NEWS

You kind of had to expect it. Injuries can be one of the worst things in all of wrestling as they can slow down a wrestler’s rise to the top in the blink of an eye. As bad as it is to see someone get hurt, it also brings up the question of how long they are going to be out. That can make for a rather long waiting period and now we know a bit more about a name who has been missing.
Over the weekend, a fan asked AEW President Tony Khan if he had given up on Penelope Ford. Khan responded, saying that not only had he not given up on her, but he found her to be a great wrestler. However, Ford is currently out of action with an unspecified medical issue and Khan says he is waiting for her to be medically cleared. Ford has not wrestled since the January 15 edition of AEW Dark.
Not at all, total opposite in fact; she’s a great wrestler, and I can’t wait until she’s medically cleared to come back. She’s been in some classic @AEW matches, and hopefully she’ll be in many more!#AEWRampage
— Ton..

That’s not going to go well. WWE needs a lot of people behind the scenes to make a show work well. While the wrestlers are the focal points of the show, there are several people who work together to make the wrestlers look better. In WWE, these people are called producers, and now it seems that they are going to be doing a good bit more work for the foreseeable future.
According to PWInsider.com, budget cuts in WWE have caused the company to not use as many producers. This includes Curtis Axel and Ariya Daivari not being brought in full time after a tryout that began just after WrestleMania 38. The producers had been hoping for more help to be brought in due to the amount of work needed in the job but budget cuts have prevented this from happening. As a result, the WWE producers are described as being “extremely overworked”.
Opinion: This is one of those things that keeps happening in WWE and it shouldn’t be a surprise when the situation is not going well backstage. It also can’t be ..

They might need a new plan. WWE is getting into its busy season as Summerslam is less than three weeks away. That means things are starting to pick up and the question becomes what WWE has planned to draw in the fans in the busier season. This is easier said than done, but it seems that WWE does have something in mind, at least for one of its bigger non-pay per view events of the year.
According to PWInsider.com, the new main event for the July 25 Monday Night Raw in Madison Square Garden will feature the Street Profits and Riddle teaming up to face the Bloodline in a six man tag. There is a strong chance that this will be a dark match. Reigns had previously been advertised for the event, though there was no word on what he would be doing.
Opinion: This does sound like a dark match main event and that is not a bad idea. Having Reigns show up for an appearance on the go home Monday Night Raw for Summerslam makes sense as well and hopefully WWE has something good for him. Reigns is alr..

That sounds a bit more serious. There are all kinds of medical issues in wrestling and some of them can be quite bad. You see wrestlers get hurt all the time in one way or another, but there are often other issues that take place beneath the surface that you might not know about unless someone brings it up. That is the case again, and this time it is something rather important.
Rhea Ripley has revealed that she is currently wearing a heart monitor. In a post on Twitter, Ripley showed herself wearing the monster and said “I’m Iron Man”. There is no word on why Ripley is wearing the monitor or how long she will need it. Ripley has been out of action since June, having to drop out of her Raw Women’s Title match against Bianca Belair. Ripley did not announce when she would return to the ring.
I’m Iron Man. pic.twitter.com/XXjN8LPZw4
— RheaRipley_WWE (@RheaRipley_WWE) July 9, 2022
Opinion: That’s a rather serious situation and hopefully Ripley is able to get cleared up as soon as possib..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 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?
Summerslam 1992
Date: August 31, 1992
Location: Wembley Stadium, London, England
Attendance: 80,355
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Bobby Heenan
Most of the older editions are in need of an update so we’ll knock out this one. This is one of the biggest crowds in wrestling history and they’re in for a pretty major show. We have a double main event of Randy Savage defending the WWF Title against the Ultimate Warrior and the instant classic of Bret Hart vs. British Bulldog for the Intercontinental Title. Guess what’s he..

Rampage
Date: July 8, 2022
Location: Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, New York
Commentators: Excalibur, Taz, Jim Ross
We’re in for a pretty stacked show this week with Konosuke Takeshita vs. Eddie Kingston and some Ring Of Honor stars, including World Champion Jonathan Gresham, getting their TV time. Throw in Orange Cassidy vs. Tony Nese for Swerve Strickland’s AEW contract, because reasons, and let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Eddie Kingston They shove each other around to start and then head to the mat, with neither being able to go anywhere. Excalibur lets us know that we just saw a replay of Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Mitsuharu Misawa. Kingston takes him down and cranks on both arms, with Takeshita reversing into a double crank of his own.
That reversal is reversed into another reversal before the rope gets Takeshita out of trouble. The head into the corner with Kingston firing off the machine gun chops. Takeshita hits some better forearms but gets headbutted down h..

He should be fine. WWE continues to be shaken by the allegations against Vince McMahon and the investigations that have followed. McMahon is accused of sexual misconduct with several women, as well as paying them to sign non-disclosure agreements. This is one of the biggest scandals in years in WWE, but McMahon is not the only person accused in the situation.
In addition to McMahon being implicated in the scandal, John Laurinaitis was mentioned as well, with the first woman mentioned said to have been “passed” to Laurinaitis “like a toy”. According to Fightful Select, Laurinaitis is considered done in WWE, but is said to have a golden parachute financial package. Female wrestlers were said to be upset that he was named Head of Talent Relations again last year.
Opinion: Laurinaitis being gone from the company is not exactly a surprise as he did not seem to be the most popular name in the place. At the same time, he is someone who is a bit more replaceable in WWE and that might have ha..

Switcheroo. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be difficult to keep everyone fresh. At some point, someone is going to get stale and need a change to fix them up a little bit. That is the case with modern wrestlers and the best option sometimes is to turn them from one side or the other. That was the case again this week as someone was turned yet again.
This week’s SmackDown was supposed to feature a tag team match between Lacey Evans/Aliyah vs. Shotzi/Shayna Baszler. However, after Evans made her entrance to the ring, she complained that the audience did not show her the respect that she deserved. Evans went on to insult the crowd and punched Aliyah out to officially turn into a villain again. The match never took place and Shotzi/Baszler never appeared.
I think she made her point. Check out Evans’ switch to the other side:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: How many times has Evans turned since she has been back? She has seemingly jumped back and fo..

To the other side. There are a lot of wrestling promotions in the world today and they all have their own talented stars. Some of these names are rather well known and you can see them on a regular basis, but sometimes you have someone who is more of a special treat. One of those stars was in action this week, but something happened that made a bigger impact than his match.
This week’s edition of AEW Rampage featured a tag team match between Ring Of Honor World Champion Jonathan Gresham and Lee Moriarty against the Gates of Agony. During the match, Gresham walked out on Moriarty and shook hands with Tully Blanchard, seemingly joining Tully Blanchard Enterprises, along with the Gates of Agony. Later in the show, it was announced that Moriarty will challenge Gresham for the title next week on Rampage.
Opinion: I’m not sure about this but it is a different way to go for Gresham and sets up Moriarty as his next challenger. We could be in for a very good technical match between those two ..

It worked the first time. WWE runs quite a few events at any given time and that can make for some fast turnarounds. Sometimes the amount of events and shows can put a strain on the roster as they might not be able to keep things fresh every single time. It doesn’t help if a match is repeated multiple times, but it can still work near the beginning. That was the case this week after TV ended.
According to PWInsider.com, United States Champion Bobby Lashley successfully defended his title against Theory in this week’s post SmackDown dark match. This was a rematch from Money In The Bank, when Lashley defeated Theory to win the title. The two are scheduled for a rematch at Summerslam later this month. Theory did appear on this week’s show, interrupting the Bloodline’s opening segment by taking a lap around the ring and then leaving.
After #SmackDown dark match. Theory vs. Bobby Lashley pic.twitter.com/rLbdxx3C0E
— Zachary Mayberry (@zdmay) July 9, 2022
Opinion: That is the kind of thi..

So much for that. There are a lot of powerful and influential people in the wrestling world and then there is Vince McMahon. No one in the history of wrestling has come close to his level of authority and it is likely no one will ever get close again. That is the kind of status that can change the industry and now something McMahon has been accused of doing is changing something in another company.
According to Denise Salcedo of Instinct Culture, the McMahon Netflix documentary series has been pulled and will not be airing. The documentary was in post production with interviews filmed several months ago and millions of dollars spent. This comes after new allegations of hush payments made by McMahon to various female WWE employees over affairs with McMahon over the years.
Sources tell me that the Vince McMahon Netflix documentary has been pulled & is off the programming spreadsheet at Netflix. A source at Netflix confirmed it no longer being listed on their spreadsheet, another source..

The card keeps growing. We are on the way to Summerslam and that means WWE needs to get things going in the next three weeks. The company already has the show’s main event set but there is a lot more to a show than just that. It can be rather tricky to get everything right but WWE has to make the moves in a bit of a hurry. They covered some bases this week with some matches you might remember.
WWE added two more matches to the Summerslam card this week on SmackDown. First up, Ronda Rousey will receive her rematch for the SmackDown Women’s Title against champion Liv Morgan. Rousey lost the title to Morgan via a Money In The Bank cash-in last Saturday at Money In The Bank. Next, the Usos will defend the Tag Team Titles against the Street Profits in another Money In The Bank rematch. The previous match ended in controversy with Montez Ford seeming to get his shoulder up. There was also a mention of a special guest referee, but there is no word on who it will be.
Opinion: This is the kin..