Here is your news for January 17, 2020
We're kicking off with some potential big news, as The Under taker has been spotted at the
WWE Performance Center.
The Deadman has spent his time there speaking to the NXT Superstars and giving them advice,
but it is interesting that he's at the Center so close to the Royal Rumble Pay Per View.
It seems that there is a possibility for 'Taker to work this month's show, or possibly the Saudi
Arabia show that will take place in February.
The Phenom last wrestled at Extreme Rules in July, where he and Roman Reigns defeated Drew
McIntyre and Shane McMahon, and it'll be interesting to see what condition the former World
Champion is in, if he returns.
From WWE to Impact now, as new World Champion Tessa Blanchard has broken her silence on
allegations that she used racist language against another wrestler.
On January 11th, Allysin Kay accused Blanchard of using the N-Word against a wrestler, who
turned out to be La Rosa Negro, who claims Blanchard used that word against her in 2017.
Blanchard denied the allegations, but since then, other wrestlers have spoken about bullying
behavior by the Impact World Champion.
After remaining silent on the allegations following her title win at Hard to Kill, Blanchard posted
a statement on Thursday, where she flat-out denied using any racist language.
Interestingly, Blanchard did not address bullying allegations in the statement, and following her
victory at Hard to Kill admitted that "nobody is perfect" in a post-match promo.
It's hard to tell whether this was just part of her character, or in response to the allegations, but
it'll be interesting to see where the company goes from here.
Over to the Wednesday Night War and this week's Bash at the Beach- themed episode of
Dynamite averaged 940,000 viewers and a 0.38 rating in the 18-49 demographic, similar to the
week prior.
The latter number was good for fifth on the night on cable TV and was up six percent from last week.
As for, NXT, they suffered a 3% loss in viewers, averaging 700,000, though did score a 0.21 in the
18-49 demo, up 11% from last week, and the gold brand finished 31st on cable in the category.
As was the case early in the ratings war -- but had stopped leading into the holiday season --
AEW beat NXT in every demo except those over 50..
NXT had a very narrow win in that category, drawing a 0.35 rating to AEW's 0.34.
The biggest gap in the demographics was in men aged 18- 49, where AEW almost double NXT
with a 0.51, compared to 0.26.
The only major sports competition was an NBA game on ESPN that averaged 1.128 million
viewers. whilst News programs were up from their usual numbers.
One man who knows all about working in WWE as well as out of it is Rob Van Dam, and the
former WWE Champion is seemingly enjoying his recent divorce.
Not only does he have a girlfriend, but she has a girlfriend as well, though this relationship has
found impact in hot water.
Following a very steamy scene between the trio, Twitch pulled their affiliate status with Impact
and banned them, and there's no word on when the issue will be fixed.
Clearly, Van Dam's relationship got the attention of both the Internet Wrestling Community, as
well as some powerful folks at Twitch, but since Impact found AXS TV as their new TV network,
losing Twitch may not be a big deal.
With that said, Twitch was still a platform where fans could enjoy the show, and now it seems
that Van Dam's triple threat in the bedroom got them banned.
Back to WWE now, and two weeks ago, Sheamus returned to Smack Down, and the Irish
Superstar has picked up where he left off as a singles mid-card star.
Returning in a look very similar to his early years, WWE Creative and Sheamus went back and
forth on how to present him and one idea was flat-out terrible, as Sheamus described:
“I get back and I got these note books of ideas from creative, with like a small mustache and
suspenders, and hair pushed over to the side. One of them looked exactly like Jack Gallagher,
who’s on 205 Live, I was like ‘You know we have someone who looks exactly like this here. You
know that, right?’. It was just like man, if I do any of those pictures I’d be done. I’d be toast. The
slagging I would have got, just from my Granny. It would have terrible.”
It's interesting that no-one in Creative picked up that the new look was a rip-off Gallagher, and it
leaves us wondering whether the writing team watch 205 at all.
Sheamus also asked whether he could bring back his old entrance music, but this was denied,
and what do you think the WWE should do next with Sheamus, leave an answer in the
comments below.
Over to RAW now, and after Mojo Rawley became 24/7 Champion this week, the hyped-
Superstar has now said he wants to legitimize the gold.
In a minute-long video that shows Mojo cleaning the title,
the Andre the Giant battle Royal winner proved he can cut a decent promo
on his own and teased something big for this week's RAW.
Time will tell what Mojo has planned with the gold but expect something interesting from the
new 24/7 Champion.
More title news now, and we all know WWE has plenty of titles across their brands, but it looks
like the WWE United Kingdom title will soon get a name change.
According to PW Insider, the company is considering changing the title that is currently held by
Walter, as they said:
"There’s been a lot of talk of late that the WWE UK Championship, currently held by WALTER,
will be rechristened the NXT UK Championship to bring it in line with all the other NXT UK title belts."
Recently, the title was modified to include the NXT logo in the center, replacing the WWE logo,
and having the name change confirmed at the upcoming Wolds Collide event could be the best
time to introduce a new title on a big stage.
We've got some more news now on the sad death of Rocky Johnson, who died aged 75 on
January 15th.
A great man who changed a lot about the business, it's not surprising that there's plenty
mourning him, and now the Associated Press is reporting that Johnson was dealing with a
recent illness.
As stated by Brian Blair, the Hall of Famer thought he had the flu, but it got much worse, saying:
“He was just under the weather, he thought he had the flu or something. I said, ‘You, need to
get checked out, Rocky.’ He said he’d be OK. Then he missed this Sunday, a few days ago. When
I talked to him again, he said he still wasn’t feeling good and he still missed church. He still
didn’t get checked out. I talked to Sheila and she said he was just being stubborn. He died at
home, today.”
Since his death, Vince McMahon, Triple H and more have commented on this terrible loss, and
though Rocky Johnson is gone, he will never be forgotten.
Onto a big story coming from AEW now, as Taz has officially signed a contract with the
company.
AEW broke the news yesterday that the former ECW World Champion has signed a multi-year
deal with the promotion and posted a video of Taz signing his contract backstage at the Bash at
the Beach Dynamite.
Taz's AEW debut took place back in October, where he worked as a guest commentator for the
third edition of AEW Dark, and he also filled in for Tony Schiavone on the New Year’s Day
edition of Dynamite.
After calling this week's AEW Dark tapings as well, Taz tweeted that he had signed, saying he is
beyond proud to be on the AEW team.
Before news went public of his signing, Taz took to Twitter to address his career, telling his
followers that the Taz show podcast will be on old for quite some time.
This signing is just the latest piece of big contract news for the company, as it was announced
earlier this week that AEW has signed a deal with TNT, that will keep Dynamite on the air
through at least 2023.
In addition to this, the new TNT deal also includes launching another night of AEW action in the
form of an hour-long show, so fans can expect to see a lot more AEW coming soon.
Back to WWE now, and John Cena has held nothing back regarding his future in the company.
After an incredible career that saw Cena become one of the most loved and loathed stars at the
same time, an introspective by Collide gave fans a refreshing takes on the man behind the 16-
year run.
When asked about when he was returning to the ring, Cena seemingly confirmed his retirement, saying:
"Dude, all this stuff is great, but if it all stops tomorrow, I’m still okay with me. I know the good
things that define me, and I know the qualities I have as a human being. I’m going to move on
and go forward. I know that all this is borrowed. I’m just grateful to have it and grateful to be
able to contribute. I don’t want to be greedy as a performer and I see that a lot in sports
entertainment.
The movie The Wrestler was centered around a guy who can’t let go. I’m being a s*****
human being because I can’t let go of this thing. I invested my life in that company and then
there’s no one, whether they like my performance or not, that will argue that. I think after the
extended period of time that I put in, it’s okay for me to take a step back and reflect and be like,
“Okay, I need to have more than that in my life because if that’s all that defines me, that’s a
depreciating asset.” Every sunset that happens, I get a little slower and a little older and a little
slower and a little older and it’s eventually going to end.”
Cena would later continue, adding:
“That’s been three years of hard conversations with that dude looking back in the mirror and
I’m at peace with where it’s at. I want to contribute where I can. I’ve even talked about coaching
or mentoring. Like I said, it’s the environment I feel the most fluid, so I can sit down and talk to
you about WWE as long as you want to talk, but what I don’t want to do is take somebody who
has spent 50 bucks on a ticket for themselves, their partner, their families, they bought
souvenirs, they bought popcorn and paid for parking and have look at me like, ‘He used to be
something.’ You know?”
“Every sunset that happens, I get a little slower and a little older"
It's not exactly the news many fans will have wanted to hear, but it's good that Cena knows
when to walk away.
With roles in Disney's upcoming Dolittle film, as well as Project X-Traction, Fast and Furious 9
and Suicide Squad 2, it makes things a lot easier for the 42-year- old to leave his WWE career in
the past.
With that said, it's still eye-opening to hear something be this self- aware about knowing the
right time to walk away, and after over a decade and a half of high- profile matches, Big Match
John has earned this retirement.
We're heading overseas now to the nation of Qatar, and the host nation for the 2022 Soccer
World Cup will host a special wrestling event on February 21st.
At the Superslam 2 event from the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena, the Qatar Pro Wrestling
promotion will welcome several stars from ROH and Impact, including former WWE World
Champions such as the Great Khali, Mark Henry, and Alberto Del Rio, who is the QPW World
Champion.
Eric Bischoff will oversee the event as the QPW GM, and so far, matches announced include
NZO Vs. Brian Pillman Jr, and Brian Cage against Michael Elgin.
Other names confirmed for the show, including Kevin Nash and Road Warrior Animal, as well as
Matt Sydal and RVD, though hopefully the master of the five- star-frog-splash won't get this
show in trouble as well.
Rich Swann, PJ Black and Caprice Coleman are also announced for the show, and fans in Qatar
should prepare for a huge night of entertainment with such a stacked line-up.
And finally, today we're ending with news from Marty Scrull, as the British star has been
announced for one night of NWA's post-Hard Times TV tapings.
Scrull will be in the front row of the crowd at their Powerr taping in Atlanta Georgia on Sunday
January 26th, and fans can check out the show when it starts at 3pm Easten.
This will be the second taping after GPB Studios hosts the Hard times Pay Per View on January
24th, and an interpromotional match has been announced for the show.
At the event, the NWA's Nick Aldis will face Villain Enterprises' Flip Gordon, and this came
around after Scurll confronted Aldis at the NWA's Into the Fire PPV last month.
Aldis, the reigning NWA World Champion, has been involved at angles at both ROH shows this
past weekend, as he attacked Gordon at Center stage on Saturday night, before taunting Scrull
and Brody King.
The next night, Alfis, alongside Kamille, and Thomas Latimer showed up at Honor Reigns
Supreme. Gordon and King tried to get into it with Aldis and Latimer before security broke
things up.
Recently, it was confirmed that Scrull had re-signed with ROH, and is now working on their
booking team as well, and it seems the British star is wasting no time in doing big things,
alongside the NWA.