A Music Blog, Yea? recently interviewed New Japan Pro Wrestling Star (NJPW) Kenny Omega. Below are the highlights:
On executing dangerous moves in the ring: “I always try to be safe, even when something looks dangerous, it actually isn’t to me. I don’t like to risk- I’m actually not a tough guy at all, make no mistake about it, so I’m not going to do something that I’m scared of. So, if something looks dangerous, at the time, I didn’t think it was because I’m the first person to cower away from a risk of injury, if there seems to be one.”
On his worst bump ever: “It was 2012, I main event a match in Budokan Arena…I wanted to pull out all the stops, so there was this one move in the match where I took a Frankensteiner – or Hurricanrana, however you’d like to call it – from the top rope to the floor and that was probably, to this day, the most shocking fall that I’ve ever had to absorb. You feel your insides bounce and hit the top of your rib cage. It was gross and I would never ever do it again, seeing the footage scares me.”
On being the Elite Series along with The Young Bucks: “The entire idea behind the series was just to show people what’s it like living a day in the life in our shoes. Because, people sometimes see backstage video or footage of a live WWE event and there’s sort of a disconnect between how their lives are, as opposed to how we live ours. So we really wanted to give the fans an inside look as to how we really are as people in between shows.”
You can watch the entire interview of Kenny Omega below or at YouTube.com.
At WWE Backlash on Sunday, we saw a new WWE Champion emerge. To the shock of many in the WWE universe, Jinder Mahal defeated Randy Orton to be crowned the WWE Champion. As Mahal came backstage, he boasts about how he will not be giving up his championship anytime soon. He is quite aware of the haters that he has, but Jinder simply wants them to “get used to him with the gold”.
The Singh Brothers were a big part in Jinder winning the championship. They took a picture with their captain on Twitter following Backlash.
One week after Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss brutalized Bayley with a kendo stick, the self-proclaimed “Goddess of WWE” used the same devious implement to attack Mickie James, prompting The Huggable One to charge the ring and nearly give Alexa a taste of her own medicine.
Bayley intends to reclaim the Raw Women’s Title in a Kendo Stick On A Pole match at WWE Extreme Rules, but we haven’t seen the fan-favorite Superstar truly embrace her Extreme side against Alexa. Will Bayley finally “stick it” to Little Miss Bliss on Raw?
Source: WWE.com
Randy Orton missed this weekend’s house shows but he was not injured or anything related to an injury angle. According to sources, Orton is given a handful of weekends off to spend time with his family. He was on TV at Smackdown on Tuesday and he will be on Smackdown every week. According to f4wonline.com, he is likely to get the next weekend off too.
Because of Orton’s absence, WWE went with Jinder Mahal vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Title as the main event at one house show and AJ Styles vs. Kevin Owens for the US Title for the other house show.
As we saw on 205 Live, Sasha Banks made an appearance on the show. Sasha banks won’t be the only member of the Raw roster to make an appearance on 205 Live, WWE has an idea of having members of the Raw/Smackdown rosters appear on 205 Live in order to boost the show’s ratings and downright disappointing viewership numbers.
At the Extreme Rules show last night, Matt and Jeff Hardy had a very competitive steel cage match against Cesaro and Sheamus. The match was going well for the champions when Jeff Hardy managed to escape the cage, but that changed when he hit a Whisper in the Wind from the top of the cage, thus placing him back into the match in the process. The match ended with both teams escaping the cage at the same time, but video evidence proved that Cesaro and Sheamus both escaped the cage first. The Hardys lost the Raw Tag Team Championships, and that may be the beginning of the end of the reunion between the brothers soon.
Cageside Seats is reporting that although the Hardy Boyz are still very popular, WWE felt that they went about as far as they can go with the Raw Tag Team Championships. It looks like the company could be planting the seeds for an eventual split between the Hardys. The idea will likely be that Jeff Hardy’s high risks keep costing them their matches. Jeff Hardy is rumored to be receiving a run as a singles star soon, so it is very possible that WWE could be setting something big up soon between the brothers. The Hardys are expected to get a few more pay-per-view matches with Cesaro and Sheamus though, so a split is not expected to be immediate.
The Hardy Boyz have been entertaining throughout their WWE reunion, but nothing lasts forever in this industry. With Golden Truth, #DIY, and potentially Enzo and Cass all splitting up, it seems odd that WWE would be building towards another tag team split, but that is the rumor right now. Both Hardy brothers are still entertaining enough on their own though, and each have proven how great they are as singles stars. No word on if this could lead to the “Broken” gimmick debuting in WWE. We will have to wait and see over the next few weeks to figure out the next steps for the Hardy Boyz, but they are expected to remain a team for at least a few more shows.
We’re live from the Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, New York, as the King of the Cruiserweights and TJP get ready to throw down for the Cruiserweight Championship.
The show opens with footage of Neville making Austin Aries tap out Sunday at Extreme Rules followed by TJP’s victory over Mustafa Ali on Raw and then Neville ambushing TJP after the match Monday.
Noam Dar is the first wrestler out from backstage. The Scottish Supernova is conspicuously alone without Alicia Fox by his side. Dar starts talking smack about how Alicia left Cedric Alexander for him. Dar says Fox is at home recovering from her neck injury suffered at Extreme Rules. Cedric’s music interrupts further comment from Dar, who mentioned that Alicia told him to tell Cedric that he should move on.
Noam Dar vs Cedric Alexander
Dar takes Alexander to the mat with a headlock. Cedric breaks the hold and nails Dar on the chin with a dropkick and followed it up with some big right hands. Alexander then hits a spinning kick on Dar off the ring apron.
Dar reverses the momentum, bending Alexander’s elbow into a pretzel before landing a vicious kick to his ribs. Dar then tries to take advantage of the hurt left arm with an arm bar.
Alexander breaks the hold and hits a huge right elbow to Dar’s head. Alexander then attacks off the top rope with a Springboard Flying Clothesline. Alexander went for a Double Underhook, but Dar gets out of it with a soccer-style kick to Alexander’s shins.
Dar then gets a near fall with a kick to the head. Just when it looks like Dar was loading up a finishing strike run, Alexander hits a Lumbar Check on Dar for the 3-count.
After the match, Alexander points at Dar and says, “we’re done with this. I’ve moved on. You should, too.”
Winner: Cedric Alexander
Mustafa Ali vs Louie Valley
Ali takes control with a running Shoulder Tackle and Standing Dropkick. Louie counters with a number of haymaker punches.
Louie tries to charge Ali in the corner, but he gets out of the way and Valley rams his shoulder into the ring post. Ali is getting ready for a top-rope finishing move when Drew Gulak comes out with a bullhorn and a “No Fly Zone” sign.
With Ali distracted, Louie tries to roll him up with an Inside Cradle, but Ali reverses it into a pin for the victory.
Gulak shouts through the bullhorn that he’s proud of Ali for winning while staying on the ground. Ali promptly drops Gulak on the ramp and leaves him writhing as the crowd cheers.
Winner: Mustafa Ali
We go backstage and Rich Swann is talking with Akira Tozawa with Titus O’Neil in the background. Titus asks Swann to leave so he can talk to, “Towaza.” Titus makes his pitch for Tozawa to join the Titus Brand so that it can go international.
Main Event: Cruiserweight Champion Neville vs TJP
WWE has been building this rivalry for months with TJP serving as a protege of Neville to help weaken Austin Aries. Neville finally turned on TJP on Monday Night Raw this week. We’ll see if the King of the Cruiserweights is in a foul mood.
Neville and TJP aggressively tangle with each other as Neville backs him to the ropes. Neville gets TJP to the mat, but TJP escapes and then rapid-fire slaps Neville on the back of the head.
The champ gets TJP back to the mat, squeezing the air out of him in a headlock. TJP breaks the hold and grabs Neville’s hair, but Neville grabs TJP by the hair and flings him halfway across the ring.
TJP tries a Running Shoulder Tackle, but Neville rebounds off the ropes and shoves TJP down hard with his own Running Shoulder Tackle. TJP then attempts a half-crab submission hold, but Neville reverses it into a headlock.
Neville tries to pound TJP in the corner, but TJP bends Neville into a Tarantula on the ropes. The champ gets TJP out of the ring and rams him into the barricade.
After the two trade kicks, Neville picks TJP up and bounces him face first off the announce table. TJP barely beats the count out.
Neville then gets TJP on the mat, steps on his neck and stomps him on the head. The assault continues with a big Powerslam. The King then goes to the top rope for a huge Missile Dropkick. Neville goes for another strike, but TJP flips him out of the ring and then flips himself over the ropes for a spinning kick to Neville’s head. TJP hits a Wrecking Ball Gutbuster and gets a 2-count.
TJP loads up for a Detonation Kick, but Neville gets his foot on the top rope to break the hold. Then he drives TJP face first into the mat. The champ then takes TJP’s head off with a Double-Leg Dropkick.
Neville then toys with TJP, playfully kicking him in the head twice. While Neville gloats, TJP strikes the champ’s leg and hurts his knee.
Neville escapes and goes for the Red Arrow, but whiffs. TJP goes for the knee bar and whiffs the first time, but locks it in the second time. Just when it looked like Neville might tap, he rolls through and tries to lock in the Rings of Saturn. TJP reverses it into a pinning predicament, but Neville rolls through again and this time successfully gets the Rings of Saturn submission for the victory.
Winner: Neville Click Here: camiseta seleccion argentina
Jinder Mahal is currently the WWE Champion over on Smackdown. That is a sentence that many wrestling fans still have difficulty believing that this is true, as his win over Randy Orton at Backlash for the title came as a major shock. Since winning the belt, Mahal has played up his anti-American act quite a bit, and it seems to be leading somewhere soon. The 50th champion in WWE history is set to retain his title over Randy Orton and other challengers in the future for now, but he may have one very difficult taks ahead of him indeed if reports are to be believed.
Sportskeeda is reporting that John Cena is scheduled to face Jinder Mahal for the title at SummerSlam this August. Cena has been absent from WWE programming ever since he proposed to Nikki Bella after his Wrestlemania match from earlier this year. We already have it confirmed that Cena is returning to Smackdown in July 4th, or Independence Day in America. This seems like the perfect chance to get the ball rolling on the big SummerSlam feud. John Cena similarly defeated Rusev at Wrestlemania 31 two years ago after the latter’s ‘evil foreigner’ rampage that the he went on for the better part of a year. It seems that the same may be in store for Jinder.
The choice to have Jinder Mahal win the title was an unexpected one, but it seems almost certain now that it will be done to help get Cena to beat Ric Flair’s claimed record of 16 world titles, with which Cena is currently tied at the moment. The All-American hero will return to confront Jinder Mahal, leading to a big match in Brooklyn for the belt where Cena will stand up for America, and break the record at the same time. For now though, “The Maharaja” will be facing Randy Orton until Cena is ready to return to the wrestling ring. Expect your WWE Championship match for SummerSlam to be set, and it will be Cena vs. Mahal.
Last Monday night’s episode of Raw which saw the return of Brock Lesnar generated a disappointing 2.53 million viewers. This is considerably down from last week’s 2.98 million and this is the lowest that Raw generated all year.
This week’s episode of Raw was up against some formidable competition in the form of Game #5 of the NBA finals which did a whopping 24.466 million viewers.
Raw’s hourly numbers were:
– Hour 1 = 2.769 million
– Hour 2 = 2.522 million
– Hour 3 = 2.335 million
They have known each other less than 24 hours. But by the looks of their warm greeting, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their Swedish Royal counterparts are firm friends already.
The two Royal couples embraced one another like old friends, with double kisses on the cheek all round and a few stolen moments to catch up privately before they began their first engagement.
The Duchess and Duke of Cambridge greet the Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden with kissesCredit:
Andrew Parsons/i-Images and Chris Jackson/Getty
When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge embarked on a tour to Scandinavia, a spokesman said they planned to build relationships with Royals of the same generation abroad.
Although they are similar in age, ranging from 35 to 44, the couples have rather different status: Crown Princess Victoria is first in line to the Swedish throne, following her father King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Prince William, who is second in line of the throne after the Queen and the Prince of Wales, is in fact closer in rank to Victoria’s daughter Princess Estelle, aged five.
The Duchess of Cambridge is greeted by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden, as Prince William looks onCredit:
Samir Hussein/WireImage
In the afternoon, the Duke and Duchess joined Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar for tea, as the children settled in next to their parents on a comfortable sofa at their home of Haga Palace.
Tucking into snacks, the second-in-line to the throne and her little brother listened to the grown-ups talk as the families got to know one each other better in their final hours of the Royal visit to Sweden.
The two Swedish children will have given the party plenty to talk about, as they are close in age to Prince George and Princess Charlotte.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive at the Karolinska Institute in StockholmCredit:
Dominic Lipinski /PA
On their second day in Sweden, the Duke, Duchess, Princess and Prince also undertook two events focusing on mental health, and a visit to department store NK to open an interactive exhibition of UK design, fashion and brands.
At the Karolinska Institute, they were given a briefing with senior staff including Professor Carl Johan Sundberg, Dr Anna Lundh and Dr Ulrika Berg about their research into mental health.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge accompanied by Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of SwedenCredit:
Victoria Jones /PA
"We have a problem with the growth of mental health disorders here in Sweden," said Dr Lundh.
"We are trying to create a programme where we standardise treatment packages and place as much emphasis on physical activity, looking at sleep, looking at eating behaviour, as we do on psychology and pharmaceuticals."
The Duchess and Crown Princess smile as they visit a school in SwedenCredit:
Chris Jackson /Getty
Dr Berg said: "I am a paediatrician and meet a lot of children with mental problems. It is absolutely important that we use physical activity as a tool for prevention and also for treatment for…mental diseases such as depression.
"I think people think ‘oh, it is good for children to move’. But it has really been shown, in research, that there are important effects, for example in depression when we know that self-esteem increases, we know that regular physical activity of an aerobic kind, three times a week and adding skeleton load and muscle strengthening activities will lead to many positive health benefits. And it doesn’t have any side effects."
The Duchess is greeted by flag-waving childrenCredit:
Victoria Jones /PA
The Duke asked: "The increased number of mental health issues coming forward, are they increased or are they more seen because of conversations or because of mental health becoming a little less stigmatised?"
He was told that there was a real increase in people diagnosed with depression and anxiety in Sweden. Why are the [number of] girls higher than boys?" he continued.
She holds up her hand to high five with children from the Matteusskolan School in StockholmCredit:
HANNAH MCKAY /Reuters
"We do not know,’ he was told, as academics confirmed that there was definitely an increase in anxiety in young girls.
"And now those girls are becoming mothers themselves," interjected the Duchess.
Shaking hands, the Duchess greets crowds in StockholmCredit:
HANNAH MCKAY /Reuters
After the briefing session, they moved to Matteusskolan School to learn more about a programme to encourage children to speak about their feelings.
They were greeted by a line of pupils, offering handshakes, high fives and fist bumps to children of all ages.
The Royal Couple wave at crowds that turned up to greet them on WednesdayCredit:
Stephen Lock/i-images
Malte Bregqvist, 15, said: "I shook both their hands. It was weird, I never really met a royal before. I asked them how they were and they said the same thing to everyone, they were nice, they were doing fine.
"It’s generous of them to take time and shake everybody’s hands. They are supposed to be talking about kids physical and mental health – it’s about a programme running here."
All smiles for the Duchess of Cambridge, who is six months pregnantCredit:
Victoria Jones /PA
One cheeky pupils asked the Duchess whether she was familiar with the work of J Hus, a rapper.
"I will look out for him," she promised.
Kate and William’s tour of Sweden and Norway
In a speech to students, the Duke said: "Catherine and I and Victoria and Daniel care deeply about mental health.
“It’s all about early intervention. Sometimes a conversation is enough.”
A Mexican journalist was shot dead at an elementary school Christmas party Tuesday in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz, becoming at least the 10th journalist slain in the country this year.
The state security coordinator said in a statement that dozens of parents and children were present as unidentified attackers shot 34-year-old Gumaro Perez Aguilando while he attended the Christmas event at his child’s school.
Veracruz Gov. Miguel Angel Yunes condemned the shooting and said he ordered state police to provide protection to the journalist’s family.
A sign reading "We demand justice. No more impunity" hangs at the journalists' union office in Chilpancingo, Guerrero state, Mexico, Credit:
AFP
Perez covered crime news for a number of local outlets and had founded the online news site La Voz del Sur. He also worked for the local government in some capacity.
The State Commission for Attention and Protection of Journalists said Perez was part of a protection program.
"He belonged to the preventive program for safe coverage of this Commission since 2015, which refers to mechanisms for reporting that diminish danger in high-risk events," it said in a statement. "Nevertheless, regrettably, he had not made us aware of having received any threats that could have put him at risk."
Commission president Ana Laura Vazquez said the group would monitor the investigation and urged the state government to track down his killers and solve the case.