Two new names reportedly started as WWE producers on a tryout basis starting with tonight’s SmackDown.
Fightful Select reported tonight that Joe Hennig, also known as Curtis Axel, and Ariya Daivari were both backstage working as producers. Hennig reportedly was involved in helping produce the Sasha Banks vs. Liv Morgan match under Tyson Kidd, while Daivari helped produce the Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn match under Abyss.
Both are former WWE wrestlers that were released in the last two years. Hennig, son of Curt Hennig, is a former Intercontinental Champion that was cut back in April of 2020. He has not wrestled since being released from the company. Prior to being released, he was part of a tag team known as The B-Team with Bo Dallas.
Daivari, who signed with WWE in 2016 and mainly wrestled on NXT and 205 Live, was released back in July of last year. He has made appearances for AEW and New Japan Strong since being released.
After spending nearly his entire career within WWE, Curtis Axel (aka Joe Hennig) has been released from the company.
The 40-year-old hadn’t wrestled on TV since February 28th when he lost to Daniel Bryan on SmackDown. Before that, he and Bo Dallas were part of The B Team who last appeared at the October Crown Jewel show in the World Cup tag team turmoil match.
After being trained by his father Curt Hennig, Harley Race, and Brad Rheingans, the grandson of Larry Hennig signed with WWE in 2007 after a short time in World League Wrestling. He spent nearly four years in developmental in Florida Championship Wrestling before competing on the second season of NXT under the name Michael McGillicutty.
After a WWE tag title run with David Otunga, he returned to NXT for several years and was called up again in 2013 under the Axel name and with Paul Heyman as a manager. Through the subsequent years, he was packaged with several teams and gimmicks including RybAxel (with Ryback), The Social Outcasts, The Meta Powers (with Damien Sandow), the Miztourage, and finally, the B Team with which he also held the Raw tag team titles.
As of this writing, Axel hasn’t posted about the release on social media.
Despite the Superstar Shake-up taking place a week ago, WWE is continuing to make movements between the Raw and SmackDown brands.
Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that the B-Team, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel, have been moved to the Smackdown brand. The team’s rosterpages reflect this. They worked a dark match prior to Tuesday’s tapings, losing to Heavy Machinery.
Meltzer has also reported that Nikki Cross, who wasn’t mentioned in last week’s roster moves, is a member of the Raw roster. Her roster page has yet to reflect this, however. Her husband Killian Dain remains on SmackDown.
WWE has made a number of changes in the last week following the Superstar Shake-up that were not originally reported in last week’s shows. Jinder Mahal, The Singh Brothers, Aleister Black, Andrade and Zelina Vega were moved to SmackDown this week while Cesaro and Samoa Joe were moved to Raw.
The Big Takeaway: Two fairly bland matches this week with Rezar beating No Way Jose in the opener and The B-Team & Tyler Breeze notching up another win over Jinder Mahal & The Singhs in a rematch of last week’s main event.
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Rezar (w/ Drake Maverick) defeated No Way Jose (4:26)
On the surface, this match didn’t feel all that different from something that would have appeared on the old WWF Superstars: you had the heavyset villain complete with a milquetoast manager and the babyface trying to pull off a short-sighted gimmick in whacky colored tights.
What was different, though, was the length. This ought to have been a squash match that showed off Rezar’s strength and potential for dominance. Instead, he beat up Jose, who only got some brief hope and spent more than half the match using rest holds.
After making much more of this than they needed to, Rezar ended this with a big boot and a chokeslam in the middle of the ring. The win leaves Rezar undefeated as a main roster singles competitor.
The B-Team & Tyler Breeze defeated Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers (4:34)
This was a rematch of last week’s Main Event match and was almost move for move the same with exactly the same outcome. Breeze, who was the standout again here, is so undervalued at this point that it would do him no harm to hit the reboot button.
Mahal was once again notable by his lack of in-ring presence. He was in and out quickly — and the babyfaces made short work of him in order to clear their path to beat down the Singh Brothers. It’s clear that Sunil and Samir are improving, slowly but surely.
At the finish, the ring was empty with Sunil looking like he was going to finish off a prone Breeze. But Breeze was playing possum and, just as he did last week, sprung up as Sunil was running the ropes and nailed him with The Beauty Shot for the win.
The Big Takeaway: After his strange pairing with The Ascension on the show last week, it was business as usual for Tyler Breeze, who beat Curt Hawkins in the opener.
Taking Breeze’s place in a repeat of last week’s main event, Mojo Rawley teamed up with The Ascension. They lost in a ridiculously short six-man tag match against Zack Ryder & The B-Team.
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After his absence last week, Percy Watson returned from assignment to make up the three-man announce booth alongside Vic Joseph and Nigel McGuinness.
Tyler Breeze defeated Curt Hawkins (5:55)
Fresh off his Mixed Match Challenge debut with Ember Moon, where he replaced the injured Braun Strowman this past week, Hawkins returned to singles action. Breeze had played a pawn in last week’s six-man tag match here on Main Event, when he teamed with The Ascension, and so this was a return to the normal run of things for both men.
Hawkins looked like he was going to finally snatch a win, as Breeze very much played the heel. After both men had put each other in the tree of woe and both had kicked out of near falls, Hawkins nailed Breeze with a running lariat. But much to Hawkins’ chagrin, Breeze kicked out at two and a half.
With the referee trying to break Hawkins off at the ropes, while Breeze grabbed a rest, Hawkins was ushered away and Breeze was able to nail him with a superkick and then the Unprettier for the win.
The loss for Hawkins took him to 0-238 as of this match. He is winless since November 2016.
The B-Team & Zack Ryder defeated The Ascension & Mojo Rawley (2:26)
When the entrances run longer than the match itself, it’s rarely a good sign — and this was no different. As the time suggests, this wasn’t much to write home about and, inexplicably, it even ran through a commercial break.
Curtis Axel was the star of the show. After Rawley had played his usual bull in a china shop role, the ring filled and they all started to go at it. Ryder gave the Rough Ryder to Rawley and Viktor sent Bo Dallas outside. With the match running at 100 mph, Axel had to take control.
Viktor tried to roll Axel through and use the ropes for leverage, but the ref saw it and called it, stopping the count. Axel seized the opportunity to roll Viktor back through and snatched the three count before celebrating wildly with his team mates.
This trio are now 2-0 and are certainly fun to watch.
Larry Hennig, the father of Curt Hennig and one of the biggest stars in the history of the AWA, passed away earlier today at the age of 82.
Hennig attended Robbindale High School in Minneapolis, the alma mater of Verne Gagne. He was the state heavyweight wrestling champion in high school, and Gagne recruited him into pro wrestling when Hennig had turned down college football and wrestling offers because he already had his first child and had to work to earn money to support a wife and family.
He wrestled in the Midwest most of his career, and eventually was brought into the AWA in 1960 as Gagne’s protege. He briefly held the AWA tag team titles with Duke Hoffman, but in 1963, he became a heel, “Pretty Boy” Larry Hennig, forming a tag team with “Handsome” Harley Race, which helped carry the territory for several years, working against all the top area babyfaces. Hennig & Race, taunted as The Dolly Sisters, had one of the biggest feuds in AWA history with Dick the Bruiser & The Crusher, which was really the feud that made Bruiser & Crusher tag team legends.
Hennig & Race were the top heel team in the AWA from 1963 to 1968, and held the tag team titles three times. They were considered among the top tag teams in the world during that period.
Hennig & Race teamed in other parts of the world, including Australia, which was the hottest wrestling market in the world, as IWA tag team champions.
After missing several months due to a knee injury from a match with Johnny Powers, an injury that would plague him the rest of his life, Hennig returned. Eventually Race returned home to Kansas City, where he became that circuit’s biggest star. Hennig formed a tag team with “Luscious” Lars Anderson, a former college wrestling star whose real name was Larry Heineimi. They were the No. 2 heel team in the AWA, first behind Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon, and then behind Ray Stevens & Nick Bockwinkel. After Anderson left, Hennig formed a tag team with Dusty Rhodes, which broke up when Dick Murdoch came to the AWA and started teaming with Rhodes.
He had a singles run in WWWF, working against champions Pedro Morales and Bruno Sammartino, where he got the nickname Larry “The Axe” Hennig, dropping the “Pretty Boy” name. His winning move, a clothesline, was called the axe.
In 1974, he made a babyface turn, saving Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell from a beating from Stevens & Bockwinkel & Bobby Heenan. His explanation was that he had kids, and that he wouldn’t want to see people beating on his own kids.
He was babyface Larry “The Axe” Hennig for rest of his career, which ended in early 1986 due to neck and knee problems. His full-time wrestling days ended in 1978 and he concentrated on other businesses. He came back in 1982 to do some bouts in the AWA and work for a time as a tag team with his son in Oregon. He and his son worked as a regular tag team in the AWA in 1984 and 1985, often wrestling The Road Warriors.
At 6-foot-3 and close to 300 pounds and with his wrestling background, he was considered one of the tougher guys in the business.
During the mid-70s, he moved his family to Phoenix to try and start a pro wrestling company there. He also worked in real estate both during and after his wrestling career.
Hennig was a regular at the Cauliflower Alley Club and the Tragos/Thesz Hall of Fame ceremonies, where he had served as an M.C. He was a great storyteller, with his real life hatred of Verne Gagne often being the source of many of his stories. He took the death of his son Curt in 2003 very hard.
His grandson, Joe Hennig, works in WWE as Curtis Axel, with Axel being a tribute to his grandfather. Larry would regularly attend WWE shows in the Twin Cities.
He had another son, Jesse, who briefly wrestled, as well as a granddaughter, Joe’s sister Amy, who also wrestled.
A Tag Team title match and Nikki & Brie Bella’s return to televised in-ring action are set for next week’s Raw.
After Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder defeated them in a non-title match tonight, The B -Team (Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) will defend their Raw Tag Team titles against The Revival next week. Nikki & Brie facing The Riott Squad in a tag match has also been announced for the episode.
The B-Team retained against The Revival on the SummerSlam pre-show when Dawson tried to pin Axel with a cradle and Dallas getting knocked backwards reversed it. The Revival got the better of them on Raw the past two weeks, with Dawson defeating Dallas and Wilder defeating Axel last Monday and The Revival winning tonight’s non-title match.
The Bellas were in action at Sunday night’s Raw-brand house show in Rochester, New York and made an appearance during a backstage segment where they celebrated with Ronda Rousey, Natalya, and Trish Stratus on tonight’s show. They teamed with Ember Moon to defeat The Riott Squad in Rochester. Brie is set to team with Daniel Bryan against Maryse & The Miz at Hell in a Cell next month, and Dave Meltzer reported last week that Rousey vs. Nikki is the working idea for October’s Evolution pay-per-view.
The Schottenstein Center in Columbus, Ohio is hosting next Monday’s Raw. Shawn Michaels is also set to appear on the episode to promote Triple H vs. The Undertaker at WWE Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia.
The Raw Tag Team titles will be on the line on the SummerSlam pre-show.
The B-Team defending their titles against The Revival was added to the SummerSlam card on tonight’s go-home edition of Raw. It was announced after Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas retained their titles against The Revival and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt. Axel blind-tagged himself in near the finish, Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder hit the Shatter Machine on Wyatt, and Axel threw Dawson out of the ring before getting the pin.
There will also be two other matches on Sunday’s kickoff show. Rusev & Lana will face Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega, and it was officially confirmed tonight that Cedric Alexander’s Cruiserweight Championship defense against Drew Gulak will be on the pre-show.
There are now 13 matches announced for SummerSlam. The pre-show will begin at 5 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card starting at 7 p.m.
Here’s the updated card:
Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Ronda Rousey
WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Samoa Joe
Daniel Bryan vs. The Miz
SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defending against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat match
Intercontinental Champion Dolph Ziggler defending against Seth Rollins
United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defending against Jeff Hardy
Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens (If Owens wins, he gets Strowman’s Money in the Bank briefcase)
Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Bludgeon Brothers defending against The New Day
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Cedric Alexander defending against Drew Gulak (pre-show)
Rusev & Lana vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas & Zelina Vega in a mixed tag match (pre-show)
Raw Tag Team Champions The B-Team defending against The Revival (pre-show)
The Raw Tag Team titles will be on the line on next Monday’s go-home show.
Raw Tag Team Champions The B-Team defending against The Revival and Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt in a triple threat match has been announced for the last episode of Raw before SummerSlam. Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas faced The Revival in a non-title match tonight, but Hardy & Wyatt interrupted it and attacked both teams for the double disqualification.
On last week’s show, The Revival interrupted a segment between The B-Team and Hardy & Wyatt. That led to them defeating Hardy & Wyatt with the Shatter Machine.
Axel & Dallas were repackaged after The Miz moved to SmackDown in this year’s Superstar Shakeup. They won the titles from Hardy & Wyatt at Extreme Rules last month and also defeated them in a rematch on TV.
Next week’s Raw is taking place at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina.
After losing the Raw Tag Team titles at Extreme Rules, Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt will be getting their rematch next week.
New Tag Team Champions The B-Team (Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) defeated The Ascension on Raw tonight, then a promo from Hardy & Wyatt on the video screen interrupted them. Hardy said Axel & Dallas disrupted the equilibrium of the heavens by winning the titles, Wyatt said he and Hardy will be getting their rematch on next week’s episode of Raw, and Hardy vowed that Axel & Dallas will be deleted.
Hardy & Wyatt won the titles at April’s Greatest Royal Rumble and held them until losing to Axel & Dallas on Sunday.
The Revival were shown watching tonight’s match backstage and were mentioned on commentary as being a team that will likely be challenging for the titles in the future. They were shown watching Hardy vs. Dallas last week as well.
Next Monday’s Raw is taking place at the U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati, Ohio. It will also feature Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley to decide Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship challenger for SummerSlam.
After being set up as the next challengers prior to Money in the Bank, The B-Team (Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) will finally get their Raw Tag Team title shot at next month’s pay-per-view.
Matt Hardy & Bray Wyatt defending their titles against Axel & Dallas was confirmed for Extreme Rules on tonight’s Raw. Axel & Dallas won a number one contender’s tag team battle royal on the June 4 episode of the show to earn the title shot.
Axel countered a superplex into a crossbody to defeat Hardy in a singles match this week. Hardy and Wyatt then applauded Axel, with the storyline being that The B-Team didn’t know what to make of them.
Extreme Rules is taking place at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 15. As of now, WWE Champion AJ Styles defending against Rusev and Nia Jax challenging for Alexa Bliss’ Raw Women’s Championship are the only other matches officially announced for the PPV.
Submitted by Michael Szybalski with additional notes from John Canton
– Asuka defeated Mandy Rose
Asuka won with an armbreaker submission. Good reactions for both.
– The Revival defeated Heath Slater & Rhyno
The Revival used the Shatter Machine to win.
– Gran Metalik defeated Tony Nese, Kalisto, and Ariya Daivari in a fatal four-way match
There was a story where Daivari paid Nese to work with him, but Nese gave the money back when they got into it during the match. The crowd reacted well to this, with Metalik winning with an elbow drop after walking across the ropes.
Metalik and Kalisto shook hands after.
– Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson and Titus O’Neil & Apollo in a triple threat match to retain their titles
There was an injury scare early when Apollo did a kip up and hurt his right knee. A doctor went to ringside to check on him, but Apollo said he was okay after stretching it and finished the match. He ended up working most of the time, so it was good to see the injury didn’t slow him down.
– Goldust defeated Curt Hawkins
Bray Wyatt attacked Goldust following the match and cut a promo. Matt Hardy then entered and did his own promo. They brawled and Matt hit a Twist of Fate.
– Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss & Mickie James defeated Bayley & Dana Brooke
Brooke had her hair in a ponytail like Bayley and was acting like her. The heels attacked Bayley and Brooke after winning, then Nia Jax came out and made the save.
The fans chanted for one more Samoan drop, with Jax hitting it on James.
– Finn Balor defeated Elias
Balor interrupted Elias before this started. He won with the Coup de Grace.
– Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins & Braun Strowman defeated Intercontinental Champion The Miz, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
Strowman got a big pop and Reigns received a mixed reaction. Strowman pinned Miz with a running powerslam.
Image: @MyTributeCentre. Report submitted by reader Brian Coleman.
– Braun Strowman defeated Elias
Elias started off the show. The crowd loved him until he started doing his spiel putting down Oshawa. He kept asking us to think “What would Elias do?”
Strowman interrupted him, which the crowd went crazy for. Elias escaped out of the ring once or twice. The match was decent, with Strowman winning with the running powerslam. The crowd asked for one more after the pin, and Strowman acquiesced and hit another one.
– Heath Slater & Rhyno defeated The Revival
Slater & Rhyno got mild cheers when they came out. The Revival received minimal reaction from the audience.
Rhyno did a few comedy spots to big laughs, and Slater hit a big kick and got the pin.
– Matt Hardy defeated Goldust
People were happy to see Goldust and they did lots of “Delete” chants for Hardy. Goldust cut a heel promo where he told the crowd they let him down, then Hardy told Goldust that he’s “sentenced to deletion.”
The match was okay. Hardy picked up the win with the Twist of Fate.
– Cedric Alexander defeated TJP
This was the match of the night. It was super athletic and the crowd got into it, with the submission holds even feeling like they meant something.
They interacted well with the crowd and both got chants (despite TJP being a heel). Alexander won with the Lumbar Check.
– Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defeated Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson to retain their titles.
The crowd responded well to The Bar and Gallows & Anderson got lots of “Too Sweets.” It was a good match overall, with Sheamus hitting the Brogue Kick to retain.
– Apollo (w/ Dana Brooke) defeated Curt Hawkins
Apollo hit his sit-out powerbomb to extend Hawkins’ losing streak.
– Sasha Banks defeated Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss (w/ Mickie James) by DQ
Banks and Bliss both got strong responses. The disqualification came when James broke up the Banks Statement, then Bayley came out to make the save.
– Sasha Banks & Bayley defeated Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss & Mickie James
It became a tag match after Bayley came out. Banks put Bliss in the Banks Statement and Bayley pinned James with the Bayley-to-Belly.
– Roman Reigns, Finn Balor & Seth Rollins defeated The Miz, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas
The crowd was hot all match. Rollins and Balor were cheered. Reigns got his usual mixed reaction, though there was later a “We want Roman” chant that only had minimal opposition.
It was a good match, ending when the faces all hit their finishing moves on one of their opponents. Reigns got the pin on Miz.
Another match has been added to the SummerSlam pre-show.
It was announced in a video today that The Hardys would again team up with Jason Jordan against The Miz, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas on Sunday. The New Day defending their SmackDown tag titles against The Usos is currently listed for the pre-show as well, along with Neville getting his rematch against Akira Tozawa for the Cruiserweight Championship.
The Hardys & Jordan vs. The Miztourage is also a rematch from this week’s episode of Raw. The faces won that first meeting after it was turned into a six-man tag when The Miz got disqualified in a singles match against Jordan due to Axel and Dallas’ interference.
The addition of the six-man tag brings the SummerSlam lineup up to 13 matches. Here’s the updated card:
WWE Universal Champion Brock Lesnar defending against Roman Reigns, Samoa Joe, and Braun Strowman in a fatal four-way match (Lesnar and Paul Heyman have vowed to leave WWE if Lesnar loses)
WWE Champion Jinder Mahal defending against Shinsuke Nakamura
United States Champion AJ Styles defending against Kevin Owens (with Shane McMahon as the special guest referee)
John Cena vs. Baron Corbin
Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss defending against Sasha Banks
SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi defending against Natalya
Raw Tag Team Champions Cesaro & Sheamus defending against Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose
Finn Balor vs. Bray Wyatt
Randy Orton vs. Rusev
Big Cass vs. Big Show (with Enzo Amore suspended above the ring in a shark cage)
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The New Day defending against The Usos (kickoff show)
The Hardys & Jason Jordan vs. The Miz, Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas (kickoff show)
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Akira Tozawa defending against Neville (kickoff show)
