WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair vs. Sasha Banks has been confirmed for this year’s SummerSlam.
WWE confirmed it on Friday’s episode of Smackdown when Banks did a promo about how she is back to reclaim the spotlight that she created and said she turned Belair from a rookie to a champion. Banks doesn’t appreciate the lack of gratitude for all the accolades and fame she has brought to Belair. This led to Belair coming out to challenge her to a title match at SummerSlam.
Banks returned to WWE television on the July 30th episode of SmackDown. A segment where Belair celebrated reaching 100 days as SmackDown Women\’s Champion led Carmella and Zelina Vega wanting a title shot.
When they didn’t get what they wanted, they attacked the champion. Banks made her return to make the save. This led to a tag team match being made.
After teaming with Belair to defeat Carmella & Vega in the main event, Banks attacked Belair and beat her down. The show ended with Banks having Belair locked in the Banks Statement.
Belair won the SmackDown Women\’s Championship by defeating Banks in the main event of WrestleMania 37 night one this April and had been off television since then.
The August 3, 2021 episode of WWE NXT aired on Syfy from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
Ridge Holland def. Ikemen Jiro.
Roderick Strong def. Bobby Fish.
The Grizzled Young Veterans def. Cameron Grimes and Million Dollar Champion LA Knight.
NXT Breakout Tournament First Round Match: Trey Baxter def. Joe Gacy.
Hit Row’s Ashante “Thee” Adonis and “Top Dolla” AJ Francis def. Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde
Johnny Gargano def. Dexter Lumis.
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Ridge Holland Back In Action
Ridge Holland defeated Ikemen Jiro in a singles match. Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan were at ringside for Holland. Post-match, Dunne cut a promo on Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa.
Dunne said Ciampa and Thatcher thought they were tough men until they got in the ring with Holland. He said that Holland was going to break them and they’re the three most dangerous men in NXT.
This comes after Holland made his return to WWE TV last week to align himself with Dunne and Lorcan. Holland is a highly-touted prospect on the brand, but his first big push was cut short. He suffered a left ankle dislocation and fracture, a patellar dislocation, and a ruptured patellar tendon. Holland underwent surgery to get this done.
The Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Cameron Grimes and Million Dollar Champion LA Knight in a tag team match.
The finish saw Knight walk out on Grimes during the match. Post-match, WWE Hall of Famer Ted DiBiase Sr. came out to console Grimes. He told Grimes that he tried to tell him that Knight would do this and that he needs to find a way out of this.
After Knight had turned on the WWE Hall of Famer, the legendary wrestler had disappeared from TV. Last week, they did a golfing segment that saw Knight lose to the Grizzled Young Veterans.
Hit Row’s Ashante “Thee” Adonis and “Top Dolla” AJ Francis defeated Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde of Legado del Fantasma via a DQ when Santos Escobar interfered with a steel chair. This was the opening match.
After the match, Legado del Fantasma then attacked NXT North American Champion Isaiah “Swerve” Scott with a chair. They took out the grill of Scott. Eventually, Hit Row recovered and stood tall in the ring.
These two teams have been feuding for a while now. It certainly looks like a six-man tag team match is going to happen at TakeOver 36 next month.
NXT Champion Karrion Kross came to the ring for a promo on Samoa Joe. This was the latest build in their feud ahead of a match at TakeOver 36.
Kross asked who proved who. Joe came out to confront him and ended up beating several security guards up. Kross got out of the arena real quick while Joe acted like a mad man.
The security guards were put with Joe as a way to keep him from Kross thanks to an idea by NXT General Manager William Regal. It worked while some developmental guys got beat up and one put to sleep.
Johnny Gargano vs. Dexter Lumis in a Love Her or Lose Her Match took place. Last week, there was a backstage segment with Indi Hartwell receiving a drawing from Lumis. Gargano and Candice LeRae were not happy with the gift so Heartwell came up with the stipulation that Lumis must stop chasing Hartwell if Gargano wins.
Hartwell was knocked off the apron by Lumis on accident. Lumis was concerned about her and was about to check on her when Gargano hit a DDT on the floor. Gargano defeated Lumis with One Final Beat. Post-match, an upset Hartwell kissed Lumis. Hartwell and Lumis made out and then left together.
Flair spoke with People Magazine today where he went into detail about what caused the split.
“We just didn’t see eye to eye on some business opportunities that I wanted to pursue, so I asked for my release,” Flair said. “There has been no animosity and everything has been on friendly terms.”
The WWE Hall of Famer also dismissed him reportedly sending a text to McMahon. He called the reports “absolutely not true.” He noted that in business, you don’t see eye to eye and he doesn’t have any animosity towards the company that made him who he is.
Flair also noted that some of his best friends in the world work at the company and questioned how he could be upset with a company where his daughter works at. He called her the most decorated woman’s wrestler in history.
“It was a mutually agreed-upon decision and I will be moving forward to pursue other exciting endeavors such as my own line of wine, my own network, as well as comic books,” he said. “I had to make this decision personally for my business and my brand.”
Flair did tell TMZ that the split had been in the works for some time, but just recently did the two sides come to an agreement.
AEW’s Chris Jericho spoke with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes and noted that McMahon was smart to say what he did because what else was he going to say.
“We’re not worried about what WWE is and we haven’t been since day one,” Jericho said. “We weren’t worried about what NXT did. The whole time with the NXT vs. AEW war, which ended in a total abysmal failure for NXT, we never once had a TV screen watching what they were doing when we were doing it.
Jericho stated that he thinks WWE is watching what the competition is doing, but AEW is just focused on what they’re doing and he thinks that’s one of the reasons why AEW has done so well. He noted that AEW couldn’t control the fact that NXT was put up against Dynamite so they can only control what All Elite Wrestling is doing.
“So WWE is not competition for us,” Jericho said. “We’re competition for ourselves. So for Vince to say that – to me, it’s probably reverse psychology and that he does see us as competition. But deep down inside, what does it really matter?”
Jericho stated that while WWE has billions of dollars locked in via TV deals right now, AEW is working towards that.
“Now when our demo ends up beating theirs and TV deals start coming in for us at the billions, then I truly think there will be a lot of competition because now you’re fighting for money, you’re not just fighting for bragging rights – and bragging rights don’t mean anything.”
Jericho ended by stating that it’s the money that a company makes that counts.
Bray Wyatt was released by WWE last Saturday after being informed by Head of Relations John Laurinaitis in what was blamed on budget cuts for his release.
Ronda Rousey took to Twitter to go off on fans of the company who disrespected Bray Wyatt while he was still with the company. She also brought up the chants by fans for wanting him while also being the same people who would chant for wanting beach balls during matches at a time when Wyatt was still with the company.
She wrote, “I’ve seen you same “fans” chanting #WeWantWyatt last night chanting “We want beach balls” over @WWEBrayWyatt performing. If the @wwe treated him like he was expendable it was because you ungrateful idiots did first.”
I’ve seen you same “fans” chanting #WeWantWyatt last night chanting “We want beach balls” over @WWEBrayWyatt performing. If the @wwe treated him like he was expendable it was because you ungrateful idiots did first
Monday’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.821 million viewers with a 0.51 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. This is up from last week’s 1.814 million viewers and the 0.49 rating.
Here’s the rest of the viewership breakdown for Monday Night Raw, courtesy of Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics:
P2+: 1.821
P18-49: 657,000
M18-49: 442,000
F18-49: 215,000
P18-34: 216,000
M18-34: 131,000
F18-34: 86,000
P35-49: 440,000
M35-49: 312,000
F35-49: 129,000
non-P18-49: 1.164
Raw was expected to remain the same as it went up against the Olympics. Per the report, the increase in the 18-49 viewership was mostly carried by viewers aged 35-49.
This episode featured Goldberg’s latest comments about facing WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre vs.Shanky & Veer, Rhea Ripley vs. Nia Jax, Damian Priest & Ricochet vs. John Morrison & Sheamus, Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross, Raw Women’s Champion Nikki A.S.H. vs. Charlotte Flair in a no holds barred match, Matt Riddle vs. Omos,
SmackDown Viewership
The episode drew an average of 1.909 million viewers in the overnight ratings, down from the previous week that did 2.04 million viewers. In the 18-49 demographic, it did a 0.57 rating, which was down from the 0.55 rating the week before. The final ratings were 2.043 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.137 million viewers.
WWE had teased it happening and so it did, the confirmation of Goldberg challenging Bobby Lashley for the WWE Title at SummerSlam was made official during Monday’s episode of Raw.
It happened after the opening segment where Goldberg sent a warning to Lashley. MVP had started talking trash to Goldberg’s son at ringside and the WWE Hall of Famer speared MVP. Later in the show, Lashley accepted the challenge and told Goldberg to bring his son so he could watch his father get annihilated.
Back on the July 19th episode of Raw, Goldberg confronted Lashley, who had just beaten Keith Lee in a singles match. Goldberg came out to a mixed reaction and told Lashley that he was next. Lashley wanted to fight right then, but MVP held him back. MVP later stated that the disrespect from Goldberg wouldn’t dignify a response from them.
There had been speculation that Lashley could end up defending the WWE Title against Brock Lesnar at SummerSlam, but Lesnar has yet to come to terms with WWE regarding a return.
WWE holds the SummerSlam pay-per-view event on Saturday, August 21 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada at Allegiant Stadium which will air on Peacock. This is the top match on the card from Raw.
Rush took to Twitter to announce that he\’s been cleared after three months of rehab. He’s been sidelined since suffering an AC injury in the Casino Battle Royale at AEW Double or Nothing. This marked his AEW debut as he was the surprise entrant in the match.
He wrote,“Every single day for the past 3 months I’ve been in rehab working harder than I ever have before. Happy to announce that today….I’ve been cleared.”
Back in June, Rush announced his plans to retire because he felt fulfilled with his professional wrestling career and was happy to be moving on to be a better father and husband.
Rush was released from WWE last year along with several other wrestlers due to budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic. He continued his career by working for MLW and NJPW.
Although he wants out of the wrestling business, he plans to continue his contractual agreements with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Rush is advertised for upcoming NJPW events including Resurgence on August 14 and Fighting Spirit Unleashed on August 16.
AEW Women’s Champion Britt Baker, who has been dating Cole for the past few years, recently did an interview with the Daily Star before the report about Cole’s status came out.
During the discussion, Baker was asked about the possibility of Cole jumping ship to All Elite Wrestling and if he would do it for her.
“He has got to hold down Tuesday night and I’ll hold down Wednesday night, right?! I think it’s funny when people say, ‘He has to go to AEW because of Britt!’ because there are so many more people at AEW who have played a bigger role in the wrestling side of his life.”
I Just Want Him To Be Happy
Baker continued by noting that The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega were in the Bullet Club for the majority of the time that Cole was a big star in ROH so he was around them. She noted that his history with some of the top stars in AEW would create endless storylines for Cole.
“But he’s happy where he is. So, if he were to jump ship and come my way, that would be awesome, but if he stays in WWE forever then I’d be happy, too, as I just want him to be happy.”
Cole nor WWE has yet to publicly comment on his contract status. It was reported that WWE executives were surprised to learn that they had let the expiration date of Cole’s contract get so close without realizing it was set to end.
After teases and mentions of it happening, WWE has finally confirmed that John Cena will challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title at SummerSlam.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, WWE held a contract signing that was supposed to see Reigns defend against Finn Balor at SummerSlam, but Baron Corbin came out to attack Balor in order to take his place.
Cena ran out to stop Corbin and signed the contract instead.
Cena made his return at the Money in the Bank pay-per-view event to have a staredown with Reigns to set up their SummerSlam main event. This was after the main event where Reigns had retained his title over Edge.
Since Cena has returned, he has helped boost ticket sales for SummerSlam. If he does beat Reigns it would be his 17th World Title win, which would break Ric Flair’s record. However, Cena is slated to start filming a new movie at the end of August.
Fans can expect to see Cena appear at several upcoming shows. Here’s the list of dates and locations of events that Cena will be appearing:
Saturday, July 31: Supershow – Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee
Sunday, August 1: Supershow – Little Caesars Arena in Detroit
Friday, August 6: SmackDown – Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
Saturday, August 7: Supershow – Hertz Arena in Fort Myers, Fla.
Monday, August 9: Raw – Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
Friday, August 13: SmackDown – BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Saturday, August 14: Supershow – Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
Sunday, August 15: Supershow – Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
Friday, August 20: SmackDown – Footprint Center in Phoenix
Saturday, August 21: SummerSlam – Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas
Friday, September 10: SmackDown – Madison Square Garden – New York City
As expected, Sasha Banks has made her WWE TV return.
It happened on Friday’s episode of SmackDown when SmackDown Women’s Champion Bianca Belair was doing an interview in the ring about what is next for her, specifically her plans for SummerSlam.
Kayla Braxton pointed out that Belair has been champion for 110 days and Belair talked about winning an ESPY, defending the title at Rolling Loud last week and winning the title from Banks at WrestleMania 37.
This led to Carmella coming out to sarcastically congratulate Belair on her reign and to ask for one more title shot, but Zelina Vega came out to issue her own challenge to Belair.
The heels attacked Belair before Banks came out to make the save. After clearing the ring, Banks and Belair hugged and Belair had a confused look on her face.
In the main event, a tag team match took place that saw Belair and Banks team up against Carmella and Vega. Banks won the match for her team. Post-match, Banks hit Belair with the backstabber and she continued to attack her to end the show.
This certainly appears to start the build for SummerSlam as WWE house shows are advertising Banks vs. Belair.
Banks was last seen in action at Wrestlemania 37 in April. The belief is that Banks had been off from WWE in order to film material as Koska Reeves, which is her Star Wars character, for a future Disney+ Lucasfilm series.
“Today my surgeon told me that I’m an anomaly,” she wrote. ”It’s been an intense week to say the least. All I asked was to be put back in the fight and FAST. Surgery will fix me, defending our championships will drive me. #UNBREAKABLE.”
WWE also noted in a post on Twitter that more information on Natalya’s injury would come this Monday on Raw.
The injury happened in a bout where Natalya and her tag team partner Taminafaced Eva Marie and Doudrop in a contender’s match. Dewdrop rolled over Natalya at one point, causing injury to Natalya’s leg.
This led to Tamina getting the hot tag and finishing the match quickly as Natalya was checked on by WWE medical staff.
The champions have held the titles since defeating Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler on the May 14, 2021 edition of SmackDown.
Cain Velasquez has plans to make a pro wrestling return this year for the AAA promotion.
The former UFC Heavyweight Champion announced the news during an appearance on In This Corner with Cyrus Fees. Before the announcement, he talked about how he wanted to develop himself further as a wrestler.
“Actually, I’m doing a show in December for AAA,” he said. “So for me, I love AAA and I’m going to keep doing that right now. I love WWE as well, but I have to first develop myself in that way in order for me to go out there.”
Velasquez started wrestling back in 2019 as he worked two matches for AAA including a trios match teaming with Cody Rhodes and Psycho Clown in a winning effort against El Texano Jr., Taurus, and Killer Kross (best known as NXT Champion Karrion Kross.
The former UFC star then signed a contract with WWE in 2019. Velasquez lost his debut match under the WWE banner when he faced WWE Champion Brock Lesnar at Crown Jewel.
He most recently worked a tag team match in Mexico at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico for a house show back in November 2019.
Velasquez successfully had his knee scoped in February 2020, but was released from WWE in April of 2020 due to cuts related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The July 27, 2021 episode of WWE NXT aired live on Syfy from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan def. Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa.
NXT Breakout Tournament, First Round: Carmelo Hayes def. Josh Briggs.
Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro def. Jessi Kamea and Franky Monet.
Imperium’s Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner def. Hit Row
Adam Cole def. Bronson Reed.
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Tag Team Match Action
Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan defeated Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa in a tag team match on this show.
The match opened the show. Ridge Holland returned from injury to help Dunne and Lorcan beat Thatcher and Ciampa with a distraction. Post-match, the heels beat down the babyfaces.
Holland was involved in the main event angle of NXT TakeOver 31 last year when he attacked Cole backstage as a way of a storyline where it was said that Pat McAfee hired Holland to attack Cole.
Plans were put on hold when Holland got injured and had to undergo surgery after being injured when catching Oney Lorcan on a dive. Holland suffered a left ankle dislocation and fracture and a right knee patellar dislocation and patellar tendon rupture.
Last week, NXT Champion Karrion Kross continued his feud with Samoa Joe by attacking NXT General Manager William Regal. Two weeks ago, Kross retained the title over Johnny Gargano but choked out Joe, who was the referee for the match, afterward.
Joe came out to the ring. He set up a table and a chair. He said that he could bark about Kross, but he knows Kross is too much of a coward to be in the building tonight. He asked Regal to come out to the ring. Joe said that he can see Regal’s anger and what Kross did was wrong. He knew Regal would fire Kross, but he had a better solution.
Joe said that he has a way to help all of their needs. Joe quit his position as the enforcer for Regal. He wanted Regal to reinstate him as part of the active roster in NXT. Regal signed both papers. Joe had a third contract and that was for himself vs. Kross at TakeOver 36. Regal signed that as well.
There was a segment with NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai. This opened the second hour. Raquel said all of the challengers have come and fallen. Kai said Raquel is the most dominant woman in NXT history. Kai said Raquel has beaten former champions and the list will go on and on.
The segment ended when Kai turned on her and laid her out from behind with a kick. Kai threw the title on Raquel and left the ring.
Gonzalez had just beaten Xia Li on last week’s episode of NXT in the main event to retain her title. She’s been paired with Kai for the majority of her time on the main roster. It is looking like a match between these two stars will be booked for TakeOver.
There was a tag team match that saw Imperium’s Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner defeat Hit Row’s “Top Dolla” AJ Francis and Ashante “Thee” Adonis when Legado del Fantasma distracted Hit Row.
Marcel and Fabian had the majority of the offense. Adonis sold throughout until Top Dolla got the hot tag. Dolla hit a big elbow drop to Fabian for a near fall.
Towards the end of the match, El Hijo del Fantasma came out, but Top Dolla took them out. This led to Imperium hitting a powerbomb to Adonis. Post-match, El Hijo del Fantasma took out the babyfaces. Isaiah Scott cleared the ring with a chair.
As expected, the main event of NXT TakeOver 36 will be Samoa Joe challenging NXT Champion Karrion Kross for the title on Sunday, August 22, 2021.
On Tuesday’s episode of NXT, Joe offered his resignation as an enforcer to NXT General Manager William Regal.
This was done as a way for Joe to be able to fight Kross. Per the stipulation of the original agreement he had with Regal when he made his return about a month ago, Joe couldn’t get physical unless provoked. Well, after last week’s attack by Kross to Regal, he couldn’t let that stand.
He also wanted Regal to sign a contract to have him back as an active in-ring performer in NXT and sign another contract for the match at TakeOver. Regal agreed to what Joe was offering and made the match official.
It will be an interesting booking decision made by WWE as Joe will likely be favored to win the championship considering Kross made his main roster debut earlier this month and entered into a program with Jeff Hardy. Kross is also slated to be on the Raw roster going forward, but without Scarlett.
WWE NXT UK Champion WALTER vs. Ilja Dragunov is the only other match announced thus far.
Highly touted prospect Ridge Holland made his return to WWE NXT TV on Tuesday’s episode.
It happened when Pete Dunne and Oney Lorcan defeated Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa as Holland caused a distraction. The heels beat down Thatcher and Ciampa after the match.
Holland was put on the sidelines after suffering injuries on an episode of NXT last October during a match against Oney Lorcan.
He suffered a left ankle dislocation and fracture, a patellar dislocation, and a ruptured patellar tendon. Holland underwent surgery to get this done. At the time, many people believed that he would be out for quite some time as the patellar tendon rupture alone can take anywhere from 6-12 months to heal. Thus, many people thought he would be out for a year, but that wasn’t the case.
In June, it was reported that the NXT star had been seen daily at the WWE Performance Center to continue to rehab his leg and working towards getting cleared to return to the ring.
Next week, Holland will be in singles action against Ikemen Jiro.
John Cena is just like the majority of fans as they hope that The Rock makes a WWE return in the near future.
It’s been reported that WWE has plans for The Rock to appear at the Survivor Series pay-per-view in November to set up a rumored match with WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at either WrestleMania 38 or WrestleMania 39.
Cena recently spoke with ET Tonight and had praise for the fellow WWE Champion. He noted that Rock is a star in his own universe and there’s no one like him and there won’t ever be like him.
“For him to be gracious enough to return to WWE, it’s own global entertainment phenomenon, that’s great for WWE and it is great for The Rock. As a fan of WWE, I really hope he returns. I think it would be special for everyone.”
In this same article, The Rock was asked if there was anything to tease regarding a potential WWE return and the future WWE Hall of Famer said there’s nothing.
The Rock is currently promoting his “Jungle Cruise” movie. Cena is back on WWE TV to promote his match with Reigns at SummerSlam.
Monday’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.814 million viewers with a 0.49 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. This is down from last week’s 1.923 million viewers and the 0.57 rating.
Last week’s show was the best viewership Raw has done since the post-Wrestlemania episode on April 12 as it was the post-show edition of Raw for Sunday’s Money in the Bank pay-per-view event.
Here’s the rest of the viewership breakdown for Monday Night Raw, courtesy of Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics:
This episode featured Bobby Lashley responding to Goldberg\’s challenge, Raw Tag Team Champions Omos & AJ Styles vs. The Viking Raiders, Mustafa Ali & Mansoor in action, and Raw Women\’s Champion Nikki A.S.H.addressing the fans following her title win.
SmackDown Viewership
The episode drew an average of 2.04 million viewers in the overnight ratings, down from the previous week that did 2.185 million viewers. In the 18-49 demographic, it did a 0.55 rating, which was down from the 0.66 rating the week before. The final ratings were 2.137 million viewers, down from last week’s 2.310 million viewers.
WWE is planning to return to Saudi Arabia this October for a pay-per-view event just as long as COVID-19 regulations allow for it.
Mat Men\’s Andrew Zarian first reported the news on Monday. He noted that Thursday, October 21st was the targeted date. POST Wrestling\’s John Pollock tweeted he had heard the same while Dave Meltzer confirmed the date.
The name nor the location and venue of the show has yet to be revealed. WWE has also yet to confirm the show.
WWE hasn’t held an event in the country since Super ShowDown in February 2020, which was headlined by Goldberg defeating \”The Fiend\” Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship. Since 2018, WWE has held 5 total pay-per-view events in Saudi Arabia.
In June 2019 at the Super Showdown event, WWE was slated to present a women\’s match for the first time in the country as Alexa Bliss was set to take on Natalya, but that got nixed due to the local government. However, later that year, Natalya and Lacey Evans competed instead at Crown Jewel.
After Crown Jewel, the infamous incident with a plane holding wrestlers, staff and other personnel stuck at the airport for several hours happened.
After that event, WWE and the Saudi General Entertainment Authority signed a long-term partnership through 2027. That contract states WWE is obligated to hold two events per year in the country.
Unfortunately, Natalya went down with an injury while working a match on Monday’s episode of WWE Raw.
The Raw Tag Team Champions (Natalya and Tamina) wrestled Eva Marie and Doudrop in a Raw Women’s Tag Title Contenders match on the show from Kansas City, MO at the T-Mobile Center.
Late in the match, Natalya had to leave the ring and Tamina finished the match. The referee called for an audible as a pre-taped skit with Alexa Bliss’ doll aired that caused the distraction finish for Marie to get pinned by Tamina.
After the match, Natalya was shown being helped out to the back by Tamina and a medical staff member. It’s unclear what the injury is, but it appears to do with her leg as she wasn’t able to walk on it.
We wish Natalya a speedy recovery and hope the injury is not serious.
Natalya and Tamina have held the titles since they beat Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for them on the May 14th episode of SmackDown from the ThunderDome. Jax and Baszler had held the titles for 103 days. Thus far, Natalya and Tamina have held the titles for 72 days.
All Elite Wrestling has announced a new match for the Dynamite episode with a “Homecoming” theme.
On Monday’s episode of AEW Dark: Elevation, Lee Johnson defeated Luther to earn a chance at Miro’s TNT Championship on the August 4th episode. The match was booked by AEW Elite GM Invitational Tournament winner Pulse.
On the show, Miro confronted his next challenger and stated that while Johnson’s last opponent was picked by the fans, his next opponent is picked by God.
This episode of Dynamite will take place from Daily’s Place at Jacksonville, FL, the home of the promotion throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Miro’s previous TNT Title defense came on the June 30 episode of Dynamite. He won the title from Darby Allin.
Also confirmed for this upcoming Dynamite episode is Malakai Black vs. Cody Rhodes, which marks Black’s first match since being released by WWE.
FTR with Tully Blanchard vs. Santana and Ortiz with Konnan
Christian Cage, Jungle Boy, and Luchasaurus vs. Private Party and Angelico
The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, and The Good Brothers) vs. Hangman Page and Dark Order (Evil Uno, Stu Grayson, John Silver, and Alex Reynolds)
IWGP US Champion Lance Archer vs. Hikuleo
QT Marshall and The Factory to apologize to Tony Schiavone
Celebration for FTW Champion Ricky Starks
Tony Khan to make major new live event announcement
With Money in the Bank in the rear-view, it’s time for WWE to shift gears towards its next pay-per-view event, SummerSlam.
In the opening segment of Monday’s episode of Raw, newly crowned Raw Women’s Champion Nikki A.S.H did an in-ring promo about cashing in the Money in the Bank briefcase after she won the women’s ladder match.
She cashed in last week’s Raw to beat Charlotte Flair, who had beaten Rhea Ripley the night before at the PPV event to win the title. Yes, back-to-back title changes in back-to-back nights.
This led to Flair and Ripley coming out to interrupt and this caused a back and forth promo exchange. Both Flair and Ripley made their cases for why they should get a title match at SummerSlam.
Eventually, WWE authority figures Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville came out to announce a triple threat match at SummerSlam with the Raw Women’s Title on the line.
WWE presents the SummerSlam pay-per-view event on Saturday, August 21 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada at Allegiant Stadium that will air on Peacock. WWE will be announcing more matches for this show in the coming weeks.
Goldberg is being advertised for two WWE Raw episodes on the road to SummerSlam.
It was recently announced that the WWE Hall of Famer will be appearing on the Raw episode at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois on Monday, August 2nd. Also, he will be at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas on the Monday, August 16 episode of Raw.
It should be noted that the episode in San Antonio will be Raw\’s go-home show for SummerSlam.
The former Universal Champion just made his return this past Monday night to start the build for his match with Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam. It happened after Goldberg came out to the ring and confronted Lashley. Goldberg started laughing in Lashley\’s face and declared that \”I\’m next.\”
In a backstage segment after the confrontation, MVP said Goldberg disrespected Lashley and they weren\’t going to dignify it with a response.
Goldberg was previously in action when he challenged for the WWE Championship at this January\’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view but lost to Drew McIntyre.
WWE holds the SummerSlam pay-per-view event on Saturday, August 21 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada at Allegiant Stadium which will air on Peacock.
Daniel Bryan has reportedly signed with All Elite Wrestling, which is just one of the big additions to the roster as well as the promotion having talks with fellow former WWE Champion CM Punk.
Bryan is expected to make his debut during the Grand Slam edition of Dynamite from the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City on September 22nd. This show has already sold over 15,000 tickets.
As part of his deal, in addition to comparable money to his WWE contract, Bryan wanted to work fewer dates and be able to work in Japan as well as have creative input.
Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam, who initially broke the news, has an update on the situation. AEW’s internal talks on bringing Bryan in began back in May after his WWE contract expired
While AEW was talking about it among top executives, there were no contract talks or negotiations happening with Bryan. However, talks between Bryan and AEW began some time over the last few weeks.
As of this writing, it’s still unclear how long the contract is nor the amount of money the fan-favorite star is getting.
Several WWE executives cashed in on company stock earlier this week including Vince McMahon, “Triple H” Paul Levesque, and Stephanie McMahon-Levesque.
WWE uploaded a new SEC filing to their corporate website that shows the sold shares of Class A Common Stock.
The following trades were made earlier this week (July 20):
Vince McMahon sold 17,465 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $850,196. The Chairman & CEO still has 72,265 shares.
Paul Levesque sold 4,547 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $221,347. The Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development still has 45,465 shares.
Stephanie Levesque sold 4,410 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $214,678. The Chief Brand Officer still has 77,712 shares.
Kevin Dunn sold 14,404 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $701,186. The Executive Producer & Chief of Global Television Distribution still has 82,798 shares.
Kristina Salen sold 1,233 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $60,022. The Chief Financial Officer still has 10,817 shares.
Nick Khan sold 1,098 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $53,450. The President & Chief Revenue Officer still has 9,410 shares.
Bradley Blum, Executive Vice President of Operations, sold 3,558 shares at $48.68 for an approximate total of $173,203. Blum still has 26,230 shares.
Next Thursday (July 29), WWE is expected to report earnings after the market closes. The report will be for the fiscal quarter ending Jun 2021.
WWE’s stock has been trading around $49 per share this week.
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