The latest WWE and AEW News and Results
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With the Gold and Blue league matches nearly complete in AEW’s Continental Classic, Les Thatcher and I discuss who has got the best shot to make the semifinals.
We also talk about all the fallout from last weekend’s Saturday Night’s Main Event fallout in WWE.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
Damian Priest will get another shot at the World Heavyweight title.
After an opening segment that saw Balor standing tall over both Priest and Gunther, Raw GM Adam Pearce told Balor that the World Heavyweight title match would now be a three-way. Balor said that was fine as it would be more satisfying when he beat both men.
As Finn Balor and The Judgement Day were looking to attack Gunther on Raw, Priest came out and took out the rest of Judgment Day before throwing Balor into the ring, where both he and Gunther attacked him. However, the two quickly went after one another, giving Balor the opportunity to retaliate, finishing with the coup de grace on Priest.
Sami Zayn will also be in action this Saturday, taking on Drew McIntyre. After McIntyre made his return by attacking Zayn at the end of last week’s Raw, Zayn issued the challenge on this week’s show, saying he wanted to end this quickly. As Zayn headed up the rampway, he was jumped by McIntyre, who continued beating Zayn until officials stepped in.
The lineup for Saturday Night’s Main Event:
The World Heavyweight title match for Survivor Series is official.
It was confirmed on Monday’s Raw that Damian Priest will be challenging Gunther for the title on November 30 in Vancouver. This follows a confrontation between the two that took place on Monday night after Priest won a four-way match last week to become the new number-one contender.
During their face-to-face, Priest told Gunther that although at first he wasn’t sure if he could beat Gunther, he now knows that if it wasn’t for Finn Balor turning on him, he would have retained the title at SummerSlam. He told Gunther that his vibe as a killer has faded, and dared him to take a swing. Ludwig Kaiser came out and called Priest street trash, causing Priest to lay him out. Gunther acted like he was going to retaliate, but instead backed off when Priest turned around to face him. Priest would later go on to defeat Kaiser in a singles match.
The lineup to this point for WWE Survivor Series WarGames set for Saturday, November 30 in Vancouver:
A confrontation between the World Heavyweight Champion and the number one contender is set for Monday’s WWE Raw.
As announced during Friday’s SmackDown, World Heavyweight Champion Gunther will confront number one contender Damian Priest on the Monday, November 11 WWE Raw.
Priest won a number one contender’s match on last week’s Raw to put himself next in line to challenge Gunther.
Gunther defeated Priest at SummerSlam this past August to win the World Heavyweight title.
A tag team match has also been announced for Monday’s Raw.
Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill will face off with Women’s World Champion Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez of The Judgment Day on Monday’s episode. The bout was not explicitly announced as a title match in the match graphic that aired on SmackDown, but a description on WWE.com lists it as a title bout.
The lineup for the Monday, November 11 WWE Raw:
Damian Priest is the new number one contender to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Priest was victorious in a four-way bout to determine the new number one contender to Gunther’s World Heavyweight title on Monday’s Raw show and is next in line for a shot at the championship.
In a bout that also featured Seth Rollins, Sheamus, and Dominik Mysterio, Priest pinned Mysterio to become the top contender to Gunther’s World title, with the champion coming to the ring after the bout for a confrontation with the next challenger.
The match also featured interference from Bronson Reed who attacked Rollins, indicating that the program between those two will continue.
Priest is a former World Heavyweight Champion, cashing in a Money in the Bank contract at WrestleMania 40 to defeat Drew McIntyre for the title and holding it until SummerSlam this year where he dropped it to Gunther.
No date has been announced yet for the Gunther vs. Priest World Heavyweight title bout.
Our full report from Monday’s taped edition of Raw is available here.
Air Date: November 4, 2024 (taped November 3)
Location: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Show Recap —
(If you followed my recap of Crown Jewel, you’ll know there were streaming issues with Sportsnet Now. Well, Raw opened with no audio on Sportsnet Now even though it’s a taped show. The audio returned about 7 minutes into the show. Fortunately, it takes about that long for anything to happen on a WWE show.)
Raw opened with a massive fireworks display, which doesn’t happen much anymore. Judgment Day, Damian Priest, Sheamus and Seth Rollins were shown arriving earlier.
Michael Cole and Corey Graves were tonight’s announcers.
Liv Morgan segment
Liv Morgan entered with Dominik Mysterio and Raquel Rodriguez. She held her world title and showed off her new Crown Jewel ring (she did not have the Crown Jewel belt). She welcomed us to Monday Night Morgan.
She declared the Liv Morgan revenge tour was over and the world tour was starting. She took out Rhea Ripley for a third time and she would be out for a long time. She beat Tiffany Stratton (on Smackdown) and travelled halfway around the world to become the inaugural Crown Jewel champion.
Dom said he would win tonight and become the next world champion as he was loudly booed.
Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair interrupted. Belair recalled their interaction last week and Cargill challenged them to a tag match. Morgan tried to create dissension between Belair and Cargill but they didn’t bite.
Adam Pearce marched out and tried to settle things down but Morgan kept taunting Belair so Belair smacked her. Pearce informed Morgan there would be a battle royal tonight to determine her next challenger and Belair and Cargill were in the match.
IYO SKY won a battle royal to become number one contender for the Women’s World Championship (12:41)
The opening portion of the match followed a familiar pattern. Someone would shine, then get eliminated by someone else. That person would shine, then get eliminated, and so on.
Kayden Carter eliminated Isla Dawn first. Shayna Baszler almost eliminated Carter but she was saved by Katana Chance. Sonya Deville picked up the pieces and eliminated Carter anyway. Maxxine Dupri got a moment to “shine” but she was quickly eliminated by Ivy Nile. Zelina Vega used an ugly-looking 619 to eliminate Nile.
During a break, Kairi Sane eliminated Vega, Natalya eliminated Alba Fyre, and Iyo Sky eliminated Chance. Chance was seemingly eliminated earlier but she didn’t land on her feet so she walked on her hands back to the apron but was immediately dropkicked out by Sky.
Belair eliminated Sane before Baszler and Deville eliminated Natalya. Baszler and Deville had their backs turned so they were dumped out by Belair and Cargill. That left Cargill, Belair, Lyra Valkyria and Sky. Cargill and Belair wound up facing off for a moment but they were attacked from behind by the other two. Cargill and Belair fought them off anyway. Cargill hit Jaded and Belair hit KOD.
Rodriguez and Morgan ran back down and eliminated Belair and Cargill from outside the ring. The tag champs chased them away through the crowd.
Sky and Valkyria battled on the apron as the crowd chanted “This is awesome” (for the second time in the match). Valkyria booted Sky into the ring post but Sky followed with a German suplex on the apron. Valkyria fell out of the ring and Sky is your new number one contender.
(This wasn’t good but the crowd had fun.)
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New Day interview / Wyatt Sicks video
Cathy Kelley interviewed The New Day. Xavier Woods said they should have won the number one contender’s match last week and they would have if Chad Gable didn’t interfere. Kingston raised his eyebrow at this comment. Kingston said the War Raiders didn’t win straight-up but it didn’t go down the way Woods described. Woods said Kingston dropped the ball because he’s the one that got beat. Kingston suggested he watch the tape.
As they argued, the feed cut to a Wyatt Sicks video. Uncle Howdy/Bo Dallas spoke in riddles as the camera focused on a man tied to a chair wearing a sheep mask. Bo Dallas removed the mask to reveal The Miz was the man kidnapped. Miz said they wanted Final Testament but he wasn’t in Final Testament. Dallas showed his face and told Miz that he was the one he wanted.
Dallas told Miz he would crawl on his belly through thorns and thistles for all the pain he had inflicted on others as he begged and pleaded for mercy until he returned to the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return. Dexter Lumis (in his mask) ran up behind Miz as the feed cut.
After a break, Cole said their production crew had nothing to do with the airing of that video. He didn’t seem concerned about Miz.
(They probably should’ve chosen any other week to air this video.)
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The War Raiders defeated The New Day (9:08)
Erik gave Kingston a nasty-looking knee to the back of the head and the War Raiders took control through an early break. Kingston made a hot tag after the break and ran wild until Woods tagged himself in. Kingston was getting ready for Trouble in Paradise as Woods tagged in. Kingston was perplexed. Erik knocked out Kingston and the Raiders gave Woods their finisher “War Machine” (elevated German suplex and springboard clothesline combo) for the pinfall win.
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[SECOND HOUR]
They announced their Road to WrestleMania European tour.
Sami Zayn & The Usos segment
Zayn entered. He greeted the fans in Arabic and said how proud he was to be able to come out in front of his people and speak their language on WWE television. However, that’s not why he came out. He wanted to address what happened on Crown Jewel with the Bloodline.
Jey Uso entered (to a very big reaction). Jey thanked Zayn for having his back at Crown Jewel. Even though he watched the footage, Jey asked Zayn if kicking Roman Reigns was an accident. Zayn looked surprised by the question.
Jimmy Uso entered. Jimmy said they all saw the same thing. They watched Zayn kick OTC dead in the face on purpose. Jimmy was pissed, Reigns was pissed, and Jey should be pissed. Jimmy said Zayn couldn’t be trusted.
Zayn interrupted and said Jimmy should probably be reminded of his own track record. Jimmy welcomed him to the family first and was his brother but as soon as things started going badly, it was Jimmy who kicked him in the face. Jimmy kicked Reigns in the face when things got bad between them and as soon as Jey had his own opportunity, Jimmy kicked him in the face too.
Jimmy said he didn’t owe Zayn an explanation and he wasn’t the bad guy. The crowd chanted, “Sami Uso.” Zayn told Jimmy that he didn’t hate him. He never did. Jimmy wasn’t a bad guy but he made bad decisions. Zayn came out at Crown Jewel for one reason and that was Jey.
Zayn admitted that standing alongside Jimmy, Jey and Roman felt like old times. It felt special. For one minute, it felt pretty damn good. But that’s how long it lasted. Just one minute and it fell apart just like it always did with the four of them.
Zayn wasn’t doing this again. He wasn’t having his loyalty tested and wasn’t being put on trial by their family again. He apologized to Jey and said he wasn’t doing this again. Zayn told Jey, “I’m out.”
Zayn left the ring but Jey asked him to come to Smackdown so they could talk this out like family. Jimmy said Zayn wasn’t family. Jey said Zayn isn’t blood-related but he is family. Jey called him “Sami Uso” (as the crowd was already chanting, “Sami Uso.”) The crowd cheered. Jey hoped to see Zayn on Smackdown. Zayn walked to the back.
Zayn was great here.
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Seth Rollins interview
Jackie Redmond interviewed Seth Rollins. (It seemed like Rollins was scaling back on the ridiculous outfits but he was in a new one here.) Rollins put over Bronson Reed. He respected their fight and knew they would dance again. But that was down the line because he had gold on his mind. Three of the best in the world—and Dominik Mysterio—were going to duke it out for a chance at Gunther. Rollins was full of confidence.
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Dragon Lee (w/Zelina Vega) defeated Chad Gable (w/Ivy Nile) (11:36)
There was a bit of comedy early on with Dragon Lee snapping Gable’s singlet against his body. They would up on the apron and Gable gave him a back body drop off the apron to the floor. After a break, Dragon Lee gave Gable a double-foot stomp off the top but Gable gave him an overhead suplex into the corner.
Dragon Lee superkicked Gable right in the face (as Gable was upside down on the middle rope) and hit a corner dropkick for two. They exchanged forearms until Dragon Lee hit a German suplex. Gable no sold it and hit a German suplex of his own. Dragon Lee no-sold that and they traded counters until Gable hit consecutive German suplexes.
Dragon Lee came back with a Liger bomb for two. Gable suplexed Dragon Lee off the top and hit a Cliffhanger DDT. Gable tried a cover with his feet on the rope but Vega knocked him off. Nile went after Vega and put her on a dragon sleeper.
Rey Mysterio walked out to check on Vega. Gable tried to attack him (and maybe remove his mask) but Dragon Lee hit Operation Dragon (Destino) for the pinfall win.
(This was great. It sort of felt like they were told to do whatever match they wanted. This is worth checking out if you missed it.)
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Gunther interview
Redmond interviewed Gunther (with Ludwig Kaiser) about his loss to Cody Rhodes. Kaiser was pissed at the question but Gunther calmed him down. Gunther said Rhodes didn’t get lucky and wasn’t undeserving. That night, Rhodes was the better man.
Redmond asked about the number one contender’s four-way. Gunther said they were three very capable competitors—and Dom. Rollins’ ability spoke for itself and Priest represented another difficult challenge. There was also Sheamus who Kaiser was supposed to take care of.
Gunther was still the champion and after losing on Saturday, it was on him to do better. He looked at Kaiser and said they both needed to do better. Kaiser didn’t look happy.
********
Priest entered first at 9:29 pm, they went to break, and the match started at 9:41 pm. They went to break two minutes into the match and returned at 9:47 pm. They wrestled for just four minutes before going to break again.
Fatal four-way match: Damian Priest defeated Dominik Mysterio, Sheamus and Seth Rollins to become number one contender for the World Heavyweight Championship (17:40)
Dom tried to escape the other men but Sheamus caught him with ten beats of the Bodhrán. Priest gladly watched this transpire but Rollins caught him in a schoolboy for two. Rollins wiped out Sheamus and Priest simultaneously with a suicide dive and hit one on Dom.
Dom was actually in control after a break. During the break, he shoved Rollins off the top to the outside and shoved Sheamus into the ring steps. Dom hit Priest with a tornado DDT for two. Dom talked trash as he punched Priest so Priest fired up and hit strikes, a corner elbow and a flatline.
Sheamus gave backbreakers to Priest, Rollins and Dom. The crowd chanted for Sheamus as he hit Dom with a diving knee drop. Rollins broke up the cover and Priest clotheslined him.
After another break (the second one within ten minutes), Sheamus and Priest exchanged strikes until Sheamus hit White Noise for two. Dom set up Sheamus for 619 but Sheamus hit him with a powerslam. Sheamus went for a Brogue Kick but Rollins knocked him out of the ring with a knee strike. Rollins gave Dom a Pedigree but did not go for a cover.
Rollins set up for a curb stomp instead but his attention turned to Bronson Reed who attacked Sheamus and Priest outside the ring. Rollins went after Reed but Reed clotheslined him and cleared the announce table. Priest and Sheamus attacked Reed who rolled into the ring.
Reed fought off both men and gave out Death Valley Drivers. Reed hit Tsunamis on both men (as Dom watched from the outside). Reed then put Rollins through the announce table with a Tsunami off the barricade.
Dom waited until Reed left to take advantage. He hit Sheamus with a frog splash but Priest broke up the cover. Dom gave Priest a 619 and went for a frog splash but Priest caught him out of the air and hit a chokeslam for the pinfall win.
(Sheamus seemed to be the favourite but the crowd obviously cheered when Priest pinned Dom.)
— Gunther was in the ring after replays and had a staredown with Priest as the show ended.
In the new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer has a report on two potential matches being planned for the return of Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Saturday Night’s Main Event is making its return to NBC with a show from Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York on December 14. Meltzer writes that Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens and World Heavyweight Champion Gunther vs. Damian Priest are both currently slated for the card but not etched in stone:
Right now it appears the Saturday Night’s Main Event on 12/14 will have Rhodes vs. Owens and Gunther vs. Priest but we were told both are currently slated but not etched in stone.
In storyline, Owens has been suspended from WWE programming after attacking Rhodes in the parking lot following Bad Blood on October 5. He showed up on SmackDown two weeks ago despite the suspension and attacked Randy Orton.
Owens furthered the storyline in a social media video last week by teasing that, due to the disrespect that WWE has shown him, he doesn’t know if or when he will be able to bring himself to return.
Gunther vs. Priest would be a rematch from SummerSlam, where Gunther won the World Heavyweight Championship this August.
Saturday Night’s Main Event will air live on both NBC and Peacock on December 14. The classic series, which originally launched in 1985, is returning as a quarterly special as part of WWE and NBCUniversal’s new TV deal for SmackDown’s return to USA Network.
Jesse Ventura, who recently signed a Legends deal with WWE, is expected to make an appearance at the December 14 Saturday Night’s Main Event.
WWE’s Damian Priest has starred in a hype video for the New York Yankees ahead of their 2024 World Series appearance.
In a video posted to the Yankees’ digital media channels on Thursday, Priest stars as the narrator of a video hyping the Yankees ahead of their World Series matchup with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The video was posted with the caption:
“Ready for Battle.”
A former WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Priest was born in New York and spent some of his childhood living in The Bronx where Yankee Stadium is located.
The World Series kicks off with Game 1 on Friday with the Dodgers hosting the Yankees in the first game of the best of seven series. The Yankees are in the World Series for the first time since 2009, while the Dodgers return to the Fall Classic for the fourth time in the past eight seasons.
Both teams in this year’s World Series rank in the top three in player payroll according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
The Priest video is embedded below.
Two matches have been added to the lineup for this Monday’s WWE Raw.
Damian Priest vs. Dominik Mysterio and Bronson Reed vs. Braun Strowman are now scheduled for the show. Adam Pearce announced the news in a video WWE posted to X on Saturday.
“Two matches to announce. First things first, talk about a grudge match, how about Damian Priest going one-on-one with ‘Dirty’ Dom Mysterio.”
“And, when these two get together, very big and very bad things happen, it will be Bronson Reed going toe-to-toe with Braun Strowman.”
Reed returned to Raw last week after missing the previous show due to COVID. He interfered during the fatal four-way main event, splashing Strowman through a table and taking him out of the match.
Dominik is coming off a win over Dragon Lee last week, while Priest teamed with Jey Uso in a win over Finn Balor and JD McDonagh.
Three matches are now confirmed for Monday’s show, which will take place at the Moda Center in Portland. CM Punk is also advertised to return.
WWE Raw announced lineup for Monday, September 16, 2024 —
Damian Priest says he was cast in Marvel’s 2022 blockbuster film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, but had the opportunity taken from him.
While Priest didn’t explicitly state that WWE prevented him from appearing in the movie, he made it clear that Marvel wasn’t responsible for taking the role away.
He addressed what happened during a recent interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet.
“It’s a long story but basically it got taken away from me, but not from Marvel,” Priest said after confirming he had been offered a role in the film.
“I think we can read between the lines here that the (WWE) regime was a little bit different at that time,” Van Vliet added.
“Exactly,” Priest responded.
However, Priest continued to say that he’s fine with how everything worked out.
“Look, come what may, I’m good with it,” Priest continued. “Maybe I’d do something like that, I go a different route, and I’m not sitting here with you being a world champion, like I won a world championship at WrestleMania, I don’t know if that happens.”
“It didn’t work out, not the end of the world. The movie was great though,” he added.
Filming of the movie began in June 2021 and wrapped in March 2022. Parts of the movie were filmed in Puerto Rico.
Later in the interview, Priest commented on the night he won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 40.
“If I’m being honest, it was emotional. I partied with my friends and family afterwards. We had a celebration, it was a great time. But then when I got back to my room, it was kind of one of those things where I was like, What is this? How is this happening? And yet, just holding the title in my hand, looking at it, and just it was like one of those things, like, my entire life flashed, everything I had to go through to get to that point. It was one of those realizations of I thought I had regrets. I thought I wished I could do things differently, and then it was one of those things where it was like no, this is exactly where I’m supposed to be, and this is the only way it would have happened.”
The full interview is available below:
Two segments have been added to the lineup for Monday’s WWE Raw.
Randy Orton appearing live is now scheduled for the show, as is an update on The Terror Twins, Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest.
Ripley and Priest were attacked and left lying by the new Judgment Day team of Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, Liv Morgan, JD McDonagh, and Carlito last week. They’ll team together at Bash in Berlin against Dominik and Morgan in a mixed tag.
“Last week, The Judgment Day completely dismantled former allies Damian Priest and Rhea Ripley in a destructive ambush. Following the heinous attack, what is the condition of Priest and Ripley? Has the dark faction proven its superiority over The Terror Twins? How will it affect the Mixed Tag Team Match pitting Women’s Women Champion Liv Morgan and “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio against Ripley and Priest at WWE Bash in Berlin?” WWE.com’s preview for Monday’s Raw reads.
As for Orton, this will be the last episode of WWE Raw before he heads to Berlin to challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship.
“Days before challenging World Heavyweight Champion Gunther at WWE Bash in Berlin, Randy Orton will be live on Monday Night Raw. The road to The Viper’s highly anticipated rematch against The Ring General has been extremely volatile, including their slugfest last week as Raw concluded,” reads WWE.com.
WWE Raw announced lineup for Monday, August 26, 2024 —
John LaRocca and I are back to talk about the major topics in the world of wrestling on this week’s Fight Game Podcast.
We kicked off the show with our Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down winners and losers of the week before going through our Top Five topics which included:
Click Here to Listen (sub needed)
Damian Priest spoke to Sports Illustrated about the fan support he’s received of late in WWE.
Following the events at WWE SummerSlam, Priest is now firmly in a babyface role on Raw and headed into a program with his former Judgment Day stablemate, Finn Balor.
“I’ve been (a babyface) before, but it wasn’t always me. This is me. And it’s cool to have people support me not because they’re told to, but because they want to,” Priest said.
When speaking about his match on Saturday with Gunther, Priest also noted that while they are both strong characters on WWE programming, they aren’t “part of that class of the main guys.”
“We’re not part of that class of the main guys. We’re seen as strong characters on TV, but we’re not Seth Rollins, we’re not Punk, we’re not Drew or Roman. We’re not the regularly scheduled programmed guys. AJ, Randy, Finn, we’re none of those guys. The fact it was Gunther and me in this high-profile world title match, that’s big. There were so many boys and girls in the locker room who were like, ‘One of us made it.’ That was my favorite part, hearing my peers talk about what it meant to them.”
Priest also spoke about winning the World Heavyweight title at WrestleMania 40 when he cashed in his MITB briefcase on Drew McIntyre, who had just defeated Seth Rollins for the belt moments earlier.
“That whole day at WrestleMania 40, it was insane,” said Priest. “So many things had already changed. The closer we got to it, many people who are very, very smart came up to me and said, ‘Things can change.’ So you never know. I knew things could change, even up to the last minute.”
“As much as I accomplished, there’s still so much more,” said Priest. “My dreams were to wrestle at WrestleMania and win a world title. Now there are new goals. I’m hungrier now than ever.”
The latest episode of WWE 24 featuring Damian Priest is now streaming on Peacock.
Priest’s full interview with SI.com is available here.
Gunther has won the World Heavyweight title.
The Ring General defeated Damian Priest to win the World Heavyweight title for the first time. The finish involved Finn Balor coming out and putting Gunther’s foot on the rope as Priest went for a pinfall. As Priest turned his back to confront Balor over what he did, Gunther locked in a sleeper hold. Priest managed to escape, but Gunther powerbombed him and put him in the hold again. This time, Priest passed out and the referee stopped the match.
Backstage, Gunther took a picture with Triple H.
Priest had been champion since WrestleMania 40, when he cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Drew McIntyre after CM Punk laid him out. In the months since, he has defended the title among the likes of McIntyre and Seth Rollins.
When Gunther won King of the Ring, he earned a World Heavyweight Championship match for SummerSlam. He had spent the last several weeks dressing down Priest, refereing to him as ‘street trash’.
Balor turning on Priest wasn’t the only Judgment Day turn on Saturday’s premium live event. The opening match saw Dominik Mysterio betray Rhea Ripley, helping Liv Morgan to defeat Morgan and retain the Women’s World Championship;.
On a new Wrestling Weekly, Les Thatcher has returned from his annual trip to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, so we discuss those ceremonies as well as all the happenings in WWE and AEW.
Thanks for listening and have a great weekend~!
