Here is your news for November 23 2019
We're starting with some news from last night's SmackDown,
as the planned six-man-tag main event ended in chaos.
Originally set to be Roman Reigns, Shorty G and Mustafa Ali taking on King Corbin, Dolph Ziggler and
Robert Roode, it wasn’t long until the show was interrupted
by an invading Team RAW, led by Seth Rollins.
After jumping into the ring, Rollins quickly came to blows with his Shield-brother Roman Reigns, and
when the rest of Team RAW came out, team SmackDown also came down to even things up.
In a twist that looked like it came from the Monday Night Wars, Team NXT arrived by jeep, led by Triple
H, Shawn Michaels and the Road Dogg, in a similar style to DX's invasion fo WCW, over 20 years ago.
The brawl continued as the show went off the air, but after the cameras
stopped rolling, things went from bad to worse for King Corbin.
Hearing DX's theme plays, the group of renegades came out wearing NXT shirts, and after pretending to
add Corbin to their group, instead laid out the former Money in the Bank winner with their finishers.
Survivor Series is less than 48 hours away, but it seems that NXT
has the advantage going into the show, thanks to D-Generation X.
Also on SmackDown, fans got to see a brand new look for the Intercontinental
Championship, which was revealed by Sami Zayn.
The new black and gold design is the second championship re-design in two weeks, as last week's show
saw the Universal title get a new blue strap to represent the title's new home on SmackDown.
This is just the latest redesign of the title that debuted in September 1979, which Pat Patterson
quote-unquote "won" in a fictional tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
Interestingly, the newly-retired design, featuring the white strap, was brought
back in late 2011, by none other than AEW Vice President Cody Rhodes.
Nakamura will take on US Champion AJ Styles and NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong in
non-title action this Sunday at Survivor Series, and qualified for the match back at July's Extreme Rules
event, where he defeated Finn Balor to win his first IC Title.
WWE Shop didn't waste time in taking orders for the title, which is currently
available for $430, but won't be ready until December 12th.
With the fact that the title was ready to be pre-ordered immediately, its clear the WWE had this design
planned for a while, as we can't help but wonder what title will be changed next.
With this week's episode of Smack Down being held in Chicago, there were plenty
of CM Punk chants by the crowd, but for once, that wasn't a bad thing.
When AJ Styles, flanked by Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows appeared during the show, the
Phenomenal One said that he's the best thing going in Chicago, and after a Punk chant
broke out, responded saying "I would mop the floor with him, so shut up."
A clever impromptu response by Styles, its interesting that AJ would cut the chant so quickly
as fans continue to speculate on another match for the Best in the World.
Punk has already had a major effect since his return a couple of weeks ago, as it seems Seth Rollins
has taken Punk's advice about Twitter, and has stop bringing up a match between the two.
After a series of tweets from the Architect wanting to fight Punk, Rollins has kept quiet online, but did
an interview with 101WKQX about his relationship with Punk, saying:
“Here’s someone who’s been in the doldrums for the last few years because he got his butt kicked in the
Octagon so bad he didn’t want to show his face anywhere, now he shows back up on a WWE show. It’s
called WWE Backstage. You can say it’s an FS1 show all you want, which it is, and you may be paid by
FOX, but that show doesn’t exist without our company, the company that you left five years ago.
So, say whatever you want, play it however you want, That’s what Punk always does. But at the end of
the day, if he wants to come on a show and run his mouth about me and about a company that he has
no part of for the last five years, then of course I’m gonna stand up for it. This is a place that has given
me everything that I’ve ever wanted in my life, not only for me, but it’s provided me a living for my
family, for people that I love, that I care about. And of course, I’m going to have its back. I’m not going to
sit here and let you push it around and push me around and act like you’re so cool. You couldn’t bust a
cherry in a fruit fight, dude. So, I want to make some money. So, if CM Punk wants to talk all the smack in
the world, I’ve invited him a million times to now come to my ring, come to my domain on live television
where you can’t hide behind anything. No desk and come. Let’s do this thing,
man. Let’s fight. Let’s fight it out like men.
... So, the bottom line is, wherever whenever he wants to do the thing, if he wants to man up and do it -
I’m there. For me, the only place this match happens is WrestleMania in the main event, because that’s
the only reason I’m picking a fight with him.”
Rollins' actions on Twitter this year hasn't helped him get over with the crowd, and now it seems that
the best way to get fans to support him again is to turn him heel, and have a match with Punk at
WrestleMania 36 next year.
Back to SmackDown now, and Daniel Bryan may have called out The Fiend during tonight's show, but
instead got his old foe and NXT mentor The Miz.
Not only did Miz slap the Yes! Man, but the two had a match,
which it looked like Bryan was going to win.
After a Yes! chant with the Chicago crowd, Bryan attempted a running knee, but was trapped by the
Fiend, who applied the Mandible claw.
Bryan and Wyatt have faced off plenty of times in the past, but this was before the Fiend, and fans
should expect a fantastic match this Sunday at Survivor Series.
One person fans shouldn't expect is ACH, as the former Jordan Myles is gone from WWE, but is also
looking at getting other black Superstars out of the company.
A tweet of the NXT Breakout Super star winner signing his departure papers was commented on by AEW
star Big Swole, but ACH said he wanted to get her husband out of WWE as well.
For any of you who don't know, Swole is married to Cedric Alexander, and whilst the former
Cruiserweight Champion hasn't commented publicly on the matter
both he and Swole did like ACH's tweet.
Brad Shepard is reporting that WWE are aware of this and are
keeping tabs on what ACH says on social media.
Alexander received a short, nice push earlier this year, after being signed in 2016, following huge
"Please Sign Cedric" chants during the Cruiserweight Classic.
A former Cruiserweight and 24/7 Champion, hopefully WWE can figure out a way to elevate him,
as we too will be keeping a close eye on this situation.
We've got a Big SPOILER alert next, so if you don't want to hear about it, we recommend you skip
ahead a minute in this video:
WWE is holding Survivor Series weekend this Sunday, and it seems that Triple H's promise of an epic
surprise may have been found out.
Mike Johnson of PW Insider has reported that the company has re- signed John Morrison to a deal, and
he very could well be a part of team NXT, both at tonight's War Games event, or tomorrow night
Survivor Series.
At WarGames, the team of Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic and Tommaso Ciampa is missing a fourth man
to battle the Undisputed Era, which could be Morrison's return.
If that happens, it makes sense that Morrison could also be a part of this Sunday's Survivor Series event,
but it seems we'll have more answers this time tomorrow.
On SmackDown, the road to Survivor Series continued, as Rhea Ripley was confirmed to be the captain
of NXT's women's team for the event.
In cross-brand action, Ripley faced off against RAW captain Charlotte Flair and SmackDown captain
Sasha Banks, which saw Ripley pin the queen who had Banks locked in the figure-eight.
Ripley appeared alongside Tegan Nox, Candice LeRae, Mia Yim and Toni Storm, though it wasn't
confirmed if they were her partners.
Nox, LeRae and Yim will also be a part of Team Ripley at WarGames, when they face Shayna Baszler, Io
Shirai, Bianca Belair and Kay Lee Ray, in the Women's WarGames match tonight.
Charlotte will be joined by Natalya, Asuka, Kairi Sane & Sarah Logan as Team Raw at Survivor Series,
while Banks, Carmella, Dana Brooke, Lacey Evans & Nikki Cross will be on Team SmackDown.
We've got some AEW news for you now, as Cody Rhodes' first match since coming up short at Full Gear
will take place this Wednesday on Dynamite, though his opponent hasn't been revealed.
At Full Gear, Cody promised that if he lost, he would never challenge for the AEW World title again, but
sadly came up short against Chris Jericho, when MJF threw in the towel for his so-called friend.
After the match, MJF turned heel and low-blowed Rhodes, showing the entire friendship to be a ruse.
Appearing on the post-Full Gear episode of Dynamite, Cody brawled with both Jericho and MJF, but the
debuting Wardlow quickly dismantled the exhausted AEW Vice President.
In addition to Cody's first match back, this Wednesday's Dynamite from the Sears Center will see Jericho
defend his title against Scorpio Sky, Kenny Omega face PAC in an All Out rematch
and Hangman Page face MJF.
Page and MJF were the final two in the Dynmaite Dozen battle royal on the most recent episode of
Dynamite, and the pair will wrestle in the finals, for a diamond ring.
The Sears Center also hosted All In in September last year, and All Out in August this year, so fans should
expect big things when AEW returns home.
It's no secret that AEW has done a lot of big things in their efforts to provide an alternative to WWE, but
on this week's latest show, things went a step too far.
During the Dynamite Dozen Battle Royal, Jimmy Havoc brought out a staple gun, which didn't sit well
with AEW management, as they fined him $10,000, and will continue to fine him the same amount for
any further uses.
It looks like Havoc will need to figure out a new favourite toy, as the Staple gun is finished, which will be
great news for Billy Gunn, who took a staple in the bathing suit area, this week.
We've focussed alot of WWE and AEW today, but there is also the NWA, which continues to feel the
backlash of the comments made by Jim Cornette during a recent episode of Powerr.
During the show, Cornette compared the hunger for success of Trevor Murdoch, to starving Ethiopians
chasing a man with Fried Chicken, which was seen as many as playing on the racist stereotype of black
people loving fried chicken.
years, as he said on his Jim Cornette Experience podcast:
"Someone said, 'If he hadn't said chicken, it would have been fine.' Well, a bucket of chicken sounds
funnier than a f****ing plate of sushi or ham sandwich. So it happened to be that, because it was funny.
Ethiopia is a place where people are f***ing starving. It's a starvation joke. Not a race joke. Whether it
was a good joke or bad joke, it was a joke that's been told on TBS, USA Network, broadcast TV stations
across America for the past 30 years."
Cornette continued down this rabbit hole, before half apologising to people who were only partly
offended, as it seems that the controversial commentator won't be seen in the NWA
for at least many years, if ever again.
One person who Cornette may have to apologise to more is Mark Henry, who seemingly didn't believe
that Cornette was sorry about what he had said.
Speaking to TMZ, Henry spoke about what Cornette said, and said he was
hurt by the comments, adding:
“As much as I can say, I’m disappointed and I hope that he can try to fix this. But, some
people just don’t like people of color.”
“I would say, ‘Jim … please apologize, and mean it. And if you don’t mean it, then go all the way Darth
Vader and tell I just don’t like black people.”
Henry would later equate the concept of losing Jim as a friend to having a mother or father dis-own you,
as it seems the World's Strongest Man isn't ready to accept what Cornette has said.
We're looking ahead to next month now, and though many families will be resting on Boxing Day with
their bellies still stuffed with food, the Superstars of WWE will be appearing in Madison Square Garden.
Returning to the World's most famous arena for a Live event, the show has some interesting matches
lined up, with Erick Rowan taking on Seth Rollins.
Rusev and Bobby Lashley will also continue their feud into the holidays, whilst the WWE Women's Tag
Team Champions the Kabuki Warriors will face Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in tag title action.
Though these are the only matches annouced, the show will also see stars like Randy Orton, AJ Styles
and the OC, Rey Mysterio, Drew McIntyre, Kevin Owens and the Street Profits all appear
and the former NXT Tag Champions will be making their MSG debut.
WWE has a lot of history inside the Worlds Most Famous Arena, and this is a great gift for the fans in
New York, just one day after Christmas.
And finally today we're looking at the results from SmackDown we didn't cover earlier, as the road to
Survivor Series is nearly at an end.
The Undisputed Era will certainly have a busy weekend, competing at both WarGames and Survivor
Series, but the quartet helped build momentum, with a victory over the New Day and Heavy Machinery.
When SmackDown Women's Champion Bayley called out NXT Women's Champion Shayna
Baszler for a fight, the former Hugger actually wanted to get the jump on the Queen of Spades
but this didn't go according to plan.
Whilst Bayley was able to get the jump on the top dog in NXT's women's division, Bazler battled
back, twice locking in the Kirifuda Clutch on one of her opponents this Sunday.
Able to break free, Bayley slammed Bazler into the guard rail to escape, and we can't help but think
RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch was watching the action unfold with great interest.