Carlito made a surprise WWE return last month when he worked the Men’s Royal Rumble Match and a tag team match the following night on Raw.
Shortly after his appearance at this year’s Royal Rumble PPV, there were various reports about how WWE brought him in not just for the matches, but also to have a tryout as an agent.
Carlito was on today’s episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast where he was asked about his WWE status.
“Right now, I don’t know where I sit. There was never a trial or something to be a producer backstage or something,” Carlito revealed. “None of that was was ever mentioned to me. All we talked about was the Rumble and RAW, and then after that, who knows? But as of now, I’d love to come back. It’s all in the air right now. I have no idea what’s next for me.”
He stated that he’s open to coaching young talent or any good ideas.
“I’m open to whatever ideas are out there. As long as it’s a good idea, I don’t mind,” Carlito said. “I know I’m a little long in the tooth now. What’s the saying? I got more years behind me than ahead of me. I like helping out the new talent and stuff. If somebody’s got a good idea, then I’m happy to hear it.”
He later stated that one of his goals is to help out Latino wrestlers.
Jey Uso took part in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match and suffered a minor injury in the process.
The WWE star took to his Instagram Stories this morning where he shared two photos of the bruised toe with the caption, “Went to war last night, one of my toes ain’t make it!!!”
He entered at #6 as he spent around 10 minutes in the match before being eliminated last by Daniel Bryan, who won the opening contest of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event.
In another post on Instagram, Jey mentioned that brother Jimmy Uso was at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida to train for his return to the ring.
Jimmy has been sidelined for nearly a year after suffering a knee injury at WrestleMania 36 Night One. He took part in the Triple Threat Ladder Match with Kofi Kingston and then-SmackDown Tag Team Champion John Morrison.
At the time, it was reported he was supposed to be back between November 2020 and January 2021 after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery. However, in December, Jey went on record by stating in an interview that his brother was expected back in the ring during January or February 2021.
There have been no reports about when exactly he’ll be back or what creative has for him.
Drew McIntyre walked in the Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida as WWE Champion, but it was The Miz who shocked the fans.
McIntyre made his latest title defense against Randy Orton, Jeff Hardy, AJ Styles, Kofi Kingston, and Sheamus in the Elimination Chamber Match at the gimmick-themed pay-per-view event.
The entrant\’s list was: Hardy, Orton, McIntyre, Kingston, Styles, and Sheamus.
The eliminations were: Kingston rolling up Orton, Sheamus connected with the Brogue Kick to Kingston, McIntyre hit a Claymore Kick to Hardy, Styles took Sheamus with the Phenomenal Forearm, and McIntyre won with the Claymore Kick to Styles.
Kingston wasn’t originally in the match, but rather The Miz had that spot. However, after an angle on last week’s episode of Raw, The Miz removed himself from the contest after being headbutted by McIntyre. Later in the show, Kingston beat Miz in a singles match to earn his way into the contest.
McIntyre and Sheamus have been feuding as of late after Sheamus turned heel by attacking his real-life good friend.
After the Elimination Chamber Match, Lashley speared McIntyre before beating him down. This led to The Miz coming out to the ring and cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase. As the match started, Miz hit a DDT to McIntyre. Miz followed up with the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. He’s the NEW WWE Champion. This is the second time that he\’s done this as he first did a decade ago.
Bobby Lashley walked in, but not out of the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event in St. Petersburg, Florida at Tropicana Field as the United States Champion.
WWE had advertised Lashley defending the strap against Matt Riddle and Keith Lee in a Triple Threat Match at this show. Lee’s status for the show was reported to be up in the air earlier this week by Dave Meltzer. Lee wasn’t on Monday’s episode of Raw.
With so little was announced for the show in advance and Lee’s status, there were a lot of unknowns about this show. There was even speculation that WWE could turn this advertised three-way match into a singles match between Riddle and Lashley.
WWE announced earlier today that Lee was pulled from the match due to injury. John Morrison vs. Ali vs. Ricochet vs. Elias took place on the pre-show with Morrison winning. As a result, he replaced Lee in the title match.
The Triple Threat Match saw the finish where Riddle hit Lashley in the back with MVP’s crutch to take care of him so he could hit his finisher to Morrison to win the title.
WWE went with a unique approach for the SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match.
Instead of having Roman Reigns defend his Universal Title against 5 other stars and inside the structure, Paul Heyman had a different idea. Kevin Owens vs. Jey Uso vs. King Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Cesaro battled it out in the gimmick match to earn the right to become the #1 contender for the title.
The chamber match featured entrants in the following order: Cesaro, Bryan, Corbin, Zayn, Owens, and Jey.
Eliminations: Cesaro locked in the sharpshooter on Corbin, Owens hit a Stunner to Zayn, Jey connected with a splash off the top rope to eliminate Owens, Jey hit a splash to Cesaro for the elimination, and Bryan with the running knee strike to win the match by eliminating Jey.
As a result of winning the match, he faced Reigns for the title right after the match. Bryan was barely moving as Reigns made his entrance. Bryan went right for the Yes Lock, but Reigns fought out of it and put Bryan to sleep with the guillotine choke.
Post-match, Edge hit a spear out of nowhere to Reigns and pointed to the WrestleMania sign. Thus, indicting Edge vs. Reigns for the Universal Title at WrestleMania.
A new match has been announced for Sunday\’s WWE Elimination Chamber PPV.
On Friday’s episode of SmackDown, it was revealed that WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler will defend the straps against Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair
WWE will be announcing more matches for this show in the coming days. As it stands now, there are only a few matches confirmed. There’s still no word who WWE Raw Women’s Champion Asuka will face after Lacey Evans was pulled due to her pregnancy.
Also, Keith Lee missed Monday’s Raw and his status for the Triple Threat Match along with WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley and Matt Riddle is up in the air.
Jax and Baszler are slated to defend the titles against Raquel Gonzelez and Dakota Kai on the March 3rd edition of NXT.
Cesaro has been a fan favorite star for many years in WWE, but Vince McMahon hasn’t seen him as someone who could be in the main event or a top star.
Cesaro recently did an interview with NYPost.com and during it, was asked why he hasn’t been in the main event in WWE:
“I think there have been a lot of different variables that go into it. Sometimes I feel like the squeaky wheel gets the grease kind of thing. Sometimes something that’s always there and reliable you kind of start to overlook it because you take it for granted.”
He noted that he tries to create as much momentum as he could and do the best with what he was given and he thinks that is the most important part. He noted that he keeps working hard and make the best every single time with the opportunities that you’re given.
“If you look at some of the past greats, it all took them a while to come into their own and get to the world champion level. Yes, there are a few people that did it fast. But look at Edge, look at Bret Hart, look at all those guys. They are all with WWE for almost 10 years before they hit their big break.”
Cesaro will take part in the SmackDown Elimination Chamber Match this Sunday along with Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Sami Zayn, and Daniel Bryan. The winner will then immediately challenge Roman Reigns for the Universal Title.
WWE officials have decided to drop a romantic storyline on SmackDown between Murphy and Aalyah.
Dave Meltzer reported in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the angle was just abruptly dropped out of nowhere. For those who are wondering why, there’s no backstory or behind-the-scenes story as to why. It’s possible that WWE didn’t have an idea where to take the storyline.
Aalyah has not appeared on WWE TV since the December 4 SmackDown episode, which saw Murphy lose to King Baron Corbin in singles action. Murphy did appear on last week’s episode of SmackDown where Seth Rollins did his return promo as he was part of the large group of wrestlers standing around the ring, but the commentators didn’t acknowledge him.
Rollins was feuding with Murphy and The Mysterio Family when he took time off in November as he was going to be with Becky Lynch for the birth of their first child together.
It had been previously reported the company had plans for Rey Mysterio and Dominik Mysterio to feud with Corbin, Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake. However, that feud was nixed when Cutler tested positive for COVID-19 and thus was removed from TV because of the diagnosis.
Corbin’s stable with Cutler and Blake was dropped and Cutler ended up being released from his contract. The Mysterio Family also missed WWE TV time in December due to them dealing with COVID-19, but Aalyah never tested positive.
The February 17, 2021 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart def. The Way (Candice LeRae & Indi Hartwell).
Leon Ruff def. Isaiah \’Swerve\’ Scott.
Kayden Carter & Kacy Catanzaro def. Jessi Kamea & Aliyah.
KUSHIDA def. Tyler Rust (w/Malcolm Bivens)
Zoey Stark def. Valentina Feroz.
Pete Dunne, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan def. Finn Balor, Kyle O\’Reilly and Roderick Strong.
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Johnny Gargano Looks For Austin Theory
Johnny Gargano went on the hunt for Austin Theory after the prospect vanished while walking with other members of The Way (Gargano, Candice LeRae, and Indie Heartwell) backstage to the ring ahead of his North American Title defense against Kushida at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day.
It appeared Lumis rendered him unconscious after placing a towel over his mouth and nose, implying it was chloroform. Shortly after, Lumis “hacked” Theory’s Twitter account and posted photos of himself.
Gargano had missing posters. During the Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell tag team match, a white van had pulled up to the building. Gargano had left ringside to go check it out and got Theory, who had been tied up.
Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell took place in a tag team match.
This was the first match of the night. The match was solid with the heels dominating the majority of the match with Moon getting the hot tag. Moon got the win with a roll-up on Heartwell off a distraction.
This was a rematch from last week’s episode of NXT that saw Moon and Blackheart go over to advance to the finals of the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The babyfaces lost to Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez in the finals this past Sunday night at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day.
Undisputed Era Follow-Up
After Finn Balor had successfully retained the NXT Title over Pete Dunne in the main event of NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day, Balor was attacked by Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch in the ring until Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O\’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) ran out and chased them off.
O\’Reilly helped Balor up and told him how much he respects him, but Cole superkicked Balor then O’Reilly after O\’Reilly was furious with Cole and said what he did to Balor was \”bullsh*t.\”
The show opened with Kyle doing an interview in the ring about how the Undisputed Era is special and they were supposed to last forever. He said that Cole stabbed him in the back, but he’s still his brother. He wanted to know why Cole did what he did.
He said that he’ll likely punch him in the face, but he’s willing to hear him out. Strong came out and said Cole did what he did due to emotion. He said he knows Cole regrets what he did. Kyle told Strong to not get in the ring because he doesn’t trust him. He demanded for Cole to get out to the ring. Balor came out instead and said he was looking for Kyle. Balor told him to get in line behind him because they have some business to address.
He said that he knew not to accept Kyle’s hand and questioned his intentions behind it. Dunne, Lorcan, and Burch ran out to attack the three men.
WWE had been advertising Karrion Kross vs. NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar in a non-title match.
That match was pulled and WWE did an angle where Santos did a promo about how he would face Kross on his time. William Regal then announced the match would take place and if Santos didn’t do it then he would be stripped of the title and suspended.
Thus, we got Balor, O’Reilly, and Strong vs. Lorcan, Burch, and Dunne in a six-man tag team match instead.
The match ended when there was a referee bump. Cole kicked Kyle in the head then hit a brainbuster to him on the steel steps. Dunne pinned Balor with the Bitter End. Cole ended the show while standing over Balor with the NXT Title.
Pat McAfee appeared in a video while on a private plane. He said that fans now know what he knew about Adam Cole (referencing his attack on Kyle O’Reilly). He said that Cole was a scumbag and called the fans the wrestling internet community. He wants all apologies from fans regarding them being wrong about what he said about Cole. He noted he’s going to a beach while the bums [fans] were sitting at home.
McAfee hadn’t been seen since TakeOver: WarGames last November. In 2020, he worked two matches with Cole.
Triple H recently addressed Pat McAfee’s status in WWE during a recent media call:
“Pat’s limitations are…he’s a busy guy,” Triple H said. “Pat is one of the most successful… I hate to put a title on what he does because I feel like it’s limiting to him, but like you say… podcaster, media personality, sports world personality… almost every weekend that I look online during football season Pat seems to be trending on the weekends. His coverage of football, his association with FanDuel, just everything that he does.”
Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai came out to the ring to join MSK to celebrate winning the men’s and women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. As a result of winning their respective tournament, Raquel and Kai are guaranteed a title match.
They were quickly interrupted by WWE Tag Team Champions Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler. Raquel told Shayna that she doesn’t run NXT anymore. Their title match is set for March 3rd. Jax told them to calm down and she came here to honor Dusty.
She recalls him praising her while she was in NXT. She said that he was right when he called her the biggest badest bi*ch in WWE. She said that they’re the most dominant tag team in all of WWE. Raquel said that Dusty never met her. Shayna said in two weeks, they will be coming to their home turf to embarrass them. Raquel said that she was going to take her boot and shove it up Jax’s hole that she will never get it out.
Edge had the chance a few weeks ago to share the ring with WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor during an episode of NXT.
The WWE Hall of Famer finds himself in an interesting spot kayfabe wise as he can pick which title he wants to challenge for at WrestleMania 37 after winning the Men’s Royal Rumble Match.
He could go after the WWE Title, held by Drew McIntyre, Universal Championship, currently held by Roman Reigns, or Balor’s prestigious belt. However, WWE already has plans in place for him at the biggest event of the year.
Edge did a promo segment on that NXT episode with Balor and Pete Dunne to further promote their match at the NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day special.
While doing an interview with Sports Illustrated, the former WWE Champion gave some high praise to Balor.
“You need to start with Finn Bálor. He’s operating on an entirely different level in the ring right now than I’ve ever seen him perform. I love what he’s doing. With Finn, the story would be two guys who have wrestled all over the world, but never been in the same place at the same time. That’s very appealing to me.”
Edge also talked about Christian’s in-ring return, Reigns, and more. The full interview can be found here.
Back in December, it was reported WWE had been considering doing a new show for the NXT brand, which would see it be led by former EVOLVE co-founder Gabe Sapolsky.
The idea behind it was to help out talent trying to make it on the NXT roster. On Wednesday, Fightful reported the company has taken another step further with the show as it now has a tentative title of NXT EVOLVE with Sapolsky and Jeremy Borash both heavily involved.
Dave Meltzer confirmed that a pilot has been filmed as well as Sapolsky being under control of the new venture. He couldn\’t confirm any other details.
The report from Fightful goes onto state the tapings for the show had more of a \”fight\” feel and took place at a warehouse that was temporarily used when the Performance Center didn\’t train talent.
Josiah Williams served as the host with new graphics and a title belt already created with the NXT EVOLVE branding. As it stands right now, there’s no word yet on whether this show has been greenlit for production, announcers, intended talent, and the platform on which it will air. It’s possible that WWE adds commentary to the broadcast in post-production and if WWE can’t reach a television deal with a network, the likely home would be on the WWE Network.
Originally, the plan for the show was to provide those in developmental more opportunity to work since WWE can’t run house shows.
WWE purchased EVOLVE from Sapolsky and Sal Hamoui last July while Sapolsky has been an NXT consultant since 2018.
Monday’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.810 million viewers with a 0.57 rating in the Adults 18-49 demographic. This is up from last week (1.715 million viewers with a 0.49 rating), which was the least-watched episode of Raw this year.
This was the go-home edition of the red brand for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event. Next week will feature the fallout from this PPV, which is likely to get a small bump in viewership due to intrigue.
Here’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Monday night:
The first hour did 1.935 million viewers and a 0.60 rating (A18-49).
The second hour did 1.806 million viewers and a 0.57 rating.
The final hour of the show had just 1.690 million viewers and a 0.53 rating.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 1.990 million viewers. This is down from the 2.257 million viewers on FS1 that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.57 rating in the 18-49 demos, down from the 0.65 rating the previous week’s show. The episode drew an average of 1.883 million viewers in the overnight ratings, down from the previous week that did 2.126 million viewers.
The first hour saw it pull in 1.905 million viewers while hour two did 1.862 million viewers. The show did 2.144 million viewers in hour one while hour two did 2.108 million viewers two weeks ago.
There have been some changes made to the card for Sunday\’s Elimination Chamber.
On Monday’s episode of Raw, the show opened with The Miz welcoming Drew McIntyre to Miz TV. After Miz kept interrupting the WWE Champion, McIntyre headbutted him and tossed his Money in the Bank briefcase out of the ring towards the stage.
This led to McIntyre leaving and Miz recovering to the point where he did a promo where he announced that he was removing himself from the WWE Title Elimination Chamber Match. He then teased cashhing in the Money in the Bank briefcase on either McIntyre or even Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
WWE named his replacement later in the show as a Gauntlet Match took place featuring the newest member, Kofi Kingston, as well as McIntyre, Randy Orton, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, and Sheamus with Sheamus winning to earn the right to enter the chamber match last.
Kingston earned the spot after beating The Miz in a singles match earlier in the night.
Also, Lacey Evans was supposed to challenge Asuka for the Raw Women’s Title at this show, but she is pregnant and WWE will have to announce her replacement.
WWE Elimination Chamber: Updated Card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Sheamus – Elimination Chamber Match
WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns vs. TBA
Kevin Owens vs. Jey Uso vs. King Corbin vs. Sami Zayn vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Cesaro – #1 Contender Elimination Chamber Match
WWE Raw Women’s Champion Asuka vs. TBA
WWE United States Champion Bobby Lashley vs. Matt Riddle vs. Keith Lee – Triple Threat Match
Lacey Evans shared some exciting news on Monday’s episode of Raw.
Asuka and Charlotte Flair fought Peyton Royce and Evans in a tag team match on this show, but Evans didn’t take a bump as she refused to tag in. Instead, she walked out from ringside before announcing she is pregnant.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair implied that he is the father because he could be heard saying, “call me daddy.” Clearly, Flair is not the father but Evans is legitimately pregnant.
Evans informed WWE about her pregnancy on Monday. Thus, they had to change the direction of her storyline with Flair.
This means that she will be taking time off from WWE. The company could always pick up the storyline where it left off when she returns late this year or in early 2022. This will be the second child for Lacey and her husband Alfonso as their first child is named Summer.
WWE will also have to announce her replacement in a planned title match as Evans was supposed to challenge Asuka for the Raw Women’s Title at this Sunday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event from Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
During Monday’s episode of Raw, Akira Tozawa won the title from R-Truth. Moments later, Akira walked into Damian Priest, who was with Bad Bunny, and the Raw star sent him into a stack of production crates. Bunny pinned him to win the title.
Bad Bunny is slated to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. Thus, this could’ve been done so he could hold on to the title for a while and be able to show it off on SNL.
Triple H commented on the moment by writing the following on Twitter:
“A #RoyalRumble moment, an upcoming #SNL appearance and now @WWE #247Champion… @sanbenito has been a busy man. #ThePoint #WWERaw.”
After appearing at the Royal Rumble and getting physical with The Miz and John Morrison, the following night on Raw, it was reported that the singer is training at the Performance Center to get ready for his WWE in-ring debut.
Bad Bunny made a chunk of change via recent WWEShop sales. A few weeks ago, he held all four of the top merch selling spots thanks to his t-shirt. This drove over $500,000 in sales to WWE and Bad Bunny as a result.
WWE has decided to issue “violations” to talent if they send out messages on Twitter and Instagram while naming any third party business, person, brand, or charity.
Wrestling Inc reported the news today. Per the report, the violations start with a warning, then a fine, and finally suspension. WWE claims ownership of talent Twitter and Instagram accounts because of a clause in their contract, which grants the company the exclusive use of their likeness.
WWE made it clear to wrestlers who have complained that the current “flexibility” allowed in social media could be retracted by them.
Last September, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon sent out a memo stating wrestlers can no longer use platforms like Cameo and Twitch. A month later, WWE decided to release Zelina Vega due to fallout from her continuing to use platforms like Twitch and OnlyFans.
It was clarified that talent will be able to maintain both YouTube and Twitch accounts but has to use their real names.
LoveUX came out with a study about how lucrative these social media posts can be to celebrities and wrestlers. Lana earned an estimated $625,922 off 59 sponsored posts last year, which turned out to be $10,608 per post. Mandy Rose got $490,104 off 71 sponsored posts ($6,902 per post).
Cody Rhodes has made it known that it\’s entirely possible for AEW and WWE to work together, even though the chances of that happening are slim.
All Elite Wrestling has established a working relationship with not only Impact Wrestling, but also NJPW.
This is something the AEW Executive talked about while doing an interview with The New York Post. He made the comments on a potential AEW – WWE crossover when asked about having wrestlers from the likes of NWA, NJPW, and Impact on Dynamite.
He thinks the All In show showed that the business can let go of various old rules. All In was an independent wrestling show with production help from ROH that was started off a bet that he couldn’t hold a show with 10,000 fans in attendance. He noted that there is no reason why AEW couldn’t work with NJPW and thus the same with WWE.
“There’s no reason that there couldn’t be a potential WWE crossover one day,” Rhodes said. “And I don’t mean that’s a thing that’s been discussed or happening, but none of those rules that exist for other places exist for us. Wrestling is really this universal industry. The territory reference that you made, that’s fairly accurate, but the part of it that’s most accurate was there was a genuine trust.”
He brought up how Eddie Graham and Vince McMahon Sr. traded talent all of the time. The reason for this was to keep wrestlers fresh.
“Wednesday Night War or not the main thing we have to do for fans for the rest of this run – and I want this company to be around forever — is keep it fresh. It can’t ever get stale. Our doors are open if the business is right, if the moment is right, if the time is right. Our bridges are down. I’ll be the one curmudgeon AEW guy to make sure it’s all good.”
WWE moved NXT to the USA Network in the same time slot as Dynamite when AEW reached a television deal with TNT. Since that time, AEW has won the majority of the ratings war in both total viewership and nearly all demos except for +50.
After a tough battle, Finn Balor has walked out of the latest special for the black and yellow brand as the top champion.
Balor made his latest title defense against Pete Dunne at the WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day event The match had a slow build with a lot of grappling and selling by Balor. Things picked up and they traded moves and near falls.
In the end, Balor connected with a double foot stomp off the top rope then hit 1916 to successfully retain the NXT Title. Post-match, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan attacked Balor until Undisputed Era ran down to make the save. Kyle O\’Reilly offered his hand to Balor, who answered and they shook hands. Adam Cole took out Balor with a superkick then one to Kyle O\’Reilly.
On the February 3rd edition of NXT, Balor and Dunne took part in a segment that was interrupted by men\’s Royal Rumble winner Edge, which led to him doing a promo about how he’s allowed to challenge any champion in the company. He put them over for being two of the best and said he\’d be watching their match at TakeOver.
He noted that if he hasn\’t decided which title he\’ll be challenging for at WrestleMania then he would be watching this match closely and the outcome may make him decide his choice.
WrestleVotes reported last week that WWE officials have talked about the title being defended on one of the nights of WrestleMania 37. Those talks have not been finalized and there’s no word yet on the competitors in the match.
Io Shirai was successful in her latest title defense of the NXT Women’s Title.
She did so at Sunday’s WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day event when she beat Mercedes Martinez and Toni Storm in a Triple Threat Match.
The match saw a brawling style with everyone trying to get their spots in. A typical three-way. At one point, Storm was going to do a spot with the announce table, but it broke by itself as she was clearing it. After Storm hit a headbutt off the top rope to Martinez, Io hit a moonsault onto them and pinned Martinez for the win.
On the January 27th edition of NXT, Shirai, Storm, and Martinez took part in a three-way brawl with it ending seeing Storm standing tall and holding up the title. Last month, Martinez made her return to NXT by attacking Shirai, who had been challenged by Storm and went to the ring to call her out. However, Martinez took her out by throwing her into the announce table.
Although Storm & Martinez teamed together in the women\’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, they were quickly eliminated by Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter in the first round. This was done thanks to Shirai attacking Martinez during the match.
What are your thoughts on Io Shirai retaining the NXT Women’s Title? Was this the right call by WWE officials? Sound off in the comment section.
The 2021 men\’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic is in the books as the final two teams battled it out for the trophy.
At NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day, The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) took on MSK (Wes Lee & Nash Carter) in the finals of the tournament.
The match saw a chaotic style with the babyfaces selling throughout it until they made their comeback. The match broke down into a spot fest until MSK hit their finisher to Gibson for the victory.
As a result, they’ve received the Dusty Cup and a shot at Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch\’s NXT Tag Team titles.
The semi-finals were held last week on NXT, which saw The Grizzled Young Veterans defeat Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher while MSK advanced to the finals by defeating Legado Del Fantasma\’s Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde
The Grizzled Young Veterans had defeated Ever-Rise (Chase Parker & Matt Martel) in the first round of the tournament then Kushida & Leon Ruff in the quarterfinals. On the flip side, MSK defeated Isaiah \”Swerve\” Scott & Jake Atlas in the first round before they beat Drake Maverick & Killian Dain in the quarterfinals.
MSK Wins 2021 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
MSK, who are former Rascalz members Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz, made their promotional debut in this year\’s tournament while this marked the second straight year The Grizzled Young Veterans worked the Dusty Rhodes Classic. Last year, they lost to Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne in the finals of the tournament.
Past winners include:
2015: Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
2016: The Authors of Pain
2018: The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly)
2019: Aleister Black and Ricochet
2020: The BroserWeights (Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne)
The first title match Johnny Gargano vs. Kushida was a memorable one.
As seen at Sunday’s (February 14, 2021) WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day event in Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center on the WWE Network, Gargano defended the North American Title against Kushida.
The match saw them work a slow grappling pace as Gargano was working over the left arm of his opponent. They would do a submission spot then into a flurry of spots then slow things down again. They both worked over each other’s left arm and tried to make the other submit. Gargano hit his finisher for the win.
On the February 3rd edition of NXT, Gargano was informed of this match, but at first, he didn\’t believe the news and went to question NXT General Manager William Regal about it. When he walked in, Kushida was in Regal\’s office, and this led to Gargano attacking him. However, Kushida got the better of their brawl before it was broken up.
WWE holds the fallout episode from this show of NXT on Wednesday. It will be interesting to see if WWE continues this feud or goes in a different direction. Either way, they put on one heck of a match that delivered.
Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez are the winners of the first-ever Women\’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
It happened when they took on Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon at Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day special. The match, which opened the show, saw both teams have moments where they dominated until the other team made a hot tag and comeback.
The finish was Gonzalez tossing Blackheart off the top rope and hitting her finisher for the win.
Blackheart and Moon advanced to the finals by scoring a win over Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell last week on NXT. Before that, they beat Marina Shafir and Zoey Stark in the first round of the women\’s Dusty Classic.
On the flip side, Kai and Gonzalez defeated Aliyah and Jessi Kamea in the first round of the tournament and Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter in the semifinals.
As a result of this win, they got the Dusty Cup and a shot at the WWE Women\’s Tag Team Titles, which are currently held by Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler. The titles can be defended on WWE\’s main roster brands and in NXT.
The Dusty Rhodes tag team classic tournament was established in 2015 as a tribute to the legendary pro wrestler.
Eli Drake is headed to WWE. The former Impact Wrestling and NWA star signed over the weekend and is joining the NXT brand.
The man formerly known as Eli Drake is now going by the name LA Knight. He was introduced to the WWE Universe at Sunday\’s NXT Takeover: Vengeance pay-per-view.
Following his debut on WWE programming, LA Knight is rumored to be part of the next class of WWE Performance Center recruits. They begin training on February 23rd.
He had originally been under contract with WWE several years ago as he worked under the NXT banner from October 2013 through May 2014. He was released by the company and later signed with Impact Wrestling in February 2015.
During his run with Impact, he held the World Heavyweight and Tag Team Titles. He was positioned as an upper card talent throughout his run. Impact announced in April 2019 that they had terminated Drake from his contract two months before it was slated to expire.
He moved on and signed with the NWA. In 2019, he would become the first person announced as signing an exclusive deal with the NWA, which went on hiatus last year during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The card for tonight’s (Sunday, February 14, 2021) WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day event has been finalized.
The company has yet to officially announce the main event of this event that takes place in Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center and will air on the WWE Network. This special will likely be headlined by WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne.
This show marks the first special for the yellow brand in 2021, which features a stacked lineup. There are a total of five matches booked for this show with three of them being championship matches.
As a reminder, we will be providing live play-by-play coverage of this special later tonight. The betting odds can be found here.
WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day Card
WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne
WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai vs. Mercedes Martinez vs. Toni Storm – Triple Threat Match
WWE NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano vs. Kushida
MSK (Wes Lee & Nash Carter) vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) – Men’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals Match
Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon vs. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez – Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Finals Match
What are your thoughts on this card and the feuds that WWE is presenting to their fans? Sound off in the comment section.
WWE has confirmed a big match featuring SmackDown stars for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event.
The company had been advertising a blockbuster announcement by Paul Heyman and Universal Champion Roman Reigns for this show. That happened as Adam Pearce was trying to get Reigns to defend the Universal Title against several stars at this show.
Unlike Raw’s WWE Champion Drew McIntyre, Reigns will just have one opponent instead of five. “The Big Dog” will defend the title against the winner of the Elimination Chamber Match immediately on the same night.
Those in the Chamber match will be Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan, and Cesaro.
Over the last few months, Reigns had been feuding with Owens. Their first match took place at the TLC pay-per-view event while the rematch took place on the December 24th edition of SmackDown inside a Steel Cage, and their third bout was a Last Man Standing Match at last month’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event. Reigns won all three matches.
It had been previously reported that WWE didn’t have plans to feature an Elimination Chamber Match with women. Thus, speculation shifted towards Reigns and the Universal Title, which turned out to be the case.
WWE presents the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view event on Sunday, February 21, 2021 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
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