NEWS

That’s a long time. Wrestling is a dangerous sport as you can see someone with all of the experience and skill in the world get taken down in the blink of an eye. Someone doing the most basic of moves can result in them going on the shelf for a very long time and that seems to be the case again. This time around it is someone with a long history on TV, but something has gone rather wrong.
Back at AEW’s Blood & Guts, Santana hit a swinging suplex but injured his knee in the process. Santana was pulled from the rest of the match and did not celebrate with the winning team. According to Chris Jericho on the True Geordie Podcast, Santana injury will keep him out of action for eight months. There is no word on the specific details of Santana’s injuries.
Opinion: That is one of the most amazing and at the same time sad things about wrestling: someone can be doing a basic move and suffer a horrible injury, even if it is during a wild match like Blood & Guts. You never want to see someone su..

The more the merrier. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it takes something special to make someone stand out. There are a lot of ways to do that and some of them have been rather successful over the years. One of the most tried and true methods is to introduce someone as a member of a wrestling family, which will be the case again next week.
Over the last few weeks, Max Dupri has begun establishing himself on SmackDown. This includes introducing his Maximum Male Models group, formerly known as Mace and Mustafa Ali. The two have also modeled various clothing, including the tennis collection. This week on SmackDown, WWE announced that next week will involve the swimwear collection, featuring Dupri’s sister Maxine. There is no word on who will be portraying the new character.
Opinion: I’m almost scared to know what this is going to be, but at the same time, the whole Models deal has been enough goofy fun that it is hard to be overly annoyed. It could be just about anyone as the ..

Rampage
Date: July 15, 2022
Location: Enmarket Arena, Savannah, Georgia
Commentators: Jim Ross, Taz, Chris Jericho
We’re still in Fyter Fest with the second of four shows in two weeks. I’m not sure what that is going to mean, but we do have a big time Ring Of Honor World Title match as Jonathan Gresham defends against Lee Moriarty. Odds are we’re going to be seeing some kind of a surprise challenger to come out after the match and set up Death Before Dishonor so let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Dark Order vs. House Of Black Black rolls Reynolds to the mat to start but Reynolds is back up with a wristlock. That doesn’t last long as Black knees him in the ribs to set up a chinlock before it’s off to Brody King. The big chop misses though, meaning John Silver wants to try King out of a slight case of insanity. King runs him over with a shoulder but misses a backsplash. Everything breaks down and the Order gets to clean house, including a double dropkick to send King outside. Reynolds..

Join the club. We are in an interesting year when it comes to wrestling milestones. The year 2022 marks 20 years since the WWE debuts of people like John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Batista and more. That alone is enough to make the year historic, but at the same time are some other milestones that go back even further in history. WWE might be looking to celebrate something else.
According to PWInsider.com, the September 23 SmackDown will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. This will be one day after twenty five years to the day of Goldberg’s WCW debut on September 22, 1997, also in Salt Lake City. It is currently not clear if WWE is planning to do something to commemorate the event. Goldberg has not wrestle for WWE since February of this year.
Opinion: I can see this one going either way, as WWE certainly loves presenting Goldberg as a major star, but at the same time, it would come a bit out of nowhere. Unless WWE is wanting to do something to set up another Goldber..

Another one down. AEW is in a weird place as the company has been dealing with an incredible series of injuries. That is the kind of thing that can slow anyone down and you never want to see it happen to anyone, but AEW has had one issue after another. Now they have another one on the injured list, though in this case it might not be as bad as some of the others.
AEW President Tony Khan has announced that Andrade El Idolo was injured in a match against Rey Fenix three weeks ago. El Idolo has still been able to make appearances, including being ringside this week on Rampage, but has not bee able to wrestle. Following the announcement, El Idolo sent out a tweet saying that he will be back in a week or two and said the injury is nothing serious. There is no word on what kind of an injury El Idolo suffered.
He’ll be ringside for Private Party vs Lucha Bros on #AEWRampage on @TNTdrama tonight, he’s been hurt since the classic vs @ReyFenixMx 3 weeks ago.
He got @IsiahKassidy & @Marq_Quen t..

Well, he is a legend. There have been all kinds of wrestlers to come through WWE over the years and some of them have made quite the impact. It takes someone special to be remembered among the best of all time though, which is where the WWE Hall Of Fame comes into play. While there are some names who might feel out of place there, you know a legend when you see one. That was the case this week, though this is a bit of a strange pick.
The main event of this week’s SmackDown saw Angelo Dawkins defeat Jimmy Uso. The ending was a bit controversial though as Uso’s shoulder was up as the referee counted three. Following the match, Adam Pearce announced that WWE Hall Of Famer Jeff Jarrett would serve as guest referee for the Tag Team Title match between the Usos and Street Profits at Summerslam. Jarrett returned to the company in an executive role earlier this year after being let go during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Opinion: I get the idea of the show being in Nashville and Jarrett tying in..

It’s a change. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it takes something special to make you stand out. This could be based on how someone looks, how well they can speak or what kind of character they have. If you find a mixture of all of them, you might be onto something, but at some point a change is needed. That was the case again this week, with two changed at once.
This week on SmackDown, the New Day dressed up as the Viking Raiders to taunt them out to the ring. The Viking Raiders did come to the ring, where Jinder Mahal and Shanky attacked them, allowing New Day to stand tall. After the attack, Shanky and New Day danced, while Mahal looked on. This comes after Mahal and Shanky have had issues over Shanky’s lack of seriousness in recent weeks.
Opinion: It’s certainly a way to go, though I’m not sure how well the whole thing is going to work. Mahal is only so interesting in the first place but maybe changing him around could let him break out a little bit. He has the potentia..

Smackdown
Date: July 15, 2022
Location: Amway Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee
We have about two weeks to go before Summerslam and the question for tonight is “does anything besides Brock Lesnar vs. Roman Reigns matter”. WWE has turned Summerslam into a one match show and that doesn’t leave much for this week. We are getting a Street Profit vs. an Uso though, just in case you wanted some variety. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Michael Cole is in the ring to open things up and introduces Pat McAfee, who has signed a multi year extension to remain in WWE. McAfee talks about how special it is to be here for him because he loves this so much. After a rather pro-Pat chant, McAfee thanks the fans for putting up with Corey Graves for two weeks while he was gone. That included BUM A** CORBIN being an idiot last week, complete with video.
McAfee talks about how he and Corbin knew each other before they even came to WWE. They were roommates together as rook..

It seemed to work. With so many wrestlers around today, it can be a little bit difficult to find time for everyone to make an impression. One of the easiest ways is to put people together in a team, but even then they have to be established in some way. This can be tricky to do as well, but AEW pulled it off this week. It turns out they had a pretty long term plan in mind.
Keith Lee and Swerve Strickland won the AEW Tag Team Titles in the main event of this week’s edition of Dynamite. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the title change was a long term plan and the match was designed to elevate Lee/Strickland and Team Taz up to the next level. This came as the Hardys, Santana and Ortiz and Jurassic Express are all gone for the time being for various reasons. Strickland and Lee’s tension over the last few weeks was included as a way to continue teasing a possible breakup and make their win a surprise.
Opinion: The best thing that can be said about the title change is that ..

That would be a way to go. WWE has a lot of television time to fill every week and that can mean seeing a lot of the same wrestlers on a regular basis. That might not be the best idea in a lot of cases as a wrestler can burn out their welcome in a hurry. In such a situation, some kind of a change is the best way to go. Now we might be getting ready for something like that again.
Over the last few weeks, Judgment Day has been recruiting Dominik Mysterio to join their ranks. Mysterio has turned them down, instead deciding to stick with his father, Rey Mysterio, instead. However, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there is a chance that a Dominik heel turn may be coming on the July 25 edition of Monday Night Raw from Madison Square Garden. The show is likely to be full of major angles and storylines, including Rey’s 20th anniversary in WWE, which could result in the turn. This is considered speculation at this point and is not set in stone.
Opinion: This is something that h..

NXT UK
Date: July 14, 2022
Location: BT Sports Studios, London, England
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Andy Shepherd
We are in for a big time title match this week as the Heritage Cup is on the line. Noam Dar has dominated the division for such a long time that he is starting to repeat challenges, which will be the case this week as Mark Coffey gets another shot. Other than that, we have the continuing adventures of just about everyone else around here. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Oliver Carter vs. Teoman The rest of Die Familie is here with Teoman. They go technical to start until Teoman elbows him in the face. It’s too early for a wristlock though and Carter takes over on the arm instead. That’s broken up as well and Teoman hits a neckbreaker onto the knee for two.
We hit the chinlock for a bit, followed by some slow stomping to keep Carter down. Carter fights up and hits a quick springboard moonsault to start the comeback, including an elbow to the face. Another neckbrea..

Not so fast. WWE has been around for a very long time and the company’s history can be broken up into various sections. Some of these are a lot more well defined than others, but there are some that are among the most popular and successful times the company has ever had. This week, a story broke suggesting that we might be moving a bit back towards one of those eras, but that may have been jumping the gun.
On Thursday, Andrew Zarian reported that a USA Network memo announced that Monday Night Raw would be rated TV-14 again starting on July 18. However, Zarian has since updated the story, saying that while the memo was correct, it was sent out early, meaning that the date of the TV-14 rating is currently up in the air. Fightful Select is reporting that Zarian’s update is accurate. There is no word on what kind of content a TV-14 show would contain.
There was a memo within USA Network that went out this morning regarding WWE Raw changing to TV-14 on July 18th.Apparently that was sent ..