Tag: WWE

Backstage News On WWE Making A Major Change To RAW And SmackDown This Week

According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Vince McMahon reportedly held a meeting last week at WWE TV and told everyone that there will be no more wrestling during commercial breaks. It was noted that apparently you can have a match that goes through the commercial break, but there can’t be any actual wrestling during the break. This would explain why they had several 2 of 3 Falls matches on RAW and SmackDown last week.

John Pollock of Post Wrestling reported that the edict was announced last Monday during the usual pre-RAW production meeting. The idea is that legitimate sports don’t play during their breaks, so WWE is adjusting their match presentation.

It was noted that there would still be two matches on SmackDown that would that run through the commercial breaks with the picture-in-picture feature that airs the match in one window and the advertisement in another.

This new rule led to the 2 of 3 Falls matches and other ideas to pause the matches, and then resume after the commercial breaks. Pollock and Dave Meltzer both pointed to how it will b a challenge to come up with organic ideas to pause the matches, especially during RAW due to the multiple segment matches for the three-hour format. This will likely make the product harder to watch for fans on TV, and in the arenas.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Stomping Grounds 6/23/19

June 23, 2019 at 7:00 PM ET (Preshow at 6:00 PM ET) – Tacoma Dome, Tacoma, Washington

Universal Championship – Special Guest Referee: TBA: (C) Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin

WWE Championship – Steel Cage: (C) Kofi Kingston vs. Dolph Ziggler

RAW Women’s Championship: (C) Becky Lynch vs. Lacey Evans

SmackDown Women’s Championship: (C) Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss w/Nikki Cross

Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

United States Championship: (C) Samoa Joe vs. Ricochet

WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship: (C) Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. Heavy Machinery

The New Day (Big E & Xavier Woods) vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

WWE Cruiserweight Championship: (C) Tony Nese vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak

Drake Maverick Loses The WWE 24/7 Title To R-Truth At His Wedding Ceremony (Video)

It’s now confirmed that Drake Maverick dropped the WWE 24/7 Title after getting married to indie wrestler Renee Michelle on Thursday.

R-Truth is your new WWE 24/7 Champion as he appeared at the ceremony with a referee. Truth is now a six-time WWE 24/7 Champion. Drake just won the title on Tuesday’s SmackDown by defeating Truth.

WWE has released video from the title change above. Maverick was confronted by Truth and the referee as he and Renee were leaving the ceremony.

EC3 was Drake’s best man and Braun Strowman was also a groomsman.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

AJ Styles Set To Return To Action Next Week

As seen on RAW this past Monday night, there was a backstage segment where it was teased that AJ Styles would be returning to action soon. Styles has not wrestled since losing to WWEUniversal Champion Seth Rollins at the WWE Money In The Bank pay-per-view on May 19th.

Styles will apparently be returning to the ring next week. While he is not advertised for this weekend’s live events, WWE is advertising Styles for next week’s tour in Asia, starting with next Thursday’s show in Singapore. He is also scheduled for the WWE shows from Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan next Friday and Saturday. As we previously reported, Styles is slated to team with Triple H, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to face Baron Corbin, Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre & Samoa Joe on the Friday show. He will be teaming with WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Braun Strowman to face Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin & Bobby Lashley at Saturday’s Tokyo show.

https://twitter.com/WWEJapan/status/1141284540465500163

Styles is also now advertised for RAW live events following the Asia tour.

WWE announced Styles’ injury on the May 27th episode of RAW, where he was pulled from a Fatal 4 Way Elimination match with Braun Strowman, The Miz and Bobby Lashley with the winner challenging Rollins for the Universal title at WWE Super ShowDown. Styles was replaced by Corbin, who ended up winning the match but losing to Rollins at Super ShowDown. Corbin will now face Rollins in a rematch this Sunday at WWE Stomping Grounds, with a special referee of his choosing that has yet to be announced.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Lars Sullivan Reportedly Could Be Out Of Action For The Rest Of The Year

Lars Sullivan could be out of action for the rest of the year.

As noted, Lars recently suffered a knee injury that has kept him out of the ring. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter report that the injury is worse than anticipated. Lars underwent an MRI this past week and the only word coming out of WWE is that he could be out for 6-9 months, which could mean he will be back in December or around WrestleMania 36 season.

There’s still no word yet on when Lars was injured, but he last wrestled The Lucha House Party on RAW following his win over them at WWE Super ShowDown in Saudi Arabia. Lars was set to face Matt Hardy on last week’s SmackDown, but the match was nixed due to the injury.

UPDATE:

Lars Sullivan reportedly underwent successful surgery earlier Thursday morning, according to Wrestling Observer Live.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Superstars Nominated For 2019 Teen Choice Awards

WWE Superstars have been nominated for 2019 Teen Choice Awards. John Cena has been nominated for the Choice Action Movie Actor award for his role in Bumblebee, which is also nominated for Choice Action Movie.

The Bella Twins were nominated for the Choice Female Athlete award and AJ Styles was nominated for the Choice Male Athlete award.

Voting is now open at this link and it ends on Tuesday, June 25. The awards show airs on Sunday, August 11 at 8pm ET on Fox.

WWE And Netflix Officially Announce New Movie With Kofi Kingston And Other WWE Superstars

WWE and Netflix have officially announced their first movie together, The Main Event.

The film will star Seth Carr, Tichina Arnold, Ken Marino and Adam Pally. Several WWE Superstars will also be featured – WWE Champion Kofi Kingston, The Miz and Sheamus, among others.

Netflix noted that the logline for the movie reads, “After discovering a magical mask, an 11-year-old aspiring wrestler enters a competition to become the next WWE Superstar.”

Production on the movie begins this week in Vancouver. The movie is based on an original screenplay by Larry Postel. Jay Karas will be the director.

The Main Event is expected to premiere on Netflix in 2020 some time.

We noted before that this movie also features a reference to John Cena, who reportedly has a cameo role. WWE did not mention Cena being in the movie. It was also recently reported that Bray Wyatt is featured. There are also said to be several WWE NXT references in the script.

It was also noted that the original screenplay had the kid eating magically-powered John Cena breakfast cereal, but word now is that the most recent version of the screenplay has taken that part out, coming up with another way to give the lead character super powers. Cena was to have his cameo come late in the movie, but there’s no word yet on if that was nixed. It was speculated that Kofi may be replacing Wyatt in the updated screenplay, as Wyatt was mentioned in original reports but Kofi wasn’t. Today’s official announcement confirmed Kofi, but did not mention Wyatt.

Regarding the NXT references, PWInsider reports that the movie will feature at least one NXTevent over the course of the story. NXT Superstar Keith Lee has a role in the movie, as well as two of the NXT announcers – Mauro Ranallo and WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix. It was noted that more WWE talents may be added to the movie as they get closer to filming some of the wrestling-centric scenes.

This is the first collaboration between WWE Studios and Netflix. The two companies have been working to develop new, original feature films. The projects will be directed towards family audiences.

Netflix issued the following blurb on the movie:

“The Main Event joins a growing slate of live action movies featuring kids and teens and made for families, which includes the upcoming comedy Tall Girl, A Babysitter’s Guide to Monster Hunting, and Hello, Universe, based on Erin Entrada Kelly’s Newbery Award-winning, New York Times bestselling novel.

WWE Studios is WWE’s multi-platform content division that develops and produces scripted and non-scripted series, documentaries and feature films. Recent projects include Andre the Giant, the Emmy-nominated documentary in partnership with HBO, as well as hit shows Total Divas and Total Bellas on E! and Miz & Mrs. on USA. WWE Studios also recently produced the feature film Fighting with My Family in association with MGM and Seven Bucks Productions.”

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Matt Hardy Announces Latest Addition To House Hardy

Matt Hardy and Reby Hardy are expecting their third child together.

Matt took to Twitter today and made the announcement. He wrote, “Super excited to announce that a brand new Hardy debutng soon to join #HouseHardy. Will it be another Hardy Boy? Or will it be a Hardy Girl? What I do know is that it shall be absolutely WONDERFUL!”

Matt and Reby currently have two sons together – Maxel, born in June 2015, and Wolfgang Xander, born in June 2017.

Matt is currently on the WWE SmackDown roster and has been involved in some of the recent WWE 24/7 Title chase segments. His status has been up in the air after brother Jeff Hardysuffered a knee injury in April, and will be out for several more months.

You can see Matt’s full tweet below:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE Receives Its Own Category At This Year’s ESPYS

For the first time, WWE is getting a “Best WWE Moment” under the Best Performance category at this year’s ESPYS, which will be hosted by Tracy Morgan on July 10 at 8 pm ET on ABC.

The nominees for the award are: Roman Reigns’ return after his battle with Leukemia, Becky Lynch wins the WWE RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships at WrestleMania 35, Kofi Kingston wins his first WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35, and Ronda Rousey becomes WWE RAW Women’s Champion.

Voting is done by the fans via ESPN’s site, which you can do by clicking here.

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1141319802138615808

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE SmackDown Live Preview 6/18/19

Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California with the final hype for WWE Stomping Grounds.

* Xavier Woods and Dolph Ziggler to battle it out on the blue brand

* Bayley and Alexa Bliss to come face-to-face on “A Moment of Bliss” before they collide at WWE Stomping Grounds

* What will be the fallout of Roman Reigns’ attack on McMahon & McIntyre?

* Will Daniel Bryan & Rowan finally accept Heavy Machinery’s challenge?

* Can R-Truth hang on to the 24/7 Championship?