NEWS

Some good news for a change. Things have been a little bit rough for a lot of people for a long time now, including in the wrestling business. The Coronavirus pandemic has completely changed the injury and a lot of people have been out of work because of it. As a result, it would be nice to hear something good for once and that is the case in a big way this weekend.
Former Impact Wrestling announcer Don West has announced that his brain cancer is in remission. In June of this year, West announced that he had been diagnosed with brain lymphoma. Since then, he has undergone chemotherapy and radiation treatments and is now able to return to his job in radio. West served as a play by play announcer for Impact Wrestling from 2002-2012.
I want to give everyone an update
After 8 weeks of chemotherapy and 13 treatments of radiation my cancer is now in remission
Thank you for everyone’s prayers because they truly worked
I look forward to getting back on the radio doing what I love
— Don W..

It’s time for another AEW pay per view and that should be a good thing. The company has done very well with these over the years and there is no reason to think this one won’t be great as well. There are a few matches which could go on last and almost everything on the card could wind up being good. AEW has done a rather nice job of hyping up the show and now they have a chance to make it actually work. Let’s get to it.
Buy-In: Best Friends/Jurassic Express vs. Hardy Family Office This is a bonus match after everything else was thrown off by Pac vs. Andrade El Idolo being called off. The Hardy Family Office is one of the more bottom of the barrel stables but Hardy has some name value and the team itself could be worse. That being said, this is there for one reason and one reason only: to get the fans singing along with Jungle Boy’s entrance in a cool moment to start the show.
Hardy wants revenge:
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I’ll go with the good guys here as there is ..

Hopefully it isn’t too bad. Just like in other sports, there are all kinds of injuries in wrestling. You never know when you are going to see someone go onto the injured list and miss some ring time. To make things even more complicated, there is always the chance that the injury is part of a storyline and not legitimate. It seems that the latter is the case this time.
WWE announced an injury update to Cesaro during this week’s edition of Talking Smack. Cesaro is said to have suffered a cervical strain due to an attack at the hands of Seth Rollins during this week’s SmackDown. Cesaro defeated Rollins in their match via disqualification when Rollins used a chair, with Rollins attacking Cesaro after the match ended. There is no word on how long Cesaro will be out of action.
It was a brutal one. Check out the announcement, the match, plus what Cesaro can do when he is healthy:
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He has the resume. WWE has a lot of wrestlers on its roster and brings them in from all over the place. While there is often an an emphasis on prior professional wrestling experience, it is not exactly a requirement. The company also has a tendency to sign athletes from other sports, but in this case it seems that they have gone with a little bit of both.
According to F4WOnline.com, Olympic gold medal winning wrestler Gable Steveson has signed a contract with WWE. This comes as Steveson sent out a tweet saying he had just put pen to paper. Steveson had said that he wanted to sign with WWE and made an appearance at this year’s Summerslam. WWE has yet to make an announcement about the signing.
Steveson will be in elite company. Check out how Olympians have done in WWE:
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Opinion: This is about as much of a no brainer as you can get. Steveson was just named ..

Better late than never. We are less than two days away from AEW All Out and that means the card should be almost completely set. That does seem to be the case as there have been several matches already announced for the show. Some of them have been changed over the last week though as a domino effect has hit the show. Now we know a bit more about one of the biggest matches being changed.
Earlier this week, a scheduled match between Pac and Andrade El Idolo was moved from All Out due to travel issues. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, one of the wrestlers has an unspecified health issue of some kind and it is the same kind that is keeping Sasha Banks off of WWE television. Andrade vs. Pac has already been rescheduled for next week’s edition of Dynamite.
They do have a history. Check out how the match was set up:
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Opinion: This is a bit of a ..

That’s a pretty good gig. Wrestlers are certainly celebrities, but at the same time, they exist inside the wrestling bubble. You can only get so far in the celebrity world while a wrestler, because it is about all a wrestler is going to be known for. You will see things change occasionally though, and now one of the more prominent WWE stars has landed a pretty big deal.
According to PWInsider.com, the Miz has joined the cast of the 30th season of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars, which will premiere on September 30. This is believed to be the reason Miz missed this week’s Monday Night Raw and his scheduled match with John Morrison. Miz would be the fourth WWE star appearing on the show, following Stacy Keibler, Chris Jericho and Nikki Bella. There is no word on how long Miz will be away from WWE television.
This does kind of go together. Check out Miz’s musical efforts and some dancing wrestlers:
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It’s a special moment. There are certain wrestlers who have an upgraded version of themselves that they do not bring out very often. When you know they are going to show up though, you can tell that things are about to get a lot more serious in a hurry. That very well might be the case again, and we could be in for something rather special at an upcoming WWE event.
This week’s SmackDown ended with Roman Reigns successfully defending the Universal Title against Finn Balor, although the Usos attacked Balor before the match. After the match ended, Reigns went to leave but a red light flashed in the arena for a second. According to Wrestlinginc.com, this may be an indication of the return of Balor’s alter ego, the Demon, for a rematch at Extreme Rules later this month. The rematch has not yet been announced.
This could get big. Check out what happened this week, plus what might be coming for Reigns:
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It’s going to happen eventually. In the grand scheme of things, AEW has really not been around all that long. The promotion only debuted a little over two years ago and there are still several things that they have not done in their history. Some of these things are not going to go as well once they happen, and now we might know when one of them is coming up.
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the initial contracts that AEW wrestlers signed at the time the company started should be expiring in early 2023. The contracts were mainly three years in length, but there is a fourth optional year. There is no word on which wrestlers, if any, would be interested in leaving the company and signing somewhere else.
There are some names AEW is certainly going to want to keep. Check out some of their better stars:
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Opinion: This is the kind of thing that ..

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?
Monday Night Raw
Date: September 22, 1997
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York
Attendance: 14,615
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler
This is one of the biggest and more important episodes in the history of the show. For the first time ever, the show is in the world’s most famous arena as we’re getting closer to Badd Blood: In Your House. The crowd hasn’t been this big in a long time and you know the company is going to put on something special in this arena. Let’s get to it.
W..

That’s some fast planning. WWE holds a lot of events over the years and most of them are pretty much set in stone for months in advance. That should be enough to give the company time to set everything up with a long time to spare, but there are times when it seems WWE is making this stuff up on the fly. It seems to have been the case again earlier this year.
Nikki Ash spoke to Fightful Select and talked about her Money in the Bank and Raw Women’s Title wins earlier this year. Ash revealed that she was told the day of Money in the Bank that she would be winning the show’s namesake match. Ash won the title the next night on Monday Night Raw but was not told about the win the day of Money in the Bank. Instead, she was only told the following day at Monday Night Raw. There is no word on how long in advance WWE had made these plans.
Ash certainly had a roller coaster of a few days. Check out how everything went and what it led to:
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That’s the red line. There have been a lot of issues involving WWE’s relationships with its wrestlers over the last few months and that does not seem to be changing anytime soon. Above all else, various wrestlers have not been thrilled with being told what they are not allowed to do. This includes various outside projects, and now one of the bigger issues has come up again.
Last month, Adam Cole’s WWE contract officially expired and he became a free agent. Cole did take part in contract negotiations with WWE and there was one thing he refused to budge on. According to Fightful Select, Cole refused to give up his Twitch stream, as other wrestlers had been forced to do late last year. Cole made it clear well before his contract expired that he would not be giving up his Twitch account. WWE did not want to discuss the issue with Cole, as they knew they had no leverage in the situation. There is no word on what WWE did regarding the account. Cole has yet to appear with any other promotion..

You have to go big. WWE is back on the road and that means they are heading to places they have not been to in a long time. That can make for some very special moments, but very little is going to be on the level of the company going back to Madison Square Garden in New York City. Next week’s SmackDown will be held in the World’s Most Famous Arena and WWE has set some big things for the show.
This week on SmackDown, WWE announced several events for next week’s show in Madison Square Garden. First up, Brock Lesnar will be making an appearance of some kind. This will be Lesnar’s first appearance since Summerslam, where Lesnar returned to the company after a year and a half away. It will be Lesnar’s first appearance on television since 2020 and his first appearance on SmackDown since 2019.
Also announced for the show was a contract signing for the Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair SmackDown Women’s Title match at Extreme Rules. The match was made official during the show and will serve as a..