Ring of Honor star Dalton Castle may be headed to WWE this summer as his ROH contract expires this month.
WWE has shown major interest in Castle, meaning it would take a major offer from ROH to keep him on their roster.
The 31 year old is known to be a top live show performer and as Wrestling Observer Newsletter points out, he would have potential to be a real star in WWE.
Source: WrestlingINC
There has once again been lots of talk within WWE about Hulk Hogan returning to work for the company, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Coming out of the racist comments debacle from 2016, Hogan’s WWE return has depended on the company being reasonably sure that bringing him back won’t cause a big backlash. It’s possible he’s re-hired for some sort of Ambassador role in the near future.
A Hogan poster was recently featured in the WWE Kids magazine, which is released internationally but not in the United States. Hogan has also said he and Vince McMahon have had talks about a return.
Source: WrestlingINC
Last night on SmackDown Live their was a Women’s #1 Contender Fatal 5-Way match with Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Carmella, Tamina and Natalya scheduled but they beat the heck out of each other and the match never started. Shane McMahon came out and announced they would compete in the first ever Women’s Money In The Bank Ladder Match on June 18th at the MITB Pay-Per-View.
The New Day made their long waited WWE TV return last night on SmackDown Live.
The trio had been off TV since the night after WrestleMania 33, when Kofi Kingston suffered an ankle injury during a match with The Revival.
The New Day made it known that they are coming after the SmackDown Tag Team Titles held by The Usos at the Money In The Bank Pay-Per-View on June 18th.
Tonight’s 205 Live will take place from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Tonight’s WWE SmackDown Live will take place from the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.
* SmackDown Women’s Title No. 1 Contender’s Fatal 5-Way Elimination Match to take place tonight
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* WWE Money in the Bank momentum at stake
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WWE announced today that they are cancelling the June 4th NXT live event in Manchester our of respect to those affected by the terrorist attack in the city earlier this week. WWE issued this statement:
“Out of respect for all those affected by the Manchester tragedy, WWE is cancelling the NXT event on Tuesday, June 6 at the Manchester Arena, and giving fans who purchased tickets to the show a full refund and offering them the option to receive a free ticket at point of purchase to the NXT show on Wednesday, June 7 at First Direct Arena in Leeds.”Our Superstars will be in Manchester on June 6 visiting with those affected by the tragedy and WWE is making a donation to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund. We look forward to returning to the Manchester Arena on Monday, November 6 for Raw and Tuesday, November 7 for SmackDown Live.”
WWE Shop is selling exclusive red “Untouchable” t-shirts for AJ Styles as he prepares to return home to Atlanta for next week’s SmackDown episode. AJ and WWE are asking fans to “rock the red” when they attend next week’s show. AJ speaks on the shirt in this new video:
Source: WrestlingINC
Photo from shop.wwe.com
Emma is expected to be cleared to return to action in mid-June, according to Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Emma suffered a shoulder injury at a WWE live event earlier this month on May 7th in Liverpool, England. She was teaming with RAW Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax against Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Mickie James. She took a bad landing on her right shoulder after a double knee drop from Sasha on the turnbuckle, which caused the referee to throw the “X” signal and have the match stopped early.
Emma had returned to action on television last month on the April 3rd episode of RAW. She had suffered a back injury last May, and was scheduled to return as “Emmalina” earlier this year. The gimmick was dropped the day it was scheduled to debut this past February, and she reverted back to her “Emma” name.
Source: WrestlingINC
Triple H announced that the tournament will be called the “Mae Young Classic.” The name honors Young, who the company has long held up as a legendary figure in women’s wrestling. She was 90 years old when she passed away in January 2014.
WWE announced the following:
WWE has announced that the first-ever Mae Young Classic women’s tournament will take place Thursday, July 13, and Friday, July 14, from Full Sail Live in Orlando, Fla.
Tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET via www.nxttickets.com.
The tournament, named after WWE Hall of Famer and one of the greatest WWE Superstars in history, Mae Young, will feature 32 of the top female competitors from around the world participating in a single-elimination tournament. The unprecedented event will stream later this summer exclusively on WWE Network.
“The Mae Young Classic will mark a significant moment in the evolution of WWE,” said Paul “Triple H” Levesque, WWE Executive Vice President, Talent, Live Events and Creative. “We are proud to provide this unique opportunity for the best female talent from around the world.”
Additional information on the Mae Young Classic will be announced in the coming weeks.
Click here for additional information on the life and legacy of WWE Hall of Famer Mae Young.
The current plan is for the tournament to have a very strong female presence, besides the talent roster, according to PWInsider. There has been talk of using female announcers, something like 2 female announcers and 1 male. No word yet on who the female announcers would be but they could go with something like Renee Young and Charly Caruso or with a guest WWE Hall of Famer, perhaps Lita or Beth Phoenix. We already know that WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross will be working the announce table that week.
There’s also been talk of using female referees for the tournament. We noted a few weeks back that indie women’s wrestler Kennadi Brink has been signed to work as a referee for the company. She will likely call at least some of the matches but there’s no word yet on if there will be another female referee brought in.
WWE has confirmed that the tournament will tape on July 13th and July 14th but they have not announced an air date yet. We do know that the tournament will air later this summer and as noted, the plan is to release 3 or 4 episodes at a time instead of one new episode each week. There are also plans to hold a live WWE Network special with the tournament finals on Tuesday, August 29th but that date could change.
Sources: WWE.com and WrestlingINC.com
