WWE and JBL took to Twitter this week to congratulate WWE Champion AJ Styles on breaking the record of the longest reigning WWE Champion in SmackDown history. Styles is currently #13 on the all-time list and is set to pass CM Punk for the 12th spot in just under 40 days.
https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1030257936994582529
https://twitter.com/JCLayfield/status/1029843189790912512
Source: WrestlingINC
It looks like WWE will finally do the Four Horsewomen vs. Four Horsewomen match at the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 18 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
WWE’s Horsewomen are Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Becky Lynch while MMA’s Horsewomen are Ronda Rousey, WWE NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke. Angles were planned and filmed for the match in 2017 but the match never happened. There’s been recent talk of doing the match and word is that teases are being sent out.
Regarding Duke and Shafir in NXT, both are being praised for their work. Shafir has had just two matches so far and Duke hasn’t wrestled anything but practice matches. Duke was set to make her NXT live event debut along with Shafir at a live event in Largo, FL last month but Duke was pulled from the show due to a minor injury. Duke impressed people with a practice match at the WWE Performance Center and some believe she is a “prodigy” at pro wrestling. There’s also feelings that Rousey is great on the big stage, when the match is completely laid out, and that Baszler is definitely ready. The Observer adds that some people believe Duke will end up being the best of the four.
There’s also potential for a Horsewomen angle at the first-ever all-women’s Evolution pay-per-view a few weeks earlier on October 28 but word is that the actual match will take place at the Survivor Series.
Source: WrestlingINC
Shayna Baszler recently took some time to discuss her famous stable of friends known as MMA’s Four Horsewomen and the possibility of facing WWE’s incarnation down the line with Inside the Ropes.
Baszler was questioned about the possibility of seeing a match take place between the eight women now under WWE’s banner. She said her Four Horsewomen have never backed down from a fight before while taking a shot about how WWE’s incarnation came second.
“If they want it to happen, the four of us are fighters,” Baszler said. “We’ve never turned down any sort of fight. They want to argue about who is the Four Horsewomen and who owns it. I mean, we had it first and that’s… fact. It was given to us so we didn’t just call ourselves that, it was given to us.
“They started calling themselves — I mean we’re an actual team that trains together. Bayley and Sasha — they’re not even friends half the time right now, so who knows what’s going on with them? You know what I mean? Whatever.
“If they want to, we won’t turn down a fight, ever.”
We now know why Matt Hardy has been teasing changes to his WWE status in a series of recent cryptic tweets. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Hardy is scheduled to take some time off due to injuries.
Hardy recently revealed that his lower back and pelvis have started fusing together, and while the pain isn’t too bad, it is frustrating. Hardy is planning on starting new training rehab methods that should help with the pain.
Hardy and Bray Wyatt’s match against The Revival and RAW Tag Team Champions The B Team on Monday’s RAW was done as the blow-off to The Deleters of Worlds tag team, as Hardy teased in his post-show tweet with Wyatt.
https://twitter.com/MATTHARDYBRAND/status/1029206242688987136
There has been talk of Hardy shadowing WWE producers to “learn the ropes” with the idea of him working a producer job in the future.
Hardy is scheduled to undergo treatments for his various injuries and after that is done, a decision will be made in regards to a possible ring return, what capacity he might return in and if he will have to work a limited schedule.
Source: WrestlingINC
WWE has announced that Sunday’s two-hour SummerSlam Kickoff pre-show will go live for the first time ever in virtual reality via Oculus Go and Next VR. Highlights from the VR experience will then be available on the NextVR app on Monday, August 27. The two-hour Kickoff starts at 5pm ET/3pm PT and will include RAW Tag Team Championship: (C) The B-Team vs. The Revival, WWE Cruiserweight Championship: (C) Cedric Alexander vs. Drew Gulak and Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega.
Below is the announcement on the VR experience:
SummerSlam Kickoff will be live on NextVR and Oculus Go for the first time everThis Sunday you can experience SummerSlam Kickoff like never before with Oculus Go and NextVR’s 180-degree virtual reality experience, available through the NextVR and Oculus Venues apps.
The NextVR app will present a live 3D virtual reality broadcast on VR headsets where the NextVR app is available, including Oculus, Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality and Playstation VR. SummerSlam highlights presented by Cricket Wireless will be available to all NextVR app users on Monday Aug. 27.
Additionally, Oculus Venues will offer a live 2D VR broadcast of SummerSlam Kickoff within the Oculus Venues app available to GearVR and Oculus Go users.
Don’t miss out on this incredible SummerSlam Kickoff experience, live at 5 p.m. ET.
Triple H took part in a media call on Wednesday where he answered some questions regarding the future of NXT once WWE’s new contract with Fox Sports begins in October 2019. WWE’s Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events, & Creative said “everything is on the table” when asked about the idea of bringing NXT to FS1.
“I don’t know,” Triple H replied. “Right now we’re concentrating on the deals we have and where we’ll be next year when SmackDown moves to Fox. I think time will tell and time will see right now NXT has a very good home on the [WWE] Network. People seem to enjoy it, but who knows? I would never want to say never, especially around here.”
WWE’s $1 billion deal with Fox Sports will see SmackDown Live move to Fox on Friday nights, but Fox Sports wants even more programming from WWE. As UFC’s deal with Fox expires, Fox Sports is losing many hours of programming, especially on FS1 and FS2. WWE’s new deal could open up the opportunity to move NXT onto a larger platform which is something Triple H is open to once discussions begin.
Triple H was then asked about possibly splitting the NXT brand up into two one-hour shows with one show on FS1 with another remaining on the WWE Network.
“I feel like you’re setting me up for a payday off a nifty idea I end up using there,” Triple H replied. “In that scenario, there’s a lot of speculation, right? Even things where I go, ‘yeah I could see that there’s a lot of TV channels and distribution platforms out there and they all need content and they should all call me. You know it really comes down to who wants what and when. I know we say it a lot, but we’re open for business and ‘never say never’ so I always kind of look at it with fresh eyes. The [NXT] show is an hour, it’s a great length. Are there weeks when I wish it was a little longer? Absolutely. There are other weeks when I’m really happy it was one hour, absolutely.
“You know I think it just comes off to where the right fit is at the right time. A lot of that is going off your guts, right? So look, we have a lot of talent, we have some time, we have the ability to shoot this, and as technology changes those costs of shooting comes down, hopefully, and you’re changing how you do things. So, there’s a lot of opportunity there. I don’t ever want to look at any of our programming — this is just me personally speaking — and say ‘this is just how we do it. This show is this long, this show is this long and it sits here, this show’s that and it sits here. It should constantly ebb and flow and change and times and all those things.
“Once we get into the Fox deal, you know certainly as we begin to get closer to October next year we’ll all be beginning to have conversations and we’ll see what those conversations bring up. We’ll see where it should be, how long it should be, all those things, but everything is on the table.
Source: WrestlingINC
The Big Show says that he’s ready to return to action. The former WWE Champion hasn’t wrestled since losing a steel cage match against Braun Strowman in September of 2017. The match was designed to write Big Show off of television to undergo right hip surgery.
Big Show told ESPN this week at a charity event at the Hackensack Meridian Health Joseph M. Sanzari Children’s Hospital in Hackensack, New Jersey that he hopes to be back in the ring as early as SummerSlam this Sunday.
“Hopefully within the next couple of weeks, I will be back in the ring,” Big Show said. “That’s the main goal. I’m actually going to try and get cleared Sunday, by [WWE’s] doctors; moving around the ring a little bit. I could be back as soon as the Monday Night Raw after SummerSlam, if they have something for me.
“Just because I’m healthy, doesn’t mean our creative team is healthy for me yet.”
Big Show had been hoping to return to action earlier this year, however complications from his surgery delayed his return to WWE. He was advertised for last April’s Greatest Royal Rumble event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, but had reportedly re-injured himself before the event.
Source: WrestlingINC
Wrestling Observer Newsletter journo Dave Meltzer found himself in hot water last night, when an audio clip from a 9 August episode of Wrestling Observer Radio surfaced on SmackDown superstar Peyton Royce’s Twitter timeline.
The snippet included a conversation between Meltzer and co-host Bryan Alvarez pondering The IIconics difficulty adapting to the main roster, with the veteran reporter dwelling on Royce’s appearance:
Meltzer: I thought they had a cool act in NXT and on the main roster I don’t get a thing out of them. I don’t think their promos are particularly good, their wrestling isn’t good. I think they even like… I think Peyton Royce’s transformation to look more attractive… I don’t know, I don’t want to say. But I don’t think that…Alvarez: That they were more attractive in NXT?
Meltzer: I thought so, yes. To me, yes. I would say so. But that’s neither here nor there.
Alvarez: No one’s saying she’s unattractive, by the way, everybody.
Meltzer: I know, no s–t. Yeah, I didn’t say it at all. But she doesn’t stand out to me… when she was in NXT she did… she was a lot lighter.
Meltzer’s veiled comments about the Australian’s recent breast augmentation surgery, and in particular, her weight, understandably drew widespread censure on the social media platform. Royce herself responded, directly challenging Dave on his troublesome comments:
https://twitter.com/PeytonRoyceWWE/status/1029775450044866566
A host of WWE employees soon rushed to the defence of their colleague, including Ember Moon, Charlotte Flair, and Beth Phoenix. Renee Young was particularly skewering, denouncing Meltzer’s opinion as “a true piece of sweltering hot garbage”.
https://twitter.com/PeytonRoyceWWE/status/1029823721777913859
As the imbroglio raged on, Melzter eventually popped up with a clumsily worded apology, which succeeded in appearing both insincere and patronising:
I’d like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out.
The newsman stopped just short of saying, “I’m sorry you’re offended, Peyton.” As with his initial statement, Meltzer’s attempted apology drew further ire from WWE superstars, with Tyler Breeze in particular exchanging a series of eloquent Tweets denouncing Dave for deflecting the blame, and highlighting his ability to engender change via his significant media platform.
https://twitter.com/davemeltzerWON/status/1029813302858199040
https://twitter.com/PeytonRoyceWWE/status/1029828882776682496
https://twitter.com/TheBethPhoenix/status/1029787805491310592
https://twitter.com/MsCharlotteWWE/status/1029788986036940802
https://twitter.com/WWEEmberMoon/status/1029815705846341640
https://twitter.com/MmmGorgeous/status/1029847466655399937
https://twitter.com/WWERollins/status/1029837128186949632
Sources: WhatCulture and WrestlingINC
Sin Cara revealed on Twitter that he underwent knee surgery with Dr. Jeffrey Dugas in Birmingham, Alabama on Tuesday. There’s no word yet on when he will be back in action. The SmackDown Superstar tweeted the following after the operation:
https://twitter.com/SinCaraWWE/status/1029568009613004800
Source: WrestlingINC
The Undertaker is scheduled to appear at the 1,000th episode of SmackDown on Tuesday, October 16 from the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC.
The official website for the arena is also advertising a triple main event with WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe, Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz and Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy.
You can check out the full listing from their website below:
WWE Smackdown 1000The 1,000th episode of WWE SmackDown Live will air on Tuesday, October 16th from Washington, DC. WWE SmackDown premiered on broadcast television almost 20 year ago on April 29, 1999. The show has switched days and networks several times since. For more information, visit: https://www.wwe.com/shows/smackdown
Triple Main Event!
AJ Styles vs Samoa Joe!
~ WWE Championship Match ~
Daniel Bryan vs The Miz!
Jeff Hardy vs Randy Orton!
See your favorite WWE Superstars including:
The Undertaker
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers
Women’s Champion Carmella…and many more!
Card is subject to change
Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina with the final hype for SummerSlam.
* AJ Styles has more to say to Samoa Joe
* SmackDown Women’s Title Match participants come face to face
* Aiden English goes one-on-one with Andrade “Cien” Almas
* The New Day clash with SAnitY in Six-Man Tag Team showdown
* Paige promises Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville an opportunity
