In a promo that aired on social media Mark Briscoe had some strong words for Jon Moxley ahead of their match on Dynamite tonight: “You’re so tough, you’re so hard, but you can’t do nothing on your own. You got your minions. You got Claudio Castagnoli, Wheeler Yuta, Marina Shafir, but I see right through you. You can’t do it on your own. You need somebody to have your back. You don’t do it the hard way. You take the easy way out. Well, Mox, let me tell you something. That’s not what we do around here. That’s not how we do it. That’s not how them boys do it. 23 years, tag team wrestler. 13-plus-time tag team champion. I could have quit the minute that my brother moved on. My brother got up outta here and moved on up. I could’ve quit, I could’ve been done with this. But nah, trying to show my kids that ain’t no quit in me, ain’t no quit in us, that’s not how we do. So Moxley, you can try to take the easy way out all you want, but I’ma do it like a man, and Wednesday night, I’ma have the wife line the kids up one by one by one by one in front the TV, they’re gonna watch daddy whoop a man’s ass. You understand what I’m saying? So be ready to man up.”
If you’re wondering (as many have) what happened to Wardlow in AEW since he disappeared from TV in April 2024, we’ve got some news. You may recall that Matt Taven revealed during a podcast interview that Wardlow had suffered an injury around the time he vanished. It turns out it’s slightly more complicated — he either already had a labrum injury before getting into a car accident last April that exacerbated it, or the accident itself caused said injury. Either way he was put on the shelf and quietly removed from The Undisputed Kingdom, which as we know has gone on to be renamed Paragon. Earlier this year Tony Khan offered Wardlow a “very appropriate and special” television role which has yet to be seen, but all parties agreed it wouldn’t make sense for him to come back and wrestle for a short time only to be pulled again for said TV role, so we’re waiting to see that role and what exactly it entails. (FF)
Via social media Ricky Morton announced he’s closing his wrestling school: “I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve officially decided to close down my wrestling school in Newport, TN. I’m grateful for everyone who supported it, trained there, or believed in what we were building. Thank you for the memories. The amount of successful talent that came out of the wrestling school speaks for itself. 11 years strong! On to the next chapter. It’s a good one!”
Big Japan Pro Wrestling has an update on Daisuke Sekimoto — to make a long story short he was “officially diagnosed with a traumatic cervical spine injury.” The good news is that “there is no paralysis or muscle weakness” and he well be sidelined for the rest of June with another evaluation to come in a couple of weeks.
Mariah May has already debuted in WWE as of last night’s NXT. Also Trick Williams retained the NXT Title with the help of First Class, and there was another R-Truth chant.
A “very small” number of people were aware that Mariah May had signed her WWE deal. The higher ups tried to keep it quiet and since it didn’t leak that she’d be on NXT last night I guess they succeeded. She’s under a multi-year deal yet and there’s no word on whether or not they’ll give her a new name a la Ricky Starks becoming Ricky Saints. (FF)
In an interview with The Wrestling Junkies, Bear Bronson discussed his AEW departure: “CM Punk and Steve Austin say it; if you’re in this business and your goal isn’t to be a top guy, or close to the top guy, you shouldn’t be there. I believe that, too. Your dream isn’t to be the guy already in the ring and lose in 30 seconds. Your dream is to main event WrestleMania, to be a star, to be the top guy, to be the best performer you can be. When they told me that, sirens went off in my head. ‘I have to get the fuck out of here.’ That’s no knock on them. They have a lot of signed people and a lot of people to cater to. Tony Khan and AEW are not sitting at home thinking about Bear Bronson. I don’t blame them for that. That’s not their fault. I need to pull back and when I leave, I have to recollect.”
Last week’s Raw did 2.6 million viewers. (Netflix)
As required by law TKO filed a SEC notice that revealed WWE President Nick Khan is selling 28,557 TKO shares, with an estimated market value of $4,506,580.17. The rich just keep getting richer don’t they? Enjoy paying $300 for your nosebleed seats when Raw’s in town.
Duke “The Real Life Dumpster” Droese’s arraignment on charges of attempted aggravated exploitation of a minor was supposed to happen May 28th. It didn’t. The arraignment was postponed to August 27th for some GD reason. (PWI)
CMLL Lunes Clasico results are below. (FF)
- Blue Shark & Meyer defeated Inquisitor & King Apocalypse.
- El Tapatío, El Vigía & Tiger Boy defeated Multy, Robin & Nitro.
- Lightning Match: Metal Bolt defeated Astral.
- Hijo de Stuka Jr., Felino Jr. & El Cobarde defeated Viajeros Espaciales (Hombre Bala Jr., Max Star & Futuro).
- Averno, Mephisto & Euforia defeated Esfinge & Stigma & Xelhua.
- Místico, Máscara Dorada & Neon defeated Último Guerrero, Stuka Jr. & Gran Guerrero via DQ.
Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Star Navigation results are below. (FF)
- Masa Kitamiya, AMAKUSA & Shuhei Taniguchi defeated Eita, Shuji Kondo & Black Menso~re
- Saxon Huxley, HAYATA & Yuto Kikuchi defeated KENTA, Super Crazy & Daiki Odashima
- Six-Man Three-Way Tag Team Match: Naomichi Marufuji, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf defeated Kaito Kiyomiya, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura and Team 2000X (Daga, Tadasuke & YOICHI [formerly Owadasan])
- Atsushi Kotoge defeated Super Delfin
- GHC Tag Team Championships: Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba defeated Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki (c) – New Champions
- GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: YO-HEY (c) defeated Junta Miyawaki
- GHC Heavyweight Championship – Survival Match: OZAWA (c) defeated Tetsuya Endo and Takahashi Sugiura
In this interview Chris Masters talks about competing at MLW Battle Riot: “It was cool. The Battle Riot, I’ve never been in one of those, but it was really cool, the way it was structured was good. They’ve got a really awesome crew there, man. It really was a nice fit from the get-go, I feel like I fit in good with the locker room, which you don’t always know if that’s going to be the case. But, a lot of good brothers back there and everybody worked hard and I was really happy that they called me to be a part of it.”
The last episode of Collision did well with a NBA Playoffs lead-in, rising from 353,000 to 504,000 viewers. The 18-49 demo jumped from 0.08 to 0.18. (Wrestlenomics)
MLW has announced KUSHIDA will be at Summer of the Beasts on June 26th.
The new Hayabusa talks about his debut against Masato Tanaka: “I didn’t hear anything about it myself, but I am very grateful. The fact that I was able to have a match with Masato Tanaka on the stage of Ryogoku was a big deal for me. Masato Tanaka is there, and so is GM Megumi Kudo. I think it was inevitable that I would come back here. Why did it have to be this timing? I think it was fate that drew me here.” He reportedly has the blessing of the late Eiji Ezaki’s family to portray the character.
Sami Zayn’s doctor on Raw was played by “La Leona” Alejandra Quintanilla. Hopefully it’s not the last time we’ll see her.
You may recall that we reported that Jayden Steele was arrested but the story gets much worse than our last post about him. His victim left a note in the women’s bathroom of a Jersey Mike’s branch in Navarre, Florida indicating she was being held against her will at Steele’s home and that his parents were complicit in helping keep her hostage. The note was found 20 minutes after it was left, reported to the police, and they already had a previous record of a disturbance involving Steele and the victim where the report noted “controlling behavior” on his part. They contacted Steele’s ex-wife as well who confirmed him to be “abusive.” When they executed a search warrant on his home on May 28th they found the victim, who said she had been held captive there for 6-8 months and was regularly beaten, and the physical evidence was already there as she had a black eye, welts on her head, and possible broken bones. We’ve got another “War Machine” folks. (PWI)
Here’s the current card for NXT next week. (WWE)
- NXT Championship Match: Oba Femi vs. Jasper Troy
- NXT North American championship Match: Sean Legacy vs. Ethan Page OR Laredo Kid OR Je’Von Evans OR Dragon Lee
- Niko Vance & Shawn Spears vs. TBA
- Tony D’Angelo & Luca Crusifino vs. Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe
