NEWS

NXT LVL Up
Date: February 18, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Nigel McGuinness
It’s a new show, which seems likely to be a fresh coat of pain with a new name for what 205 Live has been for the last several months. That does not exactly get my attention going, but 205 Live has been decent enough recently. Granted some of that was due to how short the show has been and that might be changing. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Here are Joe Gacy and Harland for a chat. Gacy says that he told us he was an agent of change and now everyone is welcome around here. That’s why Harland will be in the first match on this show.
Harland vs. Javier Bernal Harland hammers him in the corner and tosses him right back out of it. Bernal’s face is rammed into the mat over and over but he comes back with forearms and a dropkick. That’s broken up with no trouble and a belly to back slam (ala John Cena’s finishing sequence) gives Harland the pin at 2:04…

Impact Wrestling
Date: February 17, 2022
Location: Charles Dodge Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Commentators: Matthew Rehwoldt, Tom Hannifan
It’s the go home show for No Surrender and the show is looking good. We have a double main event of W. Morrissey challenging Moose for the World Title, plus Honor No More fighting Team Impact to stick around the company. There is enough other good stuff here to make me interested in the show so let’s get to it.
Opening recap.
Here is Moose for the No Surrender contract signing. Scott D’Amore is in the ring but before W. Morrissey comes out, Moose explains what a contract signing means. There is no Morrissey for some reason, but D’Amore says Morrissey can sign the contract any time in the next two days.
Moose isn’t happy, but if Morrissey makes the match, pain is waiting on him. He signs and then goes to leave, where Morrissey jumps him on the ramp. The fight is on and Moose gets chokeslammed off the stage and through a well placed table. Now..

It’s something that should work. WWE has been around for a very long time now and is by far the biggest and most powerful wrestling promotion in the world. As successful as they have been though, there is always room for some improvement. There are always new places for WWE to make inroads and it seems that they are going to try to do that again later this year.
According to PWInsider.com, WWE is planning to hold a stadium show in the United Kingdom over Labor Day weekend (September 3-5) though there are no specific details at the moment. WWE has not held a stadium event in the United Kingdom since Summerslam 1992, though they have presented Monday Night Raw and SmackDown from the country regularly over the years.
Opinion: This is something that WWE has talked about doing for a long time now and I’m curious about how it will actually go. WWE knows how to make something like this work and it should be interesting to see how they put everything together. There has not been such a show ..

It’s a family thing. Celebrities have long since been a part of wrestling and it can be quite the nice bonus. Sometimes those celebrities even get in the ring to see what they can do and no rare occasions, it can be quite the success. Those are some of the more impressive things you will see in wrestling and in a recent case, it seems that an all time wrestling legend wants to repay the favor.
The Undertaker appeared at a Bad Bunny concert in Dallas, Texas over the weekend. Undertaker appeared in his American Bad*** persona and rode a motorcycle to the Kid Rock song of the same name to salute Bad Bunny in the middle of a song. After the appearance, Undertaker rode away. Bad Bunny has appeared multiple times for WWE over the last year and a half, including winning a tag team match at WrestleMania 37 and appearing in this year’s men’s Royal Rumble match.
This was pretty awesome. Check out Undertaker’s show of respect:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Opinion: This is the kin..

They didn’t tell us. Injuries are one of the few constants in wrestling and you never know when you are going to see one take place. The difference in wrestling is that a wrestler could continue to appear without actually having a match and the audience might not know something is wrong. It seems that was the case in a high profile WWE case, which led to a surprise moment.
Earlier this weekend, WWE Champion Bobby Lashley was scheduled to defend his title inside the Elimination Chamber at the event of the same name. However, he never made it into the match, reportedly due to a shoulder injury, which may keep him out of action for several months. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE likely knew about the injury for several weeks, meaning they knew Lashley would not be in the Elimination Chamber match. There is no word on when Lashley was injured or when he will be able to return to the ring.
Opinion: This isn’t exactly something new from WWE, though it is rather a..

That’s not normal. This weekend, WWE presented its annual Elimination Chamber event, featuring two of the show’s namesake matches. The show was headlined by the men’s Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship, with Brock Lesnar being crowned the new champion. That part might not be the biggest surprise, but there was one part that did not go according to plan.
Bobby Lashley came into the men’s Elimination Chamber match as the reigning WWE Champion but was taken out of the match due to an injury before he ever entered. As a result, he was unable to participate when his scheduled entry took place. Instead, Lesnar kicked through his pod door and entered the match early. According to PWInsider.com, this was not a planned spot and Lesnar legitimately broke the Plexiglas in his pod door.
Opinion: Lesnar is a scary human being and that is the kind of thing that only he could do. He literally kicked through a pod window and broke into the Elimination Chamber on the spur of the momen..

And so, it ends? Wrestlers are like any other kind of athlete, in that their career will eventually come to an end. What sets wrestling retirements apart from traditional sports is that a wrestler might be able to come back for a one off return whenever they feel like it, as there is no season to complete. Now another wrestler has completed their contract and might be retiring again.
According to Wrestlingnews.co, Goldberg’s loss against Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber was the last on his current contract, making him a free agent. At the moment, there is no word on what Goldberg’s plans are from here, though he could sign a new deal with WWE and return to the ring. Goldberg could also sign with another promotion, though it is not clear if he is interested in doing so.
Opinion: I’m not sure if Goldberg is going to be around anymore, but I really could go without him getting World Title shot after World Title shot. The idea wasn’t exactly interesting a few years ago and has gone do..

It’s the big one. We are less than six weeks away from WrestleMania 38 and this year’s show is going to take place inside AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. That means the company is going to need as big of a main event as possible to sell that many tickets and now they have their biggest match set. This time though, it is going to be even bigger than you might have expected.
This weekend, Brock Lesnar won the WWE Title at Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia. As a result of his Royal Rumble match win, Lesnar is already set to challenge Roman Reigns for the WWE Title at WrestleMania. WWE has now confirmed that the Reigns vs. Lesnar match will be Winner Take All, with both titles on the line. However, there is no word on if the titles will be unified.
Opinion: I would certainly hope that the titles remain separate, as WWE has already gone out of their way to make Lesnar and Reigns feel like they are above everyone else. At some point you need someone else to have a chance at being a Wor..

Hopefully it isn’t too bad. There are all kinds of injuries that take place in the wrestling world and some of them can be quite serious. One of the biggest problems is that you never know when someone is going to get hurt or how bad it is going to be. That seemed to be the case earlier this week and it was a situation that could have been a lot worse than it wound up being.
AEW TNT Champion Sammy Guevara has revealed that he suffered a scratched cornea during his successful title defense against Darby Allin this week on Dynamite. Guevara said that he was unable to open his eyes until Saturday after Wednesday’s title defense, when he finished the match without incident. There is nothing to suggest that Guevara will be missing any time from the ring as a result of his injury.
Finally able to open my eyes I suffered a scratched cornea on Wednesday.
All respect to Darby, We came into this company with everything to prove & in 3 years we have shown that we not only belong but we are thi..

All that way for nothing? Over the weekend, WWE presented its annual Elimination Chamber event, but this year’s edition was a bit different. This year’s show took place in Saudi Arabia for the first time ever, which is quite the change of scenery. While the shows are huge, they also require quite the effort, including a twenty hour flight for the wrestlers. That made a decision made at the show seem a bit odd.
The scheduled SmackDown Tag Team Title match between the Usos, defending, and the Viking Raiders did not take place as the Usos jumped the Raiders before the bell and laid them out. According to Fightful Select, this was always the plan for the match and nothing had been changed due to time. The match is still scheduled to take place at some time in the future, likely on an episode of SmackDown.
Opinion: That’s quite the strange way to go, as the Raiders literally flew twenty hours one way for the sake of coming to ringside and getting beaten up before heading back home. The sa..

That could be terrible. There are all kinds of stars in WWE but only a handful of them are near the top of the card. The very few that make it to the top are among the bigger names in wrestling today and WWE needs them to be the faces of the company. Sometimes those faces can be taken away for awhile for one reason or another though and that seems to be the case again.
This weekend at Elimination Chamber, Bobby Lashley defended the WWE Title inside the Elimination Chamber but was never officially involved in the match. Instead, Lashley was taken out after Austin Theory was thrown into his pod, with the official explanation being that Lashley had suffered a concussion. However, as reported by former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide via an interview with The Ringer and later confirmed by PWInsider.com, Lashley has suffered a shoulder injury and will be getting it looked at this week. There is no word on the extent of Lashley’s injury or how long he could be out.
Opinion: That does not sound ..

That would be a way to go. Celebrities have long since been a staple of WrestleMania, with the first edition featuring all kinds of them. There is a certain logic to it, as it can be interesting to see these people from outside the wrestling bubble come into the world and see what happens. Sometimes the celebrities even get into the ring and that seems likely to be the case again this year.
The Kickoff Show match at WWE Elimination Chamber saw Rey Mysterio defeat the Miz. After the match, Mysterio and his son Dominik attacked Miz again. Later in the show, Miz promised that he was going to find a partner to deal with the Mysterios for good and left to make a phone call. According to PWInsider.com, Miz’s partner is likely to be YouTube celebrity Logan Paul, who has worked with WWE before, including an appearance at last year’s WrestleMania.
Opinion: It’s a bit disappointing but Miz going the celebrity route does make the most sense. That ties in well with his Hollywood A-Lister deal, e..