** CHIKARA released a joint statement with Wrestle Factory and announced that they’ve cut ties with Rory Gulak. It is noted in the press release that CHIKARA takes “allegations of misconduct seriously” and they are cooperating with all law enforcement agencies to find a solution to this situation. Rory Gulak is the brother of former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak. Insane Championship Wrestling removed Rory Gulak from their February 1st show as well. POST Wrestling reached out to CHIKARA and ICW for clarification about what exactly Rory did.
** On the latest edition of New Day’s ‘Feel The Power’ podcast, the trio talked about their experience at WrestleMania 32 where they took on The League Of Nations (Alberto El Patron, Rusev & Sheamus) in a six-man tag. They were also involved in the segment with Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. It was at that WrestleMania that New Day made their entrance through a massive box of Booty O’s but Xavier Woods revealed that they originally wanted to come out of buttcheeks:
“The original idea that we actually had for the entrance was kind of insane too. So, we haven’t done this and hopefully we’ll get to at some point. We wanted to get a big van and have it look like a unicorn but the back doors are taken off and they’ve been replaced with huge buttcheeks that are on springs. So when the van is moving, the buttcheeks are shaking and once it gets to the end of the ramp, it fits in. Essentially, [the] cheeks open up, and then we come out of the van on tricycles with all our unicorn stuff on just having a great time, and so we explained this to Triple H, to Paul, he who shall be named, and he says, ‘I mean that’s great, and we can look into it if you want to, or you could guys could come out of a big box of Booty O’s like the toys’ and we were like, ‘Yes please.’”
In the earlier portion of the podcast, Big E talked about New Day wanting to expand in the merchandise department early in their career[s] as a trio. E recalled going to the merchandise department and having an individual who they did not name, laugh in their faces when they asked about having some merchandise at WWE events. Big E said that to this day, he still remembers that vividly.
“Also, that shirt reminds me of a little story involving merch, where we tried to get — at the time, we only had our shirts available online. You couldn’t buy a New Day shirt in the arena, anywhere where we performed. So we go to… should we say his name? Nah, let’s leave his name out. We go to merch, a man in merch and we say, man in merch, ‘When do you think we might be able to get one of our shirts in the venue so that people at live events, during intermission, they can go out with their kids and buy a shirt?’” Kofi chimed and added that this was a period of New Day’s run when they were starting to get over. Big E continued, “Yeah, when can we get a shirt in a venue? Just any venue. This man looked at us, the three of us who are working very hard, we’re actually getting reactions now and things were picking up some steam. We were on our way, and he looked at us and said, ‘Never! Hahaha.’ He said never and he laughed at us. He said that we would never be able to have a New Day shirt in a venue for purchase, and when you go to one of these venues — I don’t know if people listening have been to live events or TVs, but when you go out there, there’s probably at least 12 shirts, at least. You get a variety of different shirts. You can go out and buy some different shirts. There’s many options. [It’s] not like it’s just John Cena. There’s space for people like us. There’s space to get one shirt. There’s space to get one measly piece of merchandise for people to purchase to support us, and this man looked at us and said, ‘Never’, and had the gall to laugh in our faces? And it wasn’t a joke. He meant it. That’s how he felt. You gotta remember, this is a point of us — we’re hustling, we’re struggling to get off the ground. Every little victory means something. Every opportunity to get a piece of merch in a building means something. To get a promo we want, means something because we need every little victory just to stay afloat, and to be laughed at by merch… merch is supposed to help us. Merch is supposed to be in our corner to help us get our brand out for people to support us.
That’s a big thing. When people can look out into the crowd and see all those people who are rocking with us, but to have a man who’s supposed to be in a position to help us, that’s what his job — to help talent get their brand on shirts. That’s his job. It’s not just the top guys but for people from top to bottom should all be able to get their brand out there and for him to laugh at us really is something I’ll never forget. Regardless of how far along we get as a group and how much we’ve made it and success we have, I’ll be 60, 70 years old and I’ll still remember that.”
** Cody Rhodes has a shirt up on Pro Wrestling Tees for sale and 100% of the profit will go to helping those affected by the fires in Australia. Chris Jericho is chiming in as well by selling the shirt he wore during his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 14. All proceeds will be going to those affected by the fires.
** USA Network announced that in 2019, their network was #1 in the 18-49 demographic for the third year in a row and #1 in the 25-54 demographic for a second year in a row. They credited Monday Night RAW, Straight Up Steve Austin and Miz & Mrs. for its contributions to the success of USA Network.
** Sammy Guevara versus Christopher Daniels has been added to the January 8th episode of AEW: Dynamite in Southaven, Mississippi.
** Luc Vu, who is the individual that was arrested for the passing of independent wrestler Matt Travis is scheduled to appear in court on February 7th in New York. Vu was driving a dump truck at the time and struck Travis, real name Matt Palacios in East Harlem. Vu is being charged with reckless driving, failure to yield to a bicyclist, failure to obey a traffic device, driving left of pavement marking and failure to exercise due care.
** ICW New York: ‘No Holds Barred’ Results (1/4/20) Jersey City, New Jersey
– Tessa Blanchard def. Nick Gage
– Homicide def. Casanova Valentine
– Alex Colon def. Jimmy Lloyd
– Eric Ryan def. John Wayne Murdoch via referee stoppage.
– Killer Kross def. Tony Deppen
– SHLAK def. Necro Butcher
– Dan Maff def. Mance Warner
– Low Ki defeats Masashi Takeda via referee stoppage.
** WWE Live Event Results (1/5/20) Springfield, Missouri
– Daniel Bryan def. The Miz
– RAW Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) def. Natalya
– RAW Tag Team Championships: The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik) (c) def. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
– Kevin Owens def. Seth Rollins via DQ.
– Aleister Black def. Buddy Murphy
– SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley (c) def. Lacey Evans
– Braun Strowman, Roman Reigns & New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) def. King Corbin, Shinsuke Nakamura & The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson)
** WWE announced that NXT will now be live every Thursday in Australia on FOX8.
** TheMacLife chatted with Conor McGregor ahead of McGregor’s bout at UFC 246 on January 18th against Donald Cerrone. McGregor talked about some of the names he’s interested in fighting at 170 pounds. He specifically mentioned Kamaru Usman, Colby Covington and gave his thoughts about the B.M.F. Title fight between Jorge Masividal and Nate Diaz.
“Yeah, I’d face Jorge [Masvidal]. I’m not going to 170 just for Jorge. You know, he hasn’t really got anything — I wasn’t really happy with how that bad motherf*cker thing ended. I think it’s unfinished. In my opinion, that belt is unfinished. It was only getting into a good bout I believe. So, we were robbed of rounds four and five in that bout. But, I like that Welterweight belt. I liked the Welterweight Title fight that was on that weekend. I like the look of that. I like the look of Kamaru Usman, I like the look of Colby [Covington]. I’m open to it all at 170.”
** TheMacLife also conducted an interview wit John Kavanagh.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nutrGXrhWwk[/embedyt]
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling held their New Year’s Dash event on January 6th at the Ota City General Gymnasium and an attendance of 4,078 was announced.
** OTT: ‘Stickin Out’ Results (1/5/20) Belfast, Northern Ireland
– Darren Kearney, LJ Cleary & Nathan Martin def. Aidan, Captain Sexsea & Travis Banks
– Cara Noir def. B. Cool
– OTT Women’s Championship: Sammii Jayne def. Katey Harvey (c)
– Omari def. The OJMO
– Scotty Davis def. Shota Umino
– Liam Royal & Michael May def. Bonesaw & Damien Corvin
– OTT Gender Neutral Championship: Adam Maxted def. Mark Haskins (c)
** WWE Hall Of Famer Jacqueline Moore turned 56-years old on January 6th.
** Tom Pritchard has launched his, ‘Taking You To School With Dr. Tom Pritchard’ podcast. Pritchard is currently the lead trainer at he and Glenn “Kane” Jacobs’ wrestling school in Knoxville, Tennessee.
** PWInsider shared a note about Jeff Hardy while mentioning that Matt Hardy’s WWE contract expires on March 1st. Jeff’s deal is not expiring at the same time due to his injury and recent legal issues. Jeff is scheduled to appear in court on January 13th for a D.W.I. arrest. PWInsider also noted that WWE has pushed Hardy to address his personal health and Hardy has been working on doing so.
** Kavita Devi, Rinku Singh and Saurav Gurjar gave their professional New Year Resolutions for 2020 during a media junket.
** The XFL has agreed to a multi-year deal with Genius Sports that will help assist with any potential issues that could arise because of betting on XFL games. Genius Sports are going to monitor all pre and live game betting. They’ll also conduct betting integrity workshops with players, coaches and officials. Jeffrey Pollack, President and COO of the XFL had the following to say about the announcement in a press release regarding this news:
“Sports betting is growing rapidly in the U.S. and we are gearing up to be a good citizen and thoughtful participant in the marketplace. Our alliance with Genius Sports is an important first step and foundational element.”
** WWE Hall Of Famer Mark Henry is scheduled to appear at Qatar Pro Wrestling’s show on February 21st.
** EVOLVE ‘Do Or Die 2’ Results (1/5/20) Pasco County, Florida
– Cyrus Satin def. Palmer Cruise
– Brandi Lauren def. Alex Sky
– KLD def. Ben Buchanan
– Four Way Match: The System def. Alex Todd, Chuck Davis and Tyzan
– Bobby Flaco def. Joe Keys
– Amber Nova def. Chelsea Durden
– Ariel Dominguez def. Cameron Carter
– Adrian Alanis & Liam Gray def. Dante Marquis Carter & Mikey Spandex
** In Erick Stevens’ MLW debut on January 11th, he’ll be taking on Douglas James.
** When asked on Twitter who did he wrestle at Big Time Wrestling’s show on January 3rd, Kevin Nash replied that he wrestled father time and he’s retired from in-ring competition. Nash’s last match was in the Summer of 2018.
** The Street Profits appeared on FOX 25 in Oklahoma City to promote tonight’s episode of RAW. Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins will be involved in a RAW Tag Team Title match on the show along with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson and the champions, The Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik).
** Here is episode 185 of Being The Elite:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcxHcMiuog[/embedyt]
** Stephanie McMahon and Paul “Triple H” Levesque attended Criss Angel’s ‘Mindfreak’ show in Las Vegas.
** WrestlingINC’s Andy Malnoske caught up with Homicide for an interview and Homicide feels that it may be time for him to step away from wrestling to focus on family. He said that 2020 may be his last year but did not bank on that because like Homicide mentioned, his idol Terry Funk retired from wrestling quite a few times.
“Well, my idol is Terry Funk, and everybody knows that Terry Funk retired like 14 times. I’ve been saying it for the longest, ‘I’m done, I’m done.’ Wrestling is my passion, but officially, a couple days ago on Facebook, I announced the year 2020 is going to be my last year and it’s my body telling me because I’ve been doing this for 25 years, no breaks. I did every style of wrestling. I feel that I need to spend time with my family and in the future, I want to be a coach, I wanna be a producer, I wanna make people so, if NXT, WWE, All Elite Wrestling, every major company, if you’re watching this, I will be the best coach in the future. Trust me on that.”
Homicide gave his thoughts on AEW’s Santana and Ortiz. Homicide is proud of what Santana and Ortiz have done with their careers and knows that this current stage is only the beginning.
“Yeah, I’ve got two kids. I got a 22-year old boy and a two-year old daughter. I consider my students my kids and those two guys, I’m so proud of them. In wrestling, those are my kids and what they’re doing right now, every Wednesday, TNT, kicking butts, representing. They are proud and they’re powerful and I’m so proud of their accomplishments, what they’re doing right now and the scary thing is and I told them, this is the beginning. It’s more years to come and they just started and right now, they’re on fire.”
** WWE is holding a live event in Elmira, New York on February 29th and advertised for the show is a match between King Corbin and Roman Reigns and the loser will have to eat dog food.
** New York Post conducted another interview with the current United States Champion Andrade. “El Idolo” said that he is trying to further develop his use of English so that he can cut more promos without using his first language.
“I am trying to practice for the future [for] great promos in English and a little Spanish. You know, the promos before with Rey Mysterio and, in the past, Eddie Guerrero.”
Andrade also talked about his friendship and on-screen relationship with Zelina Vega. He was confused when they were initially paired together but now when Zelina isn’t performing with him, he feels like he is lost or something is missing.
“Now it’s part of Andrade. Sometimes when Zelina is injured or something, sometimes when I go to the ring and Zelina’s not in my corner, something is confused or like I forgot something. Now Zelina is beside Andrade. Andrade is beside Zelina. Now it’s a team.”
** Ahead of NXT U.K. TakeOver: Blackpool II on January 12th, there will be a Prime Target special that airs on the WWE Network on January 10th.
** Heather Monroe sat down with Joshua Shibata of SoCal Uncensored for an exclusive interview. Heather expressed that she feels she’s one of the top independent wrestlers in Southern California and thinks she’s making her way to the top.
“I mean, I would say I’m definitely one of the top people around. I sound arrogant, but, I’ve been around for a bit. It’s been four years. I’ve wrestled almost everywhere that I can wrestle here, which is also why I’m [contemplating] taking the next step, especially since there are some solid girls coming up like Leva [Bates]… and there’s some good girls up North too that I think can come down here and do stuff but yeah, I would say I’m making my way to the top as we’re sitting here.”
** The post-Wrestle Kingdom 14 press conference is scheduled for January 7th, 1 AM EST on NJPW World.
** ROHWrestling.com has a feature story up about Jushin Thunder Liger which includes photos of Liger, comments from ROH talents about Liger and a brief recap of the 11-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion’s career.
