On Saturday night Kylie Rae was scheduled to face Impact Wrestling’s Knockout Champion Deonna Purrazzo. However, she was replaced by Su Yung at the event. Initially, it was thought Rae was injured as she had missed an indie show last weekend for apparently that reason. Now though, reports are coming out that Rae no-showed Bound For Glory.
According to Fightful Select, she drove to Nashville on Friday and contacted Impact Wrestling to confirm when she was required to attend on Saturday. She then didn’t turn up on Saturday for unknown reasons, and Impact Wrestling was forced to change her match. PWInsider has reported nobody at Impact Wrestling is prepared to discuss the situation with them, although Rae is still with the promotion and expected to return.
Kylie Rae became known to the wrestling masses when she signed with AEW in 2019 and debuted at Double or Nothing. She was booked for Fyter Fest but was replaced by Allie, and afterward, it came out she had requested her release, which AEW granted. Kylie Rae would later reveal that she needed to get her mind, body, and soul right with God.
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Impact Wrestling’s biggest show of the year, Bound For Glory, took place on Saturday night and was meant to be a memorable night in the career of Heath Miller, who wrestled as Heath Slater in WWE. The storyline was that if either Heath or Rhino won the 20 wrestler intergender Call Your Shot gauntlet match, Heath would get a full-time contract with the promotion. However, Heath, who was booked to win, suffered an injury resulting in the finish changing.
Obviously, in pain, Heath as holding stomach and was on the mat for several minutes. Impact Wrestling decided to call an audible, and Sami Callihan eliminated Heath, and instead, Rhino won the match.
Following the match, Heath would be hospitalized and tweeted the below photo, showing him receiving treatment. He was still at the hospital as of Sunday morning.
As of writing, it is unknown how serious his injury is, but it’s believed he suffered an abdomen tear or rupture. Impact Wrestling had big plans for Heath, so hopefully, he can make a speedy recovery for both parties.
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Ken Shamrock was officially inducted into the Impact Wrestling Hall of Fame tonight on the Bound For Glory pre-show. He joins the Sting, Kurt Angle, Jeff Jarrett, Earl Hebner, Gail Kim, Abyss, and Team 3D. Sadly, due to worldwide events, colleagues from Shamrock’s career couldn’t attend, but some did send in video messages. Bret Hart, Mick Foley, Chael Sonnen, Ariel Helwani, and Bas Rutten all paid tribute to Shamrock, and then The Rock’s video would induct him.
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Following The Rock’s video, Matt Striker introduced Shamrock. He would thank Nelson Royal, who got him into pro wrestling, Vince McMahon for the opportunity to wrestle in WWF (yes, he said WWF), and Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and The Rock for working with him. He finished his speech by thanking the fans.
Shamrock was previously inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2003, and he is likely to be the only man inducted into both a wrestling company hall of fame and the UFC Hall of Fame for many years.
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Nowadays, Hell in a Cell matches aren’t that special, but in the late 90s and early 2000s, they were some of WWE’s biggest matches. A big reason for that was the third Hell in a Cell match between The Undertaker and Mick Foley, which took place at 1998’s King of the Ring pay-per-view in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It featured two crazy bumps taken by Foley, who was wrestling as Mankind, and will forever be remembered for Jim Ross’ commentary where he declared, “Good God almighty! Good God almighty, that killed him!” and “As God as my witness, he is broken in half.”
Foley was legitimately knocked out during the match, and both The Undertaker and Terry Funk have stated they genuinely believed Foley was dead following the second bump through the roof of the cage. Now talking to Metro.co.uk, Foley has revealed that 22 years on, he is still financially feeling the effects of that bump.
I think it may have shortened my career.
Things did not work out like I’d have hoped. The cell collapsing when I was chokeslammed still has fallout for me! I just paid $425 to remove my bottom flipper – which are false teeth which were knocked out in that cell – and I’ll have to pay $15,000 or so to get those teeth fixed.
The popular belief is that the Hell in a Cell match established Mick Foley as a star in WWE, but it wasn’t until he introduced “Mr. Socko” and his subsequent feud with The Rock that he became a true main eventer. However, it is arguably the most famous match in wrestling history, and Foley has stated he doesn’t regret it.
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At WWE’s Night of Champions pay-per-view in 2015, Seth Rollins hit one of his signature moves, the Buckle Bomb on Sting. The move contributed to Sting needing surgery and his retirement. Many fans called for the move to no longer be used, considering it also injured Finn Balor when Rollins used a version of move outside the ring at SummerSlam 2016. The final straw came when Nia Jax botched the move on Kairi Sane during their match on the April 20th episode of Raw and WWE banned the move.
The issue with the Buckle Bomb is the person given the move can’t see where they are dropping their opponent, and the person receiving the move can’t protect themself. Now though, for reasons that haven’t been revealed, WWE has unbanned the move, and Rollins has added it back to his moveset, using it against Murphy on Friday’s SmackDown. For many years, WWE has been concerned with neck injuries and banned the piledriver for that very reason, so it is surprising to see the Buckle Bomb return given the high chance of injury.
This is the second time a move in Seth Rollins’ repertoire was unbanned, as previously WWE banned the Curb Stomp after Vince McMahon saw it in a video package on the Today Show. Vince McMahon would deem the move not appropriate to represent the WWE and made the call to change Rollins’ finisher. Obviously, at some point, Vince changed his mind, and the Curb Stomp was suddenly revived.
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Following SmackDown last night Daniel Bryan appeared as a guest on Talking Smack, and while talking to Booker T, he revealed that this is his last full-time run. Bryan’s current contract expires in September 2021, so it’s likely we’ll only get to see him as a weekly character up until then.
You can watch Bryan explain his decision below.
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It’s important to note that Bryan, who is only 39 said “full-time,” seemingly meaning he is open to performing on a part-time basis. He is also involved in creative for the SmackDown brand, and he may get more involved in that side of the business.
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AEW taped next week’s episode of Dynamite on Thursday, but apart from having to change a match in their World Championship Eliminator tournament, they also had a serious injury to deal with. The full details aren’t known, but it’s understood that during a match between Tay Conti and Abadon, the contest had to be abruptly ended, and Abadon was taken to hospital.
Due to the match not having a finish, it’s doubtful the match will air. Thankfully though, Dave Meltzer has reported that Abadon is expected to make a full recovery. She has also just posted on Twitter and didn’t mention an injury, which has to be a good sign.
Abadon started her time in AEW by wrestling in an enhancement role on AEW Dark, where she stood out with her unusual zombie gimmick that had social media buzzing. AEW wisely offered her contact, and she has since been receiving a push and has the potential to be a breakout star when she can return to the ring.
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On Wednesday night’s episode, Rey Fenix fought his brother Penta El Zero M in the first round of AEW’s World Championship Elimimintor tournament. It was one of the best matches that has aired on free television this year but sadly features Fenix landing on his head. He was able to finish the match as planned and told people backstage afterward he was OK and wanted to continue in the tournament. However, AEW’s physician Dr. Michael Sampson has decided not to let him take the risk.
AEW has acknowledged the situation and posted a video that you can watch below. In it, Eddie Kingston tells Fenix he can’t continue in the tournament while injured and needs to give his spot up for his brother, which Fenix seems to accept begrudgingly.
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Next Wednesday’s Dynamite, Kenny Omega will now wrestle Penta El Zero M, with the winner going on to the finals at Full Gear on November 7th. The match was actually taped on Thursday, but we won’t spoil the result for you, although apparently, it was great.
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Due to worldwide events, MLW was forced to go on hiatus, but between Sunday and Tuesday, the promotion was able to tape 16 weeks of television at the GILT nightclub in Orlando, FL. Excitingly for fans, amongst the usual talent were three wrestlers previously released by WWE over the last 12 months.
The three were Lio Rush, Shawn Daivari, and ACH, who competed as Jordan Myles in WWE. This was ACH’s return to MLW, while Lio Rush and Shawn Daivari were making their debuts. Daivari also doubled as a producer during the three days, a role he had in WWE.
As of writing, it hasn’t been confirmed if any of the three have signed contracts or will be part of their next big show, Battle Riot III, scheduled for December 5th.
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Brock Lesnar is no longer contracted to WWE, so he is now free to make any deals he sees fit. one of those deals has been with EA Sports, as from today, he is now available as a downloadable character in EA Sports UFC 4. To reveal this, EA Sports released the below trailer where Brock Lesnar declares that “This is my house, this is my home. The UFC is Brock Lesnar.”
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Lesnar has appeared in several UFC video games previously, but this will be his first appearance since 2014, and if fans want to get him for free, they have until October 29th. Lesnar last fought in UFC four years ago when he beat Mark Hunt at UFC 200. However, the result became a no-contest after he was flagged for an anti-doping violation. This resulted in Lesnar receiving a one-year suspension along with a $250,000 fine.
The fact alone he has been added to the game doesn’t mean much, although the fact he referred to UFC as “home” has resulted in speculation that a return to the Octagon could be in his future. A potential super-fight against Jon Jones has been rumored since it came out Lesnar’s WWE deal had expired, and perhaps it will happen in 2021.
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On 17th July, EC3’s non-compete clause with WWE was up, and he shared a seven-minute video called “THE NARRATIVE” on YouTube. It featured him fighting another man in a warehouse with people surrounding the ring and resembled a fight club. Then on 3rd August, WWE introduced Raw Underground, and EC3 doesn’t believe it was coincidental. In an interview with the ROH Strong Podcast, he’d explain he’d shared the idea with WWE initially when he was on NXT.
While working with the WWE, and even during my NXT run, I pitched this exact same thing about controlling my narrative, and this is what I wanted to do with the EC3 character, The day I was released was when I sent them a vignette with verbatim, the exact words I used in the video released online. While mine was shot in a real underground, this stuff was inauthentic and had no heart. When I saw Shane McMahon in the ring, it looked like manufactured, heartless, and desolate studio-based stuff.
The minute I sent them the video, I knew it was going to be stolen. I initially thought they would only steal parts of it, but I didn’t expect them to rip off the entire aesthetics.EC3
While the idea of a fight club isn’t exactly unique, the timing is questionable. You can watch a clip from EC3’s video below to compare for yourself.
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Raw Underground is currently on hiatus after an eight-week run. It did generate the ratings increase WWE had hoped for t the start, but fans were beginning to turn on the concept.
As for EC3, his post WWE career is going well. He just debuted on the October 19th episode of ROH Television and is currently being prominently featured in Impact Wrestling, where he will be facing Moose at this weekend’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view.
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Earlier this year, Jake Roberts was interviewed by FlipDaScript and wasn’t complimentary about Bret Hart or Shawn Michels. He would refer to them as “chumps” and that they were two of the worst world champions ever because they didn’t draw money. Seemingly these comments have finally gotten back to Hart, as he has now addressed them during his Confessions of the Hitman series.
He made some reference that we didn’t draw, which is always, I don’t know if that’s a fair view. If you look at any of the WrestleMania’s, WrestleMania 12, you can’t tell me, if you look at the crowd, that I didn’t draw. I mean, it was huge buyrates, and it was packed. Even Wembley with Bulldog was over 80,000 fans there. And to try to throw out, “Hey, you never drew?” I wrestled in front of 100,000 people in India.
I think it bothers me that someone like Jake, who never went to the gym. If he did go to the gym, he might do a set and then go smoke a cigarette outside. He was not a tough guy, was not a legit athlete, he was strictly a promo, and he was a great worker, a great pretend wrestler.
But all I know is that when my time came, and they picked me to be the champion, they chose me for whatever reason. I’m very happy that they chose me. I think I was a good choice. I certainly worked hard enough to get that opportunity. But Jake Roberts said something like we were too small and we and we never drew big numbers or anything like that, but I say in response to that, where was Jake Roberts?Bret Hart
Jake Roberts’ name often comes up in conversations about the greatest wrestlers to never become world champion. He never got a shot because his peak was during the time of Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. By the time WWE was forced to change direction and go with Bret Hart and later Shawn Michaels on top, Roberts’ career was in decline due to his personal demons.
While Bret Hart wasn’t a huge draw compared to Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin, he was on top during a period when the business was down due to no fault of his own. Given the circumstances, it’s highly unlikely anyone else would have done much better in the same spot.
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