In this interview Will Ospreay talks about his goals after signing with AEW: “When I came into AEW, there was a lot of negative press surrounding it and the backstage environment. I wanted to be one of the pieces of the puzzle that pulled all of us together. That comes from all the work I did in New Japan. New Japan was such a team effort. There were things you wouldn’t like about it, but at the end of the day, we all had to pull in the same direction because if we didn’t, we were going to stagnate, slow down, and things were going to happen that would deter people from watching us. It’s all about being a team, and that was my main thing when I came into AEW – trying to bring the team together.”
Jim Rodriguez has joined WWE as a Senior Associate Producer.
It appears now that EVIL has been renamed Naraku (which they trademarked yesterday), the name “Nox Raijin” is going to Hiromu Takahashi once he makes his WWE TV debut. (BSN)
Blake Monroe is expected to debut on SmackDown by the end of the month. (PWI)
Stephanie Vaquer’s ex-boyfriend has been found guilty of domestic assault and attempted femicide. He’ll be sentenced on May 12th.
Yota Tsuji will be challenging Callum Newman for the IWGP Heavyweight Title on Dominion June 14th.
Here are dark match results from NXT on Tuesday. (PWI)
- Kale Dixon def. Braxton Cole
- Masyn Holiday def. Jessica Bogdanov
- Lince Dorado def. Shido Ash
Via social media Francois Prinsloo announced his departure from WWE. Since he never made it to television some might not have even known he was there. He was a 2024 Olympic competitor for South Africa in discus.
Mike Santana filed a trademark for his name this week. (PWI)
Nick Khan signed a new employment agreement with WWE running through 2030. His base pay rises from $2 million to $3 million per year, and that’s before stock options and bonuses. (PWI) In other words every actual wrestler is expected to take a 50% cut while non-wrestling executives get 50% more.
WWE Rivals returns to A&E on May 24th.
Here’s the list of episodes for Dark Side of the Ring season 7. (VICE)
- TNA Wrestling & Jeff Jarrett (three episodes)
- Paul Orndorff
- Big Boss Man
- Missy Hyatt
- Samoa Joe vs. Necro Butcher from IWA-MS in 2005
- Zach Gowen
- The Renegade, aka Rick Wilson
Raja Jackson plead no contest to two charges of felony assault for his attack on Syko Stu, which is a legal way of saying you’re guilty without actually saying you’re guilty. As a condition of his plea he owes over $81,000 in restitution to the victim and serve a minimum of 90 days in jail. His full sentence will be handed down in June.
Here are some new TV dates that WWE just announced. (WWE)
- Monday, June 29: Raw/SmackDown, Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, N.J.
- Monday, July 6: Raw, Allstate Arena, Chicago
- Friday, July 10: SmackDown, Paycom Center, Oklahoma City
- Monday, July 13, Raw, American Airlines Center, Dallas
- Friday, July 17, SmackDown, MVP Arena, Albany, N.Y.
- Monday, July 20, Raw, Little Caesars Arena, Detroit
- Friday, July 24, SmackDown, Oakland Arena, Oakland, California
- Monday, July 27, Raw, Intuit Dome, Inglewood, California
- Friday, July 31, SmackDown, Resch Center, Green Bay, Wisc.
- Monday, August 3, Raw, Casey’s Center, Des Moines, Iowa
- Monday, August 10, Raw, Scope Arena, Norfolk, Va.
- Monday, August 17, Raw, KeyBank Center, Buffalo, N.Y.
- Friday, August 28, SmackDown, Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Cleveland
- Monday, August 31, Raw, Spectrum Center, Charlotte, N.C.
- Friday, September 4, SmackDown, Heritage Bank Center, Cincinnati
- Monday, September 7, Raw, Legacy Center at BJCC, Birmingham, Alabama
The card for Impact tonight is below. (TNA)
- TNA Knockouts World Championship Match: Arianna Grace vs. Léi Yǐng Lee with Xia Brookside banned from ringside
- TNA World Tag Team Championship Match: Bear Bronson & Brian Myers vs. Nic Nemeth & K.C. Navarro
- No DQ Match: Eric Young vs. EC3
- Leon Slater & Moose vs. Eddie Edwards & Cedric Alexander
- Mike Santana and Elayna Black appear
Steve Borden & Kiran Grey defeated Rosario Grillo & KM Brooklyn in a pre-Dynamite dark match. (PWI)
Here’s an early card for Dynamite next week. (AEW)
- AEW World Championship Match: Darby Allin vs. Kazuchika Okada
- Adam Copeland, Christian Cage, Orange Cassidy & The Young Bucks vs. FTR, Tommaso Ciampa, and The Dogs
Here’s the updated Double or Nothing card for May 24th. (AEW)
- AEW International Championship Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Konosuke Takeshita
- AEW World Tag Team Championship I Quit Match: FTR vs. Adam Copeland and Christian Cage, and if Cope and Cage lose, they must retire as a tag team
- Stadium Stampede Match: Chris Jericho & Four More TBS vs. The Demand & Two More TBA
