Tag: Wwe Speed

WWE Speed spoilers: Inaugural champion crowned

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Though the semifinals haven’t finished airing yet, we already know who the inaugural WWE Speed Champion is.

WWE taped the title tournament finals after Friday night’s SmackDown in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ricochet pinned Johnny Gargano to become the first WWE Speed Champion.

On the episode of Speed that aired earlier this week, Ricochet defeated JD McDonagh to advance to the finals. A semifinal match between Gargano and Bronson Reed is set for this coming Wednesday’s episode. The finals between Ricochet and Gargano will presumably air the week after that.

The Gargano vs. Reed semifinal match was also taped last night.

A collaboration between WWE and X (the former Twitter), WWE Speed premiered on April 3. New episodes of the show air exclusively on X at noon Eastern time every Wednesday. Matches on Speed have a three-minute time limit.

Last night’s SmackDown was night one of the 2024 WWE Draft. Ricochet was selected by Raw in the third round. The draft concludes on Raw this Monday.

Ricochet advances to WWE Speed title tournament finals

Posted on by Joseph Currier

With a victory over JD McDonagh, Ricochet is heading to the finals of the WWE Speed Championship tournament.

Ricochet’s defeat of McDonagh aired on this week’s WWE Speed episode. The match was taped before WWE Raw in Montreal earlier this month. Ricochet won with a Canadian Destroyer with 1:02 left on the clock.

It will be Ricochet vs. either Bronson Reed or Johnny Gargano to determine the inaugural WWE Speed Champion. The semifinal match between Bronson and Gargano airs on Speed next Wednesday.

This was Ricochet’s second victory on WWE Speed. In the first round of the title tournament, he defeated Dragon Lee.

Matches on WWE Speed have a three-minute time limit. New episodes air exclusively on X/Twitter at noon Eastern time every Wednesday. The partnership between WWE and X for Speed is a two-year deal. The show premiered on April 3.

On Raw earlier this week, Ricochet teamed with Andrade to defeat McDonagh & Santos Escobar. A six-man tag match with Ricochet, Andrade & Jey Uso facing The Judgment Day (McDonagh, Finn Balor & Damian Priest) has been announced for next Monday’s Raw.

Semifinals set for WWE Speed title tournament

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Either Ricochet, JD McDonagh, Bronson Reed, or Johnny Gargano will be the inaugural WWE Speed Champion.

The first round of the title tournament wrapped up with Gargano defeating Angel Garza on WWE Speed this week. Gargano got the victory with 53 seconds left on the clock after hitting One Final Beat.

Ricochet vs. McDonagh and Reed vs. Gargano are the semifinal matches for the tournament. The round begins with Ricochet vs. McDonagh airing on next Wednesday’s WWE Speed episode.

“Speed? I am Speed. You put me in any environment, Johnny Wrestling’s gonna thrive,” Gargano said in a promo after defeating Angel. “I’m coming for the Speed Championship. It doesn’t matter who I’m going up against. Bronson Reed, you may be big, but you ain’t Johnny Wrestling.”

Airing exclusively on X, matches on WWE Speed have a three-minute time limit. WWE and X’s partnership for the show is a two-year deal with new episodes premiering every week on Wednesdays.

DIY (Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) are the current number one contenders to the World Tag Team titles. They’re challenging The Miz & R-Truth for the belts on Raw next Monday.

JD McDonagh advances in WWE Speed title tournament

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Judgment Day member JD McDonagh is heading to the next round of the WWE Speed Championship tournament.

After premiering last week, a new episode of WWE Speed debuted on X/Twitter on Wednesday. It featured one match with McDonagh defeating Axiom. McDonagh is now set for a matchup against Ricochet in the semifinals of WWE’s tournament to crown the inaugural Speed Champion.

Matches on WWE Speed have a three-minute time limit. McDonagh vs. Axiom ended with 36 seconds left on the clock. McDonagh connected with a headbutt before falling on top of Axiom to get the pinfall victory.

The McDonagh vs. Axiom match was taped before last Friday’s SmackDown in Philadelphia.

It was announced that a first-round match between Johnny Gargano and Angel will air on WWE Speed next Wednesday. The winner of that match advances to face Bronson Reed in the tournament semifinals.

Last week, Ricochet defeated Dragon Lee and Reed defeated Cedric Alexander in the first two Speed matches.

WWE and X’s partnership for WWE Speed is a two-year deal with the show airing weekly.

Ricochet, Bronson Reed advance in WWE Speed title tournament on debut episode

Posted on by Josh Nason

Ricochet and Bronson Reed were both victorious on the first-ever broadcasts of WWE Speed on Wednesday, advancing in an eight-man tournament to crown the inaugural Speed champion.

The show introduced a new format of match for the company where bouts are just three minutes long, emulating aspects of Stardom’s High Speed division. WWE aired both matches at separate times with a total combined runtime of around seven minutes.

In the first match, Ricochet picked up the win over Dragon Lee in the X-exclusive broadcast. As expected, it was non-stop offense with both men emptying out their respective tanks.

Ricochet was on a roll early, answering nearly everything Lee had to offer. Lee rallied with a step-up knee strike and poisonrana that was countered by a Ricochet clothesline for a nearfall.

Lee went for Project Dragon, but Ricochet transitioned from a fireman’s carry into a kick to the face followed by the Recoil for the pin with four seconds remaining.

The second match saw Reed take on Cedric Alexander, picking up a victory in just under two minutes. To no surprise, Reed used his power to counter Alexander’s speed. Alexander hit a top rope flip dive to Reed on the floor to briefly get the advantage before Reed hit a DVD for a nearfall.

That led to a clothesline, senton and then the Tsunami off the top rope to get the win to advance.

WWE did not reveal the full field of entrants into the tournament, but Axiom will face JD McDonagh next Wednesday in another tournament bout.

WWE Speed premiere date revealed, tournament will crown champion

Posted on by Bryan Rose

WWE has revealed details on its upcoming new series, WWE Speed.

The company announced via video that a tournament will be held on Speed, which will air exclusively on X starting on April 3. Corey Graves explained in the video that each match will have a three-minute time limit, and the winner of the tournament will receive a new title, the WWE Speed Championship. The video emphasized the idea of speed, strength, and agility, and focusing on getting to the finish line before time runs out. 

After filming a pilot for Speed in December, WWE officially announced the new show during the WrestleMania 40 press conference held in February. Over the last few months, matches for Speed have been taped before SmackDown.

The Hollywood Reporter reported that WWE and X’s agreement is a two-year deal, with new episodes slated to air every week on X. Financial terms have not been disclosed.

WWE SmackDown & WWE Speed spoilers from Salt Lake City

Posted on by F4W Staff

The following are spoilers for the Friday, February 23 WWE SmackDown episode & future WWE Speed programming taped Friday, February 16 in Salt Lake City. 

Matches for Speed were taped prior to the live SmackDown episode that aired on Friday night, with next week’s SmackDown being taped after the live airing as WWE will be in Australia for next Saturday’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. Speed will stream exclusively on X beginning this spring as part of a two-year deal for the new concept.

Spoilers are courtesy of Ringside News.

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WWE Speed spoilers —

  • Dragon Lee defeated Cedric Alexander
  • Odyssey Jones defeated Cameron Grimes

WWE SmackDown spoilers for the Friday, February 23 episode —

  • Tiffany Stratton defeated Liv Morgan
  • Bron Breakker defeated Dante Chen in his SmackDown in-ring debut
  • A hype video for the new team of Ashante Adonis & Cedric Alexander aired
  • Two backstage segments with The Bloodline aired
  • New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) defeated The Judgment Day (Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh)
  • Authors of Pain (Akam & Rezar) defeated The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)
  • LA Knight & Drew McIntyre ended in a DQ
  • The men’s Elimination Chamber participants brawled as seen in the embedded video below

https://twitter.com/LeCatchClub/status/1758709636218396941

WWE & X’s partnership for WWE Speed is two-year deal

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE’s new partnership with X (formerly known as Twitter) is a multi-year deal.

During the company’s WrestleMania 40 press event on Thursday, WWE announced that a new series named WWE Speed will begin streaming on X in spring 2024. The series will feature matches with five-minute time limits.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that WWE and X’s agreement for the series is a two-year deal. New episodes will air every week exclusively on X.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The Hollywood Reporter wrote:

The WWE, meanwhile, has been dramatically reworking its rights deals since becoming TKO last year in its merger with Endeavor’s UFC. Most recently, Netflix inked a 10-year, $5 billion deal for Raw and the WWE’s international rights; SmackDown left Fox for USA Network (with some specials on NBC); and WWE NXT left USA for The CW.

WWE Speed, given its weekly cadence and short run time, is a smaller deal than those long-form programs, but it does suggest a willingness by the WWE to slice and slice rights and to look for new ways to add rights revenue since Endeavor acquired a controlling stake.

Last December, the WWE Speed concept debuted with a pilot that was taped before an episode of SmackDown. It included wrestlers from the main roster and NXT. Bronson Reed vs. Nathan Frazer and Cedric Alexander vs. Axiom were the matches that were filmed.

WWE Speed weekly series to stream on X beginning spring 2024

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A new weekly WWE series will debut on social media platform X in Spring 2024. 

WWE announced during Thursday’s WrestleMania 40 Kickoff event that WWE Speed will begin streaming exclusively on X this Spring. 

In the announcement, commentator Michael Cole detailed the Speed concept of matches of five minutes or less, and noted the property’s exclusivity to X, formerly Twitter.

The Hollywood Reporter added some details on the deal, noting that the series will stream 52 weeks a year and feature talent from all of WWE’s brands. 

No financial terms for the deal were revealed.

WWE filed for a trademark for WWE Speed on December 18, 2023. It also taped matches for the series at the December 15, 2023 SmackDown event. 

The WWE Speed was explained at that SmackDown event as follows: 

Matches have five-minute time limits. The winner of the match receives a point, the loser is docked a point, and if the bout goes to a time limit draw, no points are awarded. A five-minute countdown clock appears on the video wall during the contest.

Axiom vs. Cedric Alexander, plus Bronson Reed vs. Nathan Frazer were the first two matches at the December taping.

Video of the WWE Speed announcement from the WrestleMania Kickoff is embedded in the social media post below: 

Trademark filed for ‘WWE Speed’ concept

Posted on by Joseph Currier

After debuting last Friday, WWE has officially filed a trademark for its new “WWE Speed” concept.

Before SmackDown last week, two off-air matches with WWE Speed branding took place. The matches had five-minute time limits with a point system. Wrestlers gain one point with a victory, lose one point with a loss, and no points are awarded for time limit draws.

Bronson Reed vs. Nathan Frazer and Cedric Alexander vs. Axiom were the first two WWE Speed matches to take place. It appears that the matches were filmed, but no broadcast details have been announced for WWE Speed. It’s possible that this was a pilot for a potential new TV show or digital media series.

On Monday (December 18), WWE applied to trademark “WWE Speed” for the following purposes:

Entertainment services, namely, a show about professional wrestling; entertainment services, namely, the production and exhibition of professional wrestling events rendered through broadcast media including television and distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; providing wrestling news and information through broadcast media including television and distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; providing information in the fields of sports and entertainment through broadcast media including television and distributed via various platforms across multiple forms of transmission media; providing a website in the field of sports entertainment information

Corey Graves and Kevin Patrick did commentary for last Friday’s WWE Speed matches.

WWE Speed concept debuts at SmackDown taping

Posted on by Ethan Renner

WWE debuted a new concept at Friday’s SmackDown taping, WWE Speed. 

On WWE Speed, matches have five-minute time limits. The winner of the match receives one point, the loser of the bout is docked one point, and if the bout goes to a time limit draw, no points are awarded or deducted. A five-minute countdown clock appears on the video wall during the contest.

The Speed concept appears to be a TV show pilot or perhaps for a digital media property, as commentators Corey Graves & Kevin Patrick were calling the matches as if the show was being produced for broadcast. A WWE Speed logo was displayed on the video wall as well as the ring apron and ring posts during the taping. 

Axiom from NXT faced SmackDown’s Cedric Alexander in the concept debut at Friday’s taping in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Raw’s Bronson Reed vs. NXT’s Nathan Frazer was the other Speed match taped.