February 2021 – Page 18

Stephanie & Shane Appearing On Raw Tonight, Carlito's New Hairdo, Tony Atlas

source: www.f4wonline.com

— The preview for tonight’s Raw on TVGuide.com notes that Stephanie & Shane McMahon are appearing on the show.

WWE Monday Night Raw
Shane and Stephanie McMahon seek an end to unrest as “Great American Bash” approaches.

Stephanie’s due to give birth in about two weeks, so she’s not returning to television full-time.

— Carlito sported a cornrow hairdo at this past weekend’s SmackDown/ECW house shows events in Savannah and Augusta, Georgia. He lost to Finlay on both shows.

— Tony Atlas accompanied Mark Henry to the ring at both SmackDown/ECW house show events this past weekend, which should pretty much confirm that he’s on board full-time with WWE.

See photos of Carlito’s new cornrow hairstyle! (>>)

UFC News: Dana White Says Rampage Will Be Gone For a While & New Details

Source: Sports.Yahoo.com

Yahoo! Sports sat down with UFC president Dana White last weekend for an update on Rampage Jackson’s condition. There’s still much that is unknown and doctors are far from an official diagnosis. White told Yahoo! Sports that Jackson was initially going to stay in care for 72 hours but that has now been extended:

“I think it’s going to be a while before we get him back. I’m talking as a friend. It’s a sensitive issue. Rampage, the UFC fighter, who cares about that. We’re concerned about Rampage, the human being. What matters is his personal life.”

White also talked about some strange circumstances that led up to Jackson’s episode Tuesday:

“He was up for four days and he was doing some crazy fasting thing. He was up for four days, drinking water and energy drinks, that was it. It’s not good.

White said he knew that as soon as he arrived in Southern California on Tuesday night that something was seriously wrong with Jackson:

“Rampage doesn’t do drugs. Rampage really doesn’t even drink. This whole thing made no sense to me. (Then) when I got there it made a lot of sense.”

* VIDEO of FEDOR Choking Out TIM SYLVIA & Fedor Says He Wants COUTURE Next!

Daivari Gets Repackaged, Speaking Out On TNA, Impact Rating, Kip vs. Curry Man

— On last night’s edition of TNA Impact, Mike Tenay said Daivari is now going under his royal Arabic name, Sheik Abdul Bashir. A promo video followed with the former Daivari in an expensive suit. He talked about how he came to the United States to live the American Dream, but whenever people see him, they just want to pat him down for bombs. He called America the most slanted society on the planet, and said that due to his success, he’s “more American than you.”

— Daivari will be appearing on The Pain Clinic radio show this Saturday at 10 a.m. He will be talking about his recent move to TNA and more. You can listen to his interview at FeelThePain.net. Rich Jones sent in the following… The man known as Daivari (now Sheik Abdul Bashir in TNA) will be joining the Pain Clinic this Saturday July 26th at 10am on Hot Talk 1280 WHTK in Rochester and www.whtk.com ‘live’ on the internet. We will talk about his recent signing with TNA and his name change as well as stories from his time in the WWE and being the mouth piece of the Great Khali and Muhammad Hussan. Check it out this Saturday at 10am eastern on the Pain Clinic!

— Last night’s edition of Impact drew a solid 1.1 cable rating, reports PWInsider.com. This is the same number as last week.

— TNA has put up a video of a match between Kip James and Curry Man, which was originally taped for TNA Xplosion at last week’s Impact tapings. However, the catch is you have to watch it be broadcasted in Spanish as a part of their TNA Today En Español Con Willie Urbina show. You can see the match at this link.

See pics of Sting with gray hair and without his makeup on

Details Behind The TNA Departures Of Tomko & Black Reign, Jay Lethal Speaks Out

sources: www.f4wonline.com, PWInsider.com

— Regarding Travis Tomko’s departure from TNA after Wednesday night’s Impact taping, he had been trying to balance his contractual commitments in both Japan and the U.S. at the same time, which led to conflicts on both sides. One source said the departure was due to issues with creative. Tomko had a reputation of turning down their ideas, and not wanting to work certain dates with TNA, so a decision was made to split. Tomko had been in the doghouse with management for a while, which stifled his push. Back in April, Tomko went to Japan for the Inoki Genome Federation instead of attending a TNA Fanfest convention.

— In the case of Dustin “Black Reign” Rhodes, creative didn’t have anything for him, hence his departure from the company. This was the case with James Mitchell and Rellik. However, the door is open for him to return to the company should they ever need him.

— Friday’s edition of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times newspaper has a lengthy article on TNA with comments from “Black Machismo” Jay Lethal. You can read the article at this link.

See RECENT photos of Randy Savage!

Beautiful People Speak Out On The Ratings, Former WWE Stars Backstage, More

— The Miami Herald has a full-length article on “The Beautiful People,” Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. The duo spoke out on a number topics including the women’s division of TNA, the high ratings the women’s segments have been getting, TNA making history with the women’s division, egos in wrestling, who they’re TNA characters are based on, how they landed jobs in TNA in the first place, and more. On what sets the TNA women’s division apart from other forms of women’s wrestling, Velvet Sky said, “The women’s division in TNA definitely sets us apart from any other form of women’s wrestling because we offer something called variety. None of us looks exactly the same. There’s blonde hair, dark hair, red hair, no hair. It sets us apart because we all look different. We all dress different. We all wrestle different, and we don’t offer fluff-n-nutter that you see elsewhere. We’re hard hitting.” Here is what they said on the women getting the main event spot on last week’s Impact. “You would never see that, the women be the main event, but the ratings speak for themselves. The guys in TNA work their butts off. There’s no doubt about it, but in the history of wrestling, nobody has ever looked at the women,” Love said. Sky jumped in to say, “Just because it’s such a male dominated business.” Love finished her statement saying, “Nobody has ever looked at the women as actual `competition’ for the men. It’s just always been like, “Oh, the girls’ match.” Sky added, “Until now. The ratings speak for themselves.” They’re asked if women’s wrestling can be compared to the men’s. They say it already has. “It already has. Before the Knockouts division, I would say, ‘No,’ because look what the prime focus of the competition of women’s wrestling was. It was bra and panties matches. It was lingerie. Swimming pools, Jell-O matches, pillow fights. That will not compare to any form of men’s wrestling,” Sky said. “Now with the Knockouts, we’re getting the highest-rated segments on the show. We wrestle, and people want to see us. They’re demanding to see us. They’re actually tuning in to see us.” You can read the article in its entirety at this link.

— Former WWE tag team The Gymini were backstage at an Impact taping last, reports PWInsider.com.

— The TNA website has posted some new trailers of the TNA “iMPACT!” video game from Midway, which is set to be released in September. You can see the new trailers at this link.

News on TNA looking to break up a duo currently getting a huge push on TV

Live Notes From Sunday's TNA Hard Justice Pay-Per-View In Trenton, New Jersey

Thanks to Michael Reeg for the following:

i was in attendance last night for Hard Justice, which was a spectacular show as far as the live crowd was concerned. i wont give a match by match review, but over all the crowd was jacked all night! TNA was smart enough to only sell tickets to half the arena. they split up the arena so that one side of the ring had all fans, and the other side had all empty seats. i presume they only shot the cameras towards the side where the fans were sitting, to make the illusion that there was a full arena, but it was actually only half full. even then, there were plenty of empty seats. i bought a ticket all the way in the back, but was able to move up almost onto the floor. i must say, however, TNA was able to get everybody jacked for the PPV as there was plenty of TNA! moments, a few THIS IS AWESOME! moments, and one or two HOLY SHIT! moments!

there was no dark match.

petey williams vs consequences creed was an excellent opener, had non stop TNA! TNA! moments. the jersey crowd loves consequences creed.

Taylor Wilde got almost no reaction from the crowd.

LAX losing the titles was pretty disappointing actually. they are an awesome tag team and should not be split up. Hernandez power bombing Homocide over the top rope and onto Beer Money was probably the spot of the night! absolutley insane!!

there did seem to be some disappointment with the Samoa Joe vs Booker T match. it wasnt all that it was hyped up to be. lots of heat for both Joe and Booker T, which is i suppose why they didnt seem to into it. same with Jay Lethal vs Sonjay Dutt. we chanted boring during that match. we also chanted “FIRE RUSSO” during this match as well!

the New Jersey street fight was awesome, and sparked a classic E C DUB! chant. i couldnt believe we were doing it, but sense 3 of the 4 participants were in the originial ECW, it was only fitting that new jersey showed there respect during an awesome hardcore brawl. lots of heat for the lack of tables, however.

also, the AJ Styles vs Kurt Angle match was interesting as half the crowd was cheering for AJ and the other half was for Kurt. so there was plenty of chanting and screaming during this one. probably the best match of the night. and Sting attacking AJ Styles seemed to confuse us more then anything, but it got plenty of heat.

Biggest Cheers-
AJ Styles
Kurt Angle
Consequences Creed
LAX

Biggest Heat-
Booker T
Samoa Joe (suprisingly)
Sting

overall, i had a great time and it was an awesome PPV!! it felt like an old school ECW show, and i would def go to another TNA live show.

Sting Having Problems With TNA?, No More Free TNA Pay-Per-View Tickets, Daivari

— Sting did not appear at this week’s set of Impact tapings due to a contract dispute with TNA, reports ProWrestling.NET. According to multiple sources, Sting is in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the company and will not return to television until the situation is resolved. Sting is working with TNA on a year-to-year basis and his current contract should be expiring at the end of the year. During last year’s contract negotiation with Sting, TNA President Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett butted heads over offering a new contract to Sting as Jarrett didn’t feel he was worth the type of money that Carter was willing to pay him.

— TNA has implemented a policy to no longer paper pay-per-view events feeling it’s not good long-term business to give tickets away for free, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. TNA would often paper their pay-per-view events the week before the show due to lackluster ticket sales to make the venue appear full to the television audience. Last Sunday’s Hard Justice pay-per-view drew 3,500 fans to the 8,500 seat Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, New Jersey, another figure that has to be considered disappointing. By not giving away free tickets for Hard Justice, TNA combated the appearance of empty seats by moving nearly all of the fans to one half of the arena to give the illusion to the television audience that they drew a packed arena. One side of the arena had nearly all of fans whereas the hard camera side was practically deserted sans a few fans in the ringside seats.

— The TNA website has put up an actual profile page on Sheik Abdul Bashir, which you can see at this link.

Click here to see pics of gray-haired Sting!

WWE Star Scratched From Cyber Sunday, Ross Rips WWF, New Jillian Hall Photos

— In the original listing for the Divas Halloween Costume Contest at Cyber Sunday, Melina was listed as taking part in the contest. However, it looks like her name being listed was an error as WWE.com has since removed her name from the match preview. Melina isn’t expected to return to the ring until January as she is still rehabbing her foot injury.

— In a funny deal, WWE 24/7 is running the 1992 WCW Halloween Havoc pay-per-view and during the broadcast, Jim Ross rips WWF, saying they’re filled with bodybuilders who pose but don’t know how to wrestle. During his time in WCW, Ross who would frequently take shots at the World Wrestling Federation and their wrestlers on commentary.

— WWE.com has posted some new photos of Jillian Hall. You can see them at the following link.

See video of Beth’s botched bodyslam on Raw last night! (>>)

Moyes ‘keeping his money’ to ‘rebuild’ Hammers this summer

David Moyes has revealed that he had “money to spend” to sign a new striker this window, but he decided to save it for the summer.

West Ham allowed £45m signing Sebastien Haller to join Ajax in January in a deal worth around £20m.

Moyes had hoped to sign a new forward this window to compete with Michail Antonio, but they were not able to get one in before the deadline.

Man Utd duo ruined Ole’s chance of £60m centre-back transfer

Man United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had hoped to sign a new defender on deadline day, but these plans were scuppered by two of their own players.

United’s only signing of the window was Amad Diallo from Atalanta. The youngster agreed to move to Old Trafford in the summer and the transfer was finalised in January. He joined for an initial fee of around £19m.

Solskjaer used the rest of the window to let some of his players leave. Jesse Lingard completed his loan move to West Ham a few days before the deadline. The England international had failed to make a Premier League appearance for United in 2020/21.

READ MORE: January 2021 Premier League transfer window: the losers

United loanee Odion Ighalo has also left the club. He scored five times from 23 appearances under Solskjaer, but he has agreed on a permanent move Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Shabab.

Meanwhile, Timothy Fosu-Mensah has joined Bayer Leverkusen on a permanent basis. Facundo Pellistri and Tahith Chong have secured loan moves to Deportivo Alaves and Club Brugge respectively.

The Red Devils also aimed to find new clubs for Phil Jones and Sergio Romero. Yet they remain at Old Trafford until the end of the season.

With Jones and Romero still at the club, Man United were unable to make a deadline day move for Sevilla centre-back Jules Kounde.

According to the Daily Mail, Solskjaer was “desperate” to sign Kounde before the deadline. He has attracted interest from Real Madrid and Bayern Munich in recent months.

Had United let go Jones and Romero in January, they were willing to pay £60m for the defender to beat rivals around Europe to his signature.