned heel without joining the group. Balor then marched up the ramp and went to the back as his music played, with an angry look on his face. NXT then went off the air with The Undisputed Era standing tall in the ring.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1187191291987156993

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1187189810252804096

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1187190332577857537

Balor took to Twitter today and issued his first comments since the big turn.

He wrote, “I’m back”

https://twitter.com/FinnBalor/status/1187190122703413254