It’s the Saturday Wrestling Observer Live with Jim Valley.
When Janel Grant spoke on Thursday, she talked about “the level of threat” and “the level of power” that has made her feel so unsafe she only went outside ten times last year. Is she saying that she’s experienced actual threats? We’ll talk about that and other notable and important things she said this past week.
Plus, we’ll touch on WWE SmackDown, Captain Cody Rhodes, H.O.G., Prestige, AEW Collision, Brett Wolverton, Ken Hamblin and more.
With Masha Slamovich being pulled from the show, Shayna Baszler has a new opponent for her Prestige Wrestling debut.
Prestige Wrestling has announced that Baszler vs. Dani Luna will now take place at the promotion’s October 5 event in Portland, Oregon. Slamovich, who was originally scheduled to be Baszler’s opponent, was removed from the booking on Tuesday after domestic violence allegations against her emerged on social media.
🚨 ROSELAND XII UPDATES 🚨
Just signed:
Singles Match Shayna Baszler vs Dani Luna
West Coast Pro Women’s Championship Johnnie Robbie vs Trish Adora
Slamovich is accused of physically and emotionally abusing her former boyfriend AKIRA, a wrestler who previously competed for MLW. TNA Wrestling — which employs Slamovich — say they take the allegations very seriously and have opened an internal investigation.
A Knockouts Championship match with Slamovich challenging Ash By Elegance had been set for TNA’s Victory Road special this Friday. TNA’s website has taken down its article promoting the match.
The October 5 Prestige show is Baszler’s first post-WWE indie match. She was released by WWE back in May but did recently make an appearance for the company at NXT Homecoming. Though WWE would like Baszler back full-time as a coach or producer, there is nothing in place at the moment and her Homecoming appearance was just a one-off.
Luna competes for TNA and is a former Knockouts Tag Team Champion for the promotion.
Prestige is one of the top independent wrestling companies in the Pacific Northwest but has announced that it will be going on an indefinite hiatus after it completes its next four events.
Shayna Baszler is getting back in the ring following her WWE release.
In what is the first indie booking she’s been announced for since being let go by WWE, Baszler will debut for Prestige Wrestling on Sunday, October 5. She’s set to face TNA star Masha Slamovich at the event, which is being held in Portland, Oregon at the Roseland Theater.
🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨
Shayna Baszler debuts against Masha Slamovich at #PrestigeRoseland XII!
+ Judas Icarus, Danhausen, Trish Adora, Good Brothers, Kevin Blackwood & more
October 5th, 2025 Portland, Oregon Roseland Theater All Ages (bar with ID)
Baszler was released from her WWE contract this May in a round of roster cuts that also included Braun Strowman, Dakota Kai, and several others. While waiting for her non-compete clause to expire, Baszler did some work behind the scenes in a producer-type role for NXT.
That 90-day clause expired on August 2. During an appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show this month, Baszler indicated that she would be open to joining AEW, where some of her friends like Marina Shafir work.
“I said almost exactly this statement when people were talking about my UFC to WWE transition: I don’t care as much of the letters behind it, I just want to practice my craft,” she said. “And if I can do that alongside my friends, that’s always a great place to be. So, I’m not going to say a hard no to any of that.”
Baszler’s most recent match was against Stardom wrestler Konami this April at a Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport event.
In 2024, Baszler and Slamovich faced off on a Bloodsport card with Baszler getting the victory.
Toni Storm didn’t take much time off after defeating Mercedes Mone at AEW All In on Saturday.
Just one day later, she appeared at Prestige Wrestling’s Combat Clash 2025 event at the Viking Pavilion in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday. She was advertised in advance for a special appearance and meet and greet session at the show.
Storm delivered an in-ring promo that set up a match between Su Yung and Drexl, and also shared some concerning medical news about her butler, Luther.
“Hello, Portland. My name is ‘Timeless’ Toni Storm and I am still your AEW Women’s World Champion.Did we see you at All In last night? A little bit crazy, a little bit wild. Well, it got so wild that my butler Luther, he couldn’t make it here this evening. No, no, no, don’t worry, it’s for the best. We’ll have a much better time now. Now, it was actually Luther that insisted that I come here, he said this is where the real magic happens. And frankly, I just assumed that he was talking about a weed dispensary, but this is close enough, to be honest. Would you like to know what happened to Luther? You want me to tell you the truth? Luther broke his penis off. No, he did. He just completely snapped it right off.“
This brought out Drexl, who had been looking for Luther. Storm then introduced Yung as Drexl’s opponent for the evening.
The entire Prestige Wrestling Combat Clash event is available in the YouTube video below. Storm’s segment begins around the 2 hour 21 minute and 30 seconds mark:
Cassie Lee & Jessica McKay — the duo formerly known as The IIconics — are reuniting for their first tag team match in three years.
Indie promotion Prestige Wrestling announced today that Lee (the former Peyton Royce) & McKay (Billie Kay) will team up at their event in Las Vegas on April 17. The show, titled Nothing to Lose, is happening on the Thursday of WrestleMania week.
Opponents for Lee & McKay have not been named yet.
The two are former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions and later held Knockouts Tag Team gold for Impact Wrestling. While with Impact, they were known as The IInspiration. They are again using that name for this Prestige match.
In 2022, Lee and McKay announced that they were indefinitely stepping away from wrestling to focus on other opportunities. This will be the first time McKay has wrestled since then. Lee worked a tour of matches for World Series Wrestling in Australia in 2023.
Lee and McKay have both become mothers in recent years with Lee & Shawn Spears having two boys and McKay and her husband welcoming their first son.
Former TNA World Champion Josh Alexander won’t be making his final indie wrestling booking after all.
Alexander took to social media Saturday to relay the bad news that due to “international travel issues” that were out of his hands, he will not make his date for tonight’s Prestige Wrestling show in Portland, Oregon.
Alexander was set to face indie veteran Kevin Blackwood.
While travel issues are common in indie wrestling, this match was particularly significant as this was to be Alexander’s final indie match “for the foreseeable future” which he reiterated in his tweet Saturday.
Rey Fenix has been pulled from an upcoming booking due to injury.
Prestige Wrestling announced on Tuesday that Fenix will be replaced by Lio Rush on its January 5 show in Portland. Rush vs. Samuray Del Sol is now official for the event.
Fenix has been out of action since October. His last match was on the October 10 Title Tuesday edition of AEW Dynamite. He dropped the International Championship to Orange Cassidy in a match that went under five minutes.
Fenix defeated Jon Moxley to win the International title at AEW Grand Slam on September 20 when an audible was called at the end of the match due to Moxley having sustained a concussion. However, Fenix also came out of that match with an injury.
He posted to Instagram on October 2 that he has been dealing with “an old injury” since his match against Moxley.
Fenix wrote:
The international championship has been a big challenge.
The night I became champion, I left the arena with the championship in my hands and with an old injury bothering me again. My first defense was painful, it did not allow the pain to stop me and continue until the fight was over, this coming Wednesday will be my second defense and I am doing my best to enter that ring and retain the champion.
I will defend this beautiful championship in any situation, a Luchador does not give up, a Luchador will always leave everything in every battle. I am a real Luchador and the man of a thousand lives, nothing and no one is going to stop me.
