Samoa Joe’s back injury caused a “creative shift” in contenders for MJF’s AEW World Title, which led to Andrade El Idolo being factored in due to Joe being factored out. (FF)
Last night on NXT, Eli Knight advanced over Josh Briggs in the tournament to face Jasper Troy for the Men’s Speed Title, but he’ll also have to defeat Elio LeFleur to get that match. Troy’s response to seeing his two potential opponents come face to face to shake hands was to lay them both out.
Stephen Amell THINKS he may be making a guest appearance at WrestleMania 42.
Raw on February 2nd cracked the Netflix global top ten at #6 with 3.1 million estimated viewers.
The Super Bowl halftime show by Bad Bunny did 128.2 million viewers, more than the game between the Seahawks and Patriots itself, which did 124.9 million viewers. No wonder WWE wants him to come back “sooner than later” for another appearance.
An independent pro wrestling video game called The Wrestling Code both lost their “abandoned” trademark this week and is currently fighting to get it reinstated. It’s being developed by a small studio called Virtual Basement. (FF)
AJ Styles and WWE were in discussions about a contract leading up to the Royal Rumble, but when no new deal had been signed, plans were made for the Styles vs. Gunther match with his approval. In fact he saw it as a full circle moment since he debuted in WWE at the Royal Rumble ten years ago. WWE still hopes he’ll stay in the fold in a behind-the-scenes role. (PWI)
Roxanne Perez appears to have missed Raw this week due to illness. Get well soon Roxanne!
Seth Rollins thinks Deion Sanders would’ve been a great pro wrestler: “He had everything, that’s the thing. He was a supreme athlete so I have no question he could learn how to do it. He was also an elite psychological player, he was a guy who thought about the game. I know he made it seem super easy, like I just go out there and I’m a great athlete or whatever. Anybody you talk to will say Deion knew the game, he understood it. You see it now as a coach, he’s teaching kids how to do this in Colorado. He’s got the brand right out of the gate, prime, the gimmick is right there. Also, he can cut a promo.”
Condolences to the friends and colleagues of Jim Shank, WWE’s Technical Operations Manager and a fixture of the company off air for the past 25 years. He passed away after a battle with cancer and was paid tribute to at the end of Raw this week. Shank had just turned 60 on January 28th. That’s too young. Cancer always takes people too young though, at any age. The wrestling community had stepped up recently to help a GoFundMe for experimental treatments, with the likes of Cody Rhodes, Bruce Prichard, Chris Jericho, and Shinsuke Nakamura among many others contributing over $200K. That should give some indication just how liked and respected Shank was.
Jesse Ventura says it’s a disgrace Donald Trump is in the WWE Hall of Fame: “Trump got in because he provided us two buildings – I think WrestleMania 5 and 6 or something – where he probably made millions off renting us his buildings to hold WrestleMania. And for that, Vince McMahon puts him in the Hall of Fame. It’s a disgrace. I’ve almost resigned, gone public and said I’m resigning from the Hall of Fame because Trump is in it.”
Sol Ruca won a women’s tag title shot on NXT last night.
Here’s the early card for NXT next week. (WWE)
- NXT Tag Team Championship #1 Contenders Match: Hank & Tank vs. OTM vs. Vanity Project vs. The Culling
- NXT North American Championship Match: Ethan Page vs. Shiloh Hill
- WWE Men’s Speed Championship #1 Contenders Match: Elio LeFleur vs. Eli Knight
- Lola Vice vs. Kelani Jordan
- Tony D’Angelo vs. Cutler James
Paramount has upped their offer in the hostile bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery instead of Netflix, including tendering an offer to pay the $2.8 billion fee if WBD rejects the bid put forth by Netflix.
