WrestlingRumors.net

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Rumor Killer: He Would Know Best. Rusev Seems To Shoot Down Recent Rumor
About His Absence.

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 08:55 PM PDT https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/rumor-killer-know-best-rusev-seems-shoot-recent-rumor-absence/


The Rusev way. Things have not been going very well for WWE over the last
few months. Fans have not been responding positively to everything that is presented to them on television and it isn’t hard to see why. Part of this is due to a lot of people not being on the shows and as it turns out, the reason given for one of the absences may be inaccurate.

On Friday, Rusev posted on Twitter that dirt sheets had been given the
wrong information. While not confirmed, this would seem to be in regard to Rusev missing recent television due to asking for time off. When asked
what he did on Tuesday night instead, Rusev said that he was attending a baseball game. Rusev’s last appearance was at Super ShowDown, with his
most recent match on SmackDown Live taking place on April 16.

You have been fed the wrong information, Dirt sheets.

- Here comes THE PUSH (@RusevBUL) June 21, 2019



I went to a baseball game @nashvillesounds https://t.co/G2dzH1gDOi

- Here comes THE PUSH (@RusevBUL) June 20, 2019



And here is that match. Check out a six man tag from April:
[This post contains video, click to play]


Opinion: The more I thought about this, the less sense that it made. How
much time off did Rusev need when he hadn’t exactly been on television all that much of late anyway? On top of that he wrestled on the European tour
and at Super ShowDown. If nothing else, given how many people are also
missing from television as of late, is it that surprising that Rusev is
missing too?

Do you miss having Rusev on television? What do you want to see him do
when he gets back? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The post Rumor Killer: He Would Know Best. Rusev Seems To Shoot Down
Recent Rumor About His Absence. appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.


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(VIDEO): They Need To Expand. Top Indy Wrestler Doesnt Know About AEW And
CM Punk Comments.

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 08:14 PM PDT https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/video-need-expand-top-indy-wrestler-doesnt-know-aew-cm-punk-comments/


I guess he isn’t a fan. Ever since the announcement of AEW, fans have been trying to find a way to get CM Punk involved, even if Punk himself does not seem interested. It seems like a natural fit except for that one detail.
Punk has not wrestled in over five years and there is a strong chance he
never will again. It is now to the point where Punk is seemingly not even
sure of what fans are talking about.

In a recent clip on Twitter, Ring of Honor wrestler Marty Scurll tries to recruit AEW wrestler Joey Janela to join his Villain Enterprises group.
Janela declines, because he is under contract to AEW. Scurll isn’t sure what’s going on, asking “What the **** is AEW?” Punk responded on Twitter,
saying he asks the same thing anytime anyone asks him about it as well.

The initial video:
[This post contains video, click to play]

And the reaction:

I ask myself this same question, like, every time someone tweets me.

- CM Puck? (@CMPunk) June 22, 2019



Opinion: Can you blame Punk for going to this much sarcasm? Fans have been asking him about it time after time and just will not accept no for an
answer. Is it that hard to believe that a forty year old Punk who has been
out of the ring for nearly five and a half years just does not want to
wrestle anymore? I’m sure the door would be open if he wanted to and maybe he would, but how many times does he have to say no?

Do you think Punk will wrestle again? Do you want him to? Let us know in
the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The post (VIDEO): They Need To Expand. Top Indy Wrestler Doesnt Know About
AEW And CM Punk Comments. appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.


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The Days Of Our Wrestling Lives. AEW May Have Dropped A Big Hint About
Their Upcoming Television Show.

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 08:09 PM PDT https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/days-wrestling-lives-aew-may-dropped-big-hint-upcoming-television-show/


What’s in a name? AEW has only run one event and their momentum is very
high at the moment. Fans want to see where things are going to go and
after two more stand alone shows over the summer and All Out in August, it should be time for the debut of their weekly TV series. We might not know
much about the show just yet, but there is a chance we just learned
something.

According to PWInsider, AEW recently applied for a trademark for Wednesday Night Dynamite. While not confirmed, it would suggest that this will be
the name for their weekly television show and that the show will of course
take place on Wednesday night. AEW had previously tried to trademark the
name Tuesday Night Dynamite but were unable to for various reasons.

You might see something like this on the new show. Check out an ad for one
of the biggest matches the company has had so far:
[This post contains video, click to play]


Opinion: I could have gone for Thursday rather than Wednesday but this
works out well. It should be interesting to see what happens to WWE’s WWE Network programming as it could be taking place at the same time or could
be moved over to another night. AEW certainly seems to have everything
ready for them, though they need to actually make it work, which is the
real challenge.

Will the show work on Wednesdays? Do you like the name? Let us know in
the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The post The Days Of Our Wrestling Lives. AEW May Have Dropped A Big Hint About Their Upcoming Television Show. appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.


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(Really Cool Video): Mick Foley Attends A Wrestling Wedding With Promos And
A Bunch Of Mandible Claws

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 08:05 PM PDT https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/really-cool-video-mick-foley-attends-wrestling-wedding-promos-bunch-mandible-claws/


That’s certainly a unique one. There have been wedding angles in wrestling for decades now and they’re not going away. The idea works because it’s something normal people do every single day so why shouldn’t wrestling characters do it as well? As it turns out, wrestling fans get involved in weddings, and sometimes they involve wrestling in their weddings. In this case, it was quite a unique one.

Over the weekend, indy wrestlers Victor Benjamin and Lady Frost were
married. The wedding included Mick Foley as a guest and an angle broke
out. During the reception, Benjamin said that no one liked Foley and the groomsmen opened their shirts to reveal shirts of various other wrestlers.
Lady Frost and the bridesmaids pulled out socks and applied Mandible Claws
to the groomsmen, with Foley getting in on the act as well.

This isn’t something you see every day. Check out the video of the
incident at the reception:
[This post contains video, click to play]

Opinion: Dang it why didn’t I get to do this at my wedding? This is some people getting to have some fun with what they love in something they’ll never forget. That’s a great idea and something that people don’t get to say they’ve done very often. I hope the couple has a great life together because it’s clear that they love each other enough to do something goofy
and fun like this.

What is your favorite wedding angle? Who is your favorite wrestling
couple? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The post (Really Cool Video): Mick Foley Attends A Wrestling Wedding With Promos And A Bunch Of Mandible Claws appeared first on WrestlingRumors.net.


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Stomping Grounds 2019 Preview, Predictions And Thoughts

Posted: 22 Jun 2019 06:44 PM PDT https://wrestlingrumors.net/tommyhall/stomping-grounds-2019-preview-predictions-thoughts/


I know I say this a lot, but who in the world is actually looking forward
to this show? It’s little more than a mixture of Super ShowDown and Money
in the Bank rematches and that’s not exactly the kind of show I’m interested in seeing. Throw in what is likely to be a bunch more rematches
next month at Extreme Rules and we could be in for a bad one. Let’s get to it.
Cruiserweight Title: Tony Nese(c) vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Drew Gulak

I know it’s not on the Kickoff Show yet but are you really expecting
anything else? 205 Live has turned from an afterthought/joke into one of
the most entertaining hours of TV you get from WWE every week. Nese hasn’t been the best champion, but it’s clear that he’s trying and is caught in a bad situation with all of the promotions to the main roster (all of which
were COMPLETELY necessary).

I think they’ll go with Nese retaining here as it seems that they’re interested in making him feel like a big time champion. Winning against the odds is a great way to go about doing that and he could pin Tozawa without hurting the new version of Gulak. I’m not sure who takes the title off of Nese, but he’s completely outperformed my expectations for his reign so
far. Nese wins in a pretty good match.

Two of these guys have fought before:
[This post contains video, click to play]
SmackDown Women’s Title: Bayley(c) vs. Alexa Bliss

This one scares me for multiple reasons. I like Bliss more than most but I
feel so sorry for Bayley. They’ve made her more serious this time around
and while it’s rehabbing her image, you can feel WWE’s itch to knock her down again because there’s nothing they love more than sabotaging their own work. You know, like a few weeks ago when they had Bayley get pinned in her hometown because that needed to happen.

I’m going with the hope spot here and say that Bayley retains, finally exorcising the demons of that kendo stick match from a few years ago. Bliss
has been something close to Bayley’s Kryptonite so a win here would mean a lot more for her. That and with Bliss’ history of concussions, do you
really want to see her have to get in the ring that often? Bayley should
win here, and for once she actually might.

They got started early:
[This post contains video, click to play]
SmackDown Tag Team Titles: Daniel Bryan/Rowan(c) vs. Heavy Machinery

These titles are the latest victims of the lack of time on the main shows
as Bryan and Rowan not only barely have anyone to face but they’re almost never on television in the first place. Heavy Machinery has at least won a
few squash matches to help get them here, but that doesn’t make this an interesting match. I’m sure it will be fine based on who is in there,
though that’s about the extent of the positives here.

I’ll go with the champions retaining and then going into a deep freeze for
at least another month before we get to some more challengers. The tag
division on SmackDown could be fine but instead we get this one off
(likely) match because the titles just aren’t important enough to put on
the show for more than a few minutes a week. It’s still better than the Intercontinental Title though, which might as well not exist these days.

The big guys know how to win titles:
[This post contains video, click to play]
United States Title: Samoa Joe(c) vs. Ricochet

I don’t think it’s any secret that things have not been going well for WWE as of late from a creative standpoint. The fans haven’t been interested in the stories and everything seems like it’s a mess. Then you get something like this though and it shows that WWE knows what they’re doing. Ricochet
won a series of matches and then won a #1 contenders match to set up a
match that sounds rather good, at least on paper.

I’ll take Samoa Joe to retain here, but in what is probably the most interesting match of the night. There’s something about this match that sounds good, though I’m worried about WWE not giving it the time that it needs for a good performance. Ricochet fighting from underneath and
eventually getting caught in the Koquina Clutch can make for a great
underdog story, which is where Ricochet excels. Please don’t screw this up
as it’s about all we have.

(Number) One and Only (Contender):
[This post contains video, click to play]
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre

And now we get to the point where Extreme Rules messes with things. This is going to be more about Shane McMahon, because that’s what the promotion is focused on at the moment. Reigns doesn’t really have any need to fight McIntyre again after beating him at WrestleMania, but at least McIntyre hasn’t been shunted down the card since the initial loss.

That’s why I’m thinking McIntyre goes over here, albeit with help from McMahon. That allows Reigns to say he wants to get his hands on McMahon,
who can then make it a handicap match next month at Extreme Rules. Yeah are
you really expecting anything else? Then McMahon can pin Reigns (again) and probably set himself up as #1 contender for Summerslam, because that’s the world we might live in later this year. At least this should be hard
hitting and physical, but McMahon is going to wind up with the focus.

The Next To Last Word:
[This post contains video, click to play]
SmackDown World Title: Kofi Kingston(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ok let’s get through this before Ziggler makes me fall asleep again. I have no idea why we’re seeing this instead of something fresh/interesting like Shinsuke Nakamura or Rusev (yes I know he asked for time off) but hey, take whatever bad you can get I guess. I keep forgetting that this is inside a
cage, at least partially because we had a cage match at Money in the Bank
and that’s quite the turnaround for the same gimmick.

Kingston retains here, likely to set up ANOTHER match between these two,
though possibly with Kevin Owens/Sami Zayn involved at Extreme Rules. This
feud has had a lot to do with Kingston not being so well received as
champion and a lot of that is due to how lame of a challenger Ziggler is.
Just saying IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME over and over doesn’t make him
interesting and it’s not going to get him over his eternal plateau in main event matches here either. Kingston wins and I continue to wish for Ziggler
to get lost on an endless quest for salsa from the local PDQ.

How it all got started:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Raw Women’s Title: Becky Lynch(c) vs. Lacey Evans

Hey another rematch. The more I see of Evans, the more fascinated I am by
her. It’s not so much that she’s some kind of incredible performer, but you don’t get actual gimmicks very often these days and it’s rather refreshing to see one. Evans plays it well and her matches have been fine, but there’s not much you can do when you’re going up against Lynch these days without being named Charlotte.

Lynch retains here as they continue to set up something for her to do at
one of the bigger shows (hint: expect it to be Charlotte at Summerslam). We’re experiencing the downside to Lynch main eventing WrestleMania at the moment as there is no one in her league and that’s very clear.
Unfortunately that means a lot of waiting around for her to get a new arch nemesis and Evans isn’t going to fill that role. Lynch wins here and does
so without breaking much of a sweat.

Lynch threw first:
[This post contains video, click to play]
New Day vs. Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens

I like Owens and Zayn quite a bit, but why in the world do they suddenly
have to be together on EVERY show? Zayn’s critiques of the audience were
one of the best things about WWE and now they’re barely ever mentioned for the sake of Owens and Zayn teaming together again. It would be nice to see
them apart for loner than a month but that’s how WWE sees them. It’s certainly still effective, but I could go for trying something else.

Give me Owens and Zayn here, as they have to win something at some point.
I’m still holding out hope for New Day turning on Kingston to end his reign as the moment itself could be one of the most epic things WWE has done in a long time. The frustration needs to set in here though and Owens and Zayn beating them would go a long way towards that. Or New Day can win again as
WWE wonders why their villains are seen as weak.

Unhappy Canadians:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Raw World Title: Seth Rollins(c) vs. Baron Corbin

Oh I don’t care. I’m not even going to bother trying with this one because there is no reason to care. We’re likely getting a third match between
these two next month and the apathy will be even higher. These two don’t
have chemistry together and it doesn’t feel like an important feud because the winner gets to look over his shoulder for Brock Lesnar for the next
nine months.

Rollins retains as the guest referee, likely Lesnar himself, is unveiled at
the end of the match. Shenanigans allow Rollins to escape and he used the
chair again to survive a cash-in attempt, assuming Lesnar doesn’t change
his mind again. Either way, Corbin doesn’t win the title (yet) and the fans get to groan again when he weasels his way into a third title match in a
row next week on Monday Night Raw.

The champ got in a lot to start:
[This post contains video, click to play]
Overall Thoughts

The interesting thing here is that the undercard actually isn’t that bad.
The problem is the complete apathy towards the main events, which feel as tacked on and uninteresting as you can get. Neither match feels important
and the mystery of the guest referee isn’t enough to make me care about seeing Corbin vs. Rollins. Next month likely being even more between these
four isn’t making things any better either. Overall Stomping Grounds is a show coming in colder than ice cold and while some of the stuff could be
good, it’s a show that was put on for the sake of having a pay per view in June and that’s almost never a good idea.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen
over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since
2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 28
wrestling books. His latest book is the History Of In Your House.

Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up
for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES
to sign up. We are proud to offer our popular Wrestling Rumors app and encourage you to download it for an optimized user experience. It is
available for Android and also on iOS. Thank you for reading!

The post Stomping Grounds 2019 Preview, Predictions And Thoughts appeared
first on WrestlingRumors.net.

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