NEWS

That’s some big exposure. WWE is in the middle of its biggest season of the year as we are on the Road To WrestleMania 38. With less than two months to go before WrestleMania, WWE is going to want all of the attention that it can get for the show. That is easier said than done, but WWE certainly has the money to make it a possibility. They did just that this weekend on the biggest television night of the year.
WWE aired a commercial during Super Bowl LVI on Sunday night, featuring Pat McAfee using various adjectives to describe what WrestleMania will be. The advertisement promotes both Monday Night Raw and WrestleMania, which will air on the USA Network and Peacock. Those platforms are both owned by NBC Universal, which is the home of the Super Bowl. WrestleMania 38 airs on April 2 and 3.
It was a pretty cool night. Check out this year’s commercial (both versions), plus the WWE’s most famous Super Bowl ad:
[This post contains video, click to play]

[This post contains video, click ..

The new home? WWE is a huge wrestling company that pumps out more content than they know what to do with most of the time. That makes them a rather valuable property for a lot of platforms, as WWE fans will come and watch almost anything the company presents. That has made WWE a lot of money over the years and now they might be ready to do just that again with a possible change up.
The online rebroadcast rights of WWE’s weekly television shows currently belong to Hulu. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, the Hulu contract is expiring soon and Peacock is interested in picking up the rights to Monday Night Raw and NXT. Peacock currently airs Monday Night Raw and SmackDown thirty days later, though it is not clear if SmackDown would be allowed to air so soon due to the show airing on FOX. Peacock is reported to have one billion dollars to spend on acquiring new content this year.
Opinion: This would be a big move for Peacock and WWE as Peacock certainly has the money and needs the co..

That’s a way to go. Titles are the easiest part of a wrestling show, as they are such a simple concept. Wrestlers are competing against each other and they want to win the top prize. That might be for the sake of money or power or just success, but every wrestler should want to be a champion for one reason or another. Now it seems that someone else is going to get a title match on the biggest stage of them all.
Last week, WWE taped February 18 edition of SmackDown, during which Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the Intercontinental Title. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, this means actor Johnny Knoxville will get an Intercontinental Title shot against Zayn at WrestleMania 38. Zayn and Knoxville have been feuding for several weeks, including during the men’s Royal Rumble match.
Opinion: This might not be the most popular move in the world and I can absolutely understand the sentiment. At the end of the day, there are a lot of wrestlers who could get something out of an..

You might need a reshoot. Wrestling is a complicated television product as a bunch of things need to be put together to make the show work. A company needs to have the action, the story, the wrestling itself and more, which is just in the in-ring section itself. That isn’t even considering everything that comes together to build interest to a match, which didn’t go so well this week.
This week, WWE taped next week’s edition of SmackDown in advance due to the travel schedule for Elimination Chamber. The show featured a contract signing for an Elimination Chamber tag team match between Ronda Rousey/Naomi vs. Sonya Deville/Charlotte. A clip of the segment has made its way online, showing Rousey attempting to slam Charlotte’s head into the table, but it did not work as planned. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE will edit the segment out of the broadcast in some way.
Opinion: This is something that is going to happen at some point but it makes me worried about what is going to ha..

We all smell what he’s cooking. Tonight, Dwayne Johnson provided the introduction for Super Bowl LVI (56) between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals. The Rock introduced the teams with hints of his WWE persona.
You can see the introduction below:
[This post contains video, click to play]

.@THEROCK. INCREDIBLE OPENING TO #SBLVI
?: #SBLVI on NBC
?: https://t.co/K02y40b5Nu pic.twitter.com/Jib7mVPztC
— NFL (@NFL) February 13, 2022
The Rock is no stranger to Super Bowl introductions; in 2020, he gave the introductions for the teams in Super Bowl LIV (54). He has a history with football; from 1990 to 1994, he played for the University of Miami Hurricanes. Although he would be a part of the national championship team in 1991, Johnson would appear in a backup role, starting only one game in four years.
After Johnson graduated in 1995, he signed with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League as a linebacker. He was assigned to the practice roster but was cut tw..

Ring Of Honor
Date: February 9, 2022
It’s a special theme episode this week as we look at the first inductees into the Ring Of Honor Hall of Fame: the Briscoes. When you think about it, there isn’t anyone else it should have been if you are just looking at accomplishments. There are all kinds of classic matches here and hopefully they open the vault a bit. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
We open with a video on the Briscoes, including a bunch of home videos. It moves on to some of their better moments and bigger feuds before welcoming them to the Hall of Fame.
From Night of Champions on March 22, 2003 in Philadelphia.
Tag Team Titles: AJ Styles/Amazing Red vs. Briscoes Styles and Red (only the second champions in the titles’ history) are defending and the Briscoes (both teenagers here) are making their debut as a team. Jay and Red run the ropes to start before Mark comes in to try some suplexes. It’s too early for that so we’ll go with an exchange of rollups for a standoff inst..

NXT UK
Date: February 10, 2022
Location: BT Sports Studios, London, England
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Andy Shepherd
For once, we don’t have a title on the line and after last week, that might be a good thing. Last week’s Women’s Title match ended with a fluke injury to Blair Davenport and she is likely to be gone for a long time. This week’s show is about revenge though as Nathan Frazer gets his hands on Teoman. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Amale vs. Nina Samuels Fallout for Samuels taking over Amale’s interview and mocking her. Amale slugs away with forearms to start but Samuels grabs a hiptoss. Back up and Amale grabs a butterfly suplex but they head to the apron where Samuels trips her down. A high kick into a slingshot splash gives Samuels two and she rakes Amale’s face into the mat.
The chinlock puts Amale in trouble for a bit until she fights up for the clothesline comeback. A backsplash crushes Samuels for two but she is right back with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker..

It was worth the wait. There are some wrestlers who do not last long in the industry for one reason or another. Maybe they do not like it or maybe they aren’t cut out for what they are doing, but for some reason it just doesn’t work. At the same time, there are some people who feel like lifers and eventually make it big. It can be a long road to get there, but the eventual win can make it worth the wait. That might have been the case this weekend.
Matt Cardona, better known as Zack Ryder, won the NWA World Title from Trevor Murdoch Saturday night at the NWA Super Powerrr event, which will air next Tuesday. Cardona has been wrestling on the independent circuit as well as in Impact Wrestling since his release from WWE in April 2020. Since then, he has also won the Game Changer Wrestling World Title, defeating Nick Gage for the title in July 2021.
I did it.
I am the @nwa World’s Heavyweight Champion!#NWAPowerrrTrip #AlwayzReady #StillHere pic.twitter.com/x6THyEh1de
— Matt Cardona (@T..

They do have a plan. WWE has changed up its roster over and over in recent years and that seems to be continuing. Since the company has released dozens of wrestlers, they are going to need to bring in some new ones to fill in those gaps. There are more than a few places to find the wrestlers who can fill those gaps, and now we know a bit more about the path that WWE will be taking for them.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE will be holding another tryout camp in Dallas over WrestleMania 38 weekend. The plan is to sign “no more independent wrestlers than can be counted on one hand” and even fewer than that from camps in the future. WWE’s goal is to sign as many non-wrestling athletes as possible in an effort to mold them into stars in the future. WWE is holding another tryout camp this weekend and seems to have signed former Ring of Honor Women’s Champion Rok-C, who participated in the camp.
Opinion: This is one of those ideas where WWE seems to keep swinging from ex..

They let you know in advance. WWE is in currently on the Road To WrestleMania and that means things are going to start to get bigger in a hurry. We are less than a week away from Elimination Chamber and less than two months away from WrestleMania 38, but there are a few more shows to get through on the way there. That includes a few television shows, one of which was taped in advance. WWE has actually acknowledged something that happened on the show.
WWE has revealed that Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the Intercontinental Title during this weekend’s SmackDown television taping. The match was taped in advance and will air on the February 18 SmackDown, as WWE will be in Saudi Arabia on February 19 for Elimination Chamber. Zayn had been #1 contender for several weeks before the title match eventually took place.
Opinion: This is something that was almost bound to happen as there was little reason to keep the title on Nakamura any longer. He had been champion for over six m..

I guess they’re on the same page. WWE is less than a week away from returning to Saudi Arabia for their latest special event, with Elimination Chamber taking place on February 19. As is usually the case with a Saudi Arabia event, the card is absolutely stacked, but in this case, there is a certain group of matches on the card that has gotten some extra attention. Now WWE is acknowledging that in a very certain way.
Elimination Chamber will feature three women’s matches, marking the most ever for a Saudi Arabia show. The three matches include an Elimination Chamber match, Charlotte/Sonya Deville vs. Ronda Rousey/Naomi, and Becky Lynch defending the raw Women’s Title against Lita. The title match is important enough that it has been advertised on several billboards in the country. Several WWE names have tweeted out an image of the billboards, with a near identical message of “WWE Continues To Influence The World” or something similar. There is no word on if this is a WWE mandate or the ..

205 Live
Date: February 11, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Nigel McGuinness
We’re back to this show and last week actually gave me a bit of hope. There are a lot of NXT stars who have nothing going on at the moment so give some more of them some time instead of these lower level prospects. I know they need ring time, but if you are going for the entertaining, get some better stars out here. Let’s get to it.
Ikemen Jiro vs. Trick Williams Kushida and Carmelo Hayes are here too. Williams spins out of a wristlock to start but Jiro takes him down, meaning it’s time for some showboating. A cravate has Jiro in some more trouble and a dropkick to the back of the head makes it even worse. The crossarm choke goes on but Jiro slips through the legs and flips him over for the escape. Jiro runs him over and hits a double springboard moonsault for two but Williams drops him face first onto the top. A running neckbreaker finishes Jiro at 5:13.
R..