NEWS (10/11)

· Happy Birthday to Rhea Ripley!

LOTS OF NEWS SHARED ON TWITTER FROM “WON”

· The Rock has told WWE he is NOT available for WM 41.

· Backstage and at ringside during the CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre Hell in a Cell match, there was panic over how severe McIntyre’s wound was. He was bleeding heavily, and it wouldn’t stop. Initially, they considered having a doctor enter the cage to control the bleeding, but ultimately decided against it since it was a Hell in a Cell match. They wanted to wipe the blood off him with a towel. McIntyre basically took control and said that if he felt woozy he would give them the word and they would go right to the finish. While he took a hard shot, he showed no signs of a concussion, they proceeded as planned with no issues and he was very aware of what was going on and in control at all times.

· It’s far from a done deal, but within Peacock there is the feeling that in early 2026, when the WWE’s streaming contract expires, that WWE will move everything to Netflix.

· NXT will move to Wednesday on November 6 due to Election night, causing a head-to-head against AEW Dynamite for another week.

OTHER NEWS

· Hornswoggle has signed a WWE Legends Deal.

· WWE's plans for The Lucha Bros SmackDown debut leaked to Tony Khan; why he extended their contracts was revealed. "Tony [Khan] likes Rey Fenix. He’s always liked and respected Rey Fenix. He just felt that if he let this thing slide that other people were going to start taking advantage of him and it was going to lead to a dam breaking. So they’re f*cked and Penta has another month I believe and Fenix has 9-10 [more months]. Tony found out what the plan was for them on SmackDown by the way and that also informed this." (Source: WrestlePurists) :: To which PWNexus retweeted and said This one’s on us guys. Our bad.

NEWS (10/7-10/10)

· Monday’s RAW was a double-taping, as there is a UK Tour next week, and apparently we’re not getting a UK Raw. This means for the fans in attendance, the first two hour RAW was 4+ hours.

· Update on Luchasaurus/Killswitch (Bryan Alvarez / Wrestling Observer) “He is not back in the gym and he will not be back in the gym for a while and he’s not going to be back wrestling, probably, for a while. Apparently, there were complications [a potential compromised immune system as well due to other factors, possibly sleep apnea]. He ends up getting this flu and bad oxygen uptake as a result of whatever else, turned into pneumonia. And apparently he’s at high risk for a relapse, is what I was told. The big concern is that after all of this, they’ve been running test after test, and apparently there may be permanent damage. They found calcification in a heart valve and his body is not producing iron and so he’s got a whole bunch of tests that he apparently has to take. It’s bad. It’s bad enough that he’s out of the hospital, apparently, but he still has to do oxygen. I don’t want to say it’s a career-ending issue, but it could be a career-ending issue.”

· Daniel Garcia announced he’s staying with AEW. He’s factored significantly into creative moving forward.

· Though the idea is not finalized, The Rock v Roman Reigns v Cody Rhodes is on the table for WrestleMania 41. (via @WrestleVotes Radio Q&A)

· Rhea Ripley is on the cusp of signing a new 5 year contract with WWE that includes a considerable raise. It’s just a matter of time before the two sides put pen to paper. (via PWlnsider)

WWE Smackdown (10/4/24) - Nashville, TN

Top Moments Not Related to Bad Blood:

- AJ Styles returns – injury angle turns into reality

- Michin def. Chelsea Green in a Dumpster Match (table spot into the dumpster)

- Tiffany flustered; calls Bayley “Pam”

- Main Event: DIY vs. Street Profits vs. GoD

WWE RAW (10/7/24) - St Louis, MO

Highlights

- Saving time in 2 hour format by overlapping first 3 segments

- GUNTHER vs. Sami Zayn

- Jey Uso vs. Xavier Woods (short lived face turn for BB)

- CM Punk’s hiatus / planting seeds of Rollins/Punk again

- Planting seeds of a Seth heel turn

- Pete Dunne vs. Sheamus - right winner?

- Casualty of 2 hour RAW: 10 women tag match

NEWS (10/4–10/6)

· Taz “angle” was to write him off TV; he needs a total knee replacement. He said on Twitter “I’ll see you guys down the road, I’ll be out for a while.”

· DDP signed Legends Contract with WWE (read his IG post)

· Braun Strowman confirms he tore his groin two minutes into the Last Monster Standing match.

· SNME shown as a PLE for December.

· Keith Lee Status Update (per SRS)

WWE Thoughts

- Bad Blood (BB) – Movie trailer cold open was cool and produced memorable quotes

- BB: MCMG teaser aired

- BB: Legends in the house (Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Booker T, Madusa, The Steiner Bros, Diamond Dallas Page, Sean “X-Pac” Waltman, Mickie James, Jacquelyn Moore)

- BB: HIAC Punk vs. Drew

- BB: Nia vs. Bayley

- BB: Priest vs. Finn

- BB: Crown Jewel announcement

- GUNTHER and Goldberg

- BB: Rhea vs. Liv

- BB: Main Event

- BB: Post-Match

AEW Thoughts

- Based on Collision, it looks like they are already finished with the Kris Statlander heel experiment, as she is challenging Kamille and then Mercedes Mone.

- This Tuesday is “AEW Dynamite: Title Tuesday”. It will go head-to-head with NXT in St. Louis

- #1 Contender’s Match: Winner gets a shot at Mariah May at WrestleDream

Dr Britt Baker DMD vs. Willow Nightingale

- Mercedes Mone vs. Emi Sakura in a match where the TBS and NJPW STRONG Women’s Championships will be on-the-line.

- Hook will call out his father’s attackers

- Darby Allin’s Open Challenge for WrestleDream was answered by Brody King

They will have a face-to-face on Tuesday as well.

- Bryan Danielson & Wheeler Yuta vs. Claudio Castagnoli & PAC on Tuesday

NEWS (9/2/24–9/3/24)

· WWE Raw (9/30) Records Lowest Viewership In Show History With The Exception Of 2022 And 2023's 'Best Of' Shows

· More details on the AEW/WBD Deal

· Bad Blood Match order apparently confirmed via multiple sources. I have set our predictions to follow that order, and all will be revealed shortly.

· MVP, Shelton Benjamin, and Bobby Lashley are all ALL ELITE. MVP debuted last week, Shelton this week… and Bobby will follow suit shortly.

· Elimination Chamber 2025 to take place in the United Kingdom! The current cities leading to host the event are Manchester and Birmingham. (via WrestleVotes)

· This week, while taping content for ROH, Sammy Guevara had to be taken out on a stretcher due to injury. He was wearing a neck brace while on the stretcher.

WWE Bad Blood Predictions

PLE on October 5, 2024

NEWS (9/30-10/2)

· Cody Rhodes says in a recent interview that he is still working on getting the Winged Eagle belt restored; even if for a fleeting moment.

· Fightful Select reports that AEW is expecting Adam Cole to return sooner rather than later, and that plans are already in place for that to happen on TV.

· Killswitch/Luchasaurus hospitalized

· Ilja Dragunov suffered a torn ACL over the past weekend at a Live Event. He will miss 6-9 months; putting him at March-June 2025.

· Tony Khan was asked if he's seen the Vince McMahon documentary "Mr. McMahon." "No, I've been so busy with football and wrestling that I have not seen that documentary, I've not gotten to watch that. Mostly focused here on what we're doing in AEW. [editorial: bs] I do love watching wrestling all over the world." (Quinn & Cantara)

· Updating a previous news story we ran… NXT/WWE is not confirming a shift in content; as it relates to the first two weeks of NXT on CW being listed as TV-14.

· A new logo made its debut with Tuesday’s show in Chicago. · Update on streaming replays of WWE TV

· AEW / WBD TV Deal Announcement

WWE Smackdown (9/27/24) - Oklahoma City, OK

Top Moments:

- Michin getting the win over Piper Niven; will be interesting to see how the dumpster match plays out this Friday.

- The Andrade / Carmelo Hayes feud/series

- Bayley wins the right to face Nia Jax at Bad Blood

- Never has a tag team felt more useless than The Street Profits

- The continued tease of Kevin Owens turning - and now we finally have Randy involved – this is going to be very intricate, and again … justified.

WWE RAW (9/30/24) - Evansville, IN

Go Home Show for Bad Blood - Highlights

- Last Monster Standing Match

- Final Words from Punk and Drew

- Miz Turns Heel

- Bron Breakker apparently turns babyface

- Continued layers of the New Day Collapse

NEWS (9/28-29/24)

• Nikkita Lyons made her return to NXT on the road … hopefully she can stay healthy and return to TV soon; possibly as early as one of the first two CW shows.

• Fightful Select has learned that USA were 'seconds away' from cutting off this week's NXT overrun.

• After the last NXT on USA, the PC set was torn down. They will be working on a new set during the two weeks the show is on the road in Chicago and St. Louis.

• NXT is listed for the next two episodes as TV-14 on the CW

• Shawn Michaels spoke with Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown recently about the NXT Roster

• Powerhouse Hobbs has been medically cleared and is waiting on new Creative.

AEW Analysis

Heading towards WrestleDream on Sat. Oct 12th

Dynamite Grand Slam highlights:

* Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuiness … in 2024. Lived up to the hype.

* Roderick Strong challenged HOOK for the FTW Title. Hook wins, then retires the FTW Title and returns it to his father, Taz. They shared a nice moment. In a weird moment prior to that, Roderick Strong shook the hand of Hook and pulled him in for a hug. Weird show of respect from the heel.

* Young Bucks successfully defended the AEW Tag Team Titles against Will Ospreay and Kyle Fletcher. Someone at Busted Open (either J-Hood or Matt Camp) said it was the best YB match in 4 years.

* Prince Nana gave an update on Swerve Strickland, saying mentally he is one of the most dangerous men in AEW. But physically he is not cleared to compete just yet. Interrupted by the debuting Montel Vontavious Porter… MVP. He offers Nana his business card … when Swerve is ready to ascend to the mountain top where he belongs… please give him my business card… and let him know I’ll be ready to talk… BUSINESS.

* “The Glamour” Mariah May def. Yuka Sakazaki in a pretty good match. After the match, Mariah goes to attack Yuka, but Willow Nightingale makes the save; only to be interrupted by the returning Mina Shirakawa.

* Jon Moxley d. Darby Allin to win Darby’s Title Shot at WrestleDream. Post-match Bryan Danielson sneaks up behind Mox and chokes him with a necktie… while Justin Roberts was at ringside. Bryan says to Mox as he scatters… “You want a war? I DECLARE WAR!”

NEWS: 9/25-9/26

· Announced that SummerSlam 2025 will in fact be a 2-night event; emanating from MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

· AJ Styles’ Wrestling Future is Uncertain

· Saraya has signed a one-year extension with AEW that will run until September 2025.

· Cassie Lee may not be done with wrestling just yet…

· Roxanne Perez vs. Giulia will kick off NXT on Tuesday for the CW Debut

· MJF has been cast as one of Adam Sandler’s sons in Happy Gilmore 2.

· Update: Lucha Bros. still under contract to AEW – AND – now have had injury time tacked on by TK.

Prime Cut - Wrestlers Who Never Won the WWE (or Women's) Title -- but should have.

NEWS (9/20-9/24)

· Happy Birthday to Stephanie McMahon - who turns 48 today.

· Update on previous news item: According to Fightful Select via WWE Sources, Lucha Bros. have NOT YET signed with WWE.

· Fightful Select has learned Miro has requested his release from AEW. Fightful has confirmed his contract runs through Spring 2026.

· Daniel Garcia - despite showing up at All In and his feud with MJF - still has not signed a new deal with AEW (as of All Out [9/7]). Apparently WWE is HOT to sign him.

· There will be a lot less Live Events in 2025 in WWE.

· GCW posted on 9/20 that “Zilla Fatu will not be appearing on tonite's GCW event in Philadelphia, or any GCW shows for the foreseeable future. We tried our best to avoid this situation, but we have reached an impasse. We wish him the best.” Fightful has since added that this was a disagreement over an appearance rate. It is uncertain if they will work together in the future.

· AEW have announced that Britt Baker, DMD will be in action on the 5th Anniversary show of Dynamite

· Tony Khan was asked about AEW on Max (WFAN Daily)

· Re: Running a Show at the Las Vegas Sphere: The cost of running The Sphere in Las Vegas is “insanely expensive.” The LED ball cost $450,000 a day, and running the actual venue could be $1 million+. There has been no word about WWE reaching out about it, but AEW have reached out/inquired about it. (Fightful Select)

· Cody Rhodes has hit the top 5 on Fanatics for merchandise sales across all athletes and personalities, Fightful Select has learned. Fightful has also learned there are no other wrestlers in that Top 5.

· According to @PWInsidercom, Hikuleo has been added to the NXT roster internally.

· FightFul Select has updated the current plan for the Bad Blood main event slot.

But later reports say it’s still “open to discussion”

WWE Smackdown (9/20/24) - Sacramento, CA

Top Moments:

- Chelsea Green continuing to SHINE on SD; now in vignette form

- The Andrade / Carmelo Hayes feud/series

- Did Creative Make a Mistake not sending Bayley to RAW?

- The story arc for Kevin Owens and Randy Orton.

- The “Georgia Tech Promo”

WWE RAW (9/23/24) - Ontario, California

Top Moments:

- Rhea / Liv segment to kick off the show

- Building long-standing feuds and not just 50/50 booking + Long-term storytelling

Stories: New Day breakup, Dunne/Sheamus, GUNTHER/Sami, Judgment Day

- New Vignette + New QR Code

- The vignettes for Pure Fusion Collective and Damien Priest

- Jey / IC Title Match

Bonus Point: Joe Tessitore + Wade Barrett