It's now confirmed that Mia Yim has signed with WWE.
The 2018 Mae Young Classic competitor started with WWE back on Sunday, September 16, according to PWInsider. We noted before that there was speculation on Yim, a former TNA Knockouts Champion, signing after she appeared in a WWE NXT Twitter video from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
Yim recently revealed on Twitter that she's dating NXT Superstar Keith Lee. She also revealed she's roommates with Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke.
Abyss will take his rightful place in the IMPACT Wrestling Hall of Fame. Abyss has had a storied career as a former World Champion, X-Division Champion and World Tag Team Champion. Not to mention that Abyss has been a staple of IMPACT Wrestling since Day 1. Abyss has long been the Monster, the man who terrorized opponents and thrilled fans.
There is no one more suited to join the Hall of Fame than Abyss. Fans who purchased VIP Tickets for Bound For Glory will be invited to attend the Induction Ceremony the night before Bound For Glory. Also, tickets are available as well, it will be a limited engagement and a once in a lifetime chance to watch as the man behind the Monster’s Ball Match takes his rightful place in the Hall of Fame.
A federal judge in Connecticut has dismissed a lawsuit by 60 former professional wrestlers, many of them stars in the 1980s and 1990s, who claimed World Wrestling Entertainment failed to protect them from repeated head trauma including concussions that led to long-term brain damage.
U.S. District Judge Vanessa Bryant in Hartford threw out the lawsuit Monday, saying many of the claims were frivolous or filed after the statute of limitations expired. Stamford-based WWE denied the lawsuit’s allegations.
Bryant also criticized the wrestlers’ lawyer, Konstantine Kyros, based in Hingham, Massachusetts, for repeatedly failing to comply with court rules and orders and ordered him to pay WWE’s legal fees, which could total hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Kyros strongly disagreed with Bryant’s ruling and vowed to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. He said the allegations were not frivolous and Bryant was wrong about the claims being filed too late, because many wrestlers’ ailments — including dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE — were diagnosed years after they left the ring or after they died.
“I stand for professional wrestlers who face the prospect of losing their identity and consciousness to the effects of a latent occupational disease that robs them of their sanity, comfort of their families and memories of everything they achieved entertaining the millions of people who love them,” Kyros wrote in an email to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
source: nypost.com
Several high-ranking WWE officials met with Impact Wrestling officials at WWE HQ in Stamford, CT last week, according to PWInsider.
Impact was represented by Scott D'Amore and Ed Nordholm. Vince McMahon was not at the meeting but members of Triple H's team were there. The meeting took place during the middle of last week as Impact officials were returning from UK, headed to Mexico City for TV tapings.
A WWE source described the meeting to PWInsider as a general discussion about the two companies and a chance to get everyone in the same room, not a specific negotiation of any kind. It's no secret that WWE has worked with Impact since Anthem purchased them, paying to license footage on WWE Champion AJ Styles and The Hardys' Broken Universe storyline. An Impact source stressed that the meeting had nothing to do with the sale of Impact as a company or its video library as neither are for sale.
WWE is a multi-million dollar business and, like other businesses, it is susceptible to being sued by former employees (or contractors in the case of WWE Superstars).
Some of the biggest lawsuits that WWE has faced in recent years are those related to concussions. On Monday WWE finally received resolution of those suits as Judge Vanessa L. Bryant of the United States District Court of Connecticut officially dismissed all concussion-related lawsuits against WWE.
Dozens of former WWE Superstars had sued the company regarding a lack of transparency and protection in regards to their health. These suits specifically brought up concussions, CTE and other head trauma injuries that can suffer from competing in the ring. But Judge Bryant has ruled that WWE is not liable for those head and brain injuries.
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This isn't the first time that Bryant has ruled in favor of WWE regarding a federal concussion lawsuit. In April she cleared WWE from a suit filed by two former Superstars, Vito LoGrasso (aka Big Vito) and Evan Singleton, who never competed on the main roster.
"The evidence does not support a finding that WWE knew of a risk that repeated head injuries incurred while performing as a professional wrestler could cause permanent degenerative neurological conditions," Judge Bryant said in regards to that case.
Source: PWInsider
WWE has confirmed that starting this week 205 Live will be moving to Wednesdays at 7pm ET before NXT and the Mae Young Classic.
Stone Cold Steve Austin has never been one to shy away from giving his opinion on WWE and has often been vocal about how the company could improve its product.
He was recently joined by former WWE Superstar Sean Waltman, better known as X-Pac on his Steve Austin Show. During the show both discussed NXT and why they feel it is better than Raw and SmackDown Live. Austin felt the show was a throwback to a more classic pro-wrestling product and felt the main shows tend to get very complicated with regards to story telling.
“The thing I like about the NXT thing is it’s almost like [Waltman] said, the main roster is almost trying to cover or cater to everybody. And to me, the NXT thing is more… they are both under the same umbrella, it’s WWE, it’s sports entertainment. It ain’t pro wrestling anymore. Now, it’s sports entertainment officially, but in my mind, it’s still pro wrestling. And to me, NXT, yeah, it’s kind of like a throwback. And it’s all modern stuff, great lighting, great production values, everything else, but the storylines are very easy to understand and very simple. And, I mean, the announcers aren’t trying to go overboard trying to explain whatever’s going on.” Austin added, “sometimes when I watch the main roster stuff, it’s like they’re trying to play to so many people that the storylines get kind of convoluted.”
Starting tonight, Renee Young will be the first woman to join the Raw broadcast booth full-time.
She will now bring her unique voice and perspective to the longest-running weekly episodic program in the U.S. as she joins Michael Cole and Corey Gravesat the commentary desk. Renee joined WWE in 2012 and has served as a backstage interviewer and commentator on Raw, SmackDown LIVE and NXT. She is currently part of the Mae Young Classic commentary team on WWE Network.
In turn, Jonathan Coachman will take over as the new host of WWE’s pay-per-view kickoff shows. A veteran broadcaster with more than 20 years of experience hosting shows for WWE, ESPN, MSG Network and the Golf Channel, Coachman will bring his unique style to millions of viewers around the world on WWE Network, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WWE.com, as the host of WWE’s pay-per-view kickoff shows. Coachman will begin his new role this Sunday, Sept. 16 alongside WWE Hall of Famer Booker T, David Otunga, Sam Roberts and Peter Rosenberg prior to WWE’s Hell in a Cell pay-per-view event.
The latest Dinner with the King features WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler addressing a live crowd at Starrcast during All In weekend.
A fan commented on how he associates Lawler with the word ‘puppies’ and Lawler then directly addressed that:
“The thing with the puppies, I did not coin the phrase. I was not the first one to say the phrase on WWE TV; but, because like you said I am so associated with that word puppies, most people think that way. That is probably the reason I’m not on TV anymore and I mean that seriously because they [WWE] went so politically correct. It’s not necessarily PG because they’re not PG. They’re further south than PG. They’re PC. They’re so politically correct to a fault and especially like they got so right now into – starting with the Revolution – now it’s all about empowering women and that’s a big political correct thing these days and everything, so WWE jumped right on that, so it’s about empowering women. They actually came to us and said, ‘Do not ever say that women are sexy or that they’re good looking or that they’re beautiful. You must treat them exactly like you would a male athlete. You could say that they are powerful, they’re strong, they’re athletic, all this stuff; but, nothing that would be considered sexist at all.”
Lawler then talks about the RAW 25th Anniversary Show when he let the word ‘puppies’ slip early on during the historic live broadcast,
“This is like early on the show and I said, ‘JR [Jim Ross], it’s so nice to be here tonight and we’re gonna go back in time or something and I might even say puppies tonight.’ Immediately I hear [Vince McMahon] in my earphone (grunts), ‘Let’s stay away from that tonight.’ That was the last time it was ever said on there.”
