PWInsider reported on Monday that tomorrow’s episode of NXT will air live. However, the September 20th edition of the show will be taped at the WWE Performance Center on Wednesday, September 14. The show will then resume going live on September 27. Dave Meltzer later confirmed the upcoming schedule.
Tuesday’s episode of NXT will be the one-year anniversary of the launch of NXT 2.0. Two matches will feature a fan vote via social media: Carmelo Hayes defending the NXT North American title against either Von Wagner, Wes Lee, or Joe Gacy, and Pretty Deadly will defend the NXT Tag Team titles against The Creed Brothers in either a tornado tag match, a no DQ match, or a steel cage match.
Here is the lineup so far for Tuesday’s show:
NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes defends against either Von Wagner, Wes Lee, or Joe Gacy (a fan vote will determine Hayes’ challenger)
NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly defend against The Creed Brothers (a fan vote will determine whether this is a tornado tag match, a no DQ match, or a steel cage match)
Tony D’Angelo & Stacks vs. Cameron Grimes and a partner to be determined
Nikkita Lyons & Zoey Stark vs. Kiana James & Arianna Grace
Kevin Blackwood is out of Sunday’s NJPW Strong Autumn Attack tapings.
The company announced on their website Saturday evening that Blackwood and Eddie Kingston are out. Blackwood is out due to personal reasons, while Kingston tested positive for COVID-19.
As a result of the absences, the card has been changed:
A six-man tag match that had Kingston team with Homicide and Wheeler Yuta against Jay White, Karl Anderson, and Doc Gallows now has Homicide and Yuta facing White and Anderson in a tag team match.
Kevin Blackwood’s match with Ariya Daiviari has been changed to Kevin Knight facing Daivari.
Che Cabrera was set to face Knight. Doc Gallows will now face Cabrera in a singles match.
Kingston announced earlier on Saturday that he had tested positive.
“So here we go, got covid won’t be able to make Strong this weekend. It f****** sucks going to test again to see if I can make tv this week,” Kingston said, referring to AEW television.
Kenny Omega’s appearance on an upcoming episode of the Swerve City Podcast has been postponed.
Swerve announced on social media Saturday that the podcast was delayed, citing “unfortunate circumstances”. Omega’s appearance on the show was originally announced on August 31.
“Due to unfortunate circumstances the interview with Kenny Omega, has been postponed to a later date,” Swerve wrote. “Stay tuned for a rescheduled appearance in the future. Our next guest will be announced Monday 12pm.”
Omega, along with The Young Bucks, were involved in a backstage altercation with CM Punk and Ace Steel Monday morning following negative comments Punk made against them in a post-show media scrum. All have since been suspended from the company.
Omega and The Young Bucks won the AEW World Trios Championships at All Out this past Sunday, defeating Hangman Page and The Dark Order in a tournament final. However, on Wednesday Tony Khan vacated the titles, with Death Triangle (PAC .Penta El 0 M, and Rey Fenix) winning the titles in an impromptu match against Orange Cassidy and Best Friends.
Guevara defeated Darby Allin to advance in the AEW Grand Slam Tournament of Champions on Friday’s Rampage. The finish had Taynara Melo distracting Guevara on the top rope. Guevara used this to his advantage, low blowing Allin then powerbombing him on top of a skateboard. Guevara then pinned Allin after hitting the GTH.
With the win, Guevara will now move on to next week’s Dynamite, where he faces Jon Moxley. The other semifinal that will take place next week will have Chris Jericho facing Bryan Danielson. The winners of these two matches will then move on to AEW Grand Slam on September 21 at Arthur Ashe Stadium where the winner of the tournament will become the new AEW World Champion.
The AEW World Championship was vacated on Wednesday, when Tony Khan announced the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions. Bryan Danielson defeated Hangman Page to advance, while Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho each got byes to the next round.
A rematch from SummerSlam is now set for Extreme Rules.
Ronda Rousey won a five-way elimination match on Friday’s SmackDown to earn a SmackDown Women’s Championship match against Liv Morgan. The finish of the match had Sonya Deville submitting to an ankle lock after Lacey Evans, Xia Li, and Natalya were eliminated.
After the match, Rousey met up with Shayna Baszler backstage. Rousey said that she knew that Baszler was upset about losing at Clash at the Castle, but then told her that there was one thing better than winning: revenge.
Rousey successfully retained the SmackDown Women’s Champion at Money in the Bank against Natalya when Morgan cashed in, pinning Rousey to win the championship. The two then met at SummerSlam, where Morgan retained. The finish had the referee seeing Rousey’s shoulders pinned to the mat while applying an armbar, but didn’t see Morgan submit beforehand.
Extreme Rules will take place on October 8 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
An open challenge for the Raw Women’s Championship has been added to Raw.
During Friday’s SmackDown, it was announced that Belair will put her Raw Women’s Championship on Monday’s show. It will be her first defense since SummerSlam, where she successfully retained the championship against Becky Lynch.
On this past Monday’s Raw, Bayley came out and bragged about being the one that pinned Beliar at Clash at the Castle in the six-woman tag match. Belair came to the ring and offered to put the Raw Women’s Championship on the line right then and there. Bayley rejected, saying it was Labor Day and wasn’t going to work. Bayley told Belair that when she is ready, she would challenge for the title.
Here is the current lineup for Monday’s Raw:
Bianca Belair’s open challenge for the Raw Women’s Championship
Raquel Rodriguez & Aliyah vs. IYO SKY & Dakota Kai for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship
Toxic Attraction returned to SmackDown, but failed to beat the current WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.
Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne appeared on Friday’s show, wrestling WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Raquel Rodriguez and Aliyah. Mandy Rose, the other member of Toxic Attraction, was not there with them. However, they lost the match, Rodriguez scoring the win for her team after hitting the Tejana bomb on Jayne.
Jayne & Dolin appeared on SmackDown last month, defeating Natalya and Sonya Deville to advance to the next round of a tournament that would crown new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions. However, they were removed after Dolin suffered an injury. Deville & Natalya won a four-way match to advance to the semifinals, where they lost to eventual winners Rodriguez & Aliyah.
Rose is the current NXT Women’s Champion. She unified the title with the NXT UK Women’s Championship at Worlds Collide last Sunday, defeating Meiko Satomura and Blair Davenport in a three-way match.
Garcia defeated Wheeler Yuta on Wednesday’s Rampage to win the championship for the first time. The finish of the match had Garcia lock in the dragon tamer. Yuta attempted to escape, but Garcia continued to wrench in the submission, eventually forcing Yuta to tap and winning the title in his hometown of Buffalo, New York.
After the match, the two shook hands as Bryan Danielson entered the ring. He put the title around Garcia’s waist. Chris Jericho appeared on the ramp, angry over what was going down as Garcia and Danielson shook hands.
In recent weeks, Garcia has been conflicted over what he wants to do, continue being a sports entertainer with the Jericho Appreciation Society, or embrace being a pro wrestler. On a recent episode of AEW Dynamite, Garcia told Jericho that he wanted to remain a part of the Jericho Appreciation Society. However, Garcia took a steel chair from Jericho after Jericho came to the ring to attack Danielson later in the show, allowing Danielson to lay out Jericho.
Bryan Danielson has advanced in the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions.
Danielson defeated Hangman Page on Wednesday’s Dynamite to advance to the semifinals on next week’s show against Chris Jericho. The finish of the match had Hangman Page go for the buckshot lariat, but Danielson countered with a O’Connor Roll, bridging Page for the win. Jericho was seen watching in the back and smiled after Danielson won.
Another tournament match, Darby Allin vs. Sammy Guevara, will take place on Friday’s Rampage. The winner of that match will move on to next Wednesday’s Dynamite, where they will face Jon Moxley.
The AEW World Championship was vacated on Wednesday, with Tony Khan making the announcement. It was not explained why the championship was made vacant, however an altercation took place backstage following All Out between CM Punk, Ace Steel, The Young Bucks, and Kenny Omega after Punk made negative comments towards “EVPs” at the AEW All Out media scrum. The status of the men was not explained on Wednesday’s show.
Punk won the AEW World Championship on Sunday at All Out, defeating Jon Moxley to win the championship for a second time.
CM Punk, Kenny Omega, and The Young Bucks were all removed from the AEW Dynamite opening, and were not mentioned at the opening of tonight’s show.
AEW Dynamite featured a new open, without Punk, Omega, or The Young Bucks. A video showing MJF returning at All Out on Sunday did not feature any images or references to CM Punk, who won the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley on Sunday. Following that segment, AEW president Tony Khan announced that the AEW World and Trios titles would be vacated, never mentioning Punk, Omega, or The Young Bucks by name.
New AEW World Trios Champions were crowned shortly after, with Death Triangle (PAC, Rey Fenix, and Penta El 0 M) winning the titles, defeating Best Friends & Orange Cassidy.
The moves on Wednesday’s show follow events that took place following CM Punk’s appearance at the AEW All Out Media scrum Monday morning, where he made negative comments aimed towards Hangman Page and “EVPs”. An altercation between Punk, Omega, and The Young Bucks took place after Punk’s comments. Dave Meltzer described the altercation as “a melee” hours after it took place.
The altercation was not addressed on Wednesday’s show. The company has yet to make an official statement regarding the status of Punk, The Young Bucks, Omega, or Ace Steel, who was also reported to have been involved in the altercation.
NWA Power had news both regarding the next challenger for the NWA Women’s Championship and news regarding the next NWA Empower.
Tuesday’s show had NWA owner Billy Corgan discuss the success of NWA 74, saying that he hopes to keep the NWA rolling so that they reach their 100th anniversary. He also brought up that Kamille had two of the best matches at NWA 74. He concluded the topic by saying that they will do another NWA Empower “very soon”.
Meanwhile, the NWA Women’s Championship match has been set for Hard Times, which will take place on November 12 in Chalmette, Louisiana. Taya Valkyrie earned a shot at Kamille’s championship after defeating Chelsea Green, KiLynn King, and Jennacide in a number one contender’s match. Kamille and Valkyrie previously met at NWA 74 last month, with Kamille successfully retaining the championship.
Kamille also wrestled on Tuesday’s NWA Power, going to a time limit draw with Allysin Kay.
Two title matches are scheduled for next week’s NXT.
The show will mark the one year anniversary of the relaunch of NXT into NXT 2.0. Pretty Deadly vs. The Creed Brothers for the NXT Tag Team titles will take place, while Carmelo Hayes will defend the North American title against whoever wins a fan vote via WWE’s social media accounts. Voting will also take place to determine the stipulation for the Tag Team title match.
In addition, Cameron Grimes will team with a mystery partner to face Tony D’Angelo and Stacks, Hank Walker will face Javier Bernal, Zoey Stark & Nikkita Lyons will face Kiana James & Arianna Grace, and Quincy Elliot will make his debut. Additionally, fans will also be able to vote on the NXT Superstar of the past year.
Earlier on Tuesday’s show, Grimes met with D’Angelo, who was backstage drinking a cappuccino with Stacks. D’Angelo asked if he’d like to join his family. Grimes declined. It eventually ended up in a brawl, with Grimes being laid out due to the 2-on-1 advantage.
Hank Walker, who has been shown as a security guard backstage on NXT in recent weeks, was confronted by Javier Bernal as he was waiting for Gallus to exit their locker room. Bernal made fun of Hank for being a security guard. Walker got in Bernal’s face, eventually setting up a match for Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Kiana James backstage ran into Arianna Grace. They agreed they wanted to take out Nikkita Lyons, setting the stage for next week’s tag match.
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Tuesday News Update
WWE
Braun Strowman made his return to the company last night, laying out several tag teams during a match. PWInsider reports that Strowman will be a babyface on the SmackDown brand moving forward.
Austin Aries and EC3 of Control Your Narrative wished Strowman, who had been working for the promotion during his time away from WWE, all the best on his return.
Matches taped for Main Event this week include Shelton Benjamin vs. Reggie and T-Bar vs. Cedric Alexander.
PWInsider reported that the third season of Young Rock will feature a character based on the late Brian Christopher, aka Grandmaster Sexay. The character is slated to appear semi-regularly.
The Akron Beacon Journal has a profile on Absolute Intense Wrestling.
Sports Illustrated reported that MLW has signed a partnership deal with Range Sports.
Matt Cardona has filed a trademark for the term “The Agent”.
BattleSlam have announced their next card for September 25th, where they will crown a World Champion.
Yes, there was a pay-per-view before last night’s scrum.
AEW All Out 2022 continued the streak of excellent pay-per-views from the company, with many matches delivering and one completely blowing everything out of the water. People will likely focus on the events in the hours following All Out, but for this article I’ll focus on the show itself.
The big news, of course, is CM Punk…regaining the AEW World Championship from Jon Moxley after losing it to him in quick fashion a week ago. I don’t know if the story heading into this match was necessary, as I think the match itself was strong anyway based on CM Punk facing Jon Moxley, a fresh match. But a great promo by Ace Steel on Wednesday’s Dynamite led to Sunday’s great main event, which ended up being a mix of both Punk and Mox’s styles.
Of course, the show ended with the return of MJF, who revealed himself to be the masked mystery Joker participant in the ladder match that opened the show. The ladder match had some cool spots, but was overshadowed by the angle that ended the match, with Stokely Hathaway and his new clients (W. Morrissey, Colten & Austin Gunn, Lee Moriarty, and Ethan Page) arriving in ski masks to lay everyone out and hand the victory (and the future World title match) to MJF, who is now likely to headline the next title match against CM Punk.
I don’t know about all of this Pillman-esque stuff that has been going on in the months following Double or Nothing, but I do know this: MJF is the future world champion heel that the company needs to focus on next. It’s clear he’s someone special, regardless of where he may go in a couple of years. It’s the match to make, and it’s the time to crown MJF, whenever that time may be.
The match that stole the show was none other than the AEW World Tag Team title match between Swerve in Our Glory and The Acclaimed. I don’t know how this translated to TV, but the heat for this match live was unreal and better than anything at Clash at the Castle, which had a pretty hot crowd! Chicago so desperately wanted for The Acclaimed to win, and it made the match all that much hotter following each nearfall. The pop for that win would have been something that Steve Austin and The Rock in their heyday could only dream of.
That didn’t happen, as Keith Lee and Swerve Scott walked out as champions. But these two teams did something I thought absolutely wasn’t possible: they had a better match than Sheamus and Gunther from the previous day’s Clash at the Catle. And you have to give The Acclaimed massive credit, as a lot of people were skeptical about them getting the title shot. Now everyone wants them as champions, and you know what? Perhaps it is time after all.
The Elite (Young Bucks and a ripped Kenny Omega) are in fact the first-ever AEW World Trios Tag Team Champions, defeating Hangman Page and The Dark Order in an excellent match, just one hot nearfall after another. It’s fitting they are the first champions, as there’s really no one else that can carry the banner for trios wrestling like they will. I’ve enjoyed the storyline between The Elite and Hangman Page, and no doubt their long-running story will continue.
One trios team that seems unlikely to challenge The Elite is The House of Black, who lost to Miro, Sting, and Darby Allin in the co-main event, with Allin pinning Malakai Black clean with a coffin drop. After the match, The House of Black hugged as the crowd gave Black a standing ovation. What does this mean? Who knows. There’s rumors, and while this all looked like the swan song for Black, it may have been something else. Who knows, it’s wrestling.
Jurassic Express is over, with Luchasaurus attacking Jungle Boy in the aisle as he was heading to the ring for his match against Christian Cage, slamming him off the announce stage and powerbombing him through a table before sending him in the ring to Christian. Despite barely being able to get up, Jungle Boy preserered, but ultimately lost after an unprettier. This is another one in the “there will be more to this” department, as clearly the two aren’t going to move on after such a short match, and with Luchasurus’ turn, Jungle Boy has matches down the line with two of his former friends.
Jade Cargill retained the TBS Championship against Athena. Some spots looked off, but this ended quickly anyway with Cargill pinning Athena to continue her long winning streak. It was the right call, as Cargill has an awesome presence that no one really has in the company. Question is, who will be the person that eventually beats her? Are they in the company now or somewhere else?
Bryan Danielson was not successful in dodging the Judas Effect, losing to ‘Lionheart’ Chris Jericho in a match that was good, but felt a little flat with the ending. I was expecting Danielson to kick out, but he didn’t ,which surprised me. But it also tells me this is likely the start of a rivalry that’s just beginning, and it’s likely we’ll see more matches between the two down the road.
The final two matches to cap off the main card had Powerhouse Hobbs defeat Ricky Starks in five minutes, a surprising result given the feud. Again, probably more to this. Finally, FTR & Wardlow defeated Jay Lethal & The Motor City Machine Guns, which was also a fun match capped off with a cute segment in the end that had Harwood’s daughter pin Sonjay Dutt.
Oh, and there’s the four pre-show matches! Tomohiro Ishii and Eddie Kingston delivered exactly what you think they would do, chopping each other silly and fighting each other until one finally could no longer go, and that ended up being Ishii. This was excellent. Kip Sabian and PAC also had a great match, with PAC looking as he always does, and Sabian keeping up with him, also looking great here. Hook beat Angelo Parker in quick fashion, and finally, Sammy Guevara and Tay Melo defeated Ruby Soho and Ortiz in a really fun opener that had some cool spots, a great way to start the show.
So yes, fifteen matches overall. That is a lot! The good news for All Out is that the pacing was good, and five hours flew by pretty quickly. Five hours is a very long time for a wrestling show, but if the wrestling is good and everything winds up pacing well, then there isn’t much of a problem. The show capped off an extremely busy and newsworthy weekend that, while I am glad I experienced it live and with people from this website, doesn’t need to be repeated for a long while.
An altercation that was described as “a melee” broke out between The Young Bucks and CM Punk following Punk’s comments at the AEW All Out media scrum on Monday morning.
On Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez reported multiple sources saying there was “an altercation” between the two parties after Punk gave comments during the media scrum. A security guard was seen running out of the scrum shortly after Punk left. Tony Khan was not informed of the situation until after the scrum wrapped up, and as of 1:41 am central time Monday, everyone was still in the building. Dave Meltzer described the situation as “a melee”.
Punk sounded off during Monday’s scrum, dismissing speculation regarding himself and Colt Cabana, who was moved to the Ring of Honor roster following Khan’s purchase of the company earlier this year. He eventually made negative remarks regarding Hangman Page for his promo prior to their match at Double or Nothing earlier this year, and accused “EVPs” of “spreading lies and bullsh*t” to the media.
Now, it’s 2022. I haven’t been friends with this guy since at least 2014, late 2013. The fact that I have to sit up here because we have irresponsible people who call themselves EVPs and couldn’t f*cking manage a Target and they spread lies and bullsh*t and put into the media that I got somebody fired when I have f*ck all to do with him, want nothing to do with him, do not care where he works, where he doesn’t work, where he eats, where he sleeps. And the fact that I have to get up here and do this in 2022 is f*cking embarrassing. And if y’all are at fault, f*ck you. If you’re not, I apologize.
What did I ever do in this world to deserve an empty-headed f*cking dumb f*ck like Hangman Adam Page to go out on national television and f*cking go into business for himself? For what? What did I do? What did I ever do? Didn’t do a goddamn thing.
It’s not [Tony Khan’s] position to make it very f*cking clear [that Punk didn’t have anything to do with Cabana being moved to ROH]. There’s people who call themselves EVPs that should have f*cking known better. This sh*t was none of their business. I understand sticking up for your f*cking friends, I f*cking get it, I stuck up for that guy [Cabana] more than anybody. Okay? I paid his bills until I didn’t and it was my decision not to.
Punk regained the AEW World Championship on Sunday, defeating Jon Moxley to win the title for a second time. The Young Bucks, with Kenny Omega, became the first AEW World Trios Champions at All Out, defeating Hangman Page & The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds and John Silver) in the tournament final.
