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Impact Wrestling
Date: May 27, 2021
Location: Skyway Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Josh Matthews, D’Lo Brown
We’re on the way to Against All Odds and that means we are going to be seeing more of Moose vs. Kenny Omega as they set up their World Title match. I’m kind of curious to see the match, even though I don’t quite see a ton of drama involved. Hopefully they can live up to the hype and we can get some more matches set up this week. Let’s get to it.
The opening recap looks at Heath being involved in the Call Your Shot gauntlet match at Bound For Glory, with Rhino ultimately winning. Then last week, Rhino cashed in the contract to win the Tag Team Titles with Violent By Design.
Eric Young says that the change was foretold and last week it came to pass. Now they prove that it is real.
Opening sequence.
Here is Sami Callihan to have a seat in the ring for a chat. Callihan isn’t happy with what Kenny Omega has done around here because Omega and the Good Brothers have ..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
Judgment Day 2002
Date: May 19, 2002
Location: Gaylord Entertainment Center, Nashville, Tennessee
Attendance: 14,521
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
The company is ice cold coming into this show and I can’t imagine this is going to make things any warmer. Raw has turned into a mess with the old guys doing whatever they want while Smackdown is about Vince somehow failing to sleep with Stacy Keibler because he can’t just get a room somewhere. Let’s get to it.
The opening video is rather disturbing with a bunch of..

Is that the next step? The biggest WWE story of the week has been the group of wrestlers being released from the company. Six wrestlers were let go, including a few surprising names. This is the second batch of cuts in about six weeks, which has led to some people wondering what is going on. It seems that some people backstage are thinking the same thing.
According to Fightful Select, the string of releases led to speculation backstage about a potential sale of the company. This comes as the releases surprised several in WWE, as only a select few knew what was coming and that the final decisions for the releases was only made on the same morning. WWE has not made any mention of a potential sale to any other company.
Selling does have a place in wrestling. Check out some of the best sellers in wrestling history (yes this is a stretch):
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Opinion: This is a..

That’s a new one. Monday Night Raw has been having issues with its audience and television ratings for a very long time now. It has certainly been the case for the last few years but things have gotten even worse lately. Things keep getting worse and worse, which is not exactly a good sign for the company. Now things have reached an entirely new low.
According to PWTorch, this week’s Monday Night Raw drew the lowest audience in the history of the show. This week’s show featured an average audience of 1.418 million viewers, based off hours of 1.536, 1.549 and 1.168. The demo rating was the lowest since December 20, 2020 with a .41. These numbers are down from last week’s 1.62 million viewers (-12%) and .45 rating (-2%).
This week’s show was built around a #1 contenders match between Drew McIntyre and Kofi Kingston, with the winner advancing to face WWE Champion Bobby Lashley at Hell In A Cell. Other featured parts of the show included the return of the Miz, a Raw Tag Team Title match ..

That’s an interesting sign. There are very few wrestlers who make a huge impact in WWE. The vast majority of wrestlers are on roughly the same level, though every now and then you see someone who truly makes a difference and feels like a special star. These people are rare, but you might be seeing another one coming back to the company sooner rather than later.
According to Wrestling Observer Live, WWE may have added Brock Lesnar’s name to the script of this week’s Monday Night Raw to plan for his return to the company. There is no word on when that would be, though it would likely be for a match with Bobby Lashley. Lesnar has not appeared since WrestleMania 36 and his contract with the company expired last year.
This could be big. Check out what might be coming back to WWE:
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Opinion: Would this really be a surprise? It’s true that Lesnar’s contract expi..

Welcome back. There are so many wrestlers throughout WWE’s history and some of them are a lot more famous than others. Some of these names are so well known that they can be gone for years before making a return and having quite the impact of their own. That has been the case again in recent weeks with a certain legend and now we are going to be seeing him again.
WWE.com is advertising Ted DiBiase to appear at next weekend’s NXT Takeover: In Your House. DiBiase is advertised for the match involving LA Knight and Cameron Grimes, who he has been appearing with in recent weeks. Grimes and Drake have been competing for the right to be carry on DiBiase’s legacy as the Million Dollar Man, though there is no word on any specific prize for the winner.
DiBiase has been around as of late. Check out some of his recent appearances, plus some of his classics:
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Opinio..

The biggest news story of the day has been the release of several WWE superstars, including Aleister Black. This came as a shock to many in the wrestling world, including Black himself.
Im gathering my thoughts as this was a complete left field for me as obviously we just started the dark father character but this was it, thank you so much WWE universe for allowing me to create and give you small bits of myself.
— Tommy End (@WWEAleister) June 2, 2021
He spoke about this, along with several other topics on his wife, Zelina Vega’s Twitch channel; below are some highlights:
On being released:
“I’m not sad. I’m not depressed,” Black said. “I’m sure there will be dark days and bad days. It’s all up and down. I got told it was budget cuts. Whether it is or not, it doesn’t matter. I had a great time and had a phenomenal four or five years. I’m really thankful WWE has done for me. I was given a platform, even in a limited amount, I was able to give you parts of my character.”
On his mos..

You might want their opinions. One of the biggest stories over the last few weeks has been the amount of wrestlers who have been released from WWE. The company has cut several wrestlers from its roster over the course of the year and that was the case again this week, as even more wrestlers have been released so far. That is the kind of thing that could draw some strong reactions, including from the wrestlers themselves.
Earlier today, WWE released six wrestlers from the company. The releases included Aleister Black, Braun Strowman, Lana, Buddy Murphy, Ruby Riott and Santana Garrett. All but Riott have since responded to the news via Twitter, with all of them thanking some combination of the fans, company and fellow wrestlers.
Im gathering my thoughts as this was a complete left field for me as obviously we just started the dark father character but this was it, thank you so much WWE universe for allowing me to create and give you small bits of myself.
— Tommy End (@WWEAleister) Jun..

That would be an explanation. WWE is a wrestling business but at the end of the day, it is indeed a business. The entire point of the promotion is to make money, which can be a little more complicated when you have so many things going on at the same time. The wrestlers themselves can be rather expensive, and that might have led to one of the recent releases.
Braun Strowman was one of several WWE stars released from the company on Wednesday. According to Fightful Select, Strowman’s release was not a surprise to those in the company as he had a large contract with the company. Strowman had signed a “monster” deal in 2019, reportedly worth over a million dollars a year through 2023. There is no word on where Strowman will appear next.
Strowman debuted on the main roster in 2015 as part of the Wyatt Family. He would go on to a singles career in 2016, ultimately showcasing his strength on numerous occasions. Strowman chased the WWE’s two World Titles for years without winning a singles c..

And there they go. WWE has a lot of wrestlers on their roster and sometimes there has to be some wrestlers let go. That can make for some very interesting headlines and sometimes they can be rather shocking. Over the course of the last few months, WWE has released several wrestlers, and now there are some even bigger names released than before.
According to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com, WWE has released the following wrestlers from their contracts:
Braun Strowman
Aleister Black
Ruby Riott
Lana
Santana Garrett
Buddy Murphy
This comes after several wrestlers were released on April 15. There is no word on how many more wrestlers could be released today or in the coming days. Black has commented on his release, implying that he did not see it coming.
Fightful has learned the following WWE wrestlers have been released.
– Braun Strowman
– Aleister Black
– Ruby Riott
– Lana
– Santana Garrett
– Buddy Murphy
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) June 2, 2021
Im gathering my..

Doubling up. We are less than two weeks away from Takeover: In Your House and that means it is time to start getting the card built up in a hurry. This is the kind of thing that NXT can do rather well, as they know how to set up a card without much notice. It helps when the shows are usually only about five matches long, so getting in two matches at once can be a big step. That was the case this week, twice.
WWE has announced two more matches for Takeover: In Your House. The first new match confirmed for the show is Mercedes Martinez vs. Xia Li in a grudge match. This comes after Li marked Martinez as her next target last month. Martinez them challenged Li to a match, saying that she has been a marked woman for her entire career. If she does not wrestle before Takeover, this will be Li’s first match since March 31.
Next up is an NXT Women’s Title match as Ember Moon will challenge Raquel Gonzalez. Moon issued the challenge during this week’s television show and will face Gonzalez’s p..

If you have watched any WWE programming in the last week or two, you will probably be pretty familiar with the news that the company is going back on the road in the middle of July. After more than a year away from fans or any location outside of Florida, it is off to Texas for a weekend of shows and then on throughout the country as things begin to return to normal. This is some pretty awesome news, but it does make me wonder what happens next on Monday nights.
Monday Night Raw has ranged from watchable to pretty dreadful to downright horrendous since the Florida exile began. There have been the occasional bright spots here and there, but there have been far more negatives than positives. Some of the storylines have been flat out stupid and there have been a lot of things that would not work in the greatest eras the company has ever seen. There is not much of a way around this and it has been pretty hard to watch at times.
But don’t worry, because the fans are coming back to save ev..