NEWS

NXT UK
Date: June 30, 2022
Location: BT Sports Studios, London, England
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Andy Shepherd
We’re back in England and the big story this week is the explanation from Trent Seven, even if it might seem pretty obvious why he turned on Tyler Bate. Other than that, we have Fallon Henley vs. Emilia McKenzie, as the NXT invasion continues. I’m sure this won’t be anything that annoys long term NXT UK viewers so let’s get to it.
We open with a recap of Ashton Smith and Oliver Carter vacating the NXT UK Tag Team Titles last week, with Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen winning them in the show’s main event.
Opening sequence.
Blair Davenport vs. Angel Hayze This is Davenport’s first match since injuring her ankle in November. Davenport throws her down to start but Hayze grabs a front facelock. That doesn’t last long as Davenport hits a basement dropkick and we hit the chinlock. Some running knees give Davenport two as Nigel gets in a Chamber of Secrets reference. Hayze c..

He’ll get there. WWE has undergone quite a few backstage shakeups in recent months and there is nothing to suggest that they will not continue. There have been bosses coming and going backstage and that can make for some major changes. However, that is not always the case, as one recent change does not seem to have had the impact it was expected to bring so far.
Last week, a rumor broke that Triple H had returned to the WWE Performance Center and said that he was “back”, though it was not clear what that meant. However, according to Post Wrestling, Triple H was not backstage at this week’s NXT and the show was run by the usual group. There is no word on what Triple H might be doing in NXT or with the Performance Center going forward.
Opinion: This is one of those things where it might be too early for anything to be clear just yet. Triple H said that he was back but that does not necessarily mean that he is going to be doing anything immediately. Maybe this changes in the near future..

Welcome back. With so many wrestlers on the AEW roster, it can be difficult for someone to stand out. It is nice to see someone break through to the next level and show what they can do on the big stage, which is where AEW has shined. They have found lesser known names and brought them into the company for the biggest exposure of their careers. Now someone they have done that to is back as well.
According to F4WOnline.com, former AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida returned to action this week in a tag match on Dark: Elevation, which is taped before Dynamite. This is Shida’s first match in AEW since April, as she was competing in Japan and was unable to make it back for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament, meaning she had to be pulled. Shida has been regularly wrestling in Japan during her AEW absence.
Opinion: It’s great to have someone like Shida back as she has been pushed as one of the top stars in the women’s division. The division is far from in trouble, but you can always use so..

Welcome back. There are a lot of people who work together to many any wrestling show work and WWE is certainly no exception. The company has a backstage staff that helps make their events as good as they can be. That is a lot easier said than done and having the right group of people together helps. Now one of the veteran backstage workers is back on the job.
WWE Hall of Famer D-Von Dudley has announced that he returned to work as a producer at this week’s NXT taping. This is Dudley’s first time back at work since he underwent back surgery in October. Dudley said he is happy to be in his new role in NXT and is enjoying working with the new talent. He also thanked God for the opportunity. Dudley has been working as a WWE producer since retiring in 2016.
This pass Tuesday night was the first time back at work since my back surgery that took me out last October. Feeling great and Glad to be back, but even more glad to be back in my new role in NXT. Love working with the new talent now. ..

Change of call. Commentary is one of the most important parts of any wrestling show as the commentary team is your guide for the night. They are there to tell you what is going on, why you should care and what matters with everything you are watching. That can be easier said than done in a lot of cases, so finding the right lineup matters. AEW seems to be shaking things up a bit.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, AEW will be changing the commentary lineup around. Jim Ross will now be calling Rampage, which also calling the second hour of Dynamite. That was the case this week, as Ross will be calling Rampage while also calling the Blood & Guts match, which took up the second half of Dynamite this week. There is no word on why AEW made the change.
Opinion: This is something that makes a bit of sense, as Ross is in a place where he can be more effective in spurts rather than calling the whole show. Maybe the break in between for him helps as well, though it is still the same amount..

That’s one of the worse ones. Injuries can happen at any time in wrestling and you never know when you are going to see something take place. It can happen from anywhere, with something as simple as a basic move going the wrong way. Unfortunately that seems to be the case again, and now the early prognosis of how bad things are is about as awful as it could be.
This week’s AEW Dynamite featured the second Blood & Guts match, with Santana seeming to suffer some sort of leg injury. Santana was removed from the match and did not return, including not being present for the post match celebration. According to Wrestling Observer Live, the early word is that Santana might have suffered multiple torn ligaments, including his ACL and MCL, though this has yet to be confirmed.
Opinion: I’d like to say that this is a surprise but that looked like the kind of knee injury that could wipe someone out for a long time. What makes it more frustrating is the fact that it came on a pretty standard move..

Switch them up. With so many wrestlers on the AEW roster, it can be easy for someone to get lost in the shuffle. At some point you need to change things up a bit and there are a variety of ways to do so. One of the easiest is to turn someone from either good to bad or bad to good and that seems to be the plan with two wrestlers. It just might take some time to get there.
This week on AEW Dynamite, Anthony Bowens got out of his wheelchair and attempted to help the Gunn Club in a six man tag, only to accidentally cost them the match. After the match, Billy Gunn sided with the Acclaimed over the Gunn Club. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, the plan for the story is to turn the Acclaimed into babyfaces, though there is no word on when the turn will take place.
Opinion: This is the kind of thing that probably needs to be done, as the Acclaimed have all of the potential in the world once they are allowed to go in that direction. I’m not sure to see how the story goes but it is the rig..

Making it official. Celebrities have a history in professional wrestling and have been around for a very long time. This has certainly been the case in WWE, where celebrities have appeared over and over again throughout the years. WWE has done quite a few things with them over the years and it can be fascinating to see what they can do. Now the company has one around full time.
Social media personality Logan Paul has confirmed that he has signed with WWE. According to Ariel Helwani, the deal is for multiple years to compete at several premium live events. There is no word on when his first match or appearance will be, but on Monday Night Raw, Miz said that Paul will be teaming with him at Summerslam on July 30. Paul has made several WWE appearances, including wrestling at this year’s WrestleMania 38.
Just signed with the @WWE pic.twitter.com/7lYdxIKivF
— Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) June 30, 2022
Logan Paul has signed a deal with WWE, @LoganPaul just announced on Twitter.
Per sources,..

That’s why they’re there. NXT is a unique situation in wrestling as it is both its own thing as well as WWE’s developmental territory. That means the wrestlers are there for the sake of being called up to the main roster when their time comes. It makes almost every match and show an audition, and it seems that WWE has their eye on two NXT stars for a potential call up.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE is interested in calling up both Sanga and Xyon Quinn to the main roster. WWE is said to see Quinn as “the total package”. Sanga originally served as Grayson Waller’s bodyguard but has since split off on his own, acting as something of a sage, as well as defeating Quinn this week on NXT. There is no guarantee that the callups will happen or when they will take place if they do.
Opinion: Quinn does not surprise me whatsoever as he has the exact look that WWE would want to push. Whether he is ready for that spot remains to be seen, but he certainly checks a lot of boxes for WWE…

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?
Olde Wrestling In Detroit
Date: March 30, 2019
Location: The Whiskey Factory, Detroit, Michigan
Commentator: Joe Dombrowski
This is something I have wanted to see for a LONG time, as the promotion is set in the 1920s and features a corrupt judge, bootlegging, shoeshine boys and more. It sounded like a blast and made me grab a subscription to IndependentWrestling.TV, which sent me on a list of about 20 shows. This is the grand finale though so let’s get to it.
Opening video, with old school style of course.
The r..

Call it a hope spot. There are a lot of people in WWE and several of them have been around the company for a long time. At some point though, everyone is going to have to leave for one reason or another, with some of them not getting to leave on their own terms. Unfortunately some of these splits can be a bit nasty, but WWE seems to want to fix up a recent issue.
Last month, Naomi and Sasha Banks walked out on WWE, taking the Women’s Tag Team Titles with them. As a result, the titles have been vacated and neither Banks nor Naomi have been seen since. However, according to Wrestlinginc.com’s Raj Giri, while Banks was released on June 10, it has not been announced by WWE. The release was handled by the Vice President of Business And Legal Affairs for Talent rather than then Head of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis. The company is also said to be trying to smooth things over, but it is not clear what this would mean for either Banks or Naomi.
I deleted the original tweet since there wa..

Well that worked. Earlier this week on Monday Night Raw, WWE celebrated the twenty year anniversary of John Cena in WWE. The show featured a series of tributes to Cena, as well as looks back at some of his most famous moments. Cena has had several of these over the years and they are worth looking at again. Now one of them is getting recreated in pretty awesome fashion.
WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle has released a video of himself and his daughter Sophia recreating Cena’s debut promo from June 27, 2002. The original promo saw Kurt call out anyone in the back, with Cena answering, introducing himself, and slapping Kurt. The two went on to have a match with Kurt winning in Cena’s debut. Kurt said that his daughter asked him to recreate the promo.
This is pretty adorable. Check out the new and the old:
[This post contains video, click to play]
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: What else is there to say about something like this? Kurt’s daughter is adorable and they g..