It’s been a busy week for all of WWE’s brands.
While the card for the upcoming Extreme Rules show gets set up the company is also dealing with some badly timed injuries. We also got a big introduction to the NXT UK division, and a new set of talent tryouts were held at the PC. Let’s dive in to all the details!
Extreme Rules Card updates:
The Raw Tag Title match I thought was supposed to happen at Money in the Bank is apparently happening at Extreme Rules instead. Not sure if that was a booking change or just a misunderstanding on my part, but there you go.
On the Smackdown side of things, Asuka will get another shot at Carmella’s title due to the interference that played a part in the outcome of their previous encounter. In the biggest surprise of the week, Kane made a big return to assist his former partner Daniel Bryan. The reformed Team Hell No will get a shot at the Bludgeon Brothers at Extreme Rules.
Here’s the card as it currently stands:
-WWE Title: AJ Styles© vs Rusev
-Raw Tag Titles: Deleters of Worlds© vs B Team
-Smackdown Womens Title: Carmella© vs Asuka
-Smackdown Tag Titles: Bludgeon Brothers© vs Team Hell No
Injury Report
Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch had a potentially star making match against Undisputed Era at takeover Chicago. Unfortunately, they won’t have the opportunity to capitalize on the momentum. Lorcan will be out indefinitely to undergo surgery for a broken orbital bone.
On Smackdown this week Shinsuke Nakamura was said to be unable to compete in his scheduled match against Jeff Hardy due to injury. Most reports since then suggest that the injury in question was a dog bite courtesy of a K9 security officer at one of the venues they worked over the weekend. The extent of his injury is not yet known, but hopefully it doesn’t require him to miss his scheduled appearances in Tokyo this coming weekend.
On the flip side of that scrapped match, Jeff Hardy is also still dealing with injury issues. While he did defend the US Title on Smackdown this week, that match devolved into a 6 man tag featuring Hardy and the Usos vs Sanity. This was done to limit Hardy’s workload due to his nagging injuries. He’s said to have a nerve issue as well as a leg injury and has even been seen limping quite a bit. Don’t be surprised if Jeff drops the title soon so that he can get off the road and take care of these issues.
The Big TV Deals
The new TV deals for Raw on USA and Smackdown on Fox were officially announced with a press release this week. They go into effect in the Fall of 2019 and last for 5 years. It’s possible that as part of the Fox deal NXT could also find its way to a broadcast home. If that were to happen, WWE could potentially replace it on the Network with content from their affiliated Indy promotions.
New Talent
WWE held a set of try outs at the Performance Center this week, so we may be hearing about some more new signings soon. One name that was for sure at the tryout is Chelsea Green. WWE fans may recall when she was brought in for one night to play the role of the personal trainer with whom Daniel Bryan was supposedly having a kayfabe affair. Since that time Green has had a great deal of success on the indy scene as well as a memorable run in Impact Wrestling as the demented character of Laurel Van Ness. Fellow Impact veteran Robbie E was also at this week’s tryouts.
NXT UK
If you haven’t already done so, I would highly recommend checking out the recent set of shows that were filmed at Royal Albert Hall in London. The UK Championship tournament featured some fantastic in ring action, and the two shows combined serve as great introduction to WWE/NXT’s latest official division. Speaking of which, with tapings set to take place in the coming months, here’s a listing of the NXT UK roster: Mark Andrews, Travis Banks, Tyler Bate (the 1st WWE UK Champ and current NXT Tag Champ), Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, Joseph Conners, Noam Dar, Eddie Dennis, Jordan Devlin, Pete Dunne (current WWE UK Champ), Jack Gallagher, Sam gradwell, Saxon Huxley, Amir Jordan, El Ligero, Dave Mastiff, Trent Seven (current NXT Tag Champ), Ashton Smith, Tyson T-Bone, Flash Morgan Webster, Wild Boar, Kenny Williams, Wolfgang, Isla Dawn, Jinny, Killer Kelly, Charlie Morgan, Nina Samuels, and Toni Storm
