Since 2011, Josh has been a contributing editor to Wrestling Observer/F4WOnline.com and also hosts the Punch-Out podcast. He has also written for Fight Magazine, Bloody Elbow, Bleacher Report, and other websites. He's a 2000 graduate of the University of Maine, worked in pro sports, and once was an indie ring announcer.
Former nine-time WWE women’s champion Charlotte Flair is heading to Full Sail University Wednesday to answer Rhea Ripley’s WrestleMania challenge.
The current NXT women’s champion appeared on Raw Monday to challenge Flair for the year’s biggest show, putting her title on the line. Flair didn’t answer Ripley, leaving the ring. It was announced later on the show that she will give her answer live Wednesday instead.
Flair earned the right to call her title shot after winning the women’s Royal Rumble. She didn’t give an answer on last week’s Raw, saying she needed more time to think through her decision. Ripley appeared Monday to help her make it, referring back to the Survivor Series when NXT won their elimination match.
Flair is a former NXT women’s champion, having held the title once in 2014 through 2015 before being called up to the main roster. Ripley won the title in mid-December by defeating Shayna Baszler.
Two weeks after losing his NXT Cruiserweight title at Worlds Collide, Angel Garza debuted on WWE Raw Monday, flanked by Zelina Vega.
As a follow-up to last week’s Raw angle where Humberto Carrillo injured U.S. Champion Andrade, Carrillo was waiting in the ring for an opponent when Garza’s music hit, surprising him. Vega did a promo introducing Garza (Carrillo’s cousin) before Garza cut a promo on Carrillo about letting their family down. Carrillo grabbed the mic away, leading to Vega slapping him and Garza attacking, eventually hitting the Wing Clipper.
Garza kept up the attack, throwing Carrillo into the ringside steps and pulling away the mats to expose the concrete floor as a callback to the Carrillo-Andrade angle. Rey Mysterio then ran out from the back to prevent it which led to a match made during the commercial break. After a lengthy match, Garza hit a hammerlock DDT on the exposed concrete, resulting in a DQ loss.
The 27-year-old signed with WWE last April and has mainly been on NXT TV and 205 Live.
This post was updated at 4:45 PM Eastern on February 3rd.
According to Dave Meltzer, AJ Styles is still hopeful and in the plans for this year’s WrestleMania.
On last Wednesday’s Wrestling Observer Radio (sub needed), Meltzer said Styles was optimistically four-to-six weeks away from a full recovery. Styles got injured taking a bump off an Edge spear at the Royal Rumble, reportedly separating his shoulder in the process.
WWE put out a brief post saying Styles is out indefinitely with a shoulder injury but is recovering “way ahead” of doctors’ projections.
Styles didn’t blame Edge for the injury as he wanted to take a big bump for the move and just landed wrong.
The 42-year-old did miss time after last year’s WrestleMania due to a hip injury following his match with Randy Orton, but the former WWE Champion has generally been a durable wrestler for the company.
For those looking ahead, the current WrestleMania card for both announced and expected matches is as follows:
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE Universal Champion Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns
Tuesday’s edition of AEW Dark will feature the company’s first-ever mixed tag team match featuring Kenny Omega and women’s champion Riho against Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford.
The match was filmed on the recent Chris Jericho cruise, but it was unclear whether it would be made available for fans not on the cruise to see.
While the match is billed as a mixed tag, Dave Meltzer, who saw the match live on the ship, said it featured plenty of intergender wrestling between Sabian and Riho and Omega and Ford.
The tag was announced on Twitter in a skit where Sabian and Ford approached the Young Bucks and Omega asking for the match, giving a rationale that it was on international waters. This past summer following Fyter Fest, Tony Khan showed hesitancy in intergender wrestling in AEW when asked about it.
Dark will also feature Jurassic Express (Jungle Boy/Marko Stunt) vs. Sonny Kiss and Brandon Cutler, Hikaru Shida vs. Mel (Nightmare Collective), and Best Friends vs. Shawn Spears and Colin Delaney, who was making his promotional debut.
WWE Now announced Saturday that Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox will square off in a street fight at NXT TakeOver: Portland.
The two had a match on last Wednesday’s NXT TV show which Nox won after she hit Kai, distracted by Candice LeRae, with her knee brace followed by the Shiniest Wizard for the pin.
The rivalry between the former tag team partners goes back to November’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames when the two were part of Team Ripley. Kai’s spot to come out of the cage came up and instead of going to the ring, she turned around and booted Nox, viciously attacking her and focusing on her surgically repaired knees.
As it stands now, here’s the entire Portland, Oregon, card, set for Sunday, February 16th:
– NXT Champion Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa
– NXT Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era vs. Pete Dunne/Matt Riddle
– Finn Balor vs. Johnny Gargano
– Dakota Kai vs. Tegan Nox street fight
Jorge Masvidal’s resurgent 2019 might not translate into an immediate big payday fight against Conor McGregor, but it appears he will get the next best thing: a UFC title shot.
During an appearance on Jim Rome’s radio show and Will Cain’s ESPN radio show Friday as part of Super Bowl week festivities, Dana White said that Masvidal (pictured above) will challenge welterweight champion Kamaru Usman during July’s International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
“That fight’s happening,” he said while airing frustrations about the verbal pull-apart conflict Masvidal and Usman had on Radio Row Wednesday while doing media. No agreements have been signed as of this writing.
White also told Rome that a Masvidal win might mean a subsequent title defense in his hometown of Miami, Florida. The UFC has only held one event in that city, UFC 42 back in 2003, headlined by then-welterweight champion Matt Hughes defeating Sean Sherk in front of less than 7000 people.
There was some hope Masvidal and McGregor would fight after McGregor’s dominant win over Donald Cerrone in January when Masvidal was in attendance. White, however, seems convinced on making the McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov rematch happen if the UFC lightweight champion can defeat Tony Ferguson in April.
Masvidal is coming off a November TKO win over Nate Diaz for the newly-created promotional tool known as the BMF title while Usman finished rival Colby Covington in December for Usman’s first title defense.
A “Killer” has joined the ranks of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III.
GCW and Barnett announced Friday that Killer Kelly has been added to the Thursday, April 2nd event in Ybor City, Florida.
The German-based talent from Portugal is currently a member of the NXT UK roster, but isn’t exclusive to them as she is a frequent presence in wXw and as of two weeks ago, wants to fill up her schedule.
The first-ever wXw women’s champion is the first female announced for the show and joins a group and matches that already includes the following:
Josh Barnett vs. Jon Moxley in a match originally slated for the second Bloodsport show
For those not familiar, Bloodsport is a hybrid shoot-style show in a ring with no ropes where the only way to win is knockout or submission. After Matt Riddle’s name was attached to the first event, Barnett signed on.
On Wednesday’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (sub needed), Dave Meltzer said that Ronda Rousey is not scheduled for this year’s WrestleMania in Tampa, FL.
According to Meltzer, the direction will be Charlotte Flair using her Royal Rumble-earned title shot to challenge NXT Champion Rhea Ripley for the company’s biggest show of the year with Flair becoming more of a presence on NXT TV.
Meltzer said he doesn’t know the reason Rousey won’t be at WrestleMania.
A few days shy of her 33rd birthday, Rousey will be on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast Thursday.
Rousey saw her 231-day reign as Raw women’s champion end at 2019’s WrestleMania, giving her the first loss of her young pro wrestling career, also the last match she’s had to date in WWE.
The current WrestleMania card for both announced and expected matches is as follows:
WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre
WWE Universal Champion Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns
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We cover all WWE in-ring televised shows and PPV (Raw, SmackDown, 205 Live, Main Event, NXT, etc), Impact Wrestling, New Japan, AEW, Ring of Honor, NWA, and some others. In some cases, we might need a weekly commitment and in other cases, we might need a fill-in for a week.
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On Monday’s edition of Wrestling Observer Radio (sub needed), Dave Meltzer reported that Koba Ibushi is suffering from Mallory-Weiss Syndrome and will remain off the remainder of the current New Japan Pro Wrestling U.S. tour.
The syndrome is an issue when there is a tear in the mucous membrane where the esophagus meets the stomach caused by trauma to the chest or stomach, violent vomiting due to food poisoning, or heavy lifting.
Meltzer said it’s not a long-term issue, but is rare for a male under 40 to suffer from it. Most tears will heal within ten days, but surgery is sometimes required for more serious Mallory-Weiss tears.
The 37-year-old is expected to make a full recovery. As of now, he is still scheduled for the February 9th Road To The New Beginning show in Osaka as part of an eight-man tag.
Originally, Ibushi was pulled from the tour due to what was believed to the flu. The tour ends this Saturday in Atlanta, GA.
Meltzer said that Shayna Baszler and Roman Reigns were slated to win their respective Rumbles but as planning for the top matches at WrestleMania played out, the decision was made to go with Charlotte Flair and Drew McIntyre instead.
He believes the change was made on or around January 14th as betting money changed drastically in favor of Flair winning.
Baszler entered the women’s Rumble 30th and survived until the end when she was eliminated by Flair to end the match. Similarly, Reigns entered 26th in the men’s Rumble and was eliminated by McIntyre to end the match.
Meltzer said as of now, the Mania card is as follows:
– WWE Champion Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre
– WWE Universal Champion “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Roman Reigns
– Edge vs. Randy Orton
Former WWE Champion AJ Styles was legitimately injured during the men’s Royal Rumble match Sunday in Houston, Texas.
On the post-Rumble Wrestling Observer Radio (sub needed), Dave Meltzer confirmed Styles was injured. He had no specific details on the severity but was told it was a shoulder separation.
The 42-year-old appeared to get hurt as he was working with Edge. Edge speared Styles who took a flip bump and landed on his left shoulder. He grabbed it and remained on the mat for several minutes at which time several ringside doctors and a referee can be seen talking to him.
Eventually, Styles worked his way to his feet and encountered Edge again. With his left arm stuck to his side, Edge then eliminated Styles to get him out of the match.
As of this writing, Styles hasn’t posted anything about the injury on social media, and it remains to be seen whether he will be on Raw Monday night.
As part of three stipulations he agreed to in order to receive a match against MJF, Cody Rhodes will receive ten lashes from his rival on the Wednesday, February 5th edition of AEW Dynamite in Huntsville, Alabama.
While the match hasn’t been officially announced, it is expected to take place on the company’s next pay-per-view, Revolution, scheduled for Saturday, February 29th in Chicago, IL.
Rhodes will honor another one of the stipulations on the February 19th edition of Dynamite as he will face MJF’s bodyguard Wardlow in a steel cage match in Atlanta, Georgia.
The two have been feuding since November’s AEW Full Gear PPV when MJF threw in the towel during Rhodes’ match against AEW World Champion Chris Jericho. MJF later gave Rhodes a low blow to complete the turn on his former friend.
Rhodes initially offered some financial and asset-driven incentives to MJF in order to face him, but MJF laid out three stipulations instead. The other stipulation was that Rhodes can’t lay a hand on him until the match.
On Sunday’s Wrestling Observer Radio (subscription needed), our Dave Meltzer reported that he was told WWE NXT standout Io Shirai will be out for two months with an undisclosed injury.
The WWE-produced Injury Report video acknowledged that the 29-year-old tweaked her knee this past Wednesday on NXT TV in her match with Toni Storm. Shirai grabbed her right knee after a Storm dive to the outside during a skirmish with Bianca Belair and NXT champion Rhea Ripley.
She has not had a history of knee injuries and it’s still unclear what specifically is wrong.
After other injuries found during medical examinations initially delayed her signing, Shirai has been in NXT since 2018. She has yet to win a title while there, but has competed for the title several times and has been pushed as a key part of the promotion.
Cris “Cyborg” Justino made history In Los Angeles, CA, Saturday night, defeating champion Julia Budd by fourth round TKO to become the Bellator women’s featherweight champion.
She now has won titles in the UFC, Strikeforce, Bellator, and Invicta, all at 145 pounds.
Justino turned it on in the fourth round, unleashing a barrage of fists and knees on Budd without an answer, resulting in referee Mike Beltran calling the fight.
Up until that point, Cyborg (22-2-0-1) hadn’t done anything outstanding in terms of nearly finishing the fight, but did enough in the clinch, up against the fence, and on the mat to earn herself the rounds she needed. Budd was in the fight the entire time, but couldn’t answer Cyborg’s pressure, nor had any effective offensive to put Cyborg on the defensive.
The 36-year-old Budd (13-3) was the company’s first women’s featherweight champion, having won the title in March 2017. Since then, she has fought sparingly but did have three successful title defenses. In a unique fact, all four of her title fights before tonight were in Thackerville, Oklahoma. She went into the fight on an 11-fight win streak dating back to 2012.
This was Justino’s Bellator debut after a multi-year run in the UFC. They chose not to resign her after her deal ran out in 2019.
In other results:
– The Bellator featherweight Grand Prix rolled along with Darrion Caldwell advancing in the tournament with a quick and impressive first round submission win over the very tough and previously unbeaten Adam Borics. Caldwell got inside early and controlled Borics with elbows and fists while on his back, sinking in a rear naked choke for the tap and win. The former Bellator bantamweight champion will now face A.J. McKee in the tournament semifinals.
– Sergio Pettis made his promotional debut after a long run in the UFC, submitting Alfred Khashkyan in the first round in a bantamweight fight.
– Dave Meltzer favorite and once uber prospect Aaron Pico was purposefully placed on the undercard and showed out nicely with a second round knockout win over Daniel Carey.
– Also on the undercard, former UFC fighter Curtis Millender made his Bellator debut and picked up a win over Moses Murrietta by unanimous decision…BJJ ace A.J. Agazarm picked up a third round submission win over Adel Altamimi.
