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Vengeance Day 2023
Date: February 4, 2023
Location: Spectrum Center, Charlotte, North Carolina
Commentators: Vic Joseph, Booker T.
NXT is back on the road for the first time since Stand & Deliver all the way back in the spring. That is something that could do a lot of good for NXT and the card is pretty stacked as well. We have a bunch of title matches here, capped off by Bron Breakker defending the NXT Title against Grayson Waller inside a cage. Let’s get to it.
Charlotte hosts the opening video, which features all of the wrestlers coming into what looks like a mini arena (probably at the Performance Center) and staring each other down.
Commentary says they are on the road for the first time since they took over Portland over 1,000 days ago.
North American Title: Wes Lee vs. Dijak Lee is defending and suckers Dijak into the corner to start. A missed charge lets Lee hit a slingshot hurricanrana (nearly taking out the referee in the process) to send Dijak outside. Back in and Dijak ..

It’s a situation. WWE is an international wrestling promotion which runs events around the world. This has become even more prevalent in recent years and continues to be so to this day. Every year the company heads to Saudi Arabia for multiple shows, along with other international events. That will be the case again later this month, but two prominent names are not likely to be there.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: LOOK: NXT Star Suffers Nasty Injury At Vengeance Day (Contains Slightly Graphic Photo)
On February 18, WWE will present its annual Elimination Chamber event from the Bell Center in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The event will be headlined by an Undisputed WWE Universal Title match between Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns. The story has been part of the Bloodline saga, which has involved the Usos. However, according to Wrestlingnews.co, the Usos are unlikely to be allowed into Canada due to their history of DUI incidents. There is no word on how the Usos’ absence would be explained.
The Uso..

Ouch! There are all kinds of injuries in the wrestling world and some of them can come out of nowhere. While several injuries are the result of years of wear and tear, occasionally you will see someone get hurt in the blink of an eye. Some of the worst instances of this involve injuries that are obvious to anyone watching, which was the case again this weekend with a nasty looking situation.

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The opening match of this weekend’s NXT Vengeance Day saw Wes Lee successfully defend the North American Title against Dijak. At some point during the match, Dijak suffered an injury to his finger, which appeared to be either broken or dislocated. Dijak finished the match with no apparent issue and there is no word on the nature of his injury or how long he might be out of action (if at all).
FCKIN HELL!! Looks like Dijak broke his finger!!?? #VengeanceDay pic.twitter.com/kX6NQ3QeOb
— ?????? (@WrestlingCo..

It happens. With so many wrestlers around the AEW locker room there are bound to be two of them who do not get along for one reason or another. It might be a longstanding issue or it might be something that pops up out of nowhere. The latter was true in this situation, as we now know about two AEW stars who had a physical altercation after something went wrong.
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According to Fightful Select, Ricky Starks and Swerve Strickland had a backstage incident following a match in 2022. The two were in the ring at Double Or Nothing where Strickland interrupted Starks using his finishing move. This resulted in a scuffle backstage, though the two of them were able to quickly patch things up and work together soon. They have also reportedly talked about the situation on an upcoming edition of Strickland’s podcast.
There is some talent there. Check out the two in action:
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It was a busy night. Title changes are one of the most important things that you can see at a wrestling event. A new champion being crowned marks a changing of the guard, as you have someone else becoming one of the to stars in a promotion. It can mean even more if multiple titles change hands in a single night, which was the case this weekend in the span of a few hours.
There were two title changes over the weekend at NXT Vengeance Day. First up, Fallon Henley and Kiana James defeated Kayden Carter and Katana Chance to become the new NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions. The win marks the first title changes for Henley and James and also ends the record setting reign for Chance and Carter at 186 days. Later, Gallus defeated Pretty Deadly, Chase U and reigning champions the New Day to win the NXT Tag Team Titles for the first time. North American Champion Wes Lee, Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez and NXT Champion Bron Breakker all retained their titles.
It was a busy night. Check out the tit..

Welcome back. There are all kinds of wrestlers on the WWE roster and some of them are around a lot more often than others. You never know when you might see someone going away and not coming back for a long time but it can be a big deal when they make their return. That was the situation this weekend, as a star was back for the first time in a very long while.
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Dabba Kato, formerly known as Commander Azeez, made a surprise return to NXT television over the weekend at Vengeance Day, where he got involved in the match between Carmelo Hayes and Apollo Crews. After the match, Kato attacked Crews and left him laying. Kato has been missing since May 2022, when he wrestled on Main Event. He and Crews had been sent to NXT in June 2022, but Kato never appeared on television. There is no word on why he was missing.
He is quite the giant. Check out Kato, under the name Commander Azeez:
[Thi..

Rampage
Date: February 3, 2023
Location: Nutter Center, Dayton, Ohio
Commentators: Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur
Rampage continues to be a bit all over the place as you know most of the card/lineup in advance but it still feels like a show that could go in a bunch of different directions. That could be the case again this week as there is some star power with the Elite around to defend the Trios Titles. Let’s get to it.
Opening sequence.
Trios Titles: Elite vs. Isiah Kassidy/Matt Hardy/Ethan Page The Elite is defending and for the sake of simplicity, Matt Hardy will be referred to as Hardy and Matt Jackson will be referred to as Matt. Nick Jackson and Kassidy trade some flips and takedowns to start before Matt comes in to take over. Kassidy gets over to Hardy for the tag, so Omega gets the overly dramatic tag.
Hardy sends Omega outside and goes up but Page tags himself in to take over instead. Omega snaps off a hurricanrana and it’s the Bucks coming back in for..

They’re expanding. WWE has all kinds of wrestlers on its roster, including several developmental stars as part of NXT. Those wrestlers are often just starting their wrestling careers and are mainly in need of ring time. The problem is there is only so much time to go around in NXT, but now WWE might have a solution that can make things a bit easier on everyone involved.
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According to Bryan Alvarez, WWE will allow NXT wrestlers to work for select independent promotions. There is no word on which promotions will be able to work with WWE, but Booker T. has announced that NXT’s Ivy Nile will be appearing for his Reality of Wrestling promotion on February 11. WWE had a previous arrangement with Evolve Wrestling in the past but has not had such an agreement since.
NXT is going to allow talent to work select indies going forward, which is a pretty big deal
— Bryan Alvarez (@bryanalvare..

Unless I’m forgetting something, this is the first time NXT has left Orlando for a televised event since Stand & Deliver over Wrestlemania weekend. At some point they just need to get out of Florida and heading to Charlotte is as good of a way as any. The card actually has me interested this time, though the television show from this week wasn’t so great. Maybe they can overcome that with a good one here so let’s get to it.
North American Title: Wes Lee(c) vs. Dijak We’ll start off with one that can go either way as Dijak is a monster who can run through a lot of people and Lee is someone who could be champion for a nice run. This has been built up for a few weeks with Dijak speaking more and more like an 80s movie villain. Lee has turned into a much better star than I would have expected him to be and this is a tossup so far.
I’ll go with Lee here, as it would not surprise me to see Tony D’Angelo and Stacks come in to cost Dijak the match. Dijak is someone who needs to be protected ..

Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over ten years now and have reviewed over 5,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be?
The Main Event #1
Date: February 5, 1988
Location: Market Square Arena, Indianapolis, Indiana
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jesse Ventura
Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant II. I’m not sure what else there is to say here because that’s all that could possibly matter with this show. This is the long awaited rematch from WrestleMania 3, which featured a bit of a controversial moment where Hogan may not have gotten his shoulder up in time. There is some other stuff around here but do you really think it matters? Let’s get to..

That would be a game changer. For about forty years, Vince McMahon has been at the helm of WWE. Last year, McMahon went away for about five months due to a scandal, only to come back in an effort to sell the company. That could be the biggest change in the history of WWE, but now the question becomes what happens once the move is made. We might know one detail that could be another game changer.
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One of the points of contention of a WWE sale is what would happen to McMahon after the sale was completed. WWE held its fourth quarter earning call earlier this week with CEO Nick Khan taking questions. One reported asked if McMahon would step away from the company if it was in the WWE shareholders’ best interest. Here is Khan’s reply, with transcription courtesy of Fightful:
“Yes. Without question. He’s declared it to the board. He’s declared it to us in management. It’s all about shareholder value. Obviou..

That’s a good reason. There are certain stars in WWE who get your attention no matter what they are doing. Some of them have an innate ability to get your attention and the audience will react to them whenever they are around. There are occasionally outside reasons that keep these bigger names away from being on WWE TV regularly and that is the case again.
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Over the last few months, there have been rumors of upcoming matches between Edge/Beth Phoenix vs. Finn Balor/Rhea Ripley in some form. However, Edge had been missing for several months before returning last month at the Royal Rumble. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Edge has been missing in action due to filming commitments on the Disney+ series “Percy Jackson And The Olympians”, leaving him with no time to hype up the match. Edge appeared this week on Monday Night Raw to attack Balor, but no match ..