SUPER 16 FOR SUPER-CENA
John Cena, in defeating AJ Styles at the 2017 Royal Rumble for the WWE Championship, has now tied the long standing record of sixteen world heavyweight titles that was made by "The Nature Boy" Ric Flair well over a decade ago. Another Congratulations to John for also granting another wish after the match with a fan from Make a Wish at Ringside.
ANGLE HEADING FOR THE WWE HALL
Wrestling God Kurt Angle will finally be entering the WWE Hall of Fame as the headliner act of 2017. WWE announced the following; "Kurt Angle to be inducted into WWE Hall of Fame Class of 2017 "It's true, it's true! Kurt Angle will be taking his rightful place in the WWE Hall of Fame's Class of 2017 just two days before WrestleMania 33, as first reported by ESPN.com." Angle posted the following tweet on Twitter following the WWE's announcement; "I'm coming home! #itsdamntrue." Kurt was interviewed by ESPN on the same day as the announcement, and Kurt talked about the huge WWE move leading to Angle returning to WWE. On getting the news he was going into the Hall of Fame; "I was shocked. I've been out of WWE for a long time and out of touch with them so I didn't really expect this. It's a huge honor. This is the only Hall of Fame that I'm not in and probably [the one] I want to be in the most. This is the one that means the most for me. I had a lot of fun entertaining the fans for seven years with WWE, and I'm glad that my hard work paid off." According to Angle, It was Triple H who broke the news; "I figured they either decided they didn't want to do anything with me or they forgot. Hunter said they never forgot and he called and told me this is the first thing they want to do. And whether I wrestle or not after this -- which is irrelevant right now -- I'm just really proud to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. I gave a lot of energy and time to WWE those first seven years, and I'm grateful that they recognized it." Angle has stated that a match in WWE is not in the books; "We have not talked about any wrestling. Whether we do or not, that remains to be seen... There are no guarantees. I think right now the most important thing is the Hall of Fame -- and I think both sides feel that way." Then during a Sports Illustrated interview with Kurt Angle, Angle talked about who he thinks should induct him into the Hall of Fame; "That's a no-brainer. I had just started with WWE and had a program with Austin right after I beat Rock for the world title. I had a quick skit with Stephanie and Triple H, and then it was right on to Austin. We had some memorable feuds and some very funny segments, so he is at the top of my list. Steve was one of the most giving individuals. He took me in and allowed me to shine even when it was still his time. I don't ever compare myself to Stone Cold. He is the guy who elevated wrestling to a level that nobody ever went before, but he enabled me to show my talents when he very well could have said no. He was a very giving individual, and he is one of the guys who had the biggest impact on my career."
TNA NAME TO BE REPLACED - SEE DETAILS Changes are coming not only in the shape and form of creative and control, But the name of the TNA brand will be altered too. The long standing TNA name, Total Non-stop Action Wrestling coined back in 2002 will be referred to as Impact Wrestling going onwards, with the TNA Wrestling name being "phased out". Impact has been undergoing the biggest clearout sale ever, with the only man who could flog a mountain of gear at the best deals! Don West himself, Returning to lead the liquidation sale. West reportedly sold over 800 brown bag specials in the first day alone, With massive deals seeing the old TNA merchandise being cleared out. The return of West was a Jeff Jarrett idea, Who also returned to the company this year. HHH NOT HAPPY WITH NXT Triple H during a media call revealed that he is not happy by any means with the current position of his NXT brand. He feels that the Brand Split of RAW and SmackDown has hammered NXT and bled it dry of its names. Here is what HHH said on the "Yellow" brand; "I'm not happy with where it [NXT] is right now by far," Triple H admitted. "I want it to be much better than it is, but it's a rebuilding process. All these things going on, they all make changes in the ecosystem. Where everything lands at the end of the day is a moving target." UK TO FEATURE GIGANTIC TOURNAMENTS THIS YEAR What Culture Pro Wrestling will be running a massive 64 man tournament named the WCPW World Cup, that will lapse of the course of ten nights in the Spring, While 5* Wrestling will be running the biggest tournament in History, with 128 wrestlers fighting for a shot at John Morrison's 5* title that he recently defended in a 8 man tournament that featured Moose, PJ Black, Drew Galloway, Carlito, Nick Aldis and Rey Mysterio. OMEGA CLOSE TO RE-SIGNING WITH NJPW Kenny Omega looks to Re-sign with NJPW as his appearance on Wrestling Observer Radio indicates that the Wrestling Superstar of the East is looking good to re-signing with New Japan promotion. Which prompted Omega to reveal his Royal Rumble status; "I will not be at the Royal Rumble," Omega said. "I don't want people to have this false hope of me showing up in the Royal Rumble and then not being there and being disappointed when there's a fantastic match happening with fantastic competitors. I don't want the lack of me being in that to disappoint people." While Omega noted that he hasn't finalised terms for a new contract with the Japanese giant, he will be flying over mid-February to re-negotiate and "it's looking positive." Kenny said that there's always a small chance that the deal could fall through, But it looks like he will be staying with NJPW for at least another year. Omega shared his thoughts on being in WWE as of right now. He said that the roster is stacked, so he feels he could make more of an impact in New Japan than in WWE, Ontop of having "Unfinished business" in the company. IN OTHER NEWS
MATT AND JEFF HARDY NEWS An update on the situation regarding the TNA status of Jeff and Matt Hardy. David Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has reported that while neither Brother has re-signed with TNA, Meltzer noted that "things are looking good for them to stay" with the company. There are two options in place for the Hardy's, One see's them receive a guaranteed deal that would give them full control of their outside bookings, And the second see's another guaranteed deal, But TNA would have to approve their outside bookings. Matt is "leaning towards signing a new deal with TNA", But Jeff is still negotiating the number of dates he will work as Impact Wrestling Live Events are returning. / It's on! and it's official! The Young Bucks in Matt and Nick Jackson will defending their ROH World Tag Team Titles against the greatest tag team in all of time and space! The current reigning TNA World Tag Team Champions The Broken Hardy Brothers in Matt and Jeff! This super clash of tag team royalty will see the Champions of TNA and ROH collide at ROH's Supercard of Honor XI on April 1 at the Lakeland Center in Lakeland, Florida. However, the sad news is is that the match will not be televised, So get there in person now or you'll miss it! TIMOTHY WELL OF WELL DUNN PASSES AWAY Former WWE and WCW wrestling superstar Timothy Smith, who went under the aliases Rex King, And Timothy Well of the Well Dunn tag team with Steve Dunn during the 90's WWF years passed away on January 9, 2017 from Kidney Failure. Smith was fifty five years old. We extend our condolences to the Smith Family. xxx RIP Timothy Smith 1961 - 2017
WRESTLEMANIA CARD ACCORDING TO W.O.N The WrestleMania 33 card according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter at the moment looks like this; Goldberg vs Brock Lesnar, Kevin Owens vs Chris Jericho, Seth Rollins vs Triple H, Shaquille O'Neal vs Big Show, Bray Wyatt vs Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair vs Nia Jax vs Bayley vs Sasha Banks in a four way match, and Roman Reigns vs The Undertaker. Rumours also suggest that a Samoa Joe vs John Cena and AJ Styles vs Shane McMahon matches have been pitched. Must be noted that this is NOT OFFICIAL by any means necessary. WWE - UK INDIES NEWS PLUS HHH RESPONSE UK Wrestling promotions IPW:UK and Lucha Forever, who recently partnered with FloSlam, were forced to alter event cards due to "WWE obligations", which we believe meant that the wrestlers can not appear on FloSlam broadcasts. Pete Dunn, While taken out of his broadcasted match, was put in a untelevised match on the card. Pete Dunn, Trent Seven, Mark Andrews and WWE UK Champion Tyler Bate will all be working a Progress Wrestling event on WWE WrestleMania weekend in April. Bate, Seven and Dunne have all been pulled from working the WXW event in London on the 28th January due to "WWE commitments". Triple H has responded to claims of WWE damaging the UK Indie Scene with the following statement he made during a recent interview; "There's a lot of confusion based on that, and a lot of the confusion is people's refusal to acknowledge the reality of the situation. We signed talent as a part of this UK tournament and are looking forward to doing hopefully what will become a weekly show over there. The talent knew what the deal was, they knew what the restrictions were and they knew what the restrictions weren't. We're not restricting them from working for anybody as long as it's not distributed, as long as there's no distribution outside of the live event. Some of these promotions tried to come in after the face and add a distribution component to that. Talent didn't sign up for that to start with, they just had that added coming off of the success of what we did or whatever they were working on. That's a change. That's a change in how the talent were being dealt with. Talent had an agreement to go to an event to compete on a live event, not to do other things and that's a change.
We're not heavy-handing anybody, we're asking them to approve, to work with us, to work with the groups that are... and I was very clear about this when I was over there, we want to work with groups that are cultivating talent, not groups that are just coming in and just one-offing talent. So, is there a period of time right now we're allowing guys to work for people? Absolutely. Every single one of these talents knew the deal, they knew the deal going into it, they knew what the ask was and they knew what their restrictions were. Coming out the other side of it, there's a lot of confusion but it's not on our side and it's not on the talent side I believe. It's on the promoters side, who just kind of change things and do things however they feel like they want to do things. Trust me, there are a lot of... you can call them promotions but there are a lot of people who do one-off shows over there and there's a big difference. All of this is strategic. You're going to see a lot of announcements over a short period of time where I think all the questions that you're asking now and all the fears that everybody has will go away. People are going to go, 'Oh, it's very clear what they were doing right now.' But obviously because it's strategic, you can't come right out and say those things." JAMES STORM A FATHER AGAIN, AJ STYLES ROBBED Impact Wrestling and DCC's James Storm, has become a Father for the second time. Storm posted a photo of his new born child with the following caption; “No matter what happens in my lifetime you can be sure that I will always be here for you and will support the choices that you will make. Whether they be right or wrong, it’s your life and sometimes you will have to learn the hard way. What’s up kid, I’m your Dad.” Congratulations to the Cowboy! xxx While on the other side of the business, It's not all smiles, As WWE Superstar AJ Styles was robbed during WWE RAW's 16 January's Live Event at the Convocation Center in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The thief went away with an estimated $1,000 US Dollars and $7,000 in Japanese yen of Cash, An iPhone, a small screen TV, XBox 360 and six games, and a set of Beats headphones from the WWE World Champion. MASS EXODUS FROM AAA & LUCHA UNDERGROUND Pentagon Jr aka Pentagon Dark, Daga and Garza Jr. have all announced their departures from the dominant Mexican Wrestling promotions AAA and Lucha Underground. The trio made a surprise appearance at Crash Luchas in Tijuana Mexico and broke the news of their decisions to leave. Regarding Pentagon, He will be now known as Cero Miedo (Penta El Om) as AAA and Lucha Underground own the rights to the Pentagon Jr and Pentagon Dark names respectively. The three are considered as three of the top Superstars in the promotions.
"I DON'T WANT TO WRESTLE AGAIN" - HBK Hall of Fame Wrestling legend, "The Heart Break Kid" Shawn Michaels has finally given a clear enough answer to whether he will ever don the boots and the tights again. Michaels, during a Fox News interview notes on a in-ring return of the Showstopper; "I don't want to go back and wrestle again, But some big bubble could break and I might need money like everybody else. It's wrestle or bag groceries -- [that's] all I'm qualified to do.". JIM ROSS ON UK WRESTLING SCENE Jim Ross has revealed info UK Wrestling scene, It is under a hot spell of demand according to Ross; "World of Sport on ITV is a big deal in the UK. It’s like CBS having the NFL Shield. That’s what I told these guys, “You own the Shield! You own the logo. You own the brand. There’s a lot of marketing you can do if you decide to do it.” I think it’s interesting because it reminds me a little bit of TBS in the sense that it’s a television company that is contemplating getting in to the wrestling business. They were asked to produce a television program not to create live events. To the best I know. I don’t think they are going to PPVs. It’s a little bit different deal but you can understand the mindset there. They are a bunch of guys that really love the genre. They are a bunch of guys that are really smart television people. We use nine or fourteen cameras for that studio shoot we did there. It’s an interesting deal. I’m kind of waiting as we record this to hear from them and Barry that we are going to green light it and go forward with it. In the meantime there are other options. Spike TV in the UK is looking at doing some shows. That’s another thing on my radar. That whole area there, you’ve played there, it’s a great area for wrestling fans. It’s a good region and the WWE exposure I’ve got has helped me a lot. People forget that WCW had their TV shows on in the UK as well back in our day." CORNETTE ON OKADA-OMEGA FIRST EVER "6*" MATCH While many are leaping to the conclusion that Kenny Omega Versus Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle-Kingdom 11 is the single greatest match of all time, Wrestling Veteran and living wrestling encyclopedia Jim Cornette disagree's, And with a good explanation as to why. Cornette said on the Omega/Okada clash; "I watched this match and I'm sorry, folks, but there is no way, and shape, and form and if you watch them together and if you're a younger fan, you might not agree with this because you didn't live in the time when pro wrestling matches actually happened. Now you have sports entertainment matches. But there's no way this Kenny Omega and Okada match was anywhere near as good as [Jerry Lawler vs. Terry Funk (March 1981), Tiger Mask vs. The Dynamite Kid (January 1982), Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat (1989 trilogy), Steve Austin vs. Bret Hart (March 1997), among others]. I mean, it was a great display of athleticism. I mean, these guys, they took a lot of risks. But it had such obvious cooperation and moves that nobody could really get up from and et cetera, that it doesn't fit in that category. As far as I'm concerned, Kenny Omega should do the motion-capture deal for video games that he is so infatuated with, but it wasn't a five-star pro wrestling match much less a six-star pro wrestling match. And I'm sorry! I'm f--king sorry! But it was an exhibition of guys doing moves. I mean, it was wonderful. The first 10 minutes, I was dying. They fought on the floor forever without being counted out and I jotted down some things. They'd do a big move and then they'd lay around forever. They sold so much and everybody said, 'oh, Cornette, you say don't sell at all!' Well, some people don't sell at all and they sold so much. They knew they were going to go long because long equals classic, but they sold so much they were in slo-mo. Omega is a great athlete. He still has the stupid facial expressions. Calm down on The Ultimate Warrior f--king s--t and anything that reminds me of The Ultimate Warrior instantly makes me mad because he was the worst pushed wrestler in a major promotion ever. It was a really good 20-minute match that lasted 45 minutes." AUSTIN REVEALS HOW VINCE GOT TRUMP TO TAKE STUNNER Stone Cold Steve Austin revealed on Eric Bischoff's podcast about President Donald Trump taking the Stone Cold Stunner at WrestleMania 23. Austin recalled; “It wasn’t a picture-perfect stunner, but I give Donald Trump a hell of a lot of credit for being a man." Austin also revealed how Vince McMahon got President Trump to take the Stunner. Austin said; He [Vince] goes up to Donald and says, ‘Hey Donald, this is Stone Cold Steve Austin.’ I shook Donald’s hand. He goes, ‘Listen, I want to know if after the match, when everything is done, if Steve could hit the Stone Cold Stunner on you.’ Donald says, ‘You think it’d be a good thing?’ and Vince goes, ‘Oh, of course it would be. It would just blow the roof off the place.’ And Donald’s right hand guy was saying, ‘No, no, no! You don’t need to do this, we got other things to do!’ He’s trying to talk him out of it. And Donald says to Vince, ‘You think it’ll help?’ and Vince goes, ‘I promise you it’ll help.’ And Donald says, ‘Okay, I’ll do it.’"
2x WWE HALL OF FAMER TO BE IMMORTALISED IN STATUE An honourary statue of the Nature Boy Ric Flair will be unveiled during the WrestleMania 33 weekend. This commemorative statue will join that of Andre the Giant, Bruno Sammartino, Dusty Rhodes and The Ultimate Warrior. CHRIS JERICHO LEAVING WWE AFTER MANIA Current United States Champion Chris Jericho has revealed his intentions of leaving WWE after WrestleMania 33 to focus on his band Fozzy. During an interview with Metro.co.uk, Y2J has his reasons for needing to leave WWE, as he can't put all of his time into Fozzy with his current full-time position within the company; “It’s time to get back into Fozzy and there are a couple of other projects I’ve got going on because I don’t do WWE part-time, I do it full-time. I come and go, but when I’m working there I’m definitely a full-timer. There will be no wrestling from May, you don’t do both at the same time. I’ve had a great year which has gone way longer than it was supposed to. It was only supposed to be four months, then it got extended to eight, then 12 and 16. Wrestling will go on hold for a while which is the way I’ve been doing it since 2010." SIGNINGS, DEPARTURES & MORE
SIGNINGS Chris Jericho Re-signs with WWE Jerry "The King" Lawler Re-signs with WWE [One Year Deal] DEPARTURES Marti-Belle from TNA Chris Hero from EVOLVE Mada Abdelhamid from WWE INJURIES Yoshihiro Tajiri
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Through The Ropes Newsletter Issue #20
Written By the Through The Ropes Team
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