开云体育

=====================================================================
TO UNSUBSCRIBE : mailto:[email protected]
=====================================================================
Watch Royal Rumble free on the WWE Network!
=====================================================================

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


====================================================
Thursday, January 16 2020 Issue #5824
====================================================
Visit our website at
====================================================


//->> 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.


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


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

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.


========================================================
ADVERTISING:
(C) Copyright 1996-2020 Wrestling-Online.com
========================================================