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Tuesday, November 12th, 2024


Someone call Botchamania. In a promotional poster for Survivor Series, the WWE has used the wrong belt for Gunther.


CM Punk will be returning to WWE at their Live Holiday Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York.


Here is what you will see on NXT tonight:

WWE North American Women’s Champion Fallon Henley vs. Kelani Jordan.

WWE NXT Champion Trick Williams to appear.

Cedric Alexander vs. Wes Lee.

Cora Jade vs. Sol Ruca.

Stephanie Vaquer & Giulia vs. Jakara Jackson & Lash Legend.

Adriana Rizzo vs. Nikita Lyons.

Shawn Spears and Brooks Jensen pay a visit to Tony D’Angelo.

WWE NXT General Manager Ava to address the tag team division.


Saraya will be voicing the audiobook of her memoir Hell in Boots: Clawing My Way Through Nine Lives.


Smackdown ratings:

This week: 1,536,000 overnight viewers and 0.47 in the key demos.

Last week: 1,428,000 overnight viewers and 0.42 in the key demos.


Rampage ratings:

This week: 237,000 overnight viewers and 0.07 in the key demos.

Last week: 172,000 overnight viewers and 0.05 in the key demos.


Monday, November 11th, 2024


AEW will air AEW Collision and Rampage from 3 to 6 PM ET on November 29th to avoid competition from WWE Survivor Series.


Raw is taping two episodes tonight so expect spoilers later.


Chatting with 4th Rope Interviews, MVP had this to say: “The next chapter currently is AEW. Got the boys back together, The Hurt Syndicate. I want to end that chapter the way it should have been ended. So we have plans to do some really good business at AEW. And then, I got a few matches left in me. I’d like to have a few matches before I hang it up for good. I’m not officially retired yet, so I want to have my final retirement match. And then after that, we’ll see, man. I’m enjoying this role as a manager, a mouthpiece, doing commissioner work. So if somebody wants to keep paying me to come around and grab a mic and run my mouth, I’ll do it for as long as they pay me to do it. But otherwise, as far as wrestling, that chapter is coming to a close pretty soon. And, you know, right now I just want to have a good time making money with my friends.”


Word is that Ring of Honor will be holding Final Battle at The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.


Here is what you will see on Raw this week:

WWE World Heavyweight Champion GUNTHER and Damian Priest face off.

WWE Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair.

Bronson Reed to appear.


Slam’s John Powell has your streaming listings for this week here:

What’s New to Stream This Week Nov 11th to 15th


TNA has a deal for you:


Rhea Ripley is currently out of action with a broken orbital bone after employing a head butt in a match. Speaking to Jazzy’s World TV, she had this to say about women’s wrestling:

“Being taken for granted, I think. The women in WWE, we’ve come a very, very long way. We’ve overcome a lot of obstacles that were put in the way, and it’s been growing each and every year. I think that was the biggest obstacle just getting people to sort of take us seriously. For the longest time, people joked about us being the toilet break, which is just plain disrespectful, especially when the women go out there and we leave everything that we have out in the ring, and we go just as hard as the men do. So don’t treat us with that disrespect, so we’re making people realize that we can go just as hard as the men if not harder.”

One of the reasons why women’s wrestling in WWE wasn’t taken seriously was because many of the “wrestlers” were not wrestlers and didn’t know a headlock from a wristlock especially in the nineties. No serious wrestling fan wanted to watch those botchfests. Many did not want to see talent who shouldn’t be in the ring in the first place fake their way through a “wrestling match”. It was just the reality and truth of the time. Effort doesn’t equal a passing grade, respect or success in the real world. This isn’t grade school where everyone gets a ribbon for just trying. A team can play as hard as they ever have and still come up short and lose the big game. I studied and studied math but dropped the subject in high school when I got 14% one semester. To this day, I have the mathematical IQ of a grade four student. No joke. I just suck at math and have come to terms with that reality.

The women who were talented like Lita, Trish Stratus, Beth Phoenix, Michelle McCool, AJ Lee, Madusa, Ivory, Jacqueline, Jazz, Molly Holly, etc, were respected and appreciated for their skill and talent, still are today. At the time, fans recognized and complained about how horrible they were booked with their talent being completely wasted here and there.

She is right in the sense that the WWE likes to trumpet the “women’s revolution” but while there were and are entire promotions dedicated to women’s wrestling in Japan, while other promotions were giving talented women the spotlight they deserve, the WWE was staging mud wrestling matches, cutting women’s matches from big events in favour of men’s matches for the longest time. Not only did the changing of the guard slowly but surely alter that but management, talent, coaches and producers behind the scenes finally brought about a much needed attitude shift to the company. There have always been women who can “go just as hard as the men”. They just weren’t appreciated as they should have been because of the way they were produced or presented or they worked somewhere other than the WWE and that is a crime in itself. True talent should never be wasted or ignored.

Here is a great piece from our archives:

Knocked out by the growth in women’s wrestling


Sunday, November 10th, 2024


An “update” on Randy Orton:


Feed him more… birthday cake. Because Ryback turns 43 today.


On this date in 1991, the legendary Dick “the Bruiser” Afflis passed away at the age of 62. You can read all about his amazing career here.


Indi Hartwell posted a video, updating everyone on her life since being released by WWE a week ago. Her comments start at the 6:20 mark, with the earlier portion of the video focused on her in the gym.

 


Saturday, November 9th, 2024


It is being reported by Kevin Nash that Roman Reigns’ salary is 15 million dollars.


Just a reminder that MLW will air its Lucha Apocalypto event tonight free on its YouTube channel. The show begins at 10 P.M. ET.

The card is:

MLW Middleweight Champion Místico vs. Titán vs. Averno

Atlantis & Atlantis Jr. & Star Jr. vs. Barbaro Cavernario & Felino & Magnus

Esfinge & Kevin Knight vs. Último Guerrero & Hechicero.

Paul London vs, KENTA.

Delmi Exo vs. Gigi Rey.

MLW Women’s Featherweight Champion Janai Kai vs. Lluvia vs. Persephone

MLW Champion Satoshi Kojima vs. Bobby Fish

Weapons of Mass Destruction: Mads Krule Krugger vs. AKIRA.


Here are your quick and dirty results from NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed last night:

David Finlay beat Kevin Knight.

The Grizzled Young Veterans defeated TMDK (c) to become the NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions.

Lio Rush beat Mustafa Ali.

Dirty Work (Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor) beat The West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) – Best 2 Out Of 3 Falls Match.

Hazuki beat Anna Jay, Koguma and Trish Adora – NJPW Strong Women’s Championship #1 Contenders Match.

Los Ingobernables De Japan (Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji) defeated The Undisputed Kingdom (Mike Bennett & Matt Taven).

After the match: Jack Perry attacked Tsuji challenging him to a match at Wrestle Dynasty.

Ryohei Oiwa beat Kenta.

Shota Umino & Tomohiro Ishii beat TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito).

Konosuke Takeshita (c) beat TJP – AEW International Championship.

After the match: Takeshita was challenged by Shingo Takagi for a match for the title at Wrestle Kingdom. Tomohiro Ishii also appeared demanding to face the winner at Wrestle Dynasty.


Kimber Lee’s trial will begin in February. Lee has been charged with DUI, Resisting an Office with Violence and Battery on a Law Enforcement Officer.


It is Saturday. You know what that means…


Friday, November 8th, 2024


 All Elite Wrestling today announced a special AEW All In: Texas Kickoff Party on Wednesday, November 20 from 6-9 PM CT at Texas Live in Arlington.  The event is free and open to the public and will celebrate the AEW All In: Texas event coming to Globe Life Field on Saturday, July 12, 2025. The AEW All In: Texas Kickoff Party will feature photo opportunities with the stars of All Elite Wrestling and Ring of Honor, rare AEW memorabilia displays, exclusive AEW merchandise for purchase, special AEW giveaways and an opportunity to view that evening’s episode of AEW Dynamite live on the Texas Live! screens.  In addition, all fans in attendance will have the first opportunity to purchase tickets for AEW All In: Texas before they go on sale to the general public AEW and ROH Stars scheduled to appear include Dustin Rhodes, Jeff Jarrett, Thunder Rosa, Athena, Sammy Guevara, The Outrunners and Abadon (talent subject to change). AEW All In: Texas takes place Saturday, July 12, 2025 from Globe Life Field.  The event will air live around the world on pay-per-view and marks the first time an AEW pay-per-view event has ever been held in Texas.  It will also be the first-ever professional wrestling event ever held at Globe Life Field.


The full card for NJPW & Stardom Historic X-Over 2024 on November 17 has been released.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Maika vs. El Desperado & Starlight Kid

IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani defends against Momo Watanabe

Taichi & Natsupoi vs. Clark Connors & Thekla

Hardcore match: KOPW 2024 Champion Great-O-Khan defends against Suzu Suzuki

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Hanan & Saya Iida vs. Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, Saya Kamitani & Natsuko Tora

Toru Yano, Tiger Mask & Oleg Boltin vs. Jeff Cobb, Callum Newman & Francesco Akira

Mei Seira, AZM & Miyu Amasaki vs. Konami, Rina & Ruaka

Tam Nakano & Saori Anou vs. Syuri & Tomoka Inaba

Pre-show match: Hanako & Aya Sakura vs. Ranna Yagami & Sayaka Kurara


Here is what you will see on Smackdown tonight:

The Grayson Waller Effect with guests Motor City Machine Guns
Cody Rhodes appearance
Sami Zayn tries to talk out his issues with Roman Reigns & The Usos


WWE might be introducing a WWE Netflix Championship which would act like a TV title, defended on the platform.


TKO President Mark Shapiro has shot down any rumours about TKO getting into betting on WWE matches.


New Japan Pro Wrestling will air Fighting Spirit Unleashed live on TrillerTV tonight. The card is:

NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd vs. Kosei Fujita.

Lio Rush vs. Mustafa Ali.

AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. TJP.

NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Champions TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson)

KENTA vs. Ryohei Oiwa.

David Finlay vs. Kevin Knight.

Best Two Out Of Three Falls: The West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs) vs. Dirty Work (Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor)

NJPW STRONG Women’s Title #1 Contendership Four Way: Koguma vs. Hazuki vs. Trish Adora vs. Anna Jay.


Here are your Collision spoilers:

The House of Black beat The Iron Savages.  FTR confronted The House after the match.

The Outunners beat Top Flight.

Roderick Strong beat Beast Mortos. Brian Cage and Lance Archer blindsided Strong.

Kris Statlander beat Ashley Vox. Mercedes Mone attacked Statlander.

AEW TNT Champion Jack Perry beat Action Andretti.  Daniel Garcia challenged Perry.

Nick Wayne beat AR Fox.

AEW Trios Champions Claudio Castagnoli, Pac and Wheeler Yuta beat Mark Briscoe, Kyle O’Reilly and Tomohiro Ishii. Moxley and Orange Cassidy sparked a big brawl.


Thursday, November 7th, 2024


NJPW has released the teams competing in World Tag League. The tournament begins November 19th.

 

 


Raw ratings:

This week: 1,465,000 overnight viewers and 0.48 in the key demos.

Last week: 1,401,000 overnight viewers and 0.42 in the key demos.


Some big news for NXT:


TKO Group COO Mark Shapiro told CNBC about Vince McMahon: “He’s out of the business.  He doesn’t make decisions.  He’s not on the board.  He doesn’t opine.  We don’t consult him.”


Despite the end of the Black versus Cole match on Dynamite last night Malakai Black has stated that he is not leaving AEW or even retiring just yet.


Mauro Ranallo will be part of the broadcast team for the Tyson and Paul fight on Netflix.


Forbes published its latest list of the 400 richest people in the world.  Shahid Khan, father of AEW President Tony Khan, made the list at #64 with an estimated net worth of $13. 3 Billion USD.

Former WWE owner / Chairman Vince McMahon slipped out of the top 400 with a paltry $2.5 Billion.

WWE Hall of Famer, President-Elect Donald Trump came in at number 319 with a net worth of $4.3 Billion.


The Onion, a non-wrestling version of  the parody news site Kayfabe News (founded by our buddy Colin Hunter) – had a funny take on Logan Paul’s energy drink.


There is a new book being published about Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena – which recently hosted WWE’s Money in the Bank event. Stories of the Stage will look at the venue’s first 25 years (it originally opened as the Air Canada Centre in 1999), with a primary focus on the concerts held there. The advance press material notes that the book will include a “captivating two-part feature on the arena’s wrestling legacy.”

For an even more comprehensive look, we suggest scrolling through our archives for all of our Toronto-related stories.