Tragically Jesus Alfonso Huerta Escoboza, the second version of the iconic La Parka character, passed away yesterday. He had suffered severe head and neck injuries that occurred at a Kaoz Lucha Libre show at Arena Coliseo in Monterrey back in October. During a suicide dive attempt, he would hit his head on the barricade and then the floor. He was rushed to a local hospital and had only been able to leave three weeks ago. He had been staying at a property owned by AAA would have also been covering all of his medical costs, estimated to be more than $150,000. The cause of death has officially been listed as lung and kidney failure. His career had begun in 1987, and really took off when he became Karis La Momia in 1995, and then La Parka Jr. when the original La Parka was regularly working for WCW. He would later become known as La Parka or La Parka II. He ended up headlining six TripleMania’s throughout his career. We understand that later today, in his hometown of Hermosillo, his wake will take place, and he will be cremated on Monday.
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Tessa Blanchard was expected to become the first Female Impact Wrestling World Champion at tomorrow’s Hard To Kill PPV when she wrestles Sami Callihan. That, though, has been cast into doubt after her peers have made some serious accusations against her.

It started after Tessa Blanchard, who is the daughter of WWE Hall of Famer Tully Blanchard, posted the below tweet earlier today.

This seemingly innocuous tweet angered some of her fellow wrestlers who felt she was being disingenuous. You can read their comments below.

The victim of the racist abuse would confirm these allegations herself on Twitter.

We now wait to see if Impact Wrestling decides to cancel or postpone plans to put the title on Blanchard as this story picks up steam.

It needs to be noted that Blanchard has refuted these allegations with the below tweet.

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In Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, he has reported that Becky Lynch had signed a new deal in 2019 worth $1 million a year. It’s believed to be for 5-years, which is typically what WWE is offering at the moment.

Becky Lynch would go on Twitter and Meltzer’s report with the below tweet.

We’ve therefore made some checks to try and clarify, and can confirm Lynch HAS signed a new deal. Why she denies it is pure speculation on our part, but likely because her contract is part of her storyline with Asuka, and she is keeping kayfabe.

Alternatively, it’s also possible she wants to discredit Dave Meltzer, who her fiance Seth Rollins dislikes and has accused of reporting an inaccurate story about him previously.

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Last week’s Wednesday Night War wasn’t a fair fight because NXT put on a 2019 highlight show with awards. This week though, the wars resumed, and Dynamite had 947,000 average viewers (down 20k from last week) to NXT’s 731,000 average viewers (up 183,000 from last week).

This takes the score to 10-3-1 in AEW’s favor.

AEW President and CEO Tony Khan took to Twitter to celebrate the success.

This week AEW Dynamite included Page and Omega beat Private Party, Riho retained her AEW Women’s Championship over Kris Statlander, Cody and Dustin Rhodes beat The Lucha Brothers, and Jon Moxley made his decision regarding joining the Inner Circle.

NXT was the start of the Dusty Rhodes tag team classic, had NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm, and Candice LeRae beating Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair, and Io Shirai. Plus Keith Lee is defeated Cameron Grimes, Damian Priest, and Dominik Dijakovic.

Next week’s battle will be fascinating with AEW in the ascendancy and have their Bash at the Beach episode.

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With the news that WWE is bringing an alternative to their iconic ice cream bars back to retailers, you would have thought CM Punk would have been celebrating yesterday. That though doesn’t seem to be the case, as The Miz’s WWE Backstage appearance appears to have triggered him big time.

As WWE Backstage was ending the Miz said:

Oh yeah, we are now done with WWE Backstage. They’re taking the microphones off of me, it was great, it was amazing. I feel like this was the best WWE Backstage ever. Name one that was better. Sorry, sorry I didn’t change the culture, my bad, my bad.
The Miz

This was a direct shot at CM Punk, who said he was there to change the culture on the first episode of the show he appeared on.

An agitated CM Punk would take to Twitter with the below tweet aimed at The Miz. He would go on to delete it approximately 45 minutes later, but not before screenshots were taken.

It isn’t a big secret that CM Punk dislikes The Miz. He resents the fact he main evented WrestleMania 27 instead of him, and obviously still holds a grudge. Ironically though The Miz didn’t actually attend the last Saudi Arabia show, so it wasn’t the best issue to go after him for.

It’ll be interesting to see how FOX, who CM Punk is working for, and the WWE react to CM Punk’s outburst.

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With Vince McMahon’s new XFL kicking off Saturday, February 8th, the organization has announced its rules and clarified the differences between theirs and the NFL.

You can read them in detail at xfl.com/rules. But we’ve listed a brief summary below.
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  • There will be no coin toss as the home team will pick who kicks off. During overtime, the visiting team chooses.
  • Kickoffs are from the 30-yard line. Any ball that bounces out of bounds will go to the 45-yard line.
  • After scoring a touchdown, teams will have no opportunity to kick for an extra point. Instead, teams have the option for a single point play from the two-yard line, a two-point play from the three-yard line, or a three-point play from the ten-yard line.
  • In overtime, each team will have five single-play possessions from the five-yard line. They will keep going until there is a winner.
  • Forward passes will be allowed twice in each play.
  • One foot in bounds counts for a possession.
  • There will be nine officials during a game.
  • Reviews of a play can be done after calls inside five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
  • Offensive linemen will be allowed to go two yards downfield when a pass is thrown.
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    It appears that these changes have been done to speed up the game, increase scoring and avoid overtime, and ultimately differentiate the XFL from the NFL.

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    Children of the 80’s will remember WWF ice cream bars fondly. Each bar had the image of WWF superstar, such as Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Jake Roberts. They continued until the late 2000’s featuring The Rock and Steve Austin until they were discontinued.

    In 2011, CM Punk mentioned them during a promo on Raw and requested Vince McMahon bring them back. Punk would go on to have a t-shirt released featuring the bars, and a picture of CM Punk holding one was the official poster of TLC 2011.

    When Punk left WWE, though, so did talk of the product. That was until now because Good Humor is bringing them back as cookie sandwiches featuring Randy Savage, John Cena, Becky Lynch, and Roman Reigns.

    You can read more about the upcoming product and check avalaible locations when released at GoodHumor.com.

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    Unlike Jushin Liger, the former world champion didn’t get a big send-off. Instead, he confirmed it on Twitter in reply to a tweet.

    Nash last wrestled in 2018 for Big Time Wrestling. Before that, he wrestled twice in 2016 and seven times in 2015, all for independent companies.

    Two years ago, Nash underwent serious knee surgery to correct a problem that had hampered him for the previous 30 years. It would seem that surgery is what effectively ended his career.

    It isn’t all doom and gloom though for Nash. He is currently preparing to film a movie titled “Chick Fight,” along with Bella Thorne and Alec Baldwin. He is also going to inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for a second time, this time as part of the nWo along with Hulk Hogan, Scott Hall, and X-Pac.

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    New Year Dash is the equivalent of the Raw after WrestleMania, and this year it opened with the retirement ceremony of Jushin “Thunder” Liger.

    Liger, real name Keiichi Yamada, debuted in 1983, had wrestled his final yesterday at Wrestle Kingdom 14 tagging with hand-picked partner Naoki Sano losing to Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee.

    The ceremony began with Liger entered the ring, followed by numerous other wrestlers, and was presented flowers by Tanahashi. Liger was then left in the ring until Okada entered with CHOAS and presented Liger with flowers.

    From there, New Japan’s chairman and president entered and gave more flowers. They were followed by Liger’s wife and son, who gave him flowers, followed by a video message from Antonio Inoki.

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    Liger then made a goodbye speech you can watch below. He thanked his mother, his wife and son, and the fans. Then there was a ten bell salute.

    After this, in a clearly unplanned moment, Tanashshi requested the crowd sang Liger’s entrance music. Liger would then wave to the audience, walk up the stage, and bow before exiting.

    It was a fantastic send-off and genuinely deserved for a legend of the wrestling world. His record of 11 IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship’s will likely never be beaten.

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    Tonight at “ICW: No Holds Barred” deathmatch wrestler Nero Butcher, best known for his role in the movie “The Wrestler” took on Shlak. Following the brutal match, Necro Butcher would take off his “Choose Death” shirt and hand it to Shlak, signifying he was passing the deathmatch torch to him.

    You can watch this below.

    Necro Butcher previously retired in 2016 but has returned to the ring for five matches throughout 2019.

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    Ahead of his headlining match against Tanahashi at Japan’s biggest wrestling show of the year Wrestle Kingdom 14, Chris Jericho was interviewed by SI.com.

    On His match against Hiroshi Tanahashi he told them:

    “I wanted to work with Tanahashi last year, when I attacked Naito in Korakuen Hall, I wanted to attack Tanahashi, but Gedo wanted it to be Naito, which turned out to be great. This is a main-event, money match, and there is a lot of buzz about it. I just watched the match Tanahashi had with Kenny from last year in the Tokyo Dome, and it was amazing.”

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    On his future with New Japan, and wrestling in general he said:

    “I’m really excited for the opportunity. Tanahashi is one of the biggest stars in the business ever.”

    “I came to work with Omega, Naito, Okada, and Tanahashi. Will I come back after the Tana match? I don’t know. I’d love to work with Ospreay and Ibushi. It might be mission accomplished after this, it might not, but it’s really cool to go back as a main event heavyweight after being a junior heavyweight.”

    “How much longer am I going to wrestle? I have no fucking idea. I just go day by day, month by month, and whatever I feel, the instinct is usually correct.”

    And on reinventing himself after leaving WWE:

    “It’s hard to leave all the old gimmicks and catchphrases, and take a chance, but if you don’t do that, it’s like DX coming to the ring in 2019 and yelling ‘Suck it!’ It looks like a relic from the past, and I never wanted to be that.”

    “If I was still in the WWE, I would still have to be doing ‘The List,’ and it would feel so old.”

    “Y2J feels like a lifetime ago. There are still people that chant it sometimes, but to me, it’s like going to a Johnny Depp movie, and he’s playing Captain Jack Sparrow, but you’re chanting for 21 Jump Street. It’s two completely different characters, played by the same guy, but one character is old, and one is new.”

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    You can read the full interview at SI.com, and watch Chris Jericho take on Hiroshi Tanahashi at Day 2 of Wrestle Kingdon via Fite.tv.

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    Because it was Christmas Day, there was no episode of Dynamite for the Wednesday Night Wars last week. But the battle resumed this week with AEW comfortably winning.

    With NXT being a 2019 highlight show with awards, they were expected to lose, but it was unexpected that AEW Dynamite would win by so many viewers. Dynamite had 967,000 average viewers, to NXT’s 548,000 average viewers. In the 18-49 demo, it was AEW with 467,000, against NXT with 195,000

    AEW featured AEW Women’s Champion Riho defeating Hikaru Shida, Nyla Rose, and Britt Baker. Jon Moxley defeated Trent, Jericho offering Moxley the change to run The Inner Circle with him, and Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks beating Pac and The Lucha Brothers.

    AEW was always expected to win this week, but by such a margin is impressive. Add the fact the Rose Bowl did 16 million viewers and the Sugar Bowl 10 million, and AEW and TNT executives will be smiling today.

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