NXT UK, streaming today at 3 ET/8 BST on the WWE Network.
It’s time for British Rounds rules
Following a rough ending to his matchup against Kassius Ohno several weeks ago, Assistant to the General Manager Sid Scala will now place himself into a British Rounds Match against The Knockout Artist.
The first-ever contest of its kind in WWE is made up of a series of six rounds of three minutes each, with a 30-second break between each round. To win the match, a competitor must earn two pinfalls or two submissions (or one of each) or win via knockout. If none of that happens after six rounds, the Superstar with the most falls is the winner.
Plus, Travis Banks will battle Tyson T-Bone, Rhea Ripley takes on Debbie Keitel, and Joseph Conners engages Kenny Williams.
The WWE RAW announce team is set to undergo a major change soon, according to @Wrestlevotes.
The current plan as of this week is for Vic Joseph and Dio Maddin to call the action on RAW each Monday night.
We’ve noted how WWE will be focused on brand exclusivity coming out of the WWE Draft in October, and that includes the announce teams. It was reported last week that the plan was for Michael Cole to move to SmackDown from RAW while Joseph moved to RAW from 205 Live. It was also reported that Corey Graves was set to join Cole on SmackDown Friday nights, and that Graves will no longer be pulling double duty on two shows.
RAW is currently called by Cole, Graves and Renee Young. There’s no word yet on where Renee will end up, but she is expected to host the weekly WWE FS1 studio show on Tuesday nights, which will air live from Los Angeles. SmackDown is called by Graves, Tom Phillips and Byron Saxton, but there’s no word yet on what will happen to Tom and Byron. Joseph and Maddin currently call the 205 Live show with Aiden English. Maddin (WWE NXT Superstar Brennan Williams) was just brought up to 205 Live last week, replacing Nigel McGuinness, who will be going exclusive to NXT on Wednesday nights with Mauro Ranallo and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix.
Again, current plans have Cole and Graves on the SmackDown announce team together with Joseph and Maddin on the RAW announce team.
Starrcade will air from the Infinite Energy Center in Duluth, Ga. The in-arena program will begin at 6:30 p.m. ET. Tickets will be available at www.infiniteenergycenter.com on Friday Sept. 27 at 10 a.m. ET.
The iconic Starrcade event triumphantly returned in 2017 after a 17-year hiatus with a pair of intense Steel Cage Match victories for AJ Styles highlighting the last two years’ shows.
Be part of the action as the award-winning WWE Network presents Starrcade this December!
“The Beast” Brock Lesnar will face-off against Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship next month during the first episode of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX.
Lesnar and his advocate Paul Heyman made their presence felt during tonight’s episode of SmackDown Live after a six-man tag match in which Kofi and New Day were victorious.
Brock and Heyman then walked to the ring and challenged Kofi to a title match on October 4.
Kofi said he made a promise to be a fighting champion after winning the title, therefore he was accepting Lesnar’s challenge. His acceptance was met with a swift F5 before Brock left the ring.
Lesnar vs. Kingston for the WWE Title is the only match announced for the big SmackDown Fox premiere as of this writing. This will be Lesnar’s first SmackDown match in over 15 years, since 2004. Lesnar has not worked a match on weekly WWE television since returning to the company in 2012.
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live and WWE 205 Live episodes will take place from the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia as the fallout from Clash of Champions continues.
Last night’s WWE RAW featured a new vignette with The Authors of Pain, Akam and Rezar, re-introducing themselves as they prepare to return to the storylines.
“My name is Rezar,” the promo began.
“My name is Akam,” he continued.
“Together we’re known as AOP, The Authors of Pain.”
“No one has seen us in a match since before WrestleMania.”
“There’s a very good reason for that. We haven’t had one match since before WrestleMania.”
“We’re fighters. We’ve been fighting our whole lives. We earn money by fighting.”
“That’s the problem. We come here to fight and everyone complains we’re hurting them in the ring.”
“Neither one of us could make a living in mixed martial arts because no one wanted to fight us and now we come to WWE and no one wants to fight us.”
“Every tag team in WWE is soft. None of you are men. None of you are hard enough to fight us.”
“None of you have the heart to fight us.”
“None of you have the manhood to step up to us.”
“This is a warning. You give us the opportunity we earned. Or we’ll take the opportunity we earned.”
“We are the future of the WWE tag team division.”
“And that future will be written in pain.”
AOP returned to live event action at a SmackDown show in early July, losing to the team of Ali and Matt Hardy. They had been away for several months while Akam recovered from a knee injury, but they returned to the ring at WWE Super ShowDown in June, to compete in the 50-Man Battle Royal. Rezar did work some WWE Main Event matches while Akam was out. It looks like AOP will no longer be working with 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick. It was reported in late August that WWE almost brought AOP back for a Tag Team Turmoil match, but it looks like they delayed the return for a slower build. There’s no word yet on when they will return to the RAW ring.
Following a brief hiatus from WWE TV, Rusev returned on Raw this week and got involved in the baby drama between Mike and Maria Kanellis.
Last night’s edition of RAW featured a gender reveal party that ended with an angry Maria telling Mike that Ricochet was the father of her baby. Frustrated over the revelation, Mike challenged Ricochet to a match … even though the former United States champ denied the accusation.
Ricochet picked up the win with ease and Maria scolded her husband for it afterward. She then said Ricochet obviously wasn’t the father, but teased revealing the father in that moment.
That’s when Rusev’s music hit and he made his way to the ring in tremendous shape with a new look. After a brief interaction in the ring, Rusev demolished Mike Kanellis.
Rusev’s last match in WWE took place back in June at Super ShowDown.
According to sources, Rusev was kept hidden backstage before and during RAW to keep the surprise return a secret. It’s unclear if he’ll eventually be re-paired with Lana, and her status in all of this was also questioned during RAW.
Below are the videos of what happened from last night’s RAW:
Baron Corbin won the ’19 King of the Ring tournament last night on RAW
Corbin faced off against Chad Gable in the tournament finals Monday evening and picked up the victory after a hard-fought battle by hitting the End of Days.
Corbin’s King of the Ring coronation will be tonight on SmackDown Live.
Baron recently spoke about runner-up Chad Gable during an interview and said he’d try to make the wrestler his jester should he be victorious in the tournament.
Luke Harper made his long-awaited WWE return last night at Clash of Champions at the end of the No DQ match between Erick Rowan and Roman Reigns, helping Rowan get the win.
Reigns attempted to hit a massive spear on Rowan while running down the ramp, but it was stopped out of nowhere with a massive big boot by the returning Harper.
The former Bludgeon Brothers then brought Reigns into the ring and hit some tandem offense that included Harper’s signature clothesline. Rowan then hit the Iron Claw slam to pickup the win.
As you may recall, Luke Harper publicly opened up about being unhappy with his place in the company back in March. The next month he made it known that he had requested his release from WWE, but as time passed it was reported he was having trouble getting the request approved.
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