RAW Preview 5/22/17

Tonight’s WWE RAW will take place from the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan as the road to WWE Extreme Rules continues.

*  Tensions rise en route to Extreme opportunity – Will Bray Wyatt change the course of WWE’s New Era?

* Will Bayley come out swinging against Alexa Bliss?

* Ambrose faces bizarre stipulation at WWE Extreme Rules

* Goldust shows his true colors

Impact Wrestling President On If WWE Wants ‘Broken’ Gimmick, Owning It, Issues With The Hardys

Image result for Anthem's Ed Nordholm says WWE "have no interest" in Broken Hardys | The LAW youtube

Impact Wrestling president Ed Nordholm was a guest on The LAW: Live Audio Wrestling this week to discuss Anthem’s purchase of the company last fall, the departure of Dixie Carter, the Hardy’s situation and many more topics.

A segment from the interview discussing the ongoing issues with the Hardys is in the video below. Here are some highlights from the interview:

A lot of people will want to know about the relationship with the Hardys.

“I think it’s unquestionable that the ownership of the characters in the storyline resides in Impact Wrestling. I don’t think even the Hardys would dispute that. They’ve all signed contracts. Their contracts are standard contracts. Not only in the wrestling industry, but in the entertainment industry, generally, the producer of the show owns the content and it doesn’t really matter who in the creative team came up with the idea of what the character should be. The person that owns the storyline and the character is the person who invested to take that idea and put it on TV. That’s what we did. Impact put those characters on TV, and the contracts with those people are indisputably contracts that provide their IP to Impact.”

Are you open to speaking and sitting down with the Hardys?

“Oh, of course. I was open to speaking before and I’m open now. We’ve offered many times to find an arrangement with the Hardys that would allow them to continue to use the gimmick within reasonable parameters as to what’s important to us and what would be important to them. I understand with the dynamic of their move to the WWE and drama with which they created that launch – I understand their plan to create maximum “heat” in that period from when they announced to us that they weren’t going to sign the contracts, to the date that they revealed their new location. But I kinda half-expected that once that had been achieved, the thing would die its own natural death because as far as I know, the WWE doesn’t want the gimmick, and indeed, from every conversation I’ve had with them, I’ve been told they have no interest in it.”

So they’re not actively pursuing it from you.

“Oh god, no. We’ve been in communication because there’s all this chatter about how we’re keeping it from them. [Laughs] I’m taking heat because I’m keeping something from you. If you want it, why don’t you call me? And their answer to me has been, ‘No, not interested.'”

Back in March, the Hardys appeared on a Ring of Honor event in Manhattan announcing they would be appearing on the following Friday’s pay-per-view. What had come out was that on Friday, ROH was notified a few hours before the pay-per-view to stop utilizing these characters on their broadcast.

“We had conversations with the Ring of Honor people before the Manhattan event as to what I was gonna be good with and what they were good with. I thought we had an understanding as to where the line was going to be, and they communicated to me that they understood our position and would honour it. It became apparent in the day before the pay-per-view event that whatever Ring of Honor was putting forward as to who was showing up, who was being teased, and actually who they intended to appear was going to be the [Broken Hardy] characters. We did what people who own intellectual property do. You can’t do that. We had an understanding. You’re not living by that understanding.”

How would you characterize the relationship now with Ring of Honor?

“Fine. I think the Ring of Honor people would have preferred had we not interfered with that show. I don’t think they hold any ill will toward me for doing what I did. I’ve had discussions with Joe [Koff, Ring of Honor COO] from time to time. There’s still opportunities for us to be working with Ring of Honor much in the same way we intended to do before the Hardy Brothers left. They’ve got lots of other wrestlers within their organization that would be fun to see against our wrestlers and vice-versa, I’m sure. So hopefully as the heat from all of this dies down at some point, we can start working with them in much the same way as we intend to work with AAA or NOAH or anybody else. It doesn’t have to be an international partner for us to be wanting to bring the fans opportunities to see match-ups they want to see.”

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE Backlash (SmackDown) Results 5/21/17

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(Kickoff) Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English – Winner: Tye Dillinger

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler – Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura

SmackDown Tag Team Championship: (C) The Usos vs. Breezango Winners: The Usos

Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin – Winner: Sami Zayn

SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs. Tamina Snuka, Natalya & Carmella – Winners: Tamina Snuka, Natalya & Carmella

United States Championship: (C) Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles – Winner by Count Out Kevin Owens – Styles leg got caught in opening and tangled in cable wires in announce table.

Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan – Winner: Luke Harper

WWE Championship: (C) Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal w/Singh Brothers – Winner and New WWE Champion Jinder Mahal

NXT TakeOver: Chicago Results 5/20/17

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Roderick Strong vs. Eric Young – Winner: Roderick Strong

WWE United Kingdom Championship: (C) Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne – Winner and New WWE UK Champion: Pete Dunne

NXT Women’s Championship: (C) Asuka vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross – Winner: Asuka

NXT Championship: (C) Bobby Roode vs. Hideo Itami – Winner: Bobby Roode

NXT Tag Team Championship – Ladder Match: (C) The Authors of Pain w/Paul Ellering vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) – Winners: The Authors of Pain

After the match – Ciampa brutally attacked Gargano

Jim Ross To Call WWE Women’s Tournament

WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross who did the commentary for the UK Championship Tournament and will also be calling the UK Championship match between Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne at tonight’s NXT TakeOver: Chicago, has  confirmed to Busted Open Radio that he will also be calling the WWE Women’s Tournament this summer.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE Backlash (SmackDown) 5/20/17

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WWE Championship: (C) Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal

United States Championship: (C) Kevin Owens vs. AJ Styles

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Dolph Ziggler

SmackDown Tag Team Championship: (C) The Usos vs. Breezango

SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi, Charlotte Flair & Becky Lynch vs. Tamina Snuka, Carmella & Natalya

Sami Zayn vs. Baron Corbin

Luke Harper vs. Erick Rowan

(Kickoff) Tye Dillinger vs. Aiden English

NXT TakeOver: Chicago 5/20/17

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NXT Championship: (C) Bobby Roode vs. Hideo Itami

NXT Women’s Championship: (C) Asuka vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross

NXT Tag Team Championship – Ladder Match: (C) The Authors of Pain w/Paul Ellering vs. #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa)

WWE United Kingdom Championship: (C) Tyler Bate vs. Pete Dunne

Roderick Strong vs. Eric Young

 

Update On Tommaso Ciampa’s Injury From Triple H & If He Will Work Saturday’s ‘NXT Takeover: Chicago’ Event

Image result for Tommaso Ciampa NXT

We reported on Thursday night that Tommaso Ciampa of DIY was injured at that evening’s NXT live event in Highland Heights, KY. Early during a match pitting DIY against Sanity, Ciampa dived off the ring apron onto Sanity and hurt his left leg. The match was quickly stopped and ruled a no-contest. An upset Ciampa hopped to the back yelling, “get me the f–k out of here.”

Ciampa and Johnny Gargano were scheduled to face NXT Tag Team Champions The Authors of Pain for the titles at NXT: Takeover this Saturday. Triple H took part in a media conference call this morning to promote the event. During the call, I asked Triple H about Ciampa’s injury and his status for this Saturday.

“He turned his ankle somewhere [during the match],” Triple H said. “As a precaution everything shut down, it stopped, he got out of there. He went for an X-ray last night, and there’s no break or fracture. He’s got an ankle sprain. When I texted with him this morning, he was feeling better and was up moving around and felt like he was not going to have an issue with it. It was not really bothering him, it was not really as bad as they thought it was.”

Triple H noted that Ciampa was up and moving around, and their medical team will decide if he can work Saturday’s show. He said that as of right now, Ciampa is in “but we’ll see how that goes.” He added that Gargano and Ciampa were very excited to work in Chicago, which is somewhat of their homebase, and he would hate to see that ruined because it’s a moment for them.

Asked if there was a backup plan in place in case Ciampa is not able to work the match. Triple H said that if Ciampa’s condition worsens today, then he will try to figure out other plans.

“Right now I’m going to keep a positive frame of mind that he will be there tomorrow,” Triple H said

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE Star Summer Rae Cleared To Return

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Summer Rae has reportedly been cleared to return to action. Dave Meltzer reported on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that she is healthy and was at last week’s television tapings.

Rae has been out of action since last August due to neck and back injuries. She was training at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando in March.

Meltzer speculated that WWE may be holding her off of television because the company has an even number of women on each brand. However, it should be noted that with Lana’s impending debut and Emma’s recent injury, both brands need one more woman to even out their respective active women’s division.

WWE currently has Summer Rae listed on the RAW brand on their website.

Source: WrestlingINC

WWE 205 Live Preview 5/16/17

Tonight’s WWE 205 Live will take place from the SNHU Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire.

* TJP and Neville want Austin Aries out of the picture: TJP vs. Austin Aries

* Will Drew Gulak confront Mustafa Ali?