Bryan Rose is an editor from California that has been covering professional wrestling for well over a decade. He officially joined F4WOnline as an editor in 2017.
The former NXT Champion appeared in the closing moments of Tuesday’s show, immediately after Ricky Saints retained the NXT Championship over Trick Williams in a Last Man Standing match. Femi hadn’t been seen since the No Mercy PLE in September when he lost the title to Saints.
Saints and Williams capped off their feud on Tuesday, battling in what was a brutal and bloody match filled with kendo sticks and table bumps. After Saints speared Williams off the stands and into the announce table nearby, both struggled to make it to their feet before the count of ten. Saints made it to his feet and piefaced Williams back to the floor, standing tall as the referee counted to ten and awarded him the match. But the final seconds of NXT saw Femi make a brief appearance, cutting out before he could be seen in full.
Prior to No Mercy, Femi had held the NXT Championship for most of the year, defeating Williams at New Year’s Evil back on January 7. During 2025 he was successful against the likes of Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, Je’Von Evans, Moose, and Yoshiki Inamura.
Jasper Troy defeated El Grande Americano to win the Speed title for the first time on Tuesday. The finish had Rayo and Bravo preventing Jasper from using his chain. When the referee threw them out, one of Los Americanos slipped Americano an object that he’s used to win multiple matches. Americano went to the ring to use the weapon, but the referee caught Americano before he could use it. Americano ended up walking into the black hole slam by Jasper, scoring the win and his first title in WWE.
Americano had been Speed Champion dating back to earlier this year when the program was still running on X, winning the title in May. When the titles were moved over to NXT, El Grande Americano was nowhere to be seen until recently.
The Women’s Speed Championship will also be decided soon after a new tournament was held when Sol Ruca vacated the title due to injury. Zaria has already advanced and will face the winner between Fallon Henley and Skylar Rae.
A settlement has been reached in a lawsuit pitting musician Wesley Eisold against Cody Rhodes, WWE, and Fanatics.
Brandon Thurston of Post Wrestling reported on Tuesday that the two parties notified the court that they have resolved their case over the ‘American Nightmare’ trademark pending a written settlement agreement. Both parties say they expect to file a joint stipulation formally dismissing the case in the next 90 days.
Eisold entered an agreement with Rhodes back in 2021 when he looked to trademark the term ‘American Nightmare” for pro wrestling purposes, with Eisold already having the trademark for music. The agreement was that Rhodes was allowed to use the term as long as it either included the Cody Rhodes name, his likeness, or the merchindise included wrestling-related imagery. Eisold sued Rhodes, WWE, and Fanatics last September alleging that WWE and Fanatics violated that agreement and was seeing $150,000 in damages as a result.
WWE and Fanatics responded by filing a motion to dismiss which Rhodes supported, saying the merchandise in question did meet the settlement terms because it had Rhodes’ skull logo, which they viewed as wrestling-related imagery.
Dax Harwood has nothing but praise for one young AEW star.
Speaking on the Beyond the Bell Podcast, the multiple time tag team champion said that Kevin Knight could be one of AEW’s bigger stars in the next few years, saying FTR’s chemistry with JetSpeed compares only to one of their top rivals back in their NXT days.
“I’ll tell ya, JetSpeed….I text Chad Gable, I said, we have more chemistry with JetSpeed than anybody else we’ve had since we wrestled American Alpha. I think Kevin Knight is going to be our main event ace,” he said. “I’ve never been with someone in the ring who knows ring positioning, who is as smart as he is, who knows timing…I could say a million good things about him, but he will be a big star for us in about three to five years.”
Knight, 28, made his debut in 2019 and started training at NJPW’s LA Dojo the following year. He signed with AEW earlier this year and began teaming with Speedball Mike Bailey. The two have been feuding with FTR in recent weeks, recently costing them a match against the Bang Bang Gang on Collision.
Both Knight and Bailey will take part in a Casino Gauntlet match to crown the first-ever AEW National Champion at AEW Full Gear later this month.
A larger than usual issue with a wide variety of stories and tons of history: *The fixed fight accusations from Saturday’s UFC show, what happened, how Dana White and UFC handled it, fixed fights in the early days of MMA and the different motivations then vs. now, and a look back at history with a former world heavyweight boxing champion who later became one of the biggest stars of his era in pro wrestling. *A look at the third quarter TKO business, covering mostly UFC and WWE. How each category is doing and explanations as to why. *Nick Khan talks WWE ticket prices and booking decisions on live events *Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event and business notes on the show *Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Farewell in Gifu and 30 minutes that capsulized the best aspects of the past, present and future of pro wrestling *Notes on the Tokyo Dome advance *Finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tag team tournament *Notes on the upcoming heavyweight tag team tournament *Lots of notes regarding AEW Full Gear *The real history of the original NWA national heavyweight championship *Matches likely to happen at Full Gear *The final installment of our Hall of Fame series, covering international and non-wrestlers, where we talk about the cases of people including Spyros Arion, Dominic DeNucci, George Gordienko, Ted Boy Marino, Billy Joyce, The Royal Brothers, Dave Brown, Zane Bresloff, Bobby Bruns, Bob Caudle, Joe Higuchi, Jim Johnston, James Melby, Bill Mercer, Gorilla Monsoon, Rossy Ogawa, Reggie Parks, Morris Siel, Tony Schiavone, George Scott, Kevin Sullivan, Mike Tenay, Ted Turner, Jesse Ventura, Roy Welch, Stanley Weston, The Grand Wizard and Koichi Yoshizawa. *Notes on the death of Victor Conte Jr. *Tank Davis kills his last payday and Netflix’s big fight for the fall is out the window and thank God for that *DDT has one of its biggest shows of the year *Betting odds for pro wrestling matches last week and this week *The most complete look at the television ratings of wrestling shows over the past week. How these numbers compare in placings to past years, where other than pro wrestling is hurting with the new ratings, competition for each show and placings for the time slot *CMLL has four straight sellouts and coverage of the main matches including a major return this week *What wrestler is having the best year for someone their age in wrestling history *Notes on a very confusing tournament coming up *What young wrestler sold out in a singles with Mistico this past week *Notes from the last AAA tapings *AAA booking huge arena for a taping *Stardom big show plus notes on the tag team tournament *Will Vince McMahon write a book? *Former pro wrestling star elected Mayor *How network, cable and streaming numbers have affected NASCAR in 2025 *Update on Blue Demon Jr. *More on Smashing Machine including Dwayne Johnson comments *Jerry Lawler returns to WMC *Athletic commission in trouble over a sponsored women’s championship *El Hijo del Santo retirement tour hits Europe *More WBD sale talks *Blood & Guts news *A poll on AEW viewership and how people watch the TV and PPV shows *Advance ticket sales for WWE, AEW, TNA, MLW and RAF *BJ Penn arrested again *WWE sets gate records *Paul Levesque’s booking *How much Dwayne Johnson’s TKO stock is worth *Notes on the WWE arena business going forward *The Ridge Holland story
Dustin Rhodes on social media: “When you get an opportunity to perform on television, you say yes! You do exactly what the company wants/WITH A GREAT ATTITUDE. Otherwise, good luck in ur future endeavors.”
West Coast Pro Wrestling announced that they will be moving their live shows away from a paywall and will be uploading past events to YouTube for free.
Juggalo Championship Wrestling is giving away a free turkey at their next television taping on November 22 in Detroit.
More on John Cena’s announcement from Monday’s Raw.
Prior to his Intercontinental title win on Raw, Cena announced that on the December 13 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, WWE main roster stars will face off against NXT stars in a series of exhibition matches. According to Bryan Alvarez, that was an idea proposed by Cena himself.
“NXT wrestlers getting matches on SNME was a John Cena call, he loved his time at the WWE Performance Center,” Alvarez writes.
Last month, Cena not only visited the Performance Center once, but twice. After his second visit, he took time to thank those training at the PC for sharing their perspective on the business.
“Being coachable can open our minds to learn. Thank you to all the superstars at the WWE PC for sharing with me different perspectives of our business,” he wrote. “I spent the week digesting their feedback & was grateful to be able to return today for another chance to learn & share wisdom.”
Cena’s last match will headline the December 13 show in Washington, D.C.. He will face a winner of a tournament that kicked off on Monday’s Raw, with Rusev and Sheamus advancing out of the first round.
Asuka and Kairi Sane are Women’s Tag Team Champions once again.
The Kabuki Warriors won the titles in the main event of Monday’s Raw, defeating Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss. The finish came when Lash Legend and Nia Jax came in through the crowd and interfered. The distraction allowed Asuka to hit Charlotte from behind, allowing Sane to hit the insane elbow for the win.
This is the Kabuki Warriors’ third reign with the titles. Flair & Bliss had held the titles since SummerSlam, where they defeated Roxanne Perez and Raquel Rodriguez.
After the match Legend, Jax, Asuka, and Kairi continued to attack Bliss & Charlotte until both IYO SKY and Rhea Ripley made their returns, evening the odds for the faces. Raw ended with Rhea Ripley yelling out WarGames, confirming the eight women will meet in San Diego on November 29.
At Crown Jewel last month, The Kabuki Warriors defeated Ripley & SKY, breaking Ripley’s nose in the process. In the weeks since, they set their sights on the now former champions. On this past Friday’s SmackDown, they disguised themselves as nurses while Bliss was being checked on by medical, giving Asuka the opportunity to mist both women.
The men’s and women’s WarGames matches are starting to shape up.
On Monday’s Raw, CM Punk came out and was angry about the events of last week, which saw Logan Paul turn against him and align with The Vision. He called out Paul, who did arrive. But soon The Vision did as well, leading to a 3-on-1 disadvantage for the new World Heavyweight Champion. Jey Uso, however, soon came out to assist, and so did Cody Rhodes. The trio managed to isolate Reed and take him out, ending the segment.
After the segment, Punk told Adam Pearce backstage that he was done with the games and wanted to face The Vision at Survivor Series. Punk then brought in William Regal to announce that WarGames was afoot.
The main event of Raw saw The Kabuki Warriors defeat Alexa Bliss & Charlotte Flair to win the WWE Women’s Tag Team titles thanks to the efforts of Lash Legend and Nia Jax, who came in and interfered. After the match all four women attacked the now former champions until IYO SKY came out for the save. She was cut off, but then Rhea Ripley made her return giving SKY, Bliss, and Flair the numbers needed to send the heels packing. Ripley ended the show by shouting a familiar phrase: WarGames.
At the start of Monday’s Raw, John Cena revealed that the Saturday Night’s Main Event card on December 13 will feature exhibition matches between WWE and NXT talent, framing it as a way of saying thank you to the fans and giving NXT wrestlers an opportunity to shine.
“December 13 is about closing one chapter but also it is about paving the way to the road ahead. And that’s what I want for this tour,” he said.
John Cena has a special announcement!
At Saturday Night's Main Event on December 13, one story ends but new stories will begin… 👀 pic.twitter.com/gG4iZ6oKLL
After the announcement was made, Dominik Mysterio came out and mocked Cena, saying he was better than him and could have whooped him at any time in history. Triple H, who introduced Cena to his hometown Boston crowd, made an impromptu title match right then and there. Cena overcame the odds and pinned Mysterio with the AA to win the title for the first time.
December’s Saturday Night’s Main Event will be headlined by Cena facing the winner of a tournament that started on Monday’s Raw. Rusev became the first to advance, defeating Damian Priest.
WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event (December 13)
John Cena vs. winner of The Last Time Is Now tournament
Cena was talking to his hometown Boston crowd on Raw when he was interrupted by Dominik Mysterio, who claimed he could have whooped Cena in any era. Triple H, who opened Raw by introducing Cena, took those words to heart and set up a title match right then and there. Althought Mysterio attempted to cheat similar to Eddie Guerrero, Cena absorbed a frog splash, floated over, and pinned Mysterio to win the Intercontinental title for the first time in his career.
Cena celebrated his title win after the match, pyro going off as he posed on the top rope. When he got backstage, he was applauded by most of the roster, including Rey Mysterio, who has recently reignited his longtime feud with his son. At the very end of the line was Cody Rhodes, who also offered his congratulations.
Nobody is happier to see John Cena as Intercontinental Champion than Rey Mysterio! 💀 pic.twitter.com/0GyAIjGzOi
With the win, John Cena now only has three appearances left in his retirement tour. One will be at next week’s Raw at Madison Square Garden, and another will be at Survivor Series in San Diego later this month. His final match will be at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13.
On Instagram, Henry wrote that he is suffering from heterotopic ossification, a condition where he has trouble moving his arm and palms. After meeting a doctor, he is hoping to fix the situation soon.
“Heterotopic ossification. That is the condition I have stemming from my initial biceps tear from September 2024,” he wrote. “I cannot turn my arm over to palms up (supination) or turn it fully palms down (pronation). Yes, I can live life, but not like a normal person really. Yes, I can wrestle, but there are times where it causes issues.”
“All of that to say I saw a doctor today that finally is going to fix this shit. I couldn’t be happier about that,” he added. “Soon!”
After spending most of the year out of action with his biceps injury, Henry returned to action in July, reuniting with JD Drake and wrestling on Ring of Honor television. His last match was on the October 8 edition of ROH, where he, Drake, and BEEF lost to Shane Taylor Promotions in a match that was for the ROH Six-Man Tag Team titles.
The first five participants in a match to crown the next WWE ID Women’s Champion have been announced.
On social media Sunday, WWE ID announced five of the six participants in an upcoming six-way match that will take place at a Wrestling Open RI event November 17 in Cranston, Rhode Island. A multi-person one fall match will open the show to determine the sixth and final spot.
The participants include Shannon Levangie from Chaotic Wrestling, Airica Demia from Palmetto Championship Wrestling, Tiara James from MCW, Notorious Mimi from the Monster Factory and Worldwide Dojo, and Brittnie Brooks from FSW Vegas and Dreamwave Wrestling, who is also the girlfriend of TNA star Chris Bey.
Back in September, WWE declared the title vacant after first-ever champion Kylie Rae announced she was pregnant. One month later, Rae announced on social media that her ID contract was not being renewed.
The first WWE ID champions were crowned back in August at a GCW event. Cappuccino Jones defeated Jack Cartwheel to become the first ever men’s champion, a title he holds to this day.
A larger than usual issue with a wide variety of stories and tons of history: *The fixed fight accusations from Saturday’s UFC show, what happened, how Dana White and UFC handled it, fixed fights in the early days of MMA and the different motivations then vs. now, and a look back at history with a former world heavyweight boxing champion who later became one of the biggest stars of his era in pro wrestling. *A look at the third quarter TKO business, covering mostly UFC and WWE. How each category is doing and explanations as to why. *Nick Khan talks WWE ticket prices and booking decisions on live events *Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event and business notes on the show *Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Farewell in Gifu and 30 minutes that capsulized the best aspects of the past, present and future of pro wrestling *Notes on the Tokyo Dome advance *Finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tag team tournament *Notes on the upcoming heavyweight tag team tournament *Lots of notes regarding AEW Full Gear *The real history of the original NWA national heavyweight championship *Matches likely to happen at Full Gear *The final installment of our Hall of Fame series, covering international and non-wrestlers, where we talk about the cases of people including Spyros Arion, Dominic DeNucci, George Gordienko, Ted Boy Marino, Billy Joyce, The Royal Brothers, Dave Brown, Zane Bresloff, Bobby Bruns, Bob Caudle, Joe Higuchi, Jim Johnston, James Melby, Bill Mercer, Gorilla Monsoon, Rossy Ogawa, Reggie Parks, Morris Siel, Tony Schiavone, George Scott, Kevin Sullivan, Mike Tenay, Ted Turner, Jesse Ventura, Roy Welch, Stanley Weston, The Grand Wizard and Koichi Yoshizawa. *Notes on the death of Victor Conte Jr. *Tank Davis kills his last payday and Netflix’s big fight for the fall is out the window and thank God for that *DDT has one of its biggest shows of the year *Betting odds for pro wrestling matches last week and this week *The most complete look at the television ratings of wrestling shows over the past week. How these numbers compare in placings to past years, where other than pro wrestling is hurting with the new ratings, competition for each show and placings for the time slot *CMLL has four straight sellouts and coverage of the main matches including a major return this week *What wrestler is having the best year for someone their age in wrestling history *Notes on a very confusing tournament coming up *What young wrestler sold out in a singles with Mistico this past week *Notes from the last AAA tapings *AAA booking huge arena for a taping *Stardom big show plus notes on the tag team tournament *Will Vince McMahon write a book? *Former pro wrestling star elected Mayor *How network, cable and streaming numbers have affected NASCAR in 2025 *Update on Blue Demon Jr. *More on Smashing Machine including Dwayne Johnson comments *Jerry Lawler returns to WMC *Athletic commission in trouble over a sponsored women’s championship *El Hijo del Santo retirement tour hits Europe *More WBD sale talks *Blood & Guts news *A poll on AEW viewership and how people watch the TV and PPV shows *Advance ticket sales for WWE, AEW, TNA, MLW and RAF *BJ Penn arrested again *WWE sets gate records *Paul Levesque’s booking *How much Dwayne Johnson’s TKO stock is worth *Notes on the WWE arena business going forward *The Ridge Holland story
— My weekend show with Garrett Gonzales talked about all the news of the last week, including the fallout to the UFC fixed fight, Saturday, 2025 Awards, Full Gear, Victor Conte, weekly ratings, AEW creative and more. I’ll be back with Bryan Alvarez tonight talking about the weekend news.
— The return of Soberano Jr. after knee surgery led to a surprise sellout of Arena Mexico on Friday night with 16,000 fans. Soberano Jr. & Angel de Oro beat titan & Atlantis Jr. in the main event. Austin Aries was also there wrestling Mascara Dorada. Anyway, Soberano Jr. is a huge star, probably more than most recognized. There were banners and many with his masks. The unique aspect is that he’s a rudo and he was cheered like crazy by the women. I compare him to Gino Hernandez except he’s a far better wrestler and Gino as a heel never got cheered like that.
— Kazuchika Okada will be facing Hiroshi Tanahashi in Tanahashi’s retirement match on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. Okada flew to Japan to appear at Anjo and come out after Tanahashi beat Yuto Ice. He was also at a press conference today saying that Saturday was a throwback with his old music and Gedo, and Gedo will be with him at the Tokyo Dome, but he’s coming as AEW Okada not New Japan Okada. He said he might beat Tanahashi with a low blow and humiliate him in his retirement match.
— New Japan did talk to Tetsuya Naito about the match. Naito, who is in Japan and met with Okada, said New Japan discussed it with him and he was willing to do it. But they chose Okada for the spot. As far as Shinsuke Nakamura goes, the only thing I know is he was interested in doing it.
— Added to the Tokyo Dome is Sho vs. El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori with the winner becoming the top contender for Douki’s IWGP jr. heavyweight title. Why that match isn’t at a show in the next few weeks and Douki’s title defense against the winner isn’t at the Dome is an unanswered question.
— The Sydney Sweeney movie on Christy Martin (“Christy”) opened on Friday and almost nobody that I know was even aware of it. I didn’t even know until Thursday. Anyway, the estimate is that it will do $1.3 million on 2,011 screens. Smashing Machine did $4.8 million in its opening weekend and was considered a bomb. It is believed to be the worst grossing full national release movie (2,000 screens) in its opening weekend in 13 years.
— Mercedes Mone was in Rome, Italy, today defending the BetYa women’s title over Queen Maya, with the match ending when The Beat Mortos speared Maya.
— Konosuke Takeshita worked for DDT today in Kumamoto, Japan, teaming with Sanshiro Takagi & Harahsima over To-y & Daicdhi Sato & Yuki Ishida.
— Also in Japan, Megan Bayne & Hanako won their tag team tournament match over Ami Sohrei & Lady C in Kissei. They also beat Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara yesterday in Gunma. They are 2-0 so far. Bayne will be back in the U.S as she becomes the first person to do both a tag team tournament in the U.S. and Japan at the same time.
— Yoshiki Inamura beat KENTA yesterday at Korakuen Hall in Japan to win the GHC title. This and yesterday’s Ace Austin vs. Kyle Fletcher were the matches I’ve heard the most about. Hank Walker & Tank Leder won the GHC tag titles from Masa Kitamiya & Takshi Sugiura. Inamura defends against Kaito Kiyomiya on 12/7 at Korakuen Hall
— The deal with Miranda Alize & Nixon Newell from last night at AEW Collision is that they walked out before the match with Anna Jay & Tay Melo because they felt it was going to be a squash match. It was not about doing the job so much as wanting a longer match and not doing a second match after what they believed was a squash match earlier. Still, people were shocked that they walked out. They were evidently told they’d get some offense in but they felt people would see it as a squash because it was going so short. They left and Hyan & Maya World were put in the match instead.
— While few caught it, for those in the Boston area who did, Dynamite will be in Boston on the 19th. They had a wrong graphic up that Tony Schiavone read listing the 19th for Reading, PA. I’m not sure exactly what happened but AEW confirmed the show is in Boston and there was a mistake made. They weren’t even aware of the mistake until after the show was over. One year ago this week, they ran Reading, PA for Dynamite and somehow something went wrong and that ended up on the air. The other cities in that read for the next few weeks were correct.
— The Observer Hall of Fame issue will be out on Friday. Multiple new people were voted in. Most of the people who have to be in got in and there were some, I wouldn’t say surprises, but vote totals. We will also do a show covering it on Friday.
— Solofa Fatu (Rikishi) said that his emergency surgery was six hours long but didn’t go into details past saying the experience has changed his outlook on life.
— Google trends for a quiet weekend from a mainstream standpoint saw 20,000 for Charlotte Flair which was No. 149 for the weekend, based on a wardrobe malfunction and another 10,000 for Smackdown likely related to that. The UFC show yesterday had 40,000 which is very low. Josh Hokit got 5,000 for doing his promo which sounded like he was imitating Chael Sonnen imitating Superstar Billy Graham.
— Claudio Castagnoli was at the New Jersey Devils hockey game last night to promote Full Gear.
— Stephanie Vaquer was at the Rangers vs. Islanders hockey game last night to promote the Raw show on the 17th in Madison Square Garden.
— Joe Hendry worked last night’s NXT show in Tampa teaming with Je’Von Evans & Tavion Heights to beat Dark State’s Dion Lennox & Saquon Shugars & Cutler James.
— Regarding the Newell story, Truth Magnum did a comedy post this morning relating to that saying “Turbo and I almost walked out last night when there was no Caesar’s salad in catering.”
— Invicta will be airing a highlights show on Friday night at both 6:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern time airing some of the best recent fights. Tom Hannifan of TNA will host the show.
— A correction from Friday’s Observer. In the coverage of Yoshihiro Takayama we mistakenly wrote his paralysis was in 2007 but it was in 2017. (thanks to Jose Santana)
— With Jerry Lawler coming to Memphis Wrestling for the taping of the Christmas show, he would be the only person to appear in every incarnation of Memphis TV Wrestling from the WHBQ days through 1977 to the modern incarnation. Jimmy Valiant has been in every incarnation post the Jarett-Gulas split in 1977.
— Prestige and West Coast Pro in Los Angeles for the final Prestige show: Aiden Andrews & Bryce Kouza & Kaori Leon b Hadar Hovits & Ori Gold & Jiah Jewell, Travis Williams b Alpha Zo, Maya World b Miko Alana, Andrew Cass b Adrian Quest to retain the West Coast Pro Golden Gate title, Johnnie Robbie b Amira to retain the West Coast Pro women’s title in the match of the night, Titus Alexander & Starboy Charlie b Michael Miro & Vishnu Akli to keep the West Coast Pro tag titles, Kevin Blackwood b Judas Icarus to keep the Prestige title, Vinnie Massaro b Royce Isaacs to keep the West Coast Pro title (thanks to Chris Champol).
–Ricochet appeared at last night’s Chicago Wolves minor league hockey game to promote World’s End.
— Today is the 28th anniversary of the 1997 Survivor Series with Bret Hart being manipulated into losing a match he was expecting to win via DQ. It ended up becoming one of the most talked about controversies in wrestling history and is to this day one of the five most famous U.S. matches of all-time.
— David Otunga did a show on this and said that in his opinion Hart didn’t have creative control because Vince had already told him he was prepared to breach his contract prior, so thus the creative control stipulation and contract were invalid. Vince had not yet breached the contract in actuality but had said at one point he would if Hart wouldn’t negotiate a lower deal. He also said the clause was vague.
— And speaking of referees screwing up a famous match, Nick Patrick turned 66 today. Chris Jericho turned 55 and posted a photo of him with abs showing. Pete Dunne turned 32. So I guess that means Rayo of Los Americanos is also 32. Rube Wright, who was also Lu Kim, a giant powerhouse who Stu Hart thought was one of the toughest wrestlers of his era, passed away on this day 42 years ago. Joe Scarpello, a legendary NCAA champion who had a long pro career passed away on this day 26 years ago. He was the guy killed by the Bombs Away by Ray Stevens in the original movie “The Wrestler” in 1974. Today is also the 40th anniversary of the interview Arn Anderson did when he was out there with Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard and Ole Anderson where he used the term Four Horsemen, just as a throw away line. (thanks to Tony Richards)
Bodyslam is reporting that Zoey Stark is aiming for a mid-2026 in-ring return to WWE. The report stated that WWE is “still very high on her” and have been talking about bringing her back as a babyface.
Stark was injured her knee back in May during an episode on Raw, landing awkwardly off the top rope during a Money in the Bank qualifying match. She later confirmed that she underwent surgery for her ACL, MCL, and meniscus.
“It’s been both mentally and physically exhausting and frustrating. And I’m in a spot right now with my knee where is not wanting to bend and give me the full range of motion that I am looking for,” she said. “And as much as that sucks, it’s okay. I will push through this. I will find a way around it. I’ll get to where I need to get. But boy is it frustrating. But there’s always a silver lining and a dark cloud, right?”
Stark was signed to WWE in 2021 and achieved success in NXT, winning the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles on one occasion. She was called up as part of the 2023 WWE Draft on the Raw brand, where she was at one point aligned with Trish Stratus. Prior to her injury, she was part of the Pure Fusion Collective group with Shayna Baszler and Sonya Deville, both of whom have since been cut.
Nixon Newell and Miranda Alize have given their side of the story of what went down at the AEW Collision tapings.
Streaming on Twitch, the former WWE star and Alize addressed the situation, saying they cut their promo on last week’s Collision, then did their match with Megan Bayne and Marina Shafir. Newell denied that there was any disagreement with Bayne. Following this, they were given the idea they might be used on Wednesday for the Ring of Honor tapings. However, they were never used.
Newell said when they went to Collision, they were told after the doors opened that they would be wrestling TayJay, but would only be given three minutes. Newell felt that considering the promo they cut on last week’s show where they presented themselves as a credible tag team, no one was going to benefit from the match.
“We decided collectively as a partnership, a couple, as wrestlers independently, that three minutes isn’t going to benefit no one in this match,” Newell said.
They were then told that there were no problems and they were free to go home, with Newell specifically saying they were given the okay to go home. Newell said repeatedly throughout the stream that there was “no bad blood on either side.” Additionally, Newell was negative on “dirt sheet” coverage of the situation and said she “legit woke up to death threats” on Sunday morning.
“This is my last two years in wrestling, we’re already a year gone. So I want to have fun this last year,” she said. “It is what it is.”
It emerged late Saturday that the two walked out after refusing to lose to TayJay (Tay Melo & Anna Jay). Fightful, however, said it wasn’t a matter of losing but rather they were opposed to the amount of time they were given.
