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Impact Wrestling
Date: December 8, 2022
Location: Old Paristown Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
Commentators: Tom Hannifan, Matthew Rehwoldt
The slow build towards Hard To Kill continues as we still have over a month to go before the show. That means a lot more Bully Ray, who dominated the first fourth of last week’s show and will probably be around again this week. Other than that, it might be nice to hear some more from the World Champion Josh Alexander, so let’s get to it.
We look at Deaner killing Eric Young off last week.
Deaner talks about how Violent By Design is a movement, not a group of people. Now it is time to take out Sami Callihan.
Opening sequence.
Tag Team Titles: Motor City Machine Guns vs. Heath/Rhino Heath/Rhino are defending. Rhino powers Sabin around to start but Sabin is up with a middle rope spinning crossbody for two. Heath comes in and gets his arm worked over but manages to send Shelley into the corner. Shelley charges into a raised boot in the corner, only to..

It’s a plan. We are closing out the year and that means it is time to start getting things ready for 2023. In WWE, that means the Road To WrestleMania 39 is about to begin, which will feature some of the biggest matches of the year, with one of them likely featuring Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns. This time though, it might be a little more complicated.
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As has been the case for the last three editions, WrestleMania 39 is scheduled to be held over two nights. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there have been discussions about having Reigns wrestle on both nights. The idea would be to have Reigns face Cody Rhodes on one night and The Rock on the other, though “the best bet” is that it will not happen. In addition, there have also been discussions of splitting up the two World Titles, but nothing is expected to be finalized until mid-January.
Reigns has done well at WrestleMani..

The champ is back! According to a report from Variety, John Cena will be making his return to WWE on the final Smackdown of 2022. He will be appearing on the December 30 show, which will take place at the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
From the report:
This will mark Cena’s second appearance in WWE in 2022, as he previously returned to the sports entertainment giant in June during an episode of “Monday Night Raw” to celebrate his 20 year anniversary with the company. He did not wrestle a match during that appearance, but rather spoke in the ring about his time with WWE while also appearing in backstage segments.
In terms of working in the ring, Cena most recently embarked on the “Summer of Cena” tour in 2021, which culminated in a celebrated match against WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns at the annual “SummerSlam” pay-per-view in August 2021.
Cena has had a busy few years in his acting career, most notably starring in the title role of the DC series “Peacemaker” at HBO Max in 2..

He has a future? There have been a lot of major stars in wrestling over the years but very few have reached the status of Goldberg. With a mixture of charisma and raw natural strength, Goldberg became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s and has appeared on and off over the last several years. Despite being in his 50s, Goldberg still makes an impact and now we know something about his future plans.
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Goldberg’s most recent match took place on February 19 at WWE Crown Jewel, where he was choked out by Roman Reigns. During an appearance on ESPN Radio with Max Kellerman, Goldberg said that he wanted to wrestle again, saying that he did not want to go out losing to Reigns. There was no mention of when or where a potential match could take place, or who Goldberg might be facing.
Goldberg just told Max Kellerman that he will wrestle again at some point. Says he doesn’t want to go out l..

She would be a big deal. The rise of AEW has led to a variety of stars getting a fresh chance on a new show. It can make a lot of difference to those stars as they might not have had the chance to shine before. That is not always the case though, as some big stars have moved from one promotion to another. Now some people are excited about another possible jump.
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Earlier this week, news broke that Mercedes Kaestner-Varnado, better known as Sasha Banks, would be appearing at New Japan Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4. According to Fightful Select, some AEW stars believe that this could lead to her signing with AEW. One AEW source said they believed Kaestner-Varnado could be an “anchor” for the women’s division and a likely viewership draw. There is currently nothing to suggest that Kaestner-Varnado will be signing with AEW, leaving this as speculation at the moment.
The star power is there. Check out ..

He’s not next. There are very few wrestlers in history who have made the kind of impact that Goldberg made at the start of his career. After a rather successful football career, Goldberg would go on to become a huge star in wrestling. Goldberg was best known for his undefeated streak where he beat all comers for over a year, but it turns out there was one name he refused to face during his career.
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During Goldberg’s popularity in WCW, the WWF created a parody character called Gillberg, portrayed by Duane Gill, a much smaller wrestler. Gill recently appeared on the Cafe de Rene podcast and talked about his time as Gillberg. Gill claims that he approached Goldberg about a match between the two of them, but Goldberg turned him down every time. According to a joking Gill, Goldberg was afraid to face him in the ring.
It was a funny statement. Check out the clip plus both of them in the ring:
[This post contains..

He might be back. Celebrities have a long history in wrestling and that should not come as a surprise. Fans of the celebrities are going to want to see what they are doing and wrestling fans can find it interesting when an outsider comes into their world. That can make for some fun moments, and now we might be getting ready to see a prominent celebrity back in WWE.
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Back in 2021, hip hop star Bad Bunny appeared at WrestleMania 37, where he and Damien Priest teamed together to defeat the Miz and John Morrison. Bunny would return to WWE at the 2022 Royal Rumble as his relationship with the company continued. WWE Head Of Creative Triple H recently posted a photo of himself with Bunny in Los Angeles. There is no word on if Bunny is set to return to WWE anytime soon.
.@sanbenito is such a big star that when he drops in to have lunch… he just lands his plane in downtown L.A., eats and t..

Time off. It can be easy for a wrestler to fall through the cracks these days, as there is so much talent out there at any given time. You never know when you are going to see someone for the last time before they go away for a bit, though sometimes it is more telegraphed than others. That seems to have been the case recently, as a wrestler was attacked and is now going away for a while.
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This week on Monday Night Raw, Solo Sikoa attacked Matt Riddle, resulting in Riddle being taken out of the arena on a stretcher. Now, according to PWInsider.com, Riddle has been pulled from upcoming WWE live events. There is no word on why Riddle is missing ring time, though there is nothing to suggest that he has suffered a legitimate injury. Riddle wrestled this week on Monday Night Raw, teaming with Kevin Owens in a loss to the Usos.
Riddle will be fine when he gets back. Check him out before he left:
[This post cont..

Another round. The rise of AEW has shaken up the wrestling world in a major way, as there is now another national promotion allowing wrestlers a chance to show what they can do on the big stage. That has led to some issues between AEW and WWE though, and now we are going to get another chance to see both companies showcase themselves on the exact same night.
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AEW has announced that it will be making its Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada debut with Dynamite on March 14, 2023. This means that the show, assuming it airs live, will air head to head against NXT. The two shows went head to head for over a year before NXT moved to Tuesday nights full time, though they will occasionally go head to head again. There is no word on why Dynamite is airing on a Tuesday night for this show.
There’d be no #AEW without WINNIPEG! Don’t miss our debut on March 14, 2023 for a Tuesday Night Special #AEWDynamite LIVE and #AEWR..

He has their attention. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be difficult for anyone to stand out. One of the best ways that they can do this is by making a name for themselves in NXT, where WWE works to develop these wrestlers into main roster stars. There is a lot of talent in NXT and now one of the bosses is talking about how great one of those stars really is.
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WWE Senior Vice President of Talent Development Creative Shawn Michaels took part in a media conference call to promote this weekend’s NXT Deadline event. During the call, Michaels spoke about Julius Creed, who he praised by referring to Creed as an “unbelievable athlete” and saying he sees a great deal of potential in Julius and Julius’ brother Brutus. There is no word on any potential callup for either member of the team, who are former NXT Tag Team Champions.
The Creeds have done well so far in NXT. Check out some of their..

The Boss is heading overseas. According to a report from PWInsider, Sasha Banks is expected to appear at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event next month. It is unknown in what capacity she will be used, if at all, during the show.
Banks has not wrestled since she and Naomi walked out on WWE before the May 16 episode of Raw. Both women were upset about the creative direction of their characters, and were subsequently stripped of the Women’s Tag Team Championships.
From the report:
Back in October, Varnado teased the idea of wrestling former WWE star KAIRI in STARDOM, which shares the same corporate owner as NJPW and recently did a crossover event with NJPW. Banks has been training at a number of places in recent months in the United States and Mexico.
Banks recently made a number of trademark filings related to her given name as well as the terms Mercedes Mone’, Mone’ Talks, Bank Mone’, and Statement Maker under company name Soulnado, obviously preparing for her next m..