NXT TV Will Be Split On USA And WWE Network For First Two Live Episodes

The first two live episodes of NXT TV will be split, with the first half airing on USA and the second airing on WWE Network.

WWE announced the following:

The historic debut of WWE NXT on USA Network is fast approaching, and WWE.com has you covered with important details on how to catch all the action of the first two live episodes.

The episodes on Wednesday, Sept. 18 and Sept. 25, will air as follows:

  • The first hour will air live on USA Network starting at 8/7 C
  • The second hour will stream live on the award-winning WWE Network at 9/8 C. The second hour will then be immediately available for on-demand viewing on WWE Network.

Already announced for the Sept. 18 episode is a huge NXT North American Title bout between champion Velveteen Dream and challenger Roderick Strong of The Undisputed ERA, as well as a Triple Threat Match featuring Bianca Belair, Io Shirai and Mia Yim to determine the next challenger to NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler.

The first live episode of NXT will feature Mia Yim vs. Bianca Belair vs. Io Shirai in a three-way match to determine the #1 contender to the NXT Woman’s Championship, as well as Roderick Strong vs. Velveteen Dream in a North American title match.

According to PWInsider, the full two-hour live show will begin airing on USA starting October 2. This is the same day and time AEW’s show premieres on TNT.

There’s no word yet on why the first two weeks are being split between the USA Network and the WWE Network, but we will keep you updated. This appears to be a recent change in plans as the original press release on NXT moving to USA stated that the two hour show would begin airing on USA with the September 18 episode.

Carmella Says She Was Forced To Slow Down Due To Recent Health Scare

Earlier on Wednesday Carmella took to her Instagram, discussing why she has not been as active recently in WWE. In her post, the former SmackDown Women’s Champion spoke about recently have a health scare, and how she was forced to slow down because of it.

“I recently had a health scare that shook my world. I was super apprehensive (still am) to post about it because I’m not looking for any sort of sympathy,” Carmella begins. “Instead, I wanted to share what this past month has taught me. You might find my perception to be trivial and unimportant, but these are my thoughts.

“For the first time in six years, I was forced to slow down. I’ve never had an injury with time off or anything of the sort since I started with WWE. I was able to slow down for a few weeks and just be. It opened my mind and my eyes to the world I didn’t notice for six years and allowed me to be present instead of worrying about the next thing on my to-do list.”

She adds that having time off has opened her mind to all the things she has been missing out on such has having downtime in real life and spending time with her loved ones. Additionally, she comments about how she is learning to stay away from social media, due to the increased negative backlash she and other wrestlers have been receiving online.

“I took a break from social media and it really allowed me to live in the moment and see what was right in front of me,” Carmella said. “I had conversations with people I would have normally never seen because my head would be buried in my phone. More importantly, social media is not real. The fact that I at one point or another would get bothered by a few crass comments made by presumptuous ill-mannered trolls makes me laugh now. It’s all so insignificant at the end of the day. Do these trolls care about my health and well being? Are they the ones who will be there for me when s–t hits the fan? Hell no. So why would I care what people on an app in my phone have to say about me?

“I spent time with the most important people in my life. In a world where I’m constantly on the road, I rarely get more than a few hours with those who matter most to me. I’m grateful I was able to spend so much time with my sister and my parents who are my world. I was also constantly laughing with my boyfriend who is the most supportive man on the planet. I truly don’t know what I would do without him.”

At the end of her post, she encourages others to try and be nicer to everyone they encounter, as well as to not second guess things they want to do or pursue in life.

“Things can and will go wrong, regardless of how healthy your lifestyle is,” Carmella states. “It’s important to feed our bodies with happy thoughts, clean and healthy foods and all of the positive vibes.

“Let’s all try to be a little better as humans. Everyone we meet is going through SOMETHING. Be nice. Life is short. Hug your family, laugh more, let the little things go, buy the shoes and drink the wine.”

You can read Carmella’s full Instagram post from earlier Wednesday down below.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Undergoes Creative Team Shakeup

WWE’s creative team has undergone a big shakeup.

Longtime Raw lead writer Ed Koskey has been moved to SmackDown to be the blue brand’s new lead writer. Ryan Ward will be taking time away for a short period of time due to unspecified reasons. Ward had been working as the lead writer for SmackDown.

Regarding Ward’s personal leave, Casey of Squared Circle Sirens noted on Twitter that he recently got married. That could have something to do with his leave.

The shakeup was first reported by F4WOnline.com.

Koskey, the longest-running lead writer on Raw, will now be working under Eric Bischoff.

SmackDown’s former lead writer Steve Guerreri was let go from the company back in July. The company has also had many last minute script re-writes on SmackDown over the past few weeks.

The new lead writer of Raw under Paul Heyman will be Jonathan Baeckstrom, who has been with the company for six years in various writing positions. He’s also the former lead writer of 205 Live.

In addition to this, it’s being reported that the writing team has officially been split and people were assigned to specific brands ahead of the company debuting on FOX.

The new WWE 205 Live lead writer is Chad Barbash, according to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

Barbash has been unofficially working as the main 205 Live writer ever since RAW Executive Director Paul Heyman brought Jonathan Baeckstrom to the red brand a month or so ago, but now the role is official.

The idea come October is that the writers, the announce teams and the wrestlers will all be exclusive to their own brands. The WWE Draft, which is scheduled to begin on the October 11 SmackDown from Las Vegas and then end on the October 14 RAW from Denver, will be the biggest of a series of changes that are being done to “freshen up” everything. Meltzer noted that the rosters that were created in the 2019 Superstar Shake-up, the current rosters, will likely be the talent line-ups coming out of the Draft, but there will be some notable roster moves and some of those moves could see WWE NXT Superstars get sent to RAW or SmackDown.

It was also noted that there has always been somewhat separate crews for RAW and SmackDown, but the writers have been interchangeable because the talents are. It’s hard to have exclusive writing teams when the wrestlers are appearing on both shows. There will always be exceptions, but the idea is that there will be more brand exclusivity beginning in the fall. In regards to the “freshening up” of the rosters, it was noted that Bischoff and Heyman will likely be able to get certain guys that they want assigned to their rosters. Meltzer added that there has been a running backstage joke on Bischoff not even knowing who the talents are yet.

Sources: Pro Wrestling Sheet and Wrestling Inc.

Police Say AEW World Title Was Found On Side Of Road, Chris Jericho Reunited With Stolen AEW Title (Video),

Chris Jericho’s missing AEW World Championship was apparently discovered on the side of the road by a good samaritan who turned it into police.

As we previously reported, Jericho reported to police that the belt was stolen on Sunday after he left it in his limo while eating at a Longhorn Steakhouse. It was later recovered by police.

In regards to what happened, The Tallahassee Police Department released the following statement:

On Sunday September 1, 2019, TPD responded to 2400 North Monroe Street reference a theft. Officers learned that a championship belt, reported to be valued at $29,250, was stolen from a limo recently occupied by the belt’s owner. On September 4, 2019, a citizen returned the championship belt to TPD headquarters, reporting that it was found along a local roadway.

This case has been assigned to investigators with TPD’s Burglary Unit and is still an active investigation.   Investigators are asking anyone with information about this case to please call them at (850) 891-4200 or Crime Stoppers at (850) 574-TIPS. TPD will provide more information when it becomes available.

Chris Jericho posted a video last night on several of his social media accounts that he and the AEW World Championship are reunited again. In the video, Jericho started off, “Hi, I’m AEW Champion Chris Jericho and less in 24 hours after I launched a worldwide investigation to find my missing championship title it’s been returned to me. That’s not because of any law enforcement that was too busy posting pictures on Twitter and deleting them and then posting them again or a funny meme or a funny GIF, it was because of me.”

He also shared on Instagram, “In celebration of my recovery of the #AEW championship, I’m releasing this #ALittleBitOfTheBubbly T-shirt…which I’ve been told is the most highly requested item in @prowrestlingtees history.! #YoureWelcome shopaew.com”

Below is the full video and t-shirt announcement:

https://twitter.com/IAmJericho/status/1169428768181641217

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Av3cTBPmz/?utm_source=ig_embed

Sources: Pro Wrestling Sheet and Wrestling Inc.

Scarlett Bordeaux Attending Private Tryout At WWE Performance Center

Former Impact Wrestling star Scarlett Bordeaux is at the WWE Performance Center this week to privately tryout for a role in the company.

Squared Circle Sirens first reported on Bordeaux’s PC tryout and sources have confirmed their report to be accurate.

Scarlett joined Impact in July of last year and quickly became one of the company’s more popular acts. She was regularly featured on TV until requesting her release, which was granted in June.

Before being released, Scarlett and her boyfriend Killer Kross attended AEW’s Double or Nothing event in Las Vegas. They both sat near the front row, but we’re never seen on TV.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

Jon Moxley Vs. Kenny Omega Announced For AEW’s “Full Gear”

Jon Moxley has once again been booked to wrestle against Kenny Omega following an injury that forced him to withdraw from their scheduled match at All Out.

AEW announced on Wednesday that Moxley will face-off against Omega on November 9 at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore at AEW’s “Full Gear” pay-per-view.

https://twitter.com/AEWrestling/status/1169340204357840896

As you’ll recall, Moxley required surgery to fix a case of MRSA that returned in his elbow. PAC was confirmed as his replacement and ultimately won the match against Omega.

This is the first bout confirmed for “Full Gear.”

Tickets to the event go on sale this Friday, September 6th at Noon ET / 9am PT.

WWE Draft Reportedly Being Planned For October

The next WWE Draft is set to take place in October.

The two-night Draft is scheduled to begin on the Friday, October 11 SmackDown episode from Las Vegas, which will be the second SmackDown Fox episode. The Draft will then wrap on the October 14 RAW from Denver, according to Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com and John Pollock of POST Wrestling.

The 2019 Draft is part of a series of moves that will be done to freshen up the RAW and SmackDown rosters. There will be other changes made in October to help freshen up the shows.

As noted a few weeks back, via the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE officials have been working on a new Draft concept to build to permanent red and blue brand rosters. It was previously reported that there would be no major changes to the rosters ahead of the SmackDown Fox premiere on October 4, just some minor changes. This new directive was made by Vince McMahon. It was also reported that plans are being kept quiet as USA Network and Fox representatives will be the first ones to know when the new concept is decided on.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE RAW Nominated For People’s Choice Award

WWE RAW has been nominated for an E! People’s Choice Award.

RAW was nominated for “The Show of 2019” award. They are going up against Game of Thrones, Grey’s Anatomy, Riverdale, Stranger Things, The Big Bang Theory, The Walking Dead and This Is Us.

Fans can vote for RAW at this link. Voting ends on Friday, October 18, and fans can vote up to 25 times.

The E! People’s Choice Awards will air on Sunday, November 10 on the E! network.

WWE NXT Preview 9/4/19

NXT, tonight at 8 ET on the WWE Network.

* Jordan Myles receives the opportunity of a lifetime

* Velveteen Dream battles The Finest

* The EST of NXT takes on The Real Black Belt of NXT

* Can Breezango keep their momentum going?

WWE NXT UK Preview 9/4/19

NXT UK, today at 3 ET / 8 BST on the WWE Network.

Piper Niven collides with Rhea Ripley in the wake of NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff

Following a backstage brawl, Piper Niven will once again go head-to-head with Rhea Ripley in a highly anticipated rematch. Although Piper managed to overcome The Mosh Pit Kid in their initial go around, the first-ever NXT Women’s Champion looks more determined than ever to right that wrong.

Plus, NXT TakeOver: Cardiff saw Imperium’s WALTER defeat Tyler Bate in a 40-minute showdown, Kay Lee Ray capture the NXT UK Women’s Championship from Toni Storm, and Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster bested Grizzled Young Veterans and Gallus’ Mark Coffey & Wolfgang to lay claim to the NXT UK Tag Team Titles. What will be the fallout of the rising brand’s changing landscape?