Randy Orton didn’t let up on AJ Styles as he poked fun at the WWE Intercontinental Champion for his interesting belief.
For a few years, there has been an ongoing joke about Styles believing that the earth is flat. Earlier this week, Orton made fun of Styles for the belief by writing the following in a response to RJ City:
“They council me, they understand Multiple musical notes F**k you for doing this to me bro. As @AJStylesOrg would say, ‘frick’…. also he’s a flat earther. Lets talk about THAT.”
Styles recently talked about this topic on his official Twitch channel.
“For instance, the whole flat Earth thing. I’m with you guys. Randy Orton likes to be a turd…I’m like, come on! There are some interesting things that come up, and I was like, wow, that’s interesting. You know? But it was never, ‘It’s flat! It’s flat! You’re gonna fall!’ It’s never been like that. Just because I said that was interesting I’m now a flat Earther? I’m like, alright then.”
Orton saw the latest comments made by Styles and trolled him yet again, as seen below:
This past Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite was a big show in terms of match quality and viewership.
AEW President Tony Khan mentioned in a response to Dave Meltzer on Twitter that the last 5 minutes of the Falls Count Anywhere Match did over a million viewers.
The Young Bucks went over The Butcher and Blade on this episode from Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place on TNT. It also did over 500,000 viewers in the all-important 18-49 demographic. Khan wrote the following to tout the impressive numbers:
“Yes, #AEWDynamite was over a million total viewers for the final 5 minutes of the @youngbucks v. Butcher & Blade Falls Count Anywhere match, from 8:55pm ET to 9pm ET with 1,018,000 viewers total and 502,000 in the key 18-49 year old demographic! Thank you to everyone who watched!”
Dynamite drew 845,000 total overnight viewers while also doing a 0.32 rating in the 18-49 demos. They also finished in the top 5 for the top 150 shows on cable for the night.
Next Week’s AEW Dynamite Card
AEW World Tag Team Champions Hangman Page and Kenny Omega vs. Evil Uno and Grayson
AEW Women’s Champion Hikaru Shida vs. Diamante Non-Title Match
Darby Allin and Jon Moxley vs. Brian Cage and Ricky Starks with Taz – Tornado Tag Match
Cody to defend AEW TNT Championship against War Horse
Best Friends, Orange Cassidy, Luchasaurus, and Jungle Boy vs. Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Santana, Ortiz, and Sammy Guevara
AEW Dynamite scored a big win over WWE NXT this week in total viewers and the key Adults 18-49 demographic. Courtesy of ShowbuzzDaily:
AEW: 845,000 viewers, 0.32 rating (5th on cable for the night)
NXT: 615,000 viewers, 0.17 rating (35th on cable for the night)
This marks 3 consecutive weeks that AEW viewership increased and NXT decreased. It was the biggest margin for AEW in quite some time.
Aside from the Adults 50+ demographic (which NXT won this week and typically does), AEW not only won every demo but nearly doubled NXT across the board.
NXT dropped 2.5% from last week\’s 631,000. Top matches included Karrion Kross vs. Dominik Dijakovic, Dexter Lumis vs. Killian Dain, Shotzi Blackheart vs. Aliyah and Timothy Thatcher vs. Oney Lorcan. (Results & Takeaways)
Meanwhile, AEW viewership was up 7.2% from last week\’s 788,000. Dynamite saw Cody defending the TNT Championship against veteran Eddie Kingston, the Young Bucks defeating the Butcher & Blade in a wild Falls Count Anywhere match, Hangman Page turning down an offer to join the Dark Order and the surprise return of Sammy Guevara. (Results & Takeaways)
AEW and NXT combined drew more viewers in some demographics than Raw did this week.
AEW President Tony Khan thanked fans for their continued support:
Thank you everyone who watched #AEWDynamite last night! It was a great show & I’m thankful for our great audience too! It was our 4th straight week in the top 7 cable shows 18-49, + back-to-back weeks in the top 5, meaning my parents are drinkin’ A Lil’ Bit of The Bubbly tonight!
A late addition to the card although WWE did have Robert Stone appear on WWE’s The Bump to announce that his client, Aliyah, would take on Shotzi Blackheart in a singles match.
Blackheart won with a backsplash off the top rope. She had taken out Stone during the match after he interfered by hitting him with a big boot on the apron. Mercedes Martinez attacked Shotzi after the match.
Clearly, WWE officials like Stone even though he split with Chelsea Green, who was headed to the main roster only for Vince McMahon to change his mind.
Aliyah and Blackheart did their best to get over the story they were trying to tell and had some time to do so but WWE still has a long way to go in order to get Aliyah and Blackheart over as stars rather than solid wrestlers.
This match was set up two weeks ago in an angle where Stone had offered Blackheart the opportunity to join his brand, but she denied him and he tossed coffee over his shoulder which hit Killian Dain. Eventually, Dain attacked Stone and Blackheart ran over Stone’s ankle with her tank, which she uses during her entrance.
The first of several Triple Threat qualifying matches was booked as the top bout featured on show saw Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong vs. Bronson Reed.
The match was part of the big announcement that had been promised by NXT General Manager William Regal, who had given Keith Lee the chance to announce that he decided to vacate the NXT North American Title.
There will be a series of triple threat matches that will serve as qualifying matches. The winners of these matches will then advance to a Ladder Match at the NXT TakeOver XXX special during SummerSlam weekend to crown the new North American Champion.
Regarding this match, it was the best match of the night. Reed went over when he laid out Gargano before hitting a splash to Strong for the win.
Now, there are four more spots to be filled in the ladder match.
Who will earn a spot in the Ladder Match at #NXTTakeOver: XXX to crown a NEW NXT North American Champion???
Dexter Lumis faced Killian Dain in a singles match. Right out of the gate, this was a weird match style as you have a big guy in Dain while Lumis is a slow passing serial killer character.
They did their best to make the match work. Lumis is clearly a guy that Triple H believes could be a star on the NXT program and Dain was next on his list. Dain is a guy, who had just recently made his return, as someone that WWE pushed as a monster.
The two guys worked hard until the finish that saw Lumis hit his side slam signature move before locking in his arm/neck choke.
Lumis also broke out some new moves such as a leg drop that Hulk Hogan would be proud of and a front senton off the top rope.
Dominik Dijakovic went one-on-one with Karrion Kross.
Just like all of the other opponents that have been put in the way of Kross, he crushed Dijakovic. The finish came when Kross put the head of his opponent between the ring and steps and kicked the steel.
Dijakovic was out cold and Kross tossed him into the ring before landing a few strikes. NXT Champion Keith Lee came to ringside to tell Dijakovic to give up. Dijakovic said that he wanted it to continue. Kross ended up going over as Lee told him that he made a mistake.
The booking decision behind this contest made sense although Dijakovic has been someone that WWE officials have pushed since his arrival. He’s known as the great rival and friend of Lee.
Even last week when Lee beat Dijakovic to retain both titles, WWE had Kross watching from high above.
Clearly, Kross is in line for Lee, but it remains to be interesting to see how WWE gets there. Is he the next in line or does he wait until Adam Cole gets his rematch.
AEW has made a special announcement that will feature wrestlers from its women’s roster.
During Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite on TNT, All Elite Wrestling announced that there would be a women’s tag team tournament taking place this summer.
\”The AEW Women’s Tag Team Cup Tournament: The Deadly Draw\” features all of the top women wrestlers in the company. Although not a lot of information was released about this tournament, what is known is that it will include 16 women and 8 teams.
As of this writing, there’s no word on the format of the tournament or what the winners will receive. Check out the promo that aired on Dynamite to hype the tournament below:
Coming this Summer | 16 Women | 8 Teams It's the AEW Women's Tag Team Cup Tournament: The Deadly Draw
Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes had been teasing something big for the women’s division and this appears to be what she had been hinting towards. She is currently one-half of the Nightmare Sisters tag duo with Allie.
AEW released the latest talent rankings on Wednesday and there was no movement in the women’s division. Although AEW does have several female wrestlers under contract there are some who are unavailable at the moment.
Eddie Kingston made his AEW debut on this week’s episode of Dynamite in Jacksonville, Florida at Daily’s Place on TNT. He did so by answering the open challenge set out by Cody Rhodes. This was the first bout on the card and was a No DQ Match.
Rhodes had a hard-fought battle against the promotional newcomer including a spot where he was thrown into thumb tacks. That resulted in him bleeding from his back.
In the end, Rhodes managed to lock in the figure four leg lock to score the win and successfully retain the TNT Title.
On Wednesday while doing an interview with Sports Illustrated, Rhodes had teased who could be the person to answer the open challenge.
“We need to always be aware of the world around us. One of the charming things about what we’ve been doing is we’ve been real and we’ve been transparent. Wrestling exists outside of AEW, we are aware of that. We try to be the best wrestling, and I really think we are, but there is great wrestling outside of us, too. It’s important for us to acknowledge that.”
The 38-year-old Kingston has been in the pro wrestling business since 2002. During that time, he has worked for various promotions such as Chikara, PWG, ROH, and even TNA.
He also found success while working for Evolve and the National Wrestling Alliance.
WWE had NXT General Manager William Regal open Wednesday’s episode of NXT with a major announcement.
Clearly, WWE didn’t want to waste any time in getting the announcement made. In the opening segment, Regal did a quick introduction before giving the platform to NXT and North American Champion Keith Lee.
Lee cut a promo from his home office where he talked about cashing in on the opportunity to become the NXT North American Champion and later the top champion on the brand.
However, he won’t be limiting the brand and thus, decided to vacate the North American Title. He wants as many people as possible to have the opportunity to win the title.
Regal started that there will be a series of triple threat matches that will serve as qualifying matches. The first match will be Johnny Gargano vs. Roderick Strong vs. Bronson Reed on Wednesday\’s episode of NXT. The winners of these matches will then advance to a Ladder Match at the NXT TakeOver special next month to crown the new North American Champion.
The event, titled NXT TakeOver XXX, will take place on August 22nd.
Regal had been hyping this announcement as something that would be yet another step forward for the brand. In that same tweet, he said that seeing the men and women of this brand over the last couple of months has been inspiring and invigorating.
Eric Young gave some interesting insight into the system that WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon has created now that he’s no longer under contract with the company.
He did so while making an appearance on SiriusXM’s Busted Open. Although he felt like he had a part in the creative direction of his character in NXT while working with Triple H, that quickly changed once he moved to the main roster.
He talked about how his transition to the main roster didn’t go very well and part of that is due to him not wanting to be a political person in pro wrestling. He admitted that might be a bit of a hindrance to his career.
“We don’t need to go on and on about it, but the system is broken. It’s hard to get a word in.”
He stated that even when a wrestler isn’t doing anything, it feels like your trying to fix the mistakes made by other people.
“There is no creativity. They want everyone to do things the same and be the same and bump the same and sell the same. There’s millions of rules, which I’m sure you guys have all heard and talked about on the show at length, and people talk about on the internet. The secret rules. Those change daily and it’s just really hard to understand what’s going on and why it’s going on. The system is flawed. And I would say that to anyone there. I would say it to Vince himself.”
He stated that he’s not the first person that McMahon has made a mistake on and he won’t be the last person.
“I don’t think it’s anything personal. Anytime me and him were in a room together, or we spoke, he was always respectful. We had two pretty decently long conversations and I thought they went well and he understood where I was coming from.”
Young stated that as a man, he refuses to stand around and wait on McMahon to talk to him. While he thinks that could be wrong or stubborn on his part, but he just won’t do it.
“I’m a forty-year-old man and I’m not gonna wait in the hallway like a child to maybe get five minutes to talk to him. I said my peace to him. He seemed to be responsive to it. And nothing ever came from it. I don’t take it personally. He made a mistake and, as a leader of the company and the person that decides everything, it’s a massive mistake to pass on somebody with me.”
He added, “You have a three-hour television show and you can’t find five minutes for Eric Young? Your show is broken. It’s as simple as that. I’ve proven that I can do whatever. Any role. I’m not saying I can do it. I’ve already done it and I’ve proven that I can do it and do it very well.”
He considers that a huge miss and mistake. He now sees it as a gain for somebody else. Young stated that his soul hadn’t felt good in a long time and that he didn’t exist for two years while on the main roster.
He stated that everyone in wrestling is creative and to have your hard work be discarded is hard to deal with and a huge blow to the psyche.
“I never thought, ‘Oh, this is my fault.’ The system is just broken. It’s flawed. All the flaws are created by one person and that’s not gonna change, unfortunately.”
Young stated that a lot of people who are creative and talented are never going to be able to fully do what they can do because of the way the system is organized.
He called it super frustrating when you’re in it. He added that he can smile now because he doesn’t have to deal with that anymore.
Over the last year, WWE’s stock price has taken a significant hit from the all-time high of $99.25 per share back in April 2019.
WWE’s stock has been trading around $46 per share this week. Since hitting that all-time high price tag, the company’s value has taken a big hit, down several billion dollars.
Next Thursday (July 30), WWE is expected to report earnings after the market closes. The report will be for the fiscal quarter ending Jun 2020. This quarter will not include how business did around WrestleMania 36 and the beginning of the coronavirus.
Even though WWE stock is down, that didn’t stop several executives from recently cashing out in WWE stock.
This includes WWE CEO Vince McMahon, Paul Levesque, Stephanie McMahon, EVP of Television Production Kevin Dunn, EVP of Operations Bradley Blum, Corporate Controller Mark Kowal and General Counsel Brian Nurse.
According to recent SEC filings, the following trades were made earlier this week (July 20):
Vince McMahon sold 12,762 shares worth $590,370.12. He still owns 69,421 of the Company\’s Class A common stock.
Levesque sold 10,628 shares worth $491,651.28
Stephanie sold 11,167 shares totaling $516,585.42.
Stephanie McMahon made an appearance on Ad Age Remotely where she discussed a wide range of interesting topics.
During the interview, she talked about how WWE is operating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the outbreak, WWE has continued to hold shows but had to do so in front of no fans from the Performance Center.
\”It’s all optional, it’s volunteer-based. It’s up to them if they want to participate, we did have talent and crew members opt-out, and we do support that. We do testing before all programming. It is more advanced testing, it isn’t the rapid test, that does have false positives and negative, we want the best testing positive.
She talked about having pandemic level cleaning every night including fogging and special lighting. They also have an application of a product that creates a barrier between the virus and surfaces.
She added that if someone tests negative for the virus, they still need a temperature check and fill out a form. She called it as thorough as it possibly can be.
Regarding having fans back at their TV events, McMahon gave a teaser about the possible timeline.
\”I think that happens sooner than later. So I\’ll just throw that out there to the universe.”
It’s been reported that WWE wanted to have fans back this month then that got pushed back to August and now September due to cases of positive tests spiking in recent weeks.
Monday\’s edition of WWE Raw averaged 1.628 million viewers with a 0.46 rating in the 18-49 demo. This was a 4% increase over last week, which did 1.561 million viewers and was the least-watched episode in the 27-year history of the show.
One year ago, Raw averaged 3.093 million viewers, which is alarming on many levels.
Orton vs Show did a 0.42 18-49 in Q3. That is staggeringly bad when put into perspective. Worst quarter performance in 27+ year history of the show for a bout promoted for weeks.
Raw did beat last week's overall numbers, but that was a given. To me, while a higher number this week in overall, it was a far worst performance given what was promoted and coming after a PPV designed to promote ratings the next week.
Here\’s the hourly viewership breakdown for Raw, courtesy of Showbuzzdaily.com:
Hour 1: 1.740 million viewers
Hour 2: 1.609 million viewers
Hour 3: 1.535 million viewers
This week\’s Raw featured fallout from Sunday night\’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view. Top items on the show included Randy Orton vs. Big Show in a non-sanctioned match, Kairi Sane\’s final match (against Bayley) before returning to Japan and the surprise return of Mustafa Ali.
SmackDown Viewership
Friday’s SmackDown averaged 1.912 million viewers on FOX. This is up from the 1.900 million viewers that the show did for the previous week.
SmackDown averaged 1.893 million viewers in the fast nationals, which was down from the 1.905 million viewers a week ago. This number measured the top metered markets.
The first hour drew 1.919 million viewers while the second hour did 1.867 million viewers. For comparison, the first show of last week’s show did 1.930 million viewers while the second hour did 1.879 million viewers.
SmackDown pulled in a 0.45 rating in the 18-49 demos, down from the 0.50 rating as last week’s show.
Jon Moxley says the company has a big surprise in store for fans this week on Dynamite. AEW\’s reigning World Champion dropped the teaser during a Tuesday appearance on the Dan Le Batard Show.
Moxley gushed about how much he is enjoying himself in All Elite Wrestling. He said he\’s proud to be part of today\’s generation of pro wrestlers leading the charge into what is hopefully a new boom period for the industry. Moxley touted the athleticism of AEW\’s roster before revealing that AEW has something really cool in store for fans this week.
\”This Wednesday night is going to be an awesome show. I’m not going to spoil it, but I will tell you, I will give you this information. Tomorrow night on Dynamite, there will be a big surprise and one that made me exceedingly happy. Especially for kind of the more hardcore fans who kind of follow the scene around the world, you’re going to get a big surprise.\”
\”It will be an even more casual fan or a first-time viewer,\” he continued. \”It will be an absolute treat to watch. I tell you this, there will be an absolute kick-a** match tomorrow night.”
As of this writing, there’s no word yet on what the promotion has planned for the big surprise. AEW has already confirmed that Moxley will do a promo segment on the show.
Earlier in the show, a backstage segment aired involving WWE Hall of Famer Ron Simmons giving encouraging words to Bobby Lashley and MVP. This led to R-Truth appearing, who turned down the chance to walk to the ring with them.
R-Truth turned around and Shelton Benjamin laid him out to cover him. As a result, he became the new WWE 24/7 Champion. Benjamin accepted the same invite and came out with the two WWE stars to the ring.
Lashley, MVP, and Benjamin, who is now going by the group name “The Hurt Business,” was in the ring where MVP taunted Apollo Crews in addition to taking shots at Cedric Alexander and Ricochet.
This was all done to set up a six-man tag team match with Ali joining Ricochet and Alexander as a surprise partner. The babyfaces went over when Ali hit the 450 on MVP for the pin.
Mustafa Ali returns to WWE
This comes after Ali had been off WWE TV since early December 2019 (he worked dark matches in January and February). It was recently reported that WWE sent Ali to the RAW roster after not doing anything for the majority of the year on SmackDown.
Ric Flair\’s wife Wendy Barlow has tested positive for COVID-19. Flair confirmed the news to the New York Post.
The 71-year-old wrestling legend has drawn widespread concern. Flair has battled life-threatening health complications in recent years. He has been attending WWE TV tapings at the Performance Center in Orlando, where many WWE performers and employees have tested positive.
The New York Post also reported that an anonymous source told them Ric Flair has COVID-19. Flair denies the claim and says he is \’socially distancing\’ from his wife in their 5,000 square-foot home.
“That is absolutely incorrect,” Flair said about testing positive for COVID-19. “My wife does [have the virus]… we live in a 5,000 square foot home. I live in the basement. She lives upstairs on the third floor and she got sick.”
According to the report, Flair hung up the phone while talking with them before they could ask any more questions which included his trip to Starbucks. He stated in a text message that his “health is excellent.”
It was added by a source that Wendy is very ill and Flair is mostly asymptomatic aside from some coughing.
The Swamp Fight between Bray Wyatt and Braun Strowman was the latest installment in WWE doing cinematic type matches.
It took place at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view event. The match was different although it was a non-title match, which meant that Strowman didn’t have any worries about losing the WWE Universal Title.
The match featured Wyatt disappearing several times. Strowman took out a few masked men. Strowman got hit in the back with a shovel and it turned out that it was the older version of Strowman.
We then see Strowman tied to a chair with Wyatt trying to talk him into joining him again. There was a lady that came in with a snake then we saw Strowman set a guy on fire. The woman was revealed as Alexa Bliss. Strowman tackled Wyatt into a boat, which later started driving by itself.
It ended when Strowman sent Wyatt into the water. Strowman said that it was over, but Wyatt jumped out and pulled him into the water with him. The water turned red and Wyatt popped up as The Fiend. We see a close-up shot on his face with him laughing and he asks to let him in. That\’s how the match ended. Wyatt won the match.
Firefly Funhouse Wyatt has lost to Strowman and Wyatt won at Extreme Rules while portraying his old gimmick.
With each star holding a win over each other it could lead to a third and final match that would take place at SummerSlam for the Universal Championship.
The unique clash between Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler is in the books.
McIntyre was able to successfully retain the WWE Championship in his latest title defense at the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event on Sunday night in Orlando, Florida.
After weeks of build-up to what the exact stipulation would be, it turns out that it was an Extreme Rules Match only for Ziggler. Thus, it saw Ziggler use any weapon he wanted while McIntyre tried to fight him in an actual wrestling match.
One of the highlights of the match saw Ziggler hit an elbow drop off the top rope onto McIntyre through a table on the floor.
Ziggler brought the fight to the champion but in the end, it was McIntyre standing tall by hitting the Claymore Kick for the win.
This championship match was booked back on the June 22nd episode of RAW when Ziggler made a surprise appearance on the show where he revealed that due to the trade involving AJ Styles being moved to Friday Night SmackDown, RAW was able to select two SmackDown stars. It ended up being Ziggler and Robert Roode being moved as a result.
Ziggler had been hyping the stipulation as a first-ever type of match.
The Eye for an Eye Match had fans talking heading into Extreme Rules and will likely have them talking coming out of the WWE pay-per-view event.
Seth Rollins battled Rey Mysterio in such a match after a heated storyline that has played out over the course of several weeks on television.
Just like WWE had confirmed when listing the match on their website, there a winner could only be determined by extracting the opponent’s eye. So how was the contest? It was a slow spectacle that had a mixture of them doing wrestling moves while also using various weapons as weapons.
That included kendo sticks, pipes, screwdrivers, steel steps, and more. The finish came when Mysterio’s right eye was pushed first into the corner of the steel step and then all of a sudden we saw a fake eye briefly. Rollins began puking after the match.
Just before WWE had announced the match, it was reported by Dave Meltzer of F4Wonline.com that WWE originally did an angle where Rollins sent Mysterio eye first into the corner of a steel step for a reason.
That was to write Mysterio off television in case he didn’t sign a new deal. Mysterio had been wearing an eye patch as part of his mask since the angle.
As of this writing, there’s still no word yet on whether Mysterio has signed a new deal with WWE or plans to hit the free agent market when he’s able to do so.
WWE kicked off its Extreme Rules event with a title change as Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura are on top of the tag team division on SmackDown.
Nakamura and Cesaro beat Big E and Kofi Kingston in a Tables Match at Sunday’s Extreme Rules pay-per-view event in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center.
The finish of the match saw Cesaro powerbomb Kofi off the middle rope through two tables for the win. Unlike other tables matches with tag teams, Big E didn’t need to be put through a table.
Back on the April 17th episode of SmackDown, The New Day dethroned The Miz and John Morrison as the SmackDown Tag Team Champions. This reign marked the eighth time that The New Day had won WWE Tag Team gold.
These two teams have been feuding for quite some time on WWE television. Two weeks ago on an episode of SmackDown, Nakamura and Cesaro introduced the tables by putting Big E and Kingston through them. This set up the gimmick match for this gimmick heavy themed pay-per-view event.
What are your thoughts on Shinsuke Nakamura and Cesaro winning the SmackDown Tag Team Titles? Was this the right idea by WWE officials? Sound off in the comment section.
Chris Jericho went into detail as to what AEW originally had planned for this past Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite for himself and Orange Cassidy.
Of course, the show that aired on TNT saw Cassidy get some revenge on Jericho and other members of the Inner Circle by dumping gallons of orange juice on them in the ring from Daily’s Place.
The former AEW World Heavyweight Champion recalled what they wanted to do for the angle during his weekly Saturday Night Special YouTube show.
The Inner Circle doused in orange juice by Orange Cassidy (Photo: AEW)
He first started talking about coming up with the idea for what they actually did by remembering the bloodbaths that the Brood used to do. They would have their rival stand in the ring and get blood dumped on them.
\”I originally wanted Orange to come into the venue in an orange juice truck, kind of like [Kurt Angle] did with the milk truck or whatever it may be. But if you see at Daily\’s Place whenever they have cars come in – Cody tried to drive it in that one time, and now they have FTR driving.
And you can only get to a certain area and then you have to stop, so you couldn\’t get a whole orange juice truck, even if there\’s such a thing. But I\’m sure we could have made one, and he would have sprayed orange juice on [us].\”
Jericho noted that the orange juice bath from the heavens was more manageable than the truck and so they went with it although there was a bit of uncertainty about it because they had to be in the right spot or it wouldn’t have worked.
The card for Sunday’s (July 19, 2020) WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event has been finalized.
The company hasn’t officially announced the main event of this event that takes place in Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center and will air on the WWE Network, but it will most likely be WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler.
Also on tap for the show are two cinematic matches – Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio in an Eye for an Eye Match and Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman in a Swamp Fight. The Bar Fight between Jeff Hardy and Sheamus was moved from Extreme Rules to next week\’s SmackDown.
As a reminder, we will be providing coverage of this special on Sunday evening starting at 6 PM EST. Here is the final card for the show:
Final WWE Extreme Rules Card
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre vs. Dolph Ziggler
WWE RAW Women’s Champion Asuka vs. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Nikki Cross
Bray Wyatt vs. Braun Strowman – Swamp Fight
Eye For An Eye Match: Seth Rollins vs. Rey Mysterio
WWE United States Champion Apollo Crews vs. MVP
WWE SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day vs. Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura – Tables Match
EC3, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and Eric Young have all joined Impact Wrestling.
Eddie Edwards vs. Trey Miguel vs. Ace Austin vs. Rich Swann vs. Eric Young in an Elimination Match for the vacant Impact World Championship was booked as the main event of Saturday’s Slammiversary pay-per-view event from Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
Edwards defeated Ace Austin to win the title. Post-match, Madman Fulton began to beat down Edwards and Austin joined in. The Good Brothers walked down and made the save. They all stood tall together.
All of these stars were released from WWE in April when the company decided to make mass firing of staff and talent. The wrestlers who were released were under a 90-day non-compete clause until July 15th, which at the time had prevented them from officially signing a deal with any promotion.
Over the last few weeks, it was reported that Anderson and Gallows had agreed to signing with Impact. The promotion made it official earlier on Saturday. They also agreed to a separate deal with another promotion, which will allow them to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Before this event, the promotion had been teasing the return of EC3 to Impact as his entrance music was played on an episode of Impact.
The Motor City Machine Guns made their Impact Wrestling return at Slammiversary.
The Rascalz, Wentz and Dez, issued an Open Challenge during Saturday’s Slammiversary pay-per-view event. This is when the music of Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin hit. The Guns won the match after Sabin pinned Dez.
Sabin had previously been teasing an appearance at Slammiversary while Shelley had recently tweeted, “The past year of my career has been one of my absolute favorite, and it’s been because of my autonomy, my freedom, and the respect I get and give to and from my peers and fans.”
Sabin and Shelly began teaming together back in 2006 where they found success in every promotion they worked for by winning titles.
The Motor City Machine Guns broke up in 2018 months after Shelley suffered an injury and Sabin went off to retire from the pro wrestling business.
Their tenure in Impact goes back to when the promotion was named TNA from 2007 until 2012. Sabin returned to the promotion to work as a producer for last year.
On the flip side, Shelley last wrestled this past February for ROH. This came after he had worked a tag team match where he teamed Kushida in a losing effort to the Grizzled Young Veterans as part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in January under the WWE NXT banner.
After WWE filmed the Swamp Fight this past Thursday night, some additional details about the taping have surfaced.
Braun Strowman will not defend the Universal Championship against Bray Wyatt at this show. The location was roughly two hours outside of Orlando.
According to a report by Wrestling Inc, filming lasted between 6 – 7 hours and they had to do multiple takes in order to get the various angles for editing purposes. There were various spots that were done multiple times like in a movie to get all the angles.
Regarding the match length, the belief is that it will be edited down to approximately a 20 – 30 minute match. WWE had several reptiles such as an alligator and a snake that were used for filming the segment.
The finish of the match was described as something straight out of Friday The 13th and a horror movie as someone is taken away or disappears only for that person to return to continue this feud.
It was added that Vince McMahon was not involved with the match in addition to there being a difference that is notable in the final cut from other recent cinematic matches. Wyatt had various ideas for the match but had to adjust things in order for them to work.
Impact Wrestling is back with another show, so let’s take a look at the card for the Slammiversary pay-per-view event.
Slammiversary takes place on Saturday, July 18, 2020 from Skyway Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Eddie Edwards vs. Trey vs. Ace Austin vs. mystery opponent to crown a new Impact World Heavyweight Champion is expected to serve as the headliner.
The show kicks off at 8:00 p.m. ET and will be distributed on cable, satellite and digital pay-per-view, including DISH, DirecTV, iN Demand, Vubiquity, Rogers, Bell, Shaw and Sasktel across North America, and streaming live globally exclusively on the FITE.tv app
This will be the second PPV event of the year for Impact. The card that features several big matches appears to be finalized. Impact has teased that a former World Heavyweight Champion would be among the surprises in store for this show.
The betting odds for all of the matches that will take place at the WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view event have been released.
The card for the show that takes place this Sunday from Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center is likely or closed to be finalized. The company has yet to announce the pre-show match.
Make sure to join us for match recaps and our takeaways from this latest pay-per-view event held by WWE. Odds call for there to not be any titles changes. Instead, all champions are favored to retain their titles including Asuka edging out former champion Sasha Banks to retain the WWE RAW Women\’s Title.
WWE Extreme Rules Betting Odds
The favorites to win are listed as – while the underdogs are listed with +. Here are the final betting odds courtesy of BetOnline:
WWE Champion Drew McIntyre (-2000) vs. Dolph Ziggler (+700)
WWE RAW Women’s Champion Asuka (-300) vs. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Sasha Banks (+200)
WWE SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley (-600) vs. Nikki Cross (+350)
Bray Wyatt (-150) vs. Braun Strowman (+110) – Swamp Fight
Eye For An Eye Match: Seth Rollins (-150) vs. Rey Mysterio (+110)
WWE United States Champion Apollo Crews (-450) vs. MVP (+275)
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