Thursday, May 2nd, 2024

AEW Dynamite ratings:

This week: 703,000 viewers and 0.24 in the key demos.

Last week: 683,000 viewers and 0.23 in the key demos.

AEW Rampage ratings:

This week: 431,000 viewers and 0.15 in the key demos. (Rampage aired live after Collision this week.)

Last week:  293,000 viewers and 0.09 in the key demos.

Here are the WWE Bologna, Italy show results:

Sami Zayn (c)  beat Ludwig Kaiser – WWE Intercontinental Championship Match

Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill and Naomi beat Damage Control

The Bloodline (Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga) beat LA Knight and Randy Orton

Damian Priest (c) defeated Chad Gable, Gunther and Jey Uso – WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match.

Awesome Truth (c) defeated Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonagh) – WWE World Tag Team Championship Match

Cody Rhodes (c) defeated Shinsuke Nakamura – Undisputed WWE Champion

Word is that Joseph Ruud (Erick Rowan) has signed a deal to return to the WWE as part of Bo Dallas’ gimmick.

Survivor fans, Slam’s John Powell has this week’s stock report here:

Survivor Stock Ticker: Episode Nine

John Cena has been seen in Nice, France, ahead of Saturday’s Backlash show. What could it all mean?

NXT ratings:

This week: 564,000 viewers and 0.14 in the key demos.

Last week: 661,000 and 0.20 in the key demos.

Here is what you will see on TNA tonight:

Last event before Under Siege PPV.

TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace vs. Miyu Yamashita.

TNA X-Division Champion Mustafa Ali vs. Chris Bey.

Trey Miguel vs. Ace Austin – Winner to challenge for X-Division title.

Joe Hendry “apologizes” to Rich Swann & AJ Francis.

TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champion Dani Luna vs. Alisha Edwards.

Hammerstone vs. Cody Deaner

Wednesday, May 1st, 2024

Taz has a health update. He needs both his knees and shoulders replaced due to so much heavy weight training over the years.

Twenty years ago today, the First Lady of Wrestling, Miss Elizabeth, died. Read about her life and legendary career in the obituary we wrote at the time – and check out the links therein for more about her life and career.

Former CZW/ROH star the Human Tornado turns 41 today. He played the character El Snowflake in the movie Nacho Libre. Speaking of that movie, here are some features we did about the inspiration for that movie, lucha libre star Fray Tormenta.

In advance of Don Callis’ return to Winnipeg, Manitoba tonight with AEW, he was interviewed by the Globe & Mail.

Announced for tonight’s AEW show:

  • The return of Kenny Omega
  • The number one contender to Swerve Strickland’s World Championship will be determined
  • Serena Deeb takes on Mariah May
  • Adam Copeland faces a member of the House of Black
  • Chris Jericho defends the FTW Championship against Katsuyori Shibata
  • Orange Cassidy will mumble about something

On his Six Feet Under podcast The Undertaker had this to say about the WWE Draft. “You know what it missed for me? I want to see some deals made. You know what I’m saying? Like a lot of teams they want a quarterback. They trade up or they trade down. You know, that would to me be more compelling to watch. You’re expecting your fanbase to watch two nights of TV content and I mean to be completely honest there wasn’t a whole lot of change really.”

Horror fans, Slam’s John Powell has some new reviews for yah:

Review Bites: Abigail, Sting, Baghead and Festival of the Living Dead

Ahead of this week’s Backlash event AJ Styles spoke to Fox News. He said about coaching the next generation: “That’s a tough one. I never look at someone like me, like, ‘They’re kind of like me.’ I don’t look at them like that, because I always thought that we got to be our own,” he said. “Every time I did something different, like my moves, I try to make sure they’re very unique – they’re my move set so that you don’t think of someone else. When I do a move, you think of me.”

Styles also spoke to Sports Illustrated. Styles says his time in NJPW as part of Bullet Club changed the direction of his career: “The creative changed everything for me,” said Styles. “If I were bringing somebody over to be in my company, the last thing I would do is have them win the heavyweight championship as soon as they got there. But that’s what they did. And it worked. It put me on the map immediately.”

Natalya had this to say about her loss to Lola Vice in their Underground match on NXT last night:

 

The Settler Independent has a great story on a local indie show in Alberta.

Cash Wheeler will stand trial on May 20th in his  aggravated assault with a firearm case.

Here is what you will see on Dynamite and Rampage tonight:

AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland’s Double or Nothing PPV challenger revealed.

Kenny Omega returns.

FTW Champion Chris Jericho vs. Katsuyori Shibata.

Samoa Joe vs. Isiah Kassidy.

Claudio Castagnoli vs. Brian Cage.

Jay White vs. Dante Martin.

 

Tuesday, April 30th, 2024

George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame announced that Tony Garea will be the 2024 recipient of the Jack Brisco Spotlight Award. The award will be presented during induction weekend, July 18-20, 2024, at the Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa.

Adam Pearce had this to say about people who didn’t like his joke about wearing a “Jim Cornette” suit last night on Raw.

Scrypts (Reggie) will be leaving WWE in June.

Raw Ratings:

This week: 1,683,000 viewers with 0.55 in the key demos.

Last week: 1,597,000 viewers and 0.52 in the key demos.

Rampage ratings:

This week: 293,000 viewers and 0.09 in the key demos.

Last week: 297,000 viewers and 0.13 in the key demos.

Collision ratings:

This week: 621,000 viewers and 0.21 in the key demos. (NBA Playoff was the lead-in so 1,353,000 viewers at the start. It dropped to 440,000 viewers by the end.)

Last week: 461,000 viewers and 0.13 in the key demos.

Word is Las Vegas could be hosting WrestleMania. 

WWE botched the info accompanying CM Punk’s draft graphic last night. He is yet to become a WWE Grand Slam Champion.

NJPW had this announcement today: “After missing two events on the Road to Dontaku it has been determined that SANADA be absent from the remainder of the Dontaku tour, as well as All Together as he returns to Tokyo for a medical appraisal. We apologize to fans looking forward to seeing SANADA wrestle and appreciate your understanding.”

The WWE announced that the King of the Ring tournament will begin on Raw next week.

Here is what you will see on NXT Spring Breakin Night Two tonight:

WWE North American Champion Obe Femi vs. Ivar.

WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Axiom & Nathan Frazer vs. The Authors of Pain.

Thea Hail vs. Jacy Jayne.

NXT Underground: Natalya vs. Lola Vice.

Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe vs. The OC’s Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows.

Monday, April 29th, 2024

We don’t have a full report today but here are your NJPW Satsuma no Kuni results:

Boltin Oleg defeated Katsuya Murashima

Taka Michinoku, Yuya Uemura and Taichi beat Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe and Hiroshi Tanahashi

TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nichols and Zack Sabre Jr.) beat The United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great O-Khan and Jeff Cobb)

House of Torture (Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita and Evil) beat Jado, El Desperado, Shota Umino, El Phantasmo and Hikuleo

Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens and Kenta) defeated Tomoaki Honma, Yoshi-Hashi and Hirooki Goto

LiJ (Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi and Tetsuya Naito) beat Bullet Club War Dogs (Gedo, Gabe Kidd and David Finlay)

Drilla Moloney and Clark Conners (c) beat BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match

Sho (c) beat Douki – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

A big drop in the Smackdown ratings:

This week: 2.143 million viewers and a 0.58 in the key demos.

Last week: 2,33,000 million viewers and 0.63 in the key demos.

Word is that Kamille has signed with AEW.

Tony Khan is selling his signed neck brace with all the proceeds going to the St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Jinder Mahal had this to say about his recent release from WWE. It doesn’t look like he feels hindered.

 

Expect some names from the past at tonight’s WWE Monday Night Raw in Kansas City. JBL posted that he visited the Negro Leagues museum in town.

Some sales updates courtesy of WrestleTix:

  • AEW X NJPW Present Forbidden Door: 6,257 out of 8,019 tickets distributed.
  • AEW Dynamite & Rampage, May 29: 4,387 out of 5,205 tickets distributed.
  • WWE Monday Night RAW, August 12th: 9,771 out of 10,617 tickets distributed.
  • AEW Presents Collision, May 30: 1,500 out of 3,686 tickets distributed.
  • WWE Backlash: 12,621 out of 12,977 tickets distributed.
  • AEW Double or Nothing: 5,566 out of 6,910 tickets distributed.
  • NJPW Resurgence: 2,056 out of 3,034 tickets distributed.

WWE made this announcement today: “Tickets for SummerSlam will go on sale next Thursday, May 9 at 10 a.m. ET via Ticketmaster.com. SummerSlam takes place Saturday, August 3 from Cleveland Browns Stadium, marking the first time since August of 1996 that the premium live event will be held in Cleveland. Presale for SummerSlam tickets will begin Tuesday, May 7 at 10 a.m. ET. Fans can register now to receive an exclusive presale offer by visiting https://www.wwe.com/summerslam-2024-presale-registration.

Chelsea Green wants to move up the WWE food chain:

The Dudley Boys made an in-ring return on Saturday at IWC Super Showdown V. It was the Dudley Boys and Elijah against Wes Barkley and Derek Dillinger and Kristopher in a Trios Tables Match. The Dudleys and Elijah won.

Word is that AEW stars Julia Hart and Powerhouse Hobbs are both on the injured list.

Logan Paul and his fiancée Nina Agdal revealed that they will be having a baby girl. The gender reveal was done through a wrestling match, where two wrestlers completed, one dressed in blue, the other in pink.

Reportedly, WWE has filed to trademark the term “MFT”, which is what they’ve been calling Tama Tonga on TV.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced the blocks for the upcoming Super Juniors tournament, which runs from May 11th through June 9th.

A Block

  • El Desperado
  • Kevin Knight
  • BUSHI
  • Titan
  • TJP
  • Kosei Fujita
  • Blake Christian
  • Clark Connors
  • Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • HAYATA

B Block 

  • KUSHIDA
  • Hiromu Takahashi
  • DOUKI
  • Francesco Akira
  • Robbie Eagles
  • Taiji Ishimori
  • Drilla Moloney
  • SHO
  • Dragon Dia
  • Ninja Mack

AEW has hired a new Senior Marketing Director of Live Events. Jeremy Flynn previously worked for the PBR, the Professional Bull Riding organization. Based on the declining attendance numbers, they need the help – and that’s no bull!

Today is April 29th, or written another way, For-Two-Nine.  Which kind of sounds like Fortuna. One of our favourite minor Star Wars characters is Bib Fortuna, who was the chief aide to crime lord Jabba the Hutt.

On that note, check out these Star Wars related clips: