Ridge Holland had to be removed from the pre-show match at WWE Day 1 tonight due to injury.
Holland suffered a broken nose while teaming with Sheamus against Cesaro & Ricochet on the pre-show for Day 1. Shortly after the match began, Ricochet hit an assisted standing 450 splash onto Holland. Ricochet’s foot accidentally landed on Holland’s face, and it immediately busted Holland open. Holland tagged out to Sheamus before going to the floor to receive assistance from the medical staff.
It was announced during the match that Holland had suffered a broken nose and was taken back to the locker room for further attention.
Sheamus still got the win despite facing Cesaro & Ricochet on his own for most of the match. After taking Ricochet out by hitting White Noise on the outside, Sheamus avoided a charge by Cesaro in the ring and then gave Cesaro a Brogue Kick to get the victory.
Holland was called up from NXT in October’s WWE Draft. He aligned with Sheamus after joining SmackDown, with the two of them feuding with Sheamus’ former tag team partner Cesaro.
AEW has had a major upgrade when it comes to television in the U.K. with both ITV and ITV4 airing Rampage starting this week, as well as Dynamite being unedited on ITV.
ITV’s main station is the second most-watched television station in the U.K. behind BBC 1.
Rampage debuts on Tuesdays nights at 11:05 p.m. on ITV4, with a replay late Thursday night on ITV. It will be a late night airing with this week being at 11:40 p.m. to 12:40 a.m.
Rampage previously only aired on the FITE streaming service as part of the monthly pay service in the U.K. market where viewers get both Dynamite and Rampage live and commercial free.
The other upgrade is that Dynamite, which first airs late Friday nights in a revolving time slot on ITV 4, will have its ITV Monday night airing airing increase from an edited one-hour show to the full two hours.
The show also airs in a revolving time slot usually starting at 11 p.m. or later. While we only get ratings in the Observer for the ITV 4 Friday night show, which usually does anywhere from 100,000 to 185,000 viewers, the Monday night show when we did get numbers was doing more than 250,000 viewers making it by far the most widely seen wrestling show in the U.K. That is due to the station as WWE programs are on a pay TV service with far less distribution.
Two new matches have been added to Thursday’s Impact Wrestling as Heath will take on Karl Anderson in addition to women’s trios action.
Anderson and Heath will be on opposite side of a Hardcore War match at next Saturday’s Hard to Kill pay-per-view as The Good Brothers team with Violent by Design to take on Heath, Rhino, Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann and Willie Mack.
The women’s trios match will be a preview of next Saturday’s first-ever women’s Ultimate X match at Hard to Kill as Lady Frost, Chelsea Green and Tasha Steelz face Jordynne Grace, Rachael Ellering and Rosemary.
The matches join the already announced singles match between former Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo and Mercedes Martinez ahead of Purrazzo’s rematch with current champion Mickie James at the PPV.
Here’s the current lineup for the Hard to Kill go-home show:
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Mercedes Martinez
Heath vs. Karl Anderson
Lady Frost, Chelsea Green and Tasha Steelz vs. Jordynne Grace, Rachael Ellering and Rosemary
The first talent has declared their entry for the 2022 WWE Royal Rumble, but that talent is not a professional wrestler.
Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame declared his entry into the Royal Rumble match in a video posted today on his Instagram account, insulting Big E and Roman Reigns, plus stating that WWE did not have any wrestlers big enough to throw him out of the Rumble match.
WWE’s official Instagram account replied to the declaration:
“Good luck @johnnyknoxville!!”
Knoxville posted the video with the caption:
“Happy New Year’s Day and love to everyone. I have a big announcement that I have been dying to get off of my chest. I spent a lot of times over the holiday thinking about how i wanted to start off my 2022, and I decided I want to do it kicking ass and taking names. And the best way to do that i feel is making a run for the Rumble, that’s right @WWE’s Royal Rumble. Training starts today, not that I will need a lot of it because I have seen the WWE’s current roster and it’s laughable to think anyone can throw me over the top rope. LAUGHABLE! I will be channeling my wrestling heroes like @therock, Abdullah the Butcher and the great Gorilla Monsoon. The way I’m looking at it I am giving myself a %100 chance of winning. What chance do you think I have? Sincerely, Johnny Knoxville, World Champ #roadtowrestlemania #royalrumble #wwe #jackassforever”
This year’s Royal Rumble will take place on Saturday, January 29. Knoxville’s next film, Jackass Forever, is scheduled for a February 4 release.
Knoxville and the cast of the upcoming Jackass Forever film were backstage at WWE SmackDown in Los Angeles last month. The Jackass group was scheduled for a SummerSlam match in 2007, but Knoxville pulled out of the match in the wake of the Chris Benoit murder-suicide. Knoxville returned to the company in 2008 for angles with Great Khali and Beth Phoenix,, then again in 2010 during Raw’s guest host era.
AEW has announced the first match for the Friday, January 7 edition of Rampage.
In a rematch from this past week’s Dynamite, Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz will face Daniel Garcia and 2point0’s Matt Lee and Jeff Parker. This time, the bout will have a no DQ, no holds barred stipulation.
Garcia and 2point0 defeated Kingston, Santana and Ortiz on the Dynamite New Year’s Smash episode after Lee pinned Santana with a roll-up. The match further served as a backdrop to the beginnings of a Kingston-Chris Jericho feud, as Jericho made the save for Kingston, Santana and Ortiz after the match, clearing the ring with a baseball bat.
The January 7 Rampage will be preceded by Dynamite’s TBS debut on Wednesday, January 5, and followed by a Battle of the Belts special on TNT on Saturday, January 8. The AEW World title will be on the line on Dynamite, as Hangman Page defends against Bryan Danielson. Dr. Britt Baker will defend the AEW Women’s World title against Riho at Battle of the Belts.
Big Swole on her podcast said that a lack of diversity and structure led to her and AEW mutually deciding to part ways.
On her Call In podcast (h/t Fightful), Swole discussed how the structure within the company seemed to be “a little off”, pointing out the lack of time for women and new talent coming in.
“I know fans of the company don’t take criticism well sometimes. But know this, this is someone from the inside, the structure is a little off,” she said. “It’s fine to be loose, but I like to have a little bit more structure. I felt like the women shouldn’t have gone through everything they went through just to get on time. You’re signed to this big company, you should get time. All these men are getting time, but the women aren’t getting anything or you’re not putting people on TV because more people are coming in. There are more people coming in, but you don’t have enough product for all of these people.”
Swole also discussed what she felt was a lack of diversity, particularly within AEW’s hierarchy.
“I do not beat around the bush when it comes to diversity and my people,” she said. “There is no representation, truly, and when there is, it does not come across in the black community as genuine, at all. And I don’t know why everybody is so afraid to accept it or say it, but it’s not a good look. What happens is, you have this wonderful company that treats people like family, but there is nobody that looks like me that is represented at the top. They are not in the room with them. They’re not helping to necessarily influence decisions, but to explain why certain slang, why they are certain words that shouldn’t be said. There is no one else who can explain our culture and experience except for us.”
“I believe that [AEW] is making better strides than before, but a couple of things need to be fixed,” she later added. “You have to be able to call people out because not everything is not perfect. I hope they listen to this with an open heart and not just, ‘Ah, she’s just saying this because of XYZ.’ I genuinely want them to succeed. I love art. I love to be creative and I love wrestling and I want it to succeed and I want the people in it to succeed if they are genuine people. I want WWE to succeed. I just want wrestling to flourish and I don’t want it to be a long-forgotten, Tartarian sport where ‘in the old days, we used to wrestle,’ I want nothing but the best, but I also want the change and application to happen. With promises you made to be diverse, I want to see that. Not just with black people. I would love to see a dark-skinned Latina or Latino or Hispanic or just something, more Asians. I feel like Asians, Indians do not get love. They just don’t. It’s such a big gap. I hate the fact that I turn on the TV and it’s the same stuff over and over again, like the Truman show. Hopefully, they get the message.”
Tony Khan commented on Swole’s comments, writing on Twitter: “The top 2 @AEW execs are brown (me & Megha)!! Jade, Bowens, Caster, Dante, Nyla, Isiah & Marq Quen all won on tv this month. The TBS Title Tournament has been very diverse. I let Swole’s contract expire as I felt her wrestling wasn’t good enough.”
Swole last wrestled on the September 21 episode of AEW Dark, where she defeated Allie Katch. On November 30, she announced that she and AEW had decided to mutually part ways.
PROGRESS Wrestling will return to live shows under new ownership in 2022.
It was announced on Friday that British wrestling promotion PROGRESS Wrestling has been sold to Lee McAteer and Martyn Best. The two are associate directors of English Football League Two soccer team Tranmere Rovers, and McAteer is the founder and former CEO of the company Wrestling Travel.
After running empty arena events since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, PROGRESS will return in front of fans at the Electric Ballroom in London on Sunday, January 23. The show, which is titled PROGRESS Chapter 127:’… and the word was PROGRESS,’ will be headlined by Cara Noir defending his PROGRESS World Championship against Chris Ridgeway in a first-to-three falls match.
PROGRESS was founded in 2011 by Jim Smallman and Jon Briley, with the two later being joined by Glen Robinson (who went by the name Glen Joseph). Smallman departed the company in 2019. Robinson left in 2020 amid the #SpeakingOut movement, with a new management team being introduced as a response to #SpeakingOut.
PROGRESS has also announced that they will hold shows in Manchester on Sunday, February 6 and the Electric Ballroom on Sunday, February 20. Jonathan Gresham will be in action at the Manchester show.
PROGRESS shows air on Peacock/WWE Network.
WhatCulture’s Simon Miller will be the new host of PROGRESS Wrestling.
The full press release announcing the sale is available below:
(London, England) PROGRESS Wrestling, the world’s leading independent professional wrestling company confirms that they will return to live shows in 2022 under brand new ownership, heralding an exciting new dawn in the history of the UK’s most exciting wrestling promotion.
PROGRESS Chapter 127: ‘ … and the word was PROGRESS’ will take place at the spiritual home of PROGRESS, The Electric Ballroom in Camden, London on Sunday 23rd January 2022. The show will be main-evented by PROGRESS World Champion, Cara Noir defending his coveted title against Liverpool’s Chris Ridgeway in a first-to-three falls bout.
This return to live shows will come with new owners at the helm of PROGRESS Wrestling. The company has been purchased by Lee McAteer and Martyn Best, directors of English Football League Two stalwarts Tranmere Rovers FC. McAteer and Best will bring their wealth of business and sporting experience to bear to ensure PROGRESS returns strongly to live events and builds upon the success of the past.
McAteer, previously dubbed by various media outlets as ‘Britain’s Best Boss’ by mainstream media, will be well known to wrestling fans already as the founder and former CEO of Wrestling Travel which has quickly become a fond presence among wrestling fan culture, growing enormously since being founded in 2017. He was also founder and CEO of AmeriCamp and Invasion Camp Group.
Best served as the chairman of Everton Tigers, one of the most successful professional clubs in British basketball history and has developed a wide range of other successful business interests.
As well as the 23rd January event, PROGRESS have confirmed an exciting line-up of events further into 2022. The promotion will return to Manchester on Sunday 6th February with a show featuring current Ring of Honor World Champion, Jonathan Gresham. They will then return to the Electric Ballroom on Sunday 20th February, with a line-up that is sure to wow PROGRESS fans new and old. Many further dates around the UK will be confirmed soon.
McAteer said: ‘We are really excited to have acquired PROGRESS Wrestling and wish to place on record our thanks to the previous ownership for having developed such a distinctive wrestling promotion. A feat that must never go unacknowledged. Besty (Martyn) and I are very excited with the opportunity that we now have as the world hopefully returns to normality to re-establish PROGRESS at the position it deserves, as the leading name in British professional wrestling and beyond.
‘Our intention is to reaffirm the word professional into professional wrestling for what is literally a new chapter for not only PROGRESS, but the entire British Wrestling scene.
Best added, ‘I am hugely looking forward to continuing the story of PROGRESS Wrestling with Lee. We have been directors of Tranmere Rovers for a number of years and our collective experience within UK sport and business generally will bring an added dimension to the promotion that will enable it to scale new heights in the coming years.
‘We would also like to place on record our thanks to the PROGRESS team who have helped keep the show on the road over the past 18 months and to our talent who have continued to provide great wrestling despite difficult circumstances. And… of course to the patience and loyalty of all of our fans.’
Another new name joining Team PROGRESS is Simon Miller who will act as the host of the promotion’s events. Miller has established himself as one of the most influential voices in British wrestling over the last few years due to his growing body of in-ring presence and his hugely successful work with WhatCulture Wrestling on social media.
Alex McCarthy, TalkSPORT’s lead on wrestling coverage said ‘The return of PROGRESS Wrestling under new ownership and to live events is fantastic news for UK wrestling. PROGRESS has been a pillar of the British indies and maybe even the leading promotion within the UK prior to the start of the pandemic.
‘Having known Lee for many years, I have no doubt that he and Martyn will bring a new energy and enthusiasm to the promotion and I’m excited to see that reflected in the product. I have to say, I am particularly delighted that Simon Miller is going to be the new ring host, too. With a fresh start and their house in order, it will be an exciting time for PROGRESS – I wish them all the very best of luck.’
In the spirit of new beginnings, tickets for the January 23rd event will go on sale the moment the clock strikes midnight tonight (31st December 2021) to herald the start of the new year and a new chapter for PROGRESS Wrestling. Tickets will be available from www.dice.fm or on the Dice smartphone app.
Further announcements about the event will be made in the coming days as they complete their exciting line-ups.
Former Impact Knockouts Champion and current AAA Reina de Reinas Champion Deonna Purrazzo’s road to her January 8th Hard to Kill pay-per-view challenge of current champion Mickie James will go through Mercedes Martinez on next Thursday’s show.
The hopeful champion-to-be also has her next challenge lined up the week after as she will face Ring of Honor Women’s Champion Rok-C in the latter’s promotional debut in what will be a winner takes all match.
Martinez appeared via video on Thursday’s Impact, saying she heard Purrazzo mention her last week when being given the Knockout of the Year award and challenged her to the match next week.
While the two have never squared off in Impact, they have had several singles matches through the years including for Purrazzo’s then-Knockouts title on a WrestlePro show this past October. It was announced on Wednesday that Martinez has signed with AEW, but this match had already been taped prior to that announcement.
It will be a winner take all match on the January 13th edition of Impact when Purrazzo faces ROH titleholder Rok-C. As part of ROH Final Battle, Purrazzo made a surprise appearance and challenged Rok-C to put her title on the line against her AAA Reina de Reinas title. Depending on the outcome of the James match at Hard to Kill, the Knockouts title could be on the line as well.
That match will be taped on Monday, January 9th at the post-Hard to Kill TV tapings.
Su Yung appeared and attacked Brandi Lauren and Kimber Lee with supernatural powers, then revealed that she is expecting a child at the conclusion of this week’s Impact Wrestling Best of 2021 part two special episode.
Su Yung’s pregnancy appears to be a real-life event incorporated into storyline, as she has been retweeting congratulations and well wishes on social media. Additionally, she has posted an Amazon wishlist which lists partner Rich Swann as a parent and a due date of February 14, 2022.
Yung told Lauren and Lee that their time has come, then attacked. She then revealed her stomach and said “Your time is near,” indicating the impending birth.
The two-time Impact Knockouts Champion last wrestled on the July 8, 2021 episode of Impact, which was taped at an earlier date. She appeared as her Susan alter ego and teamed with Kimber Lee in a losing effort against Havok and Rosemary.
Four new matches were added to the January 15th NJPW New Beginning USA event in Seattle, Washington, that will include Josh Barnett, Lio Rush, Jonah, FinJuice and more.
Barnett, a Seattle native, will take on Ren Narita for the first time ever. The former UFC heavyweight champion and former New Japan U.S. color commentator returned to a New Japan ring for the first time since 2004 at November’s Detonation in a win over Alex Coughlin. He hasn’t done any in-ring wrestling since 2019 outside his Bloodsport events for GCW and one indie appearance.
Narita is coming off a singles loss to Will Ospreay at November’s Battle in the Valley and a November trios loss on Strong.
Three tag team matches were also announced as FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) will take on Jonah and Bad Dude Tito; Rocky Romero and Lio Rush will battle Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson, while Kevin Knight and The DKC will face Ricky Gibson and Eddie Pearl.
This will be the promotional debuts for Tito, Gibson and Pearl.
Here’s the current card:
Jay White “U.S. of Jay” open challenge
Matthew Rehwoldt vs. El Phantasmo
Clark Connors vs. TJP
Brody King vs. Yuya Uemura
Josh Barnett vs. Ren Narita
FinJuice vs. Jonah and Bad Dude Tito
Rocky Romero and Lio Rush vs. Royce Isaacs and Jorel Nelson
Kevin Knight and The DKC vs. Ricky Gibson and Eddie Pearl
WWE has revealed the pre-show match for this Saturday’s New Year’s Day pay-per-view.
Cesaro & Ricochet will team up against Sheamus & Ridge Holland on the pre-show for WWE Day 1 this Saturday night. The pre-show begins at 7 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card then starting an hour later.
Cesaro has been feuding with Sheamus and Holland since Holland was called up from NXT in October’s WWE Draft. In the “12 Days of Christmas” gauntlet match on SmackDown last week, a distraction by Holland led to Sheamus eliminating Cesaro. But Ricochet eliminated Sheamus after Sheamus was distracted by Cesaro taking out Holland at ringside.
Sheamus gave Ricochet a Brogue Kick after being eliminated from the gauntlet match. Ricochet was able to defeat Humberto and Jinder Mahal but lost to Sami Zayn at the end of the match.
Day 1 is being held at State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Here’s the updated card for the show:
Universal Champion Roman Reigns defends against Brock Lesnar
WWE Champion Big E defends against Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, and Bobby Lashley in a fatal four-way match
Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defends against Liv Morgan
SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) defend against The New Day (Xavier Woods & Kofi Kingston)
Edge vs. The Miz
Drew McIntyre vs. Madcap Moss
Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro (Randy Orton & Riddle) defend against The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)
Hip-hop group Migos will make a special appearance
Cesaro & Ricochet vs. Sheamus & Ridge Holland (pre-show)
The lineup for this Friday’s New Year’s Smash edition of AEW Rampage will feature a TNT title match, a street fight, Darby Allin vs. Anthony Bowens and a look at Hook’s Redrum finisher.
Cody Rhodes will look for the first defense of his newly-won TNT title when he faces Ethan Page. During a promo segment with Dan Lambert, Page and Scorpio Sky Wednesday, Brandi Rhodes came out and she and Lambert got into a heated exchange that drew out Dustin Rhodes. He was then jumped by Page and Sky before they left.
Rhodes defeated Sammy Guevara for the title on last Friday’s Rampage, kicking off his third reign with the belt.
In a street fight, Penelope Ford and The Bunny will look to end their months-long grudge as they face Anna Jay and Tay Conti in a street fight while Darby Allin will challenge Anthony Bowens of The Acclaimed in a singles match.
Finally, there will be a Technique by Taz segment where he breaks down his son Hook’s finishing move, Redrum.
Here’s the full lineup that will be taped after Wednesday’s Dynamite in Jacksonville, Florida:
TNT Champion Cody Rhodes (w/ Arn Anderson) vs. Ethan Page (w/ Dan Lambert) title match
Darby Allin (w/ Sting) vs. Anthony Bowens (w/ Max Caster)
Penelope Ford and The Bunny vs. Anna Jay and Tay Conti street fight
Mercedes Martinez made her return to AEW on Wednesday’s New Year’s Smash edition of Dynamite, attacking Thunder Rosa and contributing to her loss to Jade Cargill in the TBS title tournament semifinal.
Shortly thereafter, Tony Khan welcomed Martinez back on Twitter and said she was #AllElite, signifying her deal with the company.
Martinez had on a black hooded sweatshirt and face covering when she hit a slumped Rosa on the bottom rope with an object. Cargill then hit Jaded to win the match and when Rosa attacked her afterward, Martinez jumped in the ring again to lay her out, revealing herself after. The two beat down Rosa until Ruby Soho came out to make the save.
The 41-year-old made two appearances for the company in 2019, competing in the first women’s Casino Battle Royale at All Out. Two months later, Martinez and Big Swole lost to Allie and Sadie Gibbs on AEW Dark.
She continued to work indies until beginning with WWE starting in 2020. She mainly worked in WWE NXT, but made an appearance at that year’s Royal Rumble. She was part of the original Retribution lineup before requesting to be removed from the group over creative differences.
She was released this summer and returned to the indies in September, also working for Impact Wrestling. She won the Knockouts Knockdown tournament to earn a title shot and was unsuccessful in defeating champion Mickie James at November’s Turning Point.
Roberts on Twitter revealed today that he has COVID-19, noting that he is a high risk case and has not been on AEW television recently.
“I’ve waited so long. Actually thought I was bulletproof. Yes I’ve gotten Covid-19!!!!!,” he wrote. “Yes after not going to do my AEW work for nearly 3 months. Tony Kahn knows I’m high risk and has gone above and beyond all expectations trying to keep everyone safe. Pretty sure I got it from family or when I was out shopping.”
Roberts, who has usually accompanied Lance Archer to ringside for matches, has not been on AEW television as of late. Archer has not been on AEW television since October, where he lost in the first round of the AEW World title eliminator tournament to Eddie Kingston. Archer suffered a neck injury that led to the match going right to the finish.
AEW will hold their final episode of Dynamite live at the Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida tonight.
Image: WWE | This story was updated at 7:30 PM Eastern.
Toni Storm is no longer with WWE.
Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp first reported the news Wednesday, later reporting that it was believed she requested it. Mat Men’s Andrew Zarian said he also heard Storm requested her release with our Dave Meltzer first confirming the release with WWE and later confirming that Storm had quit and that WWE didn’t fire her.
It’s unknown what her non-compete status is or the timing for requesting her release.
As of late, Storm had been elevated into the SmackDown Women’s title picture with current champion Charlotte Flair. As has been the case during the last two dates of the SmackDown portion of the current Holiday Tour, she was set to wrestle in a three-way against Flair and Sasha Banks in Baltimore, Maryland Wednesday night.
The 26-year-old has been in the WWE system since making her debut in the 2017 Mae Young Classic, working in both NXT and NXT UK for several years. The former NXT UK Women’s Champion through most of 2019 got her call-up to the main roster in July of this year, debuting several weeks after vignettes aired for her arrival. Even after her call-up, she worked sparingly with just five matches from July through November.
The Auckland, New Zealand, native got engaged to New Japan’s Juice Robinson earlier this year.
