After The Grizzled Young Veterans lost the NXT UK Tag Team Titles to Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster in a Triple Threat Match at NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, General Manager Johnny Saint has granted Liverpool’s No. 1 Zack Gibson & James Drake a one-on-one opportunity to regain the titles against new titleholders. Will the Welshmen’s title reign be permanently grounded before it even gets off the ground?
Plus, Tegan Nox makes her highly anticipated NXT UK debut and Jordan Devlin takes on Ashton Smith and so much more.
WWE is scheduled to make significant changes to the announce teams, according to @Wrestlevotes.
We’ve noted how WWE is looking to have more brand exclusivity, with everything from announcers to rosters to storylines, after SmackDown premieres on Fox Friday nights on October 4. The announce team changes are set to be made then.
There’s no word yet on the exact commentary team changes, but word is that all shows will be impacted, including RAW. It was also said that the return of the two-man booth is coming.
As noted, there’s been talk of Renee Young becoming exclusive to SmackDown because she will be hosting the FS1 WWE studio show on Tuesday nights. Corey Graves is expected to call either RAW or SmackDown, but not both shows. Nigel McGuinness has left the 205 Live announce team, to call WWE NXT with Mauro Ranallo and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix each week. 205 Live is now being called by Aiden English, Vic Joseph and NXT Superstar Dio Maddin (Brennan Williams) each week.
As noted, last night’s WWE Clash of Champions go-home edition of SmackDown Live from Madison Square Garden saw Shane McMahon “fire” Kevin Owens to close the show.
Owens took to Twitter after the show and posted a cryptic tweet that seems to indicate that he may be headed back to the WWE NXT brand.
He wrote, “14-24-20”
Speculation is that each number corresponds to a letter in the alphabet, to spell out N-X-T. They could do a storyline where Owens was fired from SmackDown and RAW, but the ruling doesn’t apply to NXT.
Owens originally made his WWE debut on the NXT brand back in December 2014. He made his last appearance for the black & yellow brand in August 2015, and has been a member of the blue or red brand ever since.
WWE announced yesterday that Elias is injured and will not be able to compete in tonight’s King of the Ring quarterfinals match against Chad Gable on SmackDown from Madison Square Garden.
Elias is reportedly suffering from a legitimate ankle injury, according to PWInsider. The decision to pull him from the ring was made just yesterday.
Last night on SmackDown Elias was replaced by Shane McMahon. In the soryline fued between Shane & Kevin Owens, Shane made Owens the special guest referee and promised to drop his $100,000 fine if he does his job correctly – meaning make sure Shane wins.
In the match, Gable got a quick pin for the win, then Shane made it 2 out of 3 falls, Owens did his best to help Shane with quick counts but in the end Shane tapped out. Shane then attacked Owens and fired him.
Drew McIntyre is currently dealing with an injury and is out of action, according to PWInsider.
McIntyre was not backstage at Madison Square Garden in New York City for last night’s RAW and was not backstage for last week’s show.
The report noted that word going around the locker room is that McIntyre underwent a minor surgery to help fix a lingering injury that came up after the recent tour of Mexico. WWE has not held live events in Mexico since December, but McIntyre was there in late August for a promotional tour to promote the WWE Supershow scheduled for late November.
The idea was to get the surgery out of the way, that way McIntyre will be ready and healthy going into WWE TV in October and the build towards WrestleMania 36 season in 2020. McIntyre will return to action as soon as WWE doctors clear him, which could be as soon as next week’s set of TV shows. McIntyre is said to be ready to return, but he’s just waiting on the call from WWE and the approval from the doctors.
McIntyre had been rumored for a match against Cedric Alexander at WWE Clash of Champions at one point.
McIntyre wrestled on the August 26 RAW episode for a King of the Ring first round loss to Ricochet.
WWE Worlds Collide will be replacing NXT TakeOver during Royal Rumble weekend in January 2020 according to Pro Wrestling Sheet.
WWE released travel package information on Monday for Royal Rumble weekend in Houston and the events listed show a World’s Collide event happening instead of NXT TakeOver.
Sources in WWE confirm this was not a mistake and that the schedule of NXT TakeOver events in 2020 with more details will be announced in the near future.
Worlds Collide is a WWE event in which competitors from Raw, SmackDown, NXT, 205 Live and NXT UK compete in inter-brand matches. The first Worlds Collide show took place in January 2019 at Royal Rumble Axxess and aired on WWE Network. The second took place in April.
Last night on RAW “Stone Cold” Steve Austin moderated the Universal Title match contract signing between Champion Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman.
After the contract was signed AJ Styles and the OC came out.
AJ mocks everyone in the ring and talks trash to the fans, telling them to shut up after he gets the “What!?” treatment. The OC gets closer to the ring. AJ tells Austin to stay out of this because it has nothing to do with him. The fans boo AJ more and he says this is why no one likes coming to NYC. The back & forth goes on as The OC stands at ringside now. Everyone chants “asshole!” at AJ. AJ says Austin has turned into a real asshole in his old age. The OC is in the ring now. AJ calls Austin an “old fart” and fans boo him some more. The two sides face off a AJ keeps running his mouth. Austin moves the table out of the way, which was separating the two ides. Austin says he doesn’t know where AJ is coming from, but he knows where AJ’s going. Strowman and Rollins attack The OC as Austin watches. Strowman goes out of the ring and runs over Gallows on the outside, and then Anderson on the ramp. AJ ducks a Stomp in the ring, then sends Rollins out of the ring to the floor. AJ runs his mouth as Austin sneaks up from behind. Fans cheer as Austin waits. AJ turns around to a big Stunner from Austin as fans go wild.
Austin drops down and gets in AJ’s face as the trash talking flies. Austin calls for some of his Broken Skull IPA beers to be tossed in the ring, then hits the corners to pose as the music hits. AJ is laid out on his back in the middle of the ring as Austin makes his exit to the back.
Later at the end of the 10-Man Tag main event, Austin came down and had a beer bash celebration with Rollins, Strowman, Cedric Alexander and the War Raiders.
Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from Madison Square Garden in New York City with the final red brand build for Sunday’s WWE Clash of Champions pay-per-view.
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