WWE NXT airs tonight at 8:00 PM ET on WWE Network.
* Triple Threat #1 Contenders Match: Candice LeRae vs. Nikki Cross vs. Kairi Sane
* Lacey Evans vs. Dakota Kai
* Kassius Ohno returns to action
Lucha Underground Preview 7/18/18
The following is scheduled for tonight’s Lucha Underground on El Rey Network:
* Johnny Mundo vs. Vibora
Jose Canseco Signs Pro Wrestling Contract
Former Major League Baseball star Jose Canseco is choosing to pursue a career in professional wrestling. Canseco, 54, has signed a contract with the World Class Revolution promotion, based in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The company was formerly the Imperial Wrestling Revolution when it was founded by Jerry Bostic, before changing its name to World Class Revolution later that year.
“We couldn’t be happier to welcome Jose into our family that represents equality, diversity, family, and love,” Bostic wrote on Facebook. “Jose is without a doubt one of the greatest athletes professional baseball has ever seen being the first ever 40 home run/40 stolen base athlete in history. He was AL MVP, 6-time All Star, 2-time World Series Champion, and hit an amazing 462 home runs in his career.
“Professional wrestling and our other avenues of business have enabled us to start becoming a multimedia company which has always been our goal. We’re starting to effectively combine pop culture with our wrestling product and we’re seeing great results thus far and we’re just getting started. I would like to personally thank both Jose and his agent Morgan for this opportunity to do business together.”
Canseco played in the MLB from 1985-2001, which most of his time was spent with the Oakland A’s. In 2005, Canseco revealed that he used performance enhancing drugs while playing for the MLB, and that 85% of players used them as well. Following this admission, Canseco wrote a series of books and conducted several interviews on the matter. Canseco has spent most of his career post-2005 playing for independent baseball promotions. He also took a chance at MMA in 2009, but it was a losing effort.
Currently, World Class Revolution features several former WWE talent, including Jim Ross, Rey Mysterio, MVP, Scott Steiner, Ryback, Tatanka, Jack Swagger, Chavo Guerrero, John Morrison, Billy Gunn, Carlito, Alberto El Patron, among others. The WCR Champion is MVP, and the tag team champions are Marshall and Ross Von Erich, sons of legendary World Class Championship Wrestling star Kevin Von Erich.
Source: WrestlingINC
Backstage News On When Kane Suffered His Foot Injury, Update On His WWE TV Status
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As noted, WWE did the injury angle with Team Hell No at Extreme Rules because Kane had been suffering from a legitimate injury to his left foot. WWE later announced that Kane suffered a broken ankle in the attack from SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers.
In an update on Kane’s status, PWInsider reports that he suffered an injury to his Achille’s tendon on the Extreme Rules go-home edition of SmackDown this past Tuesday. This is why Kane was wearing the walking boot earlier in the day before Extreme Rules.
No word on exactly when Kane suffered the injury during the show but the go-home SmackDown show featured he and Daniel Bryan brawling with Rowan, Harper and SAnitY, which set up a 10-man main event – Team Hell No teaming with The New Day to defeat SAnitY and The Bludgeon Brothers.
Kane is not expected to be back on WWE TV anytime soon as he’s preparing for the final push of his campaign to become the Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee this fall.
Source: WrestlingINC
Former TNA Knockout Sentenced To Prison
Former two-time TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion Ayako Hamada has been sentenced to 18 months in prison over drug charges, according to Yahoo Japan.
Hamada, the 37 year old daughter of the legendary Gran Hamada, was arrested at home in Tokyo back on May 13th. This led to her Pro Wrestling Wave departure and Sendai Girls Pro Wrestling stripping her of their world title.
Police were called to Hamada’s home back in May after she told a promoter that she would miss their event because she was being held at knifepoint by someone. Police found Hamada acting strange and that led to her testing positive for drugs. She admitted taking drugs through her nose.
https://twitter.com/bradcat/status/1019440796968185857
Source: WrestlingINC
Ronda Rousey’s Husband (Travis Browne) Interested In A WWE In-Ring Career?
Ronda Rousey’s husband, Travis Browne, was recently at Extreme Rules with Rousey, and was shown on television when Rousey was walking to her seat and when she jumped over the barrier to attack Mickie James. The 6’7″, 243-pound UFC fighter was recently interviewed by TMZ, and showed interest of teaming up with his wife. Although he is still under contract with UFC at the moment, a WWE career could be on the horizon.
“I’ll never say no, but we’ll have to see, really,” Browne said. “This is Ronda’s time in the WWE. She’s killing it, she’s taking over the world. She took over the UFC, she’s taking over the WWE, she’s gonna continue to do whatever she wants to do.
“I’ll never say no to the possibility of going out there and wrestling. I’d love to go out there and work with my wife. That’d be so much fun. A mixed match? Oh yeah. That was her at the WrestleMania. It’d be fun. I wouldn’t say no.”
Regarding whether Browne would like to see his wife return to the Octagon, he responded, “I love seeing her happy, and I’ve never seen her more happy than right now. So, she’s really enjoying what she does, and I wouldn’t change that for the world.”
Based on the events that occurred on Raw, Rousey will be competing for the Raw Women’s Championship once again, against Alexa Bliss at SummerSlam. This will be Rousey’s second singles match and third match overall. Both of her singles matches have been for the Raw Women’s Championship, with her first one being against Nia Jax at Money in the Bank.
Source: TMZ via WrestlingINC
CM Punk And AJ Mendez (Lee) Announced For Horror Movie
CM Punk and wife AJ Mendez (AJ Lee) have been announced for Rabid, a new horror movie that is a remake of the 1977 David Cronenberg movie of the same name.
The movie is being written & directed by The Soska Twins, who directed WWE Studios’ Vendetta and See No Evil 2 movies. The movie will star Laura Vandervoort and Ben Hollingsworth with Punk and AJ in supporting roles. Punk will star as “Billy” while AJ plays a character named “Kira.”
No word yet on the release date for the movie but below is the official press release:
Production Begins on the Feature Film RABID -FeaturingCM Punk and AJ Mendez-
– Written and Directed by The Soska Sisters (WWE Studios’ See No Evil 2 and Vendetta) –
– Remake of the Classic David Cronenberg 1977 Horror Feature Film –
– Starring Laura Vandervoort and Ben Hollingsworth –
– Body Horror Meets the World of High Fashion –
Toronto, Canada – July 17, 2018 – Canadian production company Back 40 Pictures announced today that production has begun in the Greater Toronto Area on the feature film Rabid. Written and Directed by Jen and Sylvia Soska (Dead Hooker in A Trunk, American Mary) and John Serge. Rabid stars Laura Vandervoort (Jigsaw, BITTEN) as “Rose” a demure seamstress who goes through a radical transformation after electing for plastic surgery following a disfiguring accident. Ben Hollingsworth (CODE BLACK) is “Brad” a fashion photographer. Rabid is a remake of the classic David Cronenberg 1977 horror feature film which was executive produced by Ivan Reitman. Rabid also stars Hanneke Talbot (PLAYING DEAD) who portrays Rose’s best friend Chelsea and Mackenzie Gray (LEGION, RIVERDALE) as arrogant fashion designer “Gunter”. Rabid will also feature WWE superstars CM Punk as “Billy” and his wife New York Times best-selling author AJ Mendez as “Kira”.
“It’s a tremendous honor to be re-imagining David’s 1977 body horror classic, Rabid, with such incredible support behind us. We are not fans of the current trend of soulless remakes as they disrespect the fans and the original body of work. Our Rabid is a continuation of the thoughts and conversation David started, but modernized through a female perspective. The film will not only honour his original Rabid but also Cronenberg’s entire body of work. This would not have been possible without a team behind us that cares about the artist as well as the fans,” said Writer-Directors Jen and Sylvia Soska.
Drawing influence from the original movie, the remake is set in the seductive and glamorous world of high fashion and will follow Rose (Laura Vandervoort), a young woman whose disfigurement after an accident leads to a radical and untested stem-cell treatment. While turning Rose into the belle of the ball, the experimental transformation comes at a price.
“I don’t think there’s any bigger fans of David Cronenberg than the sisters, so it was really exciting when they agreed to helm this project. They will put their own stamp on the movie of course, but with nothing but the utmost respect to David, and that’s important when you’re remaking a classic horror film like Rabid, says producer Paul Lalonde. The Soska twins are the hottest young directors in the horror space right now, and our talented cast headed by Laura (Vandervoort) and Ben (Hollingsworth) will give horror fans a rich and chilling character-driven story with plenty of body horror. We’ve got a fantastic cast, a great crew, top notch special effects and industry leading stunt coordinators. And having the whole story set against the backdrop of high fashion, that’s not only a great chance for some important social commentary, it’s also a really fun twist on horror. A peek inside the world of haute torture if you will.”
A71 Entertainment will distribute Rabid in Canada with 101 Films handling the United Kingdom, Back 40 Pictures orchestrating theatrical distribution duties in the United States, and Shout! Studios’ Scream Factory imprint distributing the film across multiple platforms in the U.S. Rabid is produced by Back 40 Pictures in conjunction with Telefilm Canada, Ontario Media Development Corporation and London based, Media Finance Capital. Michael Walker, Paul Lalonde and John Vidette are serving as producers.
Source: WrestlingINC
The New Day Say They Won’t Associate With Hulk Hogan Until “Genuine Effort To Change” Is Made
Kofi Kingston released a lengthy statement on behalf of The New Day in regards to how they feel about Hulk Hogan‘s apology to the WWE locker room — stating they won’t associate with the wrestling legend until “genuine effort to change” is made.
As we previously reported, Hogan met with the wrestlers backstage at Extreme Rules. According to James Ellsworth, Hogan apologized for the racial slurs he was caught saying. Hulk also reminded those in attendance that he didn’t know he was being recorded at the time.
Mark Henry has said there’s currently a divide amongst black wrestlers over the backstage apology … describing it as a 50-50 split.
Now, the most prominent black tag team in wrestling have responded by writing a statement in which they admit to being indifferent towards Hogan’s apology.
Their statement can be read in full below:
To the WWE Universe and whoever else it may concern:
This will be the only statement we will make regarding Hogan’s reinstatement into WWE’s Hall of Fame. We do not wish to spend the energy debating the point, because between our kids, our external ventures, and this job, our energy is spread thin enough already, lol.
We are only writing this simply to provide an answer to the many who have bombarded us with questions on where we stand on the issue.
We preface this statement by emphasizing that this is our own opinion and may not necessarily reflect the opinion of anyone else affected.
How do we feel? Indifferent. We are not happy, or sad, angry or resentful. Who WWE puts into the HOF is totally and completely up to the company and from a career standpoint, there is no argument on whether or not Hogan should have his place. We have no problem with his re-induction in the slightest degree. It is impossible to even begin to mention the history and evolution of the business without mentioning his name and accolades.
On a personal level, when someone makes racist and hateful comments about any race or group of people, especially to the degree that Hogan made about our people, we find it difficult to simply forget, regardless of how long ago it was, or the situation in which those comments were made. But we also do not respond with more feelings of hate. Instead, we just do not associate with the people who convey or have conveyed this negative and hurtful mindset. This instance will be no different. Perhaps if we see him make a genuine effort to change, then maybe our opinion will change with him. Time will tell.
Through the course of our lives, people have used racist comments towards us and it doesn’t feel good. But if we stopped moving forward every time we were met with prejudicial hatred, then we would have never achieved our current accomplishments.
We know we are worth it, we know our kids are worth it, and most importantly, we know that
people that look like us are worth it and always have been. There isn’t a person on this planet who will be ever be able to say anything to make us think otherwise because we believe in ourselves as a people and don’t need anyones approval on that, regardless of who they are.Having said that, his reinstatement won’t change anything for us. It will have zero effect on our ability to perform or the level of effort we will put into doing what we love to do, and that is: To deliver an entertaining product each week for our fan base.
Sincerely,
– The New Day
“Never trade your authenticity for approval.”
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
SmackDown Live Preview 7/17/18
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA with the fallout from Extreme Rules.
* Shinsuke Nakamura defends the U.S. Title against Jeff Hardy
* What’s next for AJ Styles?
* How will Asuka react to her loss to Carmella?
* Will Daniel Bryan bounce back from Team Hell No’s defeat?
WWE 205 Live Preview 7/17/18
Tonight’s WWE 205 Live will take place from the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
* Noam Dar vs. TJP
* Lio Rush vs. Akira Tozawa.
