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Wednesday, January 1 2020 Issue #5811
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Well, where do I start? First of all, happy new year! :)

It's been a while, hasn't it? Not technically all our fault. Didn't think Yahoo! would do all those drastic changes. But we're out of there now, and from now on we are part of the groups.io service. How good is it? I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

The majority of the subscribers haven't been migrated over. Invites are still slowly being sent. We couldn't just add everyone back on the list like I wanted. Everyone has to accept the invite to be added and invites might be in the spam/junk, not seen etc. We went from over 26,000 subscribers to just under 2,000 for now as more get added daily.

But new year, new start. Thanks for sticking around.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

LANA AND LASHLEY'S WEDDING ANGLE A BIG HIT ON YOUTUBE

- The Lana and Lashley wedding segment might have its fair share of critics but it seems like it is a big hit on YouTube. Three videos associated with the angle which main evented Raw this past Monday have done millions of views each on the popular video sharing website which suggests that fans at least were curious to see what happened. Pro wrestling weddings always have a twist and never go according to plans and typically do well in terms of viewership due to the surprise factor. The highlights video of what went down on Monday has over 3.2 million views on the official WWE YouTube page while the video of Lana continuing to throw a fit after the show went off the air has 2.3 million views and counting. The WWE on FOX YouTube page also uploaded a five-minute video of the wedding angle and that already has 3.8 million views and growing. All three videos were uploaded on December 30.

CHARLOTTE FLAIR AND ANDRADE GET ENGAGED

- There's another power couple in the making in the WWE as Andrade and Charlotte announced their engagement on Twitter. It was Charlotte who posted a photo of the two hugging each other with the words "Si" and then the United States champion posted a status of his own writing, "She said siiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!" This will be the third wedding for Charlotte who was previously married to Riki Johnson from 2010 to 2013. She talked about her marriage in the Second Nature book, revealing she left her husband after multiple domestic violence assaults. Later in 2013, she married Thomas Latimer, the wrestler better known under the name of Bram. The marriage lasted until 2015. Andrade has not been married before and the two have been dating since late 2018.

24/7 TITLE CHANGES HANDS DURING FOX NEW YEAR'S EVE BROADCAST

- The 24/7 title kept changing hands even late at night on New Year's Eve yesterday with the gold swapping hands a couple of times throughout the FOX New Year's Eve broadcast. It was Mojo Rawley who won the title first after knocking out R-Truth while he was being interviewed on camera by Maria Menounos. Menounos acted as the referee and hit the three count on Truth, awarding the title to Rawley. But Mojo's reign was pretty short as on his way out, he asked Elias for directions on how to get out of there. Mojo insulted Elias' performance from earlier in the night and Elias was offended and smashed the guitar over Mojo. Truth was there once again - as was Menounos with her referee shirt - and counted to three as Truth regained the title.

WHO WILL WALK AWAY WITH THE NXT YEAR END AWARDS TONIGHT?

- Tonight's NXT on USA Network will be a Best Of 2019 episode with the addition of the Year End awards handed out. The award winners set to be revealed as voted by fans include Overall Competitor of the Year, Male Competitor of the Year, Female Competitor of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Breakout Star of the Year, Future Star of the Year, Match of the Year, Rivalry of the Year, and TakeOver of the Year. Apart from that, the teams entering in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will be revealed. NXT returns live next week on USA Network from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.

RAW RATING

- Monday Night Raw drew 2,435,000 viewers this week, up 604,000 viewers from last week's record-low broadcast. This was the most-watched Raw since the September 30 episode. Hour one started with 2,525,000 viewers, then went down to 2,464,000 viewers for the second hour, and 2,328,000 viewers for the third and final hour. Raw was #4, #5, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #7 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE PROGRAMMING OFFICIALLY MOVES TO BT SPORT IN THE UK

- The era of WWE television on BT Sport kicked off today in the United Kingdom as BT Sport officially took over all WWE programming from Sky Sports. This is the first time in over three decades that WWE will have no programming on Sky in the UK. WWE shows helped kick off 2020 on BT Sport with Raw highlights at 8AM, a new original series No Filter at 9AM, WWE 24: Becky Lynch at 9:30AM, WWE 24: Kofi Kingston at 10:30AM, WrestleMania Legendary Moments at 11:30AM, and another repeat of No Filter at 12:30PM. No Filter takes a unique behind-the-scenes look at the November 2019 WWE live event tour of the UK. NXT will then air live at 1AM. Fans who sign up to select BT Superfast Fibre and BT Sport bundles between Friday, January 10 and Monday, January 27 will also receive a replica WWE title worth 180GBP. As well as airing all Raw, SmackDown and NXT shows live, BT Sport will also show primetime same day repeats. In addition, customers can catch up on all the overnight action whenever and whe
rever they like via the enhanced video player on the BT Sport app on mobile and BTSport.com. Simon Green, head of BT Sport said, "We are looking forward to welcoming WWE to its new home, BT Sport. WWE is something that many of us have grown up with and we look forward to bringing the best of BT Sport to WWE, offering UK fans more access and more content than ever before."

DYNAMITE RETURNS WITH LIVE SHOW FROM JACKSONVILLE

- AEW returns on TNT tonight after one-week absence with a loaded show. Losing in both viewership and 18-49 demo last time around and with a taped Best Of episode of NXT set to air tonight on USA, Dynamite is looking to rebound with the Homecoming special from Jacksonville, Florida. Announced so far are five matches including Cody vs Darby Allin, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs The Lucha Bros and Neville, Riho defending the AEW Women's title against Nyla Rose, Britt Baker, and Hikaru Shida in a four-way match, Jon Moxley vs Trent, and Sammy Guevara vs Dustin Rhodes. Apart from these matches, Moxley is also set to either accept or deny the Inner Circle's offer to join them, MJF to discuss his next move with Cody, and Taz will be appearing on the show doing commentary. Tickets for tonight's show at the Daily's Place are still available through Ticketmaster.com.


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Thursday, January 2 2020 Issue #5812
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

There go the holidays! Still enjoying my last two days of leave before getting back to the usual routine next week. Ugh. It's gonna suck.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

AND THE 2019 NXT YEAR END AWARDS WINNERS ARE...

- NXT held its Year End awards last night with an in-studio show rather than a live broadcast. Cathy Kelley anchored the broadcast and was aided by Pat McAfee and Sam Roberts. The awards were as follows: The Undisputed Era (O'Reilly and Fish) won the NXT Tag Team of the Year. Nominees in this category included Viking Raiders, Mark Andres and Flash Morgan Webster, Grizzled Young Veterans, and The Street Profits. Adam Cole won the NXT Male Competitor of the Year. Other nominees included Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, Walter, Tyler Bate and Tommaso Ciampa. Shayna Baszler won the NXT Female Competitor of the Year. Nominees included Rhea Ripley, Kay Lee Ray, Io Shirai, Toni Storm, and Bianca Belair. The NXT Rivalry of the Year went to Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano. There were no other nominees announced. This is Gargano's second year winning the award after he won it with Tommaso Ciampa. Dakota Kai won the NXT Future Star of the Year. Nominees were Ilja Dragunov, Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Br
onson Reed, Tegan Nox, Kushida, Xia Li, Taynara, and Cameron Grimes. NXT Takeover of the Year went to the most recent one, Takeover: WarGames. This was the show during the Survivor Series weekend which included two awesome WarGames matches and the first-ever female one. The NXT Breakout Star of the Year went to Keith Lee. Nominees included Angel Garza, Joe Coffey, Piper Niven, Dominik Dijakovic, Damian Priest, Matt Riddle, Rhea Ripley, and Candice LaRae. The NXT Match of the Year went to Cole vs Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match at NXT Takeover: New York. This was the match where Gargano won the NXT title during WrestleMania weekend. Cole vs. Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match won NXT Match of the Year. The match where Gargano won the NXT Championship took place at TakeOver: New York on April 5th from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn during WrestleMania weekend. The NXT Overall Competitor of the Year was a battle between the NXT champion Adam Cole and former NXT Women'
s champion Shayna Baszler. Adam Cole won the much-deserved award as he had a fantastic year, probably the best year out of anyone even on the main roster.

2020 DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC TOURNAMENT PARTICIPANTS ANNOUNCED

- A combination of NXT and NXT UK tag teams will be part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament this year. The participants and bracket were revealed last night on the first episode of NXT of 2020. On the left bracket there is Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) taking on The Forgotten Sons and then Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne versus Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster. The right bracket has Grizzled Young Veterans facing Kushida and a mystery tag team partner and Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) versus The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly). No start date has been announced although a finale at the upcoming NXT Takeover: Portland would make the most sense. This will be the fifth Dusty Classic and Cody revealed in December that he gave WWE permission to use the name of his father for another edition of the tournament.

STROWMAN/LASHLEY ARM WRESTLING MATCH TOPS WWE'S MOST-WATCHED VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE IN 2019

- To say that WWE has a strong presence on YouTube is quite an understatement. With 52.7 million subscribers, the WWE channel on YouTube is one of the most popular on the website. Their top 10 videos of 2019 amounted to over 172 million views together and topping the list was an unlikely video. Coming in at #1 was the Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley arm wrestling match from the June 3 Raw episode. That was the most-watched WWE video on YouTube for the last year with a whopping 38.10 million views. It was so popular that the #2 video did half of those views so there's a massive gap between the top two spots. The second most-watched video was The Shield saying goodbye to Dean Ambrose after the April 8 episode of Raw went off the air. That video did 19.09 million views. It's the one of two Shield videos in the top 10 list. Braun Strowman found himself twice in the top three with him pushing over Mr. McMahon's limousine on the January 14 episode of Raw getting 19.03 million views, good f
or the #3 spot. #4 is another Shield video with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins saving Dean Ambrose from 4-on-1 beatdown from the February 25 episode of Raw. That video has a total of 17.24 million views. Brock Lesnar brutally attacking Rey Mysterio and his son came from the September 30 Raw came in at #5 with 15.44 million views. The only video that involved the women came in #6 with the crazy, wild brawl from the April 1 Raw involving Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair all getting arrested. That video did 14.73 million views. Despite limited appearances, The Undertaker got on the list too when he came to the aid of Roman Reigns on the June 24 episode of Raw. That was good for #7 with 13.97 million views. Roman Reigns is in another top 10 video and this time it's from the June 17 Raw when he storms into Shane McMahon's VIP room and attacks him. That came in #8 with a total of 12.81 million views. Newcomer Cain Velasquez left his mark in the #9 spot and his debut on the Oct
ober 4 episode of Smackdown on FOX did 11.42 million views. And wrapping up the top 10 list is the face-to-face encounter between Goldberg and The Undertaker from the June 4 episode of Smackdown Live with 9.79 million views.

A LOOK AT THE 2019 MONDAY NIGHT RAW VIEWERSHIP AND NUMBERS

- Monday Night Raw averaged 2,417,000 viewers over 52 weeks in 2019, quite a drop from the 2,823,000 viewers it averaged in 2018. It was a bigger drop than what the show had between 2017 and 2018 as Raw experienced some record lows over the past year. While last year Raw did over four million viewers on average once, this year they didn't come even close as Raw only crossed the three million average mark once. In total only five episodes had an hour cross the three million, with the July 22 episode being the only show that all three hours did over three million each. The most-watched Raw was in fact the July 22 episode with an average of 3,093,000 viewers. The Raw after WrestleMania was second with 2,923,000 average and the February 25 Raw with 2,922,000 average. The first hour of the April 8 post-Mania episode was the most watched hour of the year with 3,182,000 viewers tuning in. But the good news, if you want to call it that, stops there. Raw had hit some pretty bad lows in 2019,
including the December 23 episode which did an average of just 1,835,000 viewers. That was the only episode that didn't surpass the two million viewer average mark in 2019. The December 16 and November 11 shows did 2,053,000 and 2,508,000 viewers respectively to round up the least-watched Raws of 2019. When you look at the numbers and the chart, there's no "winning" for Raw in 2019 as ratings continue to sink and viewers continue to tune out. Starting in the first week of October, Raw is also no longer the most-watched WWE show as it was surpassed every week by Smackdown since moving to FOX.

MJF NAMES HIS STIPULATIONS BEFORE WRESTLING CODY

- MJF has accepted to wrestle Cody Rhodes at the upcoming Revolution pay-per-view next month as long as Cody meets three stipulations. MJF revealed these stipulations last night on Dynamite with the first stipulation being that if Cody touches him before the pay-per-view, the match is called off. The second stipulation is that Cody has to beat Wardlow in a steel cage match. If he doesn't succeed, the match is off. And the third and final stipulation - and the most humiliating one - is that MJF has to whip Cody ten times live on TNT while he bends over in the middle of the ring. The feud between the two had been building for quite a few months and finally MJF turned heel on Cody at the Full Gear pay-per-view.


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\ \/\/ /| / _|\__ \ | | | |__ | || .` | (_ |
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|_|\_|___| \_/\_/ |___/____|___| |_| |_| |___|_|_\


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Friday, January 3 2020 Issue #5813
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Visit our website at
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Happy weekend everyone!

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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

DYNAMITE RATING

- The much-hyped Homecoming edition of Dynamite on New Year's Day pulled in 967,000 viewers, an increase of 284,000 viewers from the December 18 episode. The show did a 0.36 rating in the 18-49 demographic which placed AEW in #13 in the top 50 cable chart. With NXT running a Best Of episode, AEW easily won the ratings war this week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

KILLER KROSS FILES APPLICATION TO TRADEMARK HIS WRESTLING NAME

- Killer Kross, the former Impact Wrestling star who was recently given his release from the company, applied to trademark his wrestling name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 24, 2019. Kross, real name Robert Kesar, filed for the trademark himself a week after he got free from Impact Wrestling, noting that the first use of his name was on May 13, 2014. The word mark was filed under entertainment services, namely wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer. The free agent has not signed with any promotion yet although many expect him to join his girlfriend Scarlett Bordeaux at the WWE Performance Center and NXT. Kross had been in hot water with Impact Wrestling ever since the Slammiversary pay-per-view in July where he refused to blade in his first blood match against Eddie Edwards due to Impact failing to provide a doctor, ambulance, and testing at the show. Impact ended up punishing him for it for five months and was l
eft out of all television tapings that came after that show. He asked for his release in May of this year, something which obviously did not help matters either.

SMACKDOWN PREVIEW

- Two matches have been announced for tonight's first Smackdown of 2020 on FOX. The first match announced was a triple threat women's tag team match featuring Bayley and Sasha Banks versus Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross vs Dana Brooke and Lacey Evans and then later in the day WWE also announced that Roman Reigns will be teaming up with Daniel Bryan to take on Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin. No other segments have been announced yet for the broadcast which will take place from the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tennessee. With no Monday Night Football as competition until later this year, Monday Night Raw is expected to get some of its viewership back which might lead to Smackdown losing the most-watched WWE show title it has kept since moving to FOX.

WWE HIRES VIDEO GAME JOURNALIST DANIEL RYCKERT AS PRODUCER OF WWE PODCAST NETWORK

- WWE has hired 35-year-old video game journalist and producer Daniel Ryckert to work behind-the-scenes on the WWE Podcast Network as a producer. "Throughout my life, my two biggest passions have always been video games and wrestling. I was so fortunate to make a living working in one of those industries, and now it's time to try the other. Starting Monday, I'll be producing podcasts both in-house and on the road for WWE," Ryckert wrote on Twitter. Ryckert will be working on both After The Bell and The New Day: Feel the Power podcasts. Ryckert was recently employed by CBS Interactive where he appeared on the Giant Bombcast and Giant Beastcast podcast. He previously was senior associate editor at GameStop's Game Informer magazine.

NXT RATING

- Running a Best Of episode combined with NXT Year End Awards, this week's taped episode only did 548,000 viewers, down 283,000 viewers from last week's Christmas Day episode which ran unopposed. NXT did a 0.15 rating in the 18-49 demographic, placing it in #66 in the top 50 cable chart. The difference between the two shows was of 419,000 viewers, expected since NXT had replays of best matches rather than a first-run show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE BACKSTAGE RATING

- The New Year's Eve episode of WWE Backstage did just 97,000 viewers. Considering it started at 11PM ET, it's actually amazing that so many still tuned in till the stroke of Midnight. It was down 56,000 viewers from the previous week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)


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Saturday, January 4 2020 Issue #5814
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Judging from my Twitter feed, I was probably the only one not watching Wrestle Kingdom live this morning. Even my top 10 trending topics were all NJPW related. While I understand WrestleMania is a long night, I would never want it to be a two-night affair like WK. Just one is more than enough in my opinion!


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

SMACKDOWN RATING

- Friday Night Smackdown drew a total of 2,418,000 for the first episode of 2020, off hours
2,467,000 viewers in the first and 2,369,000 viewers in the second hour. The show drew a 0.7 in the 18-49 demographic and got beat by Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I. and 20/20. In terms of viewership, Smackdown only beat The CW. Raw beat Smackdown in the ratings for the first time since the beginning of October, getting a few thousand viewers more. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

JOHN MORRISON MAKES SURPRISE APPEARANCE ON SMACKDOWN

- Former Impact champion John Morrison appeared on Smackdown yesterday, his first WWE televised appearance since 2011. Morrison signed a new multi-year deal with WWE and was expected to start imminently. His appearance came after Cathy Kelley went to the locker room of The Miz to ask some questions as to why he attacked Kofi Kingston. After Kelley knocked on the door, it was Morrison who opened the door and not The Miz. "The Miz doesn't have anything to say tonight," Morrison said, as he closed the door again. Morrison and The Miz formed a tag team in the WWE between 2007 and 2009 and they won the tag team titles twice. Interesting enough, the duo split in 2009 after Miz lost a match to Kofi Kingston after Morrison accidentally got Miz disqualified, giving Raw a draft pick. The pick was The Miz and Miz attacked Morrison, who was later drafted to Smackdown. You can see the video at .

USOS RETURN AFTER A FIVE-MONTH ABSENCE

- The Usos made their return on Smackdown on FOX last night, their first appearance on WWE television since late July. With Daniel Bryan out after an attack by The Fiend, King Corbin and Dolph Ziggler continued their two-on-one attack on Reigns, cuffing him to the ropes and just when they were going to pour dog food on Reigns again, The Usos theme song kicked in. They met Ziggler with a double super kick on the entrance ramp and then delivered another one to Corbin in the ring. Both sporting shorter hair, the two then helped their cousin Roman Reigns up as Smackdown went off the air. The twins were last seen on WWE TV on the July 29 episode of Raw, four days after after Jimmy got arrested for a DUI. He was found not guilty by a jury last month. Jimmy's wife Naomi was also taken off TV for a much-needed break as well. You can watch the video at .

SHEAMUS IS BACK!

- It was a night of many returns on Smackdown yesterday as former WWE champion Sheamus also made his presence felt. The Celtic Warrior has been out of action since April 2019 after he was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a condition which puts pressure on the nerves that travel through the spine and an injury which most often occurs in the lower back and the neck. The Irish star is back to his old look and took out Chad Gable with the Brogue Kick after fans thought he came out to save him from a double team by The Revival. Sheamus' return has been hyped for the past couple of weeks on Smackdown, with the 41-year-old looking as good as ever.

NIKKI BELLA AND ARTEM CHIGVINTSEV ANNOUNCE ENGAGEMENT

- Former WWE Divas champion Nikki Bella and former Dancing With The Stars pro Artem Chigvintsev are officially engaged. The news came from Artem's Twitter account who posted two photos of them together with the text, "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. So excited for what’s to come I love you more then anything and thank you for saying Yes." Nikki officially broke off her engagement with John Cena in the Summer of 2018 just over a year after Cena proposed to her in front of thousands of people at WrestleMania. People close to Nikki said that she called off the wedding after Cena once again had a U-turn over having children. Cena then went on the TODAY show and said he was ready to be the father of her children but it was a little too late. Bella was a competitor on Dancing With The Stars in late 2017 and was paired up with Chigvintsev. After she was eliminated from the competition in week seven, there were rumors that the two were a little bit more than just dancing partners even though Nikki was still in a relationship with Cena at the time. Nikki and Artem then came out publicly with their relationship last year. This will be the second marriage for Nikki, who married her high school sweetheart at the age of 20, a marriage which was annulled three years later. The Russian-American dancer was married once, to his dancing partner Giselle Peacock, from 2004 to 2005. He then dated with dancer Kara Tointon and Dancing With The Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba. His last partner was actress Torrey DeVitto, who plays a doctor on the NBC medical drama Chicago Med.

MOXLEY WINS THE IWGP UNITED STATES TITLE

- AEW's Jon Moxley is once again the IWGP United States champion after he defeated Lance Archer earlier today in a Texas death match at Wrestle Kingdom 14. The finish came after Moxley hit a Death Rider through the tables outside and Archer failed to respond after the count of ten. The only way to win was either through submission or a ten count knockout. Moxley will now defend the title against Juice Robinson on tomorrow's second night of Wrestle Kingdom. This is Moxley's second reign as IWGP United States champion after he won the title from Juice Robinson in July of last year at the Best of the Super Juniors finals at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. But in October of last year the title was declared vacant by NJPW after Moxley was unable to travel to Japan for the King of Pro Wrestling event due to typhoon Hagibis which has wrecked havoc in the country. Archer eventually won the vacant title from Robinson.

CHRIS JERICHO LOOKING FOR HIS FIRST WRESTLE KINGDOM WIN TOMORROW

- AEW World champion Chris Jericho will be wrestling on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14 tomorrow night in Tokyo, airing very early in the morning in the United States. Jericho will be taking on Hiroshi Tanahashi and if Tanahashi wins, he will get an AEW title shot in the future. This is Jericho's third match in a row at Wrestle Kingdom but he has an awful record so far, losing both his previous matches. It will be interesting to see if Jericho is allowed to walk down the aisle with his AEW title considering the two companies have no official working relationship. Considering that the title shot is on the line, one would assume that would be a yes. Both Jericho and Moxley have stipulations in their AEW deal that allows them to wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling outside North America.


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_ _____ ___ ___ _____ _ ___ _ _ ___
\ \ / / _ \ __/ __|_ _| | |_ _| \| |/ __|
\ \/\/ /| / _|\__ \ | | | |__ | || .` | (_ |
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| .` | _| \ \/\/ /\__ \ |__| _| | | | | | _|| /
|_|\_|___| \_/\_/ |___/____|___| |_| |_| |___|_|_\


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Monday, January 5 2020 Issue #5815
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

NJPW had the retirement for Jushin Thunder Liger today. I remember seeing him the first time in the early 90s in WCW. Such a legend now. Glad he got a proper send off. Thank you, Liger!


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

NJPW HOLDS RETIREMENT CEREMONY FOR JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER

- With a career spanning over three decades, the world of professional wrestling said goodbye to Jushin Thunder Liger today in his last appearance at NJPW's New Year Dash. Liger had his final match on Sunday at Wrestle Kingdom 14 and a memorable retirement segment during today's show. Born Keiichi Yamada in 1964, he was given the gimmick in 1989, a character based on the anime television series of the same name. Having participated in over 4,000 matches throughout his 36-year career, Liger is one of the most recognizable names in the history of professional wrestling and an icon in his homeland of Japan. Liger wrestled for multiple promotions throughout his career including All Star Wrestling, Stampede Wrestling, WWE, WCW, Ring of Honor, TNA, and other independent promotions, but remained loyal to New Japan Pro Wrestling where he was the longest-serving employee. In WWE, he only had one match and that came under the NXT banner in 2015 where he wrestled Tyler Breeze at the NXT Takeove
r: Brooklyn event. In WCW, he had a few more matches than that, wrestling for the Atlanta-based promotion between 1991 and 1992 and then 1995 and 1999. Liger also had a few matches under TNA/Impact Wrestling, making his debut for them at the Bound For Glory 2005 pay-per-view losing to Samoa Joe and then went on to have a few more PPV matches during the following year. Liger's title reigns are too many to count, including 22 which came in New Japan Pro Wrestling. He is regarded as one of the best high-flyers this industry has ever seen. AEW and Impact Wrestling saluted Liger with #ThankYouLiger tweets while WWE sent flowers for his retirement ceremony.

TESSA BLANCHARD WINS THE IMPACT WRESTLER OF THE YEAR AWARD

- Tessa Blanchard was named the Impact Wrestler of the Year during a special episode of Impact Wrestling this past weekend on AXS TV. She is the first woman to ever win this Impact award. Blanchard and last year's winner, Sami Callihan, were also awarded the Impact Match of the Year for their historic intergender match at Slammiversary 2019 in July. The two will meet again later this week at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view where Blanchard will challenge for the Impact World title currently held by Callihan. In the other awards, Taya Valkyrie won the Knockout of the Year, The North won the Tag Team of the Year, Rich Swann won the X-Division Star of the Year, Sami Callihan winning the Impact World title on AXS TV debut won the Moment of the Year, Tessa Blanchard's Magnum move won the Finishing Move of the Year, and Willie Mack was the One to Watch in 2020.

JERICHO GETS FIRST VICTORY AT WRESTLE KINGDOM

- AEW World champion Chris Jericho got his first victory at Wrestle Kingdom yesterday when he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi. Jericho carried the AEW World title with him as the stipulation of this match was that if Tanahashi wins, he would get an AEW title shot in the future. But those dreams were dashed after Jericho made Tanahashi tap out after he locked him in the Liontamer. In the post-match conference, Jericho indicated that he wants the two companies to work together in the future. "The forbidden door is closed, but I don't think it needs to be closed," Jericho told the media. AEW and NJPW don't have a working relationship, something that fans are eagerly hoping for. Two of AEW's biggest stars - Jericho and Moxley - both have deals in their contract that allows them to wrestle for NJPW outside the United States.

AEW COMING TO DENVER AND SALT LAKE CITY IN MARCH

- AEW will be running Denver for the first time in March with a show taking place at the 1STBANK Center, technically located in Broomfield, Colorado. The 1STBANK Center is a 6,500-seater multi-purpose arena, close to the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport and is one of those smaller arenas that AEW seem to be booking a lot lately. The March 11 show will be in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Maverik Center. The Maverick Center is double in size of the 1STBANK Center, an arena that holds 12,600 seats. It's also not technically located in SLC but rather in West Valley City, but AEW is marketing the show as being in Salt Lake City. Tickets for the March 4 and March 11 Dynamite shows go on sale this Friday, January 10 at 10AM MST at AEWTix.com. Tickets start from $20 each.

RAW HELPS USA NETWORK #1 CABLE ENTERTAINMENT SPOT IN TWO DEMOS

- USA Network wrapped up 2019 as the #1 cable entertainment network in the P18-49 demo for the third consecutive year and the P25-54 demo for the second consecutive year. The success is mainly attributed to WWE's Monday Night Raw which is why NBCUniversal paid over a billion dollars to keep the show on the network for the next five years. Raw was the #1 cable entertainment program on Mondays as well as the #1 most social primetime series in all of television. Stone Cold's Straight Up Steve Austin also got a shoutout in the press release as the #1 new unscripted cable series for men (18-49, 25-54). "The wins solidified USA as a #1 Network in Prime for 14 consecutive years," the press release said.

BECKY LYNCH TO MEET FANS AT WWE BOOTH AT CES IN LAS VEGAS

- WWE's Raw Women champion Becky Lynch will be in Las Vegas on January 8 appearing at the WWE booth at CES. CES - the super popular Consumer Electronics Show - is a yearly gathering in Las Vegas, taking place at the Las Vegas Convention Center between January 7 and January 10. The WWE booth will be at the Aria hotel rather than at the Convention Center as several hotels on the strip hold several other events during the four-day event. Lynch will be there taking photos with fans from 2:30PM to 4:30PM. A CES badge is required for entry. WWE launched the WWE Network at CES in 2014 at the Wynn Hotel, with a presentation featuring Vince McMahon and many of the top WWE Superstars. Last year, WWE Co-President George Barrios and WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon both appeared at CES to talk about the company.

KANE TO BE THE GUEST OF THE NEXT BROKEN SKULL SESSIONS

- Stone Cold Steve Austin will go one-on-one again with the Big Red Machine Kane, but this time it will be sitting across each other in another installment of Broken Skull Sessions. Kane, who now serves as the Mayor of Knoxville, is one of the longest-serving WWE employees and without a doubt has a Hall of Fame career. His full-time work with WWE has pretty much ended as Jacobs now dedicates his life to politics. The third episode of Broken Skull Sessions, which is taped at Austin's ranch in Los Angeles, will air immediately following the conclusion of NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool II on Sunday, January 12.

RAW PREVIEW

- The first Raw of 2020 will feature the WWE champion Brock Lesnar making his first appearance since the Survivor Series. With the Royal Rumble now quickly approaching, the champ will be in the house over the next few Raws to see who will be facing him in Houston. Apart from Brock's appearance, WWE has already announced two matches for tonight's broadcast. The United States title will be on the line as Andrade defends against Rey Mysterio while a triple threat tag team match for the Raw Tag Team titles will also take place with The Viking Raiders taking on The O.C. and The Street Profits. Raw will no longer have NFL competition until fall so viewership should be back up a little bit compared to the last couple of months.

BRET HART'S DAUGHTER CLOSES RESTAURANT AND LEAVES EMPLOYEES MISSING THOUSANDS IN WAGES

- The Hart family name is back in the news this week although not for a good reason. The Calgary Herald is reporting that Alexandra Hart, the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Bret "Hit Man" Hart abruptly closed her Hart Healthy Food restaurant just before Christmas, leaving employees missing thousands of dollars in wages. The restaurant was open for just three months. The newspaper has comments from some of the former employees of the restaurant, one of which said that Hart knew weeks before they closed that they didn't have enough money, yet she let them work full-time despite having no ability to pay them. Now, some of the employees have filed reports with the labour board after the 31-year-old Hart stopped communication with her former staff. The restaurant was described as a "farm to table experience with fast food convenience," although the only thing fast about it was the time it took to permanently close!


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Tuesday, January 6 2020 Issue #5816
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

I hate that the WWE title won't be defended at the Royal Rumble. It's one of the big four pay-per-views and it should be on the line. Brock being in the Rumble doesn't make sense to me unless they are kicking off a big angle during the match that sets up his new opponent.

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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

ARENA SECURITY TACKLE LASHLEY/LANA'S WEDDING OFFICIANT BY MISTAKE LIVE ON RAW

- Arena security had a big "oops!" moment yesterday on Raw after they tackled American actor Rick Malone in the ring, not knowing he is part of the show as Lana's and Lashley's wedding officiant. The incident occurred after the match between AJ Styles and Akira Tozawa ended. Malone rushed to the ring under the bottom rope and security followed, tackling him and keeping him on the mat. For some reason, the camera angle switched to the hard cam, showing the "ring invasion" and then switched to the ringside camera which turned away to the crowd as the commentary by Vic Joseph came to an abrupt stop. The show then went to break. During the break, a WWE employee is seen rushing in a ringside fan video telling security that Malone was part of the show and that's when they released him. Sure enough, after the commercial break ended, Malone was there in the ring ready for the Lashley and Lana segment, so all he was trying to do was actually get ready for his cue - albeit early - but someone forgot to alert security. Malone noted in a post on Facebook that he was trying to get to the ring for the segment but security prevented him so he had "no other choice but to dive into the ring headfirst," noting that security were "not pleased." But he looked at the bright side of it and joked about what happened, saying, "It was all just a simple misunderstanding!" You can see the videos at

BROCK LESNAR TO ENTER THE ROYAL RUMBLE AS #1 ENTRANT

- The WWE title will not be defended at the Royal Rumble as the current champion, Brock Lesnar, was announced as one of the 30 Superstars who will be part of the Royal Rumble over-the-top rope elimination match. Lesnar, who appeared on Raw last night for the first time since the Survivor Series, was accompanied as always by Paul Heyman. Heyman said that they're ready to make history as his client will be entering the Royal Rumble as entrant number one and said that when the match is over, the reigning champion will be crowned the winner of the Royal Rumble. Usually, winners of the Royal Rumble get to wrestle for the WWE or Universal title at WrestleMania but nothing was discussed about what will happen if Brock wins. Heyman said that Brock would not be defending the title at the Rumble because there's no one on Raw, Smackdown, or NXT who is worthy enough to challenge for the gold. Others who have been confirmed for the Rumble match so far are AJ Styles, Roman Reigns, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, and Eric Rowan. On a related note, Brock Lesnar was also announced to be appearing on next week's Raw.

THE BIG SHOW RETURNS

- Weeeeeeeeeeell, he's back! Former WWE and WCW champion The Big Show made a surprise return on Monday Night Raw yesterday and was revealed as the third member to team with Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe in their match against Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain. Show has been out of action and off WWE television since late November of 2018 and was last seen on Smackdown, knocking out Cesaro backstage after the alliance with The Bar ended. He had a hamstring injury that kept him out for several months and while he was on the shelf with WWE, Show kept busy, especially in Hollywood. During his time away, Big Show joined the cast of the TV series Van Helsing, got his own Netflix series aptly named The Big Show, and is also the subject of a new reality TV show titled Big Show vs The World: A Giant Abroad. Show will be on Raw next week as well teaming up with Owens and Joe again to take on Rollins and AOP in a fist fight.

WWE PERSONALITIES TO GIVE TALKS DURING CES 2020 IN LAS VEGAS THIS WEEK

- Several WWE personalities will be part of the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show this week, holding appearances and talks during the four-day convention. WWE Co-President George Barrios will be holding two talks, first one called Leaders in Fan-First Engagement which will take place on Wednesday between 10:50AM and 11:25AM at the Aria Hotel Level 3. The second one is a Fireside Chat also on the same day between 4PM and 4:30PM at the Las Vegas Convention Center Grand Lobby. Jayar Donlan, WWE's Executive Vice President of Advanced Media will be holding a talk titled Peak 2.0: The Future of the Content Industry at the Aria Hotel level 3 on Wednesday between 9AM and 9:40AM. Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon will do two talks. The first one today between 3PM and 3:45PM at the Aria Hotel level 3 titled The Hidden Diversity Dividend and the second one on Wednesday between 12:30PM and 1PM at the Encore Hotel penthouse suite at Tower Suites titled Game Changing Leadership: How to Win Influence as a Woman in Sports Media. Raw Women's champion Becky Lynch will be delivering a talk titled She’s "The Man": Balancing Feminine and Masculine Leadership Styles to Maximize Impact on Wednesday between 1:30PM and 2PM at the Encore Hotel penthouse suite at Tower Suites. Former WWE champion Kofi Kingston will also deliver remarks on Thursday between 11:30AM and 12:30PM at the Venention Hotel level 4 in a talk titled Engaging the Techfluid Generation. And The Bella Twins will also be representing the WWE during the CES with Nikki and Brie appearing at the Encore Hotel at the penthouse suite at Tower Suites giving a talk on Tuesday between 12:30PM and 1PM titled Fearless Female Leadership: Creating Success with Strong Branding and Unshakable Sisterhood.

AEW TO PAY TRIBUTE TO MEMPHIS WRESTLING TOMORROW

- All Elite Wrestling will be paying tribute to the legends of Memphis Wrestling tomorrow during Dynamite at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi. Those being honored are Angelo Poffo, Randy Savage, Lance Russell, Eddie and Tommy Gilbert, Brian Christopher, Austin Idol, Dave Brown, The Rock & Roll Express, and "Handsome" Jimmy Valiant. Doug Gilbert, Shane Russell (Lance's son), Lanny Poffo, The Rock & Roll Express, Austin Idol, Jimmy Valiant, are all scheduled to appear on the live broadcast while Dave Brown will have a guest spot on the commentary table for AEW Dark.


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Wednesday, January 7 2020 Issue #5817
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Nothing to say today, back tomorrow!

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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

CM PUNK TELLS MIZ TO "GO SUCK A BLOOD MONEY COVERED DICK"

- CM Punk responded in a not so kind way to The Miz after Miz took a small dig at Punk on Twitter following the conclusion of last night's WWE Backstage episode on FS1. In a video posted by the WWEonFOX Twitter account, Miz is seen saying that they just finished filming Backstage and felt like "this was the best WWE Backstage episode ever." Young then said that Ember Moon's show from a couple of weeks ago was pretty good too, to which Miz responded, "Oh sorry I didn't change the culture. My bad." The dig was at CM Punk's first words uttered when he came out as a surprise on the show, with Punk closing the show saying that when they think they have all the answers, he changes the culture. CM Punk was quick to respond, although now the tweet has been deleted. Punk replied with, "Go suck a blood money covered dick in Saudi Arabia you f*cking dork." The video from WWEonFOX was also later deleted. You can see the video and Punk's tweet at

NUMBER ONE CONTENDER FOR NXT'S NORTH AMERICAN TITLE TO BE DECIDED TONIGHT

- NXT is back live on USA Network following a two-week break of live broadcasts from Full Sail University. As expected, AEW enjoyed a big victory over NXT last week but things could be much closer tonight. The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament kicks off tonight with two matches scheduled to take place, including The Forgotten Sons vs Imperium and Undisputed Era vs Gallus. The broadcast will be headlined by a fatal four-way match where the winner will be announced the new number one contender for the North American title currently held by Roderick Strong. Those in the match are Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, Damian Priest, and Cameron Grimes.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ SIGNS WITH WWE

- The website SoCalUncensored.com is reporting that Mercedes Martinez has signed a deal with WWE and will be reporting to the WWE Performance Center this month. The 39-year-old Connecticut native has been wrestling for the past 20 years and worked for Shimmer, ROH, wXw, Women Superstars Uncensored, and several indies throughout her career. She also appeared at the AEW All Out pay-per-view in August where she was part of the Casino Battle Royale and in November participated in a taping of AEW Dark. Martinez also has a few WWE matches under her belt. She was part of the 2017 and 2018 Mae Young Classic tournaments, losing in the semi-finals to Shayna Baszler in the first one and then got eliminated in the second round by Meiko Satomura in the 2018 tournament. After the first tournament in 2017, she also had a couple of NXT TV appearances.

RAW PREVIEW

- The first Raw of 2020 did 2,384,000 viewers, down 55,000 viewers from last week's broadcast which was headlined by the Lana and Lashley wedding. Hour one did 2,550,000 viewers, followed by 2,409,000 viewers in the second hour, before falling off to 2,195,000 viewers in the third and final hour. Raw lost 355,000 viewers from the first to the third hour. Raw was #1, #2, and #3 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #8 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

FIVE MATCHES ANNOUNCED FOR DYNAMITE TONIGHT

- AEW's Dynamite returns tonight with a tribute to Memphis Wrestling with a live broadcast from Southaven, Mississippi. Following last week's big Homecoming success, AEW looks to keep momentum going with five matches already announced. Scheduled to take place tonight are Riho vs Kris Statlander for the AEW Women's title, The Lucha Bros vs Cody and Dustin Rhodes, Private Party vs Kenny Omega and Hangman Page, Sammy Guevara vs Christopher Daniels, and Jurassic Express vs Best Friends and Orange Cassidy. Also tonight, Cody will respond to MJF's demands from last week while Jon Moxley will give his answer to AEW World champion Chris Jericho regarding the invitation to join the Inner Circle.


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Thursday, January 9 2020 Issue #5818
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Another good round of Wednesday wrestling yesterday. Glad both shows are back live, they bring out the best of each other and that's the plus side of having competition.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

BACKSTAGE RATING

- WWE Backstage this week did 124,000 viewers, up from the 97,000 viewers the show did on New Year's Eve. This week's guest was The Miz, with Young, Booker, Christian, and Paige back together on the panel. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

DUSTY TAG TEAM CLASSIC TOURNAMENT STARTS

- The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament commenced on yesterday's NXT on USA Network with two matches taking place. In the first tournament match, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel of Imperium defeated Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake, the tag team known as The Forgotten Sons to advance to the semi-finals and then Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of The Undisputed Era defeated Mark Coffey and Wolfgang of Gallus in the second tournament match of the night to book their own spot in the semi-finals. Next week, Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne will take on Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in the first match and the Grizzled Young Veterans take on Kushida and Alex Shelley in the second match. The semi-final matches will take place on the January 22 episode of NXT while there's no date announced for the finals yet.

KUSHIDA AND ALEX SHELLEY REUNITING

- Kushida's mystery partner for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament was revealed to be Alex Shelley. The 36-year-old Shelley has wrestled for ROH, TNA, and NJPW and together with Kushida, the two won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles twice as The Time Splitters. The two formed the tag team in 2012 and wrestled together till 2015, losing their titles to ReDRagon, the team of Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly who are now part of The Undisputed Era. Shelley is a veteran tag team wrestler having also wrestled with Chris Sabin as The Motor City Machine Guns for over five years while in TNA.

BATTLE ROYAL TO DETERMINE NEW NUMBER ONE CONTENDER FOR NXT'S WOMEN'S TITLE

- A number one contender for the NXT Women's title will be decided next week in a big battle royal featuring some of NXT's best females on the roster. The battle royal so far includes, in alphabetical order, Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Io Shirai, Kayden Carter, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Shotzi Blackheart, Vanessa Borne, and Xia Li. The winner of this battle royal will then go ahead to challenge Rhea Ripley at the upcoming NXT Takeover: Portland for the title on Sunday, February 16.

CHELSEA GREEN AND ROBERT STONE DEBUT ON NXT

- A pair of former Impact Wrestling stars made their NXT debut last night on USA Network. Chelsea Green, formerly known as Laurel Van Ness, showed up on the broadcast and beat up Mia Yim and Lacey Lane. She had already wrestled on Raw and Main Event but looks to be placed in NXT for the time being. Joining her was Robert Stone, the man formerly known as Robbie E. Stone came out after Green disposed of the other two and said that Chelsea is the first talent signed to his stable. Stone signed a WWE deal in March 2019 and was appearing at non-televised live events as a manager of different NXT talent. He came from Impact Wrestling where he spent seven years with the promotion. You can watch their debut at .

DIAMOND DALLAS PAGE RETURNS ON DYNAMITE, TO WRESTLE NEXT WEEK

- WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page will be making his AEW in-ring debut next week on Dynamite live from Miami. Page interrupted MJF's segment yesterday on the show as MJF waited for Cody to give him the answers he wanted. Page called MJF a "motormouth jackoff" and talked about how long it's been since he'd been in a ring live on TNT. As DDP continued, MJF called the Butcher, the Blade, and the Bunny out and vowed to send Page to hospice and then he would get one of his daughters in his bed and...bang. That was enough for DDP to hear who attacked MJF but the Butcher and the Blade came to the rescue. They were met with Diamond Cutters but MJF hit a low blow. QT Marshall and Dustin Rhodes came out to help Dallas Page as MJF bolted. AEW then announced that Rhodes, Marshall, and Page would be taking on MJF, the Butcher, and the Blade on next week's show which has a Bash at the Beach theme. Page was sporting his WWE Hall of Fame ring during the promo.


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Friday, January 10 2020 Issue #5819
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Ah, Friday finally! Haven't worked a full week since the last week of November so this week was looooong and almost never-ending LOL!


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

DYNAMITE RATING

- All Elite Wrestling enjoyed a big win in the Wednesday night war, drawing a total of 947,000 viewers, down 20,000 viewers from last week’s show. Dynamite placed #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic with a 0.36 rating, the same as last week. Apart from last week’s episode, it was the most watched since the November 13 broadcast. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

MATT HARDY EXPECTED TO LEAVE WWE IN MARCH

- Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that Matt Hardy is expected to leave WWE once his contract is up this March. The former multi-time tag team champion has pitched to return with his Broken character but it looks like WWE creative shot down the idea. Hardy has started creating new videos lately on his social media and Meltzer says that he is the leading candidate according to speculations to be the leader of the Dark Order, the faction in All Elite Wrestling. The Dark Order angle is said to be climaxing with the reveal of a leader. Hardy has not been used much ever since his brother Jeff suffered a leg injury last year and had to undergo surgery. He recently started popping up on TV but has been used in almost squash matches, losing on every occasion. Matt has often said on Twitter that he had to return to WWE to finish the proper way and the Hardy Boyz return at WrestleMania 33 remains one of the most memorable moments in WWE history.

JOHN MORRISON ON MIZ TV TONIGHT

- The recently re-signed John Morrison will be the special guest on Miz TV tonight on Smackdown on FOX, following last week's surprise appearance on the show. Last week, Morrison opened the door when Cathy Kelley went knocking on The Miz's locker room and told her that Miz had nothing else to say for the night. This came after Miz attacked Kofi Kingston. Miz and Morrison are former tag team partners and title holders but their careers went separate ways in 2011, with Morrison departing the promotion. He wrestled mostly on the indies and then went to Lucha Underground and Impact Wrestling. This will be Morrison's first time in a WWE ring on television since his departure in 2011.

NXT RATING

- Despite getting a nice bump from last week’s Best Of episode, NXT finished second in the ratings, getting only 721,000 viewers, up 173,000 viewers from last week’s broadcast. The show however finished 55th in the all-important 18-49 demographic in the cable chart with only a 0.19 rating. The difference between the two shows was a total of 226,000 viewers, a big gap considering what numbers NXT was pulling lately. This was the least-watched episode of NXT – apart from last week’s Best Of episode – since October 30. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

LYNCH DENIES STORY OF NEW $1 MILLION A YEAR DEAL

- WWE Raw Women's champion Becky Lynch has denied the story making the rounds that she has signed a new, five-year deal with WWE worth $1 million per year. Lynch, who is the most popular female wrestler on the roster at the moment, used Twitter to shoot down the report, writing, "Report not true. Haven’t signed anything new in years. Deal coming up soon." Ever since she adopted "The Man" moniker in late 2018, Lynch has skyrocketed in WWE popularity, winning the Royal Rumble last year and then won the main event of WrestleMania, becoming the first female to carry the both Raw and Smackdown titles. The news of her contract expiring was used in the storyline with Asuka late last month on Monday Night Raw.

USA NETWORK RENEWS STRAIGHT UP STEVE AUSTIN FOR SEASON TWO

- On January 8, USA Network announced that it has renewed Straight Up Steve Austin for a second season, the TV show hosted by WWE Hall of Famer Stone Cold Steve Austin which features celebrity interviews, adventures, and good, old-fashioned fun. The first season saw Austin cross the country to swap stories with a wide range of notable celebrities, including singer and actor Trace Adkins, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr., comedian Gabriel Iglesias, WWE Superstar Becky Lynch, NFL Quarterback Baker Mayfield, actor and retired United States Marine Corps Reserve officer Rob Riggle, and star of Impractical Jokers, Sal Vulcano. Season 2 will consist of eight half-hour episodes, with guests still to be announced. It will be produced by Line by Line Media, with Steve Austin and Dave Barsky (Dirty Jobs) as executive producers.


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Sunday, January 12 2020 Issue #5820
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

That was a very solid NXT UK Takeover. Some hard-hitting matches. Great show if you haven't seen it with an awesome ending.

========================================================


//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

IMPACT HARD TO KILL ON PAY-PER-VIEW TONIGHT

- Live from the Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas, Impact Wrestling presents Hard To Kill on pay-per-view. The full card is as follows: Sami Callihan vs Tessa Blanchard in an intergender match for the Impact World title; Taya Valkyrie vs Jordynne Grace vs ODB in a three-way match for the Knockouts title; Ace Austin vs Trey Miguel for the X Division title; The North vs Rich Swann and Willie Mack for the Impact Tag Team titles; Eddie Edwards vs Michael Elgin for the Call Your Shot trophy; Brian Cage vs Rob Van Dam; Moose vs Rhino; Ken Shamrock vs Madman Fulton. Apart from airing on pay-per-view, Hard To Kill will also be available on FITE.TV for non-US orders at a price of $19.99.

TESSA BLANCHARD TWEETS BACKFIRES BIG TIME AS FORMER CO-WORKERS EXPOSE HER

- A tweet by Impact star Tessa Blanchard opened the floodgates, and not in the good way, after Blanchard wrote, "Hey women, try supporting one another. Cool things happen." A bunch of former co-workers hit back at Blanchard, who apparently wasn't the model citizen on her rise to the top. Today, she headlines the Hard to Kill pay-per-view with Sami Callihan for the Impact World title in an intergender match. NXT star Chelsea Green was the first to call her out on the tweet. "You’ve consistently put down, bullied, and belittled countless female coworkers, including me. Is that support?” Blanchard, to her credit, replied, saying that she's never been anything but kind to Green during her time working together. She told Green that she has zero merit in her comments and she's not saying that she's been a saint either and made silly decisions as well. "Instead putting me down here for a little clout...you’ve got my #,” Blanchard added. Former Impact wrestler Allysin Kay, who wrestled under the name of Sienna, also accused Blanchard of doing nasty things. "Remember when you spat in a black woman’s face and called her the N-word in Japan? Was that you ‘supporting women’? The AUDACITY of this tweet.” Blanchard once again replied to the tweet, flatly denying Kay's statement. "That’s my statement and the most attention I’ll give it because of how actually ridiculous it is,” she answered. Kay wasn't done yet though, explaining that different people tried to deal with Blanchard behind the scenes for years and she never changed. "Denying things even happened shows you haven’t grown. So it was time for that ass to get exposed. I guarantee you she will treat everyone w/ respect now, bc people are watching that much closer." But the individual who was on the receiving end of that spit, La Rosa Negra, jumped in to thank both Kay and Green for calling out Blanchard. She said that it happened in Japan in 2017 and if Tessa doesn't remember it happening, she certainly does. "I am not a mean girl with any coworkers around the world," La Rosa Negra wrote. Fellow wrestler Shanna jumped in La Rosa Negra's defense as well, saying that Blanchard did more nasty stuff in Japan. "Never forget. Practice what you preach sweetheart. I standby @LaAbusadoradePR, she's a fun loving person who would never disrespect anyone,” she wrote. Blanchard did not address these tweets. NXT UK's Isla Dawn also called out Blanchard's bluff. “As someone who experienced your bullying firsthand, received regular verbal abuse, was spat on, had rumours spread about me, dealt with multiple attempts by you to blacklist me from other companies, (plus more), I just pray you now follow your own advice,” she wrote. And indie star Priscilla Kelly advised Blanchard to delete the tweet because what she said and what she is are completely different. "Remember publicly putting me down on Twitter last year for something that didn’t involve you whatsoever, then continuing to drag my name to other people for it?” Kelly was a bit controversial last year when she put a “bloody tampon” from her…well, you know…and then shoved it in her opponent’s mouth.

NXT UK TAKEOVER: BLACKPOOL II RESULTS

- Here are the results from today's NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II which took place from the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool, England, exclusively on the WWE Network. Eddie Dennis defeated Trent Seven; Kay Lee Ray defeated Toni Storm and Piper Niven in a triple threat match to retain the NXT UK Women's title; Tyler Bate defeated Jordan Devlin; Gallus defeated Imperium, Grizzled Young Veterans, and Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in a fatal four-way tag team ladder match to retain the NXT UK Tag Team titles; Walter defeated Joe Coffey to retain the WWE United Kingdom title.

THE UNDISPUTED ERA ATTACK IMPERIUM AT NXT UK TAKEOVER

- The Undisputed Era ran riot at the end of NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II and destroyed Imperium, including their leader and WWE United Kingdom champion Walter. Walter had just defeated Joe Coffey in a near 30-minute match and was celebrating with the rest of his faction before Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong ran through the crowd to attack the NXT UK group. The loud crowd went absolutely bonkers at the sight of The Undisputed Era and chanted "NXT! NXT! NXT!" as Cole and company destroyed Walter, Barthel, Aichner, and Wolfe. Imperium and The Undisputed Era will be taking on each other in an eight-man tag match at the upcoming Worlds Collide WWE Network special on the eve of the Royal Rumble in Houston, Texas. Worlds Collide will pit NXT vs NXT UK stars, replacing Takeover during the Rumble weekend.

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA HONORS BROCK LESNAR

- The University of Minnesota Gopher Wrestling honored the current WWE champion Brock Lesnar yesterday, celebrating the 20th anniversary of Lesnar winning the NCAA championship. The presentation aired live on the Big Ten Network during the Big Ten Wrestling Championships collegiate competition. "Bigger than life...bigger than most," the commentator said as several photos of Lesnar in the WWE and UFC flashed on the screen. Lesnar then came out jogging through some pyro, all smiles, as fans gave him a standing ovation. He was then presented a big canvas print from his NCAA final win. After the presentation was over, the mascot came out with a big WWE title cardboard cut out and gave it to Brock as the two posed together for fans in attendance. You can see it at .

NBC PICKS UP NEW COMEDY SERIES BASED ON THE ROCK'S FORMATIVE YEARS

- NBC has ordered an 11-episode comedy show titled Young Rock, inspired by the life of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and featuring Johnson himself. The show is described as chronicling his “formative years.” Johnson will appear in every episode of the single-camera comedy which will be co-written by former Fresh Off the Boat showrunner Nahnatchka Khan and her longtime collaborator Jeff Chiang. Both will exec produce alongside Johnson and his Seven Bucks Productions' Dany Garcia, Hiram Garcia, Brian Gewirtz and Jennifer Carreras. A premiere date for the series has not yet been revealed although industry insiders believe it will be for the 2020-21 broadcast season.

SMACKDOWN RATING

- Smackdown did 2,502,000 viewers this week on FOX, off hours 2,679,000 viewers in the first hour and 2,326,000 viewers in the second hour. That was up 84,000 viewers from last week's show, a show which was surpassed by Raw for the first time since October. Smackdown tied the number one spot in the 18-49 demo with 0.8 and 0.7 rating but only beat The CW in viewership during those two hours. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE TRYING TO RENAME CITY IN KENTUCKY AFTER KING CORBIN

- In a marketing stunt, WWE is trying to rename the southern Kentucky city of Corbin to King Corbin according to WKYT News. WWE will be in town today at the Corbin Arena for a non-televised live event and WWE reps as well as a camera crew will be in front of the Colonel Sanders statue in downtown Corbin in the afternoon collecting signatures for a petition for the name change. Anyone who shows up will also get a free ticket to the house show later in the day. The event is being marketed as the WWE New Years Revolution Supershow and tons of tickets remain available for the event, hence the handing out of free tickets.

MORE NAMES ADDED TO THE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH

- More names have been added to the Royal Rumble match, with five added to the men's match. The new participants are Dolph Ziggler, King Corbin, Elias, and Otis and Tucker of Heavy Machinery. These five bring a total number of 13 Superstars so far in the match, joining Brock Lesnar who will be the first entrant, Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Erick Rowan, Drew McIntyre, and Ricochet. Roman Reigns and King Corbin will also have a match during the show, with the two going against each other prior to the Rumble match. Meanwhile, the women's Royal Rumble match has only three participants confirmed so far with Charlotte Flair, Nikki Cross, and Alexa Bliss.


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Monday, January 13 2020 Issue #5821
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Not sure how I feel about Tessa winning the Impact World title. There's a reason why there's a men's and a women's title. You won't see a man going for the women's title. Yeah, there's the shock value and it got people talking but long term, not sure if it was a great booking idea.


========================================================


//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

HARD TO KILL PPV RESULTS

- Here are the results from last night’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view which took place from The Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas. Ken Shamrock defeated Madman Fulton; Ace Austin defeated Trey Miguel to retain the X Division title; Taya Valkyrie defeated Jordynne Grace and ODB in a triple threat match to retain the Impact Knockouts title; Rob Van Dam defeated Daga; Eddie Edwards defeated Michael Elgin; Moose defeated Rhino; The North defeated Rich Swann and Willie Mack to retain the Impact Tag Team titles; Tessa Blanchard defeated Sami Callihan to win the Impact World title.

TESSA BLANCHARD DELIVERS SPEECH AFTER HISTORIC WIN, SAYS NO ONE IS PERFECT

- Tessa Blanchard wrote her name in the pro wrestling history books last night at the Hard To Kill pay-per-view becoming the first woman to win a promotion’s world title. She defeated Sami Callihan in the intergender main event, wrapping up a year-long storyline that saw Blanchard rise to the top. Her weekend wasn’t all going great though as after a tweet meant to unite the females in the wrestling community, several of her former co-workers fired back, exposing her as a bully and a racist, statements which Blanchard denied on social media when replying to her accusers. But her victory speech last night after Hard To Kill went off the air somewhat addressed those rumors, saying that she hasn’t been perfect. “Nobody in this life is perfect. We’re all human,” Blanchard said. “It doesn’t matter what you call me. I’ve got one of the strongest minds that I’ve ever known. So whenever you come for me, you come for all these people.” Blanchard, the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, wrapped up her speech by telling fans that she is now the standard bearer of the promotion. “Man or woman…pound for pound…I am one of the best in the world, and I am now your world champion.” You can see her speech at .

BRIAN CAGE HEADING TO ALL ELITE WRESTLING

- Multiple industry insiders are reporting that Impact's Brian Cage has signed a deal with All Elite Wrestling. The news was originally broken by SoCalUncensored.com. Cage was supposed to wrestle Rob Van Dam yesterday at Hard To Kill but an injury prevented him from doing too much physical stuff. Van Dam then ended up wrestling Daga instead. The 35-year-old Cage worked for Impact between 2012 and 2014 and then returned in 2018 where he won the Impact World title. Cage was also supposed to take part at the Double or Nothing Casino Battle Royale back in May but his appearance was pulled due to some creative differences between AEW and Impact Wrestling who opted not to have their world champion competing in a battle royal. Cage's wife, Mellissa Santos, refuted the online reports that her husband is now part of AEW. On Twitter, Santos wrote, "Really?? How can you confirm something that isn't true???? I'm his wife and I can CONFIRM, he hasn't signed on any dotted line."

NEXT IMPACT PPV REBELLION TO TAKE PLACE IN NEW YORK CITY

- The next Impact Wrestling pay-per-view, Rebellion, will be taking place in New York, New York in April, although the exact date was not revealed yet. The show will be held at Terminal 5, a 3,000-seater music venue located 610 West 56th Street, close to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. This is the second time that Impact will hold Rebellion, a new pay-per-view which made its debut last year in Toronto at The Rebel Complex.

PAIGE JOKES ABOUT ENTERING MEN'S RUMBLE MATCH AMID RETURN RUMORS

- There have been several rumors lately that just like Edge, Paige will be soon stepping back in the ring and be part of the women's Royal Rumble match later this month. Paige also recently signed a new WWE deal, giving more fuel to those rumors. Taking to Twitter to address these rumors, Paige joked that she is indeed coming back to the ring at the Royal Rumble. "I’m entering myself into the men’s and being number 2 and taking that bish to suplex city then go on to win the whole thing," she wrote, adding a funny GIF of one of her entrances. Then, to make matters worse for her, Triple H also talked about the rumors of both Edge and Paige returning, saying it's solely a medical decision and if their medical experts say that they believe this person has done whatever needs to be done to get in shape and there's no risk, then they allow them to return. "When you're talking about people as talented as Edge and Paige, who wouldn't want them to return? I'm a fan just like everyone else. Yeah, we'd love to see them step back in the ring. More importantly than that though, I'd love to see them live a long healthy life," Triple H said. The former NXT and Divas champion was not amused though. "Even my boss jokes about me.. no wonder you guys still do it too," she wrote.

THE REVIVAL APPLY FOR TRADEMARK POSSIBLY OF NEW TAG TEAM NAME

- Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder have filed for the trademark of Shatter Machine, presumable the name of their tag team should they depart the WWE as they are believed to do so in a few months. The trademark, filed on January 8 under the entertainment and merchandise section of goods and services, is listed under their real name of Daniel Wheeler and David Harwood. The attorney on record is Michael E. Dockins from Toledo, Ohio, the same attorney who filed several trademarks for Cody Rhodes last year as well as Charlotte Flair. Dawson and Wilder are expected to be departing WWE in a few months after their contract runs out. While WWE has been aggressively trying to lock them in for another deal, the former tag team champions seem to be exploring their options.

SIX-MAN "FISTFIGHT" HEADLINES RAW TONIGHT

- Four matches have been announced for Monday Night Raw tonight as the show goes head-to-head against the NCAA football game which is expected to draw monster ratings on ESPN. The four matches are Rusev vs Bobby Lashley, Aleister Black vs Buddy Murphy, Randy Orton vs AJ Styles, and a fistfight involving Big Show, Samoa Joe, and Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins and the Authors of Pain. Apart from these four matches, Brock Lesnar will also be in the house, his second appearance in a row this year as the road to the Royal Rumble continues.


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Tuesday, January 14 2020 Issue #5822
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

The best part of Monday Night Raw, hands down, was the Brock / R-Truth segment. I laughed my ass off and found it very entertaining. Truth is gold, and Brock was pretty funny too. I was hoping Brock wouldn't pin him for the 24/7 title though because if that happened...that's another title gone from WWE television! LOL!


========================================================


//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

NIKKI AND BRIE BELLA GET IN AN ICE TUB WITH KEVIN HART ON A NEW COLD AS BALLS EPISODE

- Nikki and Brie Bella are featured on this week's episode of Cold As Balls from Kevin Hart's Laugh Out Loud channel. The twins get in an ice tub with Hart to dish on everything from dealing with cattiness backstage to getting all the women in the WWE to band together and start an evolution towards making wrestling better for women. Nikki also opens up about her main event match with Ronda Rousey at Evolution. Episode highlights also include chatting about getting their start, Hart's relationship with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, their theme songs, the first ring names that were chosen for them, their grandfather who didn't want them to wrestle, and more. You can see the episode at .

WWE 24 RETURNS WITH WRESTLEMANIA NEW YORK EPISODE

- The next episode of the highly-rated WWE 24 will be titled WrestleMania New York and will focus on the behind-the-scenes activity leading up to last year's WrestleMania, technically held in New Jersey. This episode will air immediately following the conclusion of the 2020 Royal Rumble on the WWE Network on Sunday, January 26. WWE 24: WrestleMania New York is the the 24th episode of the series and the first one for the new year. Usually WWE produces four or five episodes of WWE 24 per year although last year they had six in total, focusing on WrestleMania 34, Becky Lynch, Ronda Rousey, Batista, Kofi Kingston, and Trish Stratus. The latest episode on Trish made its debut on December 1. Ever since the show made its debut in 2015, the look back at the previous year's WrestleMania has always aired in late January. This is the sixth one focusing on WrestleMania.

THE MIZ TO HOST NEW USA NETWORK COMPETITION CANNONBALL

- TheWrap.com is reporting that WWE Superstar The Miz will be hosting USA Network's upcoming competition series titled Cannonball. He will be flanked by co-hosts Rosci Diaz and sideline reporter Simon Gibson. The 10-episode Cannonball will premiere on USA in the summer and will feature contestants from across America who face off in the “biggest, wettest, slippery-est water sports competition ever created.” Cannonball is produced by ITV America’s ITV Entertainment, based on the original format by ITV Studios Netherlands. The Miz and his wife Maryse have been a big hit on the cable channel with their Miz & Mrs show, pulling in decent numbers for the network. Season two will hit TV screens later this month.

DAVE BAUTISTA JOINS THE APPLE TV+ SERIES SEE FOR SEASON TWO

- Soon-to-be WWE Hall of Famer Dave Bautista has joined the cast of See, Apple TV+'s drama series. Bautista will start with season two of the show, which is created by Steven Knight and Francis Lawrence. The series is set in the distant future, where the human race has lost the sense of sight, and society is left to find new ways to interact, build, hunt, and survive. Meanwhile, the wife of blind warrior and chieftain Baba Voss gives birth to a set of twins. To his tribe's amazement, the twins can see. Voss is played by Jason Momoa and Bautista will be joined by Alfre Woodard, Hera Hilmar, Sylvia Hoeks, and Christian Carmago who will all be returning for season two. Bautista's involvement in See is his first major television gig as he previously only did movies. The former WWE champion will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this April during WrestleMania week in Tampa.

JON MOXLEY TO FACE JOSH BARNETT AT BLOODSPORT III

- While AEW has no shows planned during WrestleMania weekend, IWGP United States champion Jon Moxley will be in Tampa during the weekend, and not just accompanying his wife Renee Young. Moxley will be involved in a match against former UFC champ Josh Barnett as part of his Bloodsport III show, held at The Cuban Club on Thursday, April 2, in conjunction with Game Changer Wrestling. The former WWE champion was supposed to wrestle Barnett in September last year and main event Bloodsport II but his MRSA infection got in the way. Eventually he had to pull out just like he did for All Out. Bloodsport rules involve matches ending in either a knockout or submission, so there's no pinfalls as a means of win. The ring is also without ropes or turnbuckles, giving the feeling of a proper fight.


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Wednesday, January 15 2020 Issue #5823
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Congratulations to AEW for their new TV deal with TNT. It's great for them, great for the wrestling business, great for the fans, and great for wrestlers too.


========================================================


//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

WARNERMEDIA EXTENDS AEW DEAL THROUGH 2023 AND ADDS NEW SHOW

- WarnerMedia today announced that it has expanded its relationship with All Elite Wrestling, extending its deal through 2023 in addition to also green lighting another show. "When Tony Khan first shared with me his idea of starting a new wrestling league, I was impressed by his audacity to go up against a contender that has been the only game in town for twenty years, and ultimately believed that together we could bring his vision for a new, authentic, gritty product to bear,” says Kevin Reilly, chief content officer, HBO Max, president, TNT, TBS, and truTV. “The fans have spoken and after only three months, we have seen AEW shake up the wrestling world and this will only continue as we build upon this momentum.” TNT has been super happy with AEW's ratings, constantly delivering nearly 1 million viewers every week and placing in the top 10 among the 18-49 demographic. "When we launched AEW one year ago, we wanted to start a revolution that would disrupt the wrestling business, but everyone said that it would take a strong weekly television partner to make AEW real in the eyes of everyone – above all, the fans,” said Tony Khan, president and CEO of AEW. “What virtually no one realized at the time was Kevin Reilly and TNT were committed to this very same movement from day one, and their belief in us made it possible for AEW to think and act big from the start. Here we are, only three months into Wednesday Night Dynamite, and now we’ve been extended through 2023! We’re now making the ultimate statement that the team of AEW and TNT is here to stay and to bring fans more of the great wrestling that the fans demand and deserve.” No details have been announced yet for the new show.

AEW DEAL WITH TNT WORTH $175 MILLION OVER FOUR YEARS

- Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that WarnerMedia is paying AEW approximately $45 million per year for the new four-year television deal that will keep Dynamite on TNT through 2023. The deal is worth $175 million in total and WarnerMedia has the option to extend in 2024 for more money if they want to eventually keep the show. Meltzer said that this deal will make AEW profitable in 2020 and beyond. As part of the extended deal, AEW will get another hour on television sometime this year although no date has been announced yet. The third hour is likely to be also taped on Wednesdays, making it a long day of television considering AEW also tapes Dark for YouTube after Dynamite wraps up filming.

BASH AT THE BEACH THEMED EPISODE OF DYNAMITE TONIGHT

- Tonight's Dynamite on TNT is another PPV-worthy loaded card, with five solid matches for the Bash at the Beach themed episode of the show. Scheduled for the show live from Miami tonight are Kris Statlander and Hiroku Shida vs Awesome Kong and Mel, PAC vs Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara vs Jon Moxley, MJF, The Butcher, and The Blade vs Diamond Dallas Page, QT Marshall, and Dustin Rhodes, and a #1 contenders match for the AEW Tag Team titles featuring The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page, Ortiz and Santana, and Best Friends. The show will take place from the Watsco Center and will carry the name of the former WCW pay-per-view, a name which Cody Rhodes now has the rights for.

TRIPLE H PUBLICLY APOLOGIZES TO PAIGE AFTER "TERRIBLE JOKE"

- Triple H, WWE's Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative, has publicly apologized to Paige for a "terrible joke" he made last week while speaking to the media prior to the NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool II event. Triple H was asked about the rumors of Edge and Paige returning to the ring and he said that he would like for them to live a healthy life rather that come back and something happens again, adding that Edge has kids and Paige "probably has some she doesn't know of." The joke didn't go down well with the former NXT and Divas champion who in the past revealed she cannot have kids. Today, Triple H issued a public apology on Twitter, writing, "I’ve reached out to @RealPaigeWWE to apologize. I made a terrible joke and I’m sorry if it offended her or anyone else." Speaking to Sportskeeda, Paige said she was surprised by what Triple H said and she was confused why he would make such a joke. "Obviously I was a little bit perplexed...a little bit taken aback because he's someone that I truly look up to and he's always been very respectful, so I feel like he got caught up maybe in a joke that I just don't think was appropriate to joke about," Paige said. "I don't know...I feel like it's something that I don't need to continually keep talking about because I feel like people have done a pretty good job of that." Paige confirmed that Triple H did reach out to her and that they're going to be talking about some things moving forward. Nikki Bella also addressed the bad taste joke on her Twitter, saying that "change in a company starts from the top" and their leaders help set the example. "For us women we need all the help we can get. Help with respect from our co workers and fans. We are all one." Renee Young also jumped to Paige's defense who said that Paige has been to hell and back "but still some people wanna make jokes." Young then called for real change.

NXT PREVIEW

- Four matches have been announced for tonight's NXT on USA Network. Fresh off a sizable ratings defeat last week, NXT is looking to get back on track after two weeks of taped shows somewhat derailed the momentum. The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament matches tonight will feature Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne vs Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan while Kushida and Alex Shelley battle the Grizzled Young Veterans. Lio Rush, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Tyler Breeze will be in a triple threat match with the winner advancing to Worlds Collide in the planned fatal 4-Way match for the NXT Cruiserweight title. A battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Women's title will also take place while the WWE.COM preview also suggests the fallout from The Undisputed Era's attack on Imperium at NXT UK Takeover.

MERCEDES MARTINEZ ADDED TO NXT WOMEN'S BATTLE ROYAL

- The recently signed Mercedes Martinez is going straight into the spotlight tonight on NXT as she was announced on WWE Backstage last night as being part of the battle royal to crown the new number one contender for the NXT Women's title. Other competitors set for tonight's battle royal include Bianca Belair, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Dakota Kai, Io Shirai, Kayden Carter, Mia Yim, Santana Garrett, Shotzi Blackheart, Vanessa Borne, and Xia Li. It's not known if any others will be added by the time the show goes on the air. Whoever wins the match will face Rhea Ripley at NXT Takeover: Portland next month. Martinez is joined by Anthony Francis, Emily Andzulis, Jake Atlas, Sidney Bateman, and Zechariah Smith as the latest WWE Performance Center trainees.

RAW PREVIEW

- As expected, Monday Night Raw got a serious beatdown in the ratings due to the college football game on ESPN, with Raw only getting 2,030,000 viewers, down 354,000 viewers from last week. This was the least-watched live Raw in modern-day history. Hour one started with 2,218,000 viewers, followed by 2,059,000 viewers in the second hour, and then 1,814,000 viewers in the third and final hour. Just as a comparison, the football on ESPN did a gigantic 25 million viewers. Raw was #9, #10, and #13 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #15 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

ELIAS SIGNS NEW WWE DEAL

- WWE Superstar Elias has signed a new multi-year deal with WWE. The news was reported yesterday during WWE Backstage. The 32-year-old has been working for WWE since 2014, first appearing in NXT under the name of Elias Samson. In April 2017, he was moved to the main roster where was was filmed multiple times walking through the crowd with his guitar during matches and playing the guitar in the background during different backstage segments. In July of that year, WWE dropped the Samson part from his name and he has been known as just Elias ever since. The Pittsburgh native has been wrestling professionally since 2008 and worked for various independent promotions before signing with WWE.

WWE SUPERSTARS IN TRANSFORMATIONAL SERIES FIGHT LIKE A GIRL REVEALED

- Quibi and WWE today announced the WWE Superstars participating in the transformational series Fight Like a Girl. Leading individual episodes of the upcoming series are WWE Superstars Sasha Banks, Brie Bella, Nikki Bella, Alexa Bliss, Sonya Deville, Charlotte Flair, Nia Jax, Becky Lynch and Natalya. In each episode of Fight Like a Girl, Stephanie McMahon pairs a WWE Superstar with a young woman struggling with a personal issue that has been holding her back. The WWE Superstars draw from their own life experiences to help their trainees overcome obstacles and become tougher, stronger and healthier versions of their former selves inside and out. “This strong cast of Superstars are leaders and role models who each have personal stories of challenge, perseverance and triumph,” said Stephanie McMahon, WWE Chief Brand Officer. “We are thrilled to have them on board to help young women find both their inner and outer strength and overcome adversity in their lives.” Shot at the world-famous WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, each episode features a stunning transformation and heart-pounding reveal as the women change their lives forever. Produced by WWE Studios and Critical Content, the Executive Producers are Stephanie McMahon, Susan Levison and Ben Zierten for WWE Studios, and Tom Forman, Jenny Daly and Jon Beyer for Critical Content.


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Thursday, January 16 2020 Issue #5824
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Sad news about the death of Rocky Johnson. Condolences to Dwayne Johnson and his whole family. Losing a parent is not easy, you never really get over it.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
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ROCKY JOHNSON PASSES AWAY AT AGE 75

- Rocky Johnson, the father of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, passed away last night in Lutz, Florida at the age of 75. Johnson began his wrestling career in 1965 and wrestled mostly for the National Wrestling Alliance during his career. In 1982, he jumped to the World Wrestling Federation where he feuded with the likes of Adrian Adonis, Greg Valentine, Don Muraco, and others. He then started tag teaming with Tony Atlas, winning the Tag Team titles once from the Wild Samoans in 1983. Johnson wrestled for WWE till 1985. After his retirement in 1991, Johnson started training his son and took a trainer role with WWE at Ohio Valley Wrestling but that assignment did not last long and was removed a few months later. In 2008, WWE inducted him into its Hall of Fame with Dwayne Johnson doing the honors for his father. Last year he published his autobiography Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story, with his son writing the foreword. Rocky was married to Una but divorced in 1978 and married his second wife Ata just a few days later. Ata is the daughter of High Chief Peter Maivia and the mother of Dwayne. He divorced from his second wife in 2003 and later married speech pathologist Sheila to who he was married to until his death. Cauliflower Alley Club’s Brian Blair noted that Johnson had been ill over the last couple of weeks but did not specify what he had. No cause of death has been released.

MAJOR NEWS OUTLETS COVER THE DEATH OF ROCKY JOHNSON

- The death of Rocky Johnson made headlines around the world, with major news outlets covering the story. The New York Times, CNN, Fox News, ESPN, Toronto Star, The Guardian, Sky News, The Sun, TGCom, Spiegel, CBC, The New Zealand Herald, TMZ, Yahoo! News, Daily Mirror and tons of other stations, newspapers, and online outlets all carrying the story. WWE.COM posted a story about the death of Johnson along with some photos and videos from his career. Several within the wrestling community such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Booker T, Mick Foley, William Regal, Triple H, Natalya, Jim Ross, Matt Hardy, Taz, Tommy Dreamer, Vince McMahon and many others tweeted their condolences to the family and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. The NWA Twitter account also posted a tribute to Johnson. NXT started the night with a tribute graphic for Johnson and a wider tribute is also expected on Smackdown and Raw. The Rock has yet to publicly address the loss of his father.

MSG ADVERTISING DX REUNION FOR MARCH 22 WWE EVENT

- Madison Square Garden is advertising a DX reunion for WWE's return to the arena on March 22. This will be the first time that Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg, and X-Pac have appeared together at the world's most famous arena in over a decade. The show, set for a 3PM start time, has two matches announced so far including Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, and The Big Show vs Seth Rollins and The Authors of Pain, and Becky Lynch vs Asuka for the Raw Women's title. This will be a Raw branded show. VIP Experience packages including ringside seats and meet and greets are available now, with the pre-sale ending tonight at 11:59PM ET. Use code WWEMSG at Ticketmaster.com to purchase tickets.

WORLDS COLLIDE CARD CONTINUES TO TAKE SHAPE

- The Worlds Collide special continued to take shape with a couple of more matches added to the card. As previously reported, the NXT Cruiserweight title will be on the line in a fatal four-way match with champ Angel Garza defending against Isaiah "Swerve" Scott and two from NXT UK. Qualifying matches to determine who will be the other two entrants will take place on next week's NXT UK featuring Jordan Devlin vs Liger and Travis Banks vs Brian Kendrick. Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano will be teaming up again to reform DIY for one night as they take on Moustache Mountain, the team of Trent Seven and Tyler Bate. The other matches announced so far are Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov, Rhea Ripley vs Toni Storm for the NXT Women's title, and an eight-man tag team match featuring The Undisputed Era vs Emporium. Worlds Collide takes place on January 25 from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas on the eve of the Royal Rumble.

KACY CATANZARO AND SHAYNA BASZLER RETURN ON NXT

- Kacy Catanzaro and Shayna Baszler were the two surprise entrants during last night's women's battle royal on NXT. Catanzaro has been away from NXT for quite a few months and in September it was reported that she has departed WWE. Her boyfriend, WWE Superstar Ricochet, dismissed the rumors and said that she's still with the company. The 29-year-old New Jersey native who achieved fame during the American Ninja Warrior series, was also suffering from a back injury. Her last match was against Io Shirai in mid-July during an non-televised NXT live event. Baszler also returned for the first time since losing the NXT Women's title to Rhea Ripley on the December 18 episode of NXT on USA Network. The only two-time NXT Women's champion took a few weeks off and was looking the favorite to win the battle royal but she was surprisingly eliminated by newcomer Shotzi Blackheart. The battle royal was eventually won by Bianca Belair. Io Shirai was the other person in the final two. Belair will now take on either Ripley or Storm at the NXT Takeover: Portland event in February.

DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL MATCHES SET

- The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament semi-final matches will take place next week on NXT with two NXT teams and two NXT UK teams remaining. Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish of The Undisputed Era will take on The Grizzled Young Veterans team of Zack Gibson and James Drake while the second match will pit Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne taking on Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner of Imperium. Yesterday, Riddle and Dunne beat Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster and Gibson and Drake beat Shelley and Kushida to advance to the tournament. No date has been revealed for the final.

WWE BACKSTAGE RATING

- This week's episode of WWE Backstage with The Usos as special guests did just 84,000 viewers, down 40,000 viewers from last week's show. Xavier Woods and Ember Moon were on the panel while former WWE creative writer Freddie Prinze Jr was on the promo class segment. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

TAZ JOINS ALL ELITE WRESTLING

- Former Smackdown and Impact commentator Taz has joined the AEW broadcast team, officially signing a multi-year deal. The contract was signed yesterday in Miami at the Bash at the Beach themed episode of Dynamite in the presence of Cody Rhodes and Chris Harrington, AEW's Vice President of Business Strategy. "Well, looks like I've joined a revolution...again," Taz said after signing his new deal. Taz made his first AEW appearance back in October when the company worked Philadelphia and the former ECW champion was brought in to do commentary for the AEW Dark episode. He also did commentary for the January 1 episode of Dynamite from Jacksonville. On Twitter, Taz said that he's beyond proud to be on the awesome team of driven and talented people at AEW. He also said that the Taz Show will be "on hold for quite some time" and thanked his fans for supporting him.

NUMBER ONE CONTENDER FOR AEW WORLD TITLE TO BE DECIDED NEXT WEEK

- A number one contender for AEW's World title will be decided next week on a cruise ship as Dynamite takes place during the Chris Jericho Rock'n'Wrestling Rager cruise. Former WWE champion Jon Moxley, who overcame Sami Guevara last night on Dynamite, will be taking on Pac, who himself had to go through Darby Allin last night, with the winner going to face Chris Jericho at the upcoming AEW pay-per-view Revolution, taking place in February. The Moxley vs Pac encounter will be a rematch from October with the two going to a time-limit draw the first time around on Dynamite.

AEW DARK MOVING TO TNT THIS YEAR

- Tony Maglio of TheWrap.com is reporting that AEW Dark will be moving to TNT this year. The news was confirmed by Turner President Kevin Reilly, who spoke exclusively to the website after his executive session at the Television Critics Association press tour. AEW Dark currently airs on YouTube every Tuesday night and is taped after Dynamite and airs the following week. Reilly said that the show might be rebranded and renamed but will be a weekly series on TNT, although he admitted that it might not have 52 episodes per year. “We’re going to embellish and put some additional material, kind of behind-the-scenes, kind of docu-follow stuff, if you will, about the athletes and the stories,” Reilly said. “We think that’s going to end up being a really good, robust, different kind of show.” Reilly said that some portions of Dark might still make it on YouTube to "build that bridge" but the whole show will not be ending up there as it is right now.


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Friday, January 17 2020 Issue #5825
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Happy weekend folks! Back tomorrow.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

ROB VAN DAM'S SEX CELEBRATION VIDEO GETS IMPACT BOOTED OFF TWITCH

- Rob Van Dam's "sex celebration" video from Impact Wrestling got the company banned from Twitch. The video shows Van Dam with his two very scantily clad girlfriends having way too much fun. "A lot of you guys think I was at my best way back in ECW," RVD says as his girlfriend Katie Forbes and their other friend Jennifer continued to grind on him. "What's ECW," Jennifer asks. "They weren't even born yet," Van Dam tells the camera! The video was also removed from YouTube, with the listing now set to private. The comments below the video were also a hilarious read. But Twitch did not appreciate the video and with strict rules against pornography or anything that resembles pornography, the company banned the Impact account. Accessing twitch.tv/impactwrestling, the page gives you a "Sorry. Unless you’ve got a time machine, that content is unavailable" error. Impact's weekly Behind The Lights Twitch show this week was also canceled and Impact saw the funny side of the whole ordeal, writing on Twitter, "There will be no edition of Behind the Lights this week for...fairly obvious reasons," while adding a laughing emoji.

IMPACT USING TNA NAME FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY DURING MANIA WEEKEND

- Impact Wrestling will be using the TNA name for one night only during WrestleMania week for a show part of WrestleCon. The TNA show will be taking place on Friday, April 3 at The Ritz Ybor City in Tampa starting at 7PM ET. Tickets for this show will be on sale on Monday, January 20 at Noon ET. For those who are unable to attend the live event, it will also be broadcast on FITE TV for a fee. The Friday night show will be going head-to-head with the live Smackdown and many other shows that will be held during that weekend. The company used the TNA: Total Nonstop Action name from its inception in 2004 till March 2017.

DYNAMITE RATING

- AEW enjoyed another big win in the ratings on Wednesday night as Dynamite did 940,000 viewers for the Bash at the Beach themed episode, down just 7,000 viewers from last week’s episode. Dynamite did 0.38 in the 18-49 demo and placed #5 in the top 50 cable chart. Dynamite beat NXT in every demo and came close of actually matching the over 50 rating as well, something that NXT usually wins by a good margin. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

WWE TO REPORT Q4 AND FULL YEAR 2019 FINANCIAL RESULTS NEXT MONTH

- WWE will report its fourth quarter and full year 2019 results on Thursday, February 6, 2020 before the opening of the market. Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon and Co-Presidents, George A. Barrios and Michelle D. Wilson, will host a conference call beginning at 11AM ET to discuss the results. A live web cast will be hosted through the corporate web site at corporate.wwe.com/investors. Last time around, Wall Street was not impressed at all with the numbers, driving the stocks down. WWE stocks are currently trading in the low 60s at the moment, down from the high 90s from last year.

NXT RATING

- NXT suffered another big defeat in the ratings this week, drawing 700,000 viewers, down 21,000 viewers from last week’s show. NXT had a 0.21 rating in the 18-49 demo and placed #31 in the top 50 cable chart. The rating was almost half of what AEW achieved in that category. The difference between the two shows was of 240,000 viewers, which is up from the 226,000 viewers difference they had last week. Apart from the January 1 taped show, this was one of the least watched episodes of NXT.

KANE RETURNS ON SMACKDOWN TONIGHT

- Smackdown is back on FOX tonight, a show which will feature the return of Kane. The Mayor of Knox County, Tennessee will make his first WWE appearance since mid-September where he first started the night winning the 24/7 title from R-Truth but then ended the night being attacked by The Fiend Bray Wyatt. With the Royal Rumble around the corner, it wouldn't be surprising if the Big Red Machine throws his hat in the match. Three matches have been announced for the show so far. Roman Reigns will go one-on-one against Robert Roode in a tables match and the winner of this match will get to pick the stipulation for the Reigns/Corbin match at the Royal Rumble. Lacey Evans will finally get her hands on Sasha Banks and John Morrison steps back in the ring for a match against Big E.

DWAYNE JOHNSON GIVES FIRST PUBLIC COMMENTS ON THE PASSING OF HIS FATHER

- Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson gave his first public comments about the passing of his dad Rocky Johnson who died two days ago at the age of 75. In a long post on Instagram, Dwayne talked about his father breaking color barriers while he became a ring legend as he was sitting in the seats, watching and adoring his hero from afar. "The boy you raised to always be proud of our cultures and proud of who and what I am. The boy you raised with the toughest of love. The intense work. The hard hand. The adoring boy who wanted to know only your best qualities," he wrote. He continued, "Who then grew to become a man realizing you had other deep complex sides that needed to be held and understood. Son to father.
Man to man. That’s when my adoration turned to respect. And my empathy turned to gratitude. Grateful that you gave me life. Grateful you gave me life’s invaluable lessons." Johnson wrote that he wished he had one more chance to tell him that he loves him before he passed away but he was gone fast without a warning. "I'm in pain. But we both know it’s just pain and it’ll pass. Now I’ll carry your mana and work ethic with me, as it’s time to move on because I have my family to feed and work to accomplish." Tell him that he loves him and will always be his proud and grateful son, Johnson finished with, "Finally, I want you to rest your trailblazing soul, Soulman. Pain free, regret free, satisfied and at ease. You lived a very full, very hard, barrier breaking life and left it all in the ring. Go rest high."


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Saturday, January 18 2020 Issue #5826
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

After a few months delay, the new W-O News app for iOS is in beta testing. If you want to help with testing, e-mail us your Apple ID and we'll send you an invite. Testing will go for a week.

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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
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SMACKDOWN RATING

- Smackdown did a total of 2,580,000 viewers last night, off hours 2,616,000 in the first hour and 2,544,000 in the second hour. That was 78,000 viewers up from last week's broadcast. Smackdown beat every show in the 18-49 demo, helped by repeats airing on CBS which is usually the main competition. In viewership however, Smackdown only beat The CW and ABC's Fresh Off The Boat and trailed everything else, including repeats. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

STIPULATIONS ADDED TO TWO RUMBLE MATCHES

- Two Royal Rumble matches got a stipulation added to them while two new matches have been confirmed for next week's pay-per-view. The Universal title match between The Fiend and Daniel Bryan will now be a strap match, a match which hasn't been done in WWE for quite a long time. Meanwhile, Reigns vs Corbin is now a falls count anywhere match after Reigns picked the stipulation last night on Smackdown. The two new matches feature Sheamus vs Shorty G and Smackdown Women's champion Bayley defending against Lacey Evans. Braun Strowman and Shinsuke Nakamura were the latest two added to the 30-man over-the-top rope Rumble match. 19 entrants are so far confirmed for this match.

KAIRI SANE RETURNS TO THE RING AFTER OVER A MONTH SIDELINED

- One half of the WWE Women's Tag Team champions, Kairi Sane, made her return to the ring last night after she was injured at the TLC pay-per-view in early December. The Japanese former NXT champion was pretty beat up and suffered a concussion during the tables, ladders, and chairs match against Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch. She got hit in the head by a flying monitor and then took a suplex on the floor, banging her head on the unprotected part of the aisle. After the match, Asuka, Flair, and Lynch praised Sane for being a true warrior. In her return match, Sane and Asuka teamed up with Sarah Logan to take on Natalya, Lynch, and Flair. Despite losing the match, Sane was happy for her return. "I'm back I love wrestling," she wrote on Twitter.

NIKKI BELLA TO GUEST STAR ON NICKELODEON'S THE SUBSTITUTE PRANK SHOW

- Former WWE Divas champion Nikki Bella will be a guest star on Nickelodeon's prank show The Substitute according to TheWrap.com. The show transforms celebrities into unrecognizable people to prank children, with Nikki pranking the kids at Las Palmas Middle School in Covina, California. Her sister Brie will also be part of the episode. First, Nikki will play an eccentric gym teacher, then an awkward speech teacher, and then a career counselor obsessed with clowns. A team of Hollywood special effects artists will help Nikki transform herself before she unveils her real identity. The featured school receives a donation of $25,000. The episode will air on Friday, January 31 at 8PM ET.

MARTHA HART AND FAMILY FILM INTERVIEWS FOR DARK SIDE OF THE RING EPISODE ON OWEN

- The Owen Hart Foundation Twitter account posted that the Vice Media crew flew to Calgary to film interviews with Dr. Martha Hart, the wife of the late Owen Hart, and other members of their family for their upcoming Dark Side Of The Ring series. Martha has been very, very strict when it comes giving such interviews to the media but the highly-acclaimed series received major thumbs up from fans and critics for the first season last year. When producers approached Hart to dedicate an episode of the show on the death of Owen Hart, the family accepted. The second season is set to air sometime this year and will feature 10 episodes. The first season had six total episodes and focused on Macho Man Randy Savage, the Montreal Screwjob, The Von Erich family, the death of Gino Hernandez, the murder of Bruiser Brody, and The Fabulous Moolah. Martha remains at odds with WWE over the death of her husband and has blocked all attempts by WWE to induct Owen into the WWE Hall of Fame.


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Monday, January 20 2020 Issue #5827
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Here we go another week. Royal Rumble week! Apart from WrestleMania, this is my favorite PPV of the year. Usually they always deliver, although sometimes there are big misses. But overall, it's a fun show.


========================================================


//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

RAW PREVIEW

- The Royal Rumble go-home episode of Monday Night Raw airs live tonight on USA Network from the Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas. Apart from another Brock Lesnar appearance - which makes it three weeks in a row - two matches are being advertised by WWE for tonight's broadcast. The first is a ladder match for the United States title with Andrade defending against former champion Rey Mysterio and the second match is a mixed tag team match featuring Rusev and Liv Morgan versus Bobby Lashley and Lana. More Superstars - especially from the women's match - are expected to be announced for the Royal Rumble as well. So far, only four confirmed entrants are in the women's match - Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Nikki Cross, and Sarah Logan.

WWE UNITED KINGDOM CHAMPIONSHIP RENAMED

- The WWE United Kingdom title is no more as WWE has renamed it to the NXT UK title. At last week's NXT UK tapings in York, NXT UK General Manager Johnny Saint did the presentation of the new title to champ Walter with the rest of Imperium by his side. The WWE United Kingdom title was introduced in January 2017 when there was no NXT UK established yet with Tyler Bate being the inaugural champion. When NXT UK was formed, all the other titles were referred to NXT UK rather than the WWE UK titles so it made sense to change this to refer to the UK brand.

FORMER WWE TAG TAM CHAMPION SYLVAIN GRENIER HIRED AS WWE PRODUCER

- In an interview with French-Canadian website TVA Sports, former WWE Tag Team title holder Sylvain Grenier revealed that he is now working for WWE again as an agent/producer. The 42-year-old Quebecer is best known for being part of the La Résistance tag team between 2003 and 2005 with René Duprée. After his release from WWE, he worked for Impact Wrestling doing French commentary between 2007 and 2009. “When WWE came to Montreal in April 2019, I went to meet Kevin Dunn to ask him for pictures of the time I won the team titles at the Bell Center," Grenier told TVA Sports. "We started talking about things and others and he told me that the company was looking for agents. I had just had a child, I was working on my show, I didn't want to end up on the road as much as before. But he told me that things had changed. The company then invited me to the premiere of SmackDown on FOX in Los Angeles and a few exchanges later, we had an agreement.” Grenier explained his role as being the guy who "fine tunes" a little bit of the ideas that others come up with and to serve as a bridge between the powers that be and the wrestlers on how their particular match should go. "For the moment I'm in training. But eventually I will be assigned to the red team or the blue team, Raw or SmackDown. I'm going to do a TV show a week, every PPV and once a month, I'm going to tour house shows,” Grenier added.

JAZZY GABERT DEPARTS NXT UK

- Popular German wrestler Jazzy Gabert has departed the NXT UK brand, tweeting that she is now a free agent. Gabert made a big impression during the Mae Young Classic tournament and was about to get signed before she was dropped because she failed the medical due to an injury. After she underwent surgery and recovered, WWE signed her to an NXT UK deal in January of last year. However, in a whole year, Gabert barely wrestled for NXT UK and only had a handful of appearances with only one singles match. The 37-year-old known as the Alpha Female has said that she is now hitting the "reset button," getting offline for a bit and changing her look.

MIKE KANELLIS MOVED TO NXT

- Mike Kanellis looks like he will be moving permanently to NXT after last weekend he started touring with the brand. Kanellis was in a tag team with Tony Nese in what is said to be a "trial run" for a new team for the yellow brand. Things for Kanellis in WWE hasn't been going great and despite signing a multi-year deal last year, he asked for his release back in October. WWE management refused his request and there's no plans to grant it still, with WWE opting to send Kanellis to NXT for a fresh start. Kanellis was last seen on WWE television in September. The angle involving his wife came to a close last year when Maria revealed she was pregnant and after a few weeks on television, even winning the 24/7 title, the former WWE Diva Search winner was taken off television as well.

CHRIS JERICHO'S ROCK'N'WRESTLING RAGER CRUISE SAILS TODAY

- A jam-packed Chris Jericho Rock'n'Wrestling Rager cruise kicks off today from Miami, Florida aboard the Norwegian Pearl. The sold out cruise will have tons of wrestling personalities onboard including Jericho himself, Cody, Kenny Omega, Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, MJF, Sammy Guevara, Jake Hager, Pac, Hangman Page, Britt Baker, Darby Allin, and other AEW stars who will be part of the Dynamite show which will be filmed on the ship itself. Others on the ship include Ric Flair, Vickie Guerrero, MVP, Eric Bischoff, Jake Roberts, Booker T, Scott Hall, Chavo Guerrero Jr, and more. The cruise will also be the site of many live podcasts that will be taped and several bands, including Fozzy, will be providing the entertainment throughout the next couple of days. Q&A panels and photo shoots will be held as well. The itinerary will have a stop in Nassau, Bahamas and two days at sea before returning to Miami on Friday morning.

DYNAMITE COMING TO ROCHESTER IN MARCH

- All Elite Wrestling today announced that they will be making their debut in Rochester, New York in March. The March 18 episode of Dynamite will be taking place at the Blue Cross Arena, an 11,000-seater multi-purpose indoor arena which is also known as the War Memorial. Tickets go on sale this Friday, January 24 at Noon ET at AEWTix.com. Prices will start from $20. The next few Dynamite shows are looking close to full although the February 12 episode in Cedar Park, Texas, is struggling big to sell tickets. AEW has locations for shows up to March 25 at time of this writing.


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Tuesday, January 21 2020 Issue #5828
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Nothing to say today, back tomorrow.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

WWE ANNOUNCES ANOTHER TV DEAL IN THE UK

- WWE today announced a new partnership with ViacomCBS’s Channel 5 to broadcast highlights of its weekly programs Raw and SmackDown on free-to-air television in the UK. Beginning February 2, Channel 5 will air a one-hour version of Raw on Sundays at 10:30AM and one-hour version of Smackdown on Saturdays at 10:30AM. In addition, NXT UK will air on Paramount Network each Wednesday at midnight. “Bringing highlights of our flagship programming to free-to-air television for the first time in the UK with Channel 5 is a significant step for the WWE brand, and more great news for our passionate fanbase in the UK,” said Andy Warkman, Vice President and General Manager, WWE UK & Ireland. “WWE has strong appeal throughout the UK and across generations so we’re very excited to be bringing their high-quality entertainment to an even bigger free-to-air audience in the UK,” said James Tatam, VP Commercial, Digital and Operations, Channel 5. As part of the agreement, content will be made available on Channel 5’s streaming service My5. In addition, full seasons of Total Divas and Miz & Mrs will be offered to My5 viewers, as well as on ViacomCBS-owned Pluto TV in the UK.

RUSEV PRAISES LANA AND LASHLEY FOR CURRENT ANGLE

- Speaking in an interview with Reel Talker uploaded yesterday on YouTube, WWE Superstar Rusev talked about the current angle involving his wife marrying Bobby Lashley. Asked how he feels with his wife being in an angle with another man, Rusev said that it's no different than what other actors do in Hollywood with certain roles requiring you to do certain things. "You can always say no but we are not those people," Rusev said. "We're always professional." He said that having his wife Lana in that angle is not a problem for him and he knows it's not a problem for her either. "People always come and ask me, 'How are you feeling?'" Rusev explained, before he answers the question with another question. "Why are you asking me? Go ask her. She's the one who has to kiss!" he continued. Rusev put his wife over for being professional and for agreeing to go ahead with the angle and also had big praise for Lashley, who he said is very respectful and a great guy overall. "He's game for anything. It's not like he is a stubborn veteran who thinks he knows everything," he said, before saying again that he's a really good guy.

BECKY LYNCH AND CM PUNK ON WWE BACKSTAGE TONIGHT

- WWE Backstage is set to be an interesting one tonight with CM Punk back on the panel with special guest and Raw Women's champion Becky Lynch. Punk has not appeared on the show in a few weeks and getting him on the broadcast with Lynch booked as the guest will surely get some people talking. Lynch's fiancee, WWE Superstar Seth Rollins, challenged CM Punk when Punk was announced for his first show but Punk brushed the challenge off. Backstage last week drew a very low 84,000 viewers and has not performed well overall in the 11PM time slot.

JERICHO'S THIRD CRUISE SET TO SAIL IN FEBRUARY 2021

- AEW World champion Chris Jericho announced that the third annual Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager cruise will take place in 2021. Titled Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager at Sea: Triple Whammy, the cruise will sail on February 1 from Miami, Florida and travel to the Grand Bahama Island and then returning to Miami on February 5. The same ship, the Norwegian Pearl, will be used for the third cruise. More information will be given at chrisjerichocruise.com. The dates next year will also coincide with AEW Dynamite on a Wednesday so just like this year, it's likely that another show will be taking place on the ship.

ROCKY JOHNSON DIED A "QUICK DEATH" DUE TO MASSIVE HEART ATTACK

- In a video posted on Instagram, former WWE champion Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson discussed the passing of his father Rocky Johnson who died last week at the age of 75. Johnson said that his dad had not been feeling well and was battling a cold and infection and on Tuesday he was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, a blood clot in the leg. "It was a big ol' blood clot that broke free, traveled up his body, and went right to his lung, clotted his lung, and he died very quickly from a massive heart attack...just like that." The Rock added that due to his quick death he didn't get a chance to say goodbye to him. "I'd give anything right now to give him a big ol' hug and a big ol' kiss before he crossed over and just say thank you and I love you and I respect you. But I didn't get a chance to say that. But such is life, as many of you know, based on the messages that you have shared with me, that many of you understand this pain when you lose a parent," he said. The funeral of Rocky Johnson will be held today and his son will be delivering the eulogy. "I've written a lot of speeches for myself over the years, but I have no idea where to start with this one," Johnson said. "But I do have my tequila and I can hear him now, 'Good, that's the way you've got to do it.' I can also hear him now, 'Make sure you put me over in the speech, say good stuff about me.'"


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Wednesday, January 22 2020 Issue #5829
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Really enjoyed yesterday's Backstage discussions. Too bad this show is not in a better time slot as I think it would be a bigger hit if it was let's say after Smackdown or something like that. Not sure who thought an 11PM start time would be a great idea!


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
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NXT PREVIEW

- NXT returns live from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida tonight on USA Network with four matches so far announced. The semi-final matches of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament take place tonight with Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne taking on Imperium and Undisputed Era versus Grizzled Young Veterans. The winners of these two matches will meet in the final of the tournament, a final which still does not have a confirmed date. After winning a number one contender's match, Keith Lee will get his hands on Roderick Strong for the opportunity to win the NXT North American title while on The Bump it was announced that Io Shirai will take on Toni Storm.

CM PUNK PUTS OVER THE WWE WOMEN'S DIVISION DURING WWE BACKSTAGE

- During WWE Backstage last night, CM Punk put over the WWE women's division and said it's the most exciting thing in WWE at the moment while Raw Women's champion Becky Lynch sat next to him for most of the program. "I like the fact that there's a little girl in Ireland that watches TV or watches on YouTube or however they digest their WWE, and they see Becky and that can change their life," explained Punk, who said that he now watches through a different lens and when he did the straight edge gimmick, there are still fans who come up to him at autograph signings, or Twitter and say that they never did drugs when they were kids because of him. "So I look at all these different women...you (Becky), Charlotte, Sasha, Bayley, Asuka...and I just think of the groundswell of representation. For the longest time this has always been a male dominated sport. It just opens so many different doors and avenues," Punk continued. "There's a whole chunk of demographic out there that has been ignore
d for a very, very long time and it's just nice and exciting to see women who aren't just used as you know - pardon my French - pieces of ass." Punk mentioned that during the past several decades there are several iconic photographs in professional wrestling, mentioning Hogan shaking hands with Savage, Austin bleeding while in Bret's Sharpshooter, and said we can add Becky with a busted up face bleeding while taunting Ronda Rousey from the stands a week before the Survivor Series. When asked who he thinks will win the women's Royal Rumble match, Punk went with Sasha Banks and thinks that she and Bayley will have their moment at WrestleMania for the Smackdown Women's title. You can see him delivering some of his comments at .

WWE BACKSTAGE GOES TO MIAMI NEXT WEEK

- Next week's episode of WWE Backstage on FS1 will be taped from Miami, Florida, the first time that the show has not been held at the FOX Sports studios in Los Angeles. Taking place in front of a live audience, Backstage will be held at Lummus Park in South Beach with tapings scheduled for a 7:30PM start time. It will be an outdoor show with Renee Young, Booker T, Paige, and Christian being part of the usual panel. Tickets to attend the show are available for free but you need to request them through www.1iota.com/Event/71031/Request. You can request up to two tickets only.

DYNAMITE PREVIEW

- Tonight's episode of AEW Dynamite has been taped already as the matches were recorded yesterday aboard the Norwegian Pearl ship during Jericho's Rock 'N' Wrestling Rager cruise to the Bahamas. Five matches will be part of Dynamite tonight including SCU vs Hangman Page and Kenny Omega for the AEW Tag Team titles, Britt Baker vs Priscilla Kelly, Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy, and Marko Stunt vs Chris Jericho, Santana, and Ortiz, MJF vs Joey Janela, and Jon Moxley vs PAC in a number one contender's match for the AEW World title. Next year's Dynamite during the third Jericho cruise will air live from the ship rather than being taped a day earlier. This announcement was made by AEW EVP Cody Rhodes after tapings concluded yesterday.


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|_|\_|___| \_/\_/ |___/____|___| |_| |_| |___|_|_\


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Thursday, January 23 2020 Issue #5830
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//->> OPENING WORDS FROM THE EDITOR
Colin Vassallo -[mailto:editor@...]-

Good decision with Keith Lee going over last night. He has momentum and I would like him to get a good showing at the Royal Rumble, if NXT will be part of it. It was a very good match and had a great ending.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
Web version at

NXT WOMEN'S TITLE NOW REFERRED TO AS NXT CHAMPIONSHIP

- It looks like WWE took one giant step towards equality, at least within NXT, as the promotion has dropped the specific gender when addressing their female champion. Just 24 hours after Becky Lynch suggested on Backstage that using "women" is somewhat still holding them back on being on par with their male counterparts, NXT is now referring to their women's champion as the NXT champion. The change was pretty evident on television when Mauro Ranallo referred to Rhea Ripley simply as the NXT champion multiple times yesterday and the WWE.COM review of the NXT show also refers to Ripley as the NXT champion. The company does not refer to the males as "men's champions" and the distinction was only done when it came to the women. Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com adds to the story that WWE issued an internal decree that moving forward, the NXT Women's title will be referred to as the NXT Championship. So far, on the WWE.COM page showcasing all the champions, the women are still listed as women
's champions.

RAW RATING

- The go-home episode of Monday Night Raw drew 2,380,000 viewers this week, up 350,000 viewers from last week's record low. Hour one started with 2,548,000 viewers and then went slightly down to 2,492,000 viewers for the second hour before suffering a big drop to 2,101,000 viewers for the third and final hour. Raw was #1, #2, and #4 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and was #7 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC TOURNAMENT FINALS SET FOR NEXT WEEK

- The final match of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament will be held on next Wednesday's NXT on USA Network. Last night on NXT, The Grizzled Young Veterans and the team of Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne advanced to the final match after they overcame The Undisputed Era and Imperium respectively. The NXT UK tag team of Zack Gibson and James Drake got the best of The Undisputed Era after all four members of Imperium appeared to distract the NXT Tag Team champions. Unfortunately for Imperium though, Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner failed to go past Dunne and Riddle for an all-UK final. To reach the finals The Grizzled Young Veterans went through Alex Shelley and Kushida in the first round and later Fish and O'Reilly while Riddle and Dunne defeated Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in the first round and later Imperium. With The Undisputed Era out of the tournament it means that first-time winners will be crowned next week. Samoa Joe and Finn Balor, the Authors of Pain, The U
ndisputed Era, and Aleister Black and Ricochet are the previous winners.

BACKSTAGE RATING

- WWE Backstage on Tuesday on FS1 drew 111,000 viewers, and while up 27,000 viewers from last week's broadcast, it must be considered a disappointment considering Becky Lynch was the guest with CM Punk on the panel. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)

IMPACT'S REBELLION GETS A DATE

- The upcoming Impact Wrestling pay-per-view Rebellion now has an official date: April 19. While Impact announced the pay-per-view during the Hard To Kill show earlier this month, the date was never revealed except for a mention saying it will be held in April. The show will be held at Terminal 5, a 3,000-seater music venue located 610 West 56th Street, close to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal. This is the second time that Impact will hold Rebellion, a new pay-per-view which made its debut last year in Toronto at The Rebel Complex.


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