36 result(s) found
The road to Wrestlepalooza just got messier. With Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes locked in as one of the marquee matches, Randy Orton’s unpredictable behavior on...
Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 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? Wrestlemania VII Date: March 24, 1991 Location: Los Angeles Sports Arena, Los Angeles, California Attendance: 16,158 Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan It’s the Gulf War show, as Hulk Hogan is fighting to get the WWF Title back from former American hero turned Iraqi sympathizer Sgt. Slaughter. If that sounds like one of the worst ideas for a Wrestlemania main event ever, you have quite the memory for these things. Other than that we have Randy Savage vs. Ultimate Warrior in a match that actually belongs i..
Back to start. Titles are some of the most important things in all of wrestling as they tell fans what is going on during the show. A champion is, in theory, one of the most important and talented stars in a promotion as other wrestlers are going to want to win their titles. That can make for some big times matches, which was the case this week as some new champions were crowned. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: A Long Time Coming: Injured AEW Star Makes Surprise Return On Dynamite This week on AEW Dynamite, the Elite defeated Death Triangle in an Escalara de la Muerte match to become the new Trios Champions. The match was the final match in a Best of Seven series between the two, which began back at Full Gear in November. The Elite were the inaugural champions but were stripped of the titles following a suspension. Death Triangle then defeated the Best Friends to win the vacant titles. It took a long time to get here. Check out the series: [This post contains video, click to play] [This p..
It’s something for them. There are a lot of wrestlers on the WWE roster and it can be difficult for the company to find something for all of them to do. One of the best things that WWE has done is split its roster into three different groups. This includes the NXT developmental roster, whose primary goal is to be promoted up to the main roster. Several of them have been getting a bit of a preview lately and it is going well. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: He Nailed It: Vince McMahon Refused To Let Kevin Nash Do Striptease Over the last several months, NXT stars have been appearing on WWE Main Event tapings. This has reportedly been done so WWE higher ups can see them in action outside of the NXT area. According to Fightful Select, WWE is happy with the buzz that the appearances have made, both for the wrestlers and NXT. There is no word on any NXT stars potentially moving up to the main roster. Some of these stars have potential. Check out some of the names who have been on Main Event: [Th..
That’s a different way to go. Wrestlers are very talented stars as they have to put in a lot of effort to get as far as they do in their careers. You can see when someone becomes a star in the ring, but many of them have other careers or interests as well. Now a WWE Hall of Famer is telling a story about how he was not allowed to pursue another career, at least in one instance. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: He’s In: Kevin Owens Reveals Current WWE Contract Status And Likely Future During a recent edition of his Kliq This, WWE Hall Of Famer Kevin Nash revealed that he had read for a role in the 1995 movie Striptease. Nash said that he “nailed it” and the producers were interested in using him, but Vince McMahon would not allow him to miss that much time. The role eventually went to Ving Rhames. Nash has dabbled in acting, both before and after his in-ring career ended. Nash is talented in multiple ways. Check out the clip (which includes some other interesting bits), plus some of his better..
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..
What could have been. This year has included all kinds of huge changes, twists and turns in the wrestling industry, some of which have been among the biggest in years. AEW is no exception, with the backstage fight after All Out being at the top of their list. The situation was bound to have fallout, and now we know something else about the fallout for a group of wrestlers. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: She’s In: Interesting Story On How Britt Baker Brought Top Star Into AEW Following this year’s All Out, CM Punk and Ace Steele got into a backstage brawl with the Elite, which left everyone involved suspended. Punk’s future with the company is up in the air, but he was stripped of the World Title immediately after the incident. During an appearance on the Sessions with Renee Paquette, Stokely Hathaway revealed that Punk was scheduled to work with the Firm. Hathaway says Punk made it clear that he wanted to work with him, which meant a lot to Hathaway, no matter what happened. The Firm has a ..
They have a plan for that. Titles are one of the most important concepts in all of wrestling and it means a lot when one of them changes hands. Occasionally a title change might not be the planned outcome and something else needs to be done. That was the case multiple times this year in AEW so they came up with a unique solution. Now we have some more clarification on their idea. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: That’s Different: Chris Jericho Speaks On Experiences With Time Displacement And Spirits This week on AEW Dynamite, Jamie Hayter was promoted from Interim AEW Women’s Champion to full Women’s Champion as Thunder Rosa was officially stripped of the title. In addition, Toni Storm’s Interim Women’s Title reign was promoted to a full on Women’s Title reign, erasing the Interim Women’s Title from history on all counts. According to Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio, the original idea for introducing an interim title of any kind was to keep the AEW World Title on an injured CM Punk e..
When Thunder Rosa relinquished the AEW Women’s Championship back in August, the rumor mill went wild on her “injury status” and a bunch of other fabricated information. The title has been an Interim World Championship until her return on AEW television. Toni Storm claimed the belt and became the AEW Interim Women’s Champion at All Out in September. Everything has been going alright since then, but there’s a little bet of a booking issue. Storm is having a good reign, but it’s been a bit overshadowed by the return of Saraya and Britt Baker stealing the show. Related: MJF Talks WWE With Tony Khan After AEW Dynamite A lot of the issue is that the AEW fanbase doesn’t love the concept of “Interim Champions.” There’s a valid argument that it makes the company’s championships a little less valuable. The long term play always seemed to be Toni Storm vs. Thunder Rosa down the line. However, a new report shared AEW President Tony Khan’s thoughts on the potential decision to strip Thunder Rosa..
Halloween Havoc 1999 Date: October 24, 1999 Location: MGM Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada Attendance: 8,464 Commentators: Bobby Heenan, Tony Schiavone The Russo Era is officially upon us as we got a big time preview this past Monday. However, this show is the real thing with Russo getting to direct where things go from here. Expect to see a lot more pointless talking, a lot more insanity and a lot more shouting about what I did to deserve this. Let’s get to it. The opening video focuses on Sid vs. Goldberg and mentions the whole “Goldberg can’t touch him” bit, which has basically been ignored. Hogan vs. Sting gets even less hype. A LOUD Weasel chant is ignored by Heenan as Tony announces that due to Rey Mysterio being injured, the Filthy Animals have been stripped of the Tag Team Titles. The solution? A triple threat hardcore title match for the belts with Kidman substituting for Mysterio. Well why bother having a match when you can just make it hardcore? They run down the rest of ..
Everyone has to start somewhere. There have been a lot of wrestlers to come through the WWE locker room over the years but only a few have stood out at the highest level. Those are the names that are remembered in a fond way for a long time to come, but even they might not have had the best time in the company. One such legend is talking about how badly things went for her at first. During an interview with NBC Sports Boston, WWE legend Victoria spoke about her beginnings with the company. Victoria began with WWE as one of Godfather’s Ho’s, despite having signed a full time contract with the company. When she started, she dressed in the women’s locker room but was thrown out by one of the other WWE stars, forcing her to dress in the janitor’s closet. This was due to the majority of the Godfather’s Ho’s being local strippers rather than full time wrestlers. Victoria went on to become a two time WWE Women’s Champion and spent over twenty years in the industry. Opinion: This is one of t..
Forbidden Door Date: June 26, 2022 Location: United Center, Chicago, Illinois Commentators: Excalibur, Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone It’s a special show as we have a host of international guest stars from New Japan coming in for a bunch of big time matches. The main event is for the Interim AEW World Title as CM Punk being stripped of the title was off the table. Other than that, we have a series of title matches which should make for a great show. Let’s get to it. Buy-In: Hirooki Goto/Yoshi-Hashi vs. QT Marshall/Aaron Solo Solo and Hashi start things off with Hashi working on a headlock. A running shoulder drops Solo again so it’s off to Marshall vs. Goto, with the latter knocking Marshall around without much trouble. Solo comes back in and cheap shots Hashi though, allowing Marshall to get in a cheap shot on Goto. That lasts all of a few seconds before the big beatdown is on to put Solo back in trouble. Everything breaks down and Marshall’s cartwheel tumbling dive drops Goto and Hashi. ..
The biggest story of the week in professional wrestling has undoubtedly been the events that occurred on Raw this past week. Sasha Banks and Naomi were not happy with the creative direction of their characters that evening, left the Women’s Tag Team Championship belts on the desk of John Laurinaitis and left the arena before the show went on the air. WWE addressed the controversy on Smackdown this week. Right before the main event, Michael Cole said that Banks and Naomi “let us all down.” He would then explain what had happened on Monday night and said that the duo disappointed millions of fans and their fellow superstars. Cole concluded by saying that Banks and Naomi have been suspended indefinitely and that an upcoming tournament would determine the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. You can see the entire announcement below: Sasha Banks and Naomi have been suspended indefinitely. There will be a future tournament to crown the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. pic.twitter..
They have a plan for that. With so many wrestlers on the WWE roster, it can be easy to see someone fall through the cracks. This might be due to something that they bring on themselves but sometimes it can be due to something out of their control. That is the case again in NXT, but now WWE might be doing something to make the whole situation that much better. Last month, WWE released Nash Carter from his contract after a photo of Carter dressed as Adolph Hitler was posted on Twitter. As a result, Carter and Wes Lee were stripped of the NXT Tag Team Titles, leaving Lee with nothing to do. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, Lee and Nathan Frazer may be paired up as a new team. The two were shown in a backstage vignette earlier this week, though it is not clear if they will be officially paired together. Opinion: I could go for the two of them being a team, though Frazer seems more destined to be a singles star. Maybe WWE doesn’t see enough in Lee on his own, but it would be nice to..
New and new champions. Titles are one of the most important things in wrestling and that has been the case in NXT since its inception. NXT has managed to make its titles feel as important as anything else and that is something that has done a lot of good for the promotion. A title change is a big deal and that is the case again, as some new champions have been crowned. This week’s NXT featured a gauntlet match to crown new NXT Tag Team Champions. Pretty Deadly, in their NXT debut match, won the five team match, last eliminating the Creed Brothers. The other teams involved were Legado del Fantasma, Josh Briggs/Brooks Jensen and Grayson Waller/Sanga. The titles were vacated after MSK were stripped of the titles due to Nash Carter being released. Opinion: NXT had to put the titles on someone and this is one of the best calls that they could have made. Pretty Deadly did well during their NXT UK Tag Team Title reign and it makes sense to put the NXT titles on them as well. I like what we ..
History has been made! Titles are one of the easiest concepts to understand in all of wrestling. You have one wrestler holding a championship and someone else wants it. That sets up a title match where one person emerges with the championship and you go in whatever direction you want to head. It is something that has worked for the better part of ever and that was the case again this week. Sami Zayn defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the Intercontinental Title this week on SmackDown. The win makes Zayn a three time Intercontinental Champion and gives him his first reign since December 2020. The title change comes after Zayn has claimed a conspiracy against him, which included him being stripped of the title in 2022. Nakamura’s had held the title for over 180 days, winning it on August 13, 2021. Opinion: They had to change the title here as Nakamura had held the thing for six months without doing much of anything with it. Zayn has his conspiracy theory deal and this is as good of a pay..
She’s not done yet. There are a lot of wrestlers around the world and in today’s environment, it is nearly impossible to not see everyone at some point. This can work in both good or bad ways, as fans can see and remember a lot of things that are said and done. Now a wrestler with some controversy in her past is getting another chance ni the business. According to Fightful Select, WOW Women of Wrestling is expected to announce a relaunch later this week, with Tessa Blanchard returning as well. The announcement, with Blanchard and another unnamed wrestler, is expected to take place on Wednesday. This comes over a year since Blanchard’s most recent match, as well as allegations of Blanchard using racial slurs against fellow wrestlers in Japan. Blanchard was stripped of the Impact Wrestling World Title in June 2020 and has only wrestled once since, with her most recent match taking place in September 2020. You might need to get to know her again. Check out some of Blanchard’s time in Im..
The night wasn’t over. SmackDown usually marks the end of the WWE week and that comes after several long days of television. WWE has a lot of television to cover and most of the time they are ready to take a breather and wait until Monday to get things going again. However, that was not the case this week after SmackDown as WWE had something else to air. This week’s SmackDown opened with an edition of the Dirt Sheet with Miz and John Morrison mocking Otis for a variety of issues. This caused Otis to come to the ring and attack both of them, including stripping Miz of most of his clothing. Miz and Morrison responded by suing Otis, but Miz’s night was not over and things were a little embarrassing for him. This is a very Miz problem. Check out what else happened to him: https://media.wrestlingrumors.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/19024626/Miz.mp4 WWE has posted a new video to its Twitter page, showing Miz running around the back of the arena in his underwear, trying to find either clo..
That didn’t take long. Like any other business, wrestling is going to see a lot of turnover. Wrestlers can come and go at any given time, whether or not they have a long term contract. Even if someone is scheduled to be around a company for a long time, they might be left at home or just not used in one way or another. The opposite can be true as well, which seems to be the case. Earlier this month, WWE began a tournament to crown a new Intercontinental Champion thanks to Sami Zayn being stripped of the title. One of the first round matches saw Daniel Bryan defeat Drew Gulak, which wasn’t exactly shocking. The surprise came the next day, when Gulak left the company following his contract expiring. That was more than a week ago though and things have already changed. As of Monday, Gulak is once again listed as a member of the SmackDown roster on WWE.com. Also, according to Fightful.com, Gulak appeared at the most recent SmackDown tapings and will appear in a segment on this week’s sho..
After suffering a legitimate injury at the hands of Nia Jax, Becky Lynch finds herself in a very interesting position. The Lass Kicker’s momentum is thriving and the image of her bloody face in front of a roaring WWE Universe has her on the verge of something huge with the company. However, everyone is still waiting on Becky’s return to SmackDown. According to a report from Wrestling Observer Radio, WWE officials still don’t have the return date for the SmackDown Women’s Champion. The company takes concussions as seriously as possible, which leaves Becky Lynch on the sidelines indefinitely. That gives them additional issues heading into TLC if Lynch isn’t cleared over the next few weeks. Related: Backstage News Regarding Becky Lynch’s Potential Babyface Turn For instance, The Lass Kicker hasn’t defended her championship since WWE Evolution back in October. WWE officials can be lenient with the “30 day rule,” but Lynch will be in danger of being “stripped” of the title as soon as next..