Columnist Rob Pasbani checks in and catches you up on all the news in the wrestling world this week from WWE, AEW and beyond.
WWE are in a bit of a summer cleaning mode, getting all their championship belts in order. A few weeks ago, Roman Reigns was awarded the new WWE Undisputed Universal Championships, and this week it was time for the women’s titles to get an upgrade. With the annual switching of the women’s champions between brands, calling the titles the Raw and Smackdown championships seemed outdated, so that’s all done.
On Smackdown, Asuka was presented with the new WWE Women’s Championship, which looks identical to the latest men’s Universal Championship, except this belt has a white strap. WWE’s color coding seems to indication black straps are for men’s titles and white straps are for women’s championships.
Here are some photos of Asuka’s title:
Yesterday, on Raw, Rhea Ripley was awarded her new title. The Women’s World Championship. It looks exactly like Seth’s World Championship, but again, with the white strap.
The only titles remaining to retain Raw and Smackdown branding would be the tag team championships, which are currently unified. I would assume those titles are getting an update very soon as well. Hopefully, it will be something unique and creative, as these women’s designs leave me a bit disappointed.
We have in our notes that this episode is not good. It’s the final episode before Halloween Havoc 1995 and the Hulk Hogan/Dungeon of Doom storyline hits an apex of corniness. Macho Man wrestlers through a serious injury in a worst match of the year candidate. We see the Nitro debut of “The Master,” in one of the most surreal segments in Nitro history. We learn the story of how Mr. J.L. came up with his name. We learn the top 10 reasons to watch WCW Monday Nitro.
Colin Young and Rob Pasbani are lifelong wrestling fans, and Jordan Olds is a newer fan who has never seen one episode of WCW Monday Nitro. Join the trio as we chronologically watch the entire series, week-by-week on our new show, Knotfest KNITRO.
WWE NXT is on tonight at 8pm on USA Network with this lineup:
AEW Dynamite is this Wednesday at 8pm on TBS:
Impact on Thursday at 8pm on AXS will feature the fall out from Against All Odds.
WWE Smackdown on Friday at 8pm has a loaded lineup:
AEW Collision, a new weekly show, premieres Saturday at 8pm on TNT:
Logan Paul will return to Raw next Monday, is he setting something up for Money In the Bank or Summerslam the following month?
Seth Rollins will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Finn Balor at Money in the Bank. The Men’s Money in the Bank bracket is complete with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Ricochet vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Butch vs. Damian Priest. The women’s match has one more entrant to be determined this Friday, but otherwise its ecky Lynch vs. Bayley vs. IYO SKY vs. Zoey Stark vs. Zelina Vega.
Last Friday, at Impact Wrestling’s Against All Odds show, longtime veterans Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin, known collectively as the Motor City Machine Guns both won gold! Sabin won the X-Division title for a record 9th time and Shelly won the big one, the Impact World Championship for the first time.
AEW producer BJ Whitmer has been fired after a domestic violence dispute. “B.J. Whitmer has been terminated following his arrest on domestic violence charges. While talent and staff are ultimately responsible for their own personal actions, this behavior is intolerable within AEW. AEW has reached out to offer support to those impacted by his behavior.”
Based on teases on weekend New Japan shows, expect IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA’s opponent to be revealed on this Wednesday’s Dynamite.
Billy Gunn revealed that AEW has reached out to Sean Waltman in an interview with Sportskeeda “I think we’ve tried to get Sean in here a couple of times. Things just didn’t work out but I think, if the time’s right, I think he would be a great asset because he still has huge popularity and everybody knows him and he’s such a good guy that he would not only help the younger talent as well as be a good representative for our company and he’d be amazing if we could get him here.”
Sammy Guevarra and Tay Melo revealed they are expecting a baby girl.
Mercedes Moné looks to have had some surgery or a cast placed on her ankle, which typically requires at least six week recovery. She said she’s on day six of recovery.
New Japan revealed the tournament blocks for their summer G1 tournament, which typically features some of the best wrestling of the year. The top two performers in each block will advance to an eight man tournament held over three days in the finals. I can’t wait!
A Block —
B Block —
C Block —
D Block —
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