NEWS

That’s why they’re #1. Despite some less than enthusiastic reactions at times, WWE is the biggest and most successful wrestling company in the world. They have been on top for a long time now and there is nothing to suggest that anyone is going to give them a serious challenge. While their product might not always be great, they know how to make money, which was on display this week.
WWE has released its fourth quarter financial reports, which show record breaking figures. The company reported a 30% increase in revenue to $310.3 million and a 131% increase in operating income to $83.6 million. This brings the company’s full 2021 revenue up 12% to a record $1.095 billion. According to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, this is the most profitable year in the history of the company and nearly twice as profitable as the 1999/2000 Attitude Era years.
Net income: The most final measure of profitability.
2021 is easily WWE's most profitable year ever. Even when adjusting for inflatio..

You need the right people. There are a lot of people involved in making a WWE show work and several of them are not often seen on camera. In addition to the wrestlers you see in front of you, there are also the people who help put the matches together. WWE has a large group of producers who work with the wrestlers to make the matches as good as they are, but one of them has not been around as much lately.
According to Sean Ross Sapp during a Fightful Select podcast, TJ Wilson, better known as Tyson Kidd, has not been backstage at recent WWE events. As a result, several women were not interested in appearing in the women’s Royal Rumble match as Wilson would not be producing it. Wilson is still with WWE, though there are conflicting reports on why he has not been working. One underlying reason seems to be frustration among Wilson and the women he works with over how the women are presented. Fit Finlay was brought in to help with the match instead.
Opinion: I’m not sure what is going on..

Keep it in the family. There are certain wrestling families that have been around for a long time with all kinds of members. Names such as the Anoa’i and Hart families have been around for a very long time and still have members debuting even in modern times. Some of these might have more success than others, but now we might be seeing a new family get itself further established.
During a recent appearance on Stories With Bradshaw And Brisco, former WWE star Santino Marella announced that his daughter, Bianca Carelli, has signed with WWE. Marella said that she will be starting at the Performance Center in two weeks and mentioned that Carelli has a background in television and was Ms. Teen Ontario. She made her debut in 2020 and has wrestled for the NWA at its Empower event.
Opinion: I’m not sure what Carelli can do in the ring but there must be something to her if she is being signed to WWE. Having her around at the Performance Center should do some good things for her career, though..

That’s a long time. With so many wrestlers on its active roster, it should be no surprise that some WWE names are not going to be happy. At some point someone is not going to see eye to eye with the company and that seems to be happening more and more often as of late. It is certainly the case with one wrestler in particular, and now we know a bit more about the particulars.
Over the last several weeks, Mustafa Ali and WWE have been in a standoff, with WWE refusing to use Ali, who has requested his release as a result. According to Fightful Select, WWE will not grant his release, leaving the two sides at a stalemate with Ali sitting at home. Ali has not wrestled since October and has since had an argument with Vince McMahon over how he is used. He has well over a year to go on his contract and WWE is refusing to release him over his perceived value.
Opinion: I don’t know how this is going to end, but I can’t imagine it is going to go well for Ali. At the end of the day, Ali needs WWE..

This is not a good time. WWE has been around for a very long time now and has been on top of the wrestling world for a good chunk of their tenure. That is a nice spot to be in, but staying there is a bit of a complicated process. While the company knows how to make money, they also have to make sure everyone else is happy. At the moment, that does not seem to be taking place.
According to Fightful Select, several WWE wrestlers are reporting that their morale is at an all time low. This comes from a wide range of wrestlers, including several who are not active to television main eventers. The problem stems from a variety of issues, including the way the Royal Rumble was set up, a lack of continuity, and WWE centering around a small handful of “maybe four” people. Several wrestlers have complained, but are either ignored or rushed out of any meeting they can get. This is not said to be a company wide issue, but multiple wrestlers are reporting the same issue.
Opinion: I have been watch..

Welcome back? We are on the Road to WrestleMania and that means things are starting to get a lot more serious. The interesting part is when you see some wrestlers make their returns to WWE, even if it has only been a few months since they have been gone. Some of these are rather important moves, and that might be the case again, as someone might be coming back for the last big stop on the way to Texas.
According to Fightful Select, WWE is planning on bringing Goldberg back to television as part of the build to WrestleMania 38. This will include an appearance at Elimination Chamber in Saudi Arabia on February 19, with the most recent plans being for Goldberg to challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title. However, this is not considered the final plan and the idea could change. Goldberg vs. Reigns was originally announced for WrestleMania 36 before Reigns had to drop out.
Opinion: Good. Let them finally have this match and get it out of their systems so WWE can move on. It seems th..

That doesn’t sound good. There are some very talented wrestlers in the world today and a lot of them could thrive at any level in any place around the industry. There are some things that are universal among them though and that includes the chance for them to be injured. Certain kinds of injuries can put someone on the shelf for a very long time and that seems to be what took place this week.
The main event of this week’s edition of NXT UK featured a main event of NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura defending her title against Blair Davenport. The match saw Satomura successfully defend her title when the referee stopped the match due to Davenport suffering an injury. Late in the match, Davenport hit a top rope double stomp to Satomura as she laid on the apron. Davenport landed awkwardly and injured her ankle, resulting in the match being stopped. She would later send out a tweet, showing herself on crutches and her ankle in a cast. There is no word on how long Davenport will be ou..

The card is growing. We are on the way to WrestleMania 38 but there is one more stop on the road. This time around, the turn is taking them all the way to Saudi Arabia, as WWE will be running its annual Elimination Chamber event in the kingdom. The show is going to be built around the show’s namesake match but there are some other matches that need to be added to the event. Now we know something else added to the card.
WWE has announced that the Usos will defend their Tag Team Titles against the Viking Raiders at Elimination Chamber on February 19. The match came about when the Viking Raiders won a fatal four way in January to earn the shot at the titles. This will be the first televised two on two tag match between the teams, though they have met in a series of live event six and eight man tag matches.
Opinion: This is the kind of match that you need to add to a show to fill it out a bit and they have picked a good one. It is hard to believe that these teams have never faced off and..

205 Live
Date: January 28, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Sudu Shah, Nigel McGuinness
We’re coming up on the Royal Rumble and that means absolutely nothing around here, as none of these people are going to be anywhere near a match that big for a long time. At this point, all that matters is having a show without any kind of a disaster, which may or may not be the case here. Let’s get to it.
Josh Briggs vs. Damon Kemp Brooks Jensen is here with Briggs. Kemp drives Briggs up against the ropes to no avail to start so he does it again for about the same result. Back up and Briggs’ running shoulder has no effect so he kicks Kemp down instead. The fans want to see it again but have to settle for a running elbow in the corner.
Kemp uppercuts his way out of trouble as commentary talks about the Royal Rumble. A Big Boss Man sliding underneath the ropes uppercut gives Briggs two and we hit the chinlock. That doesn’t last long as Kemp fights up and hits..

Ring of Honor
Date: February 2, 2022
We’re about two months away from the relaunch and that means Ring of Honor should be able to get through with the recent content. Last week saw a few matches from last year’s Final Battle and odds are that is what we are going to be getting here. There is a good chance that some of these wrestlers won’t be around going forward, but at least they went out well. Let’s get to it.
The matches are from Final Battle 2021.
Opening sequence.
Rok-C is ready to defend the Women’s Title against Willow Nightingale.
Women’s Title: Willow Nightingale vs. Rok-C Rok-C is defending but gets taken down to start, allowing Willow to bust out a cartwheel. Willow blocks the running knees but Rok-C manages to snap off a running headscissors. Back up and Willow can’t quite hit Three Amigos, so she plants Rok-C for two instead. This time Rok-C fights up with a Russian legsweep but Willow plants her for two more. A Pounce rocks Rok-C, sending commentary into various Mon..

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?
Clash Of Champions 2019
Date: September 15, 2019
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Michael Cole, Renee Young, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips
Even though titles are an everyday part of wrestling, we have here a full show all about them, because most shows need to have a theme these days. There are a lot of matches crammed onto this show, though thankfully they have moved King of the Ring to Raw tomorrow to save some space. Let’s get to it.
I was in the arena for this show..

That could be a success. There is a long history of mainstream athletes crossing over into wrestling. Some of them have made full on careers out of the move while others only pop in for a little while. Mixed martial artists have had a nice bit of success in wrestling, with names like Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey at the top of the list. Now we might be seeing another one trying her hand at wrestling.
This week’s edition of AEW Dynamite featured an argument between Dam Lambert and Brandi Rhodes. Lambert said that he would not lay a hand on Rhodes, but he knew someone who would. This brought out Paige VanZant, who got in a pull apart brawl with Rhodes. VanZant had made some appearances with Lambert as part of his American Top Team mixed martial artists. There is no word on when or if VanZant will be wrestling a match.
It was a busy night. Check out how the return and brawl went down:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Opinion: This is something that could be interesting, as Va..