The acquisition of WWE by Endeavor is expected to be finalized next month.
Endeavor announced today during their Q2 earnings release that their acquisition of WWE is expected to close in mid-to-late September. The company had previously announced that the deal was expected to conclude sometime during the second half of the year. Upon completion, Endeavor plans to merge WWE and UFC into one public company called TKO Group Holdings Inc.
Brandon Thurston reported that on the phone call to investors, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel noted that there were plans on making cost savings and synergies happen immediately upon the deal closing.
Endeavor announced the acquisition of WWE back in early April during WrestleMania weekend. Vince McMahon, who retired from WWE last year, forced himself back in power in January with the intention of facilitating a sale of the company. Once the acquisition is complete, McMahon will serve as the executive chairman of TKO Holdings.
In WWE’s Q2 earnings report, it was noted that McMahon was recently served with a federal search warrant and grand jury subpoena regarding hush money payments to women that led to his retirement last year.
AEW signings Kenny Omega, Young Bucks and Adam Page, lots behind it with comments from any going into details on the reason the decision was made, their pact to stay together and far more
WWE financials for quarter two, including why the next TV deal is taking longer to negotiate, how every sector of business is doing, USA Network with and without WWE and looks to the future
SummerSlam, why matches were changed, the huge Saturday night of events, ticket sales and more
Updating All In, where it stands on all-tie records, two straight weeks of PPV shows, the last time it happened and the history, rumored matches and more
G-1 Climax, what everyone needs to advance to the final eight, cards for the rest of the tournament and running down the shows from the past week
UFC 291 coverage, the stories behind the stories, what is next, business notes
NXT Great American Bash notes with full coverage
The life and times of Adrian Street, his death, his start, the famous photo, his U.K. heyday, why he came to the U.S., thinking wrestling was real, meeting Linda and his life after wrestling
The most detailed look at the television ratings for all the pro wrestling and MMA shows, including what the numbers mean, rankings, segment-by-segment and how shows are doing compared with one year ago.
Promotion shooting new star to the top
One of the best matches of the year in Mexico
Top pro wrestler worked as an Uber driver during the pandemic
Why Stardom is bringing back 80s and 90s legends
Wrestle Kingdom notes
Minoru Suzuki match in a unique location
Second generation star celebrates his 50th birthday on show this past week
Update on the number of homes and carriage rates for the shows that carry wrestling and MMA
More on a new television wrestling promotion starting in the fall
More matches on All In weekend in London
Who Giulia is likely defending her New Japan Strong title against next
Men’s All Japan Strong title match in Defy
Business of AEW and its value
Tony Khan talks business growth
Update on WBD business
Health updates on AEW & WWE wrestlers out of action
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Tuesday Update
WWE
In an interview with People, Carmella said she plans on returning to WWE after her pregnancy, but isn’t rushing to return: “I for sure plan to come back,” she said. “I think it’s important to show you can have a baby and still have a career, especially a very physical one at that, but I’m not going to rush.”
Top Dolla reflected on the one year anniversary of Hit Row’s return to WWE on X: “Saturday will be One Year since we Returned on #SmackDown and in that year we’ve worked with the Shinsuke, Bobby Lashley, Bray, Ricochet, Sheamus, Braun, Drew, The Usos, The New Day, The Street Profits, LA, The OC, A.J. & many more great talent in the greatest company in the world… & got paid to do it.”
A CM Punk Best in the World Trans Pride t-shirt has been released and will be available through August 22. 100% of the royalties will go to The Trevor Project.
The New York Post has an article on MJF’s recent babyface turn.
CNBC reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is planning on simulcasting live games on Max starting in October.
Other Wrestling
Just one day prior to release, Skybound Games announced that WrestleQuest is being pushed back from August 8 to August 22: “When performing final checks on one of our launch platforms, we discovered it was possible for players to lose their save game progress when playing WrestleQuest on multiple different devices. Because this is a game filled with hours of content and player progress is so important, we could never bodyslam our fans like that. We are truly proud of this game and believe that we have a product that delivers on all counts. We’re blown away by the support we’ve seen from players excited for WrestleQuest and we can’t wait to share the finished game with everyone on August 22.”
The season finale of Dark Side of the Ring will premiere tonight at 10 pm ET, with the subject being Marty Jannetty.
Tomohiro Ishii is making his Dragongate debut on August 20. He will team with Masaaki Mochizuki and Don Fuji to take on Yuki Yoshioka, Ben-K, and Strong Machine J.
“Obviously, the tag team titles are cursed,” she joked. “Just kidding. But like, not really.”
Deville said she injured her ACL on this past Friday’s SmackDown, where she and Chelsea Green teamed together in a losing effort against Charlotte Flair and Bianca Belair. She said she will be undergoing surgery on Tuesday. She also talked about how she had been working for the last eight years to win a title in WWE and finally did, winning the titles with Green.
“Obviously it’s super bitter to say its come to an end due to an injury,” she said. “Especially since it is my first injury in wrestling, or really in sports in general…obviously it’s super disappointing and it couldn’t have come at a worse time, but I don’t think any injury comes at a great time. That’s just how the cookie crumbles.”
She finished the video by saying coming back from the injury will give her a “bigger motivation and passion for what I already love doing, and that’s being in the WWE.”
Chad Gable is next in line for an Intercontinental title match.
Gable defeated Tommaso Ciampa, Matt Riddle, and Ricochet in a four-way match on Monday’s Raw to become the next contender for Gunther. The finish of the match had Gable attempting the Chaos Theory suplex on Riddle and Ricochet. However, he managed to get it on Ciampa and pinned him to win the match. He exited the ring and celebrated with his son after the match, as Raw was in his hometown of Minneapolis.
A backstage segment was shown prior to the match where Ricochet argued with Adam Pearce over the finish to his SummerSlam match against Logan Paul, which saw Paul use brass knuckles to defeat Ricochet. Pearce apologized and put Ricochet in the four-way match, saying all four participants were one win away from greatness.
On last week’s Raw, Gable survived a five-minute challenge against Gunther. However, Gunther didn’t accept the loss and ordered for the match to restart. It did, with Gunther eventually winning the match.
At SummerSlam this past Saturday, Gunther successfully retained the Intercontinental title, defeating Drew McIntyre.
The Young Bucks talked the process behind re-signing with AEW.
On the Swerve City Podcast, The Young Bucks said that they weren’t sure of where they would go or what they would do. However, they established that they, Kenny Omega, and Hangman Page would negotiated together as a group.
“We didn’t know,” Matt said. “I don’t read any of it, but I know [people] are thinking oh, how surprising The Elite re-signed. Bro, we didn’t even know if we were going to re-sign…we all negotiated together as a team.”
“The votes did not line up every time,” Matt continued. There were a lot of emotions in the last year, as the world knows, so one day this person’s voting to leave, this person’s voting to go. We weren’t even on the same page the whole time.”
At one point, Nick brought up that Matt even considered retiring rather than continue to wrestle for either promotion.
“I had to talk him out of that,” he said.
The discussion started while Swerve and The Young Bucks were discussing recent NBA contracts going for big money.
“We just signed one today, right?” Matt joked.
“It’s funny you say that, because when we signed our contracts we were like ‘this is an NBA-level contract’. That’s pretty crazy,” Nick added.
The Young Bucks said that as wrestling gets hot, the industry could be seeing NBA-level deals if the industry as a whole continues to gain momentum.
“WWE helps us being hot because wrestling in general is hot now,” Nick said.
The Young Bucks will wrestle on Dynamite this coming Wednesday, facing The Hardys.
Whoever thought that pro wrestling and 1990s role playing games meshed so well? WrestleQuest, which is out on August 22, is a real cool concept that manages to work very well. If you like role playing games, this is an effective one that harkens back to the days of 2D Final Fantasy games. For wrestling fans, there’s enough tongue-in-cheek references and real-life cameos to stick around. It’s too bad that some aspects of the game drag the overall experience down.
The best way to describe WrestleQuest is if you put Final Fantasy VI and WWF WrestleFest into a blender and let it rip. It’s a full-on RPG that requires defeating enemies in turn-based battles. There’s even equipment and accessories that can be equipped that boost character’s stats.
You start off with the not-too-subtle Muchacho Man, but the game’s cast eventually turns into an ensemble affair where you switch between multiple different parties throughout most of the game. Without spoiling the storyline too much, it centers around a megalomaniacal toy elephant who is hellbent on crushing his competition, including stomping out all the territories across the toybox universe the game takes place in. I’m sure there’s no real world illusions there. It turns into a solid story with plenty of empathic (and slightly odd) characters that Muchacho Man and the other toys meet along the way.
There’s plenty of real-world cameos seen throughout the game. Some appear just as easter eggs, some also appear in statue areas that can be found across the world map. There are also others that can serve as managers, which you can equip and will help you in battle through various methods. If you play long enough, you may even encounter some familiar faces from this very website (not me).
Gameplay mechanics are rock-solid and probably the best part of WrestleQuest. Aside from the normal striking, there’s also gimmick (or special) moves that can be used, and each character is given a multitude of them as they level up, including unleashing tag team or triple team moves. It was very fun to mix and match gimmicks to discover new ways of defeating villains.
The main drawback were the dungeon areas. To put it bluntly, they were not particularly fun and grew to be a chore. The idea probably was to put in a bunch of puzzles as there are no random encounters, but I would have taken more enemy fights over some of these areas that dragged the game down, both in terms of fun and pace. I would have much rather focused on using the fun battle mechanics then running around to light candles in under ten seconds or using the right colored sheet on a lightbulb to open a new pathway, it felt like busy work just to get through to the next area. I also experienced longer load times as I progressed further in the game, which was odd.
One more thing I didn’t like was the mandatory “dramatic moments” for some of the boss fights, where you need to follow a checklist to a tee or else it’s game over. These reminded me heavily of the requirements in Showcase Mode in the WWE 2K series. I didn’t like being given rules to advance in that mode and I didn’t particularly like it here. It never feels that fun to follow a mandatory checklist in a video game.
WrestleQuest is solid enough that it’s worth recommending. If you can get through some tedious puzzle solving, there’s a fun game here, and the story is engrossing enough to stick with. It’s out August 22 on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Xbox One & Series X.
Cody Rhodes stood tall in the final match of his trilogy against Brock Lesnar.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer both had praise for the match, which saw Cody Rhodes win after hitting three crossroads on Lesnar.
“I thought this was the best match on the show,” Alvarez said.
“I thought so too,” Meltzer said. “The other one I really liked was Finn Balor and Seth Rollins.”
After the match, Lesnar took off his gloves and shaked Rhodes’ hand, gave him a hug, and raised his arm in victory. Triple H later said in the press conference that this was not a planned spot, and Alvarez reiterated that this wasn’t the end of Lesnar in WWE.
“He’s advertised for Fast Lane,” Meltzer said, referring to WWE’s October premium live event. “So I don’t know if that’s when he returns. He’s going to be gone for a little while from what I was told, but not a long while, whatever that means.”
Other matches recapped in the clip include LA Knight winning the Slim Jim SummerSlam Battle Royal, last eliminating Sheamus. Shayna Baszler also defeated Ronda Rousey in an MMA rules match, scoring a submission win with a rear naked choke.
The shocking end of Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam saw Jimmy Uso cost his brother, Jey, his match against Roman Reigns. After the masked man that was Jimmy broke up a pinfall, revealed himself and, after a very lengthy staredown, superkicked his own twin brother. Reigns ultimately won a plodding match that ended what was mostly a good show with a whimper.
Why exactly Jimmy turned on Jey we’ll find out over due time. Or maybe not as WWE storylines are weird like that sometimes. Perhaps it’s a short term feud leading to the two brothers ultimately reuniting to take on Reigns whenever he returns. It’s a weird twist to the ongoing Bloodline storyline that I didn’t really see coming. It was natural to assume that Reigns’ schedule for the rest of the fall would likely involve feuding with Jimmy and eventually Solo Sikoa. But now everything seems up in the air with the turn.
The match itself was not great. A lot of it was either Reigns and Jey staring at each other (creating DRAMA) or Reigns getting heat forever on Jey, neither of which was all that interesting in a show that had already reached the four-hour mark. Of course, Sikoa got involved and it did pick up a little from there, but ultimately the match was a disappointment in the long-running Bloodline feud which had mostly delivered up to this point.
Here’s my thoughts on the rest of the card:
Cody Rhodes defeated Brock Lesnar in what ended up being an excellent, dramatic match which I thought was the best match on the show in terms of storytelling and execution. The only drawback is that I thought the Lesnar beatdown was maybe a little too long, but it was effective in setting up Rhodes’ eventual comeback and win. The kimura spot toward the end was excellent — callback to their Saudi Arabia match. The question now is what will Rhodes do in the fall before the eventual return to feuding with Reigns. Judgment Day?
Logan Paul defeated Ricochet in the opening match. It was good and both came off as athletic, but for all the build, I kind of expected more. There were some cool moves, but I didn’t think anything was “going viral” as the advertising for this match had said. Paul won and probably needed to as he’s lost his last few matches and needs a few wins at this point.
There’s not much to say about the battle royal as it was every WWE battle royal you’ve ever seen. LA Knight finally got his big win, last eliminating Sheamus. Knight is a story to watch in the coming weeks as it’s clear he’s getting over despite his push. It may be time to push him like he’s a star and this may have been the start of that.
Oh boy, the MMA fight between Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler. This didn’t work at all. They tried to work an MMA style match, but some of what they did didn’t make sense and the crowd completely turned on it with people visibly leaving the stands as Rousey and Baszler grappled. There was also a weird spot where Baszler got “injured” and they took a minute to send medical in to check on her which does not happen in an MMA fight. Then, Rousey destroyed the doctors which definitely does not happen in an MMA fight. This was a style WWE fans weren’t used to and were turned off by it as a result, and the confusing rules didn’t help much either. The match perfectly encapsulated Rousey’s second run in the WWE where there were a bunch of ideas, but none of them were executed well.
Gunther’s run as Intercontinental Champion continued as he downed Drew McIntyre. If you’ve seen these two wrestle, you know exactly what happened here. This was very good while it lasted, but by the end, I was thinking this would have been an excellent match if it had gone on for another few minutes. Still, with what they were given, this was a hard-hitting bout that delivered what you’d expect.
Finn Balor did not become the new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, but had a match with Seth Rollins that was significantly better than their match at Money in the Bank and was the best match on the show in terms of in-ring action. This was a hot back and forth affair with some excellent near falls, including one at the end that I thought for sure was the finish when the Judgment Day interfered, distracting Rollins and allowing Balor to hit the sling blade and the Coup de Gras. But it was Damian Priest’s briefcase that cost Balor with Priest putting it on the apron as he distracted the referee, allowing Rollins to stomp Balor onto the briefcase for the win. I thought that they should hold off on a split between Priest and Balor as the act is pretty hot right now, but they seem to be moving forward with it.
The WWE Women’s Championship match also ended up being a very good match. I thought the finish was clever with Bianca Belair rolling up Asuka as she was in Charlotte Flair’s Figure Eight to score the surprise win. But that won’t be what people remember as IYO SKY immediately ran down to the ring. With Bayley’s help clearing the field, SKY cashed in, hit the moonsault, and won the title. I feel like the eventual WrestleMania match will be Belair vs. Flair, so there’s plenty of twists and turns left with this title until it’s time to go in that direction.
SummerSlam had its ups and downs, but overall I thought it was good with the Rhodes/Brock match probably being the highlight and Balor/Rollins not too far behind. With most of the spring and summer storylines now wrapped, it’s time to start building for the fall. We saw some glimpses, as it seems like a lock that Jimmy and Jey Uso will meet at Payback next month. We’ll likely be seeing more clues as soon as this week’s Raw and SmackDown.
The Pride Fighting Championships, at least at the level we know them, may be no more.
With the belief the Yakuza involvement scandal was about to break with arrests, the Fuji TV Network, which bankrolled a substantial percentage of the events, announced at 5 p.m. on 6/5 it was canceling its contract with the promotion and that Pride would never air on the network again. The announcement came just one day after network cameras and production crews were at the Saitama Arena for the Bushido event. The event was taped and scheduled to be broadcast by Fuji on 6/10 in a late afternoon time slot, but will never air.
Dream Stage Entertainment, which receives millions from the network in rights fees, was blindsided by the news. The network sent out press releases to the Japanese media the day after the show simply stating that Pride had breached its contract. In actuality, the network made the decision secretly at the end of April, but since a major show was taking place on 5/5 at the Osaka Dome, the first round of the Open Weight Grand Prix, a prime time special that was expected to do big numbers (it did a 17.6 rating), they kept the decision from getting out.
PWInsider reported on Sunday that KAIRI is set to return to the company. Dave Meltzer confirmed the news on Wrestling Observer Radio Sunday morning.
“Maybe November,” Meltzer said regarding a return. “She’s got two more dates in Japan I think she is scheduled for…she’s coming back.”
KAIRI posted a video on X Saturday evening announcing that she will be holding a press conference “tomorrow”, without specifying a specific date or time.
“I want to tell you something,” the video said in English. “I will have a press conference tomorrow and will be streaming on YouTube right after. Thank you so much.”
She also made a surprise appearance on Sunday morning’s All Japan Pro Wrestling event, announcing she will be teaming with Saori Anou to take on Unagi Sayaka and a partner on AJPW’s September 8 show.
KAIRI, who wrestled as Kairi Sane in WWE from 2017 to 2020, left the United States in July of 2020 and worked as an ambassador for the company during the COVID-19 pandemic. She officially left WWE in December of 2021 after her contract expired.
In the last year, KAIRI has wrestled for both Stardom and New Japan Pro Wrestling. She became the first IWGP Women’s Champion, defeating Mayu Iwatani in November of last year. At NJPW’s Battle in the Valley event in February of this year, Mercedes Mone defeated KAIRI to win the championship.
WWE stars, along with Chief Creative Officer Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque, took questions following Saturday’s WWE SummerSlam event. Here are the highlights:
Cody Rhodes
When asked about the moment he shared with Brock Lesnar after their match, he said that it hadn’t dawned on him what it means yet. He called it a bond by battle. He compared Lesnar a unicorn, saying that he was a once in a lifetime individual. Reminded him of how his dad looked at Harley Race, and he may have found his Harley Race in Lesnar.
When Bill Apter asked what his next plans were, Rhodes replied “everyone in the room knows what my plans are.” He said he needs to get back to where he was so he can finish the story.
Regarding what Dusty would have thought about the handshake between him and Lesnar, Rhodes said rather than think about what Dusty would have thought, he would rather think about the people that he has, naming his mother, his sister, his daughter, his wife Brandi, and also mentioned his brother Dustin.
He mentioned that he thinks he’s found his “final form” during this WWE run. He mentioned that former ROH head Joe Koff once told Rhodes that he was someone that can see “where the puck is going.”
IYO SKY (with Bayley and Dakota Kai)
When asked if she was back, Dakota Kai said that she was “a ways away” from being in-ring cleared, but wanted to be here for IYO SKY. She mentioned that she’s squatting heavily in her training.
LA Knight
When asked if tonight was a long time coming, Knight replied that in a weird way, this has been an amazingly fast climb. He said he always knew that he had something to give. Says he’ll strap the rocket to himself.
Paul Heyman
When asked “what inning are we in,” Heyman said that they are “at the bottom of the third” and the storyline hadn’t even hit its stride yet. He said that it was The Bloodline storyline that has caused WWE’s business boom.
Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque
Triple H said that this year’s SummerSlam was the highest grossing SummerSlam in the history of WWE, as well as the highest grossing PLE outside of WrestleMania. He also said it was likely that this event will be the most-watched SummerSlam on Peacock.
He said that the Cody/Brock Lesnar handshake and hug after the match was not a planned part of the show.
When asked about how women are being pushed, Triple H said that it was the same as it has always been, saying that he puts about the same amount of thought in the men as the women. He said that when women main evented WrestleMania, it’s because it was the main event.
Triple H mentioned that there were rumors about “matches being cut” from SummerSlam. He said that nothing was cut, and that if you don’t have more stuff than you need, you’ve failed. He said that sometimes there is too much stuff going on, and SummerSlam was already “plenty long” as is.
Brandon Thurston asked about Vince McMahon’s recovery from surgery and his current creative involvement. Triple H said he didn’t know McMahon’s recovery as he’s not a doctor.
Regarding McMahon’s creative involvement, Triple H said McMahon’s vision changed the business and that there is no greater mind in the business. He said that if McMahon hadn’t come along, wrestling might have disappeared, bringing up Roller Derby from when he was a kid as a form of entertainment that is no longer around. He said that McMahon isn’t involved day to day regarding creative, and that he has earned that right.
FTR challenged The Young Bucks to a title match at All In.
After Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler retained the AEW Tag Team titles against Big Bill and Brian Cage on Saturday’s Collision, they cut a promo running down their accomplishments. They said that there was one more thing they needed to do, and that was to face The Young Bucks again, issuing the challenge for a rubber match at AEW All In on August 27 in Wembley Stadium.
This would be the third match between the two teams. The first took place at Full Gear 2020, with The Young Bucks defeating FTR for the Tag Team titles. The two teams met again on the April 6, 2022 edition of AEW Dynamite, this time with FTR retaining both the AEW and AAA Tag Team titles.
On Friday’s Rampage, The Young Bucks announced that after spending time wrestling in the trios division with Kenny Omega, they were going to head back to the tag team division. The Hardys, who were nearby, welcomed this news and challenged The Young Bucks to a match on Dynamite this coming Wednesday. The Young Bucks agreed to the match.
Samoa Joe has issued a challenge to CM Punk for Wembley Stadium.
On Saturday’s Collision, Samoa Joe cut a promo after quickly defeating Serpentico. He said that he didn’t have a dance partner for AEW All In on August 27, and called out CM Punk. He referenced their last match in the finals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament last month, saying that a roll-up wasn’t good enough for their legacy.
Joe and Punk, who had a famous trilogy of matches in the early 2000s in Ring of Honor, met for a fourth time in the semifinals of the Owen Hart Foundation tournament last month. Punk managed to roll-up Joe for the surprise win to advance to the finals. Joe acted like he was going to shake hands after the match, but instead attacked Punk. Punk would go on to lose in the finals of the tournament to Ricky Starks, who grabbed the ropes to pick up the win.
There was a second call-out earlier in the show, with FTR challenging The Young Bucks to a rubber match for the AEW Tag Team titles at All In.
Jim Ross made his return to AEW television on Saturday’s Collision.
Ross made his way to the ring prior to the main event, where proceeded to provide color commentary for the main event between CM Punk and Ricky Starks alongside Nigel McGuiness and Ian Riccaboni.
Last appearing on the debut edition of Collision on June 17, Ross has been out of action due to injuries suffered during a fall that took place one day earlier. He later took to Twitter to apologize for his performance that night, where he called the main event.
“I apologize for the way I sounded tonight,” he wrote. “Going to step away to heal. Thanks for your support.”
Ross later said he had suffered a concussion as a result of the fall, and would take time off to recuperate.
In the main event of Saturday’s Collision, CM Punk successfully defended the “Real World Championship” against Ricky Starks. Ricky Steamboat, who served as a special guest outside enforcer, made the count after the referee was knocked out. Starks attacked Steamboat after the match, with CM Punk making the save.
Prior to the parking lot brawl match on Friday’s AEW Rampage, Tony Schiavone announced that PAC is out of action with an injury. Schiavone further said that PAC will be unable to compete “for quite a while”. PAC’s last match was on the July 26th edition of AEW Dynamite, where he defeated Gravity.
BREAKING NEWS: #PAC is injured and unable to compete.
PAC had only wrestled three times since returning from injury last month. He participated in a Blood & Guts match, teaming with the Blackpool Combat Club and Konosuke Takeshita in a losing effort against The Golden Elite (Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, and The Young Bucks). PAC ended up walking out of the match after a confrontation with Claudio Castagnoli. The two ended up facing each other at Death Before Dishonor, with Castagnoli defeating PAC to retain the ROH World title.
It was announced on Rampage that the winner of the parking lot brawl would face the Lucha Bros. on Wednesday’s Dynamite. Blackpool Combat Club members Castagnoli and Wheeler Yuta defeated Best Friends, setting up the match.
