fightful

Jimmy Van Q&A 01/27/23

Jimmy Van Q&A 01/27/23. Jimmy Van and Joel Pearl answer your questions while Sean is in San Antonio for the Rumble.

WWE Royal Rumble week news and notes.

Lots of news and notes from around Royal Rumble week and San Antonio!

- We're told Bo Dallas is in town. He's been portraying Uncle Howdy of late.

- Big E is in town doing work with WWE NIL projects.

- WWE has numerous NIL signees in San Antonio.

- WWE has done several community events this week, including Special Olympics and a Be a Star Rally

- Doudrop, Chad Gable, Otis, Angelo Dawkins, Montez Ford, Titus O'Neill, Michin, Titus O'Neill, Xavier Woods are all sch...

Changes to AEW Dynamite this week

The Jay Briscoe tribute went off well, and many things were changed to accommodate it on AEW Dynamite.

Prior to Tuesday, it didn't look like the tribute or Mark Briscoe's match was happening, but AEW moved many things around to make it a reality. Ian Riccaboni was booked for the show Tuesday, and flew in just hours before the show. 

Darby Allin vs. Buddy Matthews was originally scheduled to main event, and had some time trimmed in order to help make room for the Mark Briscoe ...

There were major changes to WWE's Rumble women's title plans

The last several weeks have seen some significant changes to the women's title programs that were tentatively planned for the first quarter of WWE in 2023.

Fightful Select has learned that the Ronda Rousey Smackdown Women's Title defense against Raquel Rodriguez that took place on December 30, was actually originally planned to go down almost a full month later. Fightful has gained information that displays that the match was set for the WWE Royal Rumble as of early December. However, t...

Jimmy Van Q&A Questions

With SRS traveling, hit Jimmy Van with your questions!

Business, Fightful, history related. He's not a scoopster!

The List Goes On 1/25 Q&A!!

SRS and Jimmy Van keep the party going

VIDEO: https://youtu.be/yUDUkqcqOiM

Several unadvertised names in town for AEW

Some news on names around for this week's show

- Billie Starkz was scheduled to be at the show for Dark tapings tonight. 

- Jake The Snake Roberts is backstage

- RJ City was filming for HEY! EW this week.

- Kris Statlander is at the show, which has been common during her injury.

- Best Friends and Brody King were also brought in this week despite not being advertised

- FTR are in town, and were planned to be in town even before the Briscoe tribute aspe...

Select Portions: AEW Lexington

News and notes from around AEW Dynamite this week

- RJ City is in town to film episodes of Hey! EW

- Brody King and Ethan Page held a signing & meet & greet at Toy Vomit Tuesday

- Best Friends and Orange Cassidy appeared at KSBar on Tuesday and took pictures with fans.

- Fightful is dropping off the physical awards to AEW talent today.

- There were some names that were brought in last minute yesterday when it was announced Mark Briscoe would be on the sho...

WWE Raw 30 Backstage News and Producers

Producers!

- Trial of Sami Zayn: Michael Hayes

- Usos vs. Judgment Day: Michael Hayes

- LA Knight, Undertaker, Bray Wyatt segment: Abyss

- Becky Lynch and Damage CTRL segment: TJ Wilson

- DX promo: Shane Helms

- Seth Rollins & Street Profits vs. Imperium: Shane Helms

- Charlotte promo: Petey Williams

- Bianca Belair vs. Sonya Deville: Petey Williams

- Miz in ring promo: Jason Jordan

- Bobby Lashley vs. Austin Theory: Adam Peace 2023-01-24 23:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post

AEW Wrestler's Contract Up Soon

Brian Cage signed with AEW in 2020, and his current deal is set to expire unless an extension is reached, Fightful has learned.

Cage's contract is set to expire in a matter of weeks, Fightful Select has learned. Cage's deal was set to expire last year as well, before his option year was picked up by All Elite Wrestling. We were told at the time that Cage was pleasantly surprised as he didn't expect to have his option picked up after not being on TV for months.

Cage is one-third of...

Alex's & Kate's SOUR GRAPS: WWE Raw 30 1/23 | Old Folk's (Go) Home

(Starting at 11:10 est)

They bait and switched us on a huge Women's Cage Match so they could give us more geriatric racists and accused sex offenders doing nostalgic crap, because of course they did.

At least the Bloodline story continues to be freaking FANTASTIC.

Everything else is somewhere in the middle.

Actually, Everything sucks, let's be real. So let's talk about it.

VIDEO: h...

Major change to segment on WWE Raw 30

An audible had to be called during WWE Raw 30.

The originally planned Becky Lynch vs. Bayley steel cage match was very abrupt, leading many to wonder if it had changed. Fightful Select has confirmed that the match and entrances were supposed to get two segments. However, the opening segment with the Bloodline trial ended up going long and several segments needed trimmed.

We're told this affected the Bayley vs. Becky Lynch cage match the most, and they either could work an angle to...

WWE Raw 30 Plans For TOnight

Fightful Select has learned the following plans for WWE Raw 30

Please be cognizant of those who wish to avoid spoilers. Screenshotting and reposting is against our terms of service, but summaries are fine.

- Tribal Court for the Trial of Sami Zayn

- Tag Titles: Usos vs. Judgment Day

- LA Knight In Ring Promo

- Steel Cage: Becky Lynch vs. Bayley

- Seth Rollins & Street Profits vs. Imperium

- Charlotte Flair In-Ring promo

SRS Backstage Report: Austin vs. Roman? Raw 30, AEW News

Plenty of news from the wrestling world

- Royal Rumble

- Raw 30

- Austin vs. Reigns

- AEW Backstage news

- Who was at AEW last week

- AJ Styles/NJPW

- AEW/NJPW

- Logan Paul

- Naomi

- More

Stone Cold Steve Austin was approached for match with Roman Reigns

There are rumors that The Rock might not be coming back, and we can confirm that WWE has had some plans in the event that doesn't happen, and some HUGE pitches.

Fightful Select has learned that a pitch was made internally for a "huge opponent" for Stone Cold Steve Austin, which Fightful Select was told was Roman Reigns. We're told at the very least, Austin's camp was approached with the possibility of it happening, which was said to have been for "enormous" money. In the Summer of 2022,...

Select Style 1/23: The Great Muta Says Bye-Bye!

Scott Edwards brings another edition of the Select Style Podcast to talk all the big happenings from Japan this week including reviews of NJPW vs. NOAH Wrestle Kingdom 17 as well as The Great Muta Final "Bye Bye" where a legend closed the book on his career.

Scott also discusses the big angle between Kazuchika Okada and Kaito Kiyomiya in detail as it is now set for Keiji Muto's retirement show in February.
Here's a list of the promotions covered this week (in order):

- TJPW
...

Potential spoilers for Raw 30

Please be cognizant of those who wish to avoid spoilers!

- There were several talent that were contacted for the Raw 30 show that couldn't end up making it. Tatanka posted publicly that he wouldn't be there. 

- Kurt Angle was slated to be a special ref for Monday

- There were hopes Brock Lesnar would be involved in the show. 

- Despite his look on the poster, The Undertaker's traditional gear was also sent to the show.

- There were pitches fo...

Kofi Kingston on Harlem Heat, Royal Rumble, NXT

Kofi Kingston spoke to Fightful for his CLICK project, as well as some wrestling.

He noted that in his talent relations app, he and Xavier Woods got notifications that Shawn Michaels had requested that they be brought to NXT. They took that as a huge compliment and were open to doing it. Specifically, he mentioned that they'd been wanting to work with Pretty Deadly for some time.

We discussed the Royal Rumble botch from last year, and he said that it was inevitable that it would h...

Surprise Stream: Inside the Royal Rumble 3: Behind the mayhem of the 2022 Royal Rumble Matches

SRS talks INSIDE THE ROYAL RUMBLE 3!!

WWE discussed bringing another act back

WWE has had internal discussions about bringing back a big act, physically especially.

Fightful Select has learned that Akam and Rezar, collectively known as the Authors of Pain or AOP, have been discussed for a potential return to the WWE. Both were an integral part of the NXT Black and Gold brand before being called up to WWE Raw.

In addition, the possibility of their longtime, original manager Paul Ellering was also discussed. He managed them during their NXT run before being a...

Magazine Archives: Ricky Steamboat Interview – Part 3

From FightfulMag.com, issue 3

****

Jimmy Van: You were talking before about the importance of selling a match and how it’s an element that you are really conscious of in the ring. And it was probably no more apparent than when you did the crushed larynx angle with Randy Savage in the WWE. Tell us about working with Savage and about that storyline.

Ricky Steamboat: Randy was very technical. More so in trying to get together with the guys he was working with...

Fightful Weekender (1/22): ROH SPOILERS, ACTION, KOBK, GCW, IMPACT SPOILERS, NXT LEVEL UP, NOAH, ESW, LIMITLESS

STEPHEN JENSEN is back with a new episode of the WEEKENDER!

Topics:

- ROH: "Jay Briscoe Celebration Of Life" *SPOILERS*

- ACTION: "Wrestling Lords Of Chaos" results

- KOBK: "Souled Out II" results

- GCW: "Don't Talk To Me" + "Take A Picture" results

- IMPACT *TV TAPING SPOILERS*

- NXT Level Up (1/20) results

- NOAH: "Great Muta Final Bye-Bye" results

- ESW: "All I Do Is Win" results

- LIMITLESS: "Hard To Handle" results

Update On New Day Podcast

New Day's podcast has been on hiatus for quite some time, leading many fans to wish it would return.

There haven't been any new episodes since September 2021, though there are "best of" episodes released every week. Fightful asked Kofi Kingston about the status of the show. He said that they're all trying to figure out how they can get it going again, but it's a one day at a time thing. He enjoyed doing the show via Zoom, but says there's more magic when they do the show together.

WWE Smackdown Backstage News And Producers

Producers

- Tag Contender Tourney: Drew McIntyre & Sheamus vs. Viking Raiders: Michael Hayes

- LA Knight match: Adam Pearce

- Tag Contender Tourney: Los Lotharios vs. Hit Row: Shawn Daivari

- Charlotte Flair promo: Molly Holly

- Tag Contender Tourney: Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium: Petey Williams

- Tag Contender Tourney: Legado Del Fantasma vs. Maximum Male Models: Jamie Noble

- Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens contract signing: Jason Jordan

Back...

Open To All Subscribers!: INSIDE THE ROYAL RUMBLE 3!!!

There's no other way to put it. The 2022 Royal Rumble was a train wreck. Backstage and on-screen, it just didn't work.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. But those in WWE hope the person responsible for the 2022 train wreck won't put their finger prints all over this year's Rumble.

The Royal Rumble is this author's favorite match and event of the year. More than Double or Nothing, more than Wrestle Kingdom, and more than WrestleMania. I often spoke about the opti...

AJ Styles/Wrestle Kingdom News

AJ Styles has been sidelined with a broken ankle, but there were rumors prior to his injury that he could have appeared at Wrestle Kingdom 17 with Karl Anderson.

Styles was not present, but Doc Gallows also didn't make the trip, which we've been told was a New Japan Pro Wrestling call. However, there were some talks about AJ Styles coming over. Rocky Romero tells Fightful's Wrestling Perspective Podcast that AJ Styles himself thought it would be a cool idea. Romero said he believed if i...

Notes: Rocky Romero Interview with The Wrestling Perspective Podcast

Notes: Rocky Romero Interview with The Wrestling Perspective Podcast

Rocky Romero will be the guest on this weekend's episode of The Wrestling Perspective Podcast with Lars Frederiksen and Dennis Farrell. They spoke on various topics.

- Rocky was asked how the atmosphere is in Tokyo during the week of Wrestle Kingdom. He was asked if it was similar to WrestleMania. He explained that in a way, because Wrestle Kingdom started as just one show, but now you see other events scheduled ...

Smackdown plans for tonight

Fightful Select has learned the following plans for WWE Smackdown

Please be cognizant of those who wish to avoid spoilers. Posting screenshots of the entire post is against our terms of service, and if you violate it you have to buy SRS a new arcade cabinet. Summaries and bits of info are not against the terms of service

- Tag Contender Tourney: Drew McIntyre & Sheamus vs. Viking Raiders

- LA Knight match 

- Tag Contender Tourney: Los Lotharios vs. Hit Row

Details on WWE Royal Rumble meetings

WWE had some of their sets of meetings to discuss the upcoming Royal Rumble match.

Fightful Select has learned that while several veterans have contacted WWE about making Royal Rumble appearances, WWE was said to have been leaning out of that in some cases in favor of what they call "non traditional surprises." Unsure of what that meant, creative and producers were soliciting pitches for such a thing. Last year, WWE were adamant in leaning out of NXT names appearing in the Royal Rumble ...

Select Portions: Pitch Black, Bray Wyatt, Smackdown, More

- Fightful Select has learned that there are "neon" elements to the Mountain Dew Pitch Black match at Royal Rumble. They've been doing some run throughs for the match.

- WWE is also doing a press conference after the Royal Rumble, which is also sponsored by Mountain Dew Pitch Black

- In all, WWE has community events Thursday, media events Friday, another event early Saturday, a press conference Saturday, as they hit media hard for WrestleMania season.

- WWE confirmed to Figh...