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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.


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//->> NEWS FROM THE WRESTLING-ONLINE NEWSWIRE
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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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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.

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

Nothing to say today, back tomorrow!

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


//->> 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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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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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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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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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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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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_ _____ ___ ___ _____ _ ___ _ _ ___
\ \ / / _ \ __/ __|_ _| | |_ _| \| |/ __|
\ \/\/ /| / _|\__ \ | | | |__ | || .` | (_ |
\_/\_/ |_|_\___|___/ |_| |____|___|_|\_|\___|
___ _ _ _ ___ _ _ ___
/ _ \| \| | | |_ _| \| | __|
| (_) | .` | |__ | || .` | _|
\___/|_|\_|____|___|_|\_|___|
_ _ _____ _____ _ ___ _____ _____ ___ ___
| \| | __\ \ / / __| | | __|_ _|_ _| __| _ \
| .` | _| \ \/\/ /\__ \ |__| _| | | | | | _|| /
|_|\_|___| \_/\_/ |___/____|___| |_| |_| |___|_|_\


====================================================
Wednesday, January 1 2020 Issue #5811
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Visit our website at
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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
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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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