Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.
Booker T has opened up about his new role on the NXT commentary team.
The WWE Hall-of-Famer debuted on Tuesday’s show after WWE announced a shakeup to its broadcast teams earlier this month. Booker mentioned on his Hall of Fame podcast that the role is something he’s been “wanting for a long time.”
“I’m excited about being a part of NXT. I didn’t know how excited I was going to be about this honestly because you know it’s a lot of students, a lot of young guys coming up but I feel like I’m in my coaching mode, I feel like I’m in my teaching mode and there’s so many young guys, so many young girls, it’s just like clay just needing to be mold,” Booker said.
“This is going to be something really, really cool for me and something I’ve been wanting for a long time,” he continued.
Booker would continue to talk about the differences between working commentary for the main roster and NXT.
“Everything’s different in NXT than it is on the main roster, which is a good thing for me. I found myself in the beginning probably the first 45 minutes perhaps waiting on someone to give me a little bit of direction. Then when that didn’t happen, I started feeling a little bit more comfortable, I started feeling a little bit more at ease and then the Booker T started coming out.”
“For me, I think that’s when I’m in my comfort zone more so,” he continued.
“I was like so in awe sitting at that seat watching the young talent of tomorrow go out there and just totally show up and show out and that’s why I’m having the time of my life.”
Jon Moxley will continue to work independent shows but is changing up how he approaches them.
AEW recently announced that Moxley has signed a five-year extension and will “work exclusively for AEW and its international partners, including New Japan Pro Wrestling.” He is expected to continue wrestling on independent shows, however.
Our own Dave Meltzer reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Moxley wanting to work independent dates played a role during contract negotiations between the two sides.
“Moxley wanted a deal to continue to do independent shows while Khan wanted him to no longer do them,” Meltzer wrote.
“In time, they agreed to it but Moxley will likely be doing far fewer shows, but like before, Khan has to approve them but in the past he didn’t turn them down.”
Moxley noted that he will change how he approaches taking independent bookings in the future. In order to maintain his health and stay away from alcohol, he will no longer have a “balls to the walls” mentality that can lead to wrestling while hurt and then washing the pain away with alcohol.
“Because of this, he expects to do indies when he wants to, but will not be advertised on those shows or have shows built around him as the drawing card,” Meltzer continued.
“His feeling is that if he is advertised to be on a show, he won’t want to pull out of the show if hurting, or if he just feels like spending a weekend with his family because of the commitment.”
Khan is also said to have verbally agreed to give Moxley time off if he’s hurting or feeling burnt out. The deal also permits Moxley to work big New Japan shows and the G-1.
Moxley’s first AEW contract was a three-year deal signed in May 2019. It expired in July after having been frozen for a couple of months due to Moxley taking time away in 2021 to attend rehab. He was technically a free agent, although few knew about this, until September when he re-signed before AEW Grand Slam on September 21.
Edge has been cast in the upcoming Disney+ series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.”
The show is based on a series of fantasy novels written by Rick Riordan. Its eight-episode first season is expected to debut in 2024.
As first reported by Variety, Adam “Edge” Copeland, Suzanne Cryer, and Jessica Parker Kennedy have been added to the cast.
Edge will play Ares, the god of War in a reoccurring guest role. His character is described as “handsome in a wicked way and arrogant, despite not always being the sharpest tool in the shed. He loves conflict and acts as an agent of chaos wherever he goes.”
The series will feature Walker Scobell, Aryan Simhadri, and Leah Sava Jeffries in starring roles.
“‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ tells the fantastical story of a 12-year-old modern demigod, Percy Jackson (Scobell), who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends Grover (Simhadri) and Annabeth (Jeffries), Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus,” reads the show’s official logline.
A former college football player is set to have his first televised match on this week’s edition of NXT Level Up.
WWE has announced that Tank Ledger (real name Joe Spivak) will debut on NXT Level Up this Friday. He’ll team with Ikeman Jiro to take on Duke Hudson & Bryson Montana in tag team action.
Ledger is a former Defensive Lineman for Northwestern University. In March, he was invited to workout with the Chicago Bears but ultimately went undrafted in the 2022 NFL Draft.
Ledger spoke with SI.com in December after signing a NIL deal with WWE.
“I am approaching this as any other NU grad would approach their first big gig at a massive, global company,” he said.
“I’m excited to learn from everyone as much as I can so when I get an opportunity to tryout I’m ready to turn heads and let them know they have something special,” Ledger continued.
“I want to make it big and I know it is going to take a ton of work. But I will do it. That I know.”
NXT Level Up airs on Peacock/WWE Network at 10 p.m. Eastern time on Fridays. Here’s the full lineup for this week’s episode:
Ikeman Jiro & Tank Ledger vs. Duke Hudson & Bryson Montana
The NXT wrestler took to Twitter on Thursday to announce she will be having surgery next week. The nature of her injury is not currently known.
“Hey you guys!!!! Sadly, I’m injured and will have surgery next week. I’m going to do all I can to recover properly and come back stronger so I can get back to doing what I love, performing for all of YOU! I can’t wait to get back in the ring,” she posted to Twitter.
“I would also like to thank everybody for their kind words and well wishes. It’s greatly appreciated right now and means a lot to me. I do what I do for the fans, and it means a lot to feel the support from you all,” reads a follow-up tweet.
“I will be documenting my journey to recovery on my Instagram story, and TikTok as well. So if you want to come on this ride with me, that’s how you can do so. It’s going to be a tough road ahead… I’m nervous but ready.”
Grace last wrestled on the NXT Level Up tapings held on October 4. She teamed up with Kiana James on the show in a losing effort to Sol Ruca and Fallon Henley.
Hey you guys!!!! Sadly, I’m injured and will have surgery next week. I’m going to do all I can to recover properly and come back stronger so I can get back to doing what I love, performing for all of YOU! I can’t wait to get back in the ring 🥺❤️🙏🏼
Solo Sikoa says he wasn’t close with Roman Reigns growing up but the two are starting to form a relationship.
Sikoa’s WWE main roster debut took place at Clash at the Castle, as he helped his cousin retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Drew Mcintyre. The 29-year-old was asked about his main roster call-up during a recent appearance on Cheap Heat.
“It was out of the blue, man. You know, I got the call and this is what we want to do, this is how we want to bring you in but I would never expect it this way, in front of 60,000 people. It was crazy, I’m still mind blown.”
Sikoa continued to talk about having fun wrestling at the highest level along with his family and Sami Zayn.
“I’m on the highest and biggest stage of them all and especially where my family’s at in the business, on top of the mountain with big uce Roman Reigns, I’m having a lot of fun and I’m doing it with blood, so it doesn’t get any better than that. And when I talk about blood, I also mean Sami Zayn too because he’s an honorary uce and everything.”
He also spoke about growing up with WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi as his father.
“I was on the road with him more than I was in school,” Sikoa said. “That’s all I can remember as early days, you know, with him being in the business, I was always backstage with him. I met all the guys growing up, I met Taker, Triple H, Rock, Stone Cold, Lesnar, you name it.”
Sikoa was also asked about “The Honorary Uce” Sami Zayn and what he has brought to the Bloodline on WWE programming.
“Sami’s like that little brother where you know he’s the loud brother and he’s dancing all over the place but when he bumps into trouble, he runs back to his older brothers for help.”
“[Sami] is one of those characters where it’s very one in a million to have around and he’s in the Bloodline so he doesn’t get no better than that.”
“Sami is one of those guys where he’s a student of the game, like really knows his stuff and when he talks to me man, I’m all eyes and ears.”
Sikoa was asked about his relationship with Reigns growing up and noted that they weren’t close due to their age difference.
“Seeing Roman at Cardiff, I haven’t seen him for like over 20 years. We really weren’t close but he was always around our house playing with my brothers because they were the same ages and I was way younger than them but he was over, he was always around our house.”
“But now coming into the business, I’m starting to get close with him even though the age gap is there, I’m really starting to get closer,” Sikoa continued. “I mean, it’s big uce Roman Reigns, you know what I’m saying? He’s been running this game for awhile now. So, I’m starting to form that relationship with him.”
Renee Paquette has opened up about her decision to sign with AEW.
The newest member of the AEW broadcast team released an episode of The Sessions on Thursday. The podcast was recorded in the days leading up to her debut on Dynamite. During the discussion, Paquette commented on what led to her returning to the wrestling business.
“Obviously, we watch so much wrestling in this house, we talk so much wrestling in this house and it was always an odd, displaced sort of feeling anytime I went to shows with Jon because I’m always used to being at the shows but working and being useful and contributing,” Paquette said. “So, being there for the duration of Jon being at AEW and not doing that and just being there, being like Jon’s wife, I’m just hanging out, I’ll pop through catering and grab a bite. It’s just a different feeling going there as a guest as opposed to now being, oh my god yeah cool, I go here now.”
Paquette also spoke about her departure from WWE and noted that she is grateful for her time in the company.
“I just felt like I had done everything there that I could possibly do. Looking back at my time in WWE, I just would like to reiterate as well because I feel like it can get very muddy in these conversations because people become very territorial about WWE vs. AEW and all that. I want nothing to do with any of that. I love so many people at both companies. WWE was so great to me for years, of course, yeah I can have my gripes about things but who couldn’t about any job? They gave me such a great platform and I really did have a great time there and obviously, this opportunity now with AEW would not be afforded to me had I not had the reputation and career that I was able to have in WWE.”
Paquette was asked about how her deal with AEW came together.
“It’s kind of funny because, as much as I had been around a lot, I really never really talked to Tony [Khan] about coming into AEW. A lot of it was – this is probably going to sound bad, and I’m sure people are going to take this out of context – but honestly a lot of it was talking to Jon, of being, like ‘Man, I want to be back in the wrestling world, I miss being around it, I miss doing stuff.'”
“Most of our conversations were internally between Jon and I about figuring out, like ‘Yeah, I want to do something, I want to come back, I don’t know what that conversation is, how are we going to go about that?'”
“Him and Tony are obviously very close. They spend tons of time talking about things. I think it was more so them talking about it because I think a lot of people just thought that I was sort of done with wrestling to a degree and maybe they didn’t want to ask me to do something they thought that I didn’t want to do, or they didn’t want to step on Jon’s toes, and those are all very real things that could have been.”
Paquette would continue to say that the deal to bring her into AEW all came together quickly.
“It all happened really fast, it literally happened so fast where all of a sudden Jon and I had been talking about it and then it felt like the next day my manager is calling me going, ‘Oh yeah, they are reaching out, the contract is coming through’ I was like, ‘Wow, that was a quick turnaround.'”
“During all of this, I’ve not even talked to Tony all that much about it just because there’s not really been much that we’ve needed to talk about until now I’m there.”
“He knows my skillset, he knows what I’m bringing to the table so I think it’s more of a let’s get you in here, let’s just start working, and I’ll think we’ll figure it out as we go. He knows what I bring to the table in terms of my years of working in this world and all of that, to the stuff that I’ve been able to do outside of wrestling.”
Paquette said she has no plans to work on commentary with AEW but would if the opportunity made sense. She did tease another announcement is upcoming, but she’s not able to talk about it just yet.
“I still have one more announcement, but I can’t announce it yet, so everybody just let your buttholes keep puckering and we’ll drop it soon.”
Mia Yim is thankful to Impact Wrestling for believing in her at a time when she didn’t believe in herself.
Yim’s contract with the promotion expired recently and she is currently a free agent. The 33-year-old returned to the company in May after having been released from WWE on November 4, 2021. She had previously been with Impact from 2015 to 2017 as well.
The former Knockouts Champion took to Instagram on Wednesday and tagged Impact, Scott D’Amore, and Gail Kim.
“Thank you @impactwrestling @gailkimitsme @scott.damore. You believed in me when I didn’t believe myself and gave me that passion again. It has been a true privilege being a part of the locker room and working with everyone. I will support and root for everyone’s success! Impact Wrestling will forever hold a special spot in my heart. This isn’t goodbye. Love you all.”
Yim lost a singles match to Mickie James at Bound for Glory earlier this month. She also participated in the television tapings the following night. A match between her and Taylor Wilde has yet to air on television.
Jon Moxley says wrestling in AEW is “the best job in the world” and he has no plans on going anywhere else.
The AEW World Champion was interviewed by SI.com ahead of tonight’s Dynamite from Toronto. He spoke about having recently signed a five-year contract extension as well as his expanded role with the company helping to coach and mentor talent.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere else,” Moxley says. “It’s the best job in the world, and I’m very lucky to have it. In AEW, all I worry about is wrestling. That’s my focus, and that’s a joy. I love storytelling, I love promos, I love wrestling. I love coming up with ideas for other people, I love learning. For me, it’s a perfect fit.”
Moxley continued to say that he didn’t feel the same way a year ago, however.
“A year ago, I wasn’t in the same head space,” he said. “I was all f—ed up. I hated traveling. I was living in Vegas, felt like I was always in an airport, flying coast to coast, and I was sick of leaving my family. I thought about freelancing when my deal was up. Not that I would leave AEW, but I didn’t want to be there every week. I was in a bad place.
“Then I went to rehab and all that, and now I’m in a totally different headspace. We’re living in Cincinnati, too, which is great. I look forward to going to TV every week. I get to see my friends in the Blackpool Combat Club. I’m not f—ed up. I have a clean headspace. My life is completely different than it was a year ago, and all for the better.”
In terms of helping to coach and mentor talent, Moxley says he can help bridge the gap between generations.
“I’m a good gap between the old generation and the new generation,” Moxley continued. “I come from the Les Thatcher system, so I understand paying your dues and respecting veterans. I’m also old enough to know what it was like to go to the post office and send stacks of my videotapes—ones I had to make—to promoters. I was also there for the advent of YouTube, and I was one of the first indie wrestlers to gain a buzz doing that. My friend had a video camera and a laptop, so I would cut promos every week on my indie shows and used YouTube to my advantage.”
AEW announced “that Moxley will “work exclusively for AEW and its international partners, including New Japan Pro Wrestling.” He dropped the GCW Championship to Nick Gage over the weekend and appears to be gone from the promotion for the time being. Still, Moxley says he’ll always find a way to help out independent wrestling.
“If there’s something I want to be part of, I’ll find a way to make it happen,” Moxley says. “That’s tougher now—I have my family, AEW and New Japan. But I love supporting independent wrestling. So you never know when or where I might show up.”
“I’m very excited about the future and what could possibly happen. I have no idea what will happen, just like I had no f—ing idea what was going to happen in 2019. So I can’t wait for what’s next.”
Dakota Kai says WWE told her she would be part of the 2021 WWE Draft.
Kai began working dark matches and Main Event tapings on the main roster beginning in August 2021, typically working with or against Aliyah or Xia Li. On an episode of Out of Character released on Wednesday, Kai says WWE told her she would be part of the 2021 Draft that October but it never came to be.
“That’s when I was like, ‘ok, maybe something is going to happen here.’ Yeah, I just ended up doing like about six or seven [Dark matches], it was a lot, and they were back to back to back,” she said.
“I was told I was going to be in the Draft. It’s funny now that I look back at it, it’s all good, we can laugh at this. But I was sitting at home during the draft and I got told that it was going to happen and I’m like, ‘okay cool.'”
“Then I didn’t hear anything. I was like, ‘oh, maybe they changed their minds, I don’t know,’ and then I kind of just went and continued to do NXT.”
“It’s just very weird to be told something and then it didn’t happen,” she continued. “But I never got a reason why.”
Kai was asked about her release from the company in April and what she did before making her return at SummerSlam months later.
“I was at a point where I think when it happened, I kind of used that time to sort of reset myself because I was at a point in NXT where I wasn’t sure what was going on, it was a very confusing time. So during those few months away, I didn’t pursue or take indie bookings or anything like that just cause I’ve been doing this a lot longer than people realize. I’ve been working since 2007 and then I was with the company from 2017. So, it was just a nice time to be grateful for everything that happened.”
“I focused on streaming and something that was very much more relaxing and something that I love. It all worked out great and I came back to the company refreshed and with a nice outlook on everything that had happened.”
Daniel Cormier says he had the time of his life at WWE Extreme Rules.
After serving as special referee for the Fight Pit match between Matt Riddle and Seth Rollins on the show, Cormier spoke about his experience to ESPN MMA.
“I was nervous,” Cormier said. “I started forgetting the match. I was, like, oh my goodness I forgot the end. So, I kept having to ask questions. I was so nervous but once I walked out there, it was so fun. The energy of the crowd is like second to none. I fought in front of bigger crowds than I was in front of last weekend but ultimately that’s – it’s a shoot, right? – I’m going to just fight, it is going to be what it is going to be. But to remember all the points of what you’re supposed to do in the match, dude, it was amazing.”
“Then I got fans heckling me. They calling me “Carl Winslow” in there. They were messing with me,” he continued.
“They said, ‘DC, climb up the cage.’ I’m standing at the bottom like, I’m not going up there with these dudes. They were up there actually wrestling on that little ledge.”
“Then when Riddle jumped off the top I was like, man, I couldn’t believe that I was actually in that moment. And I don’t know how much you pay attention but then Bray Wyatt returned right after so we were like the closer to a massive moment.”
“But my favorite part was I got to essentially be Herb Dean.”
Cormier was asked if he has more respect for the WWE athletes after his performance at Extreme Rules.
“Riddle and Rollins aren’t big guys but like some of these other guys, Drew McIntyre, Karrion Kross, all these guys that were performing earlier in the night, the things that they do at their size, it’s crazy, the amount of athleticism that these guys possess inside the wrestling ring.”
“I had the time of my life,” Cormier continued.
Cormier also says he spoke to WWE about working together again in the future.
“They were talking to me about doing future things in the WWE and I go, ‘I’ll do things but I got to get in shape first. Like, give your boy some time to get some of this baggage of this luggage.'”
“It was a good time and again, I’ve earned a new amount of respect for the performers inside the wrestling ring,” he continued.
MLW has added another match to the card for Fightland 2022.
Mance Warner will take on nZo (aka Real 1) in singles competition on the show. MLW Fightland will take place Sunday, October 30 from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. The event will be taped for future episodes of MLW Fusion.
A Last Man Standing match featuring Alex Hammerstone defending the MLW World Heavyweight Championship against EJ Nduka has already been announced for the show. Other advertised matches include Jacob Fatu vs. Lio Rush and Willie Mack vs. Calvin Tankman.
MLW hasn’t released a new episode of Fusion since July but recently announced a streaming deal with Pro Wrestling TV. New episodes of the promotion’s flagship show will air on the service on Thursdays at 8 p.m Eastern time. Fusion will continue to air on BeIN TV on Saturdays. It is not known if the show will continue on YouTube.
MLW Fightland (Sunday, October 30) —
Last Man Standing match: MLW World Heavyweight Champion Alex Hammerstone defends against EJ Nduka
Guerrillas of Destiny member Tanga Loa is going to be out for the rest of the year.
The 39-year-old hasn’t wrestled since NJPW Capital Collision on May 14. NJPW announced on June 1 that Loa had been pulled from the Best of the Super Jr. Finals card after suffering a knee injury.
Tama Tonga provided an update on his brother during an episode of Tama’s Island released on Sunday.
“He’s been injured, tore his MCL and just had surgery a couple of months ago. So, he’ll be out for the rest of the year but he’s making progress. He isn’t able to run yet but he’s able to walk and do some stuff but just the running part is the hardest part right now. He’s doing well, he’s moving forward. Looking forward to having him come back,” Tonga said.
The news means Loa is likely to miss NJPW’s World Tag League. The tournament kicks off on November 21. The Guerillas of Destiny won the 2020 World Tag League after defeating Juice Robinson & David Finlay in the finals.
Another member of the Rotunda family is set to return to WWE.
Bo Dallas is expected back in the company “very soon.” Our own Bryan Alvarez confirmed the news on Sunday.
The 32-year-old was released from WWE on April 15, 2021. He hadn’t actually wrestled in over a year at the time, with his last match having been on a European tour in November 2019. Dallas’ last match on WWE programming took place at Crown Jewel 2019 in the Tag Team Turmoil match. He had been with the company since 2008.
Dallas, real-name Taylor Rotunda, is a third-generation wrestler and brother to Bray Wyatt, who made his WWE return at Extreme Rules on Saturday. Five-time WWE tag team champion Mike Rotunda is their father. Barry and Kendall Windham are their uncles. Their grandfather is WWE Hall of Famer Blackjack Mulligan.
Dallas is a former Raw Tag Team Champion along with Curtis Axel, a three-time FCW Champion, and twice won the FCW tag titles along with his brother.
Hall-of-Famer Jerry Lawler revealed the logo to the live crowd at Extreme Rules in Philadelphia on Saturday. WrestleMania 40 will also take place in Philadelphia and is scheduled for April 6 & 7, 2024 from Lincoln Financial Field.
“Tonight I’m honored to be here in America’s most historic city, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” Lawler said. “Now, we all know that WrestleMania 40 in 2024 is going to be right here in Philadelphia! What we’re going to do tonight, we’re going to make some history. Tonight, right here, we are going to unveil the brand new WrestleMania Philadelphia logo!”
Lawler then brought out the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders, and the 76ers mascot Franklin to help him unveil the new logo. The logo features an image of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell.
This will be the second time WrestleMania has been held in the city. WrestleMania XV took place at the First Union Center on March 28, 1999.
