NEWS

At least they have a reason. NXT is a unique promotion in that it exists for its wrestlers to leave. As the official developmental territory for WWE, NXT is there to build up the WWE roster. That is easier said than done in a lot of ways, but NXT has managed to make it work for a long time now. There are some names who are almost never called up though, and now we know why that is the case in one instance.
The main event of this week’s NXT saw Santos Escobar unsuccessfully challenging Isaiah Scott for the North American Title. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Escobar has not been called up due to being too small and too old. Escobar is billed at 5’11 and 205lbs and is 37 years old. He has been wrestling on NXT TV since February 2020 and is a former NXT Cruiserweight Champion. There is no word on if he will ever be called up to the main roster.
Escobar is worth a look. Check out what he can do in the ring:
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That’s a good reason. There have been all kinds of changes to the WWE roster earlier this year and one of the biggest surprises was the release of Bray Wyatt. The former multiple time World Champion was let go as part of a collection of releases and has yet to appear elsewhere in the wrestling world. It was quite the surprise change and now we know a bit more about what happened.
According to Andrew Zarian on the Mat Men Wrestling podcast, Wyatt was let go from WWE for a variety of reasons rather than just one. There were a collection of behind the scenes issues, including Wyatt being difficult to work with and financial issues, along with an issue with Wyatt’s weight and some problems with his in-ring work. There is no word on where Wyatt will wrestle next.
Wyatt is a different kind of star. Check out what he can do when he is around:
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Opinion: This is ..

Unmark your calendars. WWE is a huge wrestling promotion and manages to stick to its schedule fairly well. There are all kinds of regular shows on the calendar, as the company ha srun a lot of the same events for several years now. You can often remember which shows are coming up in each month, but that will not always be the case, such as later this year.
According to Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE will not be presenting a pay per view this December. Instead, WWE will be using the January 1 Day One pay per view as the December pay per view, with the Royal Rumble serving as the January event as usual. WWE never announced a pay per view for December, though Tables, Ladders And Chairs traditionally fills the role.
December has had some great WWE moments before. Check out what won’t be happening this year:
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Opinion: This is something that makes sense, as the..

That could cost them. Wrestlers are larger than life characters who try their best to make you believe that everything they are doing is real. That can make for some difficult situations as sometimes they are so over the top that no one would believe what they are seeing. The great ones can make it work, though now it would be nice to have someone’s character be their real life persona.
The office of Mississippi State Auditor Shad White has announced, by way of NBC 29 (Charlottesville, Virginia) that the state is attempting to recover $77 million in misspent Temporary Assistance For Needy Families funding. This includes money given to the DiBiase family, who was implicated in the scandal in 2020. DiBiase’s family has been ordered to repay millions of dollars to the state, including the following specifics:
• Brett Dibiase: $225,950
• Heart of David Ministries, controlled by Ted Dibiase, Sr.: $722,299
• Ted Dibiase, Jr.: $3.903 million
These situations are civil, meaning that no on..

One more time? Every so often, you see a wrestler who catches the fans’ attention through pure charisma. They might not have the strongest in-ring abilities but they have something that makes them stand out and get the audience in their corner. Unfortunately it might not always be the most successful, but now such a star might be getting another chance to show what he can do.
During this week’s edition of MLW Fusion ALPHA, company executive Cesar Duran mentioned that the company was in discussions with nZo, formerly known as Enzo Amore. NZo did not appear on the show and there is no word on when he could appear. Following his departure from WWE in 2018, nZo has wrestled around the independent circuit, primarily in New England Wrestling.
There is a lot here. Check out the full show plus who might be coming to MLW:
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Opinion: There are very few wrestlers wh..

That’s quite the bold statement. There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster today and as a result, there are only so many ways to stand out. Unfortunately that means a lot of talented wrestlers are left trying to get some attention, which can be rather frustrating for the fans. It can also be frustrating for the wrestlers and one of them has something to say about his situation.
Monday Night Raw’s Mustafa Ali was a guest on this week’s edition of the Bump and spoke about his career in WWE. This included a discussion of the hacker gimmick, which Ali felt had some legs, as well as a suggestion that it could return someday. Ali also said that he was the most unheard voice in the history of WWE as well as the most underutilized talent the company has ever seen. He also asked where his justice was and said all he needed was an opportunity. Ali is scheduled to face Mansoor at Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia later this month.
There’s a lot to this. Check out the full show (with Ali’s time b..

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?
Smackdown
Date: May 11, 2007
Location: Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield
It’s a big show this time around with the Undertaker defending the World Title against Batista inside a cage. That alone should be enough to carry the show and….well that’s about what it’s going to do as that’s the only major thing set for the show. Unless you count spoilers that is, as WWE has already said what happens this time. Let’s get to it.
The opening video looks at Undertaker v..

I was thinking about what to put together this week and went over the usual suspects. As you probably can guess, this meant going through the dumb things that WWE was doing at the moment and complaining about it a lot. This time around, that mainly meant how lame the King of the Ring and Queen’s Crown tournaments have been, but the more I thought about that, the less I wanted to think about those things. Instead, we’re going to look at some positive things, which means we’re getting away from the main roster as fast as we can.
Unless you haven’t been paying attention to WWE for a very long time, you probably know that Monday Night Raw and SmackDown are ok at their best and there is very little worth seeing about either show (that isn’t named Roman Reigns or a few other things here and there). There is good wrestling out there, but you just need to look at other promotions, or in one case, another country.
Wrestling is going rather well at the moment and there are multiple promotions ..

Stick around for a bit. Despite the success that it has had, AEW has not been around all that long. We are still more than six months away from AEW’s first ever event, meaning that they do not have the deepest history to date. AEW has come a long way, but they have a much longer way to go. Now we know someone who is going to be around for the next stretch.
During an interview with PWInsider.com, former AEW Tag Team Champion Scorpio Sky revealed that he has signed a new five year contract with AEW, which was signed around the September 5 All Out pay per view. It is not clear how much time Sky had on his contract before he signed the new deal. Sky is currently part of the Men of the Year with Ethan Page and is feuding with the Inner Circle.
Sky has done well so far in AEW. Check out some of his time there:
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Opinion: Sky is one of the most dependable names ..