WWE BACKLASH REVIEW !!

A.J. Styles became the first person to capture major singles championships in WWE, New Japan, ROH and TNA when he defeated Dean Ambrose to win the WWE title in the main event of the 9/11 Backlash PPV from the Richmond, VA Coliseum.

Styles’ WWE title joins his two reigns as IWGP champion, a run as the ROH Pure champion (at the time the No. 2 belt in the promotion), three runs as NWA champion (under the auspices of TNA), two runs as TNA champion and even a PWG title thrown in.

While his NWA title obviously doesn’t have the prestige it had in the glory days, he joins Buddy Rogers and Ric Flair as the only people to have held the WWE and NWA titles.

Now 39, Styles’ has remained at the elite level in the industry, coming back from back injuries in 2015 that threatened his career as a full-timer. This year, even working a full-time WWE schedule, he’s avoided serious injuries and had some of the company’s best matches of the year.

Backlash was an otherwise normal show, with no bad matches, but nothing particularly great either, until an excellent championship match.

Next on the WWE’s agenda is the 9/25 Clash of Champions PPV show from the Raw brand.

The lineup for that show is Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins for the Universal title, Rusev vs. Roman Reigns for the U.S. title, Chris Jericho vs. Sami Zayn, Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks for the women’s title, Cesaro vs. Sheamus in the final match of the best-of-seven series, New Day vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson for the tag team titles, and Enzo & Cass vs. The Shining Stars.

The Smackdown brand next show is No Mercy, on 10/9 in Sacramento. The main event has Styles vs. Ambrose vs. John Cena in a three-way for the WWE title and Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss for the women’s title. Nothing else is official, but it would appear to be Rhyno & Heath Slater vs. Usos (with Usos winning at some point and going into a program with American Alpha for the titles), and Miz vs. Dolph Ziggler (originally this was to be a cage match, with the idea Maryse couldn’t interfere, but that could change).

There was bad news when it came to interest level in the first Smackdown specific PPV in many years. The show only drew 7,000 fans, and that was with a lot of papering around town in the days before the show. There were reports of tickets being given away at night clubs as well as outside a Comic book convention the day before the show. In addition, for the first time in recent history, a WWE PPV show didn’t crack the No. 20 searches for that day.

1. Baron Corbin pinned Apollo Crews in 9:56. Crews tried a springboard but Corbin gave him a forearm and knocked him to the floor. Crews also used a standing moonsault and an Olympic slam for near falls, and a Samoan drop on the floor. Corbin used the deep six for a near fall. The finish saw Corbin use a knee to the chin and the End of Days. **½

2. Becky Lynch became the first Smackdown women’s champion in a six-way elimination match over Nikki Bella, Natalya, Carmella, Alexa Bliss and Naomi in 14:19. The match didn’t feel rushed even with five eliminations needed. But at times, especially with Carmella, you could see they weren’t ready for that long a match. Lynch and Naomi did a nice opening spot. Bliss did a double kneedrop followed by a standing moonsault kneedrop to the gut of Nikki. Naomi did a double eat defeat on Bliss. Everyone did their big moves on each other early. There was a save done at one point which made no sense since this is elimination rules and not first pin, so it’s to nobody’s advantage to do saves. Naomi did a springboard plancha on everyone. Naomi did a blockbuster off the top rope on Bliss off Natalya’s shoulders for the first pin in 9:37. Natalya won the second fall with a sharpshooter on Naomi at 10:50. Nikki pinned Natalya with the TKO in 11:55. Carmella pinned Nikki with a schoolgirl in 12:04. Nikki slapped Carmella after the match. It came down to Carmella vs Lynch. Lynch hit three exploders and used the disarmer in the middle for the submission. **1/4

Miz did a segment with Jagger Eaton of Nickelodeon where they talked about Miz being on his show. Eaton said he’d love to have him if they can’t get John Cena and then slammed the door in his face.

Next they showed Orton lying on the floor with the idea that he had been injured with the door slammed on his leg by Wyatt, to take him out of his match.

3. Usos beat Zack Ryder & Mojo Rawley to go into the tag team title match at 10:10. Ryder dropkicked Jey off the apron. Rawley at one point did a double spear on both. They got heat on Ryder, who hot tagged Rawley. Rawley did two Stinger splashes. They picked up with Ryder doing a huracanrana off the top on Jey. The finish saw Jey give Rawley a chop block and Ryder took a chop kick and Jimmy made Ryder submit to a half crab. **½

There was one of those Vince McMahon comedy segments where Slater talked about having diarrhea from his wife’s crab dip with artificial crab. The joke was that Slater was telling Rhyno about it thinking the cameras were off. When Rhyno told him the cameras were on, Slater acted like it was a joke and he was just swerving Rhyno, but then ran off to go to the bathroom again.

Miz was with Daniel Bryan. Miz told Bryan that he wanted his contract renegotiated and to be paid like an A-lister. He said that you guys need to have the IC champion on your brand. They’re clearly building something with these two, because in Miz’s match, he did several Bryan drops.

4. The Miz pinned Dolph Ziggler to retain the IC title in 18:17. Miz did Bryan spots such as the bow-and-arrow submission and three corner dropkicks. Miz also did a power bomb onto the top rope and then the mat. They went back-and-forth and had the second best match on the show. Miz was much better than usual here, looking really good. The finish, which made sense with the directions they were planning for the program, did come off flat. Maryse sprayed Ziggler with something in the eyes and Miz won with the skull crushing finale. ***1/4

5. Kane pinned Bray Wyatt in a no holds barred match in 10:55. Wyatt demanded that they count out Orton and he be announced as the winner via forfeit. But then it was announced that Wyatt would face Kane as a replacement. Wyatt used the ring bell on Kane early. He also hit Kane’s knee with a chair. Wyatt used several more chair shots. Kane came back and went to DDT Wyatt on a chair but just missed the chair. Fans started chanting “We Want Tables.” Wyatt used a hard lariat on the floor and put Kane on the American announcers table. Wyatt posed and stalled before doing a running senton from the Spanish table and putting Kane through the American table. Wyatt set up Sister Abigail, but Kane reversed and hit a choke slam for a near fall. That didn’t get much of a reaction. Wyatt used a uranage on a chair reversing out of Kane’s attempt at another choke slam. Orton then came out with a taped up right ankle and hit the RKO on Wyatt and Kane hit another choke slam for the pin. **3/4

Styles was backstage making fun of two guys in their trunks. Why were guys dressed in their trunks backstage when they weren’t on the show? I think the idea was to make fun of them for having lousy looking bodies. Styles told them that they were destined for failure, destined to be sleeping in their cars because they can’t afford a hotel, but that they can say they met the face that runs the place on the night he won the WWE title.

6. Heath Slater & Rhyno captured the WWE tag titles in the tournament final over the Usos in 9:54. There was an “ECW” chant for Rhyno to start things off. Slater got suplexed into the post and worked on for several minutes. Rhyno hot tagged in. After he was worked over, Slater hot tagged in and had Jimmy pinned after an implant DDT, but Jey pulled Slater off him and out of the ring. Rhyno gave Jimmy a gore and Slater pinned him. Slater winning, thus getting his Smackdown contract, got a big pop. Slater & Rhyno did an interview after where Slater did a spoof on the normal title win interview saying this was the greatest moment of his life except for a couple of his kids being born. ***

7. A.J. Styles pinned Dean Ambrose in 24:48 to win the WWE title. The crowd was behind Styles more than Ambrose, but there were dueling chants. Ambrose set up a tope but Styles jumped in the ring and gave him a drop toe hold and Ambrose caught his neck on the bottom rope. Styles did his perfectly timed dropkick spot. Ambrose tried a German suplex but Styles landed on his feet. Ambrose did the elbow off the top rope to the floor and also got a near fall with the Dodon (called that by Mauro Ranallo, which is what the move is called in Japan). Styles escaped from Ambrose’s Dirty Deeds to set up a calf crusher. Ambrose got out of it by kicking his face over and over. Styles got it a second time and Ambrose made the ropes. Ambrose catapulted Styles into the post and used a rabbit lariat on the floor. Ambrose was selling and hobbling from the calf crusher but did a running bulldog and a La Magistral cradle for near falls. Styles came back with an Ushigoroshi for a near fall. Styles used an Argentinean backbreaker into a power bomb for a near fall, as well as a springboard 450. Ambrose came back with a neckbreaker, knees and a dropkick. Ambrose hit a tope that send Styles flying backwards over the American announcers table. Ambrose threw Styles over the barricade. He then ran across the tables and did a springboard off the barricade onto Styles. Styles hit the Pele kick but Ambrose came back with the rebound lariat. Ambrose went for Dirty Deeds, but Styles blocked and ref Mike Chioda was squashed into the turnbuckles. Styles hit a low blow and then hit the Styles Clash for the pin. The match was really good from start-to-finish, and picked up to be even better in the last few minutes. ****1/4

Randy Orton - WWE Update !!

Randy Orton suffered a concussion, which was hidden by WWE and all concerned, in his 8/21 SummerSlam match with Brock Lesnar from taking the hard elbows to the forehead that busted him up.

Orton still wasn’t able to be cleared to compete and missed his Backlash match with Bray Wyatt. He did work his first match since the injury the next night on a house show in Fairfax, VA, where he teamed with John Cena against Wyatt & Erick Rowan. But in that match, Cena did almost all the wrestling, and Orton was limited to a hot tag. Orton had his leg all taped up to sell the angle done at the PPV. He took no offensive moves from his opponents, and only took one bump. But he did deliver his RKO finisher, a relatively safe move but still a bump, both in doing a run-in at Backlash and for the finish on Wyatt in Fairfax. It is not clear if he was cleared medically to compete the next day or the decision was made, similar to the last several matches of Daniel Bryan’s career in the U.K., to just have him work a finish and do one big move. He also did only an RKO on Erick Rowan at the Smackdown tapings on 9/13 in Philadelphia.

Orton is still advertised for the 9/24 house show in Chicago with Lesnar.

This entire situation opened up a hornet’s nest of problems. The first is, with the benefit of hindsight, the decision to have Orton sit and take the live shots to the head makes no sense in this day and age. Older wrestlers will note that planned hard way juice, while not a regular occurrence, was also not a foreign concept in wrestling in another era. Usually the hard ways were more to deliver a black eye or heavy bruising that would be visual on television, giving the sense of reality to the program and for building returns. In this case, since Lesnar had no high profile dates, just the 9/24 house show in Chicago that isn’t even likely to be promoted outside the market, there was really no follow-up. If anything, it appeared the main follow-up was going to be Lesnar with Shane McMahon (which also hasn’t been mentioned in storyline on any show the past two weeks) and not with Orton. Orton did no strong promo challenging Lesnar, and if anything, treated the beating as an “Oh well,” and Lesnar hasn’t even been back on television since.

In this case, the idea was to end SummerSlam with confusion, and having people wonder what was and wasn’t real. And that goal was accomplished. Vince McMahon created a scenario where people didn’t really know what happened. Sure, deep down few thought Lesnar “shot” on Orton. It was more a question as to was Orton accidentally injured and did they stop the match early, or was that the scripted ending. And since nobody in the ring but Orton and Lesnar (and likely Paul Heyman outside it) knew the answer, the officials didn’t react in a normal fashion, leading some in the audience to wonder if something went wrong. People did leave the building confused, and a lot of them leaving the building felt they got an unsatisfying ending, although pro wrestling sometimes has to do unsatisfying endings as part of its storytelling and building future matches. Did it build Lesnar into a bigger monster? Perhaps so. It didn’t do Orton any favors, but he’s established long enough where it didn’t hurt him either.

Fans, and even media, didn’t fully understand what they had just seen because it didn’t look like standard pro wrestling. If you’re going to do blood, a blade job is safer, but it’s also harder to defend because with a blade job, the promoter ordered a guy to cut his forehead with a razor blade. While for long-time pro wrestling fans, that’s just standard for the business, for sponsors and people who aren’t fans of another era, it sounds barbaric. Yes, it is far less barbaric than what was done, but the idea was to give plausible desirability that the rare heavy blood was just an accidental of hard physical activity as opposed to something actually planned out. The idea was that only a few would know, and perhaps the only reason the full story got out was a combination of just how bloody it was, and the backstage situation with Lesnar and Chris Jericho.

But the business is filled with risky physicality. Concussions happen. Injuries are frequent. Because Orton was injured, the scenario comes across far worse than if it had gone as planned, but even as planned, the risk was very different from the usual risks of pro wrestling.

The second stage of this is impossible to defend. The WWE was aware Orton had a concussion, and covered it up. Orton, likely to protect the company, also downplayed his injuries, even to friends and co-workers who were not aware of this. He was pulled from house shows, but was at television and kept from anything physical.

However, the WWE was promoting Orton vs. Wyatt the entire time. The company knows full well that the time line for recovery from a concussion is impossible to predict. It could be a few days. It could be a few weeks. It could be a few months. There is no way to defend the company for promoting a PPV match with a concussed wrestler when they had no way at all of knowing whether he’d be able to perform. If they’d have gone on television and at least told the situation, that it’s touch and go and he’s hoping to wrestle, it would be one thing. The fact is the scenario with Wyatt vs. Kane was something planned as a backup for some time, so they were fully aware from the start. Worse, after he was checked out before Backlash that day, and it was ruled that he would not be able to do the match, the WWE not only hid that from the audience, but continued to heavily promote the match on social media hours after the reports were already out that he was off the show, as well as during the pregame show.

The storyline created was that early in the PPV, they showed Wyatt slamming a door on Orton’s ankle to injure him to where he couldn’t wrestle. Kane was the replacement. It was made into a no DQ match. At the finish, Orton showed up and delivered an RKO on Wyatt to lead to Kane getting the pin.

According to one doctor who is a concussion expert and some wrestlers who know the bump, they questioned allowing a wrestler not cleared to deliver an RKO.

Bret Hart, whose career for all real purposes ended due to a concussion, said, “Absolutely, he shouldn’t take any falls. The impact of any bump will pose problems. The brain is usually swollen and can’t be banged about.”

While WWE can defend itself for usage of the Impact testing of Dr. Joseph Maroon as its guideline, and other sports use it as well, it’s well known in football how to cheat on those tests. That’s not saying Orton did, but there may be better systems to use. A lot of that becomes political in the sense WWE’s head of medical is the guy who was at the forefront of the program they use. But it does feel like WWE may be behind on the curve on the nature of its testing. Even so, there is obviously something, if not many things wrong with how this was handled.

Orton wrestling in Fairfax the next night was strange as well, since Kane was there and ended up not wrestling. Orton could have just worked the corner, announced as being injured given they did the television injury angle the night before, and thrown a punch to lead to the finish for Cena, or done a surprise pop run-in at the end in a tag match with Cena & Kane as the team, and thrown a sucker punch with no bump as opposed to working the match, even in minimal form, and taking the RKO bump.

LUCHA UNDERGROUND RESULTS: MARTY THE MOTH VS. KILLSHOT IN A WMD MATCH !!

The show begins with a recap of Dario going to jail, getting out of jail, Famous B bringing Dr. Wagner Jr. into LU, and the Marty the Moth vs. Killshot feud.

'70s cop show music plays during the cops' meeting after Ultima Lucha Dos. Reyes and Neehan fight it out before Captain Vasqeuz tells them to knock it off.

Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Mascarita Sagrada

Famous B interrupts Melissa Santos while Nurse Brenda hops around the Surgeon of Suffering, Dr. Wagner Jr. Mascarita Sagrada comes out to finally get revenge on Famous B. Sagrada goes for a go-behind, while Wagner just casually walks around before winning with the Wagner Driver.

We get a bizarre skit where a young girl is told by her dying father that she must lead a war. He gives her an amulet that grants power to females, giving her immortality and life for 1,000 years. The medallion is cut in half and the captain has it. She tells Reyes that Dario is needed to get to the real bad guys and suspends Reyes.

Argenis vs. Mil Muertes

Argenis is mid-ring to face Mil Muertes. It's a basic cat and mouse game with Mil trying to use power, but Argenis trying to outfox him. A giant powerbomb takes Argenis down, but he gets a kick for some brief hope. A moonsault gets 1, so Mil biels him, spears him, and flatlines him to win.

Catrina does the lick of death, while Prince Puma jumps in and attacks Muertes. They brawl for a bit and Puma baseball slides him and Catrina gets Muertes to leave. 

A graphic showing "last week" leads to Dario entering his office and stroking his red bull. Joey Ryan tells him that he knows he killed Mr. Cisco, and he knows because he's a cop. He says he wants to be on the right side of the war: Dario's side. He was the only one trying to help keep Dario out of jail, unlike his partner Cortez Castro, whose cover is blown by Ryan.

Ryan says he's not doing this just for good as he's got child support to pay and hegets paid off. Captain Vasquez talks to Reyes, and he tells her he wants to be on her side in this war so he's going back to the Temple. I don't see him making it until the end of the season.

Marty The Moth vs. Killshot: Weapons of Mass Destruction Match

The Weapons of Mass Destruction match is up with a slew of weapons all over the ring and ringside area. Marty comes down in a comedic military getup before getting his ass kicked on the steps. They fight into a foxhole set up on the stage and Killshot KOs him with a heavy weapon to the face. Marty is cut open, but posts Killshot. Marty grabs Melisssa while Striker says "THAT'S A CIVILIAN, THAT'S BULLSH*T!". Killshot saves Melissa, but he gets a testicular claw.

Killshot dives out of the steps with a Thesz press to Marty on the floor. Marty responds by tossing Killshot into a series of ammo boxes before he sets up a table. Marty tries to suplex him over the top and through a table with a warhead on it, but Killshot avoids that, and winds up eating a German on the apron.

A ladder bridge is set up, but Killshot kicks Marty down. Killshot's face eats the ladder, but mid-ring, he wins the war for it and tosses Marty in the corner trapped by it. Marty aims a finger gun using his bloody hand and tells him to die. Killshot avoids a powerbomb on the ammo boxes, but he eats a spinebuster on them instead.

Marty goes up top and flaps, but gets stopped. He wins the war up top and superplexes Killshot onto the ammo boxes. Marty is sent into the ladder bridge! The double stomp off the top gets 2.5! Vamp leaves to see if one of them has died yet. Marty kicks low while Vamp does an Austin Powers impression. Marty hits a running powerbomb over the top through the table on the floor. This insanity gets 2.

Marty hops off the top, gets kicked and hit with the cradle driver for 2! Killshot sets up a table and pump kicks Marty to set up a 20 foot ladder.

Marty boots him and headbutts away to put him on a table. Marty leers at Melissa and climbs up top. Killshot climbs up too and gets mandible clawed. Mariposa comes down, but gets kicked down and goes through the table behind Killshot. Killshot grabs his balls and then his dogtags before double stomping him off the ladder through the table. This was crazy!

Muertes knocks lockers over before Catrina tells him that he will get Puma and says that patience is a virtue she knows because she has waited hundreds of years to get what she wants.

DANIEL BRYAN: 'I HONESTLY DO' HOPE TO WRESTLE AGAIN!

While making an appearance to throw out the first pitch at a Philadelphia Phillies game on Monday night, Daniel Bryan spoke to the Associated Press about his concussion history and retirement from in-ring competition earlier this year.

And as he has done in most recent interviews, Bryan once again expressed uncertainty about closing the book on his in-ring career.

"I honestly do," Bryan said about hoping to wrestle again. "All the real concussion specialists who deal with concussions every day, all of them think I am fine."

But Bryan noted that he understood why WWE wouldn’t clear him.

"You can see it from their point of view," Bryan said. "If something happens to me...and then they let me back in the ring, and something happens to me, even if these other doctors say I'm cleared, they're not the ones who the media will blame. Because concussions are such a hot topic issue and everyone's afraid of that sort of thing, that's one of the reasons why I wasn't cleared."

The AP reporter asked WWE medical director Dr. Joseph Maroon for comment, but he directed the inquiry back to WWE. 

The company's statement: "WWE determined it is not in the best interest of Bryan Danielson (aka Daniel Bryan) to continue as an in-ring performer."

Bryan said that there are times where he gets worked up and wants to call and ask for his release, and that he might have tried harder to get out of his contract and wrestle elsewhere if he didn’t have a family to look out for.

"Hell, I might even be wearing a mask at an independent show next week dressed up as Star Man," Bryan said. "Because it's what I love to do. But, it becomes different when you have a wife and you're trying to have kids."

While laughing, Bryan claimed that he wasn’t given a choice about accepting his new role as general manager of SmackDown. He said that he’s under contract so he shows up when he’s told to.

Also in the interview, Bryan seemed displeased with a recent poll that appeared on WWE.com asking fans who they would like to see him face if he could compete in one more match.

"Don't think for a second I'm not like, what are you guys doing?" Bryan said. "I know they won't let me wrestle. Nothing has changed on their end."

TJ PERKINS WINS THE CWC TO BECOME WWE CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPION

Though he's been wrestling for over 15 years, Wednesday night was almost assuredly the biggest moment in TJ Perkins' career.

Perkins capped off an eventful night by defeating Gran Metalik in the Cruiserweight Classic finals to win both the tournament and the new WWE Cruiserweight Championship. Perkins worked over Metalik's leg for most of the match, and finally made him tap out to a kneebar after countering an attempted Metalik Driver off the top rope.

Before the match began, Triple H joined both competitors in the ring and made the announcement that the winner of the match would also become the first champion of Raw's cruiserweight division.

Perkins defeated tournament favorite Kota Ibushi in the semifinals by making him tap out as well. And Metalik won his way to the finals by picking up a win over Zack Sabre Jr. in the night's opening match.

After losing in the semifinals, it seems likely that Ibushi won't be signing with WWE imminently.

Another Important TNA's Staff Member Leaves the Company !!

TNA producer Bryan Edwards announced on twitter that he is leaving after seven years with the company. He tweeted:

To all talent/crew past & present I have worked with @IMPACTWRESTLING THANK YOU truly for a productive 7 years #bestroster #bestcrew

— Bryan Edwards (@Bryan_Edwards) February 25, 2015

Bryan Edwards Started with the Company 7 Years ago as a Producer/Director for Impact Wrestling's TV Shows; he was also the Head of the Home Video Department, producing all the DVD's and V.O.D. content for TNA Wrestling.

SAMOA JOE-ROH PPV UPDATE !

Ring of Honor issued the following:

"We’re just received word that Samoa Joe will be in LIVE in Las Vegas at the Orleans Hotel & Casino this Sunday night.

He has something to say, and wants the world to hear it.

Ring of Honor's 13th ANNIVERSARY is without a doubt a must-see event! If you can't be there live, you can watch on Pay-per-View. For a list of provider click HERE.

To purchase your tickets for March 1st in Las Vegas, click HERE.

OFFICIAL WWE STATEMENT ON REY MYSTERIO !!

PWInsider.com contacted WWE regarding Rey Mysterio's status with the company as he was moved quietly to their Alumni section today.

WWE responded with the following statement:

"Rey Mysterio is no longer under contract with WWE."

So, Mysterio's long run with the company is officially over.

Backstage Problems Within the TNA Roster !

One of the reasons the frustration level is even above usual levels here is that the talent was together for the U.K. tour a few weeks ago and were talking to each other and realized that there are no house shows planned, and no PPV shows planned (past the taped ones that just took place that nobody actually buys and are only done to fulfill existing international television contracts) and since almost everyone except the few top guys are paid by appearance, there was a realization that almost everyone was going to earn substantially less in 2015.
There’s also the recognition that all TNA is doing at this point is staving off dying as opposed to before, when, whether true or not, the idea was that they were at least trying to grow.

Samoa Joe news about ROH, AAA, NJPW and WWE !!

ROH announced on 2/24 that Samoa Joe would be returning, working four dates, including the WrestleMania weekend show on 3/27 in Redwood City, CA. It’s interesting that a company clearly on a tight budget would add the expense of Joe for a show that was already sold out. They had added Jushin Liger to that show as well, but that was planned a long time back as the original idea was Liger and Tetsuya Naito (and I’d heard talk of a third New Japan guy) for Redwood City but they canceled Naito. Joe was also announced for 3/7
in Baltimore (a TV taping that also includes A.J. Styles and The Young Bucks), 3/13 in Milwaukee and 3/14 in Chicago.

The deal wasn’t agreed to until the day before, and at press time, the creative direction as far as who he is going to face and direction hasn’t been announced. While not announced yet, Joe is also booked for 4/4 in San Antonio and 4/25 in Hopkins (near Minneapolis), MN. That’s as far as the current agreement goes. It was not a done deal at press time to introduce him at the 3/1 PPV in Las Vegas, but that would make sense to put that together.

At press time we were told it’s still up in the air and was likely not to happen. Joe, the longest reigning ROH champion in history, last appeared for the promotion in 2008 when TNA and ROH had a business split and TNA would no longer let their talent work ROH shows because ROH had become a PPV promotion. Joe has also had an offer, or at least confirmed opening interest and conversation, from Lucha Underground, from AAA, and an apparently solid offer from New Japan, which may be New Japan using him outright, although we’ve been told more likely sending him to bolster NOAH at first and eventually move over. There is also what was described as active talks from WWE, which is why right now his long-term plans are very much open.

ROH in talks with TV Networks !

The company has been in preliminary talks with both AXS and Spike. I don’t know how serious either are, past the point that they, in fact, both have taken place. ROH made a pitch to AXS and I don’t know that anything happened from there, as it’s nothing anyone is talking about.

My impression is AXS is happy with New Japan. AXS, when it was HD-Net, aired ROH from 2009 to 2011, when HD-Net opted not to renew the deal. With Spike, the sides are talking right now although it’s premature to say they are serious, since key people in both companies weren’t even aware of the talks, but we have since gotten confirmation that talks are taking place.

The idea would be a Friday night show that would air about once per month, with Spike having a regular rotation of Bellator, Glory, Al Haymon’s boxing and pro wrestling. That would be a big coup for exposure, since Spike is in 83 percent of the country and Sinclair Broadcasting syndicated stations make up 37.5% of the country (ROH has a few non-Sinclair stations so they are in close to 40%).

ALL The Story About WWE's Divas Division Backstage Problems !!

Another key to this story is April Mendez, A.J. Lee, Punk’s wife and still a WWE performer under contract, who is out of action with a neck injury. Mendez was supposed to return and had been booked in a return angle and was scheduled on shows, and was supposed to return at some point soon (of course that has been the case for weeks). She is still in the Raw open. Given the situation, it will be far more difficult for her to return, and actions on 2/24 made it worse.

The company had expected her back from her neck injury for about two months.
Mendez, 27, made her role more interesting on 2/24. After Stephanie McMahon tweeted “Thank You Patty Arquette for having the courage to fight for women’s rights on such a grand platform,” in response to Arquette’s Oscar acceptance speech for winning Best Supporting Actress in the movie “Boyhood.”
Arquette said, “To every woman who gave birth to every citizen and taxpayer of this nation, we have fought for everybody else’s equal rights. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States.”
Mendez, on Twitter, called McMahon a hypocrite for her backing what Arquette said.
“Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise and have starred in the highest rated segments of the show times. And yet they receive a fraction of the wages and screen time of the majority of the male roster.”

Mendez was a strong merchandise seller when she was around, but the formula on a percentage basis for merchandise for most of the roster is the same, with a few top stars getting higher cuts. None of the women sell at anywhere close to the level of the top guys.
Women’s segments were rarely above average rated during the period I was getting segment-by-segment breakdowns, until about a year ago. That said, Mendez was working key segments with people like Daniel Bryan, Kane and C.M. Punk and some main event segments that did very well. Actually, in TNA, there was a period where the women were in the highest rated segment of the show most of the time, and far more than the high paid stars like Sting, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, Jeff Hardy or even Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair. None of the women earned anything close to what the male stars earned, and only a few times were they put in the main event segment even though they consistently outdrew the main event segment.

As a general rule in WWE, and of course there are exceptions, the women are paid significantly less than the men at similar levels, and obviously when it comes to match time, that’s an indisputable point. In NXT, that isn’t the case. I was told that the women in NXT actually, as a general rule, make more than the men, because so many of the men came from indie backgrounds and are willing to come in at any price to be in WWE. The women, many
of who came from modeling, like the male athletes with backgrounds, are paid better for the most part, with the idea that the women need to earn at a certain level to maintain the kind of looks the WWE wants their women to have.

But the problem as much as time is also the portrayal. On the main roster, they are portrayed not as athletes, fighters, talented technical wrestlers or brawlers, or even women with serious issues with each other. Their storyline issues are generally more shallow and childish. While it’s not 100% sex objects as in the bra and panties days, the women are still there more as sex objects and less as wrestlers, athletes and true superstars than the men are.
Their role is to wrestle in provocative outfits and for the most part their worth is based on their looks far more than the men. No man could have gotten out of developmental with the skill set of Rosa Mendes, Cameron or Eva Marie. There is no argument about equality in portrayal or money that can defend the company on this one other than it is what the wrestling business has always been.
While it is about looks for men to a degree, you will never see an unattractive woman with a bad genetic body, no matter how talented they are technically, in a WWE ring. Sara Amato, who trains the women in NXT, I would not call unattractive at all, yet she was deemed not attractive enough to be anything but be a trainer, even though she was a more talented wrestler than almost all on the roster. Melissa Anderson is probably the furthest thing from unattractive, yet she never did nor is she likely to ever get a WWE look and it was said to be because she didn’t have the right look. One woman who was cut by WWE, and ended up having a successful long career in TNA, said she was told when released by John Laurinaitis, even though she was doing well as a wrestler, that, “We’re looking for tens and you’re not that.” Others at the recruiting level were told that while WWE no longer would allow their performers to pose in Playboy, what they are mainly looking for is women physically attractive enough to do so.
They had done angles in the past to portray Molly Holly as fat, Mickie James as fat, and Natalya and Gail Kim as unattractive.

But where we are now is a big improvement from ten years ago, but yeah, Stephanie McMahon was really asking for it not to have the perspective to the can of worms she was opening up. While they expect none of the talent to have the guts, or stupidity, or whatever you want to say, to criticize them, it’s not as if people aren’t starting to talk due to the jealousy by the main roster stars of the praise that the women in NXT have gotten because they are portrayed more athletically, put in consistent real semi-mains on big shows, and are allowed time for their matches.
It’s the whole WWE main roster vs. NXT women’s portrayal that has become a hot topic the past few weeks. Given those portrayals, Stephanie did completely open herself up by giving that response to Arquette. But who would have thought any of the women would dare do it? But one of them did.
And by doing so, I guess that tells where she is mentally about WWE right now.
The story, once USA Today picked it up, caused the twitter of Vince McMahon to respond, saying, “We hear you. Keep watching,” with the hashtag of “Give Divas a chance.”
Stephanie responded in very un-McMahon after a public attack like fashion, writing to Lee, “Thank you. I appreciate your opinion.”
Clearly, she had no other way to respond past ignoring everything, because any kind of a defense would open the story up more and bury her and the company, and the story had gotten too big to do that.

One person familiar with the situation as it was going down said Mendez wrote what she did on her own, it wasn’t an angle and the company was completely blind sided by it. Stephanie was absolutely furious at being shown up and made to look bad by one of their own employees, but that seeing the big picture, Vince McMahon ordered Stephanie to respond in the way she did. The only thing the company could do under the circumstances was to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible, because stories about unequal treatment of women starting to get out are can’t wins, similar to the company’s quick attempts of late to quell charges about being racist to Latinos.
It’s also notable that it makes twice that talent has complained publicly and not gotten the burial treatment in response. Darren Young, who hadn’t been used, who was brought back to TV although his push with the recreating of the Prime Time Players has every fingerprint of every three week and forget push. This came off his complaints about WWE running shows last week in Abu Dhabi due to how that country treats women and homosexuals. He was ordered to take the tweets down, however. Lee did not take her tweets down.
This was a contrast from the day when Steve Austin complained about bad creative, and then was booked to lose to Brock Lesnar on Raw with no build-up when Lesnar was still climbing the ladder. Well, that didn’t work out well for anyone.


Like I wrote a few weeks ago, they’ve got three ways to play this. They can make an overt break from the past, make it clear, tell people it’s coming, get rid of certain talent and bring up the NXT talent and make those who can go the focal point in longer matches. If they do that in one fell swoop and stick to their guns, it may or may not be a success. It’s a success in NXT, but NXT is a terrible lab for ideas because the audience make-up is so much smaller and more narrow than what WWE needs. But that doesn’t mean it will fail on the main roster. Athletic women’s wrestling in Japan in the late 70s and early 80s was far bigger on Japanese television then the Attitude Era Monday Night Wars were on U.S. television. But what works in a different culture isn’t guaranteed to work here either. And while that style of wrestling still exists in Japan, it is not very popular today, as, like everything, it’s heyday was largely based on being on network television in strong time slots, and when it could no longer do network caliber numbers, Japan doesn’t have hundreds of secondary channels that still do good numbers that an entertainment form can be built off.
They can do a slow change, something Paul Levesque talked about having to do, when talking about the world changing and Ronda Rousey’s appeal. The problem is, there was no slow change involving Rousey. Dana White went 100 miles an hour shoving her down people’s throats, and quite frankly, opened himself and herself up to the idea of a huge failure. And plenty of people were wishing for that to happen.
Or they can keep doing what their vision of wrestling is, maybe do some lip service, make some slight tweaks, humor the audience, but until you see a woman’s match in a similar spot on a WWE house show or PPV show that it is on an NXT show, then it’s really lip service.
And quite frankly, it could fail. Vince tried with Wendi Richter and Alundra Blayze to make women pro wrestling superstars and both were major failures. It wasn’t the push in either case, it was the public not accepting the push. At the same time, in the 40s and into the early 50s, at a time when promoters lived and died based on weekly box office, women headlined all the time everywhere because the top ones, if not overused, could outdraw the men. I’ve seen weekly dockets from strong wrestling cities where women headlined all the time, and Mildred Burke was treated in the promotional material with equal reverence to Lou Thesz.
Times change and the only way to know what will happen now is to legitimately test it out.
What we do know is the current method of portrayal of the women comes across as a time filler. The angles are usually bad. The matches are rushed.

Some of the women pushed are not very good, and a few are better than they are given the chance to show. When they get to the big show, based on the portrayal on TV, their angles aren’t over. People then see their matches as filler between the important stuff and they don’t get a lot of reaction. Unless there is a marked change in portrayal that is made a big deal of and is based around featuring a lot of talent that hasn’t been on the main roster in the key spots, the current system will continue.
Is it possible the current audience will never accept anything else? Yes. At the same time, everything so many said about what the UFC audience would buy or accept turned out to be false.
In the end, the UFC fan base has reacted much like the NXT audience. The sex of the competitors isn’t very important. If the match is exciting, the fans like it a lot. If it’s no good, the reaction is the same as a men’s match that isn’t any good. The title is over and it draws, but that’s more due to the superstar who holds it than the belt itself.

Carla Esparza has a belt and she’s not going to draw with it, and people aren’t going to care a lot about her fights. Miesha Tate just set a prelims viewership record with Sara McMann. Ronda Rousey would draw equal to any man in the company if she had the same caliber of opponents, and even without them, outdraws the heavyweight champion and most of the other champions.
Brooks, who has been quiet since the lawsuit, and I presume he will remain so on the subject until it is settled, did back his wife with a remark saying right after, when someone wrote “Your wife is pretty rad,” from the remarks, he responded back, “Yes I am aware. I should totally marry her.”

Complete Story Behind WWE's Dr.Amann Lawsuit Against CM Punk !!

Dr. Christopher Amann, a part of the WWE medical team, filed suit on 2/18 in Cook County (IL) Circuit court against Philip Jack Brooks (C.M. Punk) and Scott Colton (Colt Cabana) for their comments about him on Colton’s “Art of Wrestling” podcast in November.
Amann, who lives in Libertyville, IL, was hired by WWE in 2010. He claimed the statements on the podcast by Brooks and Colton were “false, defamatory and put him in a false light by improperly insinuating a lack of integrity and/or inability or lack of competence to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor.”

The lawsuit is largely based on Brooks claiming Amann misdiagnosed a growth on his back, refused to remove it when asked, and Brooks claimed the growth, which ended up the size of a baseball, was purple, and ended up being diagnosed by another doctor as a life-threatening MSRA staph infection.
Amann is seeking more than $2 million in compensatory damages, plus an undetermined amount of punitive damages.
Brooks, on the podcast released on 11/26, said Amann had misdiagnosed the growth as fatty tissue and given him antibiotics for it. The lawsuit contained a transcript of the entire long story told by Brooks about the diagnosis, antibiotics, having constant diarrhea before leaving the company, and having another doctor look at the growth and tell him it was MSRA staph that he could have died from.

Amann, who was given clearance by WWE to file the lawsuit against Brooks, claimed Brooks’ entire story was fabricated, that Brooks never told him about any growth, and never showed him the lump, and that he never made any diagnosis on it.
While Brooks’ charges against Amann were the most serious part of his podcast interview, most of the media coverage coming out of it centered around his claim, that Vince McMahon later admitted was true in an interview with Steve Austin, that WWE fired Punk via Fed Ex on his wedding day. McMahon stated, however, that it was just coincidental that legal sent out the letter the day before. Brooks said he didn’t believe that at all.
Brooks had said he had suffered a concussion in a late 2013 match with Luke Harper, and then went on the November European tour. He blamed that on himself, but said he was either throwing up or dry heaving after every match. He said he had no appetite and couldn’t train and that the doctor gave him a Z-pac (antibiotics) and he took so many that one night on Smackdown he shit his pants.
He said that he had a lump on his back, went to the doctor, who said it was a fatty deposit. Brooks said he asked the doctor to remove it, but the doctor didn’t, which Brooks said was because he was lazy, and instead prescribed him even stronger antibiotics. He said this made him feel even worse and had diarrhea for three weeks.


He then claimed in the Royal Rumble that Kofi Kingston hit him with a clothesline and he suffered a concussion and motioned to the doctor, and the doctor said, “What do you want me to do?” Brooks claimed he said, “You are the most useless fucking doctor in the whole world.” He said after the Royal Rumble, he wanted the growth cut out because it was green and he had a fever for weeks, but Amann wouldn’t do it.
He said that eventually another doctor, claimed to be a doctor his wife knew in Tampa, diagnosed his growth as an MSRA staph infection in around mid-February (I was told this was within days in either direction of 2/7), and he got the lump cut out of his back (this was about two weeks after he left WWE) and said it was the worst pain he had ever felt in his life.
Amann claimed in the lawsuit that the entire story was false.
The lawsuit stated, “Amann was not requested by Brooks to treat and/or excise a lump, let alone a purple, baseball-sized lump.”
The WWE followed up with a release the day after the suit was filed, saying that the company had performed an investigation of the situation.
“In light of C.M. Punk’s allegations regarding WWE’s medical staff and the subsequent defamation lawsuit filed by Dr. Amann against C.M. Punk, WWE continues to have the utmost confidence in the ability and expertise of our world-class team of physicians, including Dr. Amann.
“C.M. Punk claimed this past November that during the Royal Rumble pay-per-view event on January 26, 2014, he performed with a baseball-sized purple lump on his back located near the waistband of his tights.


WWE’s investigation has shown the following:
*C.M. Punk did not discuss this alleged condition with WWE’s team of physicians and trainers, nor did he discuss it with anyone in our Talent Relations department.
*Subsequently, WWE has no medical records documenting this alleged condition.
*The first time WWE was made aware of this alleged condition was when we received a letter from C.M. Punk’s attorney on August 22, 2014, after WWE terminated his contract.
*There is clear video evidence from the 2014 Royal Rumble, which allows all to decide whether there is any appearance of a baseball-sized growth on C.M. Punk’s back.”
WWE supplied certain clips and closeups of Punk’s back in several different periods of the match and there is nothing large enough to be noticed. If there was a lump and infection, it was not anywhere close to the size of a baseball, or even a golf ball. However, Punk has in public on a few occasions shown his back, and there is a spot just under what would be the waist band of the trunks where there is a small indentation of where it would appear something was cut out. In addition, there are photos from a prior match with Ryback in September 2013 that may indicate a lump in the same spot where the growth was removed.
Punk also at one point tweeted at the time that he had shit his pants on December 3, 2013, at a Smackdown taping, but WWE made him take down the tweet. So at least the story of that happening was not something he made up on the Cabana show but something there is evidence he talked about when it happened.


Two days before the Royal Rumble 2014, or three days before he walked out, at a Wizard World convention in Portland, OR, he said, “Right now, I feel a lot better than I have. There was the three months there, for a while, where I felt really, really horrible. And then we were trying to figure out what was wrong. And I think I was literally getting an MRI a week, and blood work, all this stuff, to just try to narrow down exactly what was wrong with me.”
The argument isn’t that there was or wasn’t a lump or infection that was removed. There was. The argument is whether Punk had any interaction with the WWE medical staff. That’s an open-and-shut yes-or-no question, but at this point it isn’t clear, nor is there any real evidence, which side is telling the truth and which side made a story up. It may end up complicated and there is almost certainly far more to this than meets the eye, but ultimately, that’s what the case is about.
Amann also said that he followed proper protocol during the Royal Rumble by telling Brooks to leave the ring after a preliminary diagnosis of a possible concussion and requested further evaluation and treatment afterwards in the training room. Brooks didn’t leave the ring and worked exactly how things were scripted for him even though WWE sent out Kane to eliminate him in an audible early and Kane had to stay at ringside for a long time because Punk had refused to go out early.
Amann alleged Colton helped Brooks falsely depict Amann as a lazy and bad doctor and that they “knowingly fabricated the false and disparaging statements,” about him, and that the show was streamed more than 1 million times on YouTube and reported on by several media outlets.
Amann said the statements made by Colton and Brooks “are highly offensive in that they accuse (Amann) of gross lack of integrity as a medical doctor, an inability to perform his professional duties as a medical doctor, and in placing the financial interest of his employer above life-threatening health conditions of his patients.”

Proving whether Amann examined or didn’t examine a lump could be in question based on how records are kept, although one would think, for legal reasons, WWE doctors would be expected to keep very thorough records
It also brings up the strange and awkward Michael Landsberg interview, where Landsberg brought up Punk had complained about his medical care in WWE, and Punk annoyingly blew off the question. While the tabloid media concentrated on the story of him being fired on his wedding day, which Vince McMahon admitted was true and a mistake, the real story out of the interview were the medical treatment claims and business interactions he described.
That said, going after Colton in the lawsuit is a low move, even though a lawyer would recommend it because if Brooks slandered him, Colton can be held accountable because he provided the outlet. Colton was just the guy hosting the podcast, but from a legal standpoint, he has control over its content, booked Brooks as a guest and may have known what Brooks was likely to say without ever trying to reign him in or give a different perspective.
You could do it legally, of course, and if this was a large broadcasting company that aired the interview, it would be an accepted part of the suit. But in the real world, Colton is a guy squeaking out making a living wearing different hats, and while he provided a forum for his friend, and you can make a legal argument against him, the act of going after him is so clearly a low-rent move. He obviously doesn’t have the money to fight this kind of a high-priced attorney suit (whether he’ll get covered or not is immaterial). He never went after Amann in any kind of a malicious form past reaction to what Brooks said. The key here is that they may have thought Brooks may blow it off, but his sense of being Colton’s best friend, that by naming Colton in the suit, he would be under more pressure to settle. It’s not unexpected to do so, but in my mind it changes this from a battle to see who is telling the truth to simply lawyers playing lawyer games and whatever the truth is far less important than pressure games. Then again, that is what a high-level lawsuit is about. If Amann is out with a balls-to-the-wall lawsuit trying to use every psychological tactic to make Brooks’ life miserable, of course that is one of them and it makes sense from a legal situation. But if Amann is out there simply to right his reputation, he could have handled it with more class, and that isn’t saying he wasn’t wronged and doesn’t deserve his name cleared.

At the end of the day, my thought is that this is not so much financial, because it will be next to impossible to prove that Brooks’ allegations against Amann cost him any money–since WWE never dropped him. The object is more to get Punk to settle and publicly apologize for what he said, or for WWE to get a public “win” over Punk because Punk bettered them badly in round one in the court of public opinion, and then waltzed over to the company they are most compared to and most paranoid about those comparisons with.
If he apologized for anything about the Amman story, the WWE could take it as a victory and throw into question everything he said about Paul Levesque, which is the real key to all this. Brooks painted Levesque as someone incompetent at his job, who couldn’t even remember basic dates of tours that anyone in wrestling would know without thinking. He also painted McMahon as an out-of-touch old man. Whether his stories were real or not, or exaggerated, since both of them are clearly public figures, them suing over those statements would both be difficult, time-consuming and in the end, viewed negatively.

In addition, there is the question of whether or not Amann is a public figure, particularly since on many occasions, including this week’s NXT broadcast, he was playing the role of a doctor giving diagnosis’ for injuries that never happened. By that standard, he is both a doctor and an entertainer playing the role of a doctor, which could change aspects of burden of proof and him being a public figure. As a public figure, he would had to prove that Punk not only lied but did so with malice or reckless disregard for the truth, a higher standard than if Amann was just an anonymous doctor. That’s what makes his performance on this week’s NXT show so strange in hindsight. Amann was doing a made-up television diagnosis as a performer, and one which made him seem like an questionable doctor since he stopped a match due to a concussion on Wednesday and then allowed Sami Zayn to fly to Abu Dhabi to wrestle the next day because Zayn wanted to do so, a television version of what Punk had ridiculed. Since WWE worked with Amann in the suit, and whether they are really the ones behind it or simply just signed off and allowed him to do it depends on who you talk to, them putting him in television the very week the suit got filed in a situation that changes the burden of proof in a case, particularly for an angle that was a bad idea to begin with, is so weird.
The key is that a basically true story with some exaggeration of it is not going to be enough to win the case. But either way, there should be some medical records, as far as dispensation or prescriptions for antibiotics that are either there or not.

If he went on a television show as an entertainer, in the role of portraying a doctor, and publicly gave diagnoses for injuries that never happened, which he has also done for worked WWE television injuries in statements on television and on the web site, it becomes a confusing issue regarding exactly what his public reputation really is, in the sense if a guy who makes up a medical story on television or on the web site is suing a wrestler for claiming he made up a story, that’s where the TV portrayal of Amann muddies the waters. The key is that it’s not a defense for Brooks for lying or absolving him of some penalties if he did so, but as far as damage to reputation and financial loss, it confuses the issue.
That said, Ryback claimed that Punk made up their entire confrontation story during an interview on Chris Jericho’s podcast. Jericho himself also claimed Punk didn’t tell the truth about his attempts to contact Punk during the period after he left the company. On the flip side, there is clear proof that Ryback did drop Punk wrong on a slam that was supposed to be through a table on the floor that completely missed the table and he was injured. And to an extent, Punk used Jericho as a metaphor for a lot of wrestlers who tried to contact him after he disappeared that he never called back. Punk absolutely spoke to his closest friends, and I know of one wrestler who he had a lengthy conversation with about the wrestlers’ issues with the company, but there were also a number of very well known guys who tried to check on him and he ignored them. Perhaps he knew it was going to end up as a legal issue and cut his contacts down to those he was sure he could trust.
There were stories he told on that podcast about his verbal interaction with both Vince McMahon and Paul Levesque that I found difficult to believe in the way he told them, because of timing issues with the McMahon story and because I really don’t want to believe Levesque is as completely incompetent at his job and/or so arrogant about his position to insist being clearly wrong isn’t wrong as Punk described both. That said, he could just as easily have been telling the truth and this legal action isn’t about those conversations.

Tweets Exchange Between AJ Lee and Stephanie McMahon !

In case you missed it earlier, AJ wrote the following tonight:

RT @StephMcMahon: Thank You @PattyArquette for having the courage to fight for #WomensRights on such a grand platform. #UseYourVoice
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015



@StephMcMahon Your female wrestlers have record selling merchandise & have starred in the highest rated segment of the show several times,
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015



@StephMcMahon And yet they receive a fraction of the wages & screen time of the majority of the male roster. #UseYourVoice
— A.J. (@WWEAJLee) February 25, 2015

Stephanie McMahon tweeted the following tonight in response to AJ Lee:


Thank you @WWEAJLee, I appreciate your opinion. #UseYourVoice
— Stephanie McMahon (@StephMcMahon) February 25, 2015

Latest News on the Brock Lesnar-WWE Altercation !

We noted earlier that WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar was backstage at last night's RAW in Nashville but not used. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter noted that there was more to the story than Lesnar just not being used.

PWInsider reports that Lesnar flew on his private plane to Nashville for RAW earlier in the day on Monday, so he was there.

According to people backstage at RAW, Lesnar was visibly angry about something and one source claimed he walked out of RAW before it ended.

Word is that something happened between Lesnar and WWE but it was not creative related, but something to do with their business relationship. Vince McMahon acknowledged the issue with Lesnar during a SmackDown production meeting this afternoon but did not elaborate on the issue.

Lesnar has already returned home and is not at SmackDown. 

Update:

As noted earlier, WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar was at last night's WWE RAW in Nashville, TN, but was not used. Lesnar had been advertised for the show for awhile, and WWE.com even issued a "Breaking News" alert on their website before the show went on the air stating that Lesnar would be on the show.

Dave Meltzer noted on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio that there was "more to the story," although he doesn't know what the story is.

"The story is ongoing and still in progress," Meltzer said. "I don't think anyone wants it out until whatever it is is settled... But something happened, but what that is, I do not know."



Meltzer also noted that he doesn't think that the WrestleMania main event is in jeopardy at all, but that there "is an unanswered question, and I don't know what it is right now."

Interesting Tweets Exchange between Former WWE's CM Punk and Former TNA's Samoa Joe !!

- Former rivals and friends CM Punk & Samoa Joe had an exchange on Twitter last night, leading fans to speculate that we may see them wrestle one more match together down the line.

WWE Interested in Samoa Joe !?

I can confirm that there is at least a good amount of interest from Triple H in giving Samoa Joe a look. I've been told that Triple H is interested in giving Joe a run in NXT. Vince McMahon is however not so interested, but there might be a push within the next few weeks at giving Joe at least a tryout run. I haven't received word if Joe is even interested in coming to WWE / NXT.

Spoiler: WWE NXT Taping - Full Sail,Florida, Owens vs. Balor, Zayn vs. Rhino !!

By Andres Santiago on 2015-02-19 02:21:59

Pre-Show Dark Match

- The Mechanics (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) vs The Vaudevillians

The Vaudevillians won after a European Uppercut / Neckbreaker combination on Dawson.

Episode airing March 18, 2015

Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:

- Finn Bàlor vs Tye Dillinger

Bàlor won with the Coup de Grâce. 

After the match, Breeze appeared on screen. He said that Bàlor was just the flavor of the month and that he will soon "meet someone who's been dominating NXT, Prince Pretty". 

Match 2:

- Bayley vs Becky Lynch vs Charlotte - Number One Contendership Match

Becky pinned Bayley while Bayley was trapped in a bridged back Figure Four by Charlotte.

Match 3:

- CJ Parker vs Hideo Itami

Itami won by pinfall following a sequence of the KENTA combo, multiple Roundhouse Kicks, the Hesitation Dropkick and a Running Single-Leg Dropkick. 

Match 4:

- Rhyno vs Jesus de Leon 

Rhyno quickly won with the Gore.

Match 5:

- Alex Riley vs Kevin Owens 

Owens won with a pop up powerbomb.

After the match, Owens attempted to powerbomb Riley onto the ring apron, but Sami Zayn ran out and stopped him. They had a brief brawl that was broken up by a plethora of refs and wrestlers. At one point, Zayn hit a dive from the top rope to the floor, onto Owens and all of the others who were trying to break them up. 

Episode airing March 25, 2015

Commentary Team: Rich Brennan and Corey Graves 

Match 1:

- Tye Dillinger vs Jason Jordan

Jordan won with a Half-Nelson Pump Handle Suplex. 

Match 2:

- Bayley vs Emma 

Bayley won by pinfall. Emma was doing her dance during a pin attempt, which allowed Bayley to get her legs up and reverse it for the victory. 

Match 3:

- NXT Tag Team Champions Blake & Murphy vs Lucha Dragons 

Blake & Murphy won after Sin Cara was hit with a suplex by Murphy and a Frog Splash by Blake. 

Sami Zayn came down to the ring to speak about his absence since Takeover: Rival. He said that it's good to be back and acknowledged that many knew he was overseas in Abu Dhabi. He said that the timing of the tour was interesting. He felt that he should have been thinking about how great it was to be there and to wrestle in front of his people. However, all he could think about was Kevin Owens. Owens is a different guy now, and not just because he is more experienced in the ring. He has changed from the guy Zayn faced over the past ten years. Zayn has had some time to think and formulate a plan. He will use his rematch to win back his championship, but his number one priority is to kick Kevin Owens' ass.

Match 4:

- Rhyno vs Unnamed Wrestler 

Rhyno won with two moves: A belly-to-belly suplex and The Gore. 

After the match, Rhyno cut a promo about how he came to NXT to make a statement and for the NXT Championship. He said that it doesn't matter if it is Sami Zayn, Finn Bàlor or Kevin Owens, anyone who gets in his way will be ripped in half with a Gore. 

Match 5:  

- Two out of Three Falls Match: Tyler Breeze vs Hideo Itami 

Fall One: Itami won with the Running Single-Leg Dropkick. 

Fall Two: After the first fall, Breeze was down in the corner. He played possum as the ref stopped Itami from attacking him a few times. As soon as he got up, he hit the Beauty Shot to capture the second fall. 

Fall Three: Breeze won the final fall with the Beauty Shot, following a sequence of both men reversing each others big moves. 

Episode airing April 01, 2015

Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:

- CJ Parker vs Solomon Crowe 

Crowe won by submission with the Stretch Muffler. 

After the match, Crowe took the microphone and said "Stay tuned because the real show is just beginning... and now I return you to your regularly scheduled programming." 

Match 2:

- Baron Corbin vs Steve Cutler

Corbin quickly won with the End of Days. 

Match 3:

- Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady w/ Carmella vs Shoot Nation ( Angelo Dawkins & Sawyer Fulton) 

Enzo pinned Dawkins after an East River Crossing by Cassady and a Rocket Launcher double team.

Before the match, Amore and Cassady cut a promo about how they will be the next NXT Tag Team Champions. 

During the match, Blake & Murphy came out to give flowers to Carmella. 

After the match, Amore and Cassady argued with Carmella about her taking the flowers.

Match 4:

- Blue Pants vs Dana Brooke 

Brooke won with a Michinoku Driver. 

Match 5:

- Sami Zayn vs Rhyno 

Zayn won with the Helluva Kick.  

Episode airing April 08, 2015

Commentary Team: Rich Brennan, Jason Albert, Corey Graves 

Match 1:

- NXT Women's Championship Match: NXT Women's Champion  Sasha Banks vs Alexa Bliss

Banks won by submission with the Bank Statement. 

Match 2:

-   NXT Championship Match: NXT Champion Kevin Owens vs Finn Bàlor 

Owens won with a pop up powerbomb. 

News / Notes

- The next taping will be on Thursday, April 23rd. 

- The shows may have been filmed out of order, as I suspect that the final episode taped may get moved up into the March 25th slot. If so, that would explain why it only had the two championship matches, since all of the non-Raw shows tend to be shorter during WrestleMania week. 

- Considering that they only taped enough episodes to go up to April 8th, I wouldn't be surprised if a few episodes are filmed at their Ohio shows in March or during WrestleMania weekend. 

- Make sure to not miss Zayn-Rhyno and Owens-Bàlor. Both were fantastic matches. 

- Owens-Bàlor was given a ton of time to develop and tell it's story. The only thing separating it from a Takeover main event was that Bàlor didn't don the bodypaint.

- The crowd was confused as to why Alexa Bliss was facing Sasha Banks instead of Becky Lynch. 

- Other than Sami Zayn, the wrestlers that Rhyno and Baron Corbin faced were not given ring introductions. 

- Tye Dillinger had new music. 

- Before the taping started, William Regal came out and thanked the fans for all the support and helping the NXT brand grow. He mentioned how big it will be to bring NXT on the road to the shows in Ohio and ran down some of the main events of the night. 

Lucha Underground TV Report 2-18-15

By Jeremy Peeples/@Jeremy_Peeples 

 Setting the Stage

 Last week, Big Ryck cut a promo in a confessional swearing vengeance on the Crew and debuting a new eye patch. He's coming to kick a bunch of ass and it should be a lot of fun. Alberto El Patron debuted as well, and got the biggest reaction in the history of his show. He came off like a megastar here and they went with a completely different lighting setup that really helped his promo stand out that was further helped by this being his best promo yet. Texano Jr debuted during this by attacking him and they're taking the AAA Mega World title feud to America.

The show begins recapping Ryck's promo and his history with the Crew and then a rundown of the Fenix-Mil Muertes feud over Catrina. Black Lotus's issue with Matunza is touched on, and the video closes with Texano's attack on Alberto. After about a month of being in 4:3, the show returns to being in letterboxed widescreen. Mariachi El Bronx plays us in while Striker says that the temple is buzzing, complete with a bee buzzing effect and we'll get bookend main events with Muetes facing Chavo to start the show. Muertes comes down without Catrina, resulting in a "Where's Catrina?" chant. Chavo comes down and gets booed.

Match 1 - Mil Muertes vs. Chavo Guerrero Jr.

Striker calls this a battle of size versus Chavo's Guerrero-ness, so whatever that is, this is a battle of it. Chavo sends Muertes to the floor and baseball slides him, but Muertes chucks him into the steps and then presses him into the ring. Chavo cheapshots him with an eye poke and then dives onto him. Muertes no-sells a punch on the apron and Chavo knows he's in trouble, so he goes for the knee with a dropkick and kicks on the mat. Chavo hops over the rope to attack the knee and Vamp says it's very much like Hector, his uncle, who is older, wiser, but just as ugly. Chavo crotches him on the post and Vamp says it's like his father. Muertes grabs him and punches his - he's got the best punches on TV right now. Chavo tosses Muertes to the floor and Catrina appears on the top of the steps and gets a chant. Chavo goes for the mask on top of Muertes's shoulders, but he gets electric chaired and they talk about how the loss of Catrina has hurt Muertes. Chavo misses a corner charge and eats another punch. Big lariat hits and Chavo gets tossed tot he floor after avoiding a Flatliner.  

Catrina has Mil's stone, distracting him, while Chavo gets a chair. Chair to the back gets no reaction, and he punches the chair into Chavo's face, then hits the flatliner onto the chair. He wants her to give Chavo the lick of death, and Striker calls her the leather-laden licker. Striker says it's alluring him to see Catrina avoid the kiss, and then Mil pushes her head into the position, she refuses and he grabs her throat and sets up a flatiner, leading to Fenix coming down for the save and a French kiss with Catrina. I'm not sure what the exact deal is in this since Mil kind of turned face, but he also tried to attack Catrina, which would seem like a heel move. Black Lotus is in her black catsuit unlocking the door to the area that Dario's monster has been held in.

We return to the Temple with Cueto talking to the Crew. Thank God they finally have jerseys with their names on them. He praises them for blinding Ryck with the bright light of their talents and will reward them with a main event spot tonight in a trios match and he wants them to take out their opponents tonight - Pimpi, Sexy Star, and Mascarita Sagrada. Their job is simply to hurt them so much that they don't come back. We go to the ring with Son of Havoc and Ivelisse mid-ring with a mic and new gold chainmail over her biker shorts. Ivelisse says that since Havoc's losing week after week, she'll handle Havoc's battle for him. Oh snap. Angelico comes down while Striker and Vamp talk about how she's basically neutering him.

Match 2 - Ivelisse vs. Angelico

Ivie goes for some kicks to the legs and then she eats a drop toehold. She tries to sweep the leg and he avoids it. He avoids all contact that doesn't involve him catching her and being silly, so she kicks his chest. He puts a hand behind his back, and she responds by slapping his face off the top and then hitting a flying rana. Now he's ready to fight, but she knows he's vulnerable, so she lures him into a false sense of security and kicks him. Angelico hits a flapjack which Striker calls a $12,000 fall and Havoc snaps the neck to result in him falling over in a schoolboy position and her winning. Angelico says he wants to go one on one with her again, without Havoc around and he quickly grabs her and takes her to the back. This was different and set up a future serious match between Angelico and Ivelisse. They recap the Alberto-Texano issue setting up Texano's debut match here next.

Match 3 - Super Fly vs. Texano Jr

We return to the Temple with Super Fly mid-ring and then Texano comes out from the back with his full cowboy getup. Striker cuts to an interview Vamp did with Texano with Vamp saying Texano's the former champ, and we see clips of him dominating AAA over the course of his two year title reign, and then Alberto beating him and him beating up Alberto with his bullrope. Texano says he's going to take his title back and make Alberto prove himself here. This was the first all-Spanish interview we've had on the U.S. version, and it was interesting to see. Texano takes Fly down and gets  quick 1, but traps him in the corner for chops. Fly gets a chop mid-ring and then misses a crossbody before eating a big legdrop for 2. Death valley driver into a neckbreaker gets the win. Texano stands over Fly while the crowd chants for Alberto. Alberto comes down and Texano runs away strategically to attack him on the floor. Alberto chcuks him into the barricade and his some kneeling punches before getting his bullrope and whipping him here just like Texano did to him. I love this - we're seeing the story play out here between two shows, and it's pretty cool. Texano escapes and Alberto uses the rope to avoid the security team while Striker talks about the AAA Title being defended here in Lucha Underground and the main event being up next. 

 We return to the Temple with Cueto in his office and Cage coming in his with the destroyed belt around his neck demanding to be called champion. Cueto says that he wants Cage as champion, but he lost - next week, he'll face Puma in a non-title match and a win there gets him a title match. Cage tosses the belt onto his desk. Chavo comes in and says he's quitting to go home to his family, resulting in Cueto wishing him the best in his future endeavors and Chavo leaving angrily. Chavo's acting here was terrible. Black Lotus meets with Matunza and says she wants to kill him with her bare hands. After a break, The Crew is mid-ring before the faces come down. Sexy Star has new bright pink boxing shorts and Striker says that if you're into any of the wacky babyfaces, there's an app for that.

Match 4 - The Crew vs. Sexy Star, Pimpinella Escarlata, and Mascarita Sagrada

Bael tosses Sexy to the floor while Pimpi goes for a kiss with Cisco. Pimpi gets caned by Castro and choked with it. Pimpi is taken out with the choke. Sagrada eats a big boot from Cisco, but he gets the flying rana. He kicks the leg and gets an iffy tilt a whirl armdrag sending them tot he floor. Cisco hits an apron powerbomb to Sagrada. Sexy's ready to fight and chops Cisco before eating a big kick. Bael hits a death valley driver onto Sagrada before they do a chair-assisted curb stomp onto him. It's down to Sexy against three men, two try to trap her on the floor and she runs in and slaps Cisco. Castro gets armdraggd and Cisco gets low-blowed. Tornado DDT to the floor from Sexy leads to Cisco coming in and grabbing her, but she fights back. She gets a sloppy swinging fisherman's neckbreaker. Sexy hits some slaps to Cisco up top, going for a rana and teasing a superbomb before getting the rana for 2. The group gets her mid-ring and stomps her down. Big Ryck comes down clean-shaven in nice jeans distracting Cisco, who eats a running rolling cradle and loses! Ryck and Sexy celebrate mid-ring, and Sexy looks like a total badass emerging victorious here with a busted-up lip. This wasn't the best show bell-to-bell, but it each match was either fun to watch or furthered the story, and they've reshuffled the deck a bit losing Chavo at least temporarily while gaining Texano and Alberto.