NEWS

Welcome back. There have been a lot of changes taking place in WWE in recent months and several of them have involved the wrestlers themselves. This has included wrestlers reverting to characters and personae they have used before, often in NXT. These changes have opened several new doors and now we saw another one at the end of Monday Night Raw, with quite the change.
The main event of this week’s Monday Night Raw saw Bayley face Bianca Belair in a non-title match. Near the end of the match, an unidentified woman dove onto the rest of Bayley’s Damage Ctrl teammates, taking down the referee at the same time. The woman was then seen to be Nikki Cross, formerly Nikki Ash and no longer wearing her mask. Cross then DDTed Belair to give Bayley the win. Following the match, Ash attacked Bayley as well.
Opinion: This is one of those changes that makes all the sense in the world and leaves you wondering what took WWE so long to make the move. Ash wasn’t working so switching back to Cross mak..

Monday Night Raw
Date: October 24, 2022
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Corey Graves, Kevin Patrick
We are less than two weeks away from Crown Jewel and that means the card is going to need a little more build up. Two more matches were added last week and now we are probably going to get either some build towards those matches and/or even more matches added. That is what the show needs so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Here is Judgment Day to get things going. Rhea Ripley says that last week, AJ Styles found out that Judgment Day runs Monday Night Raw and that Dominik Mysterio is all man. Damian Priest wants the people to rise for the greatest luchador of all time. Dominik says these are the only people who ever believed in him and says last week was proof that Eddie Guerrero was his generation’s Dominik Mysterio. Cue the OC to say Dominik is stupid because he’s more like the James Ellsworth of this generation. Karl Anderson is ready to face Fi..

History has been made! There are all kinds of titles under the WWE banner and some of them are among the most important in all of wrestling. It means something when someone wins one of the titles, especially if it ends a long reign by a former champion. That was the case again this week as a major title reign came to an end at the hands of someone who has held the title before.
The main event of this week’s Monday Night Raw saw Bayley defeat Bianca Belair to win the Raw Women’s Title. The win came after the returning Nikki Cross laid out Belair with a DDT, allowing Bayley to win the title. This makes Bayley a two time Raw Women’s Champion, after she previously held the title for about two and a half months back in 2017. Belair’s reign ends at 206 days after she won the title from Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 38.
Opinion: This is a title change that needed to happen as Bayley has been presented as the top villain in the women’s division since her return at Summerslam. To be a villain o..

That’s serious. There are all kinds of injuries in wrestling and unfortunately there is no way to know when one of them is coming. Sometimes you see someone get hurt out of nowhere and something has to be done immediately for the sake of their long term health. While details are still unclear, another wrestler had to undergo emergency surgery to deal with a medical issue.
Impact Wrestling’s Laredo Kid has had a message posted to his Instagram page showing him in a hospital bed recovering from some kind of abdominal surgery. The post, translated from Spanish, says that Kid was forced to undergo emergency surgery after a match in Monterrey, Mexico for AAA. There is no word on what happened to Kid or how long he will be out of action.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Laredo Kkid (@laredokidpro)
Opinion: That’s quite the serious situation and something you never want to hear about. I’m not sure what happened to Kid and hopefully he is able to heal up faster than expected and..

NXT LVL Up
Date: October 21, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Byron Saxton
It’s the second week of the Saxton Era and that means…well very little really, as Saxton isn’t as well versed as Nigel McGuinness and not quite as good of a commentator as him either. That more or less leaves the wrestling to carry things and that is a hit or miss bet around here at best. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Ikemen Jiro vs. Myles Borne Borne grabs a headlock to start but gets reversed into a cravate. Another headlock slows Jiro down but Borne hurts his knee on a leapfrog. Jiro is right on that knee with a leglock sending Borne over to the rope. The half crab has Borne in more trouble until he crawls over to the rope. The jacket punch rocks Borne but the reverses the Ikemen Slash into a small package for the pin at 5:20.
Result: Myles Borne b. Ikemen Jiro – Small package (5:20)
Javier Bernal is ready for Andre Chase because he learned at the sc..

Welcome home (kind of). There are all kinds of events on the WWE calendar with some of them being built around one concept. Several of those shows have been presented for a very long time and that is the kind of thing that can leave fans looking forward to them every year. Now WWE has announced that another show is on its way back to North America next year.
WWE has announced that Elimination Chamber will be taking place on Saturday, February 18, 2023 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. This will mark the return of the show to North America, as the 2022 edition took place in Saudi Arabia. In addition, according to Xero News, this will be the final Elimination Chamber event, as No Way Out will be returning in 2024. This comes amid rumors of WWE getting rid of several gimmick themed shows.
The Elimination Chamber in 2023 will be the last one.
No way Out is due to replace it in 2024
— Xero News (@NewsXero) October 24, 2022
Opinion: Elimination Chamber being back makes se..

There’s a game changer. It takes a special kind of star to rise to the top of WWE. Getting there is not easy and it often means making moves that hurt some people in the process. This might not be the nicest thing in the world, but it is the kind of thing that happens with almost every top star. Now a former WWE name is telling a story about one of the biggest stars WWE has ever seen.
During the latest episode of his podcast, former WWE star Mario Mancini told a story about then booker George Scott wanting Randy Savage to win the then WWF Title from Hulk Hogan in 1985. According to Mancini, Hogan did not take kindly to the idea and had Vince McMahon fire Scott as a result. Mancini also said that his career would have been very different had Scott remained as booker, though he did not explain why. Savage would go on to win the title three years later at WrestleMania IV.
Opinion: I’m never sure what to think about situations like this, as while it does make Hogan look like he was out f..

Call it a benefit? While there are parts of it that are a bit different, the athleticism required in professional wrestling is right there with mainstream sports. The wrestlers you see are working hard every time they are in the ring and unfortunately that means they are facing the same risks as everyone else. Now one legend has an interesting story about fixing one of his injuries.
Earlier this year, WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle underwent double knee replacement surgery. Angle spoke about the after effects of his surgery on the Kurt Angle Show, revealing that he is now taller after the operation. Angle’s knees were bent from damage and the replacements have made him stand up straighter while also having his legs extend. Prior to his surgery, Angle said he looked like “an old man walking”.
Opinion: That’s one of the weirder situations you’ll see in wrestling but it is great to have Angle so much healthier than he was in before. It would be great to have him able to walk normally agai..

That’s a serious fall. There have been a lot of major spots throughout the history of wrestling and some of them are rather memorable for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you see something take place that you did not might think possible but it leaves quite the impact. That was the case with one famous spot and now the relatives of the person involved are telling their version of the story.
During a new interview with SportsKeeda, Solo Sikoa spoke about his father, WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi, falling off the top of Hell in a Cell at Armageddon 2000. Rikishi was shoved off the cell and into the back of a truck by the Undertaker during the way way main event. According to Sikoa, his brothers, the Usos, were consoling their mother, who may have started crying. Sikoa couldn’t believe that Rikishi took such a fall. Rikishi would not miss any significant time due to the crash.
Opinion: I remember seeing the crash and being amazed that Rikishi actually agreed to do such a thing. It is a huge ..

He would know better. There are a lot of people needed to make a wrestling show work. While the stars and familiar names are the ones who receive the most attention, several other people are also included in a variety of roles. That is the case with some of the wrestlers who are there to make others look good and now there is some controversy about a statement involving some of them.
Earlier this year, AEW Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa was forced to take time away from the ring due to a back injury. According to this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, since Rosa’s hiatus began, her friends, including names such as KiLynn King, Madi Wrenkowski and Jazmin Allure have not been used as AEW extras. AEW’s Shawn Dean has responded to the report, denying the report and saying those women are all in good standing with the company. Dean is responsible for choosing the extra talent for AEW events.
It’s the kind of careless reporting like this causing unnecessary issues and problems for no re..

It was a special day. WWE runs several events every single year and some of them stand out for one reason or another. You never know when you are going to see something special happen in the ring at any given time and it can be fun to go back and look at some classics. One of the bigger current WWE stars is doing just that on the anniversary of a special match.
Former WWE Champion Drew McIntyre has responded to a tweet talking about his Crown Jewel 2021 match against Big E. McIntyre said that the two of them tore it up in front of an electric crowd with the WWE Title on the line. He wrapped it up by saying he missed Big E., who has been out of action since March 11 due to neck surgery and there is no word on when or if he will ever wrestle again.
BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPING MEAT ™?
A year since myself and @WWEBigE tore it up in front an electric crowd for the WWE Title. What a night. Miss you brother ?? https://t.co/jIuRWVXL7n
— Drew McIntyre (@DMcIntyreWWE) October 21, 2022
Opinion: ..

At least he had a reason. The biggest wrestling story of the year has been the departure of Vince McMahon from WWE. After nearly four decades of McMahon in charge of the company, he has finally stepped down and handed the reins off to someone else. That has caused quite a few changes and now we have a better idea about one of McMahon’s less well received decisions.
CJ Perry, formerly known as Lana in WWE, recently appeared on In The Kliq to talk about some of her time in WWE. Perry mentioned the Rusev Day story, which took place in 2017-18 and saw Rusev become one of the more popular stars in WWE, though he never officially turned good. According to Perry, McMahon never allowed the full turn because he saw Rusev as his “Bulgarian Brute 300 pound crazy villain” and did not want to change his vision. Rusev was released from WWE in April 2020 and debuted in AEW five months later.
Opinion: I can see McMahon’s thinking here, but ultimately you need to take a chance at some point. WWE spen..