NEWS

They’ll pass, thanks. We are less than a week away from the Royal Rumble and that means the card is mostly put together. The show will be built around the show’s namesake matches, in which thirty wrestlers each will vie for a title shot at WrestleMania 38. Those are some very lucrative and appealing possibilities, but it seems there are some people not interested in competing.
According to Fightful Select, Jessie McKay and Cassie Lee, formerly known as Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, turned down offers to return for the Royal Rumble. The team, who wrestled in WWE as the IIconics, were released from the company last year and have since moved to Impact Wrestling, where they are the Knockouts Tag Team Champions. McKay and Lee felt that it was not time for such a return and are happy where they are. Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Mickie James will be appearing in the match.
Opinion: Without knowing their circumstances, I am rather happy that the team isn’t coming back to WWE at the mom..

That’s never good to hear. There are all kinds of possible injuries in wrestling and you never want to see someone put on the shelf. Some of them can take longer to overcome than others, as some do not have the easiest path to recovery. Unfortunately that can be the case with a lot of brain related injuries and that is the case with one wrestler who is still in recovery.
According to Wrestlinginc.com, AEW’s Brian Pillman Jr. suffered a concussion during his tag team match with Griff Garrison against the Kings of the Black Throne this week on Dynamite. As a result, Pillman was forced to miss this weekend’s Warrior Wrestling event, with the promotion announcing Danny Bang as his replacement. There is no word on when Pillman will be cleared to return to the ring.
Unfortunately, Brian Pillman Jr. is not medically cleared to compete tomorrow night in South Bend, so Chicago's hottest new rising star, the sensation of the Logan Square Auditorium….
DAVEY BANG steps up to challenge SILA..

205 Live
Date: January 21, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett
We are almost up to the Royal Rumble and that is not likely to mean much around here. Aside from the fact that NXT does not tend to get a ton of representation in the Royal Rumble matches, it is hard to imagine anyone on this show getting s chance in the match. Maybe this week can be more of a full show, as last week’s was cut a little short. Let’s get to it.
Lash Legend vs. Fallon Henley Henley is back and now she likes to dance. Legend powers her way out of an early waistlock to start so Henley goes after the arm. That earns her a hard shot to the face and something like a claw sends Henley into the corner. A belly to belly sets up a posing cover, followed by the chinlock to keep Henley in trouble. Legend sends her flying with a standing fall away slam but Henley is back up with a crossbody. That’s enough for Legend, who grabs her over the back torture rack to..

Someone had to go. As hard as it may be to believe, AEW has only been around for a little over three years. The company has hit the ground running like no other and rapidly become the second biggest wrestling promotion in the world. A lot of their success can be attributed to its roster, which continues to add talented stars. The roster can only get so big though and now some people might be on their way out.
Several wrestlers are reportedly set to depart AEW due to their contracts expiring. According to PWInsider.com, Peter Avalon’s contract with the company has expired. This comes a few days after Avalon said he would be open for all independent dates. Avalon has been with AEW since its inception, wrestling as both the Librarian and Pretty Peter Avalon, mainly appearing on AEW Dark.
In addition, Marko Stunt, Brian Cage and Joey Janela’s deals with the company are said to expire in the coming months. Only Janela has wrestled for the company this year, with Stung and Cage not wrestli..

Update your calendars. While it still has some problems, WWE is still the biggest and most powerful wrestling company in the world. The company runs multiple events every single week with thousands of people coming out to see them. Some of these events are among the biggest in the world, including several stadium shows. Now https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1485091044584837120though, WWE might be adjusting one of their major events.
According to Sean Ross Sapp, the UFC will be holding an event at the T-Mobil Arena near Las Vegas, Nevada on July 2. This is the same time that WWE is expected to be running Money in the Bank at Allegiant Stadium. As a result, WWE may decide to move their event, though they do have a hold on the stadium for Sunday July 3 as well. WWE has yet to announce any change to their schedule.
I'm told there's unlikely to be a conflict as WWE also has a hold on Allegiant Stadium for Sunday, July 3. With the Independence Day holiday on Monday, it look..

That’s what they are made for. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it cannot be easy to make yourself stand out. One of the few ways to do so is win a title and then hold onto it for a very long time. There have been quite a few longstanding title reigns over the years and several records have been set in the company’s history. One of them was broken this week.
Earlier this week, the Usos became the longest reigning SmackDown Tag Team Champions in history, with their reign having reached 188 days as of Saturday. This breaks the previous record of 182 days, which was also set by the Usos in their 2017-2018 reign. The Usos are currently in their fifth reign with the titles and have held the championships for a record 568 days and counting.
Opinion: This is one of those records that is going to be around for a very long time to come as it is hard to imagine most title reigns making it all the way to six months. The Usos have lapped the field with these titles and no one, including..

Everyone is back. WWE has posted a new video to its YouTube channel in which they show the full match between Roman Reigns and Edge for the Universal Championship from Money in the Bank 2021. This was the first pay-per-view with fans since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and also featured the return of John Cena.
You can see the video in its entirety below:
[This post contains video, click to play]

From WWE.com:
In a fair world, the headline would read: Edge pins Universal Champion Roman Reigns. After all, the WWE Hall of Famer, in search of a fairytale ending to his comeback story, had The Tribal Chief’s shoulders pinned to the mat for three seconds and then some after connecting with a Spear late in the bout. The only problem? There was no referee to administer a count.
To get to that point, Edge indeed manifested the anger he knew he’d need to unseat The Head of the Table. He endured Reigns’ punishing offense — from the Drive-By to the Guillotine — before mounting an in..

Join the field? We are about a week away from this year’s WWE Royal Rumble and that means it is time to really hammer home the show’s namesake matches. The Royal Rumbles are two of the most important matches of the year as we will likely find out the WrestleMania main events. The pool of potential winners may have grown again, this time with two surprising names.
According to PWInsider.com, both Gunther and NXT Champion Bron Breakker will be in St. Louis for next weekend’s Royal Rumble, though it is not clear what they will be doing. At the moment, neither of the two has been advertised for the Royal Rumble match. Instead, the two are expected to be “on deck” and ready to work the event if they are needed for some reason. The NXT Champion has entered the Royal Rumble before, as Andrade Cien Almas entered the 2018 edition.
Gunther is formerly known as Walter and made his full time NXT debut earlier this week. He is a former NXT United Kingdom Champion and held the title for a record 8..

You could book him too. The last few years have seen some big changed to the wrestling world. AEW’s debut and immediate rise to the second highest spot in the industry has opened up a very big stage for several wrestlers. Wrestlers who might not fit in WWE now have a new place to go, but this time around an AEW wrestler seems ready to ply his trade elsewhere.
AEW’s Lio Rush has announced that his contract with the company will expire on February 14, making him a free agent. There is no word on if Rush is interested in re-signing with AEW, as his tweet includes contact information for independent bookings. Rush debuted with the company in September and has only wrestled four matches since arriving. Most of Rush’s time in AEW has been spent as Dante Martin’s manager before Martin joined Team Taz.
I’m a free agent. pic.twitter.com/aZwy8F8O6O
— Lio Rush (@IamLioRush) January 22, 2022
Opinion: Rush is such an interesting case as he is in his mid 20s and has already wrestled around the w..

Back on the schedule. There is a lot of WWE programming in any given week. The amount of wrestling available to any fan is nothing short of astounding and it can be rather easy to overlook some of the better options available. That isn’t even including the non-wrestling content, and now we might be seeing one of the company’s better shows making a long awaited comeback.
According to PWInsider.com, WWE will be filming new episodes of their Table For 3 series later this month. The series features three wrestlers with some sort of a shared theme or connection having a conversation over a meal. There have been fifty one episodes of the series to date, but the most recent was released in 2019. There is no word on when the new shows will air or who will be appearing. The show will air on Peacock and the WWE network.
Opinion: This is a nice surprise as the show was rather fun to watch. It is the kind of easy, simple show that you can instantly understand while getting some entertaining mome..

205 Live
Date: January 14, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Vic Joseph
Much like the case was before this show shifted towards an NXT focus, I have run out of ways to talk about this show. It’s going to be something similar every week and that isn’t exactly an inspiring idea. All you can hope for is that the matches aren’t the worst, which can be a hit or miss prospect. Let’s get to it.
Here are Andre Chase and Bodhi Hayward to get things going. Chase talks about how Hayward was about to be tossed off the roof of the Performance Center but Von Wagner backed off. Now we have a TEACHABLE MOMENT, because Andre Chase University is ready to fight back in Hayward’s first match!
Bodhi Hayward vs. Guru Raaj Hayward works on a headlock to start but Raaj slips out and grabs a wristlock. A sunset flip gives Hayward two and a delayed slam drops Raaj again. Back up and Raaj kicks at the leg, setting up an abdominal stretch. Hayward breaks ..

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?
Royal Rumble 2007
Date: January 28, 2007
Location: AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas
Attendance: 13,500
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Tazz, Michael Cole, Joey Styles, John Bradshaw Layfield
This one has had an interesting build with the Royal Rumble itself only getting a quick build a the end. That being said, this is the kind of show that doesn’t really need to have anything set up for the main event to work, so it actually works for a change. We also have Batista defending the Smackdown Title against Mr. K..