A number one contender’s bout, four additional matches, plus the debut of Oro Mensah are set for the September 20 episode of WWE NXT.
Tyler Bate will face JD McDonagh in a match to determine the number one contender to Bron Breakker’s NXT Championship. Bate dropped the NXT UK Championship to Breakker in a unification match at Worlds Collide earlier this month, while McDonagh lost a title bout to Breakker on August’s Heatwave episode of NXT.
The former Oliver Carter will re-debut in NXT next week as Oro Mensah. Carter held the NXT UK Tag Team titles with Ashton Smith before an injury to SMith caused them to vacate the belts.
Also announced, the best-of-three series between Axiom and Nathan Frazier will continue. Axiom won the first match of the series on the September 6 episode.
Toxic Attraction’s Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne will take on Diamond Mine’s Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley on next week’s episode in a tag team contest.
A women’s division match between Cora Jade and Wendy Choo, plus a Von Wagner vs. Sanga singles bout have also been announced for the show.
Next week’s NXT episode will be taped on Wednesday, September 14.
The lineup:
WWE NXT, Tuesday, September 20, 8 p.m. Eastern time on USA Network —
Number one contender’s match: Tyler Bate vs. JD McDonagh
Best-of-three series: Axiom vs. Nathan Frazier (Axiom leads 1-0)
Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne) vs. Diamond Mine (Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley)
Kyle O’Reilly appears to have recently undergone neck surgery.
The 35-year-old posted an image of him in a hospital bed to Instagram stories on Thursday evening. A second image he posted is an advertisement for a Ford Fusion but the name “Ford” has been replaced with “neck” which could indicate O’Reilly recently underwent neck fusion surgery.
O’Reilly hasn’t wrestled since the June 8 edition of Dynamite. He won a Casino Battle Royale that night to earn a match against Jon Moxley later in the show with the winner going on to face Hiroshi Tanahashi for the interim AEW World Championship at Forbidden Door. Moxley then defeated O’Reilly in the main event.
O’Reilly took part in an angle on the August 3 edition of Dynamite when he turned on the Young Bucks along with Adam Cole and Bobby Fish. It has since been reported that Fish’s one-year contract with AEW has expired and he is now a free agent. Cole and O’Reilly are under five-year deals with the company.
Four title matches took place on last night’s Great American Bash edition of NXT.
Bron Breakker vs. Cameron Grimes for the NXT Championship headlined the Great American Bash special. Breakker was able to retain his title, but a new challenger quickly emerged. JD McDonagh (Jordan Devlin) attacked Breakker on the stage as the show was about to go off the air. McDonagh then gave Breakker a Devlin Side suplex through a table.
NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes and NXT Tag Team Champions The Creed Brothers were also successful in their title defenses. Hayes defeated Grayson Waller, while The Creed Brothers defeated their Diamond Mine stablemates Roderick Strong & Damon Kemp.
The NXT Women’s Tag Team titles did change hands, with Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade defeating Toxic Attraction’s Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne to become the new champions. Perez also announced that she’s cashing in her Breakout Tournament title shot contract for a match against NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose next week.
The nature and severity of his injury are not known. Tony Khan was a guest on an episode of AEW Unrestricted on Thursday and gave an update on the Undisputed Elite member’s condition.
“Kyle O’Reilly’s been on fire. That’s a real-life, legitimate injury and Kyle O’Reilly is out, not sure how long but it’s a big loss,” Khan said on the show. “We were not expecting that. He had just been on fire for the company lately so it’s a big deal to lose Kyle O’Reilly.”
O’Reilly hasn’t wrestled since the June 8 edition of Dynamite. He won the Casino Battle Royale that night but was later defeated by Jon Moxley in the main event. O’Reilly also made it to the semi-finals of the Owen Hart Cup Tournament recently before being defeated by Samoa Joe. He would follow up that loss by defeating Darby Allin four days later at Double or Nothing.
There is tons to talk about on tonight’s AEW Dynamite review on Speak Now Pro Wrestling!
We had a Casino Battle Royale to determine Moxley’s opponent. In additon AEW announced a brand new championship belt, Will Ospreay appeared on the show, David Finlay wrestled Hangman Page, who then expressed interest in challenging for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, Wardlow wants the TNT Championship, matches for next week’s Road Rager, and more!
This podcast is sponsored by Wrestle Rumble.
Denise will return on Friday to chat WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage!
It’s the AEW DOUBLE OR NOTHING go home show edition of AEW Dynamite! Join on-camera personality Denise Salcedo as she breaks down the events of the night, analyzes the storylines and matches while also engaging with the live viewers!
Topics include the build to AEW DON, Wardlow and MJF’s feud, the beef between Hangman Adam Page and CM Punk, NJPW’s Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan of the United Empire appear, a wacky Hardy Boys promo, the Owen Hart Cup Men’s and Women’s tournament, and more!
This podcast is sponsored by Wrestle Rumble.
Denise will also return on Monday to discuss her live event experience at AEW Double or Nothing.
Kyle O’Reilly will be with AEW for the foreseeable future.
In an appearance on the Toddcast Podcast, O’Reilly revealed that he signed a five-year contract when he joined the company in December 2021.
“Yeah, for me in five years, I’ll still be with AEW. I signed a five-year deal with them,” O’Reilly said.
In response to a question about his long-term goals, O’Reilly mentioned holding championship gold in AEW.
“So, hopefully by then, champion of the company or a several-time tag champion. Just having fun and never losing that love I have for the business,” O’Reilly said.
“In WWE, I was with NXT, but I never got called up to Raw or SmackDown. Now with AEW, it feels like I’m having that main roster experience,” he said.
I’m part of an organization that’s on national TV, that’s selling out arenas all over, I’m traveling, I feel like a real wrestler. It’s pretty cool.”
O’Reilly debuted on the December 22, 2021 edition of AEW Dynamite. He made his final NXT appearance on the December 7, 2021 episode, losing a cage match to Von Wagner. O’Reilly left NXT after his contract expired and was not subject to a non-compete period after leaving.
The full Toddcast interview with O’Reilly can be seen below.
Kyle O’Reilly and Britt Baker have qualified for their respective AEW Owen Hart Foundation tournaments.
O’Reilly defeated Jungle Boy on tonight’s episode of Dynamite to qualify for the men’s tournament. He defeated Jungle Boy clean with a flying knee drop off the top rope. Baker, meanwhile, defeated Danielle Kamela by submission with the lockjaw.
Both the men’s and women’s tournaments begins in May and ends at Double or Nothing on May 29.
Baker was accompanied to the ring tonight by Najee Harris and Pat Freiermuth of the Pittsburgh Steelers. After she won her match, she cut a promo running down the women’s division and promised victory in the Owen Hart Foundation tournament.
Samoa Joe was the first to qualify for the men’s tournament on the April 6 edition of AEW Dynamite, defeating Max Caster. The next men’s tournament qualifier will take place on this Friday’s AEW Rampage, where NJPW’s Tomohiro Ishii will face Adam Cole.
In the women’s tournament, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, Hikaru Shida, Red Velvet, and Ruby Soho have all qualified.
Kyle O’Reilly has offered his first comments about signing with AEW.
O’Reilly made his AEW debut by interfering in Adam Cole’s match against Orange Cassidy at last night’s Holiday Bash episode of Dynamite. After O’Reilly’s appearance, Tony Khan posted a tweet officially announcing that O’Reilly is All Elite.
“Life is crazy and I’m very grateful that my professional wrestling abilities have taken me to a new frontier in which to explore my ass-kicking ways. Proud to be apart of @AEW and thanks to @TonyKhan for the opportunity,” O’Reilly tweeted.
“If you’re a fan of mine from elsewhere I hope you continue to support me. If you’re new to KOR prepare to see a man that pours his f’n soul into that ring every night and has an unquenchable thirst for cans of whoop ass. Also, reDRagon is back!!!”
O’Reilly and Bobby Fish both interfered and helped Cole get the win against Cassidy last night. It had been hyped going into the show that Cole would have a Christmas present for The Young Bucks. After Cole got the win, O’Reilly started to beat Cassidy down. Cole pulled O’Reilly off Cassidy and exchanged words with him, but Best Friends (Trent Beretta & Chuck Taylor) ran in. Cole, O’Reilly, and Fish laid out Best Friends and then stood together in the ring.
The Young Bucks made their way out and were confused about the situation. Cole was left between The Young Bucks and O’Reilly & Fish.
O’Reilly will make his AEW in-ring debut in a six-man tag match on next Wednesday’s New Year’s Smash Dynamite. It will be O’Reilly, Cole & Fish vs. Cassidy, Beretta & Taylor.
Video of O’Reilly’s appearance on last night’s show is available to watch below:
A week after making his surprise debut on the Holiday Bash edition of AEW Dynamite, new roster member Kyle O’Reilly will make his in-ring debut on next Wednesday’s New Year’s Smash edition of the show.
O’Reilly appeared Wednesday to attack Orange Cassidy during his match with Adam Cole, eventually leading to a Cole win. Cole, O’Reilly and Bobby Fish will reunite for the first time since they split up in March while in NXT as they take on Cassidy and Best Friends (Trent and Chuck Taylor).
Wednesday’s show will also see the remaining semifinal in the TBS title tournament as Thunder Rosa faces Jade Cargill. The winner will advance to face Ruby Soho in the finals on the January 5th Dynamite debut on TBS as Soho beat Nyla Rose Wednesday.
Also announced for the show: Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz vs. Daniel Garcia and 2point0 in a continuation of their feud from the past few weeks; and the return of Jim Ross to the announce team following the completion of three-plus weeks of consecutive radiation therapy for skin cancer.
Here’s the lineup currently announced for Jacksonville, Florida:
Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish vs. Best Friends and Orange Cassidy
TBS title tourney semifinal: Jade Cargill vs. Thunder Rosa
Eddie Kingston, Santana and Ortiz vs. 2point0 and Daniel Garcia
Kyle O’Reilly has signed with AEW, appearing at Wednesday’s AEW Holiday Bash edition of Dynamite.
Toward the end of a match between Adam Cole and Orange Cassidy, Bobby Fish appeared at ringside. This distracted Cassidy long enough for O’Reilly to appear from behind and attack Cassidy which eventually led to Cole pinning Cassidy to win the match. Last week on Dynamite, Cole had promised a surprise for Holiday Bash.
After the match had ended, Cole appeared surprised by O’Reilly’s arrival. The Young Bucks then came out and didn’t seem too pleased about the new developments. The segment ended with Cole leaving with O’Reilly and Fish.
Cole, O’Reilly, and Fish will be in action on next Wednesday’s Dynamite against Best Friends and Cassidy.
O’Reilly, who had been with WWE since 2017, had his contract with the company expire earlier this month. He was last seen on the December 7th edition of NXT, where he was laid out by Von Wagner following a cage match.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Garrett Gonzalez and I will be doing a news show tonight, our first in several weeks. Bryan Alvarez and I will be back tomorrow night talking UFC, Raw, Smackdown and New Japan as well as the rest of the news.
Both Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Reilly WWE contracts expired today and they are officially now free agents, meaning they can accept the negotiated offers with other companies legally. While the belief is that both are taking time off, they could legally wrestle tomorrow for another company. Gargano has opened a Pro Wrestling Tees account and is expected to start a Twitch channel. The latter does not mean he can’t go to WWE but he could not have a Twitch channel on the main roster, but he could if he was in NXT.
For the weekend, we are doing polls for tomorrow’s UFC show and tomorrow’s ROH show, thumbs up, down or middle, best and worst match from both shows to [email protected]
We are also looking for reports from Smackdown in Los Angeles tonight with any dark matches, as well as the house shows in Saginaw, MI and Grand Rapids, MI on Saturday and Sunday to [email protected]
Smackdown tonight at the Staples Center in Los Angeles has Charlotte Flair vs. Toni Storm in a non-title match, Sonya Deville vs. Naomi, Randy Orton & Riddle vs Usos vs. Kofi Kingston & King Woods in a non-title match plus Brock Lesnar and Xia Li will be appearing. Obviously the Jeff Hardy vs. Happy Corbin match advertised is off with Hardy having been released More than 9,400 tickets are out for the show. It’s the largest crowd WWE is expected to do until the Royal Rumble.
AEW Rampage tonight has Lucha Brothers vs. FTR for the tag tam titles, Adam Cole vs. Wheeler Yuta, Ruby Soho & Tay Conti & Anna Jay vs. Nyla Rose & Bunny & Penelope Ford, Hook debuts against Fuego del Sol and Sting & Darby Allin do an interview pushing Sting returning on 12/22 to the Greensboro Coliseum The tag title match was said to be as good as the match the two teams had at Full Gear, which was pretty much great.
UFC 269 tomorrow:
6 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+:
Priscilla Cachoeira (129) vs. Gillian Robertson(125) – Cachoeira missed weight by three pounds and was fined 30 percent of her purse
Randy Costa (134.5) vs. Tony Kelly (136)
Ryan Hall (145.5) vs. Derrick Minner (146)
Erin Blanchfield (125.5) vs,. Miranda Maverick (125)
Eryk Anders (185.5) vs. Andre Muniz (185.5)
ESPN and ESPN+ at 8 p.m.
Bruno Silva (186) vs,. Jordan Wright (186)
Tai Tuivasa (264) vs. Augusto Sakai (263.5)
Dominick Cruz (135) vs. Pedro Munhoz (135.5)
Dan Ige (146) vs. Josh Emmett (145.5)
PPV at 10 p.m.
Sean O’Malley (135.5) vs. Raulian Paiva (135.5)
Cody Garbrandt (126) vs. Kai Kara-France (125)
Santiago Ponzinibbio (169.5) vs. Geoff Neal (170.5)
Amanda Nunes (134.5) vs. Julianna Pena (135) for the women’s bantamweight title
Charles Oliveria (155) vs. Dustin Poirier (154.4) for the lightweight title
At the press conference today there was a name calling situation with O’Malley and Garbrant, who aren’t fighting each other. O’Malley talked about how it’s been years since Garbrandt has won a fight and Garbrandt said that O’Malley has never faced anyone of note.
The New Japan Best of the Super Juniors final round-robin show is at 3 a.m. Eastern tonight from Himeji, Japan:
Yuto Nakashima vs. Ryohei Oiwa
Ryusuke Taguchi (4-6) vs. Taiji Ishimori (6-4)
Master Wato (4-6) vs. Douki (2-8)
Robbie Eagles (6-4) vs. Hiromu Takahashi (6-3-1)
Sho (6-4) vs. Yoh (6-4)
Bushi (4-6) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4-6)
Desperado (6-3-1) vs. El Phantasmo(5-5)
If either Takahashi or Desperado win tonight, they are in the finals. If one or both lose, it opens the door for Ishimori, Sho, Yoh or Eagles to make the finals. But basically all of the above need a win tomorrow because if any of them lose, they are out.
The 13th annual MMA Awards show is tonight live on ESPN+ starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time from Las Vegas. Chael Sonnen is the host. Nominated for Male Fighter of the Year are Kamaru Usman, Brandon Moreno, Yaroslov Amasov, Charles Oliveira and Jan Blachowicz. For female fighters are McKenzie Dern, Kayla Harrison, Valentina Shevchenko, Rose Namajunas and Marion Fiorot. Fight of the year nominees are Paul Daley vs. Sabah Homasi, Edson Barboza vs. Shane Burgos, Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Brandon Moreno, Jiri Prochazka vs Dominick Reyes and Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Miguel Baeza. There are a bunch of guys nominated for reporter of the year but Ariel Helwani will win.
Jerry Gray was hospitalized this week with a heart condition, then got appendicitis, and also is battling bone cancer and liver tumors as well as a pulmonary embolism. He’s at stage four colon and liver cancer.
WWE
Becky Lynch will be appearing on FOX’s TMZ’s Merry Elfin Christmas special on 12/23 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Winter is Coming has now sold more tickets than the two prior shows they’ve run in Garland, TX, the second of which was a sellout. They have added new seating and as of this morning were 511 tickets shy of a sellout.
UFC
UFC and Timex have announced a global partnership with Timex as the official watch and timekeeper partner of the UFC.
OTHER NOTES
Renee Paquette started on a new talk show called Jack and Paq with Jackie Redmond on the NHL Network.
559 Fights on 12/17 in Visalia, CA at the Convention Center. The show will have both MMA fights and grappling matches.
Eric Young will be taking some independent dates and autograph shows through Bill Behrens at [email protected]. Others who you can book through Behrens include Mike Posey, Griff Garrison, Brian Pillman Jr., Julia Hart, Christopher Daniels, Logan Creed, Luke Hawx, Slim J, Sal Rinauro, Josh Woods, Mark & Jay Briscoe, Moose, Lince Dorado, TJP, Adrian Jaoude, Brian Cage, Lance Archer, Matt Sydal, Jay Lethal, Famous CB, Jonathan Gresham, Delirious, Rhett Titus, Silas Young, Shane Taylor, Shannon Moore, Judais, Caprice Coleman, Mecha Wolf 450, JTG, Matt Striker, Kongo Kong, Tommy Dreamer, Al Snow, Glacier Ray Lloyd, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, Eric Bischoff, Sabu, Gerald Brisco,Rick Steiner, Hernandez, Stevie Richards, Jim Mitchell, ODB, DDP, Devon Dudley and Missy Hyatt.
There was a wrestling question on Tuesday night’s Jeopardy show on the drama show on Starz about pro wrestling featuring Stephan Amell. The answer is Heels. None of the contestants got it right (thanks to Grant Zwarych)
Ethan Page returns to AIW on 12/18 in Cleveland at the Odeon Concert Club. Bill Alfonso will wrestle a woman on the show.
Max Caster headlines for AIW on 1/13 in Lakewood,OH at the Winchester Music Tavern.
IWF announced its 25th anniversary show for 4/23 in Nutley, NJ, with Tony Atlas, Nunzio, Bull James, Gary Cappetta and more.
Debbie Malenko will do her first match ever in California on 1/14 for West Coast Pro at the State Room in South San Francisco.
Defy Wrestling on 12/18 in Seattle at Washington Hall has Christopher Daniels vs. Brody King for the interim Defy title, Eddie Kingston vs. Schaff in a street fight, Midnight Heat vs Bollywood Boys for the tag titles, Nick Wayne vs. Blake Christian, Carlos Romo vs. Lio Rush, Viva Van vs. Riea Von Slasher fort he women’s title and Ethan HD vs. Vinny Massaro vs. Titus Alexander. You must be overt the age of 16 to attend and it’s standing room only tickets available.
A cage match between former tag team partners Von Wagner and Kyle O’Reilly will take place on NXT this Tuesday.
O’Reilly threw out the challenge in a promo following an altercation where Wagner tried to attack O’Reilly after their tag match at tonight’s NXT WarGames event. O’Reilly said that he saw the turn coming, and asked to leave the cage set up as he challenged Wagner to the cage match for Tuesday.
The duo were unsuccessful in winning the NXT Tag Team Championship from Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) at tonight’s show After the match, Von Wagner appeared behind O’Reilly, preparing to attack. O’Reilly noticed and attacked him instead, laying him out before exiting the ring.
O’Reilly’s WWE contract is set to expire this month, though the specific date is not known.
Also set for this Tuesday’s NXT is a match between Xyon Quinn and Santos Escobar. MSK will also finally meet the shaman they have been looking for in vignettes that have aired over the last few weeks of NXT television.
Kyle O’Reilly & Von Wagner are getting a Tag Team title shot at NXT WarGames.
NXT Tag Team Champions Imperium (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) will defend their titles against O’Reilly & Wagner at WarGames this Sunday. The title bout was confirmed when O’Reilly & Wagner defeated Legado del Fantasma’s Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde in a number one contender’s match on NXT tonight.
This will be Imperium’s first title defense since becoming NXT Tag Team Champions. They won the titles from MSK in a Lumberjack-O’-Lantern match at Halloween Havoc last month.
Though O’Reilly was initially hesitant to form another tag team after the way that Undisputed Era broke up, his partnership with Wagner began to form following the premiere episode of NXT 2.0 this September. Wagner made his debut on that show and saved O’Reilly from an attack by Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland.
Here’s the updated card for NXT WarGames:
WarGames match: Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Pete Dunne & LA Knight vs. Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller & Tony D’Angelo
WarGames match: Io Shirai, Raquel Gonzalez, Cora Jade & Kay Lee Ray vs. Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne & Dakota Kai
Hair vs. hair match: Cameron Grimes vs. Duke Hudson
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong defends against Joe Gacy
NXT Tag Team Champions Imperium (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) defend against Kyle O’Reilly & Von Wagner
